Prodeath Judge Kavanaugh

Prodeath Judge Kavanaugh

Posted on by Jack

Judge Kavanaugh may be the next Justice on the Supreme Court if this rushed and deeply flawed confirmation process continues. But he really needs to clarify his stances on the prolife/prodeath issue.

For example, President Trump has promised to appoint Justices who will overturn Roe vs. Wade and Brett Kavanaugh’s history seem to indicate he will not only repeal a woman’s right to an abortion but also reduce access to contraception.
Continue reading “Prodeath Judge Kavanaugh”

Kavanaugh madness and rush to the Supreme Court

Kavanaugh madness and rush to the Supreme Court

Posted on by Jack

The rush to confirm President Trump’s nominee for the Supreme Court vacancy Brett Kavanaugh continues. Seems to me there are several reasons to stop or delay but Republican leadership is committed to this folly. I hope enough Senators see a problem to stop this Kavanaugh madness.
Continue reading “Kavanaugh madness and rush to the Supreme Court”

Biden rule was made by Republicans

Biden rule was made by Republicans

Posted on by Jack

There is no Biden Rule. Republicans just made it a rule to justify a political trick.

This is pretty ancient history. We are going back at least 2 years since this “rule” was invoked, and then all the way to 1992 to see its roots. So why am I thinking about this today?
Continue reading “Biden rule was made by Republicans”

Rush to confirm Brett Kavanaugh

Rush to confirm Brett Kavanaugh

Posted on by Jack

Why the rush to confirm President Trump’s nominee for the Supreme Court vacancy Brett Kavanaugh? In the words of Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) “What is the rush? What are we afraid of?”

The Senate Judiciary Committee began confirmation hearings today. I was listening while driving and heard Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) complain that the committee has seen only 7% of the documents needed to evaluate the nominee. And only about half of that could be shared with the public.
Continue reading “Rush to confirm Brett Kavanaugh”

Protect the Special Counsel and his investigation

Protect the Special Counsel and his investigation

Posted on by Jack

I mentioned in my last post that I think we should pass legislation to protect the Special Counsel and his investigation. President Trump has repeatedly threatented to end the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election which Mr. Trump has called a Rigged Witch Hunt and illegal .
Continue reading “Protect the Special Counsel and his investigation”

Protect the Special Counsel

Protect the Special Counsel

Posted on by Jack

Should we protect the Special Counsel from President Trump? Speaker Paul Ryan doesn’t think so.

But Speaker Ryan did not think the President was serious about revoking security clearances. I would think that now that President Trump has done so, we should no longer have great faith in the Speaker’s predictions.
Continue reading “Protect the Special Counsel”

Omarosa thing, FBI thing, Russia thing

Omarosa thing, FBI thing, Russia thing

Posted on by Jack

The Omarosa thing seems to be dominating the news these days. I am wondering if the White House orchestrated the timing of the firing of FBI agent Peter Strzok with this Omarosa thing so that this firing would get less news coverage than it would otherwise.

Since this firing seems to be part of a plan to discredit the FBI, I’ll just call it the FBI thing . It seems to me that this FBI thing is related to the Russia thing.
Continue reading “Omarosa thing, FBI thing, Russia thing”

Tweeter-in-Chief fails to make sense again

Tweeter-in-Chief fails to make sense again

Posted on by Jack

President Trump tweeted again. President Trump has been called the Tweeter-in Chief and seems to use Twitter to communicate what he is thinking. It is not always a pretty picture.

For example, today he tweeted about firing FBI agent Peter Strzok. The tweet was illogical. I hope the FBI used a better rationale for their actions.
Continue reading “Tweeter-in-Chief fails to make sense again”

Representative Devin Nunes fails again

Representative Devin Nunes fails again

Posted on by Jack

Devin Nunes fails early and often

Rep. Devin Nunes fails at what he should be doing. He has been busy not doing his job for the past year and a half or so. First he manges to turn the respected and bipartisan House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence into a national disgrace with his wild claims of wrongdoing by our intelligence community and sharing his “evidence” with the Trump administration rather than his committee (see articles in Wired and this blog).

As a result, he was recused from the investigation into Russian election interference but still did his best to stop the Russian election interference investigation including the “extraordinarily reckless” release of a previously classified and highly biased memo.
Continue reading “Representative Devin Nunes fails again”

Questioning your beliefs is a good thing

Questioning your beliefs is a good thing

Posted on by Jack

The full title of this book is How to See Religion Differently: What questioning your beliefs can reveal, and why it can lead to a healthy mind. The book is by Luke Pemberton who was raised Catholic and questioned his beliefs (or at least what he was told to believe) as he got a bit older.

I think that questioning your beliefs is a good thing. Different folks will decide different things. Religion makes sense to many people. Others will decide that religion or maybe a particular religion is not for them.
Continue reading “Questioning your beliefs is a good thing”

Is history repeating itself?

Is history repeating itself?

Posted on by Jack

Is history repeating itself? The philosopher George Santayana said that “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

Wikipedia has an interesting article on Historic recurrence which I ran across as I was thinking about history repeating itself.

I’m reading “The Death of Democracy: Hitler’s Rise to Power and the Downfall of the Weimar Republic” by Benjamin Carter Hett and this quote got me thinking about this.
Continue reading “Is history repeating itself?”

Scott Wagner refuses to release his tax returns

Scott Wagner refuses to release his tax returns

Posted on by Jack

Pennsylvania Republican gubernatorial candidate Scott Wagner refuses to release his tax returns. He also does not plan on cutting his business ties according to the same article. Does that mind you of a recent Republican presidential candidate?

Both violated a long tradition of candidates releasing tax returns and avoiding even the appearance of financial conflicts of interest. Are these isolated incidents? Or is this the new Republican norm? Do either have anything to hide in their finances?

Do either plan on enriching themselves in office? We may already know the answer in one case.

Bad Boy Greers of New York City

Bad Boy Greers of New York City

Posted on by Jack

I keep coming back to the Bad Boy Greers, such an interesting bunch. Of course that goes back to Matthew Greer and Ruth Allingham, I wonder how they would have felt about the Bad Boy Greers but, of course, they were dead before the Bad Boy grandchildren were even born.

I wrote about this Greer family several years back but I just want to focus on 3 brothers who I’ll call the Bad Boy Greers. They were what genealogist would call collateral relatives since they are not direct ancestors but were first cousins to one of my grandfathers.
Continue reading “Bad Boy Greers of New York City”

Lies by T. M. Logan

Lies by T. M. Logan

Posted on by Jack

Lies by T. M. Logan is not coming out in the US until September 2018. So I’d like to thank Netgalley for a chance to read and review this book well before the release in the US. It has been available in the UK for a while and presumably sold well enough that the a release in the US seemed like a good idea.
Continue reading “Lies by T. M. Logan”