#Laurence Tribe

[contemplatingoutlander]

There might be a silver lining to the Cannon debacle

"Judge Cannon just did the unthinkable: She dismissed the Trump classified documents case on the repeatedly rejected basis that DOJ violated the Constitution’s Appointments Clause by appointing Special Counsel Smith at all! DOJ must appeal right away. On SCOTUS, only Justice Thomas took that view in Trump v. United States. This finally gives Jack Smith an opportunity to seek her removal from the case. I think the case for doing so is very strong." [emphasis added]

--Laurence Tribe, Constitutional scholar

We can only hope that Smith appeals the case and that the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals is receptive.

I fear that even if they are receptive, Trump will then appeal to the Supreme Court. Even though Thomas was the only one who commented about the Special Counsel in the presidential immunity case, there is always a slim possibility that he might convince 4 other justices to go along with him.

If that happened, it would be a total travesty of justice, because it would sink ALL the federal cases against Trump.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Michelangelo Signorile at The Signorile Report:

The New York Times reports on yet another treasonous flag flying on yet another home owned by Justice Samuel Alito and his wife. Last week, it was the Times report and a jaw-dropping photo of an upside-down flag—embraced by the “Stop the Steal’ movement—flown on the lawn of his Alexandra, Virginia, home in the days after January 6th. This week it’s an “Appeal to Heaven” flag, which, as the Times reports, ‘like the inverted U.S. flag, was carried by rioters at the Capitol in the days after Jan. 6, 2021.” It was flown at the Alito’s home on the Jersey shore on Long Beach Island in the summer of 2023. [...]

Tribe acknowledges that there is no way this MAGA-led House is going to impeach Alito but says that’s not an excuse for the Senate not to “at least initiate a serious investigation into whether impeachable offenses have been committed,” and, at the very least, “whether a meaningful, enforceable code of ethics” should be enacted. Tribe says the Senate should call for Alito to testify and subpoena him if he doesn't. He needs to explain under oath what the flags meant, not just release statements to the media blaming his wife. Two days ago, Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Dick Durbin, joining Democrats in the House and Senate, called on Alito to recuse himself from January 6th cases but said there’s “not much to be gained” by holding hearings. “No, we haven’t got anything planned,” he told NBC News. “I think he’s explained his situation. The American public understands what he did.”

Really? I think the American public is overwhelmingly horrified to see an upside-down flag on the lawn of a Supreme Court justice. Will Durbin continue with this weak argument even after the report of a second treasonous flag? His response is not only insufficient; it’s political malpractice as we’re headed into a critical election. There is an enormous amount to be gained. It’s all upside, no downside. The Supreme Court is very unpopular, having swung to the far right and stripping basic freedoms like the right to abortion. And after the corruption in the form of undisclosed gifts to Alito, Thomas and others, the American people want political leaders to stand up and demand justice. It doesn’t matter if Republicans fight against this. Let them be exposed as indifferent or supporting treason themselves.

This article from Michelangelo Signorile is spot-on 100% as to why Senate Judiciary Chair Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) to conduct hearings on SCOTUS Justice Samuel Alito's unethical behavior while serving on the court.

[arlengrossman]

Merrick Garland Must Go

By Arlen Grossman/ DailyKos.com/ February 25, 2024 President Joe Biden made a consequential and significant mistake when he appointed Merrick Garland to be Attorney General of the United States. Garland has turned out to be weak, clueless, and ineffective, to the point that his actions are currently endangering our very democracy. At first Biden’s appointment of Garland seemed sensible. Most of…

[ausetkmt]

The next two years are likely to see a test of what may turn out to be the most legally consequential recommendation—other than the suggestion of criminal charges—made by the January 6 committee in its final report. Namely, the committee’s view that

“those who took an oath to protect and defend the Constitution and then, on January 6th, engaged in insurrection can appropriately be disqualified and barred from holding government office…pursuant to Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment.”

While the committee addressed congressional vehicles for enforcing that constitutional provision at the federal level, there are also existing provisions and processes to do so on a state-by-state basis. Those vehicles include states’ quo warranto laws. In this essay and our accompanying survey of those laws, we outline their applicability in all 50 states and four additional jurisdictions.

We come to this topic just over two years after a violent mob, alongside organized militia groups, stormed the Capitol building, the seat of American government. They disrupted the January 6 congressional certification of presidential electoral votes with the aim to overturn the 2020 presidential election. As a result, various institutions—from the Justice Department to Congress to civil society organizations—have been holding actors of all levels of culpability to account for the assault on our democracy. Over 900 individuals have been charged by the Justice Department in connection with the attack on the Capitol. Federal prosecutors have also secured historic, back-to-back seditious conspiracy convictions against leaders of the far-right Oath Keepers militia for helping foment the insurrection. And in December, the House January 6 select committee culminated their months-long investigation and series of public hearings by issuing several criminal referrals to the Justice Department against former President Donald Trump and some of his closest associates based on their involvement in different parts of the multi-prong effort to overturn the election.

But criminal prosecution is not the only means of January 6 accountability.

Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment can also serve that general purpose. Section 3 provides that no person shall hold any state or federal office “who[] having previously taken an oath…shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion…or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof.” In an initial detailed report published at the Project on Government Oversight, we examined the different avenues for modern-day enforcement of Section 3 with an eye toward holding accountable those who participated in the January 6 attack and in the events that precipitated it. As we discussed in that earlier analysis and an accompanying essay at Just Security, one of the main enforcement mechanisms for a Section 3 disqualification is a quo warranto lawsuit. (Quo warranto is Latin for “by what warrant.”) Through this type of lawsuit, an individual’s right to hold public office can be challenged.

Our purpose is to provide a comprehensive current survey of the nation’s quo warranto laws, and to build on the recent successful use of the doctrine. Despite that fact, the doctrine has been recently used to litigate against a public official who participated in the attack on the Capitol and resulted in his being removed from office. In that landmark ruling last fall, a New Mexico judge removed a state county commissioner from office under Section 3 for his participation in the January 6 attack. Since then, the House select committee in its final report has issued a recommendation that Section 3 disqualification actions be brought against other public officials who engaged in insurrection.

As a continuation of our previous analysis and the work of the House committee, we surveyed the quo warranto procedures in 55 different jurisdictions—the 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and nationally, including some limited instances of federal common law. We did so to map the potential for future uses of quo warranto lawsuits to bar public officials from office. Our analysis of these procedures demonstrates that quo warranto lawsuits can be used by a variety of stakeholders—from private parties such as individual citizens to public entities such as state attorneys general, county district attorneys, municipal or county governments, and even U.S. attorneys. What’s more, it shows that quo warranto lawsuits are an accountability tool that is not only widely accessible but also practically meaningful. Such actions hold the potential to disqualify sitting public officials who have violated their oath by engaging in insurrectionist activity. In that way, quo warranto lawsuits can serve as a powerful means of furthering legal accountability against some of the highest-ranking individuals who participated or aided in the assault on January 6.

Our analysis interprets the wide array of state and territorial laws that establish the procedural framework for quo warranto actions by categorizing them according to how they empower different parties, both in bringing actions and in managing them. In some jurisdictions, private parties can supply the government with information to serve as the basis of the government’s quo warranto complaint against a public official. These private parties are often referred to as “relators.” In Texas, for example, prosecuting attorneys may file a motion “at the request of an individual relator.” While such an action is not technically a private action, some jurisdictions also allow relators to manage a case pursuant to the government’s oversight. For instance, Missouri law empowers relators to control a case after obtaining leave from the prosecuting attorney.

