Thursday served as a bracing reminder of the damage that Trump is inflicting on the rule of law, the Constitution, and norms of democracy—and the challenge we will face in repairing that damage when we regain control of Congress and the presidency.
The damage is so deep and pervasive that we must resolve to act boldly and decisively in restoring democracy. We will face a generational challenge that must not consume a generation to correct. While we should act responsibly and lawfully, we must act with ‘all deliberate speed’ to restore the Constitution and the rule of law to their proper places of primacy in American democracy.
In short order, Trump has managed to corrupt the Supreme Court, the Department of Justice, and the senior leadership of the US military (among other government agencies). He did so by compromising, neutralizing, or replacing small groups of leaders in each of those organs of democracy. But for the cowardice and complicity of men and women like Chief Justice John Roberts, Special Operations Commander Admiral Frank Bradley, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, and Attorney General Pam Bondi, Trump’s lawless reign could be slowed or stopped.
But instead of honoring their oaths to the Constitution and defending the rule of law with intellectual honesty and moral clarity, they resort to cunning and equivocation to exalt Trump above all else. History will remember them as cowards and quislings who were called to defend democracy but chose to betray it.
Remember their names: John Roberts, Frank Bradley, Pete Hegseth, and Pam Bondi. History will consign them to the special infamy reserved for the likes of Joe McCarthy, Richard Nixon, and Donald Trump.
The point of today’s newsletter is not to catalogue “bad news.” It is to remind us that we are being called to reverse damage to the very infrastructure of democracy. That task demands that we be bold and relentless in redeeming democracy. Half-measures and performative bipartisanship are luxuries that are freighted with an intolerable cost—the perpetuation of Trump’s racist, misogynistic, anti-science, and anti-democratic policies that are infecting every branch of government and harming Americans as we speak.
We must act with moral clarity, firmness of purpose, and urgency while adhering to the Constitution and embracing truth and compassion as our twin compasses.
For those fighting to defend democracy, it was a rough day—but one that must serve as a reminder of why we are called to ‘dare mighty things’ in redeeming democracy.
Supreme Court uses “shadow docket” to reinstate the race-based new districts demanded by Trump.
As you will recall, Trump has demanded that red states engage in a dubious mid-census gerrymandering to create additional “safe” Republican seats going into the 2026 midterms. The Texas legislature re-drew those districts by manipulating the concentration of Latino voters—as explicitly suggested by the Trump administration. A three-judge panel found that the race-based gerrymander violated the Voting Rights Act and ordered that Texas revert to the congressional districts as drawn in 2021.
On Thursday, the Supreme Court issued a stay of the three-judge panel’s order. I could describe the Supreme Court’s flimsy rationale, but doing so would elevate a nakedly partisan decision to a status it does not deserve.
The Court once again used its “shadow docket” to decide a momentous case without briefing or argument. The decision follows a long line of “shadow docket” decisions in which the Court granted Trump partisan political victories at a shockingly high rate. The Court’s decisions are so partisan that they make no effort to provide a legal rationale. Instead, the Court states a conclusion—“Trump will likely win”—without explaining why.
The abuse of the shadow docket to advance Trump’s partisan interests is corruption, plain and simple. The Court has destroyed the net reserve of legitimacy accumulated over two-and-a-half centuries.
The Supreme Court is both a joke and an insult to the Constitution and the American people. When Democrats regain control of Congress and the presidency, the precondition for restoring democracy is expanding the Supreme Court to curb the influence of the reactionary majority.
The newly enlarged court must then systematically and rapidly reverse a dozen or more of the reactionary majority’s worst decisions: Citizens United, Dobbs, Shelby County v Holder, Trump v. US, Rucho v. Common Cause, Kennedy v. Bremerton, NY Rifle v. Bruen, and more.
Expand the Court to 27 justices (the same size as the 9th Circuit). Not 13. Not 15. No more half measures. Prevent the situation where 2 or 3 “swing” justices can make “deals” that affect the fate of 340 million Americans. The 9th Circuit works just fine with 27 judges. The nation has expanded nearly a hundredfold since 1789. The Supreme Court has added just 3 justices during the nation’s hundredfold expansion. The Court is severely undersized, given the growth of our union and our economy.
Question: Won’t Republicans do the same thing if they regain a trifecta in the future?
Answer: If we constrain our efforts to restore democracy for fear of what “Republicans might do” in the future, we will do nothing. We must be bold and decisive. And if Republicans ever seek to expand the Court to overcome the Democratic appointee majority, Republicans will need to expand the Court to 55 justices. At that point, people may see the wisdom of a constitutional amendment to limit terms, allocate appointments among presidential terms, etc.
