357 Comments

Regarding presidential immunity, why did Nixon need a pardon if it exists?

Expand full comment

No loss indeed. Under the yam there will be show trials like anywhere in authoritarian land.

Expand full comment

Antifa recruiting sees a 35% boost after Trump remarks.

Expand full comment

Even if someone is born outside the country, as long as at least one parent is a US citizen and immediately get a US passport for the baby from the US Embassy or Consulate, that someone is a natural born citizen.

Expand full comment

Reading this newsletter in conjunction with the article discussing the difficulty in finding jurors for Trump's trials, it's hard not to conclude that it's not just the naturally pessimistic among us who see a real potential for political violence in the run-up to the November elections, and as part of the aftermath, as well. At best, it's clear some of our foundational institutions, especially the criminal courts and the election system, need a *lot* of repair.

Please, someone, cheer me up.

Expand full comment

You could watch Gene Hackman, Clint Eastwood, Ed Harris, and Laura Linney, in Absolute Power (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118548/plotsummary/), where the president actually kills someone and doesn't get away with it ... (and Clint Eastwood breaks into Laura Linney's house to fill her fridge with healthy food).

Don't mourn, organize. (and stockpile a few canned goods)

Expand full comment

People should be stockpiling food/water anyway - we all live in areas prone to some disaster. :-) It's amazing how many don't.

Expand full comment

Between growing up in Katrina land (Mississippi) and moving to earthquake/wildfire land (California), I'm all about the stockpiling and have a 2-week supply of food & water.

Expand full comment

Ditto, and don't forget things like toilet paper, paper towels, paper plates, cutlery and the like, as well as the handy-dandy manual can opener. (My father decades ago worked for a company that made the electric kind - even when he brought them home, I used the manual kind. :-)) And batteries - notice they're making ones with a 10-yr shelf life.

Expand full comment

Didn't take long: "BREAKING NEWS Chris Christie, the loudest Trump critic in the G.O.P. field, said he was suspending his presidential campaign." Any bets that he DOESN'T go after Trump?

Expand full comment

He won't go after trump. Christie still thinks the Republican party has a future, and that he still has a future in it.

Expand full comment

So he's as delusional as the Orange Snake. Why am I not surprised.

Expand full comment

Now I know why Sarah and Tim are conservative, supporting the party that are homophobes. Tim said on the Next Level that his father was a Republican, and I am sure Sarah’s were too.

Expand full comment

Using Suer's argument about "executive immunity, essentially saying that only a president who has been impeached and removed from office by Congress could be criminally prosecuted.", would this mean that Biden has immunity if he has Trump "eliminated"?

Expand full comment

Trump's idiot lawyer pretty much said "yes".

Expand full comment

If SCOTUS is following the back and forth about immunity from the appellate court yesterday, they may want to discuss over their

morning cups of coffee, Mr.

Sauer's pleadings that the

President is immune from even committing murder; theirs. After all, they haven't

exactly fallen in line with every appeal Trump's before

them. And gee, not all of

them are of pure Aryan blood.

That's something his base

should think about.

Expand full comment

His supporters believe he will never turn on them. It may be true for most of them because throwing them under a bus will be never produce a benefit for him. Should that circumstance change, ...

Expand full comment

His current supporters have never lived under a dictatorship either. They will

not be immune. Look at

Russia and China.

Expand full comment

The impeachment clause Charlie cited above seems very straightforward. Trump's lawyers have completely inverted it. This is what they did with the Presidential Records Act. Trump has claimed that the Presidential Records Act says that he is entitled to all the documents he stole. It actually says that all presidential records are to be turned over to the National Archives.

Expand full comment

First of all, I absolute think that Nikki Haley is a natural born citizen. So was Barack Obama. Ditto Ted Cruz, Bobby Jindal, John McCain, and every other candidate the fringe lunatics have tried to smear with this racist slander.

BUT - the fact is that the Constitution does not define what "natural born citizen" means, and the Supreme Court has never ruled on it. I have no doubt that if they ever DID that they would declare that anyone born here is a natural born citizen, just like under the 14th amendment anyone born here is entitled to birthright citizenship. But that's just my opinion. Actual legal scholars pretty much agree. Paul Ingrassia and Joseph Farah over at Worldnut Daily disagree. The only opinions that actually matter are those of the 9 members of the Supreme Court. All the cases filed by the wingnuts claiming that Obama wasn't a natural born citizen were dismissed because the plaintiffs did not have standing. Maybe we'll get lucky and Haley will actually win the nomination, Trump will follow through on his threat to sue, and then the Supreme Court will finally put this nonsense to rest.

Expand full comment

That is not true for purposes of citizenship. The 14 Amendment says: “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.“ It is true that the requirement of President be “natural born”, which isn’t defined in that clause, but it’s moot because she was born here.

Expand full comment

But the Supreme Court ruled that birthright citizenship applies to anyone born here, regardless of whether their parents were citizens, legal residents, illegal aliens or tourists. Would the same apply to "natural born" citizenship? Most likely. These yokels are claiming that because here parents were not citizens at the time of her birth, she is not. I think they're wrong. And there are other issues. If you have dual citizenship, does that count? What if you are actually born overseas but one or both parents are citizens? What if you were born here, immigrated and moved back? What if you were adopted overseas? Or adopted FROM overseas at birth?

Expand full comment

Yes, I agree that birthright citizenship applies to anyone born here regardless. I must’ve misunderstood your stance. I thought you were arguing that citizenship hadn’t been defined;-)

Expand full comment

No, CITIZENSHIP has been clearly defined. "Natural born" has not. And I'm not arguing that the wingnuts are right. I do not think they are. I just keep pointing out to all the people who think the matter of exactly who is eligible to be president has been decided that it has not.

Expand full comment

Cruz was born in Canada - nobody was complaining about him running for president in 2016. Didn't realize that he actually is also a Cuban citizen - where are the screams about that little fact?

Expand full comment

And remember how Cruz publicly renounced his dual citizenship? Because it absolutely WAS an issue for the same crowd pushing this nonsense about Haley.

Expand full comment

Somebody definitely did complain about Cruz running for president in 2016.

https://time.com/4202049/donald-trump-ted-cruz-not-allowed-to-run/

Expand full comment

"“I think they feel this is the way they’re going to try and win, and that’s not the way it goes,” [the Tangerine Troglodyte] said."

-----

More projection from the Apricot Arthropod. He is of the mind that his ongoing assaults on our laws, our Constitution and voting rights are the *right* way to steal... sorry... win the general in November. I will agree with him on one thing (as rare as one would find the truth on "Truth" Social); "that’s not the way it goes[.]"

IMO, "they" are going to win as more and more voters see him for what he is: a wannabe tinpot dictator like his heroes who are members in good standing of "The International Authoritarian Brotherhood" like Putin, Xi, Kim, MBS and Orban. He is anxiously awaiting his invite to join come Jan 2025. If we are lucky, and all anti-Trump**^^^^ers work diligently, the invitation will be stamped "addressee unknown, return to sender."

fnord

Expand full comment

So, defend Ukraine to protect Monsanto and friends' continuing acquisition of agricultural land?

Expand full comment

The only way that this execrable human being can take power in our country is for us to allow him to do so. Keep that in mind as we go forward.

Expand full comment

Thanks Ben always makes sense

Expand full comment