“Federal officials, particularly at the Justice Department, must align their conduct to the Bill of Rights. They cannot act in ways that deny due process of law; they cannot take steps to strip defendants of property except in accord with the law, etc. These external legal constraints on their conduct do not mean that these officials, of necessity, must be freed of the meta-constraint of heeding the leadership of the President on pain of facing removal from office and replacement by an official who will obey the President. Put differently, these external legal constraints as applied to the Attorney General do not mean that the Attorney General must be independent of the President. For the President is also bound by the Bill of Rights.
“The President’s role in the constitutional structure is unique, and the remedies for presidential violations of law of sufficient moment are to be found in impeachment or at the ballot box. No part of the Constitution allows the creation of one or more officials who stand above and outside the President’s unitary authority over the Executive Branch.”— Jeffery B Clark
Archive for the ‘Presidency’ Category
Thursday, June 15th, 2023
March Ex(clusion) — fourth day
Friday, March 4th, 2022“Many called former U.S. president Barack Obama the ‘greatest gun salesman in America’ due to his support of strict gun control measures. Similarly, I believe Justin Trudeau will be remembered as the greatest Bitcoin salesman in Canadian history.”
– Frank Holmes
I don’t know what I’d be thinking today, with the dismantling of my CHANGE OF SEEN exhibition, if much of the artwork was not on its way to a new venue, thanks to Kate S of Arts Connect. My first all-collage landscape show is over, and I have much more for which to be grateful than any justification for critique. Beyond multiple deficiencies in the venue, I am enormously thankful to have been offered entrée to the Lexington art scene. Meanwhile, the war against Ukraine continues, with no ceasefire on the horizon. Yes, he is “Vladimir the Terrible,” but that is no reason to escalate a conflict that could bring catastrophic harm to the American people, far out of proportion to our interests in Eurasia. Too many are needlessly playing with a fire that could burn millions. Shouldn’t our leaders be brokering a peace, instead of throwing around gasoline?
Today’s sight bite— Driving along Clays Mill to check out my favorite chinkapin oak, —c-l-i-c-k— as grand a spectacle in the nude as he is with a full set of leafy clothes.
Tuesday, January 19th, 2021
“Now, as I leave the White House, I have been reflecting on the dangers that threaten the priceless inheritance we all share. The greatest danger we face is a loss of confidence in ourselves, a loss of confidence in our national greatness. No nation can long thrive that loses faith in its own values, history, and heroes, for these are the very sources of our unity and our vitality. At the center of this heritage is also a robust belief in free expression, free speech, and open debate. Only if we forget who we are and how we got here could we ever allow political censorship and blacklisting to take place in America. Shutting down free and open debate violates our core values and most enduring traditions. In America, we don’t insist on absolute conformity or enforce rigid orthodoxy and punitive speech codes. We just don’t do that. America is not a timid nation of tame souls who need to be sheltered and protected from those with whom we disagree.”
— Donald J Trump, Farewell Address
Sunday, November 1st, 2020
“You can see that this person has certain obnoxious characteristics and certain skill sets that bring results, and you can guarantee that after we are the beneficiaries of the results, that he’s not going to be on PBS in ten years with ex-presidents shooting the breeze. It’s just not going to happen. He’s going to be persona non grata.”
— Victor Davis Hanson, 2/13/20
Monday, February 6th, 2017
“Mr. Trump has overloaded all circuits. Everything is too charged, with sparks and small shocks all over. ‘Nothing feels stable,’ I mused to a longtime Washington media figure at a dinner the night before the Prayer Breakfast. ‘Nothing is stable,’ she replied. Earlier, on the Hill, a veteran conservative member of Congress, speaking of the president, got a puzzled look: ‘There’s no calming with him. It’s Look what I can do now!’”
— Peggy Noonan 2/2/17
It’s showtime, America . . .
