unraveling

28.Jan.2025

Broken norm, and law

Highlight on one of each, from Heather Cox Richardson's Jan. 25 Letter (yes, I'm slipping behind):

"As Tom Bowman of NPR notes, since Congress created the position [of Secretary of Defense] in 1947, in the wake of World War II, every person who has held it has come from a senior position in elected office, industry, or the military."

Now in Donold's senior moment, "senior" doesn't matter; only fealty does. Our newly confirmed SecDef, Pete Hegseth

"has been accused of financial mismanagement at the small nonprofits he directed, has demonstrated alcohol abuse, and paid $50,000 to a woman who accused him of sexual assault as part of a nondisclosure agreement. He has experience primarily on the Fox News Channel, where his attacks on “woke” caught Trump’s eye."

It's probably not the worst we'll see. But it's a big ass start. The largest military in the (history of the) world, "an organization of almost 3 million people and a[n annual] budget of more than $800 billion." It's hardly a question of what could wrong, but rather what could possibly go right?

"It should go without saying that a candidate like Hegseth could never have been nominated, let alone confirmed, under any other president. But Republicans caved, even on this most vital position for the American people's safety."

Caved with lead sycophant J.D. Vance's tiebreaking vote.

The Senate plus one failed their duty, no doubt not for the last time. This week's test is whether any Republicans (or J.D., ha ha) will squeak about the illegal firing of "at least 15" independent inspectors general of US government departments.

I'd offer to bet Idaho's sorry pair won't, but I don't imagine anyone among my readers is benighted enough to take the wager.

First week review

From Marc Elias' "members-only edition" of Democracy Docket (which I wish he would not do; providing others' emails to "share," and for him to solicit subscriptions is outside the norms for blogging, and keeping his work semi-hidden is counterproductive), my emphasis added, "As I predicted last Sunday:"

Expect a flood of executive orders, policy announcements and personnel appointments all pointing in the direction of chaos and revenge. There will be healthy doses of self-enrichment and spoils delivered to his friends old and new alike.

And, of course, there will be lies. Big lies, small lies, clever lies and obvious lies. As dissident Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn warned in 1974 about the Soviet Union, “the lie has become not just a moral category but a pillar of the State.” So too here, it will be a pillar of Donald Trump’s second term.

Elias does list lots of subscription-worthy features, and writes "this week, however, we sent to everyone — paid members and free subscribers — all the premium content of the week, including" more than I can keep up with. One item from the (no paywall) home page of note: 10 Things We Can All Do to Protect Democracy. In short:

1. Stay engaged
2. Help Democrats
3. Don’t do Trump’s work
4. Don’t grade on a curve
5. Believe in the courts
6. Beware of false attacks
7. Support independent media
8. Use your town square
9. Prepare for a long fight
10. Don’t give up hope

27.Jan.2025

The essential task ahead

On the hot hot hot topic of demonizing immigrants, Jason Sattler's open letter to Michigan's US Senators calls out voting for the Laken Riley Act as "one of the most depressing, cowardly, and ill-considered acts any Democratic members have taken since the vote for the Iraq War."

Wikipedia explains the name: that of the murder victim of a Venezuelan man who entered the US illegally across the Mexico border in September 2022. It's the anchor baby for the "crime wave" that doesn't actually exist. One despicable crime becomes a "wave" through repeated assertiona, and now legislation. The Act would "require[] the Department of Homeland Security to detain non-citizens charged with or convicted of theft-related crimes, assaulting a police officer, or a crime that results in death or serious bodily injury like drunk driving."

Because the murderer had also been cited for shoplifting. Not as if petty theft is a gateway crime, but as if any sort of excuse to deport "illegals" shall suffice.

"Assaulting a police officer" is a handy catch-all, put in through an amendment from John Cornyn. Any old police officer can feel free to assault a suspect, and then it's his (or her!) word against the guilty-until-proven-innocent brown-skinned perp, out they go, and oh, you don't have to get around to proving anything, do you? How much more weaponized would you like your law enforcement to be? As a kicker, "the Act would also allow states to sue the Department of Homeland Security for alleged failures in immigration enforcement." Nothing makes us safer than intramural court cases, eh? Sattler, to his Senators:

"You do refer [to] the DREAMers and farmworkers we need to honor and protect. But you never once mention “a path to citizenship.” That basic demand is something Democrats have long fought and won and what we might be willing to trade for the punitive and excessive “enforcement” measures Trump wants to use for Cruelty Theater and to centralize his power and intimate anyone who might oppose him. Your pollsters need to let you know that those words “path to citizenship” poll better than mass deportations ever will, besides being the right thing to do.

"A basic understanding every Democrat should have right now is that Trump doesn’t care about immigration as anything other than a cudgel to take power. His wife and closest ally, Musk, appear to be immigrants who worked here without legal authorization. Trump has never stopped importing foreign workers for his businesses because underpaying workers is maybe his most closely held belief. And the deportations he’s promising will inevitably lead to camps, chaos, and completely unnecessary atrocities, all for spectacle, while savaging one thing that actually has made America great—immigrants and immigration."

The bill that started in the last Congress, and was first on the list in the 119th, was agreed to as-amended in the noisome first week of Trump II, and I can't imagine why it won't get Sharpied into law toot sweet, notwithstanding the opposition from the American Immigration Council, the ACLU, the Center for Constitutional Rights, the League of Women Voters, the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, the NEA, NOW, the SPLC, the United Steelworkers, the United Church of Christ, the National Association of Social Workers, the National Council of Churches, the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists, the Center for Law and Social Policy, and the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights.

Sattler's closing exhortation to Gary Peters and Elissa Slotkin reminds them (and us) that appeasement is not on.

"[I]f you give in too much—if we surrender all opposition to Trump—the now very real nightmare where elections either don’t happen or don’t count seeps closer to reality.

"The politics you’re attempting to approximate only exists in a timeline where Trump serves out his term and leaves peacefully. That is by no means assured. It is your job to make sure that happens, regardless of what it means for your individual careers.

"You will be defined for the rest of history by how you dealt with Donald Trump. That means you must state with all your being that we are already in an emergency....

"[T]here is no decent compromise with a vicious wannabe dictator who relentlessly sucks up more and more gains for himself and his billionaire buddies while inflicting “consequences” on everyone else."

Two weeks ago, when J.D. Vance was still only "-elect" VP, he said that the people found guilty of violence during the January 6, 2021 insurrection "obviously" should not be pardoned.

Obviously. Yesterday, he said "never mind!" because... it was the Justice Department's fault? Never mind the "videos, photos, admissions by defendants themselves during plea hearings, and the testimony of law enforcement and congressional staff who were at the Capitol." He's nothing if not a facile liar.

On the blanket nature of the pardons, Vance said, "What the president said consistently on the campaign… is that he was going to look at a case by case basis… and that's exactly what we did."

Like hell they did.

Why bother, when with one hand waving, "massive denial of due process of liberty, and a lot of people were denied their constitutional rights" are "believed"? Vance covered for the considerably more plausible scenario, described by "an adviser familar with the discussons":

[A]s Trump's team wrestled with the issue, and planned a shock-and-awe batch of executive orders Day 1, "Trump just said: 'F-k it: Release 'em all.'"

He called them forth in a national debate in 2020, he incited them to go to the Capitol and "fight," he watched them riot for 3 hours without doing anything to stop the lawlessness, and now he has blanket pardoned them.

So much for the party of law and order.

25.Jan.25

Mad man

Some science communication from Dr. Lucky Tran, Director of that at Columbia, found its way to me via Rebecca Solnit, on Facebook. On Bluesky, two days ago, he wrote:

"The Trump admin has cancelled the panels that approve NIH grants, & is also banning scientists from communicating with the public, attending conferences, and hiring.

