"Judge Garland Is Well to the Left of Justice Anthony M. Kennedy:" That Is All we Need to Know

The New York Times tells us today that Judge Merrick Garland Is “well to the Left" of Justice Kennedy. President Obama has thrown down the gauntlet. Court of Appeals Judge Merrick Garland is his nominee to the Supreme Court. Judge Garland is eminently qualified on paper: Harvard College and Harvard Law School, Clerk to Supreme Court Justice William Brennan, partner at Arnold & Porter, Assistant Attorney General, appellate judge for 18 years. Judge Robert Bork in 1987 was also eminently qualified for the Court. However he was “Borked; i.e. demonized to deny the conservative a seat on the bench.” Judge Garland is not politically qualified. The Republicans control the Senate. They will not let President Obama change the balance on the Court. President Obama called Judge Garland a moderate. The mainstream media chimed in echo the Obama Line: The New York Times yesterday called him “the ideal, moderate Supreme Court nominee” with “a solidly centrist voting record. The Los Angeles Times hailed him yesterday as a “centrist” as did USA Today. The LA Times today proclaims his “record of restraint, not a of activism.” The Supreme Court reporter Linda Greenhouse places Judge Garland in the “constitutional mainstream.” She says he is one of the “country’s most respected and experienced federal judges.” He is a moderate and centrist only by the standards of the progressive left. He is only moderate in the sense that Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is a “moderate liberal,” as defined by President Clinton. Justice Ginsburg is the most consistently liberal Justice on the Court, unrestrained the words of the Constitution or of statutes. She famously said in Cairo during the Arab Spring of 2012 as the Islamic radicals were headed to victory: “I would not look to the US Constitution, if I were drafting a constitution in the year 2012.” She doesn’t feel bound by the words of the U.S. Constitution, often looking to foreign law for guidance. I have a bridge for sale in Brooklyn to those who believe Judge Garland is a moderate. Judge Garland acknowledged in his remarks as he stood by President Obama’s side his “commitment to follow the law, not make it.” Judge him not though by his words, but by his decisions. The picture is one of consistent liberal dogma. He believes in government, the power of government, the good of government. He is, as is most of the present Supreme Court, the eastern liberal establishment. Today’s New York Times article about the nomination quotes political scientists as saying “Judge Garland is well to the left of Justice Anthony M. Kennedy,” today’s swing vote. If Judge Garland is confirmed, Justice Kennedy’s views and opinions will be irrelevant. A 5 block liberal hegemony will rewrite the Constitution, without the restrain of Justice Kennedy. That is what the nomination is about. That is why the Republicans must continue to him confirmation, at least until the November election. He consistently defers to agency’s extensions of their power. He has consistently sided with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) rather than management. He always sides with environmentalists when they sue the EPA, but against industry. One of the major constitutional issues facing Congress is the power of the federal government under the Commerce Clause to regulate isolated wetlands or endangered species. If construed to the extent the Obama Administration has pushed the limits, the effect will be to give land use authority to the federal government over almost all the lands in the United States. He interpreted the Commerce Clause in 2003 to allow the government to protect an isolated species with no economic value. In clerking for Justice William J. Brennan, Jr. he clerked for and learned from one of the most liberal Supreme Court justices of the 20th Century. He is the game changer on the Supreme Court, the final act of transformation by President Obama. His appointment is second in significance only to the election of the next President. It is more important than the election of the next Senate. He will use the Court to judicially legislate. He will join the axis of Breyer, Ginsburg, Kagan, and Sotomayor in redefining the Constitution to give more power to the Government and less power to the people. The Judge Garland vote, or non-vote, is a vote on the future of the United States.

