Tag Archives: Republicans

The Hunter Biden Circus – Bring in the Clowns

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Disclaimer: Since my earliest days as a lawyer, when I was assigned a few times by judges in the District of Columbia to perform pro bono (free) defense services for indigent criminal defendants, I am not, and have never been, a criminal defense attorney. But I do know a few things. Believe. Or not.

The circus surrounding the charges against Hunter Biden has its roots in the fact that he is the President’s son and Republicans are desperate to undermine the President who appears, for the present, destined to obliterate the criminal traitor Donald Trump on whom the Republican Party has pinned its hopes for 2024. Otherwise, Hunter Biden’s alcohol and drug-fueled misbehavior would be just another relatively small and unimportant criminal case against a person who, sadly and despite having all the advantages of being the son of a prominent politician, could not control himself. Addiction will do that. A Nobel Prize awaits the person who figures out how addiction works and how its deadly work can be derailed. But until then, it’s clear that the interest in the Hunter Biden case stems from one source.

Hunter Biden has been under investigation for years when the Trump administration was in charge and Trump’s personal lackeys were in charge of the Department of Justice, the FBI and more. In the ordinary boring course of such investigations, absent the connection to Joe Biden, the charges brought would most likely resemble those in the present case and a plea bargain would have emerged. Something went terribly wrong in Hunter Biden’s case and there is plenty of blame and reason for suspicion to go around.

Reports indicate that “whistleblowers” who formerly worked at DOJ have claimed their attempts to tie Hunter to the President were stymied. Yet, the man in charge of the process at DOJ says otherwise. He, like the judge assigned to Hunter Biden’s case, was appointed by Donald Trump (odd how that keeps happening). US Attorney David Weiss led the entire investigation and has been clear that there were no restraints on him from any source.

Little clarity surrounds the “restraints” claimed by the “whistleblowers” who arguably are carrying water for Rep. Jim Jordan and other MAGA Republicans whose main goal is not “justice for Hunter Biden” but pinning a corruption charge on President Biden. David Weiss has offered to testify before Jordan’s House committee but only in public and not behind closed doors as, curiously, the Republicans desire. Jordan’s approach would, of course, enable Republicans to make irrefutable claims about Weiss’s testimony, a ploy that he, despite presumed loyalty to Trump, is wise to.

The other major and possibly unique circumstance surrounding the plea deal and sentencing hearing is that the MAGA Republicans filed their own brief on Hunter Biden’s sentencing, urging the judge to reject it. And she did. Not, ostensibly, because of the claims of political interference by Biden loyalists at DOJ, but because of a serious oddity: an asserted concern raised by the judge on her own initiative, ostensibly, about the constitutionality of the plea deal’s secondary issue: Hunter Biden’s purchase of a gun when, as an admitted drug addict, he was forbidden from doing so.

Then, under probing from the judge about possible other charges against Hunter for illegal foreign lobbying under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, it was revealed that the Biden defense team and the prosecutors had different understandings of Hunter’s future exposure to such charges. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the remarkable, astounding fact that is apparently at the root of the plea deal’s rejection, at least for now, by the judge.

If the judge’s questioning was motivated only by her appropriate interest is assuring that the parties had a complete meeting of the minds on the plea agreement, without regard to the political pressure brought to bear by the Republican Congressmen calling for rejection, the judge cannot be faulted. On the other hand, she is a Trump appointee and the issue of possible unconstitutionality of the plea deal as structured seems a bit of a stretch. We’ll likely never know.

I am personally very troubled, deeply, at the idea that a Congressional committee of partisan politicians injected itself into a criminal proceeding. I would be equally troubled if a committee of Democrats intervened in a criminal proceeding involving a Republican. We’ll never know what influenced the judge who reportedly said she had not digested the entire brief from the Congressional committee but signaled her intention to consider it.

One report characterized the judge’s concerns this way:

Noreika expressed frustration that the two sides structured the tax and gun plea deals in a way where she would need to approve the gun deal but had no powers to approve or reject the tax agreement.

The diversion agreement – which isn’t often submitted to a judge – has a provision that says if there is a dispute over whether Hunter Biden breached the terms of the deal, it would go to the judge for fact-finding. Noreika questioned why it would “plop” her in the middle of a deal she didn’t have a say in, and potentially block the Justice Department from bringing charges, a function of the executive branch.

[https://www.cnn.com/2023/07/26/politics/takeaways-hunter-biden-plea-hearing/index.html] I don’t understand the judge’s attributed remark that she had no say in the deal when the deal was before her for acceptance or rejection.

Beyond the judge, however, it is clear to me that one of counsel’s most important functions in a case like this is to suss out every possible issue that could come up, every possible thing that could do awry. This is as true of the prosecutor as it is of the defense counsel. Here, apparently, both failed in this critical responsibility. They made a deal that was incomplete, and the omitted factor was, I believe, obvious. A plea deal is a settlement and a central issue in every settlement is the question of its completeness. Does it resolve all issues? In civil settlements, it is typical to include the broadest possible language showing that all issues between the parties arising out of the dispute are resolved. No less is this to be expected in a criminal plea bargain.

Yet, in Hunter Biden’s case, the parties did not, apparently, consider the issue of future charges for other offenses even though the potential of such charges was known to and should have been obvious to both sides.

The end result is that there is no end result. Hunter Biden ended up pleading “not guilty” to the current charges while the judge considers her options. Presumably, the defense and prosecution will reconvene to negotiate further. Time will tell.

So, who was responsible for this mess? I don’t know and decline to speculate. As with the charges that appear to be imminent against Donald Trump and his many co-conspirators for the January 6 insurrection, the false electors gambit and the fully documented attempts to overturn the election in Georgia, we will have to remain patient for a while longer. Serious and expert observers of this case share your, and my, amazement that this issue was not resolved before the plea hearing. https://www.rawstory.com/hunter-biden-2662485694/

A final observation: one issue that has been raised in the press is whether the agreed charges against Hunter Biden are inappropriately “light” given the offenses involved. One’s views of this question are most heavily influenced by one’s political partisanship. I caution only this: plea deals are just that. Each side assesses the strengths and weaknesses of its case, and each side gives something to achieve settlement.

