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The Repercussions of Trump v. United States May Finally Be Hitting Roberts
March 22, 2025
President Trump speaking with his index finger raised.
Credit...Damon Winter/The New York Times
By Jamelle Bouie Opinion Columnist
The Supreme Court’s decision last year in Trump v. United States gave the president of the United States criminal immunity for “official acts,” defined as anything that could involve or plausibly extend to the president’s core duties.
Critics of the ruling, such as the constitutional scholar Akhil Reed Amar, were quick to note that the court’s formulation had no basis in the text, structure or history of the Constitution. The dissenting justices in the case, led by Justice Sonia Sotomayor, warned that the ruling would, in effect, make the president a king.
“The court,” Sotomayor wrote, “effectively creates a law-free zone around the president, upsetting the status quo that has existed since the founding.” When the president uses his official powers in any way, she continued, “he now will be insulated from criminal prosecution. Orders the Navy’s SEAL Team 6 to assassinate a political rival? Immune. Organizes a military coup to hold on to power? Immune. Takes a bribe in exchange for a pardon? Immune.”
She was right. In his second term as president, Donald Trump has claimed royal prerogative over the entire executive branch. His lieutenants, likewise, have rejected judicial oversight of his actions, blasting individual judges for supposedly usurping the authority of the president. And it is clear, as well, that Trump attributes this monarchical power to Chief Justice John Roberts. He even thanked him after speaking to a joint session of Congress this month. “Thank you again. Thank you again. Won’t forget,” Trump said, shaking Roberts’s hand as he exited the chamber.
We can’t say for certain what it is that Trump “won’t forget,” but it certainly seems plausible that this was a clear reference to Roberts’s decision in his favor last year.
The president’s belief in his own absolute power and sovereign authority — “He who saves his Country does not violate any Law,” he said last month in a post on his Truth Social network and on X, misquoting a line from the 1970 film “Waterloo” — has gone so far that he has begun to threaten judges who challenge him, calling it, as my newsroom colleague Peter Baker summarized the point, “a high crime and misdemeanor worthy of impeachment for a federal judge to rule against him.”
This, in turn, prompted the chief justice to issue a rare statement. “For more than two centuries, it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision,” he wrote. “The normal appellate review process exists for that purpose.”
It’s a little hard to know what to make of this. One view is that Roberts is issuing a rebuke that may have consequences for any cases the administration has before the court. Another, less charitable view is that Roberts — who has been very sympathetic to Trump’s past claims of broad executive authority, in keeping with his own expansive (perhaps even radical) vision of executive power — is telling Trump that if he backs down, he will get the results he wants.
Whatever the meaning of Roberts’s response, it is clear that Trump is trying to provoke a confrontation with the federal judiciary, which, at this moment, is the only institution in the American political system that can — and will — exercise direct power against the administration. Trump wants to force Roberts to choose between trying to curb a despotic president (thus forcing a standoff between the president and the Supreme Court), and preserving as much of the court’s influence as possible.
Of course, to choose the latter is akin to surrender. And while some people may have faith in Roberts’s willingness to stand up for American constitutional democracy, I don’t think I do.
I’d like to make one additional observation this weekend. Not long after Trump launched his attack on birthright citizenship, the legal scholar Evan D. Bernick wrote a piece for the Law and Political Economy Project on the faulty logic, bad history and anti-constitutional orientation of the president’s executive order. The 14th Amendment, he said, is clear:
The Citizenship Clause is at once a monument to a world-historically successful democratic struggle against domination and a means of its continuance. It promises birthright citizenship to all who would otherwise be subjected to the arbitrary power of regulatory and enforcement mechanisms over which they have no say.
Bernick made another point I want to expand on. He wrote that the administration’s attack on birthright citizenship is “downstream of a constitutionalism that resembles that of the antebellum period.” This “reactionary constitutionalism,” he continued, “is defined by unchecked power over racialized populations which are deemed unfit to govern themselves.”
I want to add that the Trump administration’s vision of a reactionary constitutionalism (if it is even constitutionalism) is reminiscent of the illiberal constitutionalism of the Confederate States of America.
