The Rule of Law Must and Shall Prevail

Public domain photo of U.S. Capitol by the National Park Service (not implying any endorsement)

What a relief to see Steve Bannon indicted for contempt of Congress for failing to answer a constitutionally legal subpoena to testify and produce documents. It is very good to start with the easiest case. Bannon was not a member of the Executive Branch at the time of the insurrection of January 6 and the planning leading up to it. He is also, perhaps, the most disgusting of the former president's inner circle in his political philosophies and personal demeanor. I will spare you any photos of him here.

"Negroes Attack Bothell, Washington!" Didn't Happen!

1968 riots in Washington D.C. after MLK,Jr. Assassination
 Warren K. Leffler / Library of Congress, Public Domain, 

1968 was a really bad year, Assassinations, Riots, War in Vietnam (my uncle was there), and really bad politics. I was an elven-year-old kid in the suburbs and it was a little scary. My Dad was talking with a friend on our front lawn. The friend said that he was buying a gun for his wife for when the Negroes come.

To my Dad's credit, he wasn't really going along with this. He didn't buy my Mom a gun. But, he didn't push back too hard with his friend. He just sort of winced and said something like, "I don't know if that's ever going to happen."

Please Vote!

 

It's coming!

Corona Virus and trump

I don't know how this will end. trump made his covid-19 bed and now he lies in it. I just want this on the record:

Abortion Again

 Once more I will try to explain and persuade. Abortion is a serious, moral wrong when done for selfish reasons, IMO. However, as my Church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has made it very clear that there is no absolute prohibition of abortion:

"The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints believes in the sanctity of human life. Therefore, the Church opposes elective abortion for personal or social convenience, and counsels its members not to submit to, perform, encourage, pay for, or arrange for such abortions.

The Church allows for possible exceptions for its members when:

Pregnancy results from rape or incest, or

A competent physician determines that the life or health of the mother is in serious jeopardy, or

A competent physician determines that the fetus has severe defects that will not allow the baby to survive beyond birth.

The Church teaches its members that even these rare exceptions do not justify abortion automatically. Abortion is a most serious matter and should be considered only after the persons involved have consulted with their local church leaders and feel through personal prayer that their decision is correct.

The Church has not favored or opposed legislative proposals or public demonstrations concerning abortion."

Is there anything in this official statement that looks like an absolute ban or ban on voting for those who support a woman's right to choose? I don't see it.

And how are the rare exceptions to be determined? Not by a judge in a legal proceeding, not by debates in Congress or the State Legislature. It is a personal, medical, and religious determination to be made, not a political one. The statement ends with this:

The Church has not favored or opposed legislative proposals or public demonstrations concerning abortion. 

I don't have to mingle this with scripture or provide much philosophy to trip anybody up. There is absolutely no prohibition to vote for Democrats who support a woman's right to choose whether or not to have an abortion!

Rising Up in Centerville . . . Utah

We celebrated Juneteenth this year and marched for equal justice. It went well. I've struggled though to find the words to express it because I am so out of my depth. Which is why I dove in the first place.

It is encouraging that significantly more than any time before, protests for racial equality are not just something for the targets of oppression. The protests since George Floyd died under a knee have included Americans in all their diversity and privilege. The protests have even gone international. Some of this is to protest the retrograde racism of the trump administration of course. I'm all in for that. And still, I can never feel the depth of the Black American experience. So we try.

My immediate family appears to be woke or at least in the process. A daughter and I marched for refugees and immigrants when trump first starting imposing his bans. There was to be a peaceful march for racial justice in downtown Salt Lake City for Juneteenth this year. I wanted to go except for the risks of Covid-19. We had talked about doing a local march. The daughter who marched with me before prompted me on to set up our march in front of Centerville City Hall and police headquarters. My other daughter said she was in too. We rolled.

Here's our notice:

My daughter went up-front with our Centerville Police:

Just for the Record on the Turning Point

There hasn't been a lot of political postings from me recently because I've already said what I can about my beliefs and the horrifying failures of this nation to put and keep a racist, TV-star con-man in charge of our country.

Last night was a turning point in that military leaders have spoken out against the brazen and ham-handed Constitutional violation of the right of peaceful assembly just so the con-man could have a photo-op holding up a bible in front of a church.

Nothing else has done it, but this has to be it. We can't wait five more months to election day with pandemic raging and the possibility of a race war followed by a harsh, government crack-down. I'm calling it that trump is done. He may or may not resign. He may flail around in his bunker. But without the backing of the U.S. Military, he is neutered as he should have been many years ago just for for his sexual offenses.

Here is some of what I posted yesterday on Facebook and Twitter. Just for the record.

In response to this article from the Washington Post:

"Shame, shame on the U.S. Park Police! You know better! I know you had good legal advice in the past and you could get it now if you listened to the right advisers--those farthest away from trump and Secretary "Coal & Petroleum" Bernhardt!"

And here's the Post on Sec of Defense, Mike Esper, criticizing excessive force.

In response to the Post article on former Sec of Defense, Jim Mattis, I said:

"We need more of this. It's still not too late."

