HOW CAN SO MANY PEOPLE BE SO STUPID

This country held an election on Novmber 3, 2020. While a record number of voters participated, approximately 1/3 of voting age eligible people did not vote. Over 80 million voters selected Joe Biden. While Donald Trump had more votes than he garnered in his 2016 election, he still lost by over 7 million popular votes and had 74 Electrol College votes less than Biden. Still the President and his supporters claimed fraud and rejected the election results. A Bill Barr led Justice Department sought but could not find any material voting irregularities. Audits in key states including those run by Republican Governors sought but could not find any materrial irregularities. The Trump campaign filed over fifty lawsuits asserting a variety of voting irregularites. All Courts including many with Trump appointed judges, rejected such claims for a lack of evidence. While some Trump supporting media such as Fox News and Newsmax had loudly claimed without evidence

that voting machine and other fraud had occurred, such enterprises immediately retracted such assertions and acknowledged that there was no such evidence when threatened with lawsuits for defamation by voting machine manufactures. In spite of a total lack of evidence that any significant voting irregularities had occurred in the 2020 election, polls suggest that 80% of the voters for Donald Trump still believe that he won the election and that the Presidency is being stolen from him. This unfettered belief appears to be premised on the continued tweets of the President that he could not have lost because he had more votes than he had gotten in 2016. Unfortunately, he seems incapable of accepting that a lot more people took the time to vote this year than in past years. He does not accept that a substantial majority of those voters wanted to tell him that "Your Fired" using his favorite line from his old television program. Hundreds of years ago, civilized people believed in witches and burned people at the stake in such belief. Today with so many sources of credible information it remains inexplicable that so many Americans, almost 40% of voters, continue to believe in such unsubstantiated falsehoods asserted by the President. It makes me wonder, whether the victims of the Salem witch trials would fare any better today.

DEFUNDING THE POLICE: A CLASSIC 2020 POLITICAL RED HERRING

The term “Defund the Police” has become a rallying cry of extremes on both the right and the left in this difficult political season.  Some on the far left believe in anarchy and cry out that there should be no police. Anarchists have been around for centuries and will never gain any meaningful support. The far right immediately asserts that any one that questions police behavior is an anarchist that seek to remove all police force so that crime will quickly run rampant especially in cities with Democrat governance The reality, however, is that no will ever choose to eliminate all police service.  No community could exist without reasonable policing.  There has been no occasion where a police force has been disbanded and a community left without any form of policing. 

The loud cries that communities will be left to the mercy of murders, looters, and thieves is simply a red herring attempt to distract from legitimate political debate over the much more complex and difficult issues relating to police practices in our communities. We can and we must discuss tough questions such as: 

•  Are police asked too often to act as social workers?   
• Are officers adequately trained to deal with mental problems of citizens they must confront?  
• Do police unions have too much power?
• Should blanket immunity apply to virtually all police actions?
• Does the duty of loyalty to fellow officers too often cause silence from the vast majority of wonderful police that in the absence of silence would likely result in the removal or reduction of bad conduct by questionable officers?
• Why has there been historically disparate treatment of Blacks and Hispanic? 
• Why do incidents like the deaths of George Floyd or Breanna Taylor keep occurring?  

Police are part of the critical team of first responders that protect all of us.  We cannot simply remove that protection.  We cannot however, be forced to have only the choice of silence in the wake of questionable police action or be considered adverse to police action. A third way and better way is to accept that police officers are not perfect, to accept that an officer should not be sanctioned on making a split second decision that might be questioned in an after the fact review but to also not accept that nothing more can be done. We can provide better police training. We can develop better methods of hiring.  We can enhance diversity.  We can remove the unwritten rule of unequivocal silence among officers.  We can do better in addressing the above questions without political litmus tests. We are a great nation but we can be better.  We cannot be distracted by red herring political pablum.

