The panic over 9/11 that led to the Patriot Act is almost understandable. We had seen thousands of our fellow Americans incinerated, and our military and financial invincibility symbols were toppled. So, limiting a few freedoms for revenge seemed reasonable amid anger and fear (at the time). I am baffled...
SCOTUS
Ted Cruz has been accused of a lot of things: being the Zodiac Killer; being from Canada; being a churlish Sea Monkey that grew out of control in a secret Area 51 lab before escaping into the forest with a family-size bag of Bugles and a sixer of Zima; being the son of a...
Because Trumpists are all about the cosplay: Person Woman Man Camera TV. Aren’t we in an age where US Senators pretend to be patriots while supporting an election nullification, and there’s all those 2020 instances of voter fraud, not. No evidence for the widespread right-wing lie that Antifa members disguised...
Is Lindsey Graham for real? No, that’s a serious question. Because he looks like a Rankin-Bass Claymation character to me. Lindsey, the misfit Christmas elf who never liked to make toys and forgot to show up for elf practice because his real dream was to loofah Donald Trump’s hide so he’d stop looking...
After the Supreme Court rejected Trump’s latest attempt to bar the Manhattan DA from getting his tax returns and other financial records, the disgraced, twice-impeached, and — most important — former president issued a statement which, even by his standards, is a doozy: Trump responds to SCOTUS decision on his...
A legal Bassmaster always wins the fishing expedition, even with all those witches and their lures. Tax and accounting records will go to the Manhattan DA. Trump called the action fascism, making his declaration with some measure of experience. Supreme Court rejects Trump’s effort to shield tax records from New York prosecutor. On...
The Supreme Court heard another case pitting religious “liberty” against science and—hey, ho!—science lost again. Religious liberty is a bedrock American value. It doesn’t simply protect believers’ right to believe; it also, perhaps indirectly, helps preserve my right not to believe. If Mormons aren’t allowed to believe in sacred underwear, how...
It really has little to do with most legislation. Hell, he might not even whip his caucus on a lot of what Biden wants to do. Although he might want to filibuster on raising taxes. What Mitch really cares about, what he views as his legacy, is his packing of...
This is too, too much. The schadenfreude! The sheer, sheer joy! CNN: President-elect Joe Biden has decided to nominate Judge Merrick Garland as attorney general, people familiar with the matter tell CNN, a long-awaited decision that was moved toward completion Wednesday as it became apparent that Democrats were on the...
So by now you’ve heard that 12 angry phlegms are going to keep pretending through January 6 and beyond that something untoward occurred during the November 3 election, during which a clear majority of the country told Donald Trump not to let the door hit him in the ass on...
Aside from the usual caveats, Trump continues to act seditious. The GOP is plunging into open warfare over President-elect Joe Biden’s election victory — with President Trump taunting Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and threatening primary challenges against other Republicans, House lawmakers egging on senators to contest the counting of...
Trump is once again asking the Supreme Court (PDF) to overturn the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s multiple rulings on the mail-in ballots in the election. Rick Hasen on Election Law blog said that the petition was ridiculous, that John Eastman should be ashamed of himself, and that the petition’s citing to...
President-elect Biden will give a speech at 8pm EST on Monday, Dec. 14th from Wilmington, DE to talk about “the electoral college vote certification and the strength and resilience of our democracy,” Until then, Trump whines about something, something… after standing wasn’t found for the strange Texas lawsuit trying to throw out...
There’s been a lot of talk here about refusing to seat the 126 GOP Congresspersons who signed that amicus brief to the Texas petition to SCOTUS. The claim is that the XIV Amendment blocks them from office. I don’t think that’s going to get anywhere; it’s too nebulous and has...
After a brief dip in the right-wing swamp, ick. I am not surprised that the wingnuts are wiling not only to dump the concept of democracy but the constitution itself. We want a democracy of the pure! We want a democracy of like-minded people! We want a democracy of Stepford!...
The apartheid country of Trumpland’s confederated states seems still an idea in its infancy. The chairman of the Texas GOP floats secession after SCOTUS loss: “Perhaps law-abiding states should bond together and form a Union of states that will abide by the constitution.” x Texas GOP Flirts With Secession After...
