Just another glaring signpost that the political party formerly known as the GOP has long since died and been replaced by a group of thugs known as MAGAts. Louisiana Rep and good old boy Clay Higgins kicked in his two cents this morning after Justice Juan Merchan let Donald Trump know that he was on his last legs vis a vis contempt of court violations and the next step would be incarceration. Be clear on what’s happening here because this is an epic moment in our government: We have a state supreme court justice informing a criminal defendant that he needs to respect the rule of law and a crooked cop cum congressman is calling the man childish names for doing so. This is a first.
Clay issues a statement on behalf of ‘Patriot Americans.’ pic.twitter.com/blBEz5Bfu4
— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) May 6, 2024
Trump received another citation for being in contempt of court, this time for saying that “the jury is 95% Democrat.” The judge made no bones about the fact that further violations would not be tolerated.
“Going forward, this court will have to consider a jail sanction. It appears that the $1,000 fines are not serving as a deterrent. I am concerned about the ramifications of putting you in jail. But I have a job to do, to compel respect for the dignity of the court. Your behavior constitutes a direct attack on the rule of law. If I need to, I will.”
There you have it. Trump is directly attacking the rule of law. Nothing new there. And Clay Higgins is attacking the judge for upholding the rule of law. This is not your grandfather’s Republican party, folks. This is not anybody’s Republican party. This is the MAGA party of Trump. And they’re all salivating to see if they can get this lunatic back into the White House and destroy democracy.
Chilling doesn’t even begin to touch it.
Clay Higgins is quite a piece of work. He actually advocated armed insurrection when Trump was summoned to court on one of his four arrests.
The night federal prosecutors indicted Donald Trump for dozens of felonies, Representative Clay Higgins tweeted the following:
The writer Jeff Sharlet – author of The Undertow: Scenes From a Slow Civil War, a book I highly recommend – deconstructed the Tweet in an article for The Atlantic. Higgins is basically calling for armed insurrection, the same fascist call to arms I have heard from far-right sheriffs across the country in the course of reporting my forthcoming book.
As Sharlet points out, Higgins bounced around for most of his life in the paramilitary-law enforcement industrial complex, working for the Louisiana National Guard and the police department of Opelousas. In between his gun-carrying gigs, Higgins managed car dealerships, one of the few other jobs where political influence is wholly untethered to accomplishment or excellence.
I pause here to talk about Higgins’s career as a law enforcement officer, always on the cusp of being fired, but never disciplined or sanctioned. His path to the Legislature reflects just how the Law Enforcement Baronial Class works to elevate people like Higgins – those who not just use violence as a tool but celebrate it, those who appear to have no awareness of just how much they have benefitted from a system that kidnaps people from their homes and off the street, incarcerates them in facilities that are dangerous and unhealthy, separates families, strips people of the dignity, and, more often than one would think, shoots people dead in the street.
Higgins started his “law” “enforcement” “career” as an officer in Opelousas, a town of around 15,000 people next to Evangeline Downs, a big ol’ racetrack. During the 1950s and 60s, the local sheriff was infamous for allowing illegal gambling and sex work operations in his district, from which he took a cut.
In 2007, Higgins faced an internal investigation for beating up a Black man for no good reason (are there good reasons?). According to the official investigation, Higgins grabbed Andre “Red” Richard “around the neck, struck him across the head, and allegedly kicked him while he lay handcuffed.” Higgins then lied about it, only confessing to the incident after he found out that a witness had told the truth. According to the then-police chief, Higgins was pissed off that he had been caught, allegedly telling the chief, “You are going to suspend me for that trash?”
Again I say, if you were writing a novel and you made up a cast of characters like the ones we have in the House of Representatives with an R behind their names, you would not be believed. The truth, once again, has trumped fiction.
If we were living in a sane world, Higgins would face censure for this crack. At the very least, fellow Louisiana good ole boy Mike Johnson might want to take him aside and tell him what’s what. If Johnson dares. That might push Higgins into the Marge Greene contingency that is out to get him.
Funny but I’m quite certain judge Merchan isn’t an asshat nor has he ever worn one. Higgins on the other hand HAS worn an asshat countless times. It’s easy to spot – a red ballcap with the letters MAGA on the front. Yep. An actual asshat. Worn by a true P.O.S. The scary thing is that there are worse people that have worn a badge. I know because to my everlasting shame, a shame I will carry to my last breath I happen to be descended from one. My grandfather (dad’s dad) was a card carrying Klansman and PROUD of having used his badge first as a police captain (in a fair sized community in Arkansas) and then as a federal railroad cop. A truly vile, evil and despicable man. Higgins and others are proof people like my grandfather are far from purged from the ranks of LE.
Thanks for your comment Denis, these simple minded freaks out there are loaded for bear, it would only take a small nudge from someone like Ted Cruz, a died in the wool gun nut with his own AR15, which he uses to fry bacon wrapped around the barrel, a high speed burst of bullets, which cost a lot more than I can afford, is just another freak trick …
“We have a state supreme court justice informing a criminal defendant that he needs to respect the rule of law and a crooked cop cum congressman is calling the man childish names for doing so. This is a first.”
And, of course the crooked congressman is from the self proclaimed ‘Party Of Law And Order’.
We now know this means ‘following the laws they want and the orders they issue.’
and even those orders they seldom follow unless it suits them.
higgins is the member of the political party that spent over 40 years crocheting the ass-hat only to have trump grab it off the shelf and dance around in it. I find his using that particular term for someone who did NOT crochet the ass-hat more than a little asinine.
Rittenhouse – another example of “It’s OK only when WE win!”