Sentencing is inherently difficult and often results in terms that seem sharply disparate. The most prominent examples lately are the various impositions on January 6 insurrectionists who were found guilty, by trial or plea in the face of overwhelming evidence. There are many reasons for this. If you are really interested in how this happens, read Noise, by behavioral economist Daniel Kahneman (Nobel Prize-winning author of Thinking, Fast and Slow), Olivier Sibony and Cass Sunstein where the variability of judgments by judges, doctors and others is analyzed in shocking detail.

It’s a Bird, It’s a Plane … It’s ????

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In its continuing quest to out-stupid Fox News, CNN has published a rambling collection of actual and implied attacks on the U.S. government regarding the shooting down of four “things” by U.S. fighter jets under the direction of our Commander in Chief, the President of the United States. https://cnn.it/3lw7wGi

One “thing” has been identified as a Chinese surveillance balloon. The other three remain UFOs. OMG!!!! UFOs! In American airspace. Say it ain’t so, Joe.

The CNN headline says the “trio of new intrusions leaves America’s leaders grasping for explanations.” Grasping. Well, maybe. Or maybe, just maybe, the people we entrust with our safety against foreign forces of darkness and evil have decided it’s smarter to not be talking too much until they know more, by, for example, retrieving and examining the wreckage of these “alien” craft.

But we can clear up a few points right off the bat. If these three UFOs are genuine alien craft, do we really believe it would be so simple a matter as to send up a few fighters to blow them out of the sky? If it is that simple, and they are aliens visiting Earth for surveillance, is this a version of intergalactic “rope-a-dope” in which they let us shoot down these useless devices to “see what we’ve got” while we punch ourselves out” and then they swoop in and take over the planet? Has Marjorie Taylor Greene talked to QAnon and gotten the inside skinny on this, fed it to CNN and, well, go there if you like.

CNN says,

A deepening national security mystery is threatening a political storm after US fighter jets scrambled three days in a row to shoot down a trio of unidentified aerial objects high over the North American continent….the thin details trickling out of the Pentagon and Capitol Hill about are making an already highly unusual international episode even more bizarre and confusing.

Naturally, Republicans are using the situation, CNN calls it “an information vacuum,” to attack President Biden. CNN notes the “intrigue” ,,, unfolding against a tense global situation” which, if given a moment of sober thought, might explain why the administration is reticent to just start throwing around explanations and accusations in an evolving and potentially dangerous situation. Even putative Democrats like Jon Tester of Montana (yes, there) could not contain himself:

The military needs to have a plan to not only determine what’s out there, but (to) determine the dangers that go with it.

Fantastic. Why do we assume our military, the largest and most expensive in the world by far, does not have a plan? Because they aren’t revealing it to the entire world? Is there a coherent military person or other serious thinker who thinks it’s a good idea for the military, faced with a possible threat, to race out with details of its defensive plans so that the party(ies) behind the threat will learn the plan? Anyone think that’s a good idea? Anyone?

Orson Welles, where are you when we need you?

Well, we have CNN:

It’s not normal for Americans to settle down for the Super Bowl with their president firing off orders to blast unknown objects out of the North American sky.

Yes, we certainly don’t want Americans’ Super Bowl experience to be infringed by the War of the Worlds. CNN, always ready to help us understand current events, and undeterred by the possibility of unnerving Super Bowl fans, raises the specter of questions that remain unanswered but loom over us like a brooding omnipresence potentially ready at any moment to destroy the United States or indeed the entire world:

  • “Are the latest incidents linked in any way to Beijing’s espionage program described by the administration after the shooting down of the Chinese balloon and other reported crossings of other balloons over US territory? Any indication of successive Chinese breaches of US airspace would mark a serious twist in US-China relations already tested by a belligerent Beijing at what may be the start of a 21st century Cold War.
  • … are the latest strange objects flying over North America linked to some other hostile power or group, corporate or private entity? Are they even connected to one another or are they simply the result of coincidences at a time of heightened awareness and tensions?
  • If the latter situation is the case, is NORAD now picking up more objects that are potentially hostile given a state of heightened alert after the Chinese balloon crisis? If the objects are suspicious is there a sudden spike in such flights or did such objects fly across the continent with impunity in the past? Given the already increased threat to civilian aircraft – for instance from more low flying drones – is this a new problem that that should concern the aviation industry?
  • Finally, what is the political impact of this string of incidents. Biden was criticized by Republicansfor citing the possibility of injury to civilians or damage to buildings on the ground for waiting so long to shoot down the Chinese balloon earlier this month.”

Can you imagine the Republicans’ hysterical reaction if Biden had ordered an immediate take-down and Americans on the ground were hit by debris? And, what if the debris were alien in nature – a virus worse than COVID? Worse than the common cold? OMG!!! Alien debris. Run for your lives!

CNN then reveals that “The political blame game is heating up.” Well, that’s a shock. Can you imagine that Republicans would pass the opportunity to attack the President when matters of national security were at stake? You can’t because they never would.

Republicans, however, don’t really know what they want. GOP Rep. Mike Turner of Ohio (of course) objected on the one hand that the President “didn’t act quickly enough before” while simultaneously claiming the administration was “somewhat trigger-happy.” Then, to round out the complaints, CNN notes that China has claimed the U.S. had been flying “high-altitude balloons into its airspace more than 10 times since January 2022,” a charge the White House denied. [If it were true, do we seriously believe the U.S. would have admitted it?}

Finally, CNN joins the chorus by noting that Biden “has yet to speak to Americans in person about the trio of incidents over the weekend.” And it repeats, in case you forgot it, that Biden is under attack for waiting to shoot down the Chinese balloon while also noting that “New speculation and criticism could be premature as officials work to fully understand the sequence of events and more about the objects.”

