Wednesday, September 30, 2020

Guide to Louisiana Constitutional Amendments to Vote on November 3, 2020

 Whether you vote early, absentee or in person on November 3rd AND you live in Louisiana, you will be required to vote for or against SEVEN Constitutional Amendments.

Rather than wait till you are at the voting booth to read thru all the difficult to read language of each Amendment, a group has put together a guide that explains in easy to understand terms everything you need to know about how you should make your decision.  

The Public Affairs Research Council of Louisiana (http://parlouisiana.org/publications-by-date/guide-to-the-constitutional-amendments/) offers a comprehensive guide to the Amendments to aid voters thru the decision process.  You can browse the document online or download a pdf version to take to the voting booth with you.


Here's the link:  
http://parlouisiana.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/PAR_ConstAmend2020FINAL.pdf

I usually print this page, marked up with my decisions, into the voting booth:  




The Debate

 


Monday, September 28, 2020

Monday Morning Smile

 Old joke

The Jewish Tie Salesman:


A fleeing Taliban terrorist, desperate for water, was plodding through the Afghan desert when he saw something far off in the distance. 


Hoping to find water, he hurried toward the mirage, only to find a very frail little old Jewish man standing at
a small makeshift display rack -- selling ties.


The Taliban terrorist asked, "Do you have water?


The Jewish man replied, "I have no water. Would you like to buy a tie? They are only $5."


The Taliban shouted hysterically, "Idiot Infidel! I do not need such an over-priced western adornment -- I spit on your ties. I need water!


"Sorry, I have none -- just ties -- pure silk -- and only $5."


"Pahh! A curse on your ties, I should wrap one around your scrawny little neck and choke the life out of you, but I must conserve my energy and find water!"


"Okay," said the little old Jewish man, it does not matter that you do not want to buy a tie from me, or that you hate me, threaten my life, and call me infidel. I will show you that I am bigger than any of that. If you continue over that hill to the east for about two miles, you will find a restaurant. It has the finest food and all the ice-cold water you need... Go in Peace!


Cursing him again, the desperate Taliban staggered away over the hill.


Several hours later, he crawled back, almost dead, and gasped, "They won't let me in without a ti
e!"

Thursday, September 24, 2020

#VoteHimOut

 

drumpf and melanie visited RBG's casket lying in state.  When he was noticed, watch what happens.

That Time Has Come

 

Dan Rather on Facebook   September 23, 2020

There is no more time for silence. There is no more time for choosing party over country. There is no more time for weighing the lesser of two evils. All women and men of conscience must speak or they are complicit in America lurching towards a dangerous cliff of autocracy and chaos.

This is a moment of reckoning unlike any I have seen in my lifetime. I have seen this country in deep peril, as the hungry begged for sustenance during the Great Depression, as the Nazis marched across Europe and the Japanese across Asia, as missiles were moved into Cuba, as our political leaders were murdered, as a president ran a criminal conspiracy from the Oval Office, as planes were hijacked into skyscrapers. All of these were scary times, but through it all I never worried about a president actively undermining American democracy and inciting violence to do so - even Nixon, for all of his criminal activity.


What Donald Trump said today are the words of a dictator. To telegraph that he would consider becoming the first president in American history not to accept the peaceful transfer of power is not a throw-away line. It's not a joke. He doesn't joke. And it is not prospective. The words are already seeding a threat of violence and illegitimacy into our electoral process.


I suspect he is doing this because he feels he needs to. It is the same reason he sought dirt on Joe Biden, because he is deeply afraid of losing. Losing an election could mean losing in a court of law. It could mean prison time and ruin. But I suspect Trump's motives are more instinctual. He needs to hold on to power for the sake of power. He cannot lose, even if he has to cheat to win. Even if he has to blow up American democracy. He considers little if any about 200,000 plus deaths from COVID. Why would he care about our Constitution or Bill of Rights?


There is no sugarcoating the dangers and darkness we live in. But I remain heartened that the majority of Americans do not want this. Trump is in danger of losing states that he should be winning handily. Yes, his base is energized and numerous. But so is the opposition. I have seen opposition parties in foreign countries channel the morality of their causes to bring great change. And most of those opposition movements didn't have the strength, power, and resources of those who stand against Donald Trump.


Donald Trump has himself defined the stakes of the election. This is a battle for American democracy as we've known it. We are well past warning shots. Allies across the political spectrum are ringing alarm bells. Right now, all those seeking to defeat Donald Trump know winning a close election may not be enough. The size of a victory will likely matter. Failing that, what happens? I don't know. But I would say we all should try to remain steady. Try to conserve our energy for the battles ahead. Be committed to your community, your country, and your conscience. If enough Americans of decency and courage come together, the future of this nation can be better, fairer, and more just.

