Two nightmares in life: being broke and being in jail

My Sunday movie was Absolute Beginners episodes 3 and 4. This series is rated TV-MA – very much for mature audiences. I need to give a spoiler alert. So if you intend to watch, skip to the next section of this post. Lena and Niko are creating a movie they hope will get them into film school. Niko refused to do a sex scene with Lena because she is like a sister. So they recruit Igor to be in their movie. In episode 3 Lena and Niko work to become friends with Igor and make him comfortable with the idea of acting. Lena begins to show that Igor would do quite nicely as her partner in the sex scene. Niko and Lena are good friends because their parents share a vacation cottage by the seashore. But the friendship and Niko’s parents’ marriage are falling apart. Episode 4: As the student movie progresses I see why this is tagged as an LGBTQ story (which is why I started watching), though one relationship surprised me. Episodes 5 and 6 this weekend. Reactions to the nasty guy’s conviction began being posted shortly after the convictions were announced. Walter Einenkel of Daily Kos collected several. At the top is Dark Brandon with an ice cream cone in one hand and holding out a big “L” with the other. We also get such things as Derek Guy noting “First sneaker designer to be convicted of 34 felony counts.” And Discussing Film noting “‘Home Alone 2: Lost in New York’ star Donald Trump has been found guilty of 34 felony counts. Of course, the nasty guy used it as an opportunity to fundraise. JekylInHyde of the Kos community posted a bunch of editorial cartoons. Denise Oliver-Velez tweeted, “Trump’s appeal oral arguments will be in front of the first All-Black women Appellate bench. On Saturday, not quite two days after the conviction, Kos of Kos noted that punditry and conservative gaslighters claim these felony convictions are good for the nasty guy’s campaign and is energizing his supporters. First, those supporters don’t need to be “energized.” And they won’t decide the election. Kos looked at a poll by Morning Consult done after the verdict: + 54% approve of the conviction. + 34% disapprove of the conviction. That’s only a third. + “Just 15%” of Republican voters want him to drop his White House bid. “Just”? That’s a big number in a tight election. + 49% of independents think he should end his campaign. In the two previous races the nasty guy hasn’t gotten 47%. Last time around Biden got 51.3%. Of course RFK Jr. is a wildcard. Also, this really is a race in just a few battleground states. The math doesn’t look good for the nasty guy and the conviction will make the math worse. Kerry Eleveld of Kos wrote:

Republicans added a new litmus test to the list of loyalty pledges they must make to Donald Trump following his criminal conviction: Do they believe in the U.S. justice system? Before Trump's guilty verdict, Republicans were already required to say they don't believe in U.S. elections (2020 was stolen!) and that they wouldn't accept the 2024 election if Trump loses (no peaceful transfer of power!). Now the GOP has officially thrown "law and order" on the MAGA pyre too.

Larry Hogan, Maryland Republican running for the Senate, urged people to “respect the verdict.” The nasty guy campaign told him “You just ended your campaign.” But Maryland is reliably blue in presidential elections, so he has to please more liberal voters. But the Republican edict to fall in line is clear. Eleveld then listed many Republicans who did fall in line. At the top of the list is Speaker Mike Johnson. He asked the Supreme Court to force a do-over. Of course, those auditioning to be Vice Nasty spouted their condemnation of the verdict as fast as they could. At least Moscow Mitch didn’t complain about the entire legal system. David Nir of Kos noted the curious case of Republican House members from districts that voted for Biden yet who called the verdict shameful. Aldous Pennyfarthing of Kos wrote about 11 times the nasty guy was in legal or political peril (the list is not exhaustive nor in a particular order) when he was pulled out of the fire and allowed to continue. 1. “Access Hollywood” tape, rescued by the James Comey letter about Hillary Clinton. 2. His campaign launch where he declared Mexican immigrants were criminals and rapists, rescued by primary voters who didn’t think that was offensive. 3. He mocked a disabled reporter, rescued by primary voters. 4. He disrespected Gold Star families and John McCain. 5. The Mueller probe, rescued by Bill Barr’s spinning. 6. He called Nazis very fine people in Charlottesville, rescued because Nazi apologia isn’t a problem for Republicans. 7. Extorting Ukraine and first impeachment, rescued by Republicans. 8. He believed Putin over his own intelligence at the Helsinki summit, saved by dissolving Republican spines. 9. The Capitol attack and second impeachment, rescued by Moscow Mitch and Rep. Kevin McCarthy. 10. The E. Jean Carroll judgment, rescued through Republican indifference. 11. Four felony cases with 91 felony charges, rescued through Republican indifference. Last Friday Eleveld discussed the nasty guy’s apparent mental deterioration. Eleveld referred to a podcast by Chris Christie to explain the situation. The podcast was recorded before the verdict was read out. Christie recounted a discussion with the nasty guy two decades ago, summarized as:

Christie said Trump is haunted by two nightmares in life: being broke and being in jail. If Trump were to be found guilty, Christie predicted, "He will get angrier and angrier and more paranoid.”

After the verdict a reporter asked if the nasty guy was worried about going to jail. He ignored the question. But mentally he’s in a very dark place. To me it means during his campaign speeches he will emphasize violence and retribution more than he usually does while making a lot less sense. Kos of Kos wrote about whether the conviction would hurt the nasty guy in the election. He looked at several polls. Then concluded:

But you want to know how we really know that the felony conviction is hurting Trump? Because he hasn’t shut up talking about how rigged it is, demanding his entire party—the supposed “law and order” Republican Party—endorse a convicted felon as their nominee. If it didn’t hurt him, Fox News and the rest of the conservative ecosystem wouldn’t be in overdrive trying to paint the conviction as a politically motivated hit job by hostile nefarious forces. If it didn’t hurt him, he’d be bragging about the conviction, rather than attacking it

. At the top of a pundit roundup for Kos, Greg Dworkin put a montage of newspaper headlines, most of them with the words “Guilty” or “Convicted” in large font. People who don’t read the stories do read the headlines. Dworkin included a tweet by Brian Klaas:

Interviewers: I beg you. Stop asking Republicans if they think the trial was “rigged.” Ask them if they believe that candidates should be allowed to make illegal hush money payments to further their campaign. Ask them, specifically, which evidence they think the jury got wrong.

