Are The Felon’s Most Recent Pardons Constitutional?

Can he pardon those complicit in a crime in which he himself was complicit?

I am not a lawyer and I do, occasionally, get caught up in trying to decipher how legal decisions make sense in the real world but this one got to me immediately. Here’s how an AI search defined SCOTUS’ decision on presidential immunity:

“Trump v. United States decision in July 2024, the Supreme Court ruled that presidents have absolute immunity for official acts related to their “core constitutional powers” and a presumption of immunity for other official acts. A president has no immunity for unofficial acts. This means a former president cannot be prosecuted for actions falling under their core constitutional duties, but they can be prosecuted for acts that are not official. The decision’s framework, which distinguishes between “core constitutional powers,” “outer perimeter” official acts, and “unofficial” acts, requires lower courts to determine the scope of immunity on a case-by-case basis.”

You get that? “Absolute Immunity” for official acts related to “core constitutional powers” (all italics are my emphasis).

“Presumptive Immunity” for “other official acts”. Presumptive immunity applies to actions that are “within the outer perimeter of his official responsibility” and can be overcome by the government if it can prove that a prosecution would pose “no dangers of intrusion on the authority and functions of the Executive Branch”.

The Fat Felon pardoned Rudy Giuliani and Mark Meadows, both of whom were/are implicated in the crime of trying to overturn a legal, fair, federal election, and there are many, many more. We all watched as the Felon initiated the entire event from the very beginning where he called it a fraudulent election from the moment Biden was declared the victor, to his speech in the park where he told an already angry crowd to march on the Capitol. His complicity is impossible to ignore, and it is the overt and public commission of a crime. He was directing the actions of those individuals – a mob, actually – that joined him in overturning a free, fair and legal election. Can he now turn around and pardon those complicit in a criminal undertaking in which he himself was the leader? This seems circular in logic and a completely irrational use of the law.

What do you think?

TACO? How About DACO?

Long Before Trump “Chickened-Out” the Democrats Showed Him How It’s Done!

It’s hard to overstate the position the Dumo’s had the Repugs in during this shutdown. Even the Fat Felon admitted that the shutdown was being blamed on the Repugs, it was pounding his favorability ratings into the ground (37%) and, even more impressive, the American people were cheering them on! Actually cheering for the Dumos seemingly granite-like resolve and their determination to see this fight out to the end! Can you imagine? Yeah, me neither.

However, to give them the benefit of the doubt, they really were chugging along there for a while. They really seemed to be determined to see this one out; to hold the Repug’s feet to the fire in order to get the ACA subsidies back so Americans can afford their healthcare. Except I could feel it coming; sense the tension that I know the Dumos just cannot handle and, finally, they didn’t; Democrats Always Chicken Out!

Well, this was the last line in the sand for me; I am finished supporting – both practically and financially – the Milquetoast Party! Schumer should step aside, in fact, he should resign, along with many other so-called “moderate” Dumos. Their spineless, hapless nature has been proved time and again and we just aren’t going to get anywhere with them at the helm. We need progressives, real progressives, that are willing to go beyond the pale to make things happen; good things, new laws and protections, new economic programs, for the American people.

Democrats: Stop calling me, texting me, emailing me. We have no use for you any longer

Donald: Wake Up & Smell the Democracy!

It only took ten months for America to tire of this hyperactive man-baby!

Wow! That was fast, wasn’t it? It took less than ten months for America to see through the lies, false promises, and subterfuge of Donald Trump and decide he just isn’t worth it! Although I think we can count on a much more robust attack on our elections for the next 12 months (he’s already been saying the California vote was fraudulent even before the first ballot was cast!), at the very least this election demonstrates that America isn’t going to take this lying down. She is out on the streets, protesting, writing letters, calling Congressional representatives, and canvassing for votes in her neighborhoods! America is on democracy fire!

I, for one, am much pleased to see that as a nation we are now so politically motivated as to actually go out and vote – and in record numbers – during an off-year election. Sure, there are still considerable numbers of people that continued to vote for him and his repulsive ilk, Vance, Miller, Noem, and the rest of the dirt bags that presently comprise his administration, and, to be sure, it is disturbing on a number of levels, notably how acceptable it is to some to watch their neighbors being snatched off the streets. Fortunately for America, it isn’t acceptable to a majority – and a good majority at that – of Americans and they’ve just said as much at the top of their lungs!

