#January 6th 2021

[wartakes]

What Comes Next? (OLD ESSAY)

This essay was originally posted on January 21st, 2021.

This is the essay that actually responds to January 6th (as the one that was posted on January 6th was actually before everything happened and had nothing to do with it, lol). (Full essay below the cut).

So, I guess it’s finally time to talk about the last couple weeks.

On the morning of January 6th I had just posted an essay I’d rant-written over an hour or two the night prior about an op-ed on Military.com calling for war criminal Robert Bales to be pardoned by now former-President Donald Trump (thankfully, Bales does not appear to have been included in Trump’s last minute Pardonpalooza – sucks to suck Bobby Boy). I figured that would be the thing I’d be the angriest or distressed about that day, or even that week.

Yeah, so, we know what happened in the second half of the day.

I’ll be honest, I intended to write something about all this sooner. God knows that I’m a little late to the game on all this. A lot of my favorite analysts, podcasters, and other content creators have all already done their bits on the January 6th insurrection/riot/whatever by now. But I decided to sit tight before I put my thoughts down on “paper” as it were for a couple reasons.

The first reason was equal parts paranoia and selfishness. I held my fire because with the threats and increasingly tense situation surrounding the inauguration, I wanted to wait until after Biden was sworn in before I wrote anything because – much like my Bales essay being overcome by events – I was afraid I’d write something only to have an actual coup de tat kick off five minutes after posting it (Note: as of writing this, Biden has successfully been sworn in and is in the White House probably saying “listen Jack” to his staff repeatedly).

The second reason was, I honestly didn’t know what to write and didn’t know exactly how I felt about everything and I still am struggling. Since January 6th, I’ve felt just about every emotion I think is possible at least once a day – often more than once. I’ve mellowed out a lot since then and feel a lot better today, but I’ll be real with you all, I was kind of a wreck for a bit with everything going on (if you’re worried, I’m ok, and thank you).

This essay is going to be a bit disjointed compared to some of my other works, but this is just something I wanted to get off my chest and out of my head to help myself make sense of things, and maybe it’ll help other folks in that way too. I’ll try and follow it up with something approaching intelligent analysis on how we should think about this and deal with it going forward. Hopefully in the next few weeks I can get back to my usual fare. For now, let’s do this.

How Do I Feel?

I’ve spent most of my adult life learning and training to be a national security professional and then (finally) starting to work in the field. I’ve typically been what you’d call a generalist. I’ve dipped my toe in a bit of everything, but I’ve largely focused on conflict between states in all its various forms throughout my academic and professional career.

With that in mind, another reason I was slow to write about this was that I’m not the best person to. While I’ve always been aware of and concerned about the dangers of the far-right and white nationalism and all the other toxic elements in American politics, it wasn’t until the last four years – and the final stages of my radicalization as a leftist in the last year in particular – that I truly began to appreciate the gravity of the threat. I’ve never focused on any of this in my studies or work. I’ve never been an expert on far-right paramilitary violence and domestic terrorism and all of that. I’ve never even been an expert on terrorism and political violence in general. I watched what happened on the 6th unfold in real time over livestream, talking with my close friends and family as it occurred – which in a way, made it even harder and take even more time to process it. I’ve seen plenty of events unfold like that in other countries before, but it was just that: foreign. Something that happens over there, not back here.

In a way, I had a massive cognitive dissonance about the event as it was happening. On one hand, it was entirely shocking and surprising that this could happen in the United States of America of all places, in the 21st century. And yet, at the same time, I couldn’t help but think “well of course something like this finally happened, how could it not have?” We’ve been building up to something like this for years now. It didn’t help that while I now view the government and many institutions with a much more critical eye given my change in politics, I can’t deny the monuments and symbology still hold some kind of value to me emotionally, and seeing far-right Trump supporters bashing their way inside and running amok fucked me up some (this in addition to some personal connections I have to the Capitol that made it all hit a little close to home, but I don’t really want to get into that here).

