“Teddy, you got some ‘splaining to do!”

Commentary

It’s been quite some time between Around the Block posts; let me try to ‘splain why.

You haven’t seen an Around the Block story in a while. Since I couldn’t remember how long it’s been, I looked back at my archive.

YIKES!

I last wrote a column almost two months ago, June 20th to be precise. That post, dealing with Trump’s second indictment – the one about the stolen Mar-a-Lago documents, was headlined, “I’m too busy to go through so many tax documents, in so many boxes, in so many places – so I’m not filing my tax returns.” It was so long ago that Trump has been indicted again (#3). You know the one I mean – the one accusing him of conspiring to overturn the election, interrupt Congress and take away every American’s right to vote and have that vote counted. Astonishingly, Trump will probably be indicted a fourth time next week in Georgia on charges that he and his supporters tried to reverse the results of the 2020 presidential election in the Peach State. Not only is that indictment probable, it might include RICO racketeering charges! (Thanks, Rudy Giuliani for introducing RICO prosecution. Sweet irony isn’t!)

In the 54 days since that last post, plenty has happened…plenty to opine about, to lament, to satirize. So many things that I have lists and lists of potential subjects and themes. Yet, I’ve been silent. This post will be an attempt to explain to you…and to me, frankly…the silence. (At the very least, if I can satisfactorily explain my writer’s block to myself, I’ll save tons of money that would have gone to my therapist!)

Before I begin, a little background.

Some of you might recall a recent Around the Block headline very similar to today’s. The story, posted this year on May 11 was headlined, “Lucy, you got some ‘splaining’ to do.” That story dealt with the reason I changed Around the Block’s direction from a lot of satire, which I called “News with a Twist,” to mostly straight commentary with a sprinkle of satire. The reason? To quote from that column:

In the run-up to the 2016 election, Trump’s shenanigans and the inaneness of his GOP primary opponents provided ample material for “News with a Twist” posts. In fact, although I haven’t done an exhaustive examination, my guess is that at least 50% of my stories in 2015-2016 were satirical.

And then Donald Trump became POTUS. 

And then satire…funny…wasn’t funny any more. In my mind, satirists at the time, like Andy Borowitz, Samantha Bee, Trevor Noah and others were trying too hard to be funny and cynical at a time when the world was becoming, not only unfunny, but dark and evil. So, I began writing less “News with a Twist” and more straight commentary.

Not only was I writing less “News with a Twist,” I was just writing less. My angst, my frustration, my anger at the idea that this country could have elected a person like Donald Trump got the best of me. In my initial post-election stories, I blamed HRC and Clinton hubris. I blamed the DNC. I blamed the wealthy who supported Trump because he would cut their taxes while working to cut support for the more needy and vulnerable. I blamed my fellow Jews who supported Trump because he “pretended to” love Israel, providing unencumbered support no matter what Israel did – but did so only to pander to his Evangelical base.

Is it that the last 54 days simply haven’t anything significant to opine about? Or, has it been that the last 54 days have been so chock full of horror that I’ve been overwhelmed? Or perhaps it is family matters and other projects, both writing and non-writing, have clouded my brain and muted my voice.

Whatever it was, I’m back. While I’m not sure how often I’ll write, allow me to use this post as a restart. Given the list of items and issues I’ve been saving for two months, perhaps the best way to restart is to go back to what I’ve wanted to write but didn’t, and briefly touch on them. Look at the following as a partial compendium of almost two months of bits and pieces that have been festering, but not commented upon.

Donald Trump

As he gets deeper and deeper into legal peril he becomes more unhinged while his MAGA supporters become more rabidly devoted. But despite that, a recent poll puts him dead even with Biden in the 2024 election. If you’re not concerned about that, you probably shouldn’t be reading my stuff.