Friday, September 18, 2020

RIP RBG

 


2020 just won't stop.

Joan Ruth Bader was the younger of the two children of Nathan Bader, a merchant, and Celia Bader. Her elder sister, Marilyn, died of meningitis at the age of six, when Joan was 14 months old. Outside her family, Ginsburg began to go by the name “Ruth” in kindergarten to help her teachers distinguish her from other students named Joan. The Baders were an observant Jewish family, and Ruth attended synagogue and participated in Jewish traditions as a child. She excelled in school, where she was heavily involved in student activities and earned excellent grades.

At about the time when Ruth started high school, Celia was diagnosed with cancer. She died of the disease four years later, just days before Ruth’s scheduled graduation ceremony, which Ruth could not attend.

Ruth entered Cornell University on a full scholarship. During her first semester, she met her future husband, Martin (“Marty”) Ginsburg, who was also a student at Cornell. Martin, who eventually became a nationally prominent tax attorney, exerted an important influence on Ruth through his strong and sustained interest in her intellectual pursuits. She was also influenced by two other people—both professors—whom she met at Cornell: the author Vladimir Nabokov, who shaped her thinking about writing, and the constitutional lawyer Robert Cushman, who inspired her to pursue a legal career. Martin and Ruth were married in June 1954, nine days after she graduated from Cornell.

After Martin was drafted into the U.S. Army, the Ginsburgs spent two years in Oklahoma, where he was stationed. Their daughter, Jane, their first child, was born during this time. The Ginsburgs then moved to Massachusetts, where Martin resumed—and Ruth began—studies at Harvard Law School. While Ruth completed her coursework and served on the editorial staff of the Harvard Law Review (she was the first woman to do so), she acted as caregiver not only to Jane but also to Martin, who had been diagnosed with testicular cancer. After his recovery, Martin graduated and accepted a job with a law firm in New York City. Ruth completed her legal education at Columbia Law School, serving on the law review and graduating in a tie for first place in her class in 1959.

Despite her excellent credentials, she struggled to find employment as a lawyer, because of her gender and the fact that she was a mother. At the time, only a very small percentage of lawyers in the United States were women, and only two women had ever served as federal judges. However, one of her Columbia law professors advocated on her behalf and helped to convince Judge Edmund Palmieri of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York to offer Ginsburg a clerkship (1959–61). As associate director of the Columbia Law School’s Project on International Procedure (1962–63), she studied Swedish civil procedure; her research was eventually published in a book, Civil Procedure in Sweden (1965), cowritten with Anders Bruzelius.

Hired by the Rutgers School of Law as an assistant professor in 1963, she was asked by the dean of the school to accept a low salary because of her husband’s well-paying job. After she became pregnant with the couple’s second child—a son, James, born in 1965—Ginsburg wore oversized clothes for fear that her contract would not be renewed. She earned tenure at Rutgers in 1969.

In 1970 Ginsburg became professionally involved in the issue of gender equality when she was asked to introduce and moderate a law student panel discussion on the topic of “women’s liberation.” In 1971 she published two law review articles on the subject and taught a seminar on gender discrimination. As a part of the course, Ginsburg partnered with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) to draft briefs in two federal cases. The first (originally brought to her attention by her husband) involved a provision of the federal tax code that denied single men a tax deduction for serving as caregivers to their families. The second involved an Idaho state law that expressly preferred men to women in determining who should administer the estates of people who die without a will (see intestate succession). The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in the latter case, Reed v. Reed (1971), was the first in which a gender-based statute was struck down on the basis of the equal protection clause.

During the remainder of the 1970s, Ginsburg was a leading figure in gender-discrimination litigation. In 1972 she became founding counsel of the ACLU’s Women’s Rights Project and coauthored a law-school casebook on gender discrimination. In the same year, she became the first tenured female faculty member at Columbia Law School. She authored dozens of law review articles and drafted or contributed to many Supreme Court briefs on the issue of gender discrimination. During the decade, she argued before the Supreme Court six times, winning five cases.

