• Menu
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Before Header

  • About Us
  • Lexicon
  • Contact Us
  • Our Store
  • ↑
  • ↓

Balloon Juice

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

Anne Laurie is a fucking hero in so many ways. ~ Betty Cracker

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

Donald Trump found guilty as fuck – May 30, 2024!

Fundamental belief of white supremacy: white people are presumed innocent, minorities are presumed guilty.

“But what about the lurkers?”

Let me file that under fuck it.

… pundit janitors mopping up after the gop

They punch you in the face and then start crying because their fist hurts.

When I was faster i was always behind.

If you don’t believe freedom is for everybody, then the thing you love isn’t freedom, it is privilege.

They traffic in fear. it is their only currency. if we are fearful, they are winning.

Republicans in disarray!

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. keep building.

Shut up, hissy kitty!

Stamping your little feets and demanding that they see how important you are? Not working anymore.

Republican speaker of the house Mike Johnson is the bland and smiling face of evil.

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

At some point, the ability to learn is a factor of character, not IQ.

Radicalized white males who support Trump are pitching a tent in the abyss.

White supremacy is terrorism.

Today’s gop: why go just far enough when too far is right there?

This fight is for everything.

Polls are now a reliable indicator of what corporate Republicans want us to think.

Mobile Menu

  • 4 Directions VA 2025 Raffle
  • 2025 Activism
  • Donate with Venmo, Zelle & PayPal
  • Site Feedback
  • War in Ukraine
  • Submit Photos to On the Road
  • Politics
  • On The Road
  • Open Threads
  • Topics
  • Authors
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Lexicon
  • Our Store
  • Politics
  • Open Threads
  • 2025 Activism
  • Garden Chats
  • On The Road
  • Targeted Fundraising!
You are here: Home / Archives for Politics / Activist Judges!

Activist Judges!

GOP Venality Open Thread: The Emil Bove Nomination

by Anne Laurie|  July 17, 20253:27 pm| 114 Comments

This post is in: Activist Judges!, Proud to Be A Democrat, Republican Venality, Trump Crime Cartel

Call … write … try to get through their aura of shamelessness. If Emil Bove gets a lifetime appointment, he'll be Trump's next SCOTUS nominee. And he's only 44.

[image or embed]

— Khashoggi's Ghost (@urocklive1.bsky.social) July 17, 2025 at 2:30 PM


 
Very much a developing story (3.2 thousand Bluesky posts and rising by the minute)…

Emil Bove would be a blank check for Donald Trump with a lifetime appointment. Having him on the bench would be a danger to our country.
He’s so bad that 900 DOJ alumni have urged the Senate to reject his nomination.
Senate Democrats just stood up for the rule of law.

[image or embed]

— Ken Martin (@kenmartin.bsky.social) July 17, 2025 at 12:18 PM

===

Who among us hasn’t left a job and had 900 of our former colleagues sign a letter saying we’re unqualified, dishonest assholes?

[image or embed]

— Daniel Roberts???? (@drobertsimg.bsky.social) July 16, 2025 at 2:25 PM

===

Senate Dems walk out of the GOP farce of rubberstamping the judicial nomination of fascist goon Emil Bove

[image or embed]

— Brad Johnson (@climatebrad.hillheat.com) July 17, 2025 at 12:23 PM

===

show full post on front page

Emil Bove judge confirmation moves step closer despite Democratic walkout.
Republicans refuse to call whistleblower who says Bove advocated ignoring court orders to Senate judiciary panel.
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025…

[image or embed]

— Liz (or Lizzie) Kim ??? ?? (@liz.sheshed.rocks) July 17, 2025 at 1:23 PM


===

Grassley is a bad man.

[image or embed]

— Clean Observer (@hammbear2024.bsky.social) July 17, 2025 at 11:22 AM

===

Manu Raju: All Democrats on the Judiciary Committee walked out as they were objecting to Bove's nomination to a powerful appellate court. He was Trump's personal lawyer. He led the investigation into the January 6th prosecutors. Bove told his team to ignore court orders to halt deportation flights

[image or embed]

— FactPost (@factpostnews.bsky.social) July 17, 2025 at 11:52 AM

===

Emil Bove is up for a lifetime appointment. This is not a time to rush through the process, violate the rules, and end debate. But that’s what Republicans on the Judiciary Committee just did. I was the next to speak and they barred us from debating. So we walked out.

