Walter brings a dark cloud into the back room of Bert’s Diner
All the Mumblers were in the back room at Bert’s for our “STW” (Start the Week) luncheon. We wrap the week up Friday mornings with breakfast at Bert’s then come right back Monday noon. It’s not that much has happened, it’s just that we have a lot of time on our hands.
We were curious. Walter Campbell, former district attorney, retired judge and our unofficial legal guru, had sent us an email saying he wanted the floor. He said Supreme Court decisions were coming down and he was worried. He had a right to be. It was just three days ago that a Supreme Court decision telling non-white immigrants to get the hell out of the United States had come down. That had set off Sam Robertson, a Mumbler of African American heritage, off at our Friday breakfast. We were wondering what Walter was up to.
It didn’t take long to find out. He came in, threw his brief case in a corner, told Roxie to bring him a cheeseburger and fries and just started in. Nary a “hello” or “how you guys today?”
“That worthless piece of human garbage Mitch McConnell has struck again,” Walter said. “This anti-democracy Supreme Court he made possible just gave Trump as much power as Hitler ever had, most kings.”
“Whoa, Walter,” Will Sturgill said. “I saw a piece on this morning’s decision before I came in and the Court ruled that mail-in ballots could be counted. I figured you’d be happy.”
“That was a pleasant surprise,” Walter said. “But don’t get too excited. Justice Barrett wrote the opinion. She said the court wasn’t ruling on the constitution but rather on whether mail-in ballots could be counted after election day, if they are postmarked up to election day. They said they could be counted. But she also said Congress could weigh in at some point and Trump’s voter suppression bill is out there waiting on a vote. A hell of a lot of evil lives in that bill, including threats to mail-in and early voting.
“That’s not the ruling that has me cursing McConnell. It’s the ruling that Trump can appoint and fire at-will across every single independent agency ever created by Congress. The only one they exempted was the Federal Reserve. Keep in mind that among those agencies is the Federal Election Commission. Trump can fire everyone on it and replace it with the worst collection of election-denying nut cases imaginable.
“If you have any doubts he’d do that, look at this interim appointment to head up the National Intelligent agency. Not only does this Bill Pulte have zero intelligence experience, he just appointed a woman named Christine Norton as his chief of staff. She doesn’t have any intelligence experience, either. She’s a known election fraud conspiracy theory whack job. Word is she’s tight with the guy who started the “Pizzagate” conspiracy that said the Clintons and others were abusing children in the basement of a Washington pizza parlor. The pizza shop, by the way, didn’t have a basement.
“Now here’s what’s concerning about this DNI stuff. Trump is loading it up with election deniers. Veteran intelligent experts are being fired. Pulte is the interim for 120 days, which takes us to the mid-terms. Want to bet he’s going to come out with some big claim that foreign countries have infiltrated our elections and that ballots have to be seized and counted by the Feds?
“And, if he guts the Election Commission and replaces it with his toadies, what then? The commission is charged with ‘overseeing Federal elections.’ Want to bet it will go along with whatever scheme Trump comes up with to send in the troops and seize ballots?”
“OK,” Herb Stratton said. “What does this have to do with McConnell?”
“You may recall Obama could have appointed a justice in his last year in office but McConnell, then Senate majority leader, refused to hold hearings, saying a lame duck should not appoint justices, though there is not a single word in the Constitution to that effect. But, when Trump sent Amy Barrett’s name over well into his last year, in 2020 the Senate couldn’t wait to approve her.
“Our nation, our democracy, is facing its greatest threat since the Civil War and I am not certain it will survive. If Trump can enact all his schemes the mid-terms could be a farce. The outcomes could be controlled by Trump and the same in 2028. We will no longer be a democracy. Democrats seem to think running good candidates, focusing on the issues, getting out the vote will win, and normally it would. But we are not living in normal times and I am afraid.
“As for McConnell, I understand his health is failing. When he dies, he should buried without a coffin, butt-naked and face down in the foulest dirt that can be found in Kentucky and his grave should remain unmarked. Let skunks parade by and piss on it.”
Walter, who had been standing, sat down and tucked into his burger. There was a moment of silence then Jack Spratt spoke up.
“Any one watch that Traveler’s golf play-off this morning? One damn hole and Scottie Sheffler couldn’t sink a four-foot putt.”
It didn’t quite break the spell but at least it changed the subject. –Sterling Fields.