In the comments of this post there are a lot of cartoons showing the nasty guy in prison. There are a lot of variations on that theme. The only one I’ll mention is one by Ben Jennings. It shows the nasty guy having been in the communal shower for a while and the orange bronzer still washing away. Below that is a cartoon by Mike Luckovich related to Justice Alito’s scandal. There are a few women dressed in Handmaid Tale robes and bonnets. One says, “But we still have control over out flags...” Megan Herbert posted a cartoon of the orange crayon saying between the orange bronzer and the orange jumpsuit he’s going to be worn down to a stub, so he quits. Mark Sumner of Kos wrote:

Hints that Elon Musk and Donald Trump are working their way toward an alliance have been increasing for months. Trump has wanted to tap Musk’s billions to solve some of his fiscal problems—like the hundreds of millions he owes after being found liable for fraud, sexual assault, and defamation. ... Musk and [billionaire Nelson] Peltz are conducting regular soirees with other billionaires to convince them to turn against President Joe Biden. Musk isn’t satisfied with cutting a massive check for Trump; He’s trying to cut any support out from under Biden by putting pressure on other members of his billionaire boys club. ... It doesn’t matter if Trump and Musk secretly hate each other; Neither of them is interested in making friends. They’re interested in money and power, they want more of both, and they want to lock in a plutocracy that means no one can ever get in their way.

Pennyfarthing reported that Bill Pruitt, producer of the TV show The Apprentice, had a nondisclosure agreement that expired this year. So he told many of the shows secrets in an essay for Slate.

Pruitt goes on at length about the smoke and mirrors the show employed to make Trump look competent and sane, and he doesn’t mince words. He confesses that “The Apprentice” was essentially a “long con played out over a decade of watching Trump dominate prime time by shouting orders, appearing to lead, and confidently firing some of the most capable people on television.” Pruitt stresses that the con wasn’t malicious (it was just a TV show, after all), but admits that “we played fast and loose with the facts, particularly regarding Trump, and if you were one of the 28 million who tuned in, chances are you were conned.” Gee, ya think?

One way they did it was re-record his dialogue. They would put him in a boardroom set and feed him lines over the phone, which he would then say into a microphone. They did that because he couldn’t remember the contestant’s names and couldn’t describe the task the contestants were to do. That sounds quite a lot like many media outlets who cover for his many verbal stumbles. Just after the 2016 election I listened to a group of guys talk about it. One of them was not at all surprised the nasty guy won. He had traveled through America and listened to how the locals gushed over him. They said the reason for their gushing was how forceful he was on The Apprentice and we needed a president like that. Yep, they were among the conned. Also, a few years ago on Gaslit Nation hosts Sarah Kendzior and Andrea Chalupa discussed that The Apprentice was specifically designed and practically forced onto a network for the purpose of rehabilitating the nasty guy’s image. Meaning that bit about “just a TV show” wasn’t true. Dartagnan of the Kos community challenged the nasty guy’s campaign claims (going back to 2016) that he was the cause of the greatest economic turnaround in history. He said inherited an economic disaster from Obama and cleaned it up and that Biden has squandered it. Of course, the truth is nothing like that. Obama cleaned up Bush II’s economic disaster and the economy was humming along quite well, so well that former White House communications director Jen Psaki explained, “A buffoon could have kept the recovery going.” As for everyone being wealthier, that was true for pretty much only the billionaires, or .000006% of the population. After the nasty guy left Washington Biden cleaned up the pandemic’s economic mess, which has been humming along so well it has prompted the stock market to reach new highs.

As economists are fond of pointing out, the performance of the economy is mostly a consequence of events that presidents cannot control. Thus, most presidents tend to operate as stewards, carefully managing all the various unexpected crises and the domestic and global repercussions that befall their terms in office, with a view toward maintaining the nation’s economic growth. Obama governed in this manner, as has Biden, and both have the numbers to show for it. Trump, however, has shown no such forbearance, either in his appalling response to the COVID-19 pandemic or in his pet policies before that catastrophe occurred. His specific economic plans should he be elected again have been characterized as potentially disastrous. Americans’ memories may be short, but there is one basic fact they ought to keep in mind. This country has sustained two successive economic calamities during this century, in 2008 and 2020, both occurring under Republican administrations. In both circumstances, it was the Democrat—Obama in 2009 and Biden in 2021—who succeeded in pulling the economy and this nation out of a very deep, dark hole left to them by their Republican predecessor. So Americans ought to ask themselves, which party has proved itself competent at managing the economy, and which has not?

TheCriticalMind of the Kos community discussed a podcast by media personality Colin Cowherd. He’s normally known for his sports analysis, though after the conviction he had a few things to say about the nasty guy. In particular, he had a rebuttal to the dystopian fantasies the nasty guy likes to declare. Here are excerpts of what Cowherd said:

I get on planes. There’s people in normal clothes. They don't look rich to me. And the planes are all full. And the hotels are all full. And the freeways are all full. That means people are going to work.” ... Trump’s entire game plan is that the country is in a free fall. Maybe in the Trump-centric neighborhoods, it is. It’s not anywhere for my sister, who lives rurally. Doesn't have a lot of crime in her neighborhood. I don't. My friends don’t. We live all over Los Angeles in one of those big scary cities that voted for liberals. ... Stop trying to sell me on everything's ‘rigged’. The country’s falling into the sea. The economy’s terrible. The economy is OK. It's not like ‘on fire.’ But get on a plane. Find all the empty seats. I don't see them. Those aren't cheap. Either are hotel rooms over Memorial weekend.

Sumner addressed the claim by the nasty guy, Republicans, and conservative media that America has become a very violent place.

Preliminary statistics for 2023 indicate the lowest levels of violent crime ever recorded, dropping below previous records in 2014 and 2019. And that’s still not all, because right now it appears that 2024 is still trending down. Americans are safer now than they have been in decades, and the numbers have only gotten better under Biden. But you won’t hear that from Republicans, or Fox News, or much of the media. Because pushing fear is all they know. There are fewer violent crimes now than there were in 1971 under Richard Nixon, despite a population that has increased by over 100 million people. Today we are experiencing not simply fewer crimes per person, but fewer crimes overall. According to FBI statistics, there were over 5 million fewer violent crimes in the United States last year than in the final full year of Ronald Reagan's “tough on crime” administration.

