All posts by Dr. ESP

All Medals Are Not Alike

Random Thoughts, Uncategorized

I watched Sheldon sitting so proud in the White House when we gave Miriam the Presidential Medal of Freedom. That’s the highest award you can get as a civilian. It’s the equivalent of the Congressional Medal of Honor, but civilian version.  It’s actually much better because everyone gets the Congressional Medal of Honor, they’re soldiers. They’re either in very bad shape because they’ve been hit so many times by bullets or they are dead. She gets it and she’s a healthy, beautiful woman. And they’re rated equal, but she got the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

~Draft Dodger and Convicted Felon Donald Trump

Al Lipphardt, national commander of the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) responded to the above quote as follows.

These asinine comments not only diminish the significance of our nation’s highest award for valor, but also crassly characterizes the sacrifices of those who have risked their lives above and beyond the call of duty.

To understand Lipphardt’s outrage, one need only look at three elements associated with each of these awards:  the eligibility criteria, process by which the medal is awarded and the benefits accrued by recipients.

ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA

Congressional Medal of Honor (Public Law 88-77)

Recipients must distinguish themselves conspicuously by gallantry and intrepidity, risking a loss of life above and beyond the call of duty.

The act of valor must occur during one of three circumstances:

    • While engaged in action against an enemy of the United States.
    • While engaged in military operations involving conflict with an opposing force.
    • While serving with friendly foreign forces engaged in an armed conflict against an opposing armed force in which the United States is not a belligerent party.

Presidential Medal of Freedom (Executive Order 11085)

Especially meritorious contribution to:

    • the security or national interests of the United States, 
    • world peace, or
    • cultural or other significant public or private endeavors.

PROCESS

Congressional Medal of Honor (U.S. Department of Defense)

Presidential Medal of Freedom (Executive Order 11515)

Bestowed by decision of the president of the United States to any person recommended to the President for award of the Medal or any person selected by the President upon their own initiative.

BENEFITS

Congressional Medal of Honor (U.S. Department of Defense)

  • A monthly $1,406.73 pension from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).
  • A 10-percent increase in retired pay, not to exceed the 75 percent maximum, for enlisted recipients who retire with 20 or more years of Military Service.
  • A special Medal of Honor travel and identification card signed by the Secretary of the Army. This entitles recipients who are not on active duty and not military retirees to utilize space-available military air transportation.
  • Uniform privileges which allow recipients to wear their uniforms at any time or place they choose, unlike other military personnel or retirees.
  • An issued Department of Defense identification card for recipients and their eligible dependents who are not on active duty and military retirees. The card authorizes military commissary, Post Exchange, and theater privileges. All of the services, consistent with Department of Defense policy, authorize use of morale, welfare, and recreation activities, including honorary club membership without dues.
  • Children of Medal of Honor recipients are not subject to quotas if they are qualified and desire to attend the U.S. military academies.
  • Invitations to attend Presidential inaugurations and accompanying festivities. Military recipients and those who are civil servants have traditionally been authorized administrative absence instead of chargeable leave to attend.
  • A special engraved headstone for deceased recipients of the Medal of Honor (provided by VA).
  • Accorded on base billeting commensurate with the prestige associated with the Medal of Honor.

Presidential Medal of Freedom (Tradition)

  • All-expense paid trip to the White House induction ceremony.
  • Unless, if awarded by Donald Trump, one free trip to the Mar-a-Lago omelet bar.

Based on the awardees during his term in office, Donald Trump knows he is lying when he says the Presidential Medal of Freedom is better than the Congressional Medal of Honor.   On September 11, 2020, Trump awarded a well-vetted and deserved Medal of Honor to Sergeant Major Thomas Payne.  After his company liberated 38 hostages being held in Kirkuk Province, Iraq, Payne left his secure position and entered the compound multiple times resulting in the release of 37 additional hostage.  In contrast, five days following the January 6, 2011 attack on the U.S. Capitol, Trump presented the Medal of Freedom to Congressman Jim Jordan, whose contribution to a public endeavor was his ability to outrun many of his colleagues during the armed insurrection.

