Kings and Knaves

Britain's King Charles III could have, as many people wished he would have, stayed home and not visited the United States to celebrate this sorry excuse for a nation for its semiquincentennial (doesn't that word make you want to throw up??).  But it was good that he did.

The king addressed a joint session of Congress last week with a speech citing the American government's foundation on English common law and how the Supreme Court preserved the separation of powers by constantly citing the Magna Carta that King John was forced to agree to back in 1215 to limit his powers.  It was the ultimate humiliation for These States - it took a king, and the descendant of the very king we revolted against 250 years ago, to teach Congress about American democracy.

Charles scored another coup with Trump, bequeathing him a bell for display on, say, the narrow elevation of the dining room of the White House or Mar-a-Lago, or on the stern of the yacht . . .a bell end, which is British slang for "dickhead."  What more would you expect from a king who, as Prince of Wales, was a big fan of and also a close friend of comedian Spike Milligan?

All of this obviously went over the heads of the bell-enders in MAGA, who likely think that Magna Carta is a credit card and Spike Milligan is that black guy from Brooklyn who makes all those movies sermonizing about racism.  And it certainly didn't move the Republicans manipulating the congressional district maps in the South, with most of the Southern states redrawing their U.S. House districts to get rid of as many black-majority districts - and as many Democratic-majority districts, which are the same thing down in Dixie - as possible.  Democrats in the one Southern state where a redistricting plan worked out to benefit their own party - Virginia, which is so full of transplanted Northeasterners (including the New Jersey-born Abigail Spanberger, the state's governor) that it's not even a Southern state anymore (hey, it is north of 36°30′) - got a serious blow to their efforts when the state Supreme Court threw out the referendum that allowed gerrymandering to maximize Democratic U.S. House representation from the state, striking it down on a technicality.  Now the Democrats are at a disadvantage in being able to win back the House.  It can still be done, but this revolting development makes it far more difficult.

The Attorney General of Virginia placed a stay on the state Supreme Court's decision to see if he can appeal the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court on the basis of a constitutional violation.  Not because he believes that the conservative majority on the U.S. Supreme Court will side with him, but to use a delay tactic, which could work if he can take his time to make sure that the Court hears the case too late for the old district maps to be used in time for the November elections.

Meanwhile, the effort to redraw that U.S. House district maps in Louisiana has prompted Governor Jeff Landry to suspend primary elections even after people have voted early.

Pundits and activists like Steve Schmidt and Sarah Longwell keep saying that we have to get through a very difficult and destructive period, but we can wait out Trump, and as soon as a Democratic President is in office on January 20, 2029 (and just how do they know that will come to pass?), we can start, the long, arduous work of rebuilding what Trump has torn down.  No.  There will be no more waiting - at least not for me.  The United States has demonstrated quite clearly that its experiment in representative government of this sort has failed.  And thanks to issues like the war in Iran and tariffs, the U.S. has also demonstrated with equal clarity that it can no longer be trusted or taken seriously in the international community as a responsible actor.  Our "President" has been too much of an irresponsible actor - a "reality" show actor who, since 2004, has been playing a parody of himself - for there to be anything left to rebuild and for any international trust to be regained by the time he does leave the scene.  That is why I still support the dissolution of the Union.  That is why I am still a secessionist.