Random Thoughts -- Political Division

I went non-political first, so here are my random political thoughts:

--  Someone must be paying Susan Rice a ton of money for being such a public liar.  I mean, this women is shameless when it comes to touting the party line.  But she's so accomplished, so practiced.  If I knew that what I was spewing was pure hogwash, I'd be smirking.  This woman's a sphinx.  So she is either the most clueless person in the world, the best-paid liar we've seen or such a dedicated party member that dead and buried Soviets are standing in their graves and applauding her.

--  I hate that the Republicans used the nuclear option to get Justice Gorsuch on the SCOTUS bench.  He's eminently qualified, and I think the Democrats did the country a disservice by opposing the nomination of such an accomplished jurist by trying to paint him as an unrelenting ideologue.

-- By the same token, I think Republicans blew it by not putting Merrick Garland up for consideration during that last year of the Obama administration.  Judge Garland is already sixty-four-years-old.  Had he been approved by the Senate, he might have lasted ten years on the bench, fifteen at most.  To hardcore conservatives, that was completely unacceptable.  The trouble with that is thinking is that Judge Garland had already issued an opinion against the Obama administration.  He was far from a leftist ideologue.

--  One last note on this SCOTUS stuff:  The Democrats really blew it.  By pushing the Republicans to go nuclear, that ensured a conservative court -- barring another Earl Warren conversion -- for the next fifty years, probably; well, at least forty.  With Justice Gorsuch on the bench and the likely retirements of Justices Thomas, Breyer and Bader Ginsberg, if President Trump gets to nominate their replacements the conservatives would outnumber their liberal counterparts at least six to three.  Sure, justices cross over sometimes, but just looking at the lineup, the Democrats will rue the day they pushed their luck.

--  People need to remember that the First Amendment does not protect all speech.  For example, one cannot shout Fire in a crowded theater due to the potential injuries a panic might cause.  Likewise, suggesting that the White House be bombed by ISIS or having pictures showing the President beheaded go beyond the pale for me.  Like him or not, he's our President.  Caricatures of him are tolerable, but those calls for his death or dismemberment are seditious and should be prosecuted.  If nothing else, it would reinstill the notion that there are time, place and manner restrictions to the First Amendment.  Irresponsible journalists and academics who believe otherwise need a lesson in Constitutional Law.

--  I'm not fan of Ann Coulter, but kudos to her for not rescheduling her speaking engagement date at UC -- Berkeley.   Officials wanted her to move it to a week when students were off.  She refused.  No matter how you color it, that was an attempt to chill free speech by removing her audience.

--  So Gayle King, an anchor with the CBS This Morning Show, goes vacationing with her best friend Oprah Winfrey and the Obamas.  Yet, we're supposed to believe in an impartial fourth estate?

--  And Bill O'Reilly is out at Fox.  Good.  I couldn't stand him.  Is Tucker Carlson the heir apparent?  And who woulda thunk that a mere four months into the Trump administration, both Megyn Kelly and Bill O'Reilly would be out at Fox?

-- I understand what Antifa means, I think, but what exactly is it that it's fighting? 

--  Are people that seriously affected by Donald Trump's election that they're depressed?  I want to know what exactly he's actually done that's depressed them so personally.

--  When the Patriots visited the White House, several players declined the invitation in protest over the President's policies.  This was noted solemnly by the MSM, presumably to show the inherent patriotism in the players' stances.  When President Obama was in the White House, several players on championship teams also refused the invitation.  If their absence was mentioned at all, it was seen as disrespectful.  Hypocrisy, much?

--  Keep an eye on Nikki Haley and Joni Ernst.  Anyone looking for a viable female POTUS candidate should check them out.

(c) 2017 The Truxton Spangler Chronicles