Some Brief Observations, Oct.-Nov., 2019

"Either this country will kill racism or racism will kill this country." (S. Jonas, Aug., 2018)

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Greetings to my regular readers and also to those who may be coming on with me for the first time. I have been with OEN for some years now, publishing a column just about every week during that time-span. You may (or may not[!]) have noticed that I haven't been around OEN too much over the past couple of months (in fact it's been over a month since I've been with you). The reason is that I have had an illness, and it has taken some time for my physicians to figure out what the correct treatment is. Well, that treatment has been performed and the outcome, so far at least, has been very positive. And so, I will be getting back on these pages on my usual regular basis.

However, in the meantime, while I was not up to maintaining my regular columns-pace, I did post on Twitter every now and again. And so in this space I am posting a series of those observations (with some editing because of course in this space I don't have to worry about the character limit.) If the Tweet referred to a particular newspaper article, that link appears first. And so:

Oct 3

https://aol.com/article/news/2019/10/03/trump-urges-china-to-probe-joe-and-hunter-biden/23826263/ .

Having tried bribery/extortion on Ukraine/Biden, with no result other than the start of impeachment proceedings, Trump is now trying the same tactic out on China: "I have a lot of options on China, but if they don't do what we want, we have tremendous, tremendous power." He doesn't learn. (And also, of course the Chinese didn't engage at all, because there were no arms shipments with which to be concerned.)

Oct 6

(As is by now widely referenced) in 1998, Lindsey Graham led the House impeachment of President Clinton for, wait for it, perjury to a grand jury about an affair with a consenting adult. As for the Trump impeachment for, e.g., seeking foreign political aid (a violation in and of itself of Federal law), Graham says that it's like the Salem witch trials. (As for what the real witch hunts, both for "witches" and for political enemies, were like see: click here

Oct 6

http://aol.com/article/news/2019/10/04/wrong-and-appalling-romney-blasts-trump-for-calling-on-china-to-probe-bidens/23827687/. By doing this, Mitt Romney is simply stepping up to be first in line for the 2020 Repub. nomination should for any reason (impeachment and "other") Trump is not the Repub. candidate. As for Sasse, he is just the first Repub. to engage in CYA, just in case "whatever" happens. (Of course, the latter has been silent as a Nebraska lamb since.)

Oct 6 (yes, a busy Tweet day for me, even though, unlike certain others, I don't have even one Tweet-ghost writer).

https://aol.com/article/news/2019/10/06/trump-allies-respond-to-second-whistleblower-why-should-i-care/23829819/". And the headline will be exactly the same when year is a 2 with a 0 next to it. But the primary reason the Trumpublicans � follow their Fuerher (oops, I mean Leader) is not electoral. Fearing the results of true democracy, these folks are married to Trump's proto-21st century-fascist policies: https://opednews.com/articles/Why-do-the-Republicans-Sti-by-Steven-Jonas-Detention_Fascism_Fascist_McConnell-190703-349.html".

Oct 7

https://nytimes.com/2019/10/06/us/politics/elizabeth-warren-black-voters.html. For oppo on Biden to offer (gently) to black voters, Warren will not raise them. But someone could or should focus on the following four major Biden policies/actions: mass incarceration, restarting the Drug War, Clarence Thomas/Anita Hill fiasco (which much of which I happened to have heard live --- it was excruciating), and protecting predatory lending by the Delaware credit card companies.

Oct. 9

https://nytimes.com/2019/10/08/us/politics/sondland-trump-ukraine-impeach.html. "Always Attack; Never Defend:" this is the classic Trump response to anything critical. He is simply incapable of doing anything else. For the development of the tactic, a straight line can be drawn from Joe McCarthy through Roy Cohn (Trump's "mentor in these matters) to Donald Trump, with a side-bar along the way to the Reagan/HW Bush mouthpiece Lee Water (https://opednews.com/articles/Trumpite-Functional-Fascis-by-Steven-Jonas-Dominionism_Dprk_Fascism_Gerrymandering-180327-287.html ). AND it is used especially when one is in a position of weakness, which Trump certainly is now. (And of course, we are seeing it used more-and-more as impeachment winds its arms around him, by Trump and his gaggle of defenders, starting with Hannity --- one really doesn't know who comes first in the assassination of character, Hannity of Trump.)

Oct 18

click here. On the former Sec. of Energy (who thought that the D of E dealt with oil and gas) who said he had nothing to do with any of the Ukraine plotting, even though Sondland placed Perry right in the middle of the mess. In a little-noticed statement made at the same time by White House Spokeswoman Grisham, it was also announced that Pres. Trump, in his infinite wisdom, has determined that the sun does NOT rise in the East, a position supported by a full 62.9% of his followers.

Oct 23

https://usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/10/21/donald-trump-mocks-constitution-emoluments-clause-phony/4055162002/ Trump regards the Emoluments Clause as "phony." It would be interesting to know what other clauses he regards in the same way, like those of Art. II, which in its original form very much limited the powers of the Presidency.

Oct 25

click here. BarrTrump has a major problem. For there to be a crime, one has to have been committed. Despite countless hours spent looking for one, including by the Repub.-led Senate Intel. Comm., in reference to the Trump/Russia investigation no hint (other than in Trump's brain) has ever come up. That is a problem.

