The immunity question cannot be answered by the Supreme Court

 

It is not because they are not intelligent enough or understand the law well enough, the question is just too difficult to create a one size fits all answer.

And I am wondering along with many others will they send it back down to the lower courts to decide on the merits of the case facing Trump or will they try the impossible and decide what is presidential immunity?

Let’s say Trump wins. He decides to prosecute Biden for the border situation and the immunity question is still up in the air. Can he prosecute Biden for horrible public policy? Realistically this is one of the reasons we have elections every so many years. If an elected official is creating bad public policy the election allows for the removal of the official and hopefully the newly elected individual will create better policy and resolve the issue.

The Trump acolytes will say Biden’s border policy is criminally bad and should be prosecuted. Yet what statue do they use. In this case the word criminally is an adjective not the actual breaking of a law. So how does the Supreme Court rule on a newly elected President prosecuting the previous President for bad policy. Who determines what is criminal with bad public policy?

Now if Biden recruited six million immigrants to come to our border on October 15 and gave them all voters registrations using the same address all along the border cities and some how won Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California and won the election then there might be a case against Biden, yet Biden won. Who prosecutes the winner? Sure he can be impeached and basically this scenario is why we have the ability to impeach Presidents. What happens next? Is he criminally charged? And what if the situation was a bit grayer, then can he be charged?

And not getting into personalities or character, most people do not think he would do that, yet power is addictive and who knows.

Yet how does the Supreme Court make a call between immunity for bad public policy versus an actual crime? Will our courts be inundated with cases after every election saying x was a crime because no one liked the policy by the previous office holder. In some ways that is Trump’s best argument for his immunity and that the courts being overwhelmed will actually happen.

Then what do you do for actual crimes committed. The example above is somewhat clear cut. We all know politics is very muddy and the halls of power can be very cloudy so how are nuanced situations handled? Are we back in Court after every election? If so then the Courts have to decide public policy because they have to rule if there was a crime or it was public policy which makes them potential supporters of the policy after the fact. It would depend on how the tea leaves were read.

So there is no way the Supreme Court can rule successfully on either a broad immunity claim or prevent mayhem in the Court system. If Trump wants to destroy democracy, this case is one of his best moves.

Piggybacking on others work

 

Yep, since I am not a reporter why not jump on someone else’s article. Seriously though I was reading an article in the Dispatch which was a straight forward piece or analysis of the state of the GOP campaign apparatus since Trump’s people took over 6 weeks ago.

I do not have much to add with substance, just some extra opinionated commentary on the situation. For those that do not know, the Dispatch is quite a bit more professional than this blog and speaks conservative commentary that is not aligned with the MAGA universe.  Basically real conservative commentary. And they are professionals so they even write in full sentences.

There is an accompanying picture with the story and whoa, Matt Getz looks like death warmed over. Granted the picture is credited with being taken in February and most of us white people are relatively pale at this point in time, however Matt appears to be struggling. There are four people in the picture, Lara Trump and MTG are showing some color. Michael Whatley is definitely white, but is more of the I haven’t seen the sun since October. I have seen corpses that appear to have more color than Matt Getz does in this picture. I would like to have seen the panoramic of the whole room because there is an interesting dynamic in this picture. MTG and Whatley are looking to their left at something or someone it appears. Matt is just staring straight ahead rather blankly. Lara Trump is standing at attention with plastered smile also staring straight ahead with that Stepford wives look. Not saying anything, but it looks rather weird.

In the article there is concern expressed by some in the GOP that a ground game for the election isn’t materializing yet and that the one being developed before Trump’s takeover had faded away. Some in the article expressed confidence one was coming, others that it might be a bit too targeted to just presidential battleground states and some wondered about what was coming at all. My thoughts were Trump is in charge so how is anyone expecting a full blown plan. The man is notorious for shooting from the hip and if he is anywhere close to being involved with the strategic thinking I will not accept anyone saying the 2024 election was stolen because ineptitude seems to be more the reigning problem now.

And specifically election integrity is the basis for the gameplan, not boots on the ground campaigning which just further leads to the election stolen gambit should not work. Yet I will bet there will be many in the GOP operatives that know better will stand up in November and say the election was stolen even though they know how shoddy of an operation is being developed.

One comment was that third parties may be hired to do some of the footwork and other campaign activities. And this caused me to burst out laughing. I hope they ask to get paid upfront because if anything the Trump campaign will hire them, then he will keep all the campaign money and not pay them if his history is any indication of what may happen. I would definitely cash the check before doing any work for the Trump campaign.

