I want to start this blog with some background which takes us back to February of 2016. In February of 2016, Justice Antonin Scalia died, which left a vacancy on the Supreme Court for President Obama to fill with still 11 Months left in his term. President Obama at the time nominated Merrick Garland to be the next Supreme Court Justice. The problem was that the Republicans simply wouldn't allow that to happen.
Mitch McConnell and others in the Republican majority in 2016 signed off that they would withhold consent on any nominee made by President Obama and would not vote on a nominee until after January 20th, 2017. This was a political move that the Republicans at no point chose to cover up. They did it right out in the open for all to see. So that is what ultimately led to a conservative majority on the Supreme Court once Trump took office in 2017 and was able to make his own nomination, and do so with total Republican control of Congress. The horrible part about this was that Obama was still the President for 11 months when the McConnell blocked him from nominating a Justice.
Fast forward to this week, and we have Justice Kennedy announcing that he will be retiring very shortly, and most importantly before the mid-term elections. Mitch McConnell, who cited back in 2016 the fact that the President shouldn't be able to appoint a Justice during an election year (which was ridiculous), isn't going to abide by that same logic in 2018, where we are even closer to an election this year. Mitch is going to force this appointment through prior to the mid-terms, likely having the President appoint a Justice who is harder to the right than Kennedy was, and who is likely 30+ years younger, meaning that Justice will be locked in for the next generation.
So to this point, Trump has had the opportunity to appoint two Justices to the Supreme Court. This next appointment will provide a very clear Republican majority on the Supreme Court, meaning that some very historic legislation is likely to get overturned under the upcoming Supreme Court.
The other bit of information that is vitally important is that there are two more Supreme Court Justices who were appointed by Democratic Presidents who could both be close to retirement. You have Ruth Bader Ginsburg who is over 85 years old currently and Stephen Breyer who is a couple months shy of 80 years old. There is a chance the current Republican President could possibly be able to fill one of those two seats still in his current term, and if elected again, likely the other as well, which would put the Republican/Democrat Justice split at 7/2. That would mean that every time a case is voted on by the Justices, it will benefit the Republicans, giving them nearly unlimited power to do what they want to, especially with control over Congress and the Presidency if both of those are maintained as they are currently.
One of the benefits of Kennedy has been that, although he leans to the right, he has voted with the Democrats on the bench for some major legislation, to include abortion and women's rights. The next appointee, will most definitely not.
I wanted to preface this story with that background because what ultimately led to this "Travel" ban being approved in the highest court was the result of childish political maneuvering on the part of the Republicans in 2016. There is absolutely no reason why a sitting President with 11 months left in his final term should have been prevented from selecting the next Supreme Court Justice.
Now, on to the Muslim Ban...I am so sorry, it's called a Travel Ban now. I get that messed up every time I talk about it because the inception of the idea came from President Trump during his campaign when he vowed to have a ban put in place to stop all Muslims from entering the United States. That, and that alone, is where this started. Trump said it on many occasions, and made it clear that was the reasoning for it. The first Muslim Ban failed miserably and didn't hold up in court. The second Muslim Ban also failed miserably. This third iteration contains a couple of non-Muslim countries so that it seems less like something aiming directly at a specific religious group, but the reason for it, if you look back in time, was to ban Muslims.
That is concerning because if you read the responses to the case from the Democratic Justices and the Republican Justices, it seems as though the Democratic Justices took everything historical into consideration. They looked at everything Trump and his Associates said about the proposed ban, looked at the previous two attempts that were shut down in court, and voted it down based on the merit of all of the evidence. The Republican Justices, however, didn't consider anything Trump or his Associates said, and didn't consider either of the other attempts to instate the ban. They simply looked at the current iteration of the ban and said the President is within his power to instate the ban, regardless of why this all started a couple of years ago.
Now I want to talk about Lady Justice, the blindfolded woman holding scales used as a symbol of our system of justice , and a symbol that dates back to ancient Rome. Lady Justice is always pictured holding balanced scales suspended from her hand. The scales represent the weighing of evidence, and there is no foundation holding up the scales because they should stand on their own, as should the evidence.
The Blindfold, which is one of the points I really want to get across here, represents impartiality. Impartiality to be applied by the Justices without regard to wealth, power, or other status.
The Sword held by Lady Justice represents authority, and conveys the idea that justice can be swift and final.
The Toga worn by Lady Justice symbolizes the status of the philosophical attitude that embodies justice.
