Category Archives: politics

Mike the Misinformed

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Republicans scraped the bottom of the barrel last October when they elected the little-known Mike Johnson of Louisiana Speaker of the House of Representatives and second in line to the Presidency of the United States. Johnson emerged as the fourth Republican nominee in what had become a clown show of political infighting after the Republican caucus threw out Speaker Kevin McCarthy. Johnson’s election required fifteen votes.

McCarthy was voted out of the job in an extraordinary showdown, a first in U.S. history, forced by a gang of hard-right conservative Republicans. The vote threw the House and its Republican leadership into chaos. McCarthy’s crime was to have reached a bipartisan agreement with Democrats to fund the government for a brief period to prevent a shutdown.

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Election 2024 and the Supremes

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I remember vividly the decision of the United States Supreme Court in Bush v. Gore, 531 U.S. 98 (2000). The Supremes had opined on elections many times before. But this was the first time the top court literally decided an election, stopping the ballot counting process still under way in Florida, and declaring George W. Bush the winner and 43rd President of the United States.

Moreover, it came to its decision by a party-line vote of 5 to 4. That led many to question the validity of the decision, which was based on the determination that the vote counting in Florida would violate the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Note I wrote “would” rather than “did”. The Bush Court apparently consulted a soothsayer and reached its conclusion based on a prediction, not an actual event. We can never know if it was right.

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The Nuts Factor

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This is nuts. That’s all I could think as I listened to D. John Sauer, an attorney for Donald Trump, with Trump sitting in the front row of the courtroom, tell a panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia that it should overturn a decision of the district court and dismiss the federal indictment against Trump for crimes connected to the January 6, 2020, mob assault on Congress.

To recap, on August 1, 2023, Special Counsel Jack Smith charged Trump with four federal criminal counts after a grand jury investigation into Trump’s attempt to overturn the 2020 election, culminating in the January 6th insurrection. In October 2023, Trump claimed in the case that he had absolute immunity from prosecution for actions he took as president but Judge Tanya S. Chutkan, the trial judge in the case, rejected (opinion here) Trump’s claim, finding that “neither the Constitution nor American history supported the contention that a former president enjoyed total immunity from prosecution.” Trump appealed the ruling.

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GOP Clown Show Continues

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When we last visited the Clown Show, in January of 2023, we were talking about the farce the Republicans put on trying to elect a Speaker of the House of Representatives. Kevin McCarthy of California finally won the post on a historic fifteenth ballot. But power really lay with roughly fifteen right-win radical Republicans, who battled McCarthy relentlessly.

I took a break from this subject as the GOP stumbled though one of the least productive House sessions on record. Now it’s time to catch up.

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The Answer is Slavery

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Let me give you a piece of advice. If someone asks you what caused the Civil War, the answer is “Slavery.” Do not equivocate. Do not hesitate. Do not complain about being asked a “tough” question. Just say, “Slavery”.

If you think I’ve written something like this before you are correct. The last time I was talking about three women who were in charge at three of our top universities. Today I address one woman who wishes to be in charge of the whole nation.

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Tommy Smothers

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Thomas and Richard Smothers

His mother always liked his brother best. That was his go-to line. Tommy Smothers (left above) was an American comedian, actor, composer, and musician, best known as half of the musical comedy duo the Smothers Brothers, alongside his younger brother Dick. He was born in 1937, in New York City, and passed away on December 26, 2023, at the age of eighty-six in Santa Rosa, California.

When I look back over my blogs, I see that the few obituaries I write are always about people who have had a significant impact on me. Smothers is one of those people. When I think of Tom I think of the Sixties. This was my coming-of-age decade, and one that stands out as a turning point in American history.

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Enter the Supremes

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Update December 28, 2023

There are reasons why journalists usually write analysis and commentary only after a breaking event has settled. Today Maine’s Secretary of State, Shenna Bellows, disqualified former President Donald Trump from appearing on the state’s 2024 Republican primary ballot. Her decision was based on the 14th Amendment of the US Constitution, which prohibits anyone who has “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” against the United States from holding office.

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