Turns out it was a good idea for Trump, but a disaster for the country. 

The bombing of Iran quickly supplanted news about his sexually assaulting and hitting a minor, his corruption, Constitutional violations, more brutal ICE killings, and his election rigging. He can also claim emergency powers that he’ll try to use to deploy troops against protesters, postpone the midterm elections and give Republicans something to cheer about. 

This isn’t a political accusation. It’s a string of facts. Our president raged war against a country and fired the people who protect us from its retaliation.

The war is catastrophic for the United States. It’s already killed dozens of school children (who the Chairman of the American Conservative Union claims are better off dead), a thousand other civilians, will kill countless more, and cause major economic disruption throughout the world.

Trump claims he wants regime change. It didn’t work in Iraq and won’t in Iran. Like in Iran, we killed Iraq’s leader, it ended in decade-long brutal civil war and increased the region’s hatred towards America. 

The attack on Iran has also heightened the risk of a nuclear event either by intention or mistake. It could originate with Trump who wanted to nuke North Korea in the last month of his first administration. But General Mark Milley was there to stop him. There’s no Milley now, only a sycophant, alcoholic, unqualified Fox News co-host shockingly confirmed by Republican Senators. 

Trump is capable of hitting the button out of his anger at something unrelated to the issue at hand. He launched his tariffs his steel tariffs upon becoming “unglued” over  Hope Hicks’ testimony about Russia’s election interference and because his chief of staff dropped his son-in-law’s security clearance. There were no meaningful consultations, research or explanations, no alert of foreign trade partners or Congress. No one at the State, Treasury or Defense Departments were notified that tariffs were about to be announced — just like he started a war with Iran without the Constitutionally required Congressional approval. 

After becoming frustrated over his staff’s inability to reach a consensus on pardoning January 6 attackers, he threw up his hands and said, “”F–k it, Release ’em all,” and he released into the streets dozens of prisoners with prior convictions or pending charges for crimes of rape, sexual abuse of a minor, manslaughter, child pornography, drug trafficking. 

If Iran nears defeat and develops the capability, it’s final retaliation could be a nuclear bomb, perhaps not on America’s homeland, but within the region.  Most Western observers view Iran’s priorities as protecting their national interest, but they’re dictated more by religious doctrine. And many clerics preach that the deployment of nuclear weapons is permissible as a last resort.

An unintended nuclear launch has always been more likely than an intentional one. Of the 24 close calls where nuclear war was narrowly avoided, only the Cuban missile crisis involved one nuclear power threatening another. The other incidents resulted from faulty technology, misinterpreted data, human error, and a Soviet false alarm. A nuclear disaster could also result from Iran missiles and drones hitting U.S. and UK nuclear facilities in as many as ten of them. 

Iran still has lethal military power. It can fire hundreds of missiles at U.S. facilities in the Middle East and awaken its regional network of Hamas, Hezbollah, and Palestinian who share Iran’s animosity toward Israel the United States. Support from Tehran enabled the Houthis to fire missiles into Israel.

Intelligence assessments indicate that Iran has active sleeper cells throughout the United States.

As hostilities escalate, Trump’s war could plunge the global economy into an inflationary crisis led by the price of oil, especially if Iran cripples shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.

The consequences could be Trump’s worst. But will they be bad enough for his Republican toadies to find their consciences?

The post IRAN – A GREAT IDEA FOR TRUMP, A DISASTER FOR AMERICA first appeared on Inside The Political Chaos.

Although injunctions don’t matter to Trump or his enslaved Republicans, these injunctions will matter to the individual ICE agents, members of the military, and other Trump operatives who attempt to deprive voters of the right to vote as they choose. 

It will matter because, specifically, if any individual violates the injunction, they can personally be held in civil or criminal contempt and suffer fines and jail time. Those consequences would provide the strongest disincentive to obey any order to intimidate voters. 

Under the Uniform Code of Military Justice and  The Rules for Courts-Martial  an order is unlawful, “if it is contrary to the Constitution or the laws of the United States.

The Posse Comitatus Act prohibits the use of federal troops for domestic law enforcement other than in the case of an insurrection.

So, if Trump issued an unconstitutional or unlawful order, the members of the military would be legally obligated to disobey it or be subject to fines and incarceration. 

Even without an injunction, individuals are legally obligated to disobey any command to commit illegal acts or else they’d be personally subject to civil liability and incarceration. 