On the other hand, CNN notes that It’s possible that “in a unique, fast-moving situation, the government may not know much more than it is saying.” But … “the piecemeal emergence of details is adding to the confusion.” On the other hand, on the other hand….

CNN wraps up with the Republican clincher:

Republican Rep. Matt Rosendale of Montana [again] appeared to make a direct link,,, between the Chinese balloon and the latest objects, even if there is no confirmation so far that they are connected.

It doesn’t give me much safe feelings knowing that these devices are smaller,” he said. “I am very concerned with the cumulative data that is being collected. … I need some answers, and the American people need answers.”

I can’t begin to tell you how concerned I am about the anxiety and lack of “safe feelings” being experienced by Republicans because mean old Joe Biden won’t tell them everything they want to know (if he did, they’d attack him for revealing too much).

“Such speculation may be premature, CNN acknowledges, “But fierce political debate over the balloon has clearly changed Biden’s tolerance threshold for unknown aerial objects. It’s now a case of shoot first, investigate later.”

Do you have a coherent idea what that means? In the context of the presence in U.S. airspace of unknown “flying objects,” it is particularly ridiculous. Do we really want the U.S. government to speculate about this situation? Would Republicans rather the U.S. investigate first or shoot first? Doesn’t seem like you can have it both ways.

As for me, we’re making plans to move to Area 51. If this really is aliens, that seems like the safest place to be.

The Barbarians Are Inside the Gate

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The reference is, of course, a play on the title of a famous book and movie about the battle to get control of RJR Nabisco in the late 1980s. Wikipedia tells the story well. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RJR_Nabisco  The subtitle of this post is: “When They Tell/Show You What They Are, Believe Them.”

The original thought for this post began with the revelation that the Republicans, newly in the House majority, had disbanded the Subcommittee on Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, reported everywhere at the end of January. But it goes way beyond that.

I refer now to the disgraceful desecration of the Capitol by Republicans during the State of the Union address by President Biden on February 7. Picking up where one of their number yelled “you lie!” at President Obama during a 2009 address to the Congress on health care reform, the Republicans as a group and individually heckled and shouted at President Biden multiple times during his speech. It reminded me of the chaos we sometimes see in foreign legislatures where yelling and disruption are commonplace, where physical violence occurs between disputatious parties. But not here. Not here.

Obviously, no rational person expects the Republicans to agree with much of what Biden proposes. But the State of the Union address is not a place for street rabble to shout down the President. Historically, the displeasure of the party out of power has been adequately demonstrated by their silence when the rest of the Congress applauds usually while standing. It’s a strange ritual, to be sure, but it’s been going on for a long time and everyone understands what the play is.

Until now. The gang of Republican traitors and criminals who helped orchestrate the January 6 attack on the Capitol to try to overturn the 2020 election have turned the State of the Union evening into a circus-like affair. They show no respect for the office of the President, no respect for the sitting President, no respect for each other, and no respect for the American people.

To be clear, this isn’t just about bad manners. This same group is composed of QAnon believers (Marjorie Taylor Greene who shouted “liar” at the President), proponents of automatic weapons everywhere (Lauren Boebert), people whose moral compass has led them repeatedly to deny the reality of what happened on January 6, 2021, and who was responsible (see this video for the reality they continue to deny: https://nyti.ms/3HM77XH). They are the real election thieves, the book burners, the science deniers.

They are led by Donald Trump whose brazen disregard of the law and mores of American society and politics have led him to commit multiple crimes the complete listing of which would fill many pages. He and his sycophantic followers continue to deny the truth about the 2020 election. It was Trump who called the Secretary of State in Georgia to demand that he “find” just enough votes to overturn the will of the people of Georgia. Everyone has heard the tape by now. It was Trump who tried to extort the president of Ukraine to launch an investigation of his political opponent. Everyone has read the “transcript” by now.

And yet, and yet, Trump continues to walk free, to continue his false narrative, to continue stealing from his supporters, to continue as the most dishonest, corrupt political leader in modern American times and perhaps at any time in American history. The boorish display by Republicans at the State of the Union is just a symptom of a much greater and more important danger. Democracy itself is on the line.

And yet, and yet, many Republican commentators continue to raise the specter that if Trump is held accountable for his crimes, there will be civil war, or the door will be opened to retribution by the succeeding administrations intent on punishing their predecessors. If that is true, the idea of America as the Founding Fathers envisioned it is indeed already dead.

It doesn’t have to be that way. But those in charge of the many “investigations” must act and act soon and aggressively to change the course, the curse, of events. The evidence of Trump’s crimes is both overwhelming and widely known. His so-called defenses – mainly the ludicrous “lack of intent” claim – are preposterous but whether they are or not is beside the point. If it is true that “no man is above the law,” if it is true that the Constitution is the supreme law of the land, then the salvation of American democracy demands that Trump be prosecuted for all his crimes in every legal regime where jurisdiction exists. He can make his defenses there where the rules of law and evidence govern.

I have no better idea what is going on, or not going on, at the Department of Justice and the Special Counsel’s office than anyone outside the inner sanctums there, but time is running out. The government must act, or it will be destroyed by the fascist proponents of winning at all costs, the believers in “alternative facts” when the truth denies their self-serving goals. Those people have made clear (just look at Kari Lake’s post-election conduct in Arizona and Ron DeSantis’ abuses of government power in Florida), they will stop at nothing to get what they want. The system that made America one of the most important countries in the world is on the line. It’s past time to call the question.

