elections

No Picture

Afghanistan, Biden Administration, elections, Intelligence, Joe Biden, Taliban, U.S. news coverage July 5, 2021

The Afghan government could fall quickly

A thousand Afghan military have crossed over into Tajikistan, seeking asylum. They were fleeing the Taliban, who have cut off access to Badakhshan province, including access to the regional center of Konduz in the North. The Washington Post’s Berger reports:
…
It looks like Biden, unless he changes course on Afghanistan, will, like Lyndon Johnson, be remembered for his disastrous military and foreign policy decisions, and not for his domestic accomplishments.

Read More
No Picture

authoritarian regimes, Dictatorship, Donald Trump, elections, Fascism, Germany, Impeachment Trial, Nazism, Neo-Nazis, propaganda, Republican Senators, Rule of Law, Trump Coup d'état, U.S. Constitution February 23, 2021

Fighting the American fascists: Just imagine they are wearing Nazi military uniforms

They tell monstruous lies. They are not acting in good faith. They are silent in the face of violence. For two months they were complicit and co-conspirators with Donald Trump to overthrow the election and the Constitution.

They pay obeisance to Donald Trump, even today, after his attempted coup d’état and the Capitol Insurrection.
We should simply imagine that they are all wearing Nazi military unifirms.

When you see Senators Ted Cruz, Josh Hawley, and Ron Johnson,
in the Senate, for example, just imagine they are wearing Nazi military uniforms. It will clear your mind.

No Picture

Capitol Insurrection, Dictatorship, Donald Trump, elections, Fascism, History, Impeachment, Impeachment Trial, Justice Department, Nagarno-Karabakh, propaganda, Republican Senators, Rule of Law, Trump Coup d'état, U.S. Congress, U.S. Constitution, U.S. news coverage February 16, 2021

In Memoriam: The Republican Party (March 20, 1854-February 13, 2021)

While severely ailing for the last four years, The Republican Party entered its death throes and died on February 13, 2021.
This constitutional argument had been twice rejected by the full Senate, which under the Constitution has the sole authority to determine how it will proceed in impeachment cases.

Consequently, not only did the 43 Republican Senators violate their oaths of office and their oaths to do impartial justice, but they also violated the Constitution’s provision that the Senate is the sole arbiter of how it should proceed in an impeachment case, and the decision on constitutionality the Senate reached in exercising that power.
Journalist’s have been too intellectually lazy to understand and
report these details. Instead, they glibly write that Republican Senators who voted to acquit Trump justified their actions on a “technicality”.

Far from being a “technicality”, the bad-faith argument these apologists for Trump used to try to hide their craven cowardice involved fundamental precepts of the Constitution, including binding Senate determinations of whether the trial was constitutional or not.
Although the House Impeachment Managers lost their case for conviction in the Senate, they put forth a brilliant case, which convinced 57 of the 100 Senators to vote to impeach Trump.

Now, the battle must be taken to the court of public opinion, and to the polls in 1922, 1924, 1926, and beyond.

No Picture

authoritarian regimes, Capitol Insurrection, Dictatorship, Donald Trump, elections, Fascism, Germany, History, House Democrats, Impeachment, Impeachment Trial, January 6 Capitol Insurrection, Justice Department, Nancy Pelosi, Nazism, Neo-Nazis, propaganda, Republican Senators, Rule of Law, Trump Coup d'état, U.S. Congress, U.S. Constitution February 13, 2021

Democrats blow huge opportunity at impeachment trial, losing 57-43. But work must continue to tear down Trump’s propaganda wall.

The great political challenge we all now face is to find a way to dismantle Trump’s propaganda bubble and alternative universe, so that rational people, no longer fearful of fascist mobs and voters, can resume a politics of reason.
Yet let us not lose sight of the great success of the House Impeachment Managers in presenting a compelling case,  Let us also not lose sight of the fascist challenge that America faces, and the hard work that remains to be done to overcome it.

No Picture

Capitol Insurrection, Donald Trump, elections, Fascism, History, Impeachment, Impeachment Trial, Mitt Romney, Nancy Pelosi, Republican Senators, Rule of Law, Trump Coup d'état, U.S. Congress, U.S. Constitution February 12, 2021

The Republican cancer on the American body politic

Let there be no doubt about it. The American body politic is infected by a cancer. That cancer threatens the existence and survival of American democracy. Currently all of the antibodies and forces defending the body politic are fully engaged in fighting the cancer.

The cancer on the American body politic must be killed, with the political equivalents of chemotherapy, radiation, and even surgery where necessary.

Unlike a human body, the American body politic does not have the expected lifespan of a single human life. In the case of an individual fighting cancer, remission for five or ten years might, in some cases, be regarded as a “success”.

This is not the case with the American body politic, however. A five or ten year remission of the cancer would not be sufficient to save the life of a democracy that is already 244 years old.