In other jurisdictions, private parties can themselves file quo warranto lawsuits against public officials without governmental permission. Some jurisdictions, such as Connecticut, allow parties to do so in their own name. In others like North Carolina, however, the government must be the named party. In the latter scenario, the private party, not the government, manages the case; and, indeed, the government possesses no management authority. For example, should the prosecuting attorney decline to bring a quo warranto case in New Mexico, the relator is afforded full control of the suit despite the government being the named party. We identify both these types of quo warranto procedures as private actions, since both enable private parties to bring the suit.

Some jurisdictions have similarly codified which public authorities may initiate a quo warranto lawsuit. Unlike the regulations that empower private relators to issue broader complaints, many regions specify which authorities can litigate against particular officeholders. For example, in Arkansas, prosecuting attorneys may bring quo warranto suits against county officials, while the state’s attorney general handles cases against all other officers. Other jurisdictions such as Massachusetts and New York place the onus entirely on the attorney general, while others task other officials such as county or U.S. attorneys with bringing quo warranto suits.

Beyond empowering specific parties, quo warranto laws also impose other and highly varied procedures in these kinds of lawsuits. In New Jersey, for example, the attorney general carries the burden of proof. But in Hawaii, the respondent—that is, the public official whose conduct is in question—bears the burden of proof in lawsuits initiated by the attorney general. Other laws establish a duty upon public officials, usually either the local or state prosecutor, to bring a quo warranto action when, as in Arizona, for example, “they have reason to believe there is a cause.” California, Idaho, and Montana, to name a few, impose such a duty upon prosecutors.

Disqualification actions can be brought against public officials who have violated their oath of office by engaging in insurrection or by giving aid or comfort to insurrectionists. The House select committee recognized that in their final recommendations. Our comprehensive survey of quo warranto procedures is intended to serve as a guide to the various private and public stakeholders empowered by state and territorial law to file quo warranto lawsuits so they can continue the House committee’s work—holding public officials whom voters have entrusted to lead their government accountable for their wrongdoing.

[kizzer55555]

Chaotic Main 4 as Creatures

Ok so recently I’ve been obsessed with this show called Chaotic which is like a card game come to life and the main characters each have a different tribe they like. And I’ve seen art of what it would look like if they became a creature from their respective tribes and got inspired to try it for myself.

Actually I was inspired to create a fanfic which was inspired by ‘Transcending Perim’ By: ChaoticCommander. So my idea is that Tom, Kaz, Sarah, and Peyton end up having their coded selves dying at the exact moment they were trying to leave, connecting them to their earth selves, and this happens at the exact moment a powerful surge of energy appears from the Cothica which the main 4 we’re trying to see in person and got caught in the blast. This then merged their coded self with their earth self and after being affected by the energy of the Cothica, transformed them into members of their tribe. A side effect is that it wiped the memory of everyone who knew them previously except those in chaotic. However, the creatures they knew beforehand would know something was missing. Felt that someone was missing but couldn’t figure out who. (And I’m debating if it was Klay’s fault their coded selves died). If they know someone really well though or spend a lot of time with them after being transformed, the creature they knew can regain their memories. This would also be really early in the series so they might not know Maxxor and Chaor as well or maybe they do but just don’t have much opportunities to meet and it’s painful for them to see their friends and not have them know who they are. I’m also debating what would happen to their earth selves, if they would just die, be in a coma, or disappear and be forgotten. And so they only have each other to rely on at the moment since they weren’t really close to others in Chaotic (and I believe that while Peyton might be friendly, he only really hangs out with the main 4) and a strange music in the back of their heads which kinda guides them and acts like a sentient entity only they can hear. It’s always there too, no matter what they do but only they can hear it. Because the Cothica saved them for a reason, knowing the M’arillians would invade soon. (None of this will make sense unless you watch the show). So yeah, that was my fanfic idea that I will probably never write but it compelled me to make fanart for it. Or maybe I needed to make fanart and then created an entire story behind it? Not really sure which came first.

This is Sarah AKA Seraphim (they either choose a new name or someone scans them and they see that their names have changed. A blessing from the Cothica.)

Tribe: Danian

This was actually inspired by this amazing art by HosekiDragon on devianart. It’s actually what inspired me to make art of all the main 4 as creatures. I would see art of them and have a basic idea of what they might look like but no matter what I saw, Sarah just never looked right until I saw this one picture and HosekiDragon’s Saraphim was so beautiful that I had to make my own version of it. The name is also what inspired me to make creature names of all the main 4 that include their actual names. The art also inspired Kaz’s design a little with the hair and tail but otherwise, that’s mostly what I imagined him as.

For Sarah, I imagine her as kind of a combination between a spider and a bee. She’s pretty similar in personality in being very headstrong and taking command but also deeply caring for her friends. As a female Danian, and being considered very beautiful, the Danians that see her basically treat her as royalty. (I have a headcannon that Danian parasites only work on males since the only females we see are the queen and princess and apparently, Larrina is an Overworlder, not a Danian.) so the Danains treat her as something almost holy which Sarah would love normally…if it didn’t have the side effect of them attacking Kaz, Tom, and Peyton for getting too close. Which makes Sarah annoyed. (She lost her home, her family (even if they didn’t get along) and she was NOT about to loose her boys too). Wamma is the only exception and even he doesn’t know why he doesn’t treat Sarah as something holy or why he doesn’t see the others as a threat to her. But he does have a strong urge to protect her.

Sarah is capable of flight, spinning this super strong silk from spinnerets in her wrists (which is what the main 4 made their clothes out of. Sarah being the exception because her exoskeleton already acts as both clothing and armor. Which is lucky because when they transformed, that did not include clothing.) and Sarah is very good at making tunnels, climbing or moving quickly in her new form. She is used to a Danian’s body from the dromes so it was pretty easy for her to adjust. It was just uncomfortable at night to find a good sleeping position.

Peyton AKA Peytonic

Tribe: Mipedian

Peyton’s form was both easy and hard. I definitely had the most fun on it though. I saw this fanart once where he was an ankylosaur and I’ve had that in my mind ever since. I just thought it was fitting. But at the same time, I felt his snout could be a bit longer like all Mipedians. So I did that but made it kinda square. I just felt that fit Peyton more. I also adjusted his coloring to be a bit more greenish like his clothes. I did take the robe idea from HosekiDragon’s art though. I thought it was cool. Then I looked for other lizard creatures and found one with the stripes and I was just in love so I added those. He kinda resembles an iguana and I kinda like that look. Or maybe that’s just me who sees it. Overall, I just love how he turned out.

Peyton was probbaly the most affected by the transition to Perim as creatures. Peyton spent most of his time In Perim and Chaotic though because lots of people in the real world thought he was weird. He made friends with the creatures who didn’t mind his weirdness and the players only cared about how well he did in the dromes. This made Peyton a lot more outgoing and friendly. So it hurt that his Mipedian friends have no idea who he was and that the chaotic players don’t seem to care that he hasn’t played in a while. Being in Perim wasn’t the problem, it was being there and not being able to talk to his friends that hurt him. While with the other main 4, he’s still his outgoing and friendly self. Practically loving his new body. But he avoids cities and other creatures because Peyton just can’t bear seeing them and having his friends have no idea who he is.

If they do run into creatures, he kinda closes himself off and lets the others do the talking. If he’s forced to speak, he tries to act like his normal self and pretend nothing’s wrong. Although his smile is strained if it’s someone he knew. He’s fine if it’s a creature he’s never met before.

