Category: Yemen

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

US White House upside down (public domain).

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/

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* Erik’s Editorial: Donald Trump bans migrants from 6 countries (too Muslim), Erik Heels bans Fox News (too conservative) and The Young Turks (too liberal), Why Trump needs pets (2017-03-08)

Day 48 of Donald Trump, the 45th and worst President of the United States.

By Erik J. Heels

First published 3/8/2017; FailedPols.com; publisher: GiantPeople.

Pudge the cat.

Muslim Ban 2.0

On 03/06/17, Donald Trump issued (minus the photo op and speech) his Muslim ban 2.0 as Executive Order 13780 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_executive_actions_by_Donald_Trump). What puzzles me about most of Trump’s executive orders is that it is easy to figure out who is HARMED by the order (those from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen), but it is very difficult to figure out who BENEFITS from the order. Racists? White supremacists? The alt-right? All of the above? You tell me.

In any event, Hawaii has already sued, seeing a temporary restraining order (TRO) before the executive order goes into effect on 03/16/17 (http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/07/politics/hawaii-travel-ban-lawsuit/).

Erik Heels seeks to moderate the Failed Pols project

It is extraordinarily difficult to get principled content on political issues. Since I started the Failed Pols project (https://www.failblog.com/), I have been consuming a lot of news from many sources in a multitude of formats.

But one day after Trump’s latest “travel ban,” I felt compelled to block (i.e. unsubscribe from) both Fox News (https://www.youtube.com/user/FoxNewsChannel) and The Young Turks (https://www.youtube.com/user/TheYoungTurks) for being too far right and left, respectively. Fox News and The Young Turks are guilty of the same sin (albeit on different ends of the political spectrum), namely sensationalizing and trivializing the news for ratings.

It should come as no surprise that Fox News focuses on entertainment instead of substance, since it is part of the Fox Entertainment Group (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fox_News). But the real problem with Fox is that is has no real competition on the right. So Fox News focuses on short pithy segments designed for the short-attention-span market. Notably, there are no hour-long news programs on Fox. (NB both the BBC Newshour and the PBS NewsHour on the left.)

And The Young Turks does the same thing from the left.

So in an attempt to keep the coverage – shall we say – fair and balanced, I’ll be cutting out two of the most extreme viewpoints.

Why Trump Needs Pets

Trump strikes me as a mean-spirited individual. One who appears to have lied, cheated, and stolen his way to the top (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legal_affairs_of_Donald_Trump).

So when I was thinking about the caring people that I know, it occurred to me that most (if not all) of them have pets. And it turns out that the former Presidents of the United States in the top quartile had, on average, 10 pets (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_pets). In fact, all but one former POTUS (Polk) have owned pets.

So maybe that’s why Trump lacks compassion for human beings.

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