While the conservative Supreme Court displayed indifference toward the ex-president's conduct, proceedings in New York and Arizona offer signs that accountability is still possible
The Justice system is cracking under political pressure and plain bullying and threats, aided by internal rot caused by political corruption. It is obvious that the powerful, elected or nominated by the People try to prevent being held accountable under the law. Being held accountable in the upcoming election seems to be the last resort for the fair rule of law and democracy to survive. The mission for those who want to preserve democracy cannot be any clearer. VOTE THEM OUT!!!
Great discussion with Steve Schmidt last night! SCOTUS will delay J6 trial as noted, in essence giving TFG immunity for awhile; but NY and AZ cases will expose more of his behavior. Hopefully it has an impact. Vote Blue in November up and down the ballot. The choice is Biden or Dictatorship and we must prepare for an insurgency when TFG loses.
The line of questioning by Alito and Gorsuch implies that there are no provisions in our system of justice against frivolous, malicious or purely political prosecutions. Those protections are embedded in the system and that risk is well accounted for in the Constitution and the law. At the same time the SC are pondering handing the President unlimited ability to commit criminal acts, in full light of the commission of multiple criminal acts perpetrated by the petitioner and his stated pledge to exact retribution on his political opponents should he be given another term. This smacks of either corruption or ignorance. And these are not stupid people.
Proud to say that I knocked doors for Dems here in Az and am sure that I got Mayes two or three of those 280 votes. Not proud that our state has a 280-vote margin to election-denier lunacy and criminality. We're doing more for '24.
In 2016, donald trump stated,"I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn't lose any voters, OK?" Thus, in this way, did he truthfully tell America his one and only policy was to do whatever he wanted to do. No plans to solve the country's problems, no plans to better the lives of its citizens, just that. At the time, he was concerned that his tax info would get out, and also at that time, his lawyers backed him up, spouting immunity unless first impeached or convicted.
As in the old Shadow program, what evil lurks in the minds of men? Well, it seems to have lurked in conservative, trump loving Supreme Court justices.
Common sense refutes immunity-for anybody. The first thing trump says he will do as president again is pardon every jailed insurrectionist, put them out on the street to again do his bidding. Well, as Voltaire said so long ago, "Common sense is not so common."
What happened yesterday was the latest piece of evidence that the supreme court is illegitimate. It masks its right wing agenda behind the Constitution. Imagine the arrogance of Alito and the hubris of Gorsuch, who stole his seat, to say they are writing a rule for all time. This from a court that rejects settled law at every turn.
We have to rely on state courts to uphold the Constitution and laws of the land. Thanks to McConnell and trump the federal judiciary is broken, perhaps beyond repair. Look at the Supreme Court, the 5th Circuit Appeals Court, the federal judges in Texas and Florida. These are just a few.
I remember the days when conservatives railed against liberal “activist” judges. I think the conservatives should be reminded of that.
This SCOTUS decision should be simple. Allowing a President - or a candidate for the presidency - to break the laws that govern our nation, enables a dictatorship.
However, the plague that has besieged our democratic nation has come from the eastern direction of Russia. Anyone who thinks that Trump and his criminal buddies like Guiliani are smart enough to create this infectious and alien species of Republicans is not living in real time.
What we are seeing happening in our country is a destructive and invasive plan carefully assembled by Russia. No, I am not delusional. I spent 12 years studying Russia including learning Russian, then the next 20 years off and on living in Russia and Russian-speaking countries. I wrote From Democracy to Democrazy as a warning to all Americans. Yes, the Russians are coming and 95% of Americans are not cognizant of Trump's linkage and affinity to Russia. This is because the Mueller Report sorely failed - but that is another day's discussion.
Donald Trump is not smart. The Washington Post 2020 poll asked Americans "Do you think Trump has the mental sharpness it takes to serve effectively as president? Fifty-two percent of the respondents said no." "The 2017 Washington Post-ABC News poll asked people an open-ended question: What one word best describes Trump? The most common term to describe him was 'incompetent.' Other related characterizations included 'idiot,', 'ignorant,' and 'unqualified." The Quinnipiac poll asked the same question in 2017, and "by far, the most frequent word that came to mind was 'idiot', 'incompetent,' 'moron,' 'ignorant,' and 'stupid." The point is: Trump did not concoct the plan to defeat our democracy. He is simply a puppet used by Putin toward it's achievement.
In 1997, a book was published in Russia called The Foundations of Geopolitics. Putin was surmised to be the ghost writer since this book outlined his goals as the second President of Russia. This book discusses the internal destruction of the United States - a plan that Putin has dreamed of since childhood when his target was to join the KGB. He first obtained a law degree, was accepted into the KGB, then spent his spy years in East Germany. There he perfected his bribery skills on West German men and foreigners. He returned to Russia and was picked by Yeltsin to be the next president. In a blink, he transformed the Russian government into a solid dictatorship assembling other KGB/FSB men and women to support his "holy grail" of restoring Russia to its glory days of world domination - by destroying NATO, demolishing the United States, and obliterating the sovereign nation of Ukraine.