THUMBS UP FOR MASKS FOR THE SAFETY OF US ALL

 I routinely read articles of people protesting the requirement that they wear a mask to access schools, meetings, stores, restaurants or any gathering where social distancing is not possible.  The common argument appears to be that a person has a right to choose to go maskless and that government has no right to limit such choice.  I find such argument bizarre.  The medical and scientific community have demonstrated strong consensus that masks protect not only the wearer but also others around them.  You may have the right to choose to become infected.  You do not have the right to choose to infect others around you.  The refusal to wear a mask is simply a selfish claim that the person can choose to harm anyone that they meet.

The wearing of masks is not one of personal convenience.  It is an act of medical necessity in order to begin to control this massive pandemic.  Masks clearly provide mutual safety to all.  No person has the right to infect others with disease any more than that person has the right to walk into a crowd with a lighted stick of dynamite.  As a society, we routinely require drivers to pass a test to obtain a license to drive a vehicle. We prohibit driving vehicles while under the influence of alcohol. In most school districts, we require children to be vaccinated to attend school. We are not bothered when shirt and shoes are required to enter a restaurant.  All citizens have a legal duty use reasonable care to avoid harm to others.  Such failure can result in being sued for “negligence”.   These standards all part of society’s compact to live together without causing each other intentional harm.  

Many have attempted to turn masks into political statement.  Others claim some vague constitutional right of choice.  None applies when their acts cause direct harm to others. To consider masks anything other than a necessary response to scientific and medical consensus is a fool’s errand.  The refusal to wear a mask is dangerous and can only lead to tens of thousands additional unneeded deaths and permanent medical harm.  

Make November 3, 2020 Our True Independence Day

As a long time Florida business attorney, I view myself like most Americans as socially progressive but fiscally responsible.  While I have always voted, I have not felt that an upcoming election needed active participation. That is until now. I believe that the election on November 3, will determine the Soul of America for the foreseeable future.   

In evaluating a political candidate, I first look to their character.  I then look to their history and qualifications. Finally, I look to their stated positions. Based on these considerations, I am writing with deep conviction in support of Joe Biden. He is honest with deep personal integrity.  He has repeatedly demonstrated character.  He has excellent experience both as Senator and as an active Vice President. His policy views tend to be similar to mine. 

Donald Trump does not appear to ever know truth from fiction. Cartoons have explained that Trump won't wear a mask because his nose has grown too long from so many lies.  Unfortunately, this simple perception dramatically understates the propensity for Trump to lie.  His former Secretary of Defense General Mathias confirms his propensity to lie. His former Chief of Staff, General John Kelly acknowledges his propensity to lie.  His former NSA Director John Bolton has written a detailed book on his lies. His niece, a clinical psychologist has just released a book on Trumps’ “cheating as a way of life” and his pathological tendency to lie.  Twitter even begun to acknowledge that many of his tweets are not true.  Depending on one’s sources, fact checkers have confirmed thousands of misstatements and falsehoods.  Fact checkers from the Washington Post calculated that in the three years from inauguration to June 1, 2020 the total oral and twitter misstatements totaled over 19,000.  This past weekend, he asserted that Covid-19 impacted only 1% of those that got sick.  Since there are 130,000 deaths based on 2.9 million cases, 4.5%% of those infected have already died.  Death is certainly an impact. 

His personal history prior to election was not impressive. He filed business bankruptcies six times.  He had filed over 3500 lawsuits.  For many years, his attorney was Roy Cohn who had gained fame as the counsel to Joe McCarthy during McCarthy's years of attacking the patriotism of any that challenged him.    Trump appears to have learned well from Roy Cohn.

A review of his personal history confirm numerous questionable character traits.  He acknowledges that it is okay to grab a women’s vagina. He litigated extensively with the federal government over a refusal to rent to minorities. He was also a defendant in many lawsuits including federal actions for violation of fair housing laws, fraudulent practices with Trump University and improper use of funds from charitable organizations under his control.  

Trump routinely brags that his lack of experience in government is his greatest strength.  The result of such inexperience is best demonstrated over his inability to deal or even acknowledge the science behind the Covid-19 pandemic that has led to catastrophic results for this country.  With a little over 4% of the world’s population the US has had well over 25% of the world’s cases under his "leadership".  He has repeatedly dismissed the need for wearing mask. In February he asserted that the then known 15 cases would soon drop to 0.  Four months later, the US covid-19 cases total 2.9 million with 130,000 deaths.  This is a 4.5% death rate and growing. 