— Amy Klobuchar (@amyklobuchar.com) July 17, 2025 at 2:22 PM

===

@whitehouse.senate.gov explains why Dems walked out — and why Bove's nomination may not have been advanced properly.

[image or embed]

— emptywheel (@emptywheel.bsky.social) July 17, 2025 at 2:44 PM

===

And @booker.senate.gov on his efforts to get Bove to answer about his role in the Epstein coverup.

[image or embed]

— emptywheel (@emptywheel.bsky.social) July 17, 2025 at 2:49 PM

===

“Cory Booker is asking if Bove was involved in the Epstein shit. Are Democrats actually learning how to fight?” — Adam Parkhomenko
Thank you, Adam. Another great read. And Dems need to finally take their gloves off or we’re done.

[image or embed]

— Stefan ?? (@stefank1117.bsky.social) July 17, 2025 at 12:20 PM

===

BREAKING: Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously advance former Fox News host and election denier Jeanine Pirro’s nomination as U.S. Attorney for D.C. to the Senate floor after Democrats walked out in protest of Bove’s nomination.
From: @jimsaksa.com

[image or embed]

— Democracy Docket (@democracydocket.com) July 17, 2025 at 10:47 AM

GOP Venality Open Thread: The Emil Bove NominationPost + Comments (114)

Repubs in Disarray Open Thread

by Anne Laurie|  May 17, 20257:39 pm| 140 Comments

This post is in: Activist Judges!, Republicans in Disarray!

Well if you want to feel better, the last 24 hours have been profoundly bad and humiliating for the Trump admin and probably a very good example of political gravity still being very much a thing.

— Schnorkles O'Bork (@schnorkles.bsky.social) May 17, 2025 at 8:44 AM

Everyone hates the term political capital, but it's pretty clear that Trump has used all of his.

— Schnorkles O'Bork (@schnorkles.bsky.social) May 17, 2025 at 8:44 AM

Most people missed this? I did.
Too much going on. I know. But MAGA sure didn't.

[image or embed]

— LOLGOP (@thefarce.org) May 17, 2025 at 4:59 PM

Maybe ACB is more of a cynic than I thought?….

Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s remarks in court on Thursday have sparked MAGA backlash online, with some saying President Donald Trump made a “huge mistake” appointing her to the bench.

The nation’s highest court was hearing arguments about whether lower courts have the authority to block Trump’s executive order to end birthright citizenship, which ensures that children born in the U.S. are citizens regardless of their parents’ status.

During the hearing, Justice Coney Barrett questioned the solicitor general over the Trump administration’s approach to complying with court rulings.

Coney Barrett, who was nominated by Trump in 2020, has emerged as a more centrist judge than expected in certain Supreme Court cases and has been criticized by Trump supporters for voting against her conservative colleagues in the past…

Once again, online MAGA proponents have called Justice Amy Coney Barrett as “a radical liberal,” saying she was disloyal to Trump.

Justices, who are given a life appointment, typically are seen as either conservative or liberal depending on which president nominated them. Barrett has more often than not voted along conservative lines, including for the overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022, but has sided with the Court’s three liberal justices in opposing the majority’s decision to allow the administration to continue deporting alleged gang members under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798.

On Thursday, during oral arguments over birthright citizenship, Barrett asked Solicitor General D. John Sauer whether the Trump administration “wanted to reserve its right to maybe not follow a Second Circuit precedent, say, in New York, because you might disagree with the opinion?”

Solicitor General Sauer said the “general practice” is to “respect those precedents,” but “there are circumstances when it is not a categorical practice.” Barrett then asked if he meant he believes that is the “general practice” of only the Trump administration or the federal government.

Sauer replied that he understands it to be the “long-standing practice of the Department of Justice.”

“Really?” responded Barrett…

The court will hand down its ruling in the birthright citizenship case later this year. Meanwhile, several of Trump’s other executive orders are facing legal challenges and making their way through the court. Barrett’s decisions have become a key swing vote in some of these cases and she could continue wielding that power.

… Or maybe the smarter Dominionists have decided Trump is a sunk cost?

