Putin and Trump- Connect the dots!

 Trump in league with Putin? 

 

     There may not be any tanks rolling into Georgia, Arizona, and Michigan yet, but the attempt to suppress democracy there as well as in the Ukraine is becoming abundantly clear, and we need to connect the dots. The struggle is between western liberal democracy, and authoritarian oligarchy. It used to be an ideological struggle between capitalism and communism. " From each according to his ability, To each according to his need", was the old model communist mantra. That mantra is no more. Communism lost, but Capitalism's win did not come without a price. Putin and his hand picked oligarchists have carved up the economy of the country and enriched themselves, while at the same time, limiting free speech, and the right of the citizenry to have free and fair elections to determine their leaders. The effort to quench the nascent Democrat of his fellow Slavic state of Ukraine is a potential turning point in this struggle. 

     Meanwhile, back here in the good ol' USA, the 1% has adopted a strategy of supporting the limitation of ballot access to the 99%, and particularly to the bottom 20%, so they can seal their grip on the wheels of economic production, to their own benefit. 

     Our battle for freedom has taken a new turn, and it is the unbridled application of money into the political system that is attempting to accelerate the demise of American democracy. Attempts to limit the flow of dark money into our political coffers have been beaten back by the courts, and the inability of state legislatures and the federal government to halt the march of money into politics. The more money there is in politics, the greater the tendency toward autocratic governance will continue. Oligarchs will recruit political front men to do their bidding, and keep the "hoi polloi"in check. The result has been the triumph of Trumpism in many state governments, and even in our national government for four years before being beaten back, at least for a while, by the forces of liberal democracy.  Truth is elusive in an autocracy. Repeated Lies and manipulation of public opinion is the mainstay of such regimes. 

     The mere thought that former President Trump considered utilizing the military to seize voting machines in states where his loss was marginal is a very scary indication of how close we came to a Putinesque style autocracy. The threat of this undermining of our liberal democracy is far from over. The Trumpian threat of the use of tanks to hold onto power should be a wake up call to everyone who cherishes freedom and democracy.

o        Leaders who sound like populists and offer simple solutions to complex problems need to be challenged vociferously.  " Only I can solve our problems!" is a statement that should make the hair on the back of the necks of all believers in our democratic system stand on end. 

o        Sometimes it takes the observation of extreme measures to make us connect the dots. Rising up and resisting all challenges to our ability to freely and openly choose our leaders is a must. We still have time to protect against tanks rolling into Texas and Tallahassee. But it is far past the time for all good men to come to the aid of their respective parties and governments, and join the fight to save our political system. 

o    

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More on " Don't say gay" bill

 The Florida State Legislature

is considering the " Don't say gay" bill, which would ban discussion of LGBTQ issues I.    So, now that we have opened the door to closing the door

on the discussion of controversial topics in the classroom , like being gay, and are now even discussing banning and burning certain books whose philosophical underpinnings do not match with our newfound American Puritanism, I have a great idea. Let's ban all teaching about and discussion of the Crusades. You have to agree that even 900 years later, the Crusades and the idea they stood for , among others, driving out the infidels, is still very much alive in mid twenty first century America. 

     Knights in shining armor have been replaced by such groups as " The Proud boys", and " The oath keepers".  The spear and shield have been replaced by tiki torches and flagpoles, but the idea of the use of force to trample upon the ideology of their perceived foes is every bit as intense. They learned it from the Crusades. Maybe it is best to pretend they never happened, or to ignore them in spite of their being factually something that did actually occur. They were not the fantasies of some narcissistic unbridled authoritarian style leader. They were real. All the better reason to ignore them. 

     The Crusades were sanctioned by the pope, and Crusaders who fell in battle were officially declared to be saints in heaven. All the sins of a Crusader were extinguished upon death. They lasted for almost four hundred years , from the tenth to the fourteenth century, and did result in the temporary rescue of Jerusalem from the Muslim infidels in 1099. The Muslim forces regained control by the late 13th century, and the Crusaders turned their eyes on Moorish Spain, and Eastern Europe and Jewish communities from the diaspora. There was always some group to condemn, hate, and to try to extinguish. The Crusader's cry was " God wills it!"

     Hmmmm. Sound familiar? The whole notion that God is on the side of one religious group vs. another, is a theme that has been adopted by modern day crusaders against such things as abortion and immigration. 