In the comments of another pundit roundup Captain Frogbert discussed the requirements for getting a governmental security clearance. Summary: With a felony conviction the nasty guy does not qualify for a security clearance and, because of that, cannot execute the duties of president. That’s the big reason why he wouldn't get clearance. There are also many more: mental instability, foreign entanglements with America’s enemies (Putin), massive debts, shady business practices, long-term association with mobsters, and a history of cavalier treatment of classified intelligence (that one has 11 subpoints). And this is the guy Republicans intend to nominate. That shows they believe the rules of a civil society, morality, and rule of law do not apply to them. Sumner, in his weekly 7 stories post for Kos discussed the start of the Hunter Biden trial. Which refutes the big Republican claim that the nasty guy’s trial was rigged. If Biden had that much control over the judicial system why is Hunter on trial? In the second story for the post Sumner reviewed the effects of 20 years of same-sex marriage. He worked from an article in the Los Angeles Times. The quotes are from the Times:

“If there were negative consequences in the last 20 years of the decision to legalize marriage for same-sex couples, no one has yet been able to measure them,” researcher Benjamin Karney told the Times. ... The headline from our new analysis is no negative impacts and some positive ones. We see an increase in marriage, and that increase is driven not just by newly marrying same-sex couples, but also by an increase in marriage among different-sex couples. That was a bit surprising to us.

Humanity's spiritual maturation into living in global peace and harmony

My Sunday movie was The Quiet Girl, an Irish film. Cáit is nine years old. She has three older sisters, a toddler brother, and another sibling on the way. She’s the middle child and can get overlooked in the crowd. She’s also good at hiding. Her family is a bit dysfunctional and is poor. To give Mam a break leading up to the baby’s birth, her parents take her to live with her mother’s cousins, a couple with no children. Of course, Cáit is not consulted. Over the summer her guardians don’t do anything special, just include her in their daily tasks of keeping a farm and treat her with love. It’s a tender film. I can’t really say she blossoms under their care – she sheds only a bit of her passivity. Once with her summer guardians the woman says there are no secrets. “If there are secrets in a house, there is shame in that house.” But there is a secret in that family’s past, though it doesn’t have much consequence in the story. This came out last year and was Ireland’s submission for this year’s Oscar for Best International Feature Film. It was the first Irish language film to be shortlisted for that award. I enjoyed it. Aldous Pennyfarthing of the Daily Kos community reported on the latest efforts of the Wisconsin Republicans to protect their gerrymandered maps. Yes, they’re gerrymandered – in a state that is evenly split for the parties (the nasty guy edged out Hillary Clinton in 2016 and Biden squeaked by in 2020) Republicans hold 64 of 99 seats in the Assembly and 21-11in the Senate. There will be a case challenging the gerrymandered maps before the state Supremes, as an Associated Press article posted on Kos reports. The big question is what happens when it gets there. Back to Pennyfarthing’s post. The Wisconsin Supremes recently switched from a conservative to progressive majority when Janet Protasiewicz was elected by a wide margin and took her seat. She ran on abortion and gerrymandering. And now Assembly Speaker Robin Vos said that if Protasiewicz doesn’t recuse herself for this case he will begin impeachment proceedings on the grounds that she “prejudged” the case. Since that was one of her campaign issues Vos says she cant be an impartial observer. Michael Li pointed out that once Protasiewicz is impeached she cannot participate in any case until she is acquitted. So if the Assembly impeaches and the Senate stalls on the trial she is sidelined and the Court is balanced between conservatives and progressives. There are several voices that are saying that not prejudging the case would be difficult – it is obvious that the districts are gerrymandered. And Protasiewicz would have to be “dense, corrupt, or a Republican” to not see it.

“That type of reaction shows how threatened the Republican majority is by a challenge to their rigged maps,” Rep. Evan Goyke, a Milwaukee Democrat, told The Journal Sentinel. “It's really good evidence that the state is gerrymandered, that they'd be willing to go to such an unprecedented maneuver.”

The Daily Kos Elections team warns the Wisconsin Republicans using the lesson of Ohio – Issue 1 to increase the amendment approval threshold lost by a big margin because so many voters were upset with Republican overreach. In a pundit roundup for Kos Greg Dworkin included a tweet by David Pepper that linked to and quoted an article from the Ohio Capital Journal:

There’s a tendency by political professionals to think that voters can be inherently and consistently manipulated.

In the roundup’s comments Denise Oliver Velez included a cartoon by Jesse Duquette. It is titled “Conservatives throughout history” and shows Jesus giving sight to a blind man. In the background is a guy in a red hat who says, “It’s not fair! I can see perfectly fine and this guy gets his blindness forgiven just like that?” Duquette added the caption, “Woke Commie Jesus Trades Student Loans for Loaves and Fishes Because Bootstraps Haven’t Been Invented Yet.” Last week Hunter of Kos reported that Republicans have been calling for a special counsel into whatever Hunter Biden’s been doing that’s illegal. And now that Attorney General Merrick Garland has done what they asked they’re outraged. Hunter has a few examples of their outrage. The core of the Republican anger is that the guy named as special counsel – David Weiss, who has been on the case since the nasty guy appointed him – is the guy who hasn’t found anything worthwhile so far, in spite of years of trying. So from the Republican perspective he’s part of the cover up. Pennyfarthing wrote about the crop of Republicans running to be President. He noted:

[Chris Christie is] the only Republican who’s actually running for president in 2024. Or running to do the job, anyway. Trump is running, but mostly because he wants to stay out of jail and likes the way his Diet Coke button looks on the Resolute Desk. Sure, some of Trump’s other opponents are taking little swipes at him here and there, but Christie is the only one talking about Trump the way he needs to be talked about.

In another pundit roundup Chitown Kev quoted Paul Waldman of the Washington Post. Waldman discussed that Republicans have been using ballot initiatives to impose their will on a state. See the efforts to ban same-sex marriage in 11 states in 2004.

But lately, liberals have had more and more success — even in conservative states — making policy gains at the ballot box that they can’t achieve in state legislatures.

