2/8/24
Newsletter #557
The Crack of Dawn
Today the Supreme Court begins hearing oral arguments in the 14th amendment case against “citizen” Donald Trump, as they referred to him. It sounds like the French Revolution (where many heads were lost). Monday the Supreme Court takes up the presidential immunity case from the Washington, D.C. Appellate Court. I can’t see the future any better than anyone else, but at least I work with the knowledge and information of the most informed experts available to me. I don’t get my information from TV news pundits, nor any idiot on social media who cares to comment. The one pundit (the oldest word in the English language, from Sanskrit) I do listen to, and have since before the 2016 election, is David Pakman. I admire his intelligence (particularly for a young person, and when I began listening to him, he was barely thirty) and I implicitly believe what he says, how he correlates information, and his conclusions. I like him as the person I perceive him to be. Therefore, I listen to three lawyers and one pundit.
Regarding Trump’s presidential immunity case, last night Glenn Kirschner, 30-year prosecutor for the DOJ, searched for the proper legal term for Trump’s defense, saying something like, “His defense is . . .” and as he paused, I thought, “specious?” Glenn finally came to the non-legal description, “stupid.” That case is a dead duck. The Supreme Court isn’t going to shoot the immunity case down, they’re going to walk over to it’s wounded, flapping carcass and all fire 12-gauge shotguns down into it, thus putting it out of its misery. Nobody, meaning nobody, is immune from all laws, and anybody who thinks so is stupid. That’s the precise word.
Here's something I’ve come to learn from watching all of the motions, briefs and decisions in these Trump cases (aside from the fact that he can’t win a case) – as a case is appealed and moves its way up to the appellate courts, appellate courts are not investigative bodies and don’t look for any more new information. Appellate courts don’t search for facts, they accept the facts given to them by the lower court. They also, for the most part, accept all of the rulings of the lower courts. In the Jan. 6 case – which is paused for the moment (until the silly immunity thing is eliminated) – Judge Chutkan ruled that Trump did not have immunity, accompanied by a long opinion explaining why. The appellate court simply accepted it; they didn’t double check it; they’re all judges, they just believed her (as well they should).
The 14th amendment case comes from Colorado, where the case has already been through district court and appellate court. Two facts have been established and ruled on: 1. Donald Trump did attend an insurrection on Jan. 6, 2. The office of President of the United States is indeed an “officer” of the United States, who took an oath to support the constitution. These are now unquestionable facts. Those are the same two facts that prove the 14th amendment, section 3, to be true. Donald Trump’s only defense is that this decision is not up to the Supreme Court, except that it is. The decider of constitutional questions in this country is the Supreme Court.
This is what I personally have been waiting for since Jan. 6, 2001. As I watched the insurrection unfold, I was well aware that I was seeing Donald Trump’s version of Hitler’s Beer Hall Putsch. Both failed. Adolf Hitler served 10 months in prison (where he productively learned to type and wrote Mein Kampf).
David Pakman and I have disagreed about one thing for years. He has said many, many times that Trump will never go to prison. I’ve always believed he’ll go to prison. Having been to jail several times (though never prison), I have a great belief in our criminal justice system. We have more people incarcerated than anywhere else in the world, so were the best at something.
So now we get to see what the future of our country is going to look like.