Truth and Donald Trump is the epitome of an oxymoronic correlation

An echo opinion by Maya Steinitz published in the The Washington Post:

The Mar-a-Lago document investigation, as well as the New York attorney general’s civil fraud complaint against Donald Trump and his family members, alleging acts that could amount to criminal fraud, have revived a debate that has been ongoing since the 2020, election: Assuming there is the sufficient amount of evidence of criminality that ordinarily leads prosecutors to indictment, does the potential defendant’s status as a former president warrant special treatment — namely, an exemption from prosecution not provided for in the Constitution?

Those opposing prosecution say that such a meting out of justice would backfire, galvanizing Trump’s base. Some go so far as to suggest that seeing the former president “decked out in full orange, successfully prosecuted and dragged off to prison” would be a spectacle “more commonly associated with third world nations or undemocratic states.”

Growing up in Israel, in the shadow of the world’s longest-running conflict, I often considered whether it is better to forgo prosecution in favor of other forms of accountability and healing. 

As a young lawyer writing a doctoral thesis on international-dispute resolution, I served for a time at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and, later, as an adviser to the emerging government of what is now the Republic of South Sudan. For several years I’ve convened a course on international conflict resolution in Jerusalem, bringing together Jewish, Arab and international students, many from conflict zones, to talk about conflict and justice. That experience has convinced me, as it has others, that criminally prosecuting leaders can help heal polarized countries.

Some 30 years of research in transitional justice — the multidisciplinary study of how societies can constructively emerge from conflict and assert or reassert democratic values — provide evidence that, contrary to the understandable worry that a trial would be divisive, trials can instead help heal. In fact, they are considered one of the main methods to bring about “truth and reconciliation.”

Examples of such “transitional trials” include the prosecutions of Slobodan Milosevic in the aftermath of the Balkan wars, and of Augusto Pinochet for human rights violations committed during his presidency of Chile. In a less dramatic example of alleged corruption (rather than human-rights violations and war crimes), former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is facing criminal charges in a deeply divided Israel. In Italy, former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi has been convicted of tax fraud.

The reasons trials help promote reconciliation are many. Trials are a performative affair. They are, among other things, a drama in which conflict is enacted and resolved. As such, they can compel attention in a way that pierces the disinformation bubble that has contributed to this era’s divisiveness. A trial of a former U.S. president is certain to be covered by news outlets that lean both right and left. The same would be true of a trial of a sitting president’s son, should federal prosecutors decide to charge Hunter Biden with tax crimes or a false statement related to a gun purchase.

Criminal trials are also easily understood by most, if not all, of the population. Consider how memorable and enduring was the trial of O.J. Simpson. Or recall President Bill Clinton’s infamous testimony about the nature of his relationship with Monica Lewinsky. Now, compare that with how impenetrable the Mueller report was, and how little traction its findings have found in the general discourse, let alone the popular imagination.

Trials are about the establishment of truth through evidence, beyond reasonable doubt. The truth gathered and amplified through the drama of a trial creates a historical record and shapes the collective memory. Trials are a stage upon which individuals with firsthand knowledge can be compelled to testify about what they know, and must do so truthfully under penalty of perjury. 

Trials are as much about educating the public about wrongs that have been done as they are about seeking retribution for harms done (though they are about that as well).

At trial, the defendant gets to testify and be heard, and has the opportunity to compel the testimony of others. Milosevic, for instance, used his stage at The Hague to great effect. Any defense to alleged crimes that Trump — or, again, Hunter Biden — might testify to, without committing perjury, would similarly be amplified through the trial.

High-profile criminal trials should not be the only or the primary tool of reconciliation on our path to national healing. Bipartisan dialogue and resurrecting the tradition of appointing members of the opposing party to the Cabinet are examples of important measures that should be put into practice, no matter who holds office.

But the bar to clear for any decision to prosecute should not be any lower when it comes to former president Trump, or any other politician or politician’s family member, than the one for everyday Americans. Nor should the bar be any higher in a rule-of-law society, especially not in a divided country in need of truth and reconciliation.

Assuming sufficient evidence of criminality, Trump should face prosecution. The same is true for Hunter Biden. To borrow from a favorite courtroom drama, we can handle the truth. We need to, even, so we can start to heal.

Maya Steinitz is a law professor at the University of Iowa and the author of “The Case for an International Court of Civil Justice.”

Truth and Trump = oxmoron

Definition of "Oxymoron":  An oxymoron is a figure of speech that juxtaposes concepts with opposing meanings within a word or phrase that creates an ostensible self-contradiction.

Scary political times

Spooky echo opinion by Maureen Dowd published in The New York Times: 

WASHINGTON — Halloween has always been my favorite holiday. I loved putting up twinkling bats and watching midnight monster-chiller-horror movies.

Not this year.

The world is too scary. Politics is too creepy. Horror is too real.

When I was a child, on Oct. 31, my older brother would put on a vinyl LP of Mussorgsky’s “Night on Bald Mountain” that he had carefully cleaned. The eerie music was used by Walt Disney in the segment of his animated masterpiece “Fantasia” about the surreal celebration of evil during the night of the witches’ Sabbath.