As for his new form, Peyton is probbaly the most well adjusted to actually living in Perim. He spent most of his time there anyways. And he is loving his invisibility. He is also their expert on anything edible because Peyton, being Peyton, decided that a good use for the beta dromes is to taste everything in every location he’s been to that looks slightly edible. If it’s poisonous, then he can’t die in the dromes anyways. So Peyton tells them what is safe to eat and even knows some cool recipes. He also does some hunting with the others (they try very hard to pretend it’s just like a drome battle. It takes a while before Kaz or Tom can go through with a kill though. Even if they need it and it’s just animals). Peyton also doesn’t struggle to adjusting to his new form. He’s battled as Mipedians, exercised as them, played as them, slept as them. He’s explored every location and everything they could do so he’s right at home.

His abilities consist of normal Mipedian abilities. Strong scales like armor, claws, strong jaws, invisibility. Keen senses. And Peyton is a bit stronger than the normal Mipedian. He’s kinda the muscle in the main 4. He also does not act like a normal Mipedian warrior. Much more laid back and go with the flow. Which works for him in battle, especially with being unexpected. His body is too big and spiky for normal clothes so he just wears a robe. It allows much more maneuverability without getting torn. Peyton also has these extra hard scales down his back. He likes to curl up into a ball and roll into opponents. He finds it fun. His enemies? Not so much.

Kaz AKA Kazmodeus

Tribe: Underworlder

Every version of Kaz I have ever seen has him with orange skin. And I agree, it looks good. But I never liked the combination of orange hair with orange skin. So it never really clicked for me. I was never really attached to his art. Then I saw how HosekiDragon used black hair and I just loved that. But when I saw it trailing down his back, I imagined that it kind of looked like fire so I thought, what if Kaz actually had fire hair? But I didn’t think having just normal fire hair would be very practical so what if, it was normal hair that could become fire? I already imagined Kaz with a tail and wings so with orange skin, he kinda looks like Takinom. (And while that might have interesting consequences if Takinom feels like she knows him but can’t quite remember, I will store that plot bunny deep in the recesses of my mind). I also never really liked Kaz with horns. I get why they were added as usually it’s a reference to looking like Chaor but they just never clicked for me. On the other hand, I was determined to give Kaz his hair streak thingies. And then I had an idea. I gave Kaz a crest on his forehead that resembles the yellow hair streaks. I bet if you just glance over the drawing, you might mistake it as the hair streaks. But this way, it’s not affected by the fire hair. And I just think it looks cool. I made his clothes more practical with having an open back for his wings. And I made them a similar color to his normal clothes. Also, I regret to inform you, I took away his glasses. It took forever to find his actual eye color but yes, it is brown. I just feel like the Cothica would cure Kaz of bad eyesight if it changed his entire body.

Kaz’s form is pretty similar to Takinom so he adjusts pretty fast to having wings (except at night where he faces the same problem as Sarah). He loves flying and definitely makes use of it. Often getting an aerial view of their surroundings. The only thing Kaz struggles with, is his hair. It lights on fire. And that would be fine if it only did so when he wanted it too (which he can do). But it also lights on fire based on his emotions. If he’s angry, excited, scared. Any high emotion and his hair lights up. Which is bad when they are in a place like a forest. Kaz is pretty creative so he’s the one who actually makes their clothes using Sarah’s silk. Or even making traps around their campsites. For a while, they just keep moving since most places belong to the territory of one tribe and as they each look like they are from a different tribe, the others aren’t safe there. They refuse to split up and go to their separate tribes. They don’t want to loose the only normal thing they have left. They don’t want to see friends who will have no idea who they are (if they even let them into the cities. Being unknown creatures). And they definitely don’t want to risk fighting eachother. So they stick together and they keep moving.

Kaz is the designated campfire. If they need to cook meet, or boil water, or even forge something (Peyton took a shop class so when they find metal, he can forge them into tools, belts, clothing, or even armor if they want) they just walk over to Kaz and hold it over his tail. Despite his grumbles, Kaz doesn’t actually mind since he knows this is the safest option and doesn’t leave evidence of a campfire for other creatures to find. Or make smoke. He’s very useful on cold nights. Sometimes he’s also the designated flashlight.

Kaz misses his mom so much. But she’s the only one he actually misses. All his friends are in Perim with him. Everyone at school thinks he’s a freak. And Underworld players aren’t really popular in chaotic. And he isn’t popular with other Underworld players because of his friendship with Tom, Sarah, and Peyton. He does miss H’earring though (eventually H’earring gets his memory back and helps Kaz but the first time they met, it was like getting punched in the gut for Kaz knowing his friend didn’t know who he was and is why the others don’t want to risk meeting their creature friends for fear of the same thing happening.) The music from the Cothica helps sooth his nerves.

Kaz’s abilities consist of flight, fire attacks, being fire proof (he discovered this when he fell in lava and it was like a warm bath. Still scary though), spikes on his tail for harder hits, and being very maneuverable.

Tom AKA Tomahawk

Tribe: Overworlder

Tom’s name was the hardest out of everything. The others were pretty easy. I immediately named Kaz Kazmodeus as a play on a demon’s name. Peytonic was Peyton’s game ID and it just fit. Saraphim was a name on a different art but I loved it so much I had to use it. But Tom….Tom….do you have any idea how few names start with Tom in it? Or at least not the ones I want. I literally looked up every word that has Tom in it and most had it somewhere in the middle (Like Atomic) and while it was surprising to see how many names actually had Tom, every other character started with their name so I need to have one start with Tom. So I read through a…lot of words. (I was very tempted to call him Tomcat but instead, I shall have Kaz call him that to tease him). Eventually found Tomahawk which is basically a small axe or weapon used by Native Americans and I thought that fit perfectly. A weapon is strong, durable, and I just think it fits Tom’s personality. Especially since it’s a native American weapon and fits Tom’s current image.

Before anyone says anything. Yes, this is inspired by the Navi tribe from Avatar. No, I do not regret this decision. I know that everyone always draws Tom as being the same species as Maxxor, with green skin. And while I think that’s cool, I once saw this art of Tom with blue skin and elf like ears and have never been able to see him as anything other than a blue tiger ever since. I blame the fact that Intress is close friends with Maxxor. And the fact that most Overworlders are some type of animal. But Anyways, YES! AVATAR! I saw Tom with blue skin and saw him as a tiger and had to put them together. While there are many similarities between Tom and the Navi, there are some differences too. For example, Tom is covered in a thin layer of fur just like a normal tiger. It’s not just skin. (Kaz thinks he is a very fluffy kitty). His front is kinda pale blue, almost white, both on his chest and face. Kinda like Intress. His ears are like the Navi in which they are more elf like but can swivel around like cat ears. He also has retractable claws on his hands and feet. So while his paws can feel extremely soft without nails, he can call upon them for hunting, climbing, or any other reason. His feet are also more catlike. His tail is also prehensile and can be used to grab things. He often uses it for climbing by holding onto other branches. And yes, he can hang from his tail if he really wanted.

As for his hair. I was inspired by the Navi’s Queue (no idea if I spelled that right). The nerve cord thing on the back of their head. It has two functions. It’s prehensile, and it can channel electricity like an electrical whip. Basically, for Tom, it’s like a second tail. Only, a tail with a mind of it’s own. It grabs onto anything and everything within reach whether Tom wants it to or not. While his body is very similar to Intress, he’s never turned into a creature with a prehensile nerve cord in the back of his head while he was in the dromes. He doesn’t even know of a creature that has one. So while controlling one extra limb is easy as he has had acess to intress’s muscle memory, the nerve chord is a different story. It can grab things and Tom might not notice until he has to pry it out of the cord at the end of the day (or scold Kaz who likes to hold objects in front of the chord knowing it will grab them and then seeing how long before Tom notices) or it will grab objects like tree branches still attached to the trees and Tom will get yanked back when he tries to walk forward. Eventually he realizes that relaxing the limb releases things and once he gets the hang of it, starts being able to climb super fast and can eventually hold on with just the chord and tail while his hands are doing something else. Like drawing a bow and arrow. (But it will be a while before that happens).

