Lorraine Evanoff's Blog, page 15
April 26, 2021
Mad As Hell
Could Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) be a model for passing common-sense gun legislation? Related crimes fall under the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), within the Department of Justice, responsible for investigating and preventing federal offenses involving the unlawful use, manufacture, and possession of firearms and explosives, acts of arson and bombings, and illegal trafficking of alcohol and tobacco products. The ATF used to be part of the Treasury department and Bureau of Internal Revenue, i.e. money, dating back to the real-life Elliot Ness.
However, the “alcohol and tobacco” part of ATF seems to have been in name only. So, MADD took up the mantle to mitigate alcohol as a factor in the weaponization of automobiles. MADD is a non-profit founded September 5, 1980 in California by Candace Lightner after her 13-year-old daughter, Cari was killed by a drunk driver. With at least one MADD office in every U.S. state, it claims to have reduced drunk driving by half since its founding. The group helped enact the 1984 National Minimum Drinking Age. In 2004, the legal limit for blood alcohol was reduced from BAC .10 to BAC .08. One of the most compelling tools MADD uses is victim impact panels or VIPs (MADD does have effective acronyms), whereby offenders hear victims or relatives of victims relate their experiences. Advocates for decriminalizing drunk driving argue that MADD policies have become overbearing. In 2002, Lightner left the group stating it had become more neo-prohibitionist than she had ever intended. Still, MADD continues lobbying effectively, now working on breath alcohol ignition interlock devices installed as standard equipment in all new cars.
It’s not for lack of trying that victims of gun violence have failed to regulate the gun industry. Brave gun reform advocates include Fred Guttenberg, father of 14-year-old Jaime killed in the horrific Parkland shooting, who is working with Democrats to re-introduce the Ammunition Background Check Act of 2021 known as Jaime’s Law. Other teen victims fighting for change established March for Our Lives. And yet, gun safety legislation is more relaxed than ever. Since the 1994 Federal Weapons Ban lapsed in 2004 under George W. Bush, not only have U.S. annual gun related deaths remained about the same, 10 per 100,000 people, but Republicans (plus Bernie Sanders), with the help of the gun lobby, passed the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA) in 2005, protecting the gun industry against litigation.
Imagine if these effective MADD lobbyists worked to reform the gun and ammunition industry. Currently, drunk driving related fatalities are at 10,000 per year. That’s horrible. But it’s half what it used to be, thanks to Mothers Against Drunk Drivers. Still, it seems more difficult than ever to get common-sense national gun laws passed. Maybe we need a catchy acronym, such as, PISSED: People Intend to Stop Shootings Every Day, or perhaps ANGRY: Americans Need Gun Reform Yesterday.
April 17, 2021
Washington DC statehood prospects are finally heating up
A quick civics lesson, Congress is made up of the Senate and the House. In the Senate, each state sends two Senators to represent their state. In the House, a state’s representation is based on its population by Congressional District, which currently averages 700,000 people. The number of voting representatives in the House is fixed by law at no more than 435 for the 50 states, so the population average of 700,000 changes.
The process for statehood is inexact. Article IV, Section 3 of the Constitution empowers Congress to grant statehood, but the process is unspecified. It says that a state can not be created by splitting or merging existing states without approval of both Congress and the states’ legislatures. Otherwise, conditions are determined on a case-by-case basis. Just two examples, Puerto Rico successfully ratified its constitution establishing it as a U.S. territory, but the Cold War, Vietnam, September 11th, placed statehood on the back burner of Congress for 60 years, an Alaska took almost a century to gain statehood. That brings us to a bill for Washington D.C. statehood, which the U.S. House of Representatives is expected to vote on in the next week.
D.C. with about 700,000 residents already has (non-voting) representation in the House with Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton, a Democrat, who first introduced the bill for D.C. statehood thirty years ago. Full statehood would gain two Senate seats for D.C., most likely for the Democrats. Before the vote, Congressional hearings will present arguments. Republicans’ main argument against statehood is to prevent Democrats from gaining two Senate seats, bringing attention to their unending hypocrisy. In 1889 Republicans split the Dakota Territory into two states so they could pick up four new Senators instead of two, and they continue to block statehood of D.C., Puerto Rico and Guam. Democrats argue that tax-paying D.C. residents deserve full representation in Congress.
Another issue is the 23rd Amendment which gave D.C. residents three presidential electoral votes in 1961. Statehood for D.C. would give those three electoral votes to the residents of the remaining shrunken federal district, the White House. Solutions range from a repeal of the 23rd Amendment, to splitting those presidential electoral votes: two for the winner, and one for the loser.
