Well, the Supreme Court really stuck it in and broke it off, didn’t it? Clarence Thomas even went so far as to agree with Trump’s lawyers’ “far-fetched” (according to The Washington Post) claim that special prosecutors require Senate confirmation, signaling to the vast right-wing legal conspiracy what their next move should be.
It hasn’t been a very good week, has it? And Independence Day is in two days. Might be our last one. Next year’s could feature a military parade, with Commander in Chief Lumpy-Ass saluting throughout.
But let’s not get too depressed, for there is comic relief aplenty.
Today’s provider is Rep. Victoria Spartz, R-Bumfuck Indiana, only the latest in a lengthening line of Republican politicians caught by airport security with a handgun in her carryon. The MAGA darling — they’re all MAGA darlings — claims she forgot it was in there, the same excuse used by former Michigan Rep. Lee Chatfield and Sen. Jeff Wilson of Washington’s state legislature. Also, Madison Cawthorn, post-his failed re-election bid.
I might point out that all of these people are pro-gun, or “pro-2A,” as they like to style themselves. And one thing pro-gun people will tell you is that we must not penalize “responsible” gun ownership. Call me crazy, but I believe responsible gun ownership starts with knowing where your goddamn gun is. Also, they all represent rural, or semi-rural areas. What the hell are they so afraid of that they have to carry firearms in their luggage? Probably the dusky hoardes at the airports they have to fly thought, although Chatfield was nabbed at Petoskey’s little puddle-jumper airfield, hardly a place any sensible person needs to fear.
So: Comic relief.
I’m preparing to head out of town for the Fourth; catch me on the road to Columbus, where I’ll be visiting family and maybe a few haunts. This will likely be my last post for the week. Have a pleasant-enough holiday weekend, wherever it is and wherever it takes you. Party like it’s 2024, with all that implies.
brian stouder said on July 2, 2024 at 12:41 pm
Not to sound too cliche’, but indeed, Trump-ism is the embodiment of a long-standing American undercurrent of cruelty/willful-ignorance.
In our first 100 years, our nation didn’t even blink at enslaving human beings, and conducting genocide against native-born American human beings. Viewed that way, electing Donald Trump (et-al) is at least not the WORST we’ve ever done… but REelecting him would be very much like flying a commercial airliner (or two) into Mount Rushmore (ie- into the face of whatever we think America, ideally, is)
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Sherri said on July 2, 2024 at 1:44 pm
Posted on last thread, before I saw the new thread:
Look, I know things feel gloomy right now. Donald Trump is not going to go to prison. But Donald Trump going to prison was never going to solve our problems.
What can we do to help solve our problems? Act locally. You can’t fix the Supreme Court, you can’t fix Congress, but you can do something about your city council or school board. How are marginalized people being treated in your local municipality? Are homeless people being helped and housed, or arrested and swept somewhere else? What are cops spending their time on? Where are people incarcerated? Who provides services to people incarcerated? Is it the government, or a private equity owned company like WellPath, which makes money by denying adequate health care to inmates (and inmates die as a result.)
You can actually make a difference locally, and that will help mitigate the feeling of doom the national picture brings.
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Sherri said on July 2, 2024 at 2:07 pm
On the other hand, I’m a fan of malicious compliance with corrupt law, so I think Biden should take advantage of this new immunity to declare that military hospitals will now provide abortions to all who seek them, or if they can’t, the military will transport the patient to a hospital who can. As Commander-in-Chief, clearly that’s an official act with absolute immunity.
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brian stouder said on July 2, 2024 at 2:25 pm
Sherri – Agreed!!! And indeed, that would be tremendous!
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Dave said on July 2, 2024 at 3:11 pm
My rep. First she said she wasn’t running and then she decided she was running and when it looked like she was going to lose, she posted ads with a picture of her standing next to the Orange Blob and her out with her family hunting, all of them carrying guns. She won.
She also voted against Ukraine aid in the last go-round, even though she’s a native Ukrainian, only to please Orange Blob fans, I imagine. She’s rumored to yell and scream and call her staff names, which resulted in her going through a lot of staff.