So, where am I going with this? That’s a good question. I guess my point here is, amidst the mix of emotions I felt over the past week or two, the overriding one was fear. I was scared. And I’m here to tell you that if you were scared as well, that’s ok. That’s valid, and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. Was what happened at the Capitol as bad as it could have been? No. I’ve heard a lot of 9/11 comparisons and while I agree some are ham fisted, and while January 6th was nowhere near as deadly as 9/11, it still left me with the same sense of fear and uncertainty that event did when I was a kid. It was still a traumatic event in a lot of ways, and if you feel scared by it, don’t let anyone make you feel like shit for feeling what you feel.

I’ve seen a lot of people cracking jokes about what happened on twitter and elsewhere. That’s fine. Honestly, one reason it’s been hard to make sense of everything after the 6th has been the fact that while the insurrection was serious, it was also in many ways, laughable in its events. I mean, c’mon. You have the Q Shaman dressed up in a fur faux-Viking outfit. How can you not joke about this shit in some shape or form? It’s impossible not to.

I’ve absolutely made a lot of gallows humor among friends myself to deal with what happened. As Hawkeye Pierce once said on M*A*S*H, sometimes joking is the only way you can open your mouth without screaming. When this becomes unhelpful or hurtful is when the joking becomes less about working through something you’re feeling and more about trivializing it and dismissing it as something that is not worth your concern and attention. That is not fine, and it pisses me off in a major way. Not only does it feel like punching down, but it also feels like it misses the implications of what happened for us as leftists and the country as a whole.

Again, was this as bad is it could have been? No. Was it the worst thing ever to happen to or in America? Not by a long shot. But it is extremely concerning and should be a warning to us for what might come next. Even if the riots themselves didn’t amount to much, and in many places were laughable, it was also extremely fortunate they were not worse – as there are now plenty of indications that they could have been much, much worse.

While there are a lot of people on the left that have been keenly aware of the threat of right-wing violence for years now, this may be a wakeup call for many who either weren’t as aware or didn’t think it was as serious or extensive as it’s turned out to be. While we all may have been affected in different ways and to different degrees but the last few weeks, what we need to agree on is that far-right violence and extremism is a problem that is only going to get worse before it gets better, even now that Trump has left the White House. Trump was only the beginning. We need to brace ourselves because what has become clear is that the last few years if we want to stop things much worse than what happened on January 6th from occurring in the future.

Where Do We Go From Here?

Ok, so I just disgorged about a thousand words or more in change at you about my own jumble of personal feelings about all this. I feel like I owe you something a bit more thought out on what we should be trying to do from here on in to deal with the oncoming wave of chuddery.

First off, there are two important ideas that need to be understood in tandem – to some folks these may be obvious but I’m going to state them anyway to drive the point home: 1.) this is not a problem that cropped up overnight; and 2.) this is not a problem that will be taken care of in four years or eight years or even more than that. The current form of far-right extremism that we face is not one that suddenly cropped up after Trump became President. It has its roots going back more than thirty years. The problems of white supremacy in particular are entwined with the very founding of the nation. These are problems that are going to need to be dealt with over the course of a generation – more likely, multiple generations. It is going to require us to fundamentally change as a society, which I do not believe is impossible, but I do think it will be a long and hard effort with many twists and turns and missteps along the way.

Another key takeaway that I don’t think that a lot of people on the left are going to need convincing on is that this is not a problem that can or should be solved solely through arrests and imprisonment and violent crackdown from the state. I’ll say right now that some new Patriot Act II: The Patrioting, is 100% not the answer. As a national security professional, I can tell you right now that if the government can’t stop what happened on the 6th or any of the other incidences of far-right violence in recent years with the massive toolbox of domestic surveillance and counter-terrorism infrastructure it already has – and arguably shouldn’t have in the first place, there’s no way some new domestic version of the Patriot Act is going to do it (and it’ll just get turned against leftists and minorities anyway, let’s be real). Giving more money to cops certainly isn’t going to solve shit – especially when a number of them are part of these movements, as well as more than a few troops in the military).

