TWGB: The Hot Stove Lessons of Democracy

 

A couple of days ago, one of the insurrectionists sometimes called "Pink Hat Lady" (government name: Rachel Powell) took to Twitter to complain of her treatment.  She has apparently spent the last three years barefoot and mooning out the window like a princess in a tower...no wait, she was able to move about, but violated her pre-term release and got home confinement. She pretends she has no representatives, but she had lawyers. She exhorted her fellow 1/6 dopes to enter the Capitol that day--why isn't she being looked at as a possible "Fed" provocateur, huh?

She's living in a whole different universe from our reality. She went from saying on social media: “We will do what we want and there’s nothing the gov can do to stop us,” to asking, “Why should I go to jail? Over what? A broken window?”

Burglars break windows, too, and are felons. And apparently, the government actually DOES do something about that. These windows were broken because the stolen-election-believing sheeple who went to the capitol on 1/6 wanted to steal the election back for their Peerless Feeder. 

Will incarceration "fix" Rachel? Who knows? But maybe she educates others as an example to not be her. 

This is why I look at nattering nabobs like David Axelrod with disdain. OOoooooohhhh, taking Donald Trump off the ballot will divide the country, will it? Tell it to the fuckfaces who already thought we were in a Civil War on 1/6. A Civil War, because Trump's election is a Lost Cause that he keeps fighting, and maybe, just maybe, that shit needs to be removed from his grasp, and the people who lived through our bloodiest conflict on this soil understood that very well. 

The Plant and the Plantation

 

In a clean-up attempt earlier today that cleaned up exactly nothing, Nikki Haley complained that she was set up by the question she had indicated was an easy one, and that the questioner was clearly "a plant":

"Yes, I know it was about slavery," she added. "I'm from the South, of course, you know it's about slavery."

Along with defending her answer, Haley also pointed blame at the man behind the question, accusing him of working for the opposing major political party.

"(He) was definitely a Democrat plant. That's why I said 'What does it mean to you?' And if you notice, he didn't answer anything," Haley said. "We see these guys when they come in, we know what they're doing."

It's really such weak horseshit, because if she saw him coming and knew what he was doing, she could have answered the question correctly.  It doesn't matter if the person asking the question is a Democrat supporter, a CNN reporter, a debate moderator, a space invader, Joe Biden himself or the Grand Wizard of the KKK: the answer would be the same. The questioner could be anyone at all, and their answer doesn't affect the one Haley needed to give. 

She wasn't jammed up by a sabotage. She did it herself.

But wait, she gets worse:

Wow. Nikki Haley goes full MAGA, says she would pardon Trump if he were convicted of a crime in a court of law.

She says it’s not in “the best interest of our country to have an 80-year-old man sitting in jail.” pic.twitter.com/cpoAWLXMBz

— No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen (@NoLieWithBTC) December 29, 2023

She would pardon Trump. But she doesn't clearly think she'd be in that position, because she also won't rule out serving as his VP. This is because she lacks moral clarity. She's spread thin trying to cover all the GOP bases. 

But all I'm saying is: this is the conundrum for the entire party. Every last member. Where do you stand on the truth? Where do you stand on the undermining of our republic? What does law and order mean to you?

The Freedom to do What, Nikki Haley?

 

Asked what caused the Civil War, Nikki Haley refuses to mention slavery: “What do you want me to say about slavery? Next question.” pic.twitter.com/cEMW3Cn9ku

— Biden-Harris HQ (@BidenHQ) December 28, 2023

It shouldn't have been considered a trick question, but we know that for Nikki Haley, it kind of is. Here's the exchange:

Q: What was the cause of the United States Civil War?

 Haley: Well, don’t come with an easy question or anything. I mean, I think the cause of the Civil War was basically how government was going to run. The freedoms and what people could and couldn’t do. What do you think the cause of the Civil War was? 

Q: I’m not running for president. I wanted to hear you view on the cause of the Civil War. 

Haley: I mean, I think it always comes down to the role of government. We need to have capitalism, we need to have economic freedom, we need to make sure that we do all things so that individuals have the liberties, so that they can have freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom to do or be anything they want to be without government getting in the way. 

Q: Thank you. In the year 2023, it's astonishing to me that you'd answer that question without mentioning the word “slavery.”

 Haley: What do you want me to say about slavery?

Q: You've answered my question. Thank you.

 Haley: Next question.

The freedom to do what? The articles of secession of South Carolina and all the other Confederate states make it clear--to hold other people in slavery, which is not freedom for the people held in slavery. The proponents of slavery certainly considered it an issue of economic interest, to their mind perhaps, "economic freedom". But enslaved individuals certainly had no right to "be anything they want to be."

Trust me, He Doesn't See It

 

Trump is very proud of the word cloud about his potential second term, which features the word "revenge" prominently, along with "dictatorship", "corruption" and "nothing". This is because he wants to project strength and fear, not competence and respect. And since that's the way he wants it...well, he almost gets it. 

I think his ranting over the weekend suggests he looks STRONGLY AFRAID. His Christmas message to others to "rot in hell" projects his fear of rotting in a cell. He's so spun out he's digging up petty grievances. It's to let others know he's thinking of them at this time of year, and THEY BETTER NOT FORGET IT.