The Confederacy had a constitution and it wasn’t simply a modification of the federal Constitution with an explicit embrace of “compact theory” and ironclad protections for slavery. “The Constitution of the Confederate States,” the legal scholars Mark A. Graber and Howard Gillman wrote in their volume on American constitutionalism, “was the world’s first example of an illiberal constitution, a constitution unambiguously committed to maintaining and perpetuating illiberal practices.”
I am always writing about “ways to understand” one event or another, but perhaps one way to understand the Trump administration’s constitutional thinking is that it is an attempt to bend the U.S. Constitution into something similar. A charter, not for liberty or equality or a free society, but for the domination of some over others.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/22/opinion/john-roberts-trump-us.html
Empathy is so overrated.
https://www.democraticunderground.com/100220167893
Incredible crowd for Bernie Sanders and AOC, “Fighting Oligarchy” tour. More than 34,000 people turned out in Denver, the largest event after a week of barnstorming nationwide.
"The American people are saying loud and clear, we will not accept an oligarchic form of society," Sanders told the crowd.
"We will not accept the richest guy in the world running all over Washington, making cuts to the Social Security administration, cuts to the Veterans Administration, almost destroying the Department of Education all so that they could give over a trillion dollars in tax breaks to the wealthiest 1 percent."
Trump Aides Panic at Social Security Boss’s Shutdown Threat
Story by Gabriel Arana • 11h • 2 min read
Getty Images/SSA
The head of the Social Security Administration is backing down on his threat to shut down the agency after the White House intervened.
On Friday, Interim SSA Comissioner Lee Dudek threatened to close the agency over a judge’s ruling barring Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) from accessing personal data for millions of Americans—including Social Security numbers, baking information, and health records. Dudek said the order as overly broad and could apply to all the agency’s employees, forcing it to close.
But he reversed course after the White House intervened and the judge clarified that his order only applied to DOGE employees.
”I am not shutting down the agency," Dudek said in a statement. “President Trump supports keeping Social Security offices open and getting the right check to the right person at the right time. SSA employees and their work will continue under the TRO.”
Dudek expressed contrition over his alarming remarks after he received a call from the White House.
“[The White House] called me and let me know it’s important to reaffirm to the public that we’re open for business,” he told the Washington Post on Friday. “The White House did remind me that I was out of line and so did the judge, and I appreciate that.”
U.S. District Judge Ellen Hollander issued a temporary restraining order on Thursday blocking “DOGE team members and DOGE affiliates” from accessing any “personally identifiable information” at the SSA. In remarks to Bloomberg and The Washington Post, Dudek claimed the order could apply to anyone at the agency, which would force him to shut down.
“As it stands, I will follow [the judge’s order] exactly and terminate access by all SSA employees to our IT systems,” Dudek told Bloomberg. “Really, I want to turn it off and let the courts figure out how they want to run a federal agency.”
Hollander clarified her order in a letter on Friday.
“Employees of SSA who are not involved with the DOGE Team or in the work of the DOGE Team are not subject to the Order,” Hollander wrote, according to the Post. “Any suggestion that the Order may require the delay or suspension of benefit payments is incorrect.”
Musk’s DOGE has taken an axe to the SSA amid its crusade to cut government spending. The SAA plans to fire 7,000 of its 57,000 employees—12 percent of its total workforce—and shutter 47 of its field offices.
To protect against identity theft, the agency will no longer allow beneficiaries to verify their identities over the phone in order to change direct deposit information, requiring them to do so online or in person.
More than 70 million Americans rely on Social Security benefits. The program has not missed a single payment in more than 80 years of operation.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/trump-aides-panic-at-social-security-boss-s-shutdown-threat/ar-AA1BrZbN?ocid=winp1taskbar&cvid=56b53f5106094635c6c3e054ae661e03&ei=7
Joe Walsh post on X about Trump. Screenshot, not a link.
Can't wait for more attempts by the Trump Administration to rationalize their 'take the pain' advice RE how to handle a recession, especially because of how terribly painful the falling inflation and bird flu induced high egg prices were to Trumpanzees last Fall.