Over the weekend of the 4^th of July his only comment on the pandemic was to state that 99% of people that come down with it have few problems.  This certainly ignores the 4.5 % death rate and the 20% hospitalization rate and numerous reported long term health impacts on those that do recover.  These conditions can be directly tied to Trump's refusal to acknowledge the need for masks and social distancing.  His attitude has caused millions of citizens to believe that there is no crisis and certainly no need for the inconvenience of wearing a mask or maintaining social distancing.  His rallies in Tulsa, Phoenix and Mt Rushmore with supporters without masks or social distancing over the past several weeks demonstrate such dissonance by his hard core followers with undisputed medical science.  As a result, the rate of the disease will only continue to increase to the peril of large segments of our community.   

Similarly his defense of southern statutes of confederate generals and of his opposition to NASCAR’s ban of the confederate flag seem to simply confirm his personal racism and desire to play a race card in the election.  Southern generals were traitors to the United States.  The only significance of their statutes is to stand as a reminder that the South sought to destroy the Union in order to preserve the slavery of other humans. NASCAR recognized the inherent adverse symbolism of the confederate flag and banned it.  Even the State of Mississippi this year removed such reminder from its State Flag.  Only the President seems intent on preserving the symbols of southern slavery and white supremacy.

Trump has not demonstrated the ability to unite or lead this country.  Rather he appears intent on sowing division and racial anger in the hope that he can somehow garner a majority of Electoral College votes. Recognizing that the majority of Americans do not support such actions, he has already begun to lay a framework to claim fraudulent election results through mail voting. 

These observations would be more than sufficient to work to defeat Donald Trump.  A review of his policies remove any further doubt.  His policies are structured to create a society that:

• fears any people that may look or act different and thus limit immigration of any type;
• treats any kind of government protection as irresponsible socialism unless it is for corporate beneficiaries;
• considers reporters and the press as the enemy of the people and the generators of “fake news”;
• believes that science is simply someone’s opinion that can be ignored;
• believes in religious freedom only so long as it involves our Christian religion;
• accepts only what is consistent with one’s preconceptions;
• provides access to justice only if one has money and power;
• believes that education is a commodity that should be available to those who can pay the price;
• defines trouble makers by their skin tone and treats protests as riots that should be forcible squelched;
• believes that we must focus on America first to the exclusion of the rest of the world;
• believes honesty and integrity of our leaders is unnecessary and that we must assure that our party wins the fall election regardless of the consequences to our country;
• believes that it is good for America that the wealth of the top 1% increased from  $8.4 trillion in 1989 to $29.5 trillion in 2018 while the wealth of the bottom 50%  decreased from $.7 trillion to a negative $2 trillion during that same period;
• removes environmental protections developed over decades;

I oppose such a society.  Rather I support as does Joe Biden a society that unifies and builds on our diverse strengths. We must be:

• A society built on welcoming and facilitating legal immigrants and people of all backgrounds;
• A society that believes in protecting the weak, the sick and the elderly; 
• A society that believes in the importance of a free press in order to assure our own freedom; 
• A society that believes in the integrity of science and make decisions based on scientific consensus;
• A society that believes in freedom of religion for all faiths;
• A society that can distinguish fact from fiction and truth from falsehoods;
• A society that believes in the rule of law and access to justice for all; 
• A society that believes that education for all is a foundation for our future and that it needs improved funding;
• A society that recognizes existing racial disparity and work to expand efforts to end such disparity; 
• A society that believes that being a citizen of the world makes us better citizens of America; 
• A society that demands that our political leaders to demonstrate honesty and integrity;
• A society that believes that unless we work to address systemic racial and economic disparity, we may ultimately destroy the foundations of America’s middle class; and 
• A society that restores common sense environmental protections.          

Come November 3rd, 2020 vote for Common Sense and a society that makes America Proud.  Vote for Joe Biden. 