Repubs in Disarray Open ThreadPost + Comments (140)

Saturday Morning Open Thread: A Ray of Hope

by Anne Laurie|  May 17, 20258:14 am| 127 Comments

This post is in: Activist Judges!, Immigration, Supreme Court

BREAKING: The Supreme Court holds that the Trump administration violated the due process rights of Venezuelan migrants last month in its rushed effort to expel them to El Salvador in the middle of the night (which SCOTUS blocked). Alito and Thomas dissent. www.documentcloud.org/documents/25…

— Mark Joseph Stern (@mjsdc.bsky.social) May 16, 2025 at 3:51 PM

I expected this, but I expected 5-4.
Gorsuch and Kav being in the majority here is unexpected and I think indicates how much of a longshot a lot of Trump's admins actions are in SCOTUS.
This is such a rebuke I almost expect them to drive us into a nullification crisis over it.

[image or embed]

— Schnorkles O'Bork (@schnorkles.bsky.social) May 16, 2025 at 4:10 PM

Also this, there is pretty clear evidence now that even Gorsuch and Kav are unwilling to give the government the benefit of the doubt that they will act in good faith.

[image or embed]

— Schnorkles O'Bork (@schnorkles.bsky.social) May 16, 2025 at 4:23 PM

Notably, SCOTUS is saying here, in direct response to Trumps "We won't have a country" rant, is that "no, you have to give all of them trials."
The Habeas petition crap is not my favorite, but the court saying "They have to be able to know they can contact counsel, contact counsel

— Schnorkles O'Bork (@schnorkles.bsky.social) May 16, 2025 at 4:19 PM

He's big mad but he's not talking like he's going to defy them

[image or embed]

— Chatham Harrison dba TRUMP DELENDUS EST (@chathamharrison.bsky.social) May 16, 2025 at 5:21 PM

Saturday Morning Open Thread: A Ray of HopePost + Comments (127)

Saturday Morning Open Thread: Howard Lutnick Is Socially Secure

by Anne Laurie|  March 22, 20254:47 am| 412 Comments

This post is in: Activist Judges!, C.R.E.A.M., Democratic Response to Trump 2.0, Open Threads, Trump Crime Cartel

That rich coming from Commerce Secretary, Howard Lutnick, a billionaire. ??

[image or embed]

— AnnieForTruth (@anniefortruth1.bsky.social) March 21, 2025 at 10:38 PM

Perpetually, proudly grifter-adjacent Cantor Fitzgerald macher Howard Lutnick will never need to worry about a missed earned-benefits check. And I guess he figures that if his security detail was good enough to protect him when he used the last paychecks of his employees slaughtered on 9/11 as a ‘safety net’ for the Cantor Fitzgerald corner offices, they’re good enough to keep the mobs of angry Olds and crips from showing up next time he goes on Fox News to shill for Shadow President Musk’s Wankpanzer…

Imagine what will happen if 25-30% of SS recipients don’t get their monthly payment: They wouldn’t have that money, people who receive payments in following weeks would cut way down on spending, there’d be greater than usual withdrawals from 401(k)’s, etc
It’s one out of five Americans!

[image or embed]

— Dana Houle (@danahoule.bsky.social) March 21, 2025 at 2:58 PM

Trump Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick explains that elderly people who would complain about not receiving their Social Security checks are fraudsters.

[image or embed]

— MaddowBlog (@maddowblog.msnbc.com) March 21, 2025 at 10:51 PM

Gonna invest everything I have into pitchfork and torch futures

[image or embed]

— Phillip Anderson (@phillipanderson.bsky.social) March 21, 2025 at 5:06 PM

Not so fact, Bunky, says Judge Hollander — per the Washington Post, “Federal judge pushes back on acting Social Security head over threat to close agency”:

Acting Social Security commissioner Leland Dudek threatened Thursday evening to bar Social Security Administration employees from accessing its computer systems in response to a judge’s order blocking the U.S. DOGE Service from accessing sensitive taxpayer data.

Less than 24 hours later — after the judge rejected his argument and the White House intervened — Dudek is saying he was “out of line.”

