Category Archives: Law and Justice

Say that under oath, motherfucker

I love that Liz Cheney anticipated Trump lickspittle Tony Ornato calling Hutchinson a liar.   He came out after the hearing and claimed he never said what she quoted him as saying (that an enraged Trump tried to grab the steering wheel and head to the Capitol on Jan. 6 and lunged at a secret service guy named Engel who tried to stop him, grabbing Engel by the throat).  Ornato was a secret service agent who Trump promoted to deputy chief of staff, another unprecedented move in Trump’s führer-like loyalty/promotion program.   

Liz Cheney:  was Engel in the room when Ornato said this?   

Yes

LC: did he hear what Ornato told you?

Yes

LC: did Engel contradict Ornato?

No

Hutchinson was under oath.  Ornato, who swears, on FOX and in the NY Times, that she is lying, is still loving the taste of his master’s sphincter (Trumpie broke new ground by promoting Ornato from secret service agent to a high ranking member of his administration).  That was the best they had, after the damning, uncontradicted revelations about Trump wanting his armed followers waved past the f-ing magnetometers, and the complicity of his inner circle in the armed violence that was planned and carried out on January 6th.

Yes, Ornoto conceded, the president had been in a rage in the limo, but Ornato loyally stated he’d never told that lying traitor anything like what she swore he said! And, sadly, that’s all we’ve got for ya, Sir.

Now go say that under oath, Ornato, with fellow patriot Patsy Bologna.

Writing to understand

A big part of the practice of writing is sitting down to think something through.  You write, then you read what you wrote, then you think, then you rewrite, then you read it all again.  Why are you writing?  For me it’s to understand and make my thoughts and feelings as clear as possible, to myself and to the reader. 

We know what we are trying to say, most of the time, but the beauty of writing is that it allows us to keep rewriting, refining, fixing flaws in our presentation, focusing our intentions as sharply as possible, so that others can hopefully grasp them in all their nuance.   The writer needs to give the reader enough background for meaning and context, while keeping in mind that background can swallow everything if too detailed.

Yesterday I posted an excerpt of a piece by Jennifer Rubin in which she quoted a governor named Hutchinson giving an ostensibly  thoughtful answer in support of the Supreme Court forcing women and girls in his state to give birth to their rapists’ babies.  Moments later another Hutchinson, a young woman named Cassidy, assistant to Trump’s final Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, gave live testimony at an emergency hearing before the J6 Select Committee.   Today the nation is abuzz over her two hours under oath.  I found her testimony electrifying. 

She testified that Trump, Meadows, Stone (pardoned felon), Giuliani, Flynn (pardoned felon) and others planned the march to the Capitol on January 6th.  Stone and Giuliani appear to have been the point men with the white supremacist militias involved in the siege of the Capitol.  Meadows told his assistant a few days beforehand that things could get really bad on January 6th.  Several of these Trump loyalists, Flynn, Giuliani (Bannon — pardoned before conviction for felony, Eastman, Kerik— pardoned felon) established a command center, or war room, in a hotel near the White House.  Meadows wanted to go to the war room on January 5th, asked his young assistant to order a car for him, but she urged him not to go.  He phoned in instead.  

Trump became angry on January 6th that his crowd was being frisked and put through magnetometers (“mags”) because many were heavily armed.   He is famously obsessed with crowd size and insisted the mags be removed so his followers could fill the Ellipse, for the cameras, and march on the Capitol from there.  He didn’t care that they were armed, he was certain they intended him no harm.

We know his supporters had not obtained a permit to march to the Capitol on January 6th.  Now we also know that the march was planned anyway.  An illegal march, with insufficient police presence, to stage a show of force to “stiffen the spines” of men like Mike Pence.  Good luck stiffening that guy’s spine, by the way.  The illegal march to “Stop the Steal” culminated in a deadly riot.  But why keep dwelling on it?

