Monday, December 14, 2020
George Gascon (A George Soros Acolyte) Was Sworn in Monday, December 6, 2020 as Los Angeles District Attorney: God Help the City of Angels
Quite a rise for one who left Cuba at 13, and rose from patrol officer in Los Angeles to Assistant Chief of the LAPD, and now Los Angeles District Attorney.
He left the LAPD in 2006 to become Police Chief of Mesa Arizona. San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom appointed him San Francisco Police Chief in August 2009 as a reformer. Mayor Newsom appointed him San Francisco District Attorney in 2011, succeeding Kamala Harris. He resigned in 2019 to return to Los Angeles.
His San Francisco reform record shows property crimes jumped 50%, auto theft 10% of the state’s total, highest property crime rate in the state, violent crime 54% higher than the rest of the state and 82% higher than the national average. An epidemic of car break-ins plagues San Francisco, over 31,000 in 2017. That is George Gascon’s concept of justice.
Jackie Lacey is the first African America woman elected LA District Attorney. Her 8 years in office were a traditional law and order district attorney office. She lost her reelection to George Gascon on November 5.
As of the end of September the two were roughly equal in fund raising. George Soros contributed $2.5 million to the Gascon campaign at that time. Most of Gascon’s contributions came in 6-7 figure contributions from San Francisco Bay Area millionaires through SuperPacs. He outraised her 2:1 in the general election.
She received extensive support from the police, sheriff and district attorneys unions. The San Francisco Police Officers Association also backed DA Lacey, having become all too familiar with him. San Francisco Mayor London Breed and City Attorney Dennis Herrera also endorsed DA Lacey. They know his incompetence and how difficult it is to work with Gascon.
She finished 20% higher than him in the primary, just missing the 50% reelection target. He received only 20% of the votes in the primaries. George Gascon won election for two reasons. First was the money poured into his election by San Francisco plutocrats. The second was the cry for reform in the aftermath of the George Floyd murder.
He promised police reform in his election, including looking at police shootings Jackie Lacey refused to prosecute.
He is a strong opponent of capital punishment. DA Lacey was also personally opposed to the death penalty, but as long as it was the law of the state she would seek it in appropriate cases.
He believes “Los Angeles courts should not be a revolving door for those in need of treatment and services,” which sounds good in theory.
His view on the use of force by officers is simple: “A police officer should use force when they should, not just because they can.”
He believes in alternative sentencing, diversion programs, and reducing prison populations.
Here’s what he promised Monday.
His office will not prosecute trespassing, disturbing the peace, a minor in possession of alcohol, driving without a license, driving with a suspended license, drug and paraphernalia possession, making criminal threats, being under the influence of a controlled substance, public intoxication, loitering to commit prostitution, and resisting arrest.
Those committing misdemeanors and low-level felonies will be diverted to community-based programs. Juveniles accused of misdemeanors will no longer be prosecuted. Nor will minors be prosecuted as adults. He will carry out his promise of no more cash bail or capital punishment.
He opposes cash bail even though California voters on November 5 rejected a proposition which would end cash bail. That means he supports letting arrestees out on their own recognizance. That makes arrests a revolving door with the miscreants back on the streets very quickly, often to commit more crimes.
The Board of Directors of the Los Angeles Police Protective League issued a statement:
“As homicides, shooting victims and shots fired into occupied homes soar in Los Angeles, it’s disturbing that Gascon’s first act in office is to explore every avenue possible to release from jail those responsible for this bloodshed …. These victims and law-abiding residents lost a voice today while criminals and gang members gained an ally in the prosecutor’s office.”
Let us add that both the LAPD and LA Sheriff Offices are being partially defunded with reductions in personnel.
His transition team included civil rights attorneys, bail reform activists, a wrongfully convicted man, and an assistant DA who had supported his election. He broke bread with Black Lives Matter.
George Gascon is a George Soros acolyte. George Soros and his rich cohort have poured over $100 million into prosecutor races, which are usually low budget campaigns.
Soros spent $3,625,000 in 2016 on DA races in Sacramento, San Diego, Alameda, Marin, and Contra Costa Counties.
He has spent heavily in electing district attorneys and the Attorney General of New York. The Soros coterie includes Marilyn Mosby in Baltimore, Rachel Rollins in Boston (Suffolk County), Kim Foxx of Chicago, New York State Letitia James, Manhattan Cyrus Vance, Jr., Philadelphia’s Lawrence Krasner, Portland (Multnomah County) Mike Schmidt, St. Louis Kim Gardner, Dina Becton Contra Costa County, and Dallas’ John Creuzot.
Rachel Rollins list of crimes she will not prosecute echo those of George Gascon: trespassing, shoplifting, larceny under $250, disorderly conduct, disturbing the peace, receiving stolen property, minor driving offenses, including driving with a suspended or revoked license, breaking and entering vacant property or for sleeping or seeking refuge from the cold absent actual property damage, wanton and malicious destruction of property, threats (except domestic violence), minors in possession of alcohol, drug possession, drug possession with intent to distribute, resisting arrest when that is the only charge, resisting arrest if the other charges are on her proscribed list.
Philadelphia’s DA Lawrence Krasner dropped thousands of charges and summons against the rioters, but has filed felony charges against two police officers. He also threatened to arrest federal officers if President Trump deployed them to Philadelphia. His argument for not prosecuting the rioters and looters: “Prosecution alone will achieve nothing close to justice – not when power imbalances and lack f accountability make it possible for government actors including police and prosecutors to regularly take life or liberty unjustly and face no criminal or career penalty.”
Baltimore’s Marilyn Mosby fired six prosecutors during her first week in office, and later prosecuted 6 officers for the death of Freddie Gray after being transported a police ban. She was warned that insufficient evidence existed for the prosecution but she persisted until 3 jury verdicts for the accused officers.
San Francisco DA Chesa Boudin charged a SFPD rookie with manslaughter for shooting an unarmed carjacking suspect in December 1, 2017 who ran towards the police cruiser. He promised not to prosecute quality of life crimes, continuing the deterioration of the quality of life living in San Francisco.
He vowed not to prosecute quality of life crimes: “We will not prosecute quality-of-life crimes. Crimes such as public camping, offering or soliciting sex, public urination, blocking a sidewalk, etc., should not be prosecuted.” He asked last July if money going to the police was “the most effective use of taxpayer dollars.” He added: “Is there some other way we could spend this money that would make us safer or do a better job of achieving the goals that we have set?”
He has said of America’s criminal justice system: “The criminal justice system isn’t just massive and brutal, it’s also racist.”
All this from a District Attorney who served as an advisor to Hugo Chavez in Venezuela. He appears to have learned nothing from working for the dictator of Venezuela when it was dissolving into a socialist hell hole.
St. Louis’ Kim Gardner filed felony charges against Matt and Patricia McCloskey who went into their homes and pulled out unloaded weapons as the mob broke through a locked gate and threatened the. She dropped trespassing charges against the intruders. The McCloskeys had every right under common law and Missouri law to resort to self-defense. The prosecutor said “It is illegal to wave weapons in a threatening manner at those participating in nonviolent protests …. This type of conduct is unacceptable in St. Louis.” She earlier described the protestors as “peaceful” and “unarmed.” She dismissed charges against the trespassers.
Reasonable minds can disagree, but anyone watching the videos that night would not call the trespassing mob “peaceful” and “unarmed.”
Circuit Judge Thomas Clark II two days ago removed her and her staff from the prosecutions of Matt McCloskey. She sent campaign fundraising emails to constituents that used the McCloskey case. The judge held the case then raised the “the appearance of impropriety and jeopardize the defendant’s right to a fair trial.”
Chicago’s Kim Foxx, who refused to prosecute Jussie Smollett for falsely claiming a hate crime, dismissed almost all the arrestees for rioting and looting. She said she would dismiss arrests coming from protests and curfew violations, asking “The question it comes down to, is it a good use of our time and resources?” She answered in a resounding “No, it’s not.”
Mew York State Attorney General Letitia Clark has two goals: 1) Along with Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance, Jr., she is trying to convict President Trump of tax fraud. The second is to dissolve the NRA for financial mismanagement.
The purpose of prosecutors is to pursue justice in the name of the people. The Soros DA’s view justice as social justice in which the existing criminal justice system is racist and unjust with mass imprisonments of minorities. They view police officers as part of the problem, often as with the LAPD a history of racism. Over half of the LAPD officers are now minority, but the image and reputation persists. They seek “justice” for the criminals and not the victims or the public at large. They endanger public health and safety. They have no respect for property rights, a core source of liberty.
They have great sympathy with the perpetrators rather than empathy for the victims.
Portland, Seattle, New York City, Chicago, Louisville, and Philadelphia - thousands of arrests during the riots, and thousands of charges dropped by prosecutors, 721 alone in Portland. Assault a cop in New York City, you’re back on the streets in a few hours. Prosecutors refused to prosecute on reasons such as the rioters, looters, and arsonists were simply exercising their basic civil rights. The First Amendment protects “the right of the people peaceably to assembly.”
George Gascon asked the public for support on Monday:
“Whether you are a protestor, a police officer or a prosecutor, I ask you to walk with me. We can break the multigenerational cycles of violence, trauma and arrest and recidivism that has led America to incarcerate more people than any other country.”
Los Angeles: Remember Bette Davis: “Buckle your seat belt: it’s going to be a bumpy ride.”
Friday, December 11, 2020
Cancel Senator Dianne Feinstein: The Drum Beats Are getting Louder: They They'll Go After President Biden
I blogged on September 26 that “Democratic Knives Are Sharpening for Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein.” The professed fears were that she would be weak in opposing the nomination of Judge Amy Comey Barrett to the Supreme Court. The Republicans had the votes to push her nomination through. That’s raw politics. The end of the filibuster on judicial nominations prevented the Democrats running the clock out. They can thank former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid for that.
One Senator said “She’s not sure what she’s doing.”
They are about to learn that what goes around comes around. Four years of obstructing President Trump and treating him as illegitimate will be repaid the next four years of the Biden-Harris Presidency
One Senator said “She’s not sure what she’s doing.”
The Senator at 87 is the oldest sitting Senator.
Suddenly a few days ago the whispering campaign against Senator Feinstein broke into the open. New York Magazine published a long article of the Senator’ cognitive decline based on undisclosed sources, usually former staffers. That’s not a coincidence!
One of the repeated stories is that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer had to twice tell Senator Feinstein she had to step aside as Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee because she forgot the first time.
Another example is that she asked Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey the same question twice during a Senate hearing.
She doesn’t remember briefings.
Wajahat Ali, opinion writer for the New York Times, wrote: This is a sad read, but Feinstein needs to graciously retire for the sake of the country.”
Politics have little loyalty. Politicians are too ambitious. California Democrats are salivating over the prospect California Governor Gavin Newsom can appoint two of them to the United States Senate.