The hardest thing about the nerve chord, is the hair. It’s like a horse’s tail (which Kaz mocks is like a literal ponytail.) Tom basically has his normal short hair, and then he has hair growing along the cord. If it remains still, it just looks like a ponytail, but because it’s constantly grabbing stuff whether on accident or even once Tom gets control of it, the hair gets tangled in everything. The problem though is that the hair is insanely tough. If something has to give, the branch/stone it’s attached to or the hair, the object always gives first so Tom always has to physically untangle stuff instead of cutting it out. They tried to cut the hair and it’s like wire. Super soft but unbreakable wire. They managed to cut it once after using some powers and the part that exposed the chord hurt so much. It’s like when you have a cavity exposed to the elements. Basically, the nerve chord is sensitive because of it’s ability to channel electricity. The hair acts as both a conductor to channel the lighting through it (again, like wire) and also protection. It’s soft against the actual nerve chord but acts like a barrier against whatever the nerve chord touches and just the elements in general. It’s basically like armor (if someone were to cut it with a knife, the knife is more likely to break or be damaged. They know, they tried it when they first started trying to cut Tom’s hair). So since they can’t cut it, (both from difficulty and because it is needed protection) Kaz has an idea from an old Disney movie called Tangled and they just braid his hair instead. That way, the hair doesn’t get caught in stuff.

Sarah becomes obsessed with this. She can’t do her own hair because it’s hard to reach with all her armor. Kaz’s hair is too short (even if it wasn’t, all decorations would just burn up when he got excited), and Peyton doesn’t have hair. So she basically uses Tom as a glorified Barbie doll by decorating his hair with all kinds of beads, feathers, and braids. Tom just kinda lets it happens for 2 reasons. One, because it makes her feel better and they need all the stress relief they can get, and Two, because you can’t really say no to Sarah when she makes her mind up about something.

Tom is kinda similar to Kaz when it comes to being in Perim. His parents are hardly ever home but he still cares about them and misses them. On the other hand, all his real friends are right there with him. However, he can’t face Maxxor. He might run into Bodal who doesn’t know him and that would be hard enough. (It would be fun if later, Bodal hates not knowing something so investigates why this creature felt familiar and recovers his memories when Tom wasn’t there). But Tom cannot face Maxxor. However, he does spend time with other Overworld creatures and even creatures of other tribes. So they gain back their memories of Tom back pretty quickly (whether or not he’s there for it is the question). Especially since he doesn’t avoid them like Peyton does his friends. I think Smildon might be next. Anyways, Tom is struggling but he tries to put on a brave face for the others. As for his abilities, he basically can do anything Intress can do. He’s very stealthy, agile, has strong senses (although his sense of smell sometimes backfires on him). And he also is very fast and can use electric attacks. Kinda like a lightning tiger. Many people mistake his braid for hair and get a nasty shock if they try to grab it or have Tom’s hands pinned and think that’s the end. He is incredibly good at battles. He was one of the best chaotic players and Intress was someone he played almost as much as Maxxor. Tangeth Toborn too and he was also very catlike. So Tom could take on multiple opponents at once and still win (like he did against Codemaster Hotek).

Eventually, Tom learns two new skills. One is archery which he might have dabbled in before or one of the other main four did, or he finds a new teacher (I don’t know but I really like the idea of Tom with a bow). And the second is that he learns how to be a caretaker. The main 4 might stay with Garv for a bit (either before or after they help Smildon at Prexor Chasm) and Tom and Peyton take an interest in how Garv does stuff. With the Cothica’s music guiding them on what plant or ingredients to use for different potions, Garv thinks they are naturals. This leads to them being very valuable later when the M’arillians attack as they are able to undo the pollution to the various Locations around Perim. (And I headcannon that the reason they were polluted is that the M’arillians brainwashed the caretakers with their mind control). I’m also making it so that the main 4 are immune to the M’arillian’s mind control. Every time the M’arillians try, the Cothica’s music starts screaming which basically drowns everything out.

[theweeklyshowwithjonstewart]

Jon questions the MAGA movement's claim of patriotism

For Jon, there's always been apocalyptic undercurrents around elections, then January 6 happened…

Crowdsourcing ways to save our sanity: what are your election night self-care plans?

Fuckface von Clownstick 2024: The Patriotism Paradox with Jon Stewart, Mona Charen, and Laurence H. Tribe

With less than a week until the election, Americans face a stark choice about their country’s future. While Fuckface von Clownstick's supporters wave flags from the Revolutionary War — a war fought against a king —Fuckface von Clownstick seeks to expand presidential authority and claim immunity from wrongdoing. This week, we’re joined by Mona Charen, Policy Editor at The Bulwark and host of Beg to Differ podcast, and Harvard Professor Emeritus Laurence H. Tribe, to explore Fuckface von Clownstick's shallow patriotism and his disregard for the very Constitution he could once again swear to preserve, protect and defend.

[9mysterybook6]

Hello guys, I have a au chaotic idea that I have had for a long time

I've been inspired by @bigfatbreak.

when I First time saw feralnette au.

The way @bigfatbreak changed Marinette's personality and appearance was genius

And imagine Kaz in Marinette's place

Here is the design

(note Check it out @bigfatbreak. blog their feralnette au is amazing)

I'm still thinking of a name for my chaotic au.

Here's the idea

Before the beginning series

kaz and Tom are close friends and Everything is fine

Until that day there was a new student.

his name is Lorenzo Reyes.

he in oc base on Lila rossi and the color scheme is Like her>

like Lila: Lorenzo doesn't like it when someone reveals that his lies aren't true, showing no remorse for lying in the first place. If anyone attempts to expose him, he won't hesitate to try to make them miserable or break them down just to get them out of his way.

And like in Miraculous season 1 ep 24, "Volpina".

kaz, like Marinette, did not trust Lorenzo

Lorenzo Give kaz two choices Because you're not stupid like everyone else You are either on my side or against me. kaz Of course rejects him

Lorenzo: You will regret this. Trust me I will make your life hell. I will make you lose everything

Just like in Miraculous SEASON 3 EP 18

Lorenzo accused kaz.

No one believed him, not even Tom believed him.

after this event kaz changed He began practicing boxing and martial arts And he became more isolated,

I was thinking about what kaz's dream what to be

Marinette wants to become a fashion designer So I thought I would make kaz's dream to be invention & game programmer.

luckily Lorenzo Move to another place. But kaz and Tom, they are no longer friends Because of that day.

when chaotic cards release.

When kaz got the code

Before he enters Perim. kaz Collect some information from players and robot.

When kaz enters the UnderWorld.

H'earring tried to jump on kaz Because of the smell from the bag but kaz dodged H'earring.

kaz picked up the bag and said, "You are H'earring the tracker."

Here's the deal. If you help me scan and show me UnderWorld you will get the Dractyl scales, And got other awful food you want.

Kaz sparked H'earring's interest And he said Straight to the point, I liked this What is your name.

Call me Kaz.

And here things become interesting.

Kaz is building a secret hideout somewhere in Perim.

Kaz did research on Perim language and technology.

Kaz designed his suit and mask

Imagine a mask with horns in front And cloak and Imagine the color scheme deep red black And dark grey.

NOT my art

kaz invented a device Something like Telebracers, And a device Makes you invisible like Mipedian

Kaz becomes a bounty hunter in Perim. he names himself the phantom Of course no one knows who he is And many players tried scan him But they all failed. In addition, Kaz spread rumors that the phantom, Any player who tries to scan him will be killed.

