Lou

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.

Coming off the Times poll last week, Democrats won in the 4 red and purple states holding elections on Tuesday.

Ohio voted to retain their constitutional right to abortion by 13 points (56.6% to 43.4%). The GOP tried to change the rules for referendums to require a 60% vote and then modified the wording on the ballot but Ohio saw through this.

Ohio also voted to legalize marijuana by 14 points establish their right to get high 🙂

Incumbent Gov. Andy Beshear defeated Trump supported Republican Daniel Cameron by 5 points in red state Kentucky. Late polls had them even but Beshear ran better in almost all counties than he did in 2019.

In Virginia, Democrats held onto the state senate 21 to 17 with 2 races to close to call. Democrats won control of the state house 51 to 45 with 4 races to lose to call. Gov Youngkin worked hard predicting a GOP retake of the senate while holding the house. Word was that he would use these victories as a sign of strength and announce a run for presidential nomination. Well, Youngkin can put the balloons away, cancel his speech and worry about holding on to his job.

The biggest win would be in Mississippi if Brandon Presley could defeat Gov Reeves. A large voter turnout in Democrat stronghold Jackson County where they ran out of ballots and had to extend the polls gave us some hope but Presley fell short by 5 points. Close for deep red Mississippi.

Since the BIG MISTAKE in 2016, Democrats have won in 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 and now in 2023. Dems win because we are on the right side of the issues on abortion, gun safety, LGBTQ+ rights, climate change etc. and we work hard to get out the vote.

We must continue both to win in 2024.

President Biden is trailing P011035809 in 5 of the 6 most important swing states suffering from doubts about his age and disatisfaction over his handling of the economy and a host of issues. The poll was by The NY Times and the Siena College.

The poll shows Biden losing to P011035809 by margins of 3 to 10 percentage points among registered voter in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, and Pennsylvania and ahead in Wisconsin by 2.

The President trails by 48% to 44% in these states which President Biden carried in 2020.

A wake up call to us all taking for granted that no one could possibly vote for a convicted sex offender and facing 91 indictments in 4 separate courts who led a insurrection against the United States but now we know. Time for us as Democrats and lovers of democracy to get going!

Don’t agonize. Organize!

After the extreme right wing of the GOP ousted Speaker Kevin McCarthy, after Steve Scalise was nominated and dropped out the next day, after “Legislative terrorist” Jim Jordan failed on 3 votes, after Tom Ermer was nominated and dropped out three hours later after Donald Trump went after him the GOP house, after 21 days without a Speaker the GOP house elected Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.) as speaker by the full House on a first vote. Johnson, a relatively unknown, staunchly conservative Republican, succeeds Rep. Kevin McCarthy 

Johnson is an ally of former president Donald Trump and opposed certifying the 2020 election. He is antiabortion, voted against Ukraine aid and supports LGBTQ restrictions..

The last of the moderate (and I use that term loosely) Republicans collapsed under pressure as extreme right knew they would.

The Matt Gaetz extreme right has won.