The cancer is represented by the current Republican Party, and most but not all of its Senators and Representatives in Congress.
Now, 50 Republican senators face a similar moment of truth.

Will they honor their oaths of office to uphold the Constitution and to defend their country against all enemies foreign and domestics, “so help me God”?

Will they honor their solemn oaths to do impartial justice in accordance with constitutions and laws in the impeachment trail of Donald J. Trump, “so help me God”?

Or will they betray their oaths, the American people, and their country, kowtowing and genuflecting instead before the false god who threatened our democracy, who attempted to stay in power through a coup d’état, the last act of which was the Capitol Insurrection?
…But you know that they have sold their souls to the Devil, that they have entered into Mephistophelean bargains they hope will give them continued political life, just as Goethe’s Faust sought to prolong his life.
These 50 Republican Senators have one last shot at redemption: they can honestly evaluate the charges in the Article o impeachment and weigh the evidence, which will lead them ineluctably to a decision to convict Donald Trump for the his attempted coup and the Capitol Insurrection on January 6, 2021.
Their decisions will mark their lives and careers for all time. It is as if their children and grandchildren, and further descendants could read on their tombstones, “He (or she) voted to honor his (or her) oaths and to save the Republic,” or “He (or she) voted to betray the Constitution and his (or her) country, and for the false god Donald Trump.

Throughout their lives, they will have to face their children and grandchildren, and every one they know or may come to know, and answer that question.

If they make the wrong choice, the shame of that choice will mark them for the rest of their days.

No Picture

authoritarian regimes, Dictatorship, Donald Trump, elections, Fascism, House Democrats, Impeachment, Impeachment Trial, Joe Biden, Justice Department, Nazism, Neo-Nazis, propaganda, Rule of Law, Trump Coup d'état, U.S. Congress, U.S. Constitution February 8, 2021

SECRET BALLOT: Potential Democratic maneuvers to secure a secret vote in Impeachment Trial

The Senate Democrats have the power to establish by a vote of 50+1 that the vote on whether or not Donald Trump is guilty of “high crimes and misdemeanors” shall be taken BY SECRET BALLOT.
…
But Article I of the Constitution provides that 1/5 of the members present can require a recorded vote. So even a Democratic-imposed secret ballot might not really provide a secret vote.
…
No one said any of this simple. Nonetheless, Democratic Senators need to figure these details out, and use them to their full advantage.
…
Democratic Senators need to overcome their fear of Trump and his supporters, and USE THEIR RAW POWER TO ENSURE A SECRET BALLOT on the vote to convict or acquit Trump.

A SECRET BALLOT could give Republican Senators an opportunity to rid their party of Trump, to redeem their party from its current position of being THE PARTY THAT IS THE ENEMY OF DEMOCRACY, and to start rebuilding a Republican Party based on principles of democracy and the rule of law.

No Picture

corruption, Dictatorship, Donald Trump, elections, Fascism, History, Impeachment, Nazism, Neo-Nazis, propaganda, religious belief, Trump Coup d'état, U.S. Congress, U.S. Constitution February 4, 2021

Will “godless” Senate Republicans break their oaths to God, and acquit Trump?

Will “godless” Senate Republicans break their oaths to God, and acquit Trump?

If they do, they shall be forever known as the godless Republican Senators who broke their oaths to God, in abject service to the false god Donald Trump.

Their party, with their votes and those of the godless Republican Representatives in the House of Representatives, who have similarly violated their solemn oaths of office, has become the godless party of idolaters who worship Donald Trump.

May their erstwhile supporters never forget these facts, when these godless Republicans come up for re-election in 2122, 2124, or 2126.

For all history, let them be known as the godless Senators and Congressmen of the godless Republican Party who  worshipped the false god Donald Trump, and who bore false witness against their neighbors in their idolatrous support of this  false god.

No Picture

Donald Trump, elections, Fascism, Impeachment, propaganda, U.S. Congress, U.S. Constitution February 1, 2021

“So help me God”–U.S. Senate Oath of Office and Oath as juror in impeachment trial

Therefore, there are two critical questions being addressed in the Senate trial of ex-President Donald J. Trump.

First, will all Senators honor their oaths of office and their oaths to serve as impartial jurors?

Second, is Donald Trump guilty of the “high crimes and misdemeanors” charged in the Article of Impeachment approved by the House of Representatives?

The first of the two questions may well be the more important of the two.

No Picture

coronavirus, Donald Trump, elections, Nancy Pelosi, U.S. Congress January 31, 2021

Democrats, use your power: Act boldly, and forget bipartisanship–for now

The Democrats have the power to act. They should act now, decisively.

The time will come for bipartisanship on some bills in the future.

But first the Democrats need to take firm control of the Senate, and seek bipartisanship in the future when the Republican goals are to solve the country’s problems, and not simply to withhold support for obstructionist and partisan ends.