Schaden-Friday never fails! Needless to say, this is one of the more bizarre (and sad) things I’ve ever seen. x pic.twitter.com/GgwnkrGz9U— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 11, 2020 < p class=”is-empty-p”> NARRATOR: “President Trump created millions of jobs, saved the economy from a worldwide pandemic, and led the effort to...
Lack of standing is the reason for SCOTUS dismissing the Ken Paxton suit to overturn the votes of four states. Meritless frivolity remains. x #BREAKING: #SCOTUS throws out Texas's suit attempting to challenge presidential election results in four battleground states, granting Texas leave to file its complaint but summarily dismissing its...
The Kraken Caucus makes itself known. GOP sedition messaging harkens back to the 19th Century, except Trump's lost cause won't rise again. This time it’s not a Brooks Brothers Riot but pseudo-secessionist displays. “Trump can't handle the concept of the label 'loser'” as he pimps a 'seditious abuse of justice', and Jake Tapper...
To define exactly what I mean: Banana Republicans: An exploitative party that functions purblindly, often reliant upon and disproportionately benefiting a corrupt individual with the aim of installing an authoritarian regime characterized by corruption and economic exploitation. Texas AG Ken Paxton’s longshot suit asks high court to negate 10M votes...
Because if 17 GOP states want to overthrow the nation’s choice of POTUS, they should? Trump thinks tenacity is more important than democracy, as the COVID death toll exceeds the equivalent of 9/11’s deaths each day now. President Donald Trump warned Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr not to rally other Republican...
Texas is making the case to the Supreme Court that its citizens were damaged by how other states conducted their elections. They are seeking to throw out 20 million legally cast votes in four states, and asking SCOTUS push back the date on which electors vote, even though only Congress can...
The Biden-Harris pandemic team is introduced today, covered live by MSNBC and CNN, and no one is covering the Trump “vaccine summit” event at the White House. “100 million shots in the first 100 days.” x Biden: “I’m absolutely convinced that in 100 days we can change the course of the...
The latest bit of gross stupidity and waste of state taxpayer funds is one state suing others because fraud, something, something…. abstracting from actual votes is more representative of the will of the people….maybe…and go Constitutionally big or go home. This Texas parlor trick requires the same thing all the...
“America is advanced citizenship” –The American President The Age of Citizens United continues. x Even Barrett asksQ: So could you sue on torture?A: YesQ: But not if it was a corporation?A: Yes — Oren Nimni (@orennimni) December 1, 2020 x Neal Katyal is currently defending multinational corporations' right to own...
Total Landscape losing with “strained legal arguments”, free of factual proof. x Judge in the Pennsylvania case really took the Trump team to the woodshed. https://t.co/IXyeyjuiM0 pic.twitter.com/JIbS9OwRbU— Ryan J. Reilly (@ryanjreilly) November 21, 2020 “In the United States of America, this cannot justify the disenfranchisement of a single voter, let...
The lawfare against the ACA now being heard in SCOTUS now resembles the attempts to reverse the results of the 2020 election. Scorched earth and total lawfare, total landscaping. Schrödinger's ballots. Sources close to Trump described his unsupported accusations as a desperate way to save face x Memo to my...
It seems that every time the nutty right loses it is the “left” that “must do the healing” for the sake of the nation? I notice no such qualms exist when the GOP wins as they enjoy rubbing our face in it. Yet, when the Democratic Party wins the GOP...
Brooks Brothers riot of intimidation returns from 2000: x Wow. Actually identical now to the Bush 2000 playbook. https://t.co/zTtsayW1a4 — Dan O'Sullivan (@Bro_Pair) November 4, 2020 GOP millennium tribute band x A Detroit elections officials attempting to deescalating an increasingly tense situation outside the ballot count at TCF Center. republican...
Idiocracy declared victory at 2 am. Didn’t happen. Trump and the GOP want the courts to intervene before counting is finished. Voting is done, counting’s not finished. At this writing Wisconsin and Maine are now in the Biden column. Biden leads in Michigan, Arizona, and Nevada. Wisconsin Elections Commission Administrator says on @NBCNews: “All...
