FWIW, I’ve always agreed with Burger on this point. It’s hard not to.
I know you’ll find gun-nuts who claim that words like “militia” and “well-regulated” have different meanings today than they did in the late 18th Century, but do you know who’s not buying that? Warren Earl Burger, American attorney and jurist who served as the 15th chief justice of the United States from 1969 to 1986.
When my son was in grade school, I used to take him on three-day skiing trips during Christmas break. Two other fathers brought their kids as well, and we always had a terrific time.
Years later, one of the other fathers died, and his widow hosted a memorial service at their house that my son and I attended. As it happened, the “service” was a standard party with alcohol and music, and no one even mentioned the name of the deceased, let alone eulogized him.
On the drive home, I told my son, “When I die, I would appreciate a memorial service. But if you fail to mention my name, I’m going to rise from the grave, reassemble my body, and give you a good swift kick in the ass.”
We laughed, and my son admitted that he could scarcely believe that had happened.
There is a parallel news story here, where, several days after Navalny died at Putin’s hands, Trump finally spoke of Navalny, but without even mentioning Putin, and comparing the death to his own legal woes.
Here’s a note from General Wesley Clark. From his Wikipedia page:
Wesley Kanne Clark (born Wesley J. Kanne, December 23, 1944) is a retired United States Army officer. He graduated as valedictorian of the class of 1966 at West Point and was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship to the University of Oxford, where he obtained a degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics. He later graduated from the Command and General Staff College with a master’s degree in military science. He spent 34 years in the U.S. Army, receiving many military decorations, several honorary knighthoods, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Clark served as the Supreme Allied Commander Europe of NATO from 1997 to 2000, commanding Operation Allied Force during the Kosovo War.
It’s interesting, though not at all coincidental, that our nation’s most decorated leaders, seemingly to a person, have extremely low opinions of Donald Trump, and are doing everything they can to ensure that he does not return to power.
Apparently, there are people who believe that the decorative heaters we see in our restaurants and higher-end homes burn glass (rather than propane).
The idea that Trump’s return to the White House would usher in regressive policies is true, but it’s hardly the worst element of damage that the former president represents to the United States.
Perhaps this message should come from someone other than Biden, but Trump tried (and continues to try) to overthrow the U.S. federal government, and install himself a permanent autocrat, e.g., Putin in Russia.
Most of us are far more concerned about this than we are the cost of prescription drugs.
This woman makes an excellent point.
I believe the reason some people pride themselves on their lack of interest in politics is that don’t want any association whatsoever–even in their own minds–with some of the country’s scummiest people: Donald Trump, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Greg Abbott, Ron DeSantis, Lauren Boebert, etc. Where that’s easy to understand, they need to realize that if they don’t like these politicians’ character and become actively involved in cleaning up the nation, things can get even worse.
In particular, the next wanna-be dictator is extremely unlikely to be as clumsy as Trump. He’s not going to take thousands of secret documents to his house and brandish them to guests, he’s not going to have 18 co-defendants with incriminating email chains describing how they were going to seize power after getting shellacked in a lawful and fair election (some of whom flip when confronted by prosecutors), and he’s not going to be facing a slew of other felony charges stemming from four different indictments.
This is what forms part of the imperative to convict and incarcerate Trump right now; it will deter the next criminal sociopath who aspires to be King of the United States.
The George Santos story offers a bit of comic relief against the backdrop of Trump, Putin, and the rest of the criminality in the world today.
Most Americans simply wish their country could return to where is was only one short decade ago. At that point, it would have been unthinkable for a U.S. representative with no training in science to address the director of the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research within the Food and Drug Administration on the House floor and tell him that what he was presenting was “bullshit.”
Before the arrival of Trump on the political scene, this just wouldn’t have happened.
Don Lawrence writes: These 15 Republican “Governors” turned down federal money to feed low-income children in their states when out of school during the summer (8 million children).
Readers outside the U.S. may not recognize these states (at left) as the most conservative of our total of 50. Unfortunately, the decision to reject federal money (because of these governors’ abhorrence of government spending to help the common American), comes at a huge cost to 8 million hungry kids.
It’s unvarnished cruelty, but what did you expect?
Obviously they owe the American people an apology.
What they also owe, I hope, is a big fat compensatory and punitive damages award when Hunter Biden takes these liars to court and a jury gets to listen to this persistent, multi-year pattern of defamation.
