Lou

On January 9, Donald Trump and his legal team addressed the US Court of Appeals of the District of Columbia appealing the lower court ruling that the President is not above the law.  In court, Trump’s attorney said with a straight face and in all seriousness that a President could not be prosecuted for any crime unless he is first impeached by the House and convicted in the Senate.

When Trump’s attorney was asked ““Could a president order SEAL Team Six to assassinate a political rival?”, his response was “If he were impeached and convicted first,” the “political process” of impeachment “would have to occur” before any prosecution could be initiated.

Thus, a President could order a murder and if his party has a majority in the House or Senate and they choose either to not impeach or not convict, he could order additional murders.  If Congress eventually tired of the murders and chose to impeach, the president could murder the senators who would vote for impeachment. If it looked like, he might still be convicted, he could resign before he is convicted and he would not be prosecuted.

Donald Trump who has stated that he is running for retribution against his enemies, that he will be a dictator on day one and idolizes Putin, Kim Jong Un and Xi Jinping should never be allowed close to the Oval Office.

Oh my God, how did we become this!

Former President Donald Trump on Monday won the Iowa caucuses, solidifying his place as the front-runner for the 2024 Republican nomination as he attempts a historic political comeback nearly three years after leaving the White House in disgrace.

Trump got 56,240 votes (51%). DeSantis finished a distant second with 23,420 votes (21.2%, ahead of Haley who with 21,085 votes (19.1%). Vivek Ramaswamy, who was in fourth place (7.7%), ended his campaign Monday night and endorsed Trump.

Neither DeSantis nor Haley emerged as a viable candidate. They probably had enough votes to carry on but neither has much of a chance. DeSantis lost in a very red state where he visited every county and spent all his energy and money. Haley’s support seemed to come from independents and not Republicans. This hopefully plays out well in New Hampshire but she has an uphill battle in other red states including her home state.

Only about 100,000 voters attended the caucus which is about 85,000 less than the 2016 caucus but it is unknown how each candidate was affected by the low turnout but likely that it would hav changed the results much. It is amazing to me that a low turnout in a state like Iowa, which many would have trouble picking out on a map, has so much impact on the nomination but it does. Democrats realized this and did not caucus last night.

I think the entrance polls were interesting and a bit scary if you are not a MAGA Republican.

(1628 respondents)

Party Identification: 82 % Republicans , 16% independents, 2% Democrats

Haley got 15% of the Republican vote and 34% of the independents. Trump got 52% and 42% respectively. So, Haley’s support is not from Republicans which kind of makes sense to me and does not bode well for her after NH.

Gender: 56% men, 44% women

There was really no difference in support for any of them between men and women which indicates to me that abortion is not an issue. Would think Haley might get an advantage but no. She got 21% men and 22% women.

Age

41% of the voters were 65 years old or older. This is probably not representative of Iowa unless unless 4 of 10 people in the state are old which I doubt but it surely is true that older folks vote more than younger people and Trump carried them with 58%

Evangelical: Yes 55%, No 45%

Trump dominated got 53% of Evangelicals and 49% of non Evangelicals.. Haley did better with non Evangelicals 27%. I think we knew this. I am actually surprised Trump wasn’t higher seeing that they have seemed to thrown their religious beliefs aside for Trump.

Education:

Trump dominated no college degree with 67% and 37% of college graduates. Again, Haley did best with college grads 28%.

Race. white 98%, black 0%, Latino 1%

Pretty funny that this was included in the survey.

Ideology: Conservative 89%, Moderate 9% liberal 1%

Trump dominated conservative with 55% and Haley dominated moderates with 63% (unfortunately not many moderates for her and us)

Do You Think Trump Legitimately Won in 2020? Yes 29%, No 65%

This is a little scary by itself that 65% of the Republicans in Iowa still believe that Trump won. Trump got 69% of the No and Haley 53% of the Yes.

Is Trump Fit for the Presidency, if convicted of a crime? Yes 65%, No 31%

This one may be even more scary than the previous question. Trump got 72% of the yes and Haley 49% of the No.

Most Important Issue: Economy 38%, Immigration 34%, Foreign Policy 12%, Abortion 11%

Trump dominated Immigration (64%) and Economy (52%). Haley led foreign policy (45%) and DeSantis Abortion (46%)

Which Candidate Quality Mattered The Most?

Trump led in Fights For People Like Me (82%), Shares My Values (43%) and Can Defeat Biden (40%). Haley led in Has The Right Temperament (66%). This says that Iowan Republicans will support Trump though they don’t think he can beat Biden.

Are You Part of The MAGA Movement? Yes 46%, No 50%

MAGAs went 78% for Trump (unsure what the other 22% are thinking) and non-MAGA went 35% for Haley.

My view is Republicans have bought the Big Lie. They are white, conservative and immigration and the economy are their issues. They are supporting Trump because he fights for them even if they think he will not win. DeSantis just seems to be there with around 20%. He didn’t show any area of strong support within any grouping that separated him from Trump just a lot less support. Maybe if they had a book burner question, he would have done well in that group. Haley would have done well in the Republican Party of Reagan, Bush and McCain or if more college educated, moderate independents who believed in elections voted. Unfortunately for her, she’s in this Republican Party.

Former President Donald Trump is facing a new challenge to keep him off the Super Tuesday primary ballot in Massachusetts over his role in the Jan. 6 Capitol riots.

A legal challenge, filed by lawyer Shannon Liss-Riordan on behalf of several Massachusetts voters, argues that a rarely used clause of the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution prevents Trump from being elected to a second term, due to his involvement in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.

