500 Days of Greatness, Baker Takes the Cake
Tuesday, June 5, 2018
Vol. 7, No. 152
Trump World: Self-pardon, witness tampering, the Special Counsel is unconstitutional, the football team gets punted, and President Trump calls his term so far, “500 days of American greatness.” It’s one of those days when you just don’t know where to start, but the White House claim to absolute presidential immunity and power is an interesting place to do it.
President Trump tweeted yesterday, “As has been stated by numerous legal scholars, I have the absolute right to PARDON myself, but why would I do that when I have done nothing wrong? In the meantime, the never ending Witch Hunt, led by 13 very Angry and Conflicted Democrats (& others) continues into the mid-terms!”
“Many” legal scholars have not said the President may pardon himself. Mostly it’s his own lawyers, if you consider them “scholars.” The consensus of opinion on self-pardon is that a president can’t be his own judge and jury, but the question has never been settled because no president has ever tried it.
Trump says he won’t because he’s done nothing wrong, but he could if he wanted to, you know, if he broke the law, which he didn’t, and Hillary and the Democrats did, but not him, although just in case he could pardon himself.
The man who could most immediately use a pardon is Trump’s short-term campaign chairman Paul Manafort, who is under indictment and house arrest and now accused of attempted witness tampering. The Special Counsel filed a 90-page document asking for Manafort’s bail to be revoked. The filing accuses Manafort of trying to influence witnesses by phone and through an encrypted messaging program.
In Trump’s view this is all unfair because, as he tweeted yesterday, “The appointment of the Special Counsel is totally UNCONSTITUTIONAL! Despite that, we play the game because I, unlike the Democrats, have done nothing wrong!”
With all that on his mind, Trump proved yesterday that he’s a multi-tasker. He cancelled a planned visit by the Super Bowl winning Philadelphia Eagles after most of the players and coaches said they wouldn’t go because of the President’s stand on National Anthem protests.
“The Philadelphia Eagles are unable to come to the White House with their full team to be celebrated tomorrow,” Trump said in a statement last night. “They disagree with their president because he insists that they proudly stand for the national anthem, hand on heart, in honor of the great men and women of our military and the people of our country.”
Let’s not get into it, but the National Anthem isn’t about honoring the military.
That Takes the Cake: The Supreme Court yesterday ruled in favor of a Colorado baker who refused on religious grounds to make a wedding cake for two gay men.
The decision was not a sweeping endorsement of religiously-based discrimination, but rather a narrow technical decision. The court said that the Colorado Civil Rights Commission, which originally ruled against the baker Jack Phillips, had shown itself hostile to his religion because of remarks by one of its members.
Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote for the majority that, “The Civil Rights Commission’s treatment of his case has some elements of a clear and impermissible hostility toward the sincere religious beliefs that motivated his objection.”
Fuego Means Fire: A larger disaster is unfolding in the aftermath of the eruption of Guatemala’s Fuego volcano, which erased villages and killed at least 69 people, injuring hundreds more. Victims were over run by lava as well as being asphyxiated by toxic gas and clouds of ash that travelled 12 miles.
One emergency responder said, “Basically there’s no houses left, and to my assumption there’s nobody left there … except the people doing the search and rescue. The sad news is there’s a bunch of recovery of bodies of children and adults there.”
News roundup: An Arizona murder spree that left six people dead ended with the suspect killing himself early yesterday in a Scottdale hotel room. Authorities say 56-year-old Dwight Jones killed at least four of his victims because they worked on the side of his wife in a messy divorce and custody fight. — Starbucks coffee chairman Howard Schultz announced he’s stepping down at age 64 to do something else with his life. Speculation is he might run for office, possibly even president. — First Lady Melania Trump made her first semi-public appearance in 24 days yesterday at an event for Gold Star families. The press was not allowed in, but her arrival vanquished questions about whether she was somehow incapacitated. — Saudi Arabia has issued licenses to the first 10 women allowed to legally drive in that conservative Muslim country. Thousands more women are expected to apply for licenses in the coming weeks.
Dept. of Corrections: Yeah, we know, it was Jimmy Fallon, not Jimmy Kimmel. Too many Jimmies at 7am.
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