Vibrant Threshold

 

Happy Independence Day, or as the Universal Solar Calendar calls it, Vibrant Threshold. Reminder that on July 4, 1776, the Declaration of Independence claimed, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.” America was founded on the radical idea that all men are created equal.

Four score and seven years later, Abraham Lincoln said, “our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.” 

The men who signed the Declaration of Independence pledged their lives, fortune and honor to defend the idea of human equality. Lincoln reminded Americans of those sacrifices when he wished “that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

The corrupt Supreme Court has turned its traitorous back on the Founding Fathers and on Lincoln. 

Each Note Felt

 

Almost anything else seems besides the point and not worth mentioning. Hurricane Beryl? Climate change? My health? Exercise and diet? Trivia, all. There's been a bloodless (so far) coup and America's been taken over by an extremist, far-right, junta of Christian Nationalist judges, and that's all that is worth talking about. 

Okay, maybe we could talk about the opposition. Ever since Joe Biden's pitiful, halting, forgetful (but not forgettable) performance in last week's debate, he has made no public appearances other than a few carefully stage, scripted appearances at a rally and a news briefing. No press conferences, no interviews, no televised appearances on t.v. assuring an anxious public that he's alright. Just gaslighting and talking points by White House apparatchiks saying the debate wasn't that big a deal.

In politics, its often said that it's not the crime, its the coverup that matters. I was dismayed but still on board with Biden the Friday morning after the debate. But as day after day passed and the White House kept Joe hidden from the public, I lost faith.

To me it's clear what needs to happen. One role of the Vice-President, the major role it can be argued, is to fill in and replace the President in the event of a catastrophe. If it were a bullet or a stroke that hit Biden, VP Harris would automatically become President (unless the extremist, far-right, cabal of Christian Nationalist judges decides that the 25th Amendment doesn't apply to Democrats in election years, and awards the presidency to Trump). But if whatever combination of old age, absent-mindedness, dementia, and forgetfulness plagues Biden makes him incapable of running for President, the V.P. needs to step up and assume the candidacy.

Kamala Harris would bring a lot to the table. She's been Veep for almost four years now and can claim at least partial credit for all of the Biden Administration's many achievements. As a woman, she can credibly champion the case for reproductive rights, bodily autonomy, and establishment of Roe v. Wade as national law. She's smart, quick-witted, and as a former prosecutor, aggressive enough to take the fight to Trump in ways that Biden couldn't, or wouldn't. Or, at least, didn't. 

What would be a disaster would be to spend more time dithering, and then decide to hold a political beauty contest at the Convention, only to emerge with some midwestern state politico that no one actively dislikes but doesn't bring a lot to the table electorally. Save that for choosing Harris' running mate.

Kamala needs to sit Joe down, explain to him that he may still feel like he could beat Trump, but the voters no longer have confidence in him, and that for the good of the country that he loves, he needs to make the hard choice and step down. 

It may already be too late and the fix already in on the 2024 election, but it's our only shot and we should at least go down swinging.

Pacing and the Unshed

 

It's a coup. The United States of America has been taken over by a radical extremist right-wing junta of six activist judges, half of whom were appointed by the worst, most rotten president in U.S. history with the willing assistance of the Senate's Moscow Mitch. 

The court was already leaning far to the right with Citizens United, allowing almost unlimited corporate money for political campaigns, and the repeal of the Voting Rights Act. But with the appointments of Anne Gorsuch's son, Keg-Stand Kavanaugh, and the handmaiden Amy Bony Carrot, any and all restraints were removed. They reversed Roe v. Wade, narrowed the scope of the federal bribery laws, affirmed the right to discriminate against gays, approved gerrymandering, and denied student-loan forgiveness while still allowing subsidies to big oil and other industries. 

And for the finale, to complete the coup and give themselves absolute power, they made it harder to charge January 6 defendants with obstruction, overturned Chevron and ruled that the justices, not government agencies, can interpret Congressional acts to set standards and enforce regulations. Then they ruled that the President has absolute immunity for official acts, and they are the only ones to determine what's official and what's not.

Does anyone honestly believe that they wouldn't rule that Trump paying off a porn star is an official act, but that Biden implementing immigration reform isn't?  

