;)
The Conversation -- February 11, 2024
I have no idea to this day what those two Italian ladies were singing about. Truth is, I don't wanna know. Some things are best left unsaid. I want to think they were singing about something so beautiful it can't be expressed in words and makes your heart ache because of it. I tell you, those voices soared higher and farther than anybody in a great place dares to dream. It was like some beautiful bird flapped into our drab little cage and made those walls dissolve away. And for the briefest of moments, every last man at Shawshank felt free. -- Red Redding (Morgan Freeman), "Shawshank Redemption" ~~~
~~~ Thanks to RAS for the greetings. ~~~
~~~ Things to Do Today Having Nothing to Do with the Super Bowl: Bake a cake; Mix yourself an elaborate cocktail; Catch up on a Netflix series; Go out to a movie; Go sledding, skiing or ice-skating; Go out to dinner at a normally-crowded restaurant; Make a Valentine's card; Take a walk, if weather allows; Go for a drive; Curl up with a book; Take down the last of the holiday decorations; Go shopping, virtually or really; Phone a distant friend who would never watch the Super Bowl; Do a jigsaw or NYT crossword puzzle; Do a craft project; Tidy up a spare room, closet, kitchen cupboard, whatever; Start gathering your tax papers; Work on that scrapbook you put down in 2019; Watch an opera (play a YouTube video on your TV & open English subtitles).
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Karoun Demirjian of the New York Times: "The Senate on Sunday pushed a $95 billion emergency aid bill for Ukraine and Israel past a critical hurdle, with a bipartisan vote that kept it on track for passage within days. The vote was 67-27 to move forward on the package, which would dedicate $60.1 billion to helping Kyiv in its war against Russian aggression, send $14.1 billion to Israel for its war against Hamas and fund almost $10 billion in humanitarian assistance for civilians in conflict zones, while addressing threats to the Indo-Pacific region. In a rare Sunday session, 18 Republicans joined Democrats to advance the measure, which leaders hope the Senate will approve as early as Tuesday.... But steep hurdles still remain for the bill in the Republican-led House, where it faces staunch opposition fueled by the 'America First' stance of ... Donald J. Trump."
Yasmeen Abutaleb, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Biden and his top aides are closer to a breach with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu than at any time since the Gaza War began, no longer viewing him as a productive partner who can be influenced even in private, according to several people familiar with their internal discussions. The mounting frustration with Netanyahu has prompted some of Biden's aides to urge him to be more publicly critical of the prime minister over his country's military operation in Gaza, according to six people familiar with the conversations.... The president, a staunch supporter of Israel who has known Netanyahu fo more than 40 years, has been largely reluctant to take his private frustrations public so far, according to the people. But he is slowly warming to the idea, they said, as Netanyahu continues to infuriate Biden officials with public humiliations and prompt rejections of basic U.S. demands." ~~~
~~~ Marie: Bibi, Joe wants you to read this "leaked" report.
Marie: It is not only our democracy that is on the line in the upcoming presidential election. It's all of them. Even Peter Both-Side Baker has the sense to be alarmed: ~~~
Peter Baker of the New York Times: Donald Trump "took [his antipathy to NATO] to a whole new level over the weekend, declaring at a rally in South Carolina that not only would he not defend European countries he deemed to be in arrears from an attack by Russia, he would go so far as to 'encourage' Russia to do whatever the hell they want' against them. Never before has a president of the United States -- even a former one aspiring to reclaim the office -- suggested that he would incite an enemy to attack American allies.... Mr. Trump's rhetoric foreshadows potentially far-reaching changes in the international order if he wins the White House again in November with unpredictable consequences. What's more, Mr. Trump's riff once again raised uncomfortable questions about his taste in friends. Encouraging Russia to attack NATO allies ... is a stunning statement that highlights his odd affinity for President Vladimir V. Putin, who has already proved his willingness to invade neighboring countries that do not have the protection of NATO.... Just the suggestion that the United States could not be depended on would negate the value of [U.S.] alliances, prompt longtime friends to hedge and perhaps align with other powers and embolden the likes of Mr. Putin and Xi Jinping of China." ~~~
David Sanger of the New York Times: "Long before Donald J. Trump threatened over the weekend that he was willing to let Russia 'do whatever the hell they want' against NATO allies that do not contribute sufficiently to collective defense, European leaders were quietly discussing how they might prepare for a world in which America removes itself as the centerpiece of the 75-year-old alliance.... The larger implication of his statement is that he might invite President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia to pick off a NATO nation, as a warning and a lesson to the 30 or so others about heeding Mr. Trump's demands.... [Trump's] statement stunned many in Europe, especially after three years in which President Biden, attempting to restore the confidence in the alliance lost during Mr. Trump's four years in office, has repeatedly said that the United States would 'defend every inch of NATO territory.' Charles Michel, the president of the European Council, which comprises Europe's heads of government and defines their common policies, wrote that 'reckless statements' like Mr. Trump's 'serve only Putin's interest.'... In a statement on Sunday, [outgoing NATO Secretary General Jens] Stoltenberg said, 'Any suggestion that allies will not defend each other undermines all of our security, including that of the U.S., and puts American and European soldiers at increased risk.'" A related BBC News report is here. And another BBC News report is here.