Friday, January 27th, 2017
It occurs to me that if the Trump presidency is overly problematic, it can in many ways be transcended as an aberration, but Hillary Clinton was an embodiment of everything abhorrent in the existing political class, and that is why so many considered him the lesser of evils. This entire notion is beyond the typical progressive. There are times when things boil to a point more critical than political agendae. Things were due for a major disruption of the status quo. It looks like the new administration sees the first order of business to be a striking of as many blows as quickly as possible in the culture war (from political correctness to the distorted role of the media; from American exceptionalism to traditional constitutionalism). It will be interesting to watch the convulsions and to see if more good comes out of this than bad. I long for the viewpoints of Heston, Kemp, and Snow, but I’ll just have to think for myself and stay clear-headed about what is proving to be a very complex dynamic.
Now what?
Wednesday, November 9th, 2016
1:43 pm — So here we are. A shocking upset that developed state by state, well into the early hours of this morning. The possibility of a Trump win became plausible after Florida, and then Ohio made it even more conceivable. Up to that point, I had been totally convinced that Hillary would prevail. I was as wrong as those who voted for her. Too many Democrats were content to denigrate a massive chunk of the population and missed the mood of the electorate. They would have done better with James Webb, who has understood what was happening. They should have read BORN FIGHTING. The pollsters were astonishingly wrong. I think the Democrats would have preferred to have known they were behind. The media bias appears to have backfired. It energized those who felt disaffected and may have convinced members of the liberal coalition to believe that a second Clinton presidency was a done deal. Two major factors that not many are talking about today: the NRA ground game and the defection of countless union members to the Republican candidate (a throwback to the 1980s). Apparently, Clinton under-performed among educated white women, who identified less with their gender and more with the security concerns and economic uncertainties that Trump exploited. After an overnight scare, the markets have stabilized a bit today, but I expect continued volatility and perhaps a sharp technical correction over the coming weeks. At any rate, I didn’t see this coming — for Trump’s populist uprising to carry the day — and, sadly, I cannot foresee any kind of “honeymoon,” in spite of the millions who yearn for a national healing.
“We don’t for a moment think that every Trump voter shares his darkest views or instincts, only that they were willing to accept them as a way of casting a vote against ‘the system,’ as they’ve seen it. Now, their candidate is the system, and we’ll be there to hold him to account for how he runs it.”
— Jon Avlon, The Daily Beast
Tuesday, August 2nd, 2016
“Humans appear to have some need to look down on someone; there’s just a basic tribalistic impulse in all of us. And if you’re an elite white professional, working class whites are an easy target: you don’t have to feel guilty for being a racist or a xenophobe. By looking down on the hillbilly, you can get that high of self-righteousness and superiority without violating any of the moral norms of your own tribe. So your own prejudice is never revealed for what it is.
“What does it mean for our politics? To me, this condescension is a big part of Trump’s appeal. He’s the one politician who actively fights elite sensibilities, whether they’re good or bad. I remember when Hillary Clinton casually talked about putting coal miners out of work, or when Obama years ago discussed working class whites clinging to their guns and religion. Each time someone talks like this, I’m reminded of Mamaw’s feeling that hillbillies are the one group you don’t have to be ashamed to look down upon. The people back home carry that condescension like a badge of honor, but it also hurts, and they’ve been looking for someone for a while who will declare war on the condescenders. If nothing else, Trump does that.”
— J D Vance 7/22/16
Wednesday, July 6th, 2016
“James Comey gave us every reason to look upon that stage in Charlotte, North Carolina, with abject disdain toward two of the biggest liars in U.S. political history. When Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton stood together on that stage, you saw two people who abandoned Americans to die and lied about it. We saw on that stage that the new American socialist party resembles the old Soviet politburo where there are no rules for the few — but rules, laws and edicts for others. If you looked upon Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton on that stage yesterday and cheered, the day after our 240th American Independence Day — you are no Patriot and citizen of this Republic. You are nothing more than, as Vladimir Lenin stated, a ‘useful idiot’ — and a supporter of liars.”
— Allen West 7/5/16
Wednesday, June 15th, 2016
“Meanwhile, many on the right — not to mention a Republican presidential candidate — immediately turned an atrocity into an argument for a ban on Muslim immigration. Such a ban would not have stopped a killer born and raised in the United States, but it would surely encourage more potential “lone wolves” to believe that America regards Islam itself as the enemy. Indeed, banning Muslims as if they were all part of an undifferentiated blob of terrorists just happens to echo the Islamic State’s propaganda.”
