Beat the Clock – SCOTUS Edition

It looks like we’re going to have to swallow hard this summer when the Supreme Court eventually hands down its ruling on whether TFG is immune from prosecution for anything he did during his term in office. Given the nature of their questions and complete disinterest in the facts of the case, it’s clear that they’re getting their proverbial fig leaves straight so they can hide behind them at decision time.

The disconnect is so vast here that it’s mind-boggling to comprehend. This is essentially what they’re saying they’re worried about: Future presidents being dogged by court battles once their terms end, by partisan, unscrupulous, prosecutors. They worry that such a Chief Executive may start a coup to remain in power to avoid later prosecution.

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Gee, fellas, you mean JUST LIKE THE LAST ONE DID, AS DETAILED IN THE CASE BEFORE YOU THAT YOU REFUSE TO ACKNOWLEDGE???

God damn. What greater evidence do we need to conclude that the current SCOTUS is 100% in the bag for Republicans? No serious jurist can possibly find that the president has carte blanche while in office. There is literally nothing to support this in the Constitution, which is supposedly the guidepost by which the “originalists” on the bench navigate the law. Obviously, that’s only when it serves to benefit Republicans and their business people, or their religious biases.

Furthermore, Clarence freakin’ Thomas was on the bench that heard the case, one in which his wife was boobs-deep. By not recusing himself on such a case, it makes a mockery of anyone being recused for anything. THIS is what recusal is designed for.

The real tapdance will be to formulate a decision that only helps the last Republican and no subsequent Democrats. There’s no way they want to give a president untouchable status until there’s a Republican in office.

To do so, they could do like some other pundits are predicting and wait as long as they can to boot the case back to the lower courts, so we can do this all again much later, long after the November election. That way, they’ll have allowed TFG to use the traditional GOP vote-suppressing flimflammery they’ve been honing over the last four years and weapons-grade disinformation to flood the field with confusion and apathy, to get himself re-elected.

If that happens, I think we’ll have seen our last practical election.

Speaking of court cases, TFG’s campaign finance trial has its first week in the books. The National Enquirer’s publisher, David Pecker, testified that he and The Donald were in bed with a catch-and-kill scheme used to keep bad news out of the press, so to avoid torpedoing his 2016 campaign.

We must remember that it’s not a crime to buy people’s silence, but accounting for it improperly has legal consequences. Campaign finance laws have some teeth and it appears the Trump campaign used as much care with that accounting as they did with the rest of his business empire, which is to say, they cut corners and fudged the books at every opportunity.

Meantime, the Right Wing echo chamber was working overtime to redirect the nation’s attention, with stories like this:

I don’t know what makes me angrier, the presumption that TFG sitting on his ass all day is an exception, or that he is not obligated to follow the same standards that bind everyone else in the country. And to use his golf game as evidence of an active lifestyle? If he were walking 18 holes every day, there might be a point. But you know he’s chauffeured right up to his ball all day long. What walking is there really? To and from the cart, that’s it.

If he’s “too active” to sit still for a day in court, how can he sit still in the Oval Office day after day?

All they’re doing is trying to move attention away from his intermittent dips into sleepy time. Misdirection from embarrassing issues is a staple in the Republican Playbook. Don’t cover the story, cover the sideshow.

“Don’t look at the sleeping man behind the curtain! Look at how he’s being illegally prevented from witness tampering, like an average mob boss!”

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There was some good news last week… I think. I’m still not sure if this is good or bad.

I love the idea that the airlines will be required to give us refunds when flights get canceled or suffer lengthy delays. But will that absolve them of getting us where we need to go?

As it is, they hold our money if a flight is canceled, but they are obligated to get us on the next available flight, whether it’s on their own network, or outside it. What if you’re stranded in BFE and they’re like, “Well, we’re sorry. You’ll see a refund in seven business days. Good luck and safe travels. NEXT…”

All I’m saying is that I’m waiting to see the details. I think most of us would rather they keep the money and get us where we need to go rather than refund us but leave us stranded far from home. Even if you’re starting from home, you get your canceled flight refunded, but you still may be out for the cost of your cruise, resort, or hotel stay.

I’d rather see regulations improve so that fewer flights are cancelled, and cut the need for refunds at the outset.

Every time the airlines get a break on regulations, they always seem to find a way to skimp even harder, charge for more, and provide less. At this point, they might as well just stack us up like logs.

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Did you hear that sound over the weekend? The sound of a dying career? It sounded just like the “BLAM BLAM” of SD Governor Kristi Noem executing her pet dog and goat. I’m sure she thought she was firming up her MAGA bona fides by featuring her ruthlessness, but unlike TFG, I’d wager a lot of her MAGA followers love dogs and could come up with various other ways to deal with an undisciplined pet than a double-tap to the brain.

If she really wanted to firm up her MAGA cred, she could have shot a Mexican and a burro, instead. Then they’d be putting up statues of her along the border.

And in pure Republican fashion, she wouldn't admit it was a mistake and doubled down on the butchery.

She didn’t really break any new ground though. She can’t avoid that she took the easy way out rather than doing (or hiring someone to do) the work. This will probably play well in South Dakota and the other vast states with more livestock than people than in the rest of the country.

I’d say a great many Americans don’t view their pets as disposable, regardless of party. I think this will make her toxic, nationally, when it comes to when TFG picks a running mate.

Hell, he’s probably pissed that she just showed herself to be even more callous than HE is. Can’t have that, can he? “Mushroom-dick” Trump and Kristi “Dog Killer” Noem? He won’t like the imbalance. All she has to do now is quit her job and she’ll be the Sarah Palin of the 2020s.

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And now, just because I’m a hockey fan and I thought this was hilarious:

Say hello to your 2024-25 Ice Mormons!