Enough B.S. About ‘Speed” Of Trump Appeal – Take A Lesson From Medical Triage!

I know I keep harping on this, and even a few here on Politizoom take me to task over being impatient with the legal process. I see pundit after pundit including so many I have respected both for their experience and insight talk about how for the federal courts, Trump’s appeals of both his gag order (in DC) and his appeal of District Court judge Tanya Chutkan’s denial of his motion for dismissal on the grounds of “Presidential Immunity” (WTF?) from criminal prosecution. Oh they say, by normal standards this is actually moving swiftly. I call bullshit.

First of all, this is NOT a normal case and these sure as hell aren’t normal times. “Normal” went to hell and gone years ago when the orange shitgibbon burped and farted his way down his fake gold escalator in Trump Tower to announce his candidacy. Somehow he sleazed and slimed his way through the eye of the needle using the blood and grease of the Constitutional vestigial organ known as the Electoral College and into the WH. Bad as we feared things might be it turned out to be worse than we imagined. FAR worse. Worse still, when voters threw his fat orange butt out of office he refused to go! He took part in plans for, approved and incited an insurrectionist riot to halt the process of completing his banishment from power! He committed crimes. FELONIES.

Trump isn’t good at much but there are a handful of things he’s very, very good at. Self-promotion of course. But more importantly over the course of his too long and despicable life he’s mastered the art of manipulating the legal process. To wear down opponents. To run out the clock. He’s sure as hell done it with the indictments in four different jurisdictions on criminal charges. FELONIES. And civil ones too but it’s the criminal stuff that matters. As I wrote the other day the country is on fire because of Trump. Every day he stands there with a fire truck hose spraying gasoline.

So yeah, I think the freaking courts and especially the appellate ones should recognize the urgency. That this is a unique situation as in the literal meaning of the word – one of a kind. Our democracy is in the ER in need of trauma care. “Speeding up” by “their normal standards” isn’t f**king good enough. Any more than it was in 2000. SCOTUS took Bush v Gore one day, heard oral arguments the next and handed down a decision the next day. Three days and yes the issues were complicated, made more so because both federal and Florida State law were involved. Yes, they had a month of watching the process play out before it got to them but all of the Justices recognized it was possible if not likely that they’d have to get involved.

So it has been with Trump’s DC case which given how Trump’s pet judge Aileen “Loose” Cannon long ago made it clear she’s not about to have Trump on trial in her court before the election. So DC, which has an actual highly qualified and experienced judge who knows how to move a case along (and fairly – she was once a defense lawyer!) was the chance to put Trump on trial. Both SCOTUS and the DC Circuit, often referred to as the SCOTUS “Jr. Varsity” had to know with Trump filing pre-trial motions, and b.s. ones that at least one appeal would start making its way up to them.

Well, it has. So don’t tell me they had no way of being at least partially prepared. Judge Chutkan’s denial of Trump’s motion came down on Dec. 2, 2023. Yet the appellate panel that caught the case didn’t even schedule oral arguments until Jan. 9! Five freaking weeks. Oh, it was the holidays some say. Boo f**king Hoo. Tons of people work through and on the holidays including Christmas day. Plus, they have law clerks. Yes, as this NPR article notes there were several issues at play I still say they could have handled this long ago.

I won’t apologize for saying there is no reason, NONE that they couldn’t have heard oral arguments before the end of the year. And it sure as hell, since it was clear during those oral arguments they were well prepared have handed down a ruling within a week. Even as some of the pundits were saying two weeks was “reasonable” while emphasizing how golly gee whiz fast that was compared to normal. Well, it’s approaching midnight out east on Jan. 25 and we’re not at two-and-a-half weeks with no clue as to when the DC Circuit will “bless” us with their ruling!

Meanwhile, Trump is as I said daily pouring gasoline on the fire he’s created. Every day he’s not sitting in that DC courtroom finding out one way or the other whether he’ll be convicted or not is a day justice is denied. And the fire he’s stoked in our country continues to spread and grow more intense. ENOUGH already!

These lawyers justifying the time this is taking, apologizing for the appellate judges need to spend a week in a busy city ER/Trauma Ward. Learn something about triage, and when needed rushing all available resources to just one or two critical patients. America and the Rule of Law is in critical condition!

Imagine for a moment you have a bad accident and break your arm. A compound fracture. Hurts like hell and if you’re not careful the bone moving around inside could nick your brachial artery and you could die. A friend or co-worker maybe knows enough to immobilize the arm and drive you straight to the ER instead of waiting for an ambulance. And let’s say when you get there you go into shock. (Or did on the way there) Well, they will, especially if not overwhelmed put you right into a treatment room and get you stabilized. Get you set up for surgery given that’s what it will take to both set the bone and repair all the tissue damage.  Seems like, even with the pain (with surgery coming up they will go easy on pain meds) you feel like you’re getting prompt care.

What you DON’T know is that once you were in the ER a bus got T-Boned by a semi at high speed and fifteen or twenty new patients are about to flood the ER. The nurses and docs will Triage the cases. Both the ones coming in and the ones already in the ER getting treatment! Some of the new injuries are minor, and can even be treated in the waiting room. Some are serious. Maybe as bad as you and maybe not. But some will be worse. Literally life threatening. Even for those without life threatening injuries immediate treatment is needed so they don’t go into shock.

Since you are stable, and the OR rooms upstairs are trying to get ready for major cases to save lives from the accident YOU, who have been stabilized find yourself having your gurney wheeled out into the hall! And for the patient(s) who are on the brink of death THAT is where most of the doctors and nurses are working. Those who aren’t are working to stabilize the new patients to make sure THEIR injuries don’t go from major to life threatening.

THAT folks is what medical triage is. Happens all the time all over the country and the world. Right now as I’m writing this our country, Constitution and the Rule of Law are grievously wounded and in a trauma unit. Smack dab in what in trauma care is known as “The Golden Hour”, a time during which if you can keep someone alive to turn them over to the trauma team MIGHT be saved. If within that so-called Golden Hour they can’t be at least kept alive and stabilized, albeit still in critical condition the patient will wind up dying. Oh, they will fight to the end to save it but imagine this:

Let’s say the doctors and nurses have worked six or seven days straight. And they have a bunch of administrative stuff stacked up that has to be dealt with. Plus they just feel like they need a few hours of R & R. The cases roll into the ER and they say well, I’ve got all this paperwork to catch up on, and I really need to kick my feet up for a bit too. I’ll get down there in a while….

What do you think would happen to medical staff who acted that way?

These freaking LAWYERS (and remember, judges are themselves lawyers) need to recognize when there’s an actual emergency and medical intervention/care is needed RIGHT NOW or someone dies. In this case we are talking about the American Experiment. Freedom both here and around the world.

Do NOT tell me “Oh, by federal standards this appeal is moving along fast.” Bullshit. Bush v Gore was fast. I didn’t like the decision and was afraid it would be what it was when SCOTUS agreed to hear the case. But I also knew they had to act and act quickly. There was no time to waste. Bad as the controversy and state of things in the country was then, THIS is far worse.

So to all, including and especially the legal experts doing their punditry STFU with your “by normal standards they are moving quickly” nonsense. Because they aren’t moving anywhere close to quickly enough. They aren’t even in the same zip code as “quickly” and the worst part is the judges and their apologists are wearing their arms out patting themselves on the back deluding themselves into thinking this appeal is being handled with the urgency justice and our democracy cries out for.