Ginsburg – Supreme Court Justice

Fiery & fair. Tough but prudent. The late Ruth Bader Ginsburg (1933-2020) once said "Measured motions seem to me right, in the main, for constitutional as well as common law adjudication. Doctrinal limbs too swiftly shaped, experience teaches, may prove unstable.”  

Such views made her: ”... a jurist who seeks to build cautiously on precedent rather than pushing the Constitution towards her own vision.” (Legal scholar Cass Sunstein).

This post is not an attempt to educate or pontificate on The Honorable Ms. Ginsburg, but more to call out the ‘unmeasured emotions’ of the latter day Republican Conservative movement.

In 2016, 269 days before the U.S. national election that would replace Barak Obama with Donald Trump, and 350 days before Trumps inauguration, Associate Justice Antonin Scalia died.  He was considered by many as a stalwart conservative. 

The U.S. Senate, the congressional body charged with ratifying the President’s Supreme Court nominee, refused to do so. For over a full year the court was eight justices instead of the prescribed nine.  

Justification for the Senate’s failure to do their job was blatantly obvious. Leadership had a lame duck President and the death of Scalia meant a liberal nominee was to be vetted in his place. Since they had no legal objection to any nominee put forward, they would lean instead on parliamentary politics.

If there was ever a sure way to dismantle a democracy it is turning the rule of law into a political yardstick. Justice Ginsburg knew his all to well and battled cancer that should have sidelined her years ago, just to see the wrongs of 2016 reversed. She lost that battle with 46 days left before the 2020 election.

In 2016 as the Republican Senate used political bully tactics, Ginsburg proclaimed “Senators refusing to vote on President Obama's nominee to the Supreme Court should recognize that a president is elected for four years not three.”

If there is any justice left in American politics, we will find a way to return the SCOTUS to a body of legal scholars that are charged with interpreting the Constitution of the United States and not a chamber of politicians making good on promises.

One such possible solution is contained in the two year NPR funded study on governance (Q2 2020) that recommends an 18 year term limit for Supreme Court Justices - that ensures each administration has at least one justice to replace in each 4 year tenure. That gives a more measured process for replacement and mitigates the long term political influence of 'stacking the court'. 

Whatever the solution, we must wrench control of the court from political interests and return its focus to preservation of the Rule of Law and upholding he Constitution of the United States.

In 2016 the will of the people, the House of Representatives, the President of the United States, and by the declaration of Justice Ginsburg, the Supreme court itself, was circumvented by one individual: The Senate Majority Leader.

This can never happen again.

JWB

The Case for Socialism

 Blasphemy! 

Yes, I know. My parents are spinning in their graves.  As most of my conservative friends are penning a stinging rebuke as they read this - I ask only that you read first and react later:

I recently did a study on a combination of global social measurements of social 'well being'. Among the measurements were:

1. Life
2. Liberty
3. The pursuit of happiness

One would expect that the nation that coined these truths to be self evident would rank among the world's best. Not even close.

I also added one additional category: Educational excellence.

Below you will see the results of my study. Each graphic is authentic and the sources are the most authoritative & respected I could find. In each graphic I chose the same number of countries to illustrate: The top 25 in each category. Due to the limited space in the blog text area, you may need to enlarge (ctrl+) or expand to get a clear rendering. 

LIFE:

The annual Quality of Life report [1] is widely used by scholars and political scientists. It factors 30 categories in the index. 

Top honors go to Australia. The U.S. is NOT Listed in the top 25.

The take-away for this score, is that Quality of life is pretty subjective, and it can be influenced by the size of the country as much as social policy. For instance countries like Marcao, Malta, Cyprus, Switzerland, and city states such as Hong Kong (no longer a country unto itself) and Singapore are prevalent in this list.

I also notice high scores in categories of Security, Rights and Stability in the top 25.

LIBERTY:

The Human Freedom index [2] is compiled by the renowned Cato Institute and it also a source of factual consideration for Political Scientists and Academia.  With New Zealand #1, the U.S. ranked 15th. 

You see a few rankings duplicated (11,15) because the aggregate score was a virtual tie for the ranking.

Again smaller countries and those with progressive governments dominate the top 10.

HAPPINESS:

While understanding that 'happiness' is probably the most subjective of the measurements, when all people of all countries are asked the same questions in the same way - it is as much reality as it is perception. Here the annual World Happiness report [3] finds Finland at #1 while the U.S. Ranks 18th.

EDUCATION:

I admit cheating on this graphic. I pulled the top 26 countries rather than the top 25 - so I could include the U.S. at # 26 in the Education Rankings report [4].