The Supreme Court Justices have to make some of the most difficult decisions in this country; decisions that affect millions of lives. Those decisions should be made by the rule of law and by using constitutional guidance. What scares me is that the Supreme Court has the potential to become more 'political' than ever in history, because under the current Administration, our President will utilize a Supreme Court that is vastly Republican as a weapon to do his bidding rather than an impartial body of people who should be making decisions not based on political views, but on the rule of law and the constitution.
I fear for what is to come with an imbalanced Supreme Court in the future. Our current President is a juggernaut hell bent on changing every norm this country has been used to; and not in a good way. He is utilizing "National Security" reasoning for the instatement of all of the Tariffs that he has put into place against many of our allies and enemies. It has gotten to the point we have Harley Davidson speaking out about having to move some production to Europe to avoid the counter tariffs put into place by our allies. Trump heard that and immediately started a smear campaign against a great American company. It won't stop with Harley. It is going to affect so many companies, and eventually every consumer, as companies don't eat taxes, they pass those taxes on to the consumers.
The President and his administration are single handedly dismantling the EPA and giving no care to the environment what-so-ever. The educational system in the United States is being run by a Trump Appointee, Betsy DeVos, who doesn't believe in public education. HUD is being run by a Trump Appointee, Ben Carson, who can't seem to wrap his head around the most simple of concepts in life and who has absolutely no experience in the areas of Housing and Urban Development, having been a surgeon prior to his political appointment. The EPA is being run by a Trump Appointee, Scott Pruitt, who has dismantled environmental regulations, doesn't believe the EPA should exist, and who is under something like 13 Federal Investigations for a barrage of items. The department of Energy is being run by an individual who ran for President, Rick Perry, and who stated that he believed the Department of Energy should be abolished; that and he is completely disconnected from reality. I won't go on, but it doesn't get any better the farther you delve into the people who surround our President.
The point of talking about the Cabinet is to explain how there are few people appointed by Trump to cabinet positions who are qualified to do what they are doing, or who are competent. They will certainly not challenge anything the President decides. That, coupled with a Republican Congress that is in lock-step with our President regardless of the decisions he makes is an abysmal approach to being the leadership of the most powerful country on Earth.
So few Republicans have spoken out when the President says horrible things, makes horrible decisions, lies, denigrates people, organizations and other countries, etc. It is terrifying to see where things are headed.
Think about what constitutes an Autocratic society. This President does not believe in a Free Press. Even though the vast majority of the Press publishes facts based on what the President and his allies have done and said, if it is news that is completely true but paints the President in a bad light, he immediately calls it 'Fake News'. He only appreciates news agencies like Fox and Friends that cater to his personality quirks and paint him in a positive light on a regular basis for no substantive reason what-so-ever. So that is the first sign. Trump wants to control the media and what is published about him in the press. That is what Autocrats do.
Next, Trump wants to have complete control over the Department of Justice. The key to an effective Department of Justice is for the organizations to be able to perform their assigned duties autonomously, or acting independent of the President. Trump wants to be able to shut down any investigation he wants to and control what the DOJ does. A Democratic society doesn't work like that. There needs to be checks and balances, and this President wants to take those checks and balances away because he favors having total control over everything around him. The problem is, that is a mentality he had as a businessman that doesn't carry over to the Presidency.
Trump is in the process through his words and actions of isolating the United States from the rest of the world. He has pulled the United States out of the Paris Climate Accord, the Iran Nuclear Deal, is attempting to re-negotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement, pulled out of the United Nations Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the Trans Pacific Partnership, refused to sign the G7 Summit Agreement that all other nations signed, and there are others. Pulling from partnerships and agreements around the world leads to isolationism, which doesn't work out well for Democratic societies. It does, however, work for Autocratic societies.
I don't understand how people don't see any of this. I don't understand how there is a large base of people out there who can't see the detrimental actions this President has taken, is taking, and is going to take, that will eventually put our country in a very, very bad spot. Please, pay attention to the news and the facts presented, and see what is really happening. Support the Mueller Investigation that has already led to so many indictments and guilty pleas, and is likely to lead to many more surrounding the Trump Administration. Don't let the lies and rhetoric trick you into believing the things the President says and does are good for this country, because as a total package...they are not good.
Thousands of lies. Presidents throughout history have been caught lying at times or stretching the truth to make their administrations look better. There has never been, however, a President who lies nearly every time he opens his mouth...until now. THIS IS NOT OK!
