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You had a good run, but now it's over.
You are now living under the dictatorship of five corrupt SC 'justices' who have declared themselves not only above the law, but above the Constitution.
SCOTUS decisions will no longer be based on legal scholarship or precedent, but based solely on the furtherance of a political agenda that strips away the rights and freedoms of the citizenry.
I have always been a glass-half-full optimist - but tonight the glass is completely empty, and lies shattered on the grave of what was once a great nation.
niyad
(119,182 posts)2naSalit
(91,935 posts)bigtree
(89,635 posts)...we're officially looped in by a majority on the SC who have decided to just flex all of the power they've been afforded.
U.S. today reminds me of the indigenous people the pilgrim thugs encountered who would welcome them with gifts and food, until the thugs tired of them and just shot them all with their muskets and took what they wanted.
NanceGreggs
(27,835 posts)... given the power to place ANYONE above the law, nor the power to place itself above the Constitution.
Today it did both.
bigtree
(89,635 posts)...impeachments of justices hinges on the party in power having a supermajority of votes in the Senate to convict.
Constitutional amendments...
BaronChocula
(2,464 posts)The rapist wouldn't have correctly used "whom" vs who.
Igel
(35,995 posts)I'd be more concerned had there been a history of criminal prosecutions of presidents throughout history, a long history of prosecutions that would now be curtailed.
The parallel argument is that if a president is acting with constitutional authority, Congress has no authority to pass laws against it, prosecutors have no grounds for prosecution, and the courts have no authority to pass judgment. Because that would be overruling the constitution. The less clearly constitutional the actions are, the more open to prosecution, so there's a gradient between "nobody can prosecute" and "maybe somebody could."
It's been pointed out that the difference between an assertion of immunity and an assertion of lack of ability for anybody to prosecution or sentence boils down to describing the same situation using different words, except one uses constitutional reasoning and the other doesn't.
wnylib
(24,103 posts)They have sold the nation and their souls for yachts, homes, and other special benefits. They make Benedict Arnold look like a saint and Judas look like a god himself.
madaboutharry
(41,201 posts)There is nothing other than there are many others, maybe even millions, who grieve with you.
For you NanceGreggs:
CrispyQ
(37,980 posts)I feel as sick tonight as I did the night Trump won in 2016.
sheshe2
(86,941 posts)I hope not, however our future is unclear.
I am scared.
Pototan
(1,861 posts)Last edited Tue Jul 2, 2024, 01:40 AM - Edit history (1)
it's gonna get much, much worse.
BigmanPigman
(52,147 posts)I have thrown up today since I got up and turned on Nicolle Wallace. The fucking moron is harming me at a very deep level.
I keep saying, "I am so glad I chose not to have kids" since I would feel even worse, if that's possible.
Mr.Bee
(276 posts)No, not an advertisement.
I've been watching the original episodes and tonight I got to "The Omega Glory", episode written by Gene Roddenberry, and corny as it may be, it always tears me up when Shatner gets to the point where he reads "We The People", and it made me think, that's what we should be teaching kids in school, not the 10 commands of religion.
0rganism
(24,527 posts)Looks like it was shadows and dust after all.
DemocraticPatriot
(5,410 posts)"It isn't over 'til it's over"
I understand you are demoralized, as I am,
and I know very well that you are not a troll,
placed here long ago to demoralize us at a key moment...
I know that you aren't, I know your long record here---
but you are talking like some of them are here, tonight!
Please... buck up and have a little faith! NEVER SURRENDER!
Announcing a public surrender here won't do any of us any good,
and WE NEED YOU IN THIS FIGHT!!!!
I know you haven't been around much lately, and I'm glad to see you here tonight--
but not this way....
'NO RETREAT, NO SURRENDER!'
I hope to see you back later, to share some of your strength with us!!!
NanceGreggs
(27,835 posts)... that Joe will be re-elected. But we'll still be stuck with a corrupt Supreme Court that will decide in favour of every RW scumbag and greedy corporation that appears before it.
totodeinhere
(13,247 posts)n/t
FarPoint
(13,520 posts)We have one mighty weapon at our disposal right now...It is the power of the vote. We must build our weapon now in all 50 states ....It sounds simple but it can be POWER....
