The Conversation -- December 21, 2023
Now Is the Winter of Our Discontent.
The Woman Who Changed D-Day Dies at 100. Brian Murphy of the Washington Post: "Before dawn on June 3, 1944, a postal clerk [Maureen Flavin] in Ireland's County Mayo checked her weather gauges. A storm was coming fast.... She double-checked the observations. They then were passed along until finally they reached Britain's Met Office, which since 1939 had used the Blacksod post office as one of its weather stations. Blacksod carried particular importance. Its position on Ireland's northwestern coast was often an early warning of Atlantic weather systems headed for Britain.... About 7,000 ships and landing craft, 11,000 aircraft and more than 130,000 Allied troops were amassed for Operation Overlord, the invasion into Nazi-occupied France. The only missing puzzle piece was the weather forecast for the English Channel to decide if June 5 would be D-Day. The storm observations from County Mayo were the first indications of trouble ahead. The invasion was postponed until June 6. And the postal worker -- 21-year-old Maureen Flavin [later Maureen Flavin Sweeney] -- became part of World War II lore as a linchpin in the weather team whose work persuaded commanders to hold off for 24 hours the air-and-sea assault that helped change the course the war.... [Sweeney] died Dec. 17 at 100...." Read to the end.
Rebecca Beitsch of the Hill: "Special counsel Jack Smith again urged the Supreme Court to weigh former President Trump's efforts to toss his election interference prosecution as a lower court considers Trump's argument he is immune from prosecution as a former executive. The swift reply comes after Trump on Wednesday argued acceptance of the case by the high court would be an end-run around the appeals process, with the next lower court hearing set for early next month."
Eileen Sullivan & Alan Feuer of New York Times: "Rudolph W. Giuliani filed for bankruptcy on Thursday, a day after a federal judge ordered him to start paying the $148 million in damages he owes to two former Georgia election workers for spreading lies that they had tried to steal the 2020 election from Donald J. Trump. Mr. Giuliani owes millions of dollars in legal fees as well as unpaid state and federal income taxes, according to the filing." A Reuters story is here.
Katherine Gregg of the Providence (R.I.) Journal: "The selection of former Trump National Security Adviser − and renowned conspiracy theorist − Mike Flynn as an inductee into the Rhode Island Heritage Hall of Fame has led to at least a half dozen resignations from the board that oversees the Hall of Fame. And it has led former Congressman Jim Langevin, who was also selected last week for induction into the honorary Hall of Fame, to serve notice: 'If retired General Michael Flynn were to be included in this class I would not accept the nomination.' In her letter of resignation from the board, former Rep. Denise Aiken wrote: "I find that I am unable to be associated with an organization that would choose to honor a criminal who failed to keep this oath to the Constitution of the United States.'" Thanks to RAS for the lead. MB: Don't they have a Hall of Infamy where they could stick General Mike in with notorious Providence mob bosses & such?
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Alan Feuer of New York Times: "It now seems clear that the courts -- especially the Supreme Court -- could dramatically shape the contours of the election.... A number of the issues the court is now confronting could drastically affect the timing of the proceedings against [Donald] Trump, the scope of the charges he should face or his status as a candidate, with potentially profound effects on his chances of winning the election. And the justices could easily become ensnared in several of the questions simultaneously.... All of this arrives at a particularly vulnerable moment for the court. In the wake of its decisions on contentious issues like abortion rights and affirmative action, critics have assailed it for being guided by an overt political ideology. At the same time, some of the justices have come under withering personal scrutiny for their finances and links to wealthy backers."
