dailykos--2020-09-25--TRUMP WITHHOLDING LOGIC FROM "ANARCHIST JURISDICTIONS" -- EXCEPT FOR LOUISVILLE, KENOSHA, AND...

In Louisville this week , two police officers were shot amid protests following a Kentucky grand jury 's decision not to indict three other officers for fatally shooting Breonna Taylor .
Despite that , Trump has made no similar `` anarchist '' declaration nor any threat of pulling federal funds , even though Louisville is a Democratic city , politically .
In Louisville this week , two police officers were shot amid protests following a Kentucky grand jury 's decision not to indict three other officers for fatally shooting Breonna Taylor .
Despite that , Trump has made no similar @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of pulling federal funds , even though Louisville is a Democratic city , politically .
So what accounts for his silence ?
That U.S. Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell represents Kentucky , maybe ?
Or that the state 's attorney general is a Republican ?
Or perhaps Trump is flinching a bit after previous negative reaction to his earlier approach , although that seems unlikely .
Trump did also offer Louisville federal assistance .
Kentucky Gov .
Andy Beshear and Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer , both Democrats , declined that offer .
But @ @ @ @ @ @ @ threatening to cut federal funding to the city , as before , Trump reacted by expressing sympathy to the family of Breonna Taylor .
Which was uncharacteristic , but the hands of a broken clock do show the right time twice a day .
Also , Trump really , really wants McConnell to win re-election .
Taylor , who was black , was shot to death in a hail of bullets from plain-clothes Louisville cops who made an unannounced raid with a no-knock warrant .
Police later insisted they did announce themselves before @ @ @ @ @ @ @ causing Taylor 's boyfriend to fire a shot from inside the apartment , thinking robbers were at the door .
The officers responded with a fusillade .
While none of the cops were charged with Taylor 's murder , one of them was indicted because some of his shots penetrated a wall into a neighboring apartment , threatening bystanders inside .
To sum up : Louisville cops can with impunity break into her apartment and fatally shoot a black woman whose boyfriend feared a home invasion but they do n't dare let their @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a state with both a no-knock-warrant law and a citizen stand-your-ground gun law .
What could possibly go wrong ?
Now we know .
And finally there 's Kenosha .
We 're also waiting to see if Trump might declare Wisconsin 's fourth largest city an `` anarchist jurisdiction . ''
Trump has claimed Kenosha was destroyed in violent protests .
Actually , Kenosha encompasses 28 square miles , while arson fires set by unknown individuals were limited to a few city blocks .
Look at all the damage to downtown Kenosha in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Oh , wait… Trump pretzelated himself , offering Kenosha federal law enforcement help , sending federal law officers anyway when the city declined his offer , and then just for fun claiming credit for ordering in National Guard troops that in fact already had been deployed by Wisconsin ' Democratic Gov .
Tony Evers .
The protests did recede , although as is true in many cities , the Black Lives Matter movement persists .
All that did n't stop Trump and his wingnut backers from claiming the Democratic Party had allowed the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was n't .
But , apparently , once Trump declares a city no longer in existence , there 's no need for him to threaten withholding future federal funding to it .
Well , unless he continues to lag in Wisconsin election polling .

You might have noticed the Preznit's hugely selective approach to cities where demonstrations have included isolated violence. He has declared Portland, New York City, Washington, D.C., and Seattle "anarchist jurisdictions." For one thing, that phrase is an oxymoron, just like the preznit himself. For another, some of the worst violence in D.C. arguably involved Trump's own security detail gassing peaceful protesters and clearing them out of the way so he could walk down a park path to a church and wave a Bible around for the teevee cameras.
Anyway, Trump claimed the four "Democrat-run" cities didn't curtail violence on their own and -- worse! -- declined his offers of federal policing "help." Therefore, he announced he would seek to cut off federal aid to the cities, ironically including aid for local police. As usual, that's a threat which for numerous reasons is not going to happen, but it made for a splashy campaign-season headline, didn't it?
Then there are Louisville and Kenosha.
In Louisville this week, two police officers were shot amid protests following a Kentucky grand jury's decision not to indict three other officers for fatally shooting Breonna Taylor. Despite that, Trump has made no similar "anarchist" declaration nor any threat of pulling federal funds, even though Louisville is a Democratic city, politically. In Louisville this week, two police officers were shot amid protests following a Kentucky grand jury's decision not to indict three other officers for fatally shooting Breonna Taylor. Despite that, Trump has made no similar "anarchist" declaration nor any threat of pulling federal funds, even though Louisville is a Democratic city, politically.
So what accounts for his silence? That U.S. Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell represents Kentucky, maybe? Or that the state's attorney general is a Republican? Or perhaps Trump is flinching a bit after previous negative reaction to his earlier approach, although that seems unlikely.
Trump did also offer Louisville federal assistance. Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear and Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer, both Democrats, declined that offer. But instead of sending the feds anyway and threatening to cut federal funding to the city, as before, Trump reacted by expressing sympathy to the family of Breonna Taylor. Which was uncharacteristic, but the hands of a broken clock do show the right time twice a day. Also, Trump really, really wants McConnell to win re-election.
Taylor, who was black, was shot to death in a hail of bullets from plain-clothes Louisville cops who made an unannounced raid with a no-knock warrant.
Police later insisted they did announce themselves before breaking in with a battering ram, causing Taylor's boyfriend to fire a shot from inside the apartment, thinking robbers were at the door. The officers responded with a fusillade.
While none of the cops were charged with Taylor's murder, one of them was indicted because some of his shots penetrated a wall into a neighboring apartment, threatening bystanders inside. To sum up: Louisville cops can with impunity break into her apartment and fatally shoot a black woman whose boyfriend feared a home invasion but they don't dare let their bullets penetrate wall plaster.
Kentucky is a state with both a no-knock-warrant law and a citizen stand-your-ground gun law. What could possibly go wrong? Now we know.
And finally there's Kenosha. We're also waiting to see if Trump might declare Wisconsin's fourth largest city an "anarchist jurisdiction." Trump has claimed Kenosha was destroyed in violent protests. Actually, Kenosha encompasses 28 square miles, while arson fires set by unknown individuals were limited to a few city blocks. Look at all the damage to downtown Kenosha in the photo above. Total destruction! Oh, wait…


dailykos--2020-09-26--Surving the Fire Within

Surving the Fire Within

Some of us have heartburn .
Others feel nauseous or sick to their stomach .
A few experience a chronic pain in the neck , while sleep escapes us and night terrors abound .
We are irritable and angry , sad and scared , quietly terrified , and decidedly depressed .
We weep easily and work to keep anxiety at bay .
These are just a few of the somatic and psychological symptoms our shared stress serves up as we try to survive in an era of Covid isolation , massive political crime and corruption , the unimaginable possibility of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and man made disasters , all of which suggest a doomsday future and an atmosphere of lonely despair .
I simply can not fathom losing one ’ s home and possessions under an ominous orange sky amid encroaching showers of sparks , on top of our shared calamities .
I can ’ t imagine living in Beirut , or a refugee camp that disappears overnight , or a detention center defined by inhumane loneliness .
It ’ s hardly bearable to forego seeing one ’ s children or hugging a friend , or @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to know what it feels like to be a doctor , nurse , or other healthcare provider , hospital worker , ambulance driver , EMT , “ essential worker ” putting herself on the front lines day after day after exhausting day .
What does it feel like to watch a person die alone , with only your gloved hand to hold ?
What goes through your head when you drive a refrigerator truck to a funeral home ?
Moving stories of courage , creative interventions , and acts of love , even @ @ @ @ @ @ @ experiences of human suffering .
We need that antidote .
That ’ s why it is important that we share the stories of both those who succumb and those who remain strong , and that we put a human face on this time of trauma and tragedy .
We need to know what the lost child looked like , what the grieving spouse said , what the lover feels .
Their lost loved ones are not simply statistics .
They were real people with real life stories whose pain in this moment is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Like the fallen on 9-11 , their lives had meaning , promise , hope .
In their memory , we need to offer acts of kindness every day , and to receive such acts with grace .
It ’ s also why we need to share our own emotional suffering with those who can offer us solace and validate the normalcy of our emotions in this oh , so trying time .
It would not be quite so difficult if it were not for the fact that thousands of lives were needlessly @ @ @ @ @ @ @ leaderless nation on the brink of collapse , if there were less hatred and violence in our midst , if the natural world were not screaming for help , if we had reason to believe that current events were a bizarre anomaly , a blip on the screen , a fluke .
But sadly , the convergence of events feels like foreshadowing .
It ’ s a clarion call , and if we don ’ t respond quickly and appropriately , there will be no turning back , no end of suffering , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ time .
Still , if we are to defeat the fires , real and symbolic , destroying our world , and overcome the fires burning like brazen acid within our breasts such that they rob us of peace of mind and threaten our remnants of hope , we must carry on , together and alone .
Each of us is called upon to rise every morning , to give solace where it is needed , to ask for help when that is needed as well .
We must do what we can to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ despair , whether that be carrying water from the well , climbing the mountain of Martin Luther King , Jr , caressing a frightened child , cooking for the homeless , casting our vote no matter the obstacles , marching and making good trouble in memory of John Lewis , in short , being fully human in a seemingly inhumane and inhospitable world .
Although things have never seemed as bad as they are now in this confluence of tragedies , we have come through hard times before .
We have survived them @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and fragilely intact .
Now we are called upon to do more than survive .
We are called to rebuild , restore , reimagine , not just in the space we occupy , but in all the spaces of the world .
We must understand that we are all part of the Family of Humankind , and that it falls to our generations and to each of us to care about that family , to honor and respect it , to join in its hope and possibility , to open doors to our @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of past pain and degradation .
It starts now , for time is running out , and “ if not us , who ?
If not now , when ?
”

