The coming challenge: How to counter freely chosen obscurantism without descending into the sewer of pathology.
Anne Appelbaum posits, rightly, that Trump, his like-minded cohort around the world, and his millions of adherents reject the Enlightenment and all that it represents in terms of human progress over centuries. She refers to them as the “new Rasputins” (a reference that risks puzzlement on the modern reader’s part) and says that: “The supporters […]
Yet again liberals are blamed for attitudes and choices of Trump voters.
The academy has again blamed me for choices made by others. I’m an easy target; I’m an urban liberal. (Detractors throw in “elitist” but, as with much public discourse, it’s unclear what that means other than, naturally, that it’s intended as a slur. Whatever the case, I’m once more getting something wrong.) It happened before. […]
Colorado v. Anderson: A panicked, reality-denying few will surrender to the mob.
The reasonable conclusion from the recent oral argument in Colorado v. Anderson is that nine people — in the name of 330 million fellow citizens — will subordinate the law to the mob. They won’t say that, of course, because they’ve convinced themselves that it’s solely for voters to choose, or not, an insurrectionist. Not […]
Dawdling Circuit judges risk abetting Trump’s crimes.
The November 2024 election looms over the three criminal cases in which Trump is the defendant. He has made it clear, by public statements and litigation tactics, that he wants none of these cases to go to trial before the election. If he avoids trial and wins in November, he will terminate all prosecutions of […]
Look silly? Six justices don’t care.
At “Courting Ridicule” (snyder.substack.com), Timothy Snyder warns that the issue of Trump’s eligibility for office risks the Supreme Court’s “mak[ing] itself ridiculous.” “We stand on the threshold of comedy already.” Too late; ominous-yet-funny has been a feature of the Court’s jurisprudence for years. Snyder highlights the “originalism” and “intentionalism” (a/k/a “textualism”), which form the thinking, […]
“Absolutely Immunity”: The weird judicial deference to smoke-and-mirrors arguments from Trump continues.
Yesterday a three-judge panel of the DC Circuit Court of Appeals entertained oral arguments from Trump’s attorney, D. John Sauer, as to a president’s “absolute immunity” from criminal liability for acts committed while president. Not heard in on-line recordings was, “Are you serious”? (1) Absolute Immunity Judge Pan did offer skepticism through her hypothetical: Can […]
Six reactionaries will make sure Trump is not disqualified from the 2024 election under the Fourteenth Amendment
Two legal scholars have made a robust case (http://deliverypdf.ssrn.com) for using Section 3 of the 14TH Amendment to disqualify Trump from the 2024 election: No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, […]
Jack Goldsmith applies for a job by waffling on prosecuting Trump: An exchange
I recently struggled to understand this Jack Goldsmith piece about prosecuting Trump for January 6. The piece is exasperating in its fatuous logic and weak-kneed “analysis”. I asked a former law partner — a former prosecutor and experienced litigator — to check my math. My view Goldsmith sets the scene by referring to “the Biden […]
And the rest of the world watches: Part 2
Why do the countries with the means to compel a change in Israel’s course — a course Western leaders routinely describe as counter-productive to peace and even contrary to Israel’s long-term interest — limit their role to hand-wringing? Is their helplessness feigned or real? There are four elements that maintain the status quo, variously playing […]
Stefanik and Greene: Queens of fiction, not legislators
Two Republican stalwarts have introduced House resolutions to expunge the Trump impeachments. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s version deals with December 2019 (Impeachment 1), Elise Stefanik’s with January 2021 (Impeachment 2). Although mere expressions of sentiment, not legislation, in our hyper-ventilating age obsessed with feelings and much as non-Republican critics mock them as yet more exercises in […]
Trump didn’t “mishandle;” he stole.
Hyperventilation over Trump’s indictment gives us the latest example of how media pervert language. Almost universally, headlines refer to his being charged with “mishandling classified documents”. This mischaracterizes what he’s done, and it’s not clear why media — versus Trump voters and his acolytes in Congress — want to sugar-coat the offense. “Mishandle” means, Oops; […]
MTG: Even a pox on humanity can offer benefits.
Hard to imagine that someone who contributes less than zero to humanity has done something useful. But Marjorie Taylor Greene — enamored of the public attention that finally has come her way after nearly 50 years’ obscure existence in central Georgia — has done it. She has proposed to divorce red states from blue states. […]
The 11th Circuit panel missed the chance to highlight Trump’s obstruction of DOJ’s criminal investigation.
The Mar-a-Lago documents case has been briefed and argued; all we need now is a decision from the 11th Circuit to undo the nonsense generated by Judge Cannon so that DOJ can proceed with its prosecution of Trump for pilfering government documents, including highly classified ones. In the recent oral argument, the misleadingly named Trump lawyer, Trusty, […]
Even civic decay is Hillary’s fault?
Yet another both-sides-do-it claim: “MAGA faithful have taken election denial to the extreme, but both parties have nurtured the problem for decades.” Seriously? Democrats’ assertion — backed by facts in the Mueller Report — that Russia interfered in the 2016 to help Trump is characterized, bizarrely, as the equivalent of some 70 post-2020 lawsuits challenging […]
Trump: 7 Crimes and 73 Years
People who loathe Trump ask: Why hasn’t DOJ indicted Trump yet. Isn’t there a mountain of evidence proving guilt? The absence of an indictment is seen as Garlandian cowardice, typical liberal squishiness and the misplaced impulse not to offend Republicans. (Newsflash to Garland critics: He probably knows that you can’t offend something that, by definition, […]