That being said, another thing that the left may need more convincing on is that some of these people will never be convinced to give up what they believe. That is not to say that all of them are lost causes. I don’t believe that every person who voted for Trump is a QAnon adherent or a fascist in waiting, and they can’t be forgotten and need to be brought along for the ride in building a better world – after all, I became a socialist because I want life to be better for everyone, not just everyone I like who believes in my ideology. Likewise, I don’t believe that every person that gets caught up in far-right extremist movements is necessarily a lost cause. Some of them may be able to be helped through some kind of de-programming and de-radicalization effort (there’s a lot of discourse on how appropriate the cult comparison is QAnon, but I think this is an apt one), but we need to accept that some people are never going to surrender their beliefs and will always consider people like us as an existential threat.

Where am I going with this? Well, here’s that part that may not go over as well. I definitely fear state overreach and abuse of power in light of what happened on the sixth – which I hope was already demonstrated by my apprehension about any kind of new domestic terror law. But even with all of that in mind, some of these people are going to have to be arrested and go to prison.

Let me be clear: the criminal justice system and law enforcement in this country are fundamentally flawed. I think they need to be completely rebuilt – not reformed but torn down and rebuilt from scratch. Not only that, but they also need to be rebuilt as part of a system that prioritizes social services that prevent crime and violence from occurring long before it ever gets to the point of involving law enforcement or any form of detention or corrections – and that those need to be done in as humane a way as possible. But I still think they need to exist. Why? The same reason I think a military will still need to exist. Because no matter what, somehow, some way, there will always be someone who wishes to do harm for one reason or another. We can try and help as many people who have been drawn in by far-right movements as we can, but we need to come to terms before we get deeper into the struggle that we cannot help them all.

What that point gets across is that dealing with this problem in the years to come isn’t just going to be accomplished by doing all the good things we’ve always wanted to do. It is going to require us doing things that some leftists may be fundamentally uncomfortable with. Things that involve the use of force and wielding of power by the state. I wasn’t happy at all about the fact we deployed more troops in Washington D.C. than we have in both Iraq and Afghanistan combined in order to guarantee what normally should be a peaceful transfer of power. But as much as that made me uncomfortable and scared and angry, I can’t say that it wasn’t entirely necessary.

I am not saying we need to discard our own principles to deal with extremism. In fact, I would argue against that strongly and forcefully. If we acted in a way contrary to every concept of social justice and human rights and democracy that we claim to uphold, then we’d be no better than those who passed the Patriot Act, let alone any authoritarian police state that has existed past, present, or future – be it fascist or socialist. But there are things that we are going to need to address and come to terms with as a movement. I don’t begin to claim to have the answers, but I do know there are tough conversations that will need to be had. I believe in a better world, but not in a utopian one. We need to come to terms with that going forward.

Keep On Keeping On

I’ve been a little all over the map since the 6th, but as my mind has cleared some, if nothing else I’ve emerged with a renewed sense of purpose in the aftermath of what happened that day. It has reaffirmed the beliefs I started to be honest with myself about almost a year ago when the mask finally began to come off to me. It has made me more certain about what side I am on and the kind of future that I want to live in.

While I still believe things can and will get better, I also unfortunately believe they will likely get worse before they do. As Joe Biden is inaugurated, there are already signs that the disillusioned once-QAnon faithful who for so long “trusted the plan” only to be let down and questioning everything they believe, are being targeted by more violent and accelerationist far-right groups for recruitment. There are also plenty of people who will likely maintain their loyalty to the QAnon theory in some shape or form and that movement is in the process of an uncertain transformation. And while many Republican have tried to disconnect themselves from far-right elements, there are still more than a few who not only remain tied to them but court them as a power base. This is a problem that is going to stick around in multiple forms for a long time, whether it be QAnon, a Q offshoot, your basic white nationalism, outright fascism, and etc.