Chernabog, the lord of evil and death, wrapped in a dark cape, stands atop a jagged peak, summoning ghosts, witches and vampires to swirl out of the mountain and pay homage. I was so relieved when, at dawn, church bells rang and drove them off.

But now the bad spirits are lurking all around us. They will not be driven off.

America seems haunted by random violence and casual cruelty every day. In New York, subway riders getting pushed onto the tracks and innocent bystanders being shot. Officials across the country facing kidnapping plots, armed visits to their homes, assaults and death threats. No place seems safe, from parks to schools to the supposedly impregnable, guarded Capitol and homes of the wealthy and well known.

In some states, women — and girls — seeking abortions are treated as criminals. In Uvalde, Texas, terrified children frantically calling the police are slaughtered by a teenage psychopath with an AR-15-style rifle as 376 police officers lingered in and around the elementary school waiting for … what?

On Friday, The New York Post broke the news that someone I know, the former Obama official and former New York City Transit president Sarah Feinberg, was sucker-punched in the face in Chelsea by someone walking by in the bike lane.

Now comes news of a maniac breaking into a house in the middle of the night, bludgeoning an 82-year-old man in the head with a hammer while demanding to know where his famous wife was. Perfect Halloween movie fare. Except, it actually happened.

One of the most macabre stories to come out of the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol and democracy, ginned up by Donald Trump, was when the mob roamed the halls, pounding the speaker’s door with bloodcurdling taunts of “Where’s Nancy?”

Speaker Pelosi was not there, thank God. She was huddling with other top officials in a secure bunker, placing call after call for help that was slow to arrive.

Luckily, she was safe, in D.C. with her security detail, when a man broke into her Pacific Heights home in San Francisco early Friday morning. He smashed the patio glass door and attacked her husband, who struggled with the attacker for control of a hammer. In a tingly echo of Jan. 6, the man shouted at Paul Pelosi, “Where is Nancy? Where is Nancy?” When police arrived, the man said he was “waiting for Nancy.”

Mr. Pelosi, a genial investor who likes to star in amateur musicals and who has been married to Nancy for 59 years, called 911, The Times reported, bringing police to his home and potentially saving his life. He was hit several times on his hands and head with the hammer and was taken to the hospital for surgery for a skull fracture and is expected to recover.

The police said the intruder was David DePape, a 42-year-old from Berkeley, Calif. CNN reported that DePape’s relatives confirmed that a Facebook account spewing Trumpian conspiracies on topics ranging from climate change to COVID was his. In his posts, he cast doubt on the validity of the 2020 election — sharing pillow pusher and Trump lickspittle Mike Lindell’s absurd videos. And he defended the Trump rioters who stormed the Capitol.

With his usual level of class, Donald Trump put out a message of sympathy to the family of Jerry Lee Lewis, “the Killer” of rock ’n’ roll, who died Friday at age 87, but said nothing all day about the Pelosi family.

On Twitter, Adam Kinzinger urged G.O.P. candidates and elected officials to speak out against the “horrific” attack. He probably didn’t have in mind the sort of speaking out that Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin of Virginia did. Youngkin made a sick joke of the assassination attempt: “There’s no room for violence anywhere, but we’re going to send her back to be with him in California.”*

Democrats had a nice run, on climate change and gun legislation, and enjoyed some backlash to the Dark Prince of the Supreme Court, Samuel Alito. Now Republicans seem set to win back the House, and maybe the Senate, with a range of incompetent and hypocritical candidates.

“I cannot believe anybody would vote for these people,” Pelosi told The Times’s Carl Hulse on a fund-raising swing.

But a feral mood has taken hold. If you think Washington is monstrous now, just wait.

*Maine Writer post script:  Jealous politicians like Youngkin are full of shit! 

Antisemitism increasing under Trumpziism lies

Chilling opinion echo by Dana Milbank published in The Washington Post: 

On the holiest night of the Jewish year earlier this month, my rabbi looked up from his Kol Nidre* sermon — a homily about protecting America’s liberal democracy — and posed a question that wasn’t in his prepared text: “How many people in the last few years have been at a dining room conversation where the conversation has turned to where might we move? How many of us?”

He was talking about the unthinkable: that Jews might need to flee the United States. In the congregation, many hands — most? — went up.

The fear of exile has become common as Jews see the unraveling rule of law, ascendant Christian nationalists and anti-Israel sentiments turning antisemitic on the far left. 

Wondering where Jews might move “is among the most frequently asked questions that I get,” Jonathan Greenblatt, head of the Anti-Defamation League, told me.

The sermon included a quotation from the Jewish scholar Michael Holzman: “For American Jews, the disappearance of liberal democracy would be a disaster. … We have flourished under the shelter of the principles behind the First Amendment, and we have been protected by the absolute belief in the rule of law. Without these, Jews, start packing suitcases.”