A theater of the absurd: fascinating are the last hours of the Trump administration’s disinformation campaign, as Trump goes round the bend. He now complains that Democrats don’t believe in science, again. And Trump caravans trying to run Biden campaign buses off Texas roads is “hot”. After his praise for turning...
I’ve argued with many a conservative over the years. No matter what the argument, be it violence against women, kids in cages, killing old people to save the economy, etc., the right-wing extremists will always try to bring up abortion. They do this for two reasons: they can’t possibly justify their...
Rather than any legitimate interpretation of constitutional law, all of the outcomes you can expect from the Supreme Court will now be solely based on how the decision will affect Republicans getting elected. It’s disturbing, because as I read and watch media figures discuss Biden’s lead, they bring up the...
There have been a lot of stories about how Trump is screwing around with the ballots, especially in Pennsylvania, where he and the GOP-controlled legislature have, with some help from the Supreme Court, set up the following catch-22: Reject any ballot that arrives after election day even though it was...
because I am seeing more and more evidence that political professionals who have access to internal polls are seeing it. There is chatter that Trump is worried about suffering a loss worse than Carter. You look at where key people are being deployed — compare Mike Pence going to SC...
The hope for a post-Trump era will bring with it already growing challenges to democracy. Along with $3 for a glass of water. x Pres. Obama campaigning for @JoeBiden: “If he had been focused on COVID from the beginning, cases wouldn’t be reaching new record highs across the country this...
Donald Trump in 2016: There has to be some form of punishment for the woman. x 📺 NEW VIDEO This is #WhatsAtStake pic.twitter.com/LSUCYRcSaU— MeidasTouch.com (@MeidasTouch) October 27, 2020 Roe v. Wade will be overturned. Red states will outlaw abortion, and penalize those who seek it. The only hope is a...
Some very encouraging news today out of Texas: x 🚨New Poll – TEXAS🚨Biden 49 / Trump 48Hegar 46 / Cornyn 48https://t.co/OCRMOhwGdJ— Data for Progress (@DataProgress) October 26, 2020 Click here for the full results. Yesterday’s UT Tyler poll showed a tightening race: In his bid for a fourth term in...
I try to keep out of American politics as I have been an expat for over half my life [passed that milestone last month] and just don't understand it anymore. I haven’t written anything anywhere for more than three years on any subject to do with the US. However, that...
Several things became clearer tonight with dueling town halls. Trump cannot disavow the support he gets from the QAnon cult even as it now consorts with white supremicist terrorists. Biden promised to have a position about expanding SCOTUS prior to election day. And Trump continued to lie, with some ridiculous...
We all pretty much know who Amy Coney Barrett is. I see such super-Catholics on my social media feeds pretty regularly because, well, I went to Catholic grade school and high school, and a lot of my old classmates either haven’t figured out that I’m a filthy secular humanist or,...
Sen. Lindsey Graham (T-SC) (T for Trump) spilled the beans in his opening statement at the Barrett confirmation hearing. Judges and justices are supposed to be vetted for their qualifications to serve, and for their positions on Constitutional theory, and things like that. They don’t get asked how they would...
Will Trumpian domestic terror’s “strategy of tension” for the next decade ultimately be predicated upon the little tiny fishes, or the strawberries, or the tow target. “California is gonna have to ration water. You wanna know why? Because they send millions of gallons of water out to sea, out to...
The Republican Party is in a tizzy over the prospect of Joe Biden being in favor of expanding the Supreme Court while they have packed courts across America. Of course, the GOP, masters that they are of incendiary language, scream court-packing at Biden and Harris at every opportunity. This is...
The GOP Senate mischief continues, as the GOP’s rush to endanger the women’s health of at least 17 states and 30 million people also continues. x Democratic vice-presidential candidate Sen. Kamala Harris will not in person attend the SCOTUS confirmation hearing as COVID runs through the Senate GOP.https://t.co/AD6Q5ulw4T via @politicususa—...
Looking more like pathological Trump is going full scorched earth, not caring whether his “Trump checks” will get to potential voters. The economy will likely tank (more), now that Trump wants to give winning Dems more grief for the Blue Tsunami. And then there’s the super-spreader candidate for SCOTUS. Trump says he told...