March 4, 2024 - Trump Ballot Ruling Expected Today

Mar 04, 2024

Trump Colorado Ballot Ruling Expected Today

The Supreme Court sent up all kinds of red flags about this morning’s expected ruling announcement, leading the AP to suspect it’ll be about the Colorado ballot case.

The state Supreme Court in Colorado ordered D4FRFP1 Donald Trump removed from the state’s ballots because the Constitution says you can’t hold federal office if you commit insurrection and that Trump’s actions on Jan. 6 qualified him as an insurrectum.

Two other states — Illinois and Maine — have followed Colorado’s example and barred Trump from their ballots. All the rulings are on hold, however, pending the right-wing Supreme Court’s decision.

Based on the statements the justices made in oral arguments last month, the court is not expected to bar Trump from state ballots, even though the Constitution obviously does. As I’ve written before, based on what smarter people had written before me, the 14th Amendment’s insurrection language was passed at a time when the context was clear: To block people from office who would use government power to suppress Black votes.

Which is what happened before, on, and after Jan. 6.

Oh, and another reason to expect today’s ruling announcement will be about Colorado: The state’s primary is tomorrow. Coming right on the heels of…

Haley Wins!

After months of effort, and millions of dollars spent, former Gov. Nikki Haley (R-SC) yesterday finally won a thing. What thing? Who cares?!? It’s a thing!

Okay, fine, it was yesterday’s Washington, D.C., Republican primar–stop laughing!

In fact, I’ll have you know that Haley won more than 62% of the vote in this city that’s just, uh, five percent Republican. And Haley cemented her fleeting front-runner status in classic Republican fashion: By breaking a promise.

After pledging last year to support her party’s presidential nominee, Haley was asked yesterday whether she stands by that pledge. Haley refreshingly indicated that pledges don’t mean shit.

Is she “bound by that pledge?” she was asked. “No, I think I’ll make what decision I want to make,” Haley said. Adding in her mind, “Fuck pledges. What am I, honest?”

D4FRFP Donald Trump, by the way, more honestly refused to make that pledge in the first place last year. How come? Well, obviously he wouldn’t want to make himself a liar now by breaking a promise he had made then! #Integrity

So, how did Haley pull off yesterday’s big, albeit tiny, win? Especially after Trump scored blowout victories just a day before in Idaho, Michigan, and Missouri? I’ll let DC Republicans explain:

Retiree Dennis Paul: “I think people here think a little bit more rationally.”
Haley supporter Dan Schuberth: “You’ve got a really dialed-in political class.”
DC GOP Chair Patrick Mara: “This universe is a little more sophisticated.”

Translation: In the nation’s capital, Republicans read. But there’s another factor here.

Trump himself may have boosted turnout when he warned lobbyists they’d lose access in his White House if they didn’t vote yesterday (perhaps forgetting that their votes would be secret). That’s right, the guy running against the Deep State is offering lobbyists White House passes … just for voting.

So what’s next for Haley as she rides this enormous, insignificant victory wave? Welp, she’s got no plans for tomorrow night, and she’s pretty much tapped out her donor list, so she’s widely expected to drop out after tomorrow’s…

Super Tuesday Primaries Are Here!

It’s not just Colorado on the ballot for tomorrow’s Super Tuesday primaries. And it’s not just the presidential race, either.

In California, voters will decide which two candidates advance to the general-election runoff in November for the state’s open Senate seat.

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) is far-and-away the frontrunner, based largely on the notoriety bestowed upon him and his pencil-esque neck by D4FRFP Donald Trump, he of the Crayola-esque neck. Trump’s still pissed at Schiff’s role in impeaching him, and apparently not moved by reports that Schiff went easy on Trump behind the scenes and put his thumb on the scale against more-zealous Democrats.

And Schiff has once again been helping Republicans. Apparently fearing a one-on-one in November against Rep. Katie Porter (D-CA), Schiff has been boosting the lone Republican with even a remote shot: former baseball player and current non-relevant-experience-haver Steve Garvey.

How it is that Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA) isn’t in the mix here, I fail to understand… what part of “only member of Congress not to sign a blank use-of-military-force check to then-Pres. George Bush just three days after 9/11” don’t people understand?

Israeli Allies Launch Ground Invasion of U.S. Battleground Races

Spies behind the front lines warn that an invasion of $100 million in campaign spending is coming from forces allied with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) reportedly is planning to launch multiple salvos in the Democratic primaries, especially against Squad leaders, despite repeated pleas from Democrats for an immediate cease-fire.

AIPAC has a history of opening fire on Palestinian targets, including candidates, incumbents, and allies. But Politico reports AIPAC’s now planning on massively escalating its incursion into Democratic primaries.

Already taking fire is California state Sen. Dave Min, who’s running in tomorrow’s primary to replace Rep. Katie Porter (D-CA). Min hadn’t even attacked Israel with brutal, antisemitic requests for a cease-fire, Politico reports. But Min did privately dare to criticize Netanyahu, a clear violation of the Geneva Conventions.