As always people can change, but I am not betting against the house on this one.

Cheers

Conspiracy theorists amaze me

 

I am a bit perplexed even though I understand the technicalities behind it as to why so many conspiracy theorists on social media make so much money. Sure advertisers will pay them to be on their sites since they have so many followers, but really. Whose at fault here?  And what gives? Corporations will market to what they think is their target audience, but are corporations relying on the gullibility of people or are they just going where are the numbers.

And complaining about corporations is not why I started this post. It amazes me how a conspiracy gets started and subsequently gains traction. I have not researched it, yet I feel confident there is an enormous amount of reading material on this subject so maybe the answer is there or partially there, but in some ways I doubt it fully comprehends how bad it is on social media. Yes I do get on social media mainly to follow a couple of topics, but there is so much madness in the way of my browsing. I am not sure what I did to cause the algorithms to target me with some of this madness, but the little I do receive is beyond the pale. And in curiosity I read some of it and all I can say is wow. People believe this madness?

And some of you may ask, am I jealous of what they make and I don’t. To a degree yes, but I started this blog years ago knowing I would not obtain massive amounts of followers. It was more to allow myself to write what I wanted and since my topics have a limited audience I knew I would be extremely fortunate to gather a following. I started because I was mad at the world around what happened in 2008 and 2009. Eventually I decided I needed to do something to make me feel better so I started this blog to complain about how bad public policy was for the market crash and recession that happened at that time. And I tried to offer other ideas that I thought were better. So instead of just complaining I tried to make it a positive. And trying to write better public policy in the United States has never been a game changer when it comes to attracting an audience. And to this day I still try to offer alternative or variations of a theme ideas different from what the duopoly of Republicans and Democrats offer. And add in, I spout my personal opinion about a variety of topics so I knew I would never rival the Kardashians in a following.

And I know conspiracy theorists have always had an audience throughout our history, but the degree to which they are taking advantage of social media amazes me. Are there that many people who cannot fathom what these people are saying? What drives them to this madness? And again there is much written about this topic, but deep down what are they so afraid of that they need this sense of community to be apart of that they will believe the most unsubstantiated nonsense. And of course to them it is not nonsense, or at least on the surface of their brain.

And how much do the actual writers of these theories believe themselves? Or are they just laughing all the way to the bank? Who knows, some might, but really how deep do they go in their own brains to promulgate this charade?

One of my favorites is the new world order and all its variants. How does anyone think whatever billion people on this earth is going to let themselves be ruled by one government. It seems ironical that conspiracy theorists postulate this idea yet they prove themselves incorrect by telling their audience to question any hint of a NWO, so if people don’t believe in a new world order then how could one come to fruition. And then throw in all the different types of cultures, religions, governments, heck even terrorists, and the capability of a NWO seems far fetched at the least. Yet these types of conspiracies run rampant and people spend money listening to all these people explaining how they are saving them.

So here we are in 2024 with so many real problems that need to be overcome, so many people actually doing good work in a variety of endeavors not getting half the attention needed nor the recognition and nut jobs making a fortune telling us only they can save the world. Oh yeah, then there is Truth Social. Smh

Have a better day

 

Stop, there will be a Tuesday

Time flies when you are stressing out.

So tomorrow is the big eclipse day. Some will get to see it some wont’ yet it is a pretty big deal.  I have a love/hate relationship with all the people saying there are signs of the end times happening including the eclipse, earthquakes, lightning striking the Statue of Liberty and so on. First well they are calling themselves Christians in most incidences, so that is good, but do they even know what is Christianity.

One of the biggest prophecies is the second coming of Christ, yet what did Christ say about it all. You ain’t going to know when. Okay maybe not like that, but generally there is no earthly designated time. And for all those that rely on signs such as the above, well we have always had the same signs.  So what is new. Honestly the end could be tomorrow, but not because of the signs, but because this was the time God had planned all along. So generally get your special glasses, head outside, pray for a break in the clouds if they are forecasted in your area and enjoy a down to earth astronomical wonder.

It is a wonderful sunny day here in North Texas, but high clouds are starting to drift in. I am hoping that we do get a break or very thin clouds so I can enjoy the moment. Life is too short to miss out on the wonders of the universe. 

Whether you believe in God or not, you do have to accept you know not the time you will pass, but have faith that if you do well you can live a remarkable or wonderful life. And for those that believe, have faith that God has this, whatever this may be.

Cheers