Month: April 2024

To the Dogs

Not-Dog People

A friend of mine grew up on a cattle farm in Eastern Ohio.  We had a lot in common as educators and as coaches.  But the one big difference between us was dogs.  I had a dog, one that I actually brought to work (school) from time to time.  On the weekends when we had long wrestling tournaments, requiring hours to setup and run, I’d try to bring my dog over to school for at least part of the time.  That way, she wasn’t alone at home for most of the weekend.

To me that was natural.  Not only did I love her, but I was responsible for her.  Besides, kids loved her too, and she was incredibly well behaved.  But my friend didn’t feel that way at all.

In his life, dogs were a threat and a menace.  Dogs would wander onto the farm and chase the cattle.  Not only would the cows panic, but they would run, into the woods, into barbed wire fences, and down into ravines.  The dogs, at best, reduced the value of the cows by chasing the weight off of them.  At worst, cows were injured or even killed.  Either way, it was a threat to their business.

So he wasn’t a dog fan.  Dogs belonged where they belonged, not near a school (or a wrestling mat), and definitely not near a cattle farm.  And when dogs became too much of a frequent menace to his herd – well  – he got rid of them.

Dog People

At first, I was shocked by that attitude.  I’ve had a dog, ever since I can remember.  There’s a succession of dogs in my life:  from Princess to Louie I and Louie II, to Rory, Paige, Sierra and Dash (the best dog ever); and now “The Five”, Buddy (maybe co-best ever), Atticus, Keelie, Lou and CeCe.  But my friend had his whole different experience, one that I grew to respect, even though I couldn’t agree.

You probably know where this essay is going.  South Dakota’s Governor Kristi Noem, like most politicians looking to “move up”, wrote her autobiography.  While it hasn’t been published yet, she’s releasing “teasers” from the book to generate interest.  And one of those teasers was her story of shooting her own dog.

That story is generating a lot of “heat” in the “Mainstream Media”, with commentators furious about the callousness and cruelty of shooting a dog named Cricket, only a puppy, who didn’t behave in a way the Governor approved.  All three late-night comedians jumped on board with scathing jokes.  She’s being pilloried for every failure:  not training the dog properly, not accepting the dog’s failure as a hunting dog and doing something else with him, not keeping him under control when he escaped from her truck and attacked a neighbor’s chicken flock.  

If she couldn’t control the puppy, why not take him to a shelter, or a rescue, or somewhere other than a gravel pit to deliver the kill shot?  And, of course, all of those criticisms are absolutely right, at least to Jenn and me, who just spent $6000 on Atticus’s knee surgery.  

Worse, Noem is literally bragging about it.  This isn’t some obscure chapter in her book, she specifically put it out there to generate publicity.  And, probably, to gain the admiration of one man, the Republican nominee for President of the United States, looking for a Vice Presidential candidate.

Trying Out

Donald Trump loves “tough men”.  He’s shown it over and over again, making admiring statements about  Putin, Xi, Orban, Kim, and Erdogan.  And Trump likes “performative toughness”.  He’s not a connoisseur of football or baseball, but he’s all-in for professional wrestling.   And, I’m guessing, for tough women who shoot their puppies named Cricket.

Trump’s not a dog person either.  He didn’t have one in the White House, because, he said, he’d look “foo-foo” walking the dog on the White House lawn.  What that really means is that Trump sees dogs as political props, not companions.  And, I have to point out, that there have been other Presidents who didn’t like dogs, notably Richard Nixon.  In fact, Nixon was so uncomfortable with dogs that to do a “dog moment” for television, they had to sprinkle meat powder on Nixon’s pants leg to get a dog to come to him — dogs know!!. 

My fellow dog lover’s (and there is more of us), don’t miss this.  There is a significant number of people who don’t like dogs.  And there are those who need to see some “performative toughness” to prove a politician’s, and particularly a female politician’s, “strength”.  So while Governor Noem’s execution of Cricket might seem like political suicide, it might also be the “shared space” in some obscure political Vin diagram.  Where do the circles of “tough politicians”, “Not Dog People” and Donald Trump intersect?  Right over Cricket’s dead body.

Presidential Immunity

Fire Blanket

It’s a seductive argument, one that Dick Cheney and folks who grew watching the TV show “24” would understand.  They argue that sometimes the President of the United States has to break the law in order to protect the Nation.  Sometimes he has to do the “dirty work”, the nasty, wet work, that the general public doesn’t need, or want, to know.  At least, that’s what they think.

I mentioned Dick Cheney, because those of us who are old enough remember the “Darth Vader” of the George W Bush administration. After 9-11, it was Dick Cheney, at the “undisclosed location”, who orchestrated America’s response.  Sure, the President was out there speaking at the World Trade Center site; “…I can hear you!  The rest of the world hears you, and the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon”.

But Cheney was preparing to get intelligence on those “people”, in any way he could.  He made sure that a Justice Department lawyer, John Yoo (now a professor at Cal-Berkley Law School), authored a memo saying waterboarding, stress positions, enforced nudity, forced simulated sex positions, sleep deprivation, and auditory overload were all; “not torture”.  And then Cheney sent American forces out to find who could identify the ones that “…knocked these buildings down”. They were kidnapped, and sent to “black sites” that were NOT on American soil so US Courts could not intervene.

Those folks were “interrogated, not tortured”, according to the “memo”.  And the information gained was generally “not valid”.  Senator John McCain, himself tortured and permanently disabled by the North Vietnamese said it best.  There comes a point where you’ll say anything to make it stop, true or not. Just give the torturers whatever they want to hear.

Why did Cheney get a Department of Justice, Office of Legal Counsel memo?  Because he needed cover, a paper fire-blanket to wrap around himself.  He knew:  someday somebody would say the obvious, that  “torture is wrong and that was torture”.  Cheney needed a get out of jail card, and John Yoo wrote it for him.

Criminal Liability

And what’s important about that now?  Because if Dick Cheney thought the President of the United States (under whose authority he was acting) was immune from criminal prosecution, then he wouldn’t have bothered with John Yoo’s  infamous work.

Richard Nixon wouldn’t have taken a pardon from Gerald Ford after he resigned from office.  Nor would Bill Clinton gotten a plea deal where he lost his law license for committing perjury under oath.   The bottom line:  every President since George Washington knew that if they broke the law, they could be held accountable.  The Presidents knew they were safe from legal action while in office, barring impeachment and conviction.  And they also knew that they weren’t immune after they left office.

The Founding Fathers were surely spinning in their graves last week.  The Supreme Court of the United States seemed to be seriously considering whether a President has immunity from criminal prosecution, not just in office, but for life.  That is perilously close to creating a “sovereign king”, the one thing all of the Founding Fathers pledged “…their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor” to end.  When lawyers for the ex-President made the argument that George Washington would agree with them, historians were aghast.  We all know better, as does every school-kid in America.  And so do those lawyers, and the nine solemn judges on the bench.

Russian Roulette

Former Attorney General Bill Barr summed up the view for a few of those Justices last week.  Barr sees Trump as a dangerous individual, a “Russian Roulette” choice as President.  But he sees the “Progressive Agenda” of the Biden Administration as so dangerous, an “existential threat”; that he is willing to “spin the barrel” and pull the trigger on a second Trump Presidency.

I suspect Justices Thomas, Alito, Gorsuch and perhaps Barrett all feel that same way.  They certainly seem willing to distort American legal history, and create a new “immunity” out of whole cloth to wrap around Donald Trump.  And that immunity is absolutely “gas on a fire” when it comes to the ex-President.

By any measure, the previous Trump candidacy and Presidency was characterized by the destruction of “norms”. Norms are the unwritten rules that controlled American government, from Senate approval of executive department leaders (Trump filled many offices with temporary leaders) to taking moral stands in American crises (“good people on both sides”), to the peaceful transition of power from one President to another.  We know all about that one. Trump broke ignored the norms.

And several members of the Supreme Court seem to be seriously considering whether to remove not a norm, but an actual disincentive to breaking laws:  legal, criminal responsibility.  One of the Justices mentioned the now infamous “Seal Team Six” scenario, that came up in the Appellate Court argument.  “What if the President ordered Seal Team Six to assassinate his political opponent. Would he have immunity from the criminal liability then?”  The  Trump  response in the DC Circuit was: only if he was impeached and convicted first.

Command Responsibility

But Justice Alito blew through that scenario.  He simply said that Seal Team Six was bound by the Uniform Code of Military Justice, and so wouldn’t obey an “illegal order”, even from the President.  But what if they did obey a Presidential command?  Well, they would be criminally liable.  So the executors would be liable, but the actual commander would not be?

Every Four Star General and Admiral knows they are responsible for their actions.  Every Department Secretary is as well.  So why would the President, the most powerful “man in the world”, not be held to the same standard as their subordinates?  The short answer is:  for 235 years, up until today, they have been.  