"NIH is the largest funder of biomedical research in the world. This will severely halt the development of many lifesaving treatments."

It sounds crazy. Demented. Edging into genuine evil. Part of the Cone of Silence the new administration is throwing up, until all comms can be reviewed through a loyalty-tested political appointee chain of command. (I assume the buck stops at Stephen Miller's desk, unless something makes news enough to catch the big guy's attention.)

The sabotage of science was pre-announced, by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. when he was pretending to run for president, in November 2023. "We're going to give infectious disease a break for about eight years," Kennedy said, and reiterating it last June. Attacking epidemiology is straight-up insane. (Infectious disease doesn't need a break to do what it does. Consider what Covid-19 has been able to do, worldwide, in half that time.) Tran also reminded us that

"NIH-funded research does not only benefit people in the US. Researchers with NIH grants often collaborate closely with scientists around the world. And the vaccines, drugs, and treatments developed from NIH-funded research help save the lives of many people all over the globe."

Solnit's take on this was about "profound stinginess, an emotional and imaginative poverty,"

"of people who don't understand investing in the well-being of the whole, in part because they don't think they're part of any whole; they think they're in some Hobbesian war of each against each rather than that a huge conspiracy of nurture and education and protection against disease and violence and financial crimes put them where they are."

There's definitely some of that. And mass insanity, catalyzed by one extremely determined psychopath (and a share of psychopathic lieutenants in the gang) who wants to hurt everyone and everything he has perceived as having hurt him. His "R&R" is revenge and retribution, and he's pursuing it with cartoon villain energy that is blind to the ultimate repercussions. "Scientists" hurt him, by finding, and announcing truths about the Covid-19 pandemic (with oversights and mistakes along the way, invevitably, but doing what they can to correct them when they learn more).

They corrected his ignorant bluster and idiotic simplifications, and most egregiously to him, all of his casual, self-serving lies and fabulation spewed daily to keep maintain his center attention, advance his pathetic seeking of adulation, and then to punish anyone who opposes him.

The world is now being punished for all the times it has opposed him.

Heather Cox Richardson reminds us of our history battling fascism in the second World War, establishing the United Nations, and the NATO alliance, beginning to undo institutional racism, and developing the largest national economy in the world.

"And now, since the inauguration of President Donald Trump on Monday, the dismantling of that system is happening all at once."

24.Jan.2025

Big picture

A couple of posts on Bluesky caught my attention this morning: newadrian replied to an item about what's simmering in Canada, given how Trump II is responding to their having been "just about the perfect neighbors":

"The USA has come to take for granted an excellent and mutually beneficial relationship with both bordering nations on the continent rather than recognising it to be an extraordinary result that diplomacy built over a century."

Alan Allport reposted that ("visible only to logged in users," huh; more on Bluesky's Data Privacy), with the comment:

The whole American mood [at the moment] is yeah having unprecedented prosperity and security painstakingly built up over 100+ years is great and all but what if we just burned it all down

Jeanette observes that that was—it is!—the core program of fascism, to destroy all, including individuals' confidence in their own observations and judgment. The checklist in Wikipedia's lede: "a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural social hierarchy, subordination of individual interests for the perceived good of the nation or race, and strong regimentation of society and the economy."

Check. In other words, the amalgam of Project 2025 and the Donold Trump revenge program. He's lashing out at everyone he imagines hurt him (mostly by describing their observations of his psychopathy and deepening dementia, but also for any and every attempt at holding him accountable for his crimes).

The military did not support his 2021 putsch; it must be brought to heel. The pandemic hurt him (as he sees it; never mind his murderous initial neglect, and subsequent incompetence in response); the scientific agencies must be brought under his censorship and control.

An “immediate pause” had been ordered on—among other things—regulations, guidance, announcements, press releases, social media posts and website posts from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of Health and the Food and Drug Administration, "until such communications had been approved by a political appointee."

The list goes on, and on, and on. Bill Barrow's report of Everything Trump did in the first executive orders and actions of his presidency for the AP, through a Wednesday update, is mind-numbing shock and awe. This bullet point:

Order the attorney general and others to review all agencies’ investigative and enforcement actions during Biden’s tenure to identify what Trump describes as “weaponization of the federal government” against his supporters. The directive identifies the Justice Department, Federal Trade Commission, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the intelligence community. It requires a report to the president on the findings, with recommended “remedial actions.”

In other words, his supporters cannot be guilty of crimes. Those that were found guilty, for example in the January 6, 2021 insurrection and mob violence to support his attempt to overturn the 2020 election have been pardoned and released, and are free to plot their own retribution efforts.

Contemplating the moral imperative to DO SOMETHING, I called my two US senators this morning urging them to vote NO on Pete Hegseth, given that he is egregiously unqualified to be Secretary of Defense. My urging is almost certainly going to be ignored, but "for the record." Our support for the ACLU and Democracy Docket and the outgunned Idaho Democratic Party seems miniscule, but it's something. This is a bigger something:

"Michael Bloomberg, the former mayor of New York, will help cover US financial obligations under the Paris Agreement as President Donald Trump prepares to leave the global climate agreement.

"Bloomberg, the founder and majority owner of Bloomberg LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News, provided the same support when Trump withdrew from the Paris accord in 2017, contributing more than $15 million. The money will support the running of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and enable the US to tally and report its carbon emissions to the UN."

Finally, and with a CW that while the F-barrage may be duly warranted, there are at least 15 of them (and it seemed like more when I read the post to J.), What's in those texts? that might keep Cassidy Hutchinson from being subpoenaed for Mike Little Johnson's J6 Rewrite Committee.

"As Talking Points Memo’s Josh Marshall pointed out, these texts from Republican members of Congress would have come when Hutchinson was speaking out against Trump, so they were more likely sexual threats. So they can’t call a witness because they might have sent her rape threats? It’s so horrible and yet so plausible."

Ok, not finally, one more thing: historian Heather Cox Richardson's January 23 Letter, opening on the question of rewriting the history of J6.

"Last night, in an interview with host Sean Hannity on the Fox News Channel, President Donald Trump tried to explain away his blanket pardons for the January 6 rioters, calling the instances of violence against police officers “very minor incidents.”

"In fact, as Brett Samuels of The Hill reported, about 600 of the rioters were accused of assaulting, resisting, or impeding police officers, and ten were convicted of sedition.

"Ryan J. Reilly of NBC News explained that rioters wounded more than 140 officers with “firearms, stun guns, flagpoles, fire extinguishers, bike racks, batons, a metal whip, office furniture, pepper spray, bear spray, a tomahawk ax, a hatchet, a hockey stick, knuckle gloves, a baseball bat, a massive ‘Trump’ billboard, ‘Trump’ flags, a pitchfork, pieces of lumber, crutches and even an explosive device.”

A "little bit of good news" for closing: US District Court Judge Amit Mehta has issued an ORDER AMENDING CONDITIONS OF RELEASE for Elmer Stewart Rhodes III, et al. that they "must not knowingly enter the District of Columbia" nor "the United States Capitol Building or onto surrounding grounds known as Capitol Square" (which is to say, the scene of your crimes) "without first obtaining permission from the Court."

23.Jan.2025

Stranger in a strange land

Bishop Mariann E. Budde, leader of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, made a big splash at the National Cathedral on Tuesday, a "prayer service" to kick off the new, felonious administration. She'd planned to preach on "three elements of unity — dignity, honesty and humility," but the Day One "governing" prompted to to add "a fourth element to her sermon: A plea for mercy, on behalf of everyone who is scared by the ways he has threatened to wield his power." From the report of Elizabeth Dias, for the NYT: The Bishop Who Pleaded With Trump: ‘Was Anyone Going to Say Anything?’