I truly hope Americans wake up and realize what is going on at some point, because my heart hurts for my country right now.
DUNK
Mitch McConnell and others in the Republican majority in 2016 signed off that they would withhold consent on any nominee made by President Obama and would not vote on a nominee until after January 20th, 2017. This was a political move that the Republicans at no point chose to cover up. They did it right out in the open for all to see. So that is what ultimately led to a conservative majority on the Supreme Court once Trump took office in 2017 and was able to make his own nomination, and do so with total Republican control of Congress. The horrible part about this was that Obama was still the President for 11 months when the McConnell blocked him from nominating a Justice.
Fast forward to this week, and we have Justice Kennedy announcing that he will be retiring very shortly, and most importantly before the mid-term elections. Mitch McConnell, who cited back in 2016 the fact that the President shouldn't be able to appoint a Justice during an election year (which was ridiculous), isn't going to abide by that same logic in 2018, where we are even closer to an election this year. Mitch is going to force this appointment through prior to the mid-terms, likely having the President appoint a Justice who is harder to the right than Kennedy was, and who is likely 30+ years younger, meaning that Justice will be locked in for the next generation.
So to this point, Trump has had the opportunity to appoint two Justices to the Supreme Court. This next appointment will provide a very clear Republican majority on the Supreme Court, meaning that some very historic legislation is likely to get overturned under the upcoming Supreme Court.
The other bit of information that is vitally important is that there are two more Supreme Court Justices who were appointed by Democratic Presidents who could both be close to retirement. You have Ruth Bader Ginsburg who is over 85 years old currently and Stephen Breyer who is a couple months shy of 80 years old. There is a chance the current Republican President could possibly be able to fill one of those two seats still in his current term, and if elected again, likely the other as well, which would put the Republican/Democrat Justice split at 7/2. That would mean that every time a case is voted on by the Justices, it will benefit the Republicans, giving them nearly unlimited power to do what they want to, especially with control over Congress and the Presidency if both of those are maintained as they are currently.
One of the benefits of Kennedy has been that, although he leans to the right, he has voted with the Democrats on the bench for some major legislation, to include abortion and women's rights. The next appointee, will most definitely not.
I wanted to preface this story with that background because what ultimately led to this "Travel" ban being approved in the highest court was the result of childish political maneuvering on the part of the Republicans in 2016. There is absolutely no reason why a sitting President with 11 months left in his final term should have been prevented from selecting the next Supreme Court Justice.
Now, on to the Muslim Ban...I am so sorry, it's called a Travel Ban now. I get that messed up every time I talk about it because the inception of the idea came from President Trump during his campaign when he vowed to have a ban put in place to stop all Muslims from entering the United States. That, and that alone, is where this started. Trump said it on many occasions, and made it clear that was the reasoning for it. The first Muslim Ban failed miserably and didn't hold up in court. The second Muslim Ban also failed miserably. This third iteration contains a couple of non-Muslim countries so that it seems less like something aiming directly at a specific religious group, but the reason for it, if you look back in time, was to ban Muslims.
That is concerning because if you read the responses to the case from the Democratic Justices and the Republican Justices, it seems as though the Democratic Justices took everything historical into consideration. They looked at everything Trump and his Associates said about the proposed ban, looked at the previous two attempts that were shut down in court, and voted it down based on the merit of all of the evidence. The Republican Justices, however, didn't consider anything Trump or his Associates said, and didn't consider either of the other attempts to instate the ban. They simply looked at the current iteration of the ban and said the President is within his power to instate the ban, regardless of why this all started a couple of years ago.
Now I want to talk about Lady Justice, the blindfolded woman holding scales used as a symbol of our system of justice , and a symbol that dates back to ancient Rome. Lady Justice is always pictured holding balanced scales suspended from her hand. The scales represent the weighing of evidence, and there is no foundation holding up the scales because they should stand on their own, as should the evidence.
The Blindfold, which is one of the points I really want to get across here, represents impartiality. Impartiality to be applied by the Justices without regard to wealth, power, or other status.
The Sword held by Lady Justice represents authority, and conveys the idea that justice can be swift and final.
The Toga worn by Lady Justice symbolizes the status of the philosophical attitude that embodies justice.