Everyone here can find 2 more people to register and vote BLUE we increase our power 2 fold. Mobilize this vote like an earthquake tremor across the nation....Get involved with your local Democratic Headquarters...get voting registration and get-out-the vote to get folks to the polls. Many here at DU have leadership skills...now lead....
To VOTE is our means of saving democracy.....Focus, tune out the distractions and just get out the vote.
Hermit-The-Prog
(36,378 posts)Trust_Reality
(1,840 posts)They are clearly grabbing power and destroying the Constitution as we know it. They are no longer even pretending to be honest arbiters of the law or the Constitution.
The President promised in the presidential oath of office: "to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution". So, Mr. President, DO IT.
The Republican appointed members of the supreme court are a prime example of who or what was contemplated in the federal employee's oath of office: "I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic". I'm pretty sure this oath is sworn to by all federal employees - military, Secret Service, FBI, CIA... everyone. They all need to step forward.
The Republican members of the court have established themselves as domestic enemies of the Constitution.
The person with the most power readily available at this point in time is the current President. He needs to get his ass in gear and do something. Hell with the election. Stop the coup.
He says he can do the job. Now is the time, the ultimate test. He was elected by the voters. He is legitimate.
Trump, the Republican controlled court, the Federalist Society, the radical religious community, and a group of billionaires are big thinkers. Stopping them will require bold action, not a debate, not a great political ad, not politics as usual. With the supreme court leading the charge, even an election may not stop the coup. We have entered a new paradigm. We need to defend the Constitution and the function of government now.
DEFEND THE CONSTITUTION NOW
Frank D. Lincoln
(484 posts)and then take your advice.
I agree with every word that you stated.
SCOTUS's decision on presidential immunity changes everything.
The coup is completely out in the open now. Just because they aren't storming the Capitol again doesn't make it any less a coup.
The problem is that Biden is doing exactly what the conspirators expect him to do under the circumstances and that's to do nothing to stop the coup. Why Biden can't see that I'll never understand.
A reelection campaign is one thing, but when Trump, with the help of SCOTUS and his other Republican allies, are openly aiming at ending our democracy, that's a completely different thing that should be dealt with in a completely different way. The two shouldn't be conflated.
somaticexperiencing
(535 posts)that we have come this far.
However, I think we will all agree I believe that life has its ups and downs. It is meant to. Sometimes the ups are very up and sometimes the downs are very down.
When a prey animal can fight, it fights. When it can run, it runs. When it can do neither, it sinks to its knees before the last pounce. In this way, it will not feel so much pain if and when it is mauled. However, this is also something of a "freeze" state. In this state, if the predator loses its grip, its attention, becomes distracted, the prey animal has a chance to flee. If it flees successfully and establishes safety, it "shakes it off" (all that traumatic energy) through shaking. Fight, flight, and freeze.
This is a natural life cycle, which we all experience. Except we don't shake it off so well and we don't revere the surrender moment quite like we should.
Down there, at the bottom of the wave, there is also wisdom, there is also peace, there is also abundance in the desert, there is also meditation.
We need to go to the bottom of the wave once in a while.
We still have plenty on our side. We have truth, justice, and the American Way.
We can make our case to the people and we can win this November and we can win easily.
Then we will work on the Supreme Court, if not before. But we gotta cherish the bottom of the wave once in a while. We gotta let go even, and let things work themselves out.
NanceGreggs
(27,835 posts)... about justice or the truth. And the "American way" will now be whatever they say it is.
somaticexperiencing
(535 posts)I appreciate your sentiment.
It's a painful day.
And it is not the last day. Not yet.
budkin
(6,849 posts)I cant even believe this has happened. Its sick.
orangecrush
(21,240 posts)This is not a drill.
This is 1939 Germany.
YoshidaYui
(42,548 posts)EVEN IF Biden wins, there is the possibility that the SUPREME COURT will step in and take the vote away from the people and give it to their newly made KING. If he is installed, you can bet what ever is left of Democracy will only be the bones, as the rest of it will be chewed up and spit out.
NanceGreggs
(27,835 posts)When tRump loses in November, he'll go crying to the SC - and we all know how that will turn out.
JoseBalow
(4,859 posts)DSandra
(1,188 posts)And congress has allowed them for over two centuries. It's time for Congress to seize back the power!