Hebert Hoover sent the US military to clear the “Bonus Army”from the National Mall in 1932.  Franklin Roosevelt interned American citizens of Japanese descent.  Truman used the atomic bomb.  Lyndon Johnson lied about Vietnam, and Richard Nixon covered up a felony break-in.  Bill Clinton made a deal, and George W Bush kidnapped foreign citizens, transported them to foreign bases, and had them tortured.  Barack Obama had an American citizen killed by drone strike, and sent Seal Team Six to kill Bin Laden.  

All of them, faced the possibility of criminal action.  And all of them, right or wrong, did what they thought was best in their crisis.  So who can’t handle it?  Who needs a Supreme Court designated “get out of jail” card?  

Of course; it’s the Ex-President and current candidate, Donald Trump.

Lowest Common Denominator

It’s Sunday – but this isn’t really a “Sunday Story” – more of a Sunday “rant”!!

Shrinkage

In some Walmart stores across the nation, they are removing the self-checkout aisles, and replacing them with – wait for it – cashiers!  Walmart says they are doing so to “improve the customer experience”, but in reality, it’s all about “shrinkage”.  What’s “shrinkage”?  (Fellas, it’s not the cold water situation).  It’s product that leaves the store without payment,  in other words, theft.  Stores like Walmart estimate it’s as much as twenty percent of the merchandise.

Walmart cut costs by installing self-checkout lines. The “customer experience” was to unload, scan, and bag your own purchases. Then, as you’d leave the store, someone would check your cart against the printed receipt, in case, (of course) you made a mistake.

I’ve always been willing to bag my own groceries.  If my local grocery store is slammed, I’m willing to volunteer and “pitch-in” to help out and speed things up.  The only thing to “screw up” in bagging, is putting the eggs or the chips in the wrong place or the wrong bag.  And, if I do, that’s on me.

But I’m not interested in protecting the profit of my local Kroger, or Walmart, or their discount store, Sam’s Club.  I am not a thief.  There were several times when I got my cart to the car, and realized that the cashier missed an item, say, the case of water on the bottom.  I not taking something I didn’t pay for.  So I go back in the store, to the front desk, and pay for what I purchased.  That, often, causes some confusion to the “management personnel”.  That’s sad; it shouldn’t be a “surprise” that people are honest.

However, this whole concept of a nice, older lady at the front door checking my cart against my receipt says one thing to me – I’m a thief, that needs to be observed, and checked, and “caught”.  And I’m not.

Fix Their Problem

I know, I know, it’s the theory of the lowest common denominator. (If that didn’t give you a flashback to eighth grade math with a not-nice, older lady named Mrs. Hibbard, you missed out on “Math Block Development” at Van Buren Junior High School).   The “lowest common denominator” customer at Walmart or Sam’s Club is stealing stuff, I guess.  My answer is:  fix their problem, not mine.   

It’s like the seventh grade teacher who punishes the whole class because two boys are shooting “tweeties” in the back.  (Tweeties:  that requires a rubber band and a tightly folded piece of paper.  The paper is in a “v”, with the rubber band placed in the “v” and shot at the target.  They hurt!!)  It’s not the kid in the front row’s fault that the “boys in the back” are out of control.  Teacher, control those kids, don’t punish the whole class!!

But Walmart will, by making everyone go through a cashiered line.  Actually,  I’m all in favor of that.  Cashiered lines require people to be cashiers. That requires more employees at Walmart, creating jobs.  And all of that’s a good thing.  But I’m not convinced that’s what will happen.

Employee Opportunities

Walmart won’t hire more people. Instead, Walmart will create more lines of waiting customers, blaming it on “shrinkage” rather than “tight-wad-age”.  And so we will be stacked up, across the broad main aisle and into the women’s clothing department, between the bras and the goofy T-shirts.  Dodging those lines was the only advantage to self-checkout.  And now that won’t be an option.

Here in Pataskala, our local Kroger store created a “hybrid” checkout line.   in the regular cashier checkout, the customer unpacks the cart onto a conveyor.  The cashier then enters the price of each item, either manually and through a barcode reading device.  The item them is pushed down to a bagger, who bags it, then sets the groceries in a cart.  That line is where all the folks “my age” (well past retirement) congregate.  There’s others doing the work, there’s conversations with the cashier and the bagger, and there’s direction if some electronic device comes up “ERROR”.

Self-checkout is all “do it yourself”.  You unpack, you scan or enter; you bag, and you put it back in the cart.  Oh, and don’t forget to pay!!  But with this odd “hybrid” checkout, you unpack, enter and scan, then conveyor to a “professional” bagger (usually a high school kid) who bags and packs.  I guess the “professional” serves as the “shrinkage control officer”, making sure everything gets scanned in.  

Hybrids

Why have a “hybrid” that makes the customer do all of the important work?  Because it a Kroger cost-saving measure; they don’t have to staff a cashier, just a kid fresh from a present-day Mrs. Hibbard’s math class. There’s no weighing, measuring, entering, calculating for them:  just put the eggs in a separate bag on top.  

My problem with hybrid?  The high school kid is always trying to bag two hybrid lines at the same time.  So he (usually) isn’t there. That means I’m unpacking, I’m scanning, I’m conveying, and I’m running to the other end to bag too.  And with all that going on, I’m at the “wrong end of the horse” when I get done.  It’s easy to start to walk away – without paying.  “Luckily” the scanning machine goes off like a grand-prize winner at the casino if you don’t pay out fast.  That way the entire Kroger, in fact, the entire City of Pataskala is made aware – “potential ‘thief’ at hybrid checkout twelve!!!!”

Look, inflation is real in the Walmart’s and Kroger’s of the world.   But Walmart had an annual gross profit of over $147 billion last year, and Kroger almost $38 billion, both up from the year before.  I bet they can find a few more smart high school (non-math block) kids to “cashier” the lines, and not put much of a dent in the profit margin.

But whatever they do, I hope that stop treating me like I’m a thief.  Don’t make me like the “lowest common denominator”.  

The Sunday Story Series

Child of the Sixties

Origins

I am a child of the 1960’s.  My favorite rock group remains Crosby-Stills-Nash and Young, the super-group that called us to “Please come to Chicago” to protest the trial of seven protestors at the 1968 Democratic Convention, and mourned the dead of Kent State crying out – “Four Dead in Ohio” (OHIO – Neil Young).  I first learned politics sitting on a couch with my newly broken arm propped on a “beer box”, watching that same Democratic convention. I was heartbroken at the loss of Bobby Kennedy, but fascinated as Chicago’s Mayor Daley sent in the police to not only break up demonstrations, but beat-up demonstrators.  

My first “demonstration” was when I was thirteen.  We marched the streets of Dayton, Ohio, and chanted against the Vietnam War. And I scooted out of there at the first signs of trouble.  

That was an early “moral dilemma” for me.  I was an Eagle Scout, dedicated to “Do my best, to do my Duty to God and My Country”.  How could I stand, saluting the flag, swearing that oath; and then walk the street yelling “Stop the War”?  Was that American?   Or was it covered under some higher obligation than the discipline to “follow the Scout Law” and in broader terms, the law of the land?

Duty 

The War was over by the time I got to college in 1974.  I decided to make “my mark” on society, first through political action within the system, then individually as a public school teacher.   But I still had that first impression, of the college students rallying in the streets, trying to, “Change the world; re-arrange the world…” (Chicago – Graham Nash).   It was not only their right under the First Amendment, but their “duty”.

College students across the nation are demonstrating on their campuses.   I get it.  They, as Ted Kennedy said about his brother Bobby: “…(S)aw wrong and tried to right it, saw suffering and tried to heal it, saw war and tried to stop it.” They aren’t wrong.  The horror of the 30,000 plus killed in Gaza by the Israeli armed forces cannot be “accepted”.  And neither can the Hamas surprise attack on the Israel, where almost 1300 were brutally massacred in one day. 

Distinctions

It is a matter of making “distinctions”.  Hamas is a terrorist organization, acting as terrorists do.  They are militarily weak, so they take their battle to unarmed civilians.  Where victory is impossible, terror will have to do.

And Israel is a powerful nation.  Nations are supposed to act differently than terrorist organizations.  Nations can win battles against armed opponents, and can (must) do their best to protect civilians from “collateral damage”.  The problem Israel faces is the same one that the United States faced in Afghanistan and Vietnam.  The “enemy” is embedded in the civilian population.  They don’t wear a uniform, and it’s difficult to see through the “camouflage” of the civilians surrounding them.  It doesn’t matter.  Israel cannot act as a terrorist organization, using the excuse of “fighting fire with fire”.  And when they do, many in the world stand against them.

