The Supreme Court decision today to reinstate Trump on every ballot: Expected. It's not any additional reason for me to level any additional accusations of illegitimacy (edit: nah nvm. I added an edit below). I've already got plenty, besides. But it is telling that the "state's rights" crowd is celebrating. Trump's response speech to the ruling this morning wasn't much in the news, which is good, because, after thanking SCOTUS (guys I'm starting to worry about his ideas regarding separation of powers) via video message, he literally begs for presidential immunity. "There will be some things that, perhaps, don't work out so well, but, I don't wanna be prosecuted because I decided to do something that is very much for the good of the country and even for the good of the world" (direct quote). There is zero subtlety in his approach. I'm sure that the delay in the immunity ruling has emboldened him. Sadly, the more I think about it, the more I can see at least 4 SCOTUS members carving out some realm of presidential immunity designed to be a very difficult hurdle for Jack Smith to clear, especially if he rushes the J6 case to trial before the election. That is my official projection. Absolute presidential immunity? No, but some wild-ass version of immunity intentionally made to give Trump the legal W at least through Jan. 20th, 2025. Something like "immune while performing official acts, or even while performing acts POTUS mistakenly thought were official". This has a bit to do with the ruling today, and more to do with explaining SCOTUS wanting to take up presidential immunity this late and so obviously delay his trial. Might explain why they're going to sit on it for a while, too, if it's gotta be finely polished into some tasty bullshit. edit: After finally reading the 4 dissents (the 4 female justices), who still agreed with the overall ruling but not the justifications, it's pretty clear that this is Donald Trump's SCOTUS. After the GOP members in the early 2021 congress said "Trump's fate will be decided in the courts" to avoid voting for impeachment or conviction, 5 SCOTUS members (including Roberts!) have turned around and said "not only are we going to reinstate Trump on the ballot," (again, expected) "but we're going to wholesale invent a congressional process for insurrectionist disqualification that has no chance of ever being enacted against Trump." Basically for the hell of it. Even if Jack Smith finds him guilty of insurrection before the election, this guarantees no actual mechanism to remove Trump from the ballot. Further, this is even further away from any consistency at all with the "conservative" ideal of state-checked federal authorities than I had thought. Trump and the House GOP will simply try another insurrection, if he doesn't win, and SCOTUS by and large seems fine with it. And yeah, this came out of nowhere. SCOTUS isn't even in session. They released it on their website, because the majority wanted this ruling out there before Super Tuesday. Non-partisan "judging balls and strikes" my ass.
Feels like an appropriate time to return to this. A lot of calculus in the past assumed that the judiciary wouldn't usurp its own power, but I think with Alito and Thomas (hopefully no others), we should instead assume a level of theocratic fanaticism that disregards self-interest, or at least has a gross misunderstanding of it. One upside down American flag, yeah, I'm ambiguous about, but the appeal to heaven flag on top of it pretty much narrows it down to the conclusion that, yeah, there are now two members of SCOTUS more than willing to be accessories in consolidating power into a Trump executive. This isn't merely political bias tainting the institution of SCOTUS. This is bad-faith* undermining of the constitutional order by individuals who're certain to pay no penalty. Just like Trump. I stick by my prediction that SCOTUS will carve out just enough presidential immunity to give Trump a solid defense, on top of providing this long delay that almost certainly keeps Trump out of federal court until 2025, especially with Aileen Cannon single-handedly quashing the classified documents case. SCOTUS might extend "official presidential acts" to include "presenting alternate election result possibilities for presidents who Really Truly believe that the election was fraudulent". Who really cares what the exact argument is? SCOTUS is obviously not a legitimate institution any longer, and lower-level judges like Cannon are doing their best to de-legitimize the lower courts, too. *Alito and Thomas absolutely know that there was nowhere near enough election fraud to even remotely affect the election outcome. And of course, btw, most of the election fraud was from Trump supporters, and I'm not even counting the alternate (read: illegal) elector slates scheme.
Pretty devastating review of the ruling from David French. The money quote is: "Through inaction alone, Congress can effectively erase part of the 14th Amendment." I've been following French's and some other writers' interpretation of section 3 in advance of this ruling, and while I've read pieces that have been persuasive in both directions, not a single one imagined this as the outcome. This may be a new low for this court, and they have a lot of hits on that chart.
Yep. And, hwowww, what d'ya know, they just happened to drop this ruling during the most ineffective congress in the entirety of American history, coincidentally. I've seen some really, really bad takes on it as well. Lawrence O'Donnell wanted to pretend like this was some big win, that SCOTUS had confirmed that Trump was an insurrectionist, and it's like, "OK..? Then they also said they're fine with it". You watch, they'll use the immunity case ruling to fuck up Jack Smith's case as much as they possibly can. Already are. A court that knows it's considered illegitimate is even more dangerous, at least in the short term.Through inaction alone, Congress can effectively erase part of the 14th Amendment.
