One big lesson from Trump’s presidency was that many of the rules we thought constrained politicians were only “Gentlemen’s Agreements.” They held up because everyone agreed to abide by them. When Trump walked in, refused to abide by them, and wasn’t immediately struck by the political equivalent to lightning from heaven, all the politicians on the right decided that they could toss those pesky rules aside also.

I’d call it a “flawed democracy.” The ideals behind it were sound, but the execution left much to be improved upon. And we’ve made many improvements (though we still have a ways to go).

Still, even a flawed democracy is preferable to Dictator Trump.

I want to say “Well, the military won’t comply with those commands” and maybe they wouldn’t, but if we even get into that position we’re in deep trouble.

The lying bit is where he claims that he’ll only be a dictator for one day. How many dictators have given themselves ultimate power and then gave it up willingly after a single day?

If Trump regains office, he’ll assert dictatorial powers. Maybe we can survive this via a mass uprising, but it’s unlikely. It would be like needing to survive open heart surgery, chemotherapy, and five organ transplants all at once. Could a patient survive this? Maybe, but the prognosis wouldn’t be good and even if they did, they’d be in horrible shape for quite a long time.

The best way of surviving Trump is to make sure he never gets close to the White House (or any other position of power) ever again. And, while we’re at it, vote against any Republican who kisses up to Trump. (So, basically, all of them.)

“I’d totally murder people, but that evil federal government would lock me up for murder? Can you believe the audacity?!!! I really want to murder these people, but they won’t let me. Total government overreach! Whatever happened to states’ rights?”

Big strong men come up to him, with tears in their eyes, saying “how do you do it, sir? How do you lose so many lawsuits?!!!”

Jail time in such a contempt is usually issued as “suspended” meaning that it’s ordered, but if the person doesn’t fuck up for a period, and obeys the final order, then they don’t actually have to go to jail.

So all Trump would need to do would be good and not act up?

He’s going to prison!

My guess (also not a lawyer) is to render the verdict as appeal proof as possible. If he wasn’t allowed to speak, he would have claimed that his rights were violated and if he had been allowed to give the closing remarks himself, he would have been found totally Innocent.

Engoron let him talk relatively briefly, cut him off when it was clear he wasn’t staying on topic, and closed off this appeal argument.

In many of the cases that Republicans refuse abortions for, there is no baby at the end. If a woman is at risk of dying and the fetus has such severe abnormalities that it will breathe twice and die, then what’s the argument against an abortion? It could save the woman’s life and wouldn’t “kill a baby” (even if I accepted that abortion killed a baby - which I don’t).

But the Republican line seems to be that a woman needs to be actively dying before they’ll even start to consider allowing her to have a life saving medical procedure.

Also, it is easy to say “I’m not voting for Biden, I want someone else” right now. There aren’t any consequences.

But come November and suddenly the consequences become more immediate. Many more people say they will vote third party than actually do it once in the voting booth.

I knew I recognized that expression.

“Are you pooping?”

“Nnnnnnoooo?”

“You’re pooping aren’t you?”

“Not anymore!”

I long for the day when someone mentions Trump and I respond: “Oh yeah. That guy. Last I heard he was sent to prison. That was years ago. Anyway, changes subject away from Trump…”

As I posted it, I wondered if I had missed it happening. There’s so much that it’s easy for one to slip by.

To steal a line from Trump: They aren’t sending their best!

The only way I’d vote for Trump would be if I was on a jury and the judge asked “Who deserves prison time?” Then, I’d vote for Trump so quickly that big, strong men would have tears in their eyes!

How long until a “protect the kids from groomers” member of Moms For Liberty is busted for grooming kids?

And before that, one of the Democrats (I forget which one) pointed out that the chair of the committee said that Hunter could choose to testify in public or private as long as he testified. Hunter chose in public. The chair disputed this and the Democratic Representative said “I really don’t want to play the video, but I have your exact words here.”

The guy was trying to change the offer after the fact from “public or private, your choice” to “you can testify publicly, but only after you testify in private.”

What are Republicans scared of that they don’t want Hunter to testify in public? Of course, we all know the answer. They’re afraid that their imagined giant conspiracy theory will be revealed to be based on nothing. (Well, revealed even more than it currently is.) They’re also afraid that they can’t misquote Hunter if his actual quotes are on public video. It’s a lot easier to say “Hunter replied ‘my dad used his influence to get me a job’” when there’s no video showing that his answer was actually “at no point did my dad use his influence to get me a job.”

Or they’ll split among horrible people with MAGA Group A fighting against MAGA groups B, C, and D. Their political relevance would wane, but they might get even more violent.

Even the border situation falls into this pattern. Republicans love to complain about how horrible the border is, but when Democrats propose more money for the border or fixing our immigration system, the Republicans balk. They’d rather give border agents no equipment and then blame Democrats for undocumented immigrants flooding over the border.

They asked for 3 extensions and were granted them. They asked for a 4th and it was denied. Now Trump’s claiming that it’s so totally unfair.

He’s like a spoiled toddler. If anything isn’t 100% of what he wants in that moment, he’ll cry about how unfair everyone is acting towards him. If only we could put him down for timeout and a nap like we might with a toddler. Perhaps he needs a diaper change? (Not it!)

Right. This isn’t a sprint, it’s a marathon. One of the most frustrating things I’ve seen progressives do is not get everything they want and then rage quit politics without realizing that this is even worse than only getting some of what you want.

In one respect, I wish progressives could be more like Republicans. After Roe v Wade, Republicans didn’t rage quit politics. They pushed for abortion bans, lost, tried again, lost, and repeated until they got some small concession. Then they used that to slowly, over 50 years, build until they overturned Roe.

Now, obviously, I disagree with their goals. However, I can admire the long term effort put into this. If progressives could do this (with much better goals, of course), we might be able to do some amazing things. Yes, it would be slow at first and that can be frustrating, but imagine if we could have a country 30-50 years from now as far to the left as the Republicans are to the right (but much more sane).