“How in the world are you going to beat Donald Trump if somebody is not out there sounding the alarm that we can all go down in flames if we have the wrong nominee?”
- Former Gov. Asa Hutchinson of Arkansas, “the only one campaigning for president in Iowa that has not said I’m not going to promise a pardon to Donald Trump.”
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Project 2025 in a Nutshell
Inauguration Day Memo to Lady Justice: “You’re Fired”
Trump replaces Lady Justice, becoming “Judge, Jury, Prosecutor, Castigator, and Press Agent, all in one”.
Can we possibly make this any clearer, people?
Artist Credit: Jet Nijkamp
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‘This to Him Is the Grand Finale’: Donald Trump’s 50-Year Mission to Discredit the Justice System
“He has attacked the judicial system, our system of justice and the rule of law his entire life,” said J. Michael Luttig, a conservative former federal appellate judge and one of the founders of the recently formed Society for the Rule of Law. “And this to him,” Luttig told me, “is the grand finale.”
Michael Kruse, Politico Magazine
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2024/01/12/donald-trump-indictments-legal-system-00135151#:
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Fearless Leader and Boris had planned a carefree weekend at Mar-A-Lago plotting the Boss’s triumphal return to Casa Blanca. Before Friday, it had been smooth sailing.
Iowa was a lock.
Truth-telling Christie was toast.
Trump’s shadow DeSantis? Polls plummeting.
Janus-faced Hailey?
She finally revealed her hand: A guaranteed pardon for the Boss and nothing but praise for Heritage Foundation’s Republic-wrecking Project 25.
That lady, Trump mused, would do anything, really, to be my VP.
In sum, all Iowa Primary survivors, save brave Asa Hutchinson, guaranteed Trump a blanket presidential pardon, setting the stage, once elected, to pardon himself.
The Boss mused on: My very own get-out-of-jail card! Justice delayed is indeed justice denied. How sweet the inaugural music.
But the Boss’s little speech in court last week backfired. Not the popular reaction Donnie boy had hoped for. Straight from the spleen. That hour-long diatribe was, frankly speaking, sad, pathetic, embarrassing.
More voters and donors were expressing second thoughts. Even an Iowa evangelical pastor or two were reportedly abandoning ship, weary and justifiably fearful of giving Trump another crack. People clearly liked DeSantis and Hailey better.
Weary of Trump, the wolf at the door, same old trick, masquerading as Lady Justice, lamely accusing the courts and prosecutors of crimes he so gleefully committed with malice aforethought: Pressing his choir of “patriots” to insurrection in order to deny the people’s choice the victory.
And now a growing number of good Iowans were turning their backs, sickened by his peevish threats of retribution.
After all, what kind of self-respecting American would befriend, buy a used car from, or entrust trust the care of a child or investment of hard-earned personal savings with, one so patently reckless, untrustworthy and criminally self-interested?
To its great credit, the free press dutifully reports the Trump trials, but special kudos is due Politico editor Michael Kruse, who offers the big picture:
Trump’s attacks on judges and prosectors is the culminating step of his 50 year mission to undermine the rule of law. To evade personal accountability for every malicious misdeed. Trump, home schooled by Roy Cohn, is very close to upending our shared thirst for fair play and accountability (judgment on the merits).
In a republic, everyone is judged on the merits, be it Benedict Arnold or George Washington; John Wilkes Booth or Abe Lincoln; Senator Joseph R. McCarthy, that one-man “judge, jury, prosecutor, castigator, and press agent, all in one," or Joseph Welch, who famously turned the tide against flame-throwing McCarthy:
"Until this moment, Senator, I think I never really gauged your cruelty or your recklessness." “You have done enough. Have you no sense of decency?"
And, now, Citizen Trump knew, accountability was calling. And Lady Justice still very much in charge.
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Vote.
Support candidates opposing Trump & his enablers in Congress,
Support one of the many voting rights organizations devoted to stop the madness.
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Here’s your morning shot of Blackjack:
https://www.defendyourvotingrights.org/play-card-game/
played with a Card Deck of 54+ Trump Enablers:
https://www.defendyourvotingrights.org/54-enablers-of-voter-suppression/