Next stop: the mid-term elections of next November! I know that we say every election is a matter of life and death, but this one truly is, a matter of life and death of democracy! The election held yesterday is an excellent sign to be sure, however it doesn’t do anything that’ll put the ka-bosch on anything the Felon is doing presently. We need a robust majority in Congress to do what America so desperately needs; throw the Fat Felon out of office and into a court room where he can be tried for his many crimes, many committed while he is in office.

Of course, eventually Mike Johnson will need to swear in newly elected Congresswoman Adelita Grijalva so we can demand the release of the Epstein files and discover what we already know. If nothing else it’ll be interesting to watch the evangelical and fundamentalist phonies try and justify his “innocence” and their continued support of him.

I can hardly wait!

The Fat Felon Pardons Another Fat Felon

Did anyone ever really doubt it? Fat Orange Jesus never met a felon he didn’t like!

The Fat, 36-time convicted Felon in the White House commented the sentence of the 2nd most mendacious, 2nd fattest, criminal of current political time, George Santos, if that is really his name! After all, we’ve heard so much about his antics, cross-dressing, latin name, English name, Jewish, Gentile, whatever. Is there anyone that is surprised buy this? I’m guessing Santos was present at some of the Epstein parties President Draft Dodger attended?

Seems likely?

Deepest Condolences to the Kirks

It should not be tolerable for a civilized people to endure violence against anyone for their beliefs.

Say what you want about Charlie Kirk; he was right, he was wrong, he was crazy, he was entirely sane. I don’t think he ever said anything that hadn’t been said previously by any number of conservative voices. They are the opinions of many millions of people in this country; whether you like it no not, and it is nothing new. What, then, could possibly come of this senseless act? What good could possibly come of this murderous act?

None. There is no good that could come from this barbarous act. It should be condemned by all. Our hearts go out to the family of Charlie, our deepest sympathies to the family of the Kirks.

A Review of “Defending Child Sacrifice: The Ultimate Expression of Cultural Relativism”

Last week on ‘carljohnsonsite’ a couple of Christian propagandists assert the teaching of child sacrifice in Colorado schools.

Christians have asserted some incredibly crackpot things in the media (think: Donald Trump was sent by Jesus!) and, apparently, continue to do so including their new, wildly insane claim of a defense of child sacrifice being taught in Colorado schools. Add this to their accusations of persecution around the world which are also completely laughable considering that, throughout history, no organization or religion persecuted more people – entire nations and societies at a time – than Christians. In fact, they literally perfected the art of persecution since there was so little of it before Christianity became an “accepted” then the “official” religion within the Roman Empire. And they did so in spectacular ways; burning, hanging, the “rack”, ripping off fingernails and body parts, extravagant torture chambers, and much more. They really put their best and most creative foot forward when it came to torture; all to force people to believe what they believe. You see, it’s not enough for them to hold their mindless, vacuous, beliefs regardless of how ridiculous they are, you must believe it also whether you want to or not. This is the Christian way. So much for “free will” I guess.

Now they’re going off on child sacrifice in the ancient world and asserting that our children are being taught that child sacrifice shouldn’t be necessarily held as “wrong” (the Inca civilization was the example sited). They claim the unnamed teacher “also reprimanded ‘white education’ for wrongly teaching generations of Americans that the practice was bad. I’m not making this up.” First, let’s say that there is a really good chance that they have, in fact, made this up since the weaving of absolute nonsense is one of their specialties. Let’s also note that they just love an issue that calls out white America so they can demonstrate all the “woe is me” trials and tribulations (pun intended) of the poor, abused, white man. But perhaps their most zany claim is that the remedy for child sacrifice in the ancient world was, of course, Christianity because, after all, who else protects the innocent children of the world more than Jesus’ pious and god-fearing faithful? It is this claim specifically that got me off the couch to refute this hypocritical, self-righteous nonsense. But I’ll get to that in a bit.