Incidents of antisemitic harassment, vandalism and assault nearly tripled between 2015, and 2021, the ADL reports, and it says 2022, attacks are on pace with last year’s record level. This week was the fourth anniversary of the Pittsburgh synagogue massacre, which was followed by other synagogue attacks in 2019 and earlier this year. One in 4 U.S. Jews has experienced antisemitism in the past year.

Oven ready! Challah breads. Homemade challah, both before and after the Yom Kippur fast. (Thanks to my friend Robin.)

Now we have Kanye West, who is unleashing a torrent of filth on social media (“death con 3 On JEWISH PEOPLE”), white supremacists applauding him (and giving Nazi salutes to Los Angeles motorists), Elon Musk’s Twitter preparing to welcome white supremacists, and the Pennsylvania Republican gubernatorial nominee deploying antisemitism against his Jewish opponent.

The leader of the Republican Party, who remains the top presidential contender for 2024, reacted to Ye’s attacks on Jews by saying, “He was really nice to me.” Donald Trump compared Jews unfavorably to “our wonderful Evangelicals” and warned Jews to “get their act together and appreciate what they have in Israel — Before it is too late.”

The threat was the latest of many Trump claims that Jews have a dual loyalty and are not fully American. As usual, Republicans were mostly silent.

Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania was assaulted by a terrorist on October 27, 2018.

For Jews, just 2 percent of the population but the targets of 55 percent of reported religiously motivated hate crimes, the trend revives centuries-old fears.

This is not to compare Jewish victimhood to other groups that have had it much worse in this country; most Jews are White and benefit from associated privilege. But until the American experiment, Jews in the diaspora were marginalized, ghettoized, persecuted and eventually converted, exiled or killed. “As Jews, we know at some point the music stops,” Greenblatt said. “This is burned into the collective consciousness of every Jewish person.”

The United States has, until now, been different because of our constitutional protections for minority rights: our bedrock principles of equal treatment under law, free expression and free exercise of religion. Now, the MAGA crowd is attacking the very notion of minority rights. Ascendant Christian nationalists, with a sympathetic Supreme Court, are dismantling the separation between church and state. Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), for example, calls the principle “junk that’s not in the Constitution” and claims “the church is supposed to direct the government.” Red states, again with an agreeable Supreme Court, are rolling back minority voting rights and decades of civil rights protections. And leading it all is Trump, threatening violence and going to “war with the rule of law,” as Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) puts it.

Without these protections, there is no safety in the United States for Jews — or, really, for any of us. In a perverse sense, Trump’s MAGA movement shares the fear of becoming a persecuted minority. The whole notion of the bogus “great replacement” conspiracy belief is that some nefarious elite is scheming to import immigrants of color to marginalize White people.

In reality, it will be almost a quarter-century before White people are no longer a majority in this country — and they should remain a plurality well into the next century, at least. But if white nationalists truly fear becoming an oppressed minority, the best way to guard against that is to fortify minority rights. The rule of law protects us — all of us — from tyranny.

I admit I’ve thought about where my family might go if the worst happened here. But we’re not going anywhere. The only choice is to stay and fight for our liberal democracy. As my rabbi, Danny Zemel, put it on Kol Nidre: “If there is a Jewish message for our time, it is to support our great experiment with every fiber of our being.”

If it isn’t safe here in America, then it won’t be safe anywhere.

*A prayer sung in Jewish synagogues at the beginning of the service on the eve of Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement).

Vote for Democrats to oppose dangerous right wing GOP cult

#RepublicansPersonalityCult

Opinion letter:  As a teacher in Scarsdale Schools for 25 years, I have been a resident of this area in New York, for much of my life.
Echo opinion letters published in River Journal North, a New York newspaper.

Dear Editor:  In fact, most of my extended family lives in Ossining and Croton, in New York.

Moreover, I am active in Green Ossining, on the board of the Ossining Youth Bureau and I am a District Leader.

As I was shopping around town this weekend (as we Democrats do, to support local business) I saw a sign telling people not to vote Democrat, because we are all about war, taxes and lies.

OMG! 

If you are in that closed-minded cult camp, then you may be dismissed. Otherwise, please read on to learn why you absolutely should vote for Democrats on November 8th.

The first reason you should vote for Democrats is that we are going to win. But that’s not actually the most important reason. We need representatives that are going to advocate for all the things we care about. If you live locally, vote for our Ossining Village representatives, Mayor Rika Levin and trustees Dana White and Manuel Quezada. They are doing a phenomenal job leading us into the future. Unlike some other suburban and rural NY communities we are lucky to have a very diverse population. Our representatives work tirelessly to listen, understand and advocate for equity, celebrate diversity and support tradition. They are smart and fiscally responsible as well as responsive to the ideas and priorities of their constituents. They deserve your support at the ballot box and beyond.

At the state level we are incredibly lucky to have Dana Levenburg on the ballot, to represent us in Albany as Assemblywoman. I have never met anyone in government with more integrity and passion for the work of the people. She does not miss an opportunity to create solutions that make our lives better. Since she’s our neighbor, she will be sure to keep us in mind as she works for a sustainable and equitable future for all.

