I wouldn’t want to be Mark Meadows

In a predictable move. After all we all knew it was coming. The Jan 6th commission has referred Meadows to the DOJ for Contempt of congress.

It doesn’t matter where you come down on the whole Jan 6th inquiry, you have to admit this guy is between a rock and a hard place.

He had been cooperating with the commission but then apparently felt he had to stop because the information they were requesting was coming up against executive privilege issues that Trump retains.

Trump has filed a lawsuit to protect executive privilege. That puts Meadows in a bind. If he continues to cooperate with the Jan 6th commission providing all the requested information and then Trumps executive privilege is upheld. Meadows could find that he’s violated the law on that side.

On the other hand by defying the Subpoena he’s pissing off congress.

The NPR article makes reference to the text messages Meadows received, calling them “Explosive”. Meh, I’d call them circumstantial.

Yeah, if you wanted to infer that Trump was at the heart of the Jan 6th event at the capital you could read them as the smoking gun. But if, as Trump maintains, he wasn’t coordinating and directing the Jan 6th event at the capital, that he’d only told folks to go and protest…

Then the text messages are nothing more than people sending texts without thinking about parsing out the language so that it could pass future legal tests. In fact the messages could be read as simply, informational and requests that Trump speak to the crowds to calm them down.

With the exception of the one talking about needing “aggressive strategy” most of the other messages could be taken to say, “Hey, Trump needs to remind the crowd about the rule of law. Protests are fine as long as they do not result in violence, destruction, fires, or looting.”

In fact if Trump had said something to that effect from the steps of the capital surrounded by security and police establishing crowd control, he would have thoroughly embarrassed and humiliated Pelosi again.

That being said, Pelosi and her cronies would have pointed to Trump being a leader as proof that he was at the bottom of the event in the first place and congress would have gone all rabid about it too. Either way, we’d probably be in the same situation. That’s the problem when abject hatred taints your world view.

I’m not saying the Trump didn’t incite the crowd. To what extent, will be determined by the courts. I think it’s pretty clear that he had a hand in what happened. I think that it spiraled out of control, and once the monster of a mob is let loose it’s really tough to control what the monster does.

We as a nation knew what mobs looked like, we’d seen it in Portland and Seattle for months. Trump, and everyone else should have known better.

As an aside, I thought about going to DC.

I could have, and I certainly had the time to do it. My reason for not going was that I’d paid attention to the lessons of Portland and Seattle. My other reason was that it was all becoming too about Trump.

I was then, and still am angry, not about the election results, but about the dismissal of the various voting irregularities that were reported in states across the country.

There was, in my opinion, enough circumstantial evidence to warrant investigations and hearings about those irregularities. I wasn’t particularly interested in overturning the election, I am far more interested in making sure that such irregularities never happen again.

It’s my opinion, that “The Big Lie” could have been easily deflated if the Supreme Court had publicly and with due seriousness addressed the issues raised and then made recommendations based on their findings.

For four solid and interminable years our nation was subjected to investigation after investigation of what turned out to be largely circumstantial evidence of wrongdoing on the part of Trump. Yep, there were some things that weren’t circumstantial, they were fact. Trump is supposed to answer for those things and the cases are winding their way through the legal system now.

I had expectation that on issues of voter fraud or irregularities, the same level of investigatory diligence would be applied. Hopefully not four long years worth, but at least some public display of diligence.

It frankly appeared that since folks got what they wanted in Biden, they were willing to ignore, and allow the courts to ignore, circumstantial evidence. Why was it okay to pursue circumstantial evidence on the one hand and ignore the same kind of evidence on the other? What it seemed was happening was that since Trump said it, it was inconsequential. He was just being a sore loser.

Yeah, did you expect anything less? Regardless, you have to take these allegations seriously, isn’t that the lesson Congress taught us over the preceding four years?

For me personally, the quick and apparently casual dismissals of concerns, is what made me angry.

I accepted that Biden was President, I didn’t think it was a good idea, but it was expected. Trump had caused a severe polarization in the electorate. In virtually every similar historic situation the response has always been the same. The electorate chooses the opposite pole.

Had I gone to DC, I would have been standing on the steps of The Supreme Court exercising my Constitutionally guaranteed right to demand redress. I’d have been holding a sign that simply said, “Justices, I respectfully ask you to do your job.”

