Will Trump's Disapproval Rate Ever Fall Bellow 50% During His 2nd Term?

My instincts tell me that it would be impossible. All signs are that he will be an historically awful president. Yet, we have just seen a stunning demonstration of the power of right wing prapaganda. So it will be interesting, but maybe disheartening, to watch.  

Trump's Planned Use of the Alien Enemies Act

Presidential candidate Donald J. Trump: "On my first day back in the White House I will  . . .  invoke the Alien Enemies Act to remove all known or suspected gang members, drug dealers or cartel members from the United States, ending the scourge of illegal alien gang violence once and for all"

The question is just how the Alien Enemies Act could be used to deport aliens who are suspected (by whom, on what standard?) to be gang or cartel members or drug dealers.

Non-Citizen Voters and Excluded Citizen Voters

"[Speaker of the House] Johnson said it is a serious problem because even if a tiny percentage of noncitizens do vote, it could determine the outcome of an extremely close race. He noted that Republican Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks of Iowa won her seat back in 2020 by six votes."

Counting Pinecones: A Look at Consciousness

It was a bumper year for pinecones on a path I walk often. How many pinecones am I conscious of as I walk that path? As you may suspect, my interest in here is more a matter of consciousness, than of pinecones.

How will Supreme Court Justices uphold mandatory school posting of the Ten Commandments?

It seems a near certainty that there will issue from the Supreme Court an opinion that the State of Louisiana did not run afoul of the First Amendment of the US Constitution in ordering that a specific Ten Commandment text be prominently displayed in every public school in the state from kindergarten through university. There is room for hope that it will be a dissenting opinion, although recent Court behavior shrinks that room. Any opinion upholding the Louisiana Ten Commandments mandate will conflict dramatically with well-established First Amendment precedents. What could it look like?

A $1000 Fine for a Billionaire’s Violation of a Judicial Gag Order?

 

In a personal injury case, punitive damages, if awarded, are calibrated to cause pain to the defendant. Rich defendant, higher punitives. In some European countries criminal are sentenced to “day fines,” confiscating, each day, so much of the defendant’s income as would reduce all defendants, rich or poor, to roughly the same standard of living from income: something a little above subsistence.

To have any effect on Trump’s behavior and to have any hope of securing witnesses and court personnel from intimidation, a meaningful deterrent is needed. If it is financial in nature, it has to be a high dollar amount.  

If 4 weren’t even, would it be a prime number?

This counterfactual conditional, you may think, is a little hard to evaluate. The counterfactual, you might say, is underdefined by its very nature. You might even go so far as to say that 4’s not being even, being a contradiction, could authorize any conclusion. It might be a teacup.

The Moral Metaphysics of the Right to Life Movement

“Life Begins at Conception” is a favorite meme of forced birth theorists. What they understand it to mean, is not at all what it says. What it means is that important human rights, rights that trump the rights of the woman, begin at conception.

The Flat Out Biological Mistake of the Alabama Supreme Court in the Frozen Embryo Case

“[a]ll parties to these cases, like all members of this Court , agree that an unborn child is a genetically unique human being whose life began at fertilization and ends at death.: In LePage v. Center for Reproductive Medicine  ___ So. 3^rd ____ (Ala. 2024) (opinion of the Court by J. Mitchel)(emphasis added).

Alabama’s Hastily Enacted IVF Providers Protection Act Is Unconstitutional

 The Alabama Constitution’s 2022 Sanctity of Unborn Life Amendment “acknowledges, declares, and affirms that it is the public policy of this state to ensure the protection of the rights of the unborn child in all manners and measures lawful and appropriate.”

The Trump Trials: Hung Juries and Jury Nullification

What happens if there is a diehard MAGA juror for one of Trump’s trials?