28 years in the Senate – a consistent progressive. She would talk moderate, but vote progressive.
It’s time for the Senator to move on.
San Francisco is in the process of removing her name from an elementary school. The San Francisco Unified School District appointed the School Names Advisory Committee to review the names of its schools in light of the current cancel culture movement. The committee recommends renaming 44 of the District’s 125 schools, including George Washington, Lincoln, Balboa, Lowell (my alma mater), and Mission High Schools, Herbert Hoover, Roosevelt, Presidio Middle Schools, and Junipero Serra, Francis Scott Key (my alma mater), Alamo, Sherman, Ulloa, Commodore Sloat, John Muir, Paul Revere, Robert Louis Stevenson, Jefferson, Monroe, Garfield, McKinley, El Dorado, Sutro, Webster, Sanchez, Jose Ortega elementary schools, as well as Stockton EES.
Senator Feinstein is in good company on this list of the builders of America, California, and San Francisco.
The woke Neanderthals are doing their best to cancel American history and culture.
The Senator's term continues through 2024. It's her decision to resign or stand for reelection, the twitter mob and progressives notwithstanding.
Speaker Pelosi raised the 25th Amendment a few months ago in theory against President Trump. It was actually directed at Joe Biden. If he backs away from the loud progressive wing of the Democratic Party, they will 25th Amendment him.
A cognitive challenged President will not stand in the way of the Democrats’ progressive agenda if they gain control of the Senate.
He can sign their bills or step aside.
He’s campaigning for the two Democrats in Georgia; he has to. His Administration will be in better shape though if they lose.
President Elect Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden is a ticking time bomb for his father. The media is no longer covering it up.
Here’s the dilemma for the country. The Democrats view President Biden as a placeholder for progressive Vice President Harris to assume the presidency. If the Republicans control the Senate, they do want Vice President Kamala Harris to become president. She is his presidential insurance policy.
Sunday, December 6, 2020
Non-Traditional Emotional Comfort Animals have Entered the No-Fly Zone
We live in a time of Covid-19 stress. Traveling, especially flying, is extra-stressful this year, calling out for comfort and support. Your seatmate may be loud, noisy, contagious and/or oafish. Sitting next to someone with a mask off or only on below the nose is concerning and even threatening. A cough, a sneeze, even a hoarse voice triggers anxiety.
Wouldn’t it be less stressful if you were sitting next to your loved one or other family members?
If not, why not a comfort pet, be it an alligator, appaloosa horse, cat, chicken, dog, duck, falcon, gliding possum, goat, goose, hen, kangaroo, llama, lobster, monkey, a pair of penguins, peacock in full plumage, pit bull (not on Delta), pony, snake, squirrel, rabbit, rooster, tortoise, or even turkey?
A veritable menagerie have flown as emotional support animals; airlines have been flying hundreds of thousands emotional support animals often to the consternation of flight attendants and passengers. Delta flew about 250,000 in 2017 and 600,000 in 2019. The emotionally supported passengers may be comforted, but the other passengers may be less enthusiastic about flying with Confetti the Appaloosa Horse, Daniel the Support Duck, Dexter the Peacock, Dinnah the Lobster, Flirty the Pony, Gizmo the Monkey, Hamlet the Beach Hog, or the Easter turkey.
The emotional support animals have become increasingly disruptive. Your human seatmate may be well-behaved, but dogs have defecated in passenger seats and pigs in the aisle. Some of the emotional support animals bite. Passengers may be allergic to cat and dog hair. United Airlines moved a passenger off a plane and rebooked here because she was allergic to a comfort cat a few seats away.
Many people have a legitimate need for emotional comfort animals, but the time and place should not be on a commercial airline. They have created too many problems.
Sara Nelson, President of the Association of Flight Attendants, said: “Passengers claiming pets as emotional support animals have threatened the safety and health of passengers and crews in recent years.… Flight attendants have been hurt and safety has been compromised by untrained animals loose in the cabin.”
The Department of Transportation last Wednesday issued a new rule, Traveling by Air with Service Animals. It reversed an earlier rule requiring airlines to allow emotional support dogs to be flown with passengers who have doctor’s note saying they needed the animal for emotional support. Airlines will no longer be required to “”recognize emotional support animals as service animals….”
The DOT’s new regulations essentially limit the traveling pets to the traditional service dogs. A service animal is defined as “a dog, regardless of type or breed, that is individually trained to do work or perform tasks for the benefit of a qualified individual with a disability, including a physical, sensory, psychiatric, intellectual, or other mental disability.” Psychiatric support dogs will be treated as service dogs with documentation provided to the FAA. The airlines can now require the dogs to be leashed and can bar dogs showing aggressive behavior. They can also require paperwork 48 hours in advance of the flight.
The agency justified the revised rules because the passengers carrying the unusual animals “eroded the public trust in legitimate service dogs” as well as increasing misbehavior by the animals. Another reason is the increasing number of passengers abused the existing rule “by fraudulently representing their pets as service animals” to avoid paying a fee to transport the animals.
Passengers with support animals can still fly their pets, but they will have to be checked into the cargo hold and pay a fee.
Thursday, November 26, 2020
Happy Thanksgiving America
America has so much to be thankful for.
80 million Americans are thankful President Trump was not reelected
73 million Americans are thankful and grateful for everything President Trump accomplished during his four years in office. The Biden vote difference was the California vote and irregularities. Americans outside California are evenly split.
Americans should be thankful for Big Pharma, the much reviled Big Pharma, who announced before Thanksgiving three vaccines for Coronavirus. Only the large pharmaceutical companies with their expertise and vast resources could have accomplished that challenge in record time.
Americans should be thankful AOC and her Squad were not in charge.
Americans should be grateful to President Trump for Operation Warp Speed which funded and pushed multiple approaches to fighting the pandemic, none of which the media would give him credit for.
Americans should be grateful that the Trump Administration will distribute the vaccines through the military – masters of logistics.
Americans should be thankful that by this time next year every American who wishes to be vaccinated will be vaccinated.
Americans should be thankful that even though Vice President Biden won the presidency, Americans rejected the Democratic agenda at the state, local, and Congressional levels.
Americans should be thankful for the country being in better economic and military shape than at the end of the Obama-Biden Administration.
Americans should be thankful that the tragic George Floyd killing has forced the American people to confront the past history of racial inequality.
Americans can still celebrate family gatherings, feasting, and football. The four day Thanksgiving weekend is still a time for parades, balloons, and shopping.
Americans should be thankful they have free will and constitutional rights.
Americans should be thankful many sheriffs and police chiefs will not enforce draconian gubernatorial Thanksgiving lockdowns.
And yet the cancel culture can’t even leave Thanksgiving alone. Christmas will be next.
Jason Johnson, a MSNBC guest host said: “I know in my family, I know seven people who call it ‘colonizer Christmas’ because they don’t really like what Thanksgiving stands for.”
Thanksgiving is a secular holiday, but that does not stop the cancel culture warriors.
Americans should be thankful that most Americans are not as ignorant as Jason Johnson and his ilk.
The first unofficial Thanksgiving 399 years ago in 1621 was a feast and prayer by the Pilgrims thanking God for a good harvest. The Pilgrims shared the feast with Massasoit and his Wampanoags.
The feast was nothing new in history. Harvest days have been a long tradition in agrarian societies celebrating the harvest. For example, Jews in the Torah celebrate Shavuot and Sukkot. Native Americans celebrated harvests. Several countries celebrate their own versions of Thanksgiving and Harvest Day.
Several states and presidents including President Washington acknowledged a day of Thanks. President Lincoln proclaimed in 1863 a day of Thanksgiving for all states.
1863 was a dark year for the North during the Civil War. 2020 is a dark year for many Americans because of the pandemic, lockdowns and ensuing economic difficulties. Yet Thanksgiving is also a day of recognizing better days are ahead.
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed a proclamation on October 31, 1939 designating the next to last Thursday in November as Thanksgiving Day. Congress followed through on December 26, 1941 in the dire days following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor by designating the fourth Thursday in November as Thanksgiving Day.
Two observations on the late November Thanksgiving. First, it is far past the usual harvests. Second, Presidents and Congress have often acted in darks days to signify hope for the future.
Thanksgiving is an acknowledgement of the blessings of the past year and present and blessings for the upcoming year.
Monday, November 23, 2020
Covid-19: Shutdown or Economic Health: The Dilemma
Pandemics run their course. The Coronavirus pandemic will end when at least one of three scenarios occurs:
1) The virus mutates to a less virulent form;
2) Herd immunity, partially facilitated by
3) Vaccines
Much of America shut down in March. The hospitals were overflowing with Covid patients. Ventilators and personal protective equipment, such as face masks, were lacking.
We were told we had to flatten the curve. We had to lock down to save the hospitals which were running out of beds. We had to control the spread.
The shutdown may have flattened the curve, and controlled the initial outburst, but it did not kill the virus. Covid lingered on, waiting for its opportunity. That time has come.
Covid lingered in Los Angeles, New York City, and much of America, slowly spreading, waiting to explode again.
Covid-19 is a stealth virus. Science now knows several introductions of the virus in the United States may have circulated before the first diagnosed case on January 15 of a Washington traveler returning from Wuhan China in Washington and the later deaths in a Kirkland, Washington nursing home.
The early scanning technique was a temperature scan which did not detect the millions who were asymptomatic or had minor infections.
The spring lockdowns were an economic disaster for America. The economy was booming prior to the pandemic. The unemployment rate was down to 3.8% in February with 6.2 million unemployed. The unemployment rates for African Americans, Asian Americans, and Hispanic Americans were at record lows.
The second quarter gross domestic product dropped an annualized 32.9%. 20.5 million Americans were unemployed in May. The unemployment rate jumped to 14.4% in April. A list of large companies entering bankruptcy or closing, some already in trouble or excessively debt ridden, includes:
Aeromexico
Alog
Ascena (Ann Taylor & Lane Bryant)
Avianca Airlines
Brooks Brothers
CBL
Chesapeake Energy
Cirque Du Soleil
Chuck E Cheese
Coronavirus Bankruptcies
CPK (California Pizza Kitchen)
J. Crew
Friendly’s
Furla (USA)
GNC
Gold Gyms
Guitar Center
Hertz
Impresa Aerospace, LL.C.
Lord & Taylor
Luby’s/Fuddruckers
Lucky Brand Dungarees
Muji
Neiman Marcus
New York Sports Club
Noble Corp.
Norwegian Air Shuttle
NPC International (1227 Pizza Hut and 393 Wendy’s franchises)
J.C. Penney
Paper Store
Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust
Pet Valu (USA)
Pier 1
RTW Retailwinds (New York & Co.)
