A Summer of Disarray

Posted: July 25, 2024 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , | Leave a comment

July traditionally is a quiet month for American politics and politicians. Washington D.C. is hot and humid and the Congress uses the time for vacations, family time and to raise money. This year, not so much.

This summer has been a tumultuous time in Washington and throughout the nation. Foremost among the events of the past weeks, of course, is the abhorrent attempted assassination of an ex-president and current major party nominee. Thankfully, Mr. Trump was not seriously wounded. Unfortunately, an innocent bystander named Corey Comperatore was gunned down and two others in the grandstand were seriously wounded. The shooter used America’s favorite mass murder weapon, an AR type assault rifle. As of today, his motive is unknown. While many radicals tried to declare a political motive for the shooting, there is as yet no evidence to support any theory of why the shooting occurred. Remember that the shooter that seriously wounded President Ronald Reagan in 1981 was motivated by his efforts to impress a young movie actress. The worst mass shooting in American history took place in Las Vegas in 2017. That investigation has yet to define a motive for the shooter who killed 60 people and wounded 413. Likewise, we may never know the motivation for the Butler Pennsylvania shooting. We do know that such actions are the antithesis of what we want America to stand for. Political violence is never justified.

Days after the attempted assassination the MAGA Party held their national convention. Mr. Trump and Senator J.D. Vance (MAGA-OH) are now the official nominees of their party for president and vice president. Seemingly, the shooting had little impact on the course of the MAGA party as our nation heads for the election in November. The hateful rhetoric and draconian plans to reshape America by returning to the past, and all that that means for women, minorities and non-Christians remain intact. I am still dumbfounded that one of our great political parties are all in for a convicted felon, found liable for sexual harassment and defamation, who cheats in his business, steals our nations deepest secrets to show them off, and for the first time in our nation’s history fomented an insurrection to keep himself in power rather than effect a peaceful transfer of power from one president to another. Any one of these actions would preclude a potential recruit from entering the military. No one with that record could qualify for a security clearance in the United States. Indeed, most corporations would not hire a person with that record. Yet, millions of people want to entrust this man with the future of our nation.

Perhaps the course of history was changed in an even greater way when President Joe Biden announced that he would not seek a second term as president. He endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris and in an astonishingly short period of time, she consolidated her support and is now considered the presumptive nominee for President of the United States for the Democrats. Last night President Biden gracefully and eloquently explained his reasons for stepping down, outlined his focus for bringing to fruition more of his policy goals over the next six months, and provided a vision for the United States and the future of our democracy. In the tradition of past presidents Democrat or Republican, he explained that the United States is an “idea.” Unlike most nations that are based on culture, religion, ethnicity or other unifying traditions, we are a nation built by the diverse people of our great land, not the politicians. Public servants should want to gain office to reflect and to assist our collective aspirations as we continually strive to attain a “more perfect union.” American citizens do not exist to fulfill the ambitions of one man. President Biden correctly and clearly explained the stakes for all of us looming over the upcoming election. One party has crowned its nominee as the individual ready to unilaterally change the nature and traditions of our nation, while giving him a “mini-me” as the vice presidential nominee, a man willing to be even more draconian than the ex-president. President Biden’s party is devoted to maintaining our democratic republic. The differences could not be more stark.

Putting together the larger picture outlining our summer of disarray includes inexplicable Supreme Court decisions that light a torch to burn up the concept of “settled law” that all of the current Justices swore was an integral part of any decision they would make. Other judges, such as one in Florida, are making up the law as they go along to help one man in his aspirations to take over the country. As we learn more about the contents of the blue print for a Trump second term known as Project 2025 and reflected in their party platform approved at their convention, we see just how draconian their plan actually is. All of these issues and more deserve fuller explanations and an understanding of their impact on our democracy. I hope to dive into them in the coming days. The picture is bleak, unless one believes that the majority of our fellow citizens prefer to look to the future and resolve our differences rather than go backward in a storm of lost rights and personal retribution. I am optimistic that the majority of us do want to move forward and will not give in to autocracy once the issues are clearly delineated and the ramifications of their subversive language are fully understood. It will not be easy, but failure is not an option.

