Here in the Philadelphia area, you could set off a nuclear bomb and people wouldn’t even notice. That’s how ramped up folks are for the Super Bowl. Of course, I am a New York Giants fan, so I am not sharing in the enthusiasm. But it’s a big event, and today very few people I know are thinking about politics. And that’s a good thing, at least for one day. We all need a mental health break.
My son and I are going to make some chocolate banana bread, eat some shrimp cocktail and burgers and wish Saquon Barkley still played for our team. But I can’t help myself, and I always have a least one eye on politics, especially now that we’re leaving under a fascist regime.
We’re not even three weeks in, and we’ve already gone into a full-blown constitutional crisis. It began on Friday when a federal judge ruled that Elon Musk needs to chill the fuck out.
A federal judge early Saturday temporarily restricted access by Elon Musk’s government efficiency program to the Treasury Department’s payment and data systems, saying there was a risk of “irreparable harm.”
The Trump administration’s new policy of allowing political appointees and “special government employees” access to these systems, which contain highly sensitive information such as bank details, heightens the risk of leaks and of the systems becoming more vulnerable than before to hacking, U.S. District Judge Paul A. Engelmayer said in an emergency order.
Judge Engelmayer ordered any such official who had been granted access to the systems since Jan. 20 to “destroy any and all copies of material downloaded from the Treasury Department’s records and systems.” He also restricted the Trump administration from granting access to those categories of officials.
On Sunday, Vice-President J.D. Vance responded on X/Twitter by asserting “Judges aren’t allowed to control the executive’s legitimate power.” He cited a legal scholar named Adrian Vermeule who wrote, “Judicial interference with legitimate acts of state, especially the internal functioning of a co-equal branch, is a violation of the separation of powers.”
And so the question immediately arises, will the fascist regime simply ignore the federal courts? And what happens if they do?
It’s true that the conservative-controlled Supreme Court may ultimately side with the fascist regime on the Treasury issue and “special government employees,” but they still are bound to pause due to the “irreparable harm” that will occur if they go ahead and then lose the case.
There are many other cases in the works with similar separation of powers issues, and much of what I’m saying here will also apply to them. For what it’s worth, Musk responded to Judge Engelmayer by saying he should be impeached. So, that doesn’t sound like the fascist regime is in a mood to comply.
For the next few hours, we can ignore all this and enjoy some American football. But reality will return tomorrow, and none of this will stop until the fascist regime is defeated.
Go Chiefs.
Well, we all know the answer. They have no intent on obeying a single court order, even if it comes from the highest court. They are simply going to continue to steamroll the Constitution, and if our experience up to this point is any indication, they have a damn good chance of succeeding. The Founding Fathers designed a system based on an unfailing faith in the reasonableness of an informed citizenry who would always respect the rule of law, and a system of checks and balances which all elected officials would respect and honor. We are way past that point of naivete. That ship has sailed.
We had some Nazis show up here yesterday and hang some signs and flags on an interstate overpass. A large number of African American citizens, who lived in a community adjacent to where these Nazis chose to present themselves, decided to show up, en-masse, and confront them. Some guns were waved, strong words exchanged as police just stood by, and the Nazis eventually scampered into the back of their rented U-Haul, tails between their legs, and quickly evacuated the area. The flags and banners were pulled down and set on fire by the counter-protestors. Police did not intervene. There is an anti-fascist rally/demonstration scheduled for next Monday at the overpass site. A protest at the local Police Department is scheduled for tomorrow. The regular city council meeting is tomorrow afternoon, and there will be a large crowd of people attending to demand answers and accountability for this overt fascism in their community. This is what it’s going to take for the next four years, and likely for many years beyond. People need to meet this nose to nose and not take this shit. The people who live in the community which was targeted by the Nazis are not planning on tolerating it. None of us should. This is the opening act of a very long national nightmare. Make no mistake, eventually it will come to everyone’s community. It’s only taken three weeks for it to show up here. There was no blood shed here yesterday, but it’s only a matter of time.