Some comments on your points in this good article:
Yay Colorado Supreme Court!
If the worse happens and Biden can not finish his second term, I will not lose one minute of sleep over Harris becoming President. She is smart, tough, and experienced. At this point she already has more relevant experience than Obama did when he first set foot in the Oval Office. The Biden/Harris administration is full of smart people with experience and expertise who are listened to. Harris gets a bad rap. Undeservedly. I wonder why. Could it be her two X chromosomes and the amount of pigment in her skin?
On the subject of polls. Ever since the Great Polling Debacle of 2016, I have ignored the polling results and urge everyone else to do the same. There are several technical reasons why at this point in time the polls simply are not worth the paper they are printed on. There are lies, damn lies, statistics, and then there are polls. (With apologies to Samuel Clemens).
As I have spent the evening thinking about this, I find I agree with Chris Christie. We the voters, the people from whom all legitimate governing power in our system is derived, must be the ones who decide our future.
Asking Big Daddy Court to make things all nice again does nothing to deal with the problem of Trump and the anti-democratic movement he leads, not in the long run. If this decision is affirmed, it lets us off the hook and allows us to escape reponsibility for our own future.
While he may be off the ballot, there is every likelihood that this will solidify his leadership of MAGA and turn MAGA into a truly violent, insurrectionary movement. Such a decision could in fact be the flame that lights the fuse to the powder keg that is our contemporary politics.
If we are really a self-governing country, then WE have to decide that Trump loses. Kicking the can down the road with a court decision does not solve the real problem we face. That problem is that a significant section of the population is willing to support a man who tells them if he takes power that he will destroy this constitutional democratic republic. Removing him from the ballot does not resolve that. We can have a political war and defeat him - and MAGA politically - or we can have a civil war, which is what this decision points us toward.
The situation is now more difficult than it was 24 hours ago.
I watched Kamalla with Lawrence tonight and yes, Robert, everyone needs to see how sharp and focussed she is. She could still run circles around anyone in the Senate, and the Repugs candidates? She'd blow them away just exhaling.
Dec 20, 2023·edited Dec 20, 2023Liked by Robert B. Hubbell
Just a short rant about Kamala Harris and her critics: What does it take to give up on the patriarchy? To continue to ingest all the poison with which it has saturated your lives and those of your ancestors and your children until maybe, at last, you refuse to take even another teeny tiny sip? Many in the older generation have only known a world thoroughly dominated by people who looked, talked, and behaved just like them -- if they were either White Males or submissive folks of any gender. Strong, intelligent women like Kamala Harris do not exist to make life easier for us. They do hope to make life better for us in the future; but in the short-term that often means they speak clearly, often, and strongly about what they know and believe and want to do -- just like they would do if they were members of the dominant class. They don't p-foot around and try to make the patriarchy 'feel safe'; most women have felt very UN-safe because of it; why should they acquiesce and fawn and promise to be good little girls who sit quietly with their ankles neatly crossed? With the long and bloody history of the patriarchy on exhibit daily: that we see so many women in particular who would prefer a leader more like Nikki Haley(?!!!) than Kamala Harris suggests that they have abandoned themselves, other women, and even their own daughters who should be able to count on them to be as strong and smart and brave as they can manage. Being from the South and living in Texas for 50+ years brings this starkly to my attention daily and it makes me enraged. One reason I don't worry about 'Biden's Age' is specifically because of Kamala Harris backing him up.
This 14th amendment decision is something. To me, the Constitution language is so plain...I can see where some might wish “it ain’t so,” but it’s there in black and white. Maybe it HELPS to not be a lawyer sometimes? I mean, how do you just ignore part of the Constitution ?
And speaking of plain English, every time I read again about January 6, something new hits me, and today it was these CO SC sentences: “Even when the siege on the Capitol was fully underway, he continued to support it by repeatedly demanding that Vice President Pence refuse to perform his constitutional duty and by calling Senators to persuade them to stop the counting of electoral votes. These actions constituted overt, voluntary, and direct participation in the insurrection.”
There you have it. Whatever happens next, thank you, Colorado Supreme Court.
Last night at an annual holiday dinner with 3 of my friends of 20 years we eventually got around to talking about the election next year. I respect these women who also lean republican. The name Trump never entered our conversation so we had a very civil exchange which was refreshing. Here were the points unanimously made by all 3:
Biden is doing a disservice by running as he is mentally infirm and can't perform the duties of his office.
