Open Thread July 24, 2023

Yesterday, I ran across a story which just tugged at my heartstrings. I expect it will do the same for all who love both animals and justice. I fund it at Democratic Underground,, but the poster provided their original source, and it doesn’t appear to be paywalled, so that’s what I’m linking to.

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

The New Yorker – Finally, the Trump Case We’ve Been Waiting For
Quote – And yet Republicans remain in such thrall to their Orange Jesus—the honorific that Party apostate Liz Cheney so memorably quoted one of his acolytes calling him during last summer’s January 6th hearings—that, with each new legal woe, his prospects of winning the 2024 G.O.P. nomination keep going up. Few if any of these cases are likely to be fully resolved before the start of next year’s Republican primaries. Trump’s campaign is now explicitly a race not just to retake the Oval Office but to save himself from criminal conviction. This convergence of campaign and courtroom is, as the former Republican National Committee counsel Benjamin Ginsberg said this week, “a toxic mix unprecedented in the American experiment.” Something’s gotta give.
Click through for article. I’m skeptical of the theory that additional crimiality increases his electoral chances, but I can’t dismiss it entirely.

Salon – Expert: Jack Smith can use “surprise” statute cited in Trump target letter for “enhanced penalties”
Quote – “The benefits for using Section 241 are three-fold,” Anthony Michael Kreis, a Georgia State University law professor, told Salon. “First, the statute isn’t novel in terms of applying it to election fraud. Second, is that the DOJ can go after the election fraud scheme and tie it to the insurrection for enhanced penalties. Third, the combination of the first two benefits allows Trump to be tried for January 6th without litigating whether his speech before the riots at the Capitol, which would be the basis of a free-standing incitement charge, is protected by the First Amendment.”
Click through for details. Yes, when conspiracy comes in at the door, many of the difficulties of proving direct participation or incitement fly out the window. The Insurrection Act may (may in the sense of “maybe” – IANAL) be able to be used to keephim out of office even if he isn’t directly charged with it, through conspiracy charges.

Food For Thought