The GOP and its allies have spent a great deal of time and energy bragging about the numbers of Federal judges that they have appointed under the Trump administration. This doesn’t even include the disastrous appointments to the Supreme Court but it does represent an invasion of conservative thought that is already subverting the concept of justice in our courts. Such a perversion of justice was reported recently from the courtroom of Federal Magistrate, Judge Bernardo Velasco working at the behest of former Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
Velasco convicted four women, belonging to the Unitarian Universalist Church of Tucson’s No More Deathsproject, of violating various statutes by leaving food and water in the Cabeza Prieta Refuge and Wilderness area to help illegal border crossers from starving or dying of dehydration. For this horrible act of violating Trump approved, Sessions’ implemented rules, the four women were sentenced to fines and significant jail time
Is this what this nation wants and needs? Are we to legally harass volunteers carrying out a humanitarian mission simply because the result of that humanitarian aide might possibly frustrate the desires of the criminal in the White House?
And will the GOP’s campaign to appoint as many ultra conservative judges as they can, result in politically rather than legally motived decisions, thereby subverting the principals of justice in our system of law?
It’s understandable for any political movement to attempt to implement its goals, but is it legitimate for the one currently in power to appoint judges who have no moral and few legal principals on which to base their solely political judgments? I think not!
Like almost everything the Republican Party has done since it gained power, this appears to be just one more scabrous power play aimed at destroying our democracy by weakening the institutions on which it depends.
If courts do not act justly, we will soon lose our desire to bow to their decisions and one more staple of our democratic system will disappear down the same toilet as Trump’s concept of truth.
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This story will look like it’s only about New York but the subject matter is more far reaching than even the borders of the nation and will eventually seep into every election that takes place in the next decade.
The Governor of NY, Andrew Cuomo and NY’s Prince of the Church, Timothy Cardinal Dolan have gone to war. There are two principal battlefields; abortion and perverted priests.
First a disclaimer! I was raised a Roman Catholic, but long ago abandoned the Church and all organized religion for logical thought.
I have written against Cardinal Dolan on a number of occasions but in his battle against Governor Cuomo’s latest abortion bill I feel the need to at least partially defend the Cardinal’s POV. Let me explain.
Understanding that abortion is never a good thing, I have always defended it against all comers because I have always felt that it was often the lesser of two evils and also because I have always defended to the hilt, a woman’s right to make decisions, all decisions, about her own body. But the exercising of our rights, all rights, demands the understanding that with these rights come certain responsibilities. In this case, relative to NY State’s new law it’s the responsibility to make timely decisions; decisions that go to the basic flaws in the new law. I am referring here to the fact that the new law allows abortion right up to the time of birth, a ludicrous concept that leaves it open to reasonable accusations of murder.
One of the principle positions of religious opposition to abortion has always been the ridiculous idea that human life begins with conception. This position is as ridiculous as the much-lampooned idea that life begins when the male fails to buy condoms. While there may be some approximation of life at conception it most certainly wouldn’t be anything even vaguely resembling human life. The exact opposite is true in the third trimester of pregnancy when the fertilized egg has transformed into a live human fetus. Once that transformation happens, abortion becomes murder and the new law does not draw that line. If the aforementioned law did nothing but draw that line it would be successful and functional. It’s failure to do that makes it a disaster.
That definable moment when the mass of cells becomes a human fetus is the point when legal abortion should no longer be acceptable. But that specific point can only be defined by science. It is the responsibility of the scientific community to pinpoint that moment so that the legal community can move forward and protect both the mother’s rights and those of the fetus.
Even though religion has been a principle player in this controversy there is no responsible role for it in the final statutes. Surely this must be purely a legal and scientific decision and as such Cardinal Dolan should have no real say in it. This is not true, however, for the law that has just been passed. It is such a catastrophe that everyone must have not only a say, but assume responsibility to extend themselves to rescind this horrendous acceptance of murder for practicality.
If this is an example of the kind of laws that the progressive elements of the Democratic Party are going to push through then they are going to be more destructive to real democratic goals than Mitch McConnell ever hoped to be. This must be fixed and fixed immediately.
On the other side of the ledger is a new law, also backed by Cuomo, which will extend,, in various ways, the limits of responsibility in sexual abuse cases. It’s primarily aimed at extending the statute of limitations beyond its current boundaries. Cardinal Dolan has strenuously opposed this extension but, as in much that he tries to do, he is dead wrong. Sure this will open the Church up to more attacks on its pocket book, even many false claims, but it will also enforce the Church’s responsibility in this matter; a responsibility that it, more often than not, has sloughed off in the way it has dismissed the whole question of sexual abuse of children by its clergy.
This isn’t even a controversy. There is no argument over the fact that an outrageous number of clergy abused children and that the Church’s hierarchy then hid the fact from the law and moved the perverts around to new locations where they could find fresh fodder for their lust.
Now, after decades of complicity in these heinous crimes, the Church is worried about the cost of retribution? Too damned bad! Instead of whining about the loss of funds available for the Church’s charitable activities, maybe Dolan, that Prince of the Church will have to swap his silk suits for cotton. Maybe if he hadn’t wasted $7 million on washing the front of St. Pat’s the money in question wouldn’t be a problem. Maybe he should give up his limo and drive a KIA.
Okay, so there is no one, not even the Roman Catholic laity, who will back Dolan and his fellow Bishops. Most thinking Catholics righteously blame the Bishops and Cardinals for the problem, so on this one, Cuomo wins hands down.
But the abortion bill is quite another matter. The Democrats have screwed this one up horribly. They’ve gone miles too far and unless they bring this one back they’re going to suffer for it. Progressive action on many fronts is what we are all looking for. Unreasoning progressive action will destroy the Party and lose the 2020 election.
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America makes a lot of mistakes but it sure got it right this week. When Joseph Walker, 72 year-old Vietnam vet died alone it looked like he would be buried that way too. Not so. A story about his service and lonely death went viral and thousands of strangers showed up for his funeral. Walker was buried with full military honors and Americans showed why, despite having a history of making a lot of mistakes, we still get it right more than anyone else in the world.
We don’t have to make America great again, Donald. It’s always been great. It’s always been the shining city on the hill. You’re just too dim to see it.