The dems have been protecting Hunter Biden while his dad has been in office and now that he is running again the dems are no longer protecting Hunter.
Gavin Newsom will pop in at the last minute as the candidate for president.
Kamala Harris is unfit to be president if Joe Biden has a health event.
I listened for a very long time and then let it rip in a very respectful way saying that what you might not know in your news bubble is that many, many people are in favor of the Biden/Harris ticket and have every confidence that Biden can and will carry on doing all of the great things he has done as our president! It was refreshing for me to speak my truth but also to be heard by my friends. It gave me great confidence moving forward into 2024 to speak up and speak out!!
Written here with a grateful heart to Robert, Jill and all of his subscribers who have given me the courage to speak my truth.
I will do my best to share as widely as possible today’s newsletter and its sobering summary of corruption at the highest levels of our government.
The story of the insurrection has come to light, thanks in large part to the January 6 Committee investigation, a few incorruptible state election workers, and Jack Smith.
Today the Colorado Supreme Court cast the brightest light yet. Trump has been disqualified from running for office in Colorado.
Others individuals have been compelled to take action to change the course brought on by corrupt leadership.
Independent writers like Robert Hubbell, Jessica Craven, Heather Cox Richardson and Simon Rosenberg are dedicated to finding and sharing critical information to many thousands of readers. Many of us will also act as points of light.
I regret that the paper I have had delivered to my front door, for 40 years has not done its part in bringing the truth to light. If the coverage of polls continues to be distorted, and Biden excellent leadership continues to be downplayed, I will cancel my NYT subscription.
Though over the next few weeks I would expect the High Court to find some off-ramp for overturning Colorado, I also expect the justices will strike down Trump’s immunity argument that would have exempted him from all the crimes he committed while he was president. Accordingly, Trump’s delay tactics will fail and the March 1/6 trial will proceed as scheduled, or at least close enough. Even more important, I encourage us not to underestimate the immeasurable significance of two court adjudications both finding Trump an insurrectionist. In my view, they will figure prominently in the outcome of the 2024 election, more so now likely to land on the very issue that drove Biden initially to run—the fight for the soul of democracy, for government “of, by, and for the people.”
It's the Headlines, stupid! Or at least that's what I feel. The journalists articles in the NY Times usually have the feel of verity. But the Headline Writers from the Times are barely getting a C+. I'm of the opinion that the Headline writers are more often than not the editors, not the journalists. Does anyone agree?
Frequent Biden supporter flamethrowing and swearing at the NY Times is not going bring about change at the NY Times. It would be unfortunate if it did. (Constructive criticism might.) Nor are the attacks on the NY Times going to motivate more Biden supporters to help get out the vote. God help us if that's what it takes to motivate us. Nor does it help to attribute the comments of op-ed opinion columnists to the Times. We know, or at least should know, that's not how op-ed pieces work. They are opinions independent of the Times. The NY Times is actually our friend. We need to remember that. As the NY Times pointed out the other day, our media enemy is the army of trolls creating and proliferating deep fake social media memes that spread inane and deadly falsehoods about Joe Biden and Democrats. Our only antidote for that is getting out the vote. We need to figure out our narrative for doing that in the face of Joe Biden having to make very difficult to win choices on impossible issues like the war in the middle east and immigration. If our narrative is that the NY Times isn't being sensible or fair to us, well, the end isn't going to be pretty.
Thanks!! And thanks to the Colorado Supreme Court! I don’t know what the NYT is up to anymore!
I am worried though that the Biden administration’s closeness to Israel is really hurting them. The destruction of Gaza is indefensible and they should be saying that loud and clear, not in the soft diplomatic way they are nudging Netanyahu. The standing of the US in general is suffering in the world. We are on the wrong side of history here.
I can appreciate the journalistic challenge that community faces after years of training to present both sides of a story. Fox News co-opted the philosophy coining their 3 word motto, "Fair and Balanced" although their news coverage cannot even sarcastically be considered that. It is another 3 word phrase easily remembered, repeated and understood by a wide swath of the population because that's as deep as they are.
