I Have Lots To Say About SCOTUS

There are a few things I would like to say before the nomination and hearing process starts…..before the circus and comedy tale begins.

We are having a knockdown and dragged out fight between the parties over the choices for the Supreme Court.

I have told the readers what I think of the most recent fight involving the replacement of Judge Ginsburg….but in case are are ill informed…..https://lobotero.com/2020/09/23/dems-need-to-buck-up/

But that is not where I will stop…there is so much more I need to say….if for no other reason that to get it off my chest.

My biggest question is…..why are they appointed for life? No one else in the scheme of things in the government has a job for life…why the justices? They can only lose their gig through misadventure (and that is a hard thing to prove)……

Did you know that since it’s beginning the Supreme Court has had only 17 chief justices? 244 years and that is all the chief justices we have had…..and they have in the past overruled their own rulings…..like Plessey v Ferguson(1896) gave us the law of segregation…..whereas the idea of ‘separate but equal’ facilities….Brown v Board of Education (1954) overturned it.

By stacking the court with ideologues any progress can be overturned…now you see why their political ideology is so important these….once again it is not so much about the law but rather the political agenda.

There is more……if this is truly important then maybe learning about the branch would be wise. http://supremecourthistory.org/

Picking a judge should be about the Constitution and seeing it is upheld at every turn….not about some political ideology agenda as it is today.

No one should have a government job for life.

It is the 21st century time for the US to move out of the shadow of the 19th century and update the Constitution to reflect society of the present.

Some changes to the federal judge positions…..all judges to include SCOTUS….they should be limited to 2 5 year terms…and the chief justice is based on seniority not favor from the president…..if the branch is suppose to be independent then make it so.

Then there has been floated the idea that SCOTUS judges should be elected as in the states. I disagree! That opens up justice to the influence of money and power more so than today.

Qualifications should be for SCOTUS…..20 years experience as a trial judge. For federal judges there should be at least 10 years of experience….with no political affiliations.

Justices are chosen, in descending order, first by ideology, confirmability, age, race and gender…..no where is a training in law a requirement only considered because of tradition.

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Will He Go Or Will He Stay?

The big question that the media is trying to fixate on as we get closer to the day of the voting for president……will Trump leave office if he loses the election? They pose the same question day after day and hope for a different answer……I believe Einstein had a thought on that type of thinking.

He keeps trying to set the stage for some sort of challenge to the vote when he loses…..of course he will employ an old reliable tactic of the GOP….accusations of voter fraud…..and the best target right now is mail-in voting……

President Trump on Wednesday declined to commit to a peaceful transfer of power should he lose the election in November. “Well, we’re going to have to see what happens,” Trump said when asked directly about the issue during a press conference, USA Today reports. “You know that I’ve been complaining very strongly about the [mail-in] ballots [sent automatically to voters in some states] and the ballots are a disaster. Get rid of the ballots and you’ll have a very a peaceful—there won’t be a transfer, frankly, there’ll be a continuation. The ballots are out of control. You know it, and you know who knows it better than anyone else? The Democrats know it better than anyone else.” Hours earlier, he had predicted the election results would end up before the Supreme Court, and noted in such a case it would be “important” to have all nine justices.

Democrats were speaking out strongly against the statement, the Washington Post reports. At least one Republican appeared to be speaking out as well, per the Hill: Mitt Romney, though he didn’t mention Trump by name, tweeted, “Fundamental to democracy is the peaceful transition of power; without that, there is Belarus. Any suggestion that a president might not respect this Constitutional guarantee is both unthinkable and unacceptable.” A sample of the Twitter responses to Romney’s remarks: “You want to hand him another judge but you know his plot is to pick one that will help him steal the election.” There are quite a few more where that came from. Joe Biden’s take? “What country are we in? I’m being facetious. Look, he says the most irrational things. I don’t know what to say.” The AP notes this is at least the second time Trump has made such a remark during this election cycle.

Could the rush for a new justice have anything to do with setting up the challenge?