And then,

"The Joints Chiefs of Staff have laid down a marker that they uphold the Constitution and will not interfere with peaceful protest! Stay safe out there, People! and video the perps of violence from the left and especially from the right!"

My hero, Michelle Obama

The personal connections hit me deeply:

"I had failed.

I had never in my life failed a test. . . . But I'd blown it with the bar. I was ashamed, sure that I'd let down every person who'd ever taught, encouraged, or employed me."

Like Michelle, I failed my first bar exam. It wasn't because we weren't smart or didn't study hard. It just happens to a lot of people when the two-day test is extremely tricky to keep the passage rates low. It was only 58% on my first try of the Maryland bar exam and only 56% six months later when I did pass. Michelle passed the Illinois exam on her second try too.

The second one also hit me joyfully:

He worked late at night in a small room we'd converted to a study at the rear of our apartment--a crowded, book-strewn bunker I referred to lovingly as the Hole. I'd sometimes go in, stepping over his piles of paper to sit on the ottoman in front of his chair while he worked, trying to lasso him with a joke and a smile, to tease him back from whatever far-off fields he'd been galloping through. He was good-humored about my intrusions, but only if I didn't stay to long.

Barack, I've come to understand, is the sort of person who needs a hole, a closed off little warren where he can read and write undisturbed. It's like a hatch that opens directly into the spacious skies of his brain. . . ."

Socially-distancing in my "hole," I finally go around to reading Becoming by Michelle Obama.

Your Friendly Neighborhood Whistleblower

Yes, that would be me. But I didn't work for the State Department or CIA so I'm not that guy (an American Hero! in my book).

At present, I am safely retired with my benefits and most of my faculties intact. My retirement was already planned for the end of June when we were hit by the trump shutdown of 2018-19 over the Holidays and well into new year.

There was a new, temporary or "acting" boss in the office who, in my opinion, was attempting to assert herself as a proactive advocate of the powers-that-be in DC. That is generally our job with the caveat that we are to advise according to the law and we are held to a higher standard to avoid the appearance of partisan politics. Well, that's been a little dicey in the trump administration.

Shutdown Update - 2019

I did go into my work email today. I guess we are supposed to check now and then to make sure our litigation deadlines are met. I don't have any active litigation as I've been working my way out of that in preparation for retirement. I went into email today just to check my calendar. I had the following email which I haven't even read because to me it is a mass of confusion. I only skimmed it to delete any names or personal identifiers. If you want to just skim down to the end for my response, that's OK.

SOL Employees,
As a reminder, all employees must report their time for the current pay period in QuickTime by 6:00 pm EST on Thursday, January 17. Employees may use only the following codes for this pay period:

Code 105 "Government Shutdown - Furlough": Use this code for all Furloughed time, including hours not worked by an excepted or exempted employee. The FAV key for Leave and Holidays is used in conjunction with this work code.

Code 107 "Government Shutdown - Excepted": Use this code for all Excepted time (unfunded work that has been authorized). The FAV key for "Administration" is used in conjunction with Code 107 when checking emails for up to 15-minutes per day. Use the normal appropriate FAV key for all other excepted work.

Unauthorized Entry into the United States

trump's Aesthetically-pleasing Steel Slats (a.k.a. A.S.S.)

As I just looked this up to respond to a Facebook posting of a friend, I want to memorialize it so I can find it again.

It is a misdemeanor to enter the territory of the United States without presenting oneself at an authorized port of entry and fulfilling the legal requirements. 8 U.S.C. §1325(a). https://www.uscis.gov/ilink/docView/SLB/HTML/SLB/0-0-0-1/0-0-0-29/0-0-0-9025.html

But once within the territory of the United States,

"Being illegally present in the U.S. has always been a civil, not criminal, violation of the INA, and subsequent deportation and associated administrative processes are civil proceedings." https://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/RL33351.pdf

Book Report: Seth Abramson's "Proof of Collusion"

The good news is that America will survive.

The bad news...

...we are being governed by a criminal conspiracy compromised by a foreign adversary, Putin's Russia.

Abramson's book is unique in historical journalism. He is not an investigative reporter as were Woodward and Bernstein. Well, both of those guys are still around, but not like they were in the days of Nixon. Abramson provides in disturbing detail a narrative from the public record of the crimes of #Individual1 (donald j. trump) and his associates. Most importantly, and as Rober Mueller has now concurred in court filings, the quid pro quo is revealed that the trump family and presidential campaign conspired with Putin's Russia to elect #Individual1 and with the promise of financial rewards in Russian real estate deals in exchange for the removal of sanctions against Russia for the invasion of Ukraine and interference in U.S. elections.

The book is disturbing and hard to accept, except that Abramson has been proven correct in his predictions and reporting to date. Abramson's book is basically a narrative of the long Twitter threads he has been providing over the past couple of years analyzing the alleged crimes of #Individual1. There is some cosmic justice that a well-researched and reasoned Twitter feed will help bring down a president who has a dynamic and occasionally damning presence on Twitter. This modern political world is blessed and cursed by new technologies.