Some of us have heartburn. Others feel nauseous or sick to their stomach. A few experience a chronic pain in the neck, while sleep escapes us and night terrors abound. We are irritable and angry, sad and scared, quietly terrified, and decidedly depressed. We weep easily and work to keep anxiety at bay.
These are just a few of the somatic and psychological symptoms our shared stress serves up as we try to survive in an era of Covid isolation, massive political crime and corruption, the unimaginable possibility of living in a dictatorship, and natural and man made disasters, all of which suggest a doomsday future and an atmosphere of lonely despair.
I simply cannot fathom losing one’s home and possessions under an ominous orange sky amid encroaching showers of sparks, on top of our shared calamities. I can’t imagine living in Beirut, or a refugee camp that disappears overnight, or a detention center defined by inhumane loneliness. It’s hardly bearable to forego seeing one’s children or hugging a friend, or losing one.
Nor can I begin to know what it feels like to be a doctor, nurse, or other healthcare provider, hospital worker, ambulance driver, EMT, “essential worker” putting herself on the front lines day after day after exhausting day. What does it feel like to watch a person die alone, with only your gloved hand to hold? What goes through your head when you drive a refrigerator truck to a funeral home?
Moving stories of courage, creative interventions, and acts of love, even among strangers, abound to counteract these experiences of human suffering. We need that antidote. That’s why it is important that we share the stories of both those who succumb and those who remain strong, and that we put a human face on this time of trauma and tragedy.
We need to know what the lost child looked like, what the grieving spouse said, what the lover feels. Their lost loved ones are not simply statistics. They were real people with real life stories whose pain in this moment is more than anyone should have to bear. Like the fallen on 9-11, their lives had meaning, promise, hope. In their memory, we need to offer acts of kindness every day, and to receive such acts with grace. It’s also why we need to share our own emotional suffering with those who can offer us solace and validate the normalcy of our emotions in this oh, so trying time.
It would not be quite so difficult if it were not for the fact that thousands of lives were needlessly lost, if we were not a leaderless nation on the brink of collapse, if there were less hatred and violence in our midst, if the natural world were not screaming for help, if we had reason to believe that current events were a bizarre anomaly, a blip on the screen, a fluke. But sadly, the convergence of events feels like foreshadowing. It’s a clarion call, and if we don’t respond quickly and appropriately, there will be no turning back, no end of suffering, no metaphorical blue skies, no more time.
Still, if we are to defeat the fires, real and symbolic, destroying our world, and overcome the fires burning like brazen acid within our breasts such that they rob us of peace of mind and threaten our remnants of hope, we must carry on, together and alone. Each of us is called upon to rise every morning, to give solace where it is needed, to ask for help when that is needed as well. We must do what we can to save each other from the flames of despair, whether that be carrying water from the well, climbing the mountain of Martin Luther King, Jr, caressing a frightened child, cooking for the homeless, casting our vote no matter the obstacles, marching and making good trouble in memory of John Lewis, in short, being fully human in a seemingly inhumane and inhospitable world.
Although things have never seemed as bad as they are now in this confluence of tragedies, we have come through hard times before. We have survived them, flawed and tattered, but ultimately and fragilely intact. Now we are called upon to do more than survive. We are called to rebuild, restore, reimagine, not just in the space we occupy, but in all the spaces of the world.
We must understand that we are all part of the Family of Humankind, and that it falls to our generations and to each of us to care about that family, to honor and respect it, to join in its hope and possibility, to open doors to our shared future as we close the portals of past pain and degradation.
It starts now, for time is running out, and “if not us, who? If not now, when?”
# # #
Elayne Clift writes from Saxtons River, Vt. www.elayne-clift.com


dailykos--2020-09-26--The Best Result Money Can Buy

The Best Result Money Can Buy

The amount of money raised , collected and spent during each election cycle is beyond ridiculous .
Who winds up with all this money ?
The media does , with money spent on advertising , the political consultants , the ad agencies .
the political parties building a war chest for the next election .
It is obscene .
We could probably fund infrastructure , provide health care , reduce student debt and fund countless other programs with the amount of money given to politicians and political fundraisers .
People will end up donating hundreds or thousands of dollars to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a few hundred dollars in taxes .
I am not talking about the billionaires like the Koch Brothers who reaped huge benefits .
I am talking about the typical Republican voter who thought the 2017 tax bill was such a great thing for them .
Now what do we know that Donald Trump loves almost as much as himself .
Money .
I am not even sure that is is power for the sake of power .
He wants power because he can make a lot of money with that power .
.
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ straddles the fine line between snark and serious .
What if we took up a go fund me page and got 50 million Americans to contribute an average of $ 100 each ?
Some can give a lot less and some can give a lot more but the average needs to be $ 100 .
I am sure that there are 50 million Americans , out of almost 300 Million People , but let ’ s say 125 Million eligible voters , that would gladly pay $ 100 to never see Trump ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 100 is 5 Billion dollars .
Would Trump be willing to leave the White House forever in exchange for $ 5 Billion dollars ?
He loves money and he might even be able to pay off all of his debt with 5 Billion .
He could free himself from uncle Vlad .
He could build a lot of golf resorts and play a lot of golf without the headache of having to hire and fire cabinet officials and chiefs of staff .
If we really felt altruistic we could offer similar deals to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ other Senators to assure control of the Senate .
I do not see anything illegal about this .
We are each allowed to give up to $ 2800 to the candidates of our choice .
We are not buying votes .
We are not committing fraud .
We would be open to the nature and purpose of our contributions .
We are paying someone not to run .
We can give money to candidates , why not non-candidates .
Go Fund me donations are perfectly legal as long as the money goes to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ would be put in escrow and only paid out when they lost or withdrew from the election .
Otherwise it would be refunded back to the donors .
I have donated thousands to various races for the general and primary elections since the beginning of the year .
To Senatorial Candidate , House Candidates , Gubernatorial candidates .
Collectively the nation spends tens of billions of dollars every year on Federal , State and Local elections .
Now this would not work against most Democratic candidates because most of the are not motivated @ @ @ @ @ @ @ motivated by power because they see it is a way of lining their pockets .
Well let ’ s find a way to line their pockets without them having to screw the entire country .
Again , this is intended as a bit of snark but the more I think about the more it makes sense .
Let ’ s give the Republicans a way to get rich without having to do things like take away our healthcare , or destroy our environment , or screw with our civil rights to protect their @ @ @ @ @ @ @ get rich without having to pay for staff or finance campaigns it is literally a win win .
It can be a new approach to campaign finance reform .
Paying people who are motivated by money not to run for office .
Do I want to see Graham , or McConnell or Trump get even richer ?
Of course not .
But if we can get them to retire in exchange for a nice big paycheck then maybe it could be something at least worth considering .

The amount of money raised, collected and spent during each election cycle is beyond ridiculous. Who winds up with all this money? The media does, with money spent on advertising, the political consultants, the ad agencies. the political parties building a war chest for the next election. It is obscene. We could probably fund infrastructure, provide health care, reduce student debt and fund countless other programs with the amount of money given to politicians and political fundraisers. People will end up donating hundreds or thousands of dollars to political candidates who promise to save them a few hundred dollars in taxes. I am not talking about the billionaires like the Koch Brothers who reaped huge benefits. I am talking about the typical Republican voter who thought the 2017 tax bill was such a great thing for them.
Now what do we know that Donald Trump loves almost as much as himself. Money. I am not even sure that is is power for the sake of power. He wants power because he can make a lot of money with that power. .
So hear me out. My idea straddles the fine line between snark and serious.
What if we took up a go fund me page and got 50 million Americans to contribute an average of $100 each? Some can give a lot less and some can give a lot more but the average needs to be $100. I am sure that there are 50 million Americans, out of almost 300 Million People, but let’s say 125 Million eligible voters, that would gladly pay $100 to never see Trump’s face again.
50 million times 100 is 5 Billion dollars. Would Trump be willing to leave the White House forever in exchange for $5 Billion dollars? He loves money and he might even be able to pay off all of his debt with 5 Billion. He could free himself from uncle Vlad. He could build a lot of golf resorts and play a lot of golf without the headache of having to hire and fire cabinet officials and chiefs of staff.
If we really felt altruistic we could offer similar deals to McConnell and Graham and 4 or 5 other Senators to assure control of the Senate. I do not see anything illegal about this. We are each allowed to give up to $2800 to the candidates of our choice. We are not buying votes. We are not committing fraud. We would be open to the nature and purpose of our contributions. We are paying someone not to run. We can give money to candidates, why not non-candidates. Go Fund me donations are perfectly legal as long as the money goes to where it is promised. The money would be put in escrow and only paid out when they lost or withdrew from the election. Otherwise it would be refunded back to the donors.
I have donated thousands to various races for the general and primary elections since the beginning of the year. To Senatorial Candidate, House Candidates, Gubernatorial candidates. Collectively the nation spends tens of billions of dollars every year on Federal, State and Local elections.
Now this would not work against most Democratic candidates because most of the are not motivated by money. Most Rethuglican candidates are motivated by power because they see it is a way of lining their pockets. Well let’s find a way to line their pockets without them having to screw the entire country.
Again, this is intended as a bit of snark but the more I think about the more it makes sense. Let’s give the Republicans a way to get rich without having to do things like take away our healthcare, or destroy our environment, or screw with our civil rights to protect their time in office. If they can get rich without having to pay for staff or finance campaigns it is literally a win win. It can be a new approach to campaign finance reform. Paying people who are motivated by money not to run for office.
Do I want to see Graham, or McConnell or Trump get even richer? Of course not. But if we can get them to retire in exchange for a nice big paycheck then maybe it could be something at least worth considering.


