Is the 14th Amendment to the Constitution Real?

A recent editorial by Turley in thehill.com argues that of course the 14th amendment is not relevant or in current use.  I dont expect Republicans to agree with me on much, but I dont appreciate it when they insult my intelligence.  And this has larger implications.

I wonder if I am just being overly precious about what is standard debating / rhetorical technique. I find it offensive that a republican that has been so very adament about "original intent" and "every word is precious in the constitution" would then with a straight face say "oh, that 14th amendment, ha ha, they werent serious". When in fact they were very serious, the clause is to our amazement completely relevant to the current situation. But these are republicans which means that they have no credibility when it comes to actually defending and supporting this country (see two impeachment fails to convict, there will never be a better case for impeachment in our lifetimes). The conclusion I reached long ago is that it does not matter what arguments a Republican makes, they arent serious, they are just lying to steal the money. Well, OK, nobody's perfect, but this is a very dangerous situation and this kind of glib bullshit reinforces the belief that the Republican party is the enemy of this country and must be removed from any critical political and judicial position. There is no point in compromising with these people. They are literally the enemy just as much as, for example, Vlad Putin is.

A corollary of this is that whenever a "democrat" says "bipartisan", I think "traitor". There is no point in compromising with fascists, they are just stalling for advantage.

The Door to Hell Will be Opened

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They say that anticipation is the very heart of suspense.  First the author signals that something horrible is going to happen but then he or she makes us wait.  Wait until the teenager goes into the basement.  No!  Dont go into the basement!  Wait while the teenager considers the Door to Hell.  Wait while the idiot opens the Door to Hell.  But it is too late, at this point it is foretold, and the door to hell is going to be opened.  You can not stop the door to hell from being opened.   Things have gone too far. 

And so my fellow democrats and so called progressives, I am here to tell you that it is too late, it has been foretold and the time to act has come and gone.  The "50 Year Reich" will now begin.  The door to hell will be opened.  We could have stopped this particular hell, perhaps, if our leaders had led and the people had wanted to take action. But they didnt.    Too much trouble I guess.  Didnt want to be bothered, I guess.  Hail Victory!

It irritates me that time after time over the last 20 years or so, our elites and elected representatives denied reality and refused to do anything about the rather obvious process going on, and recounting all the ways is just too tiresome for me. 

But briefly, and just recounting a few recent events and then looking forward.  The Justice Department has refused to hold Trump and his goons accountable.  The supreme court has destroyed the voting rights act.  Republicans have destroyed fair elections in the states they control.  That means that the Republicans will win the senate and the house back in the midterms no matter how the people vote.  That means that the electoral college, which is dependent on elections in states in a winner-take-all fashion,  will install a Republican as president no matter who actually wins the election.  That means that the supreme court will continue to be twisted by the Republicans.  Repeat.

So its over. 

 

So much for trying to work with the Republicans, eh?

 

 

This is the Fate of All Traitors

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Whoever, owing allegiance to the United States, levies war against them or adheres to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort within the United States or elsewhere, is guilty of treason and shall suffer death.

Death to Traders?

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Voice to text keeps translating my "Death to Traitors" to "Death to Traders".

Raising My Estimate of the Deaths from COVID-19

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I am raising my highly scientific estimate of American deaths from the coronavirus up from 200K to 288K. The world class logic (dry sarcasm, sorry) that I use for this estimate is as follows.

The WaPo death count for Americans as of this morning is 96,000. But we know the number is low because not all deaths from COVID-19 are officially marked as such for a number of different reasons, some benign, some less so. The estimates for an adjustment factor range from 1.25 to 2.0 although I have seen higher. Lets take a relatively conservative 1.5. That means that we are currently at 144,000 deaths. It seems likely to me, even optimistic, that we can expect an equal number of deaths going forward as we try to manage this thing although of course the future is uncertain. On the one hand we are getting better at testing, and know a lot more about how to treat the disease (although still not doing so great there, we are certainly getting better). On the other hand, it is likely that social distancing really did help (with regional variation) but different areas are opening up now and it would be a miracle if this did not cause local hot spots. A couple of good church meetings and political rallies can infect hundreds of people who will then spread the virus at the very least to their immediate family. The rallies in Michigan of the guys with guns and calling for people to resist the Mark of the Beast came from all over the country, I read, and we know some of them were infected. A vaccine in the next 12 months would be amazing, and I think has a low probability of happening, although it is certainly possible if we get lucky.

So it seems fair to me that if we had some N deaths getting to this point, and since we are nowhere near done, and at best we are at some sort of peak, then it is likely that we would have at least that many taking the curve down assuming that the curve is symmetric, which it may not be. Thus 2 * 144,000 = 288,000. At least.

I have been pretty good at predicting this so far, through my flakey back of the envelope estimates but hopefully I am wrong this time and it will just go away as the Great Leader who Knows All Things predicted.

The Horror of Counter Intelligence Under Trump II

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Can you imagine the horror of being in American Counter Intelligence and realizing that the people you work for, the President and the Congress, are made up of traitors who are working with a hostile foreign power to destroy your country?

This is the Fate of All Traitors

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I want to be one of the first, if not the first, to regret that we still have the death penalty on the books in America in the context of the manifest treason in Washington.

Yes, its true in America, at least, we generally only apply the death penalty to the poor, the people of color, the disenfranchised, to punish them for being poor, or Black or Latino, etc.

How ironic, then, that the classic legal punishment for treason that results in the death of an American is the death penalty. Will Trump and Pence go to the chair? How about Nunes, Ryan, McConnell, Grassley?

"This is the fate of all traitors."

OH! If only they had not betrayed their country! If only we did not still have the death penalty on the books! Its too late now, whats done is done. Justice must take its course.

SAD!

This is the Fate of All Traitors

Alan Dershowitz is a traitor. At a time when this country is on its knees, betrayed by the Republican Party and the piece-of-fucking-garbage Trump, it was Dershowitz who stood up and stabbed Mueller in the back.

One of several things will happen.

Perhaps Mueller will endure and bring down the Republicans and their traitorous president. In which case, Dershowitz will die, alone and despised.  Or perhaps the Republicans will establish the Fourth Reich, Dershowitz will realize that he has betrayed his country and commit suicide in despair.  That would be a happy ending, but not so happy for all those he had murdered.  Finally, if he doesnt have the guts to kill himself, the internal security forces will probably kill him anyway, as that is what they do, generally speaking, with fellow travellers that they can not trust.

But one way or another, when this country needed every man and woman to stand up for liberty, it was Dershowitz who worked to destroy the forces fighting for freedom.

Fuck you, Dershowitz.