Oct 28

click here. As I have said for quite some time, the existence of the State of Israel has proved the age-old anti-Semitic claim that "Jews are totally different from everyone else" totally wrong. Give Jews State Power and they can behave just as badly as anyone else.

Oct. 29

Trump and his allies continue to call both the Mueller investigation and the Impeachment process "Witch-hunts." Actually the historical Real Thing(s), whether they be the literal witch hunts which occurred across Europe and the North American colonies from the 16^th to the 18^th century, or the "McCarthyism" Red Scare (contributed to mightily by Trump's mentor Roy Cohn), called a "Witch Hunt" by many, particularly its victims and their supporters at the time, because many people suffered real harms to their lives and livelihoods for committing no crimes, have nothing to do with the investigations concerning Trump and the Trumpites. See my column on the subject at: click here

Nov. 5

https://aol.com/article/news/2019/11/05/diplomat-told-that-ukraine-aid-held-up-for-corruption-probe/23853842/. Ambassador Sondland, totally unqualified for his EU posting, gave $1mil to Trump's inauguration party. Got the job. But now, obviously on the advice of his attorney: "you don't want to get caught for perjury, do you?" (duh), turns against Trump. But for Trump and the Trumpites obviously he is a "Deep State," Dem.-never Trumper, just doing the Dems.' dirty work. And anyway, Trump hardly knew him, donchaknow. (Funny how many Trump allies, when caught up in some dirty work or other for the Boss, get first tossed into the "who? I hardly knew him" bin, and then get tossed under the bus (and possibly into prison, e.g., Cohen and Manafort, et al, and most likely Flynn and Stone.)

Nov 14

https://amazon.com/s?k=nikki+haley+with+all+due+respect&hvadid=78065441436668&hvbmt=bb&hvdev=c&hvqmt=b&tag=mh0b-20&ref=pd_sl_3xf1ruj0fv_b. Here Nikki Haley announces for three nominations at the same time: for VP on the Trump-ticket 2020, for President on the 2020 Trumpublican(C) ticket 2020 if there is no Trump for one reason or another there is no Trump on it, and for the Trumpublican(C) Presidential nomination in 2024.

Nov 19

https://twitter.com/i/events/1196425281226997760?cn=ZmxleGlibGVfcmVjcw%3D%3D&refsrc=email. Here's Joe Biden --- who back in the 1990s was a leader in reinvigorating the Nixon/Reagan/Bill Bennett "drug war" against the users of certain Recreational Mood Alerting Drugs (the RMADs), but not the principal ones, which would be nicotine in tobacco products and ethyl alcohol --- going after marijuana as a "gateway drug." Since tobacco itself kills 480,000 per year and alcohol kills 85,000 per year, and both are definitely gateway drugs, presumably Biden will soon be announcing his national program to criminalize both. (See my book "Ending the Drug War, at Amazon.)

Nov. 26

https://dailykos.com/stories/2019/11/26/1902006/-Devin-Nunes-says-he-is-going-to-sue-everybody-except-Devin-Nunes-is-not-going-to-do-that?detail=emaildkre. Indeed. In fact Nunes can make a lot of noise on this one (especially on "Hannity") but he cannot possibly sue anyone or any organization because in such a suit at one time or another he would have to testify under oath, and, given the questions he would be asked by the defense attorneys, he can't possibly do that.

Dec. 1

http://msnbc.com/msnbc/10-things-know-about-michael-bloomberg . Some folks are excited about this one. By golly, the Dems. have not one but two billionaires in the race (see Tom Steyer). But Bloomberg does have major negatives, aside from being a billionaire. For years he has quietly supported the Likud government in Israel; his very well-known "stop-and-frisk" policy; he gave $11 mil. to the Repub. Sen. Toomey in PA 2016, who won by 2 pts. over the Dem.; he pushed through the NYC zoning which have allowed the sprouting of the "billionaire towers" (well, at least "millionaire towers") all over the city; and after the Iraq War disaster, he endorsed GW Bush in 2004 and when protesters came out in force against the Repub. convention in the city that years, he had them herded into cages.

Dec. 1

Journal of the American Medical Association, 10/8/19, p. 1347. The U.S. Supreme Court held that the forced burial of fetal remains by the state of Indiana serves the state interest expressing respect for unborn life. Except that "unborn life" is a strictly religious concept. This is a further example of the criminalization of religious thought which is sweeping the country. It is well past time for the pro-abortion rights folks to wake up to this fact and start battling it full force: click here.

Dec. 1

https://dailykos.com/stories/2018/4/20/1758614/-1988-Giuliani-Had-FBI-End-Investigation-of-Trump-Money-Laundering-Trump-raised-2M-for-Giuliani?detail=emailclassic. Trump doesn't know Giuliani TOO well, for TOO long. Oh really? He only gave $2mil to G.'s first mayoral campaign, AFTER G., as head of DOJ SDNY, dropped a money-laundering case against Trump. Trump: Giuliani? I barely know him.

(Article changed on December 7, 2019 at 03:18)