A medal ceremony nine days before leaving the Oval Office suggests Trump considered a second career in TV, this time as the host of a game show.  However, counter to the tradition on shows such as “The Price is Right,”  on Trump’s “It’s Not a Lie If You Believe It,” the host giving the “parting gift” (probably labeled the Your Favorite President’s Medal of Whatever) is a bigger loser than any unsuccessful contestant.

For what it’s worth.
Dr. ESP

The Deep Judiciary

Politics

The federal bureaucracy has a mind of its own. Federal employees are often ideologically aligned—not with the majority of the American people –but with one another, posing a profound problem for republican government, a government “of, by, and for” the people. As Donald Devine, Dennis Kirk, and Paul Dans write in Chapter 3, “An autonomous bureaucracy has neither independent constitutional status nor separate moral legitimacy.”

~Project 2025/Page 20

As you know, this is what the MAGAverse has labeled “the deep state.”  Even if you believe this (air quotes) “profound problem,” they propose replacing 50,000 merit-based jobs across the executive branch with (ready for this?) their OWN federal employees who are ideological aligned–not with the majority of the American people–but with one another. And the ideological bent of this new regime is neither of, by, or for the people.  It will promote and implement whatever Donald Trump and his cadre of oligarchs (domestic and foreign) believe is good for Americans.

What those who ask, “How bad could this be?” do not realize, there is a living, breathing example of exactly how this will play out.  The former president and the Federalist Society created the equivalent of a MAGA ideological deep state in the judiciary where the Constitution be damned if it does not serve the needs of Donald J. Trump.  The media have done an adequate job of covering efforts by the Supremes to opine in Trump’s favor when it comes to his criminal activities (inciting insurrection and stealing classified documents), but have paid little attention to how lower court justices have done exactly what Project 2025 proposes for the executive branch.

Exhibit A is the recent ruling by U.S. District Judge James Wesley Hendrix  in State of Texas v. Merrick Garland, et. al.  This ruling is so egregious that this past Friday, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell filed a 35-page amicus brief in favor of the defendants, drafted and certified by (drum roll) former Attorney General William P. Barr.  What could Hendrix have possibly said that motivated McConnell and Barr to side with Garland and other politically appointed officials in seven federal agencies?

The State of Texas claimed that much of the legislation passed during the first two-years of the Biden administration was unconstitutional because, in response to the COVID pandemic, then House Speaker and the Democratic Caucus authorized proxy voting by members of the lower chamber.  The House Parliamentarian affirmed the rule change. Hendrix summarized the case in the first sentence of his opinion.

For over 235 years, Congress understood the Constitution’s Quorum Clause to require a majority of members of the House or Senate to be physically present to constitute the necessary quorum to pass legislation.

Based on his extra-sensory perception of what thousands of dead or retired members of the House of Representatives “understood,” he ruled:

The Court concludes that, by including members who were indisputably absent in the quorum count, the Act at issue passed in violation of the Constitution’s Quorum Clause.

Of course, there is just one problem.  The quorum clause in Article I, Section 5, Clause 1 reads:

Each House shall be the Judge of the Elections, Returns and Qualifications of its own Members, and a Majority of each shall constitute a Quorum to do Business.

Judge Hendrix, who claims to hold an “originalist” theory of the founding documents, or what I call the “Horton the elephant” philosophy best stated when the pachyderm avows “I said what I meant and I meant what I said,” interpreted the word “majority” as equivalent to “physically present.”  If there was any doubt the founding fathers implied such, why did they specify  “two-thirds of the members present” in Article I, Section 2: Powers of Impeachment and leave it out elsewhere.

In their amicus brief, McConnell and Barr correctly point out the controlling language, absent more specific instructions in Clause 1, is actually Clause 2.

Each House may determine the Rules of its Proceedings, punish its Members for disorderly Behaviour, and, with the Concurrence of two thirds, expel a Member.

