SCOTUS on Trump: Anatomy of Running Out the Clock

It's time to Break It Down!

 

Last year at this time I wrote a post regarding the Supreme Court of the United States, familiarly known as SCOTUS. The Justices will complete their current term in the next few days. There are several cases still pending, but none more highly anticipated than Trump v. United States. This matter will see the Court deciding whether, and if so to what extent, a former president enjoys presidential immunity from criminal prosecution for conduct alleged to involve official acts during his tenure in office.

 

SCOTUS accepted this case February 28, 2024. It was subsequently argued April 25, 2024. A decision on the case and the subsequent citation are pending. As June moves toward a close, marking the typical end of the session, there have already been intimations that completing the disposition of this year’s cases may bleed into July. Still, with the year’s first Presidential debate between President Biden and former President Trump, presumptive nominees of their respective parties, set for tomorrow night on CNN, there is more than a little expectation that the read out for the case may occur today, or tomorrow.

 

That is not to suggest that SCOTUS will be influenced by the exigencies of the political calendar. Rather, it is a recognition that “We the people,” would like to know the answers to the questions surrounding Mr. Trump’s immunity, including, Is he immune, and if so, to what degree, and under what circumstances.

 

Regardless of whether the Court announces it’s ruling this week, it is fair to say, intentional or not, it has already gifted Trump with at least one of the desires of his heart; for all practical purposes, delaying the disposition of the case prior to the November 5^th Election. In an election that is viewed as tight, and one that Donald Trump could conceivably win, the so-called experts have projected that a President Trump would direct his Attorney General to squash the case, as well as any other federal cases against him. In Florida, Judge Cannon, by virtue of the way she has handled the classified documents case, has already ensured that that case cannot happen before the Election. Trump still has pending appeals in the New York falsifying documents case. Then, there is the specter of both an appeal, and the possible removal of DA Fani Willis from the Georgia Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act case, both which must take place before the case proceeds to trial.

 

In conclusion, the judicial stars have aligned to, in all practical purposes, derail any further pre-Election trials for Donal Trump. That’s huge, regardless of whether he wins. However, if he happens to win, He has the option to make the three federal cases disappear, while if another prosecutor is selected in Georgia, there are questions about whether the case would even be pursued. It absolutely may not. “SCOTUS on Trump: Anatomy of Running Out the Clock!”

 

I’m done; holla back!

 

Read my blog anytime by clicking the links: http://thesphinxofcharlotte.com or /http://thesphinxofcharlotte.blogspot.com.

 

A new post is published each Wednesday. For more detailed information on a variety of aspects relating to this post, consult the link below:

http://thesphinxofcharlotte.blogspot.com/2024/06/scotus-on-trump-anatomy-of-running-out.html

"War to the Knife": Victory or Death

It's time to Break It Down!

 

Donald Trump’s former top strategist, Steve Bannon framed the 2024 Election in warlike language. Trump, Stephen Miller, and Bannon have a penchant for infusing almost any topic with the embers of incendiary speech. The kind of language conservatives consider threatening when directed toward them, but free speech, when they employ it. 

 

This past weekend, Bannon met with the conservative group, Turning Point, in Detroit. Michigan is a battleground state and one that is expected to be pivotal in determining the outcome of this year’s presidential election. 

 

Bannon served briefly in Trump’s White House. He was fired in August 2017, part of a major reorganization under then-chief of staff John Kelly, who was brought in to control a chaotic atmosphere. In the years since, Bannon has continued to advocate for Trump, and meanwhile, Kelly, a retired general, has sounded the alarm about Trump’s possible reelection.

The stakes of this election must be extremely high from Bannon’s perspective. Already pardoned by Trump for his role in a scheme to allegedly defraud donors of contributions intended to help build a border wall, Bannon was subsequently convicted by a jury in 2022 of the rarely prosecuted crime of contempt of Congress. Bannon refused to cooperate with subpoenas from the committee that investigated the January 6, 2021, insurrection when Democrats controlled Congress.