dailykos--2020-09-27--RBG’s Replacement will cut Civil Rights for Women

In Republicans ’ rush to appoint a new justice to the Supreme Court , the first casualty was their prior commitment to honor the will of the people .
Both Senator Mitch McConnell ( KY ) , who is the majority leader in charge of the Senate calendar , and Lindsey Graham ( SC ) , the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee , which handles Supreme Court nominees , embraced hypocrisy .
The two old pros stopped the Senate from even holding a hearing on President Obama ’ s court appointee , Garland Merrick , when the nomination was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ In effect , McConnell and Graham undermined whatever trust citizens had that Congress will govern fairly and honorably .
That was their first blow to a stable , democratic republic .
The second blow will be landed if the Trump nominee sits on the Supreme Court .
Why ?
Because our nation will move one more step away from being a nation of rational , secular laws , toward a regime ruled by the constraints of religious beliefs .
The Republicans ’ motivation may not be so much an adherence to a moral @ @ @ @ @ @ @ political power .
They ’ ve watched how Donald Trump has obtained and used power .
Now , to be sure , Trump isn ’ t a religious person .
Then again , neither was Elmer Gantry .
But they both used the force of organized religion to get what they wanted .
In Trump ’ s case it was winning votes and elections .
Particularly as he promised to end abortions .
A core of religious voters , consolidated within the evangelical movement and the Catholic Church , believes that women are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ God will punish them .
But the persuasive force of religion is not enough to actually stop women from controlling their own bodies .
These churchgoers need the power of government to stop doctors from safely conducting abortions .
If the religious right can impose laws that stop or constrain that activity , many women will go to non-professional abortionists , who operate in garages or basements .
As was often the case in the 1950s , many will also wind up in an emergency room for botched abortions .
There are politicians @ @ @ @ @ @ @ time for all Americans .
That is a reactionary belief .
It turns the clock way back , unlike conservatives who just don ’ t want it to go forward .
Republicans lead the push to place an anti-abortionist Graham easily won his last three Senate races by double-digit margins .
He had originally been considered a moderate conservative by both Democrats and Republicans .
Initially , he called Donald Trump a “ race-baiting xenophobic bigot , ” but now refers him to as “ my new best friend.
” That may because @ @ @ @ @ @ @ over Hillary Clinton in 2016 .
Currently , Trump leads Joe Biden by 6 % among likely voters in the state .
Meanwhile , Graham is statistically tied with his Democratic challenger , Jaime Harrison in the latest polls .
Just 3 % of voters say they are unsure who they ’ re going to vote for on Nov. 3 .
Graham is borrowing scare tactics from Trump to either pull out more of his base or pull that thin slice of undecideds over to him .
Using Trumpian hyperbole , Graham calls @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is in fact a moderate .
Fanning the flames of fear , Graham said that if the Democratic Party controls Congress and the Presidency , “ They ’ ll pack the Supreme Court.
” However , with 15 of the last 19 justices having been appointed by Republicans , we actually have a court that ’ s been packed with Republican appointees .
Both Graham and Trump need to pull out their strongest base of supporters : the white evangelicals .
Trump received 82 % of this group ’ s vote in 2016 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ him today .
Evangelicals make up 35 % of South Carolina ’ s population .
They are the most anti-abortion of all major religious faiths .
Sixty-three percent believe that abortion should be illegal .
Getting a committed jurist on the Supreme Court who holds that belief could only help Graham with those voters .
McConnell is not in as tight a race as Graham .
A poll in the summer showed him ahead of his Democratic opponent , former Marine fighter pilot Amy McGrath , by only a couple of percentage points @ @ @ @ @ @ @ month shows him leading by 15 points .
McConnell has hit McGrath with TV ads claiming that she supports abortion in the ninth month of pregnancy .
This twists something McGrath did say : “ I don ’ t think government should be involved in making a decision on a woman ’ s body.
” Those who demand anti-abortion laws often interpret a response like McGrath ’ s as supporting late term abortions .
The most recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report found that only 1.2 % of abortions in the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ weeks of pregnancy .
To counter McConnell ’ s accusation , McGrath made clear that she is “ opposed to late term abortions ( except when it comes to issues of the life of the mother ) .
” Ardent anti-abortion evangelicals make up 49 % of Kentucky ’ s population .
So McConnell ’ s ads may soon be presenting him as the person who confirmed enough reactionary justices to the Supreme Court to finally revoke if not practically stop access to abortions .
Mitt Romney ( R-UT ) , who is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ called a moderate conservative , showed that he too wants to get back to the abortion prohibitions of the ’ 50s .
Although he supported Roe v. Wade in 1994 , he ’ s moved since his first presidential bid in 2007 to believing “ we should overturn Roe v. Wade.
” He once said he would be “ delighted ” to sign a bill as president that would outlaw abortion .
Although Utah has relatively few evangelicals , 62 % of Utah'sresidents are Mormons .
They are even more anti-abortion than evangelicals @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to abortion .
Romeny ’ s term is not up this November , but supporting Trump ’ s nominee will certainly help him win re-election .
Many Republican Senators are from states with enough evangelicals to swing almost any statewide election — if they come out to vote .
According to the Cook Political Report , two Senate Republicans are in toss up elections in states with high percentages of evangelicals : Sen. Joni Ernst in Iowa ( 28 % ) and Sen. Thom Tillis in North Carolina ( 35 % ) .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ in chucking their previous statements to oppose appointing a new justice in a presidential election year .
Now they want the new Supreme Court vacancy filled before the Nov. 3 election .
They are counting votes and they know whose votes to get out in their state .
Two senators in particular , whom The Hill describes as “ two rising GOP stars with White House aspirations ” are competing to be the leading executioner of the Roe v. Wade decision .
Senator Josh Hawley ( R-Mo . )
wants explicit evidence from @ @ @ @ @ @ @ just plain wrong .
Sen. Tom Cotton ( R-Ark . )
just wants to get rid of the decision .
Both come from states with a significant evangelical voter base .
Thirty-six percent of Missouri residents are evangelicals .
In Arkansas , the percentage is 46 % .
Cotton is seen as a solid winner for his re-election , and Hawley is not up this fall .
But if they do aspire to the White House , Trump showed them the power the white evangelicals have to help them capture the Republican Party @ @ @ @ @ @ @ rush to take the politically correct religious position on abortion , they might just lose control of the Senate .
It ’ s not a stretch to see how likely that is , when you look at how the numbers add up .
First , Trump , may not be much help to Senators in retaining their seats .
Although he ’ s repeatedly accused the media and the Democrats of being the enemy of America , many voters may consider him to be .
His job approval rating at this point in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ all of his recent predecessors except George H.W .
Bush .
And hisdisapproval rating is not statistically different from Bush ’ s , being about 59 % .
Bush lost his re-election by a margin of 5.6 points to Bill Clinton .
Joe Biden has held a steady 6-point lead over Trump in polling of likely voters since February .
A major hurdle that the Republicans face is that not a heck of a lot of folks are undecided on who to vote for .
At this point in the election cycle , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ still has not decided how to vote .
This year , it ’ s less than half that : about 6 % .
The push by Republican Senators to seat an anti-abortion judge could swing the sliver of still-undecided women and men over to Biden ’ s camp .
Protecting the right to have an abortion has been supported by the majority of Americans for over two decades .
Reviewing its polling data , the Gallup Organization found that at no time since 1993 has less than 50 % of the populace supported @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” Currently , the figure stands at 50 % .
Over that same time period , support for abortion as “ legal in all circumstances ” has ranged between 21 % and 33 % .
Today , the number is 29 % .
Meanwhile , those who support making abortion “ illegal in any circumstance ” has floated between 12 % and 22 % .
It currently stands at only 20 % .
Senate Republicans are demanding that the next Supreme Court justice side with the smallest slice of the populace on the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ all Americans be defined by a religious minority ?
Under our democracy , every religion is protected to practice freely .
But that does not give churches the right to define how others must behave .
Despite this , Republican Senators making a play for evangelical , Mormon , and conservative Catholic votes can not afford to upset those faithful few .
If Republican Senators wish to keep their jobs , they need Fox News watchers to see them trying to get Trump ’ s nominee , federal judge Amy Coney Barrett , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
However , Sen. Lisa Murkowski ( R-Alaska ) , has stated that any justice who says “ I believe that Roe v. Wade should be overturned , ” should be disqualified .
She argues that “ It ’ s not just on abortion .
It ’ s on anything that could be pending before the court like that.
” Could that simple civics argument sway a couple of Republicans that government and religion should not be commingled on the Supreme Court ?
There is some irony that the Democratic Party — the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ easy-going liberals — may have nothing to play but the “ fear ” card .
You know , the one that Trump slams on the podium in every speech he gives .
But the fear is real this time , if the Republican Party succeeds in establishing the most reactionary Supreme Court since the Dred Scott decision of 1857 .
That cruel ruling basically said to a freed slave in the North , you are still someone ’ s property and you are still a slave if you go back to the South @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to Abraham Lincoln winning the Presidency .
Those 19th-century Supreme Court judges could be considered “ constitutionalist , ” because the Constitution did not recognize slaves as citizens with rights .
Just as it does not explicitly recognize women having the right to access abortion .
Barrett is already being hailed as a “ constitutionalist ” jurist .
This time , it will be a Supreme Court telling all women that they have to conform to the morals of a religion they may not belong to .
The state will now enforce those @ @ @ @ @ @ @ also be a Supreme Court that makes working families lose their newly acquired health coverage .
Trump ’ s new appointee will likely vote to pull the plug on the coverage provided by the Affordable Care Act .
Now , millions could once again face financial ruin paying medical bills .
Even though Trump promised more than three years ago to provide a new health plan that would be much better , he has provided nothing .
These are fearful living conditions to return to .
The Democrats will certainly highlight them to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ moving parts as Election Day approaches .
No one really knows what will determine the outcome .
What is certain is that the Republican Party , with its Freedom Caucus in the lead , has declared that our highest court in the land must not allow women the freedom to decide how they can live .
And , that ’ s how you Make America Great Again ?
Nick Licata is author of Becoming A Citizen Activist , and has served 5 terms on the Seattle City Council , named progressive municipal official @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and is founding board chair of Local Progress , a national network of 1,000 progressive municipal officials .
Subscribe to Licata ’ s newsletter Citizenship Politics .