One suspects she’ll be re-elected in this most disgustingly red area. After all, it’s Indiana. OTOH, if we were still in Florida, this idiot would be my rep: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Paulina_Luna
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Deborah said on July 2, 2024 at 3:20 pm
I just listened to Dahlia Lithwick’s podcast Amicus, which was recorded before the latest bomb from SCOTUS about immunity. Basically the point was forget the debate, that is meaningless in the grand scheme of things while SCOTUS is tearing everything up, which is exactly what people like Bannon and Trump want. Making it a crime to sleep outside if you are homeless, taking expertise from agencies like the FDA etc, gutting regulations deemed necessary by experts, making bump stocks ok because they know more than the AFTC etc. making the courts the end all be all about everything, even though they aren’t in the least experts about lots of things. And now of course deciding that having a king is perfectly OK, they didn’t even talk about that decision yet because they recorded previously.
It’s the Supreme Court stupid, should be our mantra. The economy is doing fine. And debates don’t amount to a hill of beans for heaven’s sake.
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Brandon said on July 2, 2024 at 6:37 pm
in her going through a lot of staff.
At first glance I thought that read a lot of stuff. She probably is. But that’s no excuse.
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Will said on July 2, 2024 at 7:56 pm
It’s time to think extraordinarily while we still can. Since SCOTUS has given the office of the presidency near-total leeway, perhaps it’s time for Biden to flex some of that power. Within the bounds of human decency and ethics, Biden needs to do everything possible, now, to fix this, before the darker angels of our nature lead us to misery. Because if one person is going to hold our nation’s fate in his hands, I’d rather it was a Lincoln than a Caligula. If there ever were a true emergency to be declared, this is it.
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Dexter Friend said on July 3, 2024 at 4:53 am
I keep hearing about Seal Team 6, and how now, if Trump wins in November, Trump could carry out his fantasy of killing a random human on 6th Avenue (Avenue of The Americas) , then going on a rampage and terminating his political rivals with extreme prejudice with his armed surrogates. And Long Dong Silver, Alito, Kavanaugh, Roberts et al would approve. This is on them. Now, today, Joe Biden could do something similar, because it’s OFFICIAL PRESIDENTIAL BUSINESS. Total immunity.
My blogging guru, Craig Crawford, formerly an MSNBC contributor, wrote “Why do I feel like a violinist on The Titanic?” When I read that, I shuddered, in real time, physically. The thought of Trump winning…then, oh shit hell no…a poll presented by election charting wizard Steve Kornacki had Trump ahead 49–44.
I will hit the road shortly for some tests at the Toledo VA, just routine blood tests. Saturday, off to Commercial Point (Columbus) for my great grand Dakota’s first birthday party. One year old and such a personality. This kid is going places. Everybody just adores her.
I won’t be crossing east on US 30 however. That road has bad mojo. I picked up a chunk of steel and blew out a brand new tire on that road just 10 months ago.
And, I am confused…the roofers tore off all my eave spouts and didn’t put them back up. What the hell? Telephone calls impending.
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Jeff Gill said on July 3, 2024 at 6:34 am
Hey, Fishers & Noblesville, Indiana are not . . . eh, they did elect her.
I’d invite Nancy over to Granville for a fine parade on the Fourth, but the weather forecast for tomorrow looks ghastly. We set up the street fair last night and I’m looking for ibuprofen this morning.
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Suzanne said on July 3, 2024 at 7:41 am
I read this Jeff Sharlet piece last night after attending an Independence Day outdoor patriotic concert with fireworks, etc. and a crowd of mostly older people who are undoubtedly Trump supporters, cheering the veterans who gave us this great country and our freedoms as they throw all those thing away.
https://jeffsharlet.substack.com/p/the-great-denial?utm_medium=web
In it, Sharlet links to a NYTimes article by our buddy David Brooks, an interview with Steve Bannon. I shouldn’t be surprised by Brooks doing this, but I nonetheless am. I now await his heartfelt essay in the coming months about how hard it’s been since the Trump government deported all his household help but he has found that mowing his own lawn is really somewhat invigorating.