Beyond that can Trump refuse to leave office when he loses?

Donald Trump is now openly threatening to pass an executive order that would prevent Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden from being elected.

During a campaign rally in Fayetteville, North Carolina on Saturday, Trump told a cheering crowd of supporters that “You can’t have this guy as your president. […] Maybe I’ll sign an executive order, you cannot have him as your president.” While he didn’t delve into the details of the executive order that would hypothetically bar Biden from holding office, Trump did continue to berate his opponent for the crowd, questioning how Biden became his party’s nominee and accusing him of being against a coronavirus vaccine. But there is some good news: Trump also told the crowd, “If I lose to him, I don’t know what I’m going to do. I will never speak to you again. You’ll never see me again.”

https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/2020/09/10037490/trump-threat-executive-order-biden-refuse-step-down

All this drama…is it a real chance of a challenge or is it just Trump being the dick he is always?

More to think about……

President Trump set off a political ruckus Wednesday when he declined to commit to a peaceful transfer of power after the results of the election are in. “We’re going to have to see what happens,” said the president, who again questioned the accuracy of mass voting by mail. Now the Atlantic is out with a story asserting that the White House is “laying the groundwork” for ways in which he could refuse to concede. Coverage:

One tactic: The Atlantic story by Barton Gelman, based on GOP sources, says the Trump campaign “is discussing contingency plans to bypass election results and appoint loyal electors in battleground states where Republicans hold the legislative majority.” The idea is to claim fraud, then have state lawmakers “set aside the popular vote and exercise their power to choose a slate of electors directly.”

Elaborating: Here’s how a legal adviser to the Trump campaign puts it in the Atlantic: “The state legislatures will say, ‘All right, we’ve been given this constitutional power. We don’t think the results of our own state are accurate, so here’s our slate of electors that we think properly reflect the results of our state.'”

Trump’s full comments: Watch the question and answer via C-SPAN. You can watch Joe Biden’s reaction here, in which he asks, “What country are we in?”

From the right: At RedState, Joe Cunningham writes that it’s ridiculous to think that Trump might seriously try to stay in office should he lose, calling it a dumb question that should never have been asked. So why the provocative answer? Trump is again trolling the media and Democrats, asserts Cunningham. He wants them to “freak out over something stupid because it’s the perfect way to get them to stop talking about things he doesn’t want them talking about (like 200,000 COVID-19 deaths, economic numbers, polls, etc.). It’s a distraction game, and they fall for it every single time.”

Taking it seriously: Lots of commenters were taking Trump’s words seriously, including Stephen Collinson at CNN, who writes that they “posed a grave threat to the democratic continuum that has underpinned nearly 250 years of republican government.” Collinson also thinks Trump “poured gasoline on an an already inflamed” situation by sending a signal to his supporters on how to react to losing results.

Skeptical: At the Week, David Faris doesn’t think the plan laid out in the Atlantic would work. “The first and most obvious is that state legislatures play no clear post-election role in certifying slates of electors from the states.”

GOP reaction: Axios rounds up reaction from prominent Republicans, most of whom don’t mention Trump by name but insist that a peaceful transfer of power will, in fact, take place. Mitch McConnell: “There will be an orderly transition just as there has been every four years since 1792.” Rep. Liz Cheney tweeted: “The peaceful transfer of power is enshrined in our Constitution and fundamental to the survival of our Republic. America’s leaders swear an oath to the Constitution. We will uphold that oath.”

Could this be a coup d’etat?

The United States presidential campaign is being transformed into a coup d’état by Donald Trump, who has declared that he will not accept the results of any vote that goes against him.

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/09/24/pers-s24.html

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Time To Re-Think The Pentagon Budget

In twenty years we have spent trillions on unnecessary wars…..and can we state without qualification that we are a safer nation because of them?

The pandemic we are now fighting has shown us that we need to re-think war and focus on the survival of this country.