A Special Place in Hell

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On August 16, 2022, a United States Senator representing Florida published an “open letter” to “American Job Seeker.” The letter purports to address grievances about the planned hiring of 87,000 new employees for the Internal Revenue Service. In keeping with Scott’s general method of operation, the letter is replete with lies, distortions, and deflections. A U.S. Senator addressing the legislation he’s complaining about should know better. I believe he does and that his mendacity is deliberate. Donald Trump will be happy with him, though, so in Senator RIck Scott’s mind, he is fine with lying, distorting, and deflecting. Let’s have a closer look.

First, Scott decries the “labor participation rate” that he says the Biden administration has caused “to drop to historic lows.” That is a gross distortion at best and a bald-faced lie at worst.

The labor participation rate is the percentage of the population that is either working or actively looking for work. A casual look at Labor Department data would have shown Scott that the rate has remained within a percentage point or so of the level during Trump’s administration. https://bit.ly/3SZT71u Except, of course, for the big dip in 2020 caused by, you will recall, Trump’s grotesque mishandling of the pandemic. In July 2022 the rate was only .3 below the level when Biden was inaugurated. Oh, by the way, Florida, Scott’s state, ranks among the lowest states in LPR. Also, by the way, the national unemployment rate was 3.5% in July 2022, exactly where it was in February 2020, just before the pandemic struck. By most standards that unemployment rate is considered “full employment.”

Scott then says, “I write to you today to offer a few things for you to consider as you continue your job search.” Ah, job hunting advice from a professional politician from Florida, a man whom Wikipedia describes this way:

During his tenure as chief executive, the company [Columbia/HCA, then the largest private for-profit healthcare company] defrauded Medicare, Medicaid and other federal programs. The Department of Justice ultimately fined the company $1.7 billion in what was at the time the largest health care fraud settlement in U.S. history.

Scott has two messages: (1) expansion of the IRS workforce is a threat to Americans and when Republicans get control of Congress in the fall elections, they will remove the funding for these jobs; therefore, don’t waste your time applying; (2) the original job posting indicated the new IRS employees would be armed and one of their “major duties” was to be prepared to kill your neighbors and friends.

That deliberately misinformed and childish hysteria is plainly designed to frighten ordinary Americans. Scott goes on to refer to an “IRS super-police force” that will not only audit your taxes (that you are required by law to pay — remember, Scott is in the party of “law and order”) but directly suggests a mob of armed government employees will kill you if you don’t pay up.

This is the face of the modern Republican Party that uses the rhetoric of government running wild to frighten Americans into believing that a utopian and authoritarian solution is their only safeguard. The reality is quite different.

Lower taxes are, first, a lie. Republicans only lower taxes for the very wealthy. Ordinary Americans see little of the oft-promised tax cuts. Trump’s oft-toted big tax cut went almost entirely to the wealthy and increased the federal deficit by a huge amount. While promising to eviscerate the government, Republicans also promise stronger borders, a more powerful military, and more efficiency – all for less money! The Republican Party is the modern version of the snake oil salesman – buy my elixir and enjoy good health for life! Nothing to it. Something for nothing.

Let’s look more closely at Scott’s hysterical claims. He uses transparent techniques. All caps on “$80 BILLION.” He then compares the resulting IRS work force to the combined employment of four familiar federal agencies: Pentagon, FBI, Customs and Border Protection, and the State Department.  If his original claim of doubling the size of the IRS was accurate, then this might be true even if totally pointless. But it is not. The IRS is not going to hire 87,000 new employees in one year. So, Scott’s workforce comparisons are just more distortions/lies.

The more important question is: what will the new employees be doing that is good for America? Senator Scott doesn’t want you to know about that. Here’s why.

The IRS’s budget has been cut by nearly 20 percent since 2010, impacting the agency’s ability to staff up and modernize half-century-old technology. In 2010, the IRS had about 94,000 employees. That number dipped to about 78,000 employees in 2021. Some of the agency’s computers still run on COBOL, a programming language that dates back to the 1960s. Since 2010, the agency’s enforcement staff has declined by 30 percent, according to IRS officials, and audit rates for the wealthiest taxpayers have seen the biggest declines because of years of underfunding. [https://bit.ly/3K8AzIp]

So, if you’re fine with wealthy tax cheats getting away with under-paying taxes, you’ll appreciate Senator Scott’s gross deception. Otherwise, well, you’ll recognize that you can’t run the government on thoughts and prayers Republicans like to send when your school children are slaughtered with AR-15’s they refuse to restrain.

Speaking of that, Senator Scott also wants you believe that the IRS auditors are going to shoot you. Another lie. Fewer than 3% of IRS employees are Special Agents who carry weapons. Why do they? Because they are law enforcement personnel in the IRS Criminal Investigation unit. They investigate criminal tax violations and other financial crimes such as money laundering, bank secrecy, national security, and national defense matters.

While we’re still on violence, Senator Scott should know that anti-government, anti-worker statements have inspired violent attacks on federal employees in the past. There are now reports of one Republican candidate advocating shooting federal employees, including IRS employees, “on sight.” When you add these incitements to violence against federal employees carrying out Congressionally mandated duties to Republican indifference to the slaughter of school children with automatic weapons they refuse to regulate, you have the perfect storm of a political party advocating violence against its opponents and the government.

Senator Scott’s letter is a dangerous collection of gross distortions and outright lies. This man cannot be trusted. Florida should send him packing (no pun) as soon as possible.

The Faces

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Yesterday the reckoning began. In marches, rallies, and gatherings across the country, tens of thousands of Americans came together to declare war. The target is the death-mongers who value guns over human life, guns over children, guns over the elderly, guns over everything. The unique problem of Americans and guns has reached the breaking point. Mass shootings are almost as routine as car accidents. Death by gun in schools, places of worship, grocery stores, shopping malls, the streets. Only in America.

Yesterday you could see in the faces and the signs. Sadness, fear, anger.

