Gun Violence (the Ghost of Antonin Scalia), What Might Inspire Some of It, Hard Advice for Democrats, the G.O.P.'s Slow Awakening, Federalist Papers Number 68 Revisited, and a Maureen Dowd Column on the Church and the SCOTUS

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JL 

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Do You Remember the Endless List of Mass Shootings? 

We cannot forget the need for solutions to gun violence. 

Aurora, Sandy Hook, the Pulse Nightclub, the Parkland High School massacre, the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, the El Paso Walmart, churches in South Carolina and Texas, and now, the Buffalo Supermarket shooting and another in Orange County, California, exist to remind us. Each time we said ‘Enough is Enough. This has to be stopped.’  And each time, nothing was done.  The list goes on and on. 

How come? Well, this ‘doing nothing’ is supported by a Supreme Court misinterpretation of the Second Amendment. In 2008 the late Justice Antonin Scalia said that the first thirteen words of the Second Amendment were not a prerequisite for that Amendment’s final fourteen words. They could stand alone.

His tortuous reasoning gave great encouragement and support, even beyond the circumstances of that particular case (D.C. vs. Heller) on which he wrote the opinion, to those who advocated anyone carrying a gun anywhere they wanted in this country and pretending they were a gun-slingin' cowboy in the old West or more often, a misguided avenging devil. (We are not referring to those who have a 'legitimate' reason for possessing guns other than military-style assault weaponry which no civilian has any reason to possess.)

For your convenience, here are the words of the Second Amendment, the first thirteen of which Justice Scalia flushed down the toilet.

'A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.'

Here is the way a solution must be reached.  It is the only way, short of repealing the Second Amendment.  When a case where a local law restricting ownership of weapons reaches the Supreme Court and that law is challenged based on the Second Amendment, that Court must rule that the final fourteen words of the Second Amendment cannot stand alone and they only apply when the condition stated in its first thirteen words is met, which today would apply to a State’s National Guard.  Until the Supreme Court does this, we will have repeated mass shootings because weapons will remain available to anyone.  It is that simple. Once that decision is made, reasonable legislation to curb gun violence will be passed and be able to survive legal challenges.

The ghost of Justice Scalia must be exorcised. 

JL

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A Question:  Would the SCOTUS be better off if it were not filled with lawyers? That is not a requirement.  Often, they are in a world of their own and have lost touch with the people of this country.  Perhaps five of the positions of Justices, including the Chief Justice, should not be lawyers.

(QAnon, whose poisonous lies fueled the Buffalo murderer, hides behind the First Amendment.  It and other evils permitted by the First Amendment must also be dealt with, but without diminishing our democracy.) 

I still, from the days of the Sandy Hook and Parkland massacres, have a sign in my car’s rear window reading “Want an Assault Rifle?  Join the Army.”  I believe, from what I see while driving around, that it is the only such sign remaining in Florida’s Palm Beach and Broward Counties, even with the latter being the location of the Parkland shooting four years ago. People forget all too quickly.  (I also have an Army Veterans hat in that rear window which possibly protects my car from being keyed or its tires from being slashed by those who may violently disagree with the sign, and there are many here locally.)

JL

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Racial Inspiration for the Buffalo Shooter

And meanwhile, could inspiration for the Buffalo shooting be directed toward right-wing racists, such as Tucker Carlson?  Here is what NBC's Daniel Arkin had to say about it yesterday.  

"Fox News personality Tucker Carlson is facing intense scrutiny from extremism experts, media watchdogs and progressive activists who say there is a link between the top-rated host’s “great replacement” rhetoric and the apparent mindset of the suspect in the weekend’s deadly rampage in Buffalo, New York. The white suspect accused of killing 10 people and wounding three others Saturday at a supermarket in a predominantly Black neighborhood apparently wrote a “manifesto” espousing the white supremacist “great replacement” conspiracy theory — elements of which Carlson has pushed on his weeknight show."

Responsibility should be directed toward him, just as those who inspired the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol should be held responsible for it, including the defeated former president. Words have consequences, particularly if they are designed to inspire acts of extreme violence.