Idiot Rapist Continues Ruining Everything
Friday, March 21st, 2025
by Shower Cap | American Madness Journal | 0 comments
https://showercapblog.com/idiot-rapist-continues-ruining-everything/
Anyway, now Chief Justice Roberts wants the autocrat brat he spoiled to stop attacking federal judges. Probably shoulda thought of that before you elevated him beyond the reach of the law, John.
Following the news these days is like watching the shittiest people alive furiously pound away at a Hungry Hungry Hippos board, where the marbles are, like, massive chunks of the federal budget, or our fundamental human rights. Ukrainian oblasts. Hopes for the future. Stuff like that.
That said, I confess I find all this talk of a constitutional crisis overblown; I thought it was widely understood that tattooing brown skin nullifies due process rights, the way that removing a mattress tag voids the warranty.
Still, it’s probably best to confine expressions of sports fandom to t-shirt purchases for the time being, lest you find yourself deported to a Salvadoran labor camp. Just a heads-up.
And to those who criticize the Turd Reich’s invocation of the Alien Enemies Act, on the (admittedly accurate) grounds that we’re not at war with anyone, all I can say is wait till next week, when they start enforcing the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850.
DOGE sure isn’t firing anybody in immigration enforcement, have you noticed that? Cancer research and air traffic control are luxuries we can no longer afford, but German green card holders ain’t gonna torture themselves, y’know. Too goshdarn many transplant surgeons in this country anyhow, if you ask me. Look, when we deport scientists and researchers for wrongthink, just think of it as a sort of…tariff on people.
And hey, if our longtime allies suddenly find it necessary to warn travelers that their visit to the biggest ball of twine in Minnesota now carries significant risk of long-term incarceration, well, why shouldn’t America’s tourism industry get the same taste of very stable economic genius as the rest of the country?
Understanding that widespread illiteracy represents his best shot at being remembered as anything other than a fuckup and a creep, President Rapist issued an expected edict, pulling the plug on the Department of Education. Of course, he lacks the legal authority to do this, but I find it useful to think of his executive orders as a greedy rich kid’s ever-expanding Xmas list, because you never know what demented new powers Santa SCOTUS will leave under the tree.
Doesn’t have the authority to fire the Democrats on the Federal Trade Commission either, but I bet I can guess how Clarence Thomas’ll vote when the time comes. Shit, that oughta be worth two weeks on the Riviera at the very least.
Anyway, now Chief Justice Roberts wants the autocrat brat he spoiled to stop attacking federal judges. Probably shoulda thought of that before you elevated him beyond the reach of the law, John.
Honestly, why can’t the mean ol’ judiciary submit to the tyrannical executive like the demurely dignity-free Republicans of the legislative branch? Maybe Ted Cruz can give seminars. Or perhaps one of the partners at the freshly cucked Paul Weiss law firm. See, I think Judge Boasberg just needs a little help to understand the benefits of a spine-free life…nobody targeting your wife from a White House pulpit, for a start.
I see the Offal in the Oval also took a sad, flaccid stab at granting himself magical un-pardoning powers. That one, I get, because you know Putin absolutely drrrrrrags him for that shit. “And how is Liz Cheney, Donald? Still valking around free, you say? Tsk tsk. I vas goingk to loan you my personal piss hookers, as a leettle treat, but they tend to geeggle uncontrollably in the face of veakness.”
The Putin thing is why I can’t take the cult of personality around Donald Trump seriously. When the guy who needed a North Korean bailout for his botched war of aggression keeps you waiting for over an hour, one thing you are decisively not is a “strongman.”
You’d think gutting Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, plus not only defunding the investigation into Russia’s kidnapping of thousands of Ukrainian children, but deleting all the accumulated data would merit a little punctuality, but no matter; Wee Don knows his place.
When Pootie Tang finally deigned to come to the phone, he allowed the Shart of the Deal to “negotiate” a teensy-weensy “ceasefire,” limited to energy infrastructure, which he violated ten minutes after hanging up. And then he finger-banged Melania in the Lincoln Bedroom, just cuz.
Elon Musk demands to speak to your manager, America! Why are y’all so mad at him, when he’s “never done anything harmful,” outside of firing more veterans than anyone in history, and condemning millions of Africans to starvation and death?
