Is the First Amendment Endangered?

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” (US Bill of Rights , First Amendment)

Protesting peacefully (assembling) is an American right, speaking out against the government is one of our freedoms; and reporting on these matters is a liberty enjoyed by a free press. However recent events have seen each of these under attack. Secret unnamed police violently attacked demonstrators in Portland claiming defense of the Federal Courthouse there. Groups calling themselves Moms, Dad, and Vets marched in front of the original protesters in an attempt to protect the rights of the protesters, yet still were attacked.  

Other groups, both named and unnamed, attacked Black Lives Matters peaceful demonstrators in Washington DC in front of the White House; many also targeted members of the press who later displayed wounds from pellets and pepper sprays fired at them. Helicopters flew low over DC streets in urban warfare moves – their rotors created a mini-windstorm. In Minneapolis and New York City, members of the press, who were clearly identified, were tear gassed and, at times, arrested. These actions do not appear to be random and seem to be a part of the Presidential campaign propaganda about 'anarchists' and the 'left-wing media'. Where is this going to take us?  Do you think, as I do, that much of this is political theater and that the threats to take federalized troops into urban areas run most often by Democrats, is a fear campaign aimed at frightening women voters? The press has vowed to not be intimidated; but how many reporters can be risked in order to report the news? Will these events serve to further divide and isolate Americans from each other?

Next, – a bit of history.  Do you remember “Kent State”? A quick recap:  In May, 1970 President Nixon expanded the Vietnam War into Cambodia – an act which caused the anti-war campuses across America to erupt in protest. Students on the campus of Kent State in Ohio demonstrated over the weekend of May 2nd so the Governor of Ohio called in the National Guard to quell a planned demonstration on Monday. Unfortunately, the Guard came armed with live ammunition and took up a position atop a slight hill.  When some students started up that hill, 28 Guardsmen fired their guns across the campus.  Thirteen seconds later, four students were dead and nine others were wounded.  The death of one student was caught on camera and the photo was shared nationwide. Campuses across the US exploded with widespread student strikes and anti-war demonstrations; multiple campuses were affected and Kent State, for one, suspended classes for the semester.  But – the nation was also traumatized – and this hardened positions against the war and the President for many.

What might happen today, should one of the protesters pepper sprayed, clubbed or targeted by the secret police, die from their experience?  What roads will we, as a country, then walk down? I so hope that this does not happen, but I fear that those in charge of these misguided escapades have not thought that far ahead; all they see is the fires and the tear gas and marvel at the spectacle it presents.  I do believe most Americans are smarter than expected and will not buy into these messages.

Other news this week looked at the economy and the inability of the Republican Senators to commit to further bail outs and propping up of the more than 50 million American workers currently filing for unemployment benefits. Although the current unemployment rate is said to be 11%, the actual rate for minority persons is higher at approximately 15%. There are significant concerns that there will be a large increase in homelessness unless some more rescue efforts come through.  In Montgomery County, Maryland, a committee is working to use some of the COVID-19 allotments to help those who are facing evictions as the state-wide moratorium on evictions is ending.  How does one wash hands and keep socially distant if their car becomes their home? Homelessness and pandemics d not co-exist well. Putting aside the facts that two-fifths of the members of Congress are millionaires, (2017 Roll Call data) these folks are actually dithering about the belief that too generous amounts in benefits would keep people from returning to jobs that they could have.  It seems to me, that if unemployment pays more than your hourly wages, then those wages are too low.  The Federal minimum wage is still $7.25 for hourly workers and less for those whose jobs include tips.

COVID-19 update from the CDC

Total US cases:  4,163,892 Total Deaths: 145,982.  Total new cases for 7/25: 64,582

Total number of cases: Maryland 83,054 Total Deaths: 3433.  Total new cases last 24 hours: 1,288 (large increase!)

The totals continue to look dismal across the country.  The average numbers of new cases per day have been over 60,000 lately with a few days tallying over 70,000.  These numbers have convinced many school systems to defer actual in person school classes for the fall semester, despite both threats and assurances from the Department of Education and the White House.