Trump Campaign Speeches Sound A Lot Like A Reincarnation of Joe McCarthy

Seventy years ago this nation first experienced the demagoguery of Senator Joe McCarthy who prided himself on indifference to rules and who would recklessly level charges of treason however unfounded at anyone he choose. This was a time of fear of Russian expansion in Europe and its own development of the atomic bomb. McCarthy artfully played on these fears of the country without opposition of members of his own party. He routinely accused government institutions of being filled with communists without any evidence. As a chair of a Senate Committee he required officials of the U.S. Army to appear before his Senate Committee to listen to diatribes against them personally. An exchange between McCarthy and the attorney for the Army, Joseph Welch as the result of McCarthy’s attack that a young attorney in Welch’s law firm was a communist subversive become legendary. Welch in response to McCarthy's attacks said. “Until this moment Senator, I think I never really gauged your cruelty or your recklessness…. Let us not assassinate this lad further. Senator you have done enough. Have you no sense of decency. Sir at long last, have you left no sense of decency? Ultimately this event began a trail by which McCarthy was ultimately censored by the U.S. Senate and his influence waned. Today the term “McCarthyism” is broadly used to mean demagogic, reckless, and unsubstantiated accusations and public attacks on the character or patriotism of political opponents. 

The speeches that I heard from Donald Trump on the 3rd and 4th of July this year could have been written by Joe McCarthy. They were demagogic, abusive, divisive and essentially untrue. As Roy Cohn, who was McCarthy’s chief counsel during the Senate hearings and would later became counsel to the Trump family who introduced Trump to Robert Murdoch, the principle owner of Fox News, there may be some legacy of thought. In any case, as the demagogic and reckless statements of McCarthy led to his downfall, the similar demagogic and reckless assertions by Trump must similarly lead to a denial of his reelection in order to save the Soul of America.

Pogo May Have Been Right: We Have Met The Enemy and He Is Us

Eight years ago, I quoted Pogo that we have met the enemy and he is us.  Little did I imagine that our political arena would devolve to a point that even George Orwell would not have been able to imagine what exists today. 

Who would have thought that we would have a President/ Former President  that:  

• Thinks nothing of telling lies on an almost daily basis;
• Asserts that the press is the enemy of the people;
• Claims that any news which points out the falsity of his statements is simply fake news;
• Asserts that Courts can't be trusted and that any ruling contrary to his view is because of a crazy or biased judge;
• Threatened North Korea with annihilation and then calls its leader Kim Jon-Un a very good fellow;
• Says that a white supremacists march chanting racists slogans has some fine people;
• Claims that Mexicans who want to immigrate are murderers and drug dealers;
• Says he wouldn't mind serving five terms;
• Actually tried to engineer a coup of our democracy and still is viewed as the ostensible voice of the Republican Party.

We as a Nation are better than this but are now in a battle for the Soul of America. 

• Are we a society built on welcoming immigrants and people of all backgrounds or are we a society that fears any people that may look or act different?
• Are we a society that believes in protecting the weak, the sick and the elderly or are we a society that treats any kind of government protection as irresponsible socialism?
• Are we a society that believes in the importance of a free press to assure our freedom or are we a society that considers reporters and the press as the enemy of the people?
• Are we a society that believes in the integrity of science or are we a society that believes that science is simply someone’s opinion that can be ignored?
• Are we a society that believes in freedom of religion for all faiths or are we a society that believes in religious freedom only so long as it involves our religion?
• Are we a society that can distinguish fact from fiction and truth from falsehoods or are we a society that accepts only what is consistent with our preconceptions?
• Are we a society that believes in the rule of law and access to justice for all or are we a society that believes justice is available only if one has money and power?
• Are we a society that believes that education for all is a foundation for our future which needs improved funding or are we a society that believes that education is a commodity that should be available to those who can pay the price?
• Are we a society that believes that being a citizen of the world makes us better citizens of America or are we a society that believes that we must focus on America first to the exclusion of the rest of the world?

As citizens of this great Nation we need to be the the best that we can be.