In the June 2022 NYT article titled "Putin Denounces the U.S. as a Fading World Power," Putin built upon the Soviet Union's foreign intelligence (KGB) with the new organization called the FSB and helped to establish their policies and procedures with far more strategic planning expertise. From the time of his inauguration in 2000, Putin's number one target has been the United States, using Trump's idiocy who has been following Putin's instructions to the tee. Do you recall when Trump hosted Sergey Kislyak, the Russian Ambassador and Sergey Lavrov, the Minister of Russian Foreign Affairs to the White House Oval Office? No other American government officials were invited and there were no translators. Trump, a kompromised American stooge, was fallaciously "showing off" his new dog house and tricks to his owners.
In the end of Catherine Belton's book called Putin's People, she concludes: "The Russian black-cash seemed to be digging in ever deeper. Their activities, combined with Trump's disregard for the institutions and codes of the U.S. democracy, were leading to a systematic standoff. . . From the beginning, the Russian black-cash networks had, in part, been embedded to erode the American system, and exacerbate corruption in the West. . . In the impeachment probe and the 2020 U.S. Presidential race, the dash between the democratic values and a Putin-style corrupt authoritarian order was reaching a denouement. Putin understands that Russia can spend any amount of money it wishes on sowing chaos in the West."
Pragmatically, Putin won this round with democracy. The U.S. Senate - replicating the Russian DUMA - had been Trump's ace in a hole and prevented impeachment. They were reacting out of fear of reprisal from Trump and his violent followers. Threats had been made on all Republican Senators. Afterward, Gonzales (R) of Ohio refused to run for re-election and hired 24-hour protection for his family. He was one of the ten Republicans who voted FOR impeachment. It is safe to say that Putin had already predicted this in advance and knew the full implications of preventing Trump's impeachment.
Belton goes on to say: "The Russian network and system of KGB capitalism has infiltrated the West - and it still operates twenty-four hours per day. It has penetrated our banks and financial institutions, our consumer supplies, our government's vital automated information systems, our health systems and hospitals, our gas, oil, and energy sources and probably every single aspect of American life."
The plan for dismantling our democracy did not come from "stupid" Donald Trump. It came from Russia/Putin and has been in place for more than a quarter of a century.
SCOTUS has disgracefully attempted to analyze a President's right to break the law - the very laws that are the pillars of our democracy and they are obligated to safeguard. Because the majority of these judges were appointed by Trump, they are searching for barricades to protect HIM instead of our country. The shadow cast by Putin over the landscape of American democracy, and his control over Trump is the destructive force we see happening NOW. Our democracy hangs in the balance and the tipping point may be the decision made today or tomorrow by our Supreme Justices.
Steven, you have focused on the corruption and bias within our current Supreme Court. The idea that a past President (currently or in the future) "is in danger of being persecuted by a political rival " is absurd. The only person claiming persecution and is responsible for Trump's indictments, is Donald Trump, not the numerous prosecutors who have brought the charges. They are doing their sworn duty to uphold the Law. Sadly it's clear that a majority of the Supreme Court are about to once again ignore the Constitution.
I’m going to say this very unpopular thing: These justices (a misnomer) are the textbook case of why good prosecutors delay or sometimes don’t bring cases. Us normal people (non-lawyers 😊) think about what should happen & the benefits of winning the case — not the impact of losing and how long and how wide the reach of a bad decision could be. Not how many ways a court can avoid making the right decision. I used to hear of it once in a while locally. Now it is a national tragedy.
American voters need to use their 2025 solution: VOTE for DEMOCRACY.
There’s all this with the Supreme(?)Court and then we have Maga Mike wanting to send National Guard troops to quell demonstrations on college campuses. Women’s rights have been stripped. Voting rights almost totally gutted. There are flashing red lights being seen all over this country. While the indictments and trials being held at the state level are encouraging, who’s to say their results won’t appear in front of this stinking dog’s mess of a Supreme Court?
I do not believe, even for a second, that the framers of the Constitution ever wanted or expected the Supreme Court to be so politicized. That a Justice would protect a man so venal as Trump is as abhorrent as it gets. If that’s all he’s got to try to wriggle off the hook, and if the majority of the Court protects him, not the Presidency, then let the court of public opinion send him packing. even if the Supreme Court dithers by shirking its responsibility to protect the country and our democracy we must never let Trump back in the Oval Office to send us into ruin.
The Justice system is cracking under political pressure and plain bullying and threats, aided by internal rot caused by political corruption. It is obvious that the powerful, elected or nominated by the People try to prevent being held accountable under the law. Being held accountable in the upcoming election seems to be the last resort for the fair rule of law and democracy to survive. The mission for those who want to preserve democracy cannot be any clearer. VOTE THEM OUT!!!