That isn't what a strong, stable person does. It's what a butthurt and deeply disturbed person does.  He thinks the above picture is a good thing. Trust me, he doesn't see how it really, really isn't. And his butthurt, grievance-laden fan club don't see it, either.

 

The Jon Swift Memorial 2023 Round-Up is Here!

 

No, not here here. It's as always at Vagabond Scholar, where stalwart Batocchio keeps a great year-end tradition alive in hosting the best of the year from small-ish bloggers, as chosen by the bloggers themselves. It's something I always look forward to--all thrilla and no filla! 

So go on over there if you like good blogging and sample the richness. Me, I treat it like a box of nice chocolates and dip back in a few times over the week. It won't disappoint.

Christmas Memories: 1991

 

The Soviet Union collapsed on December 25, 1991

The flag of the Soviet Union was lowered for the last time over the Kremlin and replaced with the Russian flag.

Nobody thought USSR would fall, yet it did. There’s a lesson right here Putinpic.twitter.com/mQfKmC8dnI

— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) December 25, 2023

Look, I was a Cold War kid and this was meaningful to me in the way the fall of the Berlin Wall was. My neighborhood had a lot of people who were immigrants from the USSR. I believed it was about generational change--the youth getting rid of the Communist gerontocracy. It felt like popular protest made things happen. But it wasn't that alone.  Not exactly. There are opportune times for things to happen. 

Putin tried to take an opportunity when the West was tired of war to make something happen that never will again.  Russia is paying a price for trying to make their neighbor, Ukraine, unfree. If US conservatives rooted against the USSR like I did as a liberal agnostic kid who passionately loves freedom, they would continue to support the valiant struggle for sovereignty and western values. Support NATO. Look down on despots.  

Otherwise, if they support tyranny and strongmen  (doing lipservice to religion as an opiate of the masses) who are really littledick men projecting terror because they can't fill potholes or collect taxes properly, or who are desperately clinging to power so they can avoid civil and legal penalties, they can go suck an exhaust pipe. 

This is my expressive Christmas wish for the CPAC/Turning Point/MAGA grifters. This love of eastern-style tyranny is fucked in the head and not what this nation was founded on. You all just gross me out for having no sense of history. Get with the western values that made America great, or admit you got nothing and just want to be arschleckers to a big daddy figure. 

TWGB: All Trump Wants for Christmas

 

Well, it's not hard to figure out what Trump wants for Christmas, since it's all been put into a filing available to the public: he wants immunity!  Some people might want their day in court and to be found innocent and to clear their good name. 

He would like to very much not have that conversation out loud if we can at all. His lawyers are claiming that everything he did while president counts as an official act (I guess they mean everything: official Tweets, official watching tv, official golfing, and probably official trips to the bathroom--since that also covers "document handling") and he wasn't convicted by the Senate at his impeachment, so if that was good enough for them, it's good enough for him. 

It's a fantasy. It starts out with a wonderful supposition: 

"During the 234 years from 1789 to 2023, no current or former president had ever been criminally prosecuted for official acts. That unbroken tradition died this year, and the historical fallout is tremendous," the Trump filing reads. "The indictment of President Trump threatens to launch cycles of recrimination and politically motivated prosecution that will plague our nation for many decades to come and stands likely to shatter the very bedrock of our republic—the confidence of American citizens in an independent judicial system."

We are to believe it would seem, that the officeholders from 1789 to January 20, 2017 may have been simply lousy with crime, but were not prosecuted due to...tradition?  And we are not invited to contemplate the fallout from a president being told that literally anything they do and label an "official act" is without legal consequence? And he's handing that same card to our current sitting president?

Lordy. I think Santa definitely puts one on the naughty list for this kind of jackassery. 

Don't Look Away From These People

 

Food is at the heart of Palestinian culture — Laila El-Haddad, author of the award-winning cookbook ‘The Gaza Kitchen,’ shares how it helps maintain humanity while under Israeli occupation pic.twitter.com/I7LcXUPo1G

— NowThis (@nowthisnews) December 4, 2023

I am not articulate enough to explain what I feel about the horror of this war, because while what happened on 10/7 was certainly not an act of resistance, what has happened since has gone long past defense to retribution, to something atrocious. It's hard not to feel like journalists are being targeted and that outspoken parts of Palestinian culture are being forever silenced. Like the city of Gaza is being razed so that no one can live there. Just like the settlers of the West Bank try to erase the Palestinian past and present.

Fine, I say, if you want to counter that this is the fault of Hamas. Tell me why Hamas is the boss of what Israel's government does? How is the moral depravity of the terrorists specifically at cause for every murderous and foolish decision that the Israeli government makes? I don't want "explaining". We hear a lot of "because". I want a real vision for what the aftermath is. Every school, every hospital, every government building they destroy, they remove the possibility of anyone living there: how can we assume it isn't intentional? That they are purposefully making a place where these people cannot live? That so many of these people already are not able to live under the current dire situation of collapse of water and food supplies. 

