Tag Archives: Trump

It’s The End Of The World, As We Know It!

General, Politics, Rants,
The GOP elephant is on his deathbed.

With all of the machinations happening with several state election boards recently to make things confusing. It is fairly obvious that the goal is to have enough of the Electoral College ballots contested to throw the election to the congress. For those of you out there who did not know this would mean that the House of Representatives would select the President and the Senate would select the Vice President. To make maters even crazier in both cases each State gets one vote.

What this means is that both the most populous states have the same voice in selecting the president. States like California, New York, and Texas have exactly the same vote as states like Vermont, South Dakota, Delaware. This also means, given that we have 50 states, the winner needs, at a minimum, 26 Sates voting for them. This is what many people thought Donald Trump was after in 2020. Like most of Trumps great plans it has some problems.

First is that the Republicans don’t have a majority it the delegations of 26 states. The have around 22/23. In several states the number of Republicans and Democrats is almost equal, needling only one or two delegates to switch to change the results. Another problem is that, at this time, we have no clear idea of what the new House of Representatives will look like. The Democrats just might win control of the House by wining seats in states that have a small margin of control for the Republicans. Given the performance of the current House Republican leadership I don’t expect a well run election.

So let’s run a little “thought experiment”: Election is thrown into the House and the House selects Trump but the Democrats gain control of the House and keep the Senate. Now add in that Walz is elected Vice President. Just what would the next four years look like? The last time this happened in our history we ended up with many years of very poor government and the rise of the Jim Crow south. to me, it sounds like something out of those nightmare novels where the country goes crazy.

Just think, a President who was not elected by anything even looking vaguely like a vote of the people. With a Congress in control of the party that “lost” the election. Now add in the President has almost total immunity from prosecution for his “official” acts, without a working definition of “Official”.

I can see it now: the House starts to impeach President Trump and Trump orders the Army to arrest all Representatives who he thinks would vote for impeachment. The Army officer corps declines till he gets down to captains and lieutenants. Now what happens? What if the generals face the troops in front of the Capital? Would SCOTUS hold that the orders were “Lawful”? What if they don’t? Instead of the Army Trump uses the US Marshals or the FBI?

Get the picture? It’s the end of the world as we know it.

What to Expect in next weeks DNC

Politics, Rants, , ,
A return to the Good Old Days

Democrats and the nation need to be on the look out for a lot of staged events outside of the convention hall next week. The Trump campaign and the Republican Party are going to be doing their best to insure a repeat of 1968. “Why?” Do you ask, would they want this? For many many reasons and here are just a few of them.

First it is part of the GOP’s mythos that the riots in Chicago as seen on television was a major reason Nixon won. That the war in Vietnam was very very unpopular has nothing to do with it. That V.P. Humphrey had to define not only the war but also all of the changes to end segregation had nothing to do with it. Also the GOP need something, anything, to take the camera off of all the bad campaigning both Trump and Vance are doing. Finally they hope to show how the “Evil”, “Liberal”, Communist”, “DEI”, etc is going to destroy the country. They need a violent confrontation to play the “What about” card this year.

The problem facing the GOP is that the people who will be protesting will not be the “Yeepies” of 1968. Nor is Mayor Daly going to call out the Chicago PD this time to club heads. The Protestors are going to be made up of the same people who stormed the Capital in 2021, and it will be obvious to anyone with eyes to see just who they are. Rest assured the Harris campaign is locked and loaded to deal with any effort to blame “Liberals” or Democrats. Don’t believe me, just take a look at how it has handled the lame attempt by the Trump campaign to say the photos of the Harris rallies are AIed to look bigger than they were. With in minutes of the first social media posting of the AI story the Harris campaign had its response out on the internet. An not just tweets either, we had actual videos showing the truth.

But we, the viewing public need to keep our eyes open to what is happening. We the electorate need to be ready to see, link, and share what we see. Because MAGA thinks we are both too stupid and too lazy to challenge anything they do.

