Executive Level Murdah

This was another wild year week in the Orange Era(TM).

I will start with the end because it is both what inspired the title and absolutely ridiculous.

Earlier this week, Democratic lawmakers —who also happened to be veterans— posted a video on Twitter stating that they support the troops. Which we all know Republicans love, right?

Well the video offered that support and reiterated that they would support them in the event they followed the law and disobeyed unlawful orders.

So..lawmakers want soldiers to …follow the law.

Agent Orange was big mad.

Perfectly normal headline.

But …. were they wrong?

The Uniform Code of Military Justice requires the military to obey lawful orders.

“Any person subject to this chapter who willfully disobeys a lawful command of that person’s superior commissioned officer shall be punished-(1) if the offense is committed in time of war, by death or such other punishment as a court-martial may direct; and (2) if the offense is committed at any other time, by such punishment, other than death, as a court-martial may direct,” the law states.

Okay tell me more… Like how does it become unlawful?

The Rules for Courts-Martial states that an order is lawful “unless it is contrary to the Constitution, the laws of the United States, or lawful superior orders or for some other reason is beyond the authority of the official issuing it.”

Ding Ding Ding…they were right.

But the literal PRESIDENT said lawmakers telling military members to follow the law should be killed.

HATE IS COOL

In another head-scratching moment, the Coast Guard announced that some definite symbols of hate would no longer be considered symbols of hate.

Another perfectly normal headline.

Now, call me crazy but I think both are pretttty bad. And their banning in the past was only divisive to …racists.

After the policy became public, the Coast Guard backtracked. At least publicly.

DEI Hire

Remember a few weeks ago I wrote about the woman who had never been a prosecutor or to court really — aside from maybe homecoming court when she was doing beauty pageants— being in charge of unfairly prosecuting anyone Trump didn’t like?

Well… her lack of knowing how to do the job might backfire

To make this short. She said in court that she didn’t give the grand jury all the info before they voted so what they voted on wasn’t the full thing which would…idk invalidate what they voted on.

Of course after realizing (aka being told by people who actually know law) she took back what she said she did…but now it is murky what happens next.

Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.

Things That Could Backfire for 200, Alex

If you remember any of my multiple pieces on voting rights you know about the racist Texas maps.

To recap: Trump and his goons are skurred about the midterms and all these Black and brown people voting after being harassed by his militaristic ICE. Best way to stop that….change the voting rules. So in Texas they pushed to change the map to steal 5 seats away from those non-white voters. Other republican states followed suit but none as consequential as Texas.

California, in a way to respond, passed a measure (voted on by the PEOPLE not the legislature) to respond with 5 democratic seats of their own. It passed overwhelmingly btw.

Anyway— I won’t bore you with my love of election laws and the court rulings BUT I will say this. The courts have consistently held that you can draw maps to benefit you politically by party as long as it isn’t obviously motivated by race. Granted they DID say race can be an “unforunate byproduct.”

Well…

Sucks to suck.

The irony is Trump and R’s were very open about race being a motivating factor- especially since it will give Black voters 1/6 of a voice— but California said it was ALL about politics. One of those approaches is technically legal, at least for now.

Do I think the court will really block this? No. This is America. But still hilarious in the moment.

The Epstein Elephant in the Room

The largest news this week was Congress passing the resolution to release the files. This came after they shut the government down to prevent it and all the other shenanigans.

I am not spending a lot of time on this because I am skeptical at best.

At its passage, I posted this:

Not long after this post, the Senate passed the resolution as well and the Orange guy signed it.

Then came this:

It seems it would not be a national security risk UNLESS those in charge of national security are in there.

Don’t be shocked if the list is magically absent any prominent republicans, especially the orange one.

Have a good weekend!