While China continues to outshine in education due to their communist doctrine, they are not high on any other measure.  Also, the data coming out of China & Hong Kong has always been suspect as it is subject to government censorship. Therefore, I consider their education score to be an outlier in this study.

CONCLUSIONS

What struck me most is which countries are in consistently in the top 10.  I chose a few at random, but found a striking similarity: They were all Democratic Socialist in nature - or a progressive form of democracy. Many Scandinavian countries are consistently in the top 10. I wondered: What makes them so special?

I concentrated on democratic countries with a free market economy [4] (aka Capitalist). A few examples show consistent excellence in governing in each of the four categories:

Finland: Tops in education among democracies, Finland is also #1 in the Happiness Index; #8 in the Freedom Index; and #23 in the Quality of Life index. 

Finland, like other Scandinavian countries, has a comprehensive social safety net that helps ensure that people have what they need to live productive, healthy, and happy lives. If your definition of socialism is individuals and businesses paying high taxes to ensure that wealth is being distributed equitably across the population, then yes, Finland is socialist.

However, Finland runs on a free-market economy, something that is contrary to how many people perceive socialism. If your definition of socialism is heavy government regulation of business, then no, Finland is not socialist. In fact, government regulations are so low that Finland does not even have a minimum wage.

The best way to look at Finland’s economy and politics may be to see it as a blend of capitalism and socialism. Some people refer to this as “compassionate capitalism,” meaning that markets can run freely, with minimal government regulation and interference; the role of the government is to ensure social welfare by providing generous benefits to the population through the revenue generated by taxes. Those benefits include free schools, including college, for all students and generous maternity and paternity leave for new parents. 

Unlike in the U.S. where the government tries to protect social wealth as much as, if not more than, social welfare.

Switzerland: #11 in education among democracies, #3 on the Happiness Index, #2 on the Freedom Index, and #5 on the Quality of Life index, Switzerland is another successful democratic socialist country.

Switzerland’s economy is almost entirely made up of small- and medium-sized businesses because its government promotes policies that are very friendly to entrepreneurship. The education model in Switzerland is also very friendly to businesses, as students are required to gain job training as part of their academic education. It also has relatively low taxes – the average tax rate for individuals is less than 9%, significantly less than in the United States, and even less than countries that are generally classified as socialist.

Healthcare in Switzerland can be understood as somewhat socialist. A public insurer cannot turn anyone down for any reason, including a pre-existing condition. However, the insured individual, rather than the employer or the government, is required to pay the premiums. Education in Switzerland is free, and students who pursue an academic route, rather than a vocational one, are given free admission to universities.

Australia: #9 in education among democracies, #12 on the Happiness Index, #5 on the Freedom Index, and #1 on the Quality of Life index, Australia is a huge country - with a population of New York.  Most of Australians live in coastal cities and the center of the country is one big dry expanse. 

Australia is not considered socialist by most. Except for some U.S. conservatives that see the Australian form of Medicare for All as a socialist doctrine. Many believe that Australia's #1 performance in the Quality of Life index is a consequence of their national Medicare system.

And so...

I leave you with this: The data - a lot of data - indicates that a compassionate capitalist government that focuses on social policy rather than economic policy has the upper hand.  

Got better ideas? Let me know.

JWB

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[1] Quality of Life, World Data, extracted Sept 20, 2020, from https://www.worlddata.info/quality-of-life.php

[2] Civil Liberty and Freedom Report, Cato Institute, extracted Sept 20, 2020, from https://www.cato.org/human-freedom-index-new

[3] World Happiness Report, extracted Sept 20, 2020, from https://worldhappiness.report/ed/2020/ 

[4] Education Rankings by Country, World Population Review, retrieved Sept 20, 2020 from: https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/education-rankings-by-country

[5] Democratic Socialist Countries 2020 by Population, World Population Review, retrieved Sept 20, 2020 from: https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/democratic-socialist-countries#dataTable

The Social Dilemma | Official Trailer | Netflix

Please join me in watching this trailer and the subsequent documentary.

 

Vote 2020... Or die trying

With less than 80days until the 2020 election, arguably the most autocratic president in American history is setting the stage to contest the election results before the first vote is cast.

One of the key issues is Trump's insistence that mail-in voting is fraught with fraud. However, there is no evidence of wide ranging fraud in any official report or investigation by any state, local or federal authority. No media outlet has uncovered overt fraud on any scale that could affect the outcome of a national election.

A viral pandemic is sweeping the country and America is now the nation with the most cases and highest death toll per capita in the world. And it’s getting worse.