The rally in Washington, DC attracted an estimated 40,000 people. An extraordinary turnout considering the foul weather. Sadness – why don’t more Americans care about us? Fear – am I or one of my loved ones the next to die by gunfire? Anger – the killing must stop; we cannot continue to live like this. Why do so many Americans care more about their guns than they do about their children and their parents and grandparents?

The crowd was very large, spread over the north side of the Washington Monument grounds.

One of the speakers lost his mother to gunfire a short time ago. She had lived 86 years, only to be gunned down while shopping for groceries. The average age of the people slaughtered in Buffalo was 62. Shopping for groceries. Slaughtered by an 18-year-old racist with a history of violence and mental health issues, none of which prevented him from legally buying assault weapons and armor plating. He live-streamed his deadly assault which he had been planning for months. He shot four people outside the store, a security guard inside, then eight more inside (six of whom died). When police arrived, he surrendered without resistance.

The faces of the people listening to speeches like that were grim but determined. They have had enough of Republican thoughts-and-prayers, the rote response to the uniquely American tragedy facilitated by legal systems that allow people with the maturity level of children buy assault weapons intended to kill as many people as quickly as possible.

Aside from the power of the speeches there were two moments of “drama” that we observed. The first involved a jerk who arrived in the middle of the presentations with a large poster on poles that said “Guns-Bacon” on one side (no idea what it meant) and Gun Control with a slash mark on the other.

When he set up in the middle of the crowd listening to the speeches, his sign blocked the view of the jumbo screens. Only a few seconds passed before two women rushed up behind him to block his signs and within a minute a multitude joined them.

The jerk was surrounded and engulfed in anti-gun signs. His face was covered the entire time. After a while security arrived and escorted him off the grounds trailed by comments from the crowd that are a bit too raw for a family-oriented blog.

The other excitement occurred during a moment of silence called for by one of the late speakers. Someone in the crowd yelled either “I have a gun” or “I am God,” according to reports. This sparked a very short-lived panic that subsided within seconds. Pay no attention to any news reports otherwise. We were at the back of the crowd when this happened and witnessed the entire thing. Nothing there but stupidity. We believe the fool was arrested, as he should have been.

As indicated, many of the speeches were hard to hear, coming from people who had directly experienced the horror of losing family and friends to gun violence. Some were in the schools when they were attacked (David Hogg, for example, at Stoneman Douglas High School). They remind us that children in grammar school are being subjected to active shooter drills.

Can you imagine the affect that is having on those kids? When I attended grammar school in the 1950s, we did nuclear attack drills, practicing hiding under desks as if that could protect us from the annihilation of a nuclear strike. It seemed unreal and had little impact. But active shooter drills when mass shootings occur almost every day and the kids are aware. The children subjected to this may be scarred for life. It seems like another form of grooming, making them afraid all the time that their lives or those of their friends could be snuffed out by a total stranger for no reason at all.

While preparing this post, I read in the Washington Post https://wapo.st/3zyYihF  that,

A bipartisan group of Senate negotiators announced Sunday that it had reached a tentative agreement on legislation that would pair modest new gun restrictions with significant new mental health and school security investments — a deal that could put Congress on a path to enacting the most significant national response in decades to acts of mass gun violence.

A group of 20 senators — 10 Democrats and 10 Republicans — signed a statement announcing the framework deal. That indicated that the agreement could have enough GOP support to defeat a filibuster, the Senate supermajority rule that has impeded prior gun legislation.

I call B.S. on this. The bolded portions of the report explain why:

Under the tentative deal, a federal grant program would encourage states to establish “red flag” laws that allow authorities to keep guns away from people found by a judge to represent a potential threat to themselves or others, while federal criminal background checks for gun buyers under 21 would include a mandatory search of juvenile justice records for the first time.

It does not include a provision … that would raise the minimum age for the purchase of at least some rifles from 18 to 21. Handguns are already subject to a federal 21-and-over age limit.

Other provisions could funnel billions of new federal dollars into mental health care and school security programs, funding new campus infrastructure and armed officers. Several senators last week said they expected one cornerstone of the deal would be … to establish a nationwide network of “community behavioral health clinics.”

Those are nice things to have but they fall grossly short of what is required to address gun violence in a meaningful way. We need to be careful we don’t embrace the first simplistic glossy object thrown at us to “show progress” when the real effect is to further deflect substantive progress because Republicans do not intend to give real ground on these issues and thereby disappoint their arms industry funders.

The real solution, promoted by several speakers at the March for Our Lives, is “VOTE THEM OUT.” Unless and until that happens, Republicans will continue obstructing real progress to stop or even seriously mitigate the wave of gun violence that makes the United States stand out among all nations as the most dangerous in so many ways. VOTE THEM OUT is the only real answer and the opportunity to start is coming soon in the mid-term elections.

If you agree that the time is past for meaningful action on gun violence prepare to VOTE THEM OUT. In addition to voting, work the polls, offer transportation and money and other help to elect Democrats up and down the ticket.

Don’t forget that a majority of Republicans around the country still believe Trump was unlawfully defeated and are working very hard to take over the electoral machinery in the states. The sole purpose is to prepare Republicans to invalidate elections they lose and simply install Republican candidates as winners. The only way to stop this is with overwhelming Democratic majorities. Make it so. Make it so.

Cowards

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I just saw a statement posted on Facebook — a Republican aspirant for Congress who said that “instead of sending $40B to Ukraine maybe we should invest it in protecting American children at school.”

Nice sentiment. Total deflection. No proposals. Nothing.

I’ve seen many “suggestions.” Harden the schools with electronic surveillance and metal detectors. Post armed police at the doors. Have only one door. Build a moat around schools. Surround schools with barbed wire. Use bullet proof glass. Arm the teachers. Spend more on mental health but no red flag laws.