After delays, Bannon must begin serving a four-month prison sentence starting next month.

“Are you prepared to fight? Are you prepared to give it all?” he asked of young activists, telling them they would have to follow in the footsteps of “the team around President Trump” – who he views as Roger Stone, Rudy Giuliani, John Eastman and Alex Jones, people whose fidelity to conspiracy theories has gotten them into legal and financial trouble, but who in Bannon’s mind are political freedom fighters.

“If they steal this election – and they fully intend to steal it – this republic ends,” Bannon said, before going on a riff about how top Department of Justice officials in President Joe Biden’s administration, like Attorney General Merrick Garland, should be prosecuted; the FBI should be completely deconstructed; and anyone convicted in connection to the storming of the Capitol building would be set free.

Comparing the presidential campaign to the D-Day invasion, Bannon encouraged a cheering crowd at the Turning Point Action convention in Detroit to see themselves as filling the positions of fallen soldiers in an assault.

“Are we at war?” he asked the crowd. “Is this a political war to the knife?”

“War to the knife” – Bannon recently used it in an interview with ex-Fox News host Tucker Carlson. A Google search yielded a 1998 book by that name about the Bleeding Kansas skirmishes in the years before the Civil War when pro- and anti-slavery settlers flooded into Kansas and feuded over whether Kansas should enter the union as a free or slave state.

The book, according to its description, attributes the term to the Atchison Squatter Sovereign, which the Library of Congress describes as a pro-slavery newspaper of the era. It’s not clear where Bannon got the term.

“Are you prepared to leave it all on the battlefield in 2024?” he asked of Turning Point activists. “It’s very simple: victory or death!”

He added, “We are going to purge DOJ. We are going to take apart the FBI. The FBI, the American Gestapo … there’s not going to be an FBI.”

While Trump has only said he would be justified in going after political opponents, Bannon is committed to targeting anyone he views as having opposed Trump.

“We are going to get every single receipt, and to the fullest extension of the law, you are going to be investigated, prosecuted and incarcerated,” he said.

Bannon is not alone. The conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation, for instance, has written up its Project 2025 road map to remaking the civil service by firing large numbers of career servants and replacing them with more political voices. For a good, in-depth look at what Project 2025 would and would not do, listen this recent “In the Room” podcast from Peter Bergen, CNN’s national security analyst. Bergen talks to one of the authors of the State Department portion of Project 2025. ““War to the Knife”: Victory or Death!”

 

I’m done; holla back!

 

Read my blog anytime by clicking the links: http://thesphinxofcharlotte.com or /http://thesphinxofcharlotte.blogspot.com.

 

A new post is published each Wednesday. For more detailed information on a variety of aspects relating to this post, consult the link below:

 

https://www.cnn.com/2024/06/18/politics/bannon-trump-election-what-matters/index.html

http://thesphinxofcharlotte.blogspot.com/2024/06/war-to-knife-victory-or-death.html

Weaponization of Government: Fake News on Steroids

It's time to Break It Down!

 

Two weeks ago, a New York jury found Donald guilty of 34 felony counts. TrumpWorld immediately flooded the zone across all media lanes, claiming the verdict was a result of a Democratic scheme to weaponize government at the behest of Joe Biden, head of the (in their words) Biden Crime Family, all a form of Democratic fueled judicial overreach.

 

Yesterday, a jury found Hunter Biden guilty of 3 felony counts:

 

-       Lying to a federally licensed gun dealer

-       Making a false claim on the application

-       Illegally having a gun for 11 days

 

Instead of leaning in on the obvious, and retracting their debunked (by Biden’s conviction) claims, Team Trump altered the tenor of their claims, asserting:

 

“This trial has been nothing more than a distraction from the real crimes of the Biden Crime Family, which has raked in tens of millions of dollars from China, Russia, and Ukraine. Crooked Joe Biden’s reign over the Biden Criminal Empire is coming to an end on November 5^th, and never again will a Biden sell government access for personal profit.”