Adam Liptak of New York Times: "... Donald J. Trump urged the Supreme Court on Wednesday to put off a decision on a crucial question in his federal prosecution on charges of plotting to overturn the 2020 election: whether he has 'absolute immunity' for actions he took as president. The question, Mr. Trump's brief said, should be 'resolved in a cautious, deliberative manner -- not at breakneck speed.' He urged the justices not to 'rush to decide the issues with reckless abandon.' The request appeared to be part of Mr. Trump's general strategy of trying to delay the trial in the case, which is scheduled to start on March 4." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Chaos Is of the Essence of the Scheme. Jeremy Herb of CNN: "Donald Trump's request to the Supreme Court on Wednesday was perhaps his most brazen delay tactic yet.... The nation's highest court is poised to consider next year whether Trump can be prosecuted for crimes committed after the 2020 election and whether the actions he took in office can bar him from being on the ballot again in 2024. It's just the kind of chaos where Trump thrives -- and finds a way to turn the tables to his advantage."
"Disqualification for Thee But Not for Me." Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "Trump on Tuesday night derided the [Colorado supreme court] ruling as 'eliminating the rights of Colorado voters to vote for the candidate of their choice.' But not only did Trump try to overturn the will of voters after the 2020 election, he has on myriad occasions pushed the idea that candidates should be disqualified irrespective of the voters' will.... He built a base in the early 2010s with the ugly and false 'birther' campaign, whose entire premise was that Barack Obama wasn't eligible to be president.... During the 2016 GOP primary campaign, he repeatedly pushed the idea that Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) might -- and even should -- be disqualified, both because he was born in Canada and because he purportedly cheated in the Iowa caucuses, which Cruz won. And Trump explicitly called for two others to be prohibited from running, including Hillary Clinton -- a lot[.]"(Also linked yesterday.)
Jesse Paul of the Colorado Sun reports that the Colorado GOP is threatening to withdraw from the state's presidential primary if Donald Trump isn't on the ballot, and Colorado delegates would caucus instead to select their presidential nominee. (MB: Sorry, the page doesn't allow copying, so I've paraphrased the gist of the report.) An NBC News story is here.
Ryan Reilly of NBC News: "In the 24 hours since the Colorado Supreme Court kicked ... Donald Trump off the state's Republican primary ballot, social media outlets have been flooded with threats against the justices who ruled in the case, according to a report obtained by NBC News. Advance Democracy, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that conducts public interest research, identified 'significant violent rhetoric' against the justices and Democrats, often in direct response to Trump's posts about the ruling on his platform Truth Social. They found that some social media users posted justices' email addresses, phone numbers and office building addresses.... Posts -- whose images and links were included in the report -- noted a variety of methods that could be used to kill those perceived as Trump's enemies: hollow-point bullets, rifles, rope, bombs.... The threats fit into a predictable and familiar pattern, seen time and time again after legal developments against Trump." ~~~
~~~ Marie: IOW, Trump followers are trying to prove that there is a revolution, that Trump is its leader, and that the revolutionary forces favor violence as the means to crown him the country's imperial leader. ~~~
~~~ AND. Jennifer Bendery of the Huffington Post: "Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold said Wednesday she is 'extremely concerned' about fanatical supporters of Donald Trump becoming violent in response to the state Supreme Court ruling that Trump is ineligible to appear on Colorado's 2024 presidential primary ballot. 'I've been concerned about violence and threats of violence since Donald Trump incited the insurrection,' Griswold, who has been Colorado's Democratic secretary of state since 2019, said in an interview. 'I've received hundreds if not thousands of threats at this point.' She's faced an astounding uptick in threats amid the lawsuit over Trump's eligibility to appear on the state ballot, even though she has nothing to do with it.... 'It just underlines that Donald Trump is a major threat to American democracy, elections and stability. He uses threats and intimidation against his political opponents. When he doesn't win elections, he tries to steal them. He is a dangerous leader for this country,' Griswold said." See more on this under "Presidential Race 2024" below.