Some Thoughts on J.D. Vance as Trumps VEEP

Politics, , ,

With the selection of JD Vance by Donald Trump as his VP there has been a great deal of talk about how this will help the Trump campaign. Very little is said about the effect it will have on the Biden campaign. This is where I want to go.

It doesn’t take very much effort researching JD Vance to find out he is what can be called MAGA’s MAGA. Many of his positions, as expressed by himself, are to the right of center of the MAGA movement. Go look for yourself it you doubt me. Let’s do a thought experiment, the Trump/Vance ticket wins in November, what can we reasonably look forward to.

First lets limit to things that are possible now with minimal changes to the law. This means that Trump can not, and does not, stand for reelection in 2028. That means Vance has a very good chance of being elected in 2028. Think about what things will be like after 12 years of MAGA rule. Remember that all official acts of the President are “ immune”. We have no idea, at this time, who and/or how an act is found to be ‘official’ so it is quite respectable to say anything the President does in the White House is “official”. But let us just go with a more limited definition that makes it necessary for an act to have some loose connection with official duties as currently understood.

Now imagine no more Civil Service laws, that is, a return to the “spoils” system of the “Gilded” age. Everyone who works for the government owes their job to political patronage, make some elected personage upset and your out of a job. Jobs are not filled with people who have to show they know how to do the job but who the knew and had done favors for. Just think about what it will be like with all of the Air Controls are there because of a political payoff? Think it will be safe? Don’t worry, it won’t be the Control’s fault, it will be “Their” fault (the latest fall guys of the day).

So, how does this help the Biden campaign? Easy, the Democrats can start using the fear mongering used so effectively by MAGA. You think Trump will be bad, just think what Vance will do. Vance is more energetic, as smart, (if not smarter) and a demonstrated good campaigner. In less that 10 years Vance has gone from an unknown to VP candidate of the Republican Party. If someone who started out as a Reality Show joke to President just think of what Vance can do from the office of the Vice President.

The Shape of Things To Come

General, ,
A return to the Good Old Days

With the ruling on “TRUMP Vs. United States of America” coming down yesterday I thought I’d put my two cents worth in. I’m not going to talk about all the BIG issues of giving the President “Total Immunity” for his “Official” acts as I think they are all being covered by people much better qualified to talk about them. I’m going to look at the small but troublesome issues that just might have more lasting effects.

First let us just look at a very simple question not even touched in the ruling. Does the Presidential Immunity apply to all laws and jurisdictions? If so, why and how? If not, why and how.

Now let us look at the position of an “Staffer” or “Cabinet” member while in consultation with the President is told by the President to commit an act that is clearly in violation of federal law. Does presidential immunity extend to cover the person or persons committing the act ordered by the President. If not, could the President issue a Pardon to the person(s) so ordered before they act or does He/She have to wait until after the act is committed?

Head hurting yet? Well last just take one more…Just what is an Official Act? Is it anything that the person who is President does? Most likely not as the ruling does talk about both official and unofficial acts. But I have yet to see any test in the ruling to just what makes an act Official.

We will have to wait and see just how the Court deals with this in the years to come. Because they will have to deal with it. They have just knocked over a crate of eggs and now they will have to see just how many are broken.

What Trumps Next Term Might Look Like

General, Politics, Rants, ,

I know it is not very smart to take Donald J Trump at his word but I am just this once, at lest in part. He has said he will be a dictator for the first day he is in office. May people think he is saying he will be a dictator for just one day. But he didn’t say that. So just what can we expect to see. Here are some of my thoughts.

First, if the MAGA gets complete control of the House of Representatives. By this I mean they have between 300 and 350 of the seats. A control of the Senate, 60 seats. They will, by the current rules, refuse to seat any non-party, not a MAGA Republican, in either or both Houses of Congress. This can and should be done before Trump is sworn in. These actions, while undemocratic are legal by both the House and Senate Rules.

