Category Archives: corrupt motherfuckers

Trumpsgiving

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Two National Guard troops from West Virginia were ambushed yesterday in Washington, DC by an Afghan immigrant. WHY did this happen?

I’m going to speculate here. (Okay, quick tangent: the term speculate comes from the Latin ‘speculari‘, meaning ‘to observe’. Originally it meant to observe closely and intelligently, but by the 16th century it acquired a hint of disparagement and began to mean mere conjecture. I’m hoping to speculate in the original sense of the term.)

I speculate that we can draw a fairly straight line from Trump’s 2020 deal to withdraw US forces from Afghanistan to yesterday’s shooting.

You may not recall, but Trump basically betrayed the recognized Afghan government by negotiating a deal with the Taliban (AKA the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, which the US did NOT recognize as a legit government). He agreed 1) to withdraw US forces from Afghanistan within 14 months, 2) to close five US air bases within 135 days, 3) to NOT to provide air support for Afghan forces unless Taliban units were within 500 meters of those forces, and 4) to require the Afghan government to release 5000 Taliban prisoners (allowing them to resume fighting against Afghan government). In exchange, the Taliban promised not to attack US forces (they could still attack Afghan forces).

This was a disastrous deal. Not only did the US have to sacrifice a LOT of equipment by closing those five airbases in such a short time, but that equipment was seized by the Taliban. After the agreement was signed, the Taliban conducted more than 4,500 attacks against Afghan forces. Without US military ground and air support, the next 45 days were among the bloodiest in the 20 years of war.

Trump signed the agreement in February of 2020; in January of 2021, Uncle Joe Biden became president. He was obligated by Trump’s agreement to withdraw the rest of the US forces from Afghanistan, which he did. It was predictably chaotic. However, Biden also initiated a program called Operation Allies Welcome to evacuate thousands Afghans who were at risk of Taliban reprisal.

Not surprisingly, Trump and MAGA were critical of Biden for ‘abandoning’ Afghans who helped the US AND for welcoming too many Afghans into the US. Rahmanullah Lakanwal, the accused shooter, was one of more than seventy thousand Afghans who emigrated to the US as part of that program.

In August of this year, Trump cancelled many of the programs created to help those Afghan refugees who’d aided US forces during the war. He also fired the members of the Coordinator for Afghan Relocation Efforts (CARE) team administering what was now called Operation Enduring Welcome. He strippied them of their legal status, targeting them for deportation back to Afghanistan, where they would be in danger from the Taliban.

At this point in time, we’ve no information if Lakanwal and/or his family were facing deportation.

Combine that with Trump’s decision to deploy National Guard troops to Washington, DC and other Democrat-controlled states and cities against the wishes of the leaders AND the residents of those cities. Combine that with the depredations of ICE essentially kidnapping people and deporting them without any due process.

And hey bingo, here we are.

Again, this is just speculation. Many of us have also speculated that Trump’s purpose in deploying all those troops despite the opposition of the populace was to provoke some sort of incident that would allow him to further militarize Democratic-controlled cities and states. And now we hear Trump vowing to deploy even more troops to DC.

Today in the US we’re supposed to celebrate Thanksgiving. Traditionally, this holiday was to commemorate the harvest of 1621, in which the Plymouth colonists shared a feast with members of the Wampanoag tribe, who’d helped them survive both a plague and a disastrous winter in the preceding year. This year in particular, there is still much to be thankful for, but there’s also a LOT to be angry about.

There is NO reason for troops to be deployed, there is NO reason for immigrants to be deported in this manner, there is NO reason to withdraw help from those who’ve helped us, and there is NO reason for the families of the wounded National Guard members to have to deal with this, especially on this day. No reason other than Trump.

This year it’s Trumpsgiving. Eat your pie, love your friends and family, and be prepared to stand up to tyranny.

    things happen

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    Obscenity piled on obscenity. It was completely obscene for Comrade President Donald Trump to welcome Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia into the White House. It was obscene that he held a formal state dinner to honor the Crown Prince. It was obscene that Trump referred to MBS as an “extremely respected man” who was also “a friend of mine.” It was deeply, deeply obscene for Trump to praise MBS for his work on human rights. But most obscene of all was his defense of the assassination and dismemberment of Jamal Khashoggi.