Conjuay
(2,018 posts)moscow mitch for the part he played.
If I had presidential immunity hes the first buy I would push down a flight of stairs.
Johnny2X2X
(21,417 posts)When 6 out of 9 SCOTUS justices can't come to a conclusion that, "Hey, how about Presidents don't commit crimes as part of their job?" We're in big trouble.
This was a ruling fopr 1 person and 1 person only, Trump. The 6 justices weren't thinking of any other president past, present, or future, they were only thinking of Trump because Trump is the only one who regularly committed crimes as the President.
DFW
(56,326 posts)I don't pretend to know all of their real motives or all of their real backers, but I sure as hell know the effects of their actions. We all do.
From Ralph Nader to Jill Stein to Bernie Sanders to Nina Turner to Bobby Jr. to Cornell West to a dozen others, the fate of the country, the people who live in it, the fate of those who live elsewhere but are affected by us (and that's half the planet or more), these people have succeeded or came close to succeeding (i.e. in 2020) in disrupting--and negating--the will and preference of the majority of those who voted, as well as those who wanted to vote but were denied that right, due to actions of a SCOTUS resulting from the ego trips of the above-named non-Democrats. Al Gore and Hillary Clinton certainly never would have nominated the likes of Roberts, Alito, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh or Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court. Karl Rove, Dick Cheney, Mitch McConnell and the Steves (Bannon and Miller) did. Maybe I'm being cynical, but I doubt that anyone on DU is under the illusion that Bush Jr. or Trump had the slightest idea of who their Supreme Court nominees should have been. Those two wouldn't know the difference between "Black's Law Dictionary" and "Black Beauty."
In the name of being "progressive," they have instead managed to aid and abet those who would throw the country that once led the world in technological innovation and social progress back into the 15th century, when death and disease were either just too bad or "God's will," education was controlled by the clergy, and rulers were absolute and not to be questioned, whether their new clothes were real or not.
Like it or not, the United States is not a parliamentary democracy. Parties garnering 15% of the vote do NOT get a voice in shaping governments. They DO play a role in who makes up governments by siphoning off votes from would-have-been majority winners, but once those elections are over, their role is zero. Ralph Nader was not invited to lend his input to the Cheney-Bush administration. They owed their existence to him, but other than being happy about it, no other gesture to Nader would be forthcoming. In Germany, where I live, a party getting 15% of the vote can be a kingmaker, being courted by larger parties offering concessions to join a coalition and make them the ruling government. It gets predictably messy, and isn't necessarily better than our way. But I have no knowledge of any country allowing an ideological judiciary to decide that only its supporters should have an unrestricted right to vote or even a fair trial, or that its adherents are protected from having to answer for wrongdoing. Sam Alito's role model is not John Marshall, but Roland Freisler. Worse yet, he's proud of it.
While the right to free speech and expression should remain absolute, the unenforceable moral obligation to consider the long range effects of those words and actions should never be ignored. They should also figure into anyone's decision to mount a peripheral political movement that could alter the results of a vital election. An action is not noble if its ultimate effect is to bring on misery. That is a notion I would love to bring to the attention of people like Bobby, Jr. and Cornell West, but, as with all their predecessors from Ralph Nader onward, I know it will fall of deaf ears.
**I am well aware that there are staunch defenders of the one or the other of the (in my opinion) tragic disruptors, past and present. I don't disagree with your motives any more than you can disagree with the aftermath of what your champions have wrought. Well, I should temper that with that fact that they always say, "it wasn't [fill in the blank]'s fault!" Anyone who says that, well, I'm not going to change their minds. By the same token, they aren't going to change mine when I say, "yes, it was." No one wants an imperfect hero, but they all are.
I'm ready for the usual attacks by the usual people who will vehemently disagree. But don't expect me to spend a lot of time getting upset about them. This is one of those rare times when I can relax, enjoy the presence of my two daughters and all four of our grandchildren, and watch the sun set over the water for a few weeks. The nearest town is a small gay mecca with great people, food, art, music and a lot of peaceful days and evenings. No Paris, Zürich, Brussels, whatever. In three weeks, my wife and I get to celebrate the anniversary of one of the most improbable things that ever happened to us. No one can take that away. The grind will start up again soon enough.