Well…even with the despair that most of the country feels as trump and his criminal cronies get away with committing crimes every day, there are small bits of news that offer some hope that our institutions are going to strike back with the rule of law….and that happened Monday when a federal court judge ruled that yes, Don McGahn has to testify in the impeachment investigation (or this one is from the Mueller investigation) and the judge went on to say that no one is above the law or a king who can just do whatever the hell he wants…and the opinion went on for 120 pages where the judge tried to teach trump and his cronies what the constitution says about the separation of powers and that the legislative branch is well within it’s rights described in the constitution to conduct oversight of the executive branch. But, that little hope is tempered by the fact that trump and his enablers have put so many shitty judges on the bench that most of them don’t even know what the constitution says and those folks are the ones who will be deciding the case when the inevitable appeal hits the courts…and, of course, with Kavanaugh on the supreme court, trump really could shoot someone on 5th avenue and he and the rest of the conservatives would say that it’s just perfectly fine and a president can do anything without consequence. So, where does that leave us? We need to vote, vote, vote to throw these criminals out in 2020 and then our task will be to restore the rule of law and codify that yes, a sitting president can be indicted if there is evidence of a crime…just like anyone else….
Tag Archives: courts
Sam Brownback v. the Constitution
Well…with so much crap coming out of Kansas and it’s failed tea party experiment of cut taxes at all costs…the governor there has sunk to a new low…after some rulings against him saying that the state government had a constitutional responsibility to fund the schools there, Ole Sam did just what the bullies in the repub party do…he got the repub legislature to pass a law saying that if they ruled against him again, that the entire judiciary there will be defunded…just the kind of extortion that the repubs are good at…well.. the only thing they are good at is threatening people that won’t do what they want…never mind that the judicial branch is supposed to be the check on the legislative and executive branch…where is that pocket Constitution that all of you tea partiers carry around, Sam? This stuff is obviously uncostitutional but that doesn’t mean anything to the repubs…they only read the Constitution when they can use it as a club to get their own way…man…we need to get out to vote to get rid of these asses…geez…
This is justice?
Well…not sure what is going on in the courts around the US these days, but I know I don’t like it….if you haven’t heard, on of the trendiest legal defenses that is being used across the country tries to get judges to take the economic impact or the “suitability” for jail time of the defendant when sentencing. The latest is this guy out in Oregon who got caught for his 7th DUI which has a mandatory minimum sentence of 120 days for repeat offenders, but this guy was let go with no time because the judge thought jail time would impact his business too much…yep, I guess now that the rich truly are immune to any law if it may cost them some money….just like the judge out east who wouldn’t sentence a money manager to any jail time after he stole millions of dollars since he didn’t think the defendant was “suitable” for prison when he should have gone away for at least 10 years…and you remember the defense lawyer that got a kid off in Texas for killing 4 people in a drunken driving accident by citing he was damaged by “affluenza”…being so rich all his life that he didn’t understand that there are consequences to his actions…what the hell is wrong with this country? No wonder there is so much criminality going on with the rich…they know they can get away with it…geez….
Just wandering around….
Well…have been thinking about a political one to do today and really haven’t come up with anything…so I’m going to wander around a bit and just see what happens…it is a little heartening to see the progressives start to find their feet lately with getting the filibuster eliminated for judicial appointees which will give us the ability to appoint judges that will follow the law and not ideology…and that is one of the ironies that I see in the judiciary…the righties howl and howl about activist judges, but which ones are the most activist? It’s always the conservatives who don’t believe in the law or precedent…and to prove this, you only have to look as far as Citizens United where the conservatives on the court threw out a hundred years of precedent and made corporations equal to people….and they are poised to further extend this terrible precedent with a new case that will allow Scalia and the rest of the conservative thugs on the supreme court to say that corporations have religious rights, too…and that one will have to be pulled out of their asses since nothing like that appears anywhere in precedent or the constitution….and it will mean a huge increase in the power of the corporations since they will then be able to argue that they can do whatever they want to their employees…basically nullifying the last 100 years of labor law…so, progressives, we need to keep fighting to take back the court and our government from these folks, to make this country what it can and should be…where people count more than corporations and the law is the law…geez…okay…I didn’t wander as much as I expected…it’s funny sometimes how a topic will just write itself…
More nonsense from ole Newt…
Well…I don’t know if ole Newt is just an idiot but there are so many recent statements that I am heading toward that direction with his attack on the courts one the weekend talk shows last weekend. In case you haven’t heard, ole Newt said he would abolish federal courts that rule differently than he thinks they should and even send federal marshals to arrest judges to make sure they appear before congress if requested to explain a ruling that the party currently in control of congress did not agree with. This nonsense is so breathtaking in it’s ignorance of the constitution and the separation of powers doctrine that has been the foundation of our justice system that it just shows the true contempt that the repubs have for America and our laws and traditions. I just can’t believe that any of these idiots that are running for the repubs can compete with Obama…
Just a short one….
Well…just had a thought and I may have shared it before but I’m going to get this down again since I think it’s an important one. Did you notice that while the repubs are always screaming about “activist” judges and courts, it is the first place they turn when they don’t get their way? And, they always make sure that their lawsuits will get heard by judges that can be relied upon to tread the repub line when they are supposed to follow the law and precedent. This crap started with Bush V. Gore and continues to this day with the healthcare law that most of the people in this country don’t want repealed. But, the repubs want to undue the will of the people for their corporate masters, as always….I think they should be sued for malfeasance in office and have them have to pay damages to you and me…