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Jack is a graduate of Rutgers University where he majored in history. His career in the life and health insurance industry involved medical risk selection and brokerage management. Retired in Florida for over two decades after many years in NJ and NY, he occasionally writes, paints, plays poker, participates in play readings and is catching up on Shakespeare, Melville and Joyce, etc.

Monday, January 11, 2021

The 14th Amendment - Section 3 and a Book Review



Important Announcement:   There are some changes taking place in the way this blog operates.  I will continue to post new “editions” periodically, but as new items come up, rather than start a fresh posting every few days, I plan on adding them to the already posted version, showing the date the item was added.  They will appear at the bottom of the original posting.  Scroll down right now to read them.


 

A Book Review 

Michael Cohen
Over the past few months, I’ve read several books purporting to tell the truth about Donald Trump, giving some ideas as to what makes him tick.  They included Michael Schmidt’s “Donald Trump v. the United States,” John Bolton’s “The Room Where it Happened,” Bob Woodward’s “Rage” and most recently, Michael Cohen’s memoir, “Disloyal.” By far, the last mentioned gives the most insight into our forty-fifth president.


That is because Michael Cohen is a similarly slippery scoundrel himself and if ever the words were true, they fit here. “It takes one to tell one.”

As a Long Island teenager, Cohen worked summers and weekends in a country club where he encountered individuals connected to New York’s mafia families.  He was never part of their structure but he was able to witness the high lives they lived, the way they behaved, the way they got things done, making their own rules, their codes of silence, their organization and their crude feelings of brotherhood and loyalty.  He liked the way they would order something done, often with a nod and no specific instructions but well understood by all present.  Except for the fact that he was a nice Jewish boy who ended up going to a second-rate law school, he always harbored a silent desire to have the respect that a mafia “made man” received.  But he was content to become independently wealthy practicing on the shadier sides of the legal profession.

Until he met Donald Trump.  At last Cohen found a safe way to live a life like the mafiosi did, without the killing of course, but getting the feeling of belonging to an organization which made its own rules, did whatever they wanted and supposedly provided rewards for loyalty to it and most importantly, to its “Boss” or “Capo.”  He wouldn’t be asked to “whack” someone literally but doing so “figuratively” became his stock in trade in the Trump Organization.  It was like being a “soldier” in a mafia family rising through the ranks.  He became the “fixer.” He loved being given, eventually, the big jobs by the “Boss,” deriving great pleasure from it as part of his rewards.  And of course, most of the time, that “Boss” did not have to tell him precisely what to do.  He already knew.

Briefly citing from “Disloyal,” here is how Cohen took his orders from Trump. (page 337):

“Over the years, I had become fluent in the language Trump used to communicate his desires and demands.  He used inferences, nods, silences, euphemisms, signals.  It was similar to how Trump never used email, for the simple reasons that it created a digital fingerprint that would permanently record his words – and thus potentially ensnare him.  Like a crime boss, Trump wanted no evidence that could connect him to any of his deeds, or deeds that he indirectly or directly ordered others to do.  The same applied with conversations.  If the President explicitly said what he wanted, or needed, it could potentially be used against him.  Better to say nothing that could be held against you, but surround yourself with people who can translate your intentions.  Trump’s mind was so permeated with deception and delusion – of others, but also of himself – that I had to be prepared to literally depart from reality and enter a kind of fantasyland when I spoke with the President.”

Eventually, because loyalty was a one-way street with Trump, the President abandoned Michael Cohen, letting him be sentenced to three years in prison for a series of questionable financial transactions, but primarily for his lying about carrying out Trump’s instructions in bribing Stormy Daniels, a porn star who claimed she had had a sexual encounter with Trump, who was never charged with anything.

And that is the genesis of Michael Cohen’s book which conclusively documents the wickedness of the piece of shit who served as our forty-fifth president, a book written by someone greedy enough to want the feeling of power only a high ranking mafioso might enjoy, and was willing to be covered with Trumpian feces in order to accomplish that.

Anyone willing to admit to that deserves to be believed. 

(Included in the appendices to Michael Cohen’s book, “Disloyal,” are copies of many legal documents mentioned in it.  There are also copies of what appear to be photocopies of many of the pages from the Steele Dossier, with very few deletions.)

JL


                                                                *   *   *   *   *

How to Deal with Law Breakers in Congress


Senator Hawley encouraging Capitol terrorists

Here is the text of Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution.  I would hope that the presiding officer of the United States Senate, Vice President Harris, once she has taken her new position, will read it aloud in the Senate chamber, after which the expulsion of Senators Cruz and Hawley will be voted upon, two-thirds of the Senate’s votes being needed to cancel any such expulsion. 

No Person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.”

(Actually, this also applies to the President and many Republican House members as well, but the particularly blatant cases against Cruz and Hawley stand out like sore thumbs.)  