Ruby Tuesday
Sizzler
Souplantation
Stage Stores
Steinmark
Sur La Table
24 Hour Fitness
Tailored Brands (Gentlemen’s Warehouse, Joseph A. Banks)
Tuesday Morning
Virgin Atlantic
Virgin Australia
XFL
A listing of large enterprises does a grave injustice to the hundreds of thousands, soon to be millions, of small businesses that failed. Those that barely survived are at great risk of total failure with the new shutdown.
The shutdown was a body blow to America. Americans were increasingly frustrated and desperate.
President Trump heard their cries. He decided to emphasize economic recovery rather than shutting down America as the virus runs its course.
Economic distress leads to emotional distress.
We know the infection rate is much higher than the reported numbers. Studies have consistently shown higher infection rates than actual because millions that were asymptomatic or only mildly infected were not recorded. Some day in the future we will have antibody studies that will show the true picture. The actual infection rate is believed to be multiple times greater than the tested rate.
A theory is that the actual mortality rate approaches the low rate of the flu, which is no consolation for those who perish from Covid or suffer from long term complications. Many experts believe the actual mortality rate will approach that of the general flu - .1%. We will only know once a large number of Americans are tested for antibodies, especially those that were a symptomatic.
The Covid mortality rate is about 2.16% if you divide the reported fatalities by the number of cases. This figure is grossly inaccurate. The number of deaths is high while the number of reported cases is many times greater. Hospitals are wont to list Covid as the cause of death if it were present in the patient at time of death even if not the actual medical cause. Conversely several studies show the infected rate is many times greater than the reported rate. Tens of millions have gone unreported because the infected were asymptomatic or incurred minor symptoms.
Entire industries were decimated, including hospitality, hotels and restaurants, bars, taverns, travel, airlines, airports, cruise ships, theaters, museums, the stage, Broadway, other cultural attractions, barbershops and salons (except for Speaker Pelosi), fitness centers and gyms. Disneyland is closed until next year with a loss to the local economy of $5 billion. Times Square is so quiet you can hear a pin drop in the tourist shops. Mass transit systems are shrinking. Small stores were shuttered while Walmart, Target, Home Depot, Loews, CVS, RiteAid and Walgreens remained open. Landlords ranging from small apartment buildings to large mall owners are suffering.
All indoor and patio dining in Los Angeles County will be shut down for at least three weeks – only takeout and delivery will be allowed.
Public schools are closing even though studies show little risk exists to the children or of them spreading the virus to adults.
President Trump made the decision to reopen the economy as Americans began to defy the restrictions. He weighed the economy against the virus. The economy rebounded with a V shaped recovery.
All is at risk now.
New lockdowns are imposed. Curfews from 10:00PM to 5:00Am are imposed. Pueblo, Colorado is a city imposing such a curfew because the mayor and other city officials were “desperate to try anything at this point.”
Thanksgivings celebrations are limited. New York Governor Cuomo announced a ban on private gatherings, including Thanksgiving. One New York sheriff said he would never interfere with “the great tradition Thanksgiving dinner.”
Rhode Island Governor Gina Raimondo issued an order barring anyone in the state from spending time in a social setting with anyone from outside their household. Governor Tim Walz of Minnesota similarly barred social gatherings of social gatherings.
Many police chiefs and sheriffs have said enough is enough. They will not enforce the new measures. They will not make criminals of law-abiding citizens. California’s Governor Newsom lost all moral authority at the French Laundry Restaurant when he and 11 others had an expensive dinner closely seated with no face masks.
Governor Cuomo says we must follow the law, but New York City is a sanctuary city not following federal law.
Oregon Governor Kate Brown uttered the most incredulous statement. She asked the citizens of Oregon to call the cops when she see coronavirus violations.
Yes! Phone the Portland Police every time you see the non-masked Portland mob rioting. Forget about the looting, rioting, arson, assaults and batteries; just complain about the coronavirus violations.
Therein lies the priorities of Governor Brown.
The CDC is discouraging travel over Thanksgiving. Someone forgot to tell the nation’s universities who are sending students home over Thanksgiving, ending the semesters early.
Much has been learned about Covid, but much remains to be determined, including the effectiveness of masks and medications,
President Elect Biden says he values controlling the virus over the economy, but recently said he will not shut the country down. He won’t have to. The Democratic governors and mayors are doing it for him.
Memo to the Nation's governors and mayors: Thanksgiving promises to be a day of civil disobedience!
The 2021 Democratic Leadership of America: What's Wrong With This Picture?
President Joe Biden 79
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi 80
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer 81
House Majority Whip James Clyburn 80
Senator Dianne Feinstein 87
Chair of House Ways and Means Committee Richard Neal 71
Chair of House Judiciary Committee Jerrold Nadler 73
Chair of House Financial Services Committee Maxine Walters 82
Chair of House transportation and Infrastructure Committee Peter DeFazio 73
Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (a spry) 69
Senator Bernie Sanders 79
Vice President/President in Waiting Kamala Harris 56
Res Ipsa Loquiter
Thursday, November 12, 2020
Is 2020 the Year of the Stolen Presidential Election? Just Asking
“Come on, man, I won the election fair and square. I received a record 77+ million votes, the highest ever for a Presidential candidate. I defeated President Trump by 5+ million votes.
What about your coherent, October 24 statement: “We have put together I think the most effective and inclusive voter fraud organization in the history of American politics”?
Come on man, you know I’m prone to gaffes.
What about Joe Stalin's famous quote: "It's not who votes, but who counts the votes?"
Come on man, Stalin never said that.
Have you read Hugh Hewitt's book,If You Win Big Enough They Can't Cheat?
Come on man, all I read are teleprompters.
What about the Fulton County (Atlanta), Georgia election office telling everyone they were shutting down the tabulating center at 10:30PM, sending the media and Republican poll watchers home, but continued secretly tabulating through 1:00AM?
Come on man, what we had in Atlanta was a failure to communicate.
Postal worker in just an isolated incidence
What about the certified 3,000 non-residents voting in Nevada?
Common on man, they’re military families on assignment away from their Nevada residences.
A postal worker in Pennsylvania claimed his boss instructed his workers to backdate ballots received after election day.
Come on man, he recanted that affidavit. Besides he might go postal some day.
Detroit and Philadelphia blocking Republican poll watchers from watching the count.
Come on man, you know how argumentative and disruptive Republicans can be.
Then there’s the claim Detroit ballot counters counted voters who were not on the polls.
Come on man, Detroit never has problems with vote counting.
What about Detroit covering the walls so no one could watch the ballot counting?
Come on man, they were just trying to reduce the glare.
What about the claim in Detroit that ballot counters counted a batch of ballots with an identical validation signature.
Come on man, you know peoples’ handwriting is often illegible.
What about the 82% turnout in Wisconsin substantially above the previous elections?
Come on man, Wisconsin voters were energized this election.
What about the known dead voting in California, Detroit, Georgia, Nevada, New York and Pennsylvania?
Come on man, that’s an old Chicago thing. I’m a Christian; I believe in resurrection after death.
Counting stopped for 4 hours late at night in several cities
Come on man, the workers were tired and the counting machines equipment were in danger of overheating.
What about the Harry Reid machine stuffing the ballot boxes in Las Vegas?
Come on man, Senator Reid retired years ago
What about the tranches of votes- all for Biden.
Come on man, it’s just anecdotal evidence and sour grapes from poor losers.
What about the reports of ballot stuffing throughout America?
Come on man, FBI Director Chris Wray told House members on September 24 that the FBI had not seen evidence of a “coordinated national voter fraud effort.”
Democrats and the media for four years claimed Donald Trump was an illegitimate president. You echoed that remark during the primaries. 72+ million Americans voted for Donald Trump for president. They believe the election was stolen. What makes you a legitimate president?
Common on man, do you expect me to remember everything I said in the campaign. I had to say a lot to win the nomination.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If it turns out Joe Biden was elected president by widespread voter fraud, and the Biden-Harris ticket, all of America will blow.
If ballot fraud existed in Georgia, especially Fulton County, how can the Republicans prevent it in the January 5, 2021 Senate runoffs?
Saturday, November 7, 2020
Vice President Joe Biden Will Be Inaugurated President Biden: Now the Good News
President Trump can file lawsuits, win a few, but the die is cast. He will not be reelected, absent a showing of massive ballot fraud in Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, and Wisconsin. Anecdotal evidence may make good talking points, but it will not change the outcome. Stories abound of the dead voting, non-residents voting, tranches of tens of thousands ballots in the middle of the night at election counting centers – all for Joe Biden.
History of Philadelphia and other cities tell us it’s conceivable illegal ballots may have been cast and recorded. President Trump was right in warning of the dangers of mailing ballots to every registered voter. The Democrats used ballot harvesting in California two years ago to flip seven Congressional seats. That was a dry run to 2020.
Prove it!
Anecdotal evidence is not facts.
This election defies the adage: “If you win big enough, they can’t cheat.” President Trump had a 500,000 vote lead Pennsylvania, but it disappeared
The courts are not going to overturn the election. It will be almost impossible to find sufficient improper votes in these states to change the overall outcome.
Prove there was massive voter fraud and ballot stuffing.
Here’s the good news. The election was not a red wave, but it was certainly not the widely forecast and anticipated blue wave. First, the Republicans have probably held onto the Senate. They have a sure 49 seats, leaving only two Georgia seats and one North Carolina seat undecided. The late North Carolina vote counting may yet give the seat to Democrat Cal Cunningham as Senator Thom Tillis’ margin keeps slipping. The two Georgia seats will be the subject of special elections on January 5, 2021. Hundreds of millions of dollars will be poured into those elections. The Georgia economy will get a boost.
The final result could be 52-48 Republican in the Senate, 51-49 Republican or Democratic, or 50-50 with Vice President Harris casting the tie-breaking votes.
A majority Republican Senate will stop the Green New Deal, Medicare for all, gun control, quasi-socialism, court packing, state bailouts of, tax increases, and Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C. statehood. The Republicans will also be able to block radical nominees of President Biden. However, President Biden will be able to reopen the borders without Congressional approval and regulate fracking to death.
The Republicans gained a still undetermined seats in the House of Representatives, not enough for a majority, but sufficient to stymie Speaker Pelosi’s agenda. The predictions were the Democrats would gain 5-10 seats. Instead, they will lose close to 10 seats. Many Democrats who survived this year will be less willing to vote for a radical agenda, AOC and The Squad notwithstanding. “Defund the Police” was apparently toxic to Democrats in the suburbs. Socialism is still a four letter word to most Americans. Many suburban women may have been turned off by President Trump’s style, but they weren’t going to rush into the Democratic agenda. They split their votes. The suburbs are still more conservative than the cities.
Therein lies an important result from 2020. Biden voters split their ballots. They voted against President Trump, but would not support the Democratic agenda.