All share a common theme. No matter how many children and teachers are slaughtered in schools and no matter how many religious believers are murdered while studying and praying, we must not ever do anything, not the slightest thing, that might infringe on the “God-given” right to buy automatic weapons and unlimited ammunition because … because the Second Amendment to the US Constitution says … nothing of the kind.

But I’m not writing now to debate the meaning of the Second Amendment. Rather I want to say that the people who are so obsessed with their “God-given” right to buy automatic weapons are cowards. Chicken-livered cowards.

Why? Because they are afraid. They are afraid of their own government. Even the Republicans in the overwhelmingly Red States are afraid of their government. Probably more the federal than the state but the government. They live in fear that someday the government is going to come for them. They maintain this profound fear even though there is no evidence that the federal government has entertained such an idea. Ever. Nor can they rationally explain why the federal government would “come for them.” Or what “it” would do with them when it came for them.

These cowards know little history but they’re certain that the apocalypse is coming during their lifetimes. They are equally certain that when the First Marine Battalion, or such other military that is selected for the task, comes for them, they will be able to use their AR-15s and other weapons to defeat them. The same people who quake in fear at the thought of the federal government coming for them think they’re going to have the courage to stand up to the withering firepower of a division of Marines or U.S. Army.

These people cannot explain what motivation the government would have to undertake the slaughter and/or imprisonment of the civilian population. They apparently haven’t considered what foreign adversaries might do while the U.S. military was busy rounding up Americans in this massive country. Do they really think our adversaries will just stand back and watch, tsk tsking about the sad state of affairs in the United States?  Do they think those countries will not be concerned about the collapse of the largest economy in the world? Do they think at all? Or do they just cringe at night in fear, cleaning and oiling their weapons in preparation for the great conflict ahead? Stockpiling rations and water and fuel and the other things they’ll need to defend themselves.

Have they hardened their homes, or do they think their ranch-styles can stand up to a miliary assault? Are they all fully practiced in warfare by going out in the country in their camo gear and shooting at targets that don’t shoot back? What do they really think is going to happen when the federal government decides to “come for them?”

Republicans who resist any form of gun regulation are among those rarest of people who can keep two totally contradictory ideas in their heads at the same time. Normally trying to do this would create overwhelming cognitive dissonance, but apparently if you listen to the repetitive lying and dissembling on Fox News long enough, you can hold those self-contradictory ideas in your mind and believe both are true.

You go to work, pay taxes (they’re withheld from your pay) to fund the government that’s preparing to come for you. If you lose your job, you may get government assistance but that’s OK because … well, you need the money, and the government has systems in place to help you. Even as it secretly prepares to come for you. Still, you give them the money willingly. If you live in a place that is hit by, say, a hurricane, you will get help from the government, and you’ll take it. You will still be afraid. Not of the possibility of no help, but afraid that the government that’s helping you is going to come for you at some point and therefore you must have a stash of automatic weapons and ammo with which to defend yourself and family and property against … Army tanks, Air Force bombs, all of it. Maybe you should watch some old war movies so you can see what you’re going to be up against when they come for you.

Meanwhile, back at the local school, someone’s son – it’s always a male – will find your neighbor’s stash and assassinate school children. The shooter will usually die in the effort, but not before mass slaughter is accomplished. You’ll join the mourners with thoughts and prayers, but you will still be afraid, not of the neighbor’s sullen and obviously disturbed son, but afraid that the government is going to come for you.

And so, you continue to vote for politicians who tell you that the government in which they serve as elected leaders is so untrustworthy that any day now it’s going to come for you. So, rather than support reasonable protections against the neighbor’s son, who may well kill your own children, you will continue to resist any and all reasonable efforts to contain the cancer that afflicts the United States, alone among advanced nations. No matter how many children are massacred. All because you’re afraid.

Memes Again — Devoted to Guns

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WARNING: many of the images here are disturbing to anyone who is not enamored of guns. DO NOT LOOK further if you think you may be emotionally damaged by these images. They tell a story but it is the saddest story I know. PLEASE be careful.

This first set of images was selected from the suddenly archived website of Daniel Defense, the company that made/sold the weapon used by the Uvalde, Texas school shooter.

The caption on this one read: “He is Risen.” Followed by a hands-in-prayer emoji:

Caption: Don’t miss the chance to spoil mom this Mother’s Day! Take 25% off all ladies’ tees and save on gifts that will have mom feeling like #1. Valid through May 9, 2022. Shop for mom today at danieldefensestore.com.
This one advocates using sound suppressors:

Finally, and most remarkable, with this caption: “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it. 🙏”

The remaining images are from Twitter & Facebook posts.

You likely know that we lead the world in gun deaths. You also know that every effort to address the issues has been stymied by Republican politicians. You know what to do.

An American Team No More

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Americans once believed that when push came to shove, we would unite against common adversaries. A generalization, to be sure, but I believe it was accurate overall. It was true despite our ongoing differences about things like balanced budgets, the size and role of government and many others arising from America as the Melting Pot. Differences in the Pot were inevitable and, in some cases, resulted in sharp divisions. But, still, we believed that, faced with an outside adversary, Americans would come together as one nation to fight back.

World War II was a good example in “modern” times. Men and women went to war, more women worked in factories doing the necessary, and often dangerous, work that men had performed before going off to fight the Nazis and the Japanese. It was a terrible time. Many were grievously wounded, physically and mentally, and many died, leaving behind others ill-equipped to go it alone. People did without many luxuries. Ration stamps were used to allocate food, among other things. It was a a terrible time.

The idea of Americans united against outside adversaries found expression in movies involving alien invaders. Some of those movies showed the entire world coming together to fight the aliens. Faced with an outside threat, often with more advanced technologies, “we” prevailed with grit, ingenuity and a sense of common purpose. That was, of course, a fantasy but “we” always won in the end.

