WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?

By Ruth A. Sheets

It truly is appalling that 6 members of our Supreme Court have decided they have the right to rule this nation. They were not elected by the people so it appears they believe in ignoring the will of the people, even a well-thought-out will of the people LIKE abortion rights and personal accountability.  On July 1, 2024, they  “offered” a shocking ruling that a president in office (in this case, Donald Trump, is able to act with impunity, if he can call what he was doing, “official.”  What is that?  Permission to divide this nation even further, taking out opponents, forcing Americans to live as dictated by himself and his rich white benefactors, for his own selfish, whiny childish need to never be held accountable?

Where did these Republican seriously partisan members of the Supreme Court get the idea that “Supreme” meant, dictatorship?  It seems the Federalist Society, an ultra-right-wing “legal” organization led by Leonard Leo is at least significantly responsible.  Leo and his friends have been approaching vulnerable law students around the country, even our major elite institutions.  They helped brainwash those future lawyers to buy into the idea that our government has taken a wrong path.  They want their apprentices to believe “unworthy” persons are taking over and the Federalist Society must fix it.  Essentially, only white men of a certain quality background and a few token others should sit on all our courts so they can dictate what is legal and what is not.  Perhaps Leo knows he wil not get into power himself, so he rules by getting his proteges onto courts so he can push them to do whatever  he claims is true American, giving him power through the back door.  To make this happen, Leo and his crew demonstrate strategies for consistent lying about nearly everything, hoping We the People won’t notice, and we often don’t. 

The Leo folks are becoming more and more proficient with lying about our founders and our Constitution and that they should consult 17th century and earlier misogynists as well as "the Bible" to find sources to back up their warped rulings. All six of the conservative justices on our Supreme Court go along with it with nary a whimper; their clerks are on board too, probably why they are their clerks. The 6 have told all of us that it is they who can decide about which drugs can be prescribed and sold here, which environmental protections they will allow, and which work of which agencies is acceptable. No one gave them that authority; they just took it, and are running with it on behalf of their president of choice, Toddler-Donald Trump and their joint "Project 2025." 

The Supreme 6 ended this year’s term with some appalling decisions, very late in the term and so many at one time so the media could not successfully take them apart and explain them to us clearly before the next batch came down, something like 29 decisions in 2 weeks.  That should be unacceptable, but since our Supremes have a super-majority, they don’t have to do anything that makes sense, just whatever they and their donors want.  They are paid by the American people, but don’t feel they have to answer to us and what we want, only the guys who give them trips, buy things for them, and otherwise keep them in a style they have wanted to become accustomed to.  The 3 “liberal” justices can only sit and watch, writing dissents that are of high quality and are true, but pretty much irrelevant.    

Our Senate is supposed to monitor and have some regulation of the courts, but with the huge divisions, nothing has been done to stop the runaway power-grab John Roberts and his conservatives (cons) have been on lately as they work to give even more rights to corporations and less to the American people.  Despite our Constitution, they have permitted voting rights to be trampled in many states, permitted religious organizations the right to refuse service to people they don’t like, told our federal agencies the Court has the right to determine what those agencies can do even though the justices have no clue what those agencies do, and of course, have said states can decide the legality of abortion, citing people who had no clue as their reasons.  In the presidential immunity case, Roberts even used the case of Jesus and Pilate as his truly warped explanation as to why a president should be able to do whatever he wants (and I am sure it is a “he” they had in mind because they would never permit a woman president to have such freedoms). 

Now some white Republicans want to invoke the 1873 “Comstock Act” to make abortion illegal by making it illegal to send safe abortion medication through the mail.  Anthony Comstock was a sexually messed-up pseudo-Christian guy who basked in the power he got by talking Congress into trying to stop pornography and as a side push, he wanted to stop birth control and abortion information from going through the mail too (so very Victorian!)  The Comstock Act relates to the US male, so there is no reason Fed-X and UPS couldn’t send such materials because they are not our postal service, but are private.  I have no doubt Republican pseudo-christians and their Supreme 6 will find a way to twist even the Comstock Act (already a pretty twisted piece of legislation) to interfere in ways it could not possibly originally have been intended (so much for originalism).

So, let’s face it, it seems it is going to have to be up to We the People and our voting rights to end this power-grab and put out of office those who are perpetuating the fraud against this nation. 