     It would take tons of white out to erase the Crusades from our history books, but the effort would be worth it. Imagine a world devoid of partisan religious zealotry? Who would there be to fight against? Race would remain as a dividing line. So too might political tribalism, but if we took religion off the table, there would be a major drop in radical contention. So , let's ignore the Crusades. Let's snuff them out of the classroom, and banish discussion of the conquering spirit of religious zealotry. 

    Next, we could maybe ban any discussion of Hitler, and World War II. What's to learn from studying Nazism, anyway? And then wipe out the story of our westward expansion as a nation, the Wild Wild West, and the massacres of native Americans whose hearts were buried at Wounded Knee. 

After all, we made it up to them. Casino franchises did the trick. 

     Come to think of it, maybe we would be better off by just burning all of the history books en masse. What good is an understanding of history anyway. It takes away your freedom to repeat mistakes of the past. Maybe, just maybe, ignorance would bring bliss. And then, maybe not. But attacking the most attackable, most vulnerable of our constituencies, like " the gays", is at least a starting point. So Florida Governor Ron DeSantis , there's your platform Gov. DeSantis , for advancement. Grab this new bull by the horn of attacking the weakest, and who knows, you too might find your way to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.  We once thought that impossible for such advocates but recent history teaches us that is not the case. Oops! There we go with history again. I'd better stop while I'm behind. 

Don't approve " Don't say gay bill

 There is an elephant in the room, literally. 

    Or perhaps it would be better to say that there is an elephant in the state legislative chamber in Tallahassee,  and this elephant has his foot poised to stamp out any discussion of human sexuality in the classroom that invokes homosexuality. It is literally dragging scarlet letters out of the closet, so that those who would help educate our students about the range of human sexuality will be labeled, and barred from doing so. 

    I recently relocated to Florida from Upstate , New York, and changed from a snowbird to full time Florida resident. Since I have spent my lifetime in state and local politics, I am acquainting myself with Florida's political situation. And first, I must say, this is far, far from being NY, politically. 

When I first moved here in 2021, I actually praised Governor DeSantis for prioritizing the vaccination of those over 65 ( of which I am one) , while at the time, the Governor of New York was espousing other priorities . I even said, publicly , that DeSantis was right and Cuomo was wrong. Since I am a former Co- Chair of the NYS Democratic Party, the NY post newspaper took note of it , and ran a front page headline entitled " Take this jab and shove it!" (https://nypost.com/2021/01/17/former-nys-dem-party-head-gets-vaccinated-in-florida/) 

     Since then, however, Gov. DeSantis seems to have reversed polarity on the vaccination issue, and embraced a number of other positions which appeal to the far right of his party. The most recent example of this political metamorphosis is a new Legislative Act intended to ban  the discussion of LGBTQ issues in the classroom . It has been called " The Florida Parental Rights in Education bill, also known as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill. It's premise seems to be that if we just ignore it,  the issue of gay equal rights will somehow just disappear. Prohibiting the discussion or even mention of such matters in the classroom is seen as preserving parental rights in discussing or not discussing such matters. 

Maybe ignoring it will make it go away!

     Well, frankly, this is one of the scariest things I have ever heard a state legislative body to be considering. I can see an errant school board here and there, getting into the issue, but a statewide legislative body? Lord help us. And as the old saying goes, " The Lord helps those who help themselves", so I think it is important to take up the cause against this bill, it's genesis and sponsors. That is what I. Will endeavor to do to unmask the profound stupidity of such a proposal. This letter is the first step in that process. More, much more, to come

Control

Control

“We are out of control and spinning toward the bottom”, quipped one political observer recently. The pandemic is out of control because of our inability to require vaccinations and mask wearing when appropriate. We have adopted a mish- mash of regulations and non regulations that have only served to confuse the situation, and the non vaccinated are dying by the thousands. 

     Our extreme weather events have grown much more frequent due to global warming.  Crime and gun violence is rampant in our major cities,. Our foreign policy seems to be equally at odds with our aims . Our withdrawal from Afghanistan, while welcome, was messy and mercurial, leaving many, including our friends and supporters in the lurch. So where do we go from here? And how do we get there? 

     In unity there is strength. But we have to find that unity to enhance our strength. How do we do that? Embrace truth . Acknowledge the facts, and go from there. While that should be simple, it is unfortunately quite complicated . Upwards of a third of our citizenry have bought into the “ Big Lie”. Our former President continues to invent and foment various versions of the “ I didn’t lose the election. It was stolen from me “ theme. His Republican colleagues have been complicit in perpetuating “ The Big lie” by not calling him out on it, and they all know better. Nearly 100 different judges, many of them Republican, have ruled that there was no massive fraud in the election, as  Trump contends. And a recent memo uncovered by the NY Times shows that his own campaign staff had debunked those claims, even as Rudy Guiliani and others continued to publicly proclaim

 What Trump’s staff knew was a lie. That kind of bold mendacity should be a disqualifying factor by any standard.  There comes a time when truth matters and that time has long since passed.