An example is Michigan. Yeah that 2004 effort banned same-sex marriage here too. But we passed a citizens redistricting commission in 2018 and last year passed abortion rights and voter rights. And a few more I can’t think of at the moment. Meteor Blades of Kos posted another Earth Matters article with a few things to mention. There is the new national monument around the Grand Canyon (I won’t attempt the Native name). A good thing about it is the Native tribes in the area will be an integral part of managing it. Blades talked about the climate news out of Antarctica, and it isn’t good. Sea ice around the continent, a vital part of keeping the ice sheet from melting, is about 20% of what it should be at this time in their winter. Blades included an excerpt from an article by Jason Bordoff in the New York Times. In spite of goals to cut fossil fuel use the amount used is still rising. And it is rising fast enough that oil companies are dropping plans to slow down production and diverting money that had been designated to develop clean energy. Yes, there is increasing investment in clean fuels, but it’s still well short of what’s needed. Rachel Martin of NPR, as part of her Enlighten Me series, spoke to Rainn Wilson. He played Dwight on The Office (I never watched) and even though it seems opposite of that role he wrote a book about spirituality titled Soul Boom. Wilson, who grew up in the Baháʼí faith, had a few interesting things to say.

You see, the backstory to Star Trek that a lot of people don't know is that there has been a horrific World War III. And coming out of the ashes of that war, humanity has essentially solved racism, solved sexism, has solved income inequality, and is then able, in its maturity, to go out into space and explore and spread the word. ... I would always look at things through a spiritual lens. So for me, when I look at Star Trek, I talk about this in terms of a spiritual path. We all have an individual path that we walk on a daily basis. I'm trying to be a better person and I've got this stress at work and I'm feeling anxious and this person is mean to me and I'm struggling with this and that. And that's our personal spiritual path. When people talk about spirituality, they're often focused on that aspect of a personal spiritual journey and we're not focused so much on the broader one, which is humanity's spiritual maturation into living in global peace and harmony. I am old enough to remember the '70s, when people would actually talk about world peace. ... And we believed that we could have peace, especially with the end of the Cold War. And nowadays, you bring up world peace and you just get that big, collective eye roll like, oh, you're the most naive idiot to walk the face of the earth to even consider world peace. ... There's another [mythology of humanity] where humans lived at peace with nature, where humans were cooperative or kind to each other or worked together, shared knowledge and enlightenment and moved forward and into progress.

I like his thinking and want us to move in that direction. I also know how difficult that is.

An annual income of $100,000 is no longer enough to buy a house

Joan McCarter of Daily Kos wrote that the stench of corruption around the Supreme Court is now so strong investigative journalists are swarming. And Clarence Thomas is giving them all the fodder they need. The latest is from the New York Times and is about his long-standing membership in the Horatio Alger Association, which provided another collection of wealthy friends. In response Thomas has opened the Supreme Court chamber to the society, giving their induction ceremonies an extra flavor only he could provide.

As the circle of Thomas’ rich and powerful associates grows, so grows the likelihood of conflicts of interest for him on the court and the likelihood the media will be able to dig them up. Each new discovery will only deepen the crisis in the court and generate more momentum for reform. ... The Times report is full of the stuff we’ve come to expect from Thomas stories: his continuing simmering rage at having been perceived as getting to where he is through affirmative action and the resulting chip on his shoulder, as well as his susceptibility to very rich people who want to give him stuff, which he clearly feels is owed to him, up to and including his wedding reception.

The stench has gotten so bad that progressive groups used to be afraid to take on the court are now demanding court reform. The Republican House may stop any action for now. But Democrats better start now to be ready with reform bills in 2025. Public opinion won’t give them a choice. That constant investigation may also turn up some strange comparisons. McCarter also noted that the Associated Press declared a scandal that Justice Sonia Sotomayor writes books! She goes on book tours! She gets paid for it! The schools she visits buy hundreds of copies of her books! Her court staff is helping with her book ventures! That’s not at all the same as billionaires funding luxury vacations for Thomas and Alito or making sure Jane Roberts’ company gets lots of business. Might students and librarians have interest in cases before the Court? Yes, but not $2.4 billion in personal interest. That last is the amount Alito’s sugar daddy benefited in a case before the Court, for which Alito did not recuse himself. Might Sotomayor’s staff helping organize book events prompt court reform? If so, great! Senate Democrats are working on a Supreme Court ethics act. But benefiting from book tours (which she disclosed) are a long way from a billionaire paying for a luxury Alaskan fishing trip with glacier ice martinis. SemDem of the Kos community wrote about a huge threat to the middle class dream of owning a home. Large corporations are buying up so many houses they are driving up housing prices for regular people. These houses are offered for rent at high rates, which makes it harder for regular people to save to buy a house. Sometimes these firms buy entire neighborhoods. These companies usually pay cash, which greatly simplifies things for the seller, but against which a person needing a mortgage can’t compete. Add in slow house building over the last several years and the supply is now constricted. Prices go up. Which is a gold mine for these companies. Wall Street landlords are making enough to afford lobbying. And Congress is the only group that can make a difference. Some of the money these investment companies use came from when they gorged on mortgages leading to the crash in 2008. They’re now profiting off the destruction they created. They are stealing from first-time home buyers as they push the idea that renting is better – sheesh one must stay in one place! (I have been in my house for over 30 years, my parents were in theirs for over 50.) They tend to target black neighborhoods. Corporate landlords must deliver profits to shareholders. That means higher rents, more evictions, and not doing basic maintenance and repairs. Homeless shelters are seeing a dramatic increase in people seeking their help.

As the Wall Street Journal now says, high house prices along with student debt and meager savings mean that making an annual income of $100,000 is no longer enough to buy a house.

Yet home ownership is one of the few ways to generate wealth for those who don’t have it. And corporations have found another way to keep them from getting it. Kerry Eleveld of Kos reported the nasty guy is in serious legal jeopardy and could face jail time. His lawyers have asked a federal judge to delay the trial until after the 2024 election. They claim he could not get a fair trial during the campaign.

In effect, Trump's lawyers are arguing justice should be delayed, not because he's a sitting president but because he once again seeks to be.