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Dave said on July 3, 2024 at 8:06 am
Yes, Jeff at 10, that’s where our hostess said I’m living, here in Westfield.
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Julie Robinson said on July 3, 2024 at 9:56 am
And if you were in Audubon Park, I’d invite you to the neighborhood boat parade, “boat” = paddleboat, kayak, etc, festively decorated. Since 2022, there’s been an absence of red, white & blue. After that, a pie contest, of which our entry will be chocolate peanut butter, and fireworks tonight. That’s the neighborhood; at our house it’s a constant potluck/swim party, and if you think I’m already exhausted with prep, you’d be right.
Dexter, check your contract with the roofers in case they didn’t include putting the gutters up again. If they weaseled it, call them and plead age. I personally never want my guy up on ladders again.
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Mark P said on July 3, 2024 at 10:02 am
I found a great opportunity for Biden to exercise the presidency’s new imperial powers:
“Yesterday a Trump-appointed judge in Louisiana (of course) (sic) issued a preliminary injunction against the pause and told DOE to start issuing approvals (for natural gas exports) again.”
I would just order the DOE not to issue any approvals and let the judge suck it. And, by the way, here is a quote from the judge’s order which tells you who appointed him without telling you who appointed him:
“The Defendants’ choice to halt permits to export natural gas to foreign companies is quite complexing to this Court…. [It] is completely without reason or logic and is perhaps the epiphany of ideocracy.”
Once again, and probably forever, all I can say is, we are so fucked.”
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tajalli said on July 3, 2024 at 11:15 am
Spoutible has a great thread on the reasons to keep on keeping on with Biden
https://spoutible.com/thread/32957585
and a followup map illustrating the likely outcome of such a disruption at this late date
https://spoutible.com/thread/33070872
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Sherri said on July 3, 2024 at 5:57 pm
The comparison to LBJ isn’t quite apt. LBJ withdrew earlier in the process, with signficant primary challenges already happening in the form of Eugene McCarthy and Bobby Kennedy, when the primaries didn’t really choose the candidate. Plus, George Wallace ran a third party candidacy, taking advantage of the collapse of the Solid South thanks to the Civil Rights Act.
But it’s still nuts to think that anybody starting now has a better chance of winning than an incumbent president. Elections aren’t decided by people writing columns, they’re decided by whether low information voters show up and vote. The more chaotic the process seems, the happier the column writers are, but the more likely low information voters are to throw up their hands and walk away.
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David C said on July 3, 2024 at 8:34 pm
When we had our roof replaced, they hung two of the gutters sloping the wrong way. We called. They came and said they looked OK to them. They had our money so there wasn’t much we could do. So we called a gutter company to rehang them. It wasn’t too expensive, and they fixed a couple of leaks too. It sucked but we got it done right.
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Deborah said on July 3, 2024 at 8:39 pm
I had to quit reading the NYT, seriously I deleted it from my bookmarks. I love the games but I’ve found that I can still do the ones I normally do regularly without a basic subscription, at least for now. So I’m giving them no more clicks. I don’t know when my subscription is in need of reupping but I’m going to think hard about doing that in the future until I figure out what in the hell is up with them. The fact that they could fucking care less about democracy is extremely troubling. What in the world is going on?
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Julie Robinson said on July 3, 2024 at 9:48 pm
Ditto, Deborah; I think they’re wrong and irresponsible. I’m still reading theatre stories but nothing else. Just seeing the headlines in my emails incense me.
Also, Sherri, you have it nailed. ABC News, which we have to put on because of my mom, spent at least 12 minutes about Biden, at which point I started yelling and left the room.
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Mark P said on July 3, 2024 at 10:20 pm
My opinion of the MSM continues to sink. Not only do they have acute squirrel syndrome (ASS), they also seem to feel no sense of responsibility for our democratic institutions. They also seem to lack any sense of self preservation. Don’t they realize they are on Trump’s enemies list?