I wouldn’t have entered or forced my way into any building. I’d have complied with law enforcement to move or remain in a particular area. I would never have threatened anyone, that’s just not appropriate. I’m a law abiding citizen, and you cannot demand investigations or that the law be upheld if you’re going to turn around and violate the law.

After Jan 6th, I was very glad I wasn’t in Washington that day.

See I’m a moron, I could see myself being invited into a building or following a crowd that appeared to be invited in and in total innocence, I’d have found myself in all kinds of trouble.

I’ve been to Washington DC once in my life. Most of the buildings were closed for the holidays, (we were there over a Christmas trip). But I got to walk around the monuments. I stood in front of The White House and was in awe. I stood in the Lincoln Memorial and I took the time to read the inscriptions. I walked the length of the reflecting pool and everywhere else we were allowed to walk. It was a magical and great experience. My only regret was that The Smithsonian wasn’t open. I’d have loved being lost there for as long as they’d have me.

As I was considering making the trip to Washington DC prior to the Jan 6th event. I was also planning to revisit those sites, and see the Vietnam Memorial.

Here’s the thing some people apparently have problems with.

I could have gone there, expressed my opinion by protesting, and then duty discharged, taken pride in being an American wandering the monuments and reading the words written by our forefathers.

I would have been super excited to go read with my own eyes, the actual Constitution of the United States. And yes, The Smithsonian would have had to ask me to leave at closing time.

So you see, after the Jan 6th event… I shuddered to think how my patriotism and innocence could have gotten me into a lot of trouble.

Perhaps it’s my belief in the law and The Constitution that makes me feel sorry for Meadows. He’s in a tough spot. Just because he worked for Trump doesn’t mean he’s inherently a bad person, nor does it mean he’s a good person. It just means that he in fact, worked for Trump.

If Meadows broke the law then he should suffer the consequences. Right now, I don’t think he’s breaking the law by restricting access to material he believes to be protected under executive privilege. He’s trying to honor the requirements of two laws that are in conflict. That’s a tough position to be in.

Meadows Attorney says it well;

“He has fully cooperated as to documents in his possession that are not privileged and has sought various means to provide other information while continuing to honor the former president’s privilege claims,” Terwillger said in a statement.

Until Trumps suit is decided, (a lower court ruled Trumps claim invalid and Trump unsurprisingly, is taking it to The Supreme Court,) Meadows is at an impasse. One that cannot be resolved until The Supreme Court makes its decision.

I think it’s unfair that Congress is dropping the hammer on Meadows when essentially he’s bound by law. Yes, Biden has said that executive privilege doesn’t apply. But is that legal? I ask honestly because there’s supposed to be a separation between the Executive and Legislative branches of the government. Isn’t the Supreme Court the arbiter of these issues?

I also feel for all the people who may have been caught up in the events of Jan 6th.

I could so easily see myself in their shoes. No, I wouldn’t have been climbing over walls, crawling through windows, or forcing doors open. But I wouldn’t have thought for an instant walking through an open door to The Capital Rotunda with guards standing on either side.

Hell, I’d have stayed in the roped areas and as long as I didn’t see or hear yelling or breaking glass I’d have been blithely ignorant that I was breaking the law. I would have been overjoyed to be standing in the rotunda looking at the pictures and art and feeling so privileged to be there in that place. If I was asked to leave, my response would have been, “Yes officer, which exit should I take?”

That’s one of the reasons that I think the whole congressional committee is wrong and that they’re being very heavy handed. Sure, there were people who clearly broke the law and they should suffer the consequences. But the Jan 6th committee has cast a very wide net, and I’m sure that many of the people they’ve terrorized, were people just like me.

Make no mistake, having Federal Marshalls banging on your door when you believe you’ve done nothing wrong would be a terrifying thing. Especially if the media reports labeled you as a white supremacist who was involved in an insurrection, or treason. Those are really serious charges! One of them, I believe, still carries the death penalty.

The Marshalls drag you off to prison. You and by extension, your family are labeled white supremacists, or terrorists, and there’s nothing you can do to defend your reputation or your family from the vengeance of the mob…

That would absolutely break me. Especially, given that I’d have had no malice, no guilt, and I’d have been sharing pictures of those hallowed halls describing my presence there as a joy and privilege.

Heavy handed justice often is not justice.

A Rasmussen Poll has found that 63% of Democrats support voter ID.

There’s an article from Breitbart here The original Rasmussen Report is here.