The Democrats spent hundreds of millions of dollars at the state level to elect Democrats to the state legislatures. They failed miserably. 2010 was a Republican landslide in response to the enactment of Obamacare. The Republicans then controlled reapportionment in most states. They still will. They lost no legislative chambers and flipped both New Hampshire houses from Democratic to Republican. Republicans will control 59 of the 98 partisan state chambers. The GOP still controls reapportionment in most states.
Once again money does not always win elections! The Democrats spent $88 million to flip statehouses. The Democrats and their allies targeted Maine Senator Susan Collins with $63 million in ads. The Democrats and their financial allies spent hundreds of millions of dollars ro defeat Senators Mitch McConnell, Susan Collins, Lindsay Graham, Steve Daines, Thom Tillerson, and others. They failed.
Mayor Mike Blumberg spent over $100 million on his failed run in the Democratic primaries for the Democratic nomination. He doubled down with another $100 million for the Democrats in the general election. $200 million+ may be petty cash and chump change to the multi-billionaire, but it was still squandered.
Americans celebrated on election night 1982 and 2008 when Governor Clinton defeated President George H.W. Bush and Senator Obama won handily over Senator John McCain. No such mass celebration occurred this year. The Portland mob continued to riot because tat is what they do.
America remains divided, but definitely leaning blue.
The American Republic will survive a Biden-Harris presidency if the Republicans maintain control of the Senate. President Biden will be forced to moderate his presidency.
Monday, November 2, 2020
Predictionsfor November 3, 2020: Who Knows?
Predictions for November 3, 2020: Who Knows?
Will Vice President Biden win in a landslide?
He probably would have a month ago, but elections traditionally narrow close to election day. President Gerald Ford almost caught up to Governor Jimmy Carter in 1976.
Of course, President Trump would have won in a landslide had the election been pre-Covid.
Will President Trump win, either in a landslide or narrowly?
If he’s ahead narrowly on election night, it might not be enough after the mail-in and provisional ballots are counted?
Mayor James Kenney of Philadelphia, a city notorious for walking around money, said the voter count in Philadelphia “will easily take several days” Philadelphia’s District Attorneys said he will arrest any uncertified Republican poll watchers. The Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro predicted President Trump will lose Pennsylvania on election night.
Will a late surge help President Trump?
If so, will it be enough?
Something must be happening in Biden’s internal polls since he has left his basement!
How strong is the silent Trump vote?
Does President Trump have coattails?
Will Minnesota remain blue and Wisconsin revert back to blue? If so, then their voters approve riots, looting, and arson.
The polls may be reliable this election, unlike 2016, or they may not.
Recent polls may foretell tomorrow’s votes, but they cannot account for the roughly 95 million votes cast so far, some of whom apparently have buyer’s remorse..
Let us remember 2016 was widely predicted to be a Democratic landslide with the Republicans losing the Presidency, House, and Senate. The Republicans won all three.
Recent Polls may foretell the election results, but they do not account for ballot harvesting and voter fraud.
Will we see secretaries of state and registrar’s of voters manipulating the tallies and recounts, as happened in Minnesota with the Norm Coleman – Al Franken Senate race?
Will we again see African American precincts tallying 0 votes for Donald Trump?
Will we again see some precincts tallying more votes than voters?
Will President Trump receive a record percent of votes for Republicans of the African American and Hispanic vote?
Will the suburban housewives move back to the Republican fold?
How big will the gender gap be?
Will the young vote, as predicted, favor Democrats?
Will the GOP hold onto the Senate?
Recent polls, no matter how reliable, show Senators Susan Collins, Steve Daines, Joni Ernst, Lindsay Graham, and Martha McSally ahead by a few percentage points. But who knows?
Will the Democrats increase their House majority, hold on, or lose it?
If the Republicans win back the House, who will replace Speaker Nancy Pelosi as the Democrats’ leader?
If the Republicans retain the senate, what will Senate Majority Leader Schumer do?
Will this election see a blue wave or red wave?
Will the billions poured into the national campaign and state and local races by the Democratic Party and their rich allies, especially in California and New York, pull Democrats to victory?
Will voters vote to raise taxes?
Will California voters approve affirmative action?
Will voters continue to elect woke prosecutors?
Did the United States Chamber of Commerce make a mistake in endorsing scores of Democrats?
Demographics have changed since 2016. The white population is shrinking compared to the non-white population. Whites are but a plurality in states like California. Once reliable red states are now purple, often with a bluish glow.
The young voters are no longer taught traditional civics, but the evils of America and the 1619 Projec, and look to social media for information.
Is Joe Biden America's Konstantin Chernenko?
If Vice President Biden wins, how soon before Vice President Kamala Harris becomes President Harris?
A few solid predictions:
1) Many cities will erupt with riots, looting and arson.
Blocks in Baltimore, Chicago, Detroit, New York City, Philadelphia, Portland and Washington, D.C., the nation’s capital are boarded up.
2) The results will either be known late Tuesday night, or stretch on for days, if not weeks.
3) Celebrities who threatened to leave America if President Trump wins reelection will stay.
4) America’s democracy will change, no matter who wins.
Warning: My predictions are notoriously unreliable, so I haven’t made many.
Friday, October 30, 2020
President Biden, Hunter Biden and the China Disclosures: President Biden's Failed Presidency
The media loves you until they turn on you. Ask Senator John McCain.
The media glorified the Senator as a maverick Republican. Then he received the Republican nomination for President in 2008. The media dumped on him. He ran a poor campaign. Senator Obama won the Presidency. Senator McCain returned to the media’s good graces.
They pillored Governor Sarah Palin. They daily venomously malign President Trump.
The media and social media are ignoring the Hunter Biden China corruption scandal taking a page out of George Orwell’s 1984.
They know it’s true.
They know the emails and documents are valid and not the product of hacking or a Russian disinformation campaign, Representative Adam Schiff, John Brennen and James Clapper (the usual suspects) notwithstanding.
They’ve known for years that Beau Biden was the good son and Hunter Biden the bad son.
They know Hunter Biden is a wastrel druggie kicked out of the military.
They know he traded on his dad.
They know a common form of corruption is a financial arrangement with the politico’s family members.
They know Tony Bobulinski and his documents are valid.
They know an otherwise unqualified Hunter Biden received millions of dollars from China and Ukraine.
They know the Vice President profited from his son’s derelictions
Vice President Biden said Hunter is the smartest person he’s knows.
No comment.
They know the Vice President repeatedly lied.
President Biden’s problem is simple. The media will destroy him as soon as they decide to promote Vice President Kamala Harris to President Harris.
The media will turn on President Biden as soon as he goes soft on the radical agenda:
Packing the Supreme Court as well as the lower courts
Statehood to Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia
Citizenship to the undocumented residents currently in the United States
Open borders
Medicare for all
Ending fracking
The Biden/Green New Deal
Rejoining the Paris Accords
Eliminating fracking, not eliminating fracking, regulating fracking to death
Gun control
Defunding law enforcement, and probably the military
Criminal Justice Reform
Ending capital punishment
Strengthening the union movement
Eliminating Right to Work laws
Enacting Roe v. Wade into law
Free college
Universal per-K
Student loan forgiveness
Equality Act
Monster tax increases
Speaker Pelosi dusted off the 25th Amendment.
If President Biden doesn’t come through, he’s gone.
Friday, October 23, 2020
Is Ballot Harvesting is Legal in California for Democrats, but not for Republicans
Election night 2018 showed 39 Democrats and 14 Republicans in California’s Congressional delegation.
Nine Republicans, seven incumbents and two seeking open Republican seats, went to bed election night, believing they had won by sizable margins. They won the in-person vote and regular absentee votes.
Then came the tsunami of late arriving, ballot harvesting votes, 250,000 in Orange County alone. All nine lost when the final votes were counted over the next three weeks. Republicans now have nine Congressional seats as they won one back a few months ago in a special election.
Getting out the vote is a key to winning elections. Car rides to the polls would be offered to prospective voters who could not make it to the voting booths on their own. Philadelphia was notorious for “walking around money.” The dead continued to vote in Chicago.
Ballot harvesting is a whole new ball game in states where it is legal. The traditional absentee voter requested an absentee vote, filled it in, and signed a verification on the outer envelope, or have someone in the family or residence sign it. Ballot harvesting was not legal.
No longer in California.
Governor Brown signed AB 1921 in 2016, legalizing ballot harvesting. Anyone, not just family members or residents, could collect the ballots with no limits. Harvesters could be paid for collecting ballots, but not on a per ballot basis.
A 2018 statute by the Democratic supermajority in the legislature eliminated the verification requirement. No ballot could be “disqualified solely because the person returning it did not provide on the identification envelope his or her name, relationship to the voter, or signature.”
Democratic operatives, including union canvassers, troll college dorms, nursing homes, sometimes homeless encampments, the barrios and ghettos, and target individual voters for mail ballots. One union held a victory party in Anaheim on the 2018 election night. It knew.
The signature gatherers can even fill in the ballots, presumably expressing on the voter’s will. They can also toss any ballots they think will be for an opposition candidate. May not be legal, but who would know!
California and Orange County are rapidly changing in demographics. Whites are now a shrinking plurality with scores moving out of the state, which partially accounts for the dimming Republican prospects in California.
Ballot harvesting accelerated the change.
California sent ballots to all registered voters in the state. Ballots can stack up in apartment houses and other places, ripe for harvesting.
The California GOP decided to engage in ballot harvesting of their own this year. They placed third party ballot collection boxes in Fresno, Los Angeles and Orange Counties in sites frequented by conservative voters, including shooting ranges and gun shops, churches, and candidate and GOP offices. The ballots did not require verifications on the outer envelopes.
The collection boxes were locked and supervised. Some were labeled “official” ballot collection boxes.
California’s Secretary of State Alex Padilla and Attorney General Xavier Becerra went ballistic. The AG has already filed over a 100 lawsuits against the Trump Administration, seemingly every time the President inhales and exhales. Becerra received a supplemental budget allocation to fund the lawsuits.
They issued last Monday cease and desist orders, which the GOP ignored. The Attorney General subpoenaed the names of the voters who dropped off their ballots. Hector Barajas, spokesperson for the California GOP, said “This is a thuggish voter intimidation and vote suppression tactic by our Democratic attorney general and secretary of state.”
Conversely the Registrar of Voters in tony Marin County called the Republican ballot boxes “very risky:” “They leave themselves open to accusations of ballot tempering with the ballots,” which is, of course, what the Democrats are engaged in.
Sacramento Superior Court Judge David I. Brown denied the state’s request for a preliminary injunction against the GOP. Attorney General Becerra said “Here in California, we’re doing everything in our power to protect the integrity of our elections.”
An attorney for the GOP argued California lacks authority to investigate “noncriminal activities that are constitutionally protected.”
The Democrats will not be as successful this year trolling the unoccupied or under occupied dorms.
The Democrats control California politics. They hold all eight statewide elected offices, both United States senators, supermajorities in the state legislature, and all but nine congressional seats.