Once MAGA has in questionable control of the Congress things will start to get interesting. It will all depend on how much MAGA will want to seem doing things thru the law or not. If they want to take on the veneer of legality they will need to pass laws. For example, to ”Clean House” in the DOJ they could just order the termination of all “Liberal” employees. With out changing the Civil Service Law(s) this would open up the administration a mountain of law suits. This could be handled if they first cleaned out the federal judiciary of all questionable judges. Again, if the law is not changed there could be a lot of law suits. So I for see quite a few laws being changed rather rapidly. But even moving as fast as they possible can the Congress will take some time, many weeks if not months, to get done.

What I would first expect to see is a change in the law(s) governing how the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) works so it can exert tighter control over cable news and social media. After all they will not want the average citizen getting “false” news from the “Libertard” media. The problem with this is that a lot of the social media is done by companies owned by people who will not want the government sticking its nose into their business. Don’t believe it? Just think about how Eon Musk would react to the FCC telling “X” how to select what is shown?

Once both the cable media and social media are brought into line it will be the turn for the MilItary to bought to heal. I’m not sure how this could be done. One thing for sure is the oath taken by all members of the services will need to be changed, especially for the officers. They will have to get rid of the phrase “Lawful Orders” for sure. But I’m not sure how well removing the constitution will sit with people. Maybe changing “constitution” “government”? This might work and could be done to all oaths that government workers have to take.

Another easy fix is just to change the civil service act to enable a return to the spoils system of the 19th century. I’m not enough of a lawyer to work out how this could be done but I am sure it can be done. At the same time we can also change the laws on what an employer can fire a person for so that no termination can be challenged, ever. Just think of it, a boss can fire female employee for refusing him sex. Or for not committing a criminal act. More power to the Boss’.

Most of this can be handled in the first year of the Congress and then things will really start to get interesting. Having each State create it’s own Establish Church sounds good. I wonder if we could get it so only members of the State’s Established Church has the franchise or better yet be a citizen of the state? Wait, that might need an amendment to the constitution.

Well that’s enough of a nightmare for now. Sweet Dreams.

What can be Learned from the NYC Trump Trial (Pt 1)

Politics, Rants
Lady Justice
Lady Justice

There are quite a few things that can be learned from the “Hush Money” trial of Donald J. Trump. Just two, to start with. The dual or multi leveled Justice system and Jury selection and how hard we work to keep it fair.

First the simplest, the jury selection process in our courts. It has taken one an a half days to get the first 12 prospective jurors seated and starting the culling process. Look at how many people were dismissed just because they were not confident they could be fair and unbiased. This says something about the common citizen that so many people were honest enough with themselves to say “I’m not sure I can be fair in this case.” And while not all, not even the majority, said this, some did. Just think what this says about your fellow Americans. We take this duty of siting as a juror very seriously.

So next let’s look at just what this one trial says about the accusation that we have a two, or multi, tiered Justice system. I know this has been one of the major talking points of Trump and his supporters, but this trial is showing just how it works. Just not in the way Trump wants you to think it is working.

Trump is not the victim of the multi-tiered justice system, he is the beneficiary. In just this one case he has been treated much kinder than the average Joe Blow or Jane Row. Just go and find your average criminal lawyer and ask them how the court treats the average defendant who ignores and/or violates court orders? Then look at how Trump is being treated. Are they even close to being the same?

Then look at the number of motions that Trump has moved before the trial even got to jurry selection? Ask how many of the motions even met the basic standard of being non-frivolous?

I think you will be both shocked and offended by what you find. It is like Trump said in the “Access Hollywood tape”, “When you’re famous you get to do that….”. It would seem to go double when your both Rich and Famous. So keep your eyes open with all the Trump cases, we are about to learn about all the little secrets the “Privileged Set” don’t want you to know.

P.S. It is also going to show the MAGA leadership that getting people all riled up over the way the average Joe/Jane is treated can have unintended consequences.

An End to the Grand Old Party

Politics, Rants, ,
Dead GOP

With the changing of the guard at the RNC and the placing of both MAGA and Trump loyalist in the top leadership we need to change both the symbol of the Republican Party and its nickname . I propose these two:

For the symbol:

MAGA

And for the Nickname TOP (Trump’s Own Party). I particularly like TOP as it will appeal to not only Trumps ego but will also tell everyone just who is in charge. Even when Trump dies, they will still need to have a “Trump” leading the Party. At lest until the Trump line dies out, you know, like the “Claudio-Julians” at the end of the Roman Republic.

