Peter Sagal

@petersagal.bsky.social

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I make Dad jokes on NPR and also write books and other things.

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If a journalist has been consistently reliable, resourceful and accurate when reporting things you want to hear, you don’t get to dismiss them when they report something you don’t. I’m sorry, I don’t make the rules. nymag.com/intelligence...

The Conspiracy of Silence to Protect Joe Bidennymag.com The president’s mental decline was like a dark family secret for many elite supporters.

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Peter Sagal

Over at the Bad Place, I made a tradition of posting Douglass' "What, To The Slave, Is The Fourth of July," and I intend to carry on that tradition here. Since most versions you read in classes or in textbooks have parts omitted, the link below has the full text of the speech.

(1852) Frederick Douglass, "What, To The Slave, Is The Fourth Of July" •www.blackpast.org On July 5, 1852, Frederick Douglass was invited to address the citizens of his hometown, Rochester, New York. Whatever the expectations of his audience on that 76th anniversary of the signing of the D...

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Peter Sagal

Reply to

Citizen.Coping

"What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? I answer; a day that reveals to him the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham... your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings ... are, to Him, mere bombast, fraud, deception..."

Frederick Douglass's, “What To the Slave Is the Fourth of July?”edsitement.neh.gov Frederick Douglass (1818–1895) was a former slave who became the greatest abolitionist orator of the antebellum period. During the Civil War he worked tirelessly for the emancipation of the four milli...

Just realized Bluesky needs a “dislike” button.

“Look, folks. There are no “gooner states” and “edging states”, we are the United States!”

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Peter Sagal

This is a really good summary of what the Roberts Court is doing—simultaneous elevation of president and destruction of regulation. This year and last, US public law is fundamentally shifting towards a frightening new (authoritarian) regime. www.nytimes.com/2024/07/04/u...

Legal Conservatives’ Long Game: Amp Up Presidential Power but Kneecap Federal Agencieswww.nytimes.com Blockbuster decisions by the Supreme Court’s Republican-appointed supermajority — expanding one kind of executive branch authority while undercutting another — were no contradiction.

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Peter Sagal

just watched 74 people speaking at least a dozen different languages become american citizens in a ceremony at monticello, where the speakers were themselves children of immigrants. inspiring stuff and a vivid illustration of what reactionaries want to snuff out

Saw a Pride flag on a lawn next to a sign saying “SAVE THE PORN INDUSTRY” and I honestly don’t know if it was ironic or not.

Been thinking today of Obama’s speech at the 50th anniversary of Selma, IMO the finest of his career. In direct response to an accusation from a now disbarred lawyer, who said he “didn’t really love America,” Obama laid out a vision of the America he loved. time.com/3736357/bara...

Read the Full Text of Obama's Speech in Selmatime.com The President spoke on Saturday in Selma, Ala.

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Peter Sagal

Things are pretty fucked up and the future is uncertain — probably the worst in my lifetime (perhaps excepting 1969 before I can remember). When it’s like that, I like to think about my grandparents and what they faced and got through with the Great Depression and WWII. /1

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Prediction: Trump will argue that his NY conviction must be overturned because the court admitted evidence of conversations he had with his staff while President in order to prove knowledge and intent. He will argue those conversations were “official acts.” Judge Merchan and higher NY courts …./1

Seems crazy! But just logical. If a President cannot commit a crime in the course of an official act, like giving an order to the military, how can you prosecute the person who follows the order? There’s a whole code of military conduct about “illegal orders.” All orders are legal now.

There is also every reason to think that this court will expand Trump v. U.S in his second term to extend immunity to those doing his bidding. I.e., “Our holding in Trump v. U.S. demands that government officials be able to enact the will of the executive without fear of criminal proceedings.”

Always worth reading Linda Greenhouse on SCOTUS. www.nytimes.com/2024/07/03/o...

Opinion | A Dismissed Abortion Case Points to Internal Tensions and Dysfunction at the Supreme Courtwww.nytimes.com The court dismisses an abortion case it now says it should never have accepted, opening a window on internal tensions.

Because as is well known, the first American Revolution was fought against the tyranny of faculty senates. (Read the transcript in the link.)

Heritage Foundation president celebrates Supreme Court presidential immunity ruling: "We are in the process of the second American Revolution, which will remain bloodless if the left allows it to be" www.mediamatters.org/project-2025...

