February 25, 2020: President Blubber Aims to Remake the Courts in His Own Image

 

2/25/20: I think we know whose head will roll next for telling the truth in Trumpistan (see: Vindman and Sondland, 2/7/20 and Joseph Maguire, 2/21/20, for example). 

Dr. Nancy Messonier, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention should start packing up her office tomorrow morning. 

Today, Dr. Messonier informed reporters that CDC expects the COVID-19 coronavirus to spread in the United States. “It’s not so much a question of if this will happen anymore,” she explains, “but rather more a question of exactly when this will happen and how many people in this country will have severe illness.”  

So far, the disease is contained. 

With new clusters appearing round the globe, chances the virus will spread increase. If strict quarantine measures become necessary, as in Italy and South Korea, “The disruption of daily life could be severe.”

 

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AN OBJECTIVE OBSERVER would not blame President Trump for the spreading virus. But we do remember how ludicrous and twisted his attacks were when his predecessor was dealing with an outbreak of the far-deadlier Ebola virus in 2014. 

Who, for example, can forget this “assessment” offered up by Citizen Trump in October 2014, after Obama refused to block all flights from Africa, where the disease had erupted, to this country:

 

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“I am starting to think that there is something seriously wrong with President Obama’s mental health. Why won’t he stop the flights. Psycho!” 

Citizen Trump

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When all was said and done, eleven Americans contracted Ebola, seven of them while working in Africa. All were strictly quarantined. Two persons died. But that was all it took to unbalance Donald J. Trump. He insisted that Obama should have to hug and kiss all the Ebola patients. 

So, let’s poke a little fun at “President Blubber” here. (We are adopting a juvenile nickname for Mr. Trump, which is another tried and true Trump trick.) Pucker up, you giant bag of lard and cellulite! 

You’re kissing your first COVID-19 patient tomorrow!

 

We jest, of course. And we should note again: No objective observer would fault Mr. Trump for the spread of disease around the globe and the threats of economic dislocation that have followed. Still, we know how much he loves to claim every ounce of credit when the stock markets go up. 

So, let’s be like President Blubber. Let’s credit him for everything that happens to the Dow Jones. 

It plunged a thousand points on Monday. 

It plunged another 900 today. 

It’s not his fault. Let this blogger be clear. But if Obama were in charge, you know Trump would be howling.

 

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WHILE A DEADLY VIRUS was threatening lives around the world, President Trump kept busy today, threatening to forever unbalance the federal judicial system. 

 

Trump aims to remake the courts in his own image. 

Traveling in India today, where another authoritarian rules, Trump lashes out at the U.S. Supreme Court. He has previously attacked the U.S. military justice system, “out of control,” lower federal courts, a biased “Mexican” judge, who just so happened to be from Indiana, FISA courts, “Obama judges,” “slow and weak courts,”  sentences he considers too lenient, people he thinks should be in jail even though they haven’t been charged with any crimes – and even more people he’d like to see behind bars, trial or no trail – plus people he thinks should be found guilty of treason. He has criticized the use of search warrants to gather evidence against one of his felonious pals, the “cruel” mistreatment of a second felonious friend, and the unfair sentence meted out to a third felonious aide – and much, much more. 

In fact, Trump aims to remake the courts in his own image. And, in that, there’s grave danger. 

Today, he tweets: “While ‘elections have consequences’, I only ask for fairness, especially when it comes to decisions made by the United States Supreme Court!”

 

How can he “insure” fairness. In any case where his interests are involved, only seven judges shall vote. 

According to the president, two liberal members of the Supreme Court, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, and Justice Ruth Ginsburg “should recuse themselves on all Trump, or Trump related, matters!” 

The system of Trump Justice we can expect to see put in order in a second term for Donald J. Trump becomes clear. 

 

POSTSCRIPT: Think this president can’t blow the rule of law to bits? Consider evidence from 2/5/20 (Trump assembles a team of corrupt individuals to “fight corruption” in Ukraine); 2/7/20 (the president ousts two men who testified under oath in the impeachment inquiry); 2/9/20 (Trump’s former Secretary of the Navy warns that the president is a threat to democracy); 2/11/20 (Trump suggests that one of the men who testified under oath should probably face military discipline); 2/12/20 (Trump and his Attorney General interfere in the case of Roger Stone, who has been convicted of seven felonies); 2/13/20 (former White House Chief of Staff Gen. John Kelly says Trump gave his aide an “illegal order” and the aide did exactly right in refusing to follow it); 2/14/20 (the president says he has a legal right to interfere in any criminal case, because he’s president); 2/16/20 and 2/18/20 (thousands of former officials from the Department of Justice warn against assaults on the rule of law by this president); 2/19/20 (Trump practices pardoning scuzzy criminals) and 2/20/20 (former Congressman Dana Rohrabacher is accused of offering a pardon from Trump for Julian Assange, if Assange will “play ball.”) 

And that’s just in February.