Early Political Rhetoric for the 2024 Campaign

Although it seems as though the 2024 presidential election has been going on for a long time, we don’t even know the names of all the major candidates yet. With the departure of Joe Biden and the entry of Kamala Harris into the race, the contest has suddenly become more exciting. I expect to write a lot about politics between now and November 5. but now seems a good time to collect a few ideas I have mostly expressed elsewhere.

I have already written about my initial reaction to the sudden rise of Kamala Harris, and I was delighted that I own KAMALA buttons left over from 2020. I look forward to having buttons that include the name of the Democratic vice presidential candidate as well, and I expect to be wearing some button daily throughout the campaign season.

The Trump campaign—and just about every Republican who has anything to say about Biden’s replacement—has been referring to Harris as a “DEI hire.” She is not the typical male WASP office seeker, of course, but her selection in 2020 was not a “hire.” Whatever her heritage, she is a very accomplished public servant. As a candidate, she is

                                                Democratic
                                                Enthusiastic and
                                                Intelligent

I have, on the other hand, described Trump as 

                                                Depraved
                                                Egotistical and
                                                Ignorant

One hopes that campaigning will rise above this level of rhetorical combat, though it is unlikely that Donald Trump’s rants will advance beyond his usual puerile remarks. (I took my own extended shots at Trump as a wretched person in “A Trump Alphabet,” a collection of poems perhaps unsuitable for children.)

There is now an official, albeit terse, GOP platform. And there is the Project 2025 tome from the Heritage Foundation. Each suggests what the nation may be in for should it foolishly elect Donald Trump to a second term. Rather than analyzing either of these declarations, I have written my take on the overall direction of Republican objectives. In “The GOP Program,” I argue that the party works to benefit the wealthy class, supports social issues not out of commitment but as a way to get votes, and attempts to manipulate the political system to its own benefit.

I like buttons and have designed many of them over the years. (One of my favorites from 2016 asked “How would Jesus vote?” I discovered, however, that my answer was not necessarily everyone else’s.) Anyway, after writing “The GOP Program,” I decided to design a button for the Republicans:

Alas, I doubt the Republicans will use my design

Netanyahu and the Legitimacy of the State of Israel

This paragraph led off a story from The Times of Israel a few days ago:

Responding to the ICJ [International Court of Justice] ruling that found Israeli presence in the territories to be illegal, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says: “The Jewish people are not occupiers in their own land—not in our eternal capital Jerusalem, not in the land of our ancestors in Judea and Samaria.”

The Netanyahu quote illustrates a common conception regarding the legitimacy of the State of Israel: Jews were given the land by God and have a perpetual claim on it. This charming nonsense should mean nothing in the twenty-first century, but Jews have done a fine job of selling this particular bill of goods.

Were it a principle of global politics that a people, however defined, have a perpetual claim on a piece of real estate, the Americas would now be governed by natives who inhabited the Western Hemisphere long before any Europeans landed on its shores. Likewise, the Aborigines of Australia would be governing that land. I hesitate to think who should be in power in Europe, Asia, and Africa. In short, the application of Israel’s principle of possession would lead to a very different twenty-first-century world. But Israel does not deserve unique treatment because its government claims that its god gave it the land.

Apologists for Israel indeed believe that Israel’s land should extend “from the River (Jordan) to the (Mediterranean) Sea,” though this phrase is usually associated with Palestinian partisans. This includes territory that has never been acknowledged as belonging to the State of Israel by the community of nations. Calling territory by ancient names (Judea and Samaria) is just so much propaganda.

Before the modern State of Israel was formed in 1948, none of the so-called Holy Land had been governed by Jews for two millennia. Jewish rule began centuries before, though that rule was not continuous. Moreover, the Israelites conquered people who already lived there. Should not the descendants of Philistines, Amalekites, and Canaanites govern the land now called the State of Israel?

Israel came into existence through the indulgence of existing nations, particularly the United Kingdom, for their own purposes. and by force of arms. Were prior occupation to confer legitimacy, the more recent occupation by Palestinians would seem more compelling than a Jewish occupation of two thousand years ago that, in any case, was overthrown by the power of Rome.