In case you need more reasons to vote for Democrats across the ballot I offer this: Democrats will fight for our right to make decisions about our own bodies, keeping personal medical information private and safe from Republican prosecutors across state lines who have traded in their compassion for power. They will advocate for children and schools rather than tax cuts for their rich donors. They will work to make a sustainable future for us all, rather than ranting about made-up cabals coming to lock up your family.

Seriously, vote for Democrats on November 8th, 2022. If you’re an Independent Voter or Republican, among those that’s still reading this, and you’re thinking about sitting out this election, please consider what rights you have left to lose. 

A vote for Democrats is a vote for Democracy. #VoteBlue

Katie Marshall in Ossining, NY

Vote Democrat for so many reasons

Echo opinion letter published in the South Bend Tribune, in Indiana:

Midterm 2022, elections #VoteBlue

In early November we have the first midterm elections following the previous president’s term. Those four years were the most divisive and damaging led by a person who showed incompetence during COVID, costing hundreds of thousand lives, diminished respect by our allies and providing untruths on a daily basis. The news over the past year reflects tRumpziism behavior. His party members wrongly continued to support him and twice denied impeachment. 

Thankfully, this has been followed by a leader who placed global warming as a major priority, reunited NATO, renewed respect for the USA and is updating our infrastructure; most of this with only 50 Senate votes.

This election is a choice of continuing progressive changes; lower medical and drug costs, low unemployment, fewer children in poverty and better health care choices for women. 

Regressive candidates, including (Indiana GOP) Rudy Yakym, have a party platform to vote no for progressive bills. Because of their no votes, we continue to be able to purchase weapons of war, not a second amendment protection, and have strong restrictions on pregnant women’s health both of which will lead to more people dying. This is not a “right to life” party. Think of our country, not political affiliation, when voting in November. #VoteBlue

Tom Nowak in  South Bend Indiana

Midterm 2022 elections #VoteBlue

Right wing Republicans are election deniers: Vote Blue!

Election denier right wing Republicans are being sold a "pig in a poke". 

"Something that is bought or accepted without knowing its value or seeing it first. i.e., 'the unwary were apt to buy a pig in the poke'."

To the editor: If you’re one of the millions of Americans who believes the 2020 presidential election was stolen, I’ve got bad news for you — former guy Trump has played you for a fool.

As Jackie Calmes notes in her excellent column, the House January 6th committee has provided an overview of the many ways in which Trump tried to cheat his way into remaining in power after losing the election. After repeatedly failing to win election challenges in courts, Trump motivated his followers to storm the U.S. Capitol by telling them the election was stolen even though he had no credible evidence of fraud.

There is a failure here, and it’s not the committee’s. It’s the failure of many Americans to grasp the seriousness of Trump’s malfeasance — malfeasance that is damaging our democracy by eroding the trust that Americans have had in one another.

And, it’s this trust that has provided America with peaceful transfers of power for the 220 years prior to 2021.

From David Michels, Encino, California

Trump supporters as fools

To the editor: There will not be closure on insurrection until Trump is arrested, convicted and incarcerated for committing seditious conspiracy. What he has done is indefensible. Rioter Ashli Babbitt and the police officers who died during the attack or in the aftermath would be alive today but for Trump’s behavior.

The House January 6th committee has done a remarkable job proving its case, but the Republican Party needs to acknowledge the error of its ways and support the Department of Justice as it investigates and possibly prosecutes Trump.

For now, it is up to the American people to vote Republicans out of office so a Trump-style insurrection never happens again.

From Craig Simmons, Northridge, Los Angeles, California

#VoteBlue  #VoteDemocrat

Any other American would already be serving prison time for taking government documents!

What do you suppose he intended to do with all that stuff?

This political cartoon is probably describing a degusting truth.  How much evidence was flushed? 

Echo opinion by Joan Quigley published in The New Jersey Journal, NJ.com.

The Justice Department found cartons and cartons of documents concealed at Mar-A-Lago and suspects there are still more hidden somewhere. All the boxes seem to contain a mish-mash of papers, some labeled “Top Secret,” others marked “Confidential,” and some that seem unrelated to all the other stuff.

As you know, the formal statements and social media messages from Mar-A-Lago range from excuses why Trump can exercise executive privilege to retain the papers to “it’s nobody’s business what he keeps in the basement.”

FBI Raid On Trump’s Mar-A-Lago Gets Results For Late-Night Comics.

The former guy president has said he can declassify documents at will, without any paperwork, and late-night pundits have joked incessantly about his ability to declassify things by just thinking about them and wondering what else he can do with his mind alone.

There’s been, at Trump’s request, a special master appointed by a court to review documents and decide whether or not the Justice Department can even look at them. The judge who ruled in Trump’s favor has also become the target of not only late-night jokesters but also serious legal scholars concerned about her impartiality.

Many leaks to many media have fueled speculation about what might be in those papers. Nuclear secrets, information that could get a foreign government in deep trouble, correspondence with the leader of North Korea, and background materials on recently enacted laws, it’s been reported.

While journalists are clamoring for news about the contents of the documents, lawyers are wrangling over who can see them, and nobody seems clear on just whose property they are, one question is seldom asked.