The symbol is a bit more shaky, but I still think it captures the spirit of the Party. A party run by women but with a male figurehead who takes all the credit. Just like an African Lions pride. The man just sits around all day, ready to chase away any other male. Screwing the all the women who do the actual work. And bragging to everyone how hard he works and how great everything he does, is. And all the females let him get away with it.

The only issue I see with these changes is that they might just be too truthful and on the mark. MAGA and the TOP don’t really feel comfortable with the truth being out where everyone can see it. They like the truth to be kept in a deep dark dungeon chained to the wall and starved.

The Coming Time of Troubles

Law, Politics, , ,

Formal group photograph of the Supreme Court as it was been comprised on June 30, 2022 after Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson joined the Court. The Justices are posed in front of red velvet drapes and arranged by seniority, with five seated and four standing…Seated from left are Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Clarence Thomas, Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr., and Justices Samuel A. Alito and Elena Kagan. .Standing from left are Justices Amy Coney Barrett, Neil M. Gorsuch, Brett M. Kavanaugh, and Ketanji Brown Jackson…Credit: Fred Schilling, Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States.

Will wonders never cease? I woke up in time to listen to the live broadcast of the SCOTUS hearing on the Colorado case removing Donald J. Trump from the primary ballot. I got a lot of questions but I’m not going to go into them now as I’m sure most if not all will be both brought up by the “Talking Heads” in the days to come and also addressed by the courts ruling. No, what I’m going to deal with a question that has not even been addressed out loud yet. That question is:

“If the court rules that the several states can not enforce the qualifications to hold office before a person is elected when and who does enforce them?” Let me set up the hypothetical for you here:

A person who will not be 35 at the time of being sworn in, when I who says he/she can not be sworn in? Is it done when the electors of the several states are approved by the state legislatures? Is it done when the elector collage votes are counted by Congress? Or is it when he/she steps up to take their oath of office (and who does this)? See the problem?

Now it is possible for the Court to say that this is the responsibility of the Congress. But what do we do if the Congress does not act. The current House of Representatives does not fill me with confidence. What does congress do if it gets conflicting Elector ballots? If he/she is not allowed to take office, who does? The Vice President? The Speaker of the House? Who?

See the problem, no mater what the Court does we are in for some very hard times, some much much harder than others. Only time and the Court will tell.

A Republican Nightmare

Politics,

The GOP elephant is on his deathbed.

With the election year off to a staggering start I have yet to hear much about just who Donald Trump will select as his V.P. This could end up being of critical importance to the GOP and/or the nation as a whole. I say this because if Trump does get elected President who his Veep is could be critical.

I say this because the odds of Trump living another five years is low. His mental state being good is even lower. Trump is 78 this year so it is a coin toss how long he could live. What concerns me more is his mental state. I have now had to deal with several people who have suffered from loss of mental acuity as they aged. Two were some form of dementia while loss of memory and reasoning was another. In all cases they suffered from a degradation of there judgement and reasoning.

Now, sense the Trump/MAGA campaign has seen fit to bring up Pres. Biden’s health, both physical and mental, it is only fair we look at Trumps state. The easiest of these to look at is his mental acuity. We just need to listen to him when he is speaking. NOTE: I recommend that no one use his blogging/texting etc as there is no way to be sure this has not been either edited of ghost written. I’d even go so far as to only go by what was live in front of a group of people. Interviews can also be edited.

I leave it up to you, my dear reader to draw your own conclusions. But think on this; Trump gets returned to the Presidency in this election and then suffers either a physical or mental breakdown. Say like Pres. Wilson did. Something so bad that even if he doesn’t die he is severely disabled and can not do his job as President. If and until his cabinet and his Veep invoke the 25th Amendment the the person or persons who control access to the President will be controlling the government.