The Biden Administration is already making that distinction.  When Iran launched hundreds of weapons against Israel, the United States took a strong role in stopping the onslaught.  But when Israeli forces attacked a non-governmental-entity (NGO) delivering food to Palestinians, Biden condemned it.   Senate Majority Leader Schumer and House Speaker-Emeritus Pelosi have both called for the end of the Netanyahu administration.  Biden called on Netanyahu to hold off on the “final” operation to takeover Rafah, where over a million Palestinian refugees are staying (and starving).  Aid legislation passed Congress last week, gives money to both arm Israel and to feed the starving in Gaza.

College Education

Those protesting need to make distinctions too.  There is a distinction between the starving (and dying) Palestinians, and the Hamas terrorists among them.  You can support feeding one, without supporting the horrific actions of the other.  And there is a difference between the actions of the Netanyahu Administration, the people of Israel, and Jewish people in general.  To take a stand against all “Jews” (or even that all Jews are Zionists), is no different than saying everyone in Gaza is a Hamas terrorist.  

Students in the United States have a right, and even a duty, to speak their minds.  It mattered in the 1960’s, and during Black Live Matters protests in 2021, and it matters today.  But just as the protests against Vietnam didn’t justify burning university buildings, and the Black Lives Matter protests didn’t justify burning cities; protesting for Palestinians does not justify attacking Jewish students.  

Two invalid “logic” equations:

  •             President Johnson wanted war in Vietnam
  •             Johnson was the American President, therefore
  •             All Americans wanted the Vietnam War.
  •             Prime Minister Netanyahu is starving Palestinians in Gaza
  •             Netanyahu is the leader of a Jewish country, therefore
  •             All Jews want to starve Palestinians.

Learning to reason is the reason students go to college.  They have a “duty” to apply reason, even for those issues that they feel so strongly about, they are “called” to demonstrate.  Sure, stop Netanyahu, but don’t support Hamas, and don’t attack all Jews.  Otherwise, it’s just antisemitism, and supporting terrorists.  And that’s illogical.

A Common Criminal

Sorry it’s been a few days. Of course there’s track meets, but we also had an awesome family reunion, and the kids were in from California. Now, it’s back to commentary!!!

Equal in the Eyes

The Fourteenth Amendment to the United States’ Constitution states it best:

“…(N)or deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”

If we are all “equally protected”, then we are also all “equally responsible” to the laws of the United States.  There is no individual immune from those laws (at least not this week, the Supreme Court could change that).  And while the “wheels of justice” seem intolerably slow, they do ultimately reach a conclusion.

This week, we see a reaffirmation of the success of the American experiment.  If we are all equally responsible to the law, then even the most powerful should be held accountable.  In New York City, the powerful; the former President of the United States, still politically viable with millions of supporters, is “before the bar”.  Whether the jury of twelve New Yorkers find him guilty or not guilty really doesn’t matter.  The sole fact that a former President can be so held accountable is a victory for America.

We are drowned in minutiae. Trump fell asleep in court.  He told he lawyers what to do?  He posted on “Truth Social”? And, OMG – Trump farted in Court!!!

But don’t forget the underlying fact.  The former President of the United States is not above the law.  He is, like every other citizen, from crypto-pirate Sam Bankman-Fried in New York to plucked from the local paper common thief Josh Creager in Newark, Ohio; subject to trial, and potentially jail.

The Difference

But, even after all of that, certainly the trial of Donald J. Trump is  different.   If any other criminal defendant did the things that Trump does, he would be in jail.  So why are judges hesitant to hold the ex-President to the same standard that Bankman-Fried and Creager were forced to meet?  

Practically there’s the issue that Americans have been skirting for over a year:  how to jail a former President.   Do the Secret Service agents go in with Trump?  Are they now “bunkees” as well as bodyguards (surely Trump goes on the bottom)?  Or does the former President get a separate area, maybe a bed in an office with a restroom, a lock on the door and his cell phone.  Or doe the Court “LOCK HIM UP” in the penthouse of some local five-star hotel.

And then there’s the second question:  what does MAGA-world do if their leader is jailed?  Is there the possibility of violence?  Will Appellate Courts allow a former President to stay in jail, or will they emasculate the trial Judge with upper Court rulings?

Of Course, Money

And finally, the odd reasoning that Trump may want to be in jail.  Donald Trump is campaigning, every day he’s in Court.  His fundraising machine goes to work each time he steps to the microphones outside the Courtroom door, garnering millions out of each rant and claim to victimhood.   How much money could Trump raise if he was actually “jailed” (though I highly doubt it would be in Rikers)?  He’s already drawn the parallel (I wish I’d stayed awake in geometry, I’d know the term for the opposite of parallel!).  Donald Trump is in jail, Martin Luther King Junior was in jail, Donald Trump is like MLK. It’s a “theorem”, right? Will there be a “Letter from the New York Jail, (or a New York hotel)”, read by future scholars and students?

I don’t think so.  But I do think he’ll raise millions more as the small handcuffs are applied, and the former President, flanked by his Secret Service cellmates, is escorted away.  It’s what he wants to be:  a victim, a martyr for MAGAdom, a fundraising machine.  Somebody’s got to pay the bills.

$1400 a Night

It all makes sense, except for one thing.  We know Donald Trump, he’s a germophobe.  We know he has to have his burgers and Pepsi just right, his tie at the right length, his pants pressed even while he’s wearing them.  Does this sound like a man who would voluntarily be incarcerated, even if it was in a Five Star Hotel on New York’s Fifth Avenue?

Judge Juan Merchan is still pondering what to do about Trump.  As the trial goes on, and the unfortunately named David Pecker outlines the conspiracy to defraud the American electorate, Trump is speaking, tweeting (Truth Social-ing) and behaving like a defendant with no fear.  To really be “equal in the eyes of the law”, the Court must enforce it’s own rules.  And we know, even though his resources are limited, Trump just isn’t afraid of fines.  If $175 million won’t stop him, any amount Merchan levies won’t be enough.

Trump Secret Service agents better come to work with an overnight bag. Ultimately, Merchan will have no choice – Trump will go to jail, even if it’s the only the Ritz-Carlton, with rooms starting at $1400 a  night. 

Justice will be served.

Hubris Cometh?

Ohio’s Red Map

David Pepper was Chairman of the Ohio Democratic Party from 2015 to 2020.  That’s not as big a deal as I wish it were.  Democrats have a tough time winning in Ohio.  While the cities are Democratic, the suburbs are reliable Republican strongholds.  (At least they were, until the US Supreme Court Dodd’s decision. The double upset wins of the two statewide issues on abortion in 2023, just might signal a change). 

 And then there’s the “countryside”, places like Cedarville, and Ada, and even Oxford.  Those all happen to be where the present Governor, Mike DeWine, lives or went to school.  (For those who really know Ohio, DeWine was actually born and raised in Yellow Springs, which is quite a contrast to the rest of his political life!!).  Those small towns are as “Red” as can be, as is nearby St. Paris, the home of Congressman Jim Jordan.

Republicans, followed the Red Map strategy of the National Republican Party starting in 2010. They have completely gerrymandered the state legislature.  In a state which even at its “Reddest” phase is 42% Republican, 40% Democrat and 18% “non-affiliated”:  two-thirds of the State House of Representatives are Republican. And the GOP controls even a greater margin,  just under three-fourths of the State Senate seats.

GOP Control

Republicans control all the statewide elective executive offices. They have a four to three majority on the State Supreme Court, and ten of the fifteen US Congressional seats. Republican JD Vance is the junior Senator, while Democrat Sherrod Brown, a holdover from a different era, is fighting to keep his seat in 2024.

David Pepper helped Brown defend his seat in 2018, but Ohio fell even deeper in a “Red hole” during his tenure as Chairman.  As that famous Republican John Wayne once said (in Big Jake): “My fault, your fault, nobody’s fault…”; in the past two decades the Democratic Party lost Ohio.  And the National Democratic Party knows it.  Their failure to finance Tim Ryan in his expertly run campaign against Vance in 2022 tells that story.  

The lack of Democratic competition leads to even more power for the extreme Republicans in the state.  If there is no challenge in the general election, then the Republican primaries become the crucible determining who will gain power.  And since only a small percentage of voters turn out for the primary (2024 – 20.7%) the extreme of the Party holds control.  There’s no reason for moderate views or an appeal to the “center”; when the motivated “right” has the votes.  So-called “moderate” Republicans really don’t stand a chance.

Un-Checked, Un-Balanced

And the lack of competition means there is a failure of electoral “checks and balances” in the state.  Even when the people of Ohio on a statewide ballot voted to end gerrymandering and have balanced re-districting, approve abortion, or legalize marijuana; the state legislature, the governor, and even the state Supreme Court are willing to ignore their voice. They are practicing  “delay, delay, delay” with the marijuana legislation.  And they completely ignored the gerrymandering Constitutional Amendment, even ignoring the State Supreme Court when they were ordered to comply.  We don’t know yet how the abortion question will be legislated.