But What Is an Insurrection? The Washington Post Editors are really rather upset that the Colorado supreme court ruled that Donald Trump engaged in an insurrection. "In the absence of clarity, a body of unelected officials should be reluctant to prevent the country's citizens from choosing an elected official to lead them. The Supreme Court, hopefully, understands that." MB: I'd like to remind the cautious editors that the trial court held a week-long trial, with witnesses & exhibits, arguments from both sides & all, to determine whether or not the Trumpster engaged in insurrection, and the judge found that he did. The state supremes agreed with that. If judges can't define "insurrection," then who?
Amanda Marcotte of Salon: "Banning Trump from the ballot -- in all states, not just Colorado -- is clearly what is called for by the Constitution.... No one is going to accuse the six Federalist Society justices on the Supreme Court of being bound by the clear letter of the Constitution. As the public has started to realize in the wake of the Dobbs decision and the slow drip of billionaire sugar daddy scandals, the main things the conservative justices care about are pushing their right-wing ideology, helping out the Republican Party and complaining about people who find their corruption unseemly." Marcotte goes on to list a number of ways the reactionary Supremes would benefit from dumping Trump. "Even the justices Trump appointed must know he wouldn't piss on them if they were on fire. Just get rid of him, Supreme Court justices. You know, deep down in your hearts, it will be a lot nicer for you when he's gone."
Gillian Brockell of the Washington Post looks at the few cases in which the insurrection ban was invoked.
Alan Feuer of New York Times: "A federal judge on Wednesday ordered Rudolph W. Giuliani to immediately pay the $148 million he owes to two former Georgia election workers for falsely accusing them of manipulating ballots after the 2020 election, citing concerns that he might 'conceal his assets' if he were allowed to wait. The decision by the judge, Beryl A. Howell, was the latest legal defeat for Mr. Giuliani, who is facing an array of woes for his efforts three years ago to keep ... Donald J. Trump in office after his election defeat. But even though Judge Howell ordered speedy payment, there is no indication that Mr. Giuliani, whose long-running financial problems have only been intensifying, has anywhere near the amount he owes. On Monday, a few days after a jury in Washington imposed the damages on Mr. Giuliani, the election workers, Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, asked Judge Howell to waive the standard 30-day waiting period and force him to pay them as soon as possible.... In a 13-page order, Judge Howell agreed with virtually everything Ms. Freeman and Ms. Moss said about Mr. Giuliani...."
Bumbling into Arrest & Conviction. Ryan Reilly of NBC News: "Nearly three years ago, a young professional in the nation's capital ... saw that the FBI was looking for help identifying the rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol. So she opened up the Bumble dating app, changed her political beliefs to conservative and got to swiping. The woman reached out to several Donald Trump supporters who the app showed were in the Washington area, hoping to elicit confessions from those who had flooded into the city.... On Wednesday, one of the Bumble users she turned in to the FBI pleaded guilty to assaulting law enforcement officers with chemical spray and a metal whip. Andrew Taake, 35, of Texas, pleaded guilty to assaulting law enforcement officers with a deadly and dangerous weapon, admitting that he used both bear spray and a metal whip to attack officers, at a hearing before U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols in Washington."
Presidential Race 2024
Marisa Iati of the Washington Post: "President Biden on Wednesday condemned ... Donald Trump's harsh remarks about immigrants, his most public denunciation of his predecessor's increasingly vitriolic characterization of those seeking to enter the United States. Speaking in Milwaukee, Biden castigated Trump as 'the guy who thinks we're polluting the blood of America these days.... I don't believe, as the president -- former president -- said again yesterday, that immigrants are polluting, polluting our blood,' Biden said while touting his economic policies at the Wisconsin Black Chamber of Commerce. 'The economy and our nation are stronger when we're tapping into the full, full range of talents in this nation.'... [Trump's remark] 'echoes the same phrases used in Nazi Germany,' Biden said. 'Folks..., we can't fail to treat the threat that he poses.'...
"Asked whether Trump had engaged in insurrection, Biden told reporters, 'It's self-evident -- you saw it all. Now, whether the 14th Amendment applies, I'll let the court make that decision. But he certainly supported an insurrection. There's no question about it. None. Zero.'" This AP story covers President Biden's visit to Milwaukee & his comments about the Trump-led insurrection.