A small number of Trump’s defenders showed up today, two loyal Secret Service men in particular, to cast doubt on Cassidy Hutchinson’s account of a few moments of that stressful day.  They claim they want to testify under oath to dispute Ms. Hutchinson’s account of Trump’s temper tantrum when his driver would not drive him to the Capitol to lead the armed protest there.   Ms. Hutchinson testified that Tony Ornato (promoted by Trump from lead agent to Deputy Chief of Staff) told her (with his Secret Service colleague Engel, the other agent involved, present), that Trump had tried to grab the steering wheel of his armored limo and lunged to grab Engel by the throat when he refused to yield to the president’s command to drive to the Capitol. Engel will presumably testify that this claim about the admittedly enraged Trump grabbing him is bullshit.  

In law there’s an old maxim falsus in uno, falsus in omnibus (“false in one thing, false in everything). Presumably if the Secret Service men swear under oath that what she said is not what they told her (sworn “he said, she said” — a draw), and certainly not what happened, they have established, to some, that she is a liar whose entire testimony should be seen in that light. 

There is no law against a president, or anyone else, angrily throwing his lunch against the wall, as Hutchinson reported Trump did after Bill Barr betrayed him by telling AP the truth about the absence of widespread voter fraud.  Even if he did throw it, there are probably witnesses willing to testify that no ketchup dripped down the wall, and even if it did, so what?     

If warnings were given to witnesses to remain loyal, or have bad things happen, like what happened to former US ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yavonovich, Colonel Alexander Vindman, Michael Cohen, so what?  Loyalty is a good thing and it would be a shame if anything happened to a disloyal person who was confronted by a group of righteously angry people with guns or a noose, if you catch my drift.

The “slippery” question of Trump’s intent is not very slippery in light of his consistent behavior, and the evidence presented so far in the January 6th Select Committee hearings.  He has obstructed justice since he was a young man, suckling at the hideous tit of the evil Roy Cohn, who begat ratfucker Roger Stone.  He was not exonerated by Mueller for at least ten specific instances of obstruction of justice related to shutting down or obstructing the Mueller “witch hunt”.

Trump cannot lose, will not tolerate it, each of his bankruptcies were actually genius uses of the legal system to keep his untold billions. Every loss in court, a strategic victory. He surrounds himself with people ready to do whatever is necessary to protect the Big Baby.

As we wait for the next explosive revelations from the J6 investigation, the Congressman and others who asked Trump for pardons after January 6th have been mostly quiet about that.  After all, the real story is a planned COMMIE takeover of the US and the godless attempt to rob from the rich to feed the unworthy poor!  Biden inflation, Biden mental unfitness, Biden lies, Biden weakness!

There are two sides, at least, to most stories, but the side that claims an armed riot to stop the ceremonial finalization of Trump’s election loss is perfectly legal and fine, and nothing to see, has a much weaker story, one they’d rather avoid going into.  Instead they stick to praising a radicalized Supreme Court and gearing up for a sprint in the last leg of a marathon toward American fascism. 

When retired three star general, convicted perjurer, QAnon and martial law promoter Mike “Lock Her UP!” Flynn was asked, under oath, what he thought about the peaceful transfer of power, his answer was one word “fifth.”

It’s going to take a while, may come too late, may involve a Supreme Court ruling on presidential pardons to criminal co-conspirators, but several of Trump’s capos are going to be tried, convicted and locked up, at least until another Republican president can spring them with an unappealable, totally non-corrupt, pardon.

Jennifer Rubin with questions Republicans must be forced to answer

It comes down to this:

Todd: Whatever you thought of Roe, that decision never forced anybody to do anything they didn’t want to do. This decision now will force a woman to carry a pregnancy that they perhaps didn’t want to do. Does that at all make you uncomfortable, that we know — you’re forcing somebody to do something they don’t want to do? Roe didn’t do that. This ruling does.

Hutchinson: Well, no, I think it’s a very appropriate ruling. Obviously, when you’re looking at the government and the power of the government forcing someone to carry a child to term, you’ve got to think that through. And legislators are thinking that through.