Which raises the question, “Why, when the constitutional language is so clear about the authority of both houses of Congress to set their own rules, would a district judge ignore it to rule in favor of the plaintiff?”  Who benefits?  If higher courts agree with Judge Hendrix, several major accomplishments of the Biden/Harris administration, a record on which they proudly run, would be nullified.  Construction projects funded under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act could be halted.  Manufacturing facilities supported under the Chips and Science Act would remain unfinished.  Recently announced reductions in Medicare pharmaceutical costs and conservation projects would disappear.  I can hear it now.  Trump and his MAGA outlets would accuse Biden and Harris of “cheating” in order to achieve their socialist, communist and fascist agenda.

Once again, a 49-year-old Trump appointed judge, who either cannot read English or chose to ignore it, could spend another 20 years on the bench issuing more equally erratic decisions.  My question?  If Judge Hendrix can move McConnell and Barr to submit a 35-page brief, why wouldn’t voters make every effort to ensure federal judicial vacancies are filled by individuals who will not be members of a “deep judiciary” that “are often ideologically aligned—not with the majority of the American people—but with one another?”

For what it’s worth.
Dr. ESP

The Good, the Bad, and the Holy

Politics, Religion

On June 29, 2024, the last weekend of Gay Pride Month, the First Baptist Church of Fernandina Beach, Florida and Citizens Defending Freedom sponsored a parade and festival to “celebrate the Christian Heritage of America.”  In order to participate in the parade, float sponsors were required to sign a “Statement of Convictions.”  Tara Dunlop, a local business owner, raised in the Southern Baptist Church, objected to the reading of a City Council proclamation which described the event as “important and meaningful to peoples of all faiths.”  (Source: Fernandina Observer)

I felt saddened and concerned when I read the required Statement of Faith. The very narrow definition of Christianity excluded me and my business from sponsorship.  I, as a divorced person (according to the statement), am not the correct type of Christian to participate in this event.

Public pushback began when the local chapter of the American Legion Auxiliary, which had considered being a parade sponsor, withdrew its support. (Source: Fernandina Observer)

At the time it was being called the American Heritage parade that sounded like a faith and freedom theme, which would be a wonderful event for us to be involved with.  But then it morphed into what it is now and became the Christian Heritage parade. It was not an all-inclusive parade and did not include people from all walks of life.

Members of the community viewed the event as one more example of the Christian nationalist movement promoted by a growing number of elected officials and their constituents.  This concern led to a group of local citizens, led by former pastor Linda Hart Green, organizing a community discussion of “Church and State.”  I was honored to be a panelist and shared the three precepts on which I believe theocracy is inconsistent with the American experience.

  • From a historical perspective on the establishment clause of the First Amendment, the story of the 17th century migration by Europeans to the “New World” is about escaping religious persecution.  These “religious refugees” included Mennonites, Jesuits, Catholics, Protestants and Jews.
  • A recap of theocratic societies throughout history demonstrates, by their very nature, they always become repressive and exclusive.
  • What if the shoe was on the other foot?  What if a Muslin candidate for president echoed the words of House Speaker Mike Johnson, saying, “If you want to know my world view, read the Quran.”

The forementioned Tara Dunlop was also on the panel.  And while I thought my somewhat academic presentation added context to the discussion, I found Tara’s comments to be more powerful, especially when she told the audience.  “I see the Bible and the Constitution as two beautiful documents.  And those who try to mix them together, corrupt both.”  It piqued my curiosity.  Were there other evangelical voices sharing this message?

It did not take long to find the answer.  On Tuesday, a group called “Evangelicals for Harris” released an ad which began with an excerpt of a Billy Graham television speech in which he says, “Have you gone to the cross?  Lord, I have sinned and I’m sorry for my sin.”  It then switches to Donald Trump being asked, “Have you ever asked God for forgiveness?”  His reply, “I’m not sure I have.”  Even I, an agnostic of Jewish heritage, know evangelicals view God’s grace, forgiving the sinner, as one of his greatest gifts.  The ad ends with a screen which reads, “Is there any greater denial of Christ…than to say ‘I do not need his forgiveness?'”

Nothing about his crimes, adultery, policies or, as reported this morning, making $300,000 from hawking Bibles.  Those are the things that make a non-evangelical wonder, “Why do so many Christians still support Trump when everything he does violates the Jesus’ teachings?”  This was different.  Not only does he defy Jesus’ words, he denies his divinity.  I wanted to hear more, and registered for Wednesday night’s “Evangelicals for Harris” Zoom call.