Given the long history of Jewish persecution, culminating in the atrocities of the Nazi regime, one can appreciate the Zionist dream of a Jewish state. But a state free of Jewish persecution does not demand a state ruled by Jews, let alone one that indulges in persecutions of its own supposedly sanctioned by God. If a Jewish state was somehow necessary, it could, in principle, be anywhere. If the State of Israel is a legitimate nation, it is so by virtue of conquest by the sword. Netanyahu should leave God and history out of it. The rest of the world doesn’t give a damn about his mythology.

Kamala for President

I was driving from Clifton Springs to Geneva yesterday when I heard on the radio that President Biden had decided to end his re-election bid and endorse Kamala Harris as the Democratic presidential candidate. Although I had been uncertain whether Biden should stay in the race, I found myself immediately relieved by the news. Subsequently heard commentary suggested that Harris was almost certain to replace Biden on the ticket. Interest quickly turned to who would become Harris’s running mate. No challenger for the top spot has emerged or is likely to do so, though there was a suggestion that Joe Manchin would like to replace Harris. (Manchin, an ex-Democrat, won’t get the nod even after hell freezes over.)

I was a supporter of Harris when she ran for the Democratic nomination in 2020. I was impressed by her prosecutor background and her sharp questioning in a Senate committee. She dropped out of the contest early, however, as she had difficulty distinguishing herself from her Democratic rivals. Her lack of success in 2020 seems of little relevance in 2024. I am eager to see her insightful and aggressive questioning directed at Donald Trump and J.D. Vance.

I don’t discard political buttons unless I have an excess supply of them. Today, I dug out my single KAMALA button, which I intend to wear today and perhaps every day until I obtain a Kamala-whoever button.

The Second Biden Post-Debate Test

President Biden held a news conference tonight at the conclusion of the NATO meeting in Washington, D.C. He faced reporters for about an hour without benefit of a teleprompter and without having been given the questions in advance. So, how did he do, and did he allay fears about his ability to win the election over Donald Trump?

In fact, his performance was better than his recent ABC interview and was orders of magnitude better than his debate performance against Trump. Has he allayed the fears of Democrats that Biden will not only lose but will also take many Democrats down with him? I don’t know.

Biden certainly made some gaffes, and his responses to questions were not always crisp. That said, he seemed like the Biden we’ve gotten used to, rather than the incoherent, bumbling old man of the recent presidential debate. Biden’s propensity for making verbal flubs is legendary. He was no more error-prone tonight than he has been over the many decades of his political career.

The president offered some opening remarks about the need for a strong NATO, and he attacked Trump on his willingness to abandon support for Ukraine. He cited recent good economic news and criticized Trump for his 10% tariff plan. He noted that fewer people are crossing our southern border. He touted his proposed framework to end the Gaza war.

Not surprisingly, several questions concerned Biden’s remaining on the top of the Democratic ticket. He admitted that there are other Democrats who would be strong candidates. Although he might have expected to be a one-term president, he decided to run for a second term because he’s had many successes but wanted to “complete the job.” (I have some Biden-Harris buttons that say “FINISH THE JOB.” We haven’t seen that message emphasized much yet, and I doubt that’s the best the campaign can do.) Biden made a few positive remarks about Vice President Harris, whom he would never have chosen if he had not thought she could handle the presidency. He suggested that convention deputies are free to vote for whomever they choose. (They aren’t at the moment.) He said that he was willing to take a neurological exam if a neurologist says that he needs one. As he has before, Biden expressed skepticism of polling, but he said that he would step down if polls definitively indicated that Democrats would lose if he did not.

Much of the news conference time was concerned with foreign policy issues. This was where Biden’s brilliance and experience shined. Trump could never put on such a display. He was asked about Ukraine, about relations with China, and about the Gaza war. His answers were thoughtful and occasionally surprising. When challenged about the use of American-supplied weapons against Russian territory, he asserted that his policy is based on recommendations by the military and intelligence communities. It wouldn’t make sense, he said, to attack Moscow. (That’s probably true, though it would be satisfying!) He gave a very long answer concerning Sino-American relations and the problem of China’s effective support of Russian aggression in Ukraine. Again, Donald Trump would only spout nonsense in response to the questions thrown at Trump. (Reporters should actually ask Trump some of those questions.)

Biden managed to throw in a few zingers related to domestic matters here and there. One of these: “Corporate greed is still at large.” Also, “when unions do better, we all do better.” He talked about Trump’s filling out his scorecard before he plays the hole. He took a swipe at the Supreme Court and at Project 2025. He cited favorably the button logo “Control guns, not girls.”