If I were a conspiracy nut, I’d say the President appears to be running the death toll up to keep Americans from voting – and tearing down the USPS to insure there is no recourse.

While I’m fairly sure it is just the President’s ineptitude that has brought us to this point, it is not beyond our ability – as Americans [not Republicans or Democrats or Libertarians or Independents, or Qanon,…) – to right the ship. By allowing early in-person voting in all states, we can counter the autocratic cult led by Trump that threatens to make our 2020 Presidential election look like a third world dumpster fire.

Here are the simple rules:

1. Only Registered voters can participate. Registration must require a valid photo ID and SSN that proves you are an American citizen. [This is already the case in most every state].
2. Polling stations must open at least 10 days, and not more than 30 days before the election. They must provide safe access (masks a Must) to multiple disinfected polling booths or kiosks.
3. There must be at least 10% of the total polling places open that will be open on election day. It is strongly encouraged that states offer polling jobs to those on unemployment due to Covid-19. The cost of this should be the burden of the federal government under provisions of COVID-19 relief.
4. All early voting polling places must be open on at least one weekend Saturday.  Sunday polling is optional by State.

I’m sure we will not get this done. But we should.

There are other benefits to this solution. One of which is the number of polling stations needed on election day could be drastically reduced - based on the number of registered voters that voted early.  Another is that we may know the local outcome of the election in many areas as soon as the polls close on election day. It's not unreasonable that we could find over 50% of the registered voters had cast their ballots prior to election day. 

Mail Voting:

Many states have laws that prevent counting any mail-in votes before election day. That seems to me to be extremely stupid. A few states have ONLY mail-in voting (Hawaii and Oregon come to mind) but they can report results quickly as they do not have election day counting restrictions.

If a qualified bonded vote counter (one or two per county would be all you need in most cases), with the proper technology to support them, could register each mail-in ballot as received to a secure isolated standalone computer server that is NOT connected to any network - fraud or manipulation would be effectively impossible. It's that simple.

Or Words to that Effect

What effect do words have? Just as the great words of the U.S. Constitution empowered liberty, freedom, and justice, the most notorious autocratic dictators of our time, from Hitler to China’s Li, have used not-so-subtle words and Ideas to subjugate.

The U.S. is in a place I never expected to see. But many left wing progressives warned us. I just thought it was so much liberal hyperbole. 

Today in this country we see the makings of a Fascist racist ‘regime’ masquerading in the guise of a Republican party led by Donald Trump. It is not ‘Republican’ by any stretch of the imagination.

Here then are the eight seeds – the words - of a dictatorial regime in the making:

