In an effort to explain why she is opposed to the nomination of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court, Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) cited the U.S. Constitution as her rationale.
But instead of referencing the Constitution, Blackburn proved her own massive ignorance, quoting the Declaration of Independence.
Here’s the tweet Blackburn sent out on Wednesday afternoon:
Um…no.
As HuffPost notes, this isn’t the first time Blackburn has gotten American history horrible wrong:
Blackburn has something of a history of constitutional screwups. Last year, she vowed: “We will never rewrite the Constitution of the United States,” seemingly ignoring the 27 times it’s been amended. Blackburn even co-sponsored resolutions in support of three potential amendments.
It didn’t take long before social media lit up with laughter and mockery, all aimed at the ditzy Tennessee senator, who has a degree in home economics and clearly didn’t bother to study very hard in college.
Shamefully, this US Senator doesn’t know her American history…The DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE “declares” our rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness…NOT the Constitution. https://t.co/EuVAfy6JnN
She’s confusing the Constitution with the Declaration of Independence. Neither document *grants* these rights. And what’s the deal anyway with Republicans insisting our rights come from government? The Declaration specifically rejects this notion. https://t.co/Vrojsuk8CA
1. That's from the Declaration of Independence, not the Constitution, Einstein. 2. You're on the Judiciary Committee. You should know this. 3. You violated your oath to the Constitution when you voted against impeachment, but at least read the document. pic.twitter.com/uoDkasCZYt
Literally the LEAST we could ask is that members of Congress be familiar with the country's founding documents. Unfortunately, our qualifications are basically "how old are you and can you exhibit the motor functions of a tadpole."
That's in the Declaration of Independence, not the Constitution. I grew up in Tennessee public schools and you're an embarrassment to the state and education both, you racist box of hair. https://t.co/P4xET6dYyQ
Indiana Republican Sen. Mike Braun says he thinks the U.S. Supreme Court had no right to mandate that interracial marriage had to be legal in all states and that each individual state should be able to decide on such issues without the interference of the courts.
According to The Times of Northwest Indiana, Braun said the landmark 1967 Loving v. Virginia decision that struck down state bans on interracial marriage, was a mistake:
“Braun initially limited his claim to the national right to abortion established by the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision he hopes the current, more conservative, Supreme Court will overturn in coming months when it rules in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. But, when asked by The Times, Braun admitted there are many Supreme Court decisions he believes improperly established federal rights that would be better handled on a state-by-state basis, including Loving v. Virginia that legalized interracial marriage, and Griswold v. Connecticut (1965) establishing a right to privacy concerning contraceptive use.”
Specifically, Braun commented:
“We’re better off having states manifest their points of view, rather than homogenizing it across the country as Roe v. Wade did. This should be something where the expression of individual states are able to weigh-in on these issues through their own legislation, through their own court systems. Quit trying to put the federal government in charge.”
So now we have a Republican member of the Senate who is quite literally letting the mask slip and saying that if the state of Mississippi decides that blacks in their state cannot marry whites, they should have every right to do so.
Or, suppose the state of Indiana wants to say that same-sex couples have no right to marry or live together, they should also be allowed do to so because hey, state’s rights and all that stuff, the very same argument that was made for decades on the issue of slavery.
Fortunately, the reaction to Braun’s remarks was utter disgust and disdain, as it damn well should be:
Proving yet again that failed, one-term former President Donald Trump fears one thing — testifying under oath — above all others, an appeal filed on his behalf and that of his two oldest children, Don Jr. and Ivanka, demands that the Trumps be given “immunity” if they agree to obey a legal subpoena and to give sworn depositions.
Yes, you read that correctly: He wants immunity because he knows he’s committed numerous crimes and is terrified of being charged with them.
According to CNN, the legal reasoning behind the appeal is nothing short of absurd:
In their appeal filed Monday, Trump and his children Ivanka Trump and Donald Trump Jr. argued that if New York Attorney General Letitia James wants their testimony, she should bring them before a state grand jury investigating the Trump Organization, where witnesses receive transactional immunity for their testimony in New York.