Will the Protesters, Demonstrators, and Rioters Elect Donald Trump President

Donald Trump may be a bombastic blowhard who issues inflammatory statements. He’s a veritable flamethrower. He may have trashed immigrants, African Americans, Mexicans, Muslims, women, and the POW’s. He’s called out FoxNews and the Wall Street Journal, Megyn Kelly and Hugh Hewitt. Anyone who opposed him is a loser. He’s trashed the Republican leadership. The Donald is an unabashed, narcissistic bully. Say what you want, Donald Trump is entitled to Freedom of Speech. The response to bad speech is more speech, good speech – not violence. His protestors and demonstrators also have First Amendment Rights - to peacefully demonstrate and protest on the public right of ways by his venues. The demonstrators, protestors, and rioters have no right to break up his campaign speeches or rallies. They have no right to interrupt his speeches. They have no right to interfere with the Free Speech rights of supporters. They may think they do because they have been interfering for decades with conservative candidates. They have stifled speech on campus, often supported by members of the professoriate. They have prevented speakers and commencement speakers from appearances on campus. It's a force of habit. They have demanded safe zones and trigger warnings for themselves while denying freedom of speech to political conservatives. Inciting violence and rioting though is not protected speech. Nor are they popular with the American public. The American people are appalled at the breakdown of law and order, campus unrest, and the collapse of civility in public discourses. They have seen the riots in Ferguson and Baltimore. They have seen a mob take over the University of Missouri. They witnessed an outbreak of political correctness a few months ago. The American people do not like what they see. Applications are in the tank at the University of Missouri. The radical left only believes in Freedom of Speech for themselves. All other speech is to be suppressed. The mainstream media is accusing Donald Trump of inciting the demonstrators and rioters. They don’t need incitement, as they proved in the 1999 World Trade Organization riots in Seattle. They don’t need incitement as they have proven on our campuses and in the Occupy Wall Street protests. They don’t need an incitement to riot – just an excuse. Then comes the public backlash. The 1984 Democratic National Convention was in Chicago, Illinois. It was met with large-scale, nationally televised rioting. Richard Nixon was elected President, campaigning not to the radial protestors, but to the “Silent Majority.’ President Nixon learnt from Ronald Reagan in 1966. Berkeley, the city and university, were racked with riots, beginning with the Free Speech Movement in 1964. The popular incumbent Democratic Governor Pat Brown was salivating at the prospect of running against the ignorant actor. Reagan won by almost 1 million votes. He fired the leadership of the University of California Berkeley. The Republican primaries show the American people are fed up. The Republicans, including crossover Reagan Democrats, are voting in large numbers for Donald Trump, and in lesser numbers for Senator Ted Cruz, also an opponent of The Establishment. Donald Trump would not have had a prayer in normal times. Secretary of State Clinton may be winning by large numbers in most of the Democratic primaries, but Democratic turnout is substantially down If Senator Cruz and Governor Kasich were clever, they would support Donald trump against the demonstrators, decry the violence and support his right to speak, and his audience’s right to hear.