At the beginning of the episode Welcome to Chaotic.

Similar to the events of the episode, but with differences.

When Tom got the code. Kaz tells him about chaotic and Perim.

kaz says it's the truth.

So when Tom came in Chaotic Kaz will be like: didn't I tell you this would happen and Of course, without clothes, you are lucky. I expected that. kaz throws at tom a pair of jeans and Gray shirt.

When Kaz returned from Chaotic.

Kaz went home to Tom and he Avoid the donuts that Tom threw When he entered the room, Kaz just rolled his eyes and whispered the secret in Tom's ear.

Tom: how did you know that? I didn't tell anyone.

Kaz: yourself chaotic Tell me this secret and where is your scanner?

I threw it out

Tom, are you neglected or something? It hasn't been a day since your scanner Stop working and you just threw it away because it didn't work Instead of asking a technical expert to know the problem Or ask the store you purchased from to solve the problem.

And when they heard the sound of the garbage truck.

They started running after the truck.

Kaz manages to save Tom's scanner from being crushed by the garbage disposal.

After all this, Tom apologized to Kaz because he did not believe him. Kaz forgave Tom.

Tom asked Kaz if he could guide him in both chaotic and Perim, And Kaz agreed.

Tom tries to be Kaz's friend again While Kaz tries to keep some space between them.

Kaz always keeps people away from him and doesn't talk to them much unless you speak to him about Chaotic Or made deals.

Kaz always goes to the point Subject In a conversation.

he is friends With Sarah and Peyton

Sarah likes Kaz Because he is not reckless, unlike other players, And also Kaz is good at scan quests and He knows how to make the match fun and friendly

Peyton likes Kaz Because he Finds Kaz a chill person and They both listen to music, The competition between them still exists, like in a series.

his personality:

Kaz is like in the series But he is more calm when dealing with a situation and has More sneaks and intelligence.

I was thinking Make: Kaz makes money from his small business as a YouTuber 2d for games and he musician and singer And an artist.

here's the funny thing

Aa'une and the M'arrillian Scared of Kaz

Here's the idea for the scene

A village from OverWorld Being attacked by M'arrillian and the OverWorld troop Try to stop them while tom, Sarah, Peyton, Kaz They were there

when The general of the M'arrillian tried to control Kaz's mind. that backfire it cause to created a vibrational explosion that freed everyone from M'arrillian's control.

Let's just say When M'arrillian was in Kaz's mind This is what he saw Kaz

Kaz looked at The general of the M'arrillian With eyes filled with pure rage. He takes the Battlegear out of his bag And kaz started chasing him While cursing the M'arrillian in the language of Scotland

Everyone was wondering what was happening and why the M'arrillian was back away. And here they saw the strangest scene in their lives.

The general of the M'arrillian was running away from Orange hair Chaotic player boy While he shouts in a language they does not understand.

Some creatures recognize him as Tom's friend,

This is my idea if my au What do you guys think?

[sniperct]

Biden previewed the shift in a Zoom call Saturday with the Congressional Progressive Caucus. “I’m going to need your help on the Supreme Court, because I’m about to come out — I don’t want to prematurely announce it — but I’m about to come out with a major initiative on limiting the court … I’ve been working with constitutional scholars for the last three months, and I need some help,” Biden said, according to a transcript of the call obtained by The Washington Post

Four days after that debate, the Supreme Court ruled that Trump was immune from prosecution for official acts during his first term in office. Less than an hour later, Biden called Laurence Tribe, a constitutional law professor at Harvard Law School, to discuss the ruling and the arguments for and against reforming the court.

Biden continually works with really smart people in the background, quietly, until he's ready to do or announce something. He uses these tactics in negotiations with other countries as well. He's not bombastic nor does he make the media happy because he's boring, but he's effective.

Whether you like him or hate him, he's actually good at this job and he gets shit done and often times it's actually good shit.

[enderpawz]

aphmau and her boys are SO IMPORTANT TO ME

garroth who slowly finds himself guarding outside aphmau’s house late at night, overcome with a bone-deep fear that something will happen to her or her sons and he won’t be there to protect them. garroth who, immediately upon finding out zane is trying to wed her, sends a letter back with raven to dale and asks them to up defenses around her home for when they return from the eastern wolf tribe’s village.

laurence who will genuinely become standoff-ish when aphmau has conversations with strangers, the overwhelming feeling of alertness flooding through him as he studies every single action they make in case he needs to step in. laurence who stays up to listen to her breathing when they’re camping out, letting it ground him, a reminder that the shadow knights could not make him take away what is most important to him.

dante who will tease and scold garroth and laurence all he wants about how jealous and dumb (/aff) they are with aphmau but is somehow worse then both of them, hovering around her the entire time she wanders phoenix drop and he’s on duty. dante who is shorter than her, but will immediately takes a step in front of her and puff up the second anyone even remotely gives him the idea he needs to.

[xyxofspades]

LAURCINDA ENJOYERRRR

i haven’t thought about laurcinda in ages…but they have honestly so much chemistry. specifically in mcd ofc. like the whole witch/sk double whammy combo?! also their sassy personalities?!!!!!!

YEAHHHH THEY JUST HAVE SUCH A DYNAMIC I CANT EXPLAIN IT

When Aph was out fumbling around the wolf tribe in her owl disguise he and Lucinda started talking across the jail cells. She’s one of the only women he’s ever met who could meet his banter and then exceed at it. What a woman. He’s never really had it thrown back in his face with such vigor and honestly? He’s here for it. It’s fun.

They both think they’ll more than likely never see each other again after they leave but later back in Phoenix Drop- what the hell is that rumbling and oh my god there’s a big tower here now what the hell? Lucinda????

Garroth goes to give her a stern talking to about doing…. Whatever it is she did but Laurence somehow convinces him to let him go talk to her instead. Laurence gives her a stern talking to of his own but the conversation naturally ends up into the two of them bantering again. (“You can’t park here.” “Park my tower?” “Yeah, you can’t park your tower here.” “So where can I park my… tower?”)

They hang out a lot after work. Either at the tavern or at the town square, sometimes the docks.

Laurence asks her about her magic one day while she has him helping her in her lab (which is really just him handing her stuff off the shelves). She replies with “What, no magic of your own?” fully able to feel Shad’s influence in his veins.

“Well it’s not mine.”

“Who’s to say?”

“What?”

“It was given to you. Who said it’s not yours now?”

That’s all they say for now, the rest of the evening spent in comfortable silence. They do talk about it again in more depth at a later date. Probably over drinks.

Lucinda tells him about the family that disowned her and how they rekindled their bond. Laurence tells her about the family he lost. Lucinda tells him about her past engagement. They both crack insane jokes at Zane’s expense now, not in Garroth’s presence, of course.

Oh also

Lucinda, left. Laurence, right

[contemplatingoutlander]

One terrible possibility is that, while Judge Cannon is hearing arguments today that the whole system of Special Counsels (like Smith for J6 and Weiss for Hunter Biden) is illegal, so SCOTUS is putting the finishing touches on a decision ripping up Smith’s entire mandate (and possibly undermining all the indictments he has obtained against Trump) while it considers ending the so-called Chevron doctrine making the administrative state possible. That would make the Federalist Society’s “unitary executive” theory a Bannon-like wrecking ball of gigantic proportions that would explain but not justify the delay in handing down these rulings. --Laurence Tribe

[vote-democrat-president-congress]

The damage inflicted on the nation during Donald Trump’s first term in office pales in comparison with what he will do if he is elected to a second term.