In 1980 Democratic U.S. Pres. Jimmy Carter appointed Ginsburg to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in Washington, D.C. While serving as a judge on the D.C. Circuit, Ginsburg developed a reputation as a pragmatic liberal with a keen attention to detail. She enjoyed cordial professional relationships with two well-known conservative judges on the court, Robert Bork and Antonin Scalia, and often voted with them. In 1993 she delivered the Madison Lecture at New York University Law School, offering a critique of the reasoning—though not the ultimate holding—of Roe v. Wade (1973), the famous case in which the Supreme Court found a constitutional right of women to choose to have an abortion. Ginsburg argued that the Court should have issued a more limited decision, which would have left more room for state legislatures to address specific details. Such an approach, she claimed, “might have served to reduce rather than to fuel controversy.”

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ruth-Bader-Ginsburg

Wednesday, September 16, 2020

The British Make Me Smile

 From: https://londondaily.com/british-writer-pens-the-best-description-of-trump-i-ve-read

British Writer Pens The Best Description Of Trump I’ve Read

Nate White

“Why do some British people not like Donald Trump?” Nate White, an articulate and witty writer from England wrote the following response:

A few things spring to mind. Trump lacks certain qualities which the British traditionally esteem. For instance, he has no class, no charm, no coolness, no credibility, no compassion, no wit, no warmth, no wisdom, no subtlety, no sensitivity, no self-awareness, no humility, no honour and no grace – all qualities, funnily enough, with which his predecessor Mr. Obama was generously blessed. So for us, the stark contrast does rather throw Trump’s limitations into embarrassingly sharp relief.

Plus, we like a laugh. And while Trump may be laughable, he has never once said anything wry, witty or even faintly amusing – not once, ever. I don’t say that rhetorically, I mean it quite literally: not once, not ever. And that fact is particularly disturbing to the British sensibility – for us, to lack humour is almost inhuman. But with Trump, it’s a fact. He doesn’t even seem to understand what a joke is – his idea of a joke is a crass comment, an illiterate insult, a casual act of cruelty.

Trump is a troll. And like all trolls, he is never funny and he never laughs; he only crows or jeers. And scarily, he doesn’t just talk in crude, witless insults – he actually thinks in them. His mind is a simple bot-like algorithm of petty prejudices and knee-jerk nastiness.

There is never any under-layer of irony, complexity, nuance or depth. It’s all surface. Some Americans might see this as refreshingly upfront. Well, we don’t. We see it as having no inner world, no soul. And in Britain we traditionally side with David, not Goliath. All our heroes are plucky underdogs: Robin Hood, Dick Whittington, Oliver Twist. Trump is neither plucky, nor an underdog. He is the exact opposite of that. He’s not even a spoiled rich-boy, or a greedy fat-cat. He’s more a fat white slug. A Jabba the Hutt of privilege.

And worse, he is that most unforgivable of all things to the British: a bully. That is, except when he is among bullies; then he suddenly transforms into a snivelling sidekick instead. There are unspoken rules to this stuff – the Queensberry rules of basic decency – and he breaks them all. He punches downwards – which a gentleman should, would, could never do – and every blow he aims is below the belt. He particularly likes to kick the vulnerable or voiceless – and he kicks them when they are down.

So the fact that a significant minority – perhaps a third – of Americans look at what he does, listen to what he says, and then think ‘Yeah, he seems like my kind of guy’ is a matter of some confusion and no little distress to British people, given that:

• Americans are supposed to be nicer than us, and mostly are.

• You don’t need a particularly keen eye for detail to spot a few flaws in the man.

This last point is what especially confuses and dismays British people, and many other people too; his faults seem pretty bloody hard to miss. After all, it’s impossible to read a single tweet, or hear him speak a sentence or two, without staring deep into the abyss. He turns being artless into an art form; he is a Picasso of pettiness; a Shakespeare of shit. His faults are fractal: even his flaws have flaws, and so on ad infinitum. God knows there have always been stupid people in the world, and plenty of nasty people too. But rarely has stupidity been so nasty, or nastiness so stupid. He makes Nixon look trustworthy and George W look smart. In fact, if Frankenstein decided to make a monster assembled entirely from human flaws – he would make a Trump.

And a remorseful Doctor Frankenstein would clutch out big clumpfuls of hair and scream in anguish: ‘My God… what… have… I… created?' If being a twat was a TV show, Trump would be the boxed set.

Wednesday, September 09, 2020

drumpf KNEW, so did Woodward

 Disgusted with drumpf, as usual. Here is the tape from Bob Woodward from March 2020.


Bob Woodward quoted Dr. Fauci as saying Donald Trump's "attention span is like a minus number."

