The Constitution Train
POST 1172
First Stop: Your First Amendment
What if that foundational list of 5 protections were vanished by the flick of a Sharpie? What if a morally compromised, legally powerful Trump toady took aim at you and hauled you into court for not being nice enough to Trump? Or for voicing a contrary opinion? Or for walking the streets wearing a tattoo? Or for writing a book – any book – that Trump doesn’t like? Or for gathering with others in peaceful protest? Or for you having come from another country and not being sufficiently White? Or just because Trump doesn’t like you?
This is not hyperbole, nor is it fantasy. The undermining of our First Amendment protections – guarantees, really – is happening every day in America.
Your first stop on the The Constitution Train is Michael Cohen’s post, Democracy Dies With the First Amendment.
Second Stop: The North Carolina Canary
North Carolina has a proud hypocritical history of using law and the state constitution to undermine democracy and steal people’s rights. The case in question is special in the same way that Kari Lake refuses to honor the will of the voters in Arizona is special. Everything is, of course, all about her. In these cases they are trying to change the rules of the game after the game is over by suppressing the votes of a targeted group in much the same way as in Bush v. Gore.
There was an election last November for a seat on the North Carolina Supreme Court contested by sitting Justice Allison Riggs and Court of Appeals judge Jefferson Griffin. Riggs won by a very slim margin and that should have been that, but, of course, it wasn’t – not in this age of alternative realities, dishonest manipulation and the happy theft of people’s rights. Griffin refused to concede and instead challenged about 60,000 votes in mainly Democrat voting areas. Funny how he didn’t challenge votes in mainly Republican areas.
There was a recount. Then there was another recount. Griffin lost all three times.
Now the contest is down to his challenging 1,700 military and overseas ballots for no justifiable reason. In fact, he wants to apply new requirements for voting – after the election! – in order to invalidate the 1,700. He only wants to invalidate enough votes to take that seat on the Supreme Court and dispense MAGA non-justice in a proud un-American destruction of our democracy,
It’s been 178 days – six months – since the election and it still isn’t settled because of Griffin’s post hoc attempted manipulations.
There are loser candidates like them all around our country – all Republicans – claiming stolen elections and doing everything they can, legal or illegal, to disenfranchise voters, to steal freedom and rights from voters. In other words, Riggs’ fight is your fight, because the MAGA thieves are planning to take away your Constitutional right to vote, too. That’s why North Carolina is the canary in a democracy mine.
Curiosity: Is Jefferson Griffin named for the treasonous president of the Confederacy, Jefferson Davis? Just wondering.
Third Stop: From STAT, April 22:
The Trump administration is stepping up its efforts to wield the federal government’s scientific purse strings as leverage in a broader policy war . . . the National Institutes of Health will soon prohibit new grants from being awarded to institutions that . . . maintain programs dedicated to diversity, equity, and inclusion. The news follows the cancellation of numerous grants and funding opportunities targeted toward researchers of historically marginalized backgrounds, as well billions of dollars in research grants previously awarded to Ivy League schools including Harvard and Columbia.
This is what happens when political schemes and agendas dominate healthcare. It’s like brainlessly and without any evidence declaring vaccines do harm and don’t work or making galacticly stupid claims about autism, like curing it by June. Stupid stuff. Just put a sensationalist moron in charge and watch people die, like those Texas kids who died from measles.
Fourth Stop: Remedies
From Thom Hartmann on April 21:
Senator [Chris] Murphy’s warning carries particular weight: “I still believe we can stop [the Trump madness],” he says. His prescription includes institutional solidarity, mass mobilization, and political courage. These steps aren’t just wishful thinking: history shows they work when deployed with determination.
Definitions:
Institutional integrity – think: law firms joining in a mutual protection pact – same with universities,
Mass mobilization – that’s us taking to the streets and supporting the righteous ones battling those who are working to destroy our democracy,.
Political Courage – that’s legislators like Chris Murphy, AOC, Bernie, Cory Booker, Seth Moulton, Eric Swalwell, Jasmine Crockett, Elizabeth Warren and more. It’s our job to have their backs.
Fifth Stop: The Plan*
From MeidasTouch, April 22:
. . . yesterday I interviewed former President Biden’s National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, who shared with me his thoughts on Trump’s failures.
Jake’s take—and I agree—is that Trump and his regime don’t ever have a plan.
They wake up each day with the sole goal of winning the news cycle, with no long-term plan or even a plan at all about winning on the issue. It’s about rage-baiting and getting attention.
Recall that this is a president who hosted a fake, fixed “reality” TV show as though it was actual reality. He’s a master only of rage-baiting and getting attention. He has no plan beyond the current moment of “Look at me!”
Okay, he does have a plan: to be King Donald, a supplicant of Vladimir Putin.
Last Stop: Pray It Isn’t The End Of The Line
Last week we learned of yet more national security failures by our incompetent, TUI (“Texting Under the Influence”) hire, SecDef Pete Hegseth.
If an employee of Kentucky Fried Chicken were to leak their secret fried chicken formula, that person would immediately be fired. What Hegseth does is far more consequential, in that he compromises our national security by leaking confidential information – top secret information – with people who do not even have a security clearance. He does so over an insecure medium where adversaries can pick it up easily.
And he still has his job. Your KFC is secure, but your nation is not. Sleep well, knowing that Pete Hegseth is standing guard.
All Along The Track: The Cruelty Is The Point
To put all this and more into clear perspective, you must watch Simon Rosenberg’s Hopium Chronicles interview with Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE). As you listen to his factual account of what is actually happening to our people and to our country, compare what you hear to your own values and to your notion of the America you believe in. Think about what the cruelty is leading us to.
Example: Encouraged by our violence and cruelty inciting president, there was a new record of antisemitic acts in 2024, with one happening every hour, 24/7, 365. We’re number 1. Thanks, Mr. President.
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* See my post this Wednesday, April 30 for an explanation of what the bad guys are planning for us.
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