I still have an email account at AOL. It’s not worth the trouble of changing it for all the people who use it to contact me, not yet anyway. Make of that what you will.
What makes it interesting is that signing in takes me past the current big news stores of the moment. I can’t always resist the urge to comment. (Yeah, I know — just asking for trouble.) Well, I posted a simple comment on the story that the court has reinstated a lawsuit over Trump’s hotel profits.
The lawsuit brought by the state of Maryland and the District of Columbia alleges that Trump has violated the emoluments clause of the Constitution by accepting profits through foreign and domestic officials who stay at the Trump International Hotel.
U.S. District Judge Peter Messitte refused to dismiss the lawsuit, but his ruling was overturned in July by a three-judge panel of the Richmond-based 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The judges found that the two jurisdictions lack standing to pursue their claims against the president.
But on Thursday, the panel's ruling was overturned by the full court of 15 judges. In a 9-6 ruling, a divided court found that the three-judge panel overstepped its authority when it ordered Messitte to dismiss the lawsuit.
...The six judges who disagreed wrote a scathing dissenting opinion, saying the lawsuit should be thrown out.
"The majority is using a wholly novel and nakedly political cause of action to pave the path for a litigative assault upon this and future Presidents and for an ascendant judicial supervisory role over Presidential action," Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III wrote.
Needless to say, this news generated an interesting sample of comments, 2,654 at last check.
I decided to fall back for my comment on one of those trite sayings that are both true and useless. Here’s my comment, along with reactions just to that simple statement all by itself. Names have been deleted to protect the innocent (and the guilty.)
If he has done nothing wrong, he has nothing to worry about.
Responses follow:
• President trump is not worrying about the idiotic people charging him with crimes, while they have facelifts, take trips, etc. during this Pandemic sand still receive full pay. Disgraceful!
• yes he does, fake news, communist democrats, mentally sick and senile useless old timers that should be kicked out of office for not following the constitution that the liars swore to uphold. If you don't know that the communist democratic party is trying to destroy this country then you are idiots too, go ahead and destroy your kids future. now they want to bankrupt the country and boy are you going to pay for it. remember that you have the right to bear arms against you government when they become corrupt like they are now.
• He has aLOT to worry about.He is definitely guilty on emoluments..If for no other reason he charged the Secret Service to stay there and that is profiting from a government. Plus the Russians he charged and who knows who else..Then having his whole family in high positions.That worked out well with his pretty boy in law,daughter, sons..She makes dresses, what possible reason does she have to be his top adviser. You see where we are now
• You mean just like General Flynn?
• I just wish that were true,
• That's why he's worried
• Tell that to Sacco and Vanzetti. They were two men executed in America and found innocent later.
• Translation..... He has a lot to worry about.
• said livelong lefty General Flynn...lol.
• How would you like to be charged with everything under the sun over and over again in an effort to get rid of you by a corrupt democratic party? I know I would not like it.
• That's why he is fighting it, he has done everything wrong in his whole pathetic life.
• Where to start?
• As if no innocent man has been convicted and sentenced and even executed by some corrupt prosecution or kangaroo court. It has and is happening.
• It is the carrier politicians that are he corruption,especially the ones that have been there well over 30yrs.Before we do anything else we need to get rid of any politician that has held office more than the president can.
• Does that go for Obama and his Administration ???????
• He just doesn't care what anyone thinks or our laws.
• Cold comfort to trump
• Sure. If he just PROVES his innocence, it will be fine. Too bad that is NOT how justice works in America. You mistook us for Russia, after the Obama presidency, that is understandable.
• donald trmp has EVERYTHING to worry about.
A fair number of people clicked that they liked the comment, some clicked that they didn’t like it (149 to 12), but a few took time to respond. (No easy task, given the way AOL handles comments, especially when they’re flying thick and fast.) It turned out to be something of a Rorschach Test.
Show people an ambiguous image and ask them to describe what they think it looks like. The idea behind the test goes back farther than you’d think; Rorschach was the one who first tried to make it into a tool for understanding how minds work. One way it is used: “It has been employed to detect underlying thought disorder, especially in cases where patients are reluctant to describe their thinking processes openly.”
If you look at the comments here, they can be used in a similar way. The differing reactions to the news story and to my comment on it gives you a glimpse of where the responders are coming from, and the assumptions prevailing in their world views. It also shows you the kind of memes the “thought leaders” are trying to impose.
Something else to keep in mind: the responses of those who simply clicked their preference show where the majority response falls; the commenters are the ones who reacted strongly enough to post a response. You can see where the intensity of feeling falls on which side of the divide.
That can be a key factor to consider with predicting who is going to make the effort needed to vote. You can see why Republicans keep trying to raise the bar — all they need is enough angry people showing up to vote despite the obstacles that keep the less-motivated at home. It’s why they are determined to block vote by mail (and kill the Post Office.) It’s why they work so hard to make everything partisan and raise the emotional stakes.
Remember in November.