Heil Hitler. Matthew Chapman of the Raw Story: "... far from being shamed [for using Nazi code language to describe immigrants]..., sources tell Rolling Stone that Trump plans to go out of his way to ramp up use of the rhetoric, specifically to get a rise out of the media and the left. '"He wants the media to choke on his words," one of these sources says,' reported Asawin Suebsaeng and Tim Dickinson. '"The [former] president said he's going to keep doing it, he's going to keep saying they're poisoning the blood of the nation and destroying and killing the country ... He says it's a "great line."'"
As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one. -- Godwin's Law ~~~
~~~ Mike Godwin, coiner of Godwin's Law, in a Washington Post op-ed: "Years after I'd let Godwin's Law run free, I learned that an actual political philosopher, Leo Strauss, had made a somewhat similar remark a few years before I was born about debates trending toward Hitler. Strauss (whom I confess I still haven't read) chose to classify Hitler comparisons as a special instance of a particular logical fallacy: reductio ad Hitlerum.... But when people draw parallels between Donald Trump's 2024 candidacy and Hitler's progression from fringe figure to Great Dictator, we aren't joking. Those of us who hope to preserve our democratic institutions need to underscore the resemblance before we enter the twilight of American democracy. And that's why Godwin's Law isn't violated -- or confirmed -- by the Biden reelection campaign's criticism of Trump's increasingly unsubtle messaging."
The Incredible Shrinking GOP Candidates. Jonathan Weisman of New York Times: "The blockbuster ruling by Colorado's Supreme Court would seem to give Donald Trump's challengers an avenue of attack, but far behind in the polls, they are skirting the issue.... Mr. Trump still seems to be the one setting the parameters for legitimate debate in the G.O.P., even if he doesn't participate in the party's actual debates." ~~~
Nikki Haley: "We don't need to have judges making these decisions."
Ron DeSantis: "We're going to be litigating this stuff for how many more years going forward? I think we've got to start focusing on the people's issues."
Chris Christie: "I don't think a court should exclude somebody from running for president without there being a trial and evidence that's accepted by a jury that they did participate in insurrection'"
Vivek Ramaswamy: "I pledge to withdraw from the Colorado GOP primary ballot until Trump is also allowed to be on the ballot, and I demand that Ron DeSantis, Chris Christie, and Nikki Haley do the same immediately - or else they are tacitly endorsing this illegal maneuver which will have disastrous consequences for our country."
Zolan Kanno-Youngs, et al., of New York Times: “The United States released a close ally of President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela on Wednesday in exchange for 10 jailed Americans and a defense contractor known as 'Fat Leonard,' who is at the center of one of the U.S. Navy's largest corruption cases. The Maduro government will also release 20 Venezuelan political prisoners and Roberto Abdul, an opposition leader in Venezuela, U.S. officials said. The Americans who were released on Wednesday include six people deemed to be 'wrongfully detained' by the Biden administration, a designation that indicates that the U.S. government sees them as the equivalent of political hostages. They had landed in Texas by Wednesday night, an administration official said." The AP story is here. ~~~
~~~ A statement from President Biden, via the White House, is here.
Nick Miroff of the Washington Post: "... after decades of congressional inaction and recurring migration spikes -- [the southern U.S. border is experiencing] record numbers of illegal crossings this month..., an influx likely to exacerbate strains on New York, Chicago and other cities already swamped by newcomers seeking shelter, food and assistance. The latest surge is happening as negotiations in Washington to tighten U.S. enforcement have stalled until at least after the congressional holiday recess. Lawmakers are struggling to hash out a deal that would expand deportations, curb asylum claims and allow authorities to rapidly expel migrants during periods of mass crossings like the current one."