But, I digress. The real issue here is far less challenging than the mainstream media would like us to believe. Covering "both sides" is applicable and reasonable when both sides have a valid philosophical underpinning to their view, not one which is antithetical to our very way of life and based on an aggregation of lies. Balanced coverage in this day and age would be to cover Trump and the minions for what they are...the reincarnation of fascism. And it should include a definition of what fascism actually is and how it is embodied in the spirit, intent and actions of Donald Trump. Real and informative balanced coverage should be a call for national outrage and to express that outrage every day from now until we all step into the voting booth. It is the right time for this out of disgust but also out of necessity.
Thank you, Pro Publica journalists, for the investigative work respecting the corruption of Supreme Court justices, particularly Mr. Thomas. Once again, the headline writer mistakenly wrote that the corruption process has been “long and slow.” Indeed, the evidence reveals that Mr. Thomas has long been the recipient of corrupting generosity of his wealthy supporters (who have personally benefited from their “gift giving”); but as you point out, there was no delay in responding to Mr. Thomas’ overt, but apparently “delicate,” solicitation of the supplemental means of supporting the lifestyle to which he felt entitled.
This new report simply adds to the growing amount of empirical information available about the sleaziness and character defects of multiple members of the current court. This information together with the justices’ recent publication of a glaringly weak “code of ethics” by which they disclaimed any intent to be legally bound, makes it all the more urgent that Congress exercise its Constitutional authority to enact a mandatory and enforceable code of ethics applicable to Supreme Court members and personnel. It is noteworthy that other recent reporting revealed that the justices do not - and cannot reasonably- trust one another (in that particular instance about the process of creating and publishing the Dobbs decision). It is therefore no surprise that the public has compelling reason to believe that this particular collection of flawed humanity constitutes an illegitimate court.
Floridians Protecting Freedom is an organization in Florida that has been collecting signatures on petitions. The purpose is to include a referendum on the ballot asking voters whether abortion should be legal in Florida. They received twice as many petitions as they needed. Twice as many. Hopefully a harbinger of things to come.
I have now watched VP Harris twice, first last night and again via the link (thank you, Mr. Hubbell). I do not understand why people, including smart, successful women, have a strong negative reaction to Ms. Harris. Perhaps Sky777 is correct; it is the color of her skin and chromosomes. Perhaps it is that like most VP's her work (and the work of the smart, accomplished Second Gentleman) does not get enough coverage. I am a huge fan of Lawrence O'Donnell. Now, maybe that will change.
Some comments on your points in this good article:
Yay Colorado Supreme Court!
If the worse happens and Biden can not finish his second term, I will not lose one minute of sleep over Harris becoming President. She is smart, tough, and experienced. At this point she already has more relevant experience than Obama did when he first set foot in the Oval Office. The Biden/Harris administration is full of smart people with experience and expertise who are listened to. Harris gets a bad rap. Undeservedly. I wonder why. Could it be her two X chromosomes and the amount of pigment in her skin?
On the subject of polls. Ever since the Great Polling Debacle of 2016, I have ignored the polling results and urge everyone else to do the same. There are several technical reasons why at this point in time the polls simply are not worth the paper they are printed on. There are lies, damn lies, statistics, and then there are polls. (With apologies to Samuel Clemens).
As I have spent the evening thinking about this, I find I agree with Chris Christie. We the voters, the people from whom all legitimate governing power in our system is derived, must be the ones who decide our future.
Asking Big Daddy Court to make things all nice again does nothing to deal with the problem of Trump and the anti-democratic movement he leads, not in the long run. If this decision is affirmed, it lets us off the hook and allows us to escape reponsibility for our own future.
While he may be off the ballot, there is every likelihood that this will solidify his leadership of MAGA and turn MAGA into a truly violent, insurrectionary movement. Such a decision could in fact be the flame that lights the fuse to the powder keg that is our contemporary politics.
If we are really a self-governing country, then WE have to decide that Trump loses. Kicking the can down the road with a court decision does not solve the real problem we face. That problem is that a significant section of the population is willing to support a man who tells them if he takes power that he will destroy this constitutional democratic republic. Removing him from the ballot does not resolve that. We can have a political war and defeat him - and MAGA politically - or we can have a civil war, which is what this decision points us toward.
The situation is now more difficult than it was 24 hours ago.
I watched Kamalla with Lawrence tonight and yes, Robert, everyone needs to see how sharp and focussed she is. She could still run circles around anyone in the Senate, and the Repugs candidates? She'd blow them away just exhaling.