More Than A Jury Verdict

Posted: May 31, 2024 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Yesterday was an historic day for the United States. For the first time in our history an ex-president and presumptive nominee for president of a major political party was convicted by a jury of his peers on thirty-four counts related to election interference, the violation of election laws, and the attempt to cover it up — all felonies.

That the rule of law prevailed, proving in a previously untested way that we are, in fact, a nation devoted to the rule of law and not to the rule of men is significant. No one is above the law. Personally, I take no joy in these thirty-four convictions. I thought that the evidence was there, and to be candid, I would have been disappointed if the now convicted ex-president had once again avoided responsibility for his actions, but I would still have been proud of the way our system of laws worked. Those twelve jurors were able to carry on in the traditions that we all say we believe in as Americans. They put aside their biases, experiences and personal beliefs to listen to the testimony and evidence presented and then unanimously came to a conclusion. Guilty. So it seems that we should pause and consider what just happened. It is sad that an ex-president is a convicted felon. It is a proud day that the system worked.

The convicted ex-president reacted in his typical fashion whining that the system was “rigged” that the proceedings were a “sham,” etc., etc., etc., ad nauseum. The same old, same old. Except that it hit me that there is a bigger picture here that is truly frightening. This is Trump being Trump. It is also Trump, and his toadies and sycophants in the MAGA Republican party telling us that they want to destroy our democratic republic and rebuild it in their own image. Trump would be nothing if he did not have his acolytes vying with each other to out do themselves in debasing their own morality and in trying to help him tear down our rules, norms, and way of life. Note that not one of his defenders actually defends Trump. Not one of them claims that he is innocent. Instead they attack the system and work to undermine the public’s faith in our institutions. Not even his biggest flunkeys defend his actions. They only see him as their way to power and if that means destroying our way of life, then so be it. Shame is a dead emotion in today’s MAGA world.

Too much? Consider this. Trump uses the same language over and over to attack our elections, free press, and now the judicial system. All of them are “disgraceful” or a “sham” or “rigged” or any other word from his limited vocabulary. He constantly talks about how our country has “gone to hell” or that our country is in “serious decline” or that “we have a country that is in big trouble.” Over and over and over. Classic techniques of fascist propaganda. But let me allow the convicted ex-president to speak for himself with these quotes from his campaign speeches. Again, he repeats nearly the same things over and over:

“We will demolish the deep state. We’ll expel, we’re going to expel, those horrible, horrible warmongers from our government. They want to fight everybody. They want to kill people all over the place. Places we’ve never heard about before. Places that want to be left alone.

We will drive out the globalists. We will cast out the communists, Marxists, fascists. We will throw off the sick political class that hates our country. We will rout the fake-news media until they become real. We will evict Joe Biden from the White House, and we will finish the job that we started better than anybody has ever started a job before.“

In other words, call yourself a victim, blame it on the “vermin” that are not like us, and promise to destroy the institutions that stand in the way. And now he calls himself “a political prisoner.” An insult to our system and it trivializes those real political prisoners being held in places like Russia.

The thirty-four count felon ex-president is finally being held accountable. It only furthers his rage and inspires him to go further and further into the dark side. Politicians that know better like the Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (second in line for the presidency behind the VP for gosh sakes!) says that Trump’s conviction is “a shameful day in American history” and called for the Supreme Court to “step in” to overturn the conviction. Senior Republicans only became ever more deranged with their comments. Senator Ted Cruz (TX) said of the conviction that “this is a dark day for America. This entire trial has been nothing but a sham.” Senator Marco Rubio (FL) called the proceedings the “quintessential show trial. This is what you see in communist countries” and without a hint of irony, given his Cuban family roots, compared the conviction to what happened in Castro’s Cuba that “led to executions.” There is so much more but it saddens me too much. These are supposed patriotic Americans that willingly debase themselves in the service of one man.