Or under the collapse of buildings. 

I've talked about why the language of "from the river to the sea" was noxious to the state of Israel and its right to exist. Israeli propaganda mocks the dead of Gaza by claiming they will take that beach. They will remove all of the people in their way to owning all the land. 

What the fuck is it worth? 

TWGB: The Detroit Deceit

 

Once again, Trump is in the news because we have tapes--a story in The Detroit News from Craig Mauger uncovers that a phone call between Wayne County election canvassers, Donald Trump and Ronna McDaniel reveals a little offering for their service in not certifying the election for Biden, which is a kind of back-handed bribe: we'll get you attorneys!

I mean, I love this for the obvious reason: they knew it was shady, they knew that the canvassers knew it was shady. Sure, it's probably illegal! But we will get you lawyers. You'll be fucked if you do this but we'll make sure it's with lube!

Is that just me? 

So of course, I go back through the TWGB archives, and huh. When one of the recipients of this phone call got asked about it back when, she just said Trump was concerned about her wellbeing. Well, yeah. Hence the lawyers. The other canvasser isn't available at the moment for further comment. He doesn't need lawyers at this time.  It's also pretty interesting to me that this call was followed up by an invite to the White House for certain Michigan officials. (I wonder if a similar call to PA officials occurred...wait, I don't!) I think this reinforces the Georgia RICO case by establishing a pattern of leaning on election officials. 

I can talk about the violence of 1/6 and the way Trump encouraged it then and still encourages violence, but the subversion of others' sense of duty and fidelity to their oaths of office is the key to the damage that Trump offers. Through coaxing and threatening, he undermines the idea that government isn't about duty or a higher purpose, it just become gross transactionalism. 

I like to think this opens up Trump for a new set of indictments in Michigan. And some for Ronna McDaniel too. (The Michigan GOP has its own terrible troubles right now.) 

Ballots vs. Bullets

 

NEW: Colorado Secretary of State "extremely concerned" about pro-Trump violence

Jena Griswold received 64 death threats and 900+ threats of non-lethal abuse just within the first 3 weeks of filing the case to keep Trump off the state ballot. https://t.co/aEwbadUZtZ

— Jennifer Bendery (@jbendery) December 20, 2023

This follows a pattern that occurs around Trump, mostly because he encourages it. Trump's people do not respect the law because they have decided that supporting Trump is something higher than the law. What people who want to say that Trump has to be rejected at the ballot box don't understand is, Trump's insurrection started with undermining the importance of the ballot box. That pattern of violence and threats--includes poll workers and election officials.  

Trump has already established his people don't respect the ballot--he lost in 2020, and 1/6 was the result of that. There are two things I strongly suggest cause this. The first is the Tea Party and militia-based kayfabe that the 2nd Amendment is a remedy against one's own government in the event that it becomes "tyrannical" (which seems to include Trump receiving due process for indictments received at the determination of a grand jury).

TWGB: Civil War Solutions to Modern Problems

 

I think it's very fitting, after all, that Donald Judas Trump got a ruling against his being on the ballot for fomenting an insurrection under the 14th Amendment, because that remedy was a solution to insurrectionism post-Civil War, and the "1776" plan from Trump and his little friends was not a revolution for the sake of freedom, but a peculiar invocation of a civil war.  Because Trump losing made some people big mad and they believed stupid fraudulent shit about Chinese thermostats and Italian satellites and stuff. It really isn't more intelligent than that. 

I think the Colorado State decision makes a lot of sense, and frankly, I don't personally care if it's popular. Trump's favorability with his party doesn't mean anything to me, because look--how many people supported the Confederacy? A lot. They lost.

That's the point. You don't like the 14th Amendment, go crazy kids, vote for legislators who definitely want insurrectionists to hold office. Pro-treason in defense of random bullshit your whole face off.  But as for me, I will vote for Democrats and support the Constitution because I'm not a whole-ass traitor. You don't vote for pro-insurrection and pretend you are a patriot. You don't get to lie about the election, or pretend Trump is innocent regarding what happened on 1/6, and even have my glancing respect. 

We can all understand that Proud Boys stood back and stood by--until then, and Oath Keepers broke all their oaths that day. It wasn't antifa and the feds, it was Soft-Skulled crabs who were so proud of themselves, they selfied and posted to social media their civil war disobedience. 

Justice Thomas and the Supplemental Income

 

You know, until now, stories about the largesse bestowed upon Justice Clarence Thomas almost sounds like he got appointed to the Court, ran the gantlet of his hearing, and then suddenly, he had all these friends he just wouldn't like to disappoint. And yet this story from ProPublica makes a reciprocal point--

There he was, just in debt as heck in 2000 (the year he would decide on Bush v, Gore, as a matter of fact, because that's not something I can refrain from mentioning) he looked over his public servant's salary and said out loud, "Gee, I sure hope my wealthy friends don't disappoint me or they may well get disappointed."

Genuinely:

After almost a decade on the court, Thomas had grown frustrated with his financial situation, according to friends. He had recently started raising his young grandnephew, and Thomas’ wife was soliciting advice on how to handle the new expenses. The month before, the justice had borrowed $267,000 from a friend to buy a high-end RV. 