Why did Trump want them in the first place?

It’s pretty well known the former president has little respect for paperwork. We read about his tearing up documents, flushing them down the toilet, tossing them on the floor, and scribbling over them with his Sharpie.

He left the White House in a rage and in a hurry. So why were these particular boxes sent to Florida while everything else went to government record-keepers for history?

Since nobody else seemed to be asking that question, I decided to ask some people I know. It was sort of a random sample since these folks came from all walks of life, but it wasn’t entirely random in that not a one of them was a fan of the former leader of the free world.

National Archives confirms classified material was in boxes at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence- The Washington Post.

The most frequent answer I received was that he took them “just because he could,” meaning no one had any real idea what his reasons may have been.

A few others were more cynical, saying he hoped to make money from them. Then the speculation ran really wild. Some said he could make a fortune – or his kids could after they acquired his estate someday – by selling the Kim Jong-un letters to some well-heeled collector. Others said he could blackmail the foreign government for either cash or favors in the future.

And a few said he’d open his own museum and charge admission, maybe even at his golf course in New Jersey, where people could visit Ivana’s gravesite for an additional fee.

Maybe someday when it becomes clear exactly what papers he had – or still has – we might learn why he wanted them, but for now it’s a mystery.

It’s also a mystery why government officials and I are fascinated by his concealment of boxes of documents instead of focusing on all he did to foment insurrection. Our attention ought to be what to do about the Jan. 6 insurrection and how to prevent greater damage to the midterm elections.

A former assemblywoman from Jersey City, Joan Quigley is the president and CEO of North Hudson Community Action Corp.

P.S. Maine Writer:  My husband is retired military.  Anyone who was found guilty of taking government documents would already be in prison. Full Stop! The former guy is clearly acting like he has impunity from the law.  No One Is Above The Law!  

Christian Nationalists ignore truth and the Scriptural quote by Jesus

Maine Writer:  In my opinion, the columnist Cal Thomas does not give enough emphasis to the scriptural message of "truth".

“Christian nationalism” has again appeared in our political life, establishing residence in the Republican Party. 

An echo opinion column by Cal Thomas: 

Unfortunately, Christian nationalism is nothing new, though, having taken many forms in the past, including Moral Rearmament, Prohibition, Christian Reconstructionism, Moral Majority, and the Christian Coalition.

In each incarnation, people have been told that something approaching Heaven on Earth can be accomplished through the political system and through a government led by folks who believe as they do. Each time the push has failed to achieve its stated goals.

Leaving aside for a moment the flaw in Christian nationalist theology, let’s apply some pragmatism to these movements, including the latest called “ReAwaken America,” led by former Donald Trump National Security Adviser (for 22 days), Gen. Michael Flynn (retired - traitor).

As the respected Pew Research Center has noted, “The decline of Christianity continues at a rapid pace.” That is reflected in the profile of people who are attending retired-traitor Michael Flynn’s rallies. They appear to be mostly older and white, hardly the image of an America that will follow their generation. Several polls have shown that when asked their religious affiliation, millennials make up the highest percentage (32 percent) of “nones.”

According to Pew, “sixty-five percent of Americans” self-identify as Christians, but it is a diverse group. Among them are Mainline Protestants, who generally vote for Democrats. 

Among Evangelicals, there are also divisions, with some voting for Democrats and others favoring Republicans. 

Roman Catholics, too, are divided, especially on social issues such as abortion. They also pledge allegiance to competing political parties or identify as Independents.

The question then becomes: how does this minority within a minority within an even smaller minority expect to win elections in sufficient numbers to pass legislation that will reverse what they see as a moral and cultural decline? If it could be done, would it not have been done by the previously mentioned movements which enjoyed a larger percentage of like-minded people?

Oklahoma entrepreneur Clay Clark heads the ReAwaken America (ugh!)  organization. An Associated Press story about a recent rally in Batavia, New York, quotes him: “I want you to look around and you’ll see a group of people that love this country dearly. At this ReAwaken America Tour, Jesus is King* (❓)... (and) Donald J. Trump is our president.”  (NOT❗)

That comment sums up the attempted fusion of faith with politics.

This ideology, this misplaced faith that a fallen humanity can – or should – impose a worldview through government that a majority do not share goes back to at least the time of Jesus. In the Book of Acts, the Disciples asked Jesus, “Lord, has the time come for you to free Israel and restore our kingdom?” (Acts 1:6 NLT). They were looking for an earthly kingdom with themselves in charge. They wanted to throw off the Roman occupation and “take over.” Make Israel great again!

Later, Jesus would respond to Pontius Pilate who asked Him if He was a king: “My Kingdom is not an earthly kingdom. If it were, my followers would fight to keep me from being handed over to the Jewish leaders. But my Kingdom is not of this world.” (John 18:36 NLT). That statement is a powerful rebuke to those who seek a kingdom that would be as flawed as they are if it ever came to fruition.

I have always appreciated this observation from C.S. Lewis, which speaks to the current and past movements of “Christian soldiers” wishing to transform America into their image: “Aim at Heaven and you will get Earth ‘thrown in’; aim at Earth and you will get neither.”

