Once again, there’s a Trump tweet out there that calls attention to his thin skin and deep ignorance.
Whether this sort of tweet is a childish impulse caused by a general lack of maturity, his narcissism, aging, or dementia, what he shows is a lack of understanding about individuals and their rights to make political statements. It’s about the Bill of Rights and freedom of speech. Yes, we know from previous words and actions, Trumps shows little knowledge of how those pieces fit together. Of course, if Springsteen had expressed love and admiration for Trump, Trump would have instantly responded about how GREAT SPRINGSTEEN IS, WHAT A GREAT AMERICAN!!! That’s the Trump. Regardless, it again shows he’s unfit for office.
Before he enter on the Execution of his Office, he shall take the following Oath or Affirmation:– I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.
Article II, Section 1, Clause 8 provides that the President must swear or affirm to “faithfully execute the Office of President” and “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution” to the best of the President’s ability. Presidents since George Washington have reflected on the oath’s significance and the burden it places on the President. In his second inaugural address, Washington declared that a violation of the presidential oath would occasion not only “constitutional punishment,” but “the upbraidings of all who are now witnesses of the present solemn ceremony.” Of the oath, Justice Joseph Story wrote: “[t]here is little need of commentary . . . . No man can well doubt the propriety of placing a president of the United States under the most solemn obligations to preserve, protect, and defend the constitution.”
Back on January 20, 2017, Donald J. Trump swore this oath of office. Despite winning the popular vote by a narrow margin, 49.8% to 48.3%, and almost 90,000,000 registered voters not voting, Trump was elected and swore this oath of office a second time on January 20, 2025.
Now Trump claims that he doesn’t know if he needs to uphold the Constitution?
Yep, that’s what PINO Trump said in an interview with Kristen Welker on NBC’s Meet the Press this week.
“Your Secretary of State says everyone who’s here, citizens and non-citizens, deserve due process. Do you agree, Mr. President?” Welker asked Trump.
“I don’t know. I’m not, I’m not a lawyer. I don’t know,” he said.
Trump also seems to believe he has a ‘mandate’. He won by less than two percent of the popular vote. Moreover, Trump believes that his campaign promises to deport undocumented immigrants — or this one, at least, because he already blew off several others, like ending the wars in Ukraine and Gaza and lowering inflation — carries more weight than his sworn oath to uphold the Constitution?
The United States of America really elected a duplicitous jackass in 2024. But he’s a useful jackass for those who aren’t interested in maintaining the United States as a democratic republic, entities such as the Heritage Foundation and Project 2025. We’re traversing deep wormholes of twisted logic these days. Tariffs will lower prices. The POTUS doesn’t need to support or defend the Constitution. Agencies can be ended by Executive Order regardless of Congress’s role in creating the agencies. Insider trading is now okay. Greed is good. Due process is not necessarily due process. Next thing that you know, Trump and his minions will be claiming that Christianity will be the official religion, despite the separation of church and state wall.
Trump, who just reminded us that he’s not a lawyer, so he doesn’t know if he’s required to uphold the Constitution and due process as described in the Fifth Amendment of the Bill of Rights, has demonstrated he doesn’t care about the Constitution. He’ll just dance around it and drag the rest of us with him, regardless of the law.
So many of us saw it coming. It makes us increasingly angry and bitter.
The United States is not a monarchy. Trump’s election to the office of the presidency does not give him the right to overthrow or ignore the Constitution. In just 100 days of Trump’s second term, we are deep into a crisis.
Wednesday, April 17, 2024, began with blue skies and sunshine. Clouds have sailed in, blocking sunshine’s march. Shame, as it was a 34 F morning and the sunshine would be a nice warmer. My weather system says it’s 44 F out there. Others claim it’s now 46, 47, 49. All depends on location and how much sun they’re receiving, and air currents. 64 F or so will be our high.
Was going to write about politics news as a WTF America, Senate edition moment took place. News of a US Senator inciting American citizens to attack and torture or kill other Americans who are exercising their First Amendment right raises my ire. Way to go, Senator Cotton! Such a pillar of Christianity and Servant of the People! What an educated adult. And he proudly noted that’s exactly what the freedom-loving patriots of his his great state of Arkansas would do.
Yes, that was a heavy load of snark.
Cotton is a Republican, of course. Violence against other Americans and the Constitution is the MAGA GOP’s modus.
I would write about it, but Frank Vyan Walton at Daily Kos did it well, amplifying what Morning Joe said about Cotton’s remarks:
“This is extraordinarily counterproductive to any cause you’re pushing, but here we have a guy, Tom Cotton, that went to Harvard, undergrad and law school, served in the military, who is talking about throwing people off the Golden Gate Bridge, ripping their skin off. We had a United States senator go on a network, national network, suggesting that Americans rip skin off of people’s hands because they’re aggravated and take matters into their own hands.”