 At the resort, Thomas gave a speech at an off-the-record conservative conference. He found himself seated next to a Republican member of Congress on the flight home. The two men talked, and the lawmaker left the conversation worried that Thomas might resign. 

Congress should give Supreme Court justices a pay raise, Thomas told him. If lawmakers didn’t act, “one or more justices will leave soon” — maybe in the next year.

I'm not calling it extortion. All I'd like to point out is, his public servant salary got supplemented with a good deal of private money--and Thomas was very well aware what it was worth to his benefactors for them to do so.  

 

The Republican Future for Women

 

This is the future the GOP wants for women across America.

Make sure everyone sees this. pic.twitter.com/uE869ct5cg

— MeidasTouch (@MeidasTouch) December 18, 2023

This reminds me of the wonderful film icon Debbie Reynolds, Carrie Fisher's mom, who talked on Joan Rivers' show about having to carry her dead baby because it was illegal for the doctors to abort until she was septic. And because she looked pregnant and people knew she had been, they asked her "How's the baby? What are you going to name the baby?" The grief of that seems so unbelievably cruel to inflict on someone--it's like having one's loss rubbed in one's face. 

And the enormity of forcing someone to not only be emotionally rendered by living with that death in life inside, but physically threatened by a potential septic pregnancy is sheer brutality, and I would even call it uncivilized. It seems monstrous to inflict that suffering on another person when it could be prevented--the very opposite of moral. 

People who want to call this pro-life are anti-woman. There is no reason behind it but equating female reproduction with "the sin of Eve" and thinking we should bodily suffer not for something we've even done, but because of a folktale from long ago explaining why labor pains exist.

No one who uses religion to justify punishing people for conceiving and not being able to carry that fetus should be allowed to use that horrific personal religious viewpoint to impose upon others' health and wellbeing. It's a choice a religious person so minded might make for themselves, but they should not insist on it for others. 

Nikki Haley is Unqualified

 

Q: Trump is running on retribution. He talks about annihilating his enemies and using the criminal justice system to do so. What do you think of that?

Haley: You’re exhausting pic.twitter.com/G5TdH4OjIb

— Biden-Harris HQ (@BidenHQ) December 17, 2023

Jonathan Karl isn't exhausting. He's asking the question I would have asked Haley back in January 2021: What is the play?  If you want to tell us that Trump was the right man for the time, or that you'd still back him if he were convicted, you aren't telling us how you'd be better. You aren't criticizing him at his most debatable and weakest point--that he did break the law, disrupt the peace, flaunt the Constitution. You're admitting you're WORSE. You are an enabler. Not a leader. 

If you don't have the stomach to confront Trump, who is a kiss-up, punch-down bully who lauds Xi and Kim and tries to use Putin as a character reference, what the whole fuck? How are you supposed to be able to face our enemies abroad if you are numb and responseless to the enemy right the fuck here? If you would still support him if he was the nominee, even if he were convicted. 

This is the weakest shit I can imagine. This is looser and lighter than baby shit. 

TWGB: Trump and the Missing Binder

 

The recent story about a binder of raw intelligence regarding Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential election is--

Well, I would say shocking if I a) didn't already not put anything past the Trump Administration, b) didn't assume that was exactly the sort of thing that would disappear. The Obama Administration thought this was exactly the sort of thing Trump would make disappear and made a little list of items that would definitely be missed. 

And of course, Trump was trying to declassify what I've always assumed was some but not all of the Russian interference intelligence because that "Russia, Russia, Rusia" thing sat over the White House during his term no matter what denials he ever made about it. 

(It's very hard to deny something on Twitter, and then turn around and be like "Hey kids, let's do a joint cycbersecurity with Putin!" and not sound like your head was up Vova's ass. Or giving Israeli intelligence to Russia.  Or halting aid to Ukraine. Or any of the other "deliverables" Trump seemed to want to give Putin since oh, Day One of his first term, He'll be doing the same Day One of a second term as well, while also being a dictator.) 

The Price of Lying

 

Rudy Giuliani has been court-ordered to pay $148 million to Ruby Freeman and Wandreya Moss in their defamation case against him. He was the only witness on his behalf and there are two important points to make:

He lied about them and admitted it. 

He provided no proof of any kind that backed up the stories he spread about them, and actually withheld requested discovery documentation. 

These women were threatened and their lives were severely disrupted by the lies Giuliani told. A quick perusal of rightwing social media features a lot of "whataboutism": "But what about what these women did?" Because they don't get the point:

The women didn't do anything. They were counting ballots--of course you move them. They want to believe Giuliani's lies and so, the lie persists for them. THAT's what's worth $148 million. Once their reputations were destroyed by a lie, there is no getting things back to how they were before. 

Because Giuliani is reprehensible, he wants to claim he was shafted by the court: 

Giuliani was unrepentant after the ruling, telling reporters outside the courthouse, “The absurdity of the number underscores the absurdity of the entire proceeding,” and adding falsely that “I have not been allowed to offer one single piece of evidence in defense, of which I have a lot.”