Monday, September 07, 2020

DJT has NPD by Meidas Touch

 


Just Some Stuff Regarding drumpf and the Military

 Just in case you do not believe the truth of the Atlantic article.


https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/09/trump-americans-who-died-at-war-are-losers-and-suckers/615997/?utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook&utm_term=2020-09-03T21%3A32%3A43&utm_campaign=the-atlantic&utm_content=edit-promo&fbclid=IwAR2pkAuXFTL5dSNoET8YaqmNjcNDNX-wVZ5HVXSRLrYhNHVhiuUb_sSN1VI

I have seen some people complain that the article in The Atlantic didn’t name their sources, so that made the piece “gossip”. So- here is a comprehensive list of verified facts that prove Trump’s disrespect for the military.
• ⁠In May 2020, the White House ended National Guard deployments one day before they could claim benefits.
• ⁠The Trump admin seized 5 million masks intended for VA hospitals. Kushner distributes these masks to private entities for a fee, who then sells the masks to the government.
• ⁠Trump fired the captain of the USS Theodore Roosevelt after he warned superiors that COVID19 was spreading among his crew. The virus subsequently spread amongst the crew.
• ⁠After Iran's retaliatory strike, 109 US troops suffered brain injuries. Trump dismissed these as "headaches."
• ⁠On July 20, 2017, in room 2E924 of the Pentagon, Trump told a room full of generals, "You’re a bunch of dopes and babies."
• ⁠Pardoned multiple war criminals, which stomped on long standing military values, discipline, and command. Trump has no military experience (May and November 2019).
• ⁠Trump mocked Lt. Col. Vindman for his rank and uniform. He threatened said Purple Heart officer, resulting in the Army providing him protection.
• ⁠Trump’s Chief of Staff worked—in secret—to deny comprehensive health coverage to Vietnam Vets who suffered from Agent Orange.
• ⁠There is a facility in Tijuana for US veterans that Trump deported. Wounded war vet, Sen Duckworth (D) marked Veterans Day 2019 by visiting this facility.
• ⁠Russia took control of the main U.S. military facility in Syria abandoned on Trump’s orders. Russia now owns the airstrip we built.
• ⁠On October 7, 2019, Trump abruptly withdrew support from America's allies in Syria after a phone call with Turkey's president (Erdogan). Turkey subsequently bombed US Special Forces.
• ⁠Trump sent thousands of American troops to defend the oil assets of the country that perpetrated 9/11.
• ⁠In September 2019, he made an Air Force cargo crew, flying from the U.S. to Kuwait stop in Scotland (where there's no U.S. base) to refuel at a commercial airport (where it costs more), so they could stay overnight at a Trump property (which isn't close to the airport). Trump’s golf courses are losing money, so he's forcing the military to pay for 5-star nights there.
• ⁠In September 2019, Pentagon pulled funds for military schools, military housing funds, and daycare to pay for Trump's border wall.
• ⁠In August 2019, emails revealed that three of Trump's Mar-a-Lago pals, who are now running Veterans Affairs, are rampant with meddling. "They had no experience in veterans affairs (none of them even served in the military) nor underwent any kind of approval process to serve as de facto managers. Yet, with Trump’s approval, they directed actions and criticized operations without any oversight. They wasted valuable staff time in hundreds of pages of communications and meetings, emails show. Emails reveal disdainful attitudes within the department to the trio’s meddling."
• ⁠Veterans graves will be "dug up" for the border wall, after Trump instructed aides to seize private property. Trump told officials he would pardon them if they break the law by illegally seizing property.
• ⁠Children of deployed US troops are no longer guaranteed citizenship. This includes US troops posted abroad for years at a time (August 28, 2019).
• ⁠On August 2, 2019, Trump requisitioned military retirement funds towards border wall.
• ⁠On July 31, 2019, Trump ordered the Navy rescind medals to prosecutors who prosecuted war criminals.
• ⁠Trump denied a US Marine of 6 years' service, entry into the United States for his citizenship interview. (Reported July 17, 2019.)
• ⁠Trump made the US Navy Blue Angels violate ethics rules by having them fly at his Fourth of Jul political campaign event (July 4, 2019).
• ⁠Trump demanded US military chiefs stand next to him at Fourth of July parade. (Reported July 2, 2019.)
• ⁠In June 2019, Trump sent troops to the border to paint the fence for a better "aesthetic appearance."
• ⁠Trump used his D-Day interview at a cemetery commemorating fallen US soldiers to attack a Vietnam veteran (June 6, 2019).
• ⁠Trump started his D-Day commemoration speech by attacking a private citizen (Bette Midler, of all people). (Reported June 4, 2019.)
• ⁠Trump made his second wife, Marla Maples, sign a prenup that would have cut off all child support if Tiffany joined the military. (Reported June 4, 2019.)
• ⁠On May 27, 2019, Trump turned away US military from his Memorial Day speech because they were from the destroyer USS John S. McCain.
• ⁠Trump ordered the USS John McCain out of sight during his visit to Japan (May 15, 2019). The ship's name was subsequently covered (May 27, 2019).
• ⁠Trump purged 200,000 vets' healthcare applications (due to known administrative errors within VA’s enrollment system. (Reported May 13, 2019.)
