We say it a lot. We say “Democracy is on the ballot.” It’s clear that some people don’t realize that we really mean it. Everything this nation is built on, it’s bedrock Constitutional foundations are crumbling. It’s all falling apart.
And we have Trump and the GOP to thank for it.
Example #1: Mika Brzezinski listening to Axios co-founder Jim Vande Hai on what Trump’s plans are for his next term.
"He already has a Republican Party, a Congress in waiting, that is extremely pro-Trump," Vande Hei said. "All of the restraints, all of the people in positions of power who are his critics, his adversaries, his handcuffs — they're gone. This is a Trump Congress in the House, it's a Trump Congress in the Senate, and you look at what he said he's going to do with that Republican coalition, what he's going to now do with greater immunity. He's been very clear."
"Listen, he is going to use potentially the National Guard and the military to round up millions of people and remove them from the United States," Vande Hei added. "He's going to consider using the military to protect the southern border. He's been very clear that he is going to get rid of people that he deems disloyal, that are civil servants in the United States government.
"He is going to use a unique interpretation of law that he believes he would win in a challenge to get rid of them. They've pre-vetted thousands, potentially tens of thousands of people that they want to bring into the government to do his will, to do his wishes, so that he can move much more effectively and much faster, and imagine that he does win.
"If he wins, the two oldest Supreme Court justices, [Clarence] Thomas and [Samuel] Alito, 76 and 74, the possibility that they could retire in the next term is real. Then you'd have Trump being able to put in two Supreme Court justices, probably in their 50s or 40s, people who would be there for a long time. The end result would be you'd have five justices over the course of his two terms who were appointed by Trump."
Axios laid out the ex-president's plans for another term in a new article that quotes potential vice presidential pick J.D. Vance, a GOP senator from Ohio, saying that few Republicans would stand in the way of his agenda.
"The point of the column is that, love it or hate it, he'd come in as one of the most powerful figures, and he would stress test it immediately," Vance Hei said. "They have very specific plans. This is not the haphazard Trump we covered in 2017. This is a much more organized operation, at least the people in the institutions around him."
Brzezinski agreed that Trump posed a greater threat to democracy than he did the first time around because he didn't even expect to win his 2016 election.
"I think this is devastating and absolutely frightening and absolutely could happen," she said. "As you said, he came in haphazardly. Donald Trump didn't even know he was going to win. It was one day out of an entire year where everything fell into place, and he won the presidency.
"They were, at the last minute, writing a victory speech, you know, scrambling. That's not the case this time. That means every single person that is going to be around him, they're going to plan for that person to make sure that they take the oath."
So, using the Military against Migrants, Protestors and in “Democrat Cities.” Arresting and Prosecuting his enemies in Congress, the FBI and DOJ. He would nationally ban abortion. He would probably ban IVF, Contraception and Birth Control. He would ban DEI. He would institute a “Pro America” educational agenda which would enshrine the Lost Cause ideology. He would outlaw being LGBTQ, ban gender-affirming care, or even talking about the subject. He would ban, and perhaps burn, any book he disagreed with - particularly Science books about Evolution and Climate Change. Required Ten Commandments and School Prayer in the guise of Christian Nationalism and institutionalized bigotry. He would round up anyone who annoys him and dump them off in camps. All of this, and more, has already been implemented in Florida, Texas, Louisiana and Oklahoma.
And now, thanks the Right-Wing SCOTUS he could do all that with no fear of repercussions or prosecution.
Reposted from Dark Skies on the Horizon
This is how Sotomayor responded to the recent ruling on Presidential Immunity.
In Sotomayor's view, the impact would be chilling. For the first time she said, in every use of official authority, the president "is now a king above the law."
"Looking beyond the fate of this particular prosecution, the long-term consequences of today's decision are stark," she wrote. "The Court effectively creates a law-free zone around the President, upsetting the status quo that has existed since the Founding."
Sotomayor went on to highlight some of the more severe examples debated during the immunity arguments, saying the majority's guidelines for immunity would give former presidents legal cover in even those circumstances.
"The President of the United States is the most powerful person in the country, and possibly the world. When he uses his official powers in any way, under the majority's reasoning, he now will be insulated from criminal prosecution," she wrote. "Orders the Navy's Seal Team 6 to assassinate a political rival? Immune. Organizes a military coup to hold onto power? Immune. Takes a bribe in exchange for a pardon? Immune. Immune, immune, immune."