Of course, that's untrue: he was sanctioned for NOT TURNING OVER anything. He always had shit. And if he felt like the court was not letting him be "heard" he could turn his troves of information over to the media. Which he has had plenty of time to do.  And can't. Nothing's stopping him but the lack of information that supports him in any way.

Sometimes It's Better to Remain Silent

 

Rudy chickened out of testifying. Rudy claimed he was going to prove Ruby Freeman & Shaye Moss stole the GA election. He put on no defense. Here is Rudy when trial started:

“When I testify, you will get the whole story & it will be definitively clear that what I said was true.” pic.twitter.com/semCA8sKrs

— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) December 14, 2023

Rudy Giuliani certainly promised that he was going to tell the whole story and prove he was right; on Monday he was still reiterating the exact same lies that he had no basis for. But at some point, he realized he was completely unsympathetic and needed to shut his damn mouth. Probably when the election workers he defamed explained how he ruined their lives over a lie. Definitely when his lawyers hammered home to him his fat mouth was screwing himself. He was already in thin ice with the court for not turning over information and being a no-show last week. (About the latter, sadly, my first thought was someone needs to do a wellness check...the man is not healthy and it shows.)

So, he did what his sometime boss, Donald Trump, did himself on Monday--he kept his mouth shut. The plaintiffs had been through enough and Giuliani's bank accounts were going to be going through more than enough.

What the Biden Impeachment Inquiry is About

 

Earlier this year, I wrote a blogpost about the House GOP Biden impeachment inquiry back when I agreed with Rep. Raskin that this inquiry has been an impeachment about nothing, but now I'm pretty sure I see exactly what's it's about. Thanks to Rep. Troy Nehls, we can all appreciate what it's for: "Donald J. Trump 2024, Baby!"   (Okay, I lie--I always knew it was exactly about that.) 

I mean, Trump's legal fund money is going to Trump himself and his PAC money is paying his own legal bills, so why not have the taxpayers fund an anti-Biden campaign for him? And that's what he wants, so that's what every little GOP congressperson in the House gave him. 

I mean, here's a snip about what Trump wants from July:

Former president Donald Trump called on congressional Republicans to withhold military support for Ukraine until the Biden administration cooperates with their investigations into the president and his son Hunter Biden’s business dealings.

The demand, delivered at a rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday, echoed Trump’s conduct at issue during his first impeachment, when Trump withheld aid from Ukraine while pressuring the country’s president to announce an investigation of Biden.

“Congress should refuse to authorize a single additional shipment of our depleted weapons stockpiles … to Ukraine until the FBI, DOJ and IRS hand over every scrap of evidence they have on the Biden Crime Family’s corrupt business dealings,” Trump said at the rally. He added that any Republican lawmakers who didn’t join the effort should face primary challenges, a tactic he used last year to unseat Republicans who voted to impeach him for inciting the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection.

That little bit there? "Echoed Trump's conduct at issue during his first impeachment." It's a great touch because it sure does! The US conditions aid to Ukraine (although the Republicans in congress are playing their fund-denial games with border security) and the pay-off is dirtying up Biden so that Trump can win re-election! See how in those paragraphs, you can understand who is doing what for whom, to get what in return? And what should happen to GOP reps who don't do what Trump wants?

Yeah, well, after all the "inquiring" that Comer, Jordan, and Smith have done so far, we still don't have anything like that for how Hunter Biden paying back his loans equals political favors the senior Biden was going to do for...anybody.  

Now, Hunter Biden showed up yesterday and called out the House GOP over their subpoena shenanigans, letting them know he would give a deposition, but not behind closed doors. Sounds to me like he isn't hiding something, the House GOP are. After all, I remember when they just hated closed door depositions. Then they realized that if they used closed-door depositions, their failures wouldn't be nearly as, um, public.

And then they could keep up the lying. And I while I certainly could expect less from them (I mean, MTG wants to toss around revenge porn again, I just know it), I trust they will continue to limbo under my expectations. 

TWGB: Trump's Case has the Mondays

 Trump just recently pretended he really wanted to testify on Monday, but the damn dirty bitches put a gag order on him that stopped him from bringing up the court clerk, which definitely undoes all the 5th amendment-taking he did earlier.  Like why would all that 5th amendment taking earlier be a part of the reason why Trump has nothing to say right now, huh? When instead we could blame all the pretend claims about how unfair this whole process is that one would irrelevantly try to work into one's defense? 

Trump loves to pretend there's a defense that exists but doesn't. Like his "disclaimers" that never actually state "We are lying". They just hint that figures are a little off, not made up by some order of magnitude. 

This man has no defense, that's why he barely put on one, except for his very expensive expert witness, who cost a whole lot of VOTERBUX.  Apparently spending $900K or so on a yes man is no guarantee of anything. 

Ah well. Maybe he will have better luck when SCOTUS reviews whether he had presidential immunity against doing crimes, a lot, a lot of the time. But I don't think he will. I mean, do they really want to pretend this guy is exempt from any crime-doing ever? Or any other president was, also too? 

That seems really sketchy, and I don't think SCOTUS would rule for that at all, at all. 