The inadequate response of both the federal and state governments to the Covid-19 pandemic has had a devastating impact on the United States, creating what could only be called a national security crisis. More than 190,000 Americans are dead, approximately half of them people of color. Yelp data show that more than 132,000 businesses have already closed and census data suggest that, thanks to lost wages, nearly 17% of Americans with children can’t afford to feed them enough food.

In this same period, a number of defense contractors have been doing remarkably well. Lockheed Martin, the Pentagon’s top contractor, reported that, compared to 2019, its earnings are actually up—yes, up! The company’s success led the financial magazine Barron’s to call it a “pandemic star.” And those profits are only likely to grow, given the Trump administration’s recent approval of a 10-year deal to sell $62 billion worth of its F-16s to Taiwan.

https://www.commondreams.org/views/2020/09/14/national-insecurity-and-pentagon-budget

Congress needs to step up and do the hard lifting since no one else will….but they are a worthless, lazy bunch and I feel they will do what high dollar donors want…not what is best for the nation.

More Americans have now died from COVID-19 than from the wars in Korea, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan combined. Yet the United States is poised to continue spending more money on the Pentagon than the next 10 countries combined, with some 1 million troops deployed in about 175 countries. In other words, there’s no end in sight for our forever wars.

Monday marked the 19th anniversary of the vote to pass the post-9/11 Authorization for Use of Military Force, or AUMF, a blank check to deploy U.S. military personnel anywhere in the world in the name of going after terrorists. Our country’s response to that attack has had unintended and tragic consequences: war profiteering by military contractors, traumatic impact to our soldiers, and massive numbers of refugees and civilian casualties around the world.

https://www.commondreams.org/views/2020/09/15/its-time-repeal-presidents-license-endless-war

This pandemic has shown the nation just how inadequate our social skills are….we can go fight wars without end but we are dumb-founded by a virus.

Maybe now is the right time to start putting the nation and its people first…and I do not mean another round of stim cash that only benefits those that do not need the stim.

Wall Street wants more and more cash…..

When Wall Street receives a major boost from the US Federal Reserve it can always be relied upon to come back and demand more. This phenomenon, one could say a law of political economy, has been on display again this week.

On Wednesday, the central bank’s Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) set out its new framework for monetary policy. It committed itself to maintaining interest rates at near zero levels, for as far as the eye can see. It would also maintain its purchases of financial assets, at least to the tune of $120 billion a month—nearly $1.5 trillion a year—and intervene even more aggressively should there be a return of financial turbulence.

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/09/19/wall-s19.html

Time for this nation to once again become a single entity and not the wandering bands of tribes that spend all their energy sniping at each other.

Pay Attention! Your life is depending on it!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Closing Thought–24Sep20

This headline caught my attention….

Democrat Opposed To Same-Sex Marriage Beaten By Drag Queen

I was intrigued by the title of the article…..I just had to read the whole thing….for it seemed unlikely…..

Same-sex marriage is legal in America and these days 63% of all Americans support the idea. Ten years ago, it was still a controversial issue among Democrats, but in 2019, 79% say they support same-sex marriage.

The issue played a big role in the Democratic primary for the Delaware’s House of Representatives 27th district race. On September 15, Eric Morrison defeated incumbent Earl Jacques in a landslide and gay rights was a central issue.

In 2013, Jaques voted against same-sex marriage and refused to vote yes or no on banning gay conversion therapy in the state. On the other hand, Morrison is a gay drag queen who performs under the name Anita Mann and is very progressive on LGBTQ issues.

https://www.upworthy.com/democrat-who-opposed-same-sex-marriage-defeated-by-gay-drag-queen-in-a-landslide-primary-victory

Okay I admit it! I was looking for something more spicy than an election return.

All in all a great headline to get readers to jump on the article.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

All Those Terrorists Hangouts

No I am not talking about Syria or Iraq or Afghanistan…..

There has been protests going on all over this nation and it has been met with the fascistic force of the police with the encouragement of the DoJ……now they (DoJ) has decided that some of our major cities are to be called “terrorists” or better yet “Anarchists Jurisdictions”……..