NYTimes: By Thomas B. Edsall 8/21/24

How can we know this? The best evidence is Trump himself. He has repeatedly demonstrated his willingness to tear the country apart.

“Donald Trump and his MAGA supporters,” Sean Wilentz, a historian at Princeton, writes in a forthcoming article in Liberties,

have made it clear that they will not accept defeat in November any more than they did when Trump lost four years ago. They believe that Trump is the one true legitimate president, that those who refuse to accept this fundamental fact are the true deniers, and that any result other than Trump’s restoration would be a thwarting of history’s purpose and a diabolical act of treason.

The authoritarian imperative has moved beyond Trumpian narcissism and the cultish MAGA fringe to become an article of faith from top to bottom inside the utterly transformed Republican Party, which Trump totally commands.

Like Wilentz, Laurence Tribe, a law professor at Harvard, does not mince words, writing by email:

All the dangers foreign and domestic posed by Trump’s cruelly vindictive, self-aggrandizing, morally unconstrained, reality-defying character — as evidenced in his first presidential term and in his unprecedented refusal to accept his 2020 electoral loss — would be magnified many times over in any subsequent term by three factors.

First, he has systematically eroded the norms and the institutional guardrails that initially set boundaries on the damage he and his now more carefully chosen loyalist enablers are poised to do in carrying out the dangerous project to which they are jointly committed.

Second, their failures to insulate themselves from electoral and legal constraints during the dry run of 2017-21 have led them to formulate far more sophisticated and less vulnerable plans for their second attempt at consolidating permanent control of the apparatus of our fragile republic.

And third, their capture of the Supreme Court and indeed much of the federal judiciary has put in place devastating precedents like the immunity ruling of July 1 that will license a virtually limitless autocratic power — if, but only if, they are not stopped during the epic struggle that will reach one climax this Nov. 5 and another next Jan. 6.

The most important reason a second Trump term would be far more dangerous than his first is that if he does win this year, Trump will have triumphed with the electorate’s full knowledge that he has been criminally charged with 88 felonies and convicted of 34 of them (so far); that he has promised to “appoint a real special prosecutor to go after the most corrupt president in the history of the United States of America, Joe Biden, and the entire Biden crime family”; and that he intends to “totally obliterate the deep state” by gutting civil service protections for the 50,000 most important jobs in the federal work force, a central tenet of what he calls his “retribution” agenda.

Julie Wronski, a political scientist at the University of Mississippi, contended in an email:

The question is how much the Supreme Court presidential immunity decision will undermine institutional guardrails against Trump’s anti-democratic behavior. If there are no repercussions for his role in the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection, intimidation of election officers, and casual handling of classified materials, then Trump will be emboldened to partake in such activities again.

Trump has made clear that norms of governance — e.g., civility, accepting electoral defeat, and treating members of the political opposition as legitimate holders of power — do not apply to him.

While Kamala Harris has pulled even with, if not ahead of, Trump in recent polling, Republican attacks on her have yet to reach full intensity, and the outcome remains very much up for grabs.

Bruce Cain, a Stanford political scientist, voiced concerns similar to Wronski’s by email:

Trump is more erratic, impulsive, and self-interested than your average candidate and is much bolder than most in testing the boundaries of what he can get away with. In political insider lingo, he is a guy who likes to put his toes right up to the chalk line between legal and illegal activity.

There is some evidence that his bad traits are getting worse with old age, but the more serious problem is the lowering of institutional and political guardrails that constrained him in the past. The decision in Trump v. the U.S. entitling a former president to “absolute immunity from criminal prosecution for actions within his conclusive and preclusive constitutional authority” and “presumptive immunity from prosecution for all his official acts” seems to me particularly problematic. The court left open the question of how to distinguish between official and unofficial acts. Trump’s personality is such that he will without doubt test the limits of this distinction.

Timothy Snyder, a historian at Yale and an expert on the regimes of Stalin and Hitler, wrote by email in reply to my inquiry: “It would be closer to the truth to think about a second Trump administration beginning from the images of Jan. 6, 2021. That is where Trump left us and that is where he would begin.”

Unlike oligarchy and tyranny, Snyder argued,

Democracy depends upon example, and Trump sets the worst possible one. He has openly admired dictators his entire life. He would encourage Xi and Putin. The Russians make completely clear that a Trump presidency is their hope for victory in Ukraine. Allowing Russia to win that war, which I think is Trump’s likely orientation, destabilizes Europe, encourages China toward aggression in the Pacific, and undermines the rule of law everywhere.

Charles Stewart, a political scientist at M.I.T., warned in an email:

A second Trump administration would escalate the threat of authoritarian governance, most notably, by sanctioning politically motivated prosecutions. Even if the courts resisted the baldest of efforts, doing so will be costly to political opponents and also continue to silence dissent among conservatives who wish to have political careers.

In 2016 and for much of his first term, major elements of the Republican Party viewed Trump with deep suspicion, repeatedly blocking or weakening his more delusional initiatives. That’s no longer the case.

“The Republican Party is fully and totally behind Trump — the epicenter of election disruption — even after two impeachments, an insurrection and a criminal conviction,” Julian Zelizer, a historian at Princeton, pointed out in an email, adding:

The support that Trump received after Jan. 6, and the entire effort to overturn the election, demonstrates that much of the G.O.P. is fine with doing this. Now that the party knows what insurrection looks like and has given its stamp of approval by nominating Trump, we know that this is officially part of the Republican playbook.

One thing is clear: Trump would assume control of the White House in 2025 with far more power and far fewer restraints than when he took office in January 2017.

Jacob Hacker, a political scientist at Yale, argued that Trump’s near-dictatorial rule over the Republican Party and the absence of intraparty dissent will play a crucial role if he returns to the White House in 2025:

Democratic backsliding rests heavily on the absence of contrary messages within the party undermining democracy, because (a) this further radicalizes sympathetic voters (who take their cues from in-party politicians) and (b) makes the battle into an “us” vs. “them” partisan fight that is easily used by demagogues to justify further democratic backsliding.

Both Hacker and Frances Lee, a Princeton political scientist, pointed out that even with solid support from fellow House and Senate Republicans, Trump’s power and freedom to act will depend on partisan control of the House and the Senate.

Sign up for the Opinion Today newsletter Get expert analysis of the news and a guide to the big ideas shaping the world every weekday morning. Get it sent to your inbox. As Hacker put it:

The scale of the threat posed by a Trump presidency will rest far more than commonly recognized on the exact balance of partisan power in D.C. If Trump has both houses of Congress — along with, of course, a highly sympathetic Supreme Court — the pace and extent of democratic backsliding will be much greater than if Republicans “merely” hold the White House.

Given its role in appointments and its greater prominence, the Senate is the critical fulcrum. We saw in 2019-20 that Democrats holding the House helped keep the spotlight on Trump’s misdeeds and blocked some of Trump’s most egregious potential legislative moves. But House control is worth much less than Senate control, and a Democratic House may not be enough to prevent serious democratic backsliding.

If Democrats win a House majority, Lee wrote by email, “their control of the House would foreclose any opportunity for one-party legislating, such as the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017.”

In addition, Lee argued, “Trump’s proposals and priorities still do divide the Republican Party internally. Even though Trump has improved his position with the congressional wing of the Republican Party relative to 2017, he still faces pockets of intraparty resistance, especially but not exclusively on foreign policy.”

As a result, Lee wrote, “the remaining Trump-skeptic Republicans in Congress will have pivotal status in a narrow Republican majority. So the bottom line is that we don’t know much about the influence Trump can wield until we see the outcome of the congressional elections.”