Trump has destroyed the Court by converting it into an arm of the executive branch. Accept that fact and rebuild it from scratch.
Objection: If you expand the Court to achieve a partisan super-majority, you will destroy the Court’s legitimacy.
Answer: Too late for that. Trump and John Roberts have already destroyed the Court’s legitimacy.
A federal grand jury refuses to indict Letitia James on fabricated charges of mortgage fraud
The disqualification of Lindsey Halligan as the “acting” US Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia resulted in the dismissal of indictments previously obtained by Halligan against James Comey and Letitia James.
On Thursday, assistant US Attorneys in the Eastern District of Virginia attempted to obtain an indictment against Letitia James for mortgage fraud. Per reports of people with knowledge of the situation, the grand jury refused to indict Letitia James. See CBS News, Grand jury refuses to re-indict Letitia James.
The refusal of a grand jury to indict is exceedingly rare. Per the CBS article, the DOJ sought 150,000 indictments in 2024. Grand juries refused to return indictments in only 6 of those cases.
The fact that a grand jury refused to indict Letitia James demonstrates the manifest bad faith and vindictive motivation of the charges against James. Any responsible Attorney General would order prosecutors to stand down. But Pam Bondi will order that different US attorneys attempt to obtain an indictment from different grand jurors.
It pains me to say this, but the DOJ is a corrupt institution. Yes, individual attorneys may be serving honorably, but the head of the Justice Department is corrupt. Every honest attorney and staff member serves at the pleasure of Pam Bondi’s corruption.
In a perfect world where people didn’t have to worry about the financial consequences, the 37,000 attorneys employed by the DOJ should resign en masse. As it is, Bondi will just move on to the next set of pliable attorneys willing to sacrifice their reputations to retain their jobs by seeking an indictment against an innocent woman.
Sad.
Reforming the DOJ will be one of the first orders of business of the next Democratic president.
DOJ considering “seditious conspiracy” charges against six members of Congress who made video telling troops to refuse illegal orders.
Speaking of the corruption at the DOJ and the willingness of some attorneys to sacrifice their reputations to please Trump and Bondi, the DOJ is considering bringing charges for seditious conspiracy against the six members of Congress who made a video telling troops that they could disobey illegal orders. See Talking Points Memo, Dems Targeted By Trump FBI Respond to ‘Seditious Conspiracy’ Report: ‘This Isn’t About Me’.
Per TPM,
FBI HQ is reportedly pressuring its domestic terrorism agents to launch a seditious conspiracy investigation into the six Democrats who recently published a video calling on active duty service members to remember their oath to the Constitution and their duty to refuse illegal orders, according to Bloomberg. [¶]
Three people familiar with the situation told Bloomberg that career officials in the FBI’s Washington Field Office have, at least for now, rebuffed the request for a seditious conspiracy investigation:
The Washington office supervisors cited a lack of legal and factual basis to initiate a criminal case against the senators and House members who posted a video Nov. 18 reminding service members and the intelligence community of their rights to “refuse illegal orders.
Admiral Bradley meets with members of Congress, describes cold-blooded killing of defenseless survivors of boat attack
Admiral Frank Bradley, the head of the Navy’s Special Operations Command, met with members of Congress to convince them that the Navy did not commit a war crime or murder of defenseless civilians in an attack on an alleged “drug boat.”
Admiral Bradley told a stark story that dropped many of the fabricated justifications for the second attack (like the claim that the survivors were using a radio to ask for help).
In summary, the two survivors clung to the partially destroyed, capsizedhull of a boat that had been torn apart by missiles. The survivors were in the water for 48 minutes, struggling to save themselves. Under the law of war, the Geneva Convention, the UCMJ, and maritime law, the obligation of the Navy was to save those survivors.
Instead, it dropped two bombs on two men struggling to stay alive in open waters by clinging to a portion of a destroyed hull.
Admiral Bradley said that he believed they still presented a “threat” because they might be able to “continue their drug mission.”
Bradley’s excuse is pathetic. An honorable member of the military would admit the truth, resign, and face the consequences. By quibbling and fabricating, Admiral Bradley brings dishonor on all members of SOCOM, SEAL Team Six, and the Navy. He is a disgrace, and he will eventually be held accountable for ordering that two helpless survivors of a shipwreck be killed by dropping two bombs on them.