Which brings me to the title of today’s post.  Of the 20 speakers, three caught my attention.  First, the bad.  Pastor Dwight McKissic justified his decision to vote for Kamala Harris as follows.

I’m no longer naive enough to believe voting GOP will protect traditional marriage or life in the womb. For 40 years I’ve given my vote to Republicans behind this ruse.  Won’t be fooled this time.  I have concluded that the better person and best-qualified person in this election between the two major party nominees is by far Madame Vice President Kamala Harris.

He made this decision because the RNC had removed the planks calling for a national abortion ban and overturning Obergefell v. Hodges from the party’s 2024 platform.  In other words, he seemed to be saying, if the GOP/MAGA  written policy would deny women the right to control their reproductive health and oppose marriage equality, “I would vote for the lying, cheating, immoral guy who wants to be a dictator of Day One.”  Now, I’ve always preached we should never malign someone for doing the right thing for the wrong reason, so I welcome McKissic’s vote for Harris.  But he does not strike me as someone who, if he got everything HE wanted, would care about MY individual freedom.

The “good news” (pun intended) was anchored by Christian author Latasha Morrison.

I am a person who is pro-life. I am a person that believes in life from the cradle to the grave. But I’ve seen this weaponized. I’ve seen this criminalized. I’ve seen women who have died, and because of that, I can no longer be a one-issue voter.

She added that, if Harris wins the election, she would be in the new president’s face every day advocating for what I believe.  Isn’t that exactly how democracy is supposed to work?  Isn’t that the difference between persuasion and dictating?

And finally, the holy.  To no one’s surprise, Billy Graham’s son and Trump sycophant Franklin Graham claimed “Evangelicals for Harris” had misled people using his father’s image in the advertisement.  He blamed the organization of aligning with liberals who “are using anything and everything they can to promote candidate Harris.”  Fortunately, this was not a consensus in the Graham family.  Jerushah Duford, the daughter of Billy Graham’s oldest offspring Virginia Graham Tchividjian, told the 40,000+ participants on the Zoom call that the aversion to Christianity by many young people is a direct result of the faith’s support for Donald Trump.  She explained the evolution of the evangelical movement this way.

These things happen slowly over time. First, people professing the Lord made excuses for [Trump’s] lack of kindness, then for the name-calling. Soon it was making excuses for assault. Then it became making excuses for January 6, and now making excuses for convicted assault and 34 felonies.

She closed with the following reiterating it is not what Trump does, but how Christians respond to it.

Voting Kamala, for me, is so much greater than policies. It’s a vote against another four years of faith leaders justifying the actions of a man who destroys the message Jesus came to spread, and that is why I get involved in politics.

I have no idea how much, if any, difference it will make in November.  I am relatively sure Trump will still garner a sizable majority of the white evangelical vote.  But as I wrote last Sunday, it will make a difference on January 20th.  As you know, I do not share Latasha’s or Virginia’s belief in a divine source of grace, but grace is a universal concept and a path to reconciliation in what will hopefully be a new era in American politics.

For what it’s worth.
Dr. ESP

Hmm!

Culture

Truth, if rejected, is found to be false.  Facts, if rejected, are said to be incorrect…Truth is determined by the inquirer’s intention; facts by the inquirer’s outcome.

No truth has been changed by applying further knowledge.  Many a fact, however, has been discarded when proven incorrect.

Jon Huer/Tenure for Socrates

Synchronicity is alive and well this Saturday morning.

During an interview on  MSNBC’s “The Weekend,” co-host Michael Steele asked former New Jersey Republican governor Christine Todd Whitman (a Harris supporter) why Donald Trump still holds on to 45 to 47 percent of the American electorate.  Whitman replied, as I believe Huer would have.  Donald Trump has been “their truth” for a decade, and it is hard for people to admit their truth might be wrong.  In the previous segment, Representative Joe Neguse (D-CO), when asked how the new-found enthusiasm and excitement around the Harris/Walz ticket would translate into votes, he talked about the more than 200,000 new volunteers who signed up since Kamala Harris announced her candidacy.  The intersection of those two answers is what triggered today’s post.

