Showing posts with label Michael Waldman. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Michael Waldman. Show all posts

Wednesday, July 1, 2026

Quotes Of The Day -- On Birthright Citizenship And Gutting Campaign Finance Reforms

 

"... The very idea of questioning birthright citizenship under the 14th amendment had been deader than Marley, either Jacob or Bob, for more than 130 years, which isn’t surprising given that the amendment establishes it in unambiguous language. Even the 180 proof racist nativism of 19th century federal judges didn’t deny this reality.

"But nothing — absolutely nothing — is ever good enough or off the table for our own racist nativism, which has managed to achieve escape velocity from all social and legal reality, as it marinates in a poisonous atmosphere of resentment and hatred.

"That these people can’t even see that the Supreme Court is the very best friend right wing reaction has ever had in this country — and not merely at present but for about 93% of that ignominious institution’s existence — is a testament to how the reactionary right in this country can’t be bargained with, can’t be reasoned with, doesn’t feel remorse or pity or fear, and absolutely will not stop, ever, until anything like cultural pluralism, religious and intellectual liberty, and even any semblance of liberal democracy in America, are dead."  -- law professor Paul Campos, LGM, in "Terminating America With Extreme Prejudice" yesterday. 

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"... The Constitution is not a functional document if it can be swept aside so easily at the behest of a fascist sitting atop the executive branch. The Constitution is not a functional document if it can be overruled by a simple majority in Congress. The Constitution is not a functional document if it can be gutted based on a handful of members of the nation’s highest court so eagerly deciding to abdicate their duties.

"As constitutional law professor Evan Bernick put it yesterday, 'Nothing bad in the United States is ever over, including constitutional things. These were the same arguments rejected over a century ago, and they’ll be back again and we’ll have to kill them again.'”  -- attorney Lisa Needham, today in "Public Notice" Substack, on "A Vote Away From Undoing The Civil War."

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“Today’s campaign finance ruling is part of the Roberts Court’s 16-year drive to destroy anti-corruption laws. From Citizens United forward, these justices have ushered in an era of massive money in politics. If you don’t like the way the political system is working, blame the Supreme Court.

“Here, the Court again overrode the law passed by Congress, going against the wishes of the vast majority of the American public who want reasonable campaign finance limits. The questions at the heart of this case were for Congress to answer, not nine unelected justices.

“The Court’s campaign finance vendetta has given wealthy donors outsized influence, resulting in a fusion of private wealth and political power unseen since the Gilded Age. Public trust in our institutions is plummeting. Congress must act to curb corruption arising from the flood of money in elections and restore Americans’ faith in government. Ambitious reform is long overdue.”
 -- Michael Waldman, president and CEO at the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law, on the Republican SCOTUS' dismantling campaign finance anti-corruption laws to benefit their rotted-out party in National Republican Senatorial Committee v. Federal Election Commission.

 

We have a lot to do to undo the damage these rats-in-robes have done to our country and its Constitution.  We must undo it with the same zeal and commitment that they've employed over the past two decades, and make sure that our reconstructed system won't allow for their anti- democratic, un- Constitutional, un- American radicalism to hold sway over the American majority again.


Saturday, May 23, 2026

"Epic Corruption In Plain Sight"

 



From Michael Waldman, Brennan Center for Justice, on the Malignant Fascist's "Epic Corruption in Plain Sight": 

"...There is a zone of lawlessness around the Oval Office, erected by the Supreme Court when it granted current and former presidents effective immunity from prosecution if their crimes involved 'official acts.' Loot the taxpayers, misuse government power for graft, and you’re off the hook.

Last week, the president filed a report with the Office of Government Ethics detailing the stock trades he made this year. It is a novelistic tale of profiteering, recognizable as insider trading in every way except, perhaps, under the law. 

Former U.S. Pardon Attorney Liz Oyer offers a useful guide.

In recent months, as Paramount and Netflix vied to buy Warner Brothers, Trump bought stock in all three companies. Now the Justice Department is considering whether to approve Paramount’s purchase of Warner Brothers.

As CNBC reported, Trump 'scooped up shares' in the data firm Palantir. Soon after, he abruptly praised the firm. 'Palantir Technologies (PLTR) has proven to have great war fighting capabilities and equipment,' Trump posted, even highlighting its ticker name. 'Just ask our enemies!!!' All this while Palantir was winning big federal contracts.

He invested in Oracle while brokering its deal to buy TikTok.

Just this week, he paraded off Air Force One in China, flanked by the CEOs of Nvidia and Boeing. Trump bought millions of dollars of Boeing stock before the trip, which led to the sale of 200 Boeing airplanes to the Chinese government. Among his biggest purchases has been Nvidia stock, which has seen steep increases after the U.S. government cleared 10 Chinese companies to purchase its advanced chips, in a big reversal from earlier national security concerns..." 

Financially stressed Americans going about their daily lives may only be getting a fraction of the fraction of the corporate media's coverage of the MF's corruption, if that.  (Some have said, beyond the risk they run for angering the unstable MF, the notion of the MF's corruption is already "baked in" and, therefore, not much a story for them -- which, of course, allows him to get away with just short of murder.)  This fog of cowardice/ exhaustion needs to be overcome by a strong focus on the MF's corruption during the campaign season and beyond.  It's not only a righteous focus, but a politically potent one for Democrats.

(Illustration:  Khoa Tran, Vanity Fair/ photos from Getty Images)