A Shameless Stooge -- What Trump Looks For in a Judge

 

Remember when that old comedian Mitch McConnell voted against convicting Trump for his January 6 coup attempt and explained his vote as logical, because there was no need for Congress to act: "We have a criminal justice system in this country. We have civil litigation. And former presidents are not immune from being held accountable by either one." We didn't know that was a laugh-line. We know it now.

In July of 2024, Chief Justice John Roberts, in his notorious "presidential immunity" ruling, declared that a president, any president, enjoys “absolute” or “qualified” immunity from criminal prosecution for any action taken in his “official” capacity. An appellate judge who heard the immunity argument ahead of the Supreme Court summed up the Trump position with a hypothetical: Absolute immunity means that Trump could well avoid criminal consequences for using SEAL Team Six to murder opponents. 

The Roberts Court swallowed that hypothetical like a guppy.

Roberts and the other court conservatives guaranteed our current constitutional crisis: Trump won. He's indulging himself with power-grabs and entrepreneurial corruption, secure in the assurance that he will never face criminal accountability. (Goddamn! What a country to pull that off!) As Justice Sotomayor put it in her dissent, the Court made the president into a "king above the law.” 

So far the balance of judges who've ruled on Trump 2.0 have not been stooges. Quit the contrary. There are courageous men and women wearing the robes, and we have historically respected their independence (if cussing them sometimes/always anyway), and thanked Gawd that the judiciary was there to protect us from tyranny.

But of course the district court judges are only the bottom rung of the judicial ladder, and we know it always ends with Roberts and his conservatives. They've already proven themselves stooges. Will they stooge again?

To bluff and bluster and keep those and other judges in line, Trump has called for impeachment (with maybe hanging thrown in) of federal judges who rule against him. His mean girl spokesblond proclaims that judges are usurping the powers and prerogatives of the popularly elected president, essentially unleashing the dogs to harass, to stalk, to hunt. Trump dares to skirt. Is there any doubt that he's lied and defied the court in that abduction case of immigrants with tattoos? This is a constitutional crisis of the highest order. Will the system hold? Will the Roberts Court repent?

There's a General Election coming up. Time is actually short. Just eight months to find Democratic candidates at all levels. The filing period for '26 candidates in both parties is the first two weeks of December 2025.

The Confounding Stupidity of Trump 2.0

 

Duke University, Durham, NC:

Laurie H. Sanders, PhD, associate professor in neurology and pathology, conducts research on Parkinson’s disease. Her lab has developed a method, based on mitochondrial DNA damage, that can detect Parkinson’s disease in its early stages with a simple blood test. Her research has the potential not only to enable early diagnosis and intervention before significant neurological damage occurs, but also to help identify therapeutic targets to reverse or halt damaged mitochondrial DNA and the disease process.  

The Sanders test can distinguish people with Parkinson's from people without it, but there's much more to understand before clinical trials, like how the "biomarkers" change with aging. Said Sanders, "And we want to understand what’s driving DNA damage in the first place, because then we might be able to target that process with new therapeutics." (Duke Univ. School of Medicine)  

Sanders’ research break-through came about supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Her laboratory staff includes one postdoctoral scholar, three graduate students, three visiting scholars, three technicians, and 13 undergraduates. On February 7, 2025, Trump's new hit-men at NIH announced a cap of 15% on reimbursement of Facilities & Administration (F&A) research grant costs, which cover equipment and facilities, maintenance and compliance, data processing, and many other essential needs that make research possible. 

"The proposed cap could mean an estimated loss of almost $200 million annually in research funding at Duke alone and significantly hinder or halt scientific and biomedical research in many critical areas." Trump 2.0 threatens to extinguish a whole generation of rising scientists, like the assistants in Sanders' lab, let alone put a damper on the advancement of basic science. (The funding-cap order from NIH is currently on judicial hold, with the future very cloudy.)

Dr. Sanders' current grant ends in August. She said, "I’ve submitted a grant proposal to continue our work, but right now [NIH] is not even reviewing grants, much less approving them."

The MAGA crowd who chortle at any pain felt by egg-heads might want to consider how your laughter sounds to the millions who could be saved by Dr. Sanders' breakthrough. My own mother was diagnosed in her 60s with Parkinson's, and the spiraling deterioration took us all down, especially my father. "We do this because there are real people living with the disease right now,” said Dr. Sanders. "Our work is always with an eye toward translation [into practical tests] and ultimately to benefit patients."