Perhaps these well-intentioned but misguided Christian nationalists should obey the commands of the One they claim to follow (and I don’t mean Donald Trump). When that was the priority for Christians in the past, culture changed. 

A re-awakened America won’t come through politics and government, no matter how strongly Christian nationalists wish for it.

* What is truth?: John 18:38. 

"Art thou a king then? Jesus answered, "Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice."

P.S. Maine Writer:  If Christian Nationalists claim to be "Christians", then, they must "Re-awaken" the definition of "truth"! 

Choice: Abortion and the impact on women's health

Two echo opinion letters published in The New York Times:

Diana Greene Foster
Oakland, Calif.
The writer is a professor of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive sciences at the University of California, San Francisco.

Contraception use prevents unwanted pregnancies!

People who carried unwanted pregnancies to term suffered worse physical health for years to come; in fact, two died from childbirth. Women denied abortions were more likely to live in poverty, along with their children, and to have a hard time covering even basic expenses like food and housing, compared with those able to get their abortions. Not being able to access abortion services curtailed people’s other life goals such as getting a higher education, finding a high-quality romantic relationship and even having intended children later under better circumstances.

Mr. Douthat diminishes the substantial harm done to women’s lives and to the well-being of their existing and future children on the basis of the finding that women are emotionally resilient. The callous argument seems to be that it is OK for the government to force someone to sacrifice their body, their family’s security and their life goals so long as it doesn’t also break their spirit.

And this....

Essentially, the only abortion debate we should be having is whether or not women get to have autonomy over their own bodies, or whether they must be forced to concede control to complete strangers and/or the government.

Nobody I know is pro-abortion. The vital question is about choice.

Nobody should get to choose what a woman does with her body, other than that woman — ideally (but not necessarily) with the support and input from her doctors and intimate people in her life. The idea that a woman should be told what she can and cannot do — by strangers and/or the government — is misogynistic and demeaning.  From Nancy S. Cohen, New York

P.S. Maine Writer:  "The best available evidence suggests that improvements in contraceptive use are responsible for a decline in abortion rates," Rachel K. Jones, PhD, principal research scientist at Guttmacher Institute, tells BuzzFeed Health.

Senator Josh Hawley obviously never read the U.S. Constitution

Echo opinion letter published in the Columbia Missourian news.

Recently (#RunRunHawley!) Missouri's Senator Josh Hawley injected himself, as a government employee, at the National Conservatism Conference that “without the Bible, there is no America.”

Watch Josh Hawley Run From January 6 Rioters He Cheered On (The Intelligencer)

This far-right and militant Christian nationalism is off base on who America is. It ignores the contributions of all world religions from Asia, the Middle East, Africa, Central and South America, and right here at home with the Indigenous Native Americans.

Each contributed to the American experience. No one is greater than or less than the other.

That is why our Founding Fathers wrote these words to protect all from tyrants who would say otherwise.

Thomas Paine said, “Whenever we read the obscene stories, the voluptuous debaucheries, the cruel and torturous executions, the unrelenting vindictiveness with which more than half the Bible is filled, it would be more consistent that we called it the word of a demon than the word of God. It has served to corrupt and brutalize mankind.”

James Madison wrote: “Religion and government both exist in greater purity the less they are mixed together.”

“The purpose of separation of church and state is to keep forever from these shores the ceaseless strife that has soaked the soil of Europe with blood for centuries,” wrote John Adams.

The United States is not a Christian nation any more than it is a Jewish or a Muslim nation.

Hawley does not understand our religious founding.

Written by Paul Smith. a resident of Columbia Missouri and voter who is concerned about extremism.

P.S. Maine Writer:  #RunRunHawley runs from truth! #VoteBlue

Senator Rand Paul is a low class moronic politician and a jealous doctor

Jealous Ran Paul’s attacks on Dr. Fauci are just a political jealous diversion:

Recently someone suggested that U.S. Senator (jealous!) Rand Paul found something nefarious committed by Dr. Anthony Fauci and the public should know. (OMG!)

So, to investigate, jealous Paul’s statements about Dr. Fauci were investigated. Here are some conclusions: 

1. Jealous Paul suffers from “doctor’s envy” towards Dr. Fauci, a condition among physicians described as “the egotistical ill-feeling caused by another’s achievement or superior quality or welfare.” 

Why? HELLO! 

• Dr. Fauci graduated first in his class from an Ivy League medical school. Jealous Paul did not. 
• Dr. Fauci is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences, an elite society whose membership is composed of less than 1% of all USA scientists. Paul is not a member. 
• Dr. Fauci enjoys international recognition for his scientific/administrative accomplishments at the National Institutes of Health. Paul holds no such international standing.

Dr. Anthony Fauci is a national treasure.

Moreover, jealous Paul is a mediocre legislator, and he knows it. After reviewing his two-term legislative record as a senator, there is nothing particularly outstanding to promote his political resume, other than a long series of “no” votes. To paper over his fundamental legislative shortcomings, Paul is using jealous personal attacks against Dr. Anthony Fauci, and candidate Charles Booker, as his political diversion.