Indictments, trials and free speech

Trump (and his cabal of supporting elected GOP officials) are making a mockery of the First Amendment as he disparages judges and prosecutors while intimidating prospective witnesses and juries with threats, the most egregious, “If you go after me, I’m coming after you.” When is free speech no longer protected? Well, according to the judge presiding over the third indictment case, Tanya S. Chutkan, who Trump and his sycophantic ally, Senator Lindsey Graham, have said “hates him” and “her family hates him,” there are limits. At a preliminary hearing, she warned Trump, in an unmistakable reference to the “If you go after me…” post, “I intend to ensure the orderly administration of justice in this case as I would in any other case, and even arguably ambiguous statements by the parties or their counsel [which] could be considered an attempt to intimidate witnesses or prejudice potential jurors, triggering the court to take action.” The judge went on to say, “I caution you and your client to take special care in your public statements in this case. I will take whatever measures are necessary to protect the integrity of these proceedings.”

Regarding Trump’s most devoted MAGA supporters, his lies, his calls for violent action against his enemies and his political opponents, his generally dangerous protected free speech inspires devotees like Utah man, Craig Robertson. Robertson made a Facebook post alluding to his intention to kill President Biden during the president’s visit to the state. “I hear Biden is coming to Utah,” the Air Force veteran wrote. “Digging out my old ghille [sic] suit and cleaning the dust off the M24 sniper rifle. Welcome, Buffoon-in-chief!” Robertson, who was killed in a confrontation with the FBI, posted a previous message (in all caps emulating you-know-who) about his “WONDERFUL DREAM” where he saw himself in a parking garage in Washington, D.C., “…STANDING OVER THE BODY OF THE U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL, MERRICK GARLAND, WITH A BULLET HOLE DEAD CENTER IN HIS FOREHEAD. IN MY HAND WAS MY SUPPRESSED SMITH & WESSON M&P 9MM, SMOKE WAFTING FROM THE MUZZLE.” And even earlier one, “The time is right for a presidential assassination or two. First Joe[,] then Kamala!!!” Welcome to the United States of MAGA World where we can wallow in the joys of unencumbered, protected free speech!

Ron DeSantis

The governor of Florida, sinking in the presidential polls, keeps doubling, tripling and even quadrupling down on his hateful campaign against “wokeness.” His obsessive, misguided, over-the-top, racist attacks on history, women’s rights, education and even Mickey Mouse seem to know no bottom. And yes, although he’s far behind, GOP voters still peg him #2 after Trump in the presidential race. (More on the Republican party in an upcoming Around the Block). With so much to write about and so little space – actually, I have no space restraints and no editors but do recognize that readers might not have the time or the patience to put up with my verbosity – I’ll focus here on a few of DeSantis’ recent activities.

Education

DeSantis is trying to indoctrinate Florida students with right-wing dogma with his attacks on education. He’s restricted or banned African American Studies courses; banned more than 40% of math textbooks that publishers submitted for review, claiming they contained “woke” ideology; and, under the “Don’t say gay act,” banned talk about sexuality and gender in grades K-12. His laws against the teaching of race, sexual orientation, and gender have led to strict book bans in various school districts. In higher education, the governor is rolling back diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, reducing tenure protections and moving school leaders to review core courses to make sure they’re free of “liberal indoctrination.” Most recently, his ban on books has resulted in, as a Palm Beach Post story headline stated, “Fearful Fla. teachers offloading books” (to used bookstores). Not to be outdone by South Florida, the headline of a recent Tampa Bay Times story read, “Concerns over sex content leads Florida schools to pull Shakespeare.” Why are these schools, teachers, librarians and principals doing this? It’s not because they believe in DeSantis’ Facist tendencies, it’s because they fear being fired!