... at trial, Mr. Biden would likely present himself to a jury, as he did during our interview of him, as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory. -- Robert Hur, Special Counsel
At trial, Mr. Trump would likely present himself to a jury, as he does every day, as an unsympathetic, narcissistic, vicious, elderly man with a poor memory, poor judgment, no morals, no impulse control, and as a danger to democracy and international stability. -- Marie, Special Report
Marie: Contributor Patrick spent a part of his Super Bowl Sunday editing the nearly-400-page special counsel Robert Hur's report on President Biden's retention of a few classified documents. As a public service, I am republishing Patrick's entire edition of the report. Do read it in full:
There is no evidence that improper storage of these documents was not sloppy filing. We could obtain no evidence showing who did that. Case closed. -- Full Report on President Biden's Retention of Classified Documents, Patrick's edition
Zolan Kanno-Youngs of the New York Times: "White House officials and Democrats fanned out to defend President Biden's mental fitness on Sunday, reflecting the rising anxiety in the president's administration over a special counsel report that fueled concern about his age. 'This is a report that went off the rails,' Bob Bauer, Mr. Biden's personal lawyer, said on CBS's 'Face the Nation.' 'A shabby work product.'... Democrats have gone on the offensive to discredit what they say is a partisan hit that potentially violated Justice Department policy, specifically taking issue with the descriptions questioning Mr. Biden's memory."
The most important thing to remember, though, is the president was found to have been engaged in no wrongdoing. Unlike President Trump, [who] has 91 felony counts pending against him. And, by the way, in over all the depositions that President Trump has taken in those cases, it says he doesn't remember or doesn't know, over 1,000 times. -- Mitch Landrieu, Biden campaign co-chair, Sunday on "Meet the Press"
Charles Pierce of Esquire: Merrick Garland "needs to be thanked for his service and then shown the door. He is not equipped to use all the tools god gave the Department of Justice to thwart the genuine threat to the Republic that is El Caudillo del Mar-A-Lago, and the dangerous political climate he has created. The former president* should have been charged federally with insurrection literally years ago.... The DOJ should have gone hammer-and-tongs after all the members of Congress who had the slightest connection with the insurrection. Somebody higher than the bear spray crowd should have been arrested and held until trial.... This business ... should have been the very first item on Garland's plate when he walked in the door.... Thursday was the end for me. Appointing a Republican hack like Robert Hur to 'investigate' the non-crimes of the president was bad enough, but then to allow Hur to pile on a political hit piece about the president's memory, thereby normalizing one of the former president*'s attack lines on DOJ stationery, is not admirably fair-minded, it's constitutionally suicidal." (Firewalled.)
~~~~~~~~~~
Andrew Weissmann & Ryan Goodman in Just Security on the "Real' Hur report: "The Special Counsel Robert Hur report has been grossly mischaracterized by the press. The report finds that the evidence of a knowing, willful violation of the criminal laws is wanting. Indeed, the report, on page 6, notes that there are 'innocent explanations' that Hur 'cannot refute.' That is but one of myriad examples we outline in great detail below of the report repeatedly finding a lack of proof. And those findings mean, in DOJ-speak, there is simply no case. Unrefuted innocent explanations is the sine qua non of not just a case that does not meet the standard for criminal prosecution -- it means innocence. Or as former Attorney General Bill Barr and his former boss would have put it, a total vindication (but here, for real)."