Generally, Joe Biden acquitted himself well tonight. I wrote this on Facebook earlier, however: “The question isn’t what Biden has done or will do but whether he can be an aggressive and effective campaigner.” I don’t know if Biden can pull that off. Personally, I am less concerned about Biden’s being a great president for another four years. I know that electing Donald Trump would be a disaster for the Republic.

Sunset in Clifton Springs

The picture above was taken at sunset from the solarium of the Spa Apartments. I have taken to going upstairs as the sun sets to enjoy the evening sky. The cloud in the picture hung over Clifton Springs suggesting how the Hindenburg might have looked had it overflew the village. The photograph is almost perfect, though it is marred by a reflection from the window on an adjacent wall. I didn’t notice the reflection when I took the picture.

The First Biden Post-Debate Test

 President Biden was interviewed earlier today by George Stephanopoulos, and the 22-minute unedited interchange was broadcast on ABC Television this evening. As I noted yesterday, this was an important test for Biden. Donald Trump declined to participate in a similar interview. He could afford to do so.

I think it fair to say that the president did not pass this crucial test with flying colors. I am reluctant to say he failed miserably, but I’m tempted.

We don’t expect the exuberance of Donald Trump from Joe Biden, of course, but Trump’s animation suggests a vigor that Biden’s performance did not.

At the beginning of the interview, Stephanopoulos asked about Biden’s debate performance. The president admitted that he had a bad night, that he was sick with a cold, and that he was distracted by Trump’s speaking after his opponent’s mic was shut off. Incredibly, Biden admitted that he has not watched video of the debate!

Stephanopoulos asked if Biden would take a cognitive test to reassure us of his mental competence. He responded that he is tested every day, by which he meant by his daily work as president. He gave no direct answer to Stephanopoulos’s question.

The president repeatedly spoke of his accomplishments in office and suggested briefly a few objectives for a second term—better health care and child care as well as tax reform, but his fundamental pitch was:

1. “I’m still in good shape.”
2. I know how to get things done.
3. Donald Trump is a pathological liar.
4. I beat Trump once; I’ll beat him again.

George Stephanopoulos asked Biden about his low poll numbers. Biden apparently doesn’t believe them. When asked what he would do if Democratic leaders came to him saying that he must step down. His response: that won’t happen.

Biden simply did not look like someone who would make a good president. His record is admirable, but he did not inspire confidence in his ability to continue executing the job of chief executive. He seems determined not to step down, however. When asked how he would feel if he lost and Democrats lost control of Congress. He said that he would feel that he did his best.

The question now: which two people should be on the 2024 Democratic ticket?

Thoughts on the Biden Candidacy

In light of Joe Biden’s appalling performance in the June 27 debate, Democrats are struggling with whether Biden should remain the party’s standard bearer. Although he is insisting publicly that he intends to continue his campaign, he has been somewhat less certain in private.

Donald Trump was leading in polls before the debate, and his lead has only increased after it. Although Kamala Harris does better than Biden against Trump in recent polling, she also trails the former president. She is, however, the most likely replacement should Biden bow out of the race. In that case, a new vice-presidential candidate would be needed.

As a Democrat who believes the survival of the Republic demands a Democratic victory in November, I am, as I am sure many or even most Democrats are, uncertain as to what Democrats should do at this critical juncture.

The problem, of course, is that it has become difficult to have confidence in Biden’s ability to do the job he is seeking. Even if you believe he has done a remarkable job in his first term and would have been even more successful had Republicans been willing to participate in effective governance, concern about Biden’s age, which has been his greatest liability, was only intensified by his dismal debate performance. Even if that performance was a fluke, it is impossible not to suspect that it presages sub-par performance in office.

In the 2020 campaign opposing a second Trump victory, Biden stepped forward as a seasoned, steady hand, albeit an elderly one. Many thought he would be—should be—a one-term president. It is rare, however, for a president, even a relatively unsuccessful one, to abjure another run for the nation’s highest office. Biden has not proved an exception to the rule.