Dias describes the scene of the Bishop on high and the president seven feet lower (it looks like more than that to me) as "one representation of American Christianity began speaking to another." That's a hell of a long stretch. Church is foreign territory to the orange man, almost as foreign as Scripture. In the short clip provided, when it comes to "mercy," J.D. Vance glances at his wife and then turns back to the Bishop with his eyes looking like they'd roll out the back of his head. Trump looks like a caged beast, forced to consider—for as much as a moment!—gay, lesbian and transgender Americans, or those who work in meat packing plants, or hospitals, the millions of undocumented immigrants who do the dirtiest, damn work in this country. J.D. can't contain himself, has to say something to his wife (who seems riveted on the sermon), Tiffany turns back from her man to give daddy a side-eye assessment, while Melania looks like she's posing to be an American immigrant Sphinx. Eric and his wife showing shocked indignation, it appears. Trump chews a cheek, while Junior appears to be on autopilot. (There's nothing for him here.)

Of course the big man had to respond, peevishly to a shouted question as he passed back to the White House, and then at great length, and in his inimical style on his antisocial lie-spreading medium. Demanding an apology, because how dare God's envoy call upon him for something as preposterous as "mercy." He projected himself, signaling his imposter syndrome ("so-called Bishop") and returning hate for the call to love. “Radical Left hard line Trump hater” is not very far on the spectrum at this point, responding to a man who has made himself an exemplar of hate. As a professional antagonist, he accused her of being “nasty in tone, and not compelling or smart.” O wad some Pow'r the Giftie gie us, sir!

I didn't remember Bishop Budde for her 2020 response to the Lafayette Square/St. John's debacle, for cause: she wrote then that she was “outraged” and “horrified” that he used sacred symbols to espouse “positions antithetical to the Bible.” As any decent person was. I doubt Trump had reason to have taken down her name back then, but now the lowly are exalted, and yesterday, Republican Rep. Mike Collins of Georgia, said Bishop Budde should be “added to the deportation list.”

Speaking of the Canterbury Pulpit in Washington National Cathedral... "Its central carving depicts the signing of Magna Carta, the 809-year-old charter establishing that the king of England was not above the law."

[Budde] had not anticipated the level of fury and personal attack that her words had unleashed, she said. People were questioning everything from her character and qualifications to the state of her eternal soul, and “how soon I should get to my eternal soul, and whether I belong in this country.”

22.Jan.2025

Next Comes What

In the video atop the latest from LOLGOP (such a cute moniker from the Before Time), "No one has the right to obey," Andrea Pitzer starts with "the Trolley Problem," succinctly introduced with Harry Shearer's (inimitable) voice, which I didn't see coming. Hear coming?

"What the Trolley Problem examines is whether moral decisions are simply about outcomes, or the manner in which you achieve them."

The nut of the problem is: How to choose when there are no good choices? (Explored in the second, non-Shearer video on the OpenCulture page.) Our current status (which Pitzer pre-outlined in her Jan. 17 podcast) is that "groups of people are tied to the tracks all over the country," and "we can't be sure of the starting point for the mayhem" "which is far less likely to be a 'trolley' and far more likely to be a runaway train."

Cut to the C-Span clip from Trump I, Trump in front of the Turning Point USA banner, saying "I have a right to do whatever I want as president," and that's what it's really all about. "But," the clip continued, "I don't even talk about it." The big lie (that he's making come true), wrapped in an absurdity, an obvious lie that is designed to short-circuit the listener's cognitive facilities. Such as they may be.

Your intended takeaway from the psychopath's neokayfabe is simple: Nothing is real. Nothing matters. There is no accountability. The insurrectionists have been freed (the asylums have been emptied), and the billionaires will do whatever they want.

"The malicious will flow seamlessly into the ridiculous. Expect attempts to roll back everything... The whole point of it is to exhaust you."

"The dangers inherent in living in [a] derivative reality aren't just linked to what we're checking out of, here in this world, but also the world that we replace it with. Trump takes advantage of where we are as a species telling so many untruths that it allows people to enter an alternate world."

Such as this one, clipped from the Economic Club of Chicago, with the fatuous felon spewing hate to extol "love," a human emotion it's reasonable to ask if he has ever actually experienced.

"There was love, and peace. And some people went to the Capitol, and a lot of strange things happened there, a lot of strange things, with people being waved into the Capitol by police..."

Among the "strange things happening," the wholesale pardoning of those who showed themselves willing to break the law, and commit violence on Trump's behalf. From Heather Cox Richardson's Jan. 22 Letter:

"Marc Caputo of Axios reported today that Trump’s decision to pardon or commute the sentences of all the January 6 rioters convicted of crimes for that day’s events, including those who attacked police officers, was a spur of the moment decision by Trump apparently designed to get the issue behind him quickly. “Trump just said: ‘F*ck it: Release ‘em all,’” an advisor recalled.

"Rather than putting the issue behind him, Trump’s new administration is already mired in controversy over it. NBC News profiled the men who threw Nazi salutes, posted that they intended to start a civil war, vowed “there will be blood,” and called for the lynching of Democratic lawmakers. These men, who attacked police with bear spray, flag poles, and a metal whip and choked officers with their bare hands, are now back on the streets."

Some of the most staid camp followers have come to spluttering apoplexy:

"The Wall Street Journal editorial board wrote: “Law and order? Back the blue? What happened to that [Republican Party]?” “What happened [on January 6, 2021] is a stain on Mr. Trump’s legacy,” it wrote. “By setting free the cop beaters, the President adds another.”

Props to them for hanging on the fiction of a "legacy" for their kidnapper (and keeping their opinion safe from the groundlings, behind their paywall). Is this a good time to mention that the supposed "immigrant crime wave" that fueled the spite driving Trump's campaign was utter bullshit, bespoke lies to rile mob fury? Or is it Too Soon for all that.

I haven't been keeping up with the broken sewer main of daily news, so I didn't know that Trump's Executive Order ctrl-Z ctrl-Z ctrl-Z wasn't limited to Biden's (naturally), or Obama's, but went all the way back to Lundon Baines Johnson, September, 1965, E.O. 11246, intended "to stop discriminatory practices in hiring in the federal government and in the businesses of those who were awarded federal contracts," issues on the heels of passage of the Voting Rights Act, a year after the Civil Rights Act. As if Chief Justice and tawdry conspirator John Roberts hadn't already done enough!

"In an even more dramatic reworking of American history, though, the Trump administration has frozen all civil rights cases currently being handled by the Department of Justice and has ordered Trump’s new supervisor of the civil rights division, Kathleen Wolfe, to make sure that none of the civil rights attorneys file any new complaints or other legal documents.

"Congress created the Department of Justice in 1870... to prosecute civil rights cases."

16.Jan.2025

Alice in Justice-Land

Joyce Vance devoted yesterday's missive to one of the nominees for the Kash Klown Kabinet, and provided the headline in a run-of-the-blog quip about central casting. After noting Florida Senator Rick Scott's sporty introduction (called the nom nom a “home run” and a “grand slam”), Vance says "her testimony itself was more of a circus," as in a high-wire act between saying what the big guy wants to hear, and avoiding admitting any facts he's made a meal out of denying. The whole losing the 2020 election, and gaslighting us about "a peaceful transition of power," as if we weren't all witnesses to the attempted insurrection 4 years and 10 days ago.

"Bondi concluded her opening statement to the Senate Judiciary Committee by claiming America will have “one tier of justice for all” if she is confirmed. It is an interesting comment for someone who has agreed to serve as attorney general for a convicted felon—one who was able to leverage his ability to pay for high priced lawyers to delay his two federal cases past the point of no return. ...

"Make no mistake about it, Pam Bondi is a Donald Trump loyalist. And, if you won’t say no to Donald Trump when it comes to the Big Lie, what will you say no to him about?"