Now folks are lighting Teslas on fire, without even locking four people inside to die first, which is frankly just wasteful. I see they’re recalling 46,000 Cybertrucks, because some external paneling keeps falling off, and I dunno, you’d think an unlooked-for escape hatch would be a serendipitous development for this particular brand.
Checking in on Musk’s marginally less flammable business, I see the “free speech absolutist” booted Lincoln Project co-founder Rick Wilson from Xwitter, for hurting his fee-fees. “High status males” indeed.
Anyhoo, the rebrand as the official electric vehicle of ascendant American fascism doesn’t seem to be taking, despite the best efforts of multiple Cabinet secretaries. That Lutnick’s a hoot, ain’t he? Strong “Willy Loman at the second-biggest dinner theatre in Wichita” vibes. I guess I’d be madder at the Secretary of Commerce for pimping his party’s biggest donor’s stock on national television if anybody anywhere trusted him enough to take his financial advice, which…nope.
Amidst already plummeting approval ratings, Donnie n’ Elon have apparently decided to dry-hump the notorious third rail of American politics: Social Security. (For those unfamiliar with the metaphor, in a mass transit system, the third rail is the one where they keep the hugs and bunnies.) The one-two punch of ending phone service, plus closing dozens of physical offices is sure to delight the nation’s senior citizens, almost as much as acting Social Security Commissioner Leland Dudek’s petulant threats to shut down the agency entirely. Seriously, have loads of fun with this one, dorks.
The administration’s growing assault on mRNA research probably doesn’t make much sense to you, until you remember those exit polls showing the pancreatic tumor vote’s hard rightward swing last November, particularly in Maricopa County.
If you’d asked me a week ago how I felt about hereditary monarchy, I’d’ve said it’s a bad idea, but that was before I heard the President of the United States gush about his youngest child’s “unbelievable aptitude in technology.” If this kid truly can (and we should definitely seek confirmation before committing) turn on a laptop in less than five minutes, I think we can feed that dusty-ass Constitution straight into the shredder.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth stayed up all night, drunkenly photoshopping himself into Ira Hayes’ spot in that iconic Iwo Jima photograph, as part of a broader project to bleach American military history until no trace remains of Jackie Robinson, Medgar Evers, Colin Powell, Charles Calvin Rogers, Civil War nurses, Navajo Code Talkers…all those dastardly DEI heroes, spreading the dangerous myth that people who are not white and male can achieve things.
Minnesota Republican Justin Eichorn reached the very pinnacle of his pitiful existence this week, when he introduced legislation to formally classify “Trump derangement syndrome” as a mental illness under state law.
And so he felt compelled to celebrate.
And yes, I suppose he technically could have marked the occasion with his wife and four children, perhaps with a pizza party, or a round of miniature golf, but Justin chose a different path.
…the path of soliciting a minor for prostitution. And so Justin got arrested, and was forced to resign from the Minnesota state Senate, in not just regular shame, but pedophile shame. The fate of his hilarious, hilarious TDS bill is unclear at this time.
Treacherous nitwit Mike Flynn has been appointed to the United States Military Academy’s board of visitors, ensuring the next generation of American warfighters will have all the tools necessary to combat the deep state, Sharia law, and human trafficking cabals operating out of nonexistent pizza parlor basements. Of course, should the nation’s next military conflict manifest anywhere in the real world, we’re fucked.
I always get a massive kick out of Jesse Watters’ musings on manhood, because if you’re afraid to eat soup in public, your whole life is a masculinity-free zone. “I-i-if anybody saw me using a s-straw, they might think I’m g-g-gay!” Testosterone crosses the street when it sees you, Jesse.
For Veterans Fired by Trump, the Sense of Betrayal Runs Deep
Mar 20, 2025 10:41 AM CT
Courtesy Jacob Bushno
by Nik Popli Reporter
Popli is a political reporter at TIME, based in the Washington, D.C., bureau, where he covers Congress and the White House. In 2025, he was selected for the National Press Foundation’s Paul Miller Washington Reporting Fellowship.