So, what I'm saying is nothing has ever been rigged against trump and even when things are rigged for him he's fucked them up. He's just a guy who can't tell the truth without incriminating himself. Is that so worng? 

Fleeing the Texas Death Panel

 

Kate Cox, the 31-year-old Texas mother whose fetus has a fatal diagnosis, has left the state to obtain an abortion after a battle with Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) over whether she can legally terminate her pregnancy. pic.twitter.com/WN2P9qWrX9

— The Recount (@therecount) December 11, 2023

The decision to leave Texas to obtain an abortion was correct: the Texas Supreme Court denied her right to an abortion under the state laws medical exception:

The court ruled that the lower court made a mistake in ruling that the woman, Kate Cox, who is more than 20 weeks pregnant, was entitled to a medical exception. 

In its seven-page ruling, the Supreme Court found that Ms. Cox’s doctor, Damla Karsan, “asked a court to pre-authorize the abortion yet she could not, or at least did not, attest to the court that Ms. Cox’s condition poses the risks the exception requires.” Texas’ overlapping bans allow for abortions only when a pregnancy seriously threatens the health or life of the woman. 

“These laws reflect the policy choice that the Legislature has made, and the courts must respect that choice,” the court wrote.

There's a kind of "damned if you do, damned if you don't" catch for doctors, here. They can make "good faith" emergency decisions, but it has to be an emergency-emergency (death's door, apparently) in order to avoid professional penalties. This was the clarification sought, and per Texas Hold'em in the Uterus rules, she wasn't nearly close to death enough. Based on the arguments of state lawyers, you just can't believe dumb old doctors or dumb old women about these things, because they will just use the exception not in good faith, but to get an abortion anyway. (You know, claiming they have a real emergency in the same way women make claims about having been raped--subject to being told they are making it up. In other words, subject to how misogynistic the system wants to be: and given this law even exists, you pretty much know how it is.)

I am glad that Mrs. Cox did not wait around for the Texas death panel to see if she would die or not, but I fear for what real harassment might be in her future in this kind of culture and for what all this means for women in similar physical jeopardy who do not have the means to leave. Also, I fear that for anti-abortion zealots, this will only increase their resolve to enforce "fugitive womb" laws and create penalties for women seeking abortions--even if for their own lives and health. 

Texas Placing Bets on Whether a Woman Will Die

 

The Texas Supreme Court put a lower court's decision on hold regarding whether Karen Cox could receive what might be a life-saving abortion of an almost-certainly doomed fetus, following on AG Ken Paxton's claim that any doctor or hospital that performed that procedure would be prosecuted. This woman is the stake in a fucking card game. It seems to me that the elected zealots involved, like Justice John Devine:

John Devine, an anti-abortion activist and self-styled “Ten Commandments Judge,” will become one of Texas’s nine Supreme Court justices early next year, as the Democrats are not fielding a candidate for the seat in the November election.

....

Devine has long been a staunch anti-abortion activist. At a June rally in Fort Worth, Devine told the crowd he had been arrested 37 times while protesting abortion clinics in the 1980s, Smith reported. Though, in a more recent interview, “he said he had been arrested during peaceful protests several times in the 1980s but did not remember how many,” Smith reported. Despite this history of activism, Devine insisted he “is still able to interpret the law impartially.”

In 2008, Devine and his wife, Nubia, showed everyone just how committed they were to the pro-life position when her seventh pregnancy endangered her life and that of the baby. The Texas Observer‘s Emily DePrang wrote about a video his campaign put out called “Elizabeth’s story.”

Like that bet. 

So-called pro-life people love to say that a woman's life isn't really jeopardized by a pregnancy. They love to act like they did something special by allowing a fetus to be born if it survives even briefly. And they will claim victory of anything short of this young mother of two just dying right now. Trisomy-18 isn't always fatal: kids with Edwards syndrome can live--see former Senator Rick Santorum's youngest child, Bella, for a story of a child with a way better than expected outcome. But keep in mind this is a former senator with a shit-ton more access to the best care for his kid, and whose wife did not have Cox's unique set of pregnancy complications.

Casey DeSantis is Just Helping Her Man

 

We’ve built a nationwide coalition of moms who are mobilized to help elect @RonDeSantis: Mamas for DeSantis.

While voting in the Iowa caucus is limited to registered voters in Iowa, there is a way for others to participate. I’m calling on mamas and grandmamas from all over the… pic.twitter.com/vlVLIHiiUF

— Casey DeSantis (@CaseyDeSantis) December 8, 2023

Wait. Is that...is she calling for...I mean?  Is she saying the mamas and grandmamas should RIG the Iowa caucus? Because I think we know who would be very STRONGLY concerned if there was RIGGING and would have to LOOK INTO THAT very STRONGLY! 

 Casey DeSantis has not been swanning around dressed like a Disney princess in capes and opera gloves in godforsaken Florida to not be First Lady of the US, m'kay? She knows that despite the high-flying nature of her husband's campaign (donor flights, migrant flights, evacuee flights...), he needs help., with this 2024 thing. Sometimes he even seems a little desperate. And that when she steps in. 