    ABC News reporter Mary Bruce asked a question: “Your royal highness, the U.S. intelligence concluded that you orchestrated the brutal murder of a journalist. 9/11 families are furious that you are here in the Oval Office. Why should Americans trust you? And the same to you, Mr. President?” Trump’s answer:

    “You’re mentioning someone that was extremely controversial. A lot of people didn’t like that gentleman that you’re talking about. Whether you like him or didn’t like him, things happen. But he (MBS) knew nothing about it, and we can leave it at that. You don’t have to embarrass our guest.”

    Things happen? Things like assassination and dismemberment? They just happen?

    There’s a lot of blood on those hands.

    Jamal Khashoggi, a reporter who was critical of Saudi royalty, had fled to the US out of fear of government reprisals. In 2018, he wanted to marry Hatice Cengiz, a Turkish citizen. It would be his second marriage. In order to remarry, Khashoggie needed official documentation that his Saudi marriage had been dissolved, which required him to visit the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. He made his first visit to the consulate unannounced, out of fear that he might be kidnapped and returned to Saudi Arabia. He was told he had to come back later. Khashoggi brought Ms. Cengiz with him on his second visit, but asked her to wait outside.

    She waited. He never came back out.

    US intelligence agencies determined that a Saudi hit team had been assembled on the order of Mohammed bin Salman. That team was waiting for Khashoggi. They tortured him, strangled him, and dismembered him with a bone saw. We know this because Turkish security agencies had bugged the Saudi consulate and made the tape of the assassination available. The assessment report by the CIA (along with a copy of the audio tape) was given to Trump. He stated he didn’t listen to the tape; he refused to release the report to the public.

    Seven years later, Trump is back in power and trying to help rehabilitate the reputation of MBS. Trump’s sons are engaged in developing golf resorts in Saudi Arabia. Trump’s golf courses in the US host tournaments sponsored by Saudi money. Saudi royalty buys expensive Trump properties. These things, these deals, they just…happen.

    Let’s face it, Trump likes powerful autocrats who can make things happen. I’m fairly certain he wishes he had more power to make things happen to persons who “a lot of people” don’t like. MBS can order a reporter kidnapped, tortured, murdered and dismembered; Trump has to make do with blowing up boat crewed by anonymous Venezuelans who might be drug runners or might just be unlucky fishermen. Trump wishes he could wield the sort of absolute power MBS has, and that should scare the absolute shit out of all Americans.

    Things happen, and Trump says we shouldn’t embarrass the people involved in those things by asking impertinent questions. He especially dislikes it when those impertinent questions are asked by women. Like ABC’s Mary Bruce. Like Bloomberg’s Catherine Lucey (who Trump pointed his finger at and told her, “Quiet, piggy.”). Like all the women victimized by Jeffrey Epstein.

    Things happen. We’ve been waiting for them to happen to Trump. It’s time for us to stop waiting and make things happen. Yesterday’s near-unanimous vote to release the Epstein files during the visit of the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia was a fine beginning.

    we’re straight up murdering people now

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    Yesterday the United States military attacked and destroyed a civilian vessel in international waters, killing eleven people. Comrade Trump claims the boat was carrying narcotics bound for the US, and that the victims were members of Tren de Aragua, the Venezuelan drug cartel.

    The alleged ‘drug boat’ moments before being obliterated.

    That may be true. We don’t know. We can’t know because we blew them up. What we DO know is this:

    1. It was a civilian vessel.
    2. The vessel wasn’t an immediate threat to anybody or anything.
    3. There was apparently no attempt to intercept the vessel.
    4. There was no attempt to disable the vessel.
    5. There’s no declaration of hostilities against Venezuela.

    In other words, the Trump administration hasn’t presented any evidence to justify the use of military force against this boat. It appears to be an extrajudicial killing of 11 people. Which is illegal as fuck.

    If we can locate and track the vessel accurately enough to fire a missile up its ass (and we obviously did), then we can track it long enough to intercept it in US waters. At that point, we could determine if there were, in fact, narcotics onboard. If so, we could then detain the crew, interrogate them about the source of the drugs, and hold them for trial in a criminal court. We could have followed the law.

    But nope.