That is where we are in today’s United States. I firmly believe that a majority of Americans see Trump and the MAGA movement for what it is. The upcoming election will not be a referendum on two different sets of policies or who is too old to serve or any other issue. It will solely be a choice between a man that wants to protect and preserve our democratic republic and one that will burn it all down in order to give himself the power to glorify himself.

I am proud of our twelve fellow citizens who recognized their sacred and solemn duty and did their best to live up to the ideals of our country. This was no ordinary verdict.

Dysfunction or Destruction (Continued)

Posted: January 31, 2024 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Since the Republican majority in the House of Representatives took office last January, I have pondered in this space as to whether the new majority was totally dysfunctional or totally determined to destroy our country and our democracy. Without painting everyone in the Republican party with the same broad brush, it is increasingly apparent that while the House is dysfunctional under MAGA Republican leadership, it is also bent on destroying the institutions and norms our government established and refined over the last 235 years. Taking one seemingly singular policy — immigration — it is possible to see how the MAGA crowd combines multiple issues into one large untidy package and brings the wheels of government to a grinding halt.

I will explain further in the following paragraphs, but through a supposed concern over our southern border, the MAGA Republicans controlling the House of Representatives have impacted our relations with NATO and other friends and allies; disrupted desperately needed aid to Ukraine, Israel, Gaza, Taiwan and our own border; initiated impeachment proceedings against a cabinet official; threatened the ability of the Supreme Court to interpret our laws; created the conditions for a state to physically impede federal officials from following the law; and elevated an out of government civilian to become the controlling entity on national policy. The implications for our country are too deep and disturbing to be merely the result of incompetence or dysfunction, although that certainly exists. It can only be attributed to a deliberate attempt to destroy our institutions in order to bring an autocrat to power.

Last October President Joe Biden asked Congress for 105 billion dollars for aid to Ukraine ($61.4 billion), Israel ($14,3 billion), and the southern border ($14 billion) and smaller amounts for Taiwan and humanitarian assistance in the Middle East. Republicans in the House and Senate immediately voiced their concerns over the request and it went nowhere. By the end of the year, Republicans were tying the money to policy reforms impacting our southern border. The president agreed to negotiate changes and invited the leadership of both parties in Congress to the White House to get the process started before the end of the year. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (MAGA – LA) refused to participate in any solutions that did not meet all of the (mostly impractical) demands of his caucus. In the Senate, both parties, along with Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas and key White House aids entered into intense negotiations. All parties involved agree that there is a crisis on the southern border and that significant steps must be taken to alleviate the situation. Compromises came from both sides, and although the final product is not yet public, many Republican Senators publicly applauded the deal, as did most Democrat Senators and the president. South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham declared that it was the best immigration deal in decades. The legislation seems to be moving to a vote in the Senate in the coming weeks. Money for Israel — great! Money for Ukraine — great! More money to hire significantly more Customs Border Protection (CBP) agents, asylum judges, and facilities to house migrants on the southern border — great! Unicorns and rainbows and meaningful accomplishments! Except for one thing.

Speaker Johnson (also known as “MAGA Mike”) refuses to entertain any of it. Why? Because his boss, an out of office civilian pending criminal prosecution, told him to kill it. Trump has very few, if any, issues in his retribution campaign for the presidency. The only policy issue he touts to date is immigration. He deplores the current policies and claims that we have an “open border.” He uses dystopian rhetoric and xenophobia to paint the crisis on the border as an existential threat to our security and yet, no deal. He wants to run on the issue and cannot do so if it is resolved. He does not want to give a “win” to the Democrats (even though the Republicans publicly declare that they got almost everything they want) and so the country must endure another year of crisis until he is in office. A great patriot. 