Perhaps jealous Paul also suffers from short term memory impairment.  He actually signed a terms limit pledge in 2019, that states he will co-sponsor and work for a term limits amendment to the U.S. Constitution, consisting of three House terms and two Senate terms. This poses a “come to Jesus moment” for him. 

Should jealous Paul follow his sworn statement? Jealous Paul’s time will soon be up. Go figure.  From Ed Cupp in Owensboro, Kentucky.

P.S. Dr. Fauci called

Physician warns about the Roe v Wade dangerous impact on women

Echo opinion letter published the Los Angeles Times (scroll down).

"We are entering an era not just of unsafe abortions but of the widespread criminalization of pregnancy", Jia Tolentino in The New Yorker.

To the editor: In 1960, I was a 24-year-old intern at L.A. County hospital in Boyle Heights. I chose this hospital because interns there got to do many essential medical procedures.

One of my first rotations was on the infected abortion ward. Most of my patients had very high fevers; some battled potentially fatal septic shock. Many were screaming in pain and anguish. Most were women of color.

These women were seriously infected by their own hand with the aid of a coat hanger, knitting needle or toxic substance like drain cleaner or by an illegal abortionist. At the time, every large city had an infected abortion unit.

Studies of women who carry unwanted pregnancies to term show a high incidence of maternal depression, poor or no prenatal care, greater use of alcohol and illicit drugs, and less likelihood of breast feeding. Children born to these mothers have more psychiatric problems throughout their lives.

When Roe vs. Wade is repealed and abortions are banned in many states, there will again be hospital beds with dying women, and many more disturbed women and children in America. Codify into law the freedom provided by Roe vs. Wade. It is urgent for the Supreme Court's wrong minded decision to be permanently reversed so reproductive freedom is protected.

Edward Kaufman, Laguna Beach, California

January 6 committee reveals truth about the insurrection failed coup

Echo editorial opinion published in The New York Times by Jesse Wegman, a member of the newspaper's editorial board.

Trump's coup committee!

Donald Trump Has Told Americans Exactly Who He Is

Evidently, the biggest news to come out of the ninth and (for now) final hearing of the January 6 committee, on Thursday (October 13th) afternoon, was obvious: A subpoena requiring a former president to testify about his role in a deadly insurrection that he incited in order to prevent the transfer of power to his lawful successor is, to put it mildly, not something you see every day.

It was the right thing to do, although even in the drama of the moment (Mr. Schiff? Aye. Ms. Cheney? Aye.) it felt somewhat obligatory. After more than a year of dogged investigation involving hundreds of witnesses; thousands of texts, emails and other documents; countless sickening videos and photographs; and breathtaking testimony about the events leading up to that horrific day — all pointing directly at Donald Trump — how else could the committee have wrapped things up?

“We want to hear from him,” Representative Bennie Thompson, the committee chair, said in justifying the extraordinary motion, which he and the other members proceeded to authorize by a 9-to-0 vote.

Whether we actually hear from Mr. Trump is another matter. Immediately after the hearing, he mocked the committee on his social media site, asking why it had not called him to testify months ago. Anyone who hasn’t been in a coma for the past seven years could tell you this is classic Trumpian misdirection. The man doesn’t take any oath he isn’t prepared to violate, and he goes to lengths to avoid appearing anywhere that he can be criminally charged for lying.

Trumpziism is about anger and revenge!

On the other hand, (narcissist!) Trump craves the spotlight. If the committee were to agree to his reported demand that his testimony be aired on live TV, he might actually go through with it. After all, it would be free prepublicity for his likely presidential run — even if he did nothing but invoke his Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate himself, as he did more than 400 times during a deposition last summer, part of a New York State investigation into whether he fraudulently inflated his real estate assets. (The state’s attorney general, Letitia James, determined that he had, suing Mr. Trump, his family business and three of his adult children for lying to lenders and insurers to the tune of billions of dollars.)

However the subpoena negotiations play out, it’s important to remember one thing: We already have heard from him. Again and again and again and again, Mr. Trump has told the American people who he is, what he wants and exactly how he plans to get it — the law, the Constitution and the Republic be damned.

Sometimes he says it directly; sometimes it comes through the remarks of his closest allies or administration officials. Consider just a sampling of quotations that the January 6 committee summarized in Thursday’s hearing:

Trumposity! ‘We want all voting to stop.’

So, this is what Trump said on national television, in the early morning hours of November 4, after initial vote counts that showed him in the lead began to move toward Joe Biden as more votes rolled in. The phenomenon was so predictable that it already had a name: the blue shift.

Vote Democrat!  Vote Blue!

In fact, Trump was warned repeatedly that this was very likely to happen, in part because of his own actions. Throughout the summer of 2020, he discouraged his supporters from voting by mail, meaning that mail-in ballots, which some states don’t start counting until polls close, would skew toward Democrats. Rather than accept what he must have known to be true, Trump effectively called for the disenfranchisement of tens of millions of Americans. But it was worse than that.