    There appears to be no reason to blow them up except to gratify the blood lust of Trump and his Cabinet of Nazgûl. This is literally murder. It’s criminal on the part of the people who ordered the missile fired and the person who actually fired it. However, there’s no chance any of them will be held accountable.

    It’s important to remember that back in February, just a few weeks after Trump resumed the presidency, Pete Hegseth summarily fired the senior Judge Advocates General of the Army, Navy, and Air Force. These are the officers responsible for enforcing the Uniform Code of Military Justice. Hegseth actually said the JAGs were fired because he didn’t want them to be “roadblocks to orders given by a commander in chief.” That was, in effect, an announcement that Trump intended to use US military forces in ways forbidden by the UCMJ.

    And now he has. And what’s perhaps scarier is this: military personnel have shown themselves willing to execute orders they know are illegal, in direct violation of the oath they swore when they entered military service.

    Killing these eleven people in this particular way–and doing it openly–is a test and a declaration. It’s a test to see the domestic and international response. And it’s a declaration that Trump intends to use the US military in ways that are expressly forbidden to further his own political and personal agenda.

    This is straight up dictatorial bullshit. And with a MAGA-controlled Congress, Trump will get away with it.

    first headline i saw this morning

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    So I wake up this morning to a headline saying MAGA extremists made a deal with other MAGA extremists to advance the massive tax cut bill proposed by THE MAGA extremist (yeah, I’m talking about Comrade Trump, and while we’re at it, how creepy is it that they’re now referring to him as ‘Daddy’?).

    What was included in the deal? You don’t want to know. I mean, it’s so fucking discouraging. But it’s also probably almost exactly what you expected. So what the hell, here’s JUST ONE facet of that deal. Florida Senator Rick Scott (you know him as the Guy Who Looks Like Gollum Became a Vampire and Got a Job on Wall Street) said he wanted to “do more to reduce the amount of money spent on able-bodied adults who are allowed to enroll into Medicaid.”

    Sen. Rick Scott (MAGA, Transylvania)

    You may not know this about Rick Scott. He co-founded a hospital corporation which eventually became Columbia/HCA, the nation’s largest for-profit health care company. That sounds sorta impressive, doesn’t it. BUT (there’s always a ‘but’ with these motherfuckers), Scott had to resign from Columbia/HCA. Why? You know exactly why (it’s always fraud with these motherfuckers). Columbia/HCA was found guilty of defrauding Medicare, Medicaid, and other federal programs. Bill Clinton’s DOJ prosecuted the company and they were convicted of 14 felonies and fined $1.7 billion. At the time, it was the largest healthcare fraud settlement in U.S. history.

    What did Rick Scott’s healthcare corporation do under his leadership? 1) They billed for tests that weren’t necessary and/or hadn’t been ordered by doctors physicians, 2) they attached false diagnosis codes to patient records to increase reimbursement to the hospitals, 3) they falsely claimed marketing and advertising costs as community education, and 4) they billed for home health care visits for patients who didn’t qualify to receive them. And that’s why Rick Scott was forced to resign.

    Now that he’s no longer getting that sweet sweet Medicare fraud money, Scott wants to reduce funding for Medicare to prevent fraud. If you tried to write that into a movie script, nobody would believe it.

    BUT that’s not all (it’s never ‘all’ with these motherfuckers, there’s always more). Scott said he and other MAGA conservatives want to “stop Blue State governors from taking advantage of Red States.” He actually said that, right out loud (these motherfuckers are always saying stupid stuff right out loud). That’s bullshit, of course. If you’re not already aware of this, blue states contribute nearly 60% of all federal tax receipts. Blue states generally pay more in taxes than they receive in government spending. Red states receive more money from the government than they pay in taxes. Red states leech off of blue states.

    Rick Scott knows this; but he’s not the sort of person who is constrained by truth. Or fact. Or honor, or a sense of shared humanity, or any notion of decency, or or or. They’re all hypocrites, these motherfuckers. All of them. Every single one.

    Anyway, that was the first headline I saw. I haven’t read any more news this morning. I don’t think I need to.

    but what if he’s guilty?

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    The concept of due process is getting a lot of attention right now, and rightly so. It’s at the heart of the Trump administration’s attempt to destroy democracy. Due process–the adherence to the laws that balance the power of the State against the civil rights and liberties of the individual–is the primary defense against the US becoming a police state.

