Note: This post is for paid subscribers only, all five of you. Thanks to Greg, Sam, Jim, Stephen and tcnymex. If you want to see the rest of it please become a paid subscriber: Music Credits: "News Theme" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ and: "The Whip (Extended Version)" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ For the last two weeks I’ve been rationing my news intake and watching, reading and listening to a lot of comedy, trying to retain my sanity in a country that appears to be losing its collective mind. But I’m enough in touch to know that the unqualified huckster who was elected president two weeks ago has started nominating a veritable clown car full of unqualified white men for his cabinet. I wrote on that last week. He’s threatening GOP senators who don’t agree to adjourn for at least 10 days so he can just name whoever he wants with no input from the legislature. The constitutionality of this is suspect, to say the least. Then again, he seems to have at least six members of SCOTUS in his pocket. They’ve already ruled that he’s immune from prosecution for anything he does that can be described as an official act, something that completely flabbergasted me. Since I originally posted the text version of this column, his nominee for Attorney General (I was planning on calling him AG Butthead) has dropped out and the AG of Florida has been put forward, so the clown car is full of white men with one blond MAGA white woman in there. I hope she’s wearing full armor and carrying a cattle prod. Remember: I don’t know, and I doubt you do OK, the freeloaders are gone, let’s get down to business! Article II of the Constitution does say, at the end of Section 2, The President shall have Power to fill up all Vacancies that may happen during the Recess of the Senate, by granting Commissions which shall expire at the End of their next Session. But this seems to me to be intended to be used only in emergencies, i.e. it the Secretary of Defence dies suddenly while Congress isn’t in session. Many of the justices consider themselves “originalists” and/or “textualists”. It seems to me that the founders, who had just managed to get out from under a monarchy, would never have agreed to making the head of the Executive Branch into a King, which is basically what these justices have done. And, as near as I can tell, there is nothing in Article II that even hints that the President is immune from prosecution. Section 4 says, The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors. In a country where nobody is supposedly above the law, the impeachment clause doesn’t rule out Federal, State or Civil legal action against the President. Aside: Or at least it shouldn’t as far as I’m concerned. Then again, I’m no Constitutional Scholar. I have, however heard people who are Constitutional Scholars say something similar. I don’t understand why this dude inspires such devotion (or is it fear?) in the GOP members of the House and Senate. I have a hard time believing they all agree with his policies, such as they are. A. R. Moxon, who writes a column called The Reframe writes in way too much detail about how we appear to have gotten into this situation. Aside: I read his columns all the way through so you don’t have to. I’ve considered emailing him and suggesting that when he’s done writing he open ChatGPT and tell it, “summarize this”. But I won’t. He writes a lot about supremacy, the idea that some people are better and/or more deserving than others. Astonishingly, these days many, many of these folks proclaim themselves to be Christians. As you almost certainly know, I left Christianity behind long ago and, after much soul searching, developed a philosophy that I later found out was called Agnosticism. My elevator pitch is, “I don’t know, and I doubt you do.” I try to tell Christians and others with a strong faith based background, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, etc. that I am just as sure that I don’t know s**t as they are that their particular religion is the only right way to go. Actually, most of the Jewish people I know are pretty much agnostics. Judaism is not an evangelical faith, and it shows. Aside: At least among the Jews I know. I know there are Ultra Orthodox Jews who, among other things, steal other people’s land because they have a multi-thousand-year-old book that tells them that they own all of Judea and Samaria. They and US Christian Nationalists are cut from the same cloth, as are Muslim Jihadists, Hindu fanatics in India, Buddhist nationalists in Myanmar and anyone else who de-humanizes folks who do not share their faith. In my view, faith and four bucks will get you a Grande cup of brewed coffee at Starbucks. I can’t imagine living any other way. But I digress. Thank you for reading Diary of a Senior Geek. Part of this post is public so feel free to share it. Moxon spends a lot of time writing about how dangerous supremacy is, and how easy it can be to unconsciously slip into a supremacist mind set. I don’t remember everything he writes about, maybe I’ll do some re-reading and do another column just on his writings, but I do remember that he writes about various reactions people can have to supremacists. If I remember correctly some of the reactions are acceptance (which makes you a supremacist), complacency, which plays right into supremacists hands, or resistance. Count me as a member of the resistance. Aside: This is not to say I don’t occasionally look at some supremacist yahoo blathering away on TV or social media and briefly feel that I’m superior to that person. But I try to be aware of it when I do and remember that this person is doing the best they can with the resources they currently have available. It’s hard. I try to remember that everyone, Democrats, Republicans, Libertarians, Black folks, Caucasians, Asians, Indigenous people, Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, those who are transgender and those who are cisgender and the whole rainbow of LGBTQ+ folks, immigrants, and even San Diego Padres fans are mostly perfectly nice people, going about their lives. Aside: I have nothing against Astros fans, but I will hate the cheating Astros team with the heat of a thousand burning suns for the rest of my days. I really wish everyone had this attitude, but it’s not looking good short term. Moxon has a lot more to say, but that’s it for this week. If you liked it, didn’t like it, or are indifferent about it please, please, please: If you want to support my efforts and be able to comment you can start a paid subscription at the low, low price of, $5 a month or one year or $50 per year. Or send me a one-time donation of a dollar (or more) to SeniorGeek49 on Venmo. 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