Timely Tidbits for this week:

•  The first Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge, when asked about the sending of forces to   Portland said:  “Homeland security forces were not created to be the President’s private     militia."     
• The President, when faced with overwhelming and increasing cases of the corona virus in Florida, finally gave up on moving the Republican convention to Jacksonville and cancelled the in person gathering.  Could it be that the numbers of elderly senators who had already bailed on the event made an impression?
• Several major airlines announced this week that they would require masks on all passengers and would deny boarding to those who would not comply. Hey guys, we are almost six months into this pandemic, what has taken you so long?
• Former Congressman John Lewis made a final trip across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Alabama today as his horse drawn casket retraced his steps from so many years ago. Efforts are underway to rework the Voting Rights Act and name it in his honor. Let’s hope that it succeeds in passing Congress this time.

Finally, Election Day is 100 days from today.  I might guess, if you are reading this that you are registered to vote, but one never knows.  Have you checked the voter rolls to see if your name is there?  In some states, you might have been subjected to a purge if you were not a frequent voter or have moved.  Do you have the correct in state required voter ID?  Some states have now restricted student ID’s; other states have tried to decrease the voting of Native Americans since they frequently use PO Boxes or might not have certain ID. Has your polling place been closed or moved?  What are the rules in your state for absentee ballots; are you aware that the newly appointed Postmaster has officially slowed down mail pickups and deliveries?  Best bet is to mail early. Today the Postal Service handles more than 472.1 million pieces of regular mail each day; 138 million people voted in the 2016 Presidential election. Ballots from a recent June Primary in New York state are still being counted as the mechanism to handle the deluge of absentee ballots was totally inadequate.  With many voters not wishing to stand in long lines at the polls, this election season may well be both difficult and disastrous with results delayed for weeks, much as those have already been in California, this year and in 2018. Congress has refused to allocate enough funds to provide for issuing and counting a large number of “vote by mail” ballots, because it is not in the interest of the President and his party to encourage large turn-outs. Despite polls showing Joe Biden with a large lead in many states, Democrats should not become complacent. This will be a tough election as no party ever cedes power easily.

So, on that worrisome note I will say so long for now.  It will be quite a while before we can sing “Happy Days are Here again….”.

Peace.

The AG's Secret Police Force

Around the start of the Second World War the State Department and the Military realized that they needed to have a working division of Intelligence. Anyway, eventually this happened and during the war secret operations, intelligence gathering and analysis of data were carried out in both theaters of the war by a group formed in 1942 called the Office of Strategic Services or OSS. Consequently, after the war as the Military and the State Department disagreed over who should manage intelligence gathering, President Truman promoted the  National Security Act of 1947; out of that Act came a new division for the military called the Department of Defense  the merger of the Army Air Corps into the Air Force and the National Security Council which eventually formed he Central Intelligence Agency or (CIA).  

There was much debate about the range of duties for this new agency; many in Congress who had seen the excesses of the USSR and Stalin’s Secret Police and the German Gestapo warned against the formation of a domestic secret police agency. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) warned that this group would threaten civil liberties. Eventually this was all worked out when it was determined that the CIA would be limited to intelligence gathering and secret operations outside the boundaries of the United States and would have no domestic authority or policy making role.  The State Department, the Military and the FBI were to continue in their usual roles and the citizens of the US would not have to fear the secret police.

US Attorney General William Barr has now changed all of this careful legislation of some 73 years ago and has created his own police force.  Barr, who never served in the military, must fancy himself a real General after his widely condemned escapade in Lafayette Park and along the streets of Washington, DC in reaction to the Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests recently. There he commanded unmarked police, guard troops and military forces in a massive show of force at a mostly peaceful demonstration.  He ordered the tear gas and pepper spray which was used indiscriminately against all present including women and the press corps. Now, in Portland Oregon, under the guise of protecting Federal buildings which were defaced and damaged, he has sent in the southern border patrol SWAT teams. These teams, which are heavily armed, and operating out of unmarked vehicles are roaming the streets of Portland at will snatching peaceful protesters off the streets without warnings. Despite pleas from all levels of state officials and local law enforcement to cease and disband, these patrols continue to be an occupying force. The ACLU has filed a court suit to stop these illegal activities. 

