A slew of historians submitted a brief to the USSC in the pending case that will decide if DJT is an insurrectionist and barred from running again for office.
Law & Crime writes:
Even Jefferson Davis, leader of the Confederacy — and his lawyer — knew the insurrection clause in the U.S. Constitution not only disqualified him from holding office but, importantly, that Section III of the Fourteenth Amendment “executes itself” and once that constitutional Rubicon is crossed, disqualification was his “automatic” punishment.
This is one of several key arguments lifted straight from history that 25 prominent historians, professors, and legal scholars have presented to the U.S. Supreme Court in a new amicus brief supporting a December ruling from the Colorado Supreme Court finding that Donald Trump should be removed from the ballot for 2024 since he engaged in insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021, and is therefore ineligible for office.
For roughly 40 pages, the amicus brief traverses centuries to expose lively, and often clear, congressional debate about the so-called insurrectionist clause and its understanding among senators, as well as its import in the impeachment of Andrew Johnson and how it came to force when it was time to reckon with one of America’s most famous insurrectionists: Jefferson Davis.
Pointing to Jefferson Davis and quoting Davis’ own lawyer at the time, the historians noted:
In seeking to quash his indictment for treason, Jefferson Davis argued that he was already punished through his automatic disqualification to hold public office under Section 3, which ‘executes itself … It needs no legislation on the part of Congress to give it effect.’
But with this radical authoritarian USSC, no one can know what they will decide or why. The court is unprincipled, leaving the basis for predicting outcomes a matter of partisan politics. Even if a defendant walks, talks and looks like a Republican insurrectionist, they could be just an innocent patriotic martyr under severe attack by the evil socialist, pedophile deep state. Of course, if it was Hillary who done it, the judges would be screaming:
LOCK HER UP!! LOCK HER UP!! LOCK HER UP!!
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The numbers (1 - 5) in the circles at the end of the response are links to information sources relevant to the input search words. The NYT article comments:
One impressive Perplexity feature is “Copilot,” which helps a user narrow down a query by asking clarifying questions. When I asked for ideas on where to host a birthday party for a 2-year-old, for example, Copilot asked whether I wanted suggestions for outdoor spaces, indoor spaces or both. When I selected “indoor,” it asked me to choose a rough budget for the party. Only then did it give me a list of possible venues.
Perplexity also allows users to search within a specific set of sources, such as academic papers, YouTube videos or Reddit posts.
Under the hood, Perplexity runs on OpenAI’s GPT-3.5 model along with its own A.I. model — a variant of Meta’s open-source Llama 2 model. Users who upgrade to the Pro version can choose between a handful of different models, including GPT-4 and Anthropic’s Claude. (I used GPT-4 for most of my searches, but I didn’t see much of a difference in the quality of the answers when I chose other models.)
Looking under the hood . . . . . .
Ah, there it is
GPT-4 running Anthropic’s Claude!
Perplexity is also refreshingly good at admitting when it doesn’t know something.
Lately my Google searches have been less useful, so I'll give Perplexity some test drives to see how it works out.
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From the Impeach Joe Biden Saga -- Oops!: The New Republic writes that a witness the GOP was touting as having damaging dirt on Biden, would up testifying under oath there was no dirt to be had. Poor old morally rotted Republican Party. They just can’t find the dirt they need to impeach Joe.
TNR writes:
A man House Republicans had previously claimed was a whistleblower on Joe Biden’s corruption categorically debunked all of the GOP’s accusations in a closed-door hearing on Tuesday.
Eric Schwerin, a longtime business partner of Hunter Biden, testified in front of the House Oversight and Judiciary Committees in a closed-door interview. Schwerin also worked as a financial adviser for Joe Biden from 2009 until 2017, during which time he was able to see transactions in and out of the then vice president’s bank accounts.
“Based on that insight, I am not aware of any financial transactions or compensation that Vice President Biden received related to business conducted by any of his family members or their associates nor any involvement by him in their businesses,” Schwerin said in a prepared opening statement obtained by The New Republic.
“In my discussions with the Vice President concerning his personal finances, he was always crystal clear that he wanted to take the most transparent and ethical approach consistent with both the spirit and the letter of the law,” Schwerin said. “Given my awareness of his finances and the explicit directions he gave to his financial advisers, the allegation that he would engage in any improper conduct to benefit himself or his family is preposterous to me.”
From the Bad Faith Republican Politics Files: NBC reports:
GOP senator doesn’t want to pass a tax bill because it could make Biden ‘look good’ --
Sen. Chuck Grassley made the comments ahead of a House vote on a $78 billion package that would expand the child tax credit and provide some tax breaks for businesses
From the Trump loses another court case files: Sky News writes:
Donald Trump data protection claim over allegations he took part in 'perverted' sex acts in Russia dismissed by judge --
The so-called “Steele dossier” alleged Donald Trump took part in “sex parties” and engaged in “golden showers”, giving Russia material with which to blackmail him -- Donald Trump's legal claim over allegations he took part in “perverted” sex acts and gave bribes to Russian officials has been dismissed by a High Court judge.
The core reason for dismissal was that Trump does not have a case, and not due to any content content in the dossier.
Peanut gallery insights:
1. So he’s losing cases in multiple countries now lol
2. Intercontinental loser.
3. Incontinent loser
4. The piss tapes are real! Bring on the piss tapes! We want the pee pee tapes! Pee pee tapes!
5. Weird sex with prostitutes would probably be the least offensive, least criminal thing about Trump at this point.
Nikki Haley blithely comments on the dissolution of the Union -- Sure, why not?: Texas has the right to secede from the U.S. if its citizens decide to do so, Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley argued on Wednesday -- a controversial view that contradicts centuries of established history and precedent. Similar secession efforts infamously led to the Civil War.