1. Suppression of free speech and a free press. 
• Trump appears to believe he has the power to outlaw speech critical of him, and he calls the free press “...the enemy of the people.” 
• He repeated in a tweet about articles in the New York Times and The Washington Post, in particular: “They are both a disgrace to our Country, the Enemy of the People.” 
• Former national security adviser John Bolton, in his new book, claims that Trump said of journalists: “These people should be executed. They are scumbags.”
2. Using government troops & security forces to suppress peaceful protest.
• It’s reported that Trump wanted to deploy 10,000 troops to Washington alone. Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, took this so seriously that he got into a shouting match with the president over the prospect of deploying active-duty troops on U.S. soil.
• July 2020: Trump orders DHS and federal marshals into Seattle and Portland to quell civil unrest due to police violence. They employ unmarked vehicles and snatch and grab tactics against peaceful unarmed protesters. Anyone even yelling at the federals are jailed without cause. 
3. Challenging the validity of free and open elections. 
• After a Republican mayor requested the opening of an additional polling station, Trump tweeted falsely that the Democrats “...have just opened a voting booth in the most Democrat area in the State. They are trying to steal another election. It’s all rigged out there. These votes must not count. SCAM!”
• Trump has repeatedly tweeted that mail-in voting will lead to fraudulent and rigged elections. After winning the 2016 presidential election while losing the popular vote, he claimed a ‘landslide victory’ and said that Hillary Clinton’s lead in the popular vote was due to “...millions of people who voted illegally.” 
• Numerous investigations by the Trump administration have yet revealed any fraud that was out of the ordinary (there is always ‘someone’ trying to game the system) or had any impact whatsoever.
• In 2019 a republican 'consultant' stuffed ballot boxes in North Carolina. When caught they had to redo the election. The new Republican party was silent.
• In 2020 Republican Representative Steve Watkins, of Kansas, was charged with three felonies related to voter fraud. The new Republican party remains silent.
4. Consistent references to removing term limits for themselves.  
• Looking at what Putin had accomplished in Russia – and what he was proposing – Trump stated: “President for life . . . maybe we’ll have to give that a shot someday.” It’s a ‘joke’ he’s tossed off on several occasions. The power of suggestion was so strong with the Trump cult that former Trump attorney Michael Cohen expressed serious concern that Trump may try to steal the election or contest the results, and not leave the White House if he loses in 2020.
• More recently last September Trump said: “Under the normal rules, I’ll be out in 2024, so we may have to go for an extra term.” The crowd cheered.
5. Employing propaganda to alter public perception.
• With tabloids posing as ‘News’, like Fox News & Breitbart, promoting Trump’s lies as truth, the president controls one of the most powerful propaganda machines ever created. 
• During the impeachment trial, for example, Fox hosts repeatedly attacked the character and mental faculties of Democratic representatives and sworn administration witnesses, while focusing almost exclusively on the testimony of pro-Trump Republicans. When it did show footage of Democrats and witnesses, the network frequently used voice-overs to explain or interpret what was being said, rather than broadcasting what witnesses were actually saying.
• Another good propaganda ploy is to elevate those that have the same inspirations, as a model for success.
• Of North Korea’s Kim Jong Un he said: “He gets it. He totally gets it”; Later in 2018: "I just received a beautiful letter from Kim". Kim later called Trump a fool.
• on the Philippines’s Rodrigo Duterte he said: “What a great job you are doing”. During Duterte's four years in power he has overseen hundreds of extrajudicial killings, rights abuses and terror.
• on Saudi Arabia’s Mohammed bin Salman: "You have done a spectacular job”; after he ordered the murder of a Washington Post journalist. 
• and, of course, Russia’s Vladimir Putin: “You know what? Putin’s fine. He’s fine”. He also referred to another "beautiful letter" he received from Putin.
• Trump has had few good things to say about western democratic leaders, especially in Europe. Often calling them 'Stupid" or "Socialists".
6. Coopting the Rule of Law
• Trump quote: “I have an Article II, where I have the right to do whatever I want as president.”. 
• He has also claimed to have the “…absolute right to do what I want to do with the Justice Department” and, in the event the judiciary branch disagreed, “..the absolute right to PARDON myself.” 
• His attorney general, William Barr, and his own lawyers have made clear that this is the administration’s position as they have rejected both congressional and criminal subpoenas for information during the past few years. 
• Their arguments — including an assertion to a federal appellate court last October that the president could shoot someone in the middle of New York’s Fifth Avenue and still be immune from prosecution until he left office — came crashing down with a Supreme Court decision in 2020. The court stated: “We cannot conclude that absolute immunity is necessary or appropriate under Article II or the Supremacy Clause,” - Chief Justice John Roberts
• Trump has dismissed an FBI director and a deputy FBI director, as well as five inspectors general and U.S. attorneys, all of whom were investigating or considering either his abuse of power or the alleged crimes of associates. 
• After the Mueller investigation of Russia’s role in the 2016 election, Trump ordered a criminal probe into the origins of the inquiry — to, in Trump’s words, “investigate the investigators.” He tried to get the Justice Department to prosecute both former FBI director James Comey and Hillary Clinton. Although the most politically biased Justice Department in American history, they have yet to build a case.
7. Coopting the Religious majority
• One of the key success factors to autocratic rule is to overcome religious objections. Trump has mastered this better than any president in history.
• Biographies of Trump by many friends, associates, and enemies alike, tell of a man that is not the least bit religious.  The only time they saw him in a church was for weddings and funerals. 
• Trump's promises to the religious right to keep their tax exemptions, get federal funding for their schools, overturn Row vs. Wade, and push for religious exceptions to federal law, delighted the Christian evangelicals. 
• He has “jokingly” looked up to the sky and said, “I am the chosen one” in relation to negotiations with China. Then-Energy Secretary Rick Perry echoed other evangelicals who’ve said that Trump was sent by God to do great things when he seriously proclaimed that Trump is the “chosen one.”
• When Trump’s staged a photo op in front of Lafayette Square’s St. John’s Episcopal Church, many evangelicals viewed it positively: One evangelical supporter was so moved that she began speaking in tongues when she saw the footage, according to her son.
8. Providing a symbol of hate
• The last and most basic focus for a successful totalitarian regime is the need to focus hate on to something that is the core of all problems. 
• Hitler used the Jews. North Korea uses the U.S. and the South. Trump uses Obama, Democrats and the racial justice they stand for.
• He has rallied his base with dog-whistle attacks, calling Mexicans rapists and criminals. 
• When he attacked a group of progressive members of Congress from diverse backgrounds, he stated that they should go back to the places they came from. All were American citizens.
• When Nazies and BLM protestors faced off in 2018 he said there were "Good people on both sides".  
• Over the years Trump has frequently praised his “winning” genes, at one point telling an interviewer, “I’m proud to have that German blood — there’s no question about it."