Homeland security officials and others have said they plan to take these operations to other cities where they claim terrorists are in control. The authorities in Portland had been working with the protesters, who had been in place for 50 days since the death of George Floyd and numbered about 50 people; now the armed presence of unidentified police has so outraged the community that hundreds more have joined the protest.  AG Barr now has his secret police in place and is preparing for his domestic war. This, as I see it, is in keeping with the Presidents’ attempt to beef up his Law and Order campaign and justify these outrageous and unconstitutional acts. It seems to me that when one cannot govern by the rule of law one turns to governing by creating fear. It now seems that they wish to frighten people that peaceful protesters will come after them in their homes so they must be protected. While officials have not yet invoked martial law or used the Insurrection Act of 1807, such abuses of Law do not seem beyond their reach and level of unlawfulness. And then AG Barr can wander around and order pepper spray on some more peaceful demonstrators from his private little police force which is accountable to no one. 

Now to turn to a sad note in the news: Congressman John Lewis of Atlanta died this week from pancreatic cancer at the age of 80.  He was the last living speaker from the 1963 March on Washington. He marched with Dr. King, organized voter drives and Freedom Rides and was beaten by mobs and police multiple times and jailed many times during the turbulent sixties. But it was at the March to Selma across the Edmund Pettus Bridge that he became known to many Americans. He was nearly beaten to death and suffered a fractured skull as the police charged the peaceful demonstrators on what became known as “Bloody Sunday”. This show of brutality led to President Lyndon Johnson giving a speech to a joint session of Congress where he introduced the Civil Rights Act of 1964 - the Voting Rights Act of 1965 would follow; Johnson ended his speech that night with words from the movement song that said: “We shall overcome”.

Congressman Lewis has said his parents were sharecroppers who lived so deep in the country that, as a child, he never saw a white person.  One of ten children, he wanted to become a preacher and practiced sermons while feeding the chickens. He was denied access to the local public library after being told that the books were for white people. Today he has been described as the conscience of the Congress; one who lived by the goals set by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. regarding the “Beloved Community” where there would be a world without racism, poverty or war. To that he added his own beliefs in non-violence, a thirst for justice and voting rights. He voted against the Iraq war and worked for gun control. Shortly before his death he visited the Black Lives Matter Plaza in Washington DC.  He talked about it to CBS news:

“It was very moving, very moving to see hundreds of thousands of people from all over America and around the world take to the streets — to speak up, to speak out, to get into what I call ‘good trouble,’” Lewis told CBS in June, referring to massive Black Lives Matter demonstrations across the country. “This feels and looks so different. It is so much more massive and all inclusive. There will be no turning back,” he said. 

President Barack Obama cited Lewis’ “gentleness and humility” in a Medium post. 

“In so many ways, John’s life was exceptional,” Obama wrote. “But he never believed that what he did was more than any citizen of this country might do. He believed that in all of us, there exists the capacity for great courage, a longing to do what’s right, a willingness to love all people, and to extend to them their God-given rights to dignity and respect. And it’s because he saw the best in all of us that he will continue, even in his passing, to serve as a beacon in that long journey towards a more perfect union.”

Timely Tidbits:

• The Washington Post today reported in its Fact Checker column that the President has been caught out in more than 20,000 lies or misleading statements during his term in office.  Wouldn’t it be nice to have a President who tells the truth for a change?

• The United Kingdom, Canada and the US all announced that Russian hackers had been trying to weasel into the networks of the major researchers for a vaccine for COVID-19 and steal valuable research in that area.  So far, they have been thwarted, it appears without any words from the White House, however.  
•  The Center for Disease Control Director, Robert Redfield, has been silenced by the White House and forbidden to answer a call from Congress to testify about school openings; Dr. Fauci has already been silenced and is the victim of an irresponsible attack from some on the White House staff. (Doesn't this remind you of the toddler who covers his eyes with his hands and thinks he cannot be seen?)

CDC COVID-19  Stats – (data is still available on the CDC website).

United States - Total Cases – 3,630,587 - total deaths 137,864.  

New cases last 24 hours - 74,710 - new deaths 918.

Maryland data: total cases: 77,206  New cases 835 Deaths – 3,368 New deaths 7.

United States percent of positive tests to total tested: 9%. As a comparison, Germany and Italy are testing positive at the rate of 0.5%, France is at 1.1%.  Argentina is at 33.3% while India is at 10.2%.