      
JL            



(Added 1/12/21)
Here is the text of a letter to the Palm Beach Post which I sent earlier this week: 


It is not enough for Republicans to be appalled by the violence which took place in our Capitol building last Wednesday.  Despite this, some are still heard questioning the legitimacy of the presidential election and taking pride in what they consider some positive aspects of the Trump administration.  Saying “enough is enough” as Lindsey Graham has done is not enough. What these people must get through their heads, and I include Florida’s two Senators, its governor and most of its Representatives in the House, is that they were the ‘enablers’ who made it possible for Donald Trump’s madness to besmirch American democracy and all for which it stands.  No matter how deeply they are appalled by Wednesday’s violence, they must share in the responsibility for it.  Their “enabling,” in exchange for the support of the far right, made it possible. Shame on them.  

JL    

(Added 1/14/21)
Trump Looking For a Job

Donald Trump, whom I now understand is looking for a job as a sports reporter, submitted this sample of his work to several papers.

“It’s time for the truth to come out!  Let me extend my congratulations to the Ohio State Buckeyes for winning the College Football Playoffs, trouncing a hapless University of Alabama team by a huuuge score on Monday evening in Miami!

I know that the fake news media reported, and the supposedly live TV coverage broadcast, a game which Alabama falsely appeared to have won … but some people who actually were there and who saw the game know what really happened on the field.   It was an Ohio State romp!  Believe me, the Buckeyes won, but the public will never know that because of the fake media, which spread the phony story of the made-up Alabama victory using clever computer generated graphics to steal the victory from the true winner, Ohio State .  Alabama wasn’t even close.  Even the failing New York Times was in on the hoax, going overboard in their lying by reporting that Alabama had won by the score of 52 to 24.  Never happened!

Compounding this was the awarding of the game’s MVP title to Ohio State’s Heisman Trophy winner, DaVonte Smith. Those who watched the game on TV saw Smith in an Alabama uniform, but that wasn’t really what took place.  All those passes he caught were actually Ohio State touchdowns!  They probably  just ‘photoshopped’ the color of his jersey.  Sad.”   

JL        


(Added 1/15/21)
What's With the Covid19 Vaccine?

Yes, as far as Covid19 vaccinations go, Palm Beach County is a frigging disaster.  The miniscule number of doses received by the county have gone to nursing homes and the general population in a disorganized, scattershot, haphazard manner, some to hospitals, some to firehouses, some to churches, some to individual communities.  Here are some stories about how folks in Palm Beach County get vaccinated.

There are over 100,000 residents over age 65 waiting for appointments for which they signed up via the County’s frequently inoperative website.  At the present rate that vaccines are received by the County, it appears it will take many months to get these people vaccinated here.  So they look elsewhere.  Nevertheless, some residents who signed up early in the game are now getting appointments in Palm Beach County as the limited number of doses slowly increases.  If you are not already signed up, it can be done (name, date of birth, phone number, and mention where you live (Boynton, Delray, Boca, etc.) at 

chd50feedback@flhealth.gov.

I personally know of people who have traveled as far north as Sebastian, at their doctor’s instruction, for vaccination.  Others have gone as far south as Homestead.  These are two to three-hour drives.  Many have taken advantage of the relatively ample supply of vaccine in nearby Broward County to register for vaccination at the many locations there if they can manage to catch their website when it is operative.  People I know who have gone this route tell me that anyone in line at some of the locations there can get vaccinated, appointment or not, once they complete the paperwork.  (I have an appointment there next week.)

I keep hearing rumors that wealthy people from New York City are able to fly into Miami or Fort Lauderdale, get their vaccination and fly back up north, with an appointment to come back in three or four weeks.  Personally, I know of none.

Back in Palm Beach County, the VA hospital is now offering vaccinations to veterans signed up to receive health care there.  But some County residents indeed have gotten their shots.  One I know received his at the Kings Point residential community where a token supply was received there each day last week.  It was available to non-residents waiting in line once those who lived there received the vaccine.  It took standing in line for two or three hours on three successive days before that day’s supply ran out, before he and his wife received the vaccine.  Another friend received a call from their PB Country ‘concierge’ physician to come to his office where ‘concierge’ patients could get the vaccine.  And of course, much of what little vaccine was initially made available to the County went to well-heeled Palm Beach Island, rather than the less organized larger communities.  Some residents there, big dollar donors to private senior communities which including nursing facilities, were vaccinated along with the nursing home residents.

And the senior community where I live is still trying to get Walgreens, once their nursing home work is finished, to set up vaccinations here, as they do annually for ‘flu’ shots.  Meanwhile, the State seems to be working with the Publix Supermarket chain to arrange for vaccines to be given at some of their locations, but none in Palm Beach County. 

My personal recommendation is to find out where the Governor is speaking that day about the vaccine, drive there, and get in line for a vaccine dose which certainly will be available at that location for a photoshoot.
JL        

(Added 1/16/2021)
Reading for the Weekend:  

Check out historian Timothy Snyder’s essay, “American Abyss,” published in last Sunday’s New York Times Magazine.  Learn the difference between Republican ‘gamers’ and ‘breakers’ and a hell of a lot more about the January Coup.   Visit  https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/09/magazine/trump-coup.html  

Or just
    
JL                         

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