Jethro Thinks He Can Control Who Votes. He Can't

 

You wake up every blessed morning in Trump 2.0, check your pulse for a beat, and dial up the news. The news -- despite which nipple you suck from -- always proves pulse-quickening, like you've inadvertently ingested some hallucinatory mushroom. Jaw-dropping developments in government, or lack thereof, prompting out-loud profanity. Today the outrage was John F. Kennedy Junior's forcing the resignation of Dr. Peter Marks from the Food and Drug Administration. Marks is credited as the real architect behind the rapid development of the coronavirus vaccines (plural), and his resignation letter is a classic (also a doozy in the annals of fuck-you resignation letters).

What was the outrage yesterday? You're forgiven if you can't remember. The outrages come at us relentlessly, daily. I'm just coming to understand the Trump outrage of last Tuesday (March 25), when he signed ExecOrder "Preserving and Protecting the Integrity of American Elections." Among several other provisions in the order, Trump demanded that henceforth voter registration requires proof of citizenship. Under Sec.2(a)(ii), “documentary proof of United States citizenship” shall include a copy of: 

(A) a United States passport;

(B) an identification document compliant with the requirements of the REAL ID Act of 2005 (Public Law 109-13, Div. B) that indicates the applicant is a citizen of the United States;

(C) an official military identification card that indicates the applicant is a citizen of the United States; or

(D) a valid Federal or State government-issued photo identification if such identification indicates that the applicant is a United States citizen or if such identification is otherwise accompanied by proof of United States citizenship.

Do you see any mention of a birth certificate -- proof of birth, say, in a document filed by the Florence Nightingale Hospital, Dallas, Texas, or anywhere else earthly? No birth certificate allowed? He lists passports first, as though any Tom, Dick, or Harry has a passport for foreign travel and exotic adventures, and how many rural and working-class Americans lack any of those listed documents?

According to analysis by Dr. Andy Jackson, Director of the Civitas Center for Public Integrity at the John Locke Foundation, the proof of citizenship order applies only when people use the national mail voter registration form (a mail-in postcard). How many voters register via that postcard in North Carolina? Dunno. But according to Jackson, any voter may still register to vote via their own state Board of Elections forms, which aren't as preposterous as the Trump order. Jackson makes a revealing comment when pointing out that Trump's order can't affect people who register using the SBOE form: "If Trump had attempted that in his order, he would have been well outside his authority."

Well Outside His Authority

Trump's whole "Preserve and Protect" order is a joke of unconstitutional hilarities.

The U.S. Constitution is clear: Article 1, Section 4 dictates that only states and Congress can make or alter the “time, place, and manner” of holding federal elections. The president is bestowed with no such power. He isn't even mentioned in the chain of command. On its face, his order is shit fantasy. But it'll take courts to say so.

In the meantime, I'm indebted to Andy Jackson for his approximation of just how much of North Carolina's voting practice might end up impacted by Trump's attempt to control access:

What is the bottom line for North Carolina?

To comply with Trump’s executive order, North Carolina may have to:

• Require proof of citizenship from anyone registering to vote with a national mail voter registration form or a Federal Post Card Application.
• Stop using ballot marking devices, except as required by the Americans with Disabilities Act.
• Comply with voter registration list maintenance practices in the National Voter Registration Act and the Help America Vote Act (there is debate over how well North Carolina does that).
• Only accept ballots received by election day.

There will be numerous lawsuits over some provisions of this order, so its final impact is unclear.

Bellwether in Pennsylvania?

 

The tides may be turning faster than we thought. It's either the tides or the omen in the large number of crows I just saw picking through my compost.

Lifted from coverage by The DownBallot:

Democrats pulled off an astonishing upset in a special election for the Pennsylvania Senate on Tuesday night, as East Petersburg Mayor James Andrew Malone defeated Republican Josh Parsons by a 50-49 margin to flip a district Donald Trump carried by 15 points last year.

Those toplines, however, don't tell the complete story of just how ancestrally Republican Pennsylvania's 36th District is. Since taking its present form in Lancaster County 40 years ago, the district has always been held by the GOP, and the county as a whole has gone for a Democrat at the presidential level just once since 1856 (Lyndon Johnson just barely won it in 1964).

Local Democrats, however, were undeterred, taking heart—and advice—from their counterparts in Iowa, who flipped a comparably conservative legislative seat in January. That district, though, had gone blue as recently as 2018; the 36th never had.