This seems a little desperate, too. 

Texas and the Empty Cradle

 

My heart leapt up when I heard that Kate Cox would be allowed to terminate her genetically ill-fated pregnancy, but I knew she better have a surgical theater in her living room, because the AG of TX, Ken Paxton, impeached, indicted, self-anointed protector of the fruit of the Texan wombs, has nothing better to do than threaten doctors who engage in a court-sanctioned medical procedure. He would ruin this woman's health and future fertility, and the careers and lives of the doctors who help this woman, because?

Because he's so pro-life? Because Texas isn't pro-life. Not when it comes to the death penalty.  The strict abortion ban isn't necessarily saving lives. But it would be better to make an example of this woman, and force her to give birth to a child that might exist just to die, because?

I've long felt that while life doesn't necessarily begin at conception, mothering does. You can decide to eat right or not drink or smoke and maybe figure out how to get pre-natal care. But sometimes even basic ability to take care of your body and your baby's body isn't in your means. You can't afford to eat right. You have an addiction. You don't have access to health care. And sometimes, you just get a bad genetic draw. Nothing you do will ever make you carry a wanted child to term, because that isn't what was in the cards. 

The House GOP is Not Likely to Improve

 

Former Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy is resigning his seat and will be gone at the end of the month. I can't say anything more than the simple one-line epitaph written here: 

McCarthy is the only speaker in history to be voted out of the job.

He's the only speaker, I believe, who needed 15 votes to get chosen as speaker and did so, in a bit of foreshadowing, having accepted that a simple vote would oust him from that role, which several of his unruly caucus were only too pleased to make. Never had anyone's speakership so underlined the perils of trying to operate with a slim margin when, in addition, you get no respect. 

He does this after another rare occurrence: the expulsion of Rep. George Santos. The drama that was the Congressman from NY's 3rd District went on for entirely too long--it probably shouldn't have even begun if political vetting were still a thing among Republicans. 

Let me help. This is someone who might be running in the special election to replace Santos:

WASHINGTON — A New York man who is running for the congressional seat previously held by George Santos was convicted this week of charges relating to the Jan. 6 riot after he testified at his trial that he didn't know Congress convened inside the Capitol.

Philip Sean Grillo, of Queens, was found guilty Tuesday of the felony charge of obstruction of an official proceeding, along with a series of misdemeanors like entering restricted grounds and disorderly conduct in a Capitol building, the Justice Department said in a news release.

See. Should someone go straightaway from allegedly not knowing Congress convened in the Capitol to working there after having illegally entered it? I think that sounds like the kind of sketchy thing the party should worry about.

TWGB: All Accessories

 

Speaker Mike Johnson says the House is working on releasing new Jan. 6 tapes and will blur out the faces of rioters:

“We don’t want them to be retaliated against and to be charged by the DOJ and to have other, you know, concerns and problems.” pic.twitter.com/dExchE0qbr

— The Recount (@therecount) December 5, 2023

Rep. Mike Johnson doesn't want people who participated in the riot/insurrection on 1/6 to be retaliated against and to be charged by the DOJ. Not retaliated against, as in, their neighbors would raise a hand against them? Interesting and prudent. Not charged by the DOJ? Is that like obstructing justice? Because that very definitely sounds to me like obstructing justice. 

Does DOJ probably have all the tapes for the most part anyway? Likely. But why is Mike Johnson signifying he's trying to protect the January 6th people? He has to because he has to curry favor with the world's most undisciplined and ungovernable people? He basically is one? 

Sure. Stuff like that. MTG has given him the malocchio.  He's got pains in his liver already. The thing where he was against George Santos' expulsion but it happened anyway and the thing where he was against the ongoing shitshow of the Biden impeachment inquiry but then decided to be for it? This is what a man does when he's clinging to the side of a cliff by dry little crack-dwelling plants.

A No-Interest Loan

 

Comer: That’s bullcrap! If he wanted to send money to his son for a truck then send him money for a truck pic.twitter.com/Z8zgBNRUi6

— Acyn (@Acyn) December 5, 2023

So, Rep. Comer got all heated up because he found these payments that definitely demonstrated influence peddling: Hunter Biden made three whole payments to his dad in 2018, totaling...$4,140.  A truly prodigious sum that had already been reported as being for a truck loan. Once everyone pointed out that we already knew about this and it was just a loan getting paid back, Comer came up with the very magnanimous point: Why wouldn't you just gift him the money out of the goodness of your heart?

Um, not for the bills of a grown-ass man. 

This is pretty small, and I'm sure they would like to hear Hunter Biden tell more about it. Just not in public. Because to hear Republicans talk about these very serious Biden allegations, it's the Democrats who turn everything into a clown show. 

Uh-huh. And although I don't like this to get around, when I'm not blogging, I'm actually the Pope. 