— Jonah Goldberg 6/15/16
March EX-EX
Thursday, March 3rd, 2016So, the March EX-EX stands for Exercise-Experiments. I’m using the tablet of 4×5 miniatures on paper to jump-start this whole thing until I get into the collage-a-day groove. Meanwhile, The Donald is coming on like an arrogant, loudmouth, brattish, flim-flam strongman — making a mess of things with his cartoon show. It would be hilarious if the stakes were not so high. Can he be stopped?
Thursday, January 21st, 2016
“Trump is a philosophically unmoored political opportunist who would trash the broad conservative ideological consensus within the GOP in favor of a free-floating populism with strong-man overtones.”
— Jonah Goldberg 1/21/16
Friday, November 20th, 2015
“But last week’s Paris attack was different. It was about radical, violent Islam’s hatred of the West and desire to kill and terrorize its people. They will not be appeased; we won’t talk them out of it at a negotiating table or by pulling out of Iraq or staying out of Syria. They will have their caliphate, and they will hit Europe again, as they will surely hit us again, to get it. So again, the only question: What to do? On this issue the American president is, amazingly, barely relevant. The leaders and people of Europe and America will not be looking to him for wisdom, will, insight or resolve. No commander in chief of the U.S. armed forces can be wholly irrelevant, but to the extent one can be, Mr. Obama is.”
— Peggy Noonan 11/19/15
Monday, November 10th, 2014
Tomorrow is Veterans Day and, sadly, I am thinking less about the men and women who have served and more about the current commander in chief. America elected someone she thought was a catalytic figure, and still longed for true leadership four years later, but the man has squandered nearly every opportunity provided by the flow of events. He and his apologists will always attempt to persuade otherwise, with excuses that historians must soon discard when the comparison to effective presidents is made. Ultimately, leaders are never judged by the nature of any obstacles they faced, but by the magnitude of difficult personal achievements in spite of them.
Wednesday, November 5th, 2014
“I am not on the ballot this fall. . . . But make no mistake — these policies are on the ballot, every single one of them.”
— President Obama in Chicago 10/02/14
It’s only about We if it rhymes with Me
Monday, January 21st, 2013
This president— who today begins his second term in office —never has been the leader to competently unify our country. He merely has been clever enough to prevent anyone else from doing so. He has blunted the ambition of his rivals (the Clintonians) and kept his opponents fragmented (the Republicans), without offering serious solutions to grave problems or paving the way for someone who will. His emphasis on “We” must be interpreted in the context of his purposeful rhetoric of condescension, exclusion, and division. The feel-good unity of “We the People” is actually a call for solidarity within his collectivist coalition and a message to those who disagree with his priorities and policies to fall in line or back out of the national conversation.
Pick up where you left off
Tuesday, November 6th, 2012Quoting Jesus of Nazareth, Abraham Lincoln told America, “A house divided against itself cannot stand.”
The election results are clear. Very little has changed, and all the deep division resumes again tomorrow. It looks as though the president has earned a second term with fewer electoral votes than he won the first time, and with a popular-vote margin that falls short of a mandate. Although the man has succeeded in putting together his “pied piper” coalition once again, he is not the unifying leader he claims to be, and, sadly, never was.
State of the Union
Wednesday, January 25th, 2012This president is like a man who convinced a woman to marry him by promising her the world. Years later, giving serious thought to a divorce, she points out that he hasn’t delivered, and he begins to make all the old promises again as if none of it had happened. Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.
Your houses . . .
Monday, August 17th, 2009Help me into some house, Benvolio,
Or I shall faint. A plague o’ both your houses!
They have made worms’ meat of me: I have it,
And soundly too. Your houses!—MERCUTIO, Romeo and Juliet: Act 3, Scene 1
If the president was the “real deal,” he would forcefully declare that it is dead wrong for members of Congress to characterize those opposed to his health care reforms as un-American, just as it was dead wrong to have claimed that anti-Bush protesters were unpatriotic in their objections to the war in Iraq. Thus, he would likely mitigate his declining popularity, but he seems more interested in his relationship with the House Left. Presumably, he won’t invite anyone to portray him as a critic of Democrat leaders. He must be worried about their prospects in next year’s mid-term elections, but, ironically, his allowing them to blunder forward unchecked is precisely what will lose seats for his party.
