NBC News reports: Facing pressure from his right flank to take on judges who have ruled against President Donald Trump, Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., on Tuesday floated the possibility of Congress eliminating some federal courts. “We do have the authority over the federal courts, as you know. We can eliminate an entire district court. We have power of funding over the courts and all these other things,” Johnson told reporters on Tuesday. “But desperate times call for desperate measures, and Congress is going to act.”
Johnson then cynically tried to downplay his comments saying that he was just making an innocent point about Congress’ “broad authority” over federal courts. What an effing liar. And he cynically claims to be a Christian.
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Two EOs djt issued yesterday (and here) take a big step toward subverting elections to give advantage to authoritarian MAGA candidates. This move is a whopper. This is the real deal people. I knew something like this was coming.
Key provisions include 1) a proof of citizenship requirement meaning a real ID-compliant identification, a passport or something similar, 2) states that fail to comply with the order's requirements, including using the updated national mail voter registration form, can lose federal election-related funding, 3) ballots received after election day will not be counted in federal elections, which overrides existing laws in some states, and 4) the Department of Homeland Security and other agencies will audit state voter rolls for compliance with federal requirements, probably leading to aggressive purges of likely Democratic voters from voter rolls.
Observers are raising concerns that abuse and election subversion motivate these EOs in view of how little actual voter fraud there is. This is probably going to whack mostly low-income individuals and people of color, i.e., likely Democratic voters. An estimated 21-35 million citizens could lose registration access due to documentation requirements. States losing federal funds would probably disproportionately be Democratic-leaning jurisdictions.
Although djt and MAGA elites continue to claim serious election fraud, the post 2024 election timing, focus on Democratic-leaning demographics, and reliance on disproven fraud narratives are solid evidence that the primary motive is to gain partisan electoral advantage via election subversion. There is no significant evidence of any demonstrable need for these EOs. Legal challenges under the Voting Rights Act seem to be likely given the disproportionate racial impacts.
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djt is increasing pressure on ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) and other law enforcement to massively increase the number of people being arrested and deported. Deportation quotas are not being met and djt is seriously pissed. He wants people caught, boxed up and mailed back to somewhere.
Not surprisingly, there is collateral damage. TNR writes: Trump’s Border Czar Admits ICE Is Arresting Plenty of Innocent People -- Trump’s border czar just confirmed that Immigration and Customs Enforcement is detaining innocent people. Tom Homan was asked on Fox Business Tuesday morning about whether ICE would be providing the city of Boston with information regarding the 370 people it said it arrested over the last week in the city. “We never hide anything. I can tell you that their city’s safer.… It’s safer now because [of the] actions of ICE.… We arrested 370 illegal aliens in Boston and the surrounding counties, not just Boston,” Homan said. “Majority of them were criminals. We had, you know, numerous collateral arrests. And I’ve said it before on this show and I’ll keep sayin’ it: Collateral arrests are gon’ be [going to be?] … people who aren’t criminals that are found when we’re lookin’ for the criminal are gonna be taken into custody.”
Geez, Homan talks like an uneducated, arrogant dipstick. For clarity, collateral arrest means illegal arrest.
Anyway, this MAGA assault on civil liberties aligns with the administration’s recent detainments including indiscriminate kidnappings and extraditions of hundreds of Latino men on unsubstantiated allegations of gang tattoos. And, as usual, MAGA thug Homan claims a city is safer without one shred of evidence.
Anyway, this MAGA assault on civil liberties aligns with the administration’s recent detainments including indiscriminate kidnappings and extraditions of hundreds of Latino men on unsubstantiated allegations of gang tattoos. And, as usual, MAGA thug Homan claims a city is safer without one shred of evidence.
Peanut 1: Since when did due process become optional?
Peanut 2: Since we elected a fascist to run the country. MAGA is normalizing stuff like this so that people will be ok with it when random people are kidnapped to be tortured, killed, trafficked into slavery or turned into Soylent Green.
Peanut 3: But they're eating cats and dogs!
Peanut 4: These people can be injured or killed.
Peanut 5: Well yeah, but for MAGA that's a feature, not a bug. Besides, they are being arrested because ICE has a daily arrest quota or people get fired.
Sounds like some of the peanuts are not exactly happy with this turn of events.