     The major purveyor is disinformation on the question of the validity of the 2020 election has been Fox News, which is owned by Australian billionaire Rupert Murdoch. If Murdoch were to stand up for truth instead of profit, we could all move forward in a major way. Perhaps a boycott of all things Murdoch is in order . Hitting him in the pocketbook would probably be more effective than hitting him on the head. Advertisers could pull their ads from Fox News and the Wall St. Journal, for starters. Subscriptions to the Wall St. Journal could be cancelled, and TV’s showing Fox News in the gym and other places could be switched to another channel. 

Rupert Murdoch’s insinuation of himself into our governmental process with his kind of hand crafted news has been insidious, and needs to stop. We need to recover and uncover the truth, and then we can unify and move forward. In the end, it is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth which shall set us free. 

Truth is Truth.

Truth is truth

Facts are facts.

Fiction is fiction, and lies are lies. 

     The challenge facing any democracy is separating truth from fiction and facts from falsity. It is not always easy to do that, but a careful analysis and comparison of facts will ultimately lead you to the right conclusion. 

     It is snowing in Upstate NY. Binghamton has over forty inches of the fluffy white stuff. You can measure it. You can see it. Those are provable truths.

     It is not snowing in St. Petersburg, Fla. there is no white stuff on the ground. You can’t see it. You can reasonably conclude that it is true that there is no snow in Florida.

    But what if I told you that it was freezing in Florida, and snow on the  ground was over two feet. Would you believe me? What if I told you to go on Facebook if you don’t believe me, and you did, and found lots of Facebook postings saying that the weathermen on TV were broadcasting fake news, and denying there was snow, when there was really over two feet of it in the ground?What  if I just kept repeating that it is snowing in Florida. It is snowing in Florida, ad nauseum. Would you then believe me? 

     Well, the comparison to our election process and fake weather forecasters is actually applicable.  The President is still claiming major election fraud. Despite all of the investigations and recounts that found none. Despite such claims being rejected by over 50 Judges of both parties that there are no facts to back up that claim, some still truly believe.  Donald Trump wants you to believe in him,  and not the facts. That is what all autocratic leaders seek, to be the fountain of all “ truth”. He apparently believes electoral fraud himself, not based on any observable fact, but based on what lots of folks on Facebook  and Twitter are saying, or re-tweeting and re-posting. 

     In those circumstances, you would think that ferreting out the truth would be a “ no brainer”, but, alas, that is not the case.

     As many as three quarters of the electorate who call themselves Republicans are believing the election fraud hoax. It is an Alice in wonderland, up is down and down is up situation. But, it is what it is. 

     How do we break free from such profound preverication?

We trust, but verify. It is what every “ Doubting Thomas” should do. We take Christ up on his post resurrection offer to see and touch his wounds, so we can verify what St. Thomas did not. 

     Just to reassure everyone, it really is snowing in Upstate NY, and it is not snowing in Florida. That is a non-equivocal, provable fact.  Trust me. If not, tune out Fox, CNN and MSNBC, and tune in the weather channel instead. They always tell it like it is. And they have actual video too.

The Senate as Jury?

Over the course of my forty plus year legal career I have questioned and empaneled several dozen juries . The process is called the 

“ Voir dire”, which is a French term that literally translates “ to speak the truth”. I have entreated many hundreds of prospective jurors to do just that, tell me the truth during the course of the interview, as that saves everybody considerable time and effort.  I would ask “If there is any reason that you as a potential juror would have a disqualifying bias that would make you unsuited to be a juror in the particular case you are “being asked to decide, just tell me, and you can be excused”.      

     I would also exhort potential jurors to leave the “baggage of their life “ at the courthouse door. By that, I would explain that we all carry with us everyday the “baggage of our lives”, which is the totality of our experiences which tilt us one way or another when dealing with any particular issue. We are not always Conscious of the bags we carry with us. It is this pre-conceived notion, or bias, that I would ask jurors to shed or check , as they embarked on their duty as fair and “ impartial” jurors.  