Today, David Pepper is a national political commentator, fighting the inequity of one-Party rule here in Ohio.   The absolute power of the Republicans have led to the “other” end of that famous phrase, “absolute corruption”.    The obvious example is the former Republican Speaker of the State House, Larry Householder, who took a $60 million bribe, and is currently serving twenty years in Federal Prison.  Two others accused in the scandal have committed suicide (one with a DeWine for Governor T-shirt on).  And Pepper in a recent essay, highlights how literally incestuous the Republican failure is.

Who-Dey!!

The Governor’s son, Pat DeWine, is a Justice of the Ohio Supreme Court.  Like Clarence Thomas on the US Court, the younger DeWine sees no conflict of interest in ruling on his own father’s decisions.  But the most egregious example of Republican hubris is a relatively minor case just handed down by the Court.

In 2022, the Cincinnati Bengals went to the Super Bowl.  For us long-suffering Bengals fans it was an amazing accomplishment, and Governor DeWine took reasonable advantage of it by going to the game in Los Angeles.  He took a party of twenty or so with him, mostly family, and paid for the tickets himself.  But the Cincinnati Enquirer (as Republican a newspaper as exists) did ask for an accounting of the State expenses of protecting the Governor and his large party.

The State Highway Patrol refused to release the costs, claiming security concerns, and the Enquirer sued under the Open Records Act.   The case went to the Ohio Supreme Court.  Pat DeWine, who went on the trip with his father, appropriately recused himself from the case.

Even in the Court

Here’s where things get – ugly.   Justice DeWine is recently divorced.  He had an affair with his senior staff attorney, Mary Stier.   During the divorce, Stier resigned from the Court staff, and went to work for Joe Deters, the long-time Prosecutor for Hamilton County (Cincinnati area) and personal friend of Pat DeWine.   A couple of years later, when a seat came open in the Court, Governor DeWine appointed Deters to fill the appointment.  Deters brought Stier with him back to the Court as his staff attorney.  Stier and Justice DeWine acknowledge they are currently in a relationship.

So while Pat DeWine recused himself from the Enquirer case, Deters was the pivotal vote denying the financial information to the newspaper.  And who else was on the Bengals excursion to Los Angeles as part of the Governor’s party – Pat DeWine and  Mary Stier.  Even with all of his personal involvement in the case, friend of one participant, employer of another, Deters remained on the bench to rule, and keep the information “secret”. In fact, Stier may have had a part in writing the actual decision.

Before the Fall

Scandals in other states resonate in American media.  The Mississippi Governor was in a deal with retired Green Bay Quarterback Brett Favre to launder money. The Missouri Governor hired his paramour. Four of the past ten Illinois Governors went to prison.  But here in Ohio, even the $60 million Householder trial hardly made a dent.  Republicans are backed by the overwhelmingly Republican media (Gannett owns the Cincinnati Enquirer, the Columbus Dispatch, the Canton Depository, the Akron Beacon Journal, and seventeen other papers).  And even when those newspapers ask questions, the Republicans shut the conversation down. 

It is all about hubris, the unchecked power of unquestioned and unchallenged authority.  Will the abortion issue prove to be the tipping point?  Will the phrase, “hubris cometh before the fall” finally come to Ohio?  As hard as David Pepper and others are working – I’m not holding my breath.

Hell in a Hand Basket

Leaders

It’s tough being a “reasonable” Republican politician today.  They watched the insurrection of January 6th.  They see the current onslaught of Trump posts on “Truth Social”, and the MAGA rallies where he says one outrageous thing after another.  And they shudder at the vision of the Steve’s, Bannon and Miller, “back in the saddle” again, this time without the calming influences of more “mainstream” Republicans or even Generals.

Alexandre Auguste Ledru Rollin said it best in the French Revolution of 1848:

“There go my people. I must find out where they are going so I can lead them.”

Republican leaders have a choice.  They can support their political party, and their leader and Presidential candidate, Donald Trump.  Or they can follow their conscience, knowing full well that choice means exile to the Siberia of Liz Cheney and Jeff Flake (remember him?) – in short, political suicide.

Never Say Never

New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu is a prime example.  He spent 2023 looking for a Republican candidate to defeat Trump (after he realized he wasn’t the ONE).   Sununu started with his “buddy”, Chris Christie of New Jersey, an avowed opponent of Trump who made it clear he was a “Never-Trumper”.  But Christie failed to gain political traction pretty much anywhere, and became the “skunk at the picnic” in the Republican Presidential debates (that Trump disrespected so much that he refused to attend).  

Those debates should have told us something.  Other than Christie, not one other candidate would dare to criticize the twice-impeached, four times indicted ex-President of the United States.  And Christie called them out – if they refused to criticize the absent front-runner, how could any of them expect to beat him for the nomination.  By the way, Christie was right; no one else called Trump out, and he won.

That made Christie radioactive in the Republican Party, and Sununu abandoned him to seek a more winnable choice.  Nikki Haley was his next standard-bearer, and Sununu literally crisscrossed New Hampshire championing her candidacy.  As part of that campaign, Sununu said that Trump should be disqualified because of his actions on January 6th, and also his theft and mishandling of classified documents.

But Trump’s ironfisted control of the MAGA-Republican Party was unshakeable, and Haley’s campaign petered out with an overwhelming loss in her own home state of South Carolina.  This left Sununu with a choice:  support Trump or political Siberia.

In from the Cold

Sunday morning Governor Chris Sununu of the “Live Free or Die” state of New Hampshire appeared on This Week with George Stephanopoulos. In that interview, he spun around so fast, I swear he could see the back of his own head.   He’s now all-in for Donald Trump.  The Governor said that it’s more important to change “culture”, then to elect a President that Sununu still acknowledges shouldn’t be allowed to have the job.  

Really, it’s hard to imagine flipping that fast.  But Sununu was honest about why he was doing it.  He erroneously claimed that 51% of Americans support Donald Trump for President.  While that’s not true (Marquette), what is true is that near 90% of Republicans will support Trump.  Sununu made the simple political calculation:  no matter what he personally believed (and acknowledges he still does); his party is going another way.  As an old friend of mine used to say:  “You’re either on the bus, or off the bus”.  Chris Sununu is now on the MAGA-Trump bus, even if he wasn’t a MAGA-Trumper.

It was a difficult interview.  Sununu refused to contradict any of his earlier statements about Trump’s “unfitness” for office.  But he stuck by his “guns”.  Since his Party wanted Trump, he wanted Trump.  Since his Party thought Trump was better than Biden; despite January 6th, despite the classified documents, despite the election interference, despite the four indictments; then Sununu was a “good soldier”.  He supported Trump.

Expediency

When Stephanopoulos “walked” Sununu through all of the questions, he finally just shook his head.  In this MAGA world, “2+2+2+2” does not equal eight.   It equals zero; zero responsibility for all of those disqualifying actions, actions that Sununu and others, see as a threat to democracy.  

John Bolton, former Ambassador to the United Nations and one of Trump’s National Security Advisors at least was a bit more logical.  He knows Trump, he worked for Trump, he resigned from the Trump Administration.  He is warning the United States that Trump is unfit for office.  But, in the binary choice of the 2024 election, Bolton refuses to choose.  He declares that Biden is “unfit” as well.  So Bolton will “wash his hands” of the whole matter.  He’ll likely write in Dick Cheney, again.

All because “…there go my people.  I must find out where they are going so I can lead them”.  

Sununu, Bolton, and the rest all know where the MAGA-Republican Party is going.  And they’re willing to go straight to “Hell in a handbasket” with them.  I guess, at least they’ll know someone there when they arrive.

Swarms

This is another in the Sunday Story series.  There’s a little “news update” in the beginning, then just a few stories about “swarms”.

Israel

Last night, a “swarm” of Iranian drones attacked Israel (in addition to more serious cruise and ballistic missiles, a total of over three hundred).  It was a “slow motion” attack, with hours between the launch and the assault. Israel, with the help of the United States and Jordan and (maybe?) Saudi Arabia, knocked 99% of them down.  Now, drones are a serious new weapon of war, ask the Ukrainians.  Drones, at the minimum, absorb a lot of defense capability:  if you’re shooting down a couple hundred drones, you’re don’t have those same defensive weapons for cruise missiles and rockets.

On the other hand, it does seem almost laughable.  We’ve watched “drone shows” at the Olympics and the Super Bowl, when colorful drones, guided by computers, make all sorts of improbable three-dimensional patterns in the sky.  It’s beautiful, and almost miraculous to those of us not familiar with drone guidance technology. And we can cruise on down to Wal-Mart and buy our own drone, a simple version of the long range weapon (over 1000 miles) used by Iran last night.

