rump’s lawyers, some of whom are paid by you and me, are claiming that the Boss don’t have to give ’em nuttin’ because of “presidential immunity.” An article that reports this referred to the President as King Trump, and this is a remarkably apt epithet. 

Trump’s lawyers are trying to cobble together an argument based on “sovereign immunity” which Wikipedia defines as “a legal doctrine by which the sovereign or state cannot commit a legal wrong and is immune from civil suit or criminal prosecution.” In English law this was expressed as “Rex non potest peccare,” the King cannot do wrong. St. John Newman has fun with this in his Present Position of Catholics in England where he includes a burlesque newspaper article that reports a Russian chauvinist denouncing the British because of the legal tradition

We can transition to this by stealing some lines from Milton:

 His state
 Is Kingly. Thousands at his bidding speed 
 And post o’er Land and Ocean without rest.  

Well, King Trump’s not been sending thousands to find dirt on Joe Biden, but he seems to have sent his lawyer and his star supporter. We are now hearing more indications that Devin Nunes and three of his aides flew to Europe in 2018 to dig up some dirt on Biden — it’s not yet clear whether they spent their own funds on this trip or used our money. Nunes, sounding ever more like Trump, is denying this vigorously and bellowing threats of lawsuits. Well, we will have to wait and see. If this is true it will indicate that Nunes is a hypocritical sneak, something we’ve already strongly suspected.

I saw a piece online headed: “Egypt Unveils Cache of Mummified Cats, Birds and Crocodiles.” For a moment my eyes tricked me, and I read “G.O.P. Unveils Cache of Mummified Cats, Birds and Crocodiles,” from their Swamp of course. 

A warning about the possibility of three major storms during Thanksgiving Week reported that the AAA estimates that 55 million people are expected to travel by road, rail, and air during Thanksgiving Week. Every year I wonder: Why do the American people torment themselves annually in this way. Travel during Thanksgiving Week almost always involves some civil defense crisis. Civic sensibility would suggest that we try for a drastic reduction of crowding at Thanksgiving by making a less stressful trip to visit family at a more tranquil time of year. But no, I don’t care what others may do. I’m going to go to see my family. So 55 million “I“s hit the road, and they and all the rest suffer.