Just a short rant about Kamala Harris and her critics: What does it take to give up on the patriarchy? To continue to ingest all the poison with which it has saturated your lives and those of your ancestors and your children until maybe, at last, you refuse to take even another teeny tiny sip? Many in the older generation have only known a world thoroughly dominated by people who looked, talked, and behaved just like them -- if they were either White Males or submissive folks of any gender. Strong, intelligent women like Kamala Harris do not exist to make life easier for us. They do hope to make life better for us in the future; but in the short-term that often means they speak clearly, often, and strongly about what they know and believe and want to do -- just like they would do if they were members of the dominant class. They don't p-foot around and try to make the patriarchy 'feel safe'; most women have felt very UN-safe because of it; why should they acquiesce and fawn and promise to be good little girls who sit quietly with their ankles neatly crossed? With the long and bloody history of the patriarchy on exhibit daily: that we see so many women in particular who would prefer a leader more like Nikki Haley(?!!!) than Kamala Harris suggests that they have abandoned themselves, other women, and even their own daughters who should be able to count on them to be as strong and smart and brave as they can manage. Being from the South and living in Texas for 50+ years brings this starkly to my attention daily and it makes me enraged. One reason I don't worry about 'Biden's Age' is specifically because of Kamala Harris backing him up.
This 14th amendment decision is something. To me, the Constitution language is so plain...I can see where some might wish “it ain’t so,” but it’s there in black and white. Maybe it HELPS to not be a lawyer sometimes? I mean, how do you just ignore part of the Constitution ?
And speaking of plain English, every time I read again about January 6, something new hits me, and today it was these CO SC sentences: “Even when the siege on the Capitol was fully underway, he continued to support it by repeatedly demanding that Vice President Pence refuse to perform his constitutional duty and by calling Senators to persuade them to stop the counting of electoral votes. These actions constituted overt, voluntary, and direct participation in the insurrection.”
There you have it. Whatever happens next, thank you, Colorado Supreme Court.
Last night at an annual holiday dinner with 3 of my friends of 20 years we eventually got around to talking about the election next year. I respect these women who also lean republican. The name Trump never entered our conversation so we had a very civil exchange which was refreshing. Here were the points unanimously made by all 3:
Biden is doing a disservice by running as he is mentally infirm and can't perform the duties of his office.
The dems have been protecting Hunter Biden while his dad has been in office and now that he is running again the dems are no longer protecting Hunter.
Gavin Newsom will pop in at the last minute as the candidate for president.
Kamala Harris is unfit to be president if Joe Biden has a health event.
I listened for a very long time and then let it rip in a very respectful way saying that what you might not know in your news bubble is that many, many people are in favor of the Biden/Harris ticket and have every confidence that Biden can and will carry on doing all of the great things he has done as our president! It was refreshing for me to speak my truth but also to be heard by my friends. It gave me great confidence moving forward into 2024 to speak up and speak out!!
Written here with a grateful heart to Robert, Jill and all of his subscribers who have given me the courage to speak my truth.
I will do my best to share as widely as possible today’s newsletter and its sobering summary of corruption at the highest levels of our government.
The story of the insurrection has come to light, thanks in large part to the January 6 Committee investigation, a few incorruptible state election workers, and Jack Smith.
Today the Colorado Supreme Court cast the brightest light yet. Trump has been disqualified from running for office in Colorado.
Others individuals have been compelled to take action to change the course brought on by corrupt leadership.
Independent writers like Robert Hubbell, Jessica Craven, Heather Cox Richardson and Simon Rosenberg are dedicated to finding and sharing critical information to many thousands of readers. Many of us will also act as points of light.
I regret that the paper I have had delivered to my front door, for 40 years has not done its part in bringing the truth to light. If the coverage of polls continues to be distorted, and Biden excellent leadership continues to be downplayed, I will cancel my NYT subscription.
Though over the next few weeks I would expect the High Court to find some off-ramp for overturning Colorado, I also expect the justices will strike down Trump’s immunity argument that would have exempted him from all the crimes he committed while he was president. Accordingly, Trump’s delay tactics will fail and the March 1/6 trial will proceed as scheduled, or at least close enough. Even more important, I encourage us not to underestimate the immeasurable significance of two court adjudications both finding Trump an insurrectionist. In my view, they will figure prominently in the outcome of the 2024 election, more so now likely to land on the very issue that drove Biden initially to run—the fight for the soul of democracy, for government “of, by, and for the people.”