Sigh. Really, WTF, America?
Today’s music is floof-inspired. “Walk This Way” is one of Aerosmith’s best known songs. Released in 1975, when I was 19, The Neurons put it into my morning mental music stream (Trademark refreshed) this AM when I told Tucker, “Come on, if you’re hungry. Walk this way.” Which Tucker did.
Stay positive, be strong, and Vote Blue. Coffee is settling into the system. Let’s click this way and listen to the music. Cheers
Light rain and gray clouds sang in Tuesday’s entrance on January 9, 2024. Snow is gone from the valley floor. Fog veils the mountains and ridges so I don’t know what the situation is up there. Gloomy is the word, the word that you heard. It speaks to the day’s general malaise, weather-wise. It is 39 F now, humming along to a 44 F high. My floofs are nestled into comfortable niches where they can sleep in warmth and safety.
Pretty much as expected, Republicans are descending into tit-for-tat politics, talking about trying to remove President Biden from the POTUS ballots in several states, reflecting their deranged approach to politics. “Because you removed Trump!” they whine. “Because look at what Biden is doing to the border,” they declare. “And his birth certificate. I mean, her emails. I mean, Hunter Biden.”
They’re descending into a new low level, setting themselves up as a punch line in history books. “Look at how they used to act,” people will say, discussing the GOP of this era. “How did they become so lost and confused about what was going on? What happened to their principles and leadership?” We in this era reply, they became consumed with desire to be in power. “Power tends to corrupt,” Lord Acton wrote in a previous century, summarizing what others had observed. Power tends to corrupt. That seems to be what we’re seeing in the GOP as they corrupt their values and principles to stay in power, no matter how they malign the ideal the founders established, no matter how far their behavior guides them from the principles they claim to uphold.
Of course, their hold on what is ‘supposed to be’ regarding our founders’ intentions are as nebulous as a kitten’s grip on their own tail. Can you imagine what the founders would be saying to Lauren Boebert after she declared that she was tired of this separation of church and state junk?
I can’t honestly say, though. I only wonder. I don’t know how they, the founders, would say to multiple arguments of this modern era. What would they say to the “Moms of Liberty” for banning ideas and books? How would they respond to Republicans like DeSantis declaring what parts of history should not be taught? And I don’t know how the founders would stand regarding the mass murders with automatic weapons that happen so routinely in the US in this ‘modern age of reason’. I like to think that the founders would be horrified and take action to stop it, but then, I thought the GOP, the ‘pro-life’ party as they call themselves without irony, would be horrified by the murders, deaths, and sorrows, and take some action. I just can’t gauge the depths of the GOP’s corruption, hypocrisy, and cynicism. Each time that I believe they’ve hit bottom, they go lower.
And of course, pundits are wondering, what will happen if Trump runs for POTUS in 2024 and loses? Will the GOP peacefully support the result, accept defeat, and continue with governing? Or will they go full-blown rebellion and insurrection? There is enough darkness glimmering in the MAGA base frothing at Trump’s whiney ‘campaigning’ that there is serious reason to believe they’ll go Jan 6 once again but escalate it to new levels of violence.
Meanwhile, a fragment of them will say the Pledge of Allegiance, loudly enunciating, “Under God”, and then talk about how they hate Democrats, and want to kill them or send them to another country. Do they have any self-awareness?
Beyond all that, The Neurons have the Eagles singing the 1980 song, “I Can’t Tell You Why”, in the morning mental music stream (Trademark separated). The Neurons had caught on with my thinking — they can be sharp at times — about not being able to comprehend and explain things. I can’t tell you why Republicans let Justice Clarence Thomas remain in office as revelations of his relationship with wealthy Republican patrons generate concern about Thomas’s ethics. I can’t tell you why they let Thomas remain involved in cases regarding Trump as POTUS in the face of revelations about his wife’s role. I can’t tell you why they turn a blind eye to Trump’s bullshit. I can declare it’s politics as usual, but it’s not the kind of politics seen in this nation for several decades. I thought, and it seems I was naive, that we as a political body, no matter the party, had evolved past that. Of course, I never foresaw what social media, AI, and web bots would do to our political discourse. I never foresaw people who weren’t being treated for mental issues clinging to insane conspiracy theories, and I can’t tell you why they cling to them. All I can do is make up my own theories.
Ah, well, time to shuffle news and politics aside and rebalance myself. Coffee helps, of course. Stay pos, be strong, and keep leaning forward. Don’t let yourself get too wrapped up in the minutiae of trying to understand and explain why. Keep your eye on our own shared goals of freedom, justice, democracy, and equality, and the idea that we should all enjoy them. I once read that those are pretty good ideals to chase.
Here’s the music. Admire the Eagle’s youth seen in this video, and remember. Cheers
Michael Seidel, writer 