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Dexter Friend said on July 4, 2024 at 10:31 am
Just bad communication. The new gutters and eave spouts were in the estimate, just not written; the roofing company outsources that work so I won’t pay a dime more until the gutters and drainpipes are installed. I already paid a double down payment to inspire the place to get the workers here.
Today I am for Joe to jump this hurdle and continue on but if this pressure finishes him, there will be an open convention. There is a wave of support here at nn.c for Harris but not in the West Wing at all. She is pigeonholed into the women’s healthcare issues, and is great at that, but no way she’s President unless Joe succumbs in office.
I still stand behind the 3 I mentioned before, Pete, Gretchen, and Josh Shapiro. The latter 2 are mentioned more frequently. This is strictly if Joe retires soon, which he apparently ain’t a-gonna do anyway.
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Dexter Friend said on July 4, 2024 at 11:10 am
I’ll be damned…July 4, 11:00 AM…gutter job commencing. Surprised in Bryan. 🙂
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Sherri said on July 4, 2024 at 4:08 pm
All the Very Smart People are now trying to engage with how they would actually try to replace Biden now, and they’re showing just how stupid they are. Jonathan Chait suggests that a small committee of prominent Dems get together and come up with a candidate to present to the convention, a candidate who should not appeal to the base but appeal outside the base. I’m sure the convention, full of people who have been elected as delegates by their fellow Democrats, would rally around such a candidate and enthusiastically select said candidate.
Yascha Mounck says the Dems should just hold a one day 50-state consultative vote. Obviously, this man has never volunteered to work an election, and has no idea how voting is administered. Fortunately, he can only share these pearls of wisdom in his substack, since he got fired from the Atlantic after being accused of rape.
I think people also don’t have a clue about running a campaign. For a local campaign for mayor in an open race, we got started a year ahead of the election, holding focus group meetings. We declared and started raising money 10 months ahead, and were doorbelling and holding events 6 months ahead. For a national campaign, at this point, a lot of TV ad time has already been bought by congressional and state campaigns; to throw a new candidate have to introduce into that at this point is close to impossible.
There are only two ways I see to pull it off: if Biden dies, as I’ve mentioned, or (and this is the wild scenario), out Obama on the ticket as the VP. The 22nd Amendment prevents him from being elected president, but doesn’t say he can’t be elected VP and ascend to the presidency.
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Mark P said on July 4, 2024 at 4:45 pm
Sherri — that’s right! It says “elected.” The supremes, being the textualists that they are, couldn’t possibly have any trouble with that, could they?
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Icarus said on July 4, 2024 at 7:04 pm
Unfortunately, To be eligible as VP one must be eligible as President. Obama served two full terms as POTUS.
The 22nd Amendment, which should not be a thing, was written strangely. Like they assume 2 years of a term would be the natural point of a president resigning, dying or being killed. I guess they missed the memo on Harrison.
They should have written it to say any VP could complete any remaining term of the existing President and then have 2 more terms, but that would be too simple.
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Mark P said on July 4, 2024 at 7:52 pm
The requirement for president is 35 years old, natural-born citizen, and a resident for 14 years. The 22nd says a person may not be elected more than twice, or once if having served two years after assuming the presidency. That doesn’t restrict Obsma fyy try on being VP, or limit the VP from assuming the office, since he would not have been elected to the office. Based on a strict, literal reading of the Constitution, Obama could do it. But I doubt that the Supreme Court would see it that way, because the strict, textualist interpretation of the Constitution is whatever the hell they want it to be.
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Sherri said on July 4, 2024 at 10:11 pm
Mark P outlines the case: the 22nd Amendment merely prevents Obama from being elected president again, but nothing in the Constitution makes him ineligible to serve as president again, as long as he does so without being elected. There have been law review papers arguing both ways.
Of course, the 14th Amendment should bar Trump from running for president, but the Right Wing Nut Justices don’t like the 14th Amendment, so they ignore that one, and they just decided to rewrite sections of Article II to give Trump unprecedented immunity that didn’t exist anywhere in the text, the original meaning, or the history and tradition, so we know what the Six Crazies would do and how fast their benefactors would dispatch their private jets to bring them back from their swanky vacations.