It's the Headlines, stupid! Or at least that's what I feel. The journalists articles in the NY Times usually have the feel of verity. But the Headline Writers from the Times are barely getting a C+. I'm of the opinion that the Headline writers are more often than not the editors, not the journalists. Does anyone agree?
Frequent Biden supporter flamethrowing and swearing at the NY Times is not going bring about change at the NY Times. It would be unfortunate if it did. (Constructive criticism might.) Nor are the attacks on the NY Times going to motivate more Biden supporters to help get out the vote. God help us if that's what it takes to motivate us. Nor does it help to attribute the comments of op-ed opinion columnists to the Times. We know, or at least should know, that's not how op-ed pieces work. They are opinions independent of the Times. The NY Times is actually our friend. We need to remember that. As the NY Times pointed out the other day, our media enemy is the army of trolls creating and proliferating deep fake social media memes that spread inane and deadly falsehoods about Joe Biden and Democrats. Our only antidote for that is getting out the vote. We need to figure out our narrative for doing that in the face of Joe Biden having to make very difficult to win choices on impossible issues like the war in the middle east and immigration. If our narrative is that the NY Times isn't being sensible or fair to us, well, the end isn't going to be pretty.
Thanks!! And thanks to the Colorado Supreme Court! I don’t know what the NYT is up to anymore!
I am worried though that the Biden administration’s closeness to Israel is really hurting them. The destruction of Gaza is indefensible and they should be saying that loud and clear, not in the soft diplomatic way they are nudging Netanyahu. The standing of the US in general is suffering in the world. We are on the wrong side of history here.
I can appreciate the journalistic challenge that community faces after years of training to present both sides of a story. Fox News co-opted the philosophy coining their 3 word motto, "Fair and Balanced" although their news coverage cannot even sarcastically be considered that. It is another 3 word phrase easily remembered, repeated and understood by a wide swath of the population because that's as deep as they are.
But, I digress. The real issue here is far less challenging than the mainstream media would like us to believe. Covering "both sides" is applicable and reasonable when both sides have a valid philosophical underpinning to their view, not one which is antithetical to our very way of life and based on an aggregation of lies. Balanced coverage in this day and age would be to cover Trump and the minions for what they are...the reincarnation of fascism. And it should include a definition of what fascism actually is and how it is embodied in the spirit, intent and actions of Donald Trump. Real and informative balanced coverage should be a call for national outrage and to express that outrage every day from now until we all step into the voting booth. It is the right time for this out of disgust but also out of necessity.
Kamala Harris is a very intelligent woman.
Thank you, Pro Publica journalists, for the investigative work respecting the corruption of Supreme Court justices, particularly Mr. Thomas. Once again, the headline writer mistakenly wrote that the corruption process has been “long and slow.” Indeed, the evidence reveals that Mr. Thomas has long been the recipient of corrupting generosity of his wealthy supporters (who have personally benefited from their “gift giving”); but as you point out, there was no delay in responding to Mr. Thomas’ overt, but apparently “delicate,” solicitation of the supplemental means of supporting the lifestyle to which he felt entitled.
This new report simply adds to the growing amount of empirical information available about the sleaziness and character defects of multiple members of the current court. This information together with the justices’ recent publication of a glaringly weak “code of ethics” by which they disclaimed any intent to be legally bound, makes it all the more urgent that Congress exercise its Constitutional authority to enact a mandatory and enforceable code of ethics applicable to Supreme Court members and personnel. It is noteworthy that other recent reporting revealed that the justices do not - and cannot reasonably- trust one another (in that particular instance about the process of creating and publishing the Dobbs decision). It is therefore no surprise that the public has compelling reason to believe that this particular collection of flawed humanity constitutes an illegitimate court.
Floridians Protecting Freedom is an organization in Florida that has been collecting signatures on petitions. The purpose is to include a referendum on the ballot asking voters whether abortion should be legal in Florida. They received twice as many petitions as they needed. Twice as many. Hopefully a harbinger of things to come.
I have now watched VP Harris twice, first last night and again via the link (thank you, Mr. Hubbell). I do not understand why people, including smart, successful women, have a strong negative reaction to Ms. Harris. Perhaps Sky777 is correct; it is the color of her skin and chromosomes. Perhaps it is that like most VP's her work (and the work of the smart, accomplished Second Gentleman) does not get enough coverage. I am a huge fan of Lawrence O'Donnell. Now, maybe that will change.