Yes, SCOTUS will rescue us. Sort of like they did in the 2000 election I’d imagine.
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IANAL but I too think that these DoJ rules are bullshit and constitutionally invalid and non-binding and need to be challenged and struck down. Dems or anyone harmed by Trump can bring a case against the DoJ challenging this ruling, but, even if allowed, if would take years to work its way up to SCOTUS.
In the meantime, the real concern is whether they’ll be able to abuse their powers to steal the election and thus make all this moot. There is SO much at stake for both Trump and the GOP, especially Trump. He could well go to federal or state prison and lose his entire ill-gotten fortune, his family wiped out, his reputation and legacy destroyed, his policies reversed. That’s certainly incentive enough to do it, and he certainly has vast powers to make it happen, all the more so given that the DoJ won’t and congress can’t do anything about it. I fully expect him to try, and exhaust literally every trick he and his people can think of and get away with.
But that doesn’t mean that it’ll succeed. Our democracy is a lot stronger than many people think, not just formally, in a legal and structural sense, but in terms of real-world checks, balances and pushbacks that tend to kick in when roused. Judges still rule properly, for the most part, the media is still doing its thing, activists are still doing their thing, Dems are still investigating and may yet impeach again, lawsuits are being filed, subpoenas are being issued, prosecutors are still investigating and prosecuting, at all levels, economic forces are still manifesting themselves, and so on.
Plus, when it comes to criminality and corruption, they’re kind of incompetent, plus this Trump-GOP alliance was forced together and is not really organically cohesive, and could blow up. And so on. They will try and steal this, but there are all sorts of reasons to believe that they won’t succeed.
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Nancy Pelosi is working on just that task. She’s a political genius, don’t you know…
I agree that Pelosi is no wartime leader. She operates out of fear, and her only goal is to avoid loss and defeat. She plays extremely short odds, and the sooner she’s replaced by a real fighter, the better. But, as with this past impeachment, if there’s enough cause, and pressure from below and outside, she’ll probably do what the caucus wants to do. She’s not a dictator and has to answer to others.
Outstanding Post.
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I REALLY want to see trump get his comeuppance. If anyone ever deserved a karmic smackdown… he does. I would pay to see trump sentenced to time in a federal prison.
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I just knew someone had an image taken from 11/2016 when trump sucked us into this alternate reality where he won the Electoral College vote.
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Thanks. At this point, I’m fairly confident that he loses and Dems retake the senate, absent massive election tampering on a scale and of a nature we’ve never seen before.
Between his having a loyal AG who will do all he can to avoid legal harm coming to Trump and his friends, a congress that effectively can’t remove him, a vast and extremely well-financed reelection apparatus both formal and “informal” (i.e. dirty tricks), armies of well-armed thugs waiting for his command, allies at the state, local and foreign levels, and in the corporate world, a judiciary stacked with far-right judges, a detached, cynical and apathetic public, a media that, granted, has gone after him, but still shows signs of fear and caution, and the pardon power, there’s no telling what he and his people have planned, and can get away with.
No doubt it involves unethical and illegal activities, and quite likely violence. All of which he could make go away with his friends in the DoJ, courts, states and localities, and his pardon power. Plus all that money, and that vast noise machine. It’s scary. So while I think there’s going to be a lot of pushback, and incompetence on their part, I just don’t know. Our democratic institutions and traditions are about to be tested like they never have, by a man who’s drunk with power and understandably terrified of losing it, because if he loses the presidency, he likely loses his freedom, fortune and name.
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A friend texted me that he’s also pardoned Kerik. A search shows this:
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And the realization that if he loses, it’s a very real possibility, is what will drive him to try literally anything to avoid losing. ANYTHING. The question is whether he can pull it off and whether it’ll work, not whether he’ll try. He will. But is he competent enough, and will the pushback fail?
For me trump lost his name when I first read of him decades ago.
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Ah, but you don’t have the mental capacity of a toad, like most Trumpies.
I think that the dotard will keep his name, but that won’t help him. History (and the American people) will always remember the name Trump and shudder.
Why thank you
(Doffs cap and sweeps a bow)
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The name is his brand. Lose the brand is to lose his fortune.
(Rubs hands)
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I feel the same way, give the asshole 100 years for being such a disrespectful POS the whole trial. Make an example of him. But usually that only happens to black people in this country.
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The greatest Security Preparations in American history will commence this Fall
In fact, after August, all Democrats will be talking about will be Cheating of Trump, the GOP and Team Trump in general.
Policy will take a second fiddle.
In WWII, the Allies had plans for rebuilding Europe on the Books. But I have not seen as many literary or dramatic descriptions of the rebuilding as the fighting which made that possible.
Because we Democrats are not warlike people, the candidates have not emphasized the fighting which is necessary to defeat Trump…and, knowing how we are, they will not in the future.
But we had better have (as I mentioned above) The Greatest Security Preparations in American History.
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Dems still don’t show themselves to be fully up to such challenges, mostly reduced to mild public outrage and appeals to better angels, occasionally resorting to investigations that they fail to carry out aggressively enough. They’re either incompetent, unskilled, too beholden to Trump-friendly interests, or cowardly. So, no, any meaningful pushback will have to come from outside the Dem leadership.
I hope Judge Jackson sentences him to 9 years.
I’m hoping for 10 years and a one day enhancement for fuckwittery. Would make him ineligible for club fed.