Per the CNN article, here is Admiral Bradley’s reasoning for believing that it was appropriate to kill two men clinging to the wreckage of a destroyed boat:
Bradley told lawmakers, he ordered a second strike to destroy the remains of the vessel, killing the two survivors, on the grounds that it appeared that part of the vessel remained afloat because it still held cocaine, according to one of the sources. The survivors could hypothetically have floated to safety, been rescued, and carried on with trafficking the drugs, the logic went.
If you think Bradley’s rationale is fatuous, you are not alone. The CNN article quotes a participant in the conference call in which Bradley laid out his thinking as follows:
The other source with direct knowledge of the briefing called that rationale “f**king insane.”
Bradley’s rationale could apply to any survivor in any battle: Survivors could go on to fight another day, even though they are incapacitated on the battlefield and therefore (under Admiral Bradley’s rationale) can be killed. That conclusion flies in the face of the law of war, the Geneva Convention, the UCMJ, and maritime law.
The Inspector General report says Hegseth’s use of Signal App endangered lives of US troops
The report of the Pentagon’s inspector general concluded that Pete Hegseth endangered the lives of US troops by his use of the consumer app, Signal, to inform family and friends about the US attack on the Houthis. See The New Republic, Hegseth risked troops’ lives with signal messages, watchdog concludes.
The Inspector General’s Report says the following:
We concluded that the Secretary sent sensitive, nonpublic, operational information that he determined did not require classification over the Signal chat on his personal cell phone. . . . [W]e concluded that the Secretary’s actions did not comply with DoD Instruction 8170.01, which prohibits using a personal device for official business and using a nonapproved commercially available messaging application to send nonpublic DoD information.
The Secretary sent nonpublic DoD information identifying the quantity and strike times of manned U.S. aircraft over hostile territory over an unapproved, unsecure network approximately 2 to 4 hours before the execution of those strikes.
Using a personal cell phone to conduct official business and send nonpublic DoD information through Signal risks potential compromise of sensitive DoD information, which could cause harm to DoD personnel and mission objectives.
Hegseth refused to cooperate with the investigation, refused to turn over his phone, and refused to provide Signal messages that he forwarded to others because the messages were set to self-destruct—a violation of federal law.
Although the inspector general concludes that Hegseth’s actions “risks . . . harm to DoD personnel and mission objectives,” Hegseth claims that the report “completely exonerates” him—which is the opposite of the conclusion in the report.
Hegseth should resign or be fired at the first possible moment.
A few quick notes:
Healthcare: Republicans are attempting to come up with a healthcare plan in the next three weeks. Unfortunately, they don’t have a plan and there is no consensus in the Republican caucus on the broad parameters of a plan. See HuffPo, Republicans Under Pressure To Deliver Long-Awaited Health Care Plan.
East Wing Architect resigns. The architect chosen by Trump to design the East Wing ballroom has resigned, reportedly over a disagreement about the size of the ballroom Trump wants built in the proposed replacement for the East Wing. See USA Today, Trump taps new architect for White House ballroom amid clash over size.
Per USA Today,
The move comes after James McCrery II, the project’s original lead architect, expressed concerns to Trump about the size of the project and the ballroom overshadowing the main White House building, according to a report from the Washington Post.
The new architect is Shalom Baranes of Washington, DC.
Opportunities for Reader Engagement
I will host my regular Saturday morning livestream at 9 am Pacific / Noon Eastern. Instructions on how to join the livestream can be found here.
Join me on Friday evening, December 5, at 7 pm Pacific
I’ll be online with Chalice Community Forum for “On a Hopeful Note: Grassroots Activism and Preserving Democracy” this Friday, December 5th at 7 pm Pacific. I’ll be sharing my perspectives as we end the year, and will leave plenty of time for your questions.
Please register in advance here: https://bit.ly/OnaHopefulNote All programs are free and any donations received are shared with the nonprofit represented by the presenter.
Concluding Thoughts
Friday was a rough day on many fronts. It served to remind us of the truly revolutionary measures we must adopt to quickly redeem democracy. The grassroots movement is the perfect vehicle for reminding—no, demanding—that we move quickly to reestablish the rules and norms that regulate our democracy.
The resistance movement is beholden to no one—except the people. We created this government, and we must reclaim it. We are in the process of doing so. We need only keep up the good work while recruiting others to our cause. We can do that!
Pro-democracy protest photos:
Lebanon, NH shopping plaza 12/4/25
Daily Dose of Perspective
M81 and M82 are located about 11 million light-years from Earth and are separated by about 180,000 light-years.
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