14.Jan.2025

We are not surprised

It can't be a "bombshell" when the failed revolution was so fully televised, and we are left to wonder, does it matter? Does anything matter now? For the record (with a NYT gift link): Special Counsel Report Says Trump Would Have Been Convicted in Election Case. Alan Feuer and Charlie Savage reporting.

“The department’s view that the Constitution prohibits the continued indictment and prosecution of a president is categorical and does not turn on the gravity of the crimes charged, the strength of the government’s proof or the merits of the prosecution, which the office stands fully behind,” Mr. Smith wrote.

“Indeed, but for Mr. Trump’s election and imminent return to the presidency, the office assessed that the admissible evidence was sufficient to obtain and sustain a conviction at trial.”

In his report to his boss, Attorney General Merrick Garland, Smith praised the prosecutors and staff in his office as "without peer in terms of accomplishment, capability, judgment, and work ethic," "people of great decency and the highest personal integrity."

"The intense public scrutiny of our Office, threats to their safety, and relentless unfounded attacks on their character and integrity did not deter them from fulfilling their oaths and professional obligations. These are intensely good people who did hard things well. I will not forget the sacrifices they made and the personal resilience they and their families have shown over the last two years. Our country owes them a debt of gratitude for their unwavering service and dedication to the rule of law. Without pause they have upheld the Department's commitment to the impartial and independent pursuit of justice. For that, I am grateful—as I know you are as well."

In Marc Elias' Democracy Docket Tuesday Tip Sheet (members-only edition) he noted the predictability of our predicament.

"There has been much ink spilled over whether Merrick Garland’s norm-following tenure is good or bad. I would argue that, most importantly, it was predictable. When Garland was first nominated for the bench, he was a corporate lawyer turned federal prosecutor. He was nominated to the D.C. Circuit by Bill Clinton and confirmed on a bipartisan basis. When Barack Obama nominated him to the Supreme Court, it was intended as an olive branch to the Republican-controlled Senate. It didn’t work.

"Joe Biden knew all of this when he selected Garland as attorney general. He chose Garland to be a nonpartisan institutionalist who would worry about appearances and prize norms. For his supporters, this was a feature not a flaw. For the rest of us who thought it would be exploited by the hyper-partisan GOP, the consequences of that decision were predictable."

He closes with a list of "what seems predictable" in the week ahead. Spoiler alert.

1. Senate Republicans confirm all the nominees, "despite some handwringing." "If you are looking for a backbone — or even a fragment of cartilage — don’t go anywhere near the Senate Republican conference." Hello Jim Risch and Mike Crapo.

2. The Jan. 20 "inaugural address will be dark and incoherent." "The real question is how incoherent he becomes when he goes off script. Expect lies about windmills, discussions of fictitious serial killers and, if we are lucky, sharks being electrocuted by boats. Once it’s done, the GOP will proclaim it the best speech ever given by an American president."

3. Sweeping pardons for those convicted of crimes on Jan. 6, 2021, including violent ones in what chief sycophant J.D. Vance called a "gray area." "Expect that gray to get close to pitch black."

4. "Numerous and terrible executive orders" will be the Day One Agenda for bringing Project 2025 to life.

But don't shut Pandora's box yet!

COUNTERING TRUMP
The initial opposition response is robust
"Yes, it will be bad. But I believe the reports of a muted opposition are exaggerated. I predict we will see a very robust legal opposition to Trump’s first actions with a political opposition taking shape behind it. The DNC’s election of a new chair will come less than two weeks later. Perhaps then you will see the full party onboard."

For starters, Democracy Docket's "Breaking News" stack leads with a couple of tentatively good headlines:

North Carolina Judge Denies Republicans’ Request To Toss 60,000 Ballots. (But the state's Supreme Court is still mucking about.)

SCOTUS Won’t Hear GOP Challenge to North Dakota Tribal Legislative Districts, which include two majority-Native American districts, comprising the Fort Berthold and Turtle Mountain Indian Reservations, following the 2020 census.

12.Jan.2025

Last resort

If it's not too much to ask (and even though it's not a lot, I recognize it might be), you should consider signing up for Marc Elias' Democracy Docket daily and weekly newsletters. Subscribing is free. Elias is at the sharp point of the legal defense of our democracy, and his successes are worth celebrating, and worth financial support too. (I'm a supporter.)

You don't need to sign up, or donate to read most of what he's sharing, including this post, from January 6: Courts Are the Last Guardrail.

"If you are looking for the guardrails on MAGA extremism, it does not reside in government institutions or norms. It will not be found in legacy media newsrooms where both-sides journalism is the order of the day. Nor will you find any courage in the boardrooms of large corporations as they bow and scrape before Trump.

"That leaves only the courts. If there is a guardrail protecting democracy — and that is very much an if — it exists in the black robes of our state and federal judiciary."

Our felonious president-reelect has made a career out of "lawfare," using "litigation as a tool to harass, intimidate and punish his political [or business, whatever] opponents." And in the way of all bullies and liars, squeals and gaslights when he's on the losing end of actual accountability. In his Retribution Redux campaign, he made it clear that he intends to use the people's Department of Justice to do his personal bidding this time around. ICYMI,

"Our Constitution was born out of a revolution against a tyrannical king. It was intended to prevent the concentration of power in the hands of any one person. It has been amended to expand the rights of individuals to live with dignity and free of government interference."

Many courts (including our highest court) have been coming up short, regularly. But oh my Obi Wan Kenobe, they're our only hope. This week's non-sentence for Trump's nearly three dozen felony convictions is "not how the rule of law should work," as JB Poersch put it. This, too, is not how the rule of law should work, quoted from Elias' latest subscribers-only newsletter:

"In what should have been a surprise to literally no one, his lawyers promptly secured a ruling from his favorite judge — Aileen Cannon — prohibiting the release of at least one half of the report. While the 11th Circuit has in theory reversed that ruling, it did so while blocking the release until at least Sunday so that the Supreme Court can potentially weigh in.

"If this seems weird, it is. When I searched for a legal reason for why Trump’s lawyers were permitted to review the report in advance, I found none. When I asked other lawyers, they all agreed it was a DOJ “norm.” I can assure you it is not a norm followed by John Durham when he smeared Hillary Clinton and those associated with her 2016 campaign.

"People need to learn a lesson: Never bring norms to a Trump fight."

10.Jan.2025

Sad felon

You will have seen as much of all the news as you care to, and you probably have your own firmed-up opinions of what just happened. I have one observation: the New York state case brought by Alvin Bragg was amply dismissed in the court of public opinion as comprising the least consequential of the dozens of felonies the perpetrator has been accused of. And it's true: attempted insurrection was the worst. The component attempt to interfere with Georgia's election was also worse than the New York case, as was the theft of government documents, and the obstruction of the investigation to get them back to the National Archives.

Contrary to the fatuous palaver of Todd Blanche, "the majority of the American people" did not express an opinion about whether the NY case should have been brought. (Nor was it up to them whether or not to prosecute crimes committed against the state of New York.) Trump failed to muster a majority of votes cast for his re-election, but he won with a narrow, and electorally-effective margin, with many voters deciding to sit this one out, for whatever misguided reasons.

And from Kate Christobek's and Wesley Parnell's five takeaways from today's sentencing for the New York Times, the section headed Trump remained defiant until the end, this:

“It was an injustice of justice,” said Mr. Trump before he was formally sentenced, adding. “I was treated very, very unfairly.”

Dude really has a way with words, doesn't he? And zero remorse. He'll be a thuggish con man for the rest of his sad life.

Questions for Pete Hegseth

Before we, you know, put him in charge of the Department of Defense. I wrote to Idaho's Senators this morning, not because I think it will have any effect, but to put it on the record (as it were), that the top of the list of proposed nominees for the next administration need to be vetted, and (spoiler alert) rejected for cause.