Senate Republicans discard their principles and rally religious,
anti-abortion voters to re-elect them.
In Republicans’ rush to appoint a new justice to the Supreme Court, the first casualty was their prior commitment to honor the will of the people. Both Senator Mitch McConnell (KY), who is the majority leader in charge of the Senate calendar, and Lindsey Graham (SC), the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which handles Supreme Court nominees, embraced hypocrisy. The two old pros stopped the Senate from even holding a hearing on President Obama’s court appointee, Garland Merrick, when the nomination was eight months before a presidential election.
In effect, McConnell and Graham undermined whatever trust citizens had that Congress will govern fairly and honorably. That was their first blow to a stable, democratic republic. The second blow will be landed if the Trump nominee sits on the Supreme Court. Why? Because our nation will move one more step away from being a nation of rational, secular laws, toward a regime ruled by the constraints of religious beliefs.
The Republicans’ motivation may not be so much an adherence to a moral doctrine as a personal interest in maintaining political power. They’ve watched how Donald Trump has obtained and used power. Now, to be sure, Trump isn’t a religious person. Then again, neither was Elmer Gantry. But they both used the force of organized religion to get what they wanted. In Trump’s case it was winning votes and elections. Particularly as he promised to end abortions.
A core of religious voters, consolidated within the evangelical movement and the Catholic Church, believes that women are sinners if they have an abortion. God will punish them. But the persuasive force of religion is not enough to actually stop women from controlling their own bodies. These churchgoers need the power of government to stop doctors from safely conducting abortions.
If the religious right can impose laws that stop or constrain that activity, many women will go to non-professional abortionists, who operate in garages or basements. As was often the case in the 1950s, many will also wind up in an emergency room for botched abortions. There are politicians who champion that era as the best time for all Americans. That is a reactionary belief. It turns the clock way back, unlike conservatives who just don’t want it to go forward.
Republicans lead the push to place an anti-abortionist
on the Supreme Court
Let’s examine Graham and McConnell’s re-election races.
Graham easily won his last three Senate races by double-digit margins. He had originally been considered a moderate conservative by both Democrats and Republicans. Initially, he called Donald Trump a “race-baiting xenophobic bigot,” but now refers him to as “my new best friend.” That may because Trump won South Carolina by 14% over Hillary Clinton in 2016.
Currently, Trump leads Joe Biden by 6% among likely voters in the state. Meanwhile, Graham is statistically tied with his Democratic challenger, Jaime Harrison in the latest polls. Just 3% of voters say they are unsure who they’re going to vote for on Nov. 3. Graham is borrowing scare tactics from Trump to either pull out more of his base or pull that thin slice of undecideds over to him.
Using Trumpian hyperbole, Graham calls Harrison a radical, when the Democrat is in fact a moderate. Fanning the flames of fear, Graham said that if the Democratic Party controls Congress and the Presidency, “They’ll pack the Supreme Court.” However, with 15 of the last 19 justices having been appointed by Republicans, we actually have a court that’s been packed with Republican appointees.
Both Graham and Trump need to pull out their strongest base of supporters: the white evangelicals. Trump received 82% of this group’s vote in 2016, and that same percentage still support him today. Evangelicals make up 35% of South Carolina’s population. They are the most anti-abortion of all major religious faiths. Sixty-three percent believe that abortion should be illegal. Getting a committed jurist on the Supreme Court who holds that belief could only help Graham with those voters.
McConnell is not in as tight a race as Graham. A poll in the summer showed him ahead of his Democratic opponent, former Marine fighter pilot Amy McGrath, by only a couple of percentage points. But the most recent poll this month shows him leading by 15 points. McConnell has hit McGrath with TV ads claiming that she supports abortion in the ninth month of pregnancy. This twists something McGrath did say: “I don’t think government should be involved in making a decision on a woman’s body.”
Those who demand anti-abortion laws often interpret a response like McGrath’s as supporting late term abortions. The most recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report found that only 1.2% of abortions in the U.S. were performed at or after 21 weeks of pregnancy. To counter McConnell’s accusation, McGrath made clear that she is “opposed to late term abortions (except when it comes to issues of the life of the mother).”
Ardent anti-abortion evangelicals make up 49% of Kentucky’s population. So McConnell’s ads may soon be presenting him as the person who confirmed enough reactionary justices to the Supreme Court to finally revoke if not practically stop access to abortions.
Mitt Romney (R-UT), who is at times a Trump critic and was called a moderate conservative, showed that he too wants to get back to the abortion prohibitions of the ’50s. Although he supported Roe v. Wade in 1994, he’s moved since his first presidential bid in 2007 to believing “we should overturn Roe v. Wade.” He once said he would be “delighted” to sign a bill as president that would outlaw abortion. Although Utah has relatively few evangelicals, 62% of Utah'sresidents are Mormons. They are even more anti-abortion than evangelicals, with 70% of Mormons opposed to abortion. Romeny’s term is not up this November, but supporting Trump’s nominee will certainly help him win re-election.
Many Republican Senators are from states with enough evangelicals to swing almost any statewide election — if they come out to vote. According to the Cook Political Report, two Senate Republicans are in toss up elections in states with high percentages of evangelicals: Sen. Joni Ernst in Iowa (28%) and Sen. Thom Tillis in North Carolina (35%). Both of them joined Mitchell and Graham in chucking their previous statements to oppose appointing a new justice in a presidential election year. Now they want the new Supreme Court vacancy filled before the Nov. 3 election. They are counting votes and they know whose votes to get out in their state.
Two senators in particular, whom The Hill describes as “two rising GOP stars with White House aspirations” are competing to be the leading executioner of the Roe v. Wade decision. Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) wants explicit evidence from a nominee that Roe v. Wade was just plain wrong. Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) just wants to get rid of the decision. Both come from states with a significant evangelical voter base. Thirty-six percent of Missouri residents are evangelicals. In Arkansas, the percentage is 46%. Cotton is seen as a solid winner for his re-election, and Hawley is not up this fall. But if they do aspire to the White House, Trump showed them the power the white evangelicals have to help them capture the Republican Party’s nomination.
An unintended consequence may unfold
for the Republican Senate
As the Republicans rush to take the politically correct religious position on abortion, they might just lose control of the Senate. It’s not a stretch to see how likely that is, when you look at how the numbers add up.
First, Trump, may not be much help to Senators in retaining their seats. Although he’s repeatedly accused the media and the Democrats of being the enemy of America, many voters may consider him to be. His job approval rating at this point in his presidency is lower than that of all of his recent predecessors except George H.W. Bush. And hisdisapproval rating is not statistically different from Bush’s, being about 59%. Bush lost his re-election by a margin of 5.6 points to Bill Clinton. Joe Biden has held a steady 6-point lead over Trump in polling of likely voters since February.
A major hurdle that the Republicans face is that not a heck of a lot of folks are undecided on who to vote for. At this point in the election cycle, ususally around 15% of the population still has not decided how to vote. This year, it’s less than half that: about 6%.
The push by Republican Senators to seat an anti-abortion judge could swing the sliver of still-undecided women and men over to Biden’s camp. Protecting the right to have an abortion has been supported by the majority of Americans for over two decades.
Reviewing its polling data, the Gallup Organization found that at no time since 1993 has less than 50% of the populace supported abortion as “legal with some restrictions.” Currently, the figure stands at 50%. Over that same time period, support for abortion as “legal in all circumstances” has ranged between 21% and 33%. Today, the number is 29%. Meanwhile, those who support making abortion “illegal in any circumstance” has floated between 12% and 22%. It currently stands at only 20%.
Senate Republicans are demanding that the next Supreme Court justice side with the smallest slice of the populace on the abortion issue. Will the freedoms of all Americans be defined by a religious minority?
Under our democracy, every religion is protected to practice freely. But that does not give churches the right to define how others must behave. Despite this, Republican Senators making a play for evangelical, Mormon, and conservative Catholic votes cannot afford to upset those faithful few. If Republican Senators wish to keep their jobs, they need Fox News watchers to see them trying to get Trump’s nominee, federal judge Amy Coney Barrett, to commit to overturning Roe v. Wade.
However, Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), has stated that any justice who says “I believe that Roe v. Wade should be overturned,” should be disqualified. She argues that “It’s not just on abortion. It’s on anything that could be pending before the court like that.” Could that simple civics argument sway a couple of Republicans that government and religion should not be commingled on the Supreme Court?
There is some irony that the Democratic Party — the party of Hope, the party of easy-going liberals — may have nothing to play but the “fear” card. You know, the one that Trump slams on the podium in every speech he gives.
But the fear is real this time, if the Republican Party succeeds in establishing the most reactionary Supreme Court since the Dred Scott decision of 1857. That cruel ruling basically said to a freed slave in the North, you are still someone’s property and you are still a slave if you go back to the South. It precipitated the conditions that led to Abraham Lincoln winning the Presidency. Those 19th-century Supreme Court judges could be considered “constitutionalist,” because the Constitution did not recognize slaves as citizens with rights. Just as it does not explicitly recognize women having the right to access abortion. Barrett is already being hailed as a “constitutionalist” jurist.
This time, it will be a Supreme Court telling all women that they have to conform to the morals of a religion they may not belong to. The state will now enforce those religious views on everyone.
It will also be a Supreme Court that makes working families lose their newly acquired health coverage. Trump’s new appointee will likely vote to pull the plug on the coverage provided by the Affordable Care Act. Now, millions could once again face financial ruin paying medical bills. Even though Trump promised more than three years ago to provide a new health plan that would be much better, he has provided nothing.
These are fearful living conditions to return to. The Democrats will certainly highlight them to the voters.
There are still many moving parts as Election Day approaches. No one really knows what will determine the outcome. What is certain is that the Republican Party, with its Freedom Caucus in the lead, has declared that our highest court in the land must not allow women the freedom to decide how they can live.
And, that’s how you Make America Great Again?
Nick Licata is author of Becoming A Citizen Activist, and
has served 5 terms on the Seattle City Council, named progressive municipal official of the year by The Nation, and is founding board chair of Local Progress, a national network of 1,000 progressive municipal officials.
Subscribe to Licata’s newsletter Citizenship Politics.


dailykos--2020-09-27--Trump’s Merry-Go-Round broke down

Trump’s Merry-Go-Round broke down

Funny thing about this song ... once you hear it you can ’ t seem to get it out of @ @ @ @ @ know the tune to this song…If not , the tune is attached below .
And @ @ @ @ @ As his Merry-Go-Round went And it made the darndest sound , The lights went low @ @ @ @ @ Ohhh !
” While his Merry-Go-Round went With Covid oh one nine Trump can not @ @ @ @ @ !
And his Merry-Go-Round goes Soon comes the day , shoo him away As our @ @ @ @ @ are one !
And Trump is just no fun !
So all stay tuned… are @ @ @ @ @ Donald Trump is just a clown , let ’ s stop this round and round @ @ @ @ @ , kick out that goat SO WE CAN SING THAT ...