      Not everyone is able to render a fair and impartial verdict in every case. There are often certain life experiences which prejudice us from making a fair and dispassionate analysis of the facts of a particular case. Before embarking on their duty as a juror , a jury candidate must even take an oath to render a fair and impartial verdict. The oath of a juror is to decide the case upon the evidence produced at trial, and not on the basis of extraneous information gleaned from other sources. 

An example of a juror’s oath would be

that they will "well and truly try the matters in issue and a true verdict render according to the evidence and the law." 

That is how a jury trial is set up. The objective is to ferret out the truth, and to render justice. 

     An 

impeachment proceeding is a little different, but the objective of ferreting out the truth remains. There 

Is ultimately no Republican or Democratic version of the truth. There is only truth, and in finding the truth, facts matter. 

     The senators are required to take an oath before proceeding to try the President on any articles of I,peachment proffered them by the House of Representatives..

“The Senate shall have the sole Power to try all Impeachments. When sitting for that Purpose, they shall be on Oath or Affirmation. When the President of the United States is tried, the Chief Justice shall preside: And no Person shall be convicted without the Concurrence of two thirds of the Members present.”

ARTICLE I, SECTION 3, CLAUSE 6

     So, the Senators, under law, are required to render a fair and impartial verdict pursuant to their oath. It is not unlike the requirement of jurors in any other court case.  There are Those who say that impeachment is simply a political process 

 They are wrong. It is a quasi-judicial process, requiring Senators to vote to convict or acquit based upon the facts presented to them, and upon their oaths taken.

     In the final analysis, it matters not what the commentators on Fox News or CNN or MSNBC say. Nor what the majority or minority party partisans say. It is what the Senators say, under oath. That is their verdict. Nothing more. Nothing less. Let’s try to keep this in mind as we proceed down this road. 

Civics lessons do matter. Constitutional requirements matter as well, and justice demands that the process be strictly adhered to. 

Duck Duck Goose !

Reverse Conspiracy Theory

Our current President came to political prominence by espousing the convoluted conspiracy theory that President Barack Obama was born in Kenya, and thus was not eligible to serve as President. He went to great lengths to investigate this supposed conspiracy to cover up the President’s real birthplace, including alleging the complicity of state officials in fabricating a phony birth certificate, and in the process, was able to convince between a quarter to a third of the American population that he was onto something. When that theory no longer served his purpose, he dropped it like a hot potato, and simply went on to campaign, successfully, for the prize of the Oval Office itself.
     Fast forward three years, and we now have a kind of reverse conspiracy theory developing that this same man, Donald J. Trump, may be acting as an agent of or stalking horse for our chief geopolitical enemy, Russia, and its leader, Vladimir Putin. Is that theory in any way believable? Is there any empirical evidence that exists that would make sane people seriously entertain the notion? The answer , clearly, is yes. And you don’t have to be a crazed conspiratorialist to believe it. His answer to the charge? “I never worked for Russia. This whole Russian thing is a big fat hoax!” We might eventually expect him to add, “ I am not a crook either.”
     Meanwhile, let’s examine the facts underlying this theory. First, all of our intelligence agencies have concluded that Russia attempted to interfere in the 2016 election in furtherance of Trump’s candidacy in a myriad of ways. Trump pays lip device to the conclusion of those agencies, and chooses to defer to Putin’s denial instead. Second, in meeting between Trump and Putin, the number of participants has been limited, and even the notes of a translator were personally impounded by the President so that there is no clear record of what promises were made and what was discussed. This is a total abrogation of normal procedure. Why would anyone go to such lengths to obscure what was said between two heads of state unless they were trying to conceal something.?
      Third, why would the President defer to Russia on Syria, defend Russia’s original invasion of Afghanistan, and back off on criticism of Russia’s conduct toward the Ukraine?
     Why would he criticize everyone else, make up names to label many other world leaders , but as to Putin, only be effusive in his praise of his strong leadership?
Why would this President undermine NATO and many of our longest standing allies?
And what about that “dossier”? . Does Putin hold compromising evidence over Trump’s head? Also, why would he totally disrupt the ordinary processes of the American government , sowing further seeds of discord and discontent and undermining our democratic institutions?  Why would he persistently criticize our rule of law by  undermining the credibility of our courts, the FBI, and the Justice Department?
     This fact pattern impregnates the conspiratorial theorists , and as the old saying goes, “ If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, and acts like a  duck , it may well be a duck. The degree of quacking here has become so cacophonous  that only the deaf can ignore it, and only the blind can fail to see  the various connections . Perhaps when it comes to Conspiracy theories and Mr. Trump , what’s good for the goose is  good for the gander as well.