There is only one overriding issue of political concern right now, encompassing much of what appears on this blog. That is how to defeat Republicans on Nov. 8, only 22 weeks from now. The future of democracy in the United States is at stake. Really.
Keep Your Eyes on the Supreme Court (NYSR&PA vs. Bruen)
Within a short time, the Supreme Court will rule on a New
York State law limiting the open carrying of weapons. They heard arguments back in November, but
since then there have been several mass shootings which might have changed
their thinking. That case, New York State Rifle and Pistol Association vs.
Bruen,
will offer them the opportunity to
modify the horrendous Scalia misinterpretation of the Second Amendment. If they do not, we are in for more gun
violence in days to come.
JL
Let’s Guarantee the ‘Right to Lie’
Believe it or not, Texas Congressman Louis Gohmert actually said
the following in regard to the arrest of Peter Navarro, an adviser to the
defeated former president, who had ignored a subpoena and being found in contempt
of Congress., “If
you’re a Republican, you can’t even lie to Congress or lie to an FBI agent or
they’re coming after you.” Unbelievable! This
idiot Congressman doesn’t recognize that lying under oath to the FBI or to a
Congressional Committee is a crime. He
probably would be in favor of a Constitutional Amendment guaranteeing the
‘right to lie.’
(If you haven’t already
read about this in the papers or seen it on TV news, you should switch channels
and newspapers, your likely sources of information.)
Gohmert claimed that
Democrats were treated differently and cited one example. Unfortunately for poor Louis, that example (Attorney
Michael Susmann) was recently found not guilty of lying to the
FBI by a jury. That’s a distinction too hard for this stupid Texan to
comprehend. But watch and see! The people in Texas will be dumb enough to
re-elect him. Just so long as he loves guns and hates abortions. Just watch.
JL
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Begonias vs. Impatiens
Days are hot here in Florida in the Summer. Too hot for some people and too hot for some plants. Therefore, I have gotten rid of the impatiens in my garden and flowerpots, whose only chance of survival are generous daily waterings. More adaptable to summer heat are begonias which are happy with both the sun and occasional rain. Watering during a dry spell, if needed, can be done once a week. In October, the begonias can be replaced with impatiens.
JL
*
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A Comprehensive Commentary from the SunSentinel
Trump lost election, but Trumpsters still dictate policy
By Fred Grimm
South Florida Sun Sentinel
(published on June 5)
(This piece
was published online on June 3 as exclusively for SunSentinel subscribers, but
in the interest of preserving American democracy, I am passing it on to readers
of this blog.)
*
*
Twenty months
after the presidential election, boats motor along the New River with “Trump Won”
flags flying and very, very loud country music blasting from the cockpit. It’s
not enough to “own the libs,” they intend to bust their eardrums.
Around town,
“Trump Won” flags and banners flutter from pick-up trucks and front-yard flag
poles, warning those outside the sway of QAnon that the 2020 election ain’t
over.
“Let’s go
Brandon” banners hang from houses, forcing neighbors to explain a vulgar euphemism to
the kids. Even among the multi-million-dollar waterfront mansions along North
Gordon Road in Fort Lauderdale, residents have suffered, for months, the
middle-school scenario of a fading Brandon banner draped from a neighbor’s
house.
Trump zealots
cling to the Big Lie with angry militancy. As if daring someone, anyone, to
claim otherwise. As if the Jan. 6 desecration of the U.S. Capitol was fair
warning for how they’ll deal with latte-drinking libs, fems, gays, techies,
immigrants, environmentalists, professors, BLM sympathizers and wimps plotting
to take away their AR-15s.
There has never been an election aftermath, not in my memory, so fraught with incivility. They shrug off Trump’s 7.1 million vote deficit as immaterial. Trumpsters dismiss the 81,268,924 Americans who voted against their candidate as unworthy of consideration. They shrug off Trump’s 7.1 million vote deficit as immaterial.