We must think carefully about the hard work it is going to take to fix this monumental problem. First of all, Dems need to come together supporting Biden and Harris if we are going to stop Trump, Project 2025,” and the Supreme Court’s conservative usurpation of power.  The current Supreme 6 behavior is like a nearly silent coup, done in front of our faces, but with words so convoluted it is hard to follow the reasoning.  However, it looks as though the whole point is to keep us from following any kind of reasoning since the only logic is that the guys in charge at our Supreme Court and Republicans in Congress and behind the scenes want a corporate take-over of America (as though corporations have not already taken over much of our nation).  They want to believe private corporations will give them all the means to constantly feed their addiction to money and power, neither of which they deserve, but will do nearly anything to obtain.  People addicted to opioids and other drugs have nothing on Republican political operatives, who can actually use our legal system to get their money/power fixes and don’t have to depend on drug dealers, just American voters whom, they are sure, will do whatever they need them/us to do if shown enough lying ads and make enough promises that racism, misogyny, xenophobia, and homo/transphobia will be perfectly OK if only we elect them.  They are working hard in many places to undermine our voting process and suppress votes from non-white and female voters.  They are hoping the rest, those rich white men and the not-so-rich white men who wannabee rich white men, will come through for them, and so far they have. 

We non-rich, white men are the majority, so how is it we have not found a way to stand up to that minority who cares only about themselves and what they can get, “the takers” Republicans used to warn us about, except they were talking about struggling folks who need help through government programs.  The rich take so much more but we and our elected and appointed officials let them get away with it.  They point fingers at poor people and immigrants, scolding them for needing help while their left hand is scooping up billions in tax breaks and loopholes as well as enormous subsidies, all perfectly legal. 

I know it has been said many times, elsewhere, but I will say it again, and loudly!

• - Vote!  Mark Democrat down the ballot so Democrats will be able to protect our rights and keep unqualified, uncaring, self-centered people out of office as best we can.
• - Talk with everyone you know about what our courts are doing to us and, share some information about the fascist document “Project 2025” which as far as I can tell, has absolutely nothing positive in it for anyone, with the tiny exception, rich white pseudo-christian men. 
• - Sign petitions, write letters to representatives and senators, state and local to let them know how you feel about their need to work for the majority of the American people, not just the already haves.
• - Connect with organizations that work for the same issues you champion and stick with them.  --- Donate when you can, even if it’s just a dollar or two.

As though all of the above were not sufficient to scare us silly, now, we have an additional dilemma, the assassination attempt on Trump’s life may well make him seem like some kind of hero and people may in sympathy vote for him.  Reagan got a huge poll boost after his assassination survival which let a whole lot of people overlook his terrible governing decisions whose impacts are still being felt 40+ years later. 

It is a guarantee Trump will have learned nothing from his encounter with possible death.  He will become even more vengeful, blaming Democrats and anyone else that comes to his warped mind for what happened, even though it is not clear what the attempted assassin was championing.  Various of our media are obsessed with this event even though they have little understanding of what actually happened, yet.  We know from reports that Trump’s ear was hit, probably just grazed, but if Trump’s past is predictive of the future, the injury will increase exponentially over time to include partial deafness or some kind of massive headaches, which are unlikely side effects in this case, but his cult won’t care.  They will go along with whatever their baby says because that is what they do and truth for them has become irrelevant.

Our media should not minimize the attempt to assassinate Trump, but not magnify it either.  Trump is the minor victim of gun violence, but will not call for limiting gun possession in any way.  Hey, in Milwaukee, open carry of guns is legal.  It is going to be a nightmare for police and other law enforcement to try to protect all the Republican conventioneers and people of the city, but less talk of violence on the part of Republicans could lower the chances that someone will be worked up enough to do something violent.  The media and everyone interviewed talk about the need to stop talking up political violence, but the party that is talking violence is the Republican Party and now it is one of theirs that has been grazed while members of the crowd have been injured and one killed.  Maybe they should take that advice and just stop.  It won’t happen, but maybe . . .  The media will now have meat to chew on so they won’t have to address “Project 2025” and potential destruction.  They can go on endlessly about a grazed ear and two more victims of gun violence they choose not to look at either.  Good luck to all of us this year, but we have to make some of that luck by voting for President Biden and Vice-President Harris as well as Democrats down the ballot.