To close, a personal note:  I once heard John Lewis speak; it was a large gathering and I did not meet him, but I did not need to.  His words silenced the room, reached out to all and mesmerized the audience. Tears rolled silently down my cheeks as I listened. It was so obvious when he spoke about the Civil Rights struggles, and even modern times, that he cared deeply about the things that mattered. It is my hope that his death does not end these efforts; it seems that the widespread support of the BLM movement has given us all hope that the fight will continue.

‘Til next week – Peace.

Science and the Economy

Antony van Leeuwenhoeck was an amateur scientist in The Netherlands in 1676.  He was interested in magnification and had built one of the earliest microscopes.  With this microscope he discovered miniature organisms moving around in water; these later became known as bacteria. At the time, many did not believe his reports, but when other scientists were able to get the same results in 1680, he was awarded membership in the Royal Society of London – the prestigious scientific group of that age as well as ours. Scientists deal in facts. Discoveries that they make are validated by their peers. Published reports are reviewed by members of the same scientific field to be certain that conclusions seem to meet standards. 

Dr. Anthony Fauci has earned his reputation over many years as an immunologist who has worked on HIV/AIDS, Ebola and Zika along with many other conditions, as he served as Director of the Institute for Allergy and Infectious Disease at the NIH. He has been advising the COVID-19 task force since it started.  Right away he disagreed with the pronouncement that a vaccine was on the way, trying to point out that vaccines take years to develop, not months. However lately, members of the Administration have been distancing themselves from his statements and have basically tried to hush him up because he is not speaking the happy talk of the proscribed talking points voiced by the president and vice president. Recently he was quoted as saying that he expected the daily incidence totals to exceed 100,000 soon; this was when they were below 50,000. It is quite important that decisions about the virus be made based on scientific fact.  The president said the heat of summer would make the virus go away, it didn’t.  He said to take Hydroxychloroquine as a preventive that worked; it didn’t – in fact it may have been responsible for many deaths from heart irregularities. He said masks were not helpful; that has been disproven.  Wishful thinking cannot make this virus stop spreading.  Viewers of conservative media have disregarded warnings and believed, more than most, that the virus was like a flu. Only drastic actions such as those taken by New York City and many world capitols as they shut down commerce and transportation and mandated quarantines, masks and staying at home has seemed successful in preventing person to person spread. As a nation, we must regard settled science as true and follow the guidelines set out by Dr. Fauci and others.

Many on the right spoke out against the trampling of their “rights” as businesses were closed and commerce slowed.  People yelled at clerks about mask wearing.  Yet, as we have seen in recent weeks, across the South and Southwest in states that did not have gradual re-openings based on case reports, a resurgence far greater than the first wave in those areas.  Yesterday Florida reported more than 15,000 new cases in 24 hours. ICU beds are filling up as mayors and some governors try to get ahead of the curve with urgent mask orders and closing of bars and beaches. The states of Florida, Georgia, Texas, Arizona and California are among the hardest hit right now even as parts of the mid-Atlantic and Northeast are gradually re-opening. (Texas and Florida each are reporting over 250,000 total cases according to the CDC.) Disney World re-opened in Florida yesterday.

New COVID-19 totals this week: United States:   Cases - 3,236,130 – totals deaths: 134,572

New cases last 24 hours: 62, 918

Totals for the state of Maryland: cases - 73,109 -  total deaths 3,188 New cases: 557 Starting to rise again somewhat.

Deaths do appear to be slowing down, but that is noted to be a lagging indicator; the larger number of affected younger patients may also alter those tallies.

But, if some would have their way – all businesses and schools would open right now.  As the Lt. Governor of Texas noted way back in March, elderly folks would not mind dying if it meant they were saving the economy.  As I remember, many elder folks, myself included, strongly disagreed.  Now this week, the president and education secretary are demanding that schools open on schedule in the fall regardless of the status of viral illness in their states.  They know that the economy will not get back on track if schools are not fully open and working parents have those and day care centers to depend upon.  Oddly enough, Sweden found that by never really shutting down, that it did not gain a higher economic advantage and, in fact, they have had a higher death toll due to that practice.

