Hello, it’s the weekend. This is The Weekender ☕
It’s not every weekend I get to greet you in the wake of the first criminal conviction of a former president in American history.
Fuck Magic Mike.
Josh Kovensky is a journalist with integrity.
Instead of trump’s name on his tombstone the word “rigged” should be there. It’s his fav word.
Good job by Kate Riga in her brutal assessment of Durbin and how he’s addressing oversight of a corrupted scotus.
Durbin’s oversight has been limp and uncreative. He seems to physically squirm when he leaves the comfortable realm of bipartisan backslapping.
And she finishes nicely with
It’s hard to see a Chairman Jamie Raskin (D-MD) so languidly watching the meatball sail over the plate.
Well done, Kate.
What stops Trump from filing some wackadoo emergency petition with the SC after his sentencing in July? And if he does, what stops four justices from agreeing to hear his case?
The GOP cult is desperate to keep up the facade of Donald Trump “King” and mightily trying to rebuild it.
But the guilty verdict definitely put a ding into it. Like the guilty verdict, the presser afterwards also took out a notch. Donald Trump is for now the naked “King” with no clothes and it is ugly.
Like TPM’s excellent reporting, Heather Cox Richardson’s take on it is also good;
I think it is the same as my inability to file with the Supreme Court for my dozen or so random grievances.
You have to have a legal reason to file there.
“After his sentencing in July”
SCOTUS will likely be on hiatus until Oct.1.
I really don’t think they would touch this hot potato regardless.
And Roberts and Alito too.
“Legal” is very much open to interpretation these days. Trump just had some lawyers argue that it would be legal for him to assassinate a rival. You don’t think they couldn’t come up with something they claim is legal?
They touched the immunity hot potato.
As far as questions for the upcoming election go, my #1 question now is the effect the verdict will have on the VP dynamic. Will the A listers shy away? Who might be even more interested in the job? Will the Aaron Rogers types give it a pass?
Trump and his legal team have said they will appeal the verdict reached by the Manhattan jury. Though it is unclear yet whether they’d take it all the way up to the Supreme Court.
It is clear as the waters of Lake Tahoe that Trump will appeal this all the way to the Supreme Court. The only question is how long it will take.
vexillology
As in “Vexilla Regis prodeunt.” The royal banner goes forth, an ancient Latin hymn.
They certainly did touch the immunity “hot potato” but in doing so, may have totally over spent their hot potato budget.
I just posted this morning on the FRI MM thread
It’s a big deal, I think.
There isn’t much, perhaps, that we can do about SCOTUS…but upping the public scrutiny and pressure, I think, can be effective. Not in getting these people removed from their robes…but letting them know that barrel-fuls of ink are being spilled examining and exposing them and highlighting that this is what Republicans deliver as ‘justice’ and that 6/9 are totally in the bag and acting as R moles.
If Durbin and Raskin can’t actually be effective in stopping them, they can keep them continually turning on the spit and being roasted.
“6/9”
A Borg Collective with black robes?
“When we decide not to react to the information that science provides us, it’s a choice to increase our vulnerability rather than decrease it.”
“When we decide not to react to the information that science provides us, it’s a choice to increase our vulnerability rather than decrease it.”
Hayhoe also noted that “hurricanes are getting stronger and more dangerous, heavy rainfall is getting more frequent, home insurance is going up”, saying she’s “worried about what this means for my city”.
…
“Disaster is a function of hazard and exposure: how many people and how much infrastructure, what things of value are exposed? Because if you have a category 5 hurricane that never makes landfall and it doesn’t hit any ships, there’s no exposure and it’s not a disaster.“The third component is vulnerability. How prepared are we? How resilient are we? Vulnerability is a key indicator of whether a hazard with exposure turns into a disaster or not.
Bottom line. DeSantis and Republicans don’t care that science doesn’t care whether you believe it or not.
The most craven of the lot may smell blood in the water and see a possibility of being President when Trump strokes out. He looks like crap (more than usual), he babbles like an imbecile on speed, he can’t even “fix” his hair anymore. Just for physical health reasons, it is not a stretch to imagine that the VP pick will have a good chance of job promotion. I think the performative sucking up is only going to get worse.