Even accounting for Lee’s caution, however, Trump’s base of support has grown over the past eight years to encompass not only the MAGA electorate and the network of elected officials who have learned dissent is politically suicidal, but also the individuals and interests that make up the party’s infrastructure, especially the donors and lobbyists.

Just three and a half years ago, in the wake of the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol, this wing of the party threatened to become a major roadblock to a second Trump term. Leaders of Wall Street and big business voiced seemingly deep concern over the threat to democracy posed by Trump and his followers, with many of these leaders vowing that they would never contribute to a Trump campaign.

“Many of the nation’s richest people said after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol that they would never again back former President Trump,” David Lauter of The Los Angeles Times reported. Those concerns have dissipated.

In March, The Washington Post reported: “Elite donors who once balked at Trump’s fueling of the Capitol insurrection, worried about his legal problems and decried what they saw as his chaotic presidency are rediscovering their affinity for the former president — even as he praises and vows to free Jan. 6 defendants, promises mass deportations and faces 88 felony charges.”

It would be hard to overestimate the importance of Trump’s increasingly strong ties to his party’s financial establishment. His ability to shape the flow of campaign money is second only to the power of his endorsements, making obeisance to his authority even more crucial to political survival.

Trump’s shifting relationship with the Republican establishment’s major-donor community can best be seen in the changing composition of his financial backing from 2016 to 2024.

In 2016, many of Trump’s top backers, according to OpenSecrets, could best be described as marginal figures in the world of campaign finance:

McMahon Ventures, a consulting firm founded by the owners of World Wrestling Entertainment, $6 million; Mountainaire, a chicken producer, $2.01 million.

In terms of money, Trump today is a very different candidate. The corporate qualms that surfaced in the wake of the Jan. 6 insurrection have been subordinated to the prospect of billions in tax breaks for business and the rich if Trump returns to office.

According to OpenSecrets, of the $472.8 million Trump and allied PACs have raised through the middle of this year, a quarter, $115.4 million, has come from the securities and investment industry, the financial core of the Republican establishment. In 2016, this industry effectively shunned Trump, giving him a paltry $20.8 million.

“The leaders of major industries’ decision to back Trump suggests that the economic benefits of staying on the team will outweigh principled concerns about democratic norms should push come to shove in a second Trump term,” Eric Schickler, a political scientist at the University of California, Berkeley, wrote by email in response to my query.

There are several other factors raising the level of danger posed by a second Trump term in the White House.

When he took office in 2017, Trump had no clear agenda, just a collection of grievances, impulses and prejudices; no carefully prepared list of prospective loyalists to appoint to key posts; and in essence no understanding of the workings of the federal government.

These deficiencies kept many, but not all, of his destructive impulses in check as top aides and key party leaders repeatedly steered him away from the cliff.

If he wins this year, those checks on Trump will be gone.

Trump’s advisers and allies have put together a detailed agenda along with lists of men and women who are ready to do his bidding — developments that have been detailed in this column and elsewhere.

In his email, Schickler emphasized the crucial role played by Trump’s successful efforts to drive Republican opponents out of elective office. Now, Schickler wrote:

“Each Republican member’s own political survival depends on being loyal to the team.” He continued, “Republicans will stand by Trump in any potential impeachment battle — as result, there will be no chance for a conviction, essentially making any attempt to enforce accountability into just another partisan showdown.”

During his first term, Schickler noted, Trump “raised the possibility of taking a threatening action — such as sending in troops to arrest or even shoot protesters,” but he was held back by his own appointees and senior government employees.

“The big difference in 2025,” Schickler cautioned,

is that there is a much more built-out political operation supporting Trump. Appointees will be carefully vetted for their loyalty. When it comes time to implement an order that, for example, removes civil service protections from most federal workers, the top layers of executive agencies will be filled with people eager to follow through and weed out those with “bad” views.

Not only will Trump be more robustly protected if he returns to the White House in 2025; a key institution — the Supreme Court — is more likely to back his initiatives now that it is dominated by a 6-3 conservative majority, half of which is made up of Trump appointees.

That conservative bloc has already signaled its willingness to unleash Trump in its July 1 immunity decision, Trump v. United States.

The ruling gave Trump new grounds to challenge the criminal charges and convictions he faces and suggests broad approval for future Trump policies and initiatives. The president, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the 6-3 majority opinion, “may not be prosecuted for exercising his core constitutional powers, and he is entitled, at a minimum, to a presumptive immunity from prosecution for all his official acts.”

Robert Y. Shapiro, a political scientist at Columbia, wrote by email:

Trump says he wants to replace the bureaucracy — part of the “deep state” — with political appointees. He wants to go after his political enemies, lock up refugees in camps, and implicit in all this he will appoint cabinet members and high-level officials who support what he wants to do instead of the “grown-ups” who constrained him at every turn during his presidency.

In this context, Shapiro continued:

The above threat to democracy has to be seen, on the face of it, as real, given that the Supreme Court has opened the possibility of immunity on any presidential actions, however criminal they might be. What Trump has said he will do, and what the Supreme Court has opened the door to — what he can do in terms of what would be criminal and not just impeachable offenses — pose an enormous threat to the nation and American democracy.

Gary Jacobson, a political scientist at the University of California, San Diego, summarized the risks raised by the Supreme Court’s immunity ruling in an email:

The court’s decisions have made it harder for the judiciary, Congress or other institutions to hold Trump in check. The immunity decision certainly enables an authoritarian presidency far beyond that envisioned by the people who wrote the Constitution.

The biggest difference if Trump is re-elected, Jacobson argued,

will be the absence of officials in the administration with the stature, experience, and integrity to resist Trump’s worst instincts in such matters. A White House staffed with sycophantic loyalists or white nationalist zealots who share Trump’s ignorance and contempt for norms and institutions will give him freer rein than in the first term.

As Sean Wilentz warns:

Trump, who does not speak in metaphors, has made it plain: “If I don’t get elected, it’s going to be a blood bath.” This is a time for imagining the worst. Not a single loyal Republican official has objected to that statement or to similar MAGA warnings about an impending civil war.

Yet, Wilentz writes, “many of even the most influential news sources hold to the fiction Trump and his party are waging a presidential campaign instead of a continuing coup, a staggering failure to recognize Trump’s stated agenda.”

I am going to give the last word to Timothy Snyder, the Yale historian:

Trump is in the classic dictatorial position: He needs to die in bed holding all executive power to stay out of prison. This means that he will do whatever he can to gain power, and once in power will do all that he can to never let it go. This is a basic incentive structure which underlies everything else. It is entirely inconsistent with democracy.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/21/opinion/trump-second-term-2025.html

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

don't piss off cat people

* * * *

Biden-Harris promote Supreme Court reform!

July 30, 2024

Robert B. Hubbell

At long last! President Biden announced proposals for significant reforms to the Supreme Court, and presumptive nominee Kamala Harris immediately endorsed those reforms! President Biden has also proposed a constitutional amendment to reverse the Supreme Court’s decision in Trump v. US that granted extra-constitutional immunity to presidents after they leave office.

Although passing these reforms depends on the outcome of the 2024 election and the successful defense of the proposed laws in the courts, President Biden and V.P. Harris have changed the framework for discussing the Supreme Court. The question is now, “When?,” not “If?”

It has been a long and uncertain road to this point, but the Supreme Court’s stream of lawless decisions issued by a conflicted and hyper-partisan bench has proved too much for the American people. In proposing the reforms and constitutional amendment now, President Biden has ensured that the Supreme Court is on the ballot in 2024.

President Biden authored an op-ed in the Washington Post that explains his proposals. See Opinion  Joe Biden: My plan to reform the Supreme Court and ensure no president is above the law. (This article is accessible to all.) I hope you will take the time to read the entire op-ed.