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Sherri said on July 4, 2024 at 10:33 pm
It’s still the 4th of July here, not dark enough for fireworks yet, so here’s my patriotic statement for the day:
No matter what happens in November, I’m not leaving the country, because this is my goddamn country and those motherfuckers can’t have it.
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Dexter Friend said on July 5, 2024 at 5:23 am
“Biden just quit.” Trump announced this yesterday as he was pulling on golf gloves while sitting on his fat ass in a golf cart. He then mumbled something about Kamala being “such a mess.” Cut back to NBC Nightly…”of course this is a lie.” Remember when Reagan said into an open mic “…bombing begins in 5 minutes” ? A big joke , ha ha.
From Politico: “Russian commentators jumped all over Reagan’s mic check. One of them wrote: “It is said that a person’s level of humor reflects the level of his thinking. If so, aren’t one and the other too low for the president of a great country?” Another one said, “We would not be wasting time on this unfortunate joke if it did not reflect once again the fixed idea that haunts the master of the White House.” ”
Even Trump wasn’t as unhinged and fucking stupid as that B-Movie actor, but Trump is just as dangerous, as he does not want to bomb Russia , he wants to court marriage to Putin, help to destroy Ukrainian freedom, and give Putin help by destroying NATO and likely encouraging the next invasion in this horrid scenario…invading Poland. Do not say this is a ridiculous outlook. You don’t think a disbanded NATO is a green light to Putin to re-instate the U.S.S.R. ?
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ROGirl said on July 5, 2024 at 10:36 am
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/05/opinion/uk-election-keir-starmer-boring.html?unlocked_article_code=1.400.BrDG.kDAJvHdUksJE&smid=url-share
For the record, I watched the video before reading the explanation about Jonathan Pie.
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Suzanne said on July 5, 2024 at 11:34 am
This frenzy over Biden’s fitness reminds me so much of when Hillary passed out during the 2016 campaign. The press covered it continuously. I talked to so many people who swore she was deathly ill and would not live through a presidency.
A look! She’s still alive and kicking!
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Icarus said on July 5, 2024 at 3:39 pm
Suzanne @ 31: that I don’t remember Hillary passing out gives me hope that the debate will be a forgotten memory before too long.
Although one could argue that Hillary is alive 8 years later because she didn’t get the soul-sucking job that is POTUS and it didn’t tax her body as such.
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Deborah said on July 5, 2024 at 4:19 pm
I can’t imagine how taxing it must be to be president and campaigning again against Trump. Wow, the stress must be overwhelming. I’m super stressed and I’m just watching from the sidelines.
I remember that Hillary fainting episode because my right wing sister was convinced that Hillary was on death’s door. But she claims she didn’t vote for Trump, she did a write-in for get this… Steve Bannon. I didn’t know that until recently my niece told me.
Meanwhile back on earth instead of fantasyland, climate change is making it so it seems impossible for weather forecasters to know what in the heck is going to happen tomorrow. In NM we’ve been getting a lot more rain than has been usual. Monsoon season used to start around mid June, then it was more like mid-July. It seems to have started but no one is officially saying that yet because they don’t seem to have a clue. Monsoon season is when we get most of the rain for the whole year, so it’s super important.
It took us a long time of trial and error to figure out which plants will grow well in our condo grounds and now that’s all changing again. We’re getting birds I’ve never seen before and no bees. This year we have had hardly any so far.
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Julie Robinson said on July 5, 2024 at 6:49 pm
Writing from the bedroom, where I have fled with my dinner, to avoid the rest of the news. ABC led with the Biden interview, and after the third or fourth Stephanopolis question about his poor debate, I left. Every newspaper story is beating the same drum, over and over.
Why aren’t we getting stories about Trump’s many mental lapses, his frequent word salads? Why aren’t we getting stories about his convictions?