Trump would probably pardon the ICE agents and other offenders for federal crimes but cannot pardon for state crimes, void civil liability or stop Congressional investigations. Nevertheless, Trump’s roll in ordering the intimidation is likely to be its own crime, and could be the basis for criminal prosecution after he leaves office.

Although the law gives the Attorney General the authority to bring the proceeding for an injunction, it is beyond unlikely that Pam Bondi would do so. Nevertheless, 42 U.S.C. § 1983 creates a way for citizens to bring a civil action  to seek injunctive relief and compensatory and punitive damages against the individuals that deprived voters the right to vote as they choose. 

There are plenty of grounds to believe that Trump will employ ICE agents and the military to engage in such attempts. First, there are the undeserved horrors ICE has inflicted on immigrants and citizens alike, sweeping them off the streets in Gestapo-like fashion and sending them to the most brutal prison in the Western Hemisphere. 

Trump has openly discussed using the military to quell domestic demonstrations, which he labels as chaos, and declaring a national emergency so he can bring in the troops. 

To facilitate intimidating voters, Trump is pressing Republicans from states across the country to give him their voter rolls,  Attorney General Pam Bondi threatened Minnesota Governor Walz that if he wanted a ICE to back off he must give Trump access to his state’s voter rolls, and Bondi has initiated more than 20 legal actions to get them.

Trump obtained a magistrate’s warrant to seize voting records in Georgia, ostensively to prove he won the 2020 election. Many legal experts worry that he’ll use the seizure as precedent to obtain a similar warrant to seize voting machines and midterm ballots before they’re counted. 

Trump may pressure his Republican allies to refuse to seat Democratic winners claiming there are disputes about the results. California, with 54 electoral votes, could be particularly vulnerable, since it takes so long for the state to tally its votes. It’s happened before in a closely contested race.

Trump could repeat his deployment of supporters, pardoned Oath keepers and Proud Boys to stage another Jan. 6 attack on Congress.  

As always, only the Republicans can stop Trump’s treacheries. Whether he rigs the midterms depends on whether they’ll sacrifice their constituents to avoid facing a Trump-backed challenger in the primaries.  

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10 states have primaries that allow any registered voter to vote in the other party’s primary without having to change their party registration. 

14 states currently have primaries where voters who aren’t registered with any party can vote in any primary.

Democrats can always vote their choice in a national election no matter which primary they voted in.

Adding Democrat voters to those who vote against Trump-obedient candidates in primaries will increase the odds that Trump- obedient candidates will lose their seats to a non-Trump Republican.  And plenty of independents will join them.

 Among independents, 74% disapprove of congressional Republicans. Approval of Trump’s handling of the shutdown stands at 25%, with disapproval at 75%.

 76% of independents want the tax credits for the health care marketplace to be extended. And 55% of Americans have a favorable view of the Affordable Care Act. 

Of course, Democrats would need to decide whether they’re more likely to beat a non-Trump Republican than a Trump-obedient Republican in the national election.

Also, voters can vote in only one primary, so Democrats may  be less willing to give up their vote in a close Democratic primary than they would in a runaway primary. 

If Congressional Republicans can feel the way the wind blows, they’ll think seriously about leaving Trump’s ship.

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The post DEMOCRATS CAN THREATEN REPUBLICAN SEATS BY VOTING IN GOP PRIMARIES FOR NON -TRUMP REPUBLICANS first appeared on Inside The Political Chaos.

The Supreme Court’s Trump-favoring majority (“Trump’s Majority”) blocked both injunctions which freed Trump to replace Democrats with Republicans in the hundreds of agencies created by Congress in the face of Congress’s express prohibition against such firings without cause – something Trump never raised. The agencies were created to perform legislative policies with more expertise than Congress had. The majority’s holding also violated 90 years of  Supreme Court precedent in Humphrey’s Executor v. United States in 1935, followed by a unanimous decision in 1957 holding that Congress intended to create an agency that was “‘entirely free from the control or coercive influence of the Executive.”

Trump’s Majority’s holding allowed Trump to take the next step towards king status. He can now stack the agencies with his loyalists and usurp Congress’s policymaking authority. Take, for example, two feared possibilities: 

• Trump takes control of the NLRB which protects the rights of workers to organize and bargain collectively. Good bye unions …that is that don’t vote for MAGA Republicans.
• The worst calamity would be if Trump’s Majority allows him to fire  Federal Reserve Board members without cause, which they’d have to to be consistent with their holding that let Trump fire the two board members. A hearing on the matter is scheduled for January. If the Court finds for Trump, he would control interest rates, the money supply flowing through the economy, and when to print money. He will have gained extraordinary power to reward his friends and destroy his enemies. 

