THE RESPONSE TO JUSTICE ALITO IS A SIGN OF THE TIMES, AND THEY ARE NOT GOOD

Is it really as it appears to this observer, that a senior official of the government flying an upside-down American flag back in 2021 between the January 6 attack on the Capitol and Inauguration Day, in protest of Joe Biden’s election is just going to just recede into oblivion?

Are we really at the point that the Republican Party’s several sustained attacks on the court system and the rule of law are now just background noise in national politics?

Looking at the response to the Alito situation, as well as the complete lack of response by anyone in DC regarding the appearance of the Wack Gang in New York to support Trump and intimidate the jury in his New York election-interference trial, supporting Dear Leader as an in-your-face defiance of the gag order imposed on him, one can conclude that all this seriously disturbing activity is now just par for the course in 2024?

The appearance of elected Republicans who show up wearing Trump Halloween Costumes to publicly demonstrate their support of The Godfather is even more unprecedented than the unprecedented trial of a former president on such charges. Considering that back in 2016, the majority of these Public Supplicants opposed Trump’s run for president, and are now showing up to pit themselves on the list for being his Vice President or for serving in his cabinet should the worst happen and he wins re-election. With this, we can see that what used to be the Republican Party, with all its faults still an organization that supported the Constitution and the democratic republic founded that constitution, and the rule of low, is now a fully owned subsidiary of the Trump Crime Family, used to support an insurrectionist whose stated goal is the destruction of everything these people and that party used to claim they believed in.

The sight of these scum in New York is jarring, but it is nowhere near as jarring as a sitting Supreme Court justice - who is one of two votes on a court currently deciding whether the insurrectionist traitor is immune from prosecution and therefore above the law - publicly displaying a signal that now means to the cult that the government has been illegitimately taken over by Joe Biden. Ginni Thomas - wife of the other MAGA justice on the court - is on the record in her own words that the supporters of the insurrection were only stopped from likely obtaining an order from Alito to stop the vote count on Jnuary 6 by Speaker Pelosi moving to quickly reconvene the House after the treasonous white trash scum were removed from the capitol and finish the process of approving Biden’s election.

That Alito has been prominent in his support of everything MAGA stands for, refusing to recuse himself from any deliberation where his vote can support his Dear Leader, with the Chief Justice failing his duty to protect the court’s work, demonstrates how broken the system is.

The objective for Senate Democrats, who allegedly hold a majority there that is pro-democracy, is simple : take action to reveal publicly what behind-the-scenes roles Justices Alito and Thomas have played in the court’s corrupt effort to protect the insurrectionist Trump from facing the consequences of committing the crimes he has.

By all appearances, Alito and Thomas appear to be breaking what minor rules of judicial ethics the court has imposed on itself, twisting federal law to do so, and in the process tanking what remains of the court’s legitimacy.

We have Trump posting video where he declares without any prevarication that his goal is a Unified Reich, and the only Democrats who respond are the Biden campaign.

Is there anyone else in the government willing to do anything about this?

There is no question that Alito is a genuine MAGA partisan who is more than willing to publicly promote the views and goals of Trump and the rest of the insurrectionists who now constitute the majority of what used to be the Republican Party.

Alito response to questions about the flag episode was to lay the blame on his wife and some “very political” neighbors who posted “personally offensive signs” that he was sure would harm the children waiting for their school bus (except the schools were not in session then due to COVID). The thinness of the response - the ease with which everything was proven inaccurate - leaves on with the knowledge that Alito didn’t care, that he knew it would all blow over.

No Senate hearings.

Not even a sustained drumbeat from Democratic office holders.

A TPM member reports: “I... live in San Francisco. When the story on Alito came out last week, I called Senator Padilla, a Judiciary committee member, and left a message about how outrageous it was and hoped that as a member of the committee, he would call for hearings and investigations (no one answered). I also called Senator Durban’s office (picked up on first ring) and communicated the same.

‘Today, I called my Senator again. His staff person said “I haven’t been briefed on his position and I will be happy to pass on your message” That’s it. No response at all. CALIFORNIA!”

For anyone who has kept their eyes open during the past 30 years in Las Angeles and Sacramento, the fact that Alex Padilla has been “out of his depth” since winning a seat on the Los Angeles City Council is no surprise. But for the accident of his ethnicity and his proven ability to schmooze, he would never have risen as he has in the California Democratic Party. I can recall - when I lived in his council district, trying to get some “constituent services” and getting nothing but recordings to leave a message that was unanswered, just like this person reports.

While Padilla is unsurprising in his lack of response, the lack of response by Durbin’s office is a bit more surprising, but not that much when one considers how he has failed in this chairmanship since assuming it.

Where is Sheldon Whitehouse, who has been so prominent in his efforts to promote reform in the court? Where are Senators Chris Murphy and Richard Blumenthal? Where are the rest?

There are way too many events where the people who should be the Defenders of Democracy in Washington take no notice, no action, against the outrage-du-jour.

As an historian, I look at the fact that every Republic in history has eventually failed in the end, no matter how long said Republic existed.

Rome couldn't bring itself to defend against Caesar because too many of the upper classes saw in him the opportunity to Get More, just as our rich turds are doing here now.

In France, both the First and Second Republics found themselves unable to oppose a Bonaparte intent on destroying them.

Weimar's surrender to Hitler is only the most recent example of a voluntary choice to take the low road to Hell.

The failed move toward a democratic republic in Russia was killed by Putin.

And in all those cases cited, the authoritarian came to power and destroyed the republic with the support of the people of that republic who truly had the most to lose, starting with their literal lives.

I cannot understand it, since the people leading those republics - and the other failures - were all the ones who were the first to be destroyed by the authoritarian once he took power. They had the power to act and they didn't!

I am sorry to say that it is getting difficult to defend a system so broken it fails to defend itself even out of the self-interest of those with the most to lose from Trump’s planned destruction of that system.

If he is defeated in November, there will be an even-harder battle to force these people to get off their dead asses and take the action necessary to preserve and protect the Constitution, against all domestic enemies.

The MAGA movement is not going away. The Republican Party is acting exactly as it has in cheering on foreign authoritarian after foreign authoritarian over the past 125 years, claiming that adoption of that anti-democratic ideology here is the solution to all problems.

That’s Another Fine Mess does exactly what the name implies. It cannot be done without the support of the paid subscribers. It’s only $7/month or $70/year (saving $14) to join the others.

Comments are for paid subscribers.