In Logan Roy, the sociopathic Rupert Murdoch-like patriarch of the”Succession” clan, we truly have a philosopher for our gamed-out, laws-are-for-chumps, post (and maybe pre-) Trump era. Old man Roy sees 21st century America as it is.

In last week’s penultimate episode (of the best series on TV) the elder Roy explained the harsh reality of life to his hapless son Kendall, a classic soft millennial who thought doing the right thing was everything he needed to do to win.

Said the billionaire baron to his benighted off-spring, “Life’s not knights on horseback. It’s a number on a piece of paper. It’s a fight for a knife in the mud.”

There are so many contemporary scenarios that fit that paradigm it’s hard to know where to begin. But there’s always this: the constant complaint that liberals or anyone still clutching some level of respect for both the letter and spirit of the law are forever playing a losing game against conservative adversaries gleefully and shamelessly flaunting the “norms” of good faith, common civility and legislated standards.

For many it gets translated to “liberals gotta learn to play dirty.”

While that might be a tough sell for the progressive-liberal base, i.e. better than average educated civic-minded types who prefer a rule-based society to whoever bellows the loudest and waves the most guns. A better suggestion would be to, “play more offense against the bastards and be more cunning.”

Like the move a couple days ago by California Gov. Gavin Newsom and his think tank to replicate Texas’ vigilante bounty attack on abortion rights, only with guns, gun merchants and gun manufacturers as the victims, not pregnant women.

As usual, the proposal, which has a ways to go before becoming law, was quickly submerged beneath the next day’s headlines.

A massive tornado in Kentucky (with arch Libertarian Rand Paul pleading for a federal/socialist rescue he blathered against when hurricanes hit Texas, Florida and the eastern seaboard), news that a Trump moron actually put together a goddam PowerPoint for overthrowing the government and today, text messages from FoxNews hosts pleading with … Mark Meadows? … to get Trump to stop the January 6 riot because it reflected bad on all of “us.”

I’m trying to imagine Walter Cronkite, so confident in his control over Lyndon Johnson, that he puts in a call to the White House to stop the Vietnam War.

Anyway … this move by Newsom/California is the kind of “in-your-face dickwad” aggression and cunning that liberals need.

The basic idea is to craft a law against guns as precisely — and as cynically, some might say — as Texas has contrived its vigilante abortion law. (A law whereby any zealot gets a $10,000 check from Texas for suing anyone involved in an abortion, from doctors and nurses to Uber drivers.)

Done right, and quickly, California could — at the least — force the Supreme Court into conceding its naked partisanship. To separate Califoernia from Texas, Roberts’ court would have to apply an even finer chef’s knife to the intent of the Constitution than they already have. Which is a lotr, considering the hearing they’re giving a preposterous argument for a case and a cause never supported by more than 15% of the public.

Not that contravening established law and the will of the majority means all that much to blindered zealots like Amy Coney Barrett, Sam Alito, Clarence Thomas and the rest of The Handmaid’s Tale crew clogging The Highest Court of the Land.

Said Newsom in a statement last Saturday, “If states can now shield their laws from review by the federal courts that compare assault weapons to Swiss Army knives, then California will use that authority to protect people’s lives, where Texas used it to put women in harm’s way.” Just like Texas, Californians could win up to $10,000 per gun violation plus other costs and attorneys fees against “anyone who manufactures, distributes, or sells an assault weapon” in California.

“If the most efficient way to keep these devastating weapons off our streets is to add the threat of private lawsuits, we should do just that,” Newsom said.

Amen, brother.

With the help of Mitch McConnell, Senate Republicans, Trump and The Federalist Society, John Roberts’ court is one titanic decision — repealing Roe v. Wade — away from rendering itself illegitimate in the eyes of the 60-70% of the country that has been opposed to repealing abortion rights for the past 50 years.

Again, this is in contrast to polling that regularly shows upwards of 80% of Americans in favor of some kind of enhanced regulation of guns.

The insider’s prediction is that in the end (next spring) the court’s conservatives will go full-Scalia and convolute a decision into the most pretentious, tortured pretzel logic imaginable, in order to argue they’re really just, you know, protecting “states’ rights.”

Recognizing the mud and understanding the potential of the knife, California could force Barrett, boozy frat boy Kavanaugh and the rest to shame and discredit themselves in a way that offers their credibility no possibility of historical restoration.

My read is that only Roberts himself is concerned enough about history’s verdict on his court’s reputation to argue against such bald-faced partisanship. Which means he may be the only one of bunch that sees the knife in California’s hands as a real threat.

But watch the hysteria build against it.

Like this today from the (wholly corrupt and literally bankrupt) NRA:

“Gov. Newsom misunderstands the actions of the Supreme Court – and the limits of his war on lawful gun ownership. His promise to run roughshod over the Second Amendment is little more than political theater. He and fellow Democrats should proceed at their own peril: the American people will not tolerate another taxpayer-funded assault on constitutional freedom.”

Heh, I like the sweat.