If Biden does continue as a presidential candidate, he must shore up support among Democratic politicians, and he must reassure the public at large. He is working on the former task, spending more time with Democratic officeholders. Ultimately, the latter task is the more critical. Biden needs to display his competence in public. Presidential events are helpful—he bestowed two posthumous Medals of Honor on Union soldiers yesterday—but of greatest importance is displaying a command of issues in unscripted settings, settings analogous to a presidential debate. Tomorrow he is to be interviewed by ABC News. That will be important. But he also needs to hold press conferences where he must respond satisfactorily to spontaneous questions without the benefit of teleprompters.

I am not at all certain that Biden has the time to reassure the voting public or, in fact, whether he is competent to do so.

Given the rules of the party and the delegates pledged to the president, Biden can be replaced only if he chooses to step aside. His doing so remains unlikely, but may be becoming less unlikely.

Were Biden to bow out of the race, we would likely see an event not seen in America in years: a party convention whose outcome is not known in advance. That would assuredly add excitement to a campaign sorely in need of it. This assumes, of course, that an open convention would be a well-run, civil affair and not a donnybrook.

Should the Democrats change their ticket, what might it look like? As I noted earlier, Kamala Harris is a likely presidential candidate, though it must be said that her own run in 2020 was lackluster. (One hopes she has learned lessons and skills in her present position since then.) Moreover, the last Democratic woman to run lost to Donald Trump. If Harris doesn’t advance to the top of the ticket, should she remain the vice-presidential candidate, or would two fresh faces fire more interest and enthusiasm among both Democrats and the population at large?

I am committed to the Democratic ticket, whatever it is. I have to admit, though, that I find it difficult to work up enthusiasm for the Biden-Harris ticket, though my hatred of Donald Trump is unbridled. A new ticket would surely inspire greater passion.

Democrats are not without credible replacement candidates, but they seem to lack obvious ones. Democratic governors are the most likely candidates. I’m sure readers can name the most likely ones. My favorite of the lot is Gretchen Whitmer, though she is female and should likely not be paired with another woman. I have long thought that Adam Schiff would make a fine candidate, though he has shown no conspicuous interest. He certainly knows Trump’s weaknesses!

In the end, I don’t know what Democrats should do, though they have to make the right decision and make it soon. God help us!

What Biden Should Do

Given the Supreme Court’s immunity decision today, it looks as though Biden can have a Seal Team assassinate Donald Trump. As long as the plan is set in motion in the White House, it would appear that Biden would be immune from prosecution.

Note: I tried to post a version of this comment on Facebook and was warned that it appeared to violate community standards. Facebook does not understand irony.

Poem 27 of A “Trump Alphabet”

I have added the sonnet below to my 26 poems of A Trump Alphabet.

And there you have the ABCs
Of an American political offender,
A felon exposing a civic disease:
Support for a pernicious contender.
Donald Trump isn’t competent, caring, or nice;
He’s selfish, rapacious, and cold.
Having chosen him once, we cannot choose him twice.
He is dangerous, wicked, and old.
The Republic has stood for many a year
And survived many crises and war.
But now we must face trepidation and fear:
Can democracy endure anymore?
We have to act boldly our nation to save
Lest the flag of surrender be ours to wave.

A Trump Alphabet

For a long time, I have been working on a project called “A Trump Alphabet,” a collection of 26 poems based on properties of the former president. I invite you to read the poems and pass them along to others who might appreciate them.

As a teaser, here is a sample poem:

Happy Reading!

“W” is for Womanizer For Trump, all women are toys for his pleasure, And marriage never inhibits his ways Of seeking, between comely legs, the treasure Of those who fall victim to his lecherous gaze.

Chinese Food Comes to Clifton Springs (Sort Of)

Clifton Springs, New York, has too few restaurants. Before I moved here in 2022, there was a Chinese restaurant on Main Street, a short walk from my apartment. It had closed before I arrived. I have been craving Chinese food but have not yet left the village to find any. Friends have recommended Chinese restaurants elsewhere, however, and I found one online that none of my friends seemed to know about.

I was very excited yesterday when a menu for a new Chinese restaurant turned up downstairs. Hong Kong Chinese Kitchen is opening where the old Chinese restaurant used to be. I don’t know if the old restaurant is being resurrected or whether Hong Kong is brand new. Last evening, I took a short walk to the place to check it out. I had already eaten dinner, but I thought I might have lunch there today. There was a sign on the door apologizing for not being open and referring patrons to the restaurant’s Facebook page for information about its opening. I was unable to find the restaurant on Facebook, so I telephoned one of the numbers on the menu. As I suspected, callers hear a recorded message. The restaurant needs to install a new sprinkler system, I was informed, and the projected opening date is now August 1.