“Forcing someone to carry a child to term.”

Hutchinson’s blithe attitude toward policies that will wreak havoc on women’s lives sums up the utter lack of respect for women’s autonomy and personhood that is so pervasive among Republicans. It seems as far as Hutchinson is concerned, that 13-year-old rape victim is nothing more than a vessel.

https://wapo.st/3u6UeBC

Grey Lady omits key word in summary

Jeffrey Clark: Federal investigators searched the home of the former Trump Justice Department official, who was central to an unsuccessful effort to strong-arm the nation’s top prosecutors into supporting claims of election fraud.

Or, more accurately and more to the fucking point:

to strong-arm the nation’s top prosecutors into supporting false (disproven, debunked, unfounded, baseless, lying, etc.) claims of election fraud.

WTF? Paper of record…

Trumpie sent a lynch mob after his enemies, real and imagined

We heard testimony on Thursday from Shaye Moss and her mother, Ruby Freeman, two election workers from Georgia, vilified by the former president of the United States. Their personal information was “doxxed” by Trumpists, and a threatening lynch mob arrived at their doors. One angry “patriot” told the daughter “you’re lucky this is 2020 and and not 1920…”. The FBI then advised the two to move to undisclosed locations to avoid mob violence.

The mob was sent to their houses by Donald Trump, who spread the lie that these two “professional scammers” had corruptly rigged the election results in Fulton County, Georgia to the tune of tens of thousands of fraudulent ballots, counted three times each.

My phone, very smart, began playing Trump’s call with Brad Raffensberger in my pocket last night. It was fascinating to listen to in light of all we now know about Trump’s coordinated plan to stay in power no matter what.

After listening to the detailed story of what the two defamed Fulton County poll workers (coincidentally both female, and Black) were subjected to, after they were singled out by Trump, by name, as professional fraudsters, I heard Trump, in his own inimitable voice, cite the fact that many online were asking “where’s Ruby?” as proof that his lie about Ruby being a crook had legs. “Brad, come on, my lie has fucking legs, don’t be a fucking hump.” As for the possibility he could have lost Georgia, it was beyond dispute that he’d won Georgia, his immense anti-mask, anti-vax MAGA rallies dwarfing Biden’s tiny, weak live gatherings were indisputable proof he’d won the state.

I think this recorded phone call, claiming that Ruby Freeman “stuffed the ballot box” with 18,000 to 56,000 fake Biden votes, is all the proof needed for a nice defamation settlement for Ruby Freeman and her daughter, the two defamed former Fulton County election workers forced out of their jobs, and their homes, by a desperately lying sore loser and the menacing mob he pointed at them and unleashed. Here’s a pertinent slice, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, the Artist of the Deal incarnate:

Fossil Fuel dark money beats America, 6-3

Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) with the next installment of his fast-paced seminar on exactly how Ginni Thomas’s dark money network has come to rule the Supreme Court, 6-3, every time.

Turns out, who’d have guessed, that most of those secret tax deductible billions in dark influence money (to staff the federal judiciary while securing massive tax breaks for billionaires) is fossil-fuel money. Can you say Koch, Exxon and Halliburton?

Pro-person vs. pro-fetus

The genius of the conversion of the religious right to the Republican party was harnessing a widespread religious belief to a party platform. Vote for us and Jesus will stop weeping at the mass murder of embryos and fetuses, hallelujah! Say what you will about the cynical motives of the GOP, that maneuver brought them a gigantic block of faithful voters.

Then you bring in the branding and mass marketing people. Being anti-abortion is not a negative position, it is pro-life. The life it protects is not the victim of rape, not the woman whose pregnancy endangers her life, not the family with children who cannot afford to raise another child at that time. The only sacred life in the equation is the fertilized egg, on its way to becoming a fetus. We know this because GOD said so!!!