It’s never enough; they want total power!
Sunday, October 18, 2020
Maki, the Ring Tail Lemur, Almost Made His Escape from San Francisco
MMaki, a distinguished senior citizen of the Lipman Family Lemur Forest at the San Francisco Zoo, disappeared Wednesday night, October 14.
A BOLO, or BOLL (Be On Lemur Lookout), was issued.
The Zoo posted a $2100 reward, “Lemur Wanted, Dead or Alive (shades of Steve Mc Queen), Preferably Alive.” Description “grey with ring tail, cute, warm and fuzzy.”
Maki sought sanctuary at the Hope Lutheran Church. The lemur on the run did not realize California churches only give sanctuary to undocumented immigrants. Maki was born and raised in the United States.
The fugitive should have hitchhiked on a moving van leaving San Francisco. The new motto in California is a reversal of Horace Greeley’s famous saying: “Go West Young Man, Go West.” Now it’s “Go East Young Lemurs, Go East.”
Maki only managed 5 miles east to Daly City.
Th omnivorous lemur was chomping on a bush when spotted. He fled into a miniature playhouse in the school playground.
President Reagan once said: “You may run lemur, but you can’t hide.”
Maki was wise for his age, 21, when the usual life span of a lemur is 17-19 years. One thinks of Yoda when seeing Maki. Maybe LEGO will market a MAKI kit.
Daly City is a quiet suburb of San Francisco. A fleeing ring tailed lemur is big news. The Daly City Police on Maki’s apprehension said “We are grateful Maki is home safely.”
Tanya Peterson, ZOO CEO, called Maki “an aging wild animal who needed special care…. He’s still agitated, dehydrated, and hungry.”
Of course Maki is agitated. The fugitive tasted freedom for the first time in his life. He wanted out of Frisco, the homeless, the poop patrol, the crime. Half the Bay Area wants out.
Tanya should not return Maki to his family. They will want to know what it’s like in the vast outside world.
The lesson for Maki comes from the eagles: “Welcome to the Hotel California …. But you can never leave.”
Maki did not escape on his own. 30 year old Cory McGilloway was arrested Thursday for liberating Maki Wednesday night. Cory has an interesting rap sheet. Maki made a poor choice of rescuers, but Cory was his only hope. Hope Lutheran Choice was not.
Friday, October 16, 2020
What We Learn From the Judge Amy Conan Barrett Senate Hearing
Americans saw a brilliant, posed, confident, composed, soft-spoken unflappable woman; strong – not docile. Working mothers saw a model and inspiration. It is possible to have it all. Democrats saw a threat they could not mansplain or slime. Americans saw a rarity in D.C., a person who stands by his or her settled principles.
Democrats could not even attack her on her Catholicism. Senator Dianne Feinstein did that in her earlier 2017 confirmation, saying “The dogma lives strongly in you.” Democrats do not want to upset the Catholic vote in a critical election year.
President James Buchanan (who?) once referred to the Senate as “the world’s greatest deliberative body.”
The rubric has stuck – well past its time.
The Brett Kavanaugh hearings disproved any illusion of great deliberation. The Trump impeachment fiasco showed raw partisan politics. Four Democratic incumbents lost reelection after the Kavanaugh hearings.
Senators are elected for 6 years versus 2 for Representatives. That provides Senators the ability, if they wish, to avoid “the flavor of the month” and ride out the “mob rule.”
The filibuster necessitates the ability to cross party lines to form a conservative.
The filibuster on judicial appointments is gone, thanks to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and his Democratic Caucus. President Obama and Senator Reid wanted 3 liberal judges appointed to the D.C. Circuit (“The Little Supreme Court”) to rubber stamp President Obama’s statutes and regulatory edicts. The Democrats turned judicial nominations into a raw, political spectacle.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell warned the Democrats against that act: “What goes around, comes around.”
Then came the end of the Democratic hegemony in D.C.
First the Democrats lost the House and Senate in 2020.
Then Donald Trump was elected President in 2016. The Republicans held the Senate, gaining a few seats in 2018.
The Republicans have the votes.
Democrats lack the votes.
So much for the world’s greatest deliberate body.
Justice Scalia passed away. President Trump nominated Judge Neil Gorsuch to replace him. It would not affect the “political” balance on the Court, but the Democrats threatened to filibuster. The Republicans proceeded to axe the filibuster on Supreme Court nominees.
Then came Judge Brett Kavanaugh to replace Justice Anthony Kennedy, the swing vote on the Supreme Court, followed by the failed strategy in the Judge Thomas hearings – a last minute, unsubstantiated evidence lacking, sexual harassment charge going back to the judge’s high school days.
The Senate Democrats did not deliberate. They harangued, maligned, defamed, and character assassinated Judge Kavanaugh in a lost cause. The judge was confirmed. Republican Senator Jeff Flake lost his Senate seat.
The Senate finished its 30 hour of Hearings with Judge Barrett.
30 hours of questioning?
Or
30 hours of pontification?
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island spent his allotted 30 minutes to question the judge by not asking one question. He declaimed soft money (Koch money) entering politics, but ignored the soft money and union money that flows into his campaigns.
Hawaii Senator Mazie Hirono asked the judge if she’s ever been accused of sexual harassment, to which the answer was of course no.
Delaware Senator Chris Coons quizzed the judge on why she singled out Chief Justice Roberts on the affordable care act decision.
Her answer was a simple declarative: “He wrote that opinion, Senator.”
Senator Amy Klobuchar called the process “a sham.”
Senator Kamala Harris says the process is illegitimate.
All bloviating!
Of course the Democrats would have done the same thing if they had the votes.
The Democrats lack the vote so they tried to turn the hearings into a campaign rally. ObamaCare, Roe v. Wade and the confirmation process are their issues.
We learn that some academics and Senators assert a distinction exists between mere precedence and super precedence. Super precedents are untouchable but precedence can be overturned. Super precedents are those which the progressive believe in, such as Roe v. Wade, Griswold v. Connecticut, and Brown v. Board of Education, and thus untouchable, whereas mere precedence would include Citizens United v. FEC on campaign contributions and D.C. v. Heller on gun control.
Judge Barrett, when confirmed, will be the second Justice from outside the beltway. She is from Indiana and Justice Gorsuch hails from Colorado. Chief Justice Roberts is also a Hoosier, but he left Indiana behind, just as Justice Breyer left San Francisco, to become ensconce into the eastern establishment.
Just as significant, we don’t have a justice from Harvard and Yale Law Schools, which have dominated in recent years. Judge Garrett is a graduate of Notre Dame Law School. Justice Ginsberg graduated from Columbia Law, but had transferred from Harvard to be with her husband. Justice Stevens went to Northwestern while Chief Justice Rehnquist and Justice O’Connor were classmates at Stanford.
The Warren Court had the great civil libertarian, and former KKK member, Senator Hugo Black from Alabama, Thurgood Marshall from Howard, and John Marshall Harlan II from New York Law School (not NYU). Chief Justice Earl Warren was a graduate of Berkeley and his Successor Chief Justice Warren Burger graduated from the predecessor of William Mitchell Law School in Minneapolis.
Geographic diversity is returning to the Supreme Court, more representative of America.
Judge Barrett was very careful to hew to the Ginsberg Rule. Do not answer any questions that might deal with cases that could come before the court.
She reaffirmed that she is an “originalist” in the sense that the Constitution says what it means. It is not a living constitution to be judicially amended as 5 out of 9 unelected Supreme Court justices desire. Nor is t to be based on international law. The Constitution with the Bill of Rights is the document that governs the American Republic. The Constitution is the document that protects the people from the government. It protects the minority from the majority and the mob.
She clearly stated she would not let her personal views sway her decisions on the Constitution. Nor would she be a clone of Justice Scalia or a pawn.
The framers were both educated men of the enlightenment and English citizens who understood the abuses of the Crown.
The Constitution was not perfect, but it provided for amendments.
The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were imperfect with the rights of humans. They did not abolish slavery, but even the founders knew slavery was abhorrent. The Constitution does not include the words “slave,” “runaway slaves,” “slavery” or “slave trade.” The two core documents of the Republic provide the goal to which America could ultimately reach: ending slavery and granting the right to vote to African Americans, women, and Native Americans.
Senator Dianne Feinstein approached Senator Lindsay Graham after the hearings, thanking each other for civility in the hearings. The intolerant far left of the Democratic Party demanded she resign.
Tuesday, October 13, 2020
Three Weeks, 21 days to November 3, 2020: Concerns About the Presidential Election
Polls showed a landslide victory for the Democrats: The House, the Senate, and the Presidency.
That was 2016.
Polls show a landslide victory for the Democrats: The House, the Senate, and the Presidency.
This is 2020.
Donald Trump was elected President in 2016 doing it his way.
President will be reelected or defeated on November 3 doing it his way.
2016 was a referendum on Hillary Clinton.
2020 is a referendum on President Trump, Covid and the economy.
One of his biggest problems is that he thinks out loud.
Skillful politicians keep their thoughts to themselves. President Trump is not a politician, which is way he was elected in 2016.
President Trump would have won reelection in a landslide if the election had been March 3, 2020. He had restored the economy. Record employment for African Americans, Asian Americans and Hispanics. The economy was booming on all cylinders.
He would have won in a landslide despite the fervent opposition, viciousness, backstabbing and calumnies of the mainstream media, Hollywood, Academia, the professional class, the Deep State, the Russian Conspiracy Hoax, and the Democrats.
The George Floyd Riots, the Cancel Culture were a blessing for his campaign. God Bless America.
Then came Covid-19 and the economic shutdown. America is hurting economically. Small business has been devastated. Incumbents pay a price for economic distress. Prosperity seven months ago is not prosperity today. What have you done for me lately?
President Trump right now is sailing upstream with a bully pulpit but without a paddle.
The billionaire President Trump is a man of the people. Vice President Joe Biden was a man of the people, but spent 47 year suffering from Potomac Fever.
If President Trump loses in a landslide, then the Democrats might pick up as many as 9 Senate seats, including Arizona, Colorado, Georgia (2), Iowa, Maine, Montana, North Carolina, and South Carolina.
Senator Kamala Harris is already measuring the drapes in the White House. “Joe,” Senator Harris’ fond name for the bottom of the Harris-Biden Ticket (she said it), won’t know what hit him, perhaps within the first 100 days, if not before inauguration. Even today, Monday, November 12, Joe Biden said he was running “as a proud Democrat for the Senate.” He couldn’t remember Senator Mitt Romney’s name
One reason Donald Trump defeated Secretary Hillary Clinton is that he outworked her, out-campaigned her.
That too will be the story over the final 21 days. Vice President Biden showed again Monday why his handlers keep him in the basement. He emerged today, like a groundhog, and the Biden gaffes popped up. He will be quarantined while President Trump will be campaigning.