    Most folks can grasp that concept in theory, but a LOT of people have trouble with the practice itself.

    I spent seven years or so as a private investigator specializing in criminal defense; I had a contract with a Public Defender program. For the most part, the lawyers I worked for represented people charged with major crimes…robbery, rape, murder, etc. I rarely told strangers what I did for a living, because it would almost always result in some variation of this conversation:

    “Do you ever have a guilty client?”
    “Almost all of my clients are guilty.”
    “How can you defend a person you KNOW to be guilty?”
    “Because I believe in civil rights and liberties.”
    “But if you KNOW they’re guilty?”
    “They still have rights.”
    “But if you KNOW they’re GUILTY?”
    “The only way to protect the rights of the innocent is to force the State to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt every single time.”
    “Sure, you have to protect the innocent, but if YOU KNOW THEY”RE GUILTY?”

    The Fifth Amendment of the US Constitution tells us No person shall…be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law. It’s really that simple. It doesn’t say ‘No citizen.’ It doesn’t say, “No white person.’ It doesn’t say, “No rich person.’ It says NO PERSON. Period. Every person who is at risk of losing their life, their liberty, or their property MUST be allowed the full protection of the law BEFORE any penalty can be applied.

    “Let the jury consider their verdict,” the King said, for about the twentieth time that day.
    “No, no!” said the Queen. “Sentence first–verdict afterwards.”

    Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who probably paid a higher proportion of his income in taxes than Donald Trump, has the right to expect the same due process of law as Donald Trump. Not because he’s been illegally detained and imprisoned (although he has), but because EVERYBODY in the US is–or should be–protected by due process. Timothy McVeigh, who killed 168 people in an act of terrorism 30 years ago yesterday, received more due process than Garcia.

    I’ll also say this. As somebody who spent years helping defend the guilty, there is nothing more terrifying than an innocent client. There is so much at stake with an innocent client. Seeing an innocent person go to prison feels a hundred times worse than seeing a guilty person go free. And the ONLY way to protect the rights of an innocent person is to require the State to follow the law EVERY SINGLE TIME, even with the guilty.

    this guy?

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    Okay, first off, I admit I’m confused. I mean, I understand that Donald Trump, with the assistance of a cadre of feral Christo-fascist authoritarians and the support of a cartoonist collection of buffoons, is conducting an aggressive frontal assault on the US Constitution. And so far it’s been mostly effective.

    Unlike a LOT of folks, I’m inclined to think Trump has a plan. It’s a very simple, very very stupid, and very selfish plan, to be sure. It’s the sort of plan you’d expect from a cartoon villain. But it’s still a plan. As I see it, Donald Trump’s plan is as follows:

    Make everybody dependent on the whims and wishes of Donald Trump.

    It’s ridiculous, isn’t it. What Trump really wants, of course, is loyalty and respect. Two things he’ll never get. He’ll never get the respect he wants (and thinks he deserves), and I suspect he knows that. Nor will he ever get real loyalty, because loyalty is reciprocal; you earn loyalty by being loyal to others. Trump is loyal to nothing and nobody. Who’s going to respect of be loyal to this guy?

    Since he can’t/won’t get the respect and loyalty he truly wants, Trump has to settle for a shabby substitute–unquestioned obedience. The problem for Trump, even as POTUS, is that there are HUGE intentional limits to presidential obedience in a representative democracy.

    The president’s actual job is to preside over the government, not to rule it. ‘Preside’ literally means “to sit in front of.” The president is basically like an orchestra leader. In order for Trump to command unquestioned obedience, he has to first weaken or destroy the Constitutional constraints on presidential power.

    That’s exactly what he’s doing. In his first term, Trump converted the entire Republican Party to so-called MAGA loyalists (I say ‘so-called’ because many/most of the GOP are just sycophantic cowards or craven opportunists, not actual loyalists). He also stacked the Supreme court with ‘loyalists’. The only check on his authority came from the professionals who occupied the Cabinet posts and the various governmental agencies. Now, in his second term, he’s replaced the Cabinet secretaries and the heads of every government agency with more so-called loyalists. He’s basically removed or degraded almost every federal administrative constraint on his authority (there are still some federal judges who remain independent, though they’re under attack now).

    This guy? Powerful politicians and institutions are afraid of this guy? This fucking guy?