Jacob Bushno has spent his entire adult life serving his country. He enlisted in the military straight out of high school. After two tours in Iraq as part of the Army’s air assault division, he transitioned into civilian service in the federal workforce.
Last month, just seven days before finishing his one-year probationary period with the U.S. Forest Service, he was abruptly fired. This week, he was rehired.
Like many of the thousands of federal workers caught in the crosshairs of President Donald Trump’s efforts to shrink the federal workforce, Bushno has spent the last few weeks frustrated and confused. But as a veteran, he views his treatment by the new Administration with a different lens.
“I feel very betrayed. All I’ve done my whole life since getting out of high school was serve this country,” says Bushno, 40, who worked in the Shawnee National Forest in Illinois. “I feel like, who's fighting for me, you know?”
Bushno’s rehiring came after a federal judge on Monday ruled the Trump Administration’s mass terminations of probationary workers was illegal. Even as Bushno prepares to return to his position, he remains skeptical about the Administration’s commitment to those who have served. “I don’t trust it, and I think they’re gonna terminate probationary employees again,” he says.
The impact of the Trump Administration's job cuts has reverberated across the federal workforce, where veterans make up nearly 30 percent of civilian employees. The Department of Veterans Affairs has not been spared, with over 1,000 employees—including staff at the Veterans Crisis Line—dismissed. While some have since been rehired, many remain in administrative limbo, left wondering whether they will ever be reinstated.
Read more: Trump Administration Has Reversed Course More Than A Dozen Times
To some veterans, the wave of firings, as well as cuts to workers tasked with helping veterans, has raised deeper questions about the Trump Administration’s commitment to those who served their country in uniform. They say the cuts present a contradiction at the heart of Trump's messaging: while he often positions himself as a champion of veterans, his Administration’s policies in its first months have placed many former service members in financial and professional jeopardy. “If they're the patriotic party, why are you guys firing disabled veterans?” asks Bushno, who says he has PTSD from his tours in Iraq.
The political fallout from the firings may already be shaping upcoming congressional battles and the 2026 midterm elections. VoteVets, a progressive veterans’ organization, recently launched a six-figure ad campaign targeting Republican lawmakers in competitive districts, highlighting the economic uncertainty veterans face under the Trump Administration. The ad features laid off veterans discussing their growing frustration with the political forces behind the job cuts.
“I did not put my life on the line for some tech bro billionaire from South Africa to come in here and try to destroy our country,” one of the veterans says, referring to White House advisor Elon Musk, who heads the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which has played a role in the cuts.
Exit polling from the November presidential election showed that veterans were much more likely to support Trump than his opponent, with more than 6 in 10 veterans casting their ballot for him.
Ross Dickman, the chief executive of Hire Heroes, a nonprofit that helps veterans find employment, said his organization has seen a sharp increase in veterans seeking help compared to a year ago. He cautioned that while the labor market is strong, “it’s not enough to really overcome the amount of unemployed veterans that we’re going to see entering the market.”
Tony Ruiz, a veteran from Orange County, Calif., was proud to be hired by the Department of Veterans Affairs last year as a Veteran Service Representative. Then he was fired last month, 10 days before his probation period was set to end. He says he was especially shocked to see the phrase “unacceptable performance” in his termination letter, after becoming the first employee in his division to win an employee of the quarter award in August. The firing left Ruiz feeling abandoned: “I feel like I got a big F-you from the American people, and I feel betrayed.”
Former Veterans Affairs employee Tony Ruiz and VA Under Secretary Josh Jacobs pose in Los Angeles after Ruiz received an employee of the quarter award, which Jacobs presented to him. Courtesy Tony Ruiz
Ruiz says he had been recruited for the position by the VA and jumped at the opportunity. “I said to myself, this is a chance to serve my country again, serve the veterans again. So I took it, but ultimately it cost me my livelihood and it cost my career,” he says.
Although he was technically still a probationary worker like many others let go, Ruiz suspects his firing was politically motivated and a result of his criticism of emails sent by the acting secretary to VA employees unwinding some of the agency’s diversity, equity and inclusion policies.