‘What Trump’s going to do is just declare victory, right? He’s going to declare victory. But that doesn’t mean he’s the winner. He’s just going to say he’s a winner.’

That was Steve Bannon, the Trump’s 2016, campaign manager and a former top White House adviser, speaking with a group of associates shortly before Election Day 2020. He was laying out in plain view the plan he knew was in the works. And it had been in the works for months. As the committee revealed, Brad Parscale, who managed Trump’s 2020, bid testified that the former president “planned as early as July that he would say he won the election even if he lost".

‘There was never an indication of interest in what the actual facts were.’

Bill Barr, Mr. Trump’s attorney general, said this in his testimony to the committee, describing his frustration with trying to bat away the unsubstantiated claims of voting fraud that Mr. Trump kept bringing to him — claims that were rejected by every federal and state court to consider them in the months after Election Day. When Mr. Barr resigned in December 2020, Mr. Trump attempted to replace him with Jeffrey Clark, an environmental lawyer in the Justice Department who had expressed a willingness to help Mr. Trump subvert the election. The plan failed only when top department officials threatened to resign if Mr. Clark got the job.

‘He knows it’s over. He knows he lost, but we’re going to keep trying.’

According to testimony by Cassidy Hutchinson, a former aide to Mark Meadows, Mr. Trump’s last chief of staff, Mr. Meadows said this to her soon after Mr. Trump called Georgia’s secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, and tried in vain to shake him down for 11,780 votes, exactly one more than Mr. Biden’s margin of victory in the state. That was on January 2, four days before Trump stood before tens of thousands of his supporters at the Ellipse in Washington, D.C., and repeated many of the claims of voting fraud that he had been repeatedly told were false. He knew that many of those supporters were armed, because they had refused to pass through the magnetometers that had been set up for Mr. Trump’s safety. But he didn’t care. As he said, according to Ms. Hutchinson, “They’re not here to hurt me".

As the committee revealed on Thursday, the Secret Service was aware of the threat of violence and specifically of an armed attack on the Capitol more than a week before January 6. “Their plan is to literally kill people,” one tipster wrote. Mr. Trump was informed of the threats, too, before he whipped the mob into a frenzy and urged them to march on the Capitol.

These are only a few examples pulled from the immense body of evidence that the Jan. 6 committee has compiled for the American people and the world to see. Together they paint a clear and damning picture of the man who sat in the Oval Office for four years and will almost certainly try to again. Before that happens, Trump must be “required to answer for his actions,” as Mr. Thompson rightly said. It sounds so basic and yet, with Trump, it has remained so elusive.

That may be on the verge of changing. In addition to a criminal prosecution for the January 6 insurrection, Trump could well be charged with federal offenses over the removal from the White House of hundreds of documents, some highly classified. He also faces a potential prosecution in Georgia for his efforts to subvert the election there.

These prosecutions would not by themselves solve all our problems. They would not neutralize the danger of the Republican Party, which is now infected from coast to coast with proudly ignorant conspiracymongers, wild-eyed election deniers and gun-toting maniacs. Led by Trump, the party has morphed into the greatest threat to the Republic since the Confederacy: a revanchist cult that refuses to accept electoral defeat. The Times reported on Thursday that a vast majority of the Republican candidates for top federal and state offices around the country either question or deny the 2020, presidential outcome, despite the lack of any supporting evidence.

Still, prosecutions would send a critical message to those who have put their careers and even lives on the line for American democracy or are considering doing so in the future: that their sacrifices are worth it. That when they come forward and speak the truth, the system responds with accountability. That when other people, especially the most powerful people, don’t play by the rules, they face consequences.

As Representative Liz Cheney, the committee’s vice chair, put it on Thursday, “Our institutions only hold when men and women of good faith make them hold, regardless of the political cost. We have no guarantee that these men and women will be in place next time.” She’s right, but we can make it more likely that they will be in place by holding Mr. Trump and his co-conspirators to account. If we don’t, the message we are sending is that in America, elections can be subverted and political violence is acceptable.

The January 6 committee’s great legacy is helping to thwart that future by laying a path to true accountability. It is up to us — and to the Department of Justice — to walk it.

Maine Writer P.S. In my opinion, editorials overlook history and the rise of Naziism.  "On July 18, 1925, Volume One of Adolf Hitler’s philosophical autobiography, Mein Kampf, is published. It was a blueprint of his agenda for a Third Reich and a clear exposition of the nightmare that will envelope Europe from 1939, to 1945. The book sold a total of 9,473 copies in its first year.

Hitler began composing his tome while sitting in Landsberg prison, convicted of treason for his role in the infamous Beer Hall Putsch in which he and his minions attempted to stage a coup and grasp control of the government in Bavaria. It ended in disaster, with some allies deserting and others falling into the hands of the authorities. Hitler was sentenced to five years’ imprisonment (he would serve only nine months). His time in the old fortress at Landsberg was hardly brutal; he was allowed guests and gifts, and was treated as something of a cult hero."

In other words, "Those who ignore history are condemned to repeat it".