Presidential Race
The Latest from the Treasonous Narcissist. Marianne Levine of the Washington Post: "... Donald Trump ramped up his attacks on NATO on Saturday, [at a rally in South Carolina,] claiming he suggested to a foreign leader that he would encourage Russia to do 'whatever the hell they want' to member countries he views as not spending enough on their own defense. 'One of the presidents of a big country stood up and said, "Well, sir, if we don't pay and we're attacked by Russia, will you protect us?,"' Trump said during a rally at Coastal Carolina University. 'I said, "You didn't pay. You're delinquent." He said, "Yes, let's say that happened." No, I would not protect you. In fact, I would encourage them to do whatever the hell they want.'... 'Encouraging invasions of our closest allies by murderous regimes is appalling and unhinged -- and it endangers American national security, global stability, and our economy at home,' White House spokesperson Andrew Bates said in a statement....
"At one point in the speech, he attacked [former S.C. Gov. Nikki] Haley's husband, a service member who is currently deployed overseas. 'Where's her husband? Oh he's away' Trump said. 'He's gone. He knew, he knew.'" CNN's report on Trump's NATO remarks is here. The New York Times story is here. The NBC News report about Michael Haley is here.
Someone who continually disrespects the sacrifices of military families has no business being commander in chief. -- Nikki Haley, responding, in a statement, to Trump's remarks about her husband
~~~ Marie: (1) Do you think "the president of a big country" would address Trump as "sir"? (2) And here we were wondering, "Where's Melanie?" I don't think the lovely Mrs. Trump has showed up on the campaign trail once this campaign season. And she is not serving the country; as far as we know, she's gone shopping.
Before That. Bidensylvania? Joeland? Tom Boggioni of the Raw Story: "During his speech Friday night in Harrisburg, [Pa., Donald Trump] ... told the crowd that a President Joe Biden win in November would be bad news for the state. 'We're not going to have Pennsylvania. They'll change the name,' Trump stated. 'They're going to change the name of Pennsylvania.'"
~~~~~~~~~~
New Jersey Senate Race. Daniel Han of Politico: "Rep. Andy Kim on Saturday won by a wide margin in New Jersey's first Democratic convention in the Senate primary to replace indicted Sen. Bob Menendez, handing first lady Tammy Murphy a stinging defeat in her home county. Murphy has been presumed the frontrunner because of her high-profile status as the first lady, her massive fundraising capabilities and, most importantly, the early support she's received from county party leaders in the state's most Democratic-rich areas. But she failed to lock up support in Monmouth County, located along the Jersey Shore. Kim won the contest in a blowout, winning 56.8 percent of the vote. Murphy won 38.8 percent while another candidate, progressive labor activist Patricia Campos-Medina, won 4.2 percent.... Kim, speaking with reporters after the vote, said he came into the contest and 'legitimately did not know' what the outcome would be." MB: You have to read most of the article to figure out that Kim's win is only in Monmouth County, not in the whole state.
North Carolina/Florida. Lori Rozsa of the Washington Post: A bookstore in Asheville, North Carolina, accepted eight tons of books banned in Florida for discussing race, gender & sexual orientation. Firestorm Books "is now sending them to anyone who requests them. Many of the books are heading back to Florida."
Oklahoma. Emily Schmall of the New York Times: "A judge in Oklahoma who exchanged 500 text messages with her bailiff while presiding over the murder trial of a man accused of beating a toddler to death resigned on Friday. Traci Soderstrom stepped down from her position as a district judge in Lincoln County ahead of a special court trial that was scheduled to begin on Monday, according to a resignation letter distributed to local news outlets. Ms. Soderstrom faced removal from the bench for gross neglect of duty, gross partiality in office and other judicial conduct prohibited by the state's Constitution.... Ms. Soderstrom and the bailiff 'called murder trial witnesses liars, admired the looks of a police officer who was testifying, disparaged the local defense bar, expressed bias in favor of the defendant and displayed gross partiality against the state,' M. John Kane IV, the chief justice of the Oklahoma Supreme Court, wrote in the petition.... The judge's cellphone use came to public attention in July, after The Oklahoman published more than 50 minutes of courtroom security footage and reported that it showed the judge texting and scrolling Facebook during Mr. Martzall's trial."