The six right-wing justices have basically neutered Congress and set themselves up to oversee the Executive Branch. The President is no longer the most powerful person in the world, or even the country. The six justices are. 

Like this country's Founding Fathers, I bow to no king, and I will not bend the knee to this court or its manufactured chief executive. I do not recognize their legitimacy or their authority. On this matter, I do not think, or speak, or write with moderation. I am in earnest, I will not equivocate, I will not excuse, I will not retreat a single inch, and I will be heard.  

Day of Fallacies

Hurricane Beryl, a Category 4 event and the second named storm of the 2024 hurricane season, has hit Grenada and Barbados and is heading west into the Caribbean en route to Jamaica and the Yucatan. Where it goes after that is anyone's guess. Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Chris, the second named storm of the season, made landfall in southern Mexico this morning and then dissipated later in the day.

The frequency and number of hurricanes may not be a direct result of climate change, but the increased intensity of the storms is. The EPA should be able to do what it can to limit the release of CO₂, but the Clean Air Act didn't specifically identify CO₂ as a "pollutant," and with the overturning of the so-called Chevron deference last weeks by the Supreme Cunt, it's just a matter of time (weeks probably) before the power companies and oil lobbyists sue and get any attempt to regulate CO₂ declared "unconstitutional," because who knows better how to regulate the environment, climate scientists or judges? 

Speaking of global warming, I completed my 5-mile walk today. By the time I finished, it was 95° outside, but with the humidity, it felt like 101°. But perseverance over perspiration - it was my 48th day walking since Big Ears in late March.

The Supreme Cunt is doing everything it can to destroy America, and today it just might have succeeded. After a long string of abysmal, misguided decisions like Citizens United and reversing Roe v. Wade, after overturning Chevron and striking down the EPA's Good Neighbor rule which regulated smokestack emissions based on effects of downwind states (apparently, if West Virginia can't rip a fart in Maryland's face, is there any freedom left?), after ruling that paying off legislators after the fact is a legal "gratuity" and not a "bribe," and deciding that the January 6 rioters can't be charged for obstructing a proceeding of Congress because of "reasons," they topped themselves today, the last day of the current session.

As many people feared, today they ruled that the President of the United States has "absolute immunity" from criminal prosecution for official acts of the presidency, and "presumed immunity" over a  broader range of other activities. 

When we hold one person above the law, that effectively makes him a king (or her a queen). We have entered a new, Second Chapter in the history of America. “The court effectively creates a law-free zone around the president, upsetting the status quo that has existed since the founding,” Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote in a dissenting opinion, joined by Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson.

Insulating the president of the United States, the most powerful person in the country and possibly the world, from criminal prosecution when he uses his official powers will allow him to freely use his official power to violate the law, exploit the trappings of his office for personal gain, or other evil ends.

“Orders the Navy’s Seal Team 6 to assassinate a political rival? Immune," Sotomayor wrote. "Organizes a military coup to hold onto power? Immune. Takes a bribe in exchange for a pardon? Immune. Immune, immune, immune.” She added, “Even if these nightmare scenarios never play out, and I pray they never do, the damage has been done. The relationship between the president and the people he serves has shifted irrevocably."

Back on May 31, after Trump was found guilty on 34 counts of felony, I predicted that Lindsey Graham (the South Carolina Senator who tried to have my Georgia vote nullified) would say something asinine about the verdict. Well, sure enough, Sunday he told CNN that, “The Democrats keep calling President Trump a felon. Well, be careful what you wish for. I expect there will be an investigation of Biden’s criminality at the border.” Well, the joke's on you, Lindsey. Biden's actions at the border were official acts of his presidency and therefore enjoy "absolute immunity" from criminal prosecution according to your buddies on the Supreme Cunt. How does that taste, Lindsey?   

This Supreme Cunt has put more power into the hands of a single person, the President, than ever before, while also making it harder for the people to vote for that all-powerful ruler. They also grabbed a big chunk of power for themselves, and left Congress, arguably the most representative chamber of government, with far less power than ever.  

We're doomed. This grand experiment in representative democracy - government for the people, by the people - is over. Our government no longer derives its just powers from the consent of the governed. This goes way beyond owning the libs - this is indeed the last and greatest betrayal of the last and greatest of human dreams.