• ⁠Trump deported a spouse of fallen Army soldier killed in Afghanistan, leaving their daughter parentless (April 16, 2019).
• ⁠On March 20, 2019, Trump complained that a deceased war hero didn't thank him for his funeral.
• ⁠Between December 22, 2018, and January 25, 2019, Trump refused to sign his party's funding bill, which shut down the government, forcing the Coast Guard to go without pay, which made service members rely on food pantries. However, his appointees got a $10,000 pay raise.
• ⁠He banned service members from serving based on gender identity (January 22, 2019).
• ⁠He denied female troops access to birth control to limit sexual activity - an ongoing situation. (Published January 18, 2019.)
• ⁠He tried to deport a Marine vet who is a US-born citizen (January 16, 2019).
• ⁠When a man was caught swindling veterans pensions for high-interest “cash advances," Trump's Consumer Financial Protection Bureau fined him one dollar (January 26, 2019).
• ⁠He called a retired general a "dog" with a "big, dumb mouth" (January 1, 2019).
• ⁠He increased privatization of the VA, leading to longer waits and higher taxpayer cost (2018).
• ⁠He finally visited troops 2 years after taking office, but only after 154 vacation days at his properties (December 26, 2018).
• ⁠He revealed a covert Seal Team 5 deployment, including names and faces, on Twitter during his visit to Iraq (December 26, 2018).
• ⁠Trump lied to deployed troops that he gave them a 10% raise (December 26, 2018). He tried giving the military a raise that was lower than the standard living adjustment. Congress told him that idea wasn't going to work. Then after giving them the raise that Congress made him, he lied about it pretending that it was larger than Obama's. It wasn't.
• ⁠He fired service members living with HIV just before the 2018 holidays.
• ⁠He tried to slash disability and unemployment benefits for Veterans to $0, and eliminate the unemployability extrascheduler rating (December 17, 2018).
• ⁠He called troops on Thanksgiving and told them he's most thankful for himself (Thanksgiving, 2018).
• ⁠He urged Florida to not count deployed military votes (November 12, 2018).
• ⁠He canceled an Arlington Cemetery visit on Veterans Day due to light rain (November 12, 2018).
• ⁠While in Europe commemorating the end of WWI, he didn't attend the ceremony at a US cemetery due to the rain - other world leaders went anyway (November 10, 2018).
• ⁠He used troops as a political prop by sending them on a phantom mission to the border and made them miss Thanksgiving with their families (October-December 2018).
• ⁠He stopped using troops as a political prop immediately after the election. However, the troops remained in muddy camps on the border (November 7, 2018).
• ⁠Trump changed the GI Bill through his Forever GI Act, causing the VA to miss veteran benefits, including housing allowances. This caused many vets to run out of food and rent. (Reported October 7, 2018.)
• ⁠Trump doubled the rejection rate for veterans requesting family deportation protections (July 5, 2018).
• ⁠Trump deported active-duty spouses. (11,800 military families faced this problem as of April 2018.)
• ⁠He forgot a fallen soldier's name during a call to his pregnant widow, then attacked her the next day (October 23-24, 2017).
• ⁠He sent commandos into an ambush due to a lack of intel, and sends contractors to pick them up, resulting in a commando being left behind, tortured, and executed. Trump approved the mission because Bannon told him Obama didn't have the guts to do it (October 4, 2017).
• ⁠He blocked a veteran group on Twitter (June 2017).
• ⁠He ordered the discharge of active-duty immigrant troops with good records (2017-present).
• ⁠He deported veterans (2017-present).
• ⁠He said he knows more about ISIS than American generals (October 2016).
• ⁠On October 3, 2016, Trump said vets get PTSD because they aren't strong. (Note: Yes, he said it's "because they aren't strong." He didn't say it's because they're weak. This distinction is important because of Snopes.)
• ⁠Trump accepted a Purple Heart from a fan at one of his rallies and said: “I always wanted to get the Purple Heart. This was much easier” (August 2, 2016).
• ⁠Trump attacks Gold Star families: Myeshia Johnson (Gold Star widow), Khan family (Gold Star parents) et alia (2016-present).
• ⁠Trump sent funds raised from a January 2016 veterans benefit to the Donald J. Trump Foundation instead of veterans charities; the foundation has since been ordered shut because of fraud (January 2016).
• ⁠Trump said he has "more training militarily than a lot of the guys that go into the military" because he went to a military-style academy (2015 biography).
• ⁠Trump said he doesn't consider POWs heroes because they were caught. He said he prefers people who were not caught (July 18, 2015).
• ⁠Trump said having unprotected sex was his own personal Vietnam (1998).
• ⁠For a decade, Trump sought to kick veterans off Fifth Avenue because he found them unsightly nuisances outside of Trump Tower (1991).
• ⁠Trump dodged the draft five times by having a doctor diagnose him with bone spurs.
• ⁠No Trump in America has ever served in the military: This spans five generations, and every branch of the family tree. In fact, the reason his grandfather immigrated to America was "to avoid military service.”

