Monthly Archives: February 2019

Individual 1 v. Article I

Related imageThere has not been an abdication of national leadership like this since British King Edward VIII announced on December 10, 1936, he would relinquish the Crown to marry Wallace Simpson.  Yesterday, Senator Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, when it comes to the Article 1, Section 9 enumerated powers of Congress to appropriate and draw money from the Treasury, put on his best impersonation of Gilda Radner’s SNL personna Emily Litella, telling the Nation, “Never mind!”  Consider the following exchange with a reporter following a meeting of the Republican caucus.

REPORTER: Are you concerned about the president, when he says, I’m unsure about the deal here, but he suggests he might use transfer authority to move money around? The pot of money is only so big, and if some of those monies be put towards these DNS priorities or moved around from Defense or disaster aid, and could that create a problem?

MITCHELL:  First, I think he should sign the bill.  And second, I think he ought to feel free to use whatever tools he can legally use to enhance his effort to secure the border.  So, no, I would not be troubled by that.

Too bad not one of the reporters participating in this gaggle followed up with the obvious question, “Senator, would you consider the re-appropriation of federal funds without Congressional approval a legal use of executive power?”  And just imagine what Mitchell’s response would have been if President Obama had diverted disaster relief funds used to mitigate tornadoes and flooding in Kentucky to fix the water system in Flint, Michigan or used an executive order to address what he saw as a national priority.

Oh wait!  You don’t have to imagine it.  Here is McConnell’s response to Obama’s executive order to extend temporary protection for “dreamers” when Congress failed to renew DACA.  Claiming the 2014 mid-term elections should have sent a clear message to the President where the nation stood on the issue.  “It would be the equivalent of waving a red flag in front of a bull.”  Then House Speaker John Boehner went one step farther, referring to the President as “Emperor Obama.”

For you non-political junkies, here is a reminder of the “will of the people.”  In the 2014 mid-terms, Republican candidates for the House of Representatives garnered 39.9 million of 78.8 million total votes cast (50.6%).  In 2018, Democrats pulled 59.5 million out of 110.1 total ballots (53.2%) for House races.  So much for listening to the voters, Mitch.

Call it what you wish, but Mitch McConnell and the GOP daily practice what is the Constitutional equivalent of “situational ethics.”  They believe in a literal interpretation of the founding documents until it no longer serves their purpose.  For the moment, it appears federal judges have not pulled a McConnell when it comes to their Article III powers and responsibilities.  If and when Donald Trump tries to move a single dollar from disaster relief for Puerto Rico or California, one can only hope all those attorneys who advertise on television or send us mail offering to represent us in class action suits, file cases on behalf of those who have lost their homes and businesses during hurricanes and wild fires.

Trump must be counting his blessings the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York does not have general oversight responsibility for the executive branch.  Otherwise, when it comes to violating his oath “to faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States,” Individual 1 would once again be considered an unindicted co-conspirator.

For what it’s worth.
Dr. ESP

 

Yes Santa, There Is a Virginia

In September, 1897, an eight year-old girl named Virginia O’Hanlon, at her father’s urging, wrote a letter to the editor of the New York Sun asking whether Santa Claus was real.  In what became the most reprinted editorial of all time, Francis Pharcellus Church, a member of the Sun’s editorial staff,  penned the response.  Without giving a definitive answer, Church addressed the philosophical underpinnings behind the Kris Kringle legend and why the spirit of St. Nick was important.

As I have mentioned before, I am a native born Virginian, and the events of the past week have been a time to reflect on what life in Richmond was like in the 1950s and 1960s, and how the remnants of that era continue to emerge from time to time in modern day society.  I beg your indulgence as I share a few childhood memories.

  • I attended segregated schools until 1966 when a handful of black students were admitted to Thomas Jefferson High School.
  • There were restricted housing developments in Richmond in which Jews were unwelcomed, much less African-Americans.
  • Restaurants and movie theaters were also segregated.  From 1933 until the late 1960s, the only places African-Americans could see movies or live performances were the Booker-T and Hippodrome theaters located in the predominantly minority areas.
  • At the University of Virginia, I worked in the Office of University Relations under the work study program.  One of my tasks was compiling the minority enrollment report for the then Department of Health, Education and Welfare (HEW).  In 1970, there were less than 100 black students in a total student body of more than 7,500.
  • Three hundred and fifty years after the founding of Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement in the new world, the ruling class in the state–senators, congressmen, governors and state legislators–still consisted largely of members of the First Families of Virginia Society, Caucasians with European roots.