JL

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Clues to Help Democrats Keep Control of Congress 25 Weeks From Now:

 (1)  Direct maximum resources to register persons of color and all women, two groups whose interests are always opposed by Republicans at all levels, local, State and Federal.  Without their votes, Congress will be lost and American democracy will have failed in its 233 year experiment. 

(2) Advocate a two-state solution for the Israeli-Palestinian dispute.  Our defeated former president supported the now-defeated Israeli prime minister’s ‘one state’ methods that still exist as part of the compromise coalition that put Netanyahu out of office.  Democrats should not support West Bank settlers, even if it means giving the votes of their American supporters to Republicans.  They already vote that way anyway but advocating a two-state solution will stop a drain of progressive Democrats’ votes.  It will be a net gain. 

(3) This is not the time for Democrats to address the issue of charter schools.  While they amount to an attack on public education, they do have Black and Latino support.  Don’t give these groups a reason not to vote Democratic.  A better choice is to improve public schools, to which the immediate threat is State vouchers used to finance uncontrollable right-wing schools, not charter schools.  Until public schools are improved, and they must be, charter schools should be left alone, as a compromise.  It is a hornet’s nest not to be stirred at this time.

JL

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Something to Think About

What if a list of countries that welcomed immigrants had been published in Germany in 1933?  Are we approaching the need for such a list here and now?

JL

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Is the G.O.P. Waking Up?

Slowly, the Republican Party is recognizing that it faces a dilemma.  It has grown so dependent on its extreme right-wing, on white supremacists, on lies so enormous that it is hard to not believe them (this was what Goebbels specialized in spreading in Germany), on Evangelical Christians, and on believers in fictitious QAnon-circulated conspiracy theories, to win elections that this ‘tail’ that they have adopted is now ‘wagging the dog.’ 

Very dangerous extreme right-wing candidates, people who form their opinions from what they hear from the likes of Tucker Carlson and Alex Jones, are defeating seriously conservative and still sane Republicans in primary elections!  Perhaps it is best to let them call the shots for their party for a while.  Let them run Jim Jordan for president and Marjorie Greene for vice-president!   

It is slowly dawning on the GOP that such candidates will be much easier for Democrats to defeat than ‘normal’ Republicans, accelerating the death of the Republican Party.  Ultimately, it will be reincarnated in its old self.  Lincoln will smile from his tomb.

They might even want it to happen that way, letting the Democrats do the job of purging their party of its malignancies through the election process.

 JL

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Is the SCOTUS Finessing the First Amendment?

The First Amendment reads that ‘Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion’ but there are ‘back door’ ways for religious doctrine to be established as part of our government’s structure.  Besides respecting that Amendment, the very size of both Houses of Congress prevents the First Amendment from being attacked openly in Congress. There are too many Senators and Representatives for that to happen. The smaller size of the nine-member Supreme Court, however, is vulnerable to such incursions on democracy from the bench.  Check out what New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd had to say about this danger:

Too Much Church in State?  By Maureen Dowd, Opinion Columnist - May 14, 2022

Dowd

“During her Supreme Court confirmation hearings, Amy Coney Barrett tried to reassure Democrats who were leery of her role as a “handmaid” in a Christian group called “People of Praise.” The group has a male-dominated hierarchy and a rigid view of sexuality reflecting conservative gender norms and rejecting openly gay men and women. Men, the group’s decision makers, “headed” their wives.

Justice Barrett said then that she would not impose her personal beliefs on the country. “Judges can’t just wake up one day and say ‘I have an agenda — I like guns, I hate guns, I like abortion, I hate abortion’ — and walk in like a royal queen and impose their will on the world,” she said amicably. “It’s not the law of Amy. It’s the law of the American people.”

Yet that’s what seems to be coming. Like a royal queen, she will impose her will on the world. It will be the law of Amy. And Sam. And Clarence. And Neil. And Brett.  It’s outrageous that five or six people in lifelong unaccountable jobs are about to impose their personal views on the rest of the country. While they will certainly provide the legal casuistry for their opinion, let’s not be played for fools: The Supreme Court’s impending repeal of Roe will be owed to more than judicial argumentation. There are prior worldviews at work in this upheaval.