Funny thing about this song...once you hear it you can’t seem to get it out of your head.
You all know the tune to this song…If not, the tune is attached below.
Trump’s Merry-Go-Round broke down
Trump’s Merry-Go-Round broke down
And we went round and round
Each time he’d miss, he’d steal a kiss
As his Merry-Go-Round went
Um-pah-pah, um-pah-pah
Um-pah! Um-pah! Um-pah-pah-pah!
Trump’s Merry-Go-Round broke down
And it made the darndest sound,
The lights went low, we all said “Ohhh!”
While his Merry-Go-Round went
Um-pah-pah, um-pah-pah
Um-pah! Um-pah! Um-pah-pah-pah!
Oh! it’s not a wonderful time
With Covid oh one nine
Trump cannot read while we all bleed!
And his Merry-Go-Round goes
Um-pah-pah, um-pah-pah
Um-pah! Um-pah! Um-pah-pah-pah!
His cronies fall like flies
While Donald tells more lies
Soon comes the day, shoo him away
As our Merry-Go-Round goes
Um-pah-pah, um-pah-pah
Um-pah! Um-pah! Um-pah-pah-pah!
GOOD PEOPLE we are one!
And Trump is just no fun!
So all stay tuned… are we lost or doomed?
Cus’ his Merry-Go-Round goes
Um-pah-pah, um-pah-pah
Um-pah! Um-pah! Um-pah-pah-pah!
Donald Trump is just a clown, let’s stop this round and round!
Get out the VOTE, kick out that goat
SO WE CAN SING THAT...
UM-PAH-PAH, UM-PAH-PAH
UM-PAH! UM-PAH! UM-PAH-PAH-PAH!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XwiQVKOrejo&fbclid=IwAR3KZUQUcwZxO_ju9A2NEWva5FNGwXyh9ukT7XLBRlro0FwNFpA-SzChaPE


dailykos--2020-09-27--72% of Justices appointed before Trump supported Roe.  Does Barrett accept any limits on her power?

I ’ d like to crowd source reaction to the following proposed list of questions — because we do n't have much time to prepare for confirmation hearings .
The questions are not said with hope of derailing the nominee , but recognizing ( very much so ) that the confirmation hearings are part of a larger political debate/audience and Dems need to make the most of it .
These questions center on .
They purposefully do not ask for a specific answer on how the nominee would rule on a subsequent challenge ( because she will easily demur ) @ @ @ @ @ @ @ views on the role of precedent ( or stare decisis ) and , more fundamentally , on what limits , if any , she believes to exist on the current Justices ’ authority .
Broadly , the questions turn on two key themes : ( i ) is nominee Amy Comey Barrett aware of any example where a previous Supreme Court recognized a personal liberty right and then a subsequent Supreme Court took that liberty right away from citizens ?
, and ( ii ) if a precedent concerning a personal liberty right @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the bipartisan , overwhelming majority of prior Justices , does that require a Constitutional amendment to overturn ( not a new , transitory S. Ct. majority ) ?
Q .
In 1973 the Supreme Court recognized a personal liberty right of women to obtain an abortion .
As just one example year , in 2012 , the U.S. had 75.4 million women who were in their child bearing years and thus protected by the liberty right recognized by .
So , ’ s constitutional protections have applied to hundreds of millions of women @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of a single prior instance where the Supreme Court recognized a personal liberty right and then a subsequent Supreme Court took that liberty right away ?
What Constitutional authority are you aware of for the Supreme Court to take away a personal liberty right recognized for decades ?
[ I wrote about this during the Kavanaugh nomination . ]
Q .
As to personal liberty rights , I want to question you about your understanding of the role of precedent and the limitations on the power of any one Supreme Court — which @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Again , using as a background .
As to : ( put these on a visual ) : • recognized a personal liberty right under the Constitution .
• The core holding of has been repeatedly affirmed .
• was decided and reaffirmed by Justices on a bipartisan basis .
• Prior to this administration ( where has not been directly challenged ) , has been decided and reaffirmed during the term of 21 Supreme Court Justices .
• Out of those 21 Justices , approximately 72 % have explicitly ruled in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ( 15 out of 21 Justices ) Q .
Again , with that background , are you aware of any instance where one Supreme Court took away a personal liberty right protecting hundreds of millions of people over decades ( and with bipartisan support ) ?
Q .
Please explain how each factor listed above would or would not weigh against reversing such a decision ?
Q .
Do you believe that any transient 5 vote majority can overrule a 47 year old Supreme Court precedent with express support of 72 % of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ what basis ?
With what limitations ?
Q .
KEY : You have written previously about the force of prior precedent .
In this example , we have an overwhelming majority decision , recognizing a personal liberty right , reaffirmed repeatedly , on a bipartisan basis , for over 45 years , affecting hundreds of millions of people in the past and countless more in the future , on the most personal basis , that has been supported by approximately 72 % of the previous Justices .
At this point , do you @ @ @ @ @ @ @ need to pass a Constitutional amendment , rather than assemble a transient Supreme Court majority ?
— If not , how is your conception of the Supreme Court not acting as an ad hoc , unauthorized “ Constitutional Convention ” ?
___ How is your view consistent with democracy ?
How can the Supreme Court ’ s legitimacy survive such a view more than a few years ?
____ Why bother to have a separate Constitutional amendment process ?
Thanks .
I tried to write the questions carefully but please edit .
And @ @ @ @ @ @ @ this matters or she will lie or dodge .
We are going to have hearings .
The hearings are going to be part of the larger political discussion ( for many years ) .
The goal is not always to have an unrealistic “ You ca n't handle the truth ” moment .
Some of the goal is to force the nominee , on the spot , under oath , to answer uncomfortable questions — and then uses those answers in the broader and subsequent political fight .

I’d like to crowd source reaction to the following proposed list of questions — because we don't have much time to prepare for confirmation hearings.
The questions are not said with hope of derailing the nominee, but recognizing (very much so) that the confirmation hearings are part of a larger political debate/audience and Dems need to make the most of it.
These questions center on Roe v. Wade . They purposefully do not ask for a specific answer on how the nominee would rule on a subsequent Roe challenge (because she will easily demur), but instead ask questions concerning her views on the role of precedent (or stare decisis) and, more fundamentally, on what limits, if any, she believes to exist on the current Justices’ authority.
Broadly, the questions turn on two key themes: (i) is nominee Amy Comey Barrett aware of any example where a previous Supreme Court recognized a personal liberty right and then a subsequent Supreme Court took that liberty right away from citizens?, and (ii) if a precedent concerning a personal liberty right is reaffirmed for decades, and by the bipartisan, overwhelming majority of prior Justices, does that require a Constitutional amendment to overturn (not a new, transitory S. Ct. majority)?
Importance of a Personal Liberty Right Precedent
Q. In 1973 the Supreme Court recognized a personal liberty right of women to obtain an abortion.
As just one example year, in 2012, the U.S. had 75.4 million women who were in their child bearing years and thus protected by the liberty right recognized by Roe . So, Roe ’s constitutional protections have applied to hundreds of millions of women over 47 years.
Are you aware of a single prior instance where the Supreme Court recognized a personal liberty right and then a subsequent Supreme Court took that liberty right away?
What Constitutional authority are you aware of for the Supreme Court to take away a personal liberty right recognized for decades? [I wrote about this during the Kavanaugh nomination.]
Role of Precedent/Outer Limits On Justice’s Authority
Q. As to personal liberty rights, I want to question you about your understanding of the role of precedent and the limitations on the power of any one Supreme Court — which you have written about and discussed publicly.
Again, using Roe v. Wade as a background. As to Roe : (put these on a visual):
Roe was decided 47 years ago.
was decided 47 years ago. Roe was decided by a 7-2 majority.
was decided by a 7-2 majority. Roe recognized a personal liberty right under the Constitution.
recognized a personal liberty right under the Constitution. The core holding of Roe has been repeatedly affirmed.
has been repeatedly affirmed. Roe was decided and reaffirmed by Justices on a bipartisan basis.
was decided and reaffirmed by Justices on a bipartisan basis. Prior to this administration (where Roe has not been directly challenged), Roe has been decided and reaffirmed during the term of 21 Supreme Court Justices.
has not been directly challenged), has been decided and reaffirmed during the term of 21 Supreme Court Justices. Out of those 21 Justices, approximately 72% have explicitly ruled in favor of Roe ’s core holding. (15 out of 21 Justices)
Q. Again, with that background, are you aware of any instance where one Supreme Court took away a personal liberty right protecting hundreds of millions of people over decades (and with bipartisan support)?
Q. Please explain how each factor listed above would or would not weigh against reversing such a decision?
Q. Do you believe that any transient 5 vote majority can overrule a 47 year old Supreme Court precedent with express support of 72% of the previous Supreme Court Justices? On what basis? With what limitations?
Q. KEY: You have written previously about the force of prior precedent. In this example, we have an overwhelming majority decision, recognizing a personal liberty right, reaffirmed repeatedly, on a bipartisan basis, for over 45 years, affecting hundreds of millions of people in the past and countless more in the future, on the most personal basis, that has been supported by approximately 72% of the previous Justices.
At this point, do you agree that opponents of such a decision need to pass a Constitutional amendment, rather than assemble a transient Supreme Court majority?
— If not, how is your conception of the Supreme Court not acting as an ad hoc, unauthorized “Constitutional Convention”?
___ How is your view consistent with democracy? How can the Supreme Court’s legitimacy survive such a view more than a few years?
____ Why bother to have a separate Constitutional amendment process?
Thanks. I tried to write the questions carefully but please edit. And — please don't say none of this matters or she will lie or dodge. We are going to have hearings. The hearings are going to be part of the larger political discussion (for many years). The goal is not always to have an unrealistic “You can't handle the truth” moment. Some of the goal is to force the nominee, on the spot, under oath, to answer uncomfortable questions — and then uses those answers in the broader and subsequent political fight.
Thanks!