Quantity and quality are two different things.  Volunteers talk to family, friends and neighbors.  They also knock on strangers’ doors or engage them at public events.  For many of these individuals, Donald Trump and the MAGA agenda may still be “their truth.”  They will not be swayed by telling them, “You know, Trump has been lying to you about the economy, immigration and crime.”  First, volunteers would be replacing “their truth” with “my truth.”  Second, as Whitman suggested, people do not want to be told “their truth” is wrong.

New truths come not from external sources, but from within.  So, the question is, “How do we get voters to create their own new truth that Harris/Walz would be better, not only for America, but for them personally?”  This explains why Huer provides a more likely path to conversion when he says, “Many a fact, however, has been discarded when proven incorrect.”  What can you say to someone willing to listen that will get them to say to themselves, “Hmm, if that’s a fact, maybe I need to reconsider what I believe, my truth.”

In several recent posts, I have provided examples, largely from Project 2025, that are provable facts.  If Head Start is eliminated, families with young children will face $6,800 a year in childcare expenses.  The two-bracket income tax proposal will reward the wealthy and punish middle class families.  Mass deportation of migrant workers will further increase food prices.  However, these are things that were most apparent to me.  Volunteers must be prepared to respond on issues that are at the top of the list of the people they want to influence.

Let me give you one example how this might play out.

VOLUNTEER:  I can see you’re worried about the future.  Anything in particular?

VOTER:  I’m worried that, if Harris is president, she will take the country deeper and deeper into debt.  Yesterday, I got an email from my congressman who said, “Our national debt officially hit $35 TRILLION. If families across #FL04 are required to live within their means, then the federal government should do the same.” I think he’s right. [NOTE: The quote is an actual post from my favorite MAGA congressman Aaron Bean.]

VOLUNTEER:  We all recognize the need for government to live within its means.  But Project 2025 says that the federal government should be debt-free.  But to suggest families do that is just not correct.  Don’t we have mortgages?  Car loans?  Student loans?  Outstanding medical bills?  When a family budgets each year, they include loan payments in their calculations.  The president and Congress have to do the same thing.

VOTER:  Hmm?  Doesn’t that mean the annual payments increase as the debt goes up?

VOLUNTEER:  You’re referring to what is called “debt service” and you are correct.  Do you think Donald Trump will be better at that than Kamala Harris?

VOTER:  Yes.

VOLUNTEER:  That was not the case when he was president.  In four years, according to U.S. Treasury records, the debt increased by $6.7 trillion, more than any one-term president ever.  And over $4.0 trillion of that is due to the Trump tax cuts which mostly went to the wealthiest Americans and large corporations.  Harris supports making those who have benefited most from doing business in America pay their fair share while Project 2025 proposes even more tax cuts for the same people who got the benefit last time.

VOTER:  Hmm?  I’m not sure I’m convinced.

VOLUNTEER:  That’s okay.  I just appreciate you giving me a chance to tell you why I’m so excited about America’s future under a Harris/Walz administration.  If it’s okay, I’d like to give you this brochure which has some links to confirm what we talked about and how future President Harris proposes to make it better.  Thank you for your time.

Fact-based.  Civil.  Respectful.  The issue is irrelevant.  It’s the VIBE.  Even if the voter still doesn’t like Harris, maybe he or she will still like the volunteer.  Which is one more “Hmm” moment.  Gee, this Harris supporter isn’t the radical socialist they’re painted to be.

It may not help on November 5th, but it will make a difference on January 20th.  I am betting voters who have these kinds of encounters with Harris volunteers are not going to believe the election was stolen or support an unconstitutional or violent effort to overturn the election.

For what it’s worth.
Dr. ESP

Willie Sutton Rides Again

Politics

The answer to all your questions is MONEY!