Let’s remember that, first, they believe that there’s an invisible man in the sky that knows everything, everything you think – or have ever thought – everything you’ve done or will ever do; all monitored by an invisible, supernatural entity. They believe that virgins can have babies while remaining virgins, that people (men, almost exclusively) can perform miracles including walking on water, turning water into wine, raising the dead and, best of all, dying and returning to life – physically – all because some people (again, men exclusively) wrote it in an ancient scroll. Imagine, an ancient society thinking such things! Remember that all the other religions with the equally ridiculous claims were all deemed false by Christians, except this one!

But my favorite point of the entire episode is their pearl-clutching objection to the idea of child sacrifice in the ancient world. This seems to step right over the fact that the Israelites themselves also practiced child sacrifice in their very early development as a “people”. (See “Child Sacrifice in Ancient Israel” by Heath D. Dewrell) This was not unusual or considered primitive for hundreds and hundreds of years. Beyond this, their assertion also steps over the steaming pile of excrement that their very own religion relies completely on human sacrifice. There would be no Christianity (or, at least, no theological basis for it) if it weren’t for their claim that a man named Yeshua – a devout Jew, who lived his entire life as a Jew, born raised and supposedly died as a Jew – returned to life after a most grisly execution by scourging and then crucifixion by the Roman procurator Pontius Pilate. Salvation within the Christian mythology is literally based-upon and completely dependent upon his role as the person of honor in a vicarious human sacrificial ceremony! This is direct contrast to Hebrew Scripture which states unequivocally that no person may pay for the sins of others, it is simply not acceptable to the deity; the sinner must pay for their own sins. However, they would have you believe that in this one case, it became not only permissible but essential; that this completely innocent person (literally born without sin) die for the sins of others. In other words, vicarious salvation by the human sacrifice of another, innocent person.

As far as their assertion that it was Christianity that saved the children from further sacrificial death, I believe it is essential to first understand that the practice of child sacrifice within Israel and the Near East ended millennia before Christianity was even a moronic idea in the head of Saul/Paul and the early church fathers. It simply wasn’t even a issue discussed in almost any area of the new mythology. But I think it’s worth noting that the fanatical support of the GOP by the delirious religious class really places their assertion about protecting children exactly where it belongs: in the circular file. They support a party that simply will not lift a finger to protect our children in their schools, where they are killed by gunmen almost every, single day. If this is protecting children, then they are as delirious in this intention as their mind-numbing mythology. Even though I think of this as our most egregious violation of our duties and responsibilities as parents, adults, guardians, whatever, they’re perfectly ok with their representative’s apathy and inaction.

Additionally, I think their silent acquiescence towards the deliberate and systematic genocide by the Israel government and military further highlights the dishonesty and fallaciousness of Christian claims on this topic. They haven’t – and won’t – say a peep about the deaths of literally thousands and thousands of innocent civilians, men, women and children. Doesn’t sound to me as though their deity gives a hoot about anything other than money and power. But then, that is the history of Christianity in practice.

Lastly, their newest and most laughable “messiah” Donald Trump, the THIRTY-FOUR TIME CONVICTED FELON, ADJUDICATED SEXUAL PREDATOR, and adamant PROTECTOR OF THE MOST PROLIFIC PEDOPHILE in AMERICAN HISTORY, whom, it should be noted, they overwhelmingly voted for doesn’t do much to support their case either. Their assertion of Christianity as the protector of children, as on many of their wildly fictitious and baseless claims, is simply not substantiated by the facts.

I’ll end on my amusement that they never seem to allow comments to their most absurd articles; the ‘debate’ (at least in their own minds) of the Shroud of Turin, the “Rapture”, the return of Yeshua (any day now, after all it’s only been TWO THOUSAND years, so far), and much more cannot be refuted or commented upon.

Gee, I wonder why?

Republicans Show Support for Pedophiles!