Sigh.

New Hat

For a long time, I was pictured on my blog in a cream-colored hat I liked very much. I discovered that my friends associated that hat with me. Somewhere along the line, I lost the hat, probably having left it somewhere I didn’t remember. I’ve missed that hat.

For Father’s Day, my son took me to a new hat shop in Geneva and let me pick out a new hat. I found one only slightly different from my “famous” one. This hat is linen and a bit whiter—definitely a summer hat. See what you think.

Alleged Suspect

News organizations are careful to avoid suggesting the guilt of persons not convicted in a court of law. Thus, news reports often refer to “alleged” miscreants.

ABC News ran a video story on its Web site yesterday over the headline “13-year-old girl sexually assaulted at knifepoint in NYC park: Police.” The story made it clear that the police and the girl involved asserted that certain things happened. On ABC’s nightly newscast today, ABC reported that police were searching for the “alleged assault suspect.” My initial reaction to this phrase was that the use of “alleged” is unnecessary. A suspect is, after all, only someone thought to have possibly committed a crime. Police are seeking an actual assault suspect, not someone alleged to be an actual assault suspect. (Alleged by whom?) One is either a suspect or not. Being a suspect does not imply guilt.

On reflection, I began to question whether I had parsed “alleged assault suspect” properly, Perhaps, the police are looking for a suspect in an alleged assault, not assuming that the reported assault actually happened. This is a reasonable interpretation but likely not the correct one, as earlier reports suggested that the police have taken as fact that an assault actually occurred. The New York Times also framed its story by what the police asserted. Details of the story suggest, however, that the police may have physical evidence that has led them to conclude that the story told by the girl is substantially true.

I may be thinking about the phrasing used by ABC more that its reporters and editors did. Probably, “alleged” was unnecessary. It may have been added just to be safe, however.

How To Write Better Gun Laws

A far-right Supreme Court today invalidated the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives rule against bump stocks. The rule had been promulgated during Donald Trump’s presidency in response to the 2017 massacre in Las Vagas that was facilitated by the use of bump stocks.

The argument in favor of the ATF ban was that a bump stock converts a rifle into what is virtually a machine gun, the sale of which has long been severely restricted.

NPR, commenting on the court decision noted that, “Justice Thomas, speaking for the majority, said the bump stock doesn’t change the internal firing mechanism, so it can’t be classified as an illegal machine gun.”

Like so many decisions of this court, this ruling turns on minor, seemingly unimportant details.

The reason that lawmakers have had such a hard time framing gun laws is that they go about it in the wrong way. In today’s case, for example, we shouldn’t care about the gun’s trigger or its internal mechanism. What is important is (1) how fast the gun can fire a projectile and (2) how much energy is carried by that projective as it leaves the muzzle. A machine gun is a gun that can fire rounds above some specified rate carrying energy above a certain threshold. I don’t know what those parameters should be. and I doubt that muzzle velocity need be considered, as energy increases with velocity. If a gun performs like a machine gun, it is a machine gun, whatever its internal workings.

Defining firearms using what I suggest are the relevant parameters means that manufacturers cannot get around regulations using various technicalities. This is a much better way of describing what guns are illegal than, for example, listing them by model number or some other incidental characteristic. A ban on assault weapons, if we ever we enact another one, should be based on effective characteristics, not on model number, etc.

In the short term, Congress should pass a law banning bump stocks. Of course, the law must define a bump stock by what it facilitates, not by the means by which it does so. Unfortunately, in our current political climate, this won’t happen.

How Many Palestinians Is an Israeli Worth?

The big news from the Gaza war is that the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) have freed four hostages presumed to be held by Hamas. That operation is said to have wounded 700 Palestinians and killed nearly 200, many of them women and children. (The number of casualties has been variously reported, but it has clearly been substantial.) Israelis are jubilant. Presidents Biden and Macron praised the operation at a Saturday press conference in Paris.

Does no one see anything wrong with this picture? Are scores of deaths of innocents a moral price to pay for each Israeli rescued? Israeli leaders and citizens seem to think so. Israelis are dancing in the streets over the latest war news.

