Trump is a master of corruption--in today's LA Times, by Francis Wilkinson.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

https://www.aol.com/news/opinion-supreme-court-just-showed-184314409.html

I have badly underestimated Donald Trump. Thursday was the day that his justices — it turns out that they are indeed his justices on the Supreme Court, just as he claimed — got it through my thick head: Trump is not just competent but masterful. He is not just capable, he is supreme.

~snip~

Crime is a largely private endeavor. Corruption is public. It seeps into the muscle and sinew of democratic society and institutions; it devours from within. The Supreme Court, drunk on arrogated power, cut loose from rudimentary ethics, has been eaten alive by it. But the court is just one plot of a vast terrain that Trump has conquered — not with crime, but corruption.

~snip~

Trump has already succeeded at corrupting much of what’s corruptible. Government. Elections. Foreign policy. Democracy. Religion. Above all, people, and mostly men. Truckloads, boatloads, tiki-torch-parade-loads, courtloads of weak men all standing in the shadow that Trump casts.

~snip~

But it was the Republican Supreme Court — mostly men again — that put the shiv a little deeper in democracy’s back this week. Originalists or textualists, all sounded more or less Trumpist as they seriously entertained Trump’s argument that his assaults on the constitutional order are protected by the Constitution itself. There is no way to make honest sense of such a liar’s mash. But Larry, Moe and Curly aren’t just chairing committees in Congress. They wear robes and furrowed brows now, too. And they seem eager to pretend that crimes are just constitutional exercises of power, and that one ex-president is a king.

[Poiuyt]

1. King Trump

I think it was Michael Cohen who said there were three classes of people in America -- there were the regular people, there were the rich and famous, and then there was Donald Trump, in a class by himself. Unfortunately, he seems to be above the law.

[Mr.Bee]

11. and it's a shame Justice has become politicized

[orangecrush]

2. Spelled out in plain English

I believe the American people will never stand for an autocracy.

We're going to find out if I'm right.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

3. I think you're right, and I hope so too.

The author's plain English really had an impact on me, and that caused me to post the article.

He spoke so clearly that there couldn't be any misunderstanding of what he meant.

[orangecrush]

8. The Supreme court

Has lost all credibility.

There is a fix, though.

Vote Democratic.

[erronis]

4. "Originalists or textualists"

As I saw earlier today, the correct term is "Pretextualist."

Took me a couple of seconds to deconstruct that new word but it works so well for the "Aggrieved White Men" (as Marcy Wheeler calls the RW SCOTUS robe wearers). They'll invent a new term whenever they want, and if they want to usurp the meaning of an existing word, who's to call them on it?

[erronis]

5. Just wanted to put out the actual LATimes link - not paywalled

Thanks for posting this but I really like getting the original document source instead of running through some other media outlet (AOL in this case.)

https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2024-04-26/donald-trump-supreme-court-justices-corruption

[Old Crank]

6. Hope you are right

But the appearance of having the Supreme Court in his picket is terrifying

[bucolic_frolic]

7. "crimes are just constitutional exercises of power" so buy a Bible and seek salvation

and for mass shootings, buy a Bible and pray.

The Republican Party and Donald Trump have you covered.

[Lonestarblue]

9. Thank you for posting. Clear, coherent, and perfectly descriptive of the insidious corruption Trump has unleashed.

The Republican Party primed the field for him with their decades of racial hate and fear mongering, but Trump poured gasoline on their fire. I am no longer confident that we will survive the corruption that he has gleefully spread.

[SleeplessinSoCal]

10. They can't make him above the law because that would make Biden above the law.

And if so, Biden could just toss off the SCOTUS whoever he so desires.