Thoughts on the January 6, 2021 Insurrection, One Year Later
"I want to say to the American people the
United States Senate will not be intimidated. We will not be kept out of this
chamber by thugs, mobs or threats. We will not bow to lawlessness or
intimidation. We are back at our posts. We will discharge our duty under the
Constitution and for our nation. And we're going to do it tonight.
This afternoon, Congress began the process of
honoring the will of the American people and counting the Electoral College
votes. We have fulfilled the solemn duty every four years for more than two
centuries. Whether our nation has been at war or at peace, under all manner of
threats, even during an ongoing armed rebellion and the Civil War, the
clockwork of our democracy has carried on.
The United States and the United States
Congress have faced down much greater threats than the unhinged crowd we saw
today. We've never been deterred before, and we will not be deterred today.
They tried to disrupt our democracy. They failed. They failed. They failed to
attempt to obstruct the Congress. - This failed insurrection only underscores
how crucial the task before us is for our republic. Our nation was founded
precisely so that the free choice of the American people is what shapes our
self-government and determines the destiny of our nation – not fear, not force,
but the peaceful expression of the popular will.
Now, we assembled this afternoon to count our
citizens' votes and to formalize their choice of the next president. Now we're
going to finish exactly what we started. We'll complete the process the right
way by the book. We'll follow our precedents, our laws and our Constitution to
the letter. And we will certify the winner of the 2020 presidential election.
Criminal behavior will never dominate the United States Congress. This
institution is resilient. Our democratic republic is strong. - The American
people deserve nothing less."
It is good, however, to see that President
Biden at last seems to be giving up on the idea that he can be willing to compromise with, or at least talk to, those who oppose him
and who even challenge his legitimacy as President. If you hold a serpent to your breast, as the Aesop fable goes, you may be bitten fatally.
Better to not welcome it and possibly to even cage it. And attempting to
defang it can be dangerous.
Verbally, at least, Biden has started calling Republicans out for the un-democratic obstructionists they are. He at last has started to blame his predecessor in office for his transgressions. Up to now, he has avoided mentioning him. Now he does, as “the former president.” I would prefer that he referred to him as “the defeated former president.” In order to maintain majorities in both the Senate and the House, Biden must get much tougher and take off the gloves. As Maureen Dowd wrote the other day in the Times, “This is not a moment for punch-pulling.”
And that goes for
Kamala Harris as well.
Voting Rights, the Filibuster and the
Constitution
I am certain that many Americans agree that first priority of
Congress should be the passage of the John Lewis Voting Rights Act and the
Freedom to Vote Act. They are the doors that must be opened, but the key to
the lock on them is doing away with or modifying the filibuster. Without
that, voting reform won't be passed. It is a poison pill to Republicans
guaranteeing defeat for many of them so they universally oppose changing it. But the fact that the SCOTUS was able to weaken the 1965 Voting Act in 2013 in Shelby vs. Holder,
strengthening States' ability to restrict voting, suggests that even such progressive
legislation is not the final answer.
The "Founding Fathers," in order to get the
Constitution ratified in 1789 bought the votes of Southern States by avoiding
the slavery issue. Reversing that through the very demanding Amendment
procedure was difficult (13th, 14th & 15th Amendments) and still allowed
States to restrict voting in various ways throughout the ‘Jim Crow’ period even
up to now.
Lurking behind this is the simmering need for a new
Constitution to replace the patched-up 1789 document which gives far too much
power to States, resulting from that trade-off regarding slavery. The existence
of State laws regarding tax avoidance, guns and abortions are, for example, obvious results of this. It isn't just voting rights, but that's where it must start.
We Cannot Forget About Covid19 – Even in Florida
My layman’s approach to Covid19 testing, based
on newspaper reports of a Palm Beach
County “positivity rate” ranging from 17% to 20%, is as follows:
1. In
my opinion, those testing positive should maintain a quarantine period
(five days is the latest CDC recommendation but ten is better, especially if
Covid19 symptoms are present) and afterwards, should observe social distancing,
avoid crowded public places, wear a mask and schedule a future
test.