So, as I watch the news about Governor Ed Northam and Attorney General Mark Herring, I wonder where is the modern day Francis Church who, if asked whether either or both should resign from office, will take the same approach as Church did with young Miss O’Hanlon?  The value of the question is not a yes or no answer.  The question is an opportunity to re-examine and reflect on the circumstances and awakened curiosity which made us inquire in the first place.

Instead of a battle over who will sit in the governor’s chair for the next two and a half years, this is a much bigger and more important conflict.  What is it about race in America that would make two intelligent white men think it is okay to dress up as black men?  What is it about any institution–educational, professional or commercial–which would not call out someone associated with it for thinking it was okay to post a picture like the one in the Eastern Virginia Medical Center yearbook?  And finally, as a nation, will we ever be able to address the root causes that permit such behavior?

POSTCRIPT

Which brings me to the other issue in this three act drama, the sexual assault charges brought against Lt. Governor Justin Fairfax.  As has been the case since the beginning of the #metoo era, the tragedy is not that a number of powerful men in politics, entertainment and business have had to answer for their behavior.  The real tragedy is, more than a year later, we have not come up with a more reasonable way to pursue the truth in what is often he said/she said situations.  Or not to apply a “one size fits all” approach to every case.

Without making any judgment about the charges against Fairfax, the comparison to Christine Blasey Ford baffles me.  In Ford’s case, if her account is true, she did not follow either of her alleged attackers into a bedroom.  She was on her way to the upstairs bathroom when she said she was forced into a bedroom and assaulted by one boy while the other watched.  If we give Fairfax’s accuser the same benefit of the doubt, she admits she willingly went to his hotel room and kissed him.  She still has the right to say, “That’s enough.”  I know, I will never be able to understand what it is like to be women in this situation.  But this was 2004, and there had been several high-profile cases in which other women had similar experiences.  One would hope members of both sexes would learn from these experiences.

There is another feature of this case which deserves attention.  It was not a power situation.  Neither party worked for the other.  Therefore, neither was required to have any contact with the other if the alleged victim had felt violated.  Neither feared losing their job.  And that may be the key to getting to the truth.  As has been mentioned by several reporters and pundits, one thing you might look for is contemporaneous documentation, e.g. talking to a friend about the experience.  But I can understand a woman, concerned about the potential shame associated with the incident, might keep it to herself.  But there is one more data point.  Did Fairfax and his accuser have any subsequent contact, even something as insignificant as a text or email?  Until we have more information, the media and politicians on both sides of the aisle would be wise to defer to due process.

For what it’s worth.
Dr. ESP

 

I Know It’s Wrong

The title of today’s post is also the name of a comedy album by Dana Gould in which he claims there is nothing about which jokes cannot be made.  To make his point, the title track explains how he atoned for once calling a classmate “retarded.”  To make amends, he donated $5,000 to a charity that supports the mentally disabled.

From the “No Good Deed Goes Unpunished” department, Gould then goes on how the reward for his generosity was a daily barrage of mail and email asking for more money.  Something with which we can all identify.  He concludes by asking, “Why would they spend $10,000 trying to get me to give another $5,000?”  The punchline?  “Because they’re retarded.”

Those of you who know me personally or via this blog must realize by now I have a warped sense of humor.  And there have been multiple occasions over the past three years when I have chosen not to push the envelope with a parody or analysis which pushes the boundaries of decency.  Until this morning.

As a native born Virginian, I just cannot get the Ralph Northam saga out of my head.  Not the picture in the Eastern Virginia Medical School yearbook.  The defining moment of this story was the press conference at which Governor Northam admitted he had applied shoe polish to his face to imitate Michael Jackson during a 1984 dance contest in San Antonio.

Related imageHere is a picture of Michael Jackson in 1984.  My question?  Why would a white person think he needed to blacken his face to impersonate Jackson?  Is it not more likely a person of color would need to use WhiteOut if he or she wanted to dress up as the King of Pop?

Before you start a barrage of comments, I admit, “I KNOW IT’S WRONG!”  But if Dana Gould is correct, it is still joke-worthy.

For what it’s worth.
Dr. ESP

 

Then and Now

As he did yesterday, Donald Trump continues to use the Iraq war as justification for, at best, ignoring, or worse, undercutting the U.S. intelligence community.  Consider the following excerpt from his interview with Margaret Brennan on CBS’s Face the Nation.