Another Trump attribute 4 years ago in the final weeks of the 2016 campaign is that he ran a disciplined campaign. He needs to do that again – stay on message.
He talks too much at critical times.
Why did he talk to Bob Woodward? What was he thinking?
Senator Harris also is quiescence during the campaign. Her underwhelming presidential campaign was a harbinger.
Chicago is known for: “Vote Early; Vote Often; Make Your Vote Count,” while Philadelphia is notorious for ‘Walk-around” money.
Vice President Biden had a typical Bidenism during the Trump-Biden Debate. He said we should keep the polls open until all the ballots are counted.
This will be an election by and for the lawyers. They are already out in swarms trying to manipulate the mail ballots. The Democrats’ goals are extended deadlines, no postmark needed, and waiving the validating signature, all for the purpose of ballot stuffing.
President Trump needs to win big. Hugh Hewitt wrote a classic book, “If it’s Not Close, They Can’t Cheat: Crushing the Democrats in Every Election and Why Your Life Depends on It.” Close votes will be bring out the worst of ballot harvesting, ballot stuffing, and late returns.
Illinois has a date with destiny on enacting a progressive income tax and California with taxing commercial property at commercial value.
.
The incompetent Mayor Ted Wheeler of Portland will be defeated for reelection. Unfortunately for Portland, it will be to a Marxist sympathizing, ANTIFA fellow traveler.
My prediction if President Trump again triumphs over the polls: the resulting riots, looting, and arson will br far worse than after George Floyd's homicide.
Saturday, October 10, 2020
On Leaving California, Connecticut, Illinois, New Jersey and New York
Thirty four homes are on our tract in Orange County, California. Three families left California in the past two months; two decamped to Arizona and one to Colorado.
The house across the street went for $1 million cash two months ago. $1 million buys a lot of house and land in Colorado Springs.
Our next door neighbors rented for 1½ years. They were unable to find an affordable house in the area. They left Thursday for a three year-old, 2600 square foot house on a 10,000 square foot lot for $560,000 with a 3.1% mortgage in Mesa, Arizona. Their electric bill was averaging between $400-500/month. It will be substantially lower in hot Arizona, as will be income taxes, gas sales, sales taxes, and the hassles of California.
Three solid middle class, tax-paying families bailed on California.
The children next door were a non-stop, care-free bundle of energy. There is emptiness on the street. There is certainly emptiness in California.
And in Connecticut, Illinois, New Jersey, and New York as taxpaying voters flee these states.
Hello Texas.
Hello Florida.
Hello Utah.
Companies have left San Francisco and California. One estimate is that 13,000 companies with $77 billion in capital said goodbye to the Golden State in recent years.
The increasingly uninhabitable San Francisco has lost Bechtel, McKesson’s, Charles Schwab, Chevron, and Core-Mark Holding Co.
California said adios to Aeromax, Buck Knives, California Casualty, Carl’s, Jr., Da Vita, Fluor, Hilton Hotels, ICEE, Jacobs Engineering, Jamba Juice, Kubota, Nestles USA, Nissan, Northrop Grumman, Occidental Petroleum, Parsons, Premier, Inc., SAIC, Star Kist, Toyota, and a host of others.
Even companies that stayed have closed plants, reduced employment, and expanded outside California.
Illinois lost over $12.4 billion in adjusted gross income in 2017 and 2018. The average AGI of those leaving Illinois was $85,000. The AGI of those moving into Illinois was $66,000. Taxes keep rising in Illinois while 218,00 left Illinois.
The IRS studies show New Jersey lost a net of 27,000 households between 2015-2016 with adjusted gross incomes of $3.5 billion, or averaging $131,000 each.
New York lost a net 1.4 million residents to other states since 2010.
$2.6 billion left Connecticut in 2016. Persons moving into Connecticut only earned 55% of the expatriates. 2,015 residents with adjusted gross income of $200,000 left between 2015 and 2016.
Studies show the obvious. High income earners can be more mobile than others.
Connecticut’s politicians continue to rise taxes. Five investors with a combined net worth of $68 billion moved out of Connecticut between 2012 and 2016.
The demographic problem for these high tax states is that when tax paying, middle class and wealthy voters leave the state, they change the politics of two states. The remaining population is increasingly dependent on the government for jobs, pensions, and transfer payments. The new constituency becomes the public employee unions.
Many of the low-income residents pay little or no income tax and only indirectly property taxes. They have no problem voting to raise taxes on others. They believe wealth comes from the government rather than the sweat of one’s brow. They are susceptible to promises of pie in the sky.
Property taxes, income taxes, sales taxes, gas taxes, and now proposals for wealth taxes!
Some politicians are economically illiterate, but others understand the economics, and especially the politics.
The second change is in the new domicile. They leave the bad economics behind, but often carry with them the same progressive views from the old state, changing the demographics of the new home. Thus, Arizona and Colorado are increasingly purple, turning to blue.
California’s teachers are the highest paid nationally while prison guards earn over $100,000 annually. The public employees often receive generous pensions, which are a crushing burden on cities and states.
Politicians no longer run on economic growth and infrastructure, but on redistribution. The emigres voted with their feet; no longer voting at the state’s polls.
Thus the cry: “Tax the rich; they should pay their “fair share,” which is never defined.
The political candidates’ ads are against corporations, insurance companies, and PACs by candidates who claim they take no campaign contributions from the evil corporations all the while they are in thrall to the public employee unions.
Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is an example of this phenomenon. Her 14th New York Congressional District in Brooklyn and Queens is not the poorest in the City, but is poor.
The per capita income in her district is $27,908, about third quarters of the City’s average. 13.8% are below the poverty line, including 19% children under 18 and 16% seniors. 78.2% graduated high school, but only 27.5% bachelors or higher. 52% are Hispanic, 46.2% foreign born, and 67.6% with language other than English spoken at home.
She represents her Congressional District, not America, the America we grew up in, an America of greatness.
Jorge Carro was a Cuban lawyer, a classmate of Fidel Castro. Jorge, his wife Edy, and daughter (little) Edy were allowed to leave Cuba in 1967. The condition was that they, and the others legally allowed out, had to sign over their assets, homes, jewelry, money, you name it.
Cuba was poorer. The Carros left with only one asset, their most important, their minds. The wealth of a nation is not physical assets, but its human capital.
I met Jorge when he joined the faculty of Ohio Northern University as Law Librarian in 1972. He later became the Law Librarian and then Dean of the University of Cincinnati School of Law.
Jorge is the story of America. Immigrants come to America fleeing oppression or poverty in their homeland. The penniless immigrant build a new life in the freedoms of America.
Generations of immigrants from Italy, Scotland, Ireland, Italy, Western Europe, Northern Europe, Eastern Europe, Southern Europe, China, Japan, Armenia, Germany, Greece, Poland, Lebanon, Palestine, the Mideast came to America for freedom and opportunity.
More recently, Cubans like Jorge, the Vietnamese, and Persians fled oppression for America. Somalis came to Minnesota. Sadly some of them were looted and burned out during the Minneapolis riots as they were achieving success in their new home.
New Jersey just imposed a millionaire's tax of 10.75%.
California and Illinois have tax measures on the ballot that will accelerate the exodus from those states. The savings grace to Illinois profligate government is that the state constitution allows only for a flat rate income tax. Illinois voters are being asked to approve a progressive tax system.
California’s Prop 13 limits property tax increases to 2% annually on the purchase price of the property. The voters are being asked to allow commercial properties to be taxed at their market value; yet another economic blow to business.
California, Illinois, and New Jersey politicos and public employee unions are salivating over the $billions that will flood into the staes' coffers, ignoring the companies and entrepreneurs that will leave and the small businesses that will eiher shut down or never open.
California, Connecticut, Illinois, New Jersey, and New York, like Cuba, are poorer every time businesses and residents flee their high tax, high cost states.
Line up the moving vans.
Friday, October 2, 2020
Ruminations on Tuesday"s Trump-Biden Debate: A Missed Opportunity for President Trump
Yes, I know the President and Melania have tested positive for Covid. That’s for another post.
The initial reaction to the debate: What da! What did we witness? It’s not a debate.
America watched an old fashioned Midwest smash mouth football game.
Two contenders, fueled by ambition, are the finalists for the most powerful position in the world in a contest fueled with opprobrium, hatred, lies and dirty tricks.
President Trump has been castigated by the media for his bullying behavior.
Yet a close reading of the transcript shows Vice President Biden was the first to interrupt the speaker. The second interrupter was moderator Chris Wallace, a Fox News Never-Trumper. Chris Wallace was pushing Trump but not Biden.
President Trump quickly realized that he was debating both Vice President Biden and Moderator Wallace’s hostile questioning.
He then went into his defensive mode, which is to attack. He is a New York City streetfighter.
That he did!
Losing the first debate is not fatal.
Let us remember that on October 7, 1984 President Reagan lost the first debate to Vice President Mondale. The President was underprepared. The73 year old president seemed old and out of it. He came back strongly to convincingly win the next debate.
Let us further remember that Governor Mitt Romney decisively bested the underprepared President Obama in their first debate on October 3,2012. President Obama looked like he was on the ropes. The President was a clear winner in the two following debates.
President Trump missed several opportunities to pin the Vice President to the ropes. All he had to do was let Joe Biden talk longer, tire out, and ramble on. The President will be better prepared in the next debate.
He could clearly state I believe in America and the independence of the American people. I believe in their freedom to decide for themselves. You believe the government should make the decisions for them.
Joe Biden said he rejects the Green New Deal, but then he detailed the “Biden Plan,” which is simply a rebranded Green New Deal.
Biden should have been asked to explain the difference.
The response to Biden’s claims of spectacular green employment is to remind Americans of the Obama-Biden non-existent “shovel ready” jobs.
The response to Biden’s government medical care, which was garbled, was “If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor” and “If you like your insurance company, you can keep your insurance company.”
Why should we trust you now?
He said the President shut the economy down: “This is his economy he shut down,” but then said he would be willing to do so himself.
The Vice President supposedly won the debate on style. Yet he twice called the President a clown, a liar, racist, Putin’s pawn, and the worst president America ever had. He said there was “nothing smart” about President Trump, this from the student initially kicked out of law school for plagiarism and then graduated in the top half of the bottom 10% of his class (76/85). He claimed to attend Syracuse Law School on a non-existent full scholarship. He once told a questioner: “I think I probably have a much higher IQ than you.” The Vice President has a long history of self-embellishment.
President Trump responded “There’s nothing smart about you Joe.”
What’s offensive about a truthful statement?
Vice President Biden told a number of lies during the debate, but the “factcheckers” never called him to account.
He was never pushed by the moderator on his refusal to answer the questions about ending the filibuster, stacking the Supreme Court, or why he didn’t contact the governors and mayors about the violence in their cities.