Jim Risch has already gone on the record himself to say that anything Trump says he wants is ok with him! Totally on board with the big guy. Mike Crapo hasn't groveled that hard in public, but he hasn't whispered any resistance, either, that I've heard about. Here's my list of rejects:

• Kash Patel (FBI)
• Pete Hegseth (Defense)
• Tulsi Gabbard (DNI)
• Kristi Noem (Homeland Security)
• RFK Jr (HHS)
• Linda McMahon (Education)
• Russell Vought (OMB)
• Pam Bondi (AG)
• Mehmet Oz (Medicare/Medicaid)

I said a bit more about Patel and Gabbard, but the 1,500 character limit on their email forms (to say nothing of their staff's willingness to read particulars) doesn't allow for much.

A fellow by the name of Mike Sorrell, on Fight the Fire, provides more on Hegseth's baggage, and some questions that need to be asked, including some prompted by what's in the (five) books he's written. Five that stood out for me:

• Have you stopped drinking?
• Do you believe that Democrats are domestic enemies?
• Are you a Christian Nationalist?
• If President Trump orders the shooting of protestors in the streets of American cities, will you carry out that order?
• Will you respect the decisions of military juries who vote to convict those committed of war crimes under the rules of war?

9.Jan.2025

The execrable Idaho legislature is back in town

ICYMI, the controlling super-majority was increased by the 2024 cycle, leaving Democrats with 6 (of 35) seats in the Senate, and 9 (of 70) seats in the House. If the Republicans weren't so fractious, and laden with extremists, they could get a lot more done in our microcosmic Laboratory of Bad Ideas. In the earliest days of the session, the list of legislation is short enough to grok at a glance, and 4 out of the 5 items are awful. (The not-awful one was a House Concurrent Resolution to have a joint session for the Governor to give his kickoff address.) Just two bills:

• H0001 School choice, tax credit; to advance the financial attack on public education, and
• H0002 Initiative petition, vote threshold; to raise the threshold to pass from a simple majority to 60%.

(They so hate competition in their sandbox.) A concurrent resolution HONORING AND COMMENDING THE BOISE STATE UNIVERSITY WOMEN'S VOLLEYBALL TEAM FOR ITS COURAGE AND COMMITMENT in forfeiting games against San Jose State because that team had a transgender player. I wish I were making this up.

And finally, grossly, Heather Scott's House Joint Memorial for Marriage, man and woman, seeking to have the body express its rejection of the Supreme Court Obergefell decision, asking the current (execrable!) Court to reverse that decision, and seeking to restore "the issue of marriage and enforcement of all laws pertaining to marriage back to the several states and the people."

Avant lui, le déluge

Joyce Vance: The Final Act. "At just under two weeks to go before the inauguration, Trump is still fighting pitched battles in court to prevent the final evidence of his criminality from surfacing."

Not to mention the chaff he's putting up with his lists of whack cabinet picks, and countries (and canals) he wants to take over. But "battles in courts" have to do with judges, and in Trumpworld, that has to do with corruption. Aileen Cannon and Sam Alito are thus in the parade of mind-boggling news.

"Trump’s lawyers went to Judge Aileen Cannon in the Southern District of Florida for an order prohibiting Jack Smith from releasing his final report as Special Counsel. Predictably, she granted it."

It gets more interesting, however: after the DOJ responded in the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals, said court demanded the defendants respond by 5pm yesterday. (They missed their deadline by 6 minutes.) She goes on to describe the current government's heads-we-win, tails-you-lose process for releasing "the entire volume of the report" (with redactions, sounds like), one way or another, even with the SCOTUS Presidential Immunity card and pardons for his codefendant lackeys. Fun.

And then there are the Efforts to Prevent Sentencing in Manhattan, for his 34 felony convictions.

Last night, we stopped at this point: “The issue now is whether, in the time left to him, Trump can find an appellate judge in state or federal court who will help him delay the proceedings.” Wednesday morning he took at stab at it, going straight to the U.S. Supreme Court and asking them to halt the proceedings.

Their lawyerly outline argues that "extensive evidence of Trump's Immune Official Acts" (covering up his pre-presidential sexual dalliance) figured in the trial. Gosh, remember how worked up Newt Gingrich and the Republicans were when Bill Clinton lied about his official Oval Office service from Monica Lewinsky? Those were the days.

Secondly, they want to expand the "Immunity from Prosecution" from a president to a President-Elect, and third, blah blah "Interlocutory Appeal on Presidential Immunity." They argue that

“President [sic] Trump is already suffering grave irreparable injury from the disruption and distraction that the trial court abruptly inflicted by suddenly scheduling a sentencing hearing for the President-Elect of the United States, on five days’ notice, at the apex of the Presidential transition,"

during which the perp has found time for golf, and making calls to Congress to get Mike Johnson re-elected as Speaker. (At the same time! Who says he's lazy?) All that is not NEARLY as newsworthy as this:

"Interestingly, Justice Alito spoke with Donald Trump by phone Tuesday according to ABC to ask a favor—hiring a former law clerk—as Trump's request that the Court interfere with his sentencing in Manhattan hit the Court. Alito said he didn't know Trump was headed to SCOTUS, which is really odd, because the whole rest of the legal world knew it was coming. He also said they didn’t talk about any of Trump’s legal matters."

Interestingly! And if you trust Sam Alito's account of the skeevy confab, I have some attractive bridges on offer, dirt cheap.

For her part, historian Heather Cox Richardson, on the Fire and Fury beat yesterday, covering President Biden's reponse to the California wildfires along with the impotent (for 11 more days) and maliciously ignorant (forever) response of the president-elect.

Her links included Chris Geidner's LAW dork blog post that she'd encouraged him to share: Trump and Alito, two men who disdain ethical constraints, chatted on Tuesday. First of all, set the scene:

"Donald Trump is a former president who is set to become president again on January 20 despite having faced four felony prosecutions from three different prosecutors — one of which led to conviction — relating to actions he took when seeking the presidency, while president, and after leaving the presidency."

(The other three felony prosecutions were successfully delayed, or deflected. Facts on the ground and my opinion suggest that Trump was guilty as sin in all four.)

"Sam Alito is a justice who, in addition to his flag issues, held private interviews with two conservative figures for glowing narrative-setting opinion columns — including with a lawyer who had a key case before the court — in which they wrote that it is Alito’s view that Congress has no authority to pass legislation relating to judicial ethics."

Then jump to the chase, and punch line:

"If no one in charge cares about people who break ethical laws, rules, and norms, then people who don’t care about ethical laws, rules, and norms are going to simply ignore them."

8.Jan.2024

Grave injustice

Looking for an old button for a new purpose, Jeanette and I had a laugh over her venerable collection. JANE WYMAN WAS RIGHT for those in the know. And a timely (and artfully punctuated) CARTER/mondale for our half-staff moment.

I had a square QR code I wanted to put on a "standard" 2¼" button and for novelty I asked Google, "what's the size of a square inscribed in a 2¼" circle?" There's a search result for a "Square in a Circle Calculator" below the "AI Overview," featuring a blathering circumnavigation of the analysis en route to the wrong answer. But "Helpful information" in its estimation! "The diagonal of a square inscribed in a circle is equal to the diameter of the circle," fresh out of sophomore geometry 55 years in my rearview mirror. (I did have occasion to use that factoid in engineering over the years, I imagine.) And, "The diagonal of a square is root 2 times the length of a side." Of course. So 2¼ over root 2 is about 1.6" et voilà!. Teh Goog's AI came up with 3.18" FWTW, the right answer to a different question.

