Imagine that the following were a genuine statement of intent. It is not, absolutely not, but imagine:
Saturday night, I plan to organize a mob to assemble in front of Representative Drew Dennert’s house here in Aberdeen to protest his illegal election to the South Dakota Legislature. I will carry a firearm and a bullhorn. I will stand outside Representative Dennert’s house shouting and chanting obscenities. I will yell into the bullhorn, “Your neighbors will get no sleep—you need to come out now!” I will act in a way that will terrify Representative Dennert’s wife and child, because their emotional suffering will be minuscule compared to the general suffering our community and our democracy are suffering as Dennert and his radical deep-state party steal this election. I will not stand down; I will not give up; I will not let Dennert steal this election from the candidate who has earned his Legislative seat completely by a freaking landslide [completely imaginary, satirical, untrue statement].
I do not plan to organize any mob. I have much better things to do with my Saturday night than stand in front of Drew’s house. I will not carry a firearm and brandish it in front of any legislator’s house. I do not own a bullhorn (although I might get more use from that than from any firearm). I will not terrorize Drew’s wife and child. The results of our District 3 House race were unpleasant, but they were not inaccurate, rigged, or stolen. Even if our election results were flawed, I wouldn’t go to Drew’s house, or auditor Cathy’s house, or Secretary of State Steve’s house; I’d go to court, with evidence and a lawyer.
If I engaged in the actions satirically described above, my political party would disown me. My regular commenters here, Democratic and Republican alike, would likely stand shoulder-to-shoulder in condemning my irresponsible, violent actions. I might well lose my job. The Attorney General would likely issue charges of making terroristic threats, and even with the best lawyer at my side, a local jury would likely swiftly avail itself of the chance to sit my keester in jail… and I’d probably have it coming.
(And I haven’t even gotten to the heck I’ll pay when I get home.)
Such reprehensible actions, threats and violence committed in the cause of falsehood, would reflect poorly on my family, my political party, my employer, and my state. You would all rightly shun me for behaving like such a thug.
Yet in Michigan, last Saturday night, Donald Trump’s lies inspired a mob to do exactly what I described:
Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson is speaking out after dozens of protesters showed up outside her home on Saturday over the election.
The protesters went live on Facebook with people yelling “stop the steal” and urging her to come outside.
“Your neighbors will not get no sleep – you need to come out now!” someone yelled.
Lt. Mike Shaw from Michigan State Police said he believes some of the protesters were openly carrying guns.
Benson said she and her 4-year-old son were finishing up Christmas decorating and about to watch a movie when the protests started [“Protesters Gather Outside Jocelyn Benson’s Home, Some Armed, over the Weekend,” WXYZ-TV, 2020.12.07].
…and…
…Part of the demonstration was streamed live on Facebook.
“We are not standing down, we are not giving up, you are not going to take this election from a man that has earned it completely 100% by a freaking landslide,” said Genevieve Peters, who posted the video [“Jocelyn Benson: Armed Protesters Flock to Michigan Official’s Home,” BBC, 2020.12.07].
The actions of the protestors outside the Michigan Secretary of State’s home demonstrate the danger posed to our democracy and civil society by Donald Trump and his mindless, violent minions. They have no scruples, not even an adherence to simple, obvious facts and expectations of evidence to support their claims. They will put their personal fictions above rational discourse and respect for their fellow citizens. And they will use bullying tactics, just like Trump, to achieve their mad ends.
Reject Trump. Reject Trumpism. Reject the domestic terrorism he is fomenting.
They were white. So no riot police showed up. No “street sweepers” were used. No water cannons were used. No tear gas and rubber bullets were used. No citations for not having a parade permit were issued. No citations for disturbing the peace were issued. In other words, the state and city leaders, and the jurisdictional police forces – enabled – the illegal protests.
We MUST get to the point where we treat each other as we want to be treated, We MUST get to the point where we equitably enforce the law.
This is what drumpf and his pathological lying has done to America. drumpf’s only concerns are for drumpf and money.
A recent poll of wingnuts (I didn’t think I needed to use the adjective deranged) showed 83% of those polled don’t believe Biden won the election. Magats need to be shown the door to the planet because they will never be sane, responsible human beings again.