The GOP is So Beholden to the Felon They’ll Even Protect Ghislaine Maxwell

In the wake of the present furor over the Epstein files and the seeming inculpatory information it may contain as it relates to the thirty-four time convicted felon and adjudicated sexual predator currently residing in the White House (that is, when he isn’t playing golf or promoting his properties at the expense of the American Taxpayer) the Republican party has taken off the disguise(s) of “Family Values”, “Christian”, & “Law & Order” and revealed their true nature: the very embodiment of all that is wrong with American politics; that money & power is all that matters, even to the point of affording protection to one of, if not the, most notorious and infamous pedophiles in history! Their talking heads are now popping up on all the usual propaganda stations; OAN, Newsmax, Fox, etc., to begin the process of transfiguring Ghislaine Maxwell from one of the most egregious and notorious pedophiles and child predators in history into a possible “victim” of Jeffrey Epstein’s in a desperate attempt to redirect attention away from the felonious predator they voted into office. Even to my own amazement (I would never have believed they would sink to this level simply to protect the fraudulent con man in the Oval office) they have made the political assessment that the American people are so obtuse, so gullible, and so simple-minded, that they can convince them that Maxwell is herself a victim and her testimony can be trusted and used to extricate the Felon in the White House from his obvious and close relationship with Epstein! Never mind that Maxwell was prosecuted during the Felon’s first term by his very own “Justice” Dept and considered to be completely and utterly unreliable and (almost) as mendacious as the Felon himself. Now, in a bizarre turn, they are prepared to endeavor to reverse those conclusions and turn her into an innocent, exploited, victim herself and that her testimony can now be trusted and should be reintroduced to extricate the Felon from any suspicion of his complicity in this horrible affair.

There was a time not too long ago when Republicans held themselves up as the paragons of family values; true, Christian values, and – even more ironically – the law & order party. Now they protect pedophiles.

Here’s Your Wakeup Call, MAGA!

It’s Time to Face the Facts, MAGA, He IS the Creep We Knew He Was!

Ok, MAGA, voters! Time to wake up and smell the malodorous and pungent smell wafting through the maelstrom of reports coming out on the relationship between Jeffrey Epstein and his “best friend” Donald J. Trump. Whatever reservations you’ve had, whatever obvious reports and events you’ve let come and go, choosing not to investigate them any further or scraping them summarily without any consideration at all, this one is not going away. This one is tough.

The birthday card sent to Mr. Epstein from the Felon in the White House is so obviously Mr. Felon’s handwriting and signature that he is in full panic mode! Upon learning they were preparing to release the story, the Felon did exactly what he always does: he immediately threatened the Wall St. Journal and Rupert Murdoch with litigation only this time, instead of folding their tent and begging forgiveness, they published the letter anyway! This is meaningful given the fact that he has been able to bully many other companies – and countries – into slavish adherence to his every desire. Not this time. This time the WSJ and Murdoch waved off the threat and published the story anyway, setting off a veritable whirlwind of reaction from every facet of the media and MAGA supporters alike.

But in the end, you already know the truth. You know he has been on the flights; 6, 7, times, whatever, it’s in the flight manifests that have already been reviewed by investigators. You know they were “friends”, not superficial acquaintances that the Felon would have you believe. Friends. There are countless photos of them together, you’ve seen them but have been able to engage your powers of cognitive dissonance necessary to keep this lily white. But the card…..no, not this time. The card is in his handwriting, his signature, his words. This time the facts are irrefutable.

I implore you; keep the pressure on, keep asking the important questions, stay focused and don’t let him divert your attention away to some lesser, frivolous nonsense so he can get you to move on. The answers are coming and, when they do, you can finally admit you made a terrible mistake and voted for a miscreant, an adjudicated sexual predator, and con man and then maybe we can all move on.

The False Nature of Christian Claims

Their Slavish and Shameful Devotion to the Felon in the White House

Is there anything that calls out Fundamentalist and Evangelical Christians in America for their phony piety and maligned morality more than their support for the four time indicted, thirty four time convicted felon, adjudicated sex offender, six-time bankrupted, draft dodging, racist, multi-marital-cheating, porn-star-assaulting, lawsuit loser, and most mendacious con man, Donald Trump? Do they really believe that a “god” – any god, pick one – would have anything to do with the likes of such a poor example of his creation? If you’d like to see an example of the piety crowd at their most delusional, then look no further than their slavish devotion to Trump and their obvious excitement of him occupying the office again. If they have achieved anything with this misplaced support, it is to further reinforce the explicit proof that their religion and their motivations are nothing more than a politically motivated pretense to move the country further towards their goal of a conservative Christian nation so they can continue their bilking of the America public unabated.