No more. We have a new common enemy that is attacking the entire world from within. This enemy is invisible and highly adaptable. We have seen its like before and always, always came together, solved the puzzle and prevailed. And yes, I know there were always outliers, but they were the exceptions. In 1918, the closest modern parallel to COVID-19,

It is estimated that about 500 million people or one-third of the world’s population became infected with this virus. The number of deaths was estimated to be at least 50 million worldwide with about 675,000 occurring in the United States. Mortality was high in people younger than 5 years old, 20-40 years old, and 65 years and older. The high mortality in healthy people, including those in the 20-40 year age group, was a unique feature of this pandemic. [https://bit.ly/3ql2V8v]

You likely know that the United States blew past that 675,000 death figure some time ago. As of two days ago, December 22, U.S. COVID deaths had reached 805,112 and climbing – almost 1,400 deaths on that one day and a 7-day moving average approaching 1,200 and rising.

The numbers are so large that our minds balk at acceptance and comprehension. But the numbers are real. The sickness and death are real. We are not even counting the cases of Long Covid, the condition in which the debilitating effects on the heart, lungs and brain (among others) last beyond the initial illness for … no one knows how long.

Our inability to comprehend is part, but only part, of the reason that so many – in the millions – people deny that COVID is real. Some are so deep in denial that, even when hospitalized in critical or worse condition, they continue to claim their disease is something else, that the doctors and nurses are lying to them when they say, “you have COVID.”

Whatever the roots and reasons that tens of millions refuse to get vaccinated, those people appear to be lost to the team – to Team America. The huge number of unvaccinated Americans – two years into the pandemic – are a breeding ground for the virus to mutate. And mutate it does. All viruses do. The anti-vaxxers are responsible for the prolongation of the pandemic and the personal and economic destruction that the virus has inflicted. Omicron has swept across the globe in weeks, displacing the Delta variant. There is no end in sight. And the next variant may not be as “mild” as Omicron.

The best we can hope for is that, slowly and at huge unnecessary cost, we will reach the point of so-called “herd immunity” when there are an insufficient number of vulnerable hosts that the virus cannot continue its deadly passage through the population. And, of course, medical science is delivering more effective treatments, the latest of which (in pill form) was just announced. Maybe we’ll reach the point where COVID is “just another flu.” Maybe.

Meanwhile, millions more will suffer. According to every credible source, COVID deaths in the United States are expected to exceed 1,000,000 in the near future. Eventually, maybe, we will win again. But it won’t be because of Team America, the coming together of citizens to fight and vanquish a common and deadly enemy. It seems we’re past that. Tens of millions of our fellow citizens are content to have others suffer and die under the name of mindless slogans. Freedom! My body, my choice! Nobody tells me what to put in my body! And on and on.

Instead of a united front against this deadly enemy, we have tens of millions reciting slogans to justify and explain why they are no longer members of the team. The price for their ignorant intransigence has been/will be very steep indeed.

This problem is, of course, only one manifestation of a mental state that afflicts our society. We can conclude that because there is a powerful identity among the anti-vaxxers and the evangelicals/Trumpists/Republicans. Their delusional state of mind regarding the pandemic is closely aligned with their willingness to believe many other unbelievable ideas. Chief among them is the idea that the January 6 assault/attempted coup was not Trump supporters but was engineered, rather like the pandemic, by a global elite of BLM, antifa, liberal/progressive Democrats and others of like mind, aided, if not led, by the federal government (you know, the Deep State lying in wait to destroy the country).

People who hold such beliefs do not comprehend the logical absurdity that those “elites” would have tried to stop the certification of President Biden’s victory (the candidate they favored) in order to continue the presidency of Donald Trump (the candidate they fervently opposed). If they can’t see that, they can’t see the point of joining with other Americans, and other peoples around the world, to stop the pandemic with the only tools that work. They are lost to our team, probably forever. Donald Trump didn’t create these people, but he surely inspired them.

Going forward, then, policy makers must understand the full extent to which our “team” has been broken, perhaps permanently. That means, among other things, that there is no longer anything like “politics as usual.” The aliens have arrived, and they are among us. If we’re not careful, they may kill us all.

They Are Coming for Your Health Insurance

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Well, not actually yours. Readers of this blog probably get their health insurance through employers. But millions of other Americans are at risk. I warned about this on March 26 in a post entitled “When You Rest on Your Laurels, You Become a Stationary Target.” Now a major Washington Post story by Robert Costa and Paige Cunningham, who usually get this stuff right, states that “Freedom Caucus leaders near deal on health-care plan.” http://wapo.st/2q5zRlF

It appears that the essence of the deal being negotiated will make it appear that the Affordable Health Care provisions on essential benefits will remain intact, while permitting any state to seek individual waivers to enable them to eliminate those benefits for insured people in that state. Moreover, while insurers would still be required to cover people with preexisting conditions, the insurers would be empowered to charge those people higher premiums.

One of the more telling observations reported in this story is this:

“Top GOP aides said that text of the new bill probably won’t be posted until House Republicans feel confident that they have enough votes to pass the bill.”

You couldn’t make this stuff up. The apparent plan is to negotiate the terms in secret, subject to the inevitable leaks by negotiators who love seeing their names in print, and then bring the bill to the floor for a quickie vote.

In another post, on March 24, I asked the question: “What is the Democratic Alternative to the American Health Care Act?” Still waiting. If the Republicans are successful in this latest maneuver, it will, of course, be up to the Senate, where, one hopes, something resembling a superior alternative will be put up by the Democratic leadership. Otherwise, the Democrats play the role of the Party of No and likely lose the fight.