Various & Sundry, part eighty
Thursday, October 16th, 2008— Month of September workout totals: Swim-5; Bike-3; Run-2; Lift-0; Yoga-1; Pilates-2; Lupus Drills-0
— With my bicycle miles winding down, I’m adapting again to the Pilates routine, and the pool is beginning to feel like the best place to be for a satisfying workout. Tradesmen were replacing the lane blocks today, and the slender gal on duty was trying to tell me to avoid splashing their work area, but her voice was so soft I could barely hear her, even when she was standing close by. These students are technically lifeguards, but I wonder how often they look up from their assigned reading to see if a fiftysomething guy like me is on the bottom with a cardiac spazz-out. I’ve seen some fairly hefty dudes swimming laps in there, too, but I shouldn’t criticize, since I was a pool guard back in the day. One time I did have to pull a guy to the side who outweighed me, but it’s not like making a “save” in a pool is honest-to-goodness lifeguard work, compared to a lake or surf monitor. That would be like the difference between a first responder at a warehouse blaze and a homeowner putting out a grass fire with his garden hose.
— The deli on Fourth Street has taken a new turn and become the most interesting hangout in town. (I haven’t been within walking distance of a tap with Stella since living in Bruxelles as a callow youth.) Dana and I were down there having a chat with Geri about software upgrades, and I found myself talking like a proponent of “vintage systems.” Perhaps that’s because I’ve been making do with applications that suit my fluency, but are clearly a few notches off the cutting edge. Sometimes new means better, but not necessarily; it’s become a risky practice to make that assumption. Our friend Pat, an experienced user, and Victoria’s brother, a novice, are both living through a nightmare with their Vista operating system upgrades. People are talking about how Bob Staake illustrated a recent New Yorker cover using Photoshop version 3 on a Mac running OS7. Hey, we had our nearly 40-year-old Hobart refurbished this summer, and nobody will convince us that it isn’t far superior to anything built today. Old is the new New!
— My story about meeting Johnny Crawford was recently added to Ginia’s tribute site. She’s a very nice person. I like her quotation from Mark Twain: “A cat that sits on a hot stove, will not sit on a hot stove again. He will not sit on a cold one either.” Also found a connection at her MySpace page that Joan will get a kick out of: The all new DonGrady.com!
— I had fun creating a piece for the Library’s recent call for artwork. The opening reception for the resulting exhibit was tonight, and Nancy M won the best of show with her outstanding felt composition. Julius F was the juror, and he selected items for merit awards and honorable mention. He didn’t recognize my entry, but the collage, Cascade of Knowledge, was among those works library representatives chose for purchase and display in the new facility. This pleases me, because I produced it with the library setting in mind, hoping it would appeal to them.
— Bruce had a great letter to the editor in the paper the other day. Maybe his best so far.
— We never removed the old-fashioned TV antennas from our rooftop. I always liked the period look they gave to the dwelling, and besides, they were virtually inaccessible. Yesterday I climbed up there and installed an amplifier and new line for digital signals, without falling or electrocuting myself. By george it worked, just in time to watch the pie maker and the presidential debate.
— We always heard stories about how local county government had been interested in bidding for our downtown building on the 1988 auction day we won the Town House. That was nearly 20 years ago, and, for most of that time, we didn’t think much about it or suspect there was any continued interest. And then, with a flurry of new judicial centers being funded over the past few years, we began to hear rumors—too many to suit me—so I sought confirmation or denial from the Judge Executive. He admitted that the option to take our lot by condemnation to create the footprint for a court-system expansion had been discussed in his presence. Although he would not pledge to oppose the idea on my behalf, he declared that it was not his preferred course of action. I let him know how strongly I felt about my desire to keep our home and business location intact, here on historic West Broadway. Recently I shared the information at our annual neighborhood “Block Party.” With the current fiscal constraints on state government and the backlash against perceived extravagances in some of the judicial centers recently constructed, the mood may be slightly in our favor, but it’s difficult to shove the unpleasant possibility from the back of my mind, and the uncertainty works against the necessary enthusiasm to undertake improvement projects and the confidence to continue investing in our property.