dailykos--2020-09-28--PASSIONATE INTENSITY:  A Detective Serial

We 're on the home lap of the most important election in our history , except perhaps for the ones in 1792 and 1936 .
This is for all those whoc ould stand a little something to read during the long quarantine , the sickness of both the corona virus and racism and fascism within our nation , the deep moral sickness which threatens to destroy us .
This is intended as a serial .
I will try to update it at least twice a week .
It may perhaps best be considered as a tale from an alternate world @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for the coronavirus—no one can yet do it justice—and the fact ( as we hope ) that a vicious and ignorant and completely despicable man has just stolen , by means of obvious illegality , his second straight election .
It 's also intended as frankly partisan , at least so far as the values of generosity , mutual respect , honor , courage , truth , curiosity , respect for the facts of the matter , a sense of humor , and equal justice for all are concerned .
If you want @ @ @ @ @ @ @ share it as you desire ( short of claiming that you wrote it yourself or know who did ) .
The best lack all conviction , while the worst Let 's keep it that way .
Agamemnon Bilaly Chandresakar was a cop , and a good one .
He had spent most of his professional life in law enforcement .
He was Indian by descent , a smallish slender dark man ( five eight and a half in his shoes ) with a luxuriant and well-tended mustache .
His extended family owned a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ his parents had come over from India to run the one in Prentiss , Mississippi .
His parents had learned English , but they had never lost their accent .
He himself had been born and raised in Mississippi , however , and had a deep southern drawl which always surprised those who had never met him before .
He first wore the uniform in Prentiss .
It was n't because many of the other cops were racist .
He had refused to complain about the racism he himself had experienced .
He @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , that racism is invariably stupid , and he was not interested in talking about stupid people .
Racism is stupid because it ignores the fact that all human beings are members of the same family .
The glory of being human is that there is no end to what you can learn about being human .
Learning about being human is , basically , learning .
Learning is what humans are good at , better at than any other species .
You can not learn about other humans by hating them orby @ @ @ @ @ @ @ good cops in Mississippi back then .
We must always be careful to note the good ones .
The bigots scream if you fail to note that there are some good ones .
Having so noted , surely we may observe as a matter of simple fact—a fact that every black person was well aware of—that there might have been at least 2 or 3 cops in Mississippi who were little better than racist bullies with guns ?
Bill himself had been called a nigger to his face .
By another cop , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ whey out of ( off-duty ) .
He was small , but Bill did n't take shit from anybody .
The reason he left Prentiss was that he fell in love .
This was the year that Prentiss , although it was a small town , had the freakishly good football team which went on to place second in the state , losing only to Mendenhall in the title game .
Bill , who was already , at 21 , a policeman , and who was also a football fan , went to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Andrea Bilbo Lukovicz was a senior cheerleader , an inch taller than he was , blonde , and the most beautiful woman he had ever seen .
It was love at first sight .
After the game he went down from the stands , introduced himself , and asked if he could call her .
Bill had white teeth , a killer smile , and the merriest eyes she had ever seen .
( After decades as a cop , those merry eyes had developed a web of wrinkles , the wrinkles @ @ @ @ @ @ @ after 22 happy years together , Andrea died of renal failure , the wrinkles deepened and grew more complex .
But the eyes within the wrinkles stayed merry . )
Not only that , but he was an older man ( well , only 3 years older ) , and he had a mustache .
In Mississippi ( and Tennessee too ) , in that day and age , mustaches meant sophistication .
She said yes .
The upshot was that he transferred to the Memphis P.D.
, taking a small apartment not @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was determined to go to college , but she went local , to the University of Memphis .
They dated the for the whole of her undergraduate career , neither of them seeing anyone else , and as soon as she graduated , they married .
She went on to take a Masters in Chemistry at the University of Arizona .
He went with her , and found a job with the Tucson P. D. , where he was promoted to sergeant .
After that , they moved around .
He took and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
He had offers .
He could have become captain of his own department in three different cities , but he knew himself , and he hated politics , and he liked being a detective .
Eventually they wound up in Washington , D. C. , where she became attached to forensics ( but was not , thank God , a coroner ) in the same department he worked for as a detective lieutenant .
They had ten good years in Washington , and then she got sick .
And then she died @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as a detective , but the work meant less and less to him .
Then Pludd stole the presidency .
Firs tBlacklock .
Then Bayberry .
Then a complement of low-lyingundergrowth , shrubbery as one might say .
And now this creep .
Moran.T .
Pludd .
Who had just recently stolen his second straight election and threatened to rule forever , or at least for the maximum five or six years a person in his degree of debilitude can survive .
Trouble was , he would surely go , and probably soon @ @ @ @ @ @ @ leaving the traitors and bullies and Nazis in charge behind him.. Bilaly thought of him personally as “ Pluddles.
” .
He had never , either in conversation with anyone else , or his own thinking , ever referred to Pludd as “ President.
” He would refer to “ the man in the White House , ” or “ the pseudo-Potus , ” but he would never use the word “ president.
” A meaningless bit of resistance , probably .
No .
He would not accept that .
Civilization was meanings @ @ @ @ @ @ @ more .
The phrase had become little more than a curse-word .
An entire arm of the government had made it clear they cared nothing for the constitution , or the right of the people to assemble and protest , or the freedom of the press .
An entire house of Congress , dominated by a single faithless and treacherous party , made it clear that all they cared about was money and power .
They mocked Pludd and his base behind their backs .
They laughed at the fools who fell for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
They felt superior to them .
They were using the fools to get what they wanted .
They laughed all the way to the bank , as the saying goes .
We wo n't use the actual name of the party .
We will simply describe the behavior , and let the reader decide for himself or herself if a particular party is intended .
( Though for convenience , we will refer to them as henceforward as Demagogs . )
The party 's name had always been a curse-word for the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for the vulnerable , the “ losers.
” The poor knew that the police were usually little more than the enforcement arm of an increasingly unbenevolent upper class .
The blacks knew that “ justice ” was upper-class code for racism .
They knew they could be shot in the back and nothing would be done to their murderers .
Bill was a cop .
He knew that worse crime occurred in the ghettos .
He knew he was more likely to be shot by a black man he pulled over than a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ why .
He understood the cops who did n't .
Most people ca n't parse out the complex relationships .
You try to tell them how an unfair society puts the squeeze on a certain set of people and then blames the people for the results and never mind what set of people you did that to there would have been the same results and all they hear is “ those people are more dangerous.
” The cops were often brave men and women , deeply heroic , self-sacrificing even .
But absolute @ @ @ @ @ @ @ be , to live .
It took more than most people had to be a cop .
Cops needed to be a whole lot braver than most people could be .
In return they needed things to be clear-cut .
If you tried to tell them about sensitive community policing they were sure you were trying to get them killed .
For some reason , Bill was outside all that .
Maybe it was his Indian heritage , alien .
He did n't know .
But for him , all the platitudes of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ be true .
If they were n't , then nothing mattered .
If they did n't matter , then he did n't matter .
So Bill had been able to keep up the camaraderie for a while , be just one of the boys , but invariably there would come a moment that he could n't avoid or pretend to feel the way they did about .
They had respected him , he was pretty sure .
They knew they could count on him to have their backs under gunfire .
But he @ @ @ @ @ @ @ He was liberal-leaning .
He had been able to get away with it for a while , but now , some of the other cops had begun to avoid his company .
Now he was counted among the “ others.
” He was counted among the poor ( referred to by the rich as “ the lazy , ” though most of them worked harder than any money manager had ever even imagined working ) .
He was counted among the brown people , the “ queers , ” the Mexicans , the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , by upbringing , a Southern Baptist , not a Hindu , although it had been a long time since he had seen any point in going to church ) .
By this time , he had made his thirty ; he was eligible for his pension .
So he retired from police work , and set up as a private detective .
A consulting private detective .
He did n't do skip-traces .
He did n't do divorce work , going around with a camera , digging up dirt on soon-to-be ex-spouses @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
He got into his hobbies , which were Shakespeare and mathematics .
His undergraduate degree was in math , but he had gotten lost at calculus , but he was still a big fan .
He loved using the computer , too .
He followed a blogger known only as “ Numbers , ” by which he apparently meant what he—or she , he had to remind himself—the two mental activities that he or she , she or he , said Americans were most afraid of , mathematics and poetry .
He @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” could refer to poetry , but it still made for fun reading .
He still had contacts in law enforcement .
People high up knew how valuable his mind was .
So he was often called in on cases , given access to the files , the reports , the murder books .
Even crooked cops value an honest one .
Even crooks need somebody they know can be trusted .
So that was how he first got involved with what came to be called , laughably enough , “ The Yates @ @ @ @ @ @ @ rest of the Deep State Destroyers left .
He hated to let all those rabid bigots go , but you could only do so much .
The Doc was a veteran of WWII , having earned a purple heart and a couple of bronze stars .
He had learned to hate Nazis then , and he still did , even if some of them were his lifelong neighbors .
But he had kept his mouth shut .
He had gone along .
He had been waitingf or his moment .
He did n't @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , phone in thei nformation on their next attack or something like that .
Let himself get arrested with the others , so they would never know .
It did n't matter to him whether anybody knew what he stood for .
He knew .
But life—or , I guess you could say death—intervened .
Doc was eighty-two , and vigorous .
The 3-Ds had welcomed him despite his age .
( For some reason , genuine scientific knowledge , the kind that was necessary to arrange massive explosions , for example , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ supremacists . )
It was colon cancer , and he had maybe six months , and he was damned if he planned to spend his last days puking from useless chemical treatments , suffering increasingly intractable pain , and finally kicking off , messily , at best so dim and blasted with pain-killers he hardly knew he was there , just that he was at the center of a vast misery .
When the last of the regular troops left , Doc , who had addressed them ( for the last time , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , went into the back room of the meeting house , where Jim and Diddly Bob and Boremus were waiting to load the truck and wire the blocks—a LOT of blucks—up to the remote detonator .
The newspapers later reported that “ apparent right-wing activists ” —the papers were still too chickenshit to call them what they were , terrorists—had , in the process of attempting to build a bomb , accidentally blown themselves up .
Seven were reported dead .
Doc Winthrop , if he had still been alive , would have @ @ @ @ @ @ @ been higher .
But you did what you could .