One final, for now, observation. There should be no mistaking what the Republicans are up to with this new scheme. Turning over the question of benefits coverage to the states and letting the insurers charge higher premiums to people with pre-existing conditions will have several virtually certain effects:

  • Republican-dominated states will rush to screw over consumers by reducing the mandatory benefits coverages (why else are they so anxious to turn this issue over to the states?)
  • In many states, patients with the worst medical problems will be priced out of the insurance market altogether
  • Because of the effects of gerrymandering, the realization of populations in Red states that they have been “had” by the Republican-dominated Congress and their choice of President will have little effect
  • Contributions from insurance companies to Republican politicians supporting this emasculation of the medically-suffering population will reflect the companies’ gratitude

There is, of course, still the possibility that the malodorous negotiations will fail to satisfy the far-right or the “moderates” and no bill will be brought to the floor. But little is being heard from the opposition to these moves. Time will shortly tell. I continue to ask: where is the Democratic alternative?

P.S. It has also been reported that the Republicans like an amendment to their new version of health care insurance that exempts Congressmen and their staffs from being subjected to a state waiver of essential benefits! http://bit.ly/2q3pONP  Nice. Always watching out for the little guy. Makes your heart swell with patriotic pride.

 

We Will Not See Their Like Again

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A phrase borrowed from Shakespeare is appropriate as President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama move toward their last day in the White House and prepare, somehow, to turn the presidency over to Donald Trump. Based on interviews they have given, this must be a bittersweet moment for the Obamas, a mixture of sadness and relief. I have worked in high pressure situations many times in my professional life but never did I have the fate of the nation and even the world potentially turning on decisions I made. No decisions I made came remotely close to directly affecting millions of people. I don’t believe that any of us can imagine the stress on the person who holds the highest political office in the land. The Obamas were fortunate to have the humanist strength and character of the Bidens at their side but at the end of the day it was Barack Obama who made the hard calls and had to live with their consequences. Was he perfect, making all good decisions? No. But no president in history, no matter how venerated today, would have laid claim to such perfection.

I will not recount here the accomplishments or the failures of the Obama administration. Others are doing that. I will simply note that few if any occupants of the White House have lived there with the grace, compassion, energy, breadth of vision, commitment to people of all stripes, humor and drive that the Obamas have shown. They will be missed, oh, will they be missed.

Not by everyone, of course. There are the Republicans who, upon Obama’s election in 2008, made clear their principal, if not only, goal was to prevent him from having a second term. To fulfill that un-American objective, they obstructed almost everything of consequence that the President tried to achieve. They failed to deny him e-election, but were not deterred. The obstruction continued throughout his second term.

There also were the racists for whom Obama’s election and re–election were an abomination. The very idea that an intelligent, educated and accomplished Black man could be President of the United States was almost more than they could bear. Now that the Obamas are leaving, the racists are in full flower again, encouraged and enabled by the rhetoric of the incoming president. We who thought racism was on the way out in America were just dreamers. The exposure of police killings of unarmed Black men and the vicious disgusting racist statements made by members of the anti-Obama crowd, including people closely aligned with and serving as advisors to President-Elect Trump, have shocked all people of good will, including many who disapproved of Obama’s politics but who recognized him as the good man that he is.

While we always like to think that each person is evaluated on his own merits, the reality is that we also judge people based on the groups they choose to belong to. If you choose to hang out with a gang, you will be seen as the gang is seen, whether or not you actually behave the way they do. If your friends and associates are criminals, you likely will be suspect as well.

So it is that Mr. Trump has chosen to align himself with people who are openly racist. A prime case in point is the following undisputed statements by Carl Paladino, former Republican nominee for governor of New York and advisor to Mr. Trump [Caution: this is really offensive]:

“Artvoice: What would you most like to happen in 2017?

Carl Paladino: Obama catches mad cow disease after being caught having relations with a Herford. He dies before his trial and is buried in a cow pasture next to Valerie Jarret, who died weeks prior, after being convicted of sedition and treason, when a Jihady cell mate mistook her for being a nice person and decapitated her.

Artvoice: What would you most like to see go in 2017?

Carl Paladino: Michelle Obama. I’d like her to return to being a male and let loose in the outback of Zimbabwe where she lives comfortably in a cave with Maxie, the gorilla.”

[Source: Washington Post at http://wapo.st/2ixpP8p]

Mr. Paladino denies that these and other similar messages he has sent are racist. He claims they are just political discourse and stands by them. See CBS News Report at http://cbsn.ws/2i8ihda. Judge this for yourself.

Despite all of that and more, President Obama has continued to conduct himself as a President should, with calm resolve and thoughtful actions. He has not responded in kind to Trump’s provocations. He and the First Lady have stated repeatedly that they will do everything they can to responsibly assist Trump’s transition even as Trump actively works to undermine the President’s authority by, among other things, interfering (unsuccessfully) in a United Nations vote related to Israel and by proposing to resume the nuclear arms race with Russia, all the while sucking up to Vladimir Putin for being such a “strong leader.”

Whatever one may think of President Obama’s politics, and I have some serious criticisms of my own, I do not believe it can be disputed that he and the First Lady are a model for the way a President and First Lady should conduct themselves. Based on Mr. Trump’s campaign style, which he has carried over into the transition period and thus is likely a forerunner of his style in the White House, we are about to witness a complete reversal in the tenor as well as content of the conduct of our national affairs. The Constitution itself is in jeopardy in the hands of an angry autocrat.

I do not intend by this to denigrate the point of view, or the people who subscribe to it, of responsible conservatives, of which there are many, who have legitimate arguments that should be considered in evaluating public policy. But what I cannot endorse are those conservatives who saw Trump clearly for what he was during the campaigns, but who now have knuckled under and sought to be employed by him.

If you believe in the efficacy of prayer, now would be a good time for it. But, I suggest, with respect to those in prayer, that we need a better plan than praying for good outcomes.  We need a leader to step forward now to establish himself/herself as the leader of the loyal opposition on a national scale — someone to lead the resistance, lead the effort to restore Democratic control of the Congress, and ultimately to occupy the White House if it is still standing in 2020. Meanwhile, we should all be grateful, as I am, for the often monumental and always difficult work, with grace and compassion, that the Obama and Biden families have given to our country.