Turkey's Kurdish Problem is of Turkey's Own Making

A truck bomb, presumably of Kurdish origin, exploded today in Ankara, Turkey’s capital. The victims include at least 33 dead and 77 injured. Turkey’s President Recip Erdogan is currently waging a war against the Kurdish population in southeast Turkey. The Kurds in turn are waging a guerilla war against the Turks. President Erdogan is also waging a war against the Kurds in Syria, who have rebelled against President Assad and the Syrian government. We need to understand three characteristics of the Kurds. First, they are fiercely independent. Second, they are fighters. Even the woman are fighters. Third, they are extremely resilient. An additional fact is that the Kurds during World War I were promised an independent homeland at the end of the war. An independent Kurdistan did not occur, but is a possibility today, which scares President Erdogan. The Kurdish population in the Mideast is spread over four countries: Turkey, Iraq, Syria, and Iran. Kurds are estimated to comprise 15% of Turkey’s population, concentrated in the country’s southeast. The Iraqi Kurds have carved out a major part of their Northern Iraq homeland as a semi-independent enclave, complete with oil resources. The Syrian Kurds, whose fighters are called Peshmerga, have also seized land in Syria along the Turkish border. If the Syrian and Iraqi Kurds unite, the pressure will be on Turkey to cede complete or semi-autonomous control to the Turkish Kurds, or watch the new Kurdistan serve as a safe haven for Turkish Kurds fighting for independence. By way of history, the Kurds retained a large degree on independence in the Ottoman Empire. The Sultans knew better than to wage war against the Kurds in the mountainous regions. Thus, a pattern of wary coexistence emerged in which both parties cooperated with each other when it suited their purposes. The heographic area of Armenia contained the presen republic of Armenia and most of eastern Anatolia, today’s heartland of Turkey. The Christian Armenians mostly lived in peace with their Ottoman Overloads until feelings for independence starting emerging in the late 1800’s. Five centuries of peace changed in 1894 when Sultan Abdul Hamid II unleashed the Hamidiye Regiments on the Armenians. These forces were mainly comprised of Kurdish fighters. The Sultan’s purpose was to exert his will, power and force on the Empire. Estimates of the murdered Armenians range between 80,000 to 300,000, with 200,000 as an often-accepted figure. The Armenian Diaspora began as many Armenians emigrated out of Anatolia at this point, often to the United States. The Three Pashas (The Young Turks), Mehmet Talaat, Ismail Enver, and Ahmed Djemal, seized control of the Turkish government in 1913, rendering the Sultan a figurehead. They made several stupid mistakes, starting with entering World War I on the side of Germany and Austria. The Ottoman Empire was doomed. The second mistake was for General (Pasha) Enver to wage war on the Russian Army during winter conditions. His army was decimated at the Battle of Sarikamis from December22, 1914 to January 17, 1915. An army of 118,000 shrank to an effective force of 42,000. 32,000 were killed in action. 15,000 died from illness, especially typhus. He needed a scapegoat, blaming the Armenians for assisting the Russians. The fears then arose that the Armenians in Anatolia would rebel or join the Russians in fighting the Turks. In addition, the Turks needed space for their fellow Muslims who had been evicted from the Balkan countries, which recently won independence from the Ottomans. Having lost most of the European Empire, the Pashas could not risk losing Anatolia. Thus, they unleashed the Armenian Genocide on April 24, 2015. They had prepared the Genocide by drafting the young Armenian males into the Army, or more precisely, Labor Battalions, in which they were worked to death, starved to death, or simply murdered. The Armenian population in Anatolia was thereby mostly women, children, and old men. They had few fighters who could resist the genocide. The Kurds took part in the massacres. Several, but not all the Kurdish tribes or people, participated in the genocide. The Kurds moved into the lands abandoned by the Armenians. The end of World War I witnessed the carving up of the Ottoman Empire. Indeed, Turkey itself would be carved up. However, the Turks may have lost several battles and the war, but they still had military units that could fight. Mustafa Kemal (Ataturk), the victor at Gallipoli, rallied the Turkish forces in Anatolia and won the Turkish War of Independence. One by one, the occupying forces, the British, French, and Italians, pulled out. The Greeks were decisively defeated on the battlefields. Ataturk consolidated power. There would be no independent Kurdistan carved out of the detritus of the Ottoman Empire. The Kurds rebelled in 1925 and 1927. They were crushed. They rebelled in 1930, 1937, and 1984. President Erdogan is a shrewd politician, using his deep Islamic beliefs and demagogic powers, to win elections. His term as Mayor of Istanbul was interrupted by eight months in prison for religious extremism. He learnt his lesson. Turks know that the Turkey military intervened in Turkish politics by staging military coups in 1913, 1960, 1971 and 1990. They post-World War I military leaders were fulfilling their oath to preserve the secular democracy of Ataturk. Erdogan was elected Prime Minister of Turkey in 2003. One of his first acts was to neuter the powerful military by framing the military leaders and packing them off to prison, claiming coup planning back to 2003. 300 suspects were sentenced to prison in 2012. All were released on July 19, 2014 and 236 suspects acquitted on March 31, 2014. The Turkish military is now under his thumb. Prime Minister Erdogan was elected President in 2014. The Kurds rebelled again, led by the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK), which is listed by both Turkey and the United States as a terrorist organization. Prime Minister Erdogan started making peace with the Kurds in 2009. Hostilities dropped. He reversed course in July 2015. He resumed hostilities. Erdogan has the well-armed, well-trained Turkish Army. The Kurds are waging a guerilla war. Most victims are, and will be, civilians. The Kurds will not be suppressed. They could settle for semi-autonomy in their region of Turkey, but the longer the war continues, the more intransient they will be for independence. They are fighting a guerilla war for independence, with possibly safe zones in Iraq and Syria. President Erdogan cannot allow that, but he may not be able to prevent it. The reality is that the only way the Turks can totally suppress the Kurdish drive for independence is to once and forever unleash a new genocide, a Kurdish Genocide, or evict all Kurds from Anatolia, Iraq, and Syria. That will not happen. The Armenians will resist, as they have in Iraq and Syria. Most of the victims are, and will be, civilians.