Toys of War

On the other hand, if we can do that for a “show”, then what can “we” do when war and lives are on the line? The Iranian drones aren’t “dumb”.  Technology has come a long way from the Nazi V-1 “Buzz Bombs” of World War II.  Those were non-guided jet-propelled flying bombs, drones.  The Germans literally pointed them in the direction of Great Britain and fired off the engine.  The V-1 flew (with a distinctive buzzing sound) until they ran out of fuel – then fell to the earth and exploded.   As long as you heard them “buzzing” – you were safe.   Targeting wasn’t completely random back then, but close.

So that got me thinking about my experience with swarms.  And this essay is no longer about technology and advanced weaponry.  It’s about swarms, real swarms, of insects; the kind of swarms that freak me out.

Cicadas Song

The biggest swarm of insects I ever ran into was a couple of years ago.  It was a swarm of cicadas, those damn, noisy infestations that crawl out of the ground and head up to eat the leaves and mate in the sky.  Here in Ohio, there’s supposed to be a “twenty-year” cicada cycle, but, somehow,  they don’t seem to all be on the same calendar.  

We get some cicadas almost every year.  I know, Lou, our big “everything” mix dog, loves to dig up the yard to find the pubescent cicadas (and eat them).  He’ll eat the adults too.  Sometimes Lou walks around the back yard with a sly, satisfied look on his face.  Then you notice his mouth is “buzzing”; an adult cicada contained inside.  The outer shell (carapace) isn’t really good for dogs, so we spend some time “freeing” the insect from Lou’s grip.

Gentle Crunch

So one “cicada” summer, Jenn and I were taking a dog to the veterinary surgical center called “TAHO”, off of High Street north of Columbus in Olentangy.   We were nearing the busy intersection of Polaris Parkway and High, when we drove into the middle of a cicada swarm.  We had to quickly roll up the windows, but even more, we had to turn the windshield wipers on to clear the view.  And as we proceeded slowly into the intersection, there were three sounds. 

First, there was the deafening “screech/song” of the cicadas themselves, (produced by a “sound box” in their abdomen to attract a mate).  It was so loud, we had trouble talking to each other in the closed car.  Second, there was the hailstorm of thumps, as cicadas flew into the windows, doors, roof, and sides of the car.  And finally, there was the gentle crunch, like breaking through the crisp icy top of a new snowfall.  That was the cicadas getting run over by our tires.

It only last a block, from just south of the intersection until just north.  But it was definitely disturbing.

Just Bees

The second swarm also took place in the Olentangy area.  My track team was competing in the District meet at Olentangy Liberty High School.  As was my “custom”, I was hanging out on the backstretch, just outside the fence from the pole vault runway.  It’s “calmer” on that side of the track, and I can talk to the vaulters, and still “communicate” with my athletes in the running events, as they fly down the backstretch, away from the cheering crowd in the home bleachers.

So the vault was going on, and the runners were out on the track, when a close, dark, cloud flew across the football field and headed towards us.  It was a swarm, this time of bees.  Their appearance put my athletes to their ultimate test:  how fast could they really run, when a buzzing swarm of bees were taking direct aim at their heads? 

I since learned that a swarm of bees (unless they are the new “killer bees”) really aren’t interested in stinging anybody, unless they are disturbed.  But, even if I knew that at the time, I’d still be sprinting out of the way, and yelling at my kids to do the same.  And, while I was in my late-forties, I still could show MY old sprint speed, as I “lead” my squad out of the path of the “storm”, the swarm of bees.

The Punch

But my worst experience with “swarms” was when I was in college.  I spent several summers backpacking all over the United States, and this time I was with a couple friends in the Alleghenies of Pennsylvania.  We usually covered ten to twelve miles a day, and on this particular day we were done with plenty of daylight left as we setup camp.  Matt and I were out gathering firewood, and saw a particularly attractive dead tree still standing next to a creek.  Dead trees still standing are great firewood.  They haven’t been on the ground absorbing moisture, so they’re likely to burn hot and fast. 

Matt went down the gentle embankment to grab the tree, and I followed him down to help.  Then, to my shock, Matt turned around and punched me in the stomach, hard.  He then sprinted past me up the embankment, yelling “WASPS!”

I was still doubled over, so I had a good look at my lower right leg.  It was covered with wasps, who must have had a nest in the dead tree we choose for our nightly fire.  And fire was the right word, because my leg felt like it was on fire.  And, of course, what would put a fire out?  I jumped into the creek, about a foot deep, and sprinted as fast as I could, hoping to shake the wasps off of my legs, and avoid the rest of the swarm aiming  for my head.

Wasps

The trick worked, and I got away with only a dozen or so stings on my lower leg.  But I knew I couldn’t take my boot off that night.  If it came off, it might never go back on, and we had “miles to go” before we got to a road. The next morning, my swollen leg literally hung over the top of my laces, throbbing with each step.  But at least I had my boot on.

And why did Matt punch me, then leave me to the swarm?  Well, he was highly allergic to stings, so much so that he hiked with a syringe and epinephrine in his pack (this was before the self-injector days).  We had strict orders to “shoot him up” if he got stung, or he’d choke to death.  

So Matt knew “he” couldn’t get stung.  And he was right.  It was easier for me to limp on with a swollen leg (and keep a boot on for a couple of days) then it would be to save him, then carry him out to a road and hospital in those days before cell phones could call for rescue.  

So swarms – of cicadas, bees, wasps and drones.  All are disturbing, and some can be deadly, in nature, and in war.

The Sunday Story Series

1864

Precedent

In 2022, the United States Supreme Court overturned their own 1973 decision in Roe v Wade. That case governed abortion care in the United States for forty-nine years.  In the Dobbs Decision, the Court determined that the 14th Amendment “due process” right does not apply to a women’s right to have an abortion. Since they found that “right” all of a sudden wasn’t in the Constitution, the Court said the entire issue was no longer under their jurisdiction.

That left abortion regulations decided on a state by state basis.  This not only started a state abortion controversy. It also brought into questions other issues like gay marriage, birth control medications, and even interracial marriage. All are based on the same “right”, and determined on a national basis based on the same legal reasoning as Roe.

Many states depended on the Roe decision to regulate abortion care.  Since the Supreme Court set national precedent, there was no reason to update other prior state laws, already invalidated by the Roe v Wade ruling.  But when the Dobbs decision came down, the Roe precedent was ripped away.  In many states all that was left governing abortion were laws on the books for more than a century.

Howell’s Law

 This week, the Arizona Supreme Court reinstated an 1864 law banning abortions.  Let’s see, 1864:  Arizona became a new territory less than a year before, in February of 1863.  It’s neighbors were Confederate Arizona to the South, the state of California to the west, and the Confederate Territory of New Mexico to the east.  The enslavement of Black Americans was banned in the Congressional legislation that created the Territory, but it was still legal next door in New Mexico, and in the territory’s Confederate counterpart (there was a Confederate Arizona Territory as well).

Let’s place blame where blame is due.  A New Yorker named William Howell was given the responsibility of writing the “criminal code” for the new Arizona Territory in 1864, and he was in a hurry.  He simply copied large parts of California’s earlier (1851) code, including the total ban on abortion (LA Times).

Lincoln for President

This is all “ancient” American history, right?  Who cares what William Howell did, plagiarism or not, back in 1864.  In fact, 1864 was a pretty “big” year for the nation.  It was the bloodiest year of the Civil War;  the year of battles in the Wilderness, Spotsylvania and Cold Harbor, Atlanta and of Sherman’s March to the Sea.  Abraham Lincoln was reelected President, but that was not a sure thing at all until Sherman’s victories.  No one was paying a whole lot of attention to Mr. Howell’s work in the far reaches of Arizona.

This week, one hundred and sixty years later,  the Arizona Supreme Court reinstated a portion of Mr. Howell’s “code”.  Even though Howell copied his abortion ban a full forty-eight years before Arizona even became a state, the high Court confirmed this draconian ban on 21st Century medical care.   Wisconsin faces a similar issue. Their law was written in 1849.   But the makeup of the Wisconsin Supreme Court is such that it’s likely they will hold the Victorian era law applies only to “feticide”, forced abortions, rather than consensual abortion (Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel).

Absolute Ban

There is no “leeway” in the 1864 law, except for the life of the mother.  Penalties include jail terms for medical personnel who perform “illegal” abortions.  And while abortion clinics in Arizona pledge to continue operation until the last possible moment, that moment is now a matter of months away.  Abortion care, including aborting non-viable pregnancies, will not be available in the state of Arizona.

Even though many of the statewide elected leaders of Arizona are Democrats and fully in favor of women’s right to access abortion care, Republicans hold narrow majorities in both the Arizona House and Senate.  And when some modification of the Mr. Howell’s 1864 law came up, the Republican leadership shut it down without discussion.  