The “demonic forces” they would claim lay behind the Democratic Party are simply false representations of anything that violates their “Christian” sensitivities, whatever that may be. Yes, according to these purveyors of religious delirium only Donald Trump can save our country from the depravity and debauchery into which it has been led by the “godless” Democratic party! Christian political activists are putting millions of dollars DIRECTLY into the pockets of the very man convicted of 34 felony crimes (and counting), multi-million-dollar business tax fraud in New York State, and an adjudicated sexual assault predator! This is the man that the phony piety crowd is putting their money on to save the country and bring us back to the god-fearing nation we once were, even though we have never been a Christian nation. The very same man that can no longer participate in a charity in the state of New York due to his fraudulent mishandling of funds AND who sold phony university degrees to armed services veterans not worth the paper upon which they were written has been sent by “god” to save the United States. This is their claim.

Only the most seriously deluded and cognitively dissonant can rationalize such nonsense and, as it happens, that’s the very target audience upon which Christian organizations have focused their efforts. The very same people that believe in the invisible man in the sky, a 6,000-year-old planet Earth, (an Earth where dinosaurs and humans cohabitated), humans that literally “popped” into existence in our current, “unevolved” state, a worldwide flood that wiped-out humanity save a single family, talking serpents and asses, (although as “talking asses” go, I believe Trump has proven this conclusively) and dead people rising from their graves and parading around the city of Jerusalem! The most immoral snake-oil salesmen in the country are focusing their considerable caches on obfuscating the completely fallacious nature of his every word, promise and claim, even while their favorite “Christian” demonstrates the very opposite of virtually everything and anything that Jesus ever said and taught.

We now know about the vast and various Christian power bases behind this most despicable candidate and the dystopic society they would have us living in given their ability to do so. Consider the so-called Ziklag, a so-called Christian organization supported by wealthy Christians such as the owners of Hobby Lobby and described by investigative journalists ProPublica during the 2024 election as: “A network of ultrawealthy Christian donors is spending nearly $12 million to mobilize Republican-leaning voters and purge more than a million people from the rolls in key swing states, aiming to tilt the 2024 election in favor of former President Donald Trump.” Christians collaborating to steal an election as I assume they would have us believe Jesus would as well.

Another “Christian” organization that focused their considerable resources to the election of Trump is the Alliance Defending Freedom, (don’t you just love the titles?!) an Arizona-based Christian conservative legal “nonprofit”. According to the Washington Post: “The organization has had nine successful cases before the court in the past seven years, including Burwell v. Hobby Lobby, which allowed corporations to opt out of covering contraceptives based on religious beliefs, AND created model legislation for “bathroom bills,” which bar students from using restrooms that don’t correlate to their sex at birth.”

Unfortunately there are many, many more. Christian organizations across the country are working diligently to re-craft our society into the white-washed and white dominated country they contend their imaginary savior endorses. This represents a real and present danger to the democratic life that our relatives and ancestors fought and died for (not Trump’s, of course, they dodged the draft), and which the rest of the world looks upon with envy. These groups are not community volunteers nor are they motivated by altruism. These are people of power for whom money and power are virtually everything and they want control; complete and boundless control of the government and the rules of our society, and they see Donald Trump as the vehicle to their ends.

As it has become painfully obvious, the self-designated “Freedom Party” and “Freedom Caucus” in Congress, AKA the GOP, has been the party that takes our freedoms away, all while misrepresenting that it is in our best interests or those of society at large. Yes, it is in our collective best interests not to be able to decide what we or our children can read which is why the repugnant red states are purging their libraries of such radical tomes as “Animal Farm” and “Anne Frank’s Diary”. Americans are just not responsible enough to choose reading material on our own, it must be done for us and by those that claim to know better. Similarly, women cannot be trusted to make their own decisions about their healthcare, particularly their maternal healthcare. We need the government to intercede on behalf of woman, even as some women cling to life for lack of medical care while the government dawdles in the courts. (Hopefully, they’ll still be alive when the government finally arrives at its’ decisions!). The party that for decades has been extolling the virtues of getting government off our proverbial backs would now like for the government to share in the most intimate decisions of our lives and have the last word over these matters as well.