What if Conservatives Started Protesting Liberal Speakers the Way Liberals Protest Conservatives?

What if conservatives started protesting liberal speakers the way liberals protest conservatives? What if conservatives drive off liberal commencement speakers like liberals do to conservatives? What if conservatives occupy campus demanding safe places? What if conservatives tried to muzzle liberal speech on campuses? What if conservatives issued non-debatable ultimatums to college leaders? What if conservatives refused to hire outspokingly liberal faculty members? What if conservative students disrupted rallies and speeches by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Senator Barry Sanders? What if conservative students challenged and tested the limits of campus free speech? What if conservative students made full use of safe zones and speech codes? What if conservative students demanded trigger warnings from liberal professors every time they professed their liberal bias in class? What if conservative students filed complaints every time a liberal student said or wrote something that outraged the sensitivities of the liberal or was viewed as threatening? What if Jewish students filed complaints every time an administrator, student or professor said or wrote an anti-Semitic statement? What if Christian students filed complaints every time an administrator, student, or professor discriminated against Christianity? What if conservative students mounted protests proclaiming “All Lives Matter?" What if conservatives mounted protests proclaiming “Police Lives Matter”? What if conservative students won control of student government and began to defund left-wing radical organizations? Why don’t conservatives demand, including through protests, the firing of every professor who expresses anti-conservative bias or anti-Semitism? Why don’t conservatives file lawsuits against public campus administrators who deny them their First Amendment rights and seek not only damages but attorneys fees against the individual administrators? And why don’t campus conservatives constantly proclaim the I Have a Dream” quote from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jt.: “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.” Why don’t they do these acts of the campus liberals? First, they tend to actually vote with their hands and feet rather than their mouths. Second, some universities will undoubtedly attempt to expel them. I have MLK’s Dream.

