Trump (again), Miller and a New Code of Ethics

NY Times:

Former President Donald J. Trump, on a day set aside to celebrate those who have defended the United States in uniform, promised to honor veterans in part by assailing what he portrayed as America’s greatest foe: the political left.

Using incendiary and dehumanizing language to refer to his opponents, Mr. Trump vowed to “root out” what he called “the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country.”

“The threat from outside forces is far less sinister, dangerous and grave than the threat from within,” Mr. Trump said Saturday in a nearly two-hour Veterans Day address in Claremont, N.H.

Because I’m halfway intelligent and a history buff, I may call political opponents names (assholes, mobsters, et al) but I’m very careful about never dehumanizing them. Racism, other bigotries and genocides too easily occur once people are rhetorically reduced to animals or insects.

And ‘vermin’ was a word Hitler and Mussolini were too fond of.

I’m not ‘triggered’ by his words. I know he deliberately chose them. Apparently he’ll no longer sell that hooey about ‘very fine people on both sides.’ And I won’t suggest he won’t go lower. He will. His indifference to others during the worst of covid caused the most untimely and unnecessary deaths of any country in the world.

I don’t blame Satan either. Donald Trump possesses his own evil. He is a corrupt, dangerous and deadly man. He’s compared himself to Nelson Mandela, so to make it correct, 26 years in prison sounds reasonable for the crook. Despite gag orders, he continually threatens others so let’s start letting him cool his high heels on Riker’s Island.

More from NYT:

Mr. Trump also repeated lies, falsehoods, exaggerations and half-truths that he has told routinely on a number of subjects, including on gas prices, U.S. energy independence, election fraud and the 2020 elections.

“I’m a very proud election denier,” Mr. Trump said.

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Early morning at Old Orchard Beach, coastal Maine, 10 Nov 2023

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This guy has been the body double for Kim Kardashian’s right buttcheek so long that we have to understand he’s perfectly serious about his discovery of the source of airborne methane gas.

His America First organization appears to be defending white nationalists from any form of reparations to any racial group for past institutional discrimination. Slavery, Jim Crow laws, gerrymandering, redlining, the displacement and asset theft that Japanese Americans endured in WWII…. Miller is opposed to equality for all.

And the history of the term ‘America First’ has always been tied to the promotion of bigotry since it was first used in the 1850s. It’s been anti-Catholic, anti-immigrant, anti-Semitic, has been endorsed by the KKK, has been pro-fascist and it’s also opposed to alliances and treaties with other nations so it’s isolationist.

It’s fair to say I have the utmost disdain for this racist anti-NATO propagandist and vile guy. It’s no wonder his uncle has publicly rebuked him. He’s also smart enough to avoid crossing lines that could get him prosecuted while he encourages others to break laws with impunity

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The SCOTUS issued a written Code of Ethics for the first time ever today. I read through it, but still remain skeptical, despite its detail.

Under Canon #2 is this:

Canon #3 , Section B is about Disqualification, referring to the reasons a justice should recuse themselves from cases before them:

A Justice whose ‘impartiality might reasonably be questioned’… reasonable to whom? Who is the arbiter? It lists several detailed instances but says those details don’t extend to all potential examples. With this year’s exposes of ‘gifts’ by Harlan Crow, Lenny Leo and others to Clarence Thomas, Sammy Alito and others that the Justices never reported, I think their impartiality can be reasonably questioned. If John Roberts is the arbiter, would he call that unreasonable?

In Canon #4 which covers a Justice’s extrajudicial activities, Section A is titled ‘Law-Related Activities’. Within it is this:

The historical record indicates Leonard Leo has invested in and lobbied for the appointment of conservative judges in multiple courts - including the SCOTUS - who belong to or have been vetted by the Federalist Society. Does this indicate that Justices shouldn’t speak at a Federalist Society event? CPAC? Those are two examples of groups ‘associated’ with the Republican party.

Canon #4, Section D is about Financial Activities.

So would this cover the gifts by mega-wealthy ‘friends’ to Justices? Or the money paid to Ginny Thomas’ organization that was directed by Lenny Leo or the Federalist Society?

There is an ‘out’ that permits a Justice to not recuse themselves from a case: the ‘rule of necessity’. Which apparently means that a recusal reduces the remaining Justices to 8, making it harder for an appellant to gain 5 votes. That ‘out’ is so vague that it can be interpreted that recusal is never actually ‘required’.

Also, as Senator Whitehouse (who’s on the Senate Judiciary Committee) pointed out today, the entire Code of Ethics has no enforcement provision. Very few penalties are defined for Justices who violate the code. It’s not at all defined who gets to decide a violation has occurred? Are there any instances where a decider can kick a Justice off the SCOTUS bench entirely?

I’m certain there’ll be more written about this in the very near future.

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Secrets of the Parents