 

As a Catholic whose father lived through the Irish Catholics “need not apply” era, I’m happy to see Catholics do well in the world. There is an astonishing preponderance of Catholics on the Supreme Court — six out of the nine justices, and a seventh, Neil Gorsuch, was raised as a Catholic and went to the same Jesuit boys’ high school in a Maryland suburb that Brett Kavanaugh and my nephews did, Georgetown Prep.  My father was furious that Catholic presidential candidates Al Smith and J.F.K. had to defend themselves against scurrilous charges that, if they got to the White House, they would take their orders from the pope.

One must tread carefully here. A Catholic signed on to the Roe v. Wade decision and another was in the court majority that upheld it in Planned Parenthood v. Casey. Justice Sonia Sotomayor, a Catholic, has expressed support for Roe, and Chief Justice John Roberts, a conservative Catholic, may be working for a compromise decision that can uphold Roe.

Still, this Catholic feels an intense disquiet that Catholic doctrine may be shaping (or misshaping) the freedom and the future of millions of women, and men. There is a corona of religious fervor around the court, a churchly ethos that threatens to turn our whole country upside down.

I come from a family that hews to the Catholic dictates on abortion, and I respect the views of my relatives. But it’s hard for me to watch the church trying to control women’s sexuality after a shocking number of its own priests sexually assaulted children and teenagers for decades, and got recycled into other parishes, as the church covered up the whole scandal. It is also hard to see the church couch its anti-abortion position in the context of caring for women when it continues to keep women in subservient roles in the church.

Religiosity is a subject some Catholics on the court have been more open about in recent years. Last year, at Thomas Aquinas College in California, Justice Samuel Alito fretted that there was growing cultural hostility toward Christianity and Catholicism. “There is a real movement to suppress the expression of anything that opposes the secular orthodoxy,” he said. Precisely which belief or practice of his religion does he feel he has been denied? President Biden is a Catholic who is uncomfortable with the issue of abortion despite his support for Roe. Still, when Barrett was a law professor at Notre Dame, a group she belonged to unanimously denounced the university’s decision to honor Biden even though he didn’t support the church’s position on abortion.

We have no one in the public arena like Mario Cuomo, who respected the multiplicity of values in an open society and had the guts to wade into the lion’s den at Notre Dame in 1984. “The Catholic who holds political office in a pluralistic democracy — who is elected to serve Jews and Muslims, atheists and Protestants, as well as Catholics — bears special responsibility,” Cuomo said. “He or she undertakes to help create conditions under which all can live with a maximum of dignity and with a reasonable degree of freedom; where everyone who chooses may hold beliefs different from specifically Catholic ones — sometimes contradictory to them; where the laws protect people’s right to divorce, to use birth control and even to choose abortion.”

The explosive nature of Alito’s draft opinion on Roe has brought to the fore how radical the majority on the court is, willing to make women fit with their zealous worldview — a view most Americans reject. It has also shown how radical Republicans are; although after pushing for this result for decades, because it made a good political weapon, they are now pretending it’s no big deal. We will all have to live with the catastrophic results of their zealotry.’

Thank you, Ms. Dowd!  It requires a Catholic to say this!

JL

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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, about 25 weeks from now.  The future of democracy in the United States is at stake.  Really.

JL

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Hamilton Feared Foreign Influence on our President

Let’s go back to this blog’s posting of  Dec. 14, 2016, after the election of the defeated (in 2020) former president but before his inauguration.

Alexander Hamilton’s words in Federalist Papers Number 68 discussed the electoral college, the votes of which that defeated former president tried to change in the insurrection of January 6, 2021, that he instigated.  

