I think I get it - gotta be careful about setting precedent, and you don't wanna hand the bad guys a weapon they can use against you later (assuming of course we actually find our way outa this fucked up mess), and we have to interpret the law, and apply the law, and not try to make the law on the judiciary side - etc etc etc. I'm there. I get it.
But goddammit - I'm so fucking sick of rich people stomping around in smarmspace manufacturing loopholes - using and abusing the courts to duck responsibility.
Here's a thought: Obey the fucking law. Could we try that for a while?
When your dreams and expectations are high, but you repeatedly fall short in spite of knowing you're working as hard as you're able - over time, it becomes very difficult not to look for something external to blame.
Trump did in fact bail on his commitment to a debate (no surprise on that one). And now, instead of making a new proposal, which would then be negotiated, he's trying to dictate his own new terms (also no surprise).
The MAGA gang loves to bitch about how businesses should be left alone to make whatever decisions they see fit - and then they lose their shit when Cracker Barrel does exactly what MAGArubes say they should be allowed to do.
Every defendant has the right to choose whether or not they'll testify at their own trial - gosh, there's that pesky right to self-determination thing again. Not that it'll register with the rubes, of course.
Anyway, a defendant can testify or not testify, depending on their own sense of what's in their best interests.
No judge has the power to deprive any defendant of the right to make that decision. It's up to the defendant and nobody else.
So here comes Mr Snoozy von Schitzinpantz, pretending to be totally oblivious to the fact that he's un-ironically demonstrating two things:
He has to avoid testifying because cross examination will show him up as a total fucking liar, which could get his ass charged with perjury
Having shot his mouth off (again) that he'll definitely and freely and absolutely testify, he has to blame someone for preventing him from doing it
And there's that Daddy State thing. "I'm controlling everything. I'm playing 11-dimension chess, and mere mortals can do nothing to keep me from achieving my goals and my rightful place in command of everything. And BTW, those big bad liberal communist-Nazis have tied my hands and won't let me do anything - I'm the victim, and you're being shielded from their evil deeds by me and me alone..."
It's like, how exactly can an all-powerful Christ be brought low by a handful of impotent Pharisees? The answer is a fairly simple exercise in projecting your savior's greatness onto yourself - ie: He's doing it for us, because we're amazing. Let us endeavor to go on proving ourselves worthy of his sacrifice by wearing these stupid hats and rationalizing the fuck out of every contradiction that spills out of his little shit-hole gob. Praise his name.
My vote is not a statement of purity. I don't vote (or not vote) as a means of putting myself above anybody.
I vote to exercise my right to pull the one small lever of power granted to all of us by the US Constitution.
There are no perfect candidates. No perfect office-holders. No perfect humans aspiring to lofty positions in my government.
There are people running for office who hold beliefs and espouse philosophies similar to mine - and they're the ones I try to identify and then vote for.
I think Trump has been worried that he might not get the old money Republicans to go along with his hare-brained schemes, so he's emphasizing his intentions to serve the plutocracy by telling us straight out that he's all for shit-canning every progressive policy that's been put in place since FDR.
Privatize Social Security
Voucherize Medicare
Kill Obamacare outright
Eliminate EPA and OSHA (and the departments of Energy and Education, et al)
In a democracy, even very poor people have power thru the various agencies and regulatory bodies that their votes got politicians to create, and push those politicians to maintain.
In a plutocracy, people who don't have the money don't have the power.
Trump always tells us what's really going on. So when he says, "This is the most united the Republican Party has ever been", you know the GOP is breaking into smaller and smaller pieces.
Because this divide-n-conquer shit always comes back to kick your ass.