And if the trial is delayed and he wins he’ll simply tell his Justice Department to drop the case. That will be his personal get-out-of-jail-free card for any federal case. He’s also pledging to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate Biden. All that allows fellow candidate Chris Christie to play what to me sound like mind games. Wrote Eleveld:

"I'm telling you—no matter what he says, no matter how he's bragging and going on and on about him not being afraid—he goes to bed every night thinking about the sound of that jail cell closing behind him," Christie said Tuesday on MSNBC's Morning Joe. Christie recalled that when he would prosecute political figures as a U.S. attorney in the 2000s, Trump would tell him, "I could never do that—I could never go to jail."

In the comments of a pundit roundup for Kos Denise Oliver Velez posted her usual collection of cartoons. Here are a a few. Pat Byrnes drew one of a couple standing between a burning forest and rushing waves. The man says, “See? Here come the floods to drown out the fires. So don’t tell me the climate is out of balance.” Brother Mark tweeted a couple panels from the Naked Pastor. In the first a shepherd is sitting with his sheep as an angel (presumably announcing the birth of Jesus) hovers overhead. The shepherd asks, “So when you said peace on earth and good will to all people, does that include gay people like me?” The angel replies, “What about ‘all’ is so hard to understand?” The second shows Obama and Jesus in a bar. Obama says, “Trump’s reversing all my policies!” Jesus replies, “The Evangelicals are reversing mine!”

Quite good at mangling the text

Hunter of Daily Kos asks an important question I’ve been wondering about. The FBI searched Mar-a-Lago for documents and found lots, including lots of classified stuff. Because of that haul the nasty guy has been indicted on federal Espionage Act charges. So why hasn’t a search been done at his Bedminster golf club, Trump Tower in New York, and whatever other properties he owns? Hunter reviews what the nasty guy said and done. Hunter says that’s good reason to believe there are documents at least at Bedminster. There are also documents various government agencies say are still missing. Also, the nasty guy’s team isn’t willing to provide a signature stating there are no documents there. So why no search?

The very worst explanation is also the most likely one. A recent story from The Washington Post described a culture of near-cowardice inside the Justice Department that left Trump's role in attempting an overthrow of our elected government largely uninvestigated for over a year. ... The short of it is that the Justice Department bent over backwards to avoid investigating Trump's role in either case until Trump was caught doing something so all-encompassingly stupid that there was no way to not prosecute him.

Not so bad explanations include the FBI has bugged Bedminster so know what’s going on, or there is a cooperative rat in the nasty guy organization.

But all of those are still very weak reasons for not searching a location in which you already know your Espionage Act-indicted perp has stashed classified documents in the past. Not conducting the search has been a massive hole in the investigation since the day the FBI searched Mar-a-Lago and found what they expected to find, and there hasn't been a single truly plausible explanation for why investigators aren't covering that gap.

Rep. Lauren Boebert filed motions of impeachment against Biden. She did it in such a way that the House must vote on it within the next few days. Yeah, the reason is bogus, of course it is. Laura Clawson of Kos reported that McCarthy is quite annoyed with Boebert. But it isn’t because he doesn’t want to impeach Biden. It’s because right now is bad timing and he wants articles of impeachment with a bit more plausible meat on their bones. Clawson then reviews various House members who are “investigating” Biden. They all say impeachment is not their goal, though if the data leads in that direction... Translation: Impeachment is their goal. And if it falls in an election year, all the better.

But an impeachment could very well backfire on Republicans. They’ll be going into it, after all, with scant evidence and screamingly obvious partisan motivations. And unless they conduct impeachment hearings with a much higher level of professionalism than they’ve shown to this point, it’s going to be a clown show that reveals again and again that this is about revenge against Democrats for impeaching Donald Trump and about undermining the Biden presidency after Republicans failed to overturn the 2020 elections.

In a pundit roundup for Kos Greg Dworkin quoted Frank Bruni of the New York Times:

The Chris Christie of the current moment is magnificent. I don’t mean magnificent as in, “He’s going to win the Republican presidential nomination.” I don’t mean I am rooting for a Christie presidency and regard him as the country’s possible salvation. But what he’s doing in this Republican primary contest is very, very important. It also couldn’t be more emotionally gratifying to behold. He’s telling the unvarnished truth about Trump, and he’s the only candidate doing that. A former prosecutor, he’s artfully, aggressively and comprehensively making the case against Trump, knocking down all the rationalizations Trump has mustered and all the diversions he has contrived since his 37-count federal indictment.

Rick Hasen of Election Law Blog studied the op-ed Justice Alito wrote in the Wall Street Journal. Textualism is the idea a justice can study a text, such as the constitution, and that is supposedly a neutral method of interpretation. This and originalism was Antonin Scalia’s thing. If Alito is a textualist, and in recent years he’s purported to be one, he is quite good at mangling the text. And always his opinions, textual or mangled, serve is socially conservative values. Hasen then reviews how much Alito mangles the rules for when to disclose gifts. Clay Jones tweeted a cartoon showing two elephants. One says, “I keep hoping to catch Biden taking bribes...” The scene pulls back to show at the end of their fishing lines are Thomas and Alito. The other one says, “Yeah... But we should probably throw these back.”

Dictator chic, a public display of power

A week ago Kerry Eleveld of Daily Kos wrote about Chris Christie’s campaign kickoff. He’s now entered the race for the Republican candidate for president. Much of that kickoff was an attack on the nasty guy. Well, first he attacked the Pandemic Prince and Princess (who have made themselves rather scarce as Daddy’s legal troubles increase). Christie said the only reason they got $2 billion from the Saudis was because they were sitting next to the nasty guy for four years. Christie said the nasty guy would eliminate the national debt in eight years. He added $3 trillion in four. Christie said the nasty guy would end the war in Ukraine in 24 hours – by handing the country to Putin. As for politics Christie said of Biden, “He wouldn't be in office if it wasn't for Trump.” And...

Christie also added a touch of humor at his own expense, but not without a jab at Trump first. "Beware of the leader in this country, who you have handed leadership to, who has never made a mistake, who has never done anything wrong, who when something goes wrong it's always someone else's fault, and who has never lost," Christie said, then paused as the crowd giggled at his oblique reference to Trump's persistent election fraud lies. "I've lost," Christie continued earnestly, before pointing around the room and dropping a pitch-perfect delivery: "You people did that to me in 2016."