Unlike other probationary employees, Ruiz has not been offered reinstatement and believes it’s because he failed the Administration’s unofficial “loyalty test.” “As an American soldier, as a veteran, we value the oath. And so for me, I didn't take an oath to a king, or take an oath to the Administration.”
“I'd rather be homeless… than to bow down to Donald Trump,” he adds.
In a statement to TIME, VA press secretary Pete Kasperowicz said that Ruiz was fired for “poor performance” and that “his dismissal had nothing to do with VA’s Feb. 13 and Feb. 24 probationary termination announcements.”
In Congress, Democrats are pushing legislation aimed at protecting veterans in the federal workforce. Sens. Tammy Duckworth of Illinois and Andy Kim of New Jersey introduced a bill last week that would require the Trump Administration to reinstate veterans who were terminated and provide transparency on future dismissals.
Duckworth, herself a disabled veteran, has been particularly outspoken, calling the Administration’s actions a betrayal. “He says he loves veterans. No, he doesn't,” she tells TIME. “He's firing veterans left and right. These are people who served their country in uniform and then chose to enter federal service to continue serving this country.”
Trump has repeatedly defended the workforce cuts. Asked last week whether he feels responsible for people losing their jobs, Trump said: "Sure I do. I feel very badly ... but many of them don’t work at all. Many of them never showed up to work."
White House counselor Alina Habba on March 4 suggested that some veterans working in the federal government were perhaps “not fit” for their positions. “As you know, we care about veterans tremendously… But at the same time, we have taxpayer dollars, we have a fiscal responsibility to use taxpayer dollars to pay people that actually work,” Habba told reporters.
“That doesn’t mean that we forget our veterans by any means. We are going to care for them in the right way, but perhaps they’re not fit to have a job at this moment, or not willing to come to work. … I wouldn’t take money from you and pay somebody and say, ‘Sorry, they’re not going to come to work.’ It’s just not acceptable,” Habba said.
In response to a lawsuit filed by 20 Democratic attorneys general, U.S. District Judge James K. Bredar on Monday ruled that the mass firings were conducted illegally and ordered the administration to reinstate affected employees. More than 24,000 probationary employees across 18 agencies have since been offered their jobs back. Agencies are still sorting out how to bring back those workers and give them the back pay ordered by the courts.
Yet the Trump Administration has signaled that its broader push to downsize the federal workforce is far from over. Already, the VA is planning to cut more than 80,000 workers beginning in June in an attempt to return to 2019 staffing levels, according to an internal memo obtained by TIME. Other agencies are planning similar reductions.
Despite his misgivings with the new Administration, Ruiz says he fears losing his house and would take his job back if offered. “But then again if they don’t, I will never work for this government again,” he says.
https://time.com/7270148/trump-veterans-va-fired/?utm_source=beehiiv&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter-daily-spotlight&_bhlid=923f6659bda5c62bd6a27150d8273449086f9d41
Yup
'Devotion to the MAGA cult': Trump voters sacrificing their families’ 'safety' to 'own the liberals'
Story by Alex Henderson • 52m • 4 min read
Cost of 'ownership' rising faster than the cost of eggs?
President Donald Trump at a MAGA rally in Mesa, Arizona in 2018 (Gage Skidmore)
© provided by AlterNet
Some voters who supported Donald Trump in the 2024 election are now expressing buyer's remorse, including government workers who were abruptly laid off because of the mass downsizing of the federal workforce being carried out by the Trump Administration with the help of the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Others are upset because they are now realizing that Trump's steep new tariffs on Canada, Mexico and other countries will hurt them financially — or because they are troubled by Musk's anti-Social Security comments.
Such voters are likely to be independents or swing voters who favored Trump in 2024 because they blamed then-President Joe Biden for inflation — even if they voted for Biden in 2020. And now, they are deciding that Trump is hurting, not helping, them economically.
But Salon's Amanda Marcotte describes a different type of 2024 Trump voter in an article published on March 21: those whose "devotion to the MAGA cult" remains strong despite the ways in which Trump is making their lives worse.
READ MORE: Sabotaging Social Security: Behind the leaked memo to cut agency staff and critical services
Marcotte points to Wisconsin resident Bradley Bartell as a prime example. Although his Peruvian wife, Camila Mun~oz, is in danger of being deported back to Peru, he doesn't regret voting for Trump in 2024.
