at low tide
Friday, August 12, 2022
I have been asked by my fan (I count one, okay, maybe two, but fan sounds better than fans) to comment on the current political machinations of the right and the orange one.
I have learned a lot about Constitutional law and the limits of our laws in the last few years, and I realize that one of the tenets that makes our country unique is some of the traditions that have developed over hundreds of years. I would probably start with the founding of Rhode Island as a colony in 1636 by Roger Williams who after being driven out of The Massachusetts Bay Colony and surviving in the woods one winter due to the kindness of the local indian population went to England to ask for permission to create a colony separate from Massachusetts and to plead the case for religious freedom and permission to set up a democracy. His argument was basically, “Hey, if it doesn’t work, so what? It’s a long way away from you.” Both ideas were considered at the time strange (“We don’t do that sort of thing”) and problematic. He got the green light.
Later the founding fathers were dead set against religious interference in government. Ben Franklin had Thomas Jefferson take out the phrase “by God” and substitute “our creator” just to make sure. Also the founding fathers had written extensively that this nation was not a Christian Nation.
After The Civll War the Southern Baptist movement became the haven for racist ideology and it morphed into many things including a guy who ran for president in 1948 advocating that we were “a Christian Nation” and that mixed breeds, etc. were not welcome because we were white, etc. Pretty vile stuff. This cudgel has been taken up by the likes of Taylor Green, Gosar, and that band of ninnies.
Among the racist rhetoric is also the amazing misunderstanding of basic economics. Part of this misunderstanding is fueled by a belief of a large minor part of the population who believe they are in the top 1% or soon will be. It’s like 24 or 40 percent – I forget. Facts be damned. Facts can be washed away in this alternate reality by the simple statement of “I don’t believe it.”
And yet belief is at the core of their world. Belief in things that aren’t true but for some reason they want to believe. They don’t believe science. They don’t believe politicians they don’t like. They don’t believe any other religion is correct but theirs. They do believe in anything that supports their beliefs, despite no evidence. Lisa Randall (Princeton physicist) as a child was told god was in heaven in the clouds and asked, “Which cloud? That one? Or that one?” People laughed at her. She didn’t understand. Oh yeah? She nailed the game pretty well.
One of the problems the right wingers have is they wave the flag, claim they want truth and justice, tighten laws to punish the law breakers, and then, they get caught in their own nets.
The recent search of Mira-Lago is a perfect example. The outrage is being hyped. They are demanded the search warrant be published to expose the truth!
Okay, The Attorney General has filed in court to do that. The target of the investigation who revealed himself to be such and revealed the fact that a search of his premises had been carried out could, of course, reveal the receipt of the contents taken and the search warrant served. Why hasn’t he done that? Nevermind, the US AG is willing to do it. That is unless DJT says no, and he has to 3pm today to say so.
What you want to bet his lawyers will say, “Oh no. You can’t do that Privacy!”
None of those right wingers mention that the ex-pres ignored all other attempts to acquire the information. The search warrant talks about “national security” and the right wingers say, “BS.” Now we know that some of what they were searching for contained information about our nuclear readiness. I dunno about you but given that this guy gave away highly secretive information while in The White House to the Russians, I’d say to quote Mike from Jersey Shore, “We got a situation here.”
The history of the documents act goes back to Nixon and Ford. A deal was struck that Nixon and the National Archives would each have a key to a room where all of Nixon’s papers were kept and they wouldn’t be revealed to the public for 25 years. During those twenty five years Nixon could go in and do whatever he wanted, like destroy papers. Congress led by Republicans said, “No Way,” and passed the act that delineates what are records the people are entitled to and what an ex-pres can have. In a lovely twist of the law that act was strengthen with stiffer penalties for cheaters. Lemme see, who signed that law? Why one Donald J. Trump. Imagine that.
In a similar twist, Republicans kept claiming elections were rigged, that people cheated, dead people voted, and ballots were harvested with their ballots thrown out or changed to the other side. There is evidence of all these things happening, all by Republicans. The numbers are miniscule. Laws were passed to over see the election on a national level. When they started yelling about rigging votes their own guy in charge of overseeing the election said no. It had been fair. Bummer.
Ah yes. 3pm today is the deadline for Trump to say don’t release the search warrant. Any bets? Will he file a motion to keep it under wraps? I’m betting he will.