Meanwhile, no money for Ukraine. No money for Israel. No money for additional resources on the border. The MAGA Republicans’ total support of Trump includes his desire to withhold money for Ukraine. The pro-Putin wing of the party would like to see Ukraine fail. This is not a domestic issue. By preventing the United States from fulfilling its commitments to NATO, Ukraine and our friends and other allies around the world, we are sending a very clear message to the world that no country should depend on the United States for anything. This plays perfectly into the hands of Putin, Xi, Kim and the mullahs in Iran. If the United States does not stand fully with Ukraine, it is a safe bet that Xi will not expect us to stay the course with Taiwan. We will be finished as a reliable partner and supporter of democracy. The lesson for the world is that democracy does not work. Too chaotic. Too unreliable. Too dysfunctional to accomplish anything meaningful. 

Meanwhile, at the same time that Secretary Majorkas is working with the Senate to find a solution to the border crisis, he is about to be impeached by the House. No “high crimes or misdemeanors,” just that they do not like the administration’s policies. Constitutional scholars of all stripes agree that there is no basis under the Constitution or the law for such an impeachment. Only one cabinet officer in our history has been impeached and that was nearly 150 years ago. (For those curious, it was Secretary of War William Belknap in 1876 for blatant corruption. Although a majority voted to convict him in the Senate, it did not reach the required two-thirds threshold. He had already resigned.) This is just another blatant political MAGA stunt taken at Trump’s direction in order to make his two impeachments look less terrible and to further hurt our country. The Secretary is likely to be acquitted in the Senate — if they even hold a trial which is not required – but if he is removed from office, the president will appoint another person to carry out the same policies. The entire thing is blatantly ridiculous and is underway only to appease one man.

As if this were not enough, the MAGA governor of Texas, Greg Abbott is defying a Supreme Court order concerning the placement of razor wire along the border that restricts and in some cases prevents the federal CBP from doing their job. Under the Constitution, the United States has jurisdiction over immigration and the borders, not Texas. The MAGA rhetoric surrounding the issue is reminiscent of that from southern states in the 1850s. ”States’ rights” is again the issue. Governor Abbot is using the Texas National Guard to “defend” the border and to prevent the federal agents from doing their jobs. Other MAGA governors are promising to send Guard units to Texas to help them defend their “sovereignty” and Governor Abbott’s claims that “the fight is not over” and that Texas has a right to “self defense.” By that he means that state laws and policies have priority over federal law, in direct conflict with the supremacy clause of the Constitution. Great MAGA minds such as Representative Thomas Massie (KY) promote over riding the Supreme Court decision by eliminating President Biden’s border funds. In other words, he advocates solving the border crisis by defunding the DHS. Brilliant! The next steps by the governor or the president are unclear as I write, but it could easily escalate into another self-generated crisis. What is clear is that MAGA politicians are willing to go against the Constitution in order to support Trump and his ambitions. A bad sign for our future.

Taken as a whole, the House of Representatives and certain state houses around the country see that their goal is to create chaos and disruption in order to bring down our established norms and institutions in the name of one man. There are multiple severe domestic and international threats to our national security as a result. Dysfunction may be MAGA’s middle name, but such a wide spread and concerted effort can only be explained when we realize that the real point is the destruction of our norms in order to elevate an autocrat to power. 

Dysfunction Or Destruction?

Posted: October 23, 2023 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

Tomorrow, it will be three weeks since the United States of America had an actual Speaker of the House of Representatives. On 3 October, Republican Representative Kevin McCarthy (CA) was voted out of his position as the Speaker due to a revolt of the hard right MAGA Republicans. They were enraged that he worked to pass a bipartisan continuing resolution (CR) to keep the government operating until 17 November of this year. For those zealots, doing anything with the support of Democrats is unacceptable. In this case, it was, to them, an outrageous breach of faith that Mr. McCarthy worked to allow the government to continue to operate without their hard right policies in place. Since then, the Republicans (the majority party in the House is always responsible for choosing the Speaker) have floated a number of options for choosing a new Speaker, including giving the current Speaker Pro Tempore Representative Patrick McHenry (R-NC) more power to enact some basic legislation. (Under the current rules, the Speaker Pro Tempore can only preside over the election of a permanent Speaker.) Complicated, it is. The only good thing that has happened so far is that Representative Jim Jordan (MAGA-OH) failed three times in his attempt to bully, intimidate, and threaten his way into the Speakership.