Here’s an excerpt from what Hamilton wrote.  Go back and read the whole thing, or at least its highlighted portions some of which are reproduced below.  Hamilton advocated having many members included in the electoral college as a good thing and the example he cites foreshadows what our 45th president may have succumbed to as developed in the whitewashed Mueller investigation of the defeated former president. Hamilton wrote:

'Nothing was more to be desired than that every practicable obstacle should be opposed to cabal, intrigue, and corruption (be included in the proposed Constitution?).  These most deadly adversaries of republican government might naturally have been expected to make their approaches from more than one quarter, but chiefly from the desire in foreign powers to gain an improper ascendant in our councils.  How could they better gratify this, than by raising a creature of their own to the chief magistracy of the Union?’

JL

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05-13-2022 - The Tenth Amendment, Why NOT to 'Go High,' Analyzing the Enemy and a Solution, SevenTraitors to their Sex,

 

Warning: This posting finds me in an angry mood. But perhaps that is what is necessary to get these ideas across.

JL                                            

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The Danger Presented by the Tenth Amendment

While we are aware of the protections given to us by the First Amendment and the rights born of the Fourteenth Amendment, we seem to ignore the Tenth Amendment which is at the root of many of our present problems.  

The desire of the majority of Americans for (1) better regulation of businesses including agribusinesses such as meatpacking, (2) for stronger protection of civil rights including voting, (3) for guaranteeing women's rights including abortion, and for (4) passing laws to reduce gun violence, is not only blocked by the Constitution's undemocratic structure of the Senate, but also the authority given to States by the Tenth Amendment. It says that 'powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.'

Just as the late Justice Antonin Scalia disregarded the first thirteen words of the Second Amendment, resulting in ‘pistol packing’ by almost anyone, we seem to ignore those last four words of the Tenth Amendment, ‘or to the people.’  State government is organized to take advantage of this gift to them, but 'the people' are not. 

Our government is built upon a Constitutional foundation of compromises that is beginning to show cracks, through which if we don’t watch out, can expand until our democracy tumbles through them into oblivion.  (Though they are today applicable elsewhere, these compromises were originally intended to gain the support of States where human slavery was legal for the approval of the new Constitution.)  Benjamin Franklin said that the 1789 Constitutional Convention gave us a ‘republic if we could keep it.’ That’s what we should be trying to do.

JL                                            

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Why Go ‘High’?

In the last posting in this blog, Robert Frost was quoted as writing,  ‘a liberal is a man too broadminded to take his own side in a quarrel.’ 

Michelle Obama - Not Always Correct

This is the trap the Democrats have fallen into by not recognizing that Michelle Obama’s words (‘When they go low, we go high’) lead to a failed strategy. If you don’t believe that, look around you and see where that has gotten us and what is happening right now: Abortion rights being threatened, Voting rights being threatened, Books being banned in schools. The correct tactic when they ‘go low,’ which is the usual Republican position, is to kick them in the teeth, at least verbally.  A boxing match is unfair if one fighter wears boxing gloves and the other uses his bare fists.

But meanwhile, you must remember that:

There is only one real issue of political concern right now. That is how to defeat Republicans on Nov. 8, about 26 weeks from now.  The future of democracy in the United States is at stake.  Really.

A tsunami of Democratic votes from persons of color and from women is needed to retain control of both Houses of Congress and to take over as many State Legislatures as possible. Republican actions at National levels and especially at State levels are never in the interest of these two voting groups whose voices and votes are necessary.  Republican positions on abortion rights and their attacks on voting rights prove this!

The Democratic Party must recognize this and not let intra-party disagreements deter them.

If Paul Revere were riding tonight, his message would be ‘The fascists are coming! The fascists are coming! Get out the vote!’ 

You must do your part. 

JL                                            

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Know Thy Enemy and What to Do with Them

Here’s a part of what history professor Heather Cox Richardson wrote in her ‘Letters from an American’ posted on May 10.  The Republican she quotes (in red below) is running in Michigan’s GOP gubernatorial primary.  He probably won’t win their nomination, but the fact that he is even running helps identify the enemy our democracy faces.  He, and anyone who agrees with him, have obviously been totally taken in by the legitimization of ignorance.  Even the Republican Party is belatedly recognizing that QAnon-influenced nut-jobs are seizing control of their MAGA movement and outdoing their usual cadre of liars. Here’s what Richardson wrote. 