Now to look at schools; yes, the distance learning was not a perfect solution, but many school systems had almost no notice before they were closed down.  There is talk of starting back up with social distancing and masks in the fall, with no lunch rooms and school bus seat separation, but these are not perfect solutions either. Some schools are discussing hybrid solutions, with students in classrooms a few days a week and distance learning other days. Teachers that I know have voiced mixed feelings about going back to face to face teaching, even as they say they miss their students. While we would not wish to sacrifice our seniors on the altar of commerce, neither should we allow our children and grandchildren to be brought into classrooms with an uncertain status about the virus, just so the president can be touting a better economy when he stands for re-election.  (All his bluster and threats of financial ruins for school districts are just that; schools are primarily funded by local and state control.)

Perhaps states where the virus is quiescent, can open schools as long as they can be deep cleaned and air freshened frequently.  But what about aging school buildings with inadequate heating and cooling systems, how well is their air exchange working; perhaps those closed spaces are viral incubators, how will we know? It seems to me there are lots of unanswered questions still to be explored.

Higher education was also threatened by this administration when the status of their international students’ visas was jeopardized by an immigration department decree that noted that foreign students who did not take on campus classes would have their visas terminated and they would have to return to their home countries.  This happened as many colleges and universities were planning to continue distance learning for the Fall semester.  Harvard and MIT have both sued the government about this decision, hoping to get it overturned. International students usually pay full tuition fees, with no in state discounts, so losing that income would stress many schools.

So much news this week, Timely Tidbits are brief:

•        The president commuted the sentence of his long-term fix-it man, Roger Stone, as he was set to report to prison for a four- year term; most observers view this as a payback for Stone’s silence. Some think Michael Flynn is next.
•        Special prosecutor Robert Mueller, in a Washington Post op-ed, said Stone was guilty and should have gone to jail. In an unusual public pronouncement, he defended his probe of the Russian campaign interference in 2016.
•        The Supreme Court denied the presidents’ claim of immunity from investigations and declared that his documents can be reviewed under certain circumstances, indicating that no man is above the law.  About time someone said that!

So, with that, I will close for now – there never seems time enough to say all that I want to each week. I will leave you with a quote from Chief Justice John Roberts as he referred to another Chief Justice, John Marshall, who said: “A king is born to power and can do no wrong. The President, by contrast is ‘of the people’ and subject to the law”. A small victory for the Rule of Law as was discussed here recently.

Stay safe out there. Peace.

Independence Day!

Yesterday I joined many thousands who tuned in to the filmed version of the Broadway play Hamilton on Disney plus TV. I so enjoyed this play and I am quite impressed at the genius of Lin Manuel Miranda who pulled together not only the history of our country’s early days, added the many distinct personalities of the time and set it all to hip-hop and an upbeat rhythm….and was the actor who played Alexander Hamilton. All of the founders were played by black and brown actors; most of the other parts were played by minorities also. As described by Peter Marks in the Washington Post: “Hamilton is at its heart an all-American patriotic pageant, a marriage of hip hop to the Stars and Stripes.”

Since this play is based loosely on the Ron Chernow biography of Hamilton published in 2004, I was driven to the book where Chernow writes in his prologue:

“Hamilton was the supreme double threat among the founding fathers, at once thinker and doer, sparkling theoretician, and masterful executive. More than anyone else the omnipresent Hamilton galvanized, inspired and scandalized the newborn nation, serving as the flash-point for pent-up conflicts of class, geography, race, religion and ideology.”

As the play notes, our founders were imperfect men – and yes, they were all men. But even with these imperfections they managed to form a country through wars and words, with soaring rhetoric and diminished dreams, stubbornness and compromise, they created a nation. Today, some 244 years later, this nation still promises much to many and still needs to improve. President Obama once described this country as a project that never ends. Then, as now it welcomed some immigrants, so that Hamilton, a young man of illegitimate birth, orphaned and penniless could come to these shores and prosper. But now immigrants of color have a more difficult time gaining entrance. I found an interesting aside about this cast on You Tube.  Shortly after Vice President Pence was elected, but before he took office, he attended a performance of this play.  At the end, the diverse cast had a few words to say to the new VP – they welcomed his attendance, but indicated that they were alarmed and anxious at his election and were worried that this new administration would not protect or defend them, their parents or their children and uphold their inalienable rights.  They sincerely hoped that this show had inspired him to work on behalf of all of them (my paraphrase). They spoke what truly was on the minds of many Americans at that time.