 

Failing Upward

 

Kate Barr has become a force in North Carolina grassroots organizing. I had no idea.

Remember Kate Barr? I first knew her as Kate Compton Barr. She was the fireplug entrepreneur from Davidson, NC, who mounted a "Can't Win But Fuck It!" campaign for the NC Senate in '24 in District 37, which includes red Iredell. She didn't want to raise money, she announced, so she requested that people not contribute. In other words, with wit and a cheerful demeanor, she dramatized political hopelessness as positive energy, which (ironically?) inspired hope in all sorts of people, and Kate Barr knew how to network, and though she had not asked for money, money came in. I contributed to the Kate Barr campaign. Running-to-lose in that Senate race -- and she did lose as expected by 30 points -- was performance art, a satire of gerrymandering and a display of personal sacrifice that has actually produced something of a movement. The left's favorite podcaster Heather Cox Richardson named Kate Barr as a Democratic force to watch nationally. 

She's successfully launched the Can't Win Victory Fund, to make losing into a political investment. The entrepreneur in Kate Barr saw losing as an opportunity to network and build communities that grow their clout. Of particular note is her team's creation of an A.I. intelligence, MOXIE, that can channel the opinion (and mood?) of "targeted voters" (you pick the parameters). Message testing and innovation. That's intense.

Take a look at everything that she and her partners are doing. Full disclosure: I made a new contribution. This is energy I like. This is energy we need in heavily gerrymandered communities.

 

Turns Out, Trump Is Touching Social Security

 

The Social Security Administration website crashed four times in 10 days this month, blocking millions of retirees and disabled Americans from logging in to their online accounts because the servers were overloaded. In the field, office managers have resorted to answering phones at the front desk as receptionists because so many employees have been pushed out. But the agency no longer has a system to monitor customers’ experience with these services, because that office was eliminated as part of the cost-cutting efforts led by Elon Musk.

And the phones keep ringing. And ringing.

--WashPost, "Social Security Is Breaking Down" 

Musk's DOGE has pushed out more than 12 percent of the SSA staff of 57,000. No wonder phones go unanswered. (I've personally been on hold for more than an hour at a time; leaving a call-back request took more than 3 hours, but it did come, and the woman who helped me was super helpful. I said at the end of our business, "I know you guys are under incredible duress and strain in your job--" She laughed "yeah!" Musk and Trump don't deserve her or any of the other good people summarily fired.)

Social Security is the primary source of income for about 40 percent of older Americans. The agency has been underfunded and understaffed for years already, before Musk brought his chainsaw to the party. Following COVID and even right now, review of an initial claim for two disability programs takes 233 days on average. Musk makes it worse. Ten regional Social Security offices have been slashed to four.

"DOGE's obsession with false claims that millions of deceased people were fraudulently receiving benefits consumed [them] at first. Then came new mandates designed to address alleged fraud: Direct deposit transactions and identity authentication that affect almost everyone receiving benefits will no longer be able to be done by phone. Customers with computers will be directed to go through the process online — and those without computers, to wait in line at their local field office." If they can find one within a day's drive.

This is recent polling:

Strange As the Weather Has Been

 

Watauga County's Hospitality House, "a western North Carolina housing nonprofit that provides 'critical' services" to Watauga, Wilkes, Ashe, Avery, Alleghany, Mitchell, and Yancey counties, is now able to mobilize for action ahead of storms -- early -- because Hospitality House has equipment (radios) to receive emergency alerts through the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). They were gifted the radios by the National Weather Service (NWS) during Hurricane Helene, when the storm knocked out cell service. NWS is a vital and wholly practical sub-unit of NOAA.

DOGE and Musk couldn't care less. They are putting at risk Hospitality House's current ability to plan ahead for weather disasters, of which the mountains of Western North Carolina are well supplied. DOGE is trying to slash more than 2,000 NOAA jobs, many of those stationed in Western NC as analysts and forecasters who write the weather alerts that Hospitality House relies on.

Todd Carter, development director for Hospitality House, spoke about the potential for "lives being lost" in a YouTube panel discussion yesterday, "Forecasting Disaster: How DOGE’s Cuts to NOAA Will Affect Weather Awareness and Well-Being," sponsored by the Center for American Progress. Elon Musk has a chainsaw and the license to slash. Musk has his own weather department; what does he need with NOAA and NWS? 

"Not everything should be for sale, not everything should be for profit,” Carter told the panel.