AND the GOP becomes one rep more MAGA. ~~~
~~~ Wisconsin Congressional Race. Karoun Demirjian of the New York Times: "Representative Mike Gallagher, Republican of Wisconsin, announced on Saturday that he would not run for re-election, just days after breaking with his party to cast a decisive vote against impeachment charges for Alejandro N. Mayorkas, the homeland security secretary. Mr. Gallagher, who is in his fourth congressional term, is joining dozens of other lawmakers who have decided to call it quits. But the timing of his decision was striking nonetheless, coming on the heels of his impeachment vote -- which had already earned him a primary challenger -- and his relative youth, compared with others who are planning to retire from Congress." The AP story is here.
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Hungary. Andrew Higgins of the New York Times: "The president of Hungary, a loyal and largely powerless ally of the country's authoritarian prime minister, Viktor Orban, resigned on Saturday amid a public outcry over her pardoning of a man implicated in a sex abuse scandal at a children's home. President Katalin Novak, an outspoken champion of traditional values and Hungary's former minister of family affairs, announced her resignation on television, the latest in a series of prominent figures in Mr. Orban's conservative governing Fidesz party felled by sex scandals."
Pakistan. Christina Goldbaum of the New York Times: "The party of the imprisoned former prime minister of Pakistan, Imran Khan, won the most seats in parliamentary elections this week, delivering a strong rebuke to the country's powerful generals and throwing the political system into chaos. While military leaders had hoped the election would put an end to the political turmoil that has consumed the country since Mr. Khan's ouster in 2022, it has instead plunged it into an even deeper crisis, analysts said. Never before in the country's history has a politician seen such success in an election without the backing of the generals -- much less after facing their iron fist."
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Reader Comments (19)
Melanie might as well go shopping. Fatty could be declaring bankruptcy soon.
Things to do that aren't super bowly.
I'm writing an acceptance speech for the donald and will email it
to him if he happens to win.
It's probably the most difficult acceptance speech I will ever write.
There are dozens of phrases one would normally use in an acceptance
speech, but in this case, none of those phrases will work.
Phrases like "Thank you" and "I'll do what's right for our country"
and "I'll be the president of all our citizens, not just the ones who
voted for me" and "I'd like to thank Joe Biden for getting our country
in shape so my job will be easier" and on and on and on.
Guess I'd better forget that and make a pot of soup.
Melania is probably holed up somewhere editing physics books and
scientific journals.
She should be a whiz at it, what with that Einstein Visa. Or was that
a trump Visa(debit card)?
A long Sunday Sermon. Call it a Super Sermon:
No one truism explains everything, but applied to today's major controversies, Gresham’s Law comes close.
The idea behind Gresham’s Law was formulated by English financier Thomas Gresham in the late 1500’s. What became known by the late 1800’s as Gresham’s Law simply says, “bad money drives out good.”
Gresham explained what happens when the face value of coinage becomes greater than the value of the metals it contains. In the 1960’s, for instance, when the silver content of United States half dollar coins was reduced from 90 to 40 percent, the old coins whose silver value was now greater than 50 cents were quickly taken out of circulation by those who knew their true worth.
Though a coin’s value is now market-based, not dependent on its precious metal content, Gresham’s Law can still explain a lot. Like debased coinage, a flood of misinformation spread by the media can overwhelm and hide the hard currency of fact.
Since we Covid World four years ago, most have become familiar with the effects of disinformation about health. In fact, Covid vaccines work. Ivermectin doesn’t. Masks and distancing, while not perfect barriers, offer some protection. Where the response to Covid was politicized, the misinformation accepted in some regions resulted in higher death rates (cidrap.umn.edu).
Likewise with climate change. As early as the 1950’s the fossil fuel industry itself funded some of the research that showed a connection between global warming and rising CO 2 levels (theenergymix.com), yet those same companies over the next forty years spent billions denying or deliberately spreading disinformation about that increasingly clear connection (scientificamerican.com).
Currently, because immigration at our southern border is already a centerpiece of this year’s presidential campaign, misinformation about it is rife.
The party that has made immigration its focus for years now refuses to support the bi-partisan immigration proposal recently hammered out in the Senate. In a sudden about-face, it says no new immigration legislation is necessary because the president can deal with the immigration surge “with the stroke of a pen.” But executive order tweaks to a broken system can’t solve the problem; and as our previous president found, presidents cannot operate outside the immigration laws. Over 90% of Trump’s immigration orders were overturned by the courts (washintonpost.com).