Greg Dworkin, in a pundit roundup for Kos, included a chart created by the Associated Press of the 37 indictments against the nasty guy. The first 31 are the willful retention of national defense documents. Then there is one each of conspiracy to obstruct justice, concealing documents in a federal investigation, withholding a document, a scheme to conceal, corruptly concealing a document, and false statements. Kos of Kos reported since the indictment there has been a big increase in right wing social media calling for armed resistance to protect their cult leader. Kos included a chart of the deaths by ideology since the 9/11 attacks. Those numbers look quite low. Maybe they represent killings where the ideology is known? What the chart shows is far right ideology has killed more than any other category, even higher than jihadists. And the number killed by far left ideology: 1. Kos included a statement by Kari Lake, who ran for governor of Arizona, lost by only 17K votes, and took quite a while to run out of court cases. Lake said:

If you want to get to Trump, you’re going to have to go through me, and 75 million Americans just like me. And most of us are card carrying members of the NRA. That’s not a threat, that’s a public service announcement.

Others refer to “rPOTUS” as in the “real president of the United State” as in not Joe Biden. They are also calling for armed insurrection. Laura Clawson of Kos also wrote about MAGA sympathizers talking about violence. Well, the arraignment happened and there was a crowd outside the courthouse with both protesters and supporters. And there was no violence. So were these reports of impending violence there to keep us on edge for some reason? Or is the threat still out there, but as single people or small cells rather than a large crowd? With the number of mass shootings we’re dealing with, would we be able to see a difference if these cells shoot someone? An AP article posted on Kos has a timeline of the whole thing, including what the nasty guy and his minions did and what the various government people did in response. One detail caught my attention – there were originally 80 boxes of documents. I’m pretty sure the government hasn’t gotten them all yet. Tristan Snell, a lawyer who had prosecuted Trump University, tweeted a list of all of America’s former presidents and the number of felony counts against them. All have a zero beside their name, except the nasty guy who has 71. There are two former presidents with asterisks. Nixon was pardoned before he could be indicted and Harding died before he could be. As for Clinton and Andrew Johnson, they were impeached, not indicted. So out of 45 former presidents 42 of them served crime free. Jen tweeted a cartoon by Mike Luckovich. The nasty guy says to a golf buddy, “I wanna discuss Hunter Biden’s laptop. Pull up a box...” Chris Evans, a black woman, tweeted a short video of herself dancing on her way to the courthouse to volunteer for jury duty when the nasty guy’s trial comes up. She wasn’t the only one offering their services. Yes, I know how likely she will be dismissed from the jury. Monty Wolverton tweeted a cartoon of what would have happened if the FBI hadn’t raided Mar-a-Lago. There would be a big sign out front:

The Donald’s Emporium New & Used, Foreign & Domestic Top Secret Documents Top quality secrets at reasonable prices! Trade-ins accepted!

In my father’s house the small bathroom off the master bedroom was jokingly referred to as the library. My dad usually had a few magazines, maybe a book or two, so he could read while he sat. Sometimes when I visited I also took some time to sit in the library and read whatever Dad had there. Dad wasn’t the only one. I have reading material in my own bathroom. I’ve seen magazine racks designed for the bathroom and books with short sections the could be read in one sitting. I mention that because the nasty guy’s indictment includes a photo of boxes stacked in a bathroom with more hidden behind a tacky shower curtain. And, of course, there are now lots of memes about the presidential library with people sitting there reading. That includes one by commenter exlrrp in one of Chitown Kev’s pundit roundup for Kos that includes a Saudi as one of the readers. This set of memes includes a dialog between the nasty guy and Biden with the words:

I want to see Biden in prison. Why does Trump think I would visit him in prison?

Clawson also wrote about what that photo of the bathroom says about the nasty guy. Of course, the post includes the photo.

The details of the bathroom have drawn attention, too. We’re looking at a chandelier worthy of a formal dining room, a crystal (or crystal-like) wall sconce, marble floors and sink, the edge of an ornate gilded mirror frame … and a cheap-looking shower curtain on a tension rod, which appears to be hiding more stacks of boxes. That’s the shower curtain and tension rod you get when you’ve moved into a new rental apartment and, realizing there’s no shower curtain, run to Target so you can wash off the sweat and dust of having unloaded your own Uhaul.

Peter York published a book about the design and décor of the homes of 16 despots – Serbia’s Slobodan Milosevic, Romania’s Nicolae Ceausescu, Libya’s Muammar Qadhafi, and others. York says the nasty guy’s style fits right in.

In dictator chic, York writes, “There is no subtlety or understatement, let alone irony.” A dictator’s house is not a home meant for private living, but a public display of power. The Mar-a-Lago bathroom is an attempt at dictator chic that fails on the aesthetic merits—that shower curtain!—while the fact that it was where his staff ultimately resorted to storing documents in their attempts to find space for all the things he was hiding from the government shows the limits of his efforts to be an authoritarian leader in the United States. It makes visible the fact that Trump is a wannabe on multiple levels.

Caroline Orr Bueno, a social behavior scientist, tweeted a thread that fits the nasty guy:

Today is a good day to learn about DARVO, an acronym that “describes the typical response of a guilty person when they’ve been accused of bad behavior.” It stands for: Deny, Attack, and Reverse Victim and Offender. It’s also a form of abuse. One of the aspects of DARVO that makes it so uniquely sadistic and harmful is that the tactics not only inflict (further) psychological harm on the victim, but they also often undermine victims’ support systems — leaving them both traumatized *and* isolated.

Bueno then describes some of the tactics the attacker may use to undermine the victim’s support network.

A game he cannot win

Chris Christie has appeared a few times on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. Each time Christie does so Fallon pulls out a few fat jokes. Melissa McEwen of Shakesville says Christie can be a "good sport" – laugh as he's being ridiculed – or he's accused of being "too sensitive" or "humorless." Christie is pushed into a game he cannot win. Which is the nature of oppression.

But why fat jokes? Why isn't Fallon making jokes about the odious statements coming out of Christie's campaign, such as wanting to tag immigrants like FedEx packages. That is something that deserves mockery.

Fallon relies on fat jokes because (1) they're a lot easier than jokes based on Christie's agenda and (2) fat jokes also ridicule all the fat people in the country. A twofer!

