The current court, dominated by somewhat deranged lawyers appointed for life, relies on a theory called "originalism." Originalists believe that the constitution should be given the meaning it might have had at the time it became law.
The argument is that Americans should be bound forever by the reasonings of a small group of rich white sexists 240 years ago.
In a TV interview Maggie Haberman responded to a question, "Is Donald tRump evil?" with a dodge. She said something unclear about tRump's tolerance for evil behavior.
Some thoughtful people hesitate to call anyone evil, probably because it is the worst thing you can say about someone. But "evil" is a word. We know how to use it. We understand that Hitler was evil, occupying a coffin at the far end of immoral extremity.
Donny tRump is morally despicable. Of course he is. My response to his behavior is horror. He's earned the greatest form of condemnation. No matter what other people do, he will continue to lie, rape and pillage. He should be confined someplace outside of society. He's evil.
As usual Californians will vote in November on many propositions.
1. My opening stance is to vote no on every proposition. Many propositions are crooked deals cooked up by giant corporations or crackpot billionaires intent on screwing voters in ways that even the state senate refuses to do.
2. I have no way to determine independently if a proposition is a good idea. Vote no. We pay good money to the governor, the assembly and the senate to cope with complex matters.
3. If a proposition is supported by every decent source, like the nurses' union and leading democratic socialists, then I might vote yes. Maybe.
I don't know how widely this will be reported. I saw it on local TV news. There's a restaurant in Oakland where on Fridays the wait staff dress up as power rangers (a colorful Japanese superhero program for small children). Last Friday a man was chasing a woman along the sidewalk, attempting to strangle her, and the woman darted into the restaurant. The man followed her in and was immediately thrown down and captured by masked power rangers (and some customers). They held him for the police. As the police took him away, one commented that the man appeared to be emotionally disturbed.
I heard last week that the young man who murdered 17 children and staff at Parkland High School had been sentenced to life in prison. I also heard a report on a six-year-old girl who had been badly injured in Ukraine by a Russian missile. Her legs had to be amputated.
So far Putin has murdered about 1,230 Ukrainian children. Unable to defeat the Ukrainian military, Putin is attempting to horrify Ukrainians into accepting him as their dictator for life. He is deliberately murdering unarmed civilians, children and adults, much like the Parkland killer. Unlike the Parkland killer, Putin is rational. He has miscalculated--he's losing his war. And he is 100 times worse than his American counterpart.
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As many have read, several members of the Los Angeles City Council were recorded on their phones making racist remarks. For example, council member Martinez said that immigrants from Oaxaca are short and ugly.
I have a Mexican-American immigrant student, a hard-working and charming woman I will call Rosa. She's learning English slowly. Like me Rosa is not talented in language acquisition, but we blunder along. We talk. She was telling me about her younger son's friends in grammar school and mentioned that one friend is from Oaxaca. So I told her about Martinez's racist remarks.
"Oh yes," Rosa said. "My son his friend from Oaxaca is short. And ugly."
Jack de Selby was speculating recently about who had gained the most from the women's movement. He first argued that men had gained the most, in that they could now enjoy more honest relationships with women. But then he noted that AOC and Elizabeth Warren had been able to move beyond being bartenders and teachers and develop leadership roles. In the end he decided that the one person who had gained the most was probably Marjorie Taylor Greene. Seventy years ago Greene would have been abandoned in the suburbs to suck beer and beat her kids with a coat hanger.
One of the rather thin arguments against calling Robert E. Lee a traitor is that to be a traitor, you must first be a citizen. In 1860 there was no legal definition of citizenship in the United States. It's hard to prove that Bobby Lee was an American citizen, so how can we prove that he was a traitor?
Of course, Lee had served in the American army, and he had sworn the usual oath of allegiance to the United States many times to guarantee his loyalty. In return he had gotten a free college education, a job, etc.
Citizenship was finally defined in 1868, after the Civil War, in the fourteen amendment. "All persons born or naturalized in the United States . . . are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside." So I did not become a citizen until I was born in Compton, California. Here is something for originalist Republicans to work on. Why hasn't citizenship been conferred on fetuses?
Our Sonoma County newspaper ran a challenging headline on the front page Wednesday; they are "Expanding Our Wine Coverage," which may be impossible. It's brave of them to try.
The American women's basketball team won a world championship against China a few days ago. The women's team is the most successful team we have in any sport. It wins and wins.
I tried to watch and record the game, but it was not available. I searched. I did find a place that promised to show the game in Spanish, so I recorded that. What I recorded turned out not to be a basketball game.
When I realized that no station was covering the American team, I switched and looked for someone covering the game from China. I did find that, but it cost too much.
The game was not mentioned on television or in a newspaper here in Sonoma County. If women win a world championship and no one mentions it, did it really happen?
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