We hiked the gorge trail and the rim trail at Robert Treman state park today. It is described as being a "moderate," hike. I found it to be very challenging. I was exhausted when I went to bed before nine this evening, but now I find I can't sleep.

While we were hiking at both Treman and Taughannock, we saw people in the stream beds, or in the water, though the rules of the park specifically say to remain on the trail. But in America today, rules are for chumps.

I saw Heather Cox Richardson on the NewsHour yesterday evening. This ruling by the Supreme Court has been foremost in my consciousness ever since I learned of it. Again, I am dumbfounded that we seem to be so accepting of the overturning of one of the foundational principles of our country, our republic, which "Republicans" are always so eager to constantly point out, is not a "democracy," a "democratic republic."

This grotesque obscenity of a ruling has simultaneously reconciled two pernicious claims of the Republican Party.

The first is that, by making the office of president above the law, we may now have only the 2nd Amendment as a guarantor of our liberty.

I have never accepted that argument. It was the rule of law, that guaranteed our liberty, as imperfectly as that has been realized in our more than two centuries of existence. Imperfect, because it often failed many of our citizens, but perfectible, as we have striven to make real the vision proclaimed in the Declaration Of Independence, that "all men are created equal."

Now, that vision is rendered meaningless. The Supreme Court, an unelected, unaccountable body, some members of which have now been unequivocally shown to be corrupt to their core, has pissed all over Thomas Jefferson's words.

One man is above the law! One man is unaccountable to the law. And they willfully committed this obscenity with the knowledge and example of Donald J. Trump and January 6th, and had the incomprehensible temerity to suggest that the dissenting justices were relying on "extreme hypotheticals," to characterize the nature of this decision.

January 6th was no hypothetical.

The second isn't specifically a Republican claim, though they are now all irrevocably stained by Donald J. Trump and this court's faithless decision. It is Donald J. Trump's disgusting and pernicious belief that America's service members and veterans are "losers" and "suckers," as has been documented repeatedly by men of greater honor and integrity than Donald J. Trump and his "MAGA army" of bootlickers and sycophants.

The Supreme Court has not only pissed on the words of Thomas Jefferson, they have pissed on the graves of every American who made the supreme sacrifice, laid down his or her life, gave "the last full measure of devotion," in service to our nation to "support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic."

Apparently, none of us who swore that oath really understood what we were getting ourselves into. Only those solons in fancy robes and free RVs, who have never worn the uniform of our nations armed forces, knew the real truth.

This "decision," this grotesque obscenity perpetrated on the American people and a government that has been an imperfect beacon of liberty for more than two centuries, by unelected and unaccountable, corrupt ideologues, demagoguing from the bench, has made every sacrifice empty. Meaningless.

Every scarred body, every mangled limb, every damaged psyche borne by America's veterans is now a joke. Donald J. Trump was right, we were suckers. There was nothing in it for us. The Supreme Court has made everything we believed in empty. Meaningless.

May God damn these faithless sycophants, and may their immortal souls burn in Hell for all eternity.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 01:25 Wednesday, 3 July 2024