Political Discourse 2020

  According to the President and CEO of the National Constitution Center, Jeffrey Rosen, a constitutional crisis  occurs “if a president refuses to carry out an authoritative opinion of the Supreme Court.” Adam Liptak provides a more expansive view, defining a constitutional crisis as “generally the product of presidential defiance of laws and judicial rulings. It is not binary: It is a slope, not a switch. It can be cumulative, and once one starts, it can get much worse.” (New York Times, 2-12-2025). Consider Trump’s response to federal judge James Boasberg who temporarily blocked the removal by the Trump administration of Venezuelan migrants under the Alien and Sedition Act of 1798, which his administration is stonewalling. In Trump’s eloquent phrasing, the judge is a “Radical Left Lunatic” who should be impeached (Huffington Post, 5-20, 2025). This evoked a response from Chief Justice John Roberts that “for more than two centuries, it has been established that impeachmen...

  Fact: Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022. It was assumed that Ukraine would fall in short order. Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelensky was offered safe passage by the United States out of Ukraine. His legendary-like response: “I need ammunition, not a ride.” In point of contrast, then former President Trump called the initial Russian incursion into eastern Ukraine “genius.” It was nothing less than “wonderful.”   The accolade was based on giving homage to Putin’s propagandistic acumen in his admiration of the Russian president’s manipulation of “alternative facts” in masking Putin’s colonial driven masterstroke.     Zelensky’s courage reinforced Ukraine’s resolve to take on the juggernaut from the east in a brutal ground and air war. The Ukrainians have fought valiantly over the past three years in a long, vicious stalemate. Combining their own heroic military efforts with the massive support provided by a broad array of European nations, the U.S. and...

Fact: Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022.   It was assumed that Ukraine would fall in short order. Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelensky was offered safe passage by the United States out of Ukraine. His legendary-like response: “I need ammunition, not a ride.” In point of contrast, then former President Trump called the initial Russian incursion into eastern Ukraine “genius.”  It was nothing less than “wonderful.”  The accolade was based on giving homage to Putin’s propagandistic acumen in his admiration of the Russian president’s manipulation of “alternative facts” in masking Putin’s colonial driven masterstroke.   Zelensky’s courage reinforced Ukraine’s resolve to take on the juggernaut from the east in a brutal ground and air war. The Ukrainians have fought valiantly over the past three years in a long, vicious stalemate. Combining their own heroic military efforts with the massive support provided by a broad array of European nations, the U.S. an...