More than Politics

It’s easy to talk about the political ramifications of the Arizona Court decision.  It’s given huge impetus to a ballot initiative legalizing abortion, hoping to get on the Arizona statewide ballot in November.  And, if that initiative succeeds in getting in front of the voters, there’s even more discussion about what impact that will have on the Arizona Presidential vote, as well as the pivotal US Senate election between Democrat Rueben Gallego and MAGA-Republican Kari Lake.  Looking at the results of abortion initiatives in states like Kentucky, Ohio, Kansas, and Michigan; it’s probably bad news for Republicans. Frankly, as a Democrat, it probably aids in the critical national battle against MAGA’ism.

But what’s more significant is the impact this old law will have on the people of Arizona.  Sure, those with “means” will still have the ability to leave the state for care, in California or Nevada or New Mexico.  There’s even abortion care across the border in Mexico.  But for those who can’t take days off to travel, can’t afford to pay for the travel or the overnight stays, the law’s impact is clear.  They will be unable to access safe and legal medical care.  And that will put more pregnant women in danger.

Ups and Downs

Elevators

There is an old joke, so old that it requires explanation.  When I was a young boy, elevators in most buildings had “operators”.  There was a crank along the wall, and the “operator” rotated the crank ninety degrees in one direction to go up.  When he reached the preferred floor, he then rotated it back to the top to stop. Then the operator would step forward to open the “gate” and let travelers out.  

When the call-bell rang from a lower floor, he rotated the lever ninety degrees the other way to go down.  He lined up the elevator with the door, so that the floor was level with the hallway floor.  Really good operators got it right on the first try, others had to stop just short, then go up or down the last few inches.

Mom used to take us shopping in Shillito’s in Cincinnati. (Later, like Lazarus here in Columbus, it became a Macy’s.  Cincinnati’s downtown store closed in 2018.  The building was remade into condo’s, with, I presume, automatic elevators).  The operator would call out the items available on each floor.  Second floor was men’s clothing, third floor lingerie, fourth floor housewares, up to sixth floor furniture.   So there was a man, a person; the man who ran the elevator.  

The joke:     “Mr. Elevator Operator, how’s your day going?”  

The answer: “Well, it has its ups and downs.”

Electoral Horror!!!!!!!

In our current age of instant gratification, we seem to have a lot of “ups and downs”.  Last week, Democrats seemed horrified about possible electoral changes in Nebraska.  Now you would think that most Democrats wouldn’t care less about Red-Red-Red Nebraska.  But there was always one “anomaly” that made Nebraska interesting (besides being the only unicameral, a one House state legislature, in the nation). 

 Nebraska and Maine are the only two states to split electoral votes by Congressional District.  So while Republicans invariably won the state’s two overall electoral votes, the other three were split by  Congressional Districts.  And since one of those Districts included Omaha and Lincoln, Democrats often won one of the five Presidential electoral votes from Red-Red Nebraska.

But the state legislature – the single “house” at the State Capitol in Lincoln, considered changing the rules (at the behest of the Trump Campaign).  The very Republican legislature talked about going to “winner take all”, just like the other forty-eight states.  And that could be a “big deal” (Here we go…)  What if Biden and Trump were close in the electoral college, 269 to 268?  Then that single vote in Nebraska (or the single vote in Maine, split the same way) would make all the difference.  Here we are, less the eight months ahead of the election, and the Republican unicameral legislature in Nebraska is going to change the rules?  Democrats, cry FOUL!!!

Take a breath.  They didn’t do it, yet, though MAGA forces are meeting in Omaha to try to pressure local Republicans.  And even if they did, perhaps the bicameral (two house) Democratic legislature of Maine could change their rules to winner take all, a move that would usually mean a Democratic winner.  But either way, for a few days it generated breathless predictions on Twitter, and MSNBC, and gave statisticians like Steve Kornacki additional air time.  

Et Tu, Ohio??

And now:  this just in from Columbus, Ohio.  Fresh from the “horror” of the moon blocking out the sun, another scenario darkens the political landscape.  Ohio election law has a requirement:  candidates for office have to be “declared” to be on the state ballot, ninety days before the election.  This year’s election is on November 5th, and ninety days before is August 5th.  Seems reasonable:  ballots have to be developed, proofed, printed and distributed in all 88 counties in the state – all of that takes time.  

Here’s the “panic”.  The Democratic Convention, where Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will be “officially” nominated for President and Vice President of the United States, starts in Chicago on August 19th and concludes on August 22nd.  That’s more than two weeks after the Ohio deadline.

This isn’t the first time.  In 2020, the pandemic conventions of both parties were after the deadline.  The Democrats went first, about the same time, and the Republicans were in Cleveland the week after that!  The Republican Ohio legislature did the reasonable thing.  They waived the deadline for  both the parties, putting them on a sixty day schedule.

Ahh, but this isn’t 2020.   The Republican Convention, nominating Donald Trump in Milwaukee, will be July 15th to the 18th; in plenty of time for the Ohio law.  So the question, the great crisis of this week, is will the very MAGA-Republican (bicameral) Ohio legislature grant the Democrats a waiver, or will they disallow the Democratic candidates for President and Vice-President of the United States from the ballots of the Great State of Ohio in 2024?  Talk about crying FOUL!!

And if all that isn’t enough – Alabama is threatening to do the same thing.

A Long Way to November

Look, the Ohio legislature has done a lot of “low down” and “dirty politics” in the recent past, and certainly shows no shame in doing so.  But to prevent the people of Ohio from choosing to support the sitting President? That, probably, is too far, even for them (though I can’t speak for Alabama).  I suspect there will be some kind of accommodation, even though every elected state official or body in Ohio is Republican:  the Secretary of State, the Lieutenant Governor, the Governor, a four of seven justices majority on the Ohio Supreme Court and super-majorities in both houses of the legislature.  

Surely, they won’t have the audacity, the arrogance, the narcissism, to keep Biden off the ballot.  Surely, they wouldn’t do that (and please stop calling me Shirley – thanks Airplane!!).  

We’ve got a long way to go until November.  If we hyper-ventilate every time something weird comes up, surely (hah!) we will all pass out, long before it comes time to vote.  

There are going to be “ups and downs”.  Ride it out, and get ready to do the real work to win an election.  And while you’re doing all of that; breath!!!

The Gaza Reservation

World Central Kitchen

I’ve been waiting a while, thinking about how to say this.  Like most people in America and across the world, I was shocked and saddened by the death of the seven World Central Kitchen workers in Gaza.  They were literally doing “God’s work”, trying to feed the starving under the most dangerous conditions, wartime.  World Central Kitchen is often the first on the scene when  natural disaster strikes; hurricanes and earthquakes and forest fires.  And they are often the group that takes the highest risks – they are feeding people in Ukraine and in Gaza, the two “hot wars” in the world.  To use a Christian analogy:   they are literally the ones creating the loaves and the fishes for those who have none.

Their convoy of three cars were purposely targeted and destroyed by Israeli air strikes.  The process went on for a few minutes;  one car was hit, the survivors raced to the second.  That was hit, and, predictably, they raced to the third.  Then that vehicle was completely destroyed.  According to WCK, they “deconflicted” the convoy with the Israeli Defense Forces.  The IDF doesn’t deny that.  Someone didn’t get the message.

Food as a Weapon

Israel will claim this was a “fog of war” mistake – a too quick-on-the-trigger officer who thought he was attacking a brazen Hamas action.  And it probably was. But there is a pending question which hasn’t been answered.  Is it the policy of Israel, to starve the Palestinians in Gaza?  I am reminded of US Army General Phil Sheridan, sent out west after the Civil War to prosecute the attacks against the Plains Native American tribes:  “If you kill the buffalo, you destroy the Indians’ commissary”.  Sheridan encouraged the mass slaughter and near-extinction of the American bison, removing it from the Great Plains, to starve the tribes into submission.

Is this an Israeli war goal as well?  Are they choosing to starve out Hamas, forcing them to try to run or come to battle?  And, since Hamas is totally embedded in the general population, is it Israel’s strategy to “starve them all”?   I listened to an Israeli cabinet official interviewed, the former Mayor of Jerusalem, Nir Barkat. 

 He makes no distinction between Hamas and the Palestinians in Gaza.  They were all “the enemy”.  In fact, he took “credit” that Israelis were allowing any food at all into Gaza.  To paraphrase his quote:  All of the Palestinians in Gaza support Hamas, and Hamas is like the Nazis in World War II.  The Allies didn’t worry about starving the Germans during World War II, so we shouldn’t have to worry about feeding Gaza.  But Israel is worrying about it, letting some food in – so there.

Waging War

Seven World Food Kitchen workers were killed, and the world took notice.  But over two hundred aid workers in Gaza have been killed in this six month conflict.  Much less notice was taken about them.  And, most importantly, over 30,000 Palestinians are dead in this conflict.  The Israeli Defense Forces will say that close to 20,000 of those were Hamas fighters, some teenagers.  Given that number – it still means that over 10,000 civilians are dead.