Heritage Foundation president celebrates Supreme Court immunity decision: "We are in the process of the second American Revolution"www.mediamatters.org

Same.

1/ I often write: The only thing I know *for certain* about the future is that it has not happened yet. Yesterday’s SCOTUS ruling is a perfect example of how much I need to heed my own mantra. For years, I heard Donald Trump was saying that he was certain that “his Supreme Court justices” . . .

So in one key respect, he *was* Trump’s Roy Cohn.

Giuliani disbarred www.nytimes.com/2024/07/02/n...

Giuliani Disbarred From the Practice of Law in New Yorkwww.nytimes.com Rudolph W. Giuliani, the former mayor of New York and a longtime ally of Donald J. Trump, was at the center of the former president’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

I’m sorry, but things have gotten to the point where I saw this and just laughed out loud.

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Peter Sagal

I've seen enough -- this is the most radical, dangerous, arrogant, out-of-control Supreme Court in American history, and it needs to be treated as such. open.substack.com/pub/kevinmkr...

The Radical Roberts Courtopen.substack.com The current Supreme Court of the United States has just cemented its place in history as the most radical Supreme Court ever. For a century and a half, that dishonor has gone to the antebellum court l...

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Peter Sagal

Reply to

Popehat

/8 At any rate, congratulations to the Federalist Society for an achievement beyond the reach of the British, outside the grasp of bloody civil war, impossible to Nazis and Soviets and terrorists: defeating the American idea.

One of the very disorienting aspects of our current moment is that a very smart man like @adamserwer.bsky.social can sound like a fire-breathing radical as he simply tells the truth. www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc...

The Supreme Court Puts Trump Above the Lawwww.theatlantic.com And gives him permission for a despotic second term.

"We are going to spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children, what it once was like in America when men were free." — Ronald Reagan, about Medicare

Nobody’s mentioned this, so I guess I will: Thomas wrote a separate concurrence just to note Jack Smith was illegally appointed, a question nobody asked.

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Peter Sagal

Things are bad but all the more reason for optimism of the will and rejection of doomerism and nihilism. Only way out is through.

This is blowing up a little bit so I feel I should just clarify: I’m not recommending he actually do this.

Under today’s immunity decision, Biden could order AG Garland to immediately prosecute Thomas and Alito for corruption and insurrection. (Official act). If Garland refuses, Biden can fire him and replace him with someone who will. (Official act) I would suggest Elie Mystal.

This is of course glib. In the current moment, and in the case at hand, the liberal coalition is not fighting for any policy end but for the rule of law itself. See: elections. If Trump loses this fall, he will try to overturn it (again.) Biden won’t, because he believes in democracy.

I honestly believe that a lot of conservative strategizing is based on the correct assumptions that liberals would never be as ruthless as they are.

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Peter Sagal

Hours after the Supreme Court sharply curbed the power of federal agencies, conservatives and corporate lobbyists began plotting how to harness the favorable ruling in a redoubled quest to whittle down climate, finance, health, and labor regulations. wapo.st/3xM2An6

Corporate lobbyists eye new lawsuits after Supreme Court limits federal powerwapo.st Powerful opponents of federal regulation — in climate, finance, health, labor and technology — are already planning how to use the ruling for their advantage.

1/2 Something I emailed to a discussion concerning the Current Dem Predicament: “One of the problems in gaming this out is that this entire election is going to come down to a tiny number of voters in swing states with Dem or divided state government: PA, WI, MI and AZ. Maybe 100K people….”

The wealthy conservative interests who funded and created the legal movement that has now started to undo the administrative state could afford to take decades to do it because the “tyranny of unelected bureaucrats” was a purely theoretical problem. They made money, just less than they might have.

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Peter Sagal

A few years ago, Jon Lovett floated a theory that media treats Democrats like protagonists - to be challenged, accounted, and forced to be behave in growth-oriented ways - while the GOP are treated like antagonists - immutable, expected to disrupt, thematic obstacles. Thinking about that a lot.

I don’t recall the NYT calling for Trump to step down after being convicted of 34 counts of fraud and being called by a judge at his civil trial a rapist in the common person sense

You know how millions of Gen Xers watched “Monty Python” and saw comedy could be so much more than “Gilligan’s Island?” I also felt that way when I stumbled on “Fernwood Tonight.” RIP to a great, Martin Mull.