‘In Michigan, Republican Ryan Kelley, who is running for governor, has openly attacked the idea of democracy. “Socialism—it starts with democracy,” he said. “That’s the ticket for the left. They want to push this idea of democracy, which turns into socialism, which turns into communism in every instance.”  Kelley’s distinction between “democracy” and a “constitutional republic” is drawn from the John Birch Society in the 1960s, which used that distinction to oppose the idea of one person, one vote, that supported Black voting.

In turn, the Birchers drew from the arguments of white supremacists during Reconstruction after the Civil War, who warned that Black voters would elect leaders who promised them roads, and schools, and hospitals. These benefits would cost tax dollars that in the postwar South would have to be paid largely by white landowners. Thus, white voters insisted, Black voting would lead to a redistribution of wealth; by 1871, they insisted it was essentially “socialism.”

That context explains Kelley’s insistence that “we truly are losing our country to the radical left.” But the argument is not only racial and economic. American evangelicals are converting to the Russian Orthodox Church out of support for its nativism, white nationalism, rejection of LGBTQ rights and abortion, and support for authoritarian Russian president Vladimir Putin. Like him, they object to the diversity inherent in democracy.’ 

Wow!  These Republicans actually are admitting that they are against ‘democracy.’  It’s out in the open.  They think it’s a bad thing.  And fools still vote for them in droves.  HCR’s comments also draw attention to the hypocrisy of some American evangelical Christians who seem to be susceptible to the legitimization of ignorance.  A little more attention to what’s in the newspapers and less to the Bible might help them, or perhaps just a closer reading of what is written in that holy book. 

It is all starting to come together into one monstrous plot to destroy democracy in the United States and to invest power in an autocratic government that will not answer to the majority of the people.  

At this point, we do not know who is pulling the strings but I suspect that it is a coalition of individuals and groups dedicated to subverting democracy.  Like this pathetic Kelley fellow in Michigan, they seem to think that government OF the people, BY the people and FOR the people amount to socialism, and that Lincoln was some sort of communist, though they never quite say that. Some will never get over his ‘freeing the slaves.’

In some way, all those in this weird coalition are connected. Let’s look at them and try to figure out how, and finally, what to do about it.  See how ...

The Republican conspirators who inspired the January 6 attack on the Capitol in order to prevent the legally elected president from receiving the electoral votes required by the Constitution to confirm his election … are connected to 

The defeated former president himself who still claims, with no evidence whatsoever, that the election was stolen … and he is connected to 

The Republicans in the Senate and the House who obstruct any legislation which is in the interest of the majority of people in the country and who … are connected to 

A politicized Supreme Court which is in the course of repealing Roe vs. Wade by virtue of three Justices, handpicked by the defeated former president, and who came very close to lying (as lawyers, they knew how to mince their words) at their confirmation hearings, and is willing to throw away the half-century of protection of women’s rights that decision brought about … and which is inspired by

The archaic Federalist Society which preaches and teaches a literal ‘originalist’ interpretation of the Constitution which would deny the validity of some of its Amendments guaranteeing rights to the people … and which is connected to 

Easily manipulated State legislatures where right-wingers have the sole power to pass undemocratic measures concerning schools, textbooks, and election procedures … and this is supported by 

Right-wing media, owned by the business community, whose stock in trade is outright lying supposedly permitted by the First Amendment, and is dedicated to the destruction of democracy in the United States … and their giving credence to  travesties like 

The Mueller Commission’s report’s being whitewashed by a dishonest Attorney General, thereby ignoring the defeated former president’s connections with illegal Russian aid in winning his 2016 election … that we now find to be connected to 

The Republican Party’s long-term relationship with Russia’s dictatorial government, going back several administrations which was hidden by …

