John

I hope others can find better words to address the Supreme Court’s decision about immunity for former President Donald Trump from criminal prosecution.  On this web site I often try to address issues as if I was actually the sitting president.

If I asked the Justice Department to help me overturn an election, I should be in jail, arrested immediately on the spot.

If I pressured the Vice President to not count certified ballots from the States and accept fake electors instead, I should be in jail.

If I incited a riot to halt the counting of electoral votes in order to substitute others, I should be in jail.

Donald Trump wanted the Capital Police to stop checking for guns as the crowd grew on January 6th.  They were not going to shoot him!  Only the insistence of the Secret Service returned him to the White House rather than joining the crowd at the Capital.  At the White House he watched the riot unfold on TV for three hours taking no action to call in the National Guard.

This all looks like criminal activity to me and I can only view the Supreme Court as equally complicit. Chief Justice Roberts says this immunity would apply to any president but none other than Donald Trump has wanted to hide his actions from the people in this way.  Who is this court protecting?  Certainly not the people of this country.

This Supreme Court moves further from holding truth, accountability and equality for the people.  Earlier this week they overturned the Chevron deference, which could have been compromised, and this action will most certainly result in less consumer protections for the public in matters of finance, health and environment.

As president, I would answer any charges or questions like any other American, not hide behnd immunity.

It occurs to me that any honest president would not need immunity.  It seem like the Supreme Court has created a shield for the ccorrupt.  Why would they do that?  What frame of mind about the presidency would make them do that?

If you are caught in the extreme heat wave in the U.S. or on your way to Mecca and no AC?

1.  Drink plenty of WATER, stay hydrated, 12-24 oz per hour in extreme heat, not soda, not alcohol.
2.  Don’t hesitate to take a cold shower with your clothes on, light cotton clothes are best and will continue to wick off the water and stay cool for up to an hour.
3.   Plan to find a water feature for the children and yourself, does not have to be a public pool,  just a shallow fountain or spraying mist.
4.   A portable evaporative cooler (swamp cooler) will cool 1-2 rooms effectively and at lower cost than central AC.  Through air flow is needed.
5.    If you have AC, set it a little higher, maybe 78-80 to reduce load on the grid an save money.

An individual heat wave, flood or natural disaster does not tell us much about climate change.  There is always some to say, “we had a big one back in 47”  and often they are right.  Need to look at world wide averages which is why the NASA earth science program is so important.   However record breaking temperatures and other extreme weather are markers.

And on another note, my parents were the generation that came back from WWII.  It seems to be they were more generally tolerant than their children or grand children.  The great grand children hardly remember.  Perhaps the veterans of WWII saw enough blood letting.  Thye knew we had to find a way to get along with each other.

I’m talking about the Supreme Court overturning the bump stock ban.  A bump stock allows certain semi-automatic rifles, notably assault rifles to fire at the same rate as a fully automatic version, a machine gun.  The shooter’s finger is on the trigger but the recoil of the gun is pushing the finger.  It is automatic, not a voluntary action by the shooter.  One shooter in Las Vegas killed 58 people at a music concert using this device.   Any gun can kill but some are far more lethal than others.   Has the Supreme Court made our country more safe,  just the opposite.  They have legalized a device that creates a machine gun.   This court continues to move further and further from where people actually live.

Mr. Netanyahu says the Israeli attack on a displaced persons camp in Rafah, killing at least 45, was “a terrible mistake”  How many terrible mistakes does it take to add up to 35,000 dead?

This Memorial Day I’ve been thinking of my parents who served in WWII, my father’s unit landing first in Africa and my mother as a MASH nurse in Italy.  Also thinking about the Vietnamese boat people and the story of the USS Kirk.  And those guys who were working on the Baltimore bridge.

The Supreme Court overeturned lower court in a case regarding a jerrymandered South Carolina congressional map.  Justice Alito says tht so far as the U.S. Constitution is concerned, jerrymandering is OK for partisan purposes just cannot be racially motivated.  How do you tell the difference?  With Jerrymandering in any form someone is always the loser.  Our Supreme Court again moves further from the people and the principal that “all men are created equal”.

Proud of my country early this week for approving military aid to Ukraine, delayed too long by partisan bickering.  In the end the vote was about 75% in favor in both the House of Representatives and the Senate.  I had withheld comment on any other subject since March for whatever good my little blog might do in bring support to our friend and democratic partners in Ukraine and western Europe.  Speaker Johnson should be commended for his research, soul searching, courage and prayer in doing the right thing.  Let’s keep going in the right direction and find a bipartisan solution for the southern border.

Of course I was appalled by Hamas attack on Israel on October 7th.  The insane and barbaric attack against civilians and Israel needs rightly to retaliate and drive Hamas out of Gaza forever.  No country can tolerate terrorism from within or at it’s borders.  BUT,  35,000 and climbing dead civilians in Gaza, Israel itself has become the monster.  The cause is just but the proportionality is all wrong.  Americans have difficulty understanding the very difficult position of a country (Israel) where a terrorist can jump out from behind a corner or blow up a bus at any moment.  But they cannot themselves turn into monsters, bomb diplomatic compounds and set the whole region and world on fire.  In this last matter, Iran had to respond and only the combined anti-air capability of Israel, the U.S and allies prevented a full scale war.