Hard to argue with motherfuckers who actually believe that God commanded them to do whatever the hell they’re doing, to save the immortal souls of the “unborn”. But in a democratic society where the establishment of a religion is prohibited by the First Amendment [1], we need to argue with them, by every legal means necessary. We need five more seats in the Senate and keep control of the House, for starters.

Here is one excellent argument:

I Was Raped by My Father. An Abortion Saved My Life.

My shame was never about the abortion. I will forever be grateful that my pregnancy was terminated. I am fortunate that my body was spared an additional trauma imposed by my father — one that today would be forced by some state legislatures and courts. No child should be pressured or expected to carry a pregnancy and give birth or to feel remorse, guilt, doubt or unease about an abortion under any circumstances, let alone rape or incest. . .

. . . Abortion bans represent more than isolated state lawmaking or states’ rights — they represent an attack on the fundamental principles of liberty, freedom and autonomy. As Justice Blackmun noted in a 1986 majority opinion that reaffirmed Roe, “few decisions are more personal and intimate, more properly private or more basic to individual dignity and autonomy” than the decision to terminate a pregnancy. Abortion bans that provide no exceptions for rape and incest are a particularly cruel and immoral type of lawmaking.

[1]

Establishment Clause. The First Amendment’s Establishment Clause prohibits the government from making any law “respecting an establishment of religion.”. This clause not only forbids the government from establishing an official religion, but also prohibits government actions that unduly favor one religion over another.

6-3 Federalist bloc removes federal right of privacy

This is what the Federalist Society was founded to do, march carefully curated Culture War-based cases into a Supreme Court with a majority Federalist Society membership to reshape American society back to the way it was in 1868. Of course, their preferred body of law stops in 1788 when the Original Constitution was adopted, before those pesky wartime amendments trying to guarantee so-called federal rights of citizenship to former slaves and everybody else in the country against the incursions of their sometimes repressive states.

But declaring state laws that remove basic privacy rights constitutional, laws that forbid the victims of rape from seeking medical abortions legally, requiring the rapist’s baby to be carried to term by the victim and born, that make no exceptions when the life of the mother is in danger, could these pious, unappealable, filibuster-proof 51-49 confirmed motherfuckers be any more audacious?

One looks in vain for a coherent “ideology” among these culture warriors. At the same time six religious fanatics overturn the federal right to privacy and bodily autonomy (under the rationale that states know best), we have States Rights, cited so often by right wingers, struck down when these states “infringe” an important principle recognized in 1788, in 1868, that under the Second Amendment Americans have the recently enumerated right to bear guns wherever they go, and any kind of damned gun they want. Black klansman Clarence Thomas made that clear in his recent striking down of New York State’s gun laws requiring special circumstances for a concealed carry permit for a deadly weapon.

Imagine if those demented patriots on January 6th had all been able to exercise their sacred Scalia-created federal right to carry concealed firearms wherever they chose to carry them. Pence and Pelosi would be dead, martial law declared by Trump and guys like me would be writing blahgs from the crowded trains to MAGA reeducation centers (best case scenario…).

Oh, yeah, suck on your alleged rights to a so-called Miranda warning, skels. You look guilty anyway!

If you had any doubt about the war that we are currently in, a war as implacably cold as any cold war in history, where one side, armed and angry, has the presumptive right to make the other side, the 70%, do what they say on fear of death, well, if 50 million more of us don’t get out and vote in 2022, and put a filibuster-proof majority (52 actual defenders of democracy) in the Senate, while maintaining the House, I’ll be seeing y’all in the camps.

That’s the most anodyne way I can say it, no point picturing guys like me swinging from ropes in front of righteously hopped up mobs. How depressing is that image in the land of the free and the home of the heavily armed?

Hate, rage and incoherence can’t win. Half of you who took no side in Trump v Biden, we’re counting on you. Democratic debate or simple hatred, democracy or allegiamce to a debunked autocratic lie, pick a goddamned side.

e.