The 10th Justice

I’ve been pretty much silent about he impeachment process. The refusal of Republicans to admit Trump committed crimes against America is so appalling that it makes me wonder if democracy can survive. This blog is named for Judge Learned Hand. He said that democracy rested on the principle that new facts could change one’s opinion on an issue. He always attempted to make the best decision given the facts available to him So, in respect to his memory, I have not written much about this painful process of impeachment. The Republican Party is not the party of Judge Learned Hand. However, I discovered a book by the sports writer Rick Reilly entitled Commander in Cheat: How Golf explains Trump. My new strategy to win the 2020 election is to recommend this book to anyone who supports Trump and plays golf. Most people who play golf respect the game. Reilly says that 90% of golfers report their scores honestly and self police on the course. Trump is not one of these. In golf as in politics

At the turn of century I explained the rise of the extreme Right and fundamentalist religion as being caused by having too much information. I felt people were overwhelmed with so much information that they threw up their hands in frustration and fell back on listening to people they had historically trusted to make decisions for them such as their ministers and local politicians. They retreated to a formula that worked for their grandparents in a time when there wasn't enough good information. Simple systems are easy to maneuver in. But now we have not only too much information we have purposefully false information amplified by social media networks. The result is the election of Donald Trump, a simple and distorted result from simple and distorted information. Democracy may not be able to exist in the midst of this kind of noise. The use of the internet to amplify, distort and echo these distorted opinions has caused so much sound in the arena of politics that it is no longe

Donald Trump is a communist. Here’s why. First, we know that Putin worked to subvert our 2016 election and get Donald Trump elected. Why would he do that? What is in those transcripts of the private, Trump to Putin conversations, locked away in the super-secure computer server in the White House? Where is the quid pro quo for all the time, money, and help Putin has funneled to Trump?  Trump is creating an American communist state under the guidance and assistance of Tsar Putin. Classical Communism, in the form created by Marx and Engels and implemented by Lenin, establishes a state run by and for the proletariat. The class struggle between the bourgeoisie - the propertied, educated class - and the proletariat - the wage earner class - has been going on for centuries. From the beginning of his campaign Trump has held himself up to be the supporter of the poor, out of work wage earners of America's middle and lower class - the proletariat that the Democrats forgot. Trump

The Chinese Cultural Revolution has come to America in the form of Donald Trump. Rather than forcing the scientists to dig potatoes or encouraging middle schoolers to eat their teachers, the educated and knowledgeable citizens are being forced to be led by an ignorant bozo. In some ways it is kinder than the Chinese version, but in other ways it is more embarrassing and certainly more dangerous internationally. Our allies will no longer negotiate with us because our chief negotiator is unreliable and uninformed. And the Demagogue in Chief is the Commander in Chief of the military with his finger on "the button". What could be more dangerous. Our Demagogue in Chief was elected because of the same problems that spawned the Chinese Cultural revolution - nobody listened or took seriously the culturally disenfranchised in America. The Democratic Party showed interest in immigrants, women, transgender folk, and people of color but they forgot about the small farmers, low income w

The 2020 presidential election is an election between democracy and authoritarianism, not between Republican and Democrat. We have moved beyond just policy here into a political arena where the heart of America is the prize. Will it be a heart filled with hate, ignorance and greed or will it be a heart filled with tolerance, fairness and information. This is the year to ACT to elect a democratic president - democratic with a small 'd'. If you have 8 hours and want to spend it well, watch David Domke's five part lecture series "How to beat an American Demagogue: Donald Trump and the future of democracy." The links are: Lecture 1 - https://youtu.be/AG0FNyVI-cE Lecture 2 - https://youtu.be/qr0rIHb2FAE   Lecture 3 - https://youtu.be/7WiTcyX8FP0   Lecture 4 - https://youtu.be/PUOv8DNxKgY   Lecture 5 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iD2kKSXFPTg But if you don't have time for the whole lecture series read this blog. David Domke is a professor of Communic

The drama is just beginning. Soon The Whistle-blower will be outed and testify if he or she hasn't been gunned down by angry Trump supporters. The files sequestered away on the ultra-secret-private server in the White House will be subpoened open and many more violations of our nation's laws will be revealed. The Republicans will be forced to vote against Trump and he will be kicked out office into the waiting hands of the District Attorney of New York, like all the other practitioners of organized crime. We will get to see Trump's tax returns finally, and they will only reveal that he isn't as wealthy as he claims. Pence will be President briefly while Mitt Romney prepares his campaign if he hasn't already. The fight between Elizabeth Warren and Mitt Romney will internecine warfare for Massachusetts. The outcome is a toss-up. And what about America? What about all those nice, hardworking, under-educated, white, Christians who once again gave their love and money