This all should give us a renewed sense of urgency, as well as purpose. If we didn’t believe it before, we have to believe now we are engaged in a political struggle for the future – our right to exist in a more just, safe, peaceful, democratic world. January 6th and the reactions and aftermath of it should drive home to you that the stakes are very much real. That we need to work even harder to organize and mobilize the people of this country to enact change for the better.

Moreover, as things will likely get worse before they get better, we need to be prepared for that. While we should never seek out violence, we need to be prepared if violence seeks us out – as it has been apt to do so far. Much has been said about the police response to the insurrection on the 6th. The bungled response appears to have not been due to any one factor, but that none of them bode well in sum. Police collusion and sympathy, a lack of taking the threat seriously, and a lack of the necessary skills or competence when it actually wants to deal with the far-right threat means that we cannot depend on law enforcement to protect us as it is currently structured.

Again – and I cannot stress this enough – this does not mean we should seek out violence. If anyone has fantasies about a Second Civil War, take it from someone who has spent their entire adult life watching still-ongoing civil wars in Syria, Libya, Yemen, and other places: you don’t fucking want that. Period. Full stop. But if anything has been made clear by the rise in right wing terrorism in the last decade, is a reality that we need to watch out for ourselves as we try to move forward. Simply put we can’t make a better world if we don’t live to see it through.

Its ok to be scared. Let yourself be scared for a bit if you feel the need. My Mom always has said you have to let yourself be sad or upset for a while before you can be not upset. But don’t despair. Don’t give in to hopelessness. Nothing is set in stone. Time is not a flat circle, despite what many might tell you. We can make a better world, but we need to be clear headed about the challenges we are going to face going forward in doing that, and we need to be ready for them. So, suit up for the long-haul kiddos. I’ll be here with you, contributing in my own way, going on about war and foreign policy and my usual hobby horses. I don’t plan on going anywhere and neither should you. If we have that resolve, that in itself is a starting victory.

[hotpinkandlimegreenlovinfangirl]

So I just had to unfollow yet another account, this time over the fact that someone said do not let January 6th become the new 9/11.

I will always remember this day as the day the wisemen paid homage to Our Lord and recognized His kingship. I recognize His kingship, too. As a spiritual practice, I write letters to Him. And on Christmas, I wrote in my letter, "Happy birthday, my sweet King!"

However, let me remind people that three years ago today, five lives were lost because a President of the United States incited a mob to besiege the Capitol and try to stop members of Congress from doing their duty to the Constitution. Five lives were lost because a President could not accept the fact that he lost an election and wanted to hold onto his power, despite the fact that the American people declared loudly and clearly through their ballots that Joe Biden was the person they had chosen to govern.

The mob erected a gallows on Capitol Hill and planned to hang Mike Pence on it. A gallows! This is not how we carry out justice here in the United States, folks! We do not execute people without a fair trial. And hanging is an outdated method of execution here in the States.

We do not operate by mob-mentality and execute people without their guilt have been proven beyond a reasonable doubt. A person is innocent until proven guilty. A mob, encouraged by the whims of a narcissistic would-be dictator, erected a gallows and intended to hang the then-Vice President of the United States. And what was his "crime?" Prioritizing his oath to the Constitution over his loyalty to a fake Christian demagogue of a POTUS. And the aforementioned POTUS would have been perfectly content to let Pence hang and rejoiced in Pence's hanging, if the mob had gotten that far. But thank God that they didn't.

So do not downplay the events of January 6th three years ago today.

I also do not appreciate blanket-name calling the powers that be in D.C. They are human, just like the rest of us.

In fact, Eduard Hapsburg, the Hungarian Ambassador to the Holy See, has talked about how Queen Elizabeth's funeral reminded him of a funeral tradition of his ancestors.

When Hapsburg monarchs died, they were brought to the church for the funeral and and a herald, accompanying the casket, would knock on the doors of the church. The presiding cleric would ask, "Who is it?"

The herald would answer with the monarch's name and then list his or her titles.