“Today’s legal action is not about partisan politics but about upholding our Constitution, and that is why Massachusetts voters across the political spectrum have joined together to challenge Donald Trump’s wrongful placement on the Massachusetts ballot,” Liss-Riordan said in a statement. “As two other states have already recognized, Donald Trump’s instigation of and participation in the insurrection three years ago provide overwhelming cause for his disqualification from holding office in the United States.”

The challengers are a mix of Republican, Independent, and Democratic voters, according to a statement released on Thursday night. They include former interim Boston Mayor Kim Janey and “two leading law professors.” They ask the Massachusetts Ballot Law Commission to remove Trump’s name from the ballot.

Galvin told reporters he had no intention of keeping Trump off the ballot unless he was ordered to do so from a legal challenge.

The effort is backed by the Newton-based non-partisan group Free Speech for People, which has filed similar ballot challenges in other states across the country over the past several months.

Maine’s top election official has removed former President Donald Trump from the state’s 2024 primary ballot, in a shock decision based on the 14th Amendment’s “insurrectionist ban.”

Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows paused her decision pending a potential appeal in state court, which Trump’s team said they intend to file.

The decision makes Maine the second state to disqualify Trump from office, after the Colorado Supreme Court handed down its own stunning ruling that removed him from the ballot earlier this month. The development is a significant victory for Trump’s critics, who, citing the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol, say they’re trying to enforce a constitutional provision that was designed to protect the country from anti-democratic insurrectionists.

Bellows, a Democrat, issued the decision Thursday after presiding over an administrative hearing earlier this month about Trump’s eligibility for office. A bipartisan group of former state lawmakers filed the challenge against Trump.

“I do not reach this conclusion lightly,” Bellows wrote. “Democracy is sacred … I am mindful that no Secretary of State has ever deprived a presidential candidate of ballot access based on Section Three of the Fourteenth Amendment. I am also mindful, however, that no presidential candidate has ever before engaged in insurrection.”

Most legal experts believe the US Supreme Court will settle the issue for the entire country

Bellows said her decision on Thursday will be put on hold until Maine’s Superior Court – a trial-level court – makes a ruling.

As the MAGA insurrection continues, the United States of America continues to fight for democracy and the rule of law against Donald Trump and the Republican Party as they use our democracy against us. The question now is will the Trump loaded Supreme Court, professing to interpret the Constitution literally now support democracy or the insurrectionists.

My opinion is that the Supreme Court will find some technicality reason to overturn these placing our democracy and themselves a a judicial body at risk. Hope I’m wrong.

The Colorado Supreme Court on Tuesday said Donald Trump is disqualified from holding the office of president under the U.S.Constitution. 

The ruling is on hold for now pending potential U.S. Supreme Court review. Trump has vowed to “swiftly” appeal to the high court, which could reverse the ruling.

Because he’s disqualified, the state Supreme Court said in its 4-3 decision spanning 133 pages, it would be a “wrongful act” to list him as a candidate on the presidential primary ballot. Therefore, the court said, he can’t be on the ballot or have write-in votes for him counted.

The U.S. Supreme Court could have the final word, whether in this Colorado case or another one, as challenges have been raised in states across the country against Trump’s eligibility.

Section 3 of the 14th Amendment disqualifies from office those who take an oath to support the Constitution and then engage in insurrection. Colorado District Judge Sarah Wallace last month said Trump engaged in insurrection; however, she said Section 3 doesn’t apply to presidents, so he can be on the ballot. Both sides challenged the ruling at the state’s high court, arguing their positions to the state justices in a Dec. 6 hearing.

The state Supreme Court agreed with the Republican and unaffiliated voters who brought the case and disagreed with Trump, deciding, among other things, that Wallace was wrong to exclude presidents from Section 3 but that she wasn’t wrong in finding Trump engaged in insurrection.

As the insurrection continues, the United States of America continues to fight for democracy and the rule of law against Donald Trump and the Republican Party as they use our democracy against us. The question now is will the Trump loaded Supreme Court, professing to interpret the Constitution literally now support democracy or Donald Trump.

Donald Trump said immigrants coming to the U.S. are “poisoning the blood of our country,” a remark on Saturday that likened the words to those of Adolf Hitler.

“They let — I think the real number is 15, 16 million people into our country. When they do that, we got a lot of work to do. They’re poisoning the blood of our country,” Trump told the crowd at a rally in New Hampshire. “That’s what they’ve done. They’re coming into our country from Africa, from Asia, all over the world.”

Trump then repeated the use of “poisoning” in a post on his social media website Truth Social, saying overnight in an all-caps post, that “illegal immigration is poisoning the blood of our nation.”

The term “blood poisoning” was used by Hitler in his manifesto “Mein Kampf,” in which he criticized immigration and the mixing of races. “All great cultures of the past perished only because the originally creative race died out from blood poisoning,” Hitler wrote.

“Donald Trump channeled his role models as he parroted Adolf Hitler, praised Kim Jong Un, and quoted Vladimir Putin while running for president on a promise to rule as a dictator and threaten American democracy. Trump is not shying away from his plan to lock up millions of people into detention camps and continues to lie about that time when Joe Biden obliterated him by over 7 million votes three years ago,”.

Finally, Trump and the Republican Party are telling the truth. No more of the Freedom Caucus ruse that they are for small government to address fiscal issues. They are terrified of people that don’t look like them and are ready to tear down the government to stop them from gaining equality.

They are a clear and present danger. Hungary elected Victor Orban giving away their democracy and Great Britain walked away for the European Union at their own fiscal peril for similar reasons.

Nearly 200 countries struck a breakthrough climate agreement Wednesday, calling for a transition away from fossil fuels in an unprecedented deal that targets the greatest contributors to the planet’s warming. The deal came swiftly — with no discussion or objection — in a packed room in Dubai following two weeks of negotiations and rising contention. It is the first time a global climate deal has specifically called to curb the use of fossil fuels.