We're on the home lap of the most important election in our history, except perhaps for the ones in 1792 and 1936. This is for all those whoc ould stand a little something to read during the long quarantine,the sickness of both the corona virus and racism and fascism within our nation, the deep moral sickness which threatens to destroy us.
This is intended as a serial. I will try to update it at least twice a week. It may perhaps best be considered as a tale from an alternate world, a world much like ours except for the coronavirus—no one can yet do it justice—and the fact (as we hope) that a vicious and ignorant and completely despicable man has just stolen, by means of obvious illegality, his second straight election.
It's also intended as frankly partisan, at least so far as the values of generosity, mutual respect, honor, courage, truth, curiosity, respect for the facts of the matter, a sense of humor, and equal justice for all are concerned.
If you want to use it, use it and share it as you desire (short of claiming that you wrote it yourself or know who did).
-0-
PASSIONATE INTENSITY
A Serial Detective Novel
-0-
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
are full of passionate intensity . . .
--W.B. Yeats, “The Second Coming”
God bless the USA.
God bless our standard of living.
Let's keep it that way.
--Paul Simon, “Have a Good Time”
ONE: OUR HERO
Agamemnon Bilaly Chandresakar was a cop, and a good one. He had spent most of his professional life in law enforcement.
He was Indian by descent, a smallish slender dark man (five eight and a half in his shoes) with a luxuriant and well-tended mustache. His extended family owned a small chain of southern motels, and his parents had come over from India to run the one in Prentiss, Mississippi.
His parents had learned English, but they had never lost their accent. He himself had been born and raised in Mississippi, however, and had a deep southern drawl which always surprised those who had never met him before.
He first wore the uniform in Prentiss.
He didn't stay there long.
It wasn't because many of the other cops were racist.
He had refused to complain about the racism he himself had experienced. He had known, from the very first, that racism is invariably stupid,and he was not interested in talking about stupid people.
Racism is stupid because it ignores the fact that all human beings are members of the same family.
The glory of being human is that there is no end to what you can learn about being human. Learning about being human is, basically,learning. Learning is what humans are good at, better at than any other species. You cannot learn about other humans by hating them orby killing them.
Of course there were good cops in Mississippi back then. We must always be careful to note the good ones. The bigots scream if you fail to note that there are some good ones. Having so noted, surely we may observe as a matter of simple fact—a fact that every black person was well aware of—that there might have been at least 2 or 3 cops in Mississippi who were little better than racist bullies with guns?
Bill himself had been called a nigger to his face.
By another cop, whom he had proceeded to beat the whey out of (off-duty). He was small, but Bill didn't take shit from anybody.
(Everyone called him “Bill.” Apparently it was too difficult, even for friends, to pronounce his given names. He himself preferred Agamemnon.)
The reason he left Prentiss was that he fell in love.
This was the year that Prentiss, although it was a small town, had the freakishly good football team which went on to place second in the state, losing only to Mendenhall in the title game.
Bill,who was already, at 21, a policeman, and who was also a football fan,went to the game to root for his team. Andrea Bilbo Lukovicz was a senior cheerleader, an inch taller than he was, blonde, and the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. It was love at first sight.
After the game he went down from the stands, introduced himself, and asked if he could call her.
Bill had white teeth, a killer smile, and the merriest eyes she had ever seen. (After decades as a cop, those merry eyes had developed a web of wrinkles, the wrinkles of deep sadness; and when, after 22 happy years together, Andrea died of renal failure, the wrinkles deepened and grew more complex. But the eyes within the wrinkles stayed merry.)
Not only that, but he was an older man (well, only 3 years older), and he had a mustache. In Mississippi (and Tennessee too), in that day and age, mustaches meant sophistication. She said yes.
The upshot was that he transferred to the Memphis P.D., taking a small apartment not far from the Peabody Hotel. She was determined to go to college, but she went local, to the University of Memphis. They dated the for the whole of her undergraduate career, neither of them seeing anyone else, and as soon as she graduated, they married.
She went on to take a Masters in Chemistry at the University of Arizona. He went with her, and found a job with the Tucson P. D., where he was promoted to sergeant. After that, they moved around. He took and passed his lieutenant's exam in Baltimore.
He had offers. He could have become captain of his own department in three different cities, but he knew himself, and he hated politics, and he liked being a detective. Eventually they wound up in Washington, D. C., where she became attached to forensics (but was not, thank God, a coroner) in the same department he worked for as a detective lieutenant.
They had ten good years in Washington, and then she got sick. And then she died. For a while he stayed on as a detective, but the work meant less and less to him. Then Pludd stole the presidency. Firs tBlacklock. Then Bayberry. Then a complement of low-lyingundergrowth, shrubbery as one might say. And now this creep. Moran.T. Pludd.
Who had just recently stolen his second straight election and threatened to rule forever, or at least for the maximum five or six years a person in his degree of debilitude can survive. Trouble was, he would surely go, and probably soon, but trouble was, he was leaving the traitors and bullies and Nazis in charge behind him..
Bilaly thought of him personally as “Pluddles.”. He had never, either in conversation with anyone else, or his own thinking, ever referred to Pludd as “President.” He would refer to “the man in the White House,” or “the pseudo-Potus,” but he would never use the word “president.” A meaningless bit of resistance, probably.
No. He would not accept that. Civilization was meanings.
Law and order meant nothing any more. The phrase had become little more than a curse-word. An entire arm of the government had made it clear they cared nothing for the constitution, or the right of the people to assemble and protest, or the freedom of the press. An entire house of Congress, dominated by a single faithless and treacherous party, made it clear that all they cared about was money and power.
They mocked Pludd and his base behind their backs. They laughed at the fools who fell for their bullshit, who voted for them. They felt superior to them. They were using the fools to get what they wanted.
They laughed all the way to the bank, as the saying goes.
We won't use the actual name of the party. We will simply describe the behavior, and let the reader decide for himself or herself if a particular party is intended. (Though for convenience, we will refer to them as henceforward as Demagogs.)
The party's name had always been a curse-word for the poor and the dispossessed, anyway, for the vulnerable, the “losers.” The poor knew that the police were usually little more than the enforcement arm of an increasingly unbenevolent upper class. The blacks knew that “justice” was upper-class code for racism. They knew they could be shot in the back and nothing would be done to their murderers.
Bill was a cop. He knew that worse crime occurred in the ghettos. He knew he was more likely to be shot by a black man he pulled over than a white man. But he also knew why.
He understood the cops who didn't. Most people can't parse out the complex relationships. You try to tell them how an unfair society puts the squeeze on a certain set of people and then blames the people for the results and never mind what set of people you did that to there would have been the same results and all they hear is “those people are more dangerous.”
The cops were often brave men and women, deeply heroic, self-sacrificing even. But absolute judges of probability. They had to be, to live.
It took more than most people had to be a cop. Cops needed to be a whole lot braver than most people could be. In return they needed things to be clear-cut. If you tried to tell them about sensitive community policing they were sure you were trying to get them killed.
For some reason, Bill was outside all that. Maybe it was his Indian heritage, alien. He didn't know. But for him, all the platitudes of the Declaration and the Constitution had to be true.
If they weren't, then nothing mattered.
If they didn't matter, then he didn't matter.
So Bill had been able to keep up the camaraderie for a while, be just one of the boys, but invariably there would come a moment that he couldn't avoid or pretend to feel the way they did about.
They had respected him, he was pretty sure. They knew they could count on him to have their backs under gunfire. But he was different.
He was sentimental. He was liberal-leaning.
He had been able to get away with it for a while, but now, some of the other cops had begun to avoid his company. Now he was counted among the “others.” He was counted among the poor (referred to by the rich as “the lazy,” though most of them worked harder than any money manager had ever even imagined working). He was counted among the brown people, the “queers,” the Mexicans, the Muslims (he was, in fact, by upbringing, a Southern Baptist, not a Hindu,although it had been a long time since he had seen any point in going to church).
By this time, he had made his thirty; he was eligible for his pension. So he retired from police work, and set up as a private detective. A consulting private detective. He didn't do skip-traces. He didn't do divorce work, going around with a camera, digging up dirt on soon-to-be ex-spouses. He didn't do industrial espionage.
He got into his hobbies, which were Shakespeare and mathematics. His undergraduate degree was in math, but he had gotten lost at calculus, but he was still a big fan. He loved using the computer, too.
He followed a blogger known only as “Numbers,” by which he apparently meant what he—or she, he had to remind himself—the two mental activities that he or she, she or he, said Americans were most afraid of, mathematics and poetry. He wasn't quite sure how “Numbers” could refer to poetry, but it still made for fun reading.
He still had contacts in law enforcement. People high up knew how valuable his mind was. So he was often called in on cases, given access to the files, the reports, the murder books. Even crooked cops value an honest one. Even crooks need somebody they know can be trusted.
So that was how he first got involved with what came to be called, laughably enough, “The Yates Murders.”
FirstInterlude:
Doc Winthrop waited till the rest of the Deep State Destroyers left. He hated to let all those rabid bigots go, but you could only do so much. The Doc was a veteran of WWII, having earned a purple heart and a couple of bronze stars. He had learned to hate Nazis then, and he still did, even if some of them were his lifelong neighbors.
But he had kept his mouth shut. He had gone along. He had been waitingf or his moment. He didn't know what he was gonna do, phone in thei nformation on their next attack or something like that. Let himself get arrested with the others, so they would never know. It didn't matter to him whether anybody knew what he stood for. He knew.
But life—or, I guess you could say death—intervened. Doc was eighty-two, and vigorous. The 3-Ds had welcomed him despite his age. (For some reason, genuine scientific knowledge, the kind that was necessary to arrange massive explosions, for example, was at a premium among the white supremacists.)
It was colon cancer, and he had maybe six months, and he was damned if he planned to spend his last days puking from useless chemical treatments, suffering increasingly intractable pain, and finally kicking off, messily, at best so dim and blasted with pain-killers he hardly knew he was there, just that he was at the center of a vast misery.
When the last of the regular troops left, Doc, who had addressed them (for the last time, though they had not known it), went into the back room of the meeting house, where Jim and Diddly Bob and Boremus were waiting to load the truck and wire the blocks—a LOT of blucks—up to the remote detonator.
The newspapers later reported that “apparent right-wing activists”—the papers were still too chickenshit to call them what they were, terrorists—had, in the process of attempting to build a bomb, accidentally blown themselves up. Seven were reported dead.
Doc Winthrop, if he had still been alive, would have wished the toll of dead Nazis had been higher. But you did what you could.