Fascism

DeSantis’ full-throated embrace of Fascism goes beyond his anti-woke attacks. He, like Fascist strongmen before him, is using his position to fire elected officials with whom he doesn’t agree. (For more on Fascist despots, I encourage you to read Ruth Ben-Ghiat’s recent book, “Strongmen – Mussolini to the Present.” Among the strongmen included in the book, besides the titled Mussolini, are Hitler, Stalin, Idi Amin, Putin and Donald Trump(!) I suppose Professor Ben-Ghiat will include DeSantis in an updated edition.) In the past year, DeSantis “suspended” two, duly-elected Florida State Attorneys (DAs in other jurisdictions), both Democrats, because they did not do his bidding. Last year, Hillsborough County (Tampa area) state attorney, Andrew Warren was fired despite having won his election against a Republican opponent by by a margin of six percentage points. This week DeSantis “suspended” Orange County (Orlando area) state attorney, Monique Worrell, for alleged “dereliction of duty,” claiming, “We had a duty to act to prevent this dereliction of duty, Prosecutors do have a certain amount of discretion about which charges to bring. What this state attorney has done is abuse that discretion and has effectively nullified certain laws in the state of Florida.” Worrell was elected in 2020 by a margin of 67% to 33%!

Despite the fact that under Florida law, the governor has the authority to suspend elected officials, that power is usually reserved for those who are accused of criminal wrongdoing. But I guess when you’re a dictator you don’t have to worry about the why’s, what’s or facts of your actions. At least he’s not “disappearing” his rivals like another of Ben-Ghiat’s strongmen, Chile’s Augusto Pinochet.

Free Speech

Let me finish my DeSantis discussion with a sample of his own unencumbered, apparently protected, free speech.

In a campaign stop in New Hampshire, DeSantis said he would “start slitting throats on day one” when it comes to taking on the “deep state.”

If you don’t believe a Yale undergraduate, Harvard Law School-educated, former Navy judge-advocate general who is now the sitting governor of the third-largest state in the Union would actually vow, out loud, to slit the throats of government workers, watch this:

Greg Abbott

I can’t end what has turned out to be a very long post without a call-out to Texas governor, Greg Abbott. I’ve written extensively about the DeSantis/Abbott race to the GOP governor bottom, with DeSantis almost always winning that race. But make no mistake, Abbott is working hard and might be catching up, at the very least, on the cruelty/inhumanity scale.

Border Control

As reported by PBS and NPR:

Texas uses disaster declarations to install buoys and razor wire to stop migration on border. Wrecking ball-sized buoys on the Rio Grande. Razor wire strung across private property without permission. Bulldozers changing the very terrain of America’s southern border.

Locals and lawmakers have started getting a closer look at wrecking ball–size orange buoys Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) had installed — illegally, Mexico and the federal government say — along 1,000 feet of the Rio Grande river between Eagle Pass and Piedras Negras, Mexico. The controversial buoys are chained to the shallow bottom of the river with a net of cables, and you can’t climb over them because they spin freely. 

To make sure would-be asylum seekers don’t climb between them, Texas Public Radio’s David Martin Davies reported after a kayak trip to the barrier, “there are also serrated metal plates that look like circular saw blades between each buoy.” That detail also stuck with Rep. Sylvia Garcia (D-Texas) and Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Texas) when they visited Eagle Pass on Tuesday. Garcia said she was “appalled” by Abbott’s “cruel and inhumane tactics” and unsettled by the “buoys’ true danger and brutality.”

According to USA Today:

The Department of Justice is planning legal action against Texas in response to horrific reports from the southern border. A 4-year-old girl passed out in 100-degree heat after she was pushed back toward Mexico by Texas National Guard personnel. A pregnant woman became trapped in razor wire and had a miscarriage. A state trooper said he was under orders not to give migrants any water. These incidents stem from Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s “Operation Lone Star.” 

Abbott has had barriers of buoys and razor wire placed in the Rio Grande to deter migrants from crossing. But governors cannot act unilaterally on immigration because the federal government has authority over our borders. The Supreme Court affirmed in 2012 that immigration is a federal matter, noting that states ‘may not pursue policies that undermine federal law.’

Abbott has vowed to “see you in court Mr. President” even thought most legal experts believe he will lose. But who knows, the current Supreme Court is not 2012’s Supreme Court!

There are many more items on my “to-opine about” list. But clearly this post has reached the outer limits of my, and, I’m sure, your tolerance. I appreciate your continued support and will do all I can to get back to a more regular schedule.