Israel certainly has cause good cause for battle.  Over 1300 Israelis were killed in the surprise assault on October 7th, mostly civilians brutalized and murdered.  Over one hundred remain hostages of Hamas, though their fate is still unknown.  And maybe the Israeli government has a point when they claim that the United States and the world are being “holier than thou”.  Are we demanding that Israel wage war differently than the US did in Vietnam or Iraq or Afghanistan, all conflicts when the enemy embedded itself in the civilian population.  How many civilians were killed in those places?

The Enemy, The Solution

The view of the Netanyahu administration, is that all Palestinians are the enemy.  Whether they’re in Gaza or the West Bank, they are not an “equal partner” for a future two-state solution.  They are “occupying” land that Israel believes is “theirs”, especially on the West Bank.  Even as Israel occupies Gaza, they are building more settlements in the West Bank, establishing Israeli “sovereignty”.   They don’t want a Palestinian state, they are moving towards total Israeli occupation of the region.

The current Israeli Government view is much like the United States government of the late 19th Century towards Native Americans.  Put the Palestinians on reservations, and control the rest of the territory.  When the United States wanted reservation land, like Oklahoma, they took it, much as Israel is taking the West Bank.  And what’s left?  In the US, the Plains Native Americans were sent to some of the most desolate places in the Nation, like the Badlands in South Dakota (not called the Badlands for nothing).  Is Gaza the Israeli “Badlands”?

Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, proposes to clear the Gaza seafront and build resort hotels, a “beach-a-fication” of that useful slice.  That demonstrates clearly how a Trump victory would align American policy with the Netanyahu government.  On the other hand of November’s binary choice, a Biden victory, like the opposition in Israel politics, would revive the hope of Palestinian sovereignty.

The death of the World Central Kitchen workers is a tragedy.  But it’s a single point in a whole series of tragedies, that began long before even the October 7th terror attack on Israel.  The issue is the ongoing Israeli v Palestinian crisis, and how the Israeli government sees the ultimate solution.  To moderate Israelis and the Biden Administration, that answer is a two-states.  To the current Israeli government, it seems like more of a Final Solution.    

Hamas/Israel War

Writ of Mandamus

In the Weeds

Today, it’s time to go “down in the weeds”. We’re talking about the legal motions in Jack Smith’s national security case against Donald Trump.  Before we go too far, here’s the inevitable disclaimer.  I’m not a lawyer (though it did spend some time in law school).  But I have spent a career discussing and teaching the law and legal methods.  For the record, my “advanced degree” is in education with a sports science emphasis.  In short, I know what I’m talking about, but don’t take it to the bank, or to court.

So let’s look at the charges.  Jack Smith and the Department of Justice legal team charged Donald Trump with multiple counts of illegal possession and handling of national security documents. In addition, they charged Trump with obstruction of a national security investigation and tampering with evidence.  All of these are under Title 18 of the US Code, the “criminal code” of  Federal law.

Prima Facie Case

This seems like a “prima facie” case.  We all saw the pictures of the scattered documents in Trump’s Mara Lago office. There were the stacks of boxes on the stage and in the “golden” bathroom.  There is clear testimony that Trump ordered his staff to hide the documents, obscure, and even delete video of the documents being moved.  And then there’s the “on tape” admission when Trump was showing Mark Meadow’s biographer documents that he not only said were classified, but that he wasn’t allowed to display.  

That’s the evidence,. It’s the “facts” that Jack Smith’s team will, perhaps, get to present to a jury of twelve citizens, Donald Trump’s “peers” in Fort Pierce, Florida.  And, in the usual process, those jurors determine if the evidence shows “beyond a reasonable doubt”, that Donald Trump knowingly violated Title 18 and should be convicted of multiple felonies.

Fort Pierce

But this is Donald Trump, and the Federal District Court of Southern Florida, Fort Pierce Division.  The newly appointed (by Trump) Judge handling the case is Aileen Cannon.  You might remember her name.  When the documents were first seized by the FBI, Judge Cannon ordered that each document be inspected by a “Federal Special Master”. That process was guaranteed to slow the trial process by many months.  It took a Justice Department appeal to Cannon’s “bosses”, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, to get rid of the “Special Master”. The Appellate Court ordered Cannon to move the trial forward in regular process; in fact, they did it twice.  And that was just at the procedural motions stage.

By random chance, (or by hook or by crook) Judge Cannon was appointed to hear the actual trial case.  And the Judge has, to this point, been very “solicitous” of the defense team’s concerns. So much so, that it appears that she may be taking a side in this case.  But the real crisis didn’t come up until the past week.

Legal Process

The trial of Donald Trump is currently scheduled to begin in August.  The usual process is a series of Court orders which set the parameters of the charges. Those orders determine the evidence that comes into the Court, and the legal process that will be followed.  In fact, that’s how Courts everywhere work.  The Judge, with the “advice” of opposing counsel, sets the legal “parameters” for the trial.  It is the most important part of the job; the Judge sets the legal framework for the trial.  

The Jury has a very separate role.  Their job is to determine whether the facts, as presented in the evidence and testimony, reach the very high standard of “beyond a reasonable doubt” (90%).  That’s not, by the way, “beyond all doubt” (100%). But it is way greater than a civil case, where decisions are made by a “preponderance of the evidence” (50% plus one).  

Juries don’t decide “the law”.  That’s not what they know, and not what they are expected to understand.  They receive instructions from the Judge on the law, and then apply those instructions (what the law means) to the facts they get from the trial.  This is the clear delineation in any trial court in the United States. The judge determines the law, the jury determines the facts.  That’s how it works in Licking County Common Pleas Court, and how it’s supposed to work in the Federal District Court.

Jury Instructions

That brings us to the current crisis in Fort Pierce.  Judge Cannon, prematurely, asked the lawyers from both sides to look at “Jury Instructions” (her laying out the law for the jurors to apply).  Contrary to “regular” Federal process, she didn’t “just” apply the laws that the Department of Justice claims that Trump violated.  She didn’t just say in her proposed instructions:  here’s the Title 18 sections that the Government says Trump broke, here’s the standard for violating those laws; you decide if he did.  

Instead, in both versions of instructions she proposes, she brings in a whole different law.  The Presidential Records Act is a series of instructions passed by Congress to determine what are “personal papers” of a President (former or present) and what are “official records” required to be turned over to the National Archives.  The Presidential Records Act is a civil law, it has no criminal penalties attached to it.  Violate the Presidential Records Act, and the “outcome” is the former President turns over the records to the archives.  It’s a “You are a bad former President, slap on the wrist, put the papers back,” kind of thing. 

The Trump attorneys want to use the Presidential Records Act as a defense against the Federal charges. They say that Trump considered all of the National Security documents he took out of the White House and stored on the stage and in the bathroom as his “personal papers”. Therefore he didn’t violate USC Title 18.

Appeal

So the questions is one of law.  Does the Presidential Records Act absolve Trump of responsibility for having all of those classified documents?  Can Trump claim that he “thought” they were his personal papers?  Which law apples:  the criminal statutes with jail sentences, or the Records Act – please turn the papers back in?

Don’t get me wrong – it’s exactly the kind of issue the Trump attorneys should be raising.  They are doing everything (legally) to get their client out of trouble.  Just because Jack Smith didn’t raise the Records Act in his indictment, doesn’t mean they can’t.  The question isn’t should the Records Act defense be raised, it’s who should decide this LEGAL question.  The answer is the Right Honorable, Federal Court of the Southern District of Florida, Fort Pierce Division, Judge Aileen Cannon;  not the twelve jurors.  They are determiners of fact, not law.  

But Judge Cannon refuses to make that determination.  She isn’t saying that the jury should decide what the law means, the ultimate faux pas, at least not yet.  What she is saying is that she will decide what the answer to this legal question, later.  She will decide once the prosecution presents its case to the jury.  And that’s the problem that the Department of Justice and Jack Smith faces.

If Judge Cannon were to say tomorrow that the Presidential Records Act is a legitimate and  compelling defense, so much so that the case shouldn’t even go to a jury and dismisses the charges, that’s fine.  Smith’s team could then appeal her decision to the 11th Circuit, where it’s more than likely that the Appellate Court would overturn her decision, and direct the case back for trial.  

Make the Call

But Judge Cannon wants to wait for a jury to be chosen, and the trial to begin.  And if at that point, she rules that the Presidential Record Act is a compelling defense and dismisses the charges, then it’s totally different. The Fifth Amendment right against “double jeopardy” would then apply, “…nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb”.  The Government, Jack Smith, would NOT be able to appeal that decision.  The case is over, and Trump is “off the hook” once again.