The Justice Department identified New York City; Portland, Ore.; and Seattle as three cities that could have federal funding slashed under a memorandum by President Trump that sought to identify localities that permit “anarchy, violence and destruction in American cities.” The designation, which could open the door for the federal government to cut off some funding to the cities, drew immediate criticism from local elected officials. It comes as Trump throughout the summer has cast American cities run by Democratic mayors as under siege by violence and lawlessness, despite the fact that most of the demonstrations against racial injustice have been largely peaceful. An attempt to cut off federal funding to the cities would likely be met with immediate legal challenges and several federal judges ruled in favor of municipalities over similar attempts to withhold funding tied to immigration policies.

The Justice Department said the three cities were designated because they meet four main criteria, including “whether a jurisdiction forbids the police force from intervening to restore order amid widespread or sustained violence or destruction” and whether the city “disempowers or defunds police departments.” Attorney General William Barr said he hoped the designation would convince the cities to “reverse course and become serious about performing the basic function of government and start protecting their own citizens.” In a joint statement, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler, and Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan decried the designation as “thoroughly political and unconstitutional.”

Seriously?

How pathetic can this administration get? (That is rhetorical for I know it can get a lot more pathetic)

I have a problem with this type of labeling…but it is what I expect from the GOP and their pathetic attempt to stay in power.

I am sure that there will be supporters of the idiot in the White House that will take exception…..but what is it they say….”the truth hurts”

When I write about the threat of white supremacist terrorism, I often receive complaints from readers that I am focusing on the wrong problem and that my articles are ill-informed and misleading (I’m putting the complaints politely). Instead of focusing on white supremacists, they argue, I should instead write about the “real” terrorists like antifa and Black Lives Matter.

Their opinions are backed up by statements from the police and Trump administration officials and images of burning cities. The terrorism label, for them, is a way of distinguishing who is in the wrong. Brian Jenkins, a leading scholar of terrorism, observed in 1981: “Terrorism is what the bad guys do.”

https://www.vox.com/identities/21449415/antifa-terrorists-violence-patriot-prayer-black-lives-matter-protests-portland-kenosha

Time to start making plans to have the people in this corruption called the Trump Administration to hold them in contempt of the nation and accountable for the disastrous and hateful policies.

I Read, I Write, You KNow

“lego ergo scribo”

The Myth Of The M-IC

I have written many times on the power that the Military-Industrial Complex (M-IC) holds over our nation….and I have even gone so far as to agree (some what) with accusation from Trump that the generals are in the pocket of the M-IC…..

Here are my thoughts on the M-IC…….https://lobotero.com/2019/01/28/what-is-the-military-industrial-complex/

And there is more……https://lobotero.com/2019/03/20/the-military-industrial-complex/

Then there is the shock that I agreed with Trump on anything…….https://lobotero.com/2020/09/09/in-defense-sort-of/

To be fair not everyone agrees with me about the M-IC top heavy with generals and they they are influenced by the corporations.

The rebuttal comes from the American Enterprise Institute, a group that gets donations from the M-IC and in this case is being used as a PR weapon to counter the opinions voice by me and the president…..

It is hard to think of any U.S. president that Donald Trump resembles less than Dwight D. Eisenhower. Yet Trump managed to evoke the comparison this week, when he charged that senior American military officials are more interested in serving the interests of arms manufacturers than in serving the interests of the U.S. The military, he said, advocates war “so that all of those wonderful companies that make the bombs and make the planes and make everything else stay happy.”

For some observers, the allegation brought to mind Eisenhower’s farewell address in January 1961, in which he cautioned that a mighty “military-industrial complex” could “endanger our liberties” and strangle the American economy. Since then, Eisenhower’s speech has been cited by critics who warn that an expansive foreign policy will ruin the nation’s prosperity and freedom alike.

Yet just as Trump was wrong in arguing that Pentagon officials are motivated by greed rather than patriotism, Eisenhower — a far wiser leader — was more wrong than right about the military industrial-complex.