I could only read this book after the revelations in court last week confirming the criminal conspiracy far exceeding the Watergate break-in and cover-up. And there's some satisfaction in writing this on the day #Individual1's personal attorney and fixer, Michael Cohen, was sentenced to three years in prison even though fully cooperating with the investigations (Mueller had recommended lighter sentencing, the US Attorney in the Southern District of New York recommended a bit harsher treatment in the financial investigations and prosecutions ongoing there).

Amazingly as he was sentenced, Cohen said he was finally "free."

Worse than Benedict Arnold

Benedict Arnold in Continental Army Uniform

It could be argued that Benedict Arnold was simply loyal to King George III as the king still claimed sovereignty over the American Colonies and had sent an occupying army to suppress a colonial rising. And fortunately, General Arnold's plan to deliver the fort at West Point on the Hudson was foiled by exposure of the plot.

I suppose one could also argue that Individual 1 is merely loyal to his highest interest, his own view of a great America with him at its head. It all revolves around him and it's all in his head under that mass of highly controlled hair cover which must take so much work it helps explains why the rest of his appearance is so slovenly.

The Shoes are Dropping like Cats and Dogs or Something

This is the message I sent to Utah Senator Mike Lee's office early this morning:

Dear staffer reading this. Please consider sharing this idea with Sen. Lee. He has the chance to step up and be a big leader and advocate for the MAJORITY of Utahns. Mueller is about to drop some more shoes in the investigation that show Trump and his admin compromised by Russia in financial and political dealings. Trump is not popular in Utah even among Republicans and Trump support is dropping. It's going to get worse. We need a Statesman to come forward who will help save country and the Republican party from the constitutional crisis of a criminally compromised executive with an adverse foreign power - Putin's Russia. Please get the Senator to step up and be that Statesman. Work with your new freshman Senator, Romney, and get him going on this. It shouldn't take much prodding. Get him to take it on as a project like saving the SLC Olympics. But Lee can take the lead here and be a big hero. Your party is in trouble (I'm a Dem myself). And our Nation is in peril. Please have the Senator step up and deal with trump's apparent crimes here. Many thanks. Please do not respond to me.

#Individual1 is going down soon. Mueller has the goods. The startling revelations in his personal lawyer, Michael Cohen's, strangely additional guilty plea of last Friday are a marker laid down by the Special Counsel that he has the evidence on the whole criminal conspiracy of #Individual1, his family enterprises, his administration, and Putin's Russia.

A Prayer for Election Day

Dear Father of All,

We thank Thee for the blessings of living in a land of liberty where are free to govern ourselves for the good of all.

We pray that we can elect honest and wise people to assist us in our self-governance, that the purpose of the Constitution may be established that man not be in bondage one to another.

We are grateful for the inspired Constitution to protect us in our rights to worship Thee and to join with others in free assembly of all varieties for doing good and for open discussion of ideas and petitions to our government.

We are grateful for the results of a tragic Civil War for a more perfect Union that allowed our forebearers to prohibit slavery and establish that all people of the United States share the same rights of equality and fair treatment regardless of their station and conditions of life.

Let Freedom Ring!

As we, the People of the United States, through our delegated elected officials continue to incarcerate children separated from their parents who were attempting to enter our borders, let us pause to think about this on the day we celebrate national independence.

These photos were released by the U.S. government. My source here.

It's Civil War of Minds and Hearts - With Some Unnecessary Pain, Suffering, and Death

Fortunately, there are no organized armies yet. There are shots being fired in mass shootings and attacks on unarmed People of Color, even when they peaceably assemble in church.

If you are a trump believer, all immigrants are brown and criminals. They "infest" and threaten "white culture." This is as if Jefferson Davis became President of the United States and spread the lies of slavery.

We need a new Lincoln. We need to stand for Union and Human Rights for all. We need to respect the dignity of People of Color who contribute wonderfully to this Great Nation. We need to denounce and fight every attempt to place the falsehood of "white culture" as the American Way.

Alice Cooper Predicted our Political Present

Oh, my Gosh!

I just heard this song recently and checked the lyrics. This is donald trump! Alice Cooper, of all people, called it in 1972!

I'm your top prime cut of meat, I'm your choice
I wanna be elected
I'm your Yankee Doodle Dandy in a gold Rolls Royce
I wanna be elected

Getting Ready for the Big Parade!

With  little more spirit of levity than I felt on the eve of the last shutdown, I have some proposals for the uniform the gentleman in the White House may want to consider for his big military parade:

These above would be excellent choices for the whole crowd! Melania, Jared, Ivanka, and the other gentleman could all choose their own shade. We know Melania would look good in blue. Peach seams right for Jared. Ivanka and her dad would have to fight over pink and green.

Our Cause Is Just - Now What Are We Going To Do?

We marched, my daughter and I, last February to protest trump's anti-immigration policies. We are now vindicated by the recent, official news release of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from the Mormon Newsroom which I cut and past in full here:

Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals

OFFICIAL STATEMENT

26 JANUARY 2018 - SALT LAKE CITY

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has issued the following statement regarding Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA):

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is established in 188 nations around the globe. Issues of immigration and legal status are of concern for many of our members. Most of our early Church members emigrated from foreign lands to live, work and worship, blessed by the freedoms and opportunities offered in this great nation.