The prohibition against a president’s firings reflects Congress’s belief that knowledgeable people from both parties [emphasis added] would make decisions that advance the long-term public good. Its intent couldn’t be clearer. 

Trump however dreads bipartisanship. So, confident that the Supreme Court Majority is on his team, he got it to stay the order reinstating the two board members on their boards. Trump’s Majority mangled the Constitution to accommodate him, holding that Congress’s restrictions on the President’s firing authority violated the Constitution’s separation of powers requirement.

The majority Justices also stated their hollow belief that the government faces more risk than the removed officer from allowing the removed officer to remain on their boards. The majority’s belief is credible only if the risk the majority referred to arises from Trump replacing Democrats with the type of unqualified sycophants Trump chose for his cabinet. 

The majority also omitted the obvious – allowing a president to fire employees without cause is as clear a violation as the Constitution’s separation of powers and of its mandate for the independence of the government’s three branches and its blueprint for checks and balances.

The majority Justices violated their Judicial Oaths  “to administer justice without respect to persons and .… impartially [emphasis added] perform all duties incumbent upon me under the Constitution…. So help me God.” By the way,  Its not the first time  Trump’s Majority butchered the Constitution to favor Trump.

In another recent case, the Supreme Court heard  oral arguments  regarding  whether Trump’s firing of Commissioners of the FTC, another independent bipartisan agency created by Congress with legislation prohibiting the President from firing its employs without cause. Sadly, Trump’s Majority is more than likely to overrule its own decision in the Humphrey’s case which would have prohibited Trump’s firings. 

If you’re wondering why Supreme Court Justices would enable Trump’s path to a dictatorship, here’s an answer: 

Every Majority Justice  (John Roberts, Brett Karnaugh, Neil Gorsuch, Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Amy Coney Barrett), was funded and masterminded by the Federalist Society, piloted by reactionary billionaire Leonard Leo.  It’s not a stretch to say that these Justices repeatedly ruled in favor of their patron’s priorities rather than the Constitution. Take a look: 

• Keeping Trump in office: Trump’s Majority gave him broad immunity and delayed Jack Smith’s criminal trial against him for eleven months, until his win in 2024 election, after which the case was dismissed. In contrast, the Supreme Court took just 16 days to unanimously decide that Nixon wasn’t immune from prosecution and one day to decide Bush v. Gore. 
  
• Rolling back prohibitions against racial discrimination in voting: In Alexander v. South Carolina NAACP Trump’s Majority upheld a Republican legislature’s removal 60% of Black voters from their Congressional district into a White-denominated district to ensure a Republican win.
• Deregulation of corporations. For decades courts deferred to an agency’s interpretation of unclear legislation. The Trump’s Majority held that only the courts can decide if an agency’s interpretation of an unclear statute is correct. The holding transferred enormous amounts of policymaking to the Judiciary, which lacks the expertise and personnel to do the job — an indirect form of deregulation. 
• Restricting access to abortion.  Enough said.

Tragically, America has lost its last stop to unencumbered justice. If the country wants it back, either Trump-coddling Republicans need to find their true patriotism, or they must be replaced by Republicans not enslaved by Trump, or  Democrats must recapture their Congressional majorities. Then, Trump’s Majority can be replaced by justices – Republican or Democrat — with allegiance to the Constitution.

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The post SUPREME COURT ADVANCES TRUMP TO DICTATORSHIP. MANGLES CONSTITUTION TO LET HIM REPLACE AGENCY DEMS W/REPUBLICANS first appeared on Inside The Political Chaos.

Democratic Strategy: Addressing Trump’s Dangerous Decision-Making

Democratic presidential candidates in New Hampshire almost sounded like the other side infiltrated their campaigns. Although they agree that beating Trump is the most important thing, the damage he’s done to the country is conspicuously missing from their messaging. Here’s what Democrats should be saying about Trump’s horrendous record, but aren’t:

1.Democratic Strategy: Addressing Trump’s Dangerous Decision-Making—Trump’s decisions are uninformed, impulsive, made by Twitter feed, and without consulting Congress or federal agencies. Military officials struggle to contain his irrationality and petulance, which risk senseless war. He ignored warnings about the dangers of withdrawing from Syria, wouldn’t read NSC talking points, and didn’t discuss US security objectives before calling Turkish President Erdoğan and effectively greenlighting Turkey’s incursion into Syria. He launched steel and aluminum tariffs while “unglued” over Hope Hicks’ testimony on Russian interference, Kushner’s security clearance downgrade and Sessions’ handling of the Mueller investigation.

