The End Of Precedent. The End Of Justice.

From its beginning, US law, following that of the United Kingdom, has been based on legal precedent – that the outcome in one case is binding or persuasive in the outcomes of subsequent cases with similar circumstances.

However, in recent years, conservatives have increasingly chosen to ignore precedent. That is certainly true in the case of the gutting of the Voting Rights Act, the unleashing anonymous political donations by Citizens United, and the weakening of abortion rights as established by Roe v. Wade. In each case, conservative justices on the Supreme Court of the United States have decided that their conservative political views outweighed precedents previously established by the Court.

Similarly, the US Senate under Moscow Mitch McConnell has ignored long-established precedent to steal two seats on the Supreme Court.

In the entire history of the US, there have been four previous vacancies on the Court that occurred between July 1 and a presidential election. In three of those cases, beginning with Abraham Lincoln, the president refused to nominate a judicial candidate to fill the open seat until after the inauguration of the next president. In the other case, the president nominated a candidate. But the Senate refused to hold hearings on the nomination until after the election.

In addition, there have been nine vacancies on the Court between January 1 and July 1 of the same year of a presidential election. In eight of those cases, the president nominated judicial candidates who received Senate hearings and were confirmed. The lone exception is President Obama’s nomination of Merrick Garland, which was blocked by Moscow Mitch who claimed the vacancy occurred too close to the election and should be held open for the next president to fill.

Now we come to the vacancy created by the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

For the first time in history, the Senate under the leadership of Moscow Mitch has vowed to confirm and seat a nomination by Donald J. Trump before the election. Precedent and Justice Ginsburg’s dying wish be damned.

This win at all costs mentality has become a hallmark of Trump, McConnell and the GOP. Rather than following precedent and principle, they choose to divide. Trump has blamed Democratic governors and blue states for his own failures, even going so far as to prioritize PPE for red states. He then stated that if it were not for the pandemic deaths in blue states, the administration’s response to the pandemic would look much better. Indeed, that fits the pattern of the entire GOP. When in power, GOP officials almost entirely dismiss the opinions and wishes of their political opponents. They initiate voter suppression measures and gerrymandering to hold onto power. And, when in the minority, they routinely resort to parliamentary tricks to block Democratic initiatives.

It is this mentality that is responsible for the increasingly violent political division in the US. How can you debate policy issues and achieve consensus when only one party is willing to come to the table?

If The Pandemic Was A War, It Would Be The 3rd Most Deadly In US History.

As of today, Covid-19 has claimed the lives of more than 200,000 Americans. To put that number into perspective, it exceeds the number of deaths of any other nation on Earth. It’s nearly 70 times the number who died as a result of the terrorist attacks on 9/11 (2,977). It’s nearly 4 times the number of Americans who died during the Vietnam War (58,209). It’s double the number of Americans (116,516) who died in WWI. It’s nearly equal to the number of Americans who died during combat in the Civil War (214,938). And it’s nearly half the number of Americans who died in WWII (405,399).

Lest you think that the disease only affects the elderly – that you are somehow immune to it – think again. Thus far, Covid-19 has claimed the lives of more than 1,000 health care providers. And, so far this year, more police officers have died from Covid-19 than from violence. The victims have ranged in age from infants to the elderly and every age in between.

Moreover, all of these deaths from Covid-19 have occurred in just 7 months. And most scientists predict that, with the onset of Autumn and Winter, the number of deaths will almost certainly accelerate even if a vaccine is made available before the end of the year. That’s because the vaccine will likely require two doses and it will take many months to deliver them beginning with those most at risk. And a large percentage of Americans say they will refuse to take the vaccine.

Adding to the problem is that Trump has not only failed to effectively respond to the pandemic. He has politicized mitigation of the virus. He refuses to encourage Americans to wear masks – the one thing that has been proven to reduce infections. As a result, Trump’s followers refuse to wear masks. They have even violently attacked those who have asked them to put on a mask before entering their businesses.

Just the other day, two unmasked Trump followers were refused entry to a restaurant in my former hometown. Rather than put on masks, they later returned to the establishment and pepper-sprayed the entire outdoor seating area requiring several customers to seek medical attention.

That should come as no surprise, since Trump has implied that the coronavirus is a Democrat hoax – that Democrats are either misreporting the deaths or, in fact, causing them. He has not only divided the nation. He has incited violence among his heavily armed and racist followers who have acted against peaceful protestors and against governors who have mandated the wearing of masks in public places.

So, thanks to the knuckle draggers who support the most corrupt, most cruel, and most incompetent president in our nation’s history, the deaths will continue to rise.

Will The US Become The Next Belarus?

With the US presidential election approaching, US citizens should see the events in Belarus as a warning. As you may know, though the incumbent Alexander Lukashenko claimed to be re-elected with 80 percent of the vote. International observers have declared that the election was neither fair nor free. As a result, hundreds of thousands of Belarussians have continued to march and demonstrate. More worryingly, one of the leading members of the opposition candidate’s campaign has been abducted by masked men and 3 others have vanished.

Think that couldn’t happen in the US? Think again.

The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe has raised concerns about the integrity of the upcoming election. Other international observers have also voiced concerns. Why? Maybe it’s because the GOP has disenfranchised many voters by demanding often difficult to obtain voter IDs. Maybe it’s because Republican-controlled states have closed voting locations and reduced voting hours in Democrat-leaning areas. Maybe it’s because GOP-controlled states have gerrymandered congressional districts to make it virtually impossible for Democrats to win. Maybe it’s because the average waiting time to vote is 51 minutes for minorities and only 6 minutes for whites. Maybe it’s because GOP-controlled states have purged tens of thousands of registered voters.

Maybe it’s because the wannabe dictator incumbent has tried to discredit and undermine vote-by-mail and installed loyalists to the governing board of the US Postal Service with the express purpose of delaying the mail. Maybe it’s because he continues to tell his heavily armed and conspiracy loving supporters that he can only lose if the election is rigged against him!

Or maybe it’s because the incumbent was put in office as a result of election interference by our nation’s greatest rival and, in fact, has solicited foreign interference yet again.

Moreover, increasingly it appears that Trump and his supporters will only accept a Biden win if the vote is overwhelmingly against him. Anything less and Trump is likely to claim the vote is rigged and refuse to accept the results. After all, he already has claimed that Hillary Clinton’s nearly 3 million margin in the popular vote was only due to voting by undocumented immigrants and Democratic cheating.

So, it’s highly unlikely that Trump will bow out gracefully. He’s far more likely to refuse to leave the White House and to call for his armed supporters to rise up in his defense. We’ve already seen his supporters attack peaceful Black Lives Matters protestors. We’ve seen anonymous federal forces under his direction abduct protestors. And we’ve seen him order a peaceful demonstration cleared with force so he could have a photo-op with him holding a Bible backwards in front of a church he doesn’t attend.

Vote! Vote like our democracy depends on it. Because it does.