Democrats should just push him further. Any criminal charges will get laughed out of court, and could themselves be grounds for impeachment.

I think he knows this, which is why he’s talking about charges, and not filing them. If he thought it would work, he would have done it already, before the election.

Plot twist: it was Stephen Miller. That’s just how he laughs, but nobody has heard it before.

That can say all the furious words they want, it they don’t back it up with votes then they’re still complicit

On the Accountability thing, I think there is a subtle thing to understand here. While Republicans had the majority during the last half of the Bide administration, dingbats like Jim Jordan were using the power of Congressional committees to investigate things that the Administratio did that they didn’t like. There was no real legal basis for the investigations, other than some officials did things that hurt Conservative’s fragile egos.

Those investigations has two goals: one was to demoralize Federal officials, but the other was to be able to turn around later and accuse the other side of wielding Government as a weapon when they are in power, because they understand it can motivate their side to vote.

We al need to understand that this is the real reason why some Democrats seem tepid on this accountability thing, it’s because they think it might rile up the deplorables. But, I think it is important to note the key difference between now and prior Presidencies: the Trump administration constantly violates the law. All. The. Time.

I think if Democrats limit their investigations to obvious violates of the law over the past 2 years, they will have more than enough to look at. Simply asking why US citizens keep getting detained by ICE ought to lead to some ICE administrators going to jail, shouldn’t it?

Didn’t Melania complain because her friends were getting deported? They never care until it affects them personally.

I don’t think Massie would be pushing this if he didn’t know it would pass. There are some 40-ish Republicans who were either pushed out of their Primaries by Trump (like Massie) or who lost their elections in safe districts largely because of the war. Every Democrat should vote for it, and Massie is voting for it, so I think he needs only 3 Republicans to back it. He’ll get at least 20.

After the resolution passes, though, the House’s role is done. Then you need to watch what the Senate does. You need 20 of the current 53 Republican Senators to go along. But, how many of them are lame ducks also because of the war, and how many others are pissed that they are going to be in the minority next year because of it?

It, quite literally, is the least he can do.

Blame the SCOTUS for turning an unofficial Justice Department Policy into a Constitutional Principle. The Justice Department is run by the President, after all. What guarantee do we have that any investigation would be fair?

The President’s bogus lawsuit against the IRS awarding him eleventy billion dollars and “settling” for a ban on auditing his finances is a perfect example. A judge threw that out, legitimately, because when the President sues an agency he is in charge of, there are no adverse parties, and any “settlement” is a sham. (That whole affair would be an impeachable offense if someone with a blue tie tried that.)

That wasn’t a criminal prosecution, but imagine if Todd Blanche tomorrow announced that he had “investigated” Trump’s crypto grift and found that it was entirely above board, nothing to see there, and we should all just stop talking about it. Would we believe him?

The policy of the DoJ not investigating the President was meant to protect the integrity of the DoJ, not the President.

It was always envisioned that a truly corrupt President could be investigated after the fact, by a DoJ that doesn’t report to him. I have no clue why the SCOTUS saw something stricter in the penumbra of the Constitution.

If he tries it, it will make it that much easier to impeach the AG

Just have Mamdani go and lobby Trump for it. Trump has such a man-crush on him. It might lead to some uncomfortable comments about Mamdani’s ass, but I’m sure Z would take those for the cause…

The next few weeks might be even more interesting then after the new Congress takes over. Because there are some 50-ish Republicans in the House (and another handful in the Senate) who are short-timers now, and probably blame their impending lapse in employment directly on Trump’s war. And bunch of others who just barely held on to their jobs.

Massie is going to move to impeach Hegseth over the war next week, and it’s probably gonna pass. We’ll have to see what Thune does with it in the Senate, he might still have his Senate gig but has to give up the majority to Chuck, and he knows its because of the war. He might go ahead and let them vote Hegseth out. Nobody likes Hegseth anyway. He’s been blocking promotions of anyone who isn’t white and male, and many of these same Senators understand how mind-numbingly stupid that is. A new SecDef can unblock them (at least for the ones who haven’t quit already.) I think if these articles reached the Senate over the summer he would have been gone then, the election just solidifies how much they all hate him.

Then, the key battle will be who replaces him. Republicans would be motivated to pick a replacement before they give up control to Chuck. If Trump’s “grip on the party” really is slipping, then Thune and Mitch will sit down wih Trump and give him a list of establishment picks to choose from, and tell him that if he picks anyone else, they won’t confirm them and he will have to deal with Chuckles. However, if he appoints another yoyo, and that gets confirmed, we will know that Senate Republicans lost their spine along with their majority.

MAGA = Make Attorneys Get Attorneys

Don’t they do a lot of carpentry work with those elaborate sets? I bet they can always use another handy woman…

She might need a backup career now. I hear she’s quite fond of musical theater…

Since when does the WH Chief of Staff give speeches? I wonder who is really calling the shots here? Maybe the President’s brain is pudding after all.

Maybe we should all start calling him “President Miller”. That might overload Trump’s fragile ego, though.

On the other hand, any Democrat who thought that they might be able to work with Trump during his lame duck years just got a dose of reality.

The SC expansion would need to be tied to the number of federal circuits, assuming that’s why you suggested 4, so that the addition isn’t just met by more retaliatory additions later on.

Yup, you got it.

While we are dreaming of a better future, why not also reform the House to build true representation based on population and remove the cap of 435. Revive the Wyoming rule.

This is necessary, also. It doesn’t require an amendment, only legislation. It would make things fairer all around. But it is only practical if Democrats have nukes the filibuster for other reasons.

Why do people continue to be surprised that Trump is a lying liar?

We could pass a Constitutional Amendment to reform the Court however we want, and the President doesn’t get a say. But it will take 2/3 of Congress and 3/4 of the States on board. That will be a hard bargain in these divided times.

What you can do with legislation is add justices to the court. So, if Democrats manage to take all branches of government in 2028, the very first bill they should pass into law is a bill to add 4 new seats to the court, effective in time for the start of the next Court session in September, nuking the fillibuster if necessary. Then, that’s the point where they go to Republicans and say “Work with us on a court reform amendment now, or President Newsom will appoint 4 progressive judges in their early 40’s to life terms on the Court, no backsies”. I bet that amendment gets passed in 6 months.

I think you underestimate how unpopular the tariffs and war are. I don’t think we will get Republicans to cross the lines on anything else including the budget. (Be prepared for more shutdowns).

But, I think the folks who thought they were in safe seats but ended up winning by a hair realize that they need to break with Trump on these two points in order to have a chance in 2028