The Supreme Court Justices have to make some of the most difficult decisions in this country; decisions that affect millions of lives. Those decisions should be made by the rule of law and by using constitutional guidance. What scares me is that the Supreme Court has the potential to become more 'political' than ever in history, because under the current Administration, our President will utilize a Supreme Court that is vastly Republican as a weapon to do his bidding rather than an impartial body of people who should be making decisions not based on political views, but on the rule of law and the constitution.
I fear for what is to come with an imbalanced Supreme Court in the future. Our current President is a juggernaut hell bent on changing every norm this country has been used to; and not in a good way. He is utilizing "National Security" reasoning for the instatement of all of the Tariffs that he has put into place against many of our allies and enemies. It has gotten to the point we have Harley Davidson speaking out about having to move some production to Europe to avoid the counter tariffs put into place by our allies. Trump heard that and immediately started a smear campaign against a great American company. It won't stop with Harley. It is going to affect so many companies, and eventually every consumer, as companies don't eat taxes, they pass those taxes on to the consumers.
The President and his administration are single handedly dismantling the EPA and giving no care to the environment what-so-ever. The educational system in the United States is being run by a Trump Appointee, Betsy DeVos, who doesn't believe in public education. HUD is being run by a Trump Appointee, Ben Carson, who can't seem to wrap his head around the most simple of concepts in life and who has absolutely no experience in the areas of Housing and Urban Development, having been a surgeon prior to his political appointment. The EPA is being run by a Trump Appointee, Scott Pruitt, who has dismantled environmental regulations, doesn't believe the EPA should exist, and who is under something like 13 Federal Investigations for a barrage of items. The department of Energy is being run by an individual who ran for President, Rick Perry, and who stated that he believed the Department of Energy should be abolished; that and he is completely disconnected from reality. I won't go on, but it doesn't get any better the farther you delve into the people who surround our President.
The point of talking about the Cabinet is to explain how there are few people appointed by Trump to cabinet positions who are qualified to do what they are doing, or who are competent. They will certainly not challenge anything the President decides. That, coupled with a Republican Congress that is in lock-step with our President regardless of the decisions he makes is an abysmal approach to being the leadership of the most powerful country on Earth.
So few Republicans have spoken out when the President says horrible things, makes horrible decisions, lies, denigrates people, organizations and other countries, etc. It is terrifying to see where things are headed.
Think about what constitutes an Autocratic society. This President does not believe in a Free Press. Even though the vast majority of the Press publishes facts based on what the President and his allies have done and said, if it is news that is completely true but paints the President in a bad light, he immediately calls it 'Fake News'. He only appreciates news agencies like Fox and Friends that cater to his personality quirks and paint him in a positive light on a regular basis for no substantive reason what-so-ever. So that is the first sign. Trump wants to control the media and what is published about him in the press. That is what Autocrats do.
Next, Trump wants to have complete control over the Department of Justice. The key to an effective Department of Justice is for the organizations to be able to perform their assigned duties autonomously, or acting independent of the President. Trump wants to be able to shut down any investigation he wants to and control what the DOJ does. A Democratic society doesn't work like that. There needs to be checks and balances, and this President wants to take those checks and balances away because he favors having total control over everything around him. The problem is, that is a mentality he had as a businessman that doesn't carry over to the Presidency.
Trump is in the process through his words and actions of isolating the United States from the rest of the world. He has pulled the United States out of the Paris Climate Accord, the Iran Nuclear Deal, is attempting to re-negotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement, pulled out of the United Nations Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the Trans Pacific Partnership, refused to sign the G7 Summit Agreement that all other nations signed, and there are others. Pulling from partnerships and agreements around the world leads to isolationism, which doesn't work out well for Democratic societies. It does, however, work for Autocratic societies.
I don't understand how people don't see any of this. I don't understand how there is a large base of people out there who can't see the detrimental actions this President has taken, is taking, and is going to take, that will eventually put our country in a very, very bad spot. Please, pay attention to the news and the facts presented, and see what is really happening. Support the Mueller Investigation that has already led to so many indictments and guilty pleas, and is likely to lead to many more surrounding the Trump Administration. Don't let the lies and rhetoric trick you into believing the things the President says and does are good for this country, because as a total package...they are not good.
Thousands of lies. Presidents throughout history have been caught lying at times or stretching the truth to make their administrations look better. There has never been, however, a President who lies nearly every time he opens his mouth...until now. THIS IS NOT OK!
I truly hope Americans wake up and realize what is going on at some point, because my heart hurts for my country right now.
DUNK
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