McEwen has noticed that every time she defends Christie against fat jokes she gets comments from progressives that Christie shouldn't be defended for any reason. She's hurting the progressive cause. But McEwen resists that. She holds herself to a higher standard. She will call out every one of Christie's odious policies. But she will continue to see Christie and all of his conservative colleagues as human beings worthy of respect. That's even though she knows she would never get the same consideration from them. She refuses to race Christie to the bottom.

Greenland!

Marriage equality will come to Greenland on October 1st!

I mentioned a couple days ago that Tony Abbott, Prime Minister of Australia, won't let a vote on marriage equality happen on his watch, even though the country is very much (perhaps 70%) in favor of it. The Opposition Leader Bill Shorten has responded by submitting a bill to establish marriage equality. Whether that bill passes (if a vote is allowed) depends a lot on whether the various party leaders demand a party-line vote of their members or let members vote their conscience.

Here is a map of where we have marriage equality. In some countries the light green means there are civil unions, in other countries it means some locations have equality and other locations don't. It is easy to see there is no equality in Asia, Middle East, and Africa – with the exception of South Africa.

Angela Merkel of Germany said same-sex marriages "are not a goal of this government." It's not on the agenda. It appears that in Germany when parties form a governing coalition they work out an agenda to which all parties can agree. But if something new comes up that isn't on the agenda it is difficult to make it happen. I'll be kind – Germany was one of the first to enact civil unions.

And it Texas, which is reaching the end of its legislative season, their bill to defy the Supremes on marriage equality has died. A few wise voices said, hey guys, there are other things of higher priority. Another 20 some bills that would have made life rough for sexual minorities have also died.

Frank Bruni, in a New York Times opinion, has noted two things in common with what appears to be a diverse list of countries. Those countries are: Belgium, Canada, Spain, Argentina, Portugal, Brazil, France, Uruguay, Luxembourg and Ireland. Those common things are: (1) More people go to Roman Catholic Churches than any other religious denomination. (2) All of them have made same-sex marriage legal. Yes, over the Vatican's protests.

Even in America Catholics are defying their leadership. That means prez. candidates Jeb Bush, Rick Santorum, Bobby Jindal, Chris Christie, and Marco Rubio, who have cited their Catholicism as a reason for opposing same-sex marriage, are in the minority of Catholics on this issue. But they take that stance for their Evangelical Protestant supporters.

I brought the first stone

Sweet! In December Shreveport, Louisiana became the second city in that state with an LGBT anti-discrimination ordinance. There was on dissenting vote -- Councilman Ron Webb. This month Webb introduced a proposal to repeal the ordinance. Then he came face-to-face with Pamela Raintree, a transgender woman, who came to a City Council meeting. She held up a stone and said (video here):

Leviticus 20:13 states, 'If a man lie also with mankind as he lieth with a woman, they shall surely put him to death.' I brought the first stone Mr. Webb, in case that your Bible talk isn't just a smoke screen for personal prejudices.

Webb withdrew his proposal.



When same-sex marriage erupted in Utah last month the state asked the 10th Circuit Court for a fast-track ruling. The Court agreed and set dates for when the opening briefs needed to be filed. Now the state is saying, um, could we have an extension? Say, ten days? We, um, just hired our legal counsel yesterday. The 10th Circuit responded that requests for extensions "are very strongly discouraged, and will be considered only under extraordinary circumstances."

Plaintiffs said these circumstances are not extraordinary. You're only slowing down the case you said needed to be sped up.

Commenters asked what should take ten days? You don't have any more lame reasons for discrimination to add to your case.



New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, embroiled in the scandal of backing up traffic to the George Washington Bridge, famously said, "I'm not a bully." That prompted lots of people in NJ to say, oh yes you are!

Terrence Heath explores the case and explains why Christie was the darling of the GOP, if not the Tea Party, at least until now. Back in 2011 at a private GOP event Christie summed up the internal GOP philosophy: "We spend too much. We borrow too much. We tax too much. It is time to turn those three things around." And … "Now, pain will be inflicted when we change that."

Heath says "Pain will be inflicted" is the creed of the bully and fits quite well with the GOP created "bully economy." And, as we see with the GOP refusal to renew jobless benefits, a great deal of pain is still being inflicted.



Ireland's economy recovered? Ireland's Celtic Tiger economy was trashed when the economic mess started back in 2008, though not as bad as the economies of Greece and Spain. Ireland was forced to endure the austerity measures to satisfy its creditors and is working its way out. So has its economy recovered? Ask the lenders and international corporations who moved there for low taxes and the answer is yes. Ask the residents and you get a different answer.

Terrence Heath explores the economies of Ireland and Europe as a whole. Growth has been quite slow. That's because the economies of Europe are under the austerity policies of the European Central Bank, the European Commission, and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). A big problem is that European citizens don't have a say in what these organizations do.

The wrong side of a political game

A couple months ago the New Jersey Supremes ruled that same-sex couples must have marriage on the same terms as straight couples. Gov. Chris Christie decided not to pursue an appeal.

The NJ Democrats are annoyed. Though Christie vetoed the marriage equality bill, because he didn't appeal the Supremes' decision he came out smelling like a rose. He can tell Fundies he vetoed the original bill and is on their side and he can let gays assume he's changed his mind.

So, the state Dems want to pass a law affirming marriage equality, because you see the Supremes could change their minds. I'm puzzled why, if they changed their minds, they can't simply strike down the new law. Timothy Kincaid of Box Turtle Bulletin sees the whole thing as a political game -- with us as the losers.

First problem: The Dems want to force Christie to sign the bill and annoy the Fundies, or veto the bill and annoy gays. But there is a third possibility -- Christie could ignore it for 45 days, at which point it becomes law without his signature. His rosy smell remains intact.

Second problem: The ruling by the Supremes does not have a religious exemption clause. The bill does. It may have a hard time passing if it didn't. And even though there are fewer exemptions granted than in the bill Christie vetoed, that there are any exemptions implies religion trumps gay rights and gay marriages are still a teensy bit less than straight marriages. This is why Garden State Equality opposes the bill.

So Dems are looking for ammo to use against Christie, should he run for president. But it is an iffy scenario and will be at our expense.