The presiding cleric would respond, "We do not know them."

The herald would knock on the church's doors again.

The presiding cleric would ask again, "Who is it?"

Once more, the herald would answer with the monarch's name and all their titles.

Once again, the presiding cleric would respond, "We do not know them."

The herald would knock on the doors of the church a third and final time.

The presiding cleric would ask for the third and final time, "Who is it?"

The herald would answer, "(Monarch's name), a poor sinner,"

The presiding cleric would then say, "Come in," and then the herald and casket were let into the church.

The whole point of this ritual was that despite how much power the monarch held while they lived, they were no better than the rest of us.

So while the powers that be in D.C. come and go, Pope Francis has said that no politician is too corrupt to be prayed for and suggested that we pray for them more than we praise or criticize them.

To me, that is a much better thing to do than calling them "swamp creatures."

As I said in my post about King Charles's coronation and free speech, people have the right to free speech. But free speech has consequences. And my consequence/boundaries for those who use the feast of the Epiphany to downplay what happened in D.C. three years ago is they will be unfollowed, especially if they say things like, "Do not let January 6th become the new 9/11."

To me, that is an enormous gesture of disrespect for the five people who lost their lives that day and a Vice President who was nearly hanged because an angry mob, incited by the whims of a narc who couldn't accept defeat in an election and threw sphaghetti at the wall in the hopes that something would stick, didn't want him to fulfill his oath to the Constitution. And I will not stand for such gestures of disrespect.

It's sad because I reblogged one of their posts about those chick tracts that some Christians leave as part of their evangelization. This same blogger who took the time to correct people who do that had to leave a post downplaying the Capitol insurrection and the fact that five people died that day.

And do you know how Pope Francis responded to the news of the siege on the Capitol when it when happened?

He said this:

"I send an affectionate greeting to the people of the United States of America, shaken by the recent siege on Congress. I pray for those who lost their lives, five, who lost them in those dramatic moments. I repeat that violence is self-destructive, always. Nothing is gained by violence and so much is lost. I appeal to the authorities of the country and to the entire population to maintain a lofty sense of responsibility in order to calm things down and promote national reconciliation and protect democratic values that are rooted in American society. " (emphasis mine)

And notice that the Holy Father didn't say a word about the fact that January 6th is the Epiphany. He didn't say a word about recognizing Jesus's eternal rule over investing attention in the political leaders that we chose. On the contrary, he encouraged every American to do their part to protect and promote democratic values. The Catholic Church supports democracy and democratic principles.

Jesus did not want those five people to die like that, and he certainly did not want an angry mob to try to hang Mike Pence.

So accusing the powers that be in D.C. of "fearmongering" is extremely disrespectful and I will not put up with such disrespectful accusations.

So while it is a good idea to bake a Kings cake, sing "We Three Kings," and go to church, another good way to honor our Lord is to remember those five people and make sure nothing like this ever happens again. Caring for the common good is also a good way to honor Jesus.

[cyarskj1899]

shaunking As you no doubt saw - conservative Brazilian supporters of their recently ousted President, Jair Bolsonaro, inspired by the January 6th insurrection 2 years ago in the United States, just attempted to take over the Congress, Supreme Court, and Presidential Palace in the Capitol of Brazil.

Almost 2 years to the day, under almost identical circumstances, these conservatives attempted and failed the same foolishness that we saw right here in the US. And here's the thing - it looked so similar, because they were literally coached by American conservatives. And several things need to happen immediately.

Jair Bolsonaro, who is an open bigot, should be deported/extradited BACK to Brazil. The man is literally hiding out in Florida - which is simultaneously wild and makes perfect sense at the same time. Of course he would travel to the home state of Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis to hide. But the United States has an extradition treaty with Brazil and should send him right back home to face the consequences for what he caused.

Secondly, an immediate investigation needs to be launched into the American conservatives that coached Brazilian conservatives through all of this. They openly admit, publicly and privately, that they've been telling Brazilians exactly what to do to undermine faith in their elections and in their democracy. And Brazil should charge them - so that they can also face the consequences for what they just caused.