Dudek initially told news outlets, including in a Friday interview with The Washington Post, that the judge’s decision to bar sensitive data access to “DOGE affiliates” was overly broad and that to comply, he might have to block virtually all SSA employees from accessing the agency’s computer systems. But Judge Ellen Lipton Hollander of the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, who issued the order, said in a letter that Dudek’s assertions “were inaccurate.”

“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 in the letter on Friday sent to lawyers involved in the case. “ … Moreover, any suggestion that the Order may require the delay or suspension of benefit payments is incorrect.”…

Dudek, in a follow-up interview Friday afternoon with The Post, thanked Hollander for the clarification, adding, “The president is committed to keeping the Social Security offices open to serve the public.” He then acknowledged that this was an about-face from his stance in an interview with The Post earlier in the day.

“[The White House] called me and let me know it’s important to reaffirm to the public that we’re open for business,” he said. “The White House did remind me that I was out of line and so did the judge. And I appreciate that.”

Hollander issued a two-week temporary restraining order Thursday that prohibits Social Security officials from sharing personally identifiable information with Musk’s U.S. DOGE Service, which has been empowered to carry out cost-cutting across the government.

Hollander, who was appointed by President Barack Obama, wrote that DOGE “essentially engaged in a fishing expedition at SSA, in search of a fraud epidemic, based on little more than suspicion” and “never identified or articulated even a single reason for which the DOGE Team needs unlimited access to SSA’s entire record systems.”…

show full post on front page

Hollander’s scathing, 137-page order was the latest court ruling preventing DOGE, which stands for the Department of Government Efficiency, from sifting through databases of federal agencies because of privacy concerns. Other federal judges have ruled that the Treasury and Education departments cannot share sensitive data with Musk’s team.

But DOGE’s activities at Social Security have drawn particular scrutiny because of its role as the government’s central hub for Americans’ most sensitive personal and financial information. The agency is the country’s largest benefit-paying entity, keeping data on millions of individuals who interact with other federal agencies, including the IRS, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the Agriculture Department, as well as state unemployment offices. About 73 million retired and disabled Americans receive monthly benefits from Social Security…

Since the White House elevated him to the top acting job six weeks ago, Dudek has made major changes. A mid-level data analyst accused by several now-retired career leaders of improperly sharing information with DOGE, Dudek has moved to eliminate 7,000 staff roles, announced plans to close dozens of regional and field offices and has claimed that fraud is endemic to agency operations, despite numerous audits and studies over the years saying otherwise. Trump’s nominee to run the agency permanently, Frank Bisignano, is slated to appear at his Senate confirmation hearing next week…

And I’m sure we’re all shocked that Bisignano is best known as a dedicated job-eliminator and all-purpose Republican tool.
 
Interesting thread on Activist Judges from Angus Johnson:

I get the impression—and this letter from Judge Hollander in the SSA DOGE case helped to crystalize it—that the federal bench is developing new procedural mechanisms for dealing with the Trump admin. It bodes well, I think. (Quick thread.)

[image or embed]

— Angus Johnston (@angus.bsky.social) March 21, 2025 at 4:54 PM

In this letter, issued in response to media hits by Trump’s acting SSA director, in which he stoked fear about SocSec checks getting delays, Hollander does seven interesting things in the course of three quick paragraphs:

She (1) acts on her own initiative, without waiting for the admin to bring an issue to her formally, (2) issues a detailed, specific clarification of her previous rulings, (3) slaps down misinformation propagated in the media, (4) calms public fears of government disruption…

…(5) warns the admin against specific future bad acts, (6) instructs the admin how to get further clarification, and (7) makes explicit that this is a binding Order.

That’s a lot for three paragraphs!…

None of this is a solution for everything—you still have to get the kids to brush their teeth, and figure out consequences if they don’t—but it speeds up the process, and makes imposing consequences a lot simpler and more straightforward.

And in the case of the Trump admin, it protects the courts from the kinds of reflexive low-grade bad-faith bullshit that most lawyers in or out of government would never pull with a federal judge, but which Trump’s minions revel in.

A principle of organizing is that you want to go outside your target’s experience—it confuses them and slows them down.

Trump II has benefited mightily in the last few months from going outside our collective national experience. But that advantage may be weakening, in the courts and elsewhere...