Thank you Steven.
Great discussion with Steve Schmidt last night! SCOTUS will delay J6 trial as noted, in essence giving TFG immunity for awhile; but NY and AZ cases will expose more of his behavior. Hopefully it has an impact. Vote Blue in November up and down the ballot. The choice is Biden or Dictatorship and we must prepare for an insurgency when TFG loses.
I think the behavior of the rightwing supreme court justices creates a mockery of this institution.
I have lost all faith in the trumpian scotus especially when they let Clarence sit in. SMH
The line of questioning by Alito and Gorsuch implies that there are no provisions in our system of justice against frivolous, malicious or purely political prosecutions. Those protections are embedded in the system and that risk is well accounted for in the Constitution and the law. At the same time the SC are pondering handing the President unlimited ability to commit criminal acts, in full light of the commission of multiple criminal acts perpetrated by the petitioner and his stated pledge to exact retribution on his political opponents should he be given another term. This smacks of either corruption or ignorance. And these are not stupid people.
Proud to say that I knocked doors for Dems here in Az and am sure that I got Mayes two or three of those 280 votes. Not proud that our state has a 280-vote margin to election-denier lunacy and criminality. We're doing more for '24.
In 2016, donald trump stated,"I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn't lose any voters, OK?" Thus, in this way, did he truthfully tell America his one and only policy was to do whatever he wanted to do. No plans to solve the country's problems, no plans to better the lives of its citizens, just that. At the time, he was concerned that his tax info would get out, and also at that time, his lawyers backed him up, spouting immunity unless first impeached or convicted.
As in the old Shadow program, what evil lurks in the minds of men? Well, it seems to have lurked in conservative, trump loving Supreme Court justices.
Common sense refutes immunity-for anybody. The first thing trump says he will do as president again is pardon every jailed insurrectionist, put them out on the street to again do his bidding. Well, as Voltaire said so long ago, "Common sense is not so common."
What happened yesterday was the latest piece of evidence that the supreme court is illegitimate. It masks its right wing agenda behind the Constitution. Imagine the arrogance of Alito and the hubris of Gorsuch, who stole his seat, to say they are writing a rule for all time. This from a court that rejects settled law at every turn.
We have to rely on state courts to uphold the Constitution and laws of the land. Thanks to McConnell and trump the federal judiciary is broken, perhaps beyond repair. Look at the Supreme Court, the 5th Circuit Appeals Court, the federal judges in Texas and Florida. These are just a few.
I remember the days when conservatives railed against liberal “activist” judges. I think the conservatives should be reminded of that.
This is very distressing. I’m not sure I even want to live in this country anymore. There will be no recourse left to fight wrong anymore.
Kris Mayes timing was on point! She and Gov. Hobbs are working hard to keep the flimsy guardrails up.
This SCOTUS decision should be simple. Allowing a President - or a candidate for the presidency - to break the laws that govern our nation, enables a dictatorship.
However, the plague that has besieged our democratic nation has come from the eastern direction of Russia. Anyone who thinks that Trump and his criminal buddies like Guiliani are smart enough to create this infectious and alien species of Republicans is not living in real time.
What we are seeing happening in our country is a destructive and invasive plan carefully assembled by Russia. No, I am not delusional. I spent 12 years studying Russia including learning Russian, then the next 20 years off and on living in Russia and Russian-speaking countries. I wrote From Democracy to Democrazy as a warning to all Americans. Yes, the Russians are coming and 95% of Americans are not cognizant of Trump's linkage and affinity to Russia. This is because the Mueller Report sorely failed - but that is another day's discussion.
Donald Trump is not smart. The Washington Post 2020 poll asked Americans "Do you think Trump has the mental sharpness it takes to serve effectively as president? Fifty-two percent of the respondents said no." "The 2017 Washington Post-ABC News poll asked people an open-ended question: What one word best describes Trump? The most common term to describe him was 'incompetent.' Other related characterizations included 'idiot,', 'ignorant,' and 'unqualified." The Quinnipiac poll asked the same question in 2017, and "by far, the most frequent word that came to mind was 'idiot', 'incompetent,' 'moron,' 'ignorant,' and 'stupid." The point is: Trump did not concoct the plan to defeat our democracy. He is simply a puppet used by Putin toward it's achievement.
In 1997, a book was published in Russia called The Foundations of Geopolitics. Putin was surmised to be the ghost writer since this book outlined his goals as the second President of Russia. This book discusses the internal destruction of the United States - a plan that Putin has dreamed of since childhood when his target was to join the KGB. He first obtained a law degree, was accepted into the KGB, then spent his spy years in East Germany. There he perfected his bribery skills on West German men and foreigners. He returned to Russia and was picked by Yeltsin to be the next president. In a blink, he transformed the Russian government into a solid dictatorship assembling other KGB/FSB men and women to support his "holy grail" of restoring Russia to its glory days of world domination - by destroying NATO, demolishing the United States, and obliterating the sovereign nation of Ukraine.