Governor Romney, You Had Your Chance 4 Years Ago; STFU

Governor Romney delivered an impassioned, ringing speech skewering Donald Trump. If only Mitt had shown such passion four years ago, he might have won, or at least come closer rather than being trounced by President Obama. I voted for Governor Romney. I supported his election. I thought then, and truly believe today, that Governor Romney would have been a much better president than President Obama. He would have bridged the deepening racial gap rather than inciting it. Yet his candidacy was fatally flawed. He was the wrong candidate at the wrong time in American history. Governor Romney is a very smart, decent, humanistic person. Yet he let himself be portrayed as a cold, heartless plutocrat. No response! Stephanie Cutter, Obama’s 2012 Deputy Campaign Manager, said Romney was either a felon or liar on his relationship with Bain Capital. No response! Senator Majority Leader Harry Reid said a critical source told him that Romney had not paid income taxes for ten years. No response! Senator Reid explained his lie later: “We won, didn’t we?” Governor Romney was castigated for having offshore (Swiss) bank accounts. No response! Mitt Romney was leading in the polls in 1996 Massachusetts Senate campaign against Senator Ted Kennedy. Senator Kennedy’s campaign then ran the Ampad Ad in which workers accused Romney of laying them off after Romney’s Bain Capital acquired the company. No response! Romney lost. Mitt Romney also did not respond to the same claims raised by Newt Gingrich in the primary campaign nor in the general election by the Obama Campaign. No response! Mitt Romney was a genteel campaigner. Donald Trump is a scrappy street fighter. Mitt Romney became a clueless, heartless campaigner. That will not happen to Donald Trump. Governor Romney questioned Donald Trump’s honesty and judgment. He called him a “phoney” and “fraud.” That’s ironic considering the Governor’s political gyrations. He was elected Governor as a moderate Pro-Choice Republican who favored gun control. He enacted RomneyCare, the model for ObamaCare. Massachusetts Republicans have to have these positions on the rare chance they can win an election in the liberal state. The Governor had an epiphany in running for President. He became Pro-Life and opposed gun control. He opposed ObamaCare, but was relatively mute in distinguishing RomneyCare from ObamaCare. The Governor, reflecting the fears of the eastern establishment, brought up echoes of the 1964 LBJ Landslide. The GOP establishment joined the media and LBJ’s campaign in trashing Republican nominee Senator Barry Goldwater. LBJ’s campaigns was symbolized by the brutal Daisy Ad. I was a young, naive liberal in San Francisco in 1964. I believed the calumnies against Senator Goldwater. Only later did we learn that, while the Johnson campaign was depicting Senator Goldwater as an out of control warmonger, LBJ was secretly planning a major escalation in Vietnam. We learnt that the Golf of Tonkin resolutions were based on falsity. Governor Romney still doesn’t get it. Republicans believed President Obama was vulnerable 4 years ago. Governor Romney ran a clueless, tone deaf campaign. He didn't get it then. He doesn't get it now. The two leading Republican candidates, Donald Trump and Senator Cruz, are anti-establishment. Senator Marco Rubio, the recently anointed candidate of the Establishment, is barely hanging on. The outsider Trump is running a non-traditional campaign for the American public, which is disillusioned with traditional politicians. No more Tweedledee, Tweedledum with Republicans leaning slightly to the right and Democrats slightly to the left. They want a fighter. Nobody cares what Romney says today.

Clinton v. Trump (?)

Clinton v. Trump (?) The consummate insider v. the Outsider Super Tuesday, the SEC Primary, has spoken. Clinton and Trump are the big winners. Clinton will be the Democratic nominee, absent an indictment. Trump will be the Republican nominee unless Cruz or Rubio quickly drop out. Clinton v. Sanders is a one-on-one competition. She won 8 (Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Massachusetts, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, and Virginia), and Sanders 4. All 12 states were by majority vote. The Black vote in Southern states was decisive in her victories The Republican race was different. Trump won 7 (Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia Massachusetts, Tennessee, and Vermont), Cruz 4 (Alaska, Oklahoma, and Texas), and Rubio 1 (Minnesota), but all victories were by pluralities. Not one victor reached 50% in a state. As long as Senators Cruz and Rubio split the anti-trump vote, Trump will win most of the remaining contests by pluralities. That’s all you need in winner take all primaries. Senator Cruz won Alaska, Texas, and Oklahoma. He won enough to stay in the race. Senator Rubio won the caucus state of Minnesota and came close in Virginia. The new favorite of the Republican “establishment” salvaged a reprieve in his sinking campaign. His remaining strategy is simple: win his home state of Florida, keep Donald Trump from winning a majority of the delegates before the GOP Convention, and then depend on a brokered convention to seal the deal. It’s not going to happen. A stolen nomination will result in a Trump third party campaign. Clinton would win by a plurality as did her husband in 1992 and 1996. The Republican establishment can’t take that risk this year. It’s Clinton v. Trump. Fashion your seat belt. It will be the dirtiest, most exciting campaign since LBJ’s resounding defeat of Senator Barry Goldwater in 1964. The Clintons are proven liars and will say and do anything to win. She can’t run on her record. The Clintons are salivating at the chance to run against Trump. They believe they have Trump’s own words and personal history to defeat him. California Governor Pat Brown and President Jimmy Carter also figured they would defeat a B actor, Ronald Reagan. The Clinton strategy is to gin up the Obama Coalition: African Americans, Hispanics, young women, students, and unions. She will add Muslims to the coalition. She has been assiduously been courting the Black vote, echoing Black Lives matter, and the “excessive” mass incarceration rate of African Americans. Her ads will play Trump’s racist rants against Hispanics and Muslims. The bombastic Trump will respond in kind. The mainstream media will pile on, aiding the Democratic cause. Trump’s supporters do not read the New York Times or Washington Post. She will wrap herself around President Obama, whose Administration will not indict her. She will run as the first female nominee. She will run on experience with no actual successes to show. Benghazi was her 3:00am phone call. Her message will include the standard Republican War on Women. Trump will respond with her husband’s personal war on women. Bill’s sex scandals will resurface and reverberate. She will also be unable to keep him muzzled through November. Her campaign fight against economic inequality will be met by cattle futures. Her focus group driven words will be betrayed by an incredibly stupid, inane statement at some point during the campaign. She will tout the success of ObamaCare, but face the millions who lost their existing coverage under ObamaCare. California will once again be irrelevant during the election except as a fundraising piggybank. The Republican establishment will hold its nose, swallow its pride, and vote for Trump. They have no choice. Primary turnout is not always predictive of November turnout. However, the Republican vote is up substantially this cycle while Democratic votes are down. The Reagan blue-collar Democrats are voting for Trump this primary season. They will be the difference if Trump wins in November.