I personally think that voter ID is a good thing and support it.

But as I was thinking about the way things get done in this country. Perhaps it’s time for a little reverse psychology.

If members of the other voting blocks (ie Non-Democrats) were to simply make it known that they thought “Fair is Fair”, and that in the next election and specifically in the 2024 election they were going to resort to dirty tricks to win the election…

You know, things like abusing mail in ballots. Voting in multiple districts where they do not reside. Buying homeless folks a meal in exchange for them voting “correctly”. “Helping”people fill out their ballots. Offering iPads to deep Blue lower economic districts, etc.

I guarantee that voter ID would be enacted inside a year. Racism and voter suppression, be damned. Of course we’d have to have the representatives of the other voting blocks in congress and at the state level screaming bloody murder about the unfair exclusion that such laws create.

Even if voter ID laws didn’t make it onto the books, if the other voter blocks were to actually follow through with all of the above shenanigans the court cases could fowl up the elections for months. It would no-doubt result in Vote ID laws being implemented.

My Mother says, “Two Wrongs don’t make a right,” maybe in this case she’s incorrect.

My Mother is also adamantly against voter ID laws. Her reasoning for this would be sound if there were a lot more people 90 years and older who hadn’t ever worked, or driven, or had a bank account, or utilities, or gone to the doctor, or written a check at a grocery store, or gotten a payday loan, or received a western union moneygram, or, or, or, or, or.

If there were hundreds of thousands of people like that who were citizens of this country then I’d agree with her. But there aren’t. The number of people who would be excluded from voting on those grounds is vanishingly small.

The number of illegal immigrants, or unvetted immigrants from the Middle East and elsewhere, who are not citizens and therefore shouldn’t be voting, on the other hand is rather substantial.

Given the implementation of RealID where the holder of the ID is designated as having met the RealID requirements and is either a citizen of non-citizen. It seems to me that all the bullshit about voter id has no legs to stand on.

If one were required to produce a passport to vote. I’d be against that. Passports are expensive and that expense would place an undue burden a large percentage of citizens who are eligible to vote.

That being said, If someone asked me personally to produce ID to vote, I’d happily hand them my driver’s license and my passport.

In state like California where there is no voter ID requirement. The polling people get pissy if you hand them your ID with your ballot. I had a lady in San Diego practically throw my driver’s license back at me.

I was dropping off my mail in ballot from another district at a polling place. I thought at least due to the irregularity of that circumstance that someone would check the name and address on the ballot against the name and address on my ID.

Nope! the lady very testily told me to put my ballot in the box marked “mail in”.

This was in the 2016 election and at the time I thought, “Wow, it would be really easy to stuff the ballot box.”

As a law abiding citizen, I’d never do such a thing, but I was surprised at the lax security. In that election, I’d voted for neither of the presidential candidates. I had however voted for a number of measures and local candidates that were important in my community.

At the time, I remember wondering if there was some way I should make the Presidential candidate section so that it was clear I had meant not to cast a vote for any of the candidates. I’ve still never gotten a good answer about that one.

The Rasmussen poll is interesting.

If 63% of the Democrats polled and 88% of the Republicans polled, and 74% of the Unaffiliated voters polled all are in favor of voter ID, why hasn’t it been implemented? Those percentages are better than the last presidential election. Obviously a large percentage of voters agree on something.

I wonder if Voter ID could be put to the people in the next California election?

I’d make a drink, and popcorn every night listening to the media lose their minds over a ballot measure like that.

Talk about an entertaining reality TV show…

It’s Winter!

The winds are gusty, the sky is cloudy, there’s a slight drizzle, and snow is expected later in the morning which should last into the early afternoon.

The dog hates gusty winds and he’s hiding out in his “room”. I expect that when he sees snow falling he’ll change his mind.

In his world, snow trumps gusty winds.

I’ve pulled out towels to dry him off. I’m guessing that he’s going to be running in and out all day. His winter coat isn’t fully developed. So he’s going to play outside as long as he can stand the cold, then come inside to warm up. Yeah, I live with the equivalent of a 4 year old human child.

Later in the year he’ll prefer to be outside for hours on end.

I admit that watching him zoom in the snow always makes me smile and laugh. He’s so full of joy when the magical white stuff falls from the sky.

I hope the rain doesn’t make you blue. Stay warm and dry, and if you’re out drive carefully.