Trump declares war on Chicago; Vance calls BS on due process

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Trump and Vance have taken to social media in the last 24 hours to showcase their utter disdain for the rule of law, due process and the Constitution. Their actions are impeachable offenses but unfortunately for US patriots and constitutionalists, their party is 100 percent on board with authoritarianism. I don't know how you can look at the events of this week and come to any other conclusion. 

First, JD Vance used social media to let everyone know that extrajudicial murders conducted by US military are fine by him. His statement was in response to the Trump administration's boast that the US military blew up a boat in international waters, killing all 11 people on board. Trump and his team claimed without evidence that the people on the boat were smuggling drugs to the US from Venezuela and thus, the US government acted as judge, jury and executioner, no evidence or trial needed to prove any guilt before execution. 

In response to this act of violence, JD Vance did what JD Vance loves to do - lie to justify the illegal actions of the Trump administration. Blowing up a boat and killing all on board without providing ANY evidence but verbal claims of cartel membership is in no way "the highest and best use of our military." It is absurd and horrifying to see the US VP bragging about this publicly. In doing so, he got into a back and forth with Brian Krassenstein on Twitter/X and admitted that he doesn't "give a shit" that Krassenstein calls it a war crime:



As far as I can tell, only one elected Republican has pushed back against Vance's assertion that abandoning due process is the American way - Rand Paul (who usually sides with Trump) – openly wonders on X if Vance ever read "To Kill a Mockingbird" and goes on to say that Vance's social media post is a "despicable and thoughtless sentiment... to glorify killing someone without a trial." 


But Vance was just the JV team warming us up before the Big Orange Guy came on the field. Trump took it even further - the man who dodged the draft during the Vietnam War by claiming "bone spurs" cooked up an AI version of himself as Lt. Col. Bill Kilgore, played by Robert Duvall in "Apocalypse Now," only instead of drooling over the smell of napalm, Trump drools over the the smell of deportation in Chicago and promises that Chicago will soon "find out why it's called the Department of War." 

(As an aside and perhaps to be further explored in a post at another time, Trump has unilaterally decided to change the name of the Department of Defense to the Department of War. It remains unclear where the funding to change the name on all official signs, documents, etc., will come from, in that Congress, not Trump, has the power of the purse.) 

Trump's Truth Social post from 090625

In declaring war on Chicago, Trump has gone beyond the pale. There is NO city in America that requires a military intervention. People in Chicago took to the streets in protest yesterday:

                                            Photo from Talia Sprague, BlockClub Chicago 090625


Unfortunately, all of Trump's illegal and unconstitutional actions seem to be supported by protectors on SCOTUS. While lower courts are halting Trump's illegal actions, SCOTUS, using the shadow docket, has been overturning lower court bans on Trump's actions - while providing no legal justifications for doing so. Amy Coney Barrett, one of the six extreme rightwing political operatives pushed onto the nation's highest court by the extremist right wing organization The Federalist Society, has written a memoir and granted her first interview to Bari Weiss, a rightwing political operative pretending to be a journalist. In the interview, Barrett claimed, as per NBC News, she "wouldn't know what a constitutional crisis would look like." She then went on to say that we are not in a constitutional crisis now, which is incredible - she has no idea what a crisis would look like but is sure we are not in one now. 

That is a stunning confession of ignorance (or is it arrogance?) from a SCOTUS justice and any SCOTUS justice who claims they cannot identify what a constitutional crisis would look like should be removed for incompetence. When president orders the military to invade US cities, that is a constitutional crisis that needs to be addressed. When the president cancels funding from budgets passed by Congress, that is unconstitutional and should not be a protected action wit a SCOTUS ruling. 

Instead, Barrett and her rightwing allies on the court have decided to let Trump continue to break the law by ruling in Trump's favor in almost all "emergency applications." This means they will allow Trump to continue breaking laws until the cases finally reach SCOTUS. It's disgusting - and even more so given that SCOTUS never constrained themselves from reining in Biden when they saw "executive overreach." 

We are in the midst of a deranged and lawless era in US history. The Republican Party and its leaders have abandoned the Constitution and the rule of law. Trump is gearing up for authoritarian rule by sending military troops (illegally) into US cities. Constitutionally, Trump cannot send troops to Chicago, but the Constitution has never been a barrier to Trump. SCOTUS has given him free rein to engage in all "official acts" with immunity from any prosecution ever. And so it's onto Chicago and God bless us all. 






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