Israel, of course, was traumatized by the October 7 Hamas attack, which captured scores of hostages, of whom 120 or so are still unaccounted for. The passionate desire to repatriate those victims is understandable. But comparing IDF tactics to those of United States forces is instructive. When attempting to free hostages or to kill or capture high-value terrorist targets, the U.S. tries to avoid collateral damage, even aborting an operation likely to kill civilians. In light of this humane policy, it is distressing that President Biden seemed to give the IDF operation his unequivocal approval.

One may quibble as to whether Israel has established apartheid in the Middle East or whether the conduct of the current war amounts to genocide. Historically, however, Israelis have shown little respect or concern for their Palestinian neighbors either in war or in peacetime. Significantly, whenever there has been a prisoner exchange, dozens of Palestinians are exchanged for each Israeli released. This is possible because Israel collects Palestinian prisoners like tokens to be used as necessary and because Zionists view Palestinians more as vermins than as people deserving simple human dignity and respect.

I don’t know how many Palestinians constitute the moral equivalent of one Israeli in the Israeli mind. Whatever that number is, it is large, and that ethical calculus is a moral outrage. NPR quoted Israel’s defense minister Yoav Gallant as saying, “This morning not only did we have a successful operation but also an opportunity to fulfill the goals of this war.” A goal of the war appears to be to kill as many Palestinians as possible.

Concern for the hostages has become a justification for no-holds-barred aggression in Gaza. It is embarrassing that U.S. policy insists that hostages need to be returned but not that the killing of innocent women and children needs to stop immediately.

Why Is There a Refrigerator in My Bedroom?

The photo on the left was taken from my bed yesterday (Wednesday). It shows a refrigerator parked just inside the door of my bedroom. Therein lies a story.

I noticed recently that the freezer compartment of my refrigerator was collecting frost all around. At the same time, the compartment below seemed warmer than usual.

My Monday lunch consisted of a sandwich and some leftover potato salad. The potato salad, which was about a week old, tasted spoiled. I threw it away after one bite. Since the refrigerator seemed warmer than usual, I increased the temperature control to its maximum setting.

By Tuesday—in retrospect, I was slow on the uptake—after trying to measure the refrigerator’s temperature, I concluded that there was something seriously wrong. I reported the problem to the building’s maintenance man, Kyle, who suggested that my refrigerator had a bad fan. We went immediately to my apartment with a replacement fan in hand.

After emptying the freezer—this was an obnoxious operation—we learned that ice was blocking the passage of cold air into the compartment below. The reason for this was unclear, but the freezer was quite filled and the weather had been very humid. My adjusting the refrigerator temperature upward had only made matters worse.

At this point, it became clear that living in an apartment building has advantages I had overlooked. Kyle offered to deliver a refrigerator as a temporary replacement. Happily, he had one available that was empty but operative, so it was already cold. The plan was to transfer my food to the temporary refrigerator and defrost my own refrigerator overnight.

The matter of where to put the temporary unit was tricky. Many of my outlets were in use, and I couldn’t find an extension cord on short notice. The solution we hit upon was to unplug my portable vacuum and put the refrigerator just inside my bedroom. The placement allowed me to get in and out of the bedroom, but I couldn’t easily get to one side of the bed to make it up. This explains the unmade bed in the above photograph.

Once Kyle left, I began transferring food from one refrigerator to the other. I then cleaned the sides of my refrigerator and the floor area that had been underneath it. Mercifully, only a modest quantity of water accumulated on the floor.

On Wednesday, Kyle came back to put my refrigerator back together—he had removed a panel at the rear of the freezer—and to return it to its proper place. I cleaned the interior and, once it had cooled down, I moved food from the temporary refrigerator to my own. This gave me the opportunity to do a degree of triage, discarding old or seemingly useless leftovers. It also allowed me to better organize my refrigerator, both top and bottom. 

Today (Thursday), Kyle returned to retrieve the lent refrigerator. Having put my refrigerator back together, I now have to put my apartment back together. 

Nikki Haley Shows Her True Colors

There has long been uncertainty as to how much integrity we should attribute to erstwhile U.N. ambassador and presidential primary candidate Nikki Haley.

