Good morning, my mutts! I’m coming to you from the corporate office this morning. They keep reminding me that I have a cubbyhole here in Bellevue where I am supposed to be ‘checking in’ from time-to-time with the IT department to make sure I am still coloring between the lines on my Asset Tracking Base. Today I get to unveil my latest version of the Asset Tracking Base — this one being completely web-based. I don’t think they are ready for it…
Today is my ‘Friday’. I have the next three days off and I am planning on … drum roll please… staying home in my Hunker-Bunker because I hate all of you people out there. For fuck’s sake, I have to deal with the “public” five days a week as it is, the absolute last thing I want to be doing on my time off is being around all of you mouth breathers.
Boy Oh, Boy, have I got some news for y’all!
I see there are a lot of people predictably freaking out over the Supreme Court rulings yesterday. I also see Donald Trump crowing that he ‘won’. The reality isn’t quite what you might think it is.
Am I surprised by the Court decision on immunity? Nope. It’s pretty much what I expected it to be:
- A POTUS has immunity on the official decisions and duties of the Presidency. Basically everything in his or her purview. They can direct the Executive Branch to do his or her bidding and not be held accountable for those decisions or duties.
- A POTUS does not enjoy immunity for decisions and activities that are not considered a duty or in the purview of his or her official powers.
Campaigning for office is NOT considered to be an official duty. Holding campaign rallies is not considered an official duty. Pressuring state officials to “find” enough votes to win an election is NOT considered to be an official duty.
But a POTUS can direct his Justice Department to investigate the shit out of anyone or anything he or she wants. A POTUS can direct Seal Team Six to assassinate anyone he wants assassinated. He can’t be held accountable for that decision.
BUT.
And there is always a ‘but’. While a POTUS — as Commander-in-Chief — can legally and without consequence order the military to sweep into Portland and wipe out every swinging dick walking around, the military personnel are NOT covered by this immunity and CAN be held accountable for following what would be considered an “illegal order”.
Or at least that is the theory Chief Justice John Roberts is leaning on…
On Presidential Immunity:
I’d have to look it up, but Brett Kavanaugh once said that the Supreme Court is not judged by the opinions of the majority, but by how the minority accepts the ruling of the majority. It’s one of the few things that I agree with Kavanaugh. If the dissent of the minority is a five-alarm, hair-on-fire dissent, then maybe, just maybe there might be a small problem with how the people are going to view the Court as a whole.
As of last September, the Court’s approval/disapproval rating based on public opinion was at 41% approve with 58% disapproving. The lowest ratings EVER. The next poll is due out sometime this month, and it will be really interesting to see where it is at after this latest slate of decisions.
I suspect that the approval has dropped into the mid- to high-thirties, which IS a ‘five-alarm’ warning that the Court has become pretty much irrelevant.
At the very least, it places a LOT of faith in the American voter to keep dangerous people away from the Oval Office.
I wonder: how many Republicans would be comfortable with Joe Biden abusing his presidential powers?
Again, the military is not immune to prosecution — only the POTUS.
Mr Aaronovitch finally deleted the post after around 90 minutes, tweeting: “There is now a far right pile-on suggesting that my tweet about the Supreme Court’s ruling on presidential immunity is an incitement to violence when it’s plainly a satire”.
“So I’m deleting it. If nothing else though it’s given me a map of some of the daftest people on this site.
“Note by the way that not one of them has a problem with the ruling itself.”
More Post-Debate Fallout:
“Democrats” meaning the DNC. The DNC is not actually “The Democrats”, any more than the RNC is “The Republicans”.
- “If the Democratic party can’t produce something different that 72% of people want, why do we exist?
The ‘Ragin Cajun’ is losing his mind — again.
Probably NOT going to happen
I suspect that at the end of the day, Democrats will get together and vote for Joe Biden. It just is.
Memes from the Memebox:
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