The same party is now also blanketing conservative media with the claim that the proposed legislation would allow five thousand illegal immigrants to enter the country each day. That claim is a wild misreading of the bill. The hypothetical five thousand mentioned in the bill would be detained until their asylum requests are vetted and processed (nbc.news.com).
Always, what we wish to hear makes for easy listening. We’re more willing to accept what confirms our biases than something that contradicts them. After all, if what we’d prefer to believe turns out to be wrong, what does that say about us?
But our tendency to latch onto whatever supports our wishes does not account for the wide reach of Gresham Law. Many spread outright lies to maintain or enhance their financial or political positions, and almost invariably, the so-called facts they present ignore reality’s stubborn complexity. More easy listening for those who’d rather life were not so often hard.
Wearing masks in public is troublesome, so don’t. Climate change has no easy solutions, so pretend it doesn’t exist. And the many unresolved border problems, compounded as they are by racial issues, could be eliminated simply by “the stroke of a pen.”
Gresham’s Law explains why torrents of misinformation’s bad coin can obscure the essential value of established facts and hard truths.
But just as gravity’s laws don’t repeal gravity, Gresham’s Law can’t make the heavy burden of misinformation go away.
That heavy lifting is up to us.
Emptywheel
"Oh, and regarding the notebooks. There is no controversy over whether Biden knew he had those. He had handwritten notes with classified information on them.
However, Biden claims that they are personal and points to Reagan (who did the same thing) as a historic precedent.
Note it was Biden who made this argument, not his lawyers. (In fact, he made this argument to his lawyers.) Hur declined to prosecute this on the grounds that Biden is probably right.
Not bad for a dude with dementia."
Sunday's Superb Owl
re Defense Spending:
Follow the money, all the way. Where does the money go? The vast majority of so-called defense spending winds up in the pockets of the big defense contractors. One of the principal functions of the US Congress is to funnel money to defense contractors in exchange for campaign contributions.
Ron Brownstein
"Trump has repeatedly promised that, if reelected, he will pursue “the Largest Domestic Deportation Operation in History,” as he put it last monthon social media.
“What we would expect to see in a second Trump presidency is governance by force,” Deana El-Mallawany, a counsel and the director of impact programs at Protect Democracy, a bipartisan group focused on threats to democracy, told me. “This is his retribution agenda. He is looking at ways to aggrandize and consolidate power within the presidency to do these extreme things, and going after marginalized groups first, like migrants and the homeless, is the way to expand that power, normalize it, and then wield it more broadly against everybody in our democracy.”"
I wonder what happens to our economy when millions of the workers who harvest our produce or process our meats or roof our houses or any of the other jobs Americans feel they are too good for disappear. Have the Davos CEOs considered what a 60% tariff on China will do to their customers' pocketbooks. Or the attacking of public education will do their workforce going forward. All of Trump's policies mean we all will be poorer people and they mean we will be poorer people. Both monetarily and quality of life.
RAS,
Not that the would be pretend president redux doesn't frighten me, but to a large extent his talk is just that--talk. It began with birther lies that led directly to the wall that Mexico would pay for and the largest crowd to witness an inauguration--ever.
His talk is directed at his ravening base, but mostly at himself, at enlarging further his already inflated ego. His talk is a cheap as he is, but doesn't know it.
Confronted with the economic realities you mention, he will do what the monied interests tell him to do, all the while continuing to talk tough on the race issues that buoy his popularity with the MAGAs and on the mishmash economic populist tropes that remain mostly talk unless he sees an advantage in it for himself.
Ken,
A nice piece of writing, and as with any decent argument, a good payoff. An old boss of mine, well steeped in the proper construction of political polemics taught me the value of pocket ideas. You have to give the readers something they can take away, an idea they can stick in their back pockets for later perusal and use.
Your Gresham’s Law analogy is a good one. Misinformation is the heart and soul of the heartless and the soulless. You write “…if what we’d prefer to believe turns out to be wrong, what does that say about us?” To the intellectually curious, it says we have more to learn. To the intellectually indolent, it means pay no attention to facts. Rely on the lie. Intellectual indolence is the fuel of a failed state. Misinformation is the accelerant. Cowardly pols and a greedy, hate fired media are the matches.
Hur may be a skilled lawyer, but he errs in writing that notebooks containing classified notes written by presidents (or then-vice presidents) are unclassified "because Reagan did it." Likewise that classified material is now "old information" and so not "sensitive." These statements are 100% wrong in law. Makes you wonder.