No substantive, worthy objections

Last Friday I wrote that the refusal of the NJ Supremes to stay same-sex marriage was a big clue on how they would rule when they heard the case in January. It looks like Gov. Chris Christie read the decision on the stay and noticed the same clue. Repealing same-sex marriage would be highly unlikely. So this morning Christie dropped his appeal. The New Jersey Supremes don't need to hear the case and New Jersey couples don't have to worry about their marriages being invalidated. We're done here. Next?

I heard (perhaps on NPR) that the professional anti-gay bigots and perhaps even the Tea Party is mighty displeased with Christie dropping his appeal. That either means Christie just blew his chances for prez. in 2016 or it allows him to be the moderate candidate.

Cory Booker, mayor of Newark and Senator-elect, did indeed conduct seven same-sex marriages just after midnight this morning in the city hall rotunda. As part of one of them this little scene played out:

Booker asked, "I must ask if there's anyone present here today that should know of any reason why Joseph and Orville should not be married, speak now or forever hold your peace."

Screamed a heckler. "This is unlawful in the eyes of God!"

Booker then had the heckler removed, and continued to cheers...

"Not hearing any substantive, worthy objections, I now will proceed."

And in Asbury Park one officiant was Rev. Tom Pivinski, a retired Catholic priest. Some commenters think he is Jesuit and his local Bishop can't revoke his pension.

As for next… Legislatures in Illinois and Hawaii get back to work next week with marriage equality high on the agenda. Then there's that case in New Mexico, a case in Nevada heating up, and a case in Tennessee just filed.

New Jersey!

This story has been brewing for a while. Earlier this month a lower level judge declared the New Jersey ban on same-sex marriage to be unconstitutional and set a date that marriages should begin. That date is Monday. Gov. Chris Christie appealed to the Supremes. Various towns have declared that to be ready for Monday (and comply with the 72 hour waiting period) they better start issuing marriage licenses today. Cory Booker, mayor of Newark and senator-elect, stirred the pot by offering to officiate for same-sex marriages in City Hall a minute after midnight on Monday.

The lower judge refused to issue a stay until the appeal was heard. It wasn't until today that the NJ Supremes said anything about the stay. And what they said is marriages may proceed even before they hear the case in January. That's a big clue on how they'll rule when they actually hear the case. Their analysis:

The NJ Supremes are working from their own unanimous 2006 decision that declared gay and lesbian couples must be treated the same as straight couples. At the time the legislature created civil unions which were designed to be equal (though it turns out only kinda). But with the end of Defense of Marriage Act, the feds are now treating married gay couples differently. Civil unions aren't equal.

To grant a stay the Supremes consider the "soundness of the trial court's ruling and the effect of a stay on the parties and the public." And they conclude:

The State has advanced a number of arguments, but none of them overcome this reality: same-sex couples who cannot marry are not treated equally under the law today. The harm to them is real, not abstract or speculative.

Another factor in issuing a stay is whether the party asking for it has a likelihood of winning. The Supremes conclude they do not. The Civil Union Act remains in effect (even if nobody will use it) so there is no complaint of the trial judge improperly striking it down. The state can't complain that the feds won't listen to their definition of marriage. In addition the original ruling wasn't limited to federal benefits. Gay couples who can't marry may receive hardship for which money cannot compensate. For example, if marriage is delayed and one of a gay couple dies, Social Security surviving benefits are forever gone. Finally, the court will not wait for the legislature to override Christie's veto. If there is ongoing unequal treatment, the court cannot defer.

A commenter adds the law that was vetoed contains religious exemptions the court case does not have.



And to top off the marriage equality news, New Mexico's Supreme Court will hear that state's case next Wednesday. Again, the news says the court might rule immediately.

Sigh, it would have been so cool to include Michigan in an October triple play.

New Jersey in a tizzy

Things around marriage equality in New Jersey are moving fast enough that people might be tripping over each other. Quite a while ago Gov. Chris Christie vetoed a bill that would have made same-sex marriage legal. Legislators are now working to round up enough votes to override the veto (alas, no link -- didn't realize I'd need one). Only a handful more are needed. That vote will probably happen in November. If not overtaken by another event.

That other event is a ruling by Mary Jacobson, head judge in Mercer County. She ruled that because NJ civil unions are not equal to marriage -- CUs do not get federal benefits -- same-sex marriages must be made legal. Several years ago the state Supreme Court had mandated that gay couples must be treated equally and the legislature at the time decided civil unions were equal. But now the inequality is so obvious Jacobson issued a summary judgment, meaning she didn't bother with a trial to hear evidence.

Christie promptly vowed to repeal. He said the NJ Supremes must rule. Unless the legislature overturns his veto. Christie is up for reelection this fall. Because he is best buds with Obama (see Sandy coverage) he is way ahead of his challenger Barbara Buono. But she is narrowing the gap (like from 30 points behind to merely 18 points) by highlighting she is for marriage equality and Christie isn't.

The courts and legislature in Illinois, another place with civil unions, are going to be paying close attention to NJ.

Win by losing

Chris Christie, Gov. of New Jersey, is in a pickle. Lots of people in his state think marriage equality is a fine idea. He vetoed such a bill. How to get out of this mess?

He has been claiming that civil unions are just as good, are indeed equivalent. But the Supremes, in their big ruling earlier this summer, make that claim harder because NJ gay couples can't get federal benefits.

He could now support marriage equality. But that could put a big dent in his presidential aspirations.

He could quietly ask GOP state legislators to overturn his veto. But then he looks like a weak governor, unable to control his party.

The state Supremes demanded relationship equality a few years ago and the legislature came up with civil unions. Now that they are definitely not just as good the issue is back before the state high court.

That means Christie has another option: lose in court. He has created a legal argument that might just make him a champion of gay couples while being able to tell his base, well, at least he tried. His strategy: tell the federal gov't they are obligated to recognize civil unions as marriages.

One little detail: when the US Supremes ruled they said their ruling of federal recognition only applies to marriages. Obama can't change that. And Congress isn't going to touch the issue.

So the state court will likely rule against Christie. He loses. He can say he supports equal treatment through civil unions and defended traditional marriage. And, more importantly, the problem disappears.

Commenters remind us all this might not be simply political calculation. Christie might actually believe marriage should not apply to gay couples.