Unfortunately, many of the cast’s fears were prophetic as this administration has continued on its original path of divisiveness and racial animus. From his initial campaign announcement, to his inaugural address, to his Fourth of July remarks this week, this President has not sought to heal a nation.  He spoke again recently of thugs and hombres conjuring up fears of women with absent spouses attacked in their homes.  He is again campaigning on instilling fear in middle America.  In some instances, he has done the right things. He did call and speak to the family of George Floyd, which was a rarity; (VP Biden called also). Although he had meetings at the White House and made promises which have not been kept, he did not speak up to heal after Parkland, after Pulse, after Las Vegas; he did not comfort after floods in Houston, fires in California or hurricanes in Puerto Rico and he has not had empathy for the close to 130,000 deaths from COVID-19.  He has had few words against police brutality, unequal justice or subpar education for minorities. Instead he promoted people and policies which try to limit voting opportunities and disenroll voters; his attorney general has promoted a return to using the death penalty and has not aggressively investigated killings of minorities by authorities.  In short – he has no empathy and does not even try to understand those whom he sees as ‘not his people’.

He has called the words Black Lives Matter – symbols of hate and referred to statues of Confederate soldiers as beautiful.  He promised to send Federal troops to defend statues and mandate sentences of ten years in jail to those who toppled them. Empty rhetoric – who knows? He has already sent troops against peaceful marchers in Washington DC.  Posturing again, or playing to his base or both? I am uncertain. But, however it is described, I do not believe that it is Presidential; nor do I believe that he is a President for all of the people in this country.

The latest phrase he is using is “cancel culture”, by which he means destruction of symbols of Southern Heritage, but which is used by many others differently.  In fact according to an article in The Washington Post he is the King of  aggressively attacking anyone who might dare to disagree with him. Is this the government so carefully crafted by the founders?

Tidbits from here and there:

,

• It was reported that the White House had no reaction to Intelligence reports that Russians had paid members of the Taliban a bounty for each American military person they could kill. After first denying that the President was briefed, then calling the news a hoax and not credible, there still has been no official response to these reports from the press office or the President.

·       The President decried ‘left wing fascists’ in his Fourth of July speech – uh, Mr. President – according to the Oxford Dictionary – fascism is a right-wing movement:

An authoritarian and nationalistic right-wing system of government and social organization. The term Fascism was first used of the totalitarian right-wing nationalist regime of Mussolini in Italy (1922–43), and the regimes of the Nazis in Germany and Franco in Spain were also Fascist. Fascism tends to include a belief in the supremacy of one national or ethnic group, a contempt for democracy, an insistence on obedience to a powerful leader, and a strong demagogic approach.

·       Thirteen states have reported their highest daily totals this week as daily COVID-19 cases hit more than 50,000 each day. Texas and Florida closed beaches and encouraged mask wearing.  A curfew was imposed in Miami.

COVID-19 stats today from the CDC:

Total US cases: 2,841,906 - Total deaths: 129,576 Total new cases in 24 hours: 52,228.

Maryland: total number of cases: 69,632 - Total deaths: 3,243

(parts of Maryland are opening up now and the beaches are open, I do hope that does not bring about a spike in case numbers.)

Well that is about all I have for today – so much is going on that it is sometimes difficult to choose topics.  I hope that you enjoyed a modest Fourth of July – even without parades and fireworks; the sense that we have made it to our 244th year should be encouraging. 

For a sobering thought about this day, I leave you with a link to remarks made by Frederick Douglass (an escaped slave from Maryland who later became a renowned orator, statesman and abolitionist) in 1852 where he asks why he is not included in the celebrations of this great Independence Day and why “The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity and independence, bequeathed by your fathers, is shared by you, not by me.” 

Please let me know of any issues which you might like to see discussed here. Any ideas about what the new name for the Washington football team should be?  Years ago, I had suggested Pigskins. Do you remember the Hogs? I have seen that name mentioned a bit this week, so who knows, maybe I was prophetic after all!  Time will tell.

'Til next week – stay safe – peace.