I was away last week for a well-needed break from the madness. I promised myself I would pay scant attention to the news, but guess what, I didn’t even last one day. After all, it’s not everyday that the president, without consulting congress, drops bombs on another country.
Neutering Iran from the capacity to develop a nuclear weapon is a necessity. After all, since the Iranian revolution in 1979, Iran has declared that one of its guiding principles is the destruction of Israel. However, there are a number of concerns here. One is that despite our own intelligence indicating that Iran was not developing a nuclear bomb, (which granted us time to negotiate a non proliferation treaty), the Don blew it off. That wasn’t the only thing he blew off. He blew past congress whose approval is necessary before a military strike. The other concern, is that from all accounts, The Don’s decision was influenced by his incessant watching of Fox News. Scary to think that this consequential decision could be made because of something Sean Hannity proclaimed, isn’t it? Then again it seems half of the administration are former Fox News employees. Despite The Don’s “no more wars” promises (and yes, when you bomb another country who has not attacked you that is called an “act of war”), he wanted to ride the Bibi train who was being heralded as a hero on Fox.
Asked recently if he would bomb Iran again, without hesitation he said he would. Who knows, if Iran pisses him off enough, by not complying with his wishes, maybe he drops a few more monster bombs. This a man whose grandiosity and malevolence has no bounds; in this second term, there is no one who is willing to challenge him.
That brings me to the supremely awful Supreme Court. The court that overturned Roe vs Wade; the court that granted The Don total immunity from anything he did as president as long as he could justify it as an act related to his duties as president. That’s a lot of latitude to give a maniacal, pathological liar, who lives for revenge, attacks anyone who doesn’t agree with him, and who also just happens to want to be a king. In fact, if he had that immunity back in 2020, he could easily have justified the January 6th insurrection by claiming he was protecting the country from a, um, insurrection (after all, the election was stolen from him)? He would just be doing his job as chief executive trying to quell an assault on our democracy. With that kind of immunity, he could have even called in the military to help him remain in power. He would just be doing his job as president.
Remember Nixon’s famous line in response to his involvement in Watergate “If the president does it, it’s not illegal.” That proved untrue back then, as he had to resign with the promise of a pardon from his successor, Gerald Ford. Now, because of this court, that no longer applies. Now when the president does it, it’s not illegal. All bets are off.
Let’s get one thing straight, the The Supreme Court, for all its claims of non-partisanship, is anything but. In plain sight its decisions are increasing The Don’s power at the expense of our democracy.
John Robert’s recent plea to Americans to bring down the volume of the vitriol is absurd. To that I say “Gag me with a spoon.” Your court is fomenting the vitriol and will go down in infamy as helping The Don dismantle our democracy,
Where shall I begin with the egregious decisions of this MAGA court?
How about this one. The court issued a ruling that allowed the White House to deport immigrants to countries other than their own, pausing a lower court’s decision that said migrants must first be given a chance to show that they would face the risk of torture there. Torture, meh. I thought due process was an essential right in the constitution. Not according to this court. And who are these masked men rounding up people? That’s okay with the court as well.
Then in an astonishing act of deference to the executive branch, the Supreme Court essentially said that district judges can’t stop an illegal presidential order from going into effect nationwide. Put simply: all the rulings the opposition have celebrated as a check on the administration are no longer in effect. Ultimately, they may be upheld through class action suits, but that process will take a long time, with devastating effects.
Here’s what Ketaanji Brown Jackson said in her dissent:
“In essence, the Court has now shoved lower court judges out of the way in cases where executive action is challenged, and has gifted the Executive with the prerogative of sometimes disregarding the law.”
“This court’s complicity in the creation of a culture of disdain for lower courts, their rulings and the law (as they interpret it) will surely hasten the downfall of our governing institutions, enabling our collective demise.”
“Consequently, the zone of lawlessness the majority has now authorized will disproportionately impact the poor, the uneducated, and the unpopular — i.e., those who may not have the wherewithal to lawyer up, and will all too often find themselves beholden to the executive’s whims.”
In a chilling conclusion Ketenji Jackson said: so what can individual federal courts immediately do when the president issues a blatantly unconstitutional order? The Supreme Court gave its answer on Friday: not much.
The executive order at issue in the case was one issued by The Don on his first day back in office, which sought to deprive citizenship to babies born in the United States to undocumented parents or even temporary residents, and it is as unconstitutional as they come, violating the clear wording of the 14th Amendment. Before the Supreme Court’s ruling, three federal judges, supported by three courts of appeals, had already ruled that it is illegal to end birthright citizenship. The Don has recently threatened to deport Elon Musk and has a chorus of right wingers calling for the deportation of Zohran Mamdani, a Muslim man who just won the democratic primary for mayor in New York City.
Justice Sotomayor wrote: “No right is safe in the new legal regime the court creates.”
In that case and others, the justices used truncated procedures on their emergency docket to issue decisions that gave Mr. Trump some or all of what he had asked for in cases dealing with immigration, transgender troops, and the independence of government agencies.
They found in favor of the administration on their right to infringe on the privacy of the public by allowing access to social security data.
In United States v. Skrmetti, the Court’s conservative majority upheld a state law outlawing minors’ access to puberty blockers and hormones to treat gender dysphoria.
In Mahmoud v. Taylor, the court ruling allowed parents with religious objections to pull their children out of public school classes in which L.G.B.T.Q.-themed storybooks were discussed. This continued a trend in which the court has ruled for religious people at the expense of values like gay and transgender rights. Maybe what’s next is Christian parents removing their children from class when any books written by Jews are read. After all, we did kill Christ?
In emergency orders, the court allowed the administration to lift protections for nearly 350,000 Venezuelan immigrants who had been shielded from deportation under a program known as Temporary Protected Status.
The court sided with the Governor of South Carolina (which bans abortion at 6 weeks) who had issued an executive order prohibiting clinics that provide abortions from receiving state Medicaid funding. Planned Parenthood had sued the Governor and the decision frees the state to eject Planned Parenthood from its Medicaid program. The decision is likely to require Planned Parenthood to reduce services or even close clinics in South Carolina — and in any other states that might choose to follow South Carolina’s lead.
The right wing agenda of the court can not be denied. It’s time to be very sober about this. When The Don refers to “his justices” we need to acknowledge that they really are.
The Grand Offal Party 