Some Brief Observations, Oct.-Nov., 2019
"Either this country will kill racism or racism will kill this country." (S. Jonas, Aug., 2018)
I was slowed down for the months of October and November by a couple of illnesses (now totally under control) and so did not maintain my regular columns-pace. However, I did post on Twitter every now and again. And so in this space I am posting a series of those observations (with some editing because of course in this space I don't have to worry about the character limit.) If the Tweet referred to a particular newspaper article, that link appears first. The other links are to columns of mine. And so:
Oct 3
https://aol.com/article/news/2019/10/03/trump-urges-china-to-probe-joe-and-hunter-biden/23826263/ .
Having tried bribery/extortion on Ukraine/Biden, with no result other than the start of impeachment proceedings, Trump is now trying the same tactic out on China: "I have a lot of options on China, but if they don't do what we want, we have tremendous, tremendous power." He doesn't learn. (And also, of course the Chinese didn't engage at all, because there were no arms shipments with which to be concerned.)
Oct 6
Lindsey Graham speaking Ghazi-Latin, back in the day when, of course, the target was Hillary Clinton (who, on certain days, Trump thinks he is still running against).
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(As is by now widely referenced) in 1998, Lindsey Graham led the House impeachment of President Clinton for, wait for it, perjury to a grand jury about an affair with a consenting adult. As for the Trump impeachment for, e.g., seeking foreign political aid (a violation in and of itself of Federal law), Graham says that it's like the Salem witch trials. (As for what the real witch hunts, both for "witches" and for political enemies, were like see: click here.)
Oct 6
http://aol.com/article/news/2019/10/04/wrong-and-appalling-romney-blasts-trump-for-calling-on-china-to-probe-bidens/23827687/. By doing this, Mitt Romney is simply stepping up to be first in line for the 2020 Repub. nomination should for any reason (impeachment and "other") Trump is not the Repub. candidate. As for Sasse, he is just the first Repub. to engage in CYA, just in case "whatever" happens. (Of course, the latter has been silent as a Nebraska lamb since.)
Oct 6 (yes, a busy Tweet day for me, even though, unlike certain others, I don't have even one Tweet-ghost writer).
https://aol.com/article/news/2019/10/06/trump-allies-respond-to-second-whistleblower-why-should-i-care/23829819/". And the headline will be exactly the same when year is a 2 with a 0 next to it. But the primary reason the Trumpublicans© follow their Fuerher (oops, I mean Leader) is not electoral. Fearing the results of true democracy, these folks are married to Trump's proto-21st century-fascist policies: https://opednews.com/articles/Why-do-the-Republicans-Sti-by-Steven-Jonas-Detention_Fascism_Fascist_McConnell-190703-349.html".
Oct. 9
https://nytimes.com/2019/10/08/us/politics/sondland-trump-ukraine-impeach.html. "Always Attack; Never Defend:" this is the classic Trump response to anything critical. He is simply incapable of doing anything else. For the development of the tactic, a straight line can be drawn from Joe McCarthy through Roy Cohn (Trump's "mentor in these matters) to Donald Trump, with a side-bar along the way to the Reagan/HW Bush mouthpiece Lee Atwater (https://opednews.com/articles/Trumpite-Functional-Fascis-by-Steven-Jonas-Dominionism_Dprk_Fascism_Gerrymandering-180327-287.html ).
Oct 18
Click here. On the former Sec. of Energy (who thought that the D of E dealt with oil and gas) who said he had nothing to do with any of the Ukraine plotting, even though Sondland placed Perry right in the middle of the mess. In a little-noticed statement made at the same time by White House Spokeswoman Grisham, it was also announced that Pres. Trump, in his infinite wisdom, has determined that the sun does NOT rise in the East, a position supported by a full 62.9% of his followers.
Oct 23
Trump Job Creation: Full Employment for DC Lawyers
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https://usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/10/21/donald-trump-mocks-constitution-emoluments-clause-phony/4055162002/ Trump regards the Emoluments Clause as "phony." It would be interesting to know what other clauses he regards in the same way, like those of Art. II, which in its original form very much limited the powers of the Presidency.
Oct 28
Click here. As I have said for quite some time, the existence of the State of Israel has proved the age-old anti-Semitic claim that "Jews are totally different from everyone else" totally wrong. Give Jews State Power and they can behave just as badly as anyone else.
Oct. 29
Trump and his allies continue to call both the Mueller investigation and the Impeachment process "Witch-hunts." Actually there were historical Real Thing(s), whether they be the literal witch hunts which occurred across Europe and the North American colonies from the 16th to the 18th century, or the "McCarthyism" Red Scare (contributed to mightily by Trump's mentor Roy Cohn), called a "Witch Hunt" by many, particularly its victims and their supporters at the time. Many people suffered real harms to their lives and livelihoods for committing no crimes but holding to contrarian beliefs. Thus the term obviously has nothing to do with the investigations concerning Trump and the Trumpites. See my column on the subject at: click here
Nov 14
https://amazon.com/s?k=nikki+haley+with+all+due+respect&hvadid=78065441436668&hvbmt=bb&hvdev=c&hvqmt=b&tag=mh0b-20&ref=pd_sl_3xf1ruj0fv_b. Here Nikki Haley, running fast to catch up with Mitt Romney, actually announces for three nominations at the same time: for VP on the Trump-ticket 2020, for President on the 2020 Trumpublican(C) ticket 2020 if there is no Trump for one reason or another there is no Trump on it, and for the Trumpublican(C) Presidential nomination in 2024.
Nov 19
https://twitter.com/i/events/1196425281226997760?cn=ZmxleGlibGVfcmVjcw%3D%3D&refsrc=email. Here's Joe Biden --- who back in the 1990s was a leader in reinvigorating the Nixon/Reagan/Bill Bennett "drug war" against the users of certain Recreational Mood Alerting Drugs (the RMADs), but not the principal ones, which would be nicotine in tobacco products and ethyl alcohol --- going after marijuana as a "gateway drug." Since tobacco itself kills 480,000 per year and alcohol kills 85,000 per year, and both are definitely gateway drugs, presumably Biden will soon be announcing his national program to criminalize both. (See my book "Ending the Drug War,” at Amazon.)
Nov. 26
Ooops!!!
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https://dailykos.com/stories/2019/11/26/1902006/-Devin-Nunes-says-he-is-going-to-sue-everybody-except-Devin-Nunes-is-not-going-to-do-that?detail=emaildkre. Indeed. In fact Nunes can make a lot of noise on this one (especially on "Hannity") but he cannot possibly sue anyone or any organization because in such a suit at one time or another he would have to testify under oath, and, given the questions he would be asked by the defense attorneys, he can't possibly do that.
Dec. 1
Journal of the American Medical Association, 10/8/19, p. 1347. The U.S. Supreme Court held that the forced burial of fetal remains by the state of Indiana serves the state interest expressing respect for unborn life. Except that "unborn life" is a strictly religious concept. This is a further example of the criminalization of religious thought which is sweeping the country. It is well past time for the pro-abortion rights folks to wake up to this fact and start battling it full force: click here.
Dec. 1
https://dailykos.com/stories/2018/4/20/1758614/-1988-Giuliani-Had-FBI-End-Investigation-of-Trump-Money-Laundering-Trump-raised-2M-for-Giuliani?detail=emailclassic. Trump doesn't know Giuliani TOO well, for TOO long. Oh really? He only gave $2 mil to G.'s first mayoral campaign, AFTER G., as head of DOJ SDNY, dropped a money-laundering case against Trump. Trump: Giuliani? I barely know him.