The Trumps’ attorneys wrote that if the attorney general’s office is allowed to depose their clients, the state’s constitutional and statutory protections can easily be “eviscerated if the same agency involved in the criminal investigation simply opens up a ‘civil’ investigation into the very same matters.”
“The question is whether the (Office of the Attorney General) can use the office subpoenas to avoid the grand jury process and compel testimony from those whom it does not wish to grant immunity,” the appeal states.
A judge has previously ruled that if the Trumps want to avoid legal liability for giving depositions, they can always invoke their Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination. However, such a move could come back to haunt the Trump family and their company, the Trump Organization because the number of times they cite the Fifth can be introduced as evidence against them in a civil ruling such as the one New York Attorney General Letitia James is seeking. A ruling against the Trump Organization could also lead to the company being shut down and its assets seized by the state of New York.
Eric Trump, who serves as Executive Vice President of Trump Org., gave a deposition in October of 2020 in response to to a deposition from AG James.
South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham made a complete jackass out of himself at the second day of confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson on Tuesday.
What caused Graham to pitch a full-scale hissy fit? The fact that Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin (D-IL) dared to fact-check some of the absurd things Graham said about detainees at Guantanamo.
When Durbin began reading facts to refute what Graham had just said, Graham shouted:
“The system failed miserably and advocates to change this system like [the nominee] was advocating would destroy our ability to protect this country!”
His voice getting more shrill as he spoke, Graham then continued:
“We’re at war, we’re not fighting crime! This is not some passage of time event. As long as they’re dangerous, I hope they all die in jail if they’re going to go back to kill Americans. It won’t bother me one bit if 39 of them die in prison. That’s a better outcome than letting them go and if it cost $500 million to keep them in jail, keep them in jail because they’ll go back to the fight. Look at the freaking Afghan government made up of former detainees at Gitmo. This whole thing by the left about this war ain’t working.”
Durbin again began to respond with facts, which led Graham to leave the hearing in a huff like a spoiled child who didn’t get what he wanted at the grocery store.
It’s no wonder that failed, one-term, twice-impeached former President Donald Trump and his former attorney, Rudy Giuliani, became such close friends and confidants over the years. After all, they both lie almost as often as they breathe.
If you doubt that Giuliani can cook up as many bullshit tall tales as his former client, consider that Rudy just told Newsmax the Donald threatened to bomb Russian churches if President Vladimir Putin dared to invade Ukraine a year and a half ago.
According to Giuliani, right before he left office, Trump was speaking with Putin on the phone and made it clear there would be serious consequences if he made a move on Ukraine:
“He authorized me to say this, that’s why I’m saying it, because I’m his lawyer. So, he has a meeting with Putin and he tells him, they’re talking about Ukraine and he says, ‘Vladimir, you shouldn’t, like, attack Ukraine, cause then I’m gonna — well I never liked those — what are those things you’ve got in Moscow? Those big bubbles. Those big gold bubbles. I never liked those things. So, I’m going to have to blow them up.”
The big gold bubbles Trump allegedly threatened to blow up are the spires of the Kremlin, specifically the gold domes that are the tops of the Cathedral of the Annunciation, a Russian Orthodox church that was built in the 15th century.
Giuliani continued:
“So, Putin says, ‘They’re churches.’ And he said, ‘Oh, Vladimir. Don’t tell me that about churches. Oh, come on. Churches?'”
Does anyone other than the most rabid and fanatical MAGA morons believe a word of that? It’s impossible to accept that Trump ever confronted Putin about anything because Vlad allegedly has dirt on Donnie related to the ex-president’s odd sexual fetishes.
And yet now, with Russia killing thousands of Ukrainian civilians as Putin attempts to impose his will and realize his dream of being a modern-day czar, we’re supposed to accept at face value that Donald Trump said he’d bomb the Kremlin.
At times like this, it’s difficult to tell who is most full of shit: Trump, Giuliani, or their Russian master in the Kremlin.