Don Ohlmeyer/Former NBC West Coast President

This quote is most often used in relation to sports.  It made the news cycles again last week when the NFL, after claiming they were reinventing the kickoff for player safety, announced a plan to expand the regular season from 17 to 18 games.  At 17 games, the playoffs are already a war of attrition.  The answer of course, as Ohlmeyer said, is money.  Despite the fact half the squad may be on injured reserve, replacing a third pre-season game with one that determines playoff contenders is a no-brainer, figuratively for  the owners, literally for the players.

However, sports has no monopoly proving Ohlmeyer’s theory correct.  I realized that when I read “Does Trump even want to win?” by Washington Post columnist Jim Geraghty (August 5, 2024).  Geraghty presented a laundry list of behaviors, most recently his attacking Georgia governor Brian Kemp and his wife, that he suggested was the exact opposite of someone serious about winning an election.

  • “Trump is laying the groundwork for another election conspiracy theory and another set of excuses if he loses the state of Georgia in November.”
  • “Maybe it’s a sign Trump is panicked because switching Biden for Harris couldn’t have gone much better for Democrats.”
  • “Saturday night was just the seemingly billionth example that at any given moment, Trump cannot prioritize anything…”
  • He knows “…reporters are drawn to conflict, and ‘Trump vs. other Republicans’ is always a storyline that excites them.”
  • “It is fair to wonder whether Trump’s heart is in his check-the-box statements about the policies he intends to enact.”

But Geraghty waits until the final paragraph to launch the most damning possibility.

Trump had a fairly easy path to victory against Biden, and beating Harris is still very much within the realm of possibility. But he just doesn’t seem interested in staying focused and putting in the work. Great pick, Republicans.

Which is where Don Ohlmeyer comes back into the picture.  The question is, “If Donald Trump no longer has ‘a fairly easy path’ to  the White House,  does he have an easier path to achieve some other goal?”  Once again, the answer to Geraghty’s question, “Does Trump even want to win,” is MONEY.

Consider the following.  Much is being made about the personnel in a second Trump administration, and how the Earth One guardrails will be gone.  However, those best at greasing the skids for the “big grift,” Jared and Ivanka, will not be there either.  And their replacements, courtesy of the Heritage Foundation HR office, will not have Donald’s finances as their priority.  They will be reporting to the likes of Heritage Foundation president Kevin Roberts and Silicon Valley deep pocket Peter Thiel who have embedded their political operative JD Vance to be the COO of their enterprise to take permanent control of the federal government.

So Trump, if president, will have to serve as both CEO and COO of Trump DC, Inc.  There’s just one problem.  He no longer has a Pennsylvania Avenue hotel where foreign governments can reserve rooms for imaginary guests.  He has already tapped out the market for inflated memberships at Mar-a-Lago.  What’s left?  Continuing to scam the same small donors who show up at his rallies.  The same ones who send their hard-earned money to pay for Trump’s legal fees.  The same one’s who buy into the fear about armed IRS agents and transgender people destroying America.  In other words, the avenue to another financial windfall as president is less certain than it was eight years ago.

Which explains why, while Harris and Walz are barnstorming seven swing states, Trump is holding a single rally this week in Montana, a state he won by  20.4 percent in 2016 and 16 points in 2020.  Call it the Willie Sutton campaign strategy.  I’m sure if you asked him, “Why are you going to Montana,” Trump would reply, “That’s where the small donors who think I’m the second coming are. And all I have to do, is lie, which, as you know, comes second nature to me.  And they send me money.”

All this bodes well for Harris/Walz.  It does not, however, mean they are assured victory or can take their foot off the accelerator, whether gas or electric.  In Trump’s absence, the source of incoming missiles will more likely be Vance and Trump campaign surrogates.  Yesterday the Harris campaign demonstrated they have stocked the armory and are ready to fire back.  Attacks directed at Walz for his response to the Minneapolis riots after George Lloyd’s murder were immediately countered with audio of Trump praising the governor at the time.  And efforts to “swift-boat” Walz’ National Guard service were met with “swift” fact checking including letters from the Minnesota National Guard which disproved the false claims. 

This is not the Democratic party we are used to.  Efficient, effective and on message.  In 89 days, we will know the only thing that matters, whether it made a difference to voters.

For what it’s worth.
Dr. ESP