That same 'bought' right-wing media … which was also heavily connected to 

Evangelical Christians being duped by lies fed to them on radio, TV, the internet and sadly, often from the pulpit … and this media contamination is also connected to 

NRA-based opposition to any legislation concerning controlling civilian use of weapons, based on a total misinterpretation of the Second Amendment by that corrupted, politicized Supreme Court … which also makes 

Decisions weakening the regulatory role of government in acting to protect the interests of ordinary citizens … and this is connected to 

Support of Unfair Tax legislation that gives relief to businesses and the very wealthiest of Americans, shifting the tax burden to middle class and impoverished citizens, reducing funds for medical care for those in greatest need of it, and reducing the welcome which has always existed here for those fleeing oppression elsewhere. 

It's all connected. 

The glue that bonds them together seems to be a mixture of right-wing media liars and the Republican Party.  Crazy Glue? A Crazy Party!  

Now perhaps Americans will understand why the next gathering of the totally Republican Conservative Political Action Committee (CPAC), at which a key speaker will be Fox’s in-house fascist, Tucker Carlson, will be held in Hungary with their undemocratic President Orban as the honored guest, a clever way of avoiding demonstrations by loyal Americans.  There you have it.  They are all connected. And they are ashamed to tout their program within this country's borders.

 We cannot sit still any longer!  No more ‘going high’ while they ‘go low.’  Along with registering for and voting in the November 8 elections, remedying this situation deserves the highest priority. And here is what we must do about it right now!

The Solution:  There is no question that the way to proceed at this point is for the Department of Justice to indict those who planned and inspired the January 6, 2021 insurrection and that should include the defeated former president.  The House Select Committee has amassed enough sworn evidence to indict them all, including him.  This should take priority over prosecuting the actual foot soldiers who were convinced to participate in the attack on the Capitol. Only then, with the threat of imprisonment for seditious or even traitorous acts looming, will this weird coalition begin to unravel. 

It is time to play hardball.  We cannot let this go the way of the Mueller investigation and the two failed attempts at confirming the defeated former president’s impeachment in the Senate. 

If it results in violence by the supporters of the defeated former president, including any who are armed, in elected office, or involved in law enforcement (too many are), military force should be used to subdue them and maintain justice.  That’s what Abraham Lincoln did when the Union was threatened by secessionists.  The foes of democracy are no less of a danger to the nation. 

It is time to play hardball. 

JL                                            

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Senate Vote to Create Federal Abortion Rights Fails - Seven Traitors to their Sex Helped Scuttle It

On Wednesday, all the Republican members of the Senate voted against a measure designed to bypass the Supreme Court by guaranteeing women to right to make their own decisions regarding abortion.  Needing 60 votes, this brought about its defeat. (One Democrat voted with them.)   

Because of their Party’s united position on this issue, no woman in this country in either ‘red’ and ‘blue’ States should cast a ballot for any Republican running for any office whatsoever, local, State or Federal.  Doing so would make them a traitor to their sex.  

And as for the seven female Republican Senators who voted against this measure, they should be shunned by those Senators who voted for it, particularly their female colleagues.  Senators Blackburn, Hyde-Smith, Ernst, Capito, Fischer, Murkowski and Collins disgraced the body to which they were elected as well as betraying their sex.  

And if you think it’s just about abortion, you are naïve. Same sex-marriage, contraception, gender identification, and perhaps the 14^th Amendment itself (partially quoted below) are next on their agenda. ('Equal protection of the laws frightens them.') In fact, they already are emboldened, in places where ignorance reigns supreme like Florida, to censor schoolbooks and put limits on the right to assemble guaranteed by their next target, the First Amendment. 

They think this approach is a winner because too many Americans believe being against these things is doing God’s will.  I don’t know of any Republicans who have spoken with the Creator lately to confirm this, but when that happens, I am sure FoxNews will interrupt its regular programming to announce it.

 

14^th Amendment – Section One - All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside. No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

JL                                            

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Can you see why I am angry?  You should be too!  Donate some money to defeat Republican candidates.  Get the uninvolved ‘involved.’  Do your part to save democracy.

 

JL

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