Democrats have consistently and unanimously voted for Representative Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY). Note that he gets more votes than any Republican so far (it takes a majority of 50% plus one to be elected). Mr. Jeffries continually floats bipartisan proposals to solve the crisis, but Republicans refuse to allow Democrats to participate (see above and the impact on Mr. McCarthy when trying to use bipartisanship).

As I write, nine Representatives have thrown their hats into the ring to attempt to convince their colleagues that they should take the gavel. I will note that only two of those running voted to certify the election of President Biden in 2020. It would seem that acknowledging the results of a free and fair election would be a prerequisite for the job which is second in the line of succession to the presidency, but it is not in the current state of the party formerly known as the Republican Party. This does not bode well for certifying the 2024 election results should their preferred candidate lose.

As the old saying goes, “pay backs are hell!” This past week numerous Republicans and their families were the recipients of death threats, vile insults, intimidating emails and other actions that are part and parcel of the MAGA playbook against their perceived “enemies” (fellow Americans) because they would not support Mr. Jordan as Speaker. They were aghast at what they heard and appalled that it happened. Hmmm. I don’t recall any of them standing up and expressing their outrage when political violence was threatened by an ex-president and his MAGA acolytes against those in the other party, the Department of Justice, FBI, or judiciary, to name but a few of their targets.

The main question I now have is whether the Republican Party’s inability to preform the most rudimentary of parliamentary duties is a result of their dysfunction or is it a deliberate attempt at destruction? There are a solid block of the hard right in the caucus that are perfectly happy to knee cap the democratic process and thereby prevent the most basic of government functions to take place. If past performance is indicative of future results, then I opine that although not planned, the current state of affairs fits perfectly into their scheme to burn it all down and start over under autocratic rule with a certain ex-president in charge.

The world is on fire with serious conflicts in Europe and the Middle East that each have the potential to blow up into wide-spread wars impacting our own national security. The government shuts down because of the lack of spending authority in about four weeks. All funding for the military, foreign aid, government functions, etc. originates in the House of Representatives, which can take up no legislation without a Speaker. Layer on top of that Republicans in the Senate holding up promotions for over 300 senior military officers and the Ambassadors to Israel and Egypt, as well as other ambassadors, in the midst of an explosive crisis.

Such actions have serious domestic and international consequences. The lack of the House to get itself in order is not only a national embarrassment, it sends exactly the wrong signal to our adversaries and undermines our claims that democracy is the best form of government on the planet. Putin, Xi, Kim and others are loving it.

Meanwhile, an ex-president is openly admiring our adversaries, mocking our own men and women in uniform and generally running amok as he pursues his personal wealth and power.

Even the most casual observer of our domestic political turmoil would recognize that the Democrats are interested in, and capable of, governing even if one may disagree with particular policies. That same observer would also recognize that as a party, Republicans either have no interest in, or ability to, govern. Governing requires positive actions. The MAGA crowd, and those Republicans that refuse to stand up to them, have only negative actions to sustain them. They are against a lot, but there is little to nothing that they are doing to move the country forward.

At the risk of sounding like a doomsayer, I do not see things getting any better leading up to and beyond the 2024 election. Political violence and dysfunction are part of the MAGA playbook. There will be serious attempts to disrupt the elections and we already know that the MAGA followers will not accept the results of any election that they do not win. We had one failure of imagination in that no one expected an attempted coup in our country. It happened. Given the current state of affairs fomented by one man and his followers in and out of Congress, I have little expectation that things will improve over the coming year. Dysfunction or destruction? It does not matter. The results are the same.

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