Another way of thinking about this is that Trump’s lawyers have been rampaging through the courts these last few weeks like smallpox in an immunologically naive population.

But judges who are interacting with them are developing immunity, and perhaps some basic vaccines.

Saturday Morning Open Thread: Howard Lutnick Is Socially SecurePost + Comments (412)

Grim Dawn Open Thread: Elon May Be More Addicted to *Attention* Than to Ketamine

by Anne Laurie|  March 21, 20254:49 am| 53 Comments

This post is in: Activist Judges!, Republican Venality, Trump-Musk, Elon Musk

But in Georgia, Republicans stopped people from offering WATER to people waiting in line to vote because they considered it buying votes.

Scoop: Musk's PAC offers $100 to Wisconsin voters in pitch against "activist judges" https://t.co/5cQfPuwbG1

— Janice Hough (@leftcoastbabe) March 21, 2025

He got bashed last October, he’s already been ‘rebuked’ for this round, but apparently not hard enough. Per Axios:

… Zoom in: The April 1 election in Wisconsin will determine the tilt of an ideologically divided bench in a swing state where state-level decisions can carry national implications for abortion rights, legislative redistricting and election laws.

– Two Musk-backed groups — America PAC and Building America’s Future — have combined to spend nearly $20 million to support Brad Schimel, the Republican candidate for the Wisconsin court seat.
– The Democratic candidate, Susan Crawford, has drawn millions in donations from progressive donors, including George Soros and Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker.

The Wisconsin campaign is entering its final days as Trump and his allies are attacking federal judges standing in the way of his agenda. Trump has been particularly critical of a judge who is questioning the administration’s deportation of alleged Venezuelan gang members.

The Wisconsin campaign is entering its final days as Trump and his allies are attacking federal judges standing in the way of his agenda. Trump has been particularly critical of a judge who is questioning the administration’s deportation of alleged Venezuelan gang members.

– Trump and Musk have called for the impeachment of that judge, leading to a rebuke from Chief Justice John Roberts…

 
And that’s on top of the latest ‘scoop’…

Pentagon Set Up Briefing for Musk on Potential War With China
www.nytimes.com/2025/03/20/u…

[image or embed]

— Stephanie Kennedy (@wordswithsteph.bsky.social) March 20, 2025 at 11:49 PM

Change in Headline

[image or embed]

— Editing the Blue-Gray Lady (@nytdiff.bsky.social) March 20, 2025 at 11:50 PM

We live in hope.

Underrated chance that Elon just locks himself in a room gaming at some point because everyone hates him so loudly

[image or embed]

— Schnorkles O'Bork (@schnorkles.bsky.social) March 19, 2025 at 10:44 AM

show full post on front page

I would suggest to Mr. Elon that you only get to be protected by laws if you agree to be bound by them– kinda how the whole thing works!

— Schnorkles O'Bork (@schnorkles.bsky.social) March 19, 2025 at 9:37 AM

Strom Thurmond’s dad approves

[image or embed]

— Dana Houle (@danahoule.bsky.social) March 20, 2025 at 2:53 PM

Maybe Elon is just trying to re-create the dynamic with which he’s most comfortable?…

this lummox has been calling america the dumbest fattest piece of toxic shit in history for ten years and folks are like i love this man he adores america so so much, thank you sir
great stuff as always

[image or embed]

— not an art thief (@famousartthief.bsky.social) March 19, 2025 at 7:39 PM

america’s abusive dad strikes again

— not an art thief (@famousartthief.bsky.social) March 19, 2025 at 7:40 PM

Grim Dawn Open Thread: Elon May Be More Addicted to *Attention* Than to KetaminePost + Comments (53)

Late Night Open Thread: New Metric – Robert’s Rules of Rudeness

by Anne Laurie|  March 19, 20252:04 am| 70 Comments

This post is in: Activist Judges!, Open Threads, Trump Crime Cartel, Trump-Musk, Schadenfreude

In a rare statement, Chief Justice John Roberts called judicial impeachment "not an appropriate response" to disagreeing with a judge's decision.
He made the comments after Trump called for the impeachment of a federal judge who blocked the administration's deportation flights. to.pbs.org/43RBatE

[image or embed]