So here’s the problem they faced in a nut shell: They absolutely had no basis to countermand the fact finding of the lower courts. I.e., if the lower courts found it was an insurrection and Trump didn’t really even try to say he wasn’t. At least that wasn’t the main thrust of his argument. And they really didn’t want to entertain that bullshit about the president not being an officer. So where do they go? Clearly, Roberts and crew weren’t comfortable with where the libs were, which is “states don’t get to say, but someone does”. I goes they felt they had to invent something, and the something turned out to be section 5. Ok. It’s a stretch that you don’t have to be a legal scholar to see though, but the problem is that they were all just uncomfortable with the facts. They were too afraid to just apply the law, because the consequences were too much to face. So now we have a wack-ass precedent that could stand for 150 years. Insane.
Agree. It's also really cowardly to simultaneously cloak these deliberations in hypotheticals while rushing to get the ruling out before Super Tuesday. Like "so, this theoretical insurrectionist, whoever it may be". They're supposed to think like that, yeah, but they're not.
Fuck you. I've been pretty clear about what a catastrophe the Supreme Court is since Day Fucking One. You've got this bullshit idea that "well ackshully" I'm just an apologist for whatever it is you don't like but let me say it again - fuck you. Some of us have had the attention span to piss and moan about this shit since the MUTHERFUCKING EIGHTIES and if you wanna try and score points off me fucking come correct. It's not my fault you don't have the attention span to be mad at something other than the cause du jour. But it is your fault that you'd rather piss on this strawman you have of me than actually hold a reasonable facsimile of me in your head. I deserve better and you know it.
I think the, uh, spiritedness of our rhetoric often gets mistaken for disagreement, when we're usually just quibbling over the specifics. I will say that you're obviously more optimistic than I, which I respect immensely. That's probably what OB is hung up on.?
No, fuck you, too. You don't fucking quibble over specifics, you ignore everything I fucking say so you can find some corner that allows you to be crazy. Here's what I fucking said to you THREE FUCKING YEARS AGO And I don't see a mechanism by which things get better. I believe what I say and I say what I mean and you know what? What I've been saying is pretty consistent. I can look back on my wild-eyed bullshit ideas from ten years ago and go "mmmyeah, pretty much" about 98% of the time. So it's not fucking optimism - it's a studied assessment of the situation at hand as I see it and understand it, and I share that. And 99% of the time it fuckin' whooshes right the fuck over your head because you're too busy trying to find some reason to freak out. Spiritedness is fine but when you fucking put words into my mouth for fucking jollies it's fucking over. I'm fucking sick of this shit and I don't fucking deserve it.You've got some decisions to make, my friend. Because between the way the politics are going and the way the environment is going, you're in Taliban country.
I didn't mean to imply that your optimism is tainting the accuracy of your predictions or something, I just meant that you seem to be better than I at internalizing what we're all facing (especially with framing it in historical contexts), and carrying on. Because yeah, when I look at threads from three years ago, we're all saying a lot of the same stuff. We all knew SCOTUS would go theocratic fundamentalist, but I, personally, didn't see them bending over backwards to accommodate an insurrectionist to this degree. It's seems worthy of a small freak out. I do listen to you. I change my mind frequently. Like obviously JD Vance isn't entertaining enough to lead MAGA, and if I sit down and think about it for two minutes, yeah. And maybe I do get a li'l panicky sometimes, but some of it's because America writ large is almost 100% aloof, and I'm at least subconsciously trying to compensate. Sometimes consciously. But my panic and outrage is never directed towards you. Or anyone else on the 'ski. Except for once when I got pretty mad at b_b over trans rights, peace'd out for a bit, got over it, and came back. I haven't put any words in your mouth. I appreciate your contributions. But honestly, yes, sometimes I struggle to figure out what it is I've said that you disagree with, or why you're upset with me. If I really upset you so much, and so often? You don't have to talk to me, dude. I enjoy our discussions, but if it's taking some kind of toll on you, then I guess you can mute me or something, but it's not like there are more than 7 people on this website anymore, so that sucks.
My 'hang up' is the fact that our system is being actively used against us, in front of us, and the best we can muster is outrage when the rule of law is outright ignored by 48% of the country. I hope MK's prediction of 25 years from now the Anti-Mcconnell reaching the peak of his/her power is correct.
We're all on the same team, man. We're all worried. I hope mk's prediction is correct 4 years from now, 'cuz I ain't got no time for the arc of history to do some eventual bending towards justice, I want it nowwwwww. Sending e-hugs.
how the fuck is that my fault It's possible That maybe I feel this more than you It's possible That maybe this is what I've been screaming from the rafters for forty fucking years It's possible That much of your outrage of the Supreme Court you learned from me But that didn't fuckin' stop you from needin' a hit of that Outrage Juice that keeps your blood pumping. It didn't stop you from taking a swing at me, the guy who has always been careful to address what you're saying, not who you are. The guy who drops whatever you've got going on minute by minute, hour by hour, life by life, to address the thing you wanna bring up. Naaah. You decided you wanted a fucking fight and the way you were gonna get it was by ridiculing me. This is one thing where nobody can come up with an upside and here I am, trying to get through my fucking day, and you decided that you know what? The Internet has decided it's cool to piss on "centrists" so here you are, knowing I'm always good for a laugh. I'll humor your bullshit no matter how tangential. I'll come back with something, anything to try and turn your mood around and what did you fucking do with that? You made up an opinion for me and decided I should defend it. FUCK YOU.