I’m beyond disgusted with the vast majority of news media, and my mother is obsessed with the news. Unfortunately it comes on during dinner time. I may be eating a lot of dinners alone.
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Sherri said on July 5, 2024 at 6:50 pm
Newcomers to the Seattle area are told that summer begins on July 5; that’s because historically, July 4th has been the wettest day in July. We’ve now had 14 consecutive July 4ths without rain.
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brian stouder said on July 5, 2024 at 8:36 pm
Julie – agreed. President Biden strikes me as engaged, intelligent, and open to expert assistance on whatever contingency arises. Indeed, my impression is he also knows there are things he doesn’t know, and that this necessitates heeding the views of the appropriate experts on particular issues. This, it seems to me, is the definitive difference between him and Trump.
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Sherri said on July 6, 2024 at 3:13 pm
Fireworks are illegal in Redmond, but that doesn’t stop people from shooting them off. Last night about 2:30 AM, a man was shooting off mortar style fireworks with friends and family in a parking lot about a mile from my house. He thought it would be cool to shoot the mortar from the top of his head. His children got to watch him die.
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Brandon said on July 6, 2024 at 3:59 pm
@Sherri, #37: A similar incident in South Carolina.
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susan said on July 6, 2024 at 4:03 pm
Lookee, South Carolina has Darwin Award candidates, too—in the same category!
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tajalli said on July 6, 2024 at 4:12 pm
susan, he’d already managed to reproduce so he’s ineligible for the award. Sad for his wife and child(ren), probably too little common sense to have had a life insurance policy either.
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Julie Robinson said on July 6, 2024 at 4:20 pm
Lord have mercy.
Fireworks were also illegal in Illinois when I was a kid, but our neighbor drove to Kentucky every year to buy enough for his own show. He supposedly had a permit from the local police, but I’m pretty sure it didn’t include giving any to his son. Son lit a fistful of them, then leaned over when he didn’t see ignition, and they blew up in his face.
He came home from the ER with his eyes bandaged, and we didn’t know until 24 hours later that he wasn’t blinded.
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Sherri said on July 6, 2024 at 8:02 pm
Both the man in South Carolina and the man in Redmond were in their 40s. I’m not that surprised when young men in the 16-25 range to do stupid things, but when the behavior persists into the 40s, especially when they’ve managed to acquire a wife and children, it’s troubling.
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Mark P said on July 6, 2024 at 8:18 pm
The South Carolina incident involved alcohol. I suspect the Redmond incident did, too. It’s really hard to understand how even a drunk person could think putting an explosive on his head would be a good idea.
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Sherri said on July 6, 2024 at 9:42 pm
I would assume that alcohol was involved, especially at 2:30 in the morning. The mother of a young man who was across the street getting gas says he heard the wife screaming and ran across the street to help, but the man was dead. He gathered the two little girls and tried to distract them.
Most of the cities around here ban use/sale/possession of fireworks, but a few cities don’t, plus the Indian reservations don’t, so there’s no shortage of places to buy. There used to be a lot of people shooting off lots of fireworks, but King County finally banned fireworks in unincorporated areas a couple of years ago, and that really cut back on the elaborate private displays. Redmond stopped doing a city fireworks show at all a couple of years ago in favor of a drone show; safer, and doesn’t dump heavy metals into the water supply.
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Deborah said on July 6, 2024 at 10:15 pm
Fireworks in NM are absolutely mind boggling, in the middle of fire season why they allow them to be sold and used here is beyond me. Our neighborhood in Santa Fe had fewer users this year than previous years. But one of the neighbors set off a couple of humdingers at 4:30am July 5th. Last year the house behind our condo building set off one that triggered our bedroom window alarms, that didn’t happen this year maybe because those people moved or something. That block behind us is fairly transient, but it is becoming more and more gentrified over time. Our neighborhood is much quieter than it used to be, which is good news to us. I’m sorry that it pushes people out who can’t afford it anymore but I’m glad that it gets rid of some of the sketchyness. We still have that one place with the scary dog and the bunch of rundown cars but hopefully its days are numbered.
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