— PBS News (@pbsnews.org) March 18, 2025 at 2:10 PM

Roberts goes to extraordinary lengths to shepherd his unruly fellow revanchists into producing the most exquisitely crafted artisan cut-glass excuses for Our Unitary Executive to do exactly as he wishes. And in return the Vulgar Talking Yam and his subliterate minions write LOL BCUZ WE CAN on the Constitution in… well, it’s yellow, let’s say they used a gold Sharpie. To the fainting couches!…

getting increasingly irate as these judges say i can’t do the illegal things i want to do
i don’t think they understand that i really, really want to do them tho

— not an art thief (@famousartthief.bsky.social) March 18, 2025 at 8:46 PM

The stock-photo pickers got to enjoy themselves, at least.

BREAKING: Chief Justice John Roberts rebukes President Trump's call for a judge to be impeached for ruling against the administration.
www.nbcnews.com/politics/sup…

[image or embed]

— MSNBC (@msnbc.com) March 18, 2025 at 1:21 PM

Gettin' so hyped on huffing my own farts that I'm going to alienate my pet justices to the point where even they rule against me.

— Schnorkles O'Bork (@schnorkles.bsky.social) March 18, 2025 at 12:05 PM

Maybe a bit of pushback from Roberts. Maybe he is worried about his legacy. Hint sir, too late there but we appreciate this effort.

[image or embed]

— Tony Negron (@tnite02.bsky.social) March 18, 2025 at 8:52 PM

show full post on front page

NEW VIDEO: Chief Justice John Roberts rebuked Turmp's call to impeach a federal judge who ruled against the administration. @marcelias.bsky.social explains how Trump's threat is the latest move to intimidate the judiciary into compliance.
Watch the full video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=71o2…

[image or embed]

— Democracy Docket (@democracydocket.com) March 18, 2025 at 8:39 PM

Friendly reminder that the monster criticized by Chief Justice Roberts was created by Chief Justice Roberts.

— Andrea Junker (@strandjunker.com) March 18, 2025 at 2:10 PM

And the "James Comey Wait What Have I Done I Am Not Responsible For This Oh Yes The Fuck You Are" award goes to John Roberts:
www.nytimes.com/2025/03/18/u…

[image or embed]

— Cake or Death (@johngcole.bsky.social) March 18, 2025 at 6:24 PM

Here’s a link to the original document, if that’s the sort of reading you enjoy:

NEW: DOJ asks Judge Boasberg to vacate his TROs against the gov't, calling them "an affront to the President’s broad constitutional and statutory authority to protect the United States from dangerous aliens who pose grave threats to the American people." storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us…

[image or embed]

— Joshua J. Friedman (@joshuajfriedman.com) March 18, 2025 at 12:12 AM

Don’t think they’re gonna be able to blame this one on Elon, not while the Project 2025 architects are fondling themselves in public over their ‘win’…

if you think about it from Roberts or Leo's perspective they had this extremely successful long game of rigging the judiciary to make it possible to pursue reactionary policy without electoral backlash and then Elon gloms onto their senile figurehead out of *nowhere* and starts wrecking shit loudly

[image or embed]

— the abbot of unreason (an archaeologist) (@merovingians.bsky.social) March 18, 2025 at 9:02 PM

I’m a true believer in the Roberts Rudeness Index
There’s something very Sandra Day O’Connor about it — jurisprudence guided by a generalized aversion to things that seem rude, distasteful, or uncouth

[image or embed]

— Anna Bower (@annabower.bsky.social) March 18, 2025 at 12:55 PM

Late Night Open Thread: New Metric – Robert’s Rules of RudenessPost + Comments (70)

Revolutionary Warfare=Guerrilla Warfare+Political Action

by Adam L Silverman|  November 7, 20248:03 pm| 220 Comments

This post is in: Activist Judges!, America, Crazification Factor, Domestic Politics, National Security, Open Threads, Organizing & Resistance, Politics, Silverman on Security

I’m going to keep this short as I still have to do the Ukraine war update later and I’m very fried from work despite this being day 1 of my mini-staycation.

I want to make this very clear at the outset, this is not a victory lap. It is not an I told you so. I really don’t want to have to write this post at all. I am no happier than any of you.

Let’s start with where we are now.