    There are a few other social constraints that can challenge the president: independent law firms, universities, business interests, and independent news sources. Trump is making every effort to hobble or undermine them, threatening retaliation either in the form of investigations or by removing federal financial aid and federal contracts. In order to avoid this sort of persecution, these social institutions are being required to appeal to Trump personally. To humiliate themselves by publicly kissing his ring. You want to avoid tariffs on products you need? Humbly ask Trump to remove them for YOUR company. You want federal financial aid for teaching or research? Humbly ask Trump to restore the funding he denied. You want to practice law or receive federal contracts? Humbly ask Trump to overlook any earlier opposition and publicly promise to support him. You want access to the Trump administration as a news source? Humbly agree to refer to the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America. What kind of person or institution would humble themselves before this guy?

    But hey, it’s working. Some large law firms and some universities have already compromised themselves; many news agencies have modified their coverage of Trump and are parroting his bullshit; a lot of businesses threatened by Trump’s trade practices are considering personal appeals to Trump and praising his harmful policies. Intimidation works. But c’mon, how could anybody be intimidated by this guy?

    I find truly astonishing that so many people and institutions are afraid of this guy. He’s a cartoonish nitwit; he’s more a malignant Elmer Fudd than an evil genius. The sheer mass of his ignorance could bend light. He’s ten pounds of racist bullshit in a five pound bag. He’s a coward and a liar. People are afraid of taking on this guy?

    This guy?

    but this is trump

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    By now, everybody is aware of the colossal fuck-up in which senior Trump national security officials conducted a high level discussion about launching at attack in Yemen using…and it sounds so stupid to write this, but it’s true…using a messaging platform that IS NOT approved for exchanging classified or secret intelligence.

    These weren’t low-level aides we’re talking about. This was Trump’s Vice President, his Director of National Intelligence, his National Security Adviser, his Secretary of Defense, his CIA Director and his Chief of Staff. Oh yeah, and the editor of The Atlantic. The fact that these people had this discussion on a commercially available cell phone app is scandal enough. But it’s just ONE OF MANY scandals revealed by this fuck-up.

    For example, Trump’s national security team isn’t quite sure if Trump has actually ordered the attack. They were discussing the timing of the attack–when the attack should take place–when Trump’s Chief of Staff says, “As I heard it, the president was clear: green light.” Seriously, this attack took place when it did because Stephen Miller interpreted some comment from Trump as a ‘green light.’ Apparently nothing was signed; apparently no official record exists authorizing an attack on a foreign nation. In any normal administration, that would be unthinkable. But this is Trump.

    Another thing. One of the members of Trump’s national security team, Steve Witkoff, was in Moscow at the time (he’s Trump’s Ukraine negotiator) meeting with Putin and his people. Let me just say that again. This guy was part of a group chat discussing highly sensitive information involving the military’s attack capabilities, using an unapproved app on a cell phone while waiting for a meeting with Vlad Putin IN MOSCOW. In any normal administration, that would be unthinkable. But this is Trump.

    There’s more. During this astonishingly stupid group chat on a non-secure cell phone, Trump’s Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, John Ratcliffe, used the name of an active intelligence officer. He basically outed a working spy, which is a criminal act. In any normal administration, that would not only be unthinkable, but would lead to criminal charges. But this is Trump. His Attorney General and Director of the FBI will almost certainly refuse to investigate the matter, let alone bring criminal charges.

    “I don’t know anything about it.”

    And if that’s not scandal enough, when confronted by news media about the incident, Trump said he wasn’t aware of it.

    “I don’t know anything about it. You’re telling me about it for the first time.”

    This is Trump, so that’s almost certainly a lie. Almost certainly, also because this is Trump. It’s entirely possible his national security team 1) had decided Trump probably intended to order an attack on Yemen and didn’t bother to get the decision confirmed, 2) were too lazy or incompetent to use secure communications systems to organize the attack, 3) and when it became public that they’d not only used wildly inappropriate and insecure tech to discuss the attack BUT ALSO INCLUDED A FUCKING CIVILIAN WHO WAS THE EDITOR OF A GODDAMN NEWS MAGAZINE, they decided NOT to tell POTUS that they’d fucked up. Which would mean Trump can’t trust his own hand-picked national security team to keep him informed or tell him the truth. Which is entirely possible. Although it’s more likely Trump just lied about not knowing, because that’s what he does.

