Lawrence O’Donnell with a smart analysis of Donald Trump’s five dimensional legal chess strategy:

Because a narcissist like Trumpie can only be the greatest winner in the world or its most humiliated loser, he continues to insist (with all evidence showing he’s lying, he lost by 7,000,000 votes) that he never lost the 2020 election.  He has no proof, but he doesn’t need it.  He just lies, over and over, and those who love and admire him love him for it.  “He’s stronger than the so-called truth, facts, evidence, rules, laws, norms, Constitution, what have you!  That’s our boy!”

His latest maniacal move is to call for the abolition of all laws, norms, rules, the Constitution itself, in order to overturn the stolen election that he lost by the same Electoral College margin he called a landslide when it went in his favor in 2016. His party, which rode him to fabulous far right fever dream success, is so far sticking with their man, the leader of their party and its most likely candidate in 2024. Presumably cooler heads within the party are waiting for an indictment and conviction to remove him from the political playing field, although history shows they shouldn’t hold their breath. Here’s a link to Heather with an excellent piece about the latest shamelessness from the shamefully obsequious Grand Old Party. The party of Law and Order.

https://open.substack.com/pub/heathercoxrichardson/p/december-3-2022?r=74gv9&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email

Jill succinctly wraps up the major democracy related issues that need to be dealt with once the January 6th committee wraps up its work, issues its report and releases all the evidence gathered during its long investigation.

Heather Cox Richardson:

Today, one of former president Trump’s messages on the struggling right-wing social media platform Truth Social went viral. 

In the message, Trump again insisted that the 2020 presidential election had been characterized by “MASSIVE & WIDESPREAD FRAUD & DECEPTION,” and suggested the country should “throw the Presidential Election Results of 2020 OUT and declare the RIGHTFUL WINNER, or…have a NEW ELECTION.” 

Then he added: “A Massive Fraud of this type and magnitude allows for the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution. Our great ‘Founders’ did not want, and would not condone, False & Fraudulent Elections!” 

In other words, Trump is calling for the overthrow of the Constitution that established this nation. He advocates the establishment of a dictator. 

https://open.substack.com/pub/heathercoxrichardson/p/december-3-2022?r=74gv9&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email

As anyone in his position would. As he told his crowd at the Ellipse, from behind bullet proof glass, after urging his crew to take away the magnetometers so his angry supporters could attack the Capitol fully armed to kill Pence, Pelosi and others “When you catch somebody in a fraud you’re allowed to go by a different set of rules.”

Is it a surprise that the same guy fell in love with a misogynistic 24 year-old Nazi at a recent Mar-a-Lago dinner with a deranged superstar of rap and self-hatred?

Every lawyer who discussed this novel case of the target of a legal search warrant bringing a civil suit against the United States of America, to get as much delay as possible in the US criminal investigation into his theft of classified documents, knew Judge Aileen Cannon had no jurisdiction to hear the case.  In Trump v. US she claimed equitable (fairness) jurisdiction which is only available when there is no adequate remedy at law and the result would be grossly unfair without a court stepping in.  In this case, of course, Trump had an adequate remedy at law — to contest the legality of the search warrant.  A case he never brought because there was no chance of success.   The search warrant was not only legal, it turned up the evidence described in the warrant, found in the specific places described in the warrant.

So Trump did an end-run to prevent the evidence being used against him by the Department of Justice.  Ran his shabby Hail Mary lawsuit 70 miles up the coast to a courthouse where the supremely loyal Cannon was the only federal judge there.  He managed to buy about four months of delay.   Now his incoherent lawsuit against the US government has been dismissed and the government can review the thousands of papers seized pursuant to the legal search warrant.   He’ll probably go to the Supreme Court, because, why the fuck not?   They will make a 9-0 one sentence ruling upholding the Eleventh circuit’s decision overruling Cannon’s absurd, although highly loyal, order.  The Eleventh circuit appeals panel (two Trump appointees and a Dubya Bush appointee) sent the case back to Cannon to dismiss it herself for lack of jurisdiction, which is the most humiliating way they could have ended the case.

It was a major smackdown.  If they’d upheld Cannon’s order they’d be giving permission to every subject of a search warrant to sue the government in civil court to prevent the review of criminal evidence legally seized by the government.