I went to share the AI amusement on Mastodon, and (as ever) was distracted by the feed, a comment from "Twitter_expat" worth quoting, even before I saw the news being remarked upon:

"The degradation of American democracy is son patent [so blatant?] that you would think that to approach #scotus there is a protocol and process.

"Trump and the cons have degraded everything that he just sends a tweet and the CONards in Scotus scramble like a headless chicken.

"For those who still think that American democracy “is eternal…” pay attention you got a fast food democracy at best.

"It’s not a shiny city on the hill but a pissed McD drive through."

And,

"Some Americans can think whatever they want of Canada but at least here for now it’s not a pissed McD drive through of a democracy.

"Your veneration for wealth got you here."

It's a hell of a punch line. Only then did I look up-thread to see what the comment was responding to. Laffy's toot, "via Roger Parloff":

#SCOTUS has asked DA Bragg to respond to #Trump's petition to stay his sentencing by 10am Jan. 9, i.e., tomorrow. (Sentencing currently set for 9:30am Jan. 10.)

Is it in "the news" this morning? Yes, although California wildfires (it's always wildfire season somewhere, anymore) have it pushed down the NYT home page scroll a considerable way. Above the all-King Donold, all the time Trump transition roundup (starting with Foreign Policy Threats Reverberate Overseas, tabs for "Cabinet Tracker," "How Trump Inverted Jan. 6," "What Trump is Inheriting," and "Musk at Mar-a-Lago").

So, now, under a stale headline ("Trump Asks Supreme Court...") rather than the lede buried 6 paragraphs in: Supreme Court directs prosecutors to respond to Fatuous Felon's Whinging by tomorrow morning. (Gift link, the corrected headline paraphrased, slightly.)

Pardon my french, but What The Fuck? The judge ruled, the New York appeals court rejected FF's lawyers' "emergency application," and the sentencing for the not-the-president-yet's 34 felony convictions is set for Friday.

As in all of his pettifoggers' work, the claims in said emergency application are ludicrously outrageous. “To prevent grave injustice and harm to the institution of the presidency and the operations of the federal government”? "Being officially deemed a felon might complicate Mr. Trump’s presidential duties"?!

He already has been found to be a felon. Officially. By a jury of his peers. But glorioski, there's a "specter of possible restrictions on liberty, such as travel, reporting requirements, registration, probationary requirements" and so on. (Who would monitor his ankle bracelet?) “Constitutionally intolerable under the doctrine of presidential immunity” they thundered, trying to leverage the current SCOTUS' corrupt perfidy from last year.

“Indeed, every adjudication of a felony conviction results in significant collateral consequences for the defendant, regardless of whether a term of imprisonment is imposed.”

Well-earned consequences, one should say (but they did not). And, they want to jump the queue, skipping the request to New York state's highest court as too slow. But here his pet "CONards in Scotus scramble like a headless chicken" to serve the Master of Mar-a-Lago. All that's needed is five sycophants to grant a stay, and perfect Donold's years-long effort to run out the clock. (On the least consequential of the felonies he has committed, by the way; SCOTUS already buggered the prosecution for his inciting insurrection, and his pet Florida judge speciously "dismissed" the theft of government secrets case.)

7.Jan.2025

And not to put too fine a point on it

Meta to End Fact-Checking Program.

"The social networking giant will stop using third-party fact checkers and instead rely on users to add notes to posts. It is likely to please President-elect Trump and his conservative allies."

The emailed teaser said they'd "instead rely on Facebook and Instagram users to add notes or corrections to posts." I'm sure that'll get it.

"The company’s trust and safety and content moderation teams will be moved away from California, with the U.S. content review shifting to Texas, in a move that would “help remove the concern that biased employees are overly censoring content,” Mr. Zuckerberg added."

Because... Texas, right?

Worth noting: promise-keeping corporations

Popular Information has been keeping a list, checking it twice, seeing who has reverted to naughty, and who has stayed nice. After the shock and righteous indignation of the 2021 insurrection, and a moment of resolve to stop funding the 147 members of Congress who voted to overturn the 2020 election (or stop funding politics altogether), most of the bigs settled back into their routine. Amazon thought "it's been more than 21 months" was enough. AT&T made it all of 5 weeks.

Judd Legum and his PI colleagues celebrate "the promise keepers," 10 corporations that kept their promise. As opposed to the ones falling all over themselves to chip in a million dollars for the second coming, helpfully catalogued (I imagine; I'm not contributing to see inside their paywall) by a Wall Street Journal "Exclusive" under the tree last month, The Big Companies Funding Trump’s Inauguration Despite Denouncing Jan. 6. "The second Trump inaugural fund is on track to be the most lucrative yet," they chip in.

The NYT reported last week that, and I quote their headline, Trump Has Reeled in More Than $200 Million Since Election Day. A "staggering sum," they say, without belaboring the point that, like tariffs, it's we, the people, who pay for corporate largess. They add, superfluously, that Trump "has boasted." And mention of donations for his "library" boggle the mind even further. The final repository for his Sharpie hurricane map markup?

"The Donald J. Trump Presidential Library Fund Inc. was incorporated in Florida on Dec. 20, six days after it was revealed that ABC News had agreed to donate $15 million to Mr. Trump’s future presidential foundation and museum to settle a defamation claim he had brought against the network."

That's Disney-ABC News, of course, funding the funnel of love “to preserve and steward the legacy of President Donald J. Trump and his presidency.”

Pfizer, Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, OpenAI, Amazon, Meta, Uber, cryptocurrency firms and more "will eclipse the record-setting $107 million raised for his 2017 inauguration, according to three people briefed on the matter who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to share internal financial information." Yeah, Maggie Haberman is still on the beat. There's "cross-pollination" and "cachet" and "lobbyists secur[ing] access." Hello Reince Priebus! This is precious:

"Contributions to inaugural committees, which are required to be publicly disclosed to the Federal Election Commission months after the inauguration, are one of the last major opportunities to financially support a second-term president."

One of the last legal ways? Because the cashing in on the second term will be on a scale the likes of which we've never seen before. But we digress.

Popular Information's honor roll of "companies that pledged to stop donating to members of Congress that voted to overturn the election and, over the last four years, have not broken that promise":

• Farmers Insurance
• Airbnb
• Expedia Group
• Nike
• Clorox
• General Mills
• Holland & Hart LLP
• Qurate Retail
• Whirlpool
• Lyft

Epiphany, 2025

Four years after the murderous attack on our democracy

We ought to have some sort of commemoration on this 4th anniversary of Donold Trump's insurrection. (Or "first anniversary," suggested by Joyce Vance, measuring by presidential elections.) Something better than pretending he hasn't been disqualified by the 14th Amendment and counting electoral votes to declare he'll be president again, thanks to our national bout of semi-insanity, and the price of eggs. God visiting a dramatic winter storm with 6 to 10" of snow, mixed with possible sleet and freezing drizzle is more than nothing, but seems unlikely to move any of the members of Congress (unless perhaps they flew home for the weekend and can't get back in).

Among the many political fundraising pitches still coming my way, one from the 3.14 Action PAC caught my eye, with Harry Dunn's name in the From field, subject This is going to be a long email about our January 6th trauma. 3.14's jam is "Electing scientists who will use evidence and facts to fight climate change and fix our broken healthcare system," with an "about" lede claiming they're "the only organization in the nation focused on recruiting, training, and electing Democrats with a background in science to public office."

The message length was not actually long, but the message was powerful, signed by Dunn, who was a member of the Capitol Police on that day, serving from 2008-2023. He ran for Congress last year, coming in second in a crowded Democratic primary. I haven't donated to 3.14 Action that I recall, but maybe? Their website footer says "we voluntarily disclose all our donors over $250 in a two year election cycle," with a click here link to see them, so we could check.