"Losing your wife to own the liberals: Sounds like a parody of a Donald Trump voter, but it's turning out to be the story of Bradley Bartell, a Wisconsin man whose wife, Camila Mun~oz, is being detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement," Marcotte explains. "Mun~oz is a Peruvian immigrant who overstayed a visa, after being trapped in the country during the pandemic.
She met Bartell while working illegally in the U.S., but because she married an American and is working on a green card, the couple thought it was safe to go on their honeymoon in Puerto Rico. Now, she is sitting in a Louisiana detention center, having been arrested at the airport."
Marcotte continues, "Initially, much of the reaction to this story was framed in terms of 'regret,' with some outlets claiming Bartell is 'questioning' his vote. It's an understandable error…. I took to Bluesky and warned people that there was no evidence that Bartell had learned a lesson, gently predicting he would stand by Trump. On Wednesday, (March 19), that prediction came true, with Bartell telling Newsweek, 'I don't regret the vote,' even as he asked people to donate to GoFundMe to raise cash for Mun~oz's bond."
Bartell, Marcotte notes, "twisted himself in knots to argue that this wasn't Trump's fault."
"None of this is to single Bartell out," Marcotte argues. "On the contrary, the reason it was so easy to predict how he would react is that this is typical of most Trump voters, whose devotion to the MAGA cult reliably outstrips what should be more pressing concerns, such as the safety of their families.
We saw this during the pandemic, as Republican voters — unable to admit liberals could be right about anything, including the germ theory of disease — refused to take precautions and even rejected the vaccines that Trump himself had authorized research funding for. The result was also predictable: death rates from COVID-19 among Republicans swiftly outpaced those of Democratic voters."
Marcotte draws a parallel between the "MAGA cult" and Scientologists. And she makes a distinction between MAGA diehards and "low-information" swing voters who favored Biden in 2020 and Trump in 2024.
"The term 'Trump derangement syndrome,' applied to anyone who criticizes Trump, functions like 'suppressive persons,' the Scientologist phrase for outsiders," Marcotte writes. "It doesn't just warn members against listening to reason, but contains a threat: this is how you'll be labeled if you leave the fold….
Think of these folks like people who get audited by a Scientologist once, on a lark, but are weirded out by the process and never go back. Not everyone who encounters a cult is sucked into it forever. The key is focusing on those who never put more than a toe across the threshold, instead of those who walked all the way in and shut the door behind them."
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/devotion-to-the-maga-cult-trump-voters-sacrificing-their-families-safety-to-own-the-liberals/ar-AA1Bopir?ocid=winp1taskbar&cvid=90804b475755430abc1565b368973a60&ei=4
I'm just wondering who is paying for the beauty treatments for Pam, Tulsi and Christi. That work ain't cheap.
Pam is 59
Tulsi is 43
Christi is 53
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Try and post something intelligent. If you can't then it sucks to be you.
There are posters who still don't seem to understand the above. Posting nonsensical posts are simply thread disruptions when it comes to
the main topic of the board. However other topics of the day such as sports, weather and trivia are certainly allowed considering that we all need
a little break now and again.
At a formal cocktail party 2 things that should never be discussed are religion and politics. Consider the dress code here semi-formal. You can discuss religion (in context with the news of the day) but preaching to the choir/heathens will get you sent off. No one here is looking to be converted.
And by all means please read this post. No explanation is needed.
How Trolls Are Ruining the Internet
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=124646062
Please do not post links to boards where posters here can not respond to the referenced link. It is frustrating not to be able to refute the original post.
A 4-Step Guide to Ranting Productively
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=141041965
The 25 Words You Need to Stop Saying to Improve Your Communication Skills
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=140233496
Congratulations!
You have finally reached the end of the internet!
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=144506693
Journalists are not the enemy
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=142942649
You Have a Right to Weariness
The struggle for goodness and decency is an eternal struggle, not a seasonal one.
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=144842805
All people are welcome to post here and I'll put a moratorium on banning and the inmates have been set free. I don't think banning in hindsight was the right way to go.
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