 

Trump was convicted in his home state of New York. Biden was convicted in his home state of Delaware. Both verdicts were reached by respective juries, based on the evidence presented by prosecutors. But let’s be perfectly clear, were there such a thing as Democratic weaponized government, a Biden Crime Family, and/or Democratic fueled judicial overreach, there would never-ever have been a Hunter Biden trial, and absolutely, positively, no Biden conviction. We can say, without reservation, “Weaponization of Government: Fake News on Steroids!”

 

I’m done; holla back!

Read my blog anytime by clicking the links: http://thesphinxofcharlotte.com or /http://thesphinxofcharlotte.blogspot.com.

A new post is published each Wednesday. For more detailed information on a variety of aspects relating to this post, consult the link below:

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-campaign-republicans-seize-hunter-biden-verdict-ramp/story?id=111021376

http://thesphinxofcharlotte.blogspot.com/2024/06/weaponization-of-government-fake-news.html

Projection: Trumpublicans' Tool of Choice

It's time to Break It Down!

 

The Republican Party has raised the profile of conspiracy theories to infinity. Egged on by Donald Trump, the Party leaders…and followers breathlessly cry government weaponization, Biden Crime Family, and Democratic Judicial overreach. If one is to take these GOP assertions seriously, Joe Biden, whom they alternately accuse of raging senility, and rampantly corrupt thuggery, is the fiendish mastermind behind Trump’s 88 (formerly 91) felony charges, spread over New York, Washington, DC, Georgia and Florida. That’s in addition to the $5 million civil judgments for sexual assault and defamation last year. Last week, he was found guilty of 34 counts in the so-called hush money trial in New York.

 

Yesterday, Attorney General Merrick Garland faced questions while testifying before the House Judiciary Committee. While answering the frequently intense and always accusatory questions from GOP House Members, Garland defended the reputation, standards, and methods of the 115,000 Justice Department employees. He dismissed out of hand the allegations that the Department was in any way enmeshed in some conspiracy against Donald Trump.

 

That claim seems to represent the current litmus test for Republicans in general, and especially and in particular, for GOP candidates for anything. During the final days of Trump’s hush money trial, a series of Republicans, most of whom are presumed to be vying to Mr. Trump’s #2, er a, I mean, Vice President. Those men and women, as well as a host of other Republicans have been taking advantage of every opportunity to stand in front of a mic and assail the plight of the American justice system. Like their Svengali, several of them have suggested the country (America) has become a Fascist state. Moreover, when the question, “Is America a Fascist Country” was put to them, respondents either cosigned the assertion, or refused to answer it, real profiles in courage.

 

AG Garland noted that the Justice Department follows the facts and the law, not a particular political party. To buttress his position, he referenced New Jersey Senator Robert Menendez’s bribery trial, Texas Representative Henry Cuellar’s bribery indictment, and Biden Family scion Hunter’s gun trial, all Democrats.

Meanwhile though Garland didn’t mention it, of course, Trump has been charged with and convicted of dozens of felonies, with dozens more pending. Moreover, the American Justice System has actively intervened to delay Trump’s Day in court in 3 of his four trials. A couple of Supreme Court Justices appear to have conflicts of interests yet have indicated they have no plans to recuse themselves from the Trump immunity case. In Florida, a Trump appointed Judge has delayed the classified documents case. In Georgia, a Republican Judge ruled that either the DA, or her Chief Assistant had to step down, and further allowed Trump to appeal to have DA Fani Willis removed from the case. Naturally, you won’t hear Republicans complaining about any of those American judicial actions. “Projection: Trumpublicans' Tool of Choice!”

 

I’m done; holla back!

Read my blog anytime by clicking the links: http://thesphinxofcharlotte.com or /http://thesphinxofcharlotte.blogspot.com.

A new post is published each Wednesday. For more detailed information on a variety of aspects relating to this post, consult the links below:

http://thesphinxofcharlotte.blogspot.com/2024/06/projection-trumpublicans-tool-of-choice.html