In the June 2022 NYT article titled "Putin Denounces the U.S. as a Fading World Power," Putin built upon the Soviet Union's foreign intelligence (KGB) with the new organization called the FSB and helped to establish their policies and procedures with far more strategic planning expertise. From the time of his inauguration in 2000, Putin's number one target has been the United States, using Trump's idiocy who has been following Putin's instructions to the tee. Do you recall when Trump hosted Sergey Kislyak, the Russian Ambassador and Sergey Lavrov, the Minister of Russian Foreign Affairs to the White House Oval Office? No other American government officials were invited and there were no translators. Trump, a kompromised American stooge, was fallaciously "showing off" his new dog house and tricks to his owners.
In the end of Catherine Belton's book called Putin's People, she concludes: "The Russian black-cash seemed to be digging in ever deeper. Their activities, combined with Trump's disregard for the institutions and codes of the U.S. democracy, were leading to a systematic standoff. . . From the beginning, the Russian black-cash networks had, in part, been embedded to erode the American system, and exacerbate corruption in the West. . . In the impeachment probe and the 2020 U.S. Presidential race, the dash between the democratic values and a Putin-style corrupt authoritarian order was reaching a denouement. Putin understands that Russia can spend any amount of money it wishes on sowing chaos in the West."
Pragmatically, Putin won this round with democracy. The U.S. Senate - replicating the Russian DUMA - had been Trump's ace in a hole and prevented impeachment. They were reacting out of fear of reprisal from Trump and his violent followers. Threats had been made on all Republican Senators. Afterward, Gonzales (R) of Ohio refused to run for re-election and hired 24-hour protection for his family. He was one of the ten Republicans who voted FOR impeachment. It is safe to say that Putin had already predicted this in advance and knew the full implications of preventing Trump's impeachment.
Belton goes on to say: "The Russian network and system of KGB capitalism has infiltrated the West - and it still operates twenty-four hours per day. It has penetrated our banks and financial institutions, our consumer supplies, our government's vital automated information systems, our health systems and hospitals, our gas, oil, and energy sources and probably every single aspect of American life."
The plan for dismantling our democracy did not come from "stupid" Donald Trump. It came from Russia/Putin and has been in place for more than a quarter of a century.
SCOTUS has disgracefully attempted to analyze a President's right to break the law - the very laws that are the pillars of our democracy and they are obligated to safeguard. Because the majority of these judges were appointed by Trump, they are searching for barricades to protect HIM instead of our country. The shadow cast by Putin over the landscape of American democracy, and his control over Trump is the destructive force we see happening NOW. Our democracy hangs in the balance and the tipping point may be the decision made today or tomorrow by our Supreme Justices.
Elizabeth'
www.democrazy2020.org
Elizabeth www.democrazy2020.org
Steven, you have focused on the corruption and bias within our current Supreme Court. The idea that a past President (currently or in the future) "is in danger of being persecuted by a political rival " is absurd. The only person claiming persecution and is responsible for Trump's indictments, is Donald Trump, not the numerous prosecutors who have brought the charges. They are doing their sworn duty to uphold the Law. Sadly it's clear that a majority of the Supreme Court are about to once again ignore the Constitution.
I’m going to say this very unpopular thing: These justices (a misnomer) are the textbook case of why good prosecutors delay or sometimes don’t bring cases. Us normal people (non-lawyers 😊) think about what should happen & the benefits of winning the case — not the impact of losing and how long and how wide the reach of a bad decision could be. Not how many ways a court can avoid making the right decision. I used to hear of it once in a while locally. Now it is a national tragedy.
American voters need to use their 2025 solution: VOTE for DEMOCRACY.
Why is Ginni Thomas untouchable?
There’s all this with the Supreme(?)Court and then we have Maga Mike wanting to send National Guard troops to quell demonstrations on college campuses. Women’s rights have been stripped. Voting rights almost totally gutted. There are flashing red lights being seen all over this country. While the indictments and trials being held at the state level are encouraging, who’s to say their results won’t appear in front of this stinking dog’s mess of a Supreme Court?
I do not believe, even for a second, that the framers of the Constitution ever wanted or expected the Supreme Court to be so politicized. That a Justice would protect a man so venal as Trump is as abhorrent as it gets. If that’s all he’s got to try to wriggle off the hook, and if the majority of the Court protects him, not the Presidency, then let the court of public opinion send him packing. even if the Supreme Court dithers by shirking its responsibility to protect the country and our democracy we must never let Trump back in the Oval Office to send us into ruin.