TWGB: He's Flaunting It

 

Trump last night: “Thank you very much for being here. They wanted to use the place … this place is packed. We don’t let people use Mar-a-Lago very much because, as you know, we hold very important documents here.” pic.twitter.com/jyIlDVrZN0

— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) December 2, 2023

Ha, ha. He implies there are still very secret documents kept at Mar-a-Lago. This is so funny to me. So funny I think we need another search warrant.  Because this man is not learning anything from his various brushes with the law yet: like, does it apply to him? He's in well enough trouble over keeping documents at Mar-A-Lago, regardless of his pet Judge Cannon's attempts to delay his trial. We know he had advice of counsel he'd be screwed if he still had documents, but then sort of ignored that. 

So, do I think he's still that stupid? Well, yeah. As the comedian Ron White has established, "You can't fix stupid." He's happily stupid this far in his life, what good would smartening up do him? 

Does he think he has all kinds of rights and privileges other people don't? Huh--well he got told this week he doesn't have immunity against civil trials over 1/6 because what in the world does pretending your election was stolen have to do with being president? He also got told, and not for the first time, that presidents aren't kings and hell yeah, he is liable for shit he's done. 

But why would that stick if it doesn't help him any?

The Freedom Mommies are Being Weird Again

 

So, one of the co-founders of Moms for Liberty, Bridget Ziegler and her husband, who happens to be the chair of the Florida GOP, were in a relationship with a third party, a woman who claims she had been sexually assaulted by the husband, Christian Ziegler. If there was a book about this, no one in Florida would be allowed to read it. 

I don't find it hard to believe a GOP official is capable of sexual assault: my word! I'm not the one who will pretend for a minute Republicans are actually moral exemplars--actually, they are kind of fucked up. Just a little bit ago, it was revealed that a spokesperson for the Freedom Mommies in Philadelphia (my home!)  was a registered offender. 

Look, the sexual morality thing is just a grift. Take poolside threesome aficionado Jerry Falwell Jr. as an example. "We're saving kids from being sexually tempted and confused--like we are! So ban books!' 

It's just anti-intellectualism with a spicy homophobic and sex-negative twist, It's not new, and it's dumb. But just so I can sort it out in my mind--is it not queer for the same-sex business to be happening so long 2/3rds of the people are openly Christian and straight-married? Is it less than two mommies queer? Is it more than two daddy penguins raising a baby penguin queer? 

Or is it Anne Frank wants to compare breasts with another adolescent female queer? Because teenagers are curious, but banning Anne Frank's diary has farther reaching concerns. Anti-Semitic ones. Because despite their vehement protestations, The Freedom Mommies are associated with Proud Boys. Though they want to sink that connection. But they stay "Klanned Karenhood" in my mind and so many others.

Sandra Day O'Connor, 1930-1923

 

To the surprise of the conservative president who appointed her, the conservative first female Supreme Court Justice kept Roe v. Wade on the books. But on the other hand, try as I might to come up with something different regarding her being a trailblazer, I kept coming back to the Bush v. Gore decision. 

She wanted to retire and wanted a Republican to replace her. George W. Bush replaced her with Sam Alito. 

And Roe v. Wade was eventually undone. 

So?

I can't expect someone to have the foresight to realize that the dominoes lined up like that. On the other hand, it was still some kind of selfish decision on her part, and from the 2000 decision, a lot of nastiness flowed. 

So I'm still mad. And I'm not over it. 

Anthony DeVolder, We Hardly Knew Ya!

 

CNN's Manu Raju and other reporters try to get a word with George Santos after the House votes to expel him,

He says nothing, jumps into a car, and quickly leaves the scene. pic.twitter.com/7KdiUWrcwW

— Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona) December 1, 2023

Despite the wishes of the House Gop leadership (such as they are), George Anthony Devolder Santos (and occasionally Zabrovsky) is no longer in congress. This is a damn shame for a nice boy who lost his momma at least two times from 9/11, who definitely won't be trash-talking the hell out of his former colleagues, now. 

The special election is going to be in February. Won't that be fun! 

Somehow I do not think we have seen the last of him, though.... 

UPDATE:  As Santos promised, the Festivus Airing of Grievances is upon us. 

UPDATE: Holy crap, I didn't think they'd be pitching a movie QUITE this FAST! 

TWGB: Fit to be Gagged

 

This is not the judge’s wife’s account. He is posting lies to incite violence, plain and simple. pic.twitter.com/P2d3UKrrYE

— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) December 1, 2023

Trump's vicious attacks on his detractors have long been including lies--but attacking the wife of the judge in his civil case in NY supposedly without checking if this even plausibly is her account makes it really hard to say he shouldn't be clapped into a cell overnight for his flaunting of his gag order, recently reinstated, and for very good reasons. The man has earned his gagging by what he's been and done. And what his little old fan club wants to see done.

And let's face it, when he lets his mouth just fly, it gets ugly in a hurry. Like when he's demeaning one of his rape victims again. Oh, did it seem like I'm playing like there's multiple rape victims?  I don't know how often I need to read about any man's faults as seen by his victims without thinking "Goddamn, there are victims." 

Anyway, Trump just got caught trying to move money from his business to pay his personal stuff, like his civil debt to E. Jean Carroll and his taxes, by moving money from his business without contacting his court-appointed minder. 

Maybe that's why HER name was in his social media mouth again.  And he should pay for that too.