President Biden places the ethics scandals at the Court front-and-center in his proposal:

[T] he court is mired in a crisis of ethics. Scandals involving several justices have caused the public to question the court’s fairness and independence, which are essential to faithfully carrying out its mission of equal justice under the law. [¶] What is happening now is not normal, and it undermines the public’s confidence in the court’s decisions, including those impacting personal freedoms. We now stand in a breach.

President Biden has proposed three reforms:

1.    A constitutional amendment that would provide that there is no immunity for crimes a former president committed while in office 2.    A binding code of ethics 3.    Eighteen-year term limits (A president would appoint a new justice every two years, who would serve for 18 years).

Some commentators welcomed the proposals as a “practical way forward” that could garner support for passage after the 2024 election. See Politico, Democrats May Have a Real Chance to Reform the Supreme Court. President Biden’s proposal omitted enlarging the Court, a proposal that the Politico article described as an unpopular outlier not likely to gain legislative support.

Each proposal faces difficulties in gaining passage.

As to the constitutional amendment abolishing presidential immunity, Ian Millhiser in Vox reviewed the historical challenges faced by earlier proposed amendments, including the ERA and a proposal to ban child labor. (To date, neither has passed.) An amendment requires approval by a 2/3 supermajority in both chambers of Congress and ratification by 3/4 of the states (38 states). That is a tall order, indeed. But it won’t happen if we don’t try. And Republican states may be more supportive of such an amendment if they perceive that a Democratic president—like Kamala Harris—is too powerful.

The binding ethics code is plainly constitutional because the Constitution grants Congress the authority to create “exceptions” and impose “regulations” on the Court’s exercise of appellate jurisdiction. But the plain words of the Constitution haven’t prevented Justice Alito from taking the position that Congress is constitutionally prohibited from imposing regulations on the Court. Alito should lose, but it will be a fight.

As to the term limits, there will be a fight over whether the Constitution’s grant of life tenure to judges—subject to good behavior—permits term limits. Some constitutional scholars (including Professor Laurence Tribe) believe that term limits are permissible in the absence of a constitutional amendment, while others disagree. The Supreme Court would likely decide this issue.

One reform not suggested by President Biden is enlarging the Court. That path would not be subject to constitutional challenge and would require only a majority vote in both chambers of Congress (and a carve-out to the filibuster, which requires only 51 votes in the Senate). But for reasons that escape me, many politicians and observers view the least legally objectionable pathway as the most radical. Nonetheless, Senator Edward Markey of Massachusetts has proposed legislation to enlarge the Supreme Court to thirteen justices. See  Democracy Docket, ‘We Must Expand the Court:’ Sen. Markey, Advocates Call for Adding 4 SCOTUS Seats.

Oddly, in an interview with Laura Ingraham on Monday, Trump criticized President Biden’s proposal, claiming that Biden “wants to pack the Court.” Laura Ingraham responded, “That’s not in Biden’s proposal.”

Regardless of the way forward, reforming the Supreme Court is now on the table with the support of President Biden, Vice President Harris, and leading Democrats in Congress. It will happen—if only because the current reactionary majority will continue to curtail the rights and liberties of all Americans. It is only a matter of time—and it is up to us. We must all vote as if Supreme Court reform is on the ballot in 2024—because it is!

Kamala Harris continues to challenge Trump / Vance directly and vigorously

On Monday, an Iowa six-week abortion ban went into effect. At a campaign rally, V.P. Kamala Harris repeatedly referred to legislation restricting reproductive liberty in the states as “Trump abortion bans.” See WSJ, Harris Puts Abortion, a Weakness for Trump, at Center of Campaign. As noted in the WSJ article, President Biden was reluctant to say the word “abortion,” while Kamala Harris is a “fighter” on the issue who is willing to urge voters to “stop Donald Trump’s extreme abortion bans.”

V.P. Harris also posted a video on YouTube condemning the Iowa abortion ban and promising to sign legislation to protect the right to abortion nationally. See YouTube, Vice President Harris on Trump's Abortion Ban in Iowa | Harris 2024.

Some (most?) women sensed President Biden’s discomfort on the issue and are responding positively to Kamala Harris’s strong support for access to abortions and reproductive healthcare for all women in the US. Harris’s approach resonates with many women in America who felt that President Biden was a reluctant advocate for abortion rights, even though President Biden and Kamala Harris support the same policies.

The Harris Campaign continues to go after Trump and Vance with lightning speed and full force. Within hours of JD Vance removing his absolutist abortion stance from his website, the Harris HQ Twitter feed posted Vance’s now-deleted position with the comment, “Weird that Vance just deleted this from his website.”

The Harris campaign also posted a quick reply to Trump's claim on Monday that the Biden-Harris record on crime was “terrible.” The Harris campaign posted the following:

Our opponent Donald Trump is a criminal.

• Migrants were more likely to be released after a border arrest under President Trump than under the Biden-Harris administration. • As president, Donald Trump oversaw the largest single-year spike in the murder rate in more than a century. • As president, Trump proposed a $400 million cut to local law enforcement funding. • Trump has demanded the defunding of federal law enforcement, while proposing using the FBI and Justice Department to go after his political enemies. • JD Vance said, "I hate the police."

The Harris Campaign is also amplifying a clip from Trump's interview with Laura Ingraham that included this exchange:

Ingraham: Why not debate Kamala Harris? Trump: Because everyone already knows everything Ingraham: They’re saying you’re afraid of debating her Trump: I’m leading in the polls

Can you smell the fear? It is not true that Trump is leading in the polls. The race has tightened considerably, with Kamala Harris making up persistent deficits posted by President Biden. The race remains close, within the margin of error in many polls, but the trends all favor Kamala Harris. She has the momentum, and Trump and Vance are on the defensive.

So, if you are feeling good about Kamala Harris’s candidacy, you should be. After a whole week as the presumptive nominee, she continues to have the Trump campaign on its back foot. And the first three days of this week will feature massive online fundraisers and strategy meetings with hundreds of thousands of volunteers!

I invite readers who attend(ed) any of the online meetings to post your observations in the Comment section.

While we have reason to be hopeful, we have no reason to be complacent. We must beat Trump by a wide margin to remove all doubt and opportunity for election interference by Trump or the Supreme Court. (See Concluding Thoughts.)

Robert B. Hubbell Newsletter

[longwindedbore]

I can understand the rural lived-in-a-White-bubble Evangelical and Fox viewing MAGA who risks nothing voting for Trump.

But Kenneth Chesebro who is a co-defendant in Georgia and likely as yet unindicted co-conspirator in the J6 case is 61 and didn’t graduate from a diploma mill…he had a first rate education:

‘He studied at Northwestern University and Harvard Law School. He graduated from law school in 1986, in the same class as Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan; both were among several students who worked as research assistants to Professor Laurence Tribe while in law school.’

—- Wipedia Article.

Lack of education or life experience or experience with diversity were NOT the problem(s).

Power corrupts. Even proximity to power?

But, you’re there in the Oval Office listening to a an incompetent speaking at a third grade level with the ‘nuclear football’ just just outside the door…

…and you decide, “yeah, I’ll soil my name in the history books, crash my career, probably go to jail all to engage in a seditious conspiracy that just may spark a civil war. So that a grasping rapist can continue to defecate on the office and potentially burn the planet.”

WHY?

[intothewildsstuff]

Legal Legend Laurence Tribe and Celebrity Lawyer George Conway Escalate Effort To Remove Judge From Jack Smith’s Prosecution of Trump | The New York Sun

I sure hope they are successful. We need Smith to nail tRump right into prison.