He didn’t answer the filibuster and Supreme Court questions because his handlers told him not to and because he will.
He was never called out on why Antifa is not an organization but a movement. Antifa and the Woke mobs are the major rioters, looters and arsonists.
President Trump though was grilled by Chris Wallace on non-denouncing white supremacists. The mainstream media has been hammering him on white supremacy. The Vice President repeated the canard about white Supremacists and Charlottesville.
The President should have called the Vice President out and remind America of what he said two days on August 14, 2017 after a white supremacist plowed into a crowd, killing a woman two days earlier:
“Racism is evil. And those who cause violence in its name are criminals and thugs, including the KKK, neo-Nazis, white supremacists, and other hate groups that are repugnant in everything we hold dead as Americans.”
President Trump has spoken out several times on violence on both sides.
The former non-University of Pennsylvania Professor said “Roe v. Wade” is on the ballot.
The two ways to assess the debate are form and substance. The Vice President failed the substance, but was not called to account by Chris Wallace. President Trump tried to push the issues, but was often stopped by Chris Wallace.
The debate was a missed opportunity for President Trump. He should have jumped on the classic Bidenism: “KEEP THE POLLS OPEN UNTIL ALL THE VOTES ARE COUNTED.”
What an opportunity for voter fraud!
Tuesday, September 29, 2020
Predictions of the First Trump-Biden Presidential Debate (posted before the debate)
Vice President Biden Won Tonight’s Debate
The media has ordained, but not yet proclaimed, Biden the winner
The media has ordained Vice President Joe Biden the overwhelming winner in advance. Not even a close call. President Trump was an underperforming disappointment.
All Biden has to do is stand straight, not mumble his words, or say “Com’on man” for 90 minutes.
He will exceed all expectations, which are low to begin with.
People will be impressed by his presence, poise, control and empathy.
They will be wowed by his pit bull, attack presence going for the Trump jugular vein.
He can stand up to pressure.
Conversely, President Trump will be an out-of-control bully.
The “professional” fact checkers will count 534 factual errors by President Trump, but not one by the flawless, knowledgeable Vice President, who attended HBCU Delaware State (not the University of Delaware) and was arrested at a South Africa Airport while trying to see Nelson Mandela.
The President will fall short of his lofty expectations.
Biden will be the brightest of the two – not a dim bulb..
No more “Sleepy Joe”! His dynamism was mesmerizing!
Conversely President Trump was sweating under the pressure.
So ordains the media.
The election is over.
Instant polls show President Trump plunging to new lows.
You heard it here first!
Question:
Did Vice President Biden have “brilliant” answers sent to him through a concealed listening device?
Saturday, September 26, 2020
Democratic Knives Are Sharpening for Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein: Husband Richard Blum UC's Admissions Imbroglio Doesn't Help
The Supreme Court is the Holy Grail for Democrats. A progressive Supreme Court gives the Democrats victories they cannot win at the ballot box. Roe v. Wade is the litmus test for Democrats.
The Court has been divided 4-1-4 in the recent decades with Justice Sandra Day O’Conner, Justice Anthony Kennedy, and now Chief Justice John Roberts acting as a swing justice although all leaning conservative. Roe v. Wade has survived.
Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, John Roberts, and Samuel Alito did not change the overall balance.
Judge Brett Kavanaugh threatened to tilt the scales to 5:4 by replacing Justice Kennedy on the Court - thus the vicious, unprincipled, defamatory attacks on his character. Democrats went ballistic on Judge Kavanaugh. The Court remained 4-1-4 with the Chief Justice usually, but not solely, being the swing vote.
The replacement of the progressive Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg by a conservative presumed hostile to Roe v. Wade is unacceptable to the Democrats. The balance will clearly change to 6-3, 5-1-3, or 5-4. Roe v. Wade is at greater risk than ever after since the 1973 decision.
The numbers problem for Democrats is that the Republicans control 53 votes to the Democrats’ 47. The Democrats under Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid eliminated the filibuster for district court and appellate court judges. The Republicans under Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell then ended it for Supreme Court appointees.
The Democrats are apoplectic. The odds are the Republicans will not hold committee hearings on the appointment – a true political “in Your Face” move.
It’s payback for Judges Robert Bork, Clarence Thomas, and Brett Kavanaugh. The democrats had no problems slinging mud from the gutter in despicable smear campaigns. They are now reaping where they sowed.
Some Democratic senators are casting blame in advance for their impending defeat.
Some are anonymously questioning if 87 year old Senator Dianne Feinstein is up to the job. An article in September 23’s Politico lay out the charges.
1) She has slowed;
2) She may not be able to lead the Democrats “aggressive” campaign;
3) She could mishandle the effort;
4) She could cost them Senate seats;
5) She’s confused by reporters’ questions;
6) She offers different answers to the same question;
7) She looks frail; and
8) She has a too gentle demeanor.
One Senator said “She’s not sure what she’s doing.”
Just as bad, Senator Feinstein has indicated she is opposed to ending filibusters.
Senator Feinstein is also accused of sitting on the Christine Blasey Ford allegations of sexual harassment by Brett Kavanaugh in high school. Senator Feinstein held off until almost before the first vote. I submit it was strategic. The charges were weak and unverifiable even though the Democrats, media and feminists piled on. Senator Kamara Harris said, of course, she believed the accuser, but does not believe the more credible accusers of her running mate. It was a last resort gambit to block Judge Kavanaugh's confirmation. It succeeded in postponing the final vote. Other unbelievable accussers appeared, but their stories were bunk. The Senate confirmed the judge.
Senator Susan Collins gave an impassioned, objective analysis of the false charges and voted “Yes.”
Richard Blum, Senator Feinstein’s husband, is now in a mini scandal.
We learned last year Rick Singer obtained admissions at prestigious universities through fraudulent tests, false applications, and bribing college officials in the Varsity Blues Scandal. The bribes and Singer’s fees were paid by affluent parents, many of whom have served, are serving, or will serve prison time.
We understand that academic quality is not the only key to admissions. Contacts, legacy, demographics, athletes, and affirmative action play a role. Doors can open colleges. That is certainly true even at the nation’s most prestigious private universities. It’s not unknown for college presidents, provosts, and deans to have a few seats for admissions. Development offices can play a role.
Public universities are not immune from outside pressures and powers, including from politicians. The University of Illinois was scandalized a decade ago when it was disclosed that Illinois legislators could force students onto the campus. The Chicago Tribune on May 29, 2009 published an article “Clout Goes To College.” Over 800 “sub-par” students were admitted. Graft was often involved. The president of the university, the chancellor of the University of Illinois Urbana Champlain, and nine trustees resigned.
A similar scandal occurred at the University of Texas.
Now we have the campuses of the University of California’s Berkeley, UCLA, San Diego, and Santa Barbara campuses. Rick Singer got his tentacles into Berkeley and UCLA.
The state audited the University of California admissions process. At least 64 students were admitted at 4 campuses in the six year period between 2013-14 and 2018-19 using “inappropriate factors” such as connections to donors, staff, and alumni. 55 were at Berkeley. The demographics of the 64 are unsurprising: mostly white with annual family incomes of at least $150,000. 14 had previously been denied while 14 others were on the waitlist.
Richard Blum, a near billionaire investment banker, has been a regent of the University of California since 2002. He has reaped fortunes in American companies, but is also heavily invested in China at great profit.
His wife, Senator Feinstein, has been a large booster of trade with China. She successfully pushed most favored nation status for China in 2000. She’s ignored clains of human rights violations by China and claimed “racism” for calling covid-19 the “China virus.’ She downplayed Tiananmen Square. She has criticized President Trump’s trade restrictions on China.
Senator Feinstein’s driver for 20 years was a China spy for at least the most recent five years. She was Chair of the Select Senate Committee on Intelligence.”
The Senator claims a “firewall” exists between her husband’s business dealings and her Senate activities. She’s in San Francisco otherwise I’m thinking of buying the Brooklyn Bridge.
Former China Jiang Zemin is an old friend of Senator Feinstein. He had Thanksgiving Dinner at the Blum-Feinstein San Francisco house in 2015. The husband’s business successes in China rose with her rise in the Senate. That’s one way business is dome in China, but also in the United States.
The audit disclosed Regent Blum forwarded an advocacy letter for a waitlisted student to the Chancellor of Berkeley, who then forwarded it to the development office, who then sent it to the admissions office. The objective risk of the applicant being admitted was 25%. Don’t worry about the odds when a regent who has contributed millions to U.C.
U.C. policy allows regents to send recommendations to the University through the regular admissions office, but not seek to influence admissions decisions.
Regent Blum does not remember the specific, but added he has written many letters of recommendations to U. C. chancellors for years. He added: “This is the first time I’ve heard that maybe I did something that wasn’t right. I think it’s a bunch of nonsense.”
A 18 year Regent of the University of California claims ignorance of a stated policy for regents on admissions decisions. The potential for abuse is otherwise great.
Retired chancellor George Blumenthal of Santa Barbara for 13 years explained his approach to those letters. He would send a form letter to the sender saying he “could not do anything to affect the admissions process” He then forwarded the recommendation to the admissions office telling them they should not let it influence their decision.
The political reality is Senators Feinstein and Harris, Speaker Pelosi, Governor Newsom, and Blum are San Francisco Democrats. The double standard has protected the Senator so far, but Regent Blum’s recent act may doom both when Judge Amy Coney Barrett is confirmed to the Supreme Court.
Sunday, September 20, 2020
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg (1933-2020): R.I.P.; Let the Raw, Bloody Political Battles Begin
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg passed away Friday from pancreatic cancer. Even her death is being viewed through harsh partisan prisms.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg was to women’s rights the equivalent of Thurgood Marshall to African American rights. Both were prodigious litigators who changed America for the better before appointment to the Supreme Court. They fought in the courts for legal rights respectively for African Americans and women. Both were of their times, but both shaped their times.
RBG became the core of the liberal bloc on the Supreme Court, always consistently on the left, being surpassed only by Justice Sonia Sotomayor. RBG was not bound by either the words of the Constitution or the intent of the Founding Fathers. Instead the Constitution to her was a living document to be judicially amended as five justices see fit. Her judicial philosophy was judicial activism contra to some views as a professor. She even recommended the South African Constitution as a model for a new Egyptian Constitution in 2012.
Professor Ruth Bader Ginsburg had mixed emotions on Roe v. Wade. She approved the result, but not the opinion itself: “Roe, I believe, would have been a more acceptable as a judicial decision if it had not gone beyond a ruling on the extreme statue before the court …. Heavy-handed judicial intervention was difficult to justify and appears to have provoked, not resolved, conflicts.”
Justice Ginsburg was a political partisan, even unjudicially declaiming Donald Trump in 2016. So much for the veneer of judicial impartiality!
RBG was a star and icon for Democrats.