Ishaan Tharoor of Washington Post: "In Europe, [as in the United States], fears over migration are morphing the political landscape and boosting right-wing parties.... 'In a big election year -- in the U.S., the E.U. and the U.K. -- migration is shaping up to be a big issue,' Catherine Barnard ... [of] the University of Cambridge ... told my colleagues.... And so 'poisoning the blood' can go from sounding like a Nazi echo to a potential winning slogan."
The Plagiarist. Jennifer Schuessler of New York Times: "Harvard University, in the face of mounting questions over possible plagiarism in the scholarly work of its president, Claudine Gay, said on Wednesday that it had found two additional instances of her failing to properly credit other scholars. The news was an embarrassing development for the university, which has sought to quell tumult over Dr. Gay's leadership in recent weeks. On Wednesday, the congressional committee currently investigating Harvard sent a letter to the university demanding all its documentation and communications related to the allegations. The new issues were found in Dr. Gay's 1997 doctoral dissertation, in which Harvard said it had found two examples of 'duplicative language without appropriate attribution.'" CNN's story is here. ~~~
~~~ Anrmona Hartocolis & Sheelagh McNeill of New York Times: "Here are five examples of Dr. Gay's work that are under scrutiny, comparing her writing with that of the scholars listed."
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Justin Jouvenal of the Washington Post: "As Donald Trump falsely claimed the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him, Republicans in some states launched special units to prosecute voter fraud as part of a high-profile and controversial push to stamp out cheating some claimed was rampant. But the election integrity units established or expanded in six states after Trump's loss obtained only 47 convictions during a period in which tens of millions of votes were cast, and the units overwhelmingly targeted minorities and Democrats for prosecution, according to a first-of-its-kind analysis by The Washington Post of nearly every prosecution. The analysis found that 76 percent of defendants whose race or ethnicity could be identified were Black or Hispanic, while White people constituted 24 percent of those prosecuted by the units.... The analysis also showed that election integrity units have not uncovered the type of wide-ranging schemes claimed by Trump and some Republican allies that might tilt an election.... The cases that the units pursued often collapsed."
California. "Repugnant!" Christopher Weber of the AP: "A federal judge on Wednesday blocked a California law that would have banned carrying firearms in most public places, ruling that it violates the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and deprives people of their ability to defend themselves and their loved ones. The law signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom in September was set to take effect Jan. 1. It would have prohibited people from carrying concealed guns in 26 places including public parks and playgrounds, churches, banks and zoos. The ban would apply whether the person has a permit to carry a concealed weapon or not.... U.S. District Judge Cormac Carney granted a preliminary injunction blocking the law, which he wrote was 'sweeping, repugnant to the Second Amendment, and openly defiant of the Supreme Court.'"; MB: Carney is a Dubya appointee.
Virginia. Joe Heim & Gregory Schneider of Washington Post: "As dawn broke at a frigid Arlington National Cemetery on Wednesday morning, workers ... began to take down a controversial statue that had stood there for more than a century. Hours earlier, a federal judge had ruled an effort to halt the removal of the towering Confederate Memorial had no merit, and the contractors hired by the cemetery moved quickly to get the statue down and into custom-built wooden crates. Soon all that remained was the base and foundation. Work continued into the evening to remove the remaining bronze elements of the memorial, a cemetery spokesperson said in an email.... Contractors received word of the judge's ruling Tuesday night and workers arrived at 6 a.m. Wednesday, said Devon Henry, whose Team Henry Enterprises is overseeing the removal. Henry, who is Black, and his Virginia-based company have become specialists in the complex and controversial work of statue removal over the past three years." ~~~
~~~ Marie: It's great to see the statue coming down but the white supremacist sentiments that put it there in the early 1900s are alive and well.
