John Kennedy (R-La.) – * Failed Pols

I do not fault stupid people for making the stupid decision to elect Donald Trump in 2016.

I do fault smart people for making stupid decisions. These include:

1. Senators who voted to acquit Donald Trump in his no-witnesses-allowed impeachment trial, including primarily Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell:

* Impeachment of Donald Trump (2020-02-05)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impeachment_of_Donald_Trump#Acquittal

* Mitch McConnell (2020-02-05)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitch_McConnell#Impeachment_trial

2. Members of the GOP who voted to disenfranchise voters in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin – before, during, and AFTER the 2021 storming of the United States Capitol – including Paul Gosar (AZ-04), Ted Cruz (R-TX), Jody Hice (R–GA-10), Mo Brooks (R–AL-05), Scott Perry (R–PA-10), Josh Hawley (R–MO), and Louie Gohmert (R–TX-01).

* 2021 Storming Of The United States Capitol (2021-01-06)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2021_storming_of_the_United_States_Capitol

* 2020 United States Presidential Election Electoral College Count (2021-01-06 – 2021-01-07)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_United_States_presidential_election_Electoral_College_count

3. Donald Trump’s cabinet, who could have invoked the 25th Amendment to remove POTUS at any time:

* Cabinet Of Donald Trump (2017-01-21 – PRESENT)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cabinet_of_Donald_Trump

4. Social media, including especially Facebook and Twitter, for allowing their social networks to be used as platforms for hate speech.

* Donald Trump On Social Media (2017-01-21 – PRESENT)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Trump_on_social_media#2021

5. Mainstream media, including especially CNN (on the left) and Fox News (on the right) for not doing their jobs – asking questions until they get answers – and allowing POTUS to lie unchecked.

* Veracity Of Statements By Donald Trump (2017-01-21 – PRESENT)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veracity_of_statements_by_Donald_Trump

6. Lawmakers at all levels, for failing to fix bad laws and for failing to enact good laws. Changes that must be made going forward include:

Limiting POTUS power:

Executive order power must be limited.
All cabinet members (acting/interim/actual) must be confirmed by Senate.
Treaties and tariffs must be the role of Congress so that POTUS cannot engage in trade wars.
War Powers Act must be updated to limit POTUS power to deploy the military.
Special Counsel Act must be updated to make clear that POTUS cannot fire special counsel.

Writing better and new laws:

Impeachment Act of 2021, to define how impeachment is conducted, including the requirement to have witnesses.
Follow the lead of The Restatements Of The Law project (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Restatements_of_the_Law) and codify major SCOTUS cases, including especially Roe v. Wade.
Fix the Census.
Fix immigration.
Fix SCOTUS processes, such as limiting appointments to 2 per POTUS with the number of SCOTUS justices fixed at the number of Federal Circuits (currently 13).
Election reform, including who is qualified to run for POTUS and that tax forms must be disclosed to do so.

Just to name a few.

Stupid people, bad laws, and lies got us into this mess.

Smart people, good laws, and the truth can get us out of this mess.

LAW >> MAN.

#FailedPols
https://www.failblog.com/

“You’re supposed to keep us safe.”

That was Senator John Kennedy’s (R-La.) response on Tuesday to acting Secretary of Homeland Security Chad Wolf on the agency’s inability to give a satisfactory briefing on how well the U.S. is prepared to deal with the novel Coronavirus (COVID-19). Wolf’s answers to many of Kennedy’s questions were vague, or differed from the information Senators had received during an earlier Senate briefing that day.

“You’re supposed to keep us safe and the American people deserve some straight answers on the Coronavirus and I’m not getting them from you.”

This brings to mind one of the episodes of ABC television network’s After School Special from the 1970s. (For some reason, living under this administration brings to mind a number of applicable episodes.) In this particular episode, at least the way I remember it, the mom had a drinking problem that she thought she was hiding pretty well from her kids.

She repeatedly endangered her kids by doing things like falling asleep drunk while smoking in bed. The kids, who of course knew that mom drank too much, were so afraid that she would accidentally burn the house down that they decided to craft a fire exit plan and practice a fire drill so that they could get out of the house safely in case it caught fire.

Like this mom, the Trump administration also makes poor, dangerous decisions, as well as hiding things from “the kids,” the American people. Unlike this administration, however, when the TV mom realized the peril she was placing her kids in, and how unsafe the kids felt (and were) because of her, she got help so that she could stop endangering her family.

In contrast, the Trump administration, whose job it is to keep us safe, doubles down on defending its actions or further trying to cover them up when an error in judgment (or a lapse in ethics) comes to light. It has demonstrated that it values personal opinion over science and facts, and loyalty over competence.

Similarly to how it was for the After School Special kids, it’s left up to us to figure out how to keep ourselves safe from the ones who are supposed to keep us safe.

On Wednesday, President Trump held a press conference in which he updated Americans on the novel Coronavirus and how this administration was handling it. After allowing several infectious disease and public health experts on his newly formed task force to speak briefly, he contradicted much of what they said by downplaying the severity and the inevitable spread of the virus in the U.S.

He then announced that he was appointing Vice President Mike Pence to head up the task force. “He’s very good and I think — and he’s really very expert at the field,” Trump said about Pence, who has no health care background, who is not a fan of science, and who has had perilous public health failures such as failing to respond in a timely manner to an HIV crisis in his home state of Indiana.

One can’t forget, either, that Pence once wrote this in an op-ed: “Time for a quick reality check. Despite the hysteria from the political class and the media, smoking doesn’t kill.”

Apparently in an effort to prevent contradictory statements, the Trump administration has instructed experts such as Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, not to speak to the public or the press about the Coronavirus without clearance from the White House.

If nothing else, the Coronavirus press conference served as a reminder that we can’t be sure that anyone in the Trump administration will keep us safe from a potential U.S. outbreak of the Coronavirus.

Come to think of it, neither is anyone keeping us safe from a treacherous Russian president who manipulates our president as if he were a marionette; or from election tampering; or from financial ruin if we have an expensive illness; or from unfair or injurious treatment if we’re a member of a marginalized group; or from the corruption in our own government and its impact on how our laws are interpreted and obeyed (or ignored).

While many aghast Americans place their hopes in the 2020 election to save us from this fire, others continue to say that they do, in fact, feel safer under Trump. They are the people who think Stephen Miller’s immigration policies are the best thing since sliced bread. They are the people who keep believing that their coal mining jobs will come back. They are the people whom Trump assures, “We won’t let them take away your guns.” And they are the evangelical fundamentalists who are willing to hand over their integrity in exchange for the pandering that they have convinced themselves means that Trump really has their backs.

They are the people who, through their enabling of this out-of-control and inept leader, hold a share of the blame for making the rest of us a little less safe.

Coronavirus: “You’re supposed to keep us safe,” Sen Kennedy to Chad Wolf – Appropriation hearing | C-SPAN/Sense in That [2020-02-25]

Trump frustrated by CDC’s coronavirus severity warning |
CBS This Morning [2020-02-27]

Category: John Kennedy (R-La.)

* Erik’s Editorial: The Guilty Parties Who Put American Democracy At Risk In The Name Of Donald Trump

Editorial: “You’re Supposed to Keep Us Safe:” When Life Imitates an ABC After School Special