She brought unabashed partisanship to the Supreme Court in her opinions. Appointments had already become political slugfests. The makeup of the Court was 5:4 as of Wednesday. It is now 5:3, or occasionally 4-1-3.
The vote to approve her nomination was 96-3. It would not be nearly so unanimous in today’s bitter partisan environment.
Recent appointments prior to Judge Kavanaugh’s appointment have been closer, but the outcomes were agreed upon by both parties when the appointments were 1:1 political replacements. Sturm and Drang were for show.
Judge Kavanaugh’s appointment was the first in a couple of decades to tilt the balance on the Court. Justice Kennedy was the swing vote, who often voted with the liberal majority on critical issues. Pro-life supporters felt Roe v. Wade was at risk.
The result was a smear campaign, Borking, that exceeded that even against Justice Thomas.
Democrats rely on the judiciary for judicial legislation on social issues voters and legislatures will not approve. They also fight any threat to Roe v. Wade.
They eagerly turn to character assassination to destroy nominees.
This nomination will set a new standard for the raw exercise of political power. Not even a respectful morning period; the politics have begun.
The Constitution Gives the President to nominate federal judges with the advice and consent of the Senate. The Constitution does not bar appointments in election years. The President has the constitutional power to appoint and the Senate to vote on a Supreme Court appointment during an election year. 14 Justices have been confirmed during presidential election years.
Elections have consequences. The voters elected President Trump in 2016 and provided the Republicans with Senate majorities in 2018. A major plank of the President and Senate Republicans campaigns was filling judicial vacancies with conservatives.
The President and the Senate have the constitutional power to confirm a replacement for Justice Ginsberg.
The Democrats are apoplectic, shedding crocodile tears. Senator Majority Leader Harry Reid under President Obama ended the filibuster for lower court judges to stack the lower courts. Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer as Majority Leader would not hesitate to confirm a progressive to the Supreme Court given the opportunity.
The Democrats two years ago had no problem impeaching President Trump during the 2018 election year. It was a raw political act on their part.
Massachusetts Senator Ed Markley threatened the Democrats will eliminate the filibuster and stack the Supreme Court if they gain the presidency and control of the Senate. Senator Schumer echoed that threat. A chorus now calls for stacking the Court.
That is not a threat. They’ve already reached that decision.
The outspoken Brian Fallon, press secretary for the unsuccessful Clinton campaign four years ago, says any Trump appointment to replace RBG would be “fundamentally illegitimate.” He also think Justices Gorsuch and Kavanaugh are illegitimate. Even the Trump Campaign was illegitimate in his eyes because of Russian collusion.
Hillary Clinton said a rush to confirm a replacement for Justice Ginsburg would a “monument to hypocrisy.”
Speaker Pelosi is leaving open the option to impeach President Trump if he appoints a replacement for Justice Ginsburg. She also remarked “We have a responsibility to meet the needs of the American people.” Yes, the needs of the American people except for salon and saloon owners, bar tenders, wait staff, small business owners, employees et al.
Senator Amy Klobuchar was more restrained. She appealed to the moral compass of Republican Senators to not move forward. “Moral compass” in raw partisanship politics?
“Moral compass” is a strange concept for a Democratic Party that immorally, unethically tried to destroy Judge Brett Kavanaugh to keep him off the Court.
The Senator said the opposite four years ago on the failed nomination of Judge Merrick Garland: “The constitution is clear. The Senate must consider the president’s nominee and then choose whether to vote yes or no. We must do our job, hold hearings and vote.”
It's all political rhetorical hypocrisy.
Vice President Biden said SCOTUS should not be subject to politics.
Democrats are quoting the Justice’s words to her granddaughter. The replacement should be made by the next president. Justice Ginsburg’s wishes are not constitutional constraints.
Nor is her comment in 2016 when she said “Nine is a good number.” She opposed increasing the Court’s size.
Of course, it’s all politics!
The pressure is on “moderate” or endangered Republicans, including Susan Collins (Maine), Martha McSally (Arizona), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), Mitt Romney (Utah), and Cory Gardner (Colorado).
Senator Collins is known for her independence. She has consistently trailed her opponent in the polls. She said today the new president should pick RBG’s replacement. That is either a brilliant political statement. It reinforces her image for independent thinking, much appreciated by Mainers.
Or she may be pulling a Senator Kelly Aycock.
The young, irrepressible Kelly Aycock was elected to the Senate from Vermont in 2010 as a conservative Republican. Republicans saw the a rising star in Senator Kelly Aycock. She lost reelection in 2016 by 1,017 votes. The theory was solid Trump supporters refused to vote for her. She said after Donald Trump’s sexist statements came out that she could not vote for him.
1,017 votes!
Any Republican who votes against confirmation this year risks becoming the next Kelly Aycock.
Senator Lisa Murkowski also said she would wait until after the election. She’s probably forgotten her near miss in her 2010 reelection campaign. She lost the Republican primary, but won the general election on write in votes. The result may be different in 2022.
Thursday, September 17, 2020
Vote for the Harris-Biden-(Sanders) Ticket: A Multiple Choice Exam
Vote for the Harris-Biden-(Sanders) Ticket: A Multiple Choice Exam
This blog is a multiple choice exam to test Vice President Biden’s competency for the Presidency.
Both Presidential nominee Joe Biden and Vice Presidential nominee Kamala Harris touted the Harris-Biden ticket.
The vice president candidate at a virtual roundtable Monday with Arizona small business owners: “A Harris Administration, together with Joe Biden as the president of the United States ….”
For Senator Kamala it was undoubtedly a Freudian Slip. The Democratic poohbahs prop up Joe Biden as a placeholder for President Harris. They have the 25th Amendment on their brains. The Senator’s so chomping at the bit she can’t wait.
Vice President Biden was so inspired by Senator Harris’ statement that he said at a Florida campaign event Tuesday: “It makes it so much harder for military spouses and veterans to find good jobs and build their careers. That has to change. A Harris-Biden administration is going to relaunch that effort ….”
A. Joe Biden understands reality. Even if elected, his tenure in office will be short. He obviously realizes his job is to be second fiddle to the Vice President Harris.
B. An second explanation is that it’s just another Biden gaffe. It eclipsed another gaffe when he confused Iran and Iraq by sating “U.S. troops died in Afghanistan and Iran.”
C. A third possibility is that it’s the latest example of Joe Biden’s early onset dementia, of not knowing what he’s running for, where he is, and who he’s married to.
He spoke at the William “Hicks” Anderson Community Center on July 28. He started “Good afternoon everyone. Welcome to the Kingswood Community Center.”
Opps! He continued “Actually that the one’s down there where I used to work. That’s a joke. I didn’t know where we were.”
He was in Wilmington, Delaware, his home.
The Vice President was at Wright State in Ohio on September 12. He talked about Wayne State, which is in Michigan. Wright State, Wayne State, Ohio, Michigan, it’s all flyover country to many.
Then on August 22 he was in Keene, New Hampshire. He was asked what he thought of Keene. His answer was to extoll the beauty of Vermont.
Presidential campaigns can be long and physically taxing. Politicians will misspeak. This explanation fails Vice President Biden. He has mostly stayed in his basement cocoon in Wilmington, Delaware.
Joe Biden isn’t always sure of the office he’s seeking. Monday, February 24, Joe Biden gave a rousing speech in South Carolina:
“You’re the ones who sent Barack Obama to the presidency, and I have a simple proposition here: I’m here to ask you for your help. Where I come from you don’t get far unless you ask. I’m a Democratic candidate for the United States Senate….”
Vice President Biden at a victory speech in Los Angeles on Super Tuesday introduced Jill, his wife, as his sister Valerie.
D. He’s not good without a teleprompter.
No wonder Vice President Biden’s handler s wish to keep him cocooned in his Wilmington basement and will do whatever they can to prevent him from debating President Trump.
The correct answer on our multiple choice exam is:
A. 25th Amendment
B. The Biden Gaffe-a-Minute Campaign
C. Mental slippage
D. Off teleprompter
E. All of the above.
Tuesday, September 15, 2020
$1 Million Bail for the Lancaster, Pennsylvania non-Peaceful Protestors
Lancaster Magisterial District Judge Bruce A. Roth Orders $1 Million Bail for Rioters: Great Idea, but Probably Unconstitutional
Ricardo Munoz’s mother phoned 911 saying her son was posing a threat: domestic violence. Ricardo was a 27 year old suffering from schizophrenia and bipolar disorder who had gone off his meds.
The officer’s body cam shows the officer approaching the door when Ricardo jumps out and starts running at the officer, wielding a sword. The officer resorted to deadly force to stop the felonious assault. The body can proves it was a legitimate exercise of self-defense and not excessive force as we have seen in many recent incidents.
Doesn’t matter! The Antifa, BLM, woke mob soon emerged on Lancaster, attacking the police station.
Their “peaceful” protest consisted of throwing bricks, water bottles, glass bottles, gallon jugs of liquids, part of road barricades, and flower planters at the police.
Here we go again, déjà vu all over again.
Not this time. The police made arrests for arson, criminal conspiracy, disorderly conduct, institutional vandalism, and rioting. One of the arrestees was on probation while another illegally possessed a firearm. Those two aren’t going anywhere soon.
Judge Roth assigned a bail of $1 million for most of the arrestees.
Lancaster’s police, district attorney and Judge Wolf do not believe in the catch and release policies of Chicago, D.C., Minneapolis, New York City, Philadelphia, Portland, St. Louis, and Seattle. Hundreds of so-called protestors were quickly released or had charges dropped in those cities by progressive prosecutors and sometimes judges.
Philadelphia’s DA Lawrence Krasner dropped charges against the “protestors,” but criminally charged two police officers with the use of excessive force. The DA had earlier performed pro bono work for Black Lives Matter.
Mike Schmidt, Portland’s newly elected District Attorney, dropped hundreds of charges such that they were free to again engage in the 105 days and counting Portland riots.
New York City proves you can assault police officers and be out on the street the next day. Chanice attacked two NYPD officers on the Brooklyn Bridge during a “peaceful” protest., leaving them bleeding. Her attorney described Chanice “as a kind and generous young lady,” a full-time student at Queen’s College, and a BLM activist.
Quran Campbell, another assailant, struck NYPD Chief of Department Terence Monahan and two other officers. Quran was released without bail on supervised release.
These DA’s and a host of others are George Soros social justice DA’S elected with Soros Money.
$1 million sends a message and keeps the arrestees of the streets for at least a few nights. Let then enjoy jail!
Unfortunately it’s probably unconstitutional. The 8th Amendment begins “Excessive bails shall not be required ….”
$1 million bail. 13 Biden staffers boasted on Twitter of donating funds to the Minnesota Freedom Fund to provide bail to the protestors/ rioters/looters/felons et al in Minneapolis. Senator Kamala Harris tweeted a request for others to contribute to the fund. Joe Biden opposes, at least for now, cash bail.
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