dailykos--2020-09-29--Endorsement: Good over evil in Southwest Florida

Most of us lead our lives in shades of gray .
Daily , we make innumerable decisions of small importance .
Our moral choices are usually of light significance and we select among options of greater or lesser compromise .
But every so often , perhaps only once in a lifetime , we face a choice of great consequence that is stark , uncompromising and absolute , one that has no shades of gray , only black or white .
This is such a time .
As Americans we still have a vote and if the mechanisms of our 244 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that vote will count toward how we ’ re governed and determine our future and that of the nation .
This year the choice is between absolute good and absolute evil .
Donald Trump and what he represents is evil .
Joe Biden and what he represents is good .
Without hesitation or reservation we endorse good .
As has been stated in the past , it has always been the position of The Paradise Progressive that a media outlet covering politics has a duty to endorse .
Following candidates and political developments @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and knowledge that need to be shared with voters .
Whether the outlet is national or local television , online or print or even a simple blog , it is the obligation of independent media in a free society to help voters make an informed choice .
Any endorsement offends some people but that comes with taking a stand on anything .
This year the choice is stark but it is also easy .
The crimes , the corruption , the incompetence , the treason , the delusions , the divisiveness , the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Trump have been amply documented throughout the past three-plus years .
To list them yet again is beyond the scope of this essay .
Reiterating Donald Trump ’ s failings and evildoing is cathartic but unproductive , like being caught in an emotional whirlpool in a sea of hate .
Beyond the ugliness of this vile and vicious person we have also seen the depressing spectacle of what he has done to Americans ’ sense of themselves as decent , moral , independent individuals .
He has imposed a toxic and twisted personality @ @ @ @ @ @ @ once free , proud and brave and needs to be again .
America was founded amidst an age of absolute monarchs who said they ruled by divine right .
The colonists who declared independence in 1776 could see that it was untenable to be governed by the whims and frailties of a single , fallible human being , no matter how much he glorified or exalted himself .
When they won their freedom Americans put their faith in reason , in equality , in a spirit of sensible compromise and most of all @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Those institutions included equal justice under the rule of law , checks and balances on power , and democratic participation .
Their faith worked and was rewarded .
Those beliefs built the greatest , freest , most prosperous nation of any time or place in history .
It was a light to the world , a shining city on a hill , an inspiration to all humanity , the scourge of tyrants , the refuge of huddled masses yearning to breathe free and the last , best hope of earth .
Donald @ @ @ @ @ @ @ most fundamental level .
That ’ s why it ’ s appropriate to put this contest in elemental terms of “ good ” and “ evil.
” It ’ s why it ’ s proper to speak of the “ soul ” of both the nation and its people .
Joe Biden has called this a fight for the nation ’ s soul and he ’ s right .
And lest anyone think that these broad themes don ’ t apply at the local level , one need only look at this summer @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Florida .
In this region ’ s Republican primaries we saw the spectacle of otherwise accomplished and sensible people abandoning reasoned decency and discourse in an effort to imitate Donald Trump .
They spewed insults , fear , prejudice , subservience and flattery to win his favor and that of his most fanatical followers .
They didn ’ t campaign for office ; they worshipped a false god .
This is what Trump will reduce us all to if he ’ s given another term in office .
He has attacked every institutional @ @ @ @ @ @ @ second term he would demolish them .
It also needs to be said that the Party of Trump is not the Republican Party , which once valued individualism , free thought and personal autonomy .
The Trump Party is a mindless cult and , sadly , every Republican candidate has sworn fealty to it .
There is a saying that “ America is great because it is good .
When it ceases to be good it will cease to be great.
” The line is attributed to Alexis de Tocqueville , the famous @ @ @ @ @ @ @ While there ’ s some dispute whether he actually wrote that , even if he didn ’ t he should have , because it ’ s true .
It is one of the cruelest ironies of history that Donald Trump should have as his slogan “ make America great again ” because by leading America so far from goodness he has taken it so far from greatness .
In fact , it really is time to make America great again by making America good again and , as Joe Biden says , “ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ still do that with our votes .
The time is now , while our votes still count and we ’ re still free .
We need to preserve that freedom .
Therefore , here in Southwest Florida , we endorse the entire Democratic ticket and urge voters to vote Democratic straight down the line starting with Joe Biden and Kamala Harris for president and vice president , Cindy Banyai for Congress and the entire slate of Democrats for all state and local offices .
You can see complete lists of Democratic candidates on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the Collier County Democratic website .
This year , like no other in America ’ s history , each of us needs to ensure that evil is defeated .
Each and every one of us needs to make America good again .

The Paradise Progressive Editorial September 27, 2020 4 Minutes
Sept. 27, 2020
Most of us lead our lives in shades of gray.
Daily, we make innumerable decisions of small importance. Our moral choices are usually of light significance and we select among options of greater or lesser compromise.
But every so often, perhaps only once in a lifetime, we face a choice of great consequence that is stark, uncompromising and absolute, one that has no shades of gray, only black or white.
This is such a time.
As Americans we still have a vote and if the mechanisms of our 244 years of self-rule and independence hold, that vote will count toward how we’re governed and determine our future and that of the nation.
This year the choice is between absolute good and absolute evil. Donald Trump and what he represents is evil. Joe Biden and what he represents is good.
Without hesitation or reservation we endorse good.
A dark reign
As has been stated in the past, it has always been the position of The Paradise Progressive that a media outlet covering politics has a duty to endorse. Following candidates and political developments on a regular basis gives journalists insights and knowledge that need to be shared with voters. Whether the outlet is national or local television, online or print or even a simple blog, it is the obligation of independent media in a free society to help voters make an informed choice. Any endorsement offends some people but that comes with taking a stand on anything.
This year the choice is stark but it is also easy.
The crimes, the corruption, the incompetence, the treason, the delusions, the divisiveness, the debaucheries and the failures of Donald John Trump have been amply documented throughout the past three-plus years.
To list them yet again is beyond the scope of this essay. Reiterating Donald Trump’s failings and evildoing is cathartic but unproductive, like being caught in an emotional whirlpool in a sea of hate.
Beyond the ugliness of this vile and vicious person we have also seen the depressing spectacle of what he has done to Americans’ sense of themselves as decent, moral, independent individuals. He has imposed a toxic and twisted personality and mindset on a nation that was once free, proud and brave and needs to be again.
America was founded amidst an age of absolute monarchs who said they ruled by divine right. The colonists who declared independence in 1776 could see that it was untenable to be governed by the whims and frailties of a single, fallible human being, no matter how much he glorified or exalted himself. When they won their freedom Americans put their faith in reason, in equality, in a spirit of sensible compromise and most of all, in institutions embodied in their Constitution. Those institutions included equal justice under the rule of law, checks and balances on power, and democratic participation.
Their faith worked and was rewarded. Those beliefs built the greatest, freest, most prosperous nation of any time or place in history. It was a light to the world, a shining city on a hill, an inspiration to all humanity, the scourge of tyrants, the refuge of huddled masses yearning to breathe free and the last, best hope of earth.
Donald Trump threatens all of that at the most fundamental level. That’s why it’s appropriate to put this contest in elemental terms of “good” and “evil.” It’s why it’s proper to speak of the “soul” of both the nation and its people. Joe Biden has called this a fight for the nation’s soul and he’s right.
And lest anyone think that these broad themes don’t apply at the local level, one need only look at this summer’s political contest here in Southwest Florida.
In this region’s Republican primaries we saw the spectacle of otherwise accomplished and sensible people abandoning reasoned decency and discourse in an effort to imitate Donald Trump. They spewed insults, fear, prejudice, subservience and flattery to win his favor and that of his most fanatical followers. They didn’t campaign for office; they worshipped a false god.
This is what Trump will reduce us all to if he’s given another term in office. He has attacked every institutional pillar of American governance; in a second term he would demolish them.
It also needs to be said that the Party of Trump is not the Republican Party, which once valued individualism, free thought and personal autonomy. The Trump Party is a mindless cult and, sadly, every Republican candidate has sworn fealty to it.
Returning to good
There is a saying that “America is great because it is good. When it ceases to be good it will cease to be great.” The line is attributed to Alexis de Tocqueville, the famous French 19th century observer of America. While there’s some dispute whether he actually wrote that, even if he didn’t he should have, because it’s true.
It is one of the cruelest ironies of history that Donald Trump should have as his slogan “make America great again” because by leading America so far from goodness he has taken it so far from greatness.
In fact, it really is time to make America great again by making America good again and, as Joe Biden says, “build back better.”
We can all still do that with our votes. The time is now, while our votes still count and we’re still free. We need to preserve that freedom.
Therefore, here in Southwest Florida, we endorse the entire Democratic ticket and urge voters to vote Democratic straight down the line starting with Joe Biden and Kamala Harris for president and vice president, Cindy Banyai for Congress and the entire slate of Democrats for all state and local offices.
You can see complete lists of Democratic candidates on the Lee County Democratic Party website and the Collier County Democratic website.
This year, like no other in America’s history, each of us needs to ensure that evil is defeated. Each and every one of us needs to make America good again.
Vote.
Liberty lives in light
© 2020 by David Silverberg