SECESSION!

AFTER the State of Texas filed an absurd application with the Supreme Court seeking the disenfranchisement of millions of voters in four swing states, and

AFTER 126 Republican members of the United States House of Representatives signed a “Friend of the Court” brief in support of that absurd application, and 

AFTER one third of the states in our republic joined in supporting that absurd application, and 

AFTER our would-be Supreme Leader sought court permission to join in Texas’s absurd application, and

AFTER the Supreme Court, by a vote of 9-0, responded to the applicants with a one-pager that basically read, “Are you fucking kidding me?” 

THEN the distinguished patriot Chairman of the Texas Republican Party issued a statement suggesting a re-do of the firing upon Fort Sumter. Following upon distinguished patriot Rush Limbaugh talking about “trending towards secession,” the distinguished patriot Chair of the Texas Republican Party,  issued this statement:

“Perhaps law-abiding states should bond together and form a union of states that will abide by the constitution.”

That is really a bad idea for two reasons:

1. I have relatives who live in Florida and Ohio, and
2. It probably could not be accomplished peacefully.

Otherwise … .

While the media coverage is chock full of reports on the Supremes’ dismissal of the Texas absurd application, the focus has been on the question whether Trump is now finished, and is it really over. Despite the lunatic cheerleading of the Trumpian Kool-Aid drinkers, the answer is “Yes, it’s really over, and has been since November 4.” 

But I thought I would point out two tidbits that show how truly deranged the Trumpians really are. It is as if the President’s mental illness were contagious. His lies and fantasies float through the Trumpian atmosphere and contaminate all who refuse to use their native intellect as masks that strain out lies and conspiracy fantasies.

Did you know that:

1. In his application to intervene in the absurd Texas lawsuit, Trump’s lawyer was one John Eastman, a Californian who was twice defeated in races for California Attorney General, a post once held by Vice President-elect Kamala Harris. A former law clerk to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, Eastman recently raised a hoopla with the reprise of claim akin to Trump’s “birtherism” argument. Eastman wrote an opinion piece in Newsweek Magazine in which he argued that Harris, though born in the United States, was not a native born citizen because her parents were immigrants. Trump then piled on for a bit before dropping the issue. Newsweek later apologized for publishing the Eastman piece.

One would think that before submitting a petition to the Supreme Court of the United States on behalf of the President of the United States, a lawyer would exercise a high degree of care in being both persuasive and accurate. But intellect-maskless Eastman screwed the pooch. 

First, he argued there must have been fraud and misconduct in the election because Trump won Ohio and Florida, and no candidate who won those two states had ever lost a presidential election.

A truly absurd argument. Even if true, so what? Is that proof Trump won this election? Are we supposed to infer that because this was the first time it happened, there must be misconduct? Ridiculous.

But even more important, and as an example of even more incompetent lawyering, Eastman's statement was false!  This was not the first time it happened. In 1960, Richard Nixon carried Ohio and Florida but lost the election to John F. Kennedy.

Finally, my favorite piece of Trumpian lawyer-insanity:

2. Neither Nevada nor California was among the 17 states that joined in filing an amici brief in support of the Texas effort to disenfranchise all voters in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Georgia, and Wisconsin. That was apparently not good enough for a California lawyer who sought Court leave to file another brief supporting Texas’s petition. His motion was styled as being on behalf of “STATE OF NEW CALIFORNIA AND NEW NEVADA STATE.”  

I have read the brief. Nowhere does counsel offer up an explanation of how he has managed to overcome the Constitutional requirements of adding those two new states to the union. Not a mention the chutzpah involved in petitioning the Supreme Court of the United States on behalf of fictional clients. I mean, really, did he think the Justices wouldn’t notice?

I assume the disciplinary officials of the California Bar have already drawn up the charge sheet. Maybe maskless clown Giuliani can rise from his sickbed, wash the mascara from his sideburns, and speak for the defense. That is, if he is still a member of the bar at trial time.

A bientot.

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