During her run for the Republican nomination, Haley repeatedly told everyone what a horrible candidate Donald Trump is. After dropping out of the race, she did not discourage people from voting for her in the remaining primaries—as many did—and there was hope in some circles that she might, at the very least, not support Trump’s run for the White House.

Nikki Haley
  Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 3.0
via Wikimedia Commons

The question of Haley’s integrity, however, has now been resolved. She has revealed herself to be, in the worst sense, a politician and neither a statesperson nor a patriot. Although she has yet to endorse the former president, in the sense of telling others to vote for him, she has declared that she will do so in the contest with Joe Biden.

In a historic understatement, Haley admitted in a recent interview that Trump “has not been perfect” on policies she considers important. Those policies include reducing government debt—something Trump massively increased when he was in office—and supporting freedom—something that Trump proudly took away from American women. Remarkably, Haley declared, “But Biden has been a catastrophe.” 

No doubt, many voters who watch Fox News or Newsmax or other right-wing pseudo-news outlets find Haley’s characterization of President Biden unremarkable. In driving from Clifton Springs to Geneva, I regularly pass a house displaying a sign declaring “Biden Sucks.” And I often see Trump supporters interviewed on television attributing characteristics, policies, and actions to Biden that are provably false. One might have hoped, however, that an intelligent politician who has clearly recognized Donald Trump’s multitudinous faults would be able to acknowledge at least some virtues in a fellow politician who is virtually the opposite of Donald Trump.

What is the nature of the Biden “catastrophe”? Although Trump initiated the quest for a COVID vaccine, it was Biden who orchestrated its successful rollout that halted the mounting death toll. Is saving people from dying a catastrophe?

Infrastructure Week had become a standing joke during the Trump presidency. Under Biden, the country is finally addressing the deferred maintenance of its extensive infrastructure. A catastrophe?

Trump either doesn’t believe in climate change or doesn’t care about it. Under Biden, however, the country is taking steps—possibly small ones—but steps to counter climate change. Well, Haley might find this catastrophic. The environment be damned!

Haley wants a president who will “have the backs of our allies.” Well, Biden is supporting Ukraine as it faces Russian aggression. It has been difficult, however, as Trump wants to sue for peace and, most likely, cede Ukrainian land to Putin. He tried to prevent Congress from supporting Ukraine. Isn’t what Biden has done supporting our allies? Isn’t this opposite to Trump’s inclinations? More catastrophe, I suppose. Biden has supported longtime ally Israel. Is supporting Israel’s defense while trying to restrain Netanyahu a catastrophe?

Haley wants a president who will “secure the border.” But when the Senate reached a bipartisan agreement to do exactly that last February—an agreement Biden was ready to sign— Trump made it clear that Republican legislators needed to kill that initiative so it could be used as a Republican fund-raiser and campaign issue. Another catastrophe on Biden’s watch?

Haley wants a president who will support “capitalism.” Biden has raised tariffs to protect, for example, the electric vehicle industry. Under Biden, the government is subsidizing the revitalization of the computer chip industry. Another catastrophe, I suppose. Better that we have a president who is only interested in enriching himself and his billionaire friends. But surely that would not be a catastrophe! 

Under Biden, inflation and unemployment are down. Another catastrophe, I suppose!

Alas, like so many Republicans, Haley has turned out to be a total hypocrite. Haley’s real catastrophe is that Democrats, not Republicans, are in power. Policy really isn’t the issue. If her favored candidate wins a second term, however, we will see what a real catastrophe looks like.

A Bad Culinary Week

Things have not gone well in the cooking department this week. Two days ago I was baking banana bread for yesterday’s coffee hour at the Clifton Springs Library. I poured the batter into three small (2 × 5 × 2¼ in.) silicone pans and placed the pans in the oven on one of the wire racks. Since baking was to take about an hour, I then went into the bathroom to take a shower.

As I was drying off from my shower, I detected a burning smell, which was not how my banana bread was supposed to smell. When I opened the oven, I discovered that the soft-sided pans had listed to the side and disgorged some of their contents. I quickly decided to write off my baking project, removed the silicone pans, and assessed the damage. Some of the batter clung to the oven racks—this was cleaned up easily enough—and some of it fell to the bottom of the oven. Unfortunately, the oven floor has wide slits on either side, and some of the batter fell into one of them. I turned off the oven and, when it cooled, removed whatever semi-baked batter was visible. Later, after regaining my composure, I got out my nut driver, removed the oven floor, and cleaned up the mess under it. I put the oven back together and attended coffee hour the next day empty-handed.