“The law is clear. We cannot write a rule that allows any subject of a search warrant to block government investigations after the execution of the warrant. Nor can we write a rule that allows only former presidents to do so. Either approach would be a radical reordering of our caselaw limiting the federal courts’ involvement in criminal investigations. And both would violate bedrock separation-of-powers limitations.”

Next move — make a grim example of brand new, lawless federal MAGA judge Aileen Mercedes Canon by bringing her in front of a judicial ethics panel and disciplining her publicly. Or better still, remove her from the federal bench.

The corporations that own the railroads in our country have been playing hardball with the unions representing railroad workers. They have cut 40,000 jobs nationwide and have been demanding increased productivity from the remaining railroad workers (while reaping record profits). Shades of the air traffic controllers demanding safer working conditions back when Reagan smashed PATCO ( the only union, incidentally that endorsed the affable old reactionary).

This time Biden brokered a stopgap deal to avoid a supply chain crippling strike right before Christmas. The worst sticking point was that there was no increase in paid sick leave for the overworked remaining railroad workers. The House of Representatives took up that sticking point, to correct a (literally) fatal defect in Biden’s workaround compromise. Here was the vote today.

Say it with me “USA!! USA!!!”

Party of the people, MAGA, the very best people, the best people.

“As I have said before, the gravest threats to our civilization are not from abroad, but from within,” Trump said at his flaccid, whiny announcement Tuesday night at Mar-a-Lago.

That is actually true, but only because Trump exploited every dark division and base impulse he could find.

He would rather blow up our democracy than admit he’s a loser, and that makes him a traitor.

Trump flaunts his faux Macho Macho Man rhetoric. For decades, Republicans have lectured Americans to quit embracing victimhood and stand on their own two feet, and here’s their leader announcing his presidency on a platform of Woe is me because I’m a fall guy!

“I will tell you I’m a victim,” Trump said to a less-than-festive gathering where Melania seemed like a hostage and Ivanka was a no-show.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/19/opinion/trump-special-counsel.html

And, as promised (though minus the input of the ethics team he promised to consult, and then immediately fired) Musk (Elon Mullosk, as a friend called the slimy bastard recently) restored his fellow übercitizen Donald Trump to Twitter.  For Trump to go back on Twitter is to abandon his failing Truth Social but for him not to return to Twitter is to forgo a giant megaphone, which isn’t his way.  An excellent op-ed in the NY Times made some great observations:

As someone who has been studying Mr. Trump’s Twitter use since before he was elected president, I believe that his return would mean the heightened spread of both misinformation and disinformation, the proliferation of degrading and dehumanizing discourse, the further mainstreaming of hate speech and the erosion of democratic norms and institutions. But there is something else: Mr. Trump’s return to Twitter could escalate the likelihood of political violence.

Simply put, if you are surrounded by dry kindling, add an accelerant and light a match, conflagration is the predictable outcome. . .

. . . Twitter and Mr. Trump represent a dangerous fusion of form and content. Social media generally and Twitter specifically lend themselves to simple, urgent, unreflective and emotionally charged communication. When the message is one of intolerance and violence, the result is all but certain.

I Studied Trump’s Twitter Use for Six Years. Prepare for the Worst. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/20/opinion/donald-trump-twitter-return.html?unlocked_article_code=AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACEIPuonUktbfqYhlSVUZAybSRdkhrxqAwvTIxrU4ijriNjWQUXNe0OUJH4Wavl3Aebd5YZ0zwzGfDpdnAYMYecZTnKVZLlA_DE6huIeFk5AIZHk4oNm4BDNsms-TArl9rGe7NyzpdupxgefkskOMO2TvDPDahGYzZ1ow-esTflCs330PxqnHA7Q1joE4haF9c8g8ETQQZyCKvO3rCwF-OLiGbxLa7Ao3W4JJSG2Z3I7cu_9bLlIkWR-RR2h_4G089NtcJNoQWa39JBMlc8D-6q4DiWAPjCo4h4AbS8d8a7Sv5g

True dat, as certain as the continued mindless worship of our greediest, most rapacious citizens endangers us all.