Let me unpack and explain it all.

To listen to today’s FULL EPISODE of The Breakdown go now to Apple Podcasts or Spotify and search for “The Breakdown with Shaun King.” Subscribe there for FREE and listen to the whole podcast.

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Love and appreciate you all.

Shaun

[memenewsdotcom]

Trump gets target letter from DOJ over January 6th

[jonostroveart]

Blurred Lines

[justbeingnamaste]

In Memory of Ashli Babbitt !

[athenasdragon]

I think it says a lot about the political times during which I’m doing my PhD that sometimes I go in for my weekly meeting with my advisor and he goes “hang on I’m reading the news” so we start our meeting with me standing behind him for 5 minutes silently reading over his shoulder

[cyarsk52-20]

And to the ones who decided to show up with the random anti black viewpoints just because a white woman got called out……

[wealmostaneckbeard]

Still watching January 6th Hearing, here's my general impression:

John Eastman knew the constitution did not give the Vice President any power to over turn any election, ever. He even admitted it in private. But he knew Trump would fire him if he didn't provide a plan to win the 2020 election. So he lied to Trump that Pence had the power to solve all of his problems, and because Trump knew nothing about the constitution, he believed it. And so Mike Pence, the perfect Christian sycophant for Trump, became the last Scapegoat of the administration.

[nientedal]

What progress at home has biden enacted? What policies of his show that he is making progress that prove he is actually different than trump?

I like to pretend I have faith in humanity, so I'll answer as if you're asking this in good faith.

Biden's DEA has lifted restrictions on telehealth prescriptions to make appointments and assistance more accessible.

He put a funding package into place to help unhoused people get access to mental and physical healthcare, as well as short-term and long-term housing.

He has attempted and is still attempting to get student debt relief through - this was blocked by Republican judges appointed by Trump, but he's still working on it.

Infrastructure repair - his administration has budgeted funds to actually fix some severely-damaged and frequently-traveled bridges.

Trying to expand access to healthcare to include undocumented immigrants who came to the USA as children (Dreamers) under the Affordable Care Act. Support for Navigator programs and outreach has also been increased.

He has vetoed Republican-led bills that were attempting to overturn environmental protections - one that would have forbidden investment fund managers to consider climate change in their portfolios (I have two degrees in accounting and this is actually huge), and another that would have overturned restrictions on agricultural runoff into our waterways.

He and his administration worked for ages to get rail workers paid sick days.

This is just some of what he's been doing. Meanwhile, Trump and other Republicans want to criminalize the lives of LGBT people like you and me. They want to eliminate no-fault divorce and force births that will kill parents or devastate them financially. They have stated flat out that they want to install a military dictatorship in the USA. They attempted to put that in motion on January 6th, 2021. They failed once. They will do better next time.

One party wants to house the homeless and expand social safety nets, while the other one wants to criminalize homelessness. One of them wants a future in which I might be able to vote to change how much of a war machine my country is, while the other one wants to eliminate my ability to vote entirely. Those are not the same. Those literally are opposites.

At the end of the day, all you and I can do is choose to do the least amount of harm possible. You and I cannot choose to do no harm. This is the USA, we sell war, you and I cannot choose to do no harm. I wish we could, my god do I wish we could, but that is not an option. So we grieve for the harm we couldn't eliminate and work to minimize the harm that is done. Despite all the crap they support, Democrats are the minimum amount of harm right now. Acting like they aren't is exactly what brought us to an election where our options are a future where we are either wading in blood or drowning in it.

Not voting for Biden will not help Palestine. Not voting for Biden will guarantee a Republican president who will make the situation in Palestine WORSE. AND it'll hurt a lot of other places as well, both at home and abroad, because Republicans are about business and the USA is in the business of war! And I would very much like that to change someday! I would very much like to someday be able to choose to do no harm! And I know what I have to do to try for that future, so what are YOU going to do? There is no standing off to the side in this. If you aren't helping pull, you're the dead weight we're pulling. Are you going to dig your feet into the mud and blood and drown us there? Or are you going to get the fuck off your ass, grit your teeth, and help us pull free?