Friday, September 04, 2020

The Fragility of Donald Trump's Hair - Lawrence O'Donnell

 

This is in response to this article, published in the Atlantic on September 3, 2020.

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/09/trump-americans-who-died-at-war-are-losers-and-suckers/615997/

James Mattis on drumpf's "leadership"

 Published June 4, 2020

Former Defense Secretary Jim Mattis issued an extraordinary criticism of President Trump's leadership in a statement published in The Atlantic on Thursday.

IN UNION THERE IS STRENGTH

I have watched this week's unfolding events, angry and appalled. The words "Equal Justice Under Law" are carved in the pediment of the United States Supreme Court. This is precisely what protesters are rightly demanding. It is a wholesome and unifying demand — one that all of us should be able to get behind. We must not be distracted by a small number of lawbreakers. The protests are defined by tens of thousands of people of conscience who are insisting that we live up to our values — our values as people and our values as a nation.

When I joined the military, some 50 years ago, I swore an oath to support and defend the Constitution. Never did I dream that troops taking that same oath would be ordered under any circumstance to violate the Constitutional rights of their fellow citizens — much less to provide a bizarre photo op for the elected commander-in-chief, with military leadership standing alongside.

We must reject any thinking of our cities as a "battlespace" that our uniformed military is called upon to "dominate." At home, we should use our military only when requested to do so, on very rare occasions, by state governors. Militarizing our response, as we witnessed in Washington, D.C., sets up a conflict — a false conflict — between the military and civilian society. It erodes the moral ground that ensures a trusted bond between men and women in uniform and the society they are sworn to protect, and of which they themselves are a part. Keeping public order rests with civilian state and local leaders who best understand their communities and are answerable to them.

James Madison wrote in Federalist 14 that "America united with a handful of troops, or without a single soldier, exhibits a more forbidding posture to foreign ambition than America disunited, with a hundred thousand veterans ready for combat." We do not need to militarize our response to protests. We need to unite around a common purpose. And it starts by guaranteeing that all of us are equal before the law.

Instructions given by the military departments to our troops before the Normandy invasion reminded soldiers that "The Nazi slogan for destroying us ... was 'Divide and Conquer.' Our American answer is 'In Union there is Strength.'" We must summon that unity to surmount this crisis — confident that we are better than our politics.

Donald Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people — does not even pretend to try. Instead he tries to divide us. We are witnessing the consequences of three years of this deliberate effort. We are witnessing the consequences of three years without mature leadership. We can unite without him, drawing on the strengths inherent in our civil society. This will not be easy, as the past few days have shown, but we owe it to our fellow citizens; to past generations that bled to defend our promise; and to our children.

We can come through this trying time stronger, and with a renewed sense of purpose and respect for one another. The pandemic has shown us that it is not only our troops who are willing to offer the ultimate sacrifice for the safety of the community. Americans in hospitals, grocery stores, post offices, and elsewhere have put their lives on the line in order to serve their fellow citizens and their country. We know that we are better than the abuse of executive authority that we witnessed in Lafayette Square. We must reject and hold accountable those in office who would make a mockery of our Constitution. At the same time, we must remember Lincoln's "better angels," and listen to them, as we work to unite.

Only by adopting a new path — which means, in truth, returning to the original path of our founding ideals — will we again be a country admired and respected at home and abroad.

Monday Morning Smile