    In any normal administration, an incident like this would lead to mass resignations and/or terminations as well as criminal charges. But this is Trump.

    Right now, it appears the Trump administration is attempting to put the blame for all this on National Security Adviser Mike Waltz, who set up the ‘group chat’ and accidentally included the editor of The Atlantic. But every single person who participated in the discussion should have known the proper protocol; they should have objected to having the discussion outside a sensitive compartmentalized information facility (SCIF); they should have refused to participate.

    What will happen? Who knows? Democrats will be outraged, but will they actually DO anything? Who knows? Will anybody be held accountable for such a colossal fuck-up? Who knows? It’s possible that this scandal, like every Trump scandal, will be buried beneath the next cascade of scandal. It’s possible nothing at all will happen; nothing will change.

    Because this is Trump. Nothing is ordinary anymore. No rules apply, no norms are maintained, no standards exist. There is only Trump and his cadre of trolls, banging around randomly, ignoring actual governance in their pursuit of performative trolling.

    no longer unthinkable

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    Here’s a terrifying thing that’s almost certainly going to happen. At some point in the not-too-distant future, SCOTUS is going to be forced to decide on the limits (if any) of Comrade Trump’s authority. I don’t know what the issue will be. Maybe it’ll be about marriage equality, maybe about immigration or birthright citizenship, maybe about his authority to dismantle entire federal agencies without Congressional approval.

    But at some point, THIS IS GOING TO HAPPEN. SCOTUS and POTUS will face off with the Constitution on the line. Maybe SCOTUS will just give up and agree Trump is king/dictator. That’s horrifying, but possible. But they may also rule there are limits to his authority. I like to think that’s more likely (but then I didn’t think it was likely that Trump would be re-elected, so what do I know?).

    The question is this: what will happen when Trump ignores SCOTUS? Because he almost certainly will. I’m just going to remind you that SCOTUS has no power to enforce its rulings. In fact, the entire judicial branch of government at every level–municipal, county, state, and federal–depends on the executive branch of government to enforce its decisions. When a judge says, “Do this thing,” it falls to law enforcement agencies (which are part of the executive function of governance) to see that the thing is done.

    But what happens if/when the court says, “Do this” and the executive branch says, “Nope”? What happens if/when the Supreme Court of the United States says, “Do this” and the President of the United States says, “Nope”?

    Let’s say, for example, that Comrade Trump issues an executive order ending birthright citizenship and further orders people born in the US to immigrant parents be deported. Let’s also say SCOTUS rules those orders are clearly unconstitutional under the 14th Amendment of the Constitution, which states, “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.” And finally, let’s say Trump says, “Yeah, I’m deporting them anyway” and follows through on that.

    What happens?

    There aren’t many remedies. The 25th Amendment of the Constitution allows VPOTUS and the Cabinet to remove POTUS if he’s “unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office.” But what if he’s just unwilling to do his duty? And what if the Cabinet agrees with POTUS (which, after all, is exactly why he picked those corrupt fucks)? The 25th Amendment assumes a Cabinet comprised of people with integrity and a firm belief in representative democracy. We don’t have one of those. So what else can be done?

    There’s impeachment by the House of Representatives and conviction by the Senate, which would remove POTUS from office. But how likely is that? There’s also the 2028 election. But even if there’s a free and fair election, we know Trump is unlikely to willingly leave office.

    That’s basically it. Those are essentially the only legal options if POTUS defies SCOTUS. The less-than-legal options? A military coup. Citizen rebellion, insurrection, revolution. Before the 2024 election, these would have been unthinkable. Now…who knows?

    Let’s say Trump refuses to follow a decision by SCOTUS. What happens? I can see mass protests by citizens. I can see Trump ordering US troops to help state and local law enforcement to suppress those protests. I can see him ordering them to fire on protesters. I can see some commanders/troops refusing to follow those illegal orders.

    Again, such a scenario was unthinkable a few months ago. Now it seems possible. Now it seems almost inevitable. Because Trump IS assaulting the US Constitution. And SCOTUS will eventually have to deal with that. And IF they rule against Trump, it’s exceedingly likely he’ll ignore them and do whatever the fuck he wants.

    And if he ignores them…well, then. Here we are.