Donald J Trump aka public enemy number 1. How did we go from make America great again to I am going to throw a tantrum and break everything I can while my herd of deplorable miscreants wreak havoc. To add insult to injury I will pick the pockets of the village idiots who believe every lie I tell.
What is sad about this report is that our South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem & Senators Rounds and Thune are complicate in remaining silent about Trump’s denial of President-elect Biden’s election win. They support Trump with his poor-looser rants and rages because they fear him. Kristi feeds the flames by promoting him and his antics. She professes he can rightly seek legal remedies to his 7 million vote and 74 electoral vote deficit-loss even though he Trump has been proven a liar at every court challenge (34 and counting).
So Kristi WHEN will you admit defeat and welcome Joe and Kamala our President and Vice President-elect?
BTW Kristi Noem is been galavanting around Texas and Georgia on our South Dakota dime trumping up support for more Republican punishment.
Hopefully at her scheduled news media-only presser Wednesday in Rapid City at least one reporter will ask some tough questions of her like:
OK Kristi we get it you don’t believe in masks to prevent the spread of coronavirus-laden water droplets that is your right to believe whatever you want…but you are the Governor of this State of South Dakota and the 882,000+ residents look up to you for guidance…Even if only ONE person dodges transmission of this killer disease by wearing a mask and thereby prevents the outward spread to only 10 additional South Dakotans and on and on…So if even ONE is spared death or long-term complications isn’t that erring on the side of CAUTION and being a LEADER who tries to offer every possible aid to prevent death and disability. Instead of trips-ing all over the United States parroting that stupid POTUS who spews lies and disarray! If you are truly the Governor of South Dakota you ought to remain here in South Dakota and be fighting for the health welfare education and livelihood of every last one of US. Are you really ready to end Democracy as we know it just to circumvent the true and valid election results so trump can rule like a king for 4 more (or 8 or 12) more years??
You have to feel sorry for the conned don’t you? I actually like the ridiculous arguments the losers use. Makes my day. Why worry about idiocy? Just get on with your day.
I do hope Sec. Benson had a fence around her home to keep safe.
I whole-heartedly agree with John’s assessment that tolerance of this incident stems from the perpetrators skin color. This would not have ended well if it had been a mob with a bit more tint to their skin tone. If it had been a black/brown mob, then we would hear the cries for “law and order” and maybe even for some sensible gun control.
Mark, my sympathy ended when they started having the ability to win elections. Now they are SERIOUSLY dangerous.
Mr. H, you long ago convinced grudznick. I reject Mr. Trump and I reject Trumpism. He is rude and boorish.
But I do wish you had a bullhorn and used it, albeit judiciously and when least expected, late at night in the alley behind Mr. Dennert’s home. That would be, as Mr. Dennert’s age group says, neat-o.
Mark, actually I don’t feel sorry for the conned , I find it unbelievable that there are so many people who willfully accept the lies and the grandiose braggadocio from the dangerous grifter of Brooklyn.
The danger is, you know he is a LOSER and I know he is a LOSER but he doesn’t know he is a LOSER, and he is surrounded by sycophants who will allow the LOSER to satisfy his selfish desires and prance around naked while his entourage compliments his new clothes.
DS, you mention the trope about recognizing Trump’s right to seek legal remedies. How many lawsuits must one file and lose before we can objectively recognize that the litigant is not exercising legal rights but abusing them? At what point can judges start holding a plaintiff in contempt of court for wasting the court’s time with frivolous and baseless lawsuits?
Today is the “safe harbor” deadline for certifying Presidential election results: by law, Congress must recognize as valid all Presidential election results certified by the states by today.
But why are armed mobs given safe harbor in front of the homes of election officials? Why are those terrorists not treated as such?
Cory, John is correct in his observation. When the crowd is white, they are a ‘lively crowd’ just practicing their second amendment. When the crowd is black, the police get paranoid and start shooting, and then it gets classified as a dangerous mob by mostly right winged media. The police can never be wrong you know and there is nothing scarier to a white right-winged police officer then seeing an armed black man.
Not for nothing, but the same folks who recognize President Trump’s right to file frivolous (albeit dangerous in nature) lawsuits because “that is his right under the law” do not recognize a woman’s right to reproductive choice even as articulated as her right under the law.
Here are suggested answers to Cory’s questions.
One is usually sufficient if there is neither evidence nor legal principles that support the plaintiff’s claim for relief.