Now let us consider this scenario as stated above. Given the past performance of the MAGA/GOP leadership and just how much importance Trump places on personal loyalty it seems likely that we can expect to see one hell of a knock-down drag out of a fight over two things. First who controls the access to the Presidential sickroom. Second getting a majority of the cabinet to certify that Trump is not physically and/or mentally able to execute the office of the President. An all the while this is going on the executive branch will be lock up and the congress will most likely be too. Now add in all of the cyberspace rumors that will be flying.

Now let’s add in that the Veep and the several and several of the cabinet members have strong connections with MAGA and any or all of them are willing to do what it takes to be in control. Or let’s say the Veep selected for just ‘Hollywood’ reasons and doesn’t have much strength at all. Or let’s say the Sec of Defense is willing to call out the “Army” ? What if the Army leadership doesn’t want to get involved? Or it splits?

A real dystopian nightmare, isn’t it.

Interesting Times for SCOTUS

Law, Politics,
Formal group photograph of the Supreme Court as it was been comprised on June 30, 2022 after Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson joined the Court. The Justices are posed in front of red velvet drapes and arranged by seniority, with five seated and four standing…Seated from left are Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Clarence Thomas, Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr., and Justices Samuel A. Alito and Elena Kagan. .Standing from left are Justices Amy Coney Barrett, Neil M. Gorsuch, Brett M. Kavanaugh, and Ketanji Brown Jackson…Credit: Fred Schilling, Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States.

The coming months are going to be very interesting for us court watchers. SCOTUS has at least two and possibly more critical cases coming before it. Some of them are also time critical. Some will allow the court to demonstrate that they really do believe in the judicial/constitutional philosophy thus exposed in recent and controversial decisions.

On the last point, the Colorado case (Anderson v. Griswold) removing Trump from the primary ballot seems to be the most likely case in point. In several recent decisions the court has used both the “Originalist” and “Textualist” doctrines to justify their rulings. The “Textualist” doctrine gives the court the best course to rule against Trump and the “Originalist” gives them two ways to rule one for Trump and one against.

Now let me state right here I do not expect SCOTUS to use any of these paths. I fully expect the court to find some way to totally dodge the issue, most likely using some arcane procedural reasoning. This court all too often has shown itself to have the backbone of a slug. That said let’s dive into the issues as I see them.

The “Textualist” ruling deals almost exclusively with the 14th Amendment and its 3rd Section, probably one of the most overlooked clauses of the Constitution. The only real issue is whether the President is an “Officer” of the United States. Given both the customs of the time and the debate on the Amendment it is clear that the President is an “Officer” of the United States. Let us totally bypass the illogic of saying that the only two offices that “Insurrectionist” could hold are the two highest offices in the nation. We are, after all talking about the “Radical” Republicans of the post Civil War and given the detailed list of the offices it is not reasonable to hold that the offices of President and Vice President are excluded.

This now lead us into one of the more interesting arguments “Originalist” reading can give us. Does the Amendment apply to all insurrectionists, past, present, and/or future? It can be argued that the “Insurrection” being referred to by the Amendment was the Civil War and it only applies to that one “Insurrection”. If that is the case then section 3 is a dead letter as the last surviving vet of the war died over 50 years ago. Unfortunately this kind of “Originalist” reading of the Constitution leads down a very twisty road as how do we deal with the following.

Given the above interpretation of how “Originalist” doctrine is would be applied, the 1st Amendment protection of free speech can only apply to the spoken or printed word. So it would not apply to Radio/TV/Movies as these Media did not exist nor even imaged when the amendment was written. The same for the Second Amendment, it could only apply to those kind of “Arms” that existed at the time of writing. To be fair we can say it would apply to modern ships and cannons but not to aircraft or spacecraft. I can see arguments both ways for submarines.

I shall leave you with just this point, these are just two of the problems facing SCOTUS using the “Originalist” doctrine in one case currently before it. The are several more now before it and I’m sure more to come in the near future. So keep your ears open and your head down it is going to get very very interesting.