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Israel/Palestine. The Washington Post's live updates of developments Thursday in the Israel/Hamas war are here: "The U.N. Security Council will reconvene Thursday after a vote on a war-related resolution was delayed three times because of opposition from the United States. World powers are trying to hone the resolution's language so that Washington won't veto it. Northern Gaza has no fully functional hospitals left, the World Health Organization said. The Gaza Health Ministry warned that hundreds of wounded people could die because of the lack of medical services there." ~~~
~~~ CNN's live updates for Thursday are here.
Marie: Yesterday I embedded a Chris Hayes segment about the devastation in Gaza. Later in the day, YouTube removed the video because it was not suitable for children. So X-rated. Like Gaza. Here's a link to the video, which you can watch on YouTube.
News Lede
New York Times: "At least 15 people were killed during a shooting rampage in the Czech Republic, on Thursday, including 14 people at Charle University in Prague and the suspect's father, the authorities said. Twenty-four other people were wounded at the university. The gunman, a 24-year-old student in world history at Charles University, also died. He first killed his father in their family home in the town of Kladno, outside of Prague, said Radek Jiroudek, a police officer with Interpol Prague, in an interview. He killed himself after the shooting spree in central Prague." CNN is live-updating developments here.
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Reader Comments (12)
For the Right (I think I'll henceforth drop what has become the misnomer of "Republican" since the Republican Party no longer exists) "insurrection" seems to present major definitional problems. According to the Right, Jan. 6 was either a false flag event, promulgated by either (take you pick) Antifa or the government's own FBI, or a peaceful stroll through the National Mall by a bunch of well-behaved patriots, many of whom are now being held as political prisoners.
Whatever Jan. 6 was, in their minds, it wasn't an "insurrection," an attempt to overthrow a legitimate democratically elected government. It was instead an expression of discontent with a government they did not like. "Insurrection" sounds so bad that the Right wants no part of it.
"Revolution," on the other hand has a proud American history. After all, we got our start in one, and I suspect that just as the Confederated States likely thought of themselves as revolutionaries, that's how those on the Right now issuing threats to Colorado judges think of themselves, "revolutionaries" striking an electronic blow for good this time from the distant safety of their ISPs.
We should just admit it. Insurrectionists or not, the Right has become a revolutionary party, fundamentally opposed to the very core of American values, to a society where all have an equal voice in electing its leaders and where all are equal before the law.
The Right no longer works within the system because it doesn't like it. It works from both outside and inside our democratically-elected government, threatening and performing violent acts against it, lobbing an unending barrage of lies about it, and from within, even acting to defund it.
So, not insurrectionists, but revolutionaries.
But not Minutemen either. Those revolutionaries acted against a king. Today's self-styled Minutemen want one.
Right-winger Christopher Rufo who pushed the CRT freak out on the Right is behind the Gay plagiarism scandal. Trying to shape the universities just like the Florida school he and DeSantis took over.
My wife said my first entry of the day depressed her.
So I sent her this one:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2023/12/21/terry-kahn-indianapolis-millionaire/
About a man likely not at R.
The House January 6th committee documented Trump's culpability in the insurrection. Several Proud Boys have been convicted of sedition. Numerous participants in January 6th have been convicted or plead guilty and have said in court under oath that they were there because Trump asked them to come and and told them to go to the Capitol. Trump did most of this publicly for all to see. He was also a party in the Colorado case so he could file briefs pleading his case. Also a bipartisan majority in the Senate found Trump incited an insurrection with several senators who voted to acquit admitting that the evidence of his guilt was unassailable. He is now under indictment himself for January 6th and could try to clear his name any day he wants, but instead attempts delay after delay. If only every American were afforded as much due process as Donald Trump.
@Ken Winkes: I suppose your wife found your first entry today depressing because she knew what you wrote was true.
Texas again
"Seattle Hospital sues after Texas Attorney General asks for handover of patient records
The Seattle Children’s Hospital filed a lawsuit in Travis County District Court on Dec. 7 against the Texas Office of the Attorney General (OAG), after that agency requested documents related to gender transition policies and any such care provided to Texas children."