Where we are now is a revolutionary movement that revolves around a revanchist, reactionary racist, antisemitic, Islamophobic, misogynist, homophobic, xenophobic, nativist, isolationist, and (white) Christian nationalist ideology fused with a cult of personality around the President-elect will soon have control of the executive branch, the Senate, most likely the House, the Supreme Court, a number of the federal appellate courts, and 25 state trifectas.

I think the model or heuristic for understanding what the President-elect’s second term will be like is a combination of two historical examples. The first is Yeltsin and Putin. Yeltsin was old, ill, and infirm from both his alcoholism and other health issues. Putin was an ambitious, angry, revanchist backed by (owned) by powerful and ultra-high net worth individuals. I think this is an apt description for the dynamic between Trump and Vance. History rhymes, it does not repeat, so this does not mean that Vance will eventually be president for life or anything.

The second is the fascist co-president that George Herbert Walker, Prescott Bush, and their co-conspirators wanted to force onto FDR in the first months of his first term of office in what is called the Business Plot. Vance is the vehicle for the current equivalents of Walker, Bush, and their co-conspirators – Thiel, Musk, the Uhliens, Zuckerberg, Bezos, etc – to quietly achieve their goals in the background while the President-elect does whatever he’s going to do in the foreground.

There is also going to be a LOT of chaos. Not everyone that is going to get a senior political appointment is on the same page. They all have their own agendas. There is going to be jockeying for position, the President-elect’s family members, including in-laws, are all going to want their pieces of the action or, at least ill gotten gains. And given how we’ve been watching the President-elect very visibly decline in real time over the past two months, there will be infighting over who is his actual, real successor. I fully expect the President-elect and his team to shiv RFK Jr as they don’t need him anymore.

The fight to be his successor will begin almost immediately. The President-elect’s movement is a cult of personality. But there’s no actual heir apparent to him. None of his children have what his followers see in him and want, which is a combination of anger, spite, bigotry, and entertainment. Same with other GOP officials and MAGA movement conservative elites and notables. Vance, DeStupid, Cotton, Scott, Cruz, etc all have the anger, spite, and bigotry, but they’re not entertaining. Youngkin is just boring. He presents as normal. With the exception of his youngest son, whom we only see so we have no idea if he can do entertaining, the President-elect’s other children don’t have the entertainment value and come off as whiny and spoiled, because they are whiny and spoiled. Stephen Miller has the anger, spite, and bigotry down to a science, but the President-elect’s movement isn’t going to move their allegiance to him because he’s Jewish. Musk is not entertaining at all. He’s just a black hole of entitled, coddled, failed his way upward neediness. Thiel hits the same repellent cords as Rick Scott. Tucker Carlson and Marjorie Taylor Green seem to hit all the characteristics like the President-elect, and as I’ve speculated here before I could see either of them making a play for his mantle, but I don’t know if either could or would pull it off.

After the jump I’m going to go through how we got here and why I thought it was likely we would get here.

show full post on front page

Sunday night – 2 NOV – Cole texted and asked:

Are you feeling more or less confident about the election?

This was my answer with light copy editing (emphasis mine):

Mixed. Harris, Walz, and most of her team have done a great job. Anita Dunn and the other legacy 3rd way/triangulation asshats they got saddled with by Biden are making their usual milquetoast mess.

And Nate Cohn from 538 came out today and basically said that since the pollsters screwed up their models so badly in 2016 and 2020, no matter how good the results are for Harris or Dems in the raw returns, they’re reweighing everything to either go 50-50 or lean Trump.

What worries me is all the same things that haven’t changed. Extreme gerrymanders, voter suppression, voter purging, McConnell’s and Leo’s packed federal appellate and supreme courts, ultra-high net worth asshole’s money (Musk, Mellon,. Adelson, Thiel, Uhlien, etc), law enforcement being all on board not just with Trump, but with using violence on his behalf, and the subversion of municipal and state election boards and staff over the past four years through violence, the threats of violence, and the establishment of a competitive system of control.

I’m not sure that all of those structural worries can be overcome by an excellent campaign, excellent ground game, and excellent enthusiasm.

And I didn’t even get to the Russian, Israeli, PRC, DPRK, Sauid, Emirati, and Iranian interference on Trump’s behalf.