2. Democratic Strategy: Countering Trump’s Aid to Our Enemies —   When Trump withdrew US troops from Syria, Russian and Syrian troops filled the vacuum and  ISIS regrouped.  Russia replaced the US as the most influential power in the Middle East. Trump drove Turkey to partner with Putin in pushing out the Kurds. Now Turkey now may be less likely to use its military power to deter Russia from invading NATO allies on its border.

3. Democratic Strategy: Exposing Trump’s Corrupt Foreign Policy — Trump and Erdoğan both got something out of the Syrian withdrawal:  Erdoğan got the opportunity to annihilate the Kurds; Trump coddled a dictator of a country where he has extensive business ties, including Trump Towers in Istanbul and $400 million invested in them by a Turkish family. Withdrawal was also a huge favor to Russia and protected Trump’s financial interests there, including his pursuit of Trump Tower in Moscow and the “disproportionate” amount of Russian investments in his portfolio. Congressional testimony suggests Trump golf courses laundered money for the Russians – a sleeping dog Trump doesn’t want Putin to wake. Flouting bipartisan opposition, Trump lifted a sales ban imposed on the Chinese telecom giant  ZTE for cybertheft, spying and cyberattacks on the US. China promptly awarded Ivanka twelve trademarks and loaned $500 million to a resort in which Trump is a partner. Trump vetoed an act of Congress blocking an $8 billion arms sale to Saudi Arabia, which is responsible for the murder of Khashoggi and the brutal war in Yemen. Trump previously admitted the Saudis spend millions on his businesses: “Am I supposed to dislike them? I like them very much.”

4. Democratic Strategy: Rebuilding U.S. Diplomacy After Trump —  Trump cost America the global leadership it’s enjoyed for 75 years. He disrespected and fired ambassadors, including Marie Yovanovitch and Jennifer Williams, leaving foreign governments wondering who’s next and on whom they can rely.  He slashed the State Department budget and involved its leader Mike Pompeo in the Ukraine scandal, trashing the Department’s reputation.

5.Democratic Strategy: Highlighting Trump’s Economic Missteps – Trump came into office riding 100 months of job growth, and GDP growth was greater under Obama. Except in wartime, the federal deficit and national debt always shrink during times of growth. But Trump’s reckless tax cuts and high spending ballooned both. He continues to rely on shaky projections to paint a rosy economic picture. But if interest rates rise, borrowing costs will skyrocket and recession will hit hard. When warned about the consequences for the economy of high debt, he shrugged, “Yeah, but I won’t be here.”

6. Democratic Strategy: Fixing the Trade Disasters of Trump — Trump abandoned the Transpacific Partnership, calling it a “disaster” and “rape.” It’s inconceivable he even read it.  TPP was a pact with eleven Asia-Pacific countries, excluding China.  It would have given us favorable access to markets in a region that represents nearly 40% of global GDP. It eliminated 18,000 tariffs on American goods, strengthened labor standards and provided negotiating leverage over China.  China filled the vacuum by negotiating its own trade agreement with former TPP countries, which excludes the US and jetisons many TPP protections.

7.Democratic Strategy: Restoring America’s Global Influence – Trump squandered America’s global influence while boosting China’s and Russia’s.  He’s watched as China developed military, trade, and political alliances with its Belt and Road Initiative, building railways, pipelines, highways and fifty economic zones across 70 countries. China could soon lead the world’s largest economic bloc. In Latin America, Trump cut $500 million in aid, imposed sanctions and denigrated them as “shithole countries.”  Now Russia and China are influencing political decisions and threatening our relationships there.

8.Democratic Strategy: Holding Trump Accountable for Broken Promises —   Trump supporters mistakenly believe he’s done what they elected him to do.  But he promised “no cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid,” and now seeks to slash them all.  He promised to replace Obamacare, insure everybody and lower premiums.  But Trumpcare would raise premiums 35% to 94%, and repealing the individual mandate would leave 13 million more Americans uninsured.  He promised to denuclearize North Korea, and claimed the process was underway after the first summit with Kim Jong-un. But North Korea is building more sophisticated nuclear capabilities than ever, and is believed to have chemical and biological weapons.

Trump’s impeachment acquittal reinforced the perception that he’s made of teflon, and trying to hold him accountable for his actions won’t dent his support.  Democrats shouldn’t acquiesce in that perception; they should disprove it by hammering on his disastrous record.

The post Eight Punches Democrats Need to Land on Trump first appeared on Inside The Political Chaos.