So what other choice does Jack Smith have?  He can go over Judge Cannon’s head, and appeal her unwillingness to make the decision.  He can file a “writ of mandamus” with the 11th Circuit, demanding that they order Judge Cannon to make the legal judgment that she will be required to make anyway at some point in the process.  Smith will ask that she does so before double jeopardy applies.  His hope is that the 11th Circuit would order Cannon to make the call. And then if she decides the Records Act applies, he can appeal back to the 11th again, this time to throw out her decision.  All of this to happen before a jury is selected and the trial actually begins.

Write the Writ

We see the same kind of decision being made at the state level in Trump cases in both Georgia and New York.  In Georgia, the Trump lawyers made a long presentation that charges violated Trump’s First Amendment rights.  After due deliberation, the judge ruled that didn’t apply, at least to the charges as he sees them. 

 And in New York, the judge determined that the outcome of the US Supreme Court case that could grant Trump immunity for actions while he was President doesn’t apply to that case either.  Both of those cases moved onto towards trial.

Cannon doesn’t want to decide.  And that’s what looks suspiciously like a judge who wants to “put her thumb on the scale” of justice.  

Jack Smith should be asking for his “writ” right now.

A Giant Awakened

America’s Future

The 2024 election is about  a lot of things.  For MAGA-Republicans, it’s about America changing in ways that they don’t recognize.  As one MAGA-Republican said to me; this is an election about what a future America will look like. We have two different visions for our future.  His version is unacceptable to me, and my version is unacceptable to him. Isn’t it ironic that two (too?) old men, both definitely of “their time”, the 1980’s, are running to define the America of the 2020’s and beyond? 

So our choice is about political power in America, whether it will remain in  the “white majority” hands, or be shared by the changing demographics and colors of a new American electorate.  It’s about culture; whether the America of the future will recognize the diverse backgrounds of all Americans, or base advancement on fitting into an old “model” of what Americans are “supposed” to be.  And it’s about “20th century morality”, the idea that gender and identity is binary, and that everyone must fit into the “square hole”, whether they are a “round peg” or not.

And it’s about wealth in America, and whether our Nation has an obligation to share that wealth.  We are in an era when the difference between the “haves and have-nots”  seems greater than ever before.  The median household salary in 2023 was $74,202.  That means that half of American households made less.  To be in the top 10% of incomes it took almost three times that, $216,056.  And the top 1% was almost three times more, $591,550 (DQYDJ).  Truly the story of the first quarter of the twenty-first century is the rich got richer, and the poor were left behind.

The “Giant”

Those are important issues, and may determine the outcome in November.   

But the “sleeping giant” awakened almost two years ago is the issue of abortion.  There’s a lot you can say about the Trump Administration, but their ultimate success was in altering the trajectory of the United States Supreme Court.  When Trump became President, there were four “conservative justices”, four “liberal justices”, and one seat remained vacant.  When Trump left the White House, there were six conservatives, three of them “young” for the Court, with a minority of three liberals.  

The clear goal of the conservative legal movement was to change the Court decision of Roe v Wade, that established a national abortion policy for fifty years.  With a six seat majority on the Court, they did exactly that.  They “un-wrote” the doctrine of a Constitutional right to privacy, and threw the regulation of abortion onto the state governments.  That same “un-writing” might eventually apply to more than just abortion:  gay marriage, gay civil rights, contraception, and inter-racial marriage all might be “on the block” (read the Justice Thomas concurrence to the Dodd decision).  

Half the Citizens

Whatever you personally think of the Dodd decision, one thing is for sure.  Over half of the citizens of the United States lost the right to make their own bodily decisions.  Instead of a “national right”, that now becomes a matter of living in the right, or wrong, zip code.  And I’m certainly not saying that “all women” are in favor of abortion.  But what the Dodd decision and its fallout nationally did; is make a woman’s right to control her own body a “primary issue” for millions of women (and millions of men as well).  

How much impact does Dodd have on voter mobilization?  In Red-Red Kansas, a huge majority came out to vote to protect abortion rights.  In (sadly) Red-er Ohio, voters came out twice in three months in massive numbers to do the same.  Even in Kentucky, voters rejected an amendment banning abortion.  Purple Michigan and Vermont, and in Blue California; the right of women to make their own choices was protected.

Driving Turnout

In the 2024 election, the swing-states of Arizona and  Nevada, will have a “vote” on abortion.  So will the Red state of Florida, and the Blue states of Colorado and Maryland. And while it’s not directly on the ballot, the state government of Texas has taken such an extreme view that it will impact elections there as well.

Just because abortion is on the ballot, doesn’t mean Democrats will necessarily win.  But it does mean that voter turnout will be driven by more than just the Presidential question, and more than just other local issues.  A larger voter turnout is usually good for Democrats.  And besides, it’s difficult to see that for someone who goes to the polls to vote pro-choice, would then turn around and put the creator of the Dodds  Supreme Court back in power again.  

Joe Biden made the 2020 election about the fate of democracy.  The election of 2024 still is about that fate.  And no issue makes that clearer than the issue of a woman’s right to make her own choice for her own body.  It’s the “giant” issue – and it’s no longer sleeping.

In Other News

It’s April Fool’s Day, and I wish I was fooling. 

Israel

 Let’s see:  Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had hernia surgery – Gaza was safe while he was under full anesthesia.  Meanwhile the Israeli Supreme Court; the one that Netanyahu tried to emasculate, found a way to strike back.  They ruled that Orthodox Jewish men, until now exempted from military service, are required to serve.  

Their decision strikes right at the heart of the coalition keeping the Prime Minister in power, centered in Orthodox political parties.  That and the mass protests in the streets demanding that Israel get the hostages back from the Hamas terrorists, are putting inexorable pressure on the government to hold elections, one that “Bebe” isn’t likely to win.

Germany

And the German newspaper Der Spiegel and CBS’s Sixty Minutes teamed up to finger Russian Intelligence for using audio weapons against US diplomats and intelligence operatives overseas. That’s something that the US government denies, for some reason. 

We’ve all known about this for a while, the debilitating headaches, hearing loss, and memory issues; called the “Havana Syndrome”.  It’s been going on for years, and while six of the seven US intelligence agencies think it’s a “low probability” that’s Russian Intelligence is behind it, Sixty Minutes and Der Spiegel says they’re wrong.  “Who you gonna believe?”

Los Angeles

And the minimum wage for fast-food workers in California went up to $20 and hour.  That sounds like a lot, until you realize that the rent in Los Angeles is 39% higher than the national average, $2100 a month (versus $1500).  More specifically, a Big Mac costs $5.89 in California, a $1.40 more than it does here in Ohio (Mac Menu).   Since the cost of living in higher, it seems reasonable that wages should keep up ($20/hour for 2000 hours a year-full time,  $40,000).

Baltimore

They’re beginning to take apart the sub-surface jigsaw puzzle that is the Francis Scott Key bridge in Baltimore harbor, but there’s no estimate yet as to how long it will take to get the Port of Baltimore back open.  It is a recognition of the urgency, though, that in five days they already have floating cranes in place to start the wreckage clearance.  

And, by the way, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg didn’t call the bridge a “racist” bridge.  That was “fake news”, now becoming more and more difficult to discern in our social media feeds.  (Oh, and the Captain of the cargo ship that hit the Key Bridge wasn’t a Ukrainian either, he was from India).

Russia

Russian President Vladimir Putin called launching an attack on a NATO nation “nonsense”.  Then he went onto say that any nation that had F-16 fighters bound for Ukraine were possible targets for Russian strikes.  He didn’t seem to have a problem with the contradiction, though Putin’s well aware of the “cost” of an attack on NATO countries.  No surprise that Putin wants to “stir things up” some more.

Ex-Presidents

But none of those important issues dominated the newscasts, either the Sunday news shows or April Fool’s Day broadcasts.  Once again, the ex-President, running for re-election, is dominating the news-cycle with his new fundraising effort; $60 for a “Trump Bible” (AP).  The world was quick to point out the contradiction of a man facing a criminal action resulting from an affair with a porn star “hawking” the Bible, but the real point is his “sale” confirms his strategy once again.  And, of course, he’s attacking the family members of the judges in his trial in his Truth Social – faux Twitter, on Easter Sunday.  But Trump knows that any news, any coverage, is better than no coverage at all.  And he’s not paying a media fees for the lead in almost every newscast.

News sources try to be “balanced” (not “fair and balanced” – that was the Fox News Network, which wasn’t either).  So they cover the ex-President.  After all, he is the presumptive nominee of a major political party.  That is supposed to “balance” the Biden coverage,  where the President is getting things done in Baltimore, and raising a record $26 million with his friends, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.  Trump doesn’t seem to have those kind of friends (though “Proud to be an American” writer Lee Greenwood is standing with him selling Bibles).  

It doesn’t have to be all about Trump, all the time.  There’s a whole world going on outside of the election of November, 2024 — No Fooling.