Republicans, nor the Courts, can say that Trump was engaged in an "insurrection" because...

...It would mean that they also are guilty of engaging in the insurrection. Which is exactly what happened.

But, it also means that if Trump can be disqualified from the ballot, then so can every Republican that was involved in the attempt to overthrow the election.

That is the true meaning of Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment. Even though every person that was involved in the conspiracy should be automatically removed from office, it would be unrealistic for that to go thru the Courts. It would be up to their voters or up to two-thirds of the House to vote for them to keep their office.

That is why they are living the lie.

What must the Supreme Court be thinking?

How many of them are simple, right-wing Republicans and how many of them are MAGA-Republicans?

Are they really that different from the general population of Republicans?

After all, we saw where they went with the Dobbs decision on Roe v Wade.

Do they care enough for our Constitution to go against the wishes of their Party?

I, personally, do not have a lot of faith in this Supreme Court. I think they are a very partisan group of crooked justices, but that is just me. Perhaps they will disappoint and follow the Constitution?

I tend to think they are looking for some loopholes to delay some very difficult decisions. They do not want to say that Trump does not have absolute immunity. They do not want to say that we are all equal in the eyes of the law. They do not want to rule that states can remove candidates off their ballots per the Constitution. The Constitution is not that clear to them, in my opinion.

They all wanted the job. I do not relish the decisions they will need to make to preserve our democracy and our Constitution. They must understand these are unprecedented times. There are no other cases for them to fall back on. There is only the Constitution and their oath to defend it.

Whose fault is it?

That the majority of the Republican Party supports a traitor, an insurrectionist, a criminal with 91 charges against him? I could never be a member of such a Party.

Of course, I could never see the Democratic Party supporting someone of such low character. Especially after they tried to overthrow the government.

But to listen to many of these Republicans, it would be "anti-democratic" to try and keep them from voting for someone that the Constitution strictly forbids from running for President or any office in this country. How devoid of character and judgement can these people be?

Then we are warned that there would be chaos and violence if we oppose such a person from running for President again. How could we not oppose them and still call ourselves Americans?

The Supreme Court cannot escape the existential threat to our democracy.

There is no easy decision. There is no magic bullet.

It will not be enough for them to simply decide that Donald Trump should remain on the ballots. They must guarantee that Trump will be the next president. The MAGA Republicans will accept nothing less.

If they cannot do that, the most likely result from any Supreme Court decision will be continued chaos.

The Supreme Court Justices themselves will be threatened targets of violence.

Perhaps they will decide that Trump should not be on any ballots until his criminal charges are resolved? If they really wanted, they could have most of the criminal charges resolved by the time of the Republican Convention. Perhaps that would be a more ideal time for them to choose their candidate?

It's difficult to see any way out of this maze of deception they have created.

They say that what doesn't kill you will make you stronger..

I hope that is true.

We have been threatened by Trump's lies and threats since at least 2011, when he accused Barack Obama of being born in another country. With a straight face, he came on TV and said he had sent private detectives to Hawaii and that he had "proof". Of course, he never had any proof. But his followers believed him anyway.

And it has all gone downhill from that point.

America has been tortured by this liar and tyrant for more than a decade. His lies and shenanigans continue today. He even tried to overthrow our democracy.

How much longer can the people of this country survive these attacks? Will we make it thru this storm and will be stronger for it? In my opinion, we have been greatly weakened as a democracy by these MAGA liars and we will not come out of it for the better.

The immigrant problem at our border is a symptom of a larger problem in the countries to our south...

In my opinion.

Why would these people suffer the threats of life and limb to get to America? Is it really that good here or is it really that bad there? I tend to think the latter.

Obviously, all of them are not coming with backpacks full of fentanyl, as some would have us believe.

I do believe we should put more priority on our neighbors to the south. We should assist them in whatever ways we possibly can. One might think our elected Representatives could figure out some way to improve the situation, rather than point fingers for political gain.

The vast majority of these folks at our border are not criminals. They are desperate for a different life. I'm not sure America can offer it to them? But, for sure, the countries they are fleeing certainly cannot.

We are entering the realm of trivial "appeals".

The "absolute immunity" is the latest and will be heard by the Courts. But, it is doubtful it will be the last. After immunity, what next?

The whole purpose of the appeals going forward from the Trump team will be to delay the trials. If he never goes to Court, nothing will ever happen. Simple math and logic.

I do not know when the Courts will decide an appeal is "trivial" and refuse to accept it? Since it is coming from a former president, probably never?

That seems to me the direction we are headed and where we are at this time.

The Mousetrap (I don't remember where this came from?)

THE MOUSETRAP
A mouse looked through the crack in the wall to see the farmer and his wife open a package.
"What food might this contain?" The mouse wondered - he was devastated to discover it was a mousetrap.

Retreating to the farmyard, the mouse proclaimed the warning. "There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!"

The chicken clucked and scratched, raised her head and said, "Mr. Mouse, I can tell this is a grave concern to you, but it is of no consequence to me. I cannot be bothered by it."

The mouse turned to the pig and told him, "There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!"

The pig sympathized but said, "I am so very sorry, Mr. Mouse, but there is nothing I can do about it but pray. Be assured, you are in my prayers."

The mouse turned to the cow and said, "There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!"

The cow said, "Wow, Mr. Mouse. I'm sorry for you, but it's no skin off my nose."
So, the mouse returned to the house, head down and dejected, to face the farmer's mousetrap alone.

That very night a sound was heard throughout the house. It was the sound of a mousetrap catching its prey. The farmer's wife rushed to see what was caught. In the darkness, she did not see it was a venomous snake whose tail the trap had caught.

The snake bit the farmer's wife. The farmer rushed her to the hospital, and she returned home with a fever. Everyone knows you treat a fever with fresh chicken soup, so the farmer took his hatchet to the farmyard for the soup's main ingredient.

The wife's sickness continued and friends and neighbors came to sit with her. To feed them, the farmer butchered the pig.

The farmer's wife eventually died. So many people came to her funeral, the farmer had the cow slaughtered to provide enough meat for all of them.

The mouse looked upon this all from his crack in the wall with great sadness.

The next time you hear of someone facing a problem and you think it doesn't concern you, or the next time you think tossing one or more of our democratic ideals (small ‘d') to the side would be the best line of defense, remember: When one of us is threatened, we are all at risk.

Why hasn't the Fourteenth Amendment been repealed?

If it is no longer relative, wouldn't it be like the Amendment to repeal Prohibition?

Otherwise, how is it any different from any other Amendment still in the Constitution?

I cannot see how any constitutional scholar could argue against the Fourteenth Amendment as not relevant, or not in any way related, to the events that transpired on January 6th, 2021?

When Ft Sumter was attacked, a bunch of insurrectionists fired on a small cadre of Union soldiers that were manning the small fort off the coast of South Carolina. It was an attack upon our government.

But it could be argued that it was not as serious as threatening the lives of our Congressmen and Senators in our Nation's Capitol, which is what happened on January 6th, 2021. Some were running for their lives.

Everyone seems to expect the Supreme Court to rule that the Fourteenth Amendment is irrelevant in some manner or other. The only way to do that is to resort to pure politics. That is not to say that the Supreme Court is above politics.

That Smell (Lynyrd Skynyrd)