It is unusual for judges to be chastising litigants

Ian Reifowitz of the Daily Kos community compares today’s situation to what happened in Germany 100 years ago. That German situation is known as the Dolchstoßlegende. That directly translates to “dagger stab legend” or the legend of being stabbed in the back. Through the World War I the news in Germany was tightly censored. The citizens were consistently told they were winning. Since little of the war was fought on German territory citizens had no direct evidence of how the war was going. Thanks to America’s entry into the war, by the fall of 1918 the German position began to collapse. The Berlin government requested negotiations for an armistice. To the German citizens the news of the armistice – and that they were on the losing side – was a shock. They had consistently been told they were winning and suddenly they lost. They refused to believe it. At the end of October that year sailors refused orders to carry out an attack they saw as futile. The mutiny spread beyond the military and on November 9 Kaiser Wilhelm II abdicated. The government shifted to civilian control, to the left-leaning Social Democrats. Representatives of this party signed the armistice, the terms of surrender, and the Versailles Treaty, which was seen as unduly harsh. Because the Social Democrats took power two days before the armistice they could be and were blamed for the defeat. Never mind the Kaiser had been leading the war effort for the previous 1,568 days. The form of that blame was the dagger stab legend. This new civilian government was accused of stabbing the military in the back, which is why they lost. The legend undermined the Weimar Republic, which fell to the Nazis 15 years later. I had been to the Holocaust Memorial Center in nearby Farmington Hills when they had a temporary display of how gay men were treated by the Nazi regime. One early panel showed the back stab legend, though didn’t explain it as well as Reifowitz did. On to parallels to today. Throughout the campaign the nasty guy said he was winning. “Real” polls showed him ahead. The polls that showed Biden ahead were fake. And … Reifowitz wrote:

On the eve of the election, a YouGov poll found that half of all Republican voters believed Trump would “definitely win,” and another quarter of them believed he would “probably win.”

That belief persisted after the election, supported by right-wing media still declared the nasty guy in the lead – yeah, over a week after election day. I knew Fox News – at least their election results desk – is honest. They declared Joe Biden won. Which is why the nasty guy hates them now. There are many other right-wing news outlets, including the rest of Fox News. Reifowitz said one of the others is Gateway Pundit. It’s host Joe Hoft told his audience to keep the faith and “trust your eyes, not their lies.” Meaning, trust what we tell you. Reifowitz wrote:

If the only information providers these people trust promise that Trump is going to win, and then insist that he really did win, then why would they believe any different? Large swaths of Trump supporters exist within what amounts to a self-reinforcing media echo chamber.

We’re in for a difficult time ahead. Some of the people who are deeply invested in a nasty guy win are willing to use violence to enforce their belief. Joan McCarter of Kos reviewed some of the lawsuits the nasty guy has filed against various states in hopes of sowing distrust in democracy. There’s a lot of close questioning to reveal there’s nothing there. In at least one case the nasty guy lawyer admitted his case was BS. McCarter wrote:

The pointed questioning—the exasperation—of judges is not normal said Wendy Weiser, director of the bipartisan law and public policy institute at the Brennan Center for Justice. "It is unusual for judges to be chastising litigants," Weiser said. "But the lack of evidence in these cases is unusual. For the judges to be speaking this way, the gaps need to be fairly significant." Karl Racine, the attorney general for the District of Columbia, agrees that Republican lawyers are pushing their luck. "I would not be surprised that if these baseless allegations continue, judges will begin to threaten and indeed issue sanctions." ... "You are required to have some basis for believing your claims to be true. It has to be some basis in fact, not just wild speculation," Weiser said. "And the bar isn't even that high. To not meet it is very unusual and inappropriate."

The Sunday Detroit Free Press yesterday had an editorial asking the GOP led Michigan legislature to get busy or get out of the way. The conservative majority state Supreme Court struck down the law that Gov. Gretchen Whitmer was using to impose emergency pandemic measures. That happened on October 2. Coronavirus cases had started to rise in mid September and rose rapidly after that date. A month later the new cases per day was four times what it had been in early October. When the law was struck down House Speaker Lee Chatfield called the ruling “a great win for the people of Michigan.” Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkee said, “Citizens will benefit the most.” The editorial said:

If their objective is to demonstrate how a dramatic reassertion of legislative authority can improve the state's management of the pandemic, Shirkey and Chatfield are, so far, failing spectacularly.

The Department of Health and Human Services has issued a mask mandate for businesses using a separate law for authority. Clearly, it isn’t enough. A recent bill aims to hobble the DHHS. As for actually dealing with the virus, the legislature is doing nothing.

All of which begs the question: If Chatfield and Shirkey are so eager to play a bigger role in managing the pandemic, why aren't they playing it? … If the state's legislative leaders don't have the stomach for that fight, they should at least get out of the way of the governor and state health officials who have led it thus far.

Sunday afternoon Whitmer issued new restrictions that take effect on Wednesday and last for three weeks. The legislature … is on break. The new restrictions close casinos, movie theaters, college and high school in-person classes, non-professional sports, indoor fitness classes, and offices that can conduct business remotely. Restaurants and bars must close indoor dining. Indoor residential gatherings are limited to ten people from two households. My church, which had resumed indoor services, will likely go to online only. Jodi Doering, an ER nurse in South Dakota tweeted:

I have a night off from the hospital. As I’m on my couch with my dog I can’t help but think of the Covid patients the last few days. The ones that stick out are those who still don’t believe the virus is real. The ones who scream at you for a magic medicine and that Joe Biden is going to ruin the USA. All while gasping for breath on 100% Vapotherm. They tell you there must be another reason they are sick. They call you names and ask why you have to wear all that “stuff” because they don’t have COViD because it’s not real. Yes. This really happens. And I can’t stop thinking about it. These people really think this isn’t going to happen to them. And then they stop yelling at you when they get intubated. It’s like a f---ing horror movie that never ends. There’s no credits that roll. You just go back and do it all over again.