Jesse Ventura, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Donald Trump

Jesse Ventura and Arnold Schwarzenegger Also Explain the Donald trump Phenomenon I blogged on February 19, 2016 that Peter Finch as Howarrd Beale in the Movie Network touched a nerve with the American public – the same nerve that Donald Trump is touching today: “I’m mad as hell, and I won’t take this anymore.” I still believe that, but I also suspect the Ventura/Schwarzenegger phenomenom. Both are outsider and entertainers. So is The Donald. Jesse Ventura was a former Navy diver (predecessor to the Navy Seals), then a professional wrestler, broadcaster, author, and actor when he ran for Governor of Minnesota as an independent (Reform Party). He had served as Mayor of Brooklyn Park, Minnesota from 1991-1995.He had even earlier changed his name from James George Janos to Jesse Ventura. That’s entertainment. The Democratic (Skip Humphrey) and Republican (Norm Coleman) candidates underwhelmed the Minnesota voters and Jesse Ventura won on a plurality in November 1998. Arnold Schwarzenegger took advantage of the recall campaign against the hapless Democratic Governor Gary Davis to win election as Governor of California in 2003,again by a plurality. He won a resounding reelection campaign in 2006. Let us also remember that Ronald Reagan left the entertainment industry to be elected Governor of California in 1966. He followed in the footsteps of George Murphy, famous as a Hollywood song and dance star, who was elected United States Senator from California in 1964 on his initial run for public office. Both Governor Reagan and Senator Murphy had previously served as president of the Screen Actors Guild. There’s nothing special about entertainers as leaders except that successful entertainers know how to connect with the public. They can read an audience. They know what plays and what doesn’t. There often exists an intangible spark which lets these successful entertainers connect with people, especially large groups. Very few are elitist, for they have climbed the American ladder of success. They inspire others. They also represent an example of success outside politics, and thus do not come across as career, professional politician. They may also seem more trustworthy than your average politician. They acquire a public persona. Jesse “The Body” Ventura and Arnold “The Terminator” Schwarzenegger certainly traded on their public image as strong leaders. Let us not also forget Al Franken, the Harvard educated comedian, who now serves as a Senator from Minnesota and Congressman Fred Grandy (1987-1995), also Harvard educated, from Iowa, who previously starred as Gopher on The Love Boat. Finally we have Clint Eastwood, who served as Mayor of Carmel, California from 1986-1988. He was elected in reaction to the restrictive policies of the then Carmel leaders, who even banned ice cream cones in public. Donald Trump has the potential of following in all their footsteps, never having served a political apprenticeship. It’s entertainment for the people.