And these kinds of behaviors go on and on and into all areas of life. Consider the solutions to “voter fraud” legislated by red states that always seem to include making it more difficult to vote, especially in areas of black or brown people. Texas has closed over 700 polling places since 2022 exclusively in minority voting districts while positioning the changes as a solution to some colossal threat to democracy from “illegal aliens” and undocumented workers, code for “non-white voters.

There is much more to reveal about this, we haven’t even begun to discuss the introduction of the Bible into our public schools complete with morning prayer and Creationism being taught as a legitimate alternative to evolution, as if there is any legitimacy at all to the Judeo-Christian mythology that warrants such special placement over both the Constitution or of other religions. They don’t seem to have any hesitation about the obvious upcoming battle over which of the 12,000 variations of Christianity in the U.S. will be “the one”.

When Trump gets to the end of his presidency, assuming we survive his presidency, perhaps the Democrats retake the House and Senate. They will need to pass new legislation aimed at securing the secular nature of the government complete with a new and vigorous reinforcing of the Johnson Amendment. The Johnson Amendment is a provision in the U.S. tax code, that prohibits all 501(c)(3) non-profit organizations from endorsing or opposing political candidates in exchange for their tax-free status. Section 501(c)(3) organizations are the most common type of nonprofit organization in the United States, ranging from charitable foundations to universities and churches. The amendment is named for then-Senator Lyndon B. Johnson of Texas, (Oh! The irony!) who introduced it in a preliminary draft of the law in July 1954. With a new emphasis placed on the Johnson Amendment and a reform of the Supreme Court including term limits and an ethics code with teeth for enforcement, maybe we can make tremendous progress towards a more compassionate and representative government for all Americans regardless of race, sexual identity, or any other discriminating factor.

But that will remain to be determined……

What If It Really Is All A Scam?

Is It Even Possible To Uncover The “Real Jesus”?

I am a layman and I do not portray myself as anything other, but I have serious doubts about whether the entire “Quest for the Historical Jesus” isn’t anything other than a search for a purple squirrel, or a fool’s errand in the words of Dr. Richard C. Miller. It just may be so obfuscated in hundreds of years and thousands of written iterations by scribes sleepwalking their way through who knows how many rewrites, edits, interpolations, and intentional ‘alterations’ as to leave itself forever shrouded in unsolvable mystery. But, more importantly, I do not believe that any intellectually legitimate evaluation of the NT can be reasonably concluded without consideration given to the most erudite scholarship of it contributed by Hebrew scholars and rabbis. A complete and thorough examination of 1st century Christianity cannot be legitimately concluded without an equally thorough examination of the thoughts and interpretations of the most learned Hebrew scholars. Their insights into the ministry of Yeshua of Nazareth are as enlightening as any you will read anywhere. Many of these learned, studied, scholars not only believe he wasn’t an ‘enemy” of the Pharisees, but that he may have actually been one himself! And, almost equally incredible, that Paul may not have been a Pharisee at all! (There is very little of Paul’s story Hebrew scholars believe.) But do not take my word, simply read their own arguments as to why Jesus answers all of the queries put to him by the various Pharisees accurately and completely within the context of 1st century Pharisaic Judaism. The NT portrayal of Jesus as an enemy of the Pharisees is simply a later and intentional reconstruction of his very devout Jewish nature which by necessity was left in the dust bin of its’ own making. They simply could not leave him to be a Jew; Paul’s gentile audience of late 1st century-early 2nd century Romano-Hellenist former pagans wouldn’t buy in to such a notion.

In this respect Christianity is it possible that be nothing more than a “false’“ religion, for what else can be said about a religion that does not include or even acknowledge the basic fundamental principals of its’ own founder? Jesus was a Jew, as many secular and even many fundamentalist scholars will admit, and actually made many statements himself that further cement that notion. So how, then, did the religion that bears his name (or, more accurately, his title) turn out to be anything other than Jewish

Hmmmmm.