Ideas, Opinions, Genealogy, and Book Reviews
It seems the Republican party will take a chance on former President Donald Trump. The insurrectionist and former President is way ahead in the primary and is considered the likely nominee. So far state judges have ruled against attempts to exclude him from the primary ballot but at least some of those decisions are being appealed
Continue reading “Republicans take a chance on Trump”
During the David Frost interviews former president Richard Nixon said: “Well, when the president does it, that means that it is not illegal”.
Is that really that different from former president Trump’s claim of immunity ?
Was Nixon right then ? Is Trump right now ?
The 2 former Presidents make very similar claims but this has never been decided by a court since the issue has never arisen before. I suspect it will be decided by the Supreme Court either right away or after a delay in the appeals court.
Judge Chutkan placed a limited gag order on defendant Donald Trump to stop him from launching a “pretrial smear campaign” while respecting his rights to pursue his presidential campaign. Since the defendant appealed the order, she put it on hold to allow the defense to appeal her ruling.
I do not believe it was Judge Chutkan’s intent to give Donald Trump time to conduct his smear campaign, yet that was precisely the result.
It seems to me that Judge Chutkan should reverse her decision on the hold and reimpose the gag order before the defendant is allowed to do more damage.
I wrote about this a few years ago but it seem this needs to be repeated. So I’ll copy what I wrote I wrote and add a little bit.
The philosopher George Santayana said that “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
Wikipedia has an interesting article on Historic recurrence which I ran across as I was thinking about history repeating itself.
I was reading “The Death of Democracy: Hitler’s Rise to Power and the Downfall of the Weimar Republic” by Benjamin Carter Hett and this quote got me thinking about this.
Continue reading “Is history repeating itself, again?”
President Trump–Again? by Earl Ofari Hutchinson is a short book. I read it in one evening. For a short book it does cover a lot of ground. And I should mention that my review copy was very current, covering events that happened just a few weeks ago. I thank Netgalley and BooksGoSocial for the privilege of reading this review copy.
Continue reading “President Trump–Again?”
Trump humor from the New Yorker in the last few days. In these dark days for our country, we all need a few laughs.
https://www.newyorker.com/humor/daily-shouts/a-once-in-a-lifetime-summer-spectacle
This one is a few weeks old but still funny.
Mark Meadows, Donald Trump’s chief of staff, has been indicted in Georgia for his role in trying to disenfranchise thousands of Georgia voters by by participating in Donald Trumps’s conspiracy including asking the Georgia Secretary of State to violate his oath.
Does he actually believe this was part of his his official duties?
Continue reading “Does Mark Meadows believe this was part of his official duties?”
This may be one of those records that stands forever or at least a very long time. A good example of this type of record is Lou Gehrig’s record of playing in 2,130 consecutive baseball games. This record stood for 56 years until surpassed by Cal Ripken Jr. of the Baltimore Orioles.
Donald Trump’s may be an even greater record. In over 200 years of US history, no former President has ever been criminally indicted as far as I know. But in just in a few months, Donald Trump has been criminally indicted 4 times.
Continue reading “Donald Trump sets a record”
Once again Just Security has published a great article related to efforts to overturn the 2020 Presidential election.
Continue reading “Fake Electors”
Just Security has done it again. This memo lays out the case of why Donald Trump should be prosecuted.
I believe Donald Trump should be prosecuted for many crimes but this just lays out the case for the crimes related to removing and keeping national security documents and obstruction of the investigation into his handling of these documents.
Here it is – Mar-a-Lago Model Prosecution Memo
https://www.justsecurity.org/84168/mar-a-lago-model-prosecution-memo/
The book is “Why We Did It: A Travelogue from the Republican Road to Hell” by Tim Miller. Many of us may recognize the author fr0m his TV appearances as a commentator.
I liked it. For those of you who like a short summary you could stop there but please don’t.
Continue reading “former Republican book review – Why We Did It”
A few days ago, I wrote about the difficulty of calling out the group of Republicans who support former President Trump and excuse his actions in Sorting Republicans. I don’t think it is easy finding a good way to identify sub-groups.
The Republican Party used to be highly principled and an important part of our democracy. But now many seem to favor various conspiracy theories, favor insurrection, or belief increasing their power is more important than voting and democracy. The party is clearly divided into two or more camps.
Continue reading “Nothing conservative”
Several days ago I wrote about President Biden’s Soul of the Nation speech and yesterday about Evan McMullin and his third party run for the U.S. Senate. It seems to me there is a common theme.
President Biden spoke of several things but which seemed to offend some Republicans by calling out MAGA republicans. I don’t think the speech did insult all Republicans. The President clearly distinguished between the MAGA crowd and mainstream conservatives or traditional Republicans.
The problem is trying to sort a larger group into smaller groups. Some will fall in-between, some will misinterpret, and when you add politics some will distort.
Continue reading “Sorting Republicans”
I’ve been a fan of Just Security for their new coverage of the January 6, 2021 attack on the United States Capitol and other issues. Today they published When, Where and For What Mar-a-Lago Crimes Should Garland Indict Trump? .
Toward the end of my post Republican idiots and special master I speculated about former President Trump delaying the investigation by requesting a review by a special master.
But Judge Cannon has ruled in favor the the former President.
It seems to me that the problem of personal papers, some of which may include some documents with potential attorney-client privilege, is former President Trump’s fault since he is the one who mixed these papers with the stolen national defense and classified documents. Also, if he had returned these documents when asked and then lied when subpoenaed this problem could have been avoided.
It also seems to me that the risk to our national security is much more important than any damage to the former President’s reputation by any accidental revelations.