I’m cautiously optimistic, but very concerned.

The reason I was very concerned, the reason I had written here many times since 2022 that what has happened was going to happen, is that I was using a different model to try to understand what was and is going on. Specifically, Bernard Fall’s model of revolutionary warfare:

Revolutionary Warfare=Guerrilla Warfare+Political Action (RW=GW+PA)

Counter-Revolutionary Warfare=Counter-Guerrilla Warfare+Counter-Political Action+Civic Action (CRW=CGW+CPA+CA)

As I wrote last night, what you all did here was amazing! You should be proud as hell of what you did. But what you all did was civic action and civic action along cannot counter what we have been and are experiencing.

Almost none of the elected and appointed officials who were supposed to do the Counter-Guerrilla Warfare and the Counter-Political Action did. DOJ, DHS, FBI, etc are all still missing in action. The few who tried, like the Colorado Secretary of State in invoking the 14th Amendment, had their Counter-Political Action countered by the Supreme Court.

Nothing was actually done to stop the people who actually planned the insurrection and attack on the Capitol on 6 January 2021. We’ve got about 575 nobodies and about two dozen senior Oath Keepers and Proud Boys arrested, charged, tried, convicted, and mostly sentenced. The President-elect, his senior aides and trusted agents, the dozen or so Republican members of the House, and the 1/2 dozen Republican senators who we know actually planned the events of that day because we have them on news video going to and leaving the White House where it was being planned have never been and will never be held to account. These folks are an insider threat. They were not deterred because nothing was actually done to deter to them. And, as a result, the revolt that we all watched on 6 January 2021 never ended. It is still ongoing led by the same senior GOP elected and appointed officials involved in its planning. As a result, a revolutionary government will be sworn in and take control of the US in January 2025.

Counter-Revolutionary Warfare=Counter-Guerrilla Warfare+Counter-Political Action+Civic Action.

Open thread!

Revolutionary Warfare=Guerrilla Warfare+Political ActionPost + Comments (220)

  • Go to page 1
  • Go to page 2
  • Go to page 3
  • Interim pages omitted …
  • Go to page 100
  • Go to Next Page »

Primary Sidebar

On The Road - twbrandt - Belle Isle, Detroit, Michigan 7
Image by twbrandt (7/18/25)
Donate

Recent Comments

  • MattF on Excellent Read: ‘William F. Buckley’s Bill Never Came Due’ (Jul 19, 2025 @ 4:40pm)
  • Baud on Excellent Read: ‘William F. Buckley’s Bill Never Came Due’ (Jul 19, 2025 @ 4:35pm)
  • cmorenc on Excellent Read: ‘William F. Buckley’s Bill Never Came Due’ (Jul 19, 2025 @ 4:32pm)
  • Baud on Excellent Read: ‘William F. Buckley’s Bill Never Came Due’ (Jul 19, 2025 @ 4:30pm)
  • WTFGhost on Excellent Read: ‘William F. Buckley’s Bill Never Came Due’ (Jul 19, 2025 @ 4:28pm)

Balloon Juice Posts

View by Topic
View by Author
View by Month & Year
View by Past Author

Featuring

Medium Cool
Artists in Our Midst
Authors in Our Midst
No Kings Protests June 14 2025

🎈Keep Balloon Juice Ad Free

Become a Balloon Juice Patreon
Donate with Venmo, Zelle or PayPal

Calling All Jackals

Site Feedback
Nominate a Rotating Tag
Submit Photos to On the Road
Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Links)
Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Posts)
Fix Nyms with Apostrophes

Social Media

Balloon Juice
WaterGirl
TaMara
John Cole
DougJ (aka NYT Pitchbot)
Betty Cracker
Tom Levenson
David Anderson
Major Major Major Major
DougJ NYT Pitchbot
mistermix

Keeping Track

Legal Challenges (Lawfare)
Republicans Fleeing Town Halls (TPM)
21 Letters (to Borrow or Steal)
Search Donations from a Brand

Donate

Site Footer

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

  • Facebook
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Comment Policy
  • Our Authors
  • Blogroll
  • Our Artists
  • Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2025 Dev Balloon Juice · All Rights Reserved · Powered by BizBudding Inc