For his war crimes, Min is now under attack by AIPAC, which has airdropped $400,000 in aid to Min’s opponent, Joanna Weiss. And as Politico notes, Israel hasn’t even been an issue in their race and they’re not notably far apart.

All of which goes to support previous reporting, especially by The Intercept, that AIPAC isn’t about Israel at all, just about pushing the Democratic Party to the right.

Wait til AIPAC Finds Out About This…

Over the weekend, both Pres. Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris publicly called for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza, which members of The Squad and other progressives were wrong to do when it was too early and would have saved too many lives.

Biden and Harris didn’t call for a permanent cease-fire, because they’re not some crazy hippies who don’t support eventual-fire. But Harris did say that, “Given the immense scale of suffering in Gaza, there must be an immediate cease-fire at least for the next six weeks.”

Military observers say the immense scale of suffering in Gaza has been exacerbated by the lack of an immediate cease-fire for the previous five months, which neither Harris nor Biden called for.

Biden on Friday said, “We’re trying to work out a deal between Israel and Hamas on the hostages being returned and — an immediate cease-fire in Gaza for at least the next six weeks.”

The progressives who opposed Israel’s indiscriminate air assault and then ground invasion of Gaza from the get-go could not be reached for comment as no one in corporate media gives a shit about the assessments of people who are right too early, according to a statement no one actually asked for from Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA).

Congressional Leaders Reach Spending Deal

Congressional leaders yesterday released six spending bills that they’ve agreed to in order to fend off a partial federal shutdown on Saturday.

This is not one of those stopgap measures that freezes spending at current levels. These are bills to approve new spending levels, along with new bullshit riders thrown in to placate sad members of Congress who never get to drown the federal government in a bathtub. Some highlights:

A billion dollars in new funding to enable poor people who eat food to eat food.
Twenty billion in new spending to help veterans exposed to toxic substances.
More than $12 billion earmarked for individual member districts.

Hilariously, Republicans spent much of their political capital to win spending cuts to…wait for it…law enforcement. The FBI will get a funding cut of 6%, while they and other cops have to deal with criminals having even more guns thanks to an additional GOP funding cut of 7% to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms.

If excusing insurrection weren’t enough to do it, surely cutting cop funding now makes the GOP the soft-on-crime party?!?

So, what else did Republicans win? A ban on the Justice Department reviewing school-board activities, which is a made-up cure for the made-up problem of federal prosecutors allegedly-but-not-really targeting political speech of MAGA right-wingers. The DOJ will still be able to go after criminal threats against school boards, which is what they were doing in the first place. #Win!

Republicans also blocked scrutiny of veterans whose mental status is such that they need help completing their financial paperwork…but still want to buy guns. In other words, the GOP fought to make sure that people who can’t fill out government forms can still buy guns.

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) is touting these bills as a win, even though they increase federal spending by three percent. It wasn’t clear why Johnson sees these trivial victories as important enough to qualify increased spending as a win, except that Johnson’s religion does include believing that final victory is always nigh.

Crime Watch

TRUMP Former Trump crime cartel Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg reportedly will plead guilty to perjury as soon as today.

As Trump’s right-hand man in his business dealings, Weisselberg obviously was expected to lie — I’m assuming it was in the job description — and apparently did so even when under oath and on the stand. Weisselberg reportedly will admit that he lied in the recent civil-fraud case that Trump lost bigly.

The details of Weisselberg’s plea deal aren’t yet known, but could involve jail time. He’s still not expected to testify against Trump, which could involve death time.

Campaign Watch

TRUMP vs. O’BIDEN D4FRFP Donald Trump on Saturday accused actual-President Joe Biden of “conspiracy to overthrow the United States of America.” The remark caused some confusion until yesterday, when Trump explained that Russian President Vladimir Putin is resorting to nuclear saber-rattling because he has “so little respect for Obama.”

That appeared to be a reference to not-President Barack Obama, rather than a mispronunciation of Joe Bama-iden’s name.

In short, Donald Trump is now running fore president to prevent Joe Biden from overthrowing the presidency of Barack Obama. And presumably to make sure that Putin doesn’t use nukes against Russian President Boris Yeltsin. Or Boris Badenov.

TCB

NICOLE SANDLER! Just a reminder that Mondays are Fucking News days on The Nicole Sandler Show. Come join us tonight at 5pm eastern (I won’t be on right away, but I’ll sneak myself in at some point…)

REPORTING I always do this: Set deadlines for myself that are unrealistic and then blow right through them. The good news is that my drafts on the Mayorkas impeachment staff just need polishing and then they should be good to go today. Heard that before…?!?

You can find me on Twitter and Facebook. And I’m even on Bluesky and Mastodon. Because ya never know.

Oh, and FYI, my default response is NOT to follow back. It’s not personal, it’s just that I use my feeds to curate news sources for myself. That said, we do make exceptions for Newsfuckers! So if you follow me on any of these platforms or future platforms — or the safe goddamn government platform we should’ve had two decades ago and will hopefully get in Pres. Biden’s third term — just lemme know if you’d like me to follow back. Newsfucker, I will.

Go get ‘em, kids…!

D4FRFP = Disgraced, quadicted, fraudster, rapist, former President.