Trump, Ike and the Myth of the Military-industrial Complex

I wonder how much that rousing defense of the M-IC will cost the industry?

Just a point here….where do you think that retired generals go to work after their retirement?….I mean after they write their book….that is.

Go to the corporations website and look at their officers…..they are heavy with generals…..how do you think certain weapon systems make it through the process even when they are proven to be waste of money (think F-35)?

Not all generals are in the pocket of defense contractors but the ones thinking of retirement are thinking of a way to make cash out of their service.

Once again….I will agree with Trump on this (on principle that is)…..

Learn Stuff!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Closing Thought–23Sep20

We all know about the so-called stim plans that the government has put forward to help the nation survive the pandemic.

Of course the Wall Streeters made out the best from the different plans….now news has come out that the Pentagon got stim cash to help fight the virus in the military….instead they do what they do best…pissed it away.

Back in March, Congress gave the Pentagon $1 billion to combat coronavirus and build up the country’s medical supplies. But instead, the Pentagon diverted most of the money to defense contractors to make things like jet engine parts, body armor, uniforms, and other military equipment.

The money was part of the Cares Act, a $2.2 trillion coronavirus relief bill. It was allocated to the Pentagon under the Defense Production Act, which allows the president to direct companies to manufacture certain products.

The funds were given to the Pentagon to “prevent, prepare for, and respond to coronavirus.” The Washington Post reported that shortly after the stimulus was passed, the Pentagon began funneling hundreds of millions of dollars to defense contractors.

Some of the awards the Pentagon handed out were disclosed by the Post. $183 million went to companies including Rolls Royce and ArcelorMittal to maintain shipbuilding. $80 million went to a Kansas aircraft parts business, tens of millions went towards satellite, drone, and space surveillance technology, and $2 million went to a domestic manufacturer of US Army uniforms.

Some companies that accepted this hand out from the Pentagon also received money from another bailout fund, the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). The Post found that at least 10 of the 30 companies that received money from the Pentagon also received PPP money.

Portions of the money were dolled out to smaller firms, including a group of companies that work on drone technology. But larger firms also received bailout money, like GE Aviation, a subsidiary of General Electric, that received $75 million in June.

(antiwar.com)

More reading…..https://www.military.com/daily-news/2020/09/22/2-million-funds-earmarked-covid-19-went-buy-army-greens-uniforms.html

The Pentagon should have the money returned from their budget……and then the generals making the decisions should be jailed for misappropriation of funds.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Proslavery Constitutionalism

This is where the history of the US gets a bit confusing……can you have an antislavery constitution and proslavery constitutionalism? Or how about the reverse?

Let’s look at these historic conundrum……

Historians today speak of the “proslavery Constitution” and “antislavery constitutionalism”; they almost never speak of the “antislavery Constitution” or of “proslavery constitutionalism.” This fact is a testament to the profound success of the critique of the Constitution leveled by abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison. In his condemnation of the Constitution as proslavery, his resort to Madison’s “Notes from the Constitutional Convention” to demonstrate this case, and his rejection of the Constitution’s authority—all punctuated by his dramatic burning of that document during a Fourth of July address—Garrison has set the terms within which subsequent historical debate on the relationship between the Constitution and slavery has been carried out.

Even historians who disdain Garrison’s caustic critique of the Constitution, who question his partial readings of the Convention’s debates, and who emphasize the development of constitutional arguments that culminated in the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments concede at some level Garrison’s premise that the Constitution was intended to be proslavery. Thus, it is sad, but not surprising, to see that the mob rounded up by the New York Times’s “1619 Project” is setting fire to the project of antislavery constitutionalism. Garrison’s belief that the Constitution was intended to be proslavery is an unquenchable fire that will eventually consume all it touches.

