10 Comments
Jul 7Liked by Jeff Maurer

It was worth just hearing you scream at Deputy Campaign Manager Rob Flaherty to fuck off. Twice!! My Lord, what a total douchebag.

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Jeff, I disagree on your take re: presidential immunity. Specifically, I don’t believe any new power was created or conferred on the president. I believe they (the SCOTUS) codified what was likely our general understanding of how we approach the president and potential lawsuits.

To put it another way, in the form of a question: what is the ex ante standard that you believe was changed?

When Barack Obama droned a US citizen (albeit overseas), what was the law or SCOTUS precedent that governed that , which has now been changed?

Further, what’s the alternative approach to assessing presidential immunity, or lack thereof, that you think would be more workable than what the 6-3 decision landed on?

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Does it matter that they're an American citizen if they're also an enemy combatant?

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Maybe? Or maybe not?

Not really trying to pull apart the specifics on that one or argue whether it was ok or not. More so pointing out that almost nobody was suggesting that was something for which court charges could be brought against Obama. There was no structure in place that somehow blocked such an action that has now been removed by the SCOTUS.

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Thanks for the response!

I just hope this SCOTUS ruling doesn't lead to, I don't even know what.

I'm a worrier.....

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Jul 7·edited Jul 7

A bit of non-convention related news from 100 years ago (though still political), is that today in 1924, President Coolidge's 16 year old son died from a blood infection that developed from a blistered toe he got during a tennis game with his older brother at the White House tennis court a week earlier. There was concern about Coolidge's mental state (though, of course, this was before the 25th Ammendment), though he still accepted the nomination and won re-election later that year. He later wrote that all the glory and power of the presidency died when his son did, and that if he had never been president, then the series of events that caused his son's death would never have occurred.

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author

I did see the story about Coolidge's son but it was so sad that I didn't mention it.

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Yeah, definitely not the sort of story that lends itself to comedy.

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Nobody cares about New Zealand? My son just sent me an 'excessive heat' warning from the town in California where he grew up. I can see snow on the mountains here in Aotearoa. The winters are still lovely. Oh! and I care.

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With regards to customs and norms, I can't understand why the hell Congress didn't pass a law requiring candidates for president to release their tax returns. Honestly, this might even be something big enough to try for a constitutional amendment, something a bit more broad, requiring presidential candidates to show they aren't in the thrall of a foreign power.

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