And that really bad smell, yesterday the Supreme Court heard Donald Trumps claims of presidential immunity regarding his alleged attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.  The Supreme Court did not even need to hear this case.  All the lower courts have ruled without question that the president is not immune from prosecution for attempts to overturn an election.  However several of the justices seemed more concerned with hypothetical examples of possible wrongful prosecution of future presidents and may well send the case back to the lower courts.  This would most likely deny the people and the country the opportunity to hear the charges and evidence before the 2024 election.  This smells really bad.

Not next month, not next week, Ukraine needs U.S. aid immediately or will likely loose their war of survival against Russia.  I am disgusted to the point of being sick about the political games and leveraging being played with Ukraine aid.  No excuses!  Do the right thing!  Just get it done.  Just get it done.

The Supreme Court yesterday agreed to hear Donald Trump’s appeal and claim that he has absolute immunity from prosecution for alleged crimes, election interference and classified documents.  The D.C. trial court and unanimous opinion of the appeal court ruled he did not have immunity.   With the hearing scheduled for late April, it may not be possible for these issues to come to trial before the 2024 election.

To me, this always seemed like a slam-dunk loss for Trump.  We are all equal under the law.  Presidents are not Kings.  A sitting President cannot overturn an election in order to remain in office.

The randomness and unpredictability of life terms and presidential appointments has tended to keep the court ideologically centered in past.  That ended when Mitch McConnell refused to allow President Obama a replacement appointment and pushed through three appointments by Donald Trump.  McConnell has always been the ultimate partisan, power over principle.

By delaying this immunity ruling the Supreme Court may have denied the people the right to know about Donald Trumps election interference and hoarding of classified documents.  In multiple decisions, this court seems to me more and more distant from where people live.  Overturning Roe vs Wade, but some women have made this choice for thousands of years.  The EPA cannot regulate carbon emissions, an obvious air pollutant.  The court struggled yesterday to see that bump stocks modify a rifle into a machine gun although 50 people were killed by one individual using that device.  The Court seems ready to overturn the Chevron deference and open to challenge thousands of government decisions regarding consumer protections,  public health and the environment.  This court, rather than balanced caution, is on an ideological crusade.

The concept of “originalism”, what exactly did the founding fathers mean by their words in the Constitution is an important concept.  It is also an esoteric and egotistical exercise ….. who can be the most originalist!  But we cannot view today’s world from 250 years ago.  The Supreme Court needs to consider how their decisions effect ordinary people.

Maybe I can find better words later.  Distraught and disgusted this morning that our country is abandoning Ukraine, a democratic country fighting for its life against Russian dictator Putin.  Have we forgotten the fundamental lesson of WWII, that expansionist dictators are never satisfied, cannot be appeased and have to be stopped.

Donald Trump told Senate Republicans to kill the immigration reform bill and Donald Trump, in his admiration and affection of dictator Putin is causing House Republicans to not hold a vote on Ukraine aid which would certainly pass if brought to the floor.

Liz Cheney is right to refer to the “Putin” wing of the Republican party.  Our government, of the people, by the people and for the people requires that our Senators and Congress place country over partisan politics and vote!  The Speaker of the House, now captive of Trump / Putin, needs to get out of the way  and bring Ukraine aid to a vote.

This morning Donald Trump said he would tell Russia to, “do whatever the hell they wanted” with NATO countries that had not paid enough into the alliance. If you read through this web site you will see that I have pretty well avoided names and tried to focus on issues. But Trump is over the top again.

I would not suggest Russia attack anyone. Putin doesn’t need any encouragement. I would urge NATO members to pay their full dues using persuasion and maybe some domestic pressure. The least prepared is the first attacked. So don’t make a contest out of it.

If there was one single thing I could do for the Russian people it would be to stop the killing. But Putin started the war with Ukraine, a completely unprovoked attack. I’m waiting to see if Congress will continue support to Ukraine or abandon this democratic nation fighting for its life.

It is also clear that Trump does not understand the importance of a unified NATO to the security of Europe and the United States itself. No one has ever understood his infatuation with Putin and other dictators. It was not until Trump’s closed door meeting with Putin in Helsinki that the word “treason” entered my mind. Hypothetical question, did he tell Putin to do “whatever the hell he wanted” with Ukraine?

Plenty of media heads talking about what Senators were thinking in voting down the bipartisan immigration reform bill. In my view they were not thinking about what is best for our nation. See my previous post about Here We Go Again. What we are seeing at the southern border is a refugee migration, more like the Middle East and not generally seen before in the western Hemisphere. These are mostly good people looking for a better life. There are just far too many, far beyond the scope of out existing immigration laws. The proposed bipartisan immigration bill addressed these problems. It tightened asylum rules and ended “catch and release”. It expedited the asylum review process. It allowed and required the President to close the border entirely when numbers exceeded the Border Patrol holding facilities. It was humane. It was good legislation. Biden said he would sign it. I would have done so also.