I have intel people, but that doesn’t mean I have to agree. President Bush had intel people that said Saddam Hussein–in Iraq had nuclear weapons- had all sorts of weapons of mass destruction. Guess what? Those intel people didn’t know what the hell they were doing, and they got us tied up in a war that we should have never been in. And we’ve spent seven trillion dollars in the Middle East and we have lost lives–

What the denier-in-chief fails to comprehend is how this statement only affirms his unwillingness to study and understand a situation.  The intel community, the dedicated men and women who do this day in and day out, got Iraq right.  Just as Trump wants to ignore the advice of professional on Iran, Korea, Russia, Syria, et. al., it was the national security team led by Dick Cheney and Paul Wolfowitz who made this exact same mistake.  Go back to the report by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and its assessment of the inconsistency between fact and interpretation.

Most of the major key judgments in the Intelligence Community’s October 2002 National Intelligence Estimate (NIE), Iraq’s Continuing Programs for Weapons of Mass Destruction, either overstated, or were not supported by, the underlying intelligence reporting. A series of failures, particularly in analytic trade craft, led to the mischaracterization of the intelligence.

“…not supported by the underlying intelligence reporting.” In other words, there is a reason the agencies responsible for gathering and assembling intelligence are staffed by professionals.  It is only when an administration, hell-bent on executing a predetermined policy objection, twists the facts to make its case we end up with a foreign policy debacle.

Now hold on to your hats. Because this is where I’m about to make the case we are less likely to be drawn into a unjustified conflict today than we were in 2003, and the departure of Jim Mattis actually helps the situation.   Remember, most skepticism of a Iraqi threat vanished on February 5, 2003 when then Secretary of State Colin Powell’s presentation before the UN Security Council gave undeserved gravitas to two big lies:

  • Iraq had or was building weapons of mass destruction which posed an imminent threat to its neighbors and the United States and
  • there existed a connection between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda.

Based on his past record, we believed Powell was a reliable source, incapable of being played by the neo-conservatives from whom George Bush took advice.  In his book It Worked for Me,  Powell acknowledges as much.  “A failure will always be attached to me and my U.N. presentation.  I am mad mostly at myself for not having smelled the problem.  My instincts failed me.”

Which brings me to General Mattis and the Trump foreign policy cabal. Mattis helped the nation in two ways.  Upon leaving office, he publicly shared his personal view Trump held a foreign policy vision contrary to 70 years of U.S. engagement with allies and adversaries.  More importantly, Mattis will never become the next Colin Powell.  With his departure following former national security advisor H. R. McMaster and White House chief of staff John Kelly, there is no one in Trump’s inner circle who is trusted to tell the truth.  If John Bolton, Mike Pompeo or Patrick Shanahan are cast as Powell in the remake of “Fool Me Twice,” they are more likely to be nominated for a Razzie than an Oscar.

And sadly, that is the best of all possible worlds and the saving grace if Trump attempts a last minute dog wagging before release of the Mueller report.  As evidenced by the Senate’s veto proof rebuke of Trump’s Syria and Afghanistan positions, even his own supporters know he represents the greatest clear and present danger to homeland security. And unlike the interpreter’s notes from his private meetings with Vladimir Putin, Trump cannot expunge the work of intelligence professionals.  It will all still be there when Trump is long gone.

Not the most comforting thought, but better than nothing.

For what it’s worth.
Dr. ESP

 

Optical Delusion

This post comes to you from the “Heal Thyself” department.

Image result for brian stelterThis morning, Brian Stelter, host of CNN’s “Reliable Sources,” opened the show with a segment on how the press should cover the growing ranks of Democratic presidential wannabes.  He began the discussion by asking, “Are we giving this the attention it deserves considering the number of firsts in the field?”  He referenced the unprecedented number of women, people of color with African, Latino and mixed backgrounds and the entry of a member of the LGBT community.

To cover the topic, Stelter introduced three panelists:  David Zurawik, media critic for the Baltimore Sun, Juana Summers, a political analyst with CNN and NPR, and Ruby Cramer, political reporter for BuzzFeed.  One is an older white male, one is an African-American woman, the other is a white woman.  Anyone want to guess who Stelter called on first to give an opinion on the historic nature of the most diverse field of presidential candidates in the nation’s annuls?

You guessed it.  Zurawik.  If you want to understand the significance of the presidency being open to citizens other than old, white men just ask the old, white guy.

The more things change the more they seem to stay the same.

For what it’s worth.
Dr. ESP