2. In
my opinion, those untested should do the same, on the chance that they
would be among that significant percentage which would have tested positive if
they had been tested, but without the necessity of a quarantine period unless
they had been in contact with an individual known to be infected or are
manifesting symptoms. A test to confirm their status would be reassuring, but
not an immediate necessity so long as they behave as if they were positive.
3. In my opinion, testing
negatively should not be taken
as a license to return to pre-pandemic behavior patterns, which would make one
vulnerable to infection.
4. Florida
Gov. DeSantis’ feels that the more people who are tested, the more will be
found to be ‘positive,’ increasing the number of cases and justifying the
arguments for masking mandates and vaccinations, both of which he does not support,
preferring antibody treatments for those already sick. I liken this to
discarding fire prevention measures and replacing them with more fire engines. Governor
DeSantis and his Surgeon General are politically motivated educated imbeciles. Take
pride in ignoring whatever they say. And
of course, in my opinion, the governor should be voted out of office in November.
I wouldn’t vacation on a cruise ship at this time. All the cruise lines are reporting positive Covid19 tests among passengers and crew (all of whom are supposedly vaccinated or recently tested negatively) although the number of those infected is really miniscule compared to the number of people on the ship. (The numbers in the letter below translate to about eight tenths of one percent.) Nevertheless, so long as such susceptibility, however tiny, is present, masking and social distancing is being practiced on board these vessels. Frankly, I wouldn’t enjoy being on a cruise ship and having to wear a mask when out of my stateroom. Takes all the fun out of it. Here’s my letter to Palm Beach Post on this subject published about a week ago.
"COVID testing, masks and vaccines needed - - -
From what I have read, It is clear that vaccinations, while reducing the chance of COVID-19 infections and minimizing the disease’s severity for those infected, are not the equivalent of a negative COVID-19 test. The Dec. 21 Post article reports that 98% of the 48 passengers and crew who tested positive on a recent cruise ship, a minuscule number considering that there were over 6,000 passengers, and crew on board, were fully vaccinated. So long as vaccination is not 100% protective, wearing masks and social distancing in public places should still be practiced. Until frequent, inexpensive, self-administered COVID-19 testing becomes the rule, vaccinations are the best safeguard we have."
Close the Portal
Local sports pages recently indicated that football
players have transferred to Florida State University from the following
colleges: Wisconsin, Illinois, Arizona State, Louisville, Oregon and Lamar
(part of the Texas University System). It should make FSU alumni proud that
these students felt that they could receive a better education at the
Tallahassee college than they apparently were getting at the schools where they
had been studying and chose to transfer.
Of course, this is nonsense. Academics have nothing whatsoever to do with
it. All colleges do it, but that doesn’t
make it right. Colleges must abolish the “transfer portal” for athletic
purposes, allowing “students” to switch schools. Otherwise, all that we’ll have left will be
the SEC, the Big Ten and the ACC, the only conferences which play to full
stadiums, while the athletes they don’t hire, oops, I mean ‘need,’ find
lesser ‘second choice’ schools to attend and play for. The Big Twelve and the PAC12 are already
stumbling. Closing the portal would
spread the top level ‘talent’ more widely and create more equality among college football teams. True, it enables lesser schools to pick up players originally drafted by the top schools, but who didn't work out well there, but the real benefit is in enabling better athletes, like the cream in the days before homogenized milk, to rise to the top.
Really, when one checks the colleges many NFL
players attended, there are many from such lesser schools whom the NFL spots
and drafts. All the “transfer portal”
accomplishes is enriching the already rich schools. Rutgers quarterback Noah Vedral is a good example. His one year at the University of Central Florida, two years at the University of Nebraska and two years at Rutgers illustrate the situation where the gridiron takes precedence over the library. Adding to this tragedy is the presence of a
similar “transfer portal” among high school athletes, particularly in backward
parts of the country such as Florida.
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