Instead, his
supporters cite QAnon conspiracy theories. Or they embrace woeful arguments
offered by Trump’s cabal of unscrupulous lawyers, whose lawsuits alleging
election fraud have been tossed, so far, 63 times. According to the Washington Post, judges rejecting election fraud lawsuits include 38
Republican appointees, including several chosen by Trump himself.
He just flat
out lost. Flags, banners, empty lawsuits and a redneck insurrection can’t undo
the electoral math.
Trump lost,
yet Trumpism, the loud, angry, confrontational F-U populism he stoked, has
prevailed. The minority party, which thanks to the self-obsessed Trump’s
ineptitude lost the White House and both congressional chambers, has retained
its grip on American governance.
When it comes
to assault weapons, abortion rights, climate change, pandemic policies,
immigration, statehood for Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia,
recreational marijuana, health care, mass transportation and alternative
energy, right-wing populists still control the agenda. And that agenda is no,
no, no, all down the line.
Republicans
maintain minority rule, thanks to a Constitution — crafted to favor an agrarian society — that lends rural, small-state, religious
conservatives disproportionate clout in the Electoral College (giving a Wyoming
voter 3.5 times more power than a Floridian). Same formula applies to the U.S.
Senate, where in an evenly divided chamber, Democrats represent 41.5 million
more constituents than their Republican counterparts.
Because
Republicans are far cleverer than Democrats in the dark art of gerrymandering,
they also enjoy outsized oomph in the U.S. House of Representatives. And in
state legislatures. For example, in Florida, a state in which Democrats lag
Republicans in voter registration by less than a percentage point, the GOP has
101 seats in the upper and lower chambers of the state legislature, compared to
58 occupied by Dems.
Now it appears
that a very conservative Supreme Court, thanks to three appointments by a
president elected with 2.9 million fewer votes than his 2016 Democratic
opponent, has decided states can outlaw or sharply limit abortion rights.
Red states
will do just that. Essentially, a religious minority will be dictating an
anti-abortion policy that, according to a string of national polls, 60 to 75
percent of Americans (and Floridians) oppose.
A right-wing
minority continues to block gun control measures also supported by a substantial majority of
Americans, including red-flag laws, universal background checks, preventing the
mentally deranged from buying guns and bans on assault-style weapons and
high-capacity magazines.
Big
majorities support vaccine mandates, legalized recreational marijuana, climate change mitigation, investment in public transit,
transitioning off fossil fuels, expanding access to Medicare and Medicaid. But
the minority party says no. More like hell no.
The New York
Times reported Thursday that “at least a half-dozen current and former Proud
Boys” — a gun-toting, alt-right, neo-fascist, anti-feminist, ultra-nationalist outfit — have wormed their way onto the Miami-Dade
Republican Executive Committee. They include two members facing criminal
charges in connection with the Jan. 6 attack on
the Capitol: one for obstructing Congress, the other for interfering with a
police officer.
Enrique
Tarrio, the national chairman of the Proud Boys, is in jail, awaiting trial
on conspiracy charges in connection with the capitol insurrection. Tarrio,
an ex-con from Miami, is also the former Florida state director of Latinos for
Trump.
Which says
something about the political-fringe weirdness infecting the GOP. This is sure
not your father’s (or Jeb Bush’s) Republican Party.
Fred Grimm, a
longtime resident of Fort Lauderdale, has worked as a journalist in South
Florida since 1976. Reach him by email at leogrimm@gmail.com or on Twitter: @grimm_fred.
I agree with Fred, as the defeated former president might say, 'bigly.'
JL
* * * *
Steve Bannon is a Bad Person
If you’ve nothing better to do and aren’t yet convinced that Steve Bannon belongs in either a mental institution or a prison, read the article by Jennifer Senior in the Atlantic. Check it out at
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2022/07/steve-bannon-war-room-democracy-threat/638443/ or
JL
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