The investigation report could have been this short: "There is no evidence that improper storage of these documents was not sloppy filing. We could obtain no evidence showing who did that. Case closed."
Thanks, Akhilleus.
I enjoy working on these little things.
In this one I avoided another obvious rejoinder to the question I raised to the indolent, as you call them.
The answer might be "you're stupid," but since I hope to get this one into the local paper in a week or so, thought it best not the answer the question at all.
@Ken Winkes: re: your point that Trump's outrageous remarks are just cheap talk, I don't think so. The main reason he didn't do some of things he wanted to do in his first term was that his staff, Congress and the courts wouldn't let him.
But he has always curtsied at the feet of strong men/dictators, and what he could do to help him support those dictators -- including their imperialistic wet dreams -- in a second term -- with a compliant Congress & judges -- is frightening.
Trump's idea of diplomacy is insulting our allies and writing courtesy letters to dictators.
Moreover, he understands nothing about macroeconomics, and the most patient of Krugmans could not help him. With the help of Congress, he could impose those 60% tariffs on China. Do you want to pay half-again as much for products with Chinese components as well as products that compete with Chinese-made products or components?
Tax breaks for the rich, but not for you? He's already done it once, and it further ballooned the deficit.
Hiding a looming pandemic? Been there, done that. Could do it again. (And remember, during his first term, he ordered somebody to develop a vaccine right away, but if he decides he won't stay on for a third term, he won't have the incentive to order vaccines for the hoi polloi.)
Pardoning all the miscreants who pay him? Check.
Sending adversaries -- maybe you, maybe me! -- to jail? That's the plan.
Crumbling infrastructure? Too bad. Unless Congress gives Trump, Inc. the contract for every infrastructure improvement, those bridges & highways will continue to crumble, trains will continue to derail ~~~
~~~ And the FAA and other safety agencies will have to fire everybody because there might be a Democratic-voting air traffic controller someplace.
Kids in cages? Just the beginning. He'll have the Border Patrol picking off migrants with high-powered rifles as they swim across the Rio Grande.
I don't think it's all talk. And I'm sure I haven't mentioned the half of it here.
@Marie
Agree with everything you said, but I believe source of the Pretender's admiration for dictators is simple wish fulfillment. He wishes he were one, too. Talking tough gives him a hard on.
And yes, he has and will give it try again if a foolish nation gives him a chance. As I said, he does scare me.
It's his childish view of economics, tho, that would get in his way because those with the money will ultimately call the shots. Fewer environmental regulations? Sure; they'll all for that. Even lower taxes? Natch. But actions that might affect their profits like that 60% tariff RAS mentions and immigration policies that limit their supply of cheap labor? No way.
In the economic realm, the would-be dictator will bow to his masters and do what he's told.
"... the would-be dictator will bow to his masters and do what he's told.'
Sorry, Ken, but that was what those masters thought in 2015. And earler ones in 1932.
You cannot apply the logic of interests to a psycho.
DiJiT is a psycho. A no-kidding psycho. He has no real "interest", just base urges that come to him.
And R voters? Inexplicable. Lost and away with the faeries.
I can't share Ken's optimism that the monster's talk is just empty words either. Be scared, be very scared
Robert L. Bororsage, writes in the The Nation about the pretend president's redo, this time with the support of the Heritage Foundation's army of true believers.
Laura,
Not just an army of true believers, but an army of avidly authoritarian Federalist Society judges already in place, like deep cover Cold War Russian moles posing as normal Americans. The difference is that these moles are not deep cover, and they’re not really moles. They’re monsters out in the open who have been put in place (like those on the Supreme Court) to fulfill an ideological mission.
Aileen Cannon is one such, embedded like a tick in the federal Justice system to pull strings, make rulings friendly to the traitors, and screw enemies (those who believe in democracy).
Cannon happens to be a particularly inept (but nonetheless dangerous) example. There are plenty of others who work their dark magic without calling undue attention to themselves. Demagogues like Trump, and all the other PoT s schemers rely heavily on these “judges” to do what’s needed to aid the cause. (See Texas judge, Matthew Kacsmaryk, favorite of judge shopping wingers looking for a win no matter the merits of their case.)
True believers are one thing. True believers in black robes with a gavel and the power to tell the rest of us what’s what? That’s a much different thing.
I concede.....for now.
This interview with Judge Michael Luttig is worth listening to.