Biden
"Joe Biden's underrated presidency
He's achieved a lot — with the notable exception of popularity."
From Webster's:
Insurrection: A rising up against established authority; rebellion;
revolt--SYN. see rebellion.
Rebellion: An act or state of armed resistance to the authority or
government in power, and when applied historically, connotes failure.
Revolution applies to a rebellion that succeeds.
But I guess it depends on the thoughts of the Supremes, or whoever
is funding them at the time. (Do I sound sarcastic?)
Dahlia Lithwick on SC credibility
"The Supreme Court is on a collision course with itself, and it’s not clear that the justices even know it. We are now witnessing a five-car pileup of Trump–slash–Jan. 6 cases that will either be heard by the Supreme Court or land on their white marble steps in the coming weeks.
For years, some of the most vocal critics of the court’s ethical lapses, its lack of transparency, and its refusals to take seriously its own brokenness and errors, have warned that the day would come when an election would be decided by a body that has refused to clean house and has blamed the press and the academy for the stench of its own illegitimacy. The worry wasn’t that the court would decide the election; that seems almost inevitable. The worry was that the public, grown weary of the stench, would not abide by their decision."
In other news guess who's accomplishments are being celebrated right now, Michael Flynn of course.
"Mike Flynn's induction sparks mass resignation from Rhode Island hall of fame"
Those of us hoping for some modicum of Justice where Orange Hitler is concerned should be prepared for serious disappointment.
His buddies on the Supreme Court, aligned with other Trumpy “judges” now infecting the justice system, will be riding to his rescue.
It’s highly unlikely that the Supremes will uphold the Colorado decision, which is probably just as well. Were he to be kept off the ballot in Colorado (and other states, perhaps), it would be just and it would be constitutionally supported, but it would also open the door to immense caterwauling by that fat fuck who would sic his stormtroopers on voting places in November. It would make Jan.6 look avuncular.
That’s not to say Trump should not be held accountable because MAGA monsters would be pissed off, he absolutely should be, but the violence he will call for could be catastrophic, and more importantly, should a 14th Amendment spanking be followed by a Biden victory in November, his win will be tainted by many, especially in the both sides media, as illegitimate. A sound beating on fair ground will be vital to stomping the MAGA maggots. Fatty will still scream “Stolen”, but without the kind of support such a claim would have were he to be kicked off a few ballots.
NONETHELESS…
It will be delicious to see how the Supremes boogaloo down First Street and wiggle around the text of the Constitution, especially Die for Your Masters Gorsuch. The Colorado justices quoted Gorsuch verbatim in their decision, from an opinion he wrote at one time extolling the incontrovertible power of federalism, where he sez states get to make decisions for themselves despite what Washington wants.
But basically, on all the other Trump issues, they just have to drag their feet for months until it’s too late, then sniff that they had to carefully consider the legal ramifications. I guarantee you that, were they tasked with deciding an issue that would screw Biden, they’d have an answer within ten minutes.
And lest you think, “Well, there’s always Georgia…”, think again.
The Florida stolen documents case comes first. Loose Cannon has set a June date for that trial. The Georgia trial is set for August. BUT…if Loose Cannon decides to push her trial date back a couple of months, the Georgia trial gets pushed back as well, meaning maybe to November. Meaning no verdict (or even trial) on Fatty’s attempts to screw Georgia voters.
It’s like a Mafia Don paying off corrupt judges to make sure his trial never gets off the ground.
And that’s exactly what will happen.
And as long as Republican voter suppression, media both siderism, and narcissistic third party assholes are all in place, we could be looking at Trump 2.0 next January.
At which point, the Justice system will be chloroformed.
I suppose Nicki Haley would prefer some other August body of souls deciding on the plain text of what's law.. like maybe a kangaroo congress instead of the usual judiciary?
What a hoot.
Gonzo,
Nikki Haley would have no problem letting judges making decisions as long as those decisions go her way.