The ask is for a contribution to be split between 3.14 Action and Dunn's own PAC, Democracy Defenders. Here's the message, ahead of the ask, via ActBlue.

January 6, 2021.
The ripples from that day still threaten our democracy.
“Watch your back.” “I know where you sleep.” “Be afraid.”
Even worse? Donald Trump is threatening the January 6 committee members like Liz Cheney, Bennie Thompson and Adam Schiff.

Because I speak out about these challenges to our democracy, I get the same threatening messages. “We know where you live.” The only difference between your January 6th trauma and mine is where we were when we experienced it.

I was at the Capitol immersed in a profane mix of sweat, screams, shrieks, anger, fear, blood, death, broken limbs, spit, hatred, horror, racism, bigotry, and heroism.

Capitol and Washington Police officers fought for our lives, the lives of fellow police officers, and the nation's elected leaders – it didn’t matter if they were a Republican, Democrat or an Independent. They were the men and women we sent to Washington to govern our nation.

It was my duty to protect them. And our democracy.

All the while, Donald Trump did nothing to help us. For hours after inciting the violence himself – we were beaten bloody. And some died. Even though my experience looks different from yours, I am first an American citizen. A girl dad. A football lover. A voter. This is my country – our country.

That day was a stain on our nation. And we need to fight like hell to make sure we NEVER repeat a day like that. I’ll continue to use my voice to protect this country. I’ll stand up to the lies, hate, and bigotry. I will always stand my ground to make sure democracy exists.

Scott Dworkin interviewed Dunn, shared today.

Others are speaking up as well. Robert Reich: A day that shall live in infamy, as should Donald J. Trump. "We must never forget his treachery."

Reich quotes then-Vice president Mike Pence, saying "I know history will hold Donald Trump accountable," but that history has not had any force just yet. He was impeached, for a second time, but 43 Republicans in the Senate refused to honor their oath and vote to convict him of the treacherous crimes we all witnessed him commit. And he's wormed his way out of most of the criminal cases against him. There's a lot of infamy to go around.

Joyce Vance's Remembering January 6, 2021 commemorates the day and the threat to our system of government with her own words that were published two days after the attack. And she seems to have had the story right, even before the first fog of insurrection had dissipated.

"Now we see the consequences of preserving the fiction that all of the people on both sides of the political divide are operating in good faith. It takes bomb-makers to build bombs. It takes leaders to create insurrection and sedition. We need to know who they are and make sure they’re no longer capable of harming us."

So far, we have failed in that.

5.Jan.2025

15 days to midnight

President Joe Biden is wrapping up his by term handing out medals, for Honor, Science, Technology and Innovation, and Citizenship. Before all those go out of style. Heather Cox Richardson's Jan. 3 Letter includes some of the particulars, including veterans of the Korean and Vietnam wars, and eight public safety officers who "ran toward gunfire to save children during the Nashville Covenant School shooting, swam through freezing water to save a drowning woman, and rushed into burning buildings to rescue women and children."

And to the co-chairs of the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th (2021) Attack on the United States Capitol: Bennie Thompson for "unwavering integrity and a steadfast commitment to truth," and Liz Cheney for "reach[ing] across the aisle—to defend our Nation and the ideals we stand for: Freedom. Dignity. And decency. Her integrity and intrepidness remind us all what is possible if we work together."

If you haven't retrieved that committee's final report, or supporting materials, and want to, I'd suggest doing it promptly. The new team is certainly going to flush the GovInfo archive down the memory hole.

We're headed into a new season of Republican-led clown shows, here in Idaho's laboratory of extremism, and in the big House, and Senate this time. It won't be over till the fat man sings, I guess. At the moment, he's only squealing like a stuck pig, calling Cheney and everyone else who investigated his attempt at insurrection "dishonest Thugs."

His every accusation a projection, and a tell. He writes about what he knows best, you know? The Pandora's Box of social media is one of the few places where he's shown a semblance of literacy, first as sur-@realDonaldTrump on Twitter, and then on his private, oxymoronic Truth Social after his criming got him booted from the pre-Musk microblogging platform. He's always liked to do business face-to-face or over the phone, with no tangible record that could get him in trouble. Like that "perfect phone call" to the president of Ukraine that got him impeached. Or the one to Georgia's that got leaked (and transcribed) and earned him one of his many indictments.

Judge Juan Merchan, god bless him, has declared that Dear Teeter's sentencing for his 34 felony convictions for falsifying business records to cover up his sexual dalliance before the 2016 election will be January 10th, between the ceremonial vote-counting (and Ignoring The Elephant In The Room), and his coronation on the 20th.

The judge has hinted the only actual price to pay will be shame (as if the convict were capable of feeling it). And the red F on his permanent record. Credit where due, that criminal record has prompted a complete turnaround on "law and order" from the Party he hijacked. Kind of a Bizarro Stockholm Syndrome version of "justice reform."

Joyce Vance's Jan. 4 post describes it all better than I'm prepared to. She notes the 30 day clock for appeal that will start on sentencing. Get a load of his wailing and gnashing (and wEiRd cApItaLiZaTiOn) from Truth anti-Social on Friday night:

“Every Legal Scholar and Pundit, including the highly respected, and sadly recently passed, David Rivkin, as well as Jonathan Turley, Elie Honig, Andy McCarthy, Alan Dershowitz, Gregg Jarrett, Elizabeth Price Foley, Katie and Andy Cherkasky, Paul Ingrassia, and many others, have unequivocally stated that the Manhattan D.A.’s Witch Hunt is a nonexistent case, which is not only barred by the Statute of Limitations but, on the merits, should never have been brought. This illegitimate political attack is nothing but a Rigged Charade. ‘Acting’ Justice Merchan, who is a radical partisan, just issued another order that is knowingly unlawful, goes against our Constitution and, if allowed to stand, would be the end of the Presidency as we know it. Merchan has so little respect for the Constitution that he is keeping in place an illegal gag order on me, your President and President Elect, just so I cannot expose his and his family’s disqualifying and illegal conflicts. I am the only Political Opponent in American History not allowed to defend myself - A despicable First Amendment Violation! …”

Speaking of projection, "Goes against our Constitution" is kind of his earned nickname. Mueller She Wrote dives into Judge Merchan's 18-page Decision and Order denying Trump's motion to vacate the jury verdict, and scheduling sentencing. Worthwhile read.

For her part, Liz Cheney clapped back for the "dishonest Thugs" insult, with a post for the ages:

“Donald, this is not the Soviet Union. You can’t change the truth and you cannot silence us. Remember all your lies about the voting machines, the election workers, your countless allegations of fraud that never happened? Many of your lawyers have been sanctioned, disciplined or disbarred, the courts ruled against you, and dozens of your own White House, administration, and campaign aides testified against you. Remember how you sent a mob to our Capitol and then watched the violence on television and refused for hours to instruct the mob to leave? Remember how your former Vice President prevented you from overturning our Republic? We remember.”

“And now, as you take office again, the American people need to reject your latest malicious falsehoods and stand as the guardrails of our Constitutional Republic—to protect the America we love from you.”

4.Jan.2025

You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows

I've been lamenting our untrustworthy old outdoor thermometer for a long time. It hangs just outside the patio door and tells crazy stories I don't believe. The scale suggests it could spin from -60 to 120°F, the min-max indicators lacked (or lost) the perfect balance of friction (and diligent resetting) to make them work, and it generally reads low. In spite of being near the house, which should temper it warmer this time of year.

This morning, it shows a tetch over 34, while the airport is reporting 37. Not too far off, but it seems to be 5 to 10°F wrong a lot of the time. Driven by a bimetallic strip formed into a spring (I suppose), what could go wrong? But something has, over the years.