ELECTION SEASONS BECOMES MORE DEPRESSING EVERY YEAR

Every generation has its emotional political litmus tests. The current political hostilities between parties and candidates, however, exceed any reasonable justification. Civil discourse does not exist. More discouraging is that the electorate does not reject such behavior and seems to accept sound bites as substance. Perhaps as the result of such conditions few truly capable candidates appear to be running.

In Florida the race for the Republican nomination for governor is Rick Scott a former CEO of a health care company who is using his personal fortune to sell the message that government needs to be run like a business and it should eliminate government regulation of business. While CEO, his former company committed massive fraud on the government for which the company was fined almost 2 billion dollars. This is the largest fine ever levied against an entity. I guess the message is: a vote for me is a vote for more privatization so more corporate fraud can be perpetrated on the residents of this state. His opponent is a career politician whose most recent signature activity as attorney general was in spending hundreds of thousands of tax dollars to fund expert testimony regarding the dangers of homosexual behavior in lawsuits opposing gays from adopting children or serving as foster parents. The male expert, however, takes European trips with male escorts.

In the Democrat Senate race one candidate is a recent playboy billionaire transplant from California who is best known for paling around the Balkans with Michael Tyson and prostitutes when his yachts are not destroying reefs off of Belize. His opponent is a congressman who claims that he spoke with his mother about a company who paid her hundreds of thousands of dollars while he lobbied on behalf of the company in Congress.

Candidates do not debate. Candidates do not let allow interviews with neutral editorial boards. Candidates simply spend millions of dollars on television ads that demonize their opponents or portray simplistic appealing messages that are wholly inaccurate. We are reaching an era where the term politician and statesman will be considered antonyms.

We are facing economic challenges for countries throughout the world. Our deficit spending is growing exponentially to the “horror” of all candidates who wish to solve the deficit by reducing government revenue ie taxes. We blame the government for failing to prevent the gulf disaster, to provide adequate education, or to reduce traffic congestion. Our solution is to reduce government.

Somehow in spite of these conditions our system still seems to work better than any other alternative. Even so, It is still really depressing to incur another political season. We could offer so much more.

Every generation has its emotional political litmus tests. The current political hostilities between parties and candidates, however, exceed any reasonable justification. Civil discourse does not exist. More discouraging is that the electorate does not reject such behavior and seems to accept sound bites as substance. Perhaps as the result of such conditions few truly capable candidates appear to be running.

In Florida the race for the Republican nomination for governor is Rick Scott a former CEO of a health care company who is using his personal fortune to sell the message that government needs to be run like a business and it should eliminate government regulation of business. While CEO, his former company committed massive fraud on the government for which the company was fined almost 2 billion dollars. This is the largest fine ever levied against an entity. I guess the message is: a vote for me is a vote for more privatization so more corporate fraud can be perpetrated on the residents of this state. His opponent is a career politician whose most recent signature activity as attorney general was in spending hundreds of thousands of tax dollars to fund expert testimony regarding the dangers of homosexual behavior in lawsuits opposing gays from adopting children or serving as foster parents. The male expert, however, takes European trips with male escorts.

In the Democrat Senate race one candidate is a recent playboy billionaire transplant from California who is best known for paling around the Balkans with Michael Tyson and prostitutes when his yachts are not destroying reefs off of Belize. His opponent is a congressman who claims that he spoke with his mother about a company who paid her hundreds of thousands of dollars while he lobbied on behalf of the company in Congress.

Candidates do not debate. Candidates do not let allow interviews with neutral editorial boards. Candidates simply spend millions of dollars on television ads that demonize their opponents or portray simplistic appealing messages that are wholly inaccurate. We are reaching an era where the term politician and statesman will be considered antonyms.

We are facing economic challenges for countries throughout the world. Our deficit spending is growing exponentially to the “horror” of all candidates who wish to solve the deficit by reducing government revenue ie taxes. We blame the government for failing to prevent the gulf disaster, to provide adequate education, or to reduce traffic congestion. Our solution is to reduce government.

Somehow in spite of these conditions are system still seems to work better than any other alternative. It is still really depressing to incur another political season.