Litigation is appropriate to seek a resolution of a disputed fact where there actually is evidence supporting the plaintiff’s version of events, and that version of the facts entitles plaintiff to some meaningful relief. Likewise, it may be approriate for a litigant to seek a judgment that reverses a prior ruling or challenges the constitutionality validity of an existing statute.
From what I have read about the election challenge cases filed by Trump and his acolytes, they have not identified any acceptable evidence supporting any version of the facts that might entitle them to some meaningful relief, nor have they challenged existing statutes or rules that might control the outcome of the election as unconstitutional. Hence, any one of the 30 or 40 lawsuits should alone be sufficient to objectively recognize that these lawsuits have not been filed in good faith, but are in an abuse of the judicial system.
Contempt is typically not an available remedy against someone who files frivoulous lawsuits, unless a judge previously has issued an order prohibiting the filing of a particular claim, in which case the plaintiff can be held in contempt for violating the order. Judges might issue such an order prohibiting further lawsuits by an identified plaintiff after summarily dismissing one or more virtually identical lawsuits filed by the same plaintiff. In that case, a contempt action normally will follow.
In the cases where contempt is not the remedy the law provides other sanctions to discourage frivolous filings. The most severe is disbarmnent of a lawyer who files such claims. Less severe, but potentially costly, is an award of attorneys fees and costs to the defendant to be paid by the unsuccessful plainiff, and in some cases by the plaintiff’s attorney.
In South Dakota, for example, SDCL 15-17-51 provides:
For an interesting and comprehensive analysis of these remedies see:
On Frivolous Litigation: A Study of Tort Liability
and Procedural Sanctions, John W. Wade, Hofstra Law Review, Vol.14 (1986).
https://scholarlycommons.law.hofstra.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1577&context=hlr
drumpf’s “only the best people” attorneys must have practiced with, or underneath Larry Klayman
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/09/16/has-larry-klayman-finally-gone-too-far-416353
All of this trump nonsense just covers up America’s failure to take care of all of her citizens. Example, The UK, right now, is mass vaccinating their citizens. Yep, those guys are flat out moving, even in the middle of the pandemic and political discourse with Brexit, they show how government works for the people. Take a look at us, the US, we go around demanding the vote be changed for more failure to actually cover up the current failures. Failure be thy name.
At some point there will be a lot of people who will conveniently no longer remember what they did during the T***p years. They will redirect the conversation to another topic because even in their own minds, they’ll squirm a bit to remember their own words and actions. That is, if they haven’t lost their lives to the pandemic that also never was.
The Governor cavorting on post post post election times out of state on the “state’s dime”? … she should be made to reimburse 100% of monies used if not actually her own or some PAC funds. Then, she should be brought up on misuse of office charges! An election in another state should not be the responsibility of our governor’s to attend. This, plus all the need for elected officials to keep their attention to the needs of their constituents, is utmost in the needs of a citizenry during these harsh times. Should she not stay on task, she should be called to the table and be made to answer for her actions, or step down and allow someone who can “do the job” and do it well!! Electioneering should be done on “vacation time”, not the state’s time. Has she been using her private vacation or comp time, or is she stealing (yes, stealing) from the State of South Dakota? You and I would be FIRED, and for just cause, if we performed in such a manner!!
It’s time for our country to wake up and better understand the need for a government of the people, by the people and for the people… not a monarchy which the Trump establishment so badly wanted to create! We all emigrated here from all over the world to avoid such a governance. It’s now time to rectify Trump’s efforts in regressing all those years back to allowing him and his minions to rule us. What a frightening thought.
Both extremes tend to engage in this sort of very questionable protest at the residences of officials Certainly, a small contingent of Black Lives Matter protestors did similar things to our district attorney and mayor. However, the left tends not to bring guns into the mix, which makes a difference when little children are peering out of the windows. Shouting and trespassing is more in line with leftist values, while threats and intimidation is a right thing. In my opinion, keep the protests at official government sites.
Judge Emmet Sullivan formally drops Flynn case due to overbroad pardson by drumpf.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/08/politics/michael-flynn/index.html
Justice delayed and then denied.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/08/politics/read-michael-flynn-emmet-sullivan-opinion/index.html
Every day is a republican coup day now. Next time you hear the prattle of republicans talking about law and order, mention the coup they most support. How American. When will the UN send in the blue hats?