[elfaegyo]

Odd Eye

JiU,  SuA,  Siyeon,  Handong,  Yoohyeon,  Dami,  Gahyeon Du nuneul tteo moduga baran chanranhan igot Sel su eopsi seulpeumeul heullin hu Jogeumssik boineun New World Gyeonggyeseoneul neomeoseon geu gonggan Deo areumdaun punggyeongeul In my eyes Gin banghwang kkeute chajeun deuthaetjiman tto Majuchyeo beorin huimang sogui Lie Deoukdeo gyomyohaejyeo My mistake Oh Bicheuro garyeojineun So So…

[trumpbites]

For Trump, the Legal Shoes Finally Drop - The New York Times

For Trump, the Legal Shoes Finally Drop – The New York Times

Criminal Referrals: In its final public session, the Jan. 6 House committee accused Mr. Trump of inciting insurrection and other federal crimes as it referred him to the Justice Department for potential prosecution. Cassidy Hutchinson: The former White House aide told the panel in September that a lawyer aligned with Mr. Trump had attempted to influence her testimony. A Diminished Trump: The…

[theorderofthetriad]

yeah i did that huh.

[tahyirasavanna]

As Folks Complain About Biden and "The Left" The January 6th Hearing Keeps Getting Better Ratings

As Folks Complain About Biden and “The Left” The January 6th Hearing Keeps Getting Better Ratings

The most damning information came in today. The GOP previously stated that the Capitol Police did not find any conclusive evidence that national terrorists scoped out the joint, on a legit tour of the Capitol, but today’s footage tells a different story. You remember that scene in the film Pearl Harbor when a Japanese tourist shot photos of the beautiful islands of Hawaii. The camera was…

[jonostroveart]

Hammered

[robertreich]

Are Presidents Above the Law? 

Donald Trump thinks presidents should be allowed to commit crimes. Rubbish.

Trump claims that quote, "A PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES MUST HAVE FULL IMMUNITY” from prosecution for any crime committed while in office. His lawyers even claim that a president could be immune from prosecution for having a political opponent assassinated.

Trump says anything less than total immunity would quote, "incapacitate every future president." Baloney. It would incapacitate him! He’s the only president who's been criminally charged with trying to orchestrate a violent coup on January 6th, 2021.

Trump wants to turn the U.S. president into a supreme ruler — who is not bound to the same laws that everybody else is — the very antithesis of the bedrock values this country was founded on. A president shouldn’t be above the law.

In reality, this is all part of Trump’s plan to avoid accountability. He wants to gum up the legal system to delay his federal trial until after the 2024 election. If he really believed he was innocent, wouldn’t he want to have a trial as soon as possible?

Just as bad, the Supreme Court is abetting his plan by dragging its feet.

Trump’s criminal trial in the January 6 case was supposed to begin in March. But now, it’s on hold until Trump’s immunity claim is resolved by the Supreme Court. Who knows how long that will take?

The high court could have ruled on Trump’s immunity claim immediately — which Special Counsel Jack Smith asked it to do last December. Instead, the Supreme Court accepted Trump’s request not to expedite a ruling. Trump’s immunity claim then went slowly through the lower courts, which, not surprisingly, found that, no, presidents DO NOT have carte blanche to commit crimes.

The Supreme Court then had another chance to expedite a ruling on this, but it took weeks even to set a date for arguments.

The Supreme Court can move quickly when it wants to. When Trump appealed Colorado’s decision to keep him off the state ballot, the Supreme Court rushed to get a ruling out before the Colorado primary. Shouldn’t the court move with the same urgency on Trump’s immunity claim? Otherwise, Trump’s January 6th trial may not be decided before the presidential election.

Voters are entitled to know before casting their ballots whether they are choosing a felon for president.