I tried a whizzy electronic gadget that combined an outdoor sensor (which I could put in a more reliably shaded spot) with an indoor receiver, and that went out of business before the business that sold me the business did. (Idaho Camera, searching for a way to survive the digital revolution.) Plus, batteries. Ugh. I don't need a weather station (although that would be cool, sure), I just want to know the outside temperature once in a while.

Last time I web-shopped, I could find any number of thermometer-shaped objects, all giving the promise of accuracy, readability, and so on, varying in price from very cheap to cheap (and thus belying all promises).

When I saw the teaser to a piece in The Atlantic, I felt a combination of validation, and hope (that they were teasing a Better Way): Thermometers Are Hot Garbage. The better way is in the dek: "Just use your hand instead!"

That didn't sound right for outdoor temperature; turns out it's about taking (as we say) body temperature. They make a convincing, and useful case. Even though I still trust our little digital oral thermometer, it encourages palpation, elevating it to "probably trustworthy," with a tendency toward false positives. Failsafe-ish.

So, good inside, unfulfilled outside. Do you have an outdoor thermometer that's working well for you? Let me know.

Download Our Latest Scam!

The gmail spam filter picked it up; I hope I would have seen the (many) signs of disarray if it hadn't. But this is the time of year when the Social Security Administration has things to say to beneficiaries. There was the notice of the cost of living adjustment, and just after the holiday, one with notice that my preliminary 1099 was available. In neither case did their notification say what it was that I'd see when I logged in to my account to view the message. That obfuscation is a (quirky) sign of authenticity.

The subject of the latest legit message was New Message Notification From Your "my Social Security" Account from the cheery, instructive address do-not-reply-message-center@ssa.gov. They remind me I "elected to receive email notifications," and here was one. To see the "new message," I should log in to my account. The only payload links are to the login page on secure.ssa.gov. The super-minimal styling is limited to rendering the text "my Social Security" in two colars and a different font from the body of the message.

The scammer spammer's subject ends with a bang, so to speak: Your Path to Benefits: Download Our Latest Document! In a generous desktop view, I see the sender was Social Security Services <marie.cazaubon@alvadiem.fr> As if the SSA outsourced the work to a charming french woman? "We would like to bring to your attention an important SSA document that is now available for your review," it begins. "You can download it using the link below:" and a big blue button to Download SSA Document with a heavily coded link to r.newsletter.alvadiem.fr

Without the benefit of the spam filter, even just opening the message would have fetched the web beacon images from that site, and invited more trouble from them. It's that time of year again, so beware. It's likely to happen on a day of the week ending in "day."

3.Jan.2025

Next up: climate non-science

Pronounced "nonsense," and spelled "d-i-s-a-s-t-r-o-u-s." For the planet. As Don Moynihan extracts from Politico's E&ENews report, Russ Vought, Trump's pick to head the OMB (and one of the chief architects of Project 2025) "wants to produce a version of the [National Climate Assessment] that includes more “diverse viewpoints”..." so that it can't be used to defend regulations in court.

Who says they're not in favor of diversity?!

The plan seems to be to "dial back the usual scientific rigor in favor of an approach that would both elevate the viewpoint of climate science denialists and jettison all contributions from the Biden administration."

This year's epiphany should be Disqualification

What should (but probably won't) happen on this January 6. Glenn Kirschner's ponderous vlogging style is not my thing, but I find it helps to run him at 1.5 or 1.75x speed. His effort put up on YouTube yesterday is an interesting read/listen: January 6 Should Be "Disqualification Day" For Adjudicated Insurrectionist Trump. But Will It Be?

If it were, Kirschner says it would start with a petition by 20% of the members of each body of Congress. That's a heavy, but not impossible lift. To have the objection sustained by a majority vote of both the Senate and House does seem impossible, because the Republican Party has shown us their loyalty is to their party, their Dear Leader, and not to the Constitution, which states succinctly in Article 3 of its 14th Amendment that

"No person shall ... hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath ... to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof."

The 14th Amendment also provides that "Congress may, by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability." Would two-thirds of each body remove the disability of the twice-adjudicated insurrectionist Donald J. Trump for his crimes before, and on January 6, 2021? Maybe not. But the question is unlikely to be decided, and Kirschner's indignation at the Congressional oath-breaking is well-justified.

The apotheosis of American zealotry (and misogyny)

We went to the Wassmuth Center for Human Rights yesterday evening, inside their beautiful, new Philip E. Batt Education Building, to hear reporter Heath Druzin talk about his coverage of religious extremism, going back to 2018, in the first of the center's 2025 speaker series. From their description, my emphasis added:

"...Christian nationalists have quietly been building influence for years. Their radical ideas include stripping women of the right to vote, criminalizing the LGBTQ community, and relegating non-Christians (or those deemed not Christian enough) to second-class status. In the coming Trump administration, Christian nationalists and their allies will have the ear of the most powerful political leader in the world. To know how we got here, you have to look at Idaho. Because there lies an unlikely power center for the movement – the liberal college town of Moscow. That’s where Doug Wilson has created a kind of Christian industrial complex of churches, fundamentalist schools, media and entertainment that has rippled across the nation. It’s just the latest in a series of movements that have found Idaho to be fertile ground for extremism."

The self-proclaimed "Christian nationalists" have an explicit program to remake our culture, and our nation's governance, with a reticulating organization to advance the work, about to metastasize into the executive branch. What they've been workshopping in Idaho and other red states, and detailed in Project 2025 is on the verge of national fruition. Wilson imagines democracy based on households—led in most every case by the man of the house—rather than the tawdry "individualistic democracy" we have now, where women enjoy a measure of agency.

The second season of Druzin's (and James Dawson's) podcast on NPR, Extremely American had ten episodes put up last July and August; I've got some catching up to do. Close to the action, the story seems all-too-familiar, on the one hand, and writing about what I'm hearing slows me down considerably. It's time to pay closer attention.

The discussion last night was familiar, and while looking through my notes, and listening to episode 1, I searched through hits on my own blog, and found them from 2004 through last November. Here are some highlights (as it were):

• Wilson made a splash in the New York Times Magazine in September, 2007. Onward Christian Scholars, and I commented on it as Alma Pater, highlighting Cornelius Van Til's theology called "presuppositionalism," arguing that "no assumptions are neutral and that the human mind can comprehend reality only if proceeding from the truth of biblical revelation. In other words, it is impossible for Christians to reason with non-Christians." And which is to say truth "belongs to Christians alone."
• In January, 2021, some detail of the story of Doug Wilson's and my paths crossing in a philosophy class at the University of Idaho, in 1978: Cultural divide links to Professor emeritus Nick Gier's six-part series of columns on Douglas Wilson's Religious Empire. Before the end of the first Reagan term, Gier had the receipts to be convinced that Wilson "and his closest associates are not honest men." Which is to say, not acting in good faith.
• April 2023, the moral panic advances in Idaho, with a "Biblical Activism Boot Camp," with Doug Wilson featured. That was in the wake of our state legislature's advancing the demonization of transgenderism, with the Idaho Family Policy Center and its president, Blaine Conzatti, in the lobbying vanguard. (One of their initiatives for the next session is a “School-Sponsored Bible Reading Act.”)
• October 2023, had passing mention of Wilson in Let the hostage negotiation begin, just after the election of religious zealot Mike Johnson as Speaker of the House.
• On the 80th anniversary of D-Day last year, mentioned in the context of whitewashing history (slavery, and the Civil War), and plans for retribution against those who sought accountability for Trump's high crimes and misdemeanors.
• And most recently, after the 2024 election, with the Trump II dredging the swamp for a team of toadies, Most of the awful nominees will get through, Heath Druzin's reporting of Pete Hegseth's connection to the Christ Church network, and the religious extremists of its "Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches," working to merge (their) church and state.

raveling

Tom von Alten