Today, I had another cooking project. I had agreed to make potato salad for the Memorial Day picnic for my apartment building. As the potatoes were boiling and later cooling, I collected the other ingredients for the dish, chopping as necessary. One of my recipe’s ingredients is chopped parsley. I have been told that this is unusual, but I haven’t researched the matter. Certainly, parsley doesn’t make my potato salad seem strange. (The apple cider vinegar is another matter, but I like the recipe.) I was midway through chopping parsley and adding it to a bowl of chopped hard-boiled egg when I realized that I wasn’t chopping parsley at all. I had mistakenly bought cilantro, an ingredient of which I am not at all fond.

Realizing that not everyone has the same aversion to cilantro that I do, I stopped chopping and substituted dried parsley for the remaining “parsley” that hadn’t yet been added to the chopped egg. The resulting potato salad tastes different from my usual effort—one can definitely taste cilantro—but my hope is that people will still find it acceptable.

I’m planning to cook as little as possible this weekend.

The Ten Commandments in Louisiana

Louisiana is about to enact a law mandating that the Ten Commandments—a specified version of them—be posted in every Louisiana school classroom. The proposed law even specifies a minimum size for the Ten Commandments classroom posters.

It should be obvious to any thinking American citizen that the proposed legislation violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Louisiana lawmakers argue that recent Supreme Court decisions have so weakened the wall of separation between church and state that their latest legislative fiat may survive judicial scrutiny. They have a point, but I hope they’re wrong. Surely, the proposed law is one “respecting an establishment of religion,” as the Ten Commandments are taken directly from a text sacred to Judaism and Christianity.

Dodie Horton, a representative from District 19 in northwest Louisiana argues: “Our laws are based on the Ten Commandments. In fact, without them, a lot of our laws would not exist.” This, of course, is pure poppycock. Our laws are no more based on the Ten Commandments than on Aesop’s Fables.

It is worth considering the Ten Commandments in light of our actual laws. The first four commandments are purely religious and therefore inappropriate in light of the Establishment Clause. They command that you should (1) have no god before the God of Israel, (2) not worship idols, (3) not curse using God’s name, and (4) keep the Sabbath holy. No U.S. laws are based upon these injunctions, nor should they be. Only the Fourth Commandment comes close. Though blue laws privileged Sunday, not the Jewish Sabbath, they are largely a thing of the past and have little support for their reintroduction.

Four commandments involve behavior about which the law is silent. Number 5 requires the honoring of one’s parents. Numbers 7, 9, and 10 enjoin abjuring adultery, bearing false witness against a neighbor, and coveting the property of others. Of course, bearing false witness is illicit in particular legal contexts but not in ordinary discourse.

In fact, only two commandments have any significant relation to American law at all. Number 6 prohibits murder, and number 8 prohibits theft. Such provisions have been part of virtually every legal and moral system for millennia and probably did not originate among the Israelites anyway.

Louisiana legislators argue that the Ten Commandments offer moral guidance, though guidance unlikely to be appreciated by atheist, Muslim, Sikhi, Jain, or other student religionists. And it may be tricky to explain idol worship or adultery to first graders or why non-Jews seem not to care about the Sabbath.

The Louisiana initiative is ill-conceived and, I pray to God, is destined to be struck down by the Supreme Court. If it is not, this country will be in even more trouble.

The proposed legislation follows a 2023 Louisiana law requiring “In God We Trust” to be displayed in every classroom. (Classrooms may run out of wall space if the legislature continues what is becoming a trend.) I have written about the motto elsewhere and will merely say here that the sentiment that has become our nation’s official motto is, at best, hypocritical.

One final aside: If I were allowed to post Christian propaganda in school classrooms, it would be Jesus’s admonition to love God and one’s neighbor. Or, on second thought, just

Movements in My Lifetime

I’ve lived through the Civil Rights movement and the Women’s movement, each of which achieved successes though neither achieved all its goals.

The recent Reactionary movement was suppressed by the election of Joe Biden. That movement is attempting a resurgence, threatening to usher in a Totalitarian movement.

Your vote is important to preserve the Republic.