Many people have said when we talk about Trump abusing his power that the “system” will hold him in check. Well, during his first term, it did. People in Homeland Security and in the Pentagon pushed back. They told him “We can’t do that - it’s illegal.”
Now, it’s not illegal anymore.
Now, when they say that, he can say - “I don’t care.”
When they say “You’ll be Impeached.” He can legitimately say - “I already have been, twice.”
He won’t stop crime. He won’t stop drug abuse. He won’t solve homelessness. He won’t close the wage gap. He won’t close the wealth gap. He’ll just make everything worse.
Nothing will hold him back. Nothing will slow him down. Nothing will deter him.
He’ll openly engage in every wild and nutty fantasy he’s ever had. And there are lots of them. Dozens of his former staffers say that he’s totally unfit for office.
How did Biden react to this ruling?
He stated that he rejects this additional power. He will not push the boundaries of legal theory. He will not violate the law even if he has so-called “Immunity” for doing so.
The only person you can trust with the Keys to the Kingdom is the person who would put those keys away and not use them.
On the other hand the word from Trump camp is that he’s ready to be King.
Citing unnamed advisers to the former president, Axiosreported Tuesday that if Trump is reelected in November, he "plans to immediately test the boundaries of presidential and governing power, knowing the restraints of Congress and the courts are dramatically looser than during his first term."
"They're screaming the quiet part, and yet Democrats are mostly focused on renominating a sundowning 81-year-old losing to him in key swing state polls," The Lever's David Sirota wrote in response to Axios' reporting, referring to President Joe Biden.
Facing mounting calls to drop his reelection campaign following his disastrous debate performance against Trump last week, Biden said in an address following the Supreme Court's decision in Trump v. United States that the ruling means "there are virtually no limits on what a president can do."
"I know I will respect the limits of the presidential power, as I have for three and a half years," said Biden. "But any president, including Donald Trump, will now be free to ignore the law."
Among the steps Trump—who celebrated the ruling—intends to take swiftly upon assuming office following a possible November victory, according to Axios, are setting up "vast camps" to "deport millions of people," moving to "fire potentially tens of thousands of civil servants" and replace them with "pre-vetted loyalists," and centralizing "power over the Justice Department," which the former president has repeatedly threatened to wield against his political opponents.
Trump has also pledged to gut environmental rules—which the Supreme Court also targeted in recent rulings—and ram through climate-wrecking drilling projects, moves backed by the powerful oil and gas industry that's helping finance his campaign.
"Thanks to Monday's Supreme Court ruling, Trump could pursue his plans without fear of punishment or restraint," Axios reported.
Biden is clearly not perfect, but he’s not the alternative.
I just found this interview of Biden by Propublica from 9 month ago (about the time he gave a deposition to Robert Hur) which shows just how present, conscious and attentive he was at the time. More than that he’s asked very specifically about Trump, MAGAs and their combined threat to Democracy. It’s interesting hearing how clear-headed he thinks.
He seems perfectly fine to me here. He’s going to do another interview on ABC this Friday.
However, the NYTimes reports this morning that he’s told confidants that he’s considering stepping down.
The president has told a key ally he realizes he may not be able to convince voters that he is up to the task of winning the election and serving another term, and that individual told the New York Times that Biden understands his upcoming appearances heading into the July 4 holiday weekend must go well – or he may need to go.
“He knows if he has two more events like that, we’re in a different place,” that ally said, referring to the president's unsteady and unfocused performance on the debate stage.
Allies have publicly insisted the president intends to remain in the race and expressed confidence he can defeat Donald Trump for a second time, but a top adviser told the Times that Biden is “well aware of the political challenge he faces.”
Biden has been reaching out to Democratic elected officials and plans to meet with Democratic governors Wednesday evening, but he has told at least one trusted adviser that he understands his efforts to recover from the debate may not work.
I have to admit the drum beat has been pretty strong — which makes me suspect that it’s a forced bullshit narrative from a single anonymous source. Duly noted: The White House says this report is false.
I hope that he doesn’t quit simply because he feels he's lost people’s confidence, mostly because he’s had a fantastically successful term, I don’t want Fox News and the GOP to gain the scalp, but also because I’ve yet to see real proof of his decline and more importantly I’ve yet to see any evidence that another candidate — like Kamala Harris — can win.
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