Get Used To It

The investigation into Trump meddling in the 2020 Georgia elections looked to be picking up steam.  U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) was ordered by a federal appeals court to honor a subpoena and testify over what he knew bout Trump's plan to overturn the presidential election results in Georgia based on phone calls Graham had made at the time.  Graham, insisting hat these phone calls were related to his legislative work, appealed to the Supreme Court, which convinced me that he would get a reprieve of some sort - because he wouldn't have appealed to the highest court of the land if he didn't think the Court would help him.

It did - in the form of Justice Clarence Thomas blocking Graham's subpoena temporarily.

Now why would Thomas do such a thing?  It's not because he, born and bred a Georgia man, just cannot believe that Trump would try to corrupt his (Thomas') native state by trying to overturn an election, is it?

No, of course not.  It's more likely because his wife, a conservative activist, was trying to help get the election overturned herself.

This is just the latest in a series of right-wing extremist rulings form the justice, whose reactionary jurisprudence was once explained by his supporters as the result of anger of women pushing sexual-harassment charges against him during his 1991 U.S. Senate confirmation hearings that left him bitter and vindictive.      

In other words, it's Barbara Boxer's fault.

Yeah, right.

Lindsey Graham will likely have to testify in the grand-jury investigation of Trump in Georgia.  But if Clarence Thomas can't recuse himself when the situation calls for it, how can we be assured that, in a ruling in which he speaks for the majority, justice will be done? 

In response to those who objected to his mere presence on the bench when he first joined the Supreme Court, Justice Thomas is said to have offered these two sentences, each comprised entirely of monosyllabic words - "I'm on the Court.  Get used to it."

Stand Pat

Former Trump White House counsel Pat Cipollone has agreed to testify to the January 6 select committee in the House after refusing to testify for three months.  He will do so tomorrow, which should help the committee - and, accordingly, pressure the Justice Department to investigate Trump's efforts to steal the 2020 presidential election - considerably. And while all of this is going on, another public hearing is scheduled for July 12. 

Meanwhile U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham has been subpoenaed by Fulton County (Georgia) District Attorney Fani Willis and refuses to do so, even though he spoke to Georgia election officials on Trump's behalf and he represents South Carolina and not Georgia.  But Willis has subpoenaed so many other Trump intimates in the process that Graham may have to capitulate just like Cipollone did. 

All of this makes it clear that the nose around Trump is tightening, but given the trouble President Biden and the Democrats are in, it may be Florida governor and 2024 Republican presidential prospect Ron DeSantis who would benefit the most from the trap door being released.  He may even release it himself.  

Graham Crackers

Gwen Graham lost the Democratic nomination for governor of Florida to Tallahassee mayor Andrew Gillum, proving that Florida Democrats have brains.  Whether or not this is true of all Florida voters remains to be seen.  But, considering that they elected Jeb Bush and Rick Scott governor, I'm not optimistic about November.

Meanwhile, South Carolina's Lindsey Graham is suggesting that he'd be just fine with Trump firing Attorney General Sessions, which would stop the Mueller investigation and let Trump get away with all sorts of crimes while consolidating his authority over everything else.

Trump also let Franklin Graham and other evangelical leaders know that there will be violence if the Republicans lose the House.  If that's true, imagine what will happen if the Republicans keep the House!

Awwww . . . wham, Graham, thank you, ma'am! :-p 

The Grand Casualty Act

That's what the Graham-Cassidy Act should be called.

Republican Senators Lindsey Graham (SC) and William Cassidy (LA) have this really dandy idea to replace the Affordable Care Act - give block grants to the states and let them decide how to allocate health care coverage to their residents.  Well, what could be so terrible about that?

The answer would take more paper than was used to write the Dead Sea Scrolls.  But here are the highlights - heavily Democratic states that signed up for Medicaid expansion would get stiffed, more money would be diverted to Republican states before it dried up completely by 2026 - a "sucker punch" as Democratic Senator Tim Kaine would call it - with each state seeing an average 17 percent cut in funding overall in the meantime, premiums would go up for everyone by 20 percent each year, there'd be no protection from higher  insurance costs due to previously existing conditions, and up to 32 million people would lose coverage.  

The Republican leadership in Washington - and Donald Trump - want this bill rammed through the Senate before September 30 so it can pass with only 50 votes plus Vice President Mike Pence's vote due to arcane rules requiring a three-fifths majority when the new fiscal year begins October 1.  (Don't ask me to explain it any further because I'm too angry to bother!)   Then the House would have to pass it as is, without amendments. Why?  Because Speaker Paul Ryan said so.

Right now, Rand Paul of Kentucky refuses to support this repeal of the Affordable Care Act - because it doesn't go far enough! -  and John McCain refuses to do so because it's being rushed without any meaningful debate.  If one more Republican votes no - count on Susan Collins of Maine to be that one more Republican - the bill won't go anywhere.  And then the effort to repeal and "replace" the Affordable Care Act - will be dead for good.

Ha ha!  You thought  I was serious just now, didn't you?  No, efforts to repeal this law are going to go on for as long as there is a Republican Party, and right now it's the Democrats who are in danger of disappearing due to their inability to reverse years of sucking and lameness and become a competently functioning political organization.  Health care repeal is the Hurricane Jose of legislation . . . it just . . . won't . . . go away!    

On the other hand, Hurricane Jose has probably adversely affected fewer people's lives than this bill would if it became law, and even that storm finally dissipated. :-O :-(