All the above are real quotes. They are not ‘taken out of context’ as Trump leaves little to the imagination. They are not from some obtuse blogger - they are words from the President of the United States of America. They are words of Fascism - 

Or Words to that Effect.

JWB

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Let’s talk Anarchy

Currently the United States has a leader that is using any means at his disposal to divide Americans. Foreign leaders love it.  They even try to assist.

President Trump’s tactics are old, worn, and totalitarian, but still effective on those he can keep frightened.  Fear of such words as ‘black’, ‘liberal’, ‘looser’; and his latest: ‘anarchists’ are part of his tool kit..

The term anarchy has several definitions, depending on source. I have found definitions like: “A state of disorder due to absence or nonrecognition of authority.”, or “A state of society without government or law.”  Along with more transcendental definitions like: “Absence of government and absolute freedom of the individual, regarded as a political ideal.”

So, take your pick. It's a kind of an ideal disorder of society I guess.

Pierre-Joseph Proudhon first coined the term anarchy in 1539, to mean "an absence of government". The definition stuck and has been a mainstay of civil disobedience ever since.

Henry David Thoreau (1817-1864) wrote in his acclaimed essay On the Duty of Civil Disobedience: “I heartily accept the motto, ‘That government is best which governs least’; and I should like to see it acted up to more rapidly and systematically. Carried out, it finally amounts to this, which also I believe—’That government is best which governs not at all’; and when men are prepared for it, that will be the kind of government which they will have."

From demonstrations against slavery in the 1800’s, to the Vietnam war in the 1900’s and now persistent racial inequality in 2020, aspirations of ‘defunding' law enforcement or government has been a rallying cry of those calling themselves anarchists.

The question needs answering. Can we disassociate governance and the rule of law? And why are we here? Again? Now?

All of nature – from the universal law of the speed of light, to nature’s cycle of life – observes laws.  We cannot remove all the lines from our highways.  Laws are a natural structure of life. There is governance in nature as well. From the alpha members of a pride of lions, to the parenting of a human child, nature subscribes a certain amount of governance into life. Otherwise life will fail.

So, if true anarchy is against the laws of nature, how do we strive to be as free and ungoverned as possible?

In reality, the Constitution of the United States of America was designed specifically to provide the greatest amount of individual freedom, with the least amount of government, as possible, and sill have a progressive functional society. It is my belief that Thoreau would have approved if he were around in 1776.

However, our constitution has been misrepresented and wrongfully applied ever since.  We have ignored almost completely its intent since the second world war.  From the rise of the military industrial complex to supreme court rulings, such as the Citizens United decision, we have created exactly what the founders were trying to avoid.

I am as guilty as others when I attack Trump for present day divisions and dissent, but in truth, he is not the cause – he is the result. He’s the result of a return to a government that considers its people to be ‘subjects’ and not individuals. A government run by lobbyists, foreign influence, and profiteers. The very state of affairs we fought a War of Independence to escape. A war, by the way, the British considered an invitation to 'anarchy'.

America has been asleep at the wheel for 80 years now. We need to get back in the game before it’s too late. If it’s not too late already.

Read my Five Steps posts from July 2019. Then tell me what You think.

JWB

Perspective

Perspective is the natural enemy of hypocrisy. 

The US is celebrating its independence the weekend of 4 July, 2020. But we are missing the perspective of the people that are not enjoying the self-evident truths and the Rule of Law that our Constitution supposedly guarantees. From children in immigration concentration camps, to African-American racism among law enforcement; Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness is still somewhat far off.

It is fitting then, I suppose, that the actual declaration of independence was made on July 2nd, 1776, not July 4^th. History and perspective are captives of time and culture. 

I was under the mistaken impression, some 30 years ago, that the culture of white privilege in this country was eroding; by the 21^st century we would be far beyond where we are now.  

My perspective was to blame. As a white Marine Corps veteran, with as many black friends as white, I had put my racist upbringing to a peaceful rest.  My admiration for Martin Luther King, and the later success of Barack Obama, made me all the surer that we were slowly coming out of our racial dark ages. 

I could not have been more wrong if I tried. The new millennia gave rise to Social Media and right wing tabloids that elevated persistent white nationalism. And, in 2016, we reaped what they had sown. 

So, on this July 4^th, let’s reflect, more than party, for a change. Let us reflect on the promise of the Constitution and Bill of Rights.

Just celebrating that we have them does not seem like enough right now.