patrick.net

https://www.coffeeandcovid.com/p/bad-luck-friday-april-26-2024-c-and

All nine Justices, including the liberals, seemed shocked by the concept of absolute presidential immunity. Like me, you’ve probably heard the media’s vomitous, broken-record jargon until your ears were bleeding: “nobody is above the law.” Really? Is that true?

Let’s start with judges. Judges are immune. If a judge makes a mistake, and an innocent person goes to the electric chair, what happens? Nothing. Even if the judge intentionally railroaded the defendant because of racial bias or for any other reason, what happens? Nothing.

How about Congressmen? Congressmen are immune. If they start a war that gets thousands of Americans killed, for illegal reasons (Wag the Dog), what happens? Nothing. (Critics will yap about bribery. So what? How many successful prosecutions have there been? At best, which is a stretch, bribery prosecutions only show a limited exception to Congress’ broad, general immunity.)

How about City Commissioners? City Commissioners are immune. What if a city commissioner violates citizens’ constitutional rights in Florida by mandating vaccines, and an outraged lawyer (me) proves the constitutional violation in court? What happens to the Commissioners?

Nothing.

How about cops? Cops are immune. At least, they enjoy qualified immunity. What happens if a cop negligently mows down grandma while chasing a teenaged jaywalker at irrationally high speeds? Nothing. Immune.

For Heaven’s sake, the entire government is immune. It’s a concept called sovereign immunity. The only way ‘round sovereign immunity is when the government graciously de-immunizes itself by passing a law allowing certain types of claims against government officials. Otherwise, tough luck, starbuck.

Although his immunity produces extremely vexing results in many cases, it is just as necessary as other types of government immunity. The President is not even an ordinary government official. He’s an entire branch of government. Article II of the Constitution establishes the President as the Executive Branch. Under the Constitution, the President enjoys powers exceeding those of any other government official, so it seems uncontroversial that he would also enjoy immunity exceeding that of any other government official.

I mean, through his pardon power, the President can even dish out immunity to anybody else, for any crime, no matter how horrible, even mislabeling checks. Why not himself?

Would I love to see Barack Hussein Obama tried for his crimes? A hundred percent. But that would open Pandora’s immunity box and start the political prosecution train going. Next stop, Banana Republic.

What to me was unaccountably absent from yesterday’s oral arguments was any discussion about the mountain of broad immunities already enjoyed by government and whether the President’s immunity should rest somewhere near, if not right at, the peak.

In other words, at minimum, a president should never have less immunity than every other government official. We put up with immunity so judges can rule without fearing personal consequences. We want Presidents to execute their duties boldly and decisively.

Nobody made that point yesterday.

What can I tell you? It’s a super strange year.

Immunity of the people who rule us is a good reason to minimize their numbers and power.

UkraineIsTotallyFucked says

Feminist still want to be screwed by their men, though.

https://dee746.substack.com/p/rules-of-stupidity

I thinking about when I took the intermediate (level 2) acquisitions management course at Defense Acquisition University and the instructor at day one said that around 20% could be cut from a major acquisition program and it could still meet the Pentagon's requirements.

The Federal Reserve policies contributed to the federal debt to GDP ratio reaching the current level of 121%, whereas it was around 106% right before the COVID pandemic started.

And I read using Google Gemini AI that about $660 billion was spent on federal debt service in 2023, compared to

* $773 billion for the Pentagon
* $887 billion for Medicaid
* $302 billion for Veteran Affairs (about $151 billion of this went to VA disability and income security/pension payments)

Congressional Budget Office forecasts around $870 billion for federal debt service in 2024 which surpasses the Pentagon budget :-/

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https://www.foxbusiness.com/politics/presidential-debate-how-much-debt-grow-under-biden-trump-terms

Trump added $8.4 trillion to the debt, and $4.8 trillion of that was due to non-COVID pandemic/crisis spending.

As of 21 June 2024, Biden added $4.3 trillion to the debt, and $2.2 trillion of that was due to non COVID spending.

Congressional Budget Office forecasts a $2 trillion deficit for 2024, and that $1.2 trillion (of that $2 trillion) has already been realized since end of May 2024.

The deficit was $1.7 trillion in 2023.

So Biden will add at least $5.1 trillion to the debt during his first term compared to Trump's $8.1 trillion.

But Trump was politically forced to sign bi-partisan spending bills to respond to the COVID crisis. Trump staved off a major economic depression because of all the COVID lockdowns.

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