The Legend of the Proslavery Constitution

For more information on Garrison……https://www.ushistory.org/us/28a.asp

Here is a look at pro slavery in the early Republic……from the perspective of Univ. of Virginia……

According to the standard view of Southern history, there was a strong antislavery tradition in the South until the 1830’s when the militant abolitionist attacks upon not only slavery but also slaveholders forced Southerners into a defense of their peculiar institution. This view over looks, however, the strong proslavery tradition that also existed in the South from 1790 to 1830. This study is an attempt to re-examine this period and consider the proslavery arguments that did exist in the early United States.

Examining sources primarily from the public forum, such as speeches, newspaper articles, and pamphlets, this study focuses upon the proslavery positions presented in the early republic. It looks at not only the actual statements but also the rationale behind them. The defenses used ranged from Biblical sanction and historical precedent to “scientific” evidence, from constitutionalism and economics to social considerations and racism. In each instance, proslavery advocates justified the institution of black slavery, and the way of life based on it, as not only necessary but also beneficial for both whites and blacks.

https://libraetd.lib.virginia.edu/public_view/g445cd210

If you like reading about early American history then may I suggest this book…it is an interesting read…..https://d3p9z3cj392tgc.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/09162520/9781501726446.pdf

Dems Need To Buck Up

Trump will be naming the successor to Ginsberg soon…..and as usual the Dems are starting their predictable whining and bitching…..they will pull out all their stops to sway the Repubs to not vote until they have all their ducks in a row.

The pre-October surprise death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg worsened the divisive political nightmare of a nation struggling to cope with successive disasters while under minority rule by a president who can’t govern.

Her body wasn’t even cold before heartless Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced that his followers will vote on her replacement, violating a self-imposed 2016 rule that prohibited confirming a court nominee before a presidential election. He set the stage for an all-out battle between his Republicans and Democrats.

Chaos Galore

All their (Dems) whining will be a moot point if they cannot find a couple of GOP Senators to get aboard with the Dems….the one I am thinking is Mitt and he has crapped on that idea…..

Democrats’ chances of stopping the confirmation of a Supreme Court nominee before Election Day all but disappeared on Tuesday with an announcement from Mitt Romney. The Utah Republican says he supports moving forward with President Trump’s soon-to-be-announced nominee, reports Axios. Romney was seen as a possible “no” vote for Democrats, as was Colorado’s Cory Gardner. Both have since fallen in line with Senate Republicans. While two GOP senators say they don’t support confirmation until after Nov. 3—Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins—that’s not enough to stop the process that Mitch McConnell has vowed will take place.

“The historical precedent of election year nominations is that the Senate generally does not confirm an opposing party’s nominee but does confirm a nominee of its own,” Romney said in his statement. “I intend to follow the Constitution and precedent in considering the president’s nominee. If the nominee reaches the Senate floor, I intend to vote based upon their qualifications.” President Trump tweeted Tuesday that he’ll announce his choice to replace Ruth Bader Ginsburg on Saturday.

But yet I keep getting emails on how we can stop this nomination going forward until after the election….it is do-do!

Judges are confirmed by the Senate……and the Senate is owned by the GOP….ergo Trump’s nomination will go forward with a little bitching from the Dems so they can get some airtime in the news cycle.

But let’s say that the Dems got a couple of Repubs to get on their ship and the split was 50-50….that would mean that the decision would be made by the Vice President……and Pence is a Trump toadies…ergo…his nomination will win the day.

In short there is no “legal” to stop the nominee from winning confirmation.

Dems need to buck up….there is nothing they can do to prevent the conserv judge from taking her seat on the highest court in the US.

All this political theater is more a circus than a passion play.

Please stop you guys are looking more and more pathetic.

Learn Stuff!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

In Saner Thought

"It is the duty of every man, as far as his ability extends, to detect and expose delusion and error"..Thomas Paine

Month: September 2020

I Have Lots To Say About SCOTUS

Will He Go Or Will He Stay?

Time To Re-Think The Pentagon Budget

Closing Thought–24Sep20

All Those Terrorists Hangouts

The Myth Of The M-IC

Closing Thought–23Sep20

Proslavery Constitutionalism

Dems Need To Buck Up