With the filibuster, Democrats do not have the votes for the 60-senator threshold to advance the D.C. statehood bill. But in 2017, the Senate changed the rule so only 51 votes were needed to confirm Supreme Court justices. The movement called 51 for 51 is trying to change the Senate rule so only 51 votes are needed for D.C. statehood.
April 13, 2021
What the Republicans are really trying to distract us from right now
Putin continues efforts to buttress his power in Russia with ongoing violence against anti-Kremlin activists, and now with new aggressions against Ukraine. This is another long-term strategy by Putin starting in 2014 after successfully destabilizing Europe by allying himself with Syrian President Bashar Assad to weaponize the refugee crisis. Putin is now threatening to strike at his real target, Ukraine, which also started in 2014 with Russia’s annexation of Crimea from Ukraine.
Meanwhile, back in America, Democrats struggle to fight off the GOP aggression against voting rights, while also trying to hold several Republican officials accountable for insurrection and many other crimes. So, is this latest Republican effort another red herring? Several international friends of mine with strong ties to Ukraine including adopted children have expressed intense anxiety over the tensions building in the region. Yet, the situation has been underreported by media in the United States.
Ukraine is crucial to Russian dominance following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 into fifteen independent republics. Putin knows that Russia will never become a world power without control of Ukraine, which sits on the Black Sea, a critical Russian naval hub of geographical importance with access to the Mediterranean.
Earlier in March the head of Ukraine armed forces Ruslan Khomchak said that Russia’s armed aggression in Donbass is a major threat to Ukraine’s national security and all NATO allies. This past week, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and French President Emmanuel Macron have all expressed concern over the Russian aggressions after Ukraine said four of its soldiers had been killed in shelling by Russian forces in Donbass.
Putin may be trying to test the West’s resolve to confront him. Or he may be trying to divert attention from jailed dissident Alexei Navalny. He may also be employing KGB Playbook diversionary tactics in Donbass to capture a bigger prize to capture water courses that supply Crimea, causing a water shortage crisis, the groundwork of which was laid seven years ago.
Nonetheless, the Republican party in the United States is wasting time on the Big Lie of voter fraud, orchestrating a coordinated attack on voting rights, proposing over 250 new voting laws in 43 states. Not only is this a threat to the balance of power in the U.S. It also serves to distract Americans from the criminal investigations of Trump and his co-conspirators, as well as the escalating Russian/Ukraine crisis.
But Putin is playing a risky game with Biden who has expressed unwavering support to Ukraine against Russian aggression after his call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. And Republicans are only doing damage to their own party with these attempts to undermine our democracy.
March 23, 2021
Getting out of this relationship
I tend to write commentary when something is really weighing on me. Nothing is heavier than the violence perpetrated against seven women and one man on Tuesday, March 16, 2021, by a white male angry at his own uncontrollable sexual proclivity toward the very women he murdered (he was taken into custody unharmed). Georgia sheriff Jay Baker excused this violent criminal, saying, “He was fed up, at the end of his rope…yesterday was a really bad day for him….” One day later, 172 Republicans voted against the Violence Against Women Act.
When will the gun makers, distributors, lobbyists, law enforcement and politicians be held responsible for their irresponsible perpetuation of this deadly insanity? Our prolonged unaddressed outrage is unsustainable. It’s exactly like living in an abusive relationship with no way out.
Georgia lets an unstable person buy guns with no wait time, but women seeking an abortion must wait 24 hours. This is American Sharia Law, institutionalized violence against women. In many countries, women have no voice. However, in the United States we still do and it’s time to fight back. Dianne Feinstein has a long history of fighting for gun safety. Bernie Sanders has a horrible pro-gun record. Women have to lead the reassessment of our relationship with guns, abortion and even climate science. We must combat the radicalization by the right with common sense and re-education.
There’s the French adage that it takes half as long to get out of a relationship as we were in it. It’s not scientific, it’s more about managing expectations. The current mass acceptance of making dangerous firearms accessible to virtually anyone (including domestic terrorists), denying safe abortion to all women, and destroying our planet for our children, was no accident. It happened over decades of brainwashing by Republicans. The NRA influenced the drafting of the Firearm Owners Protection Act passed under Reagan in 1986, and opposed renewal of the Federal Assault Weapons Ban of 1994, which expired under GW Bush in 2004. Although Roe v Wade was 1973, safe abortion has always been an evangelical Christian battle cry. The fossil fuel industry began their disinformation campaign about Climate Change around 1989.
So if it took 30-40 years of GOP propaganda to get us into this gun violence, anti-women, and anti-climate science nightmare, it will take a while to get ourselves out of it. But time is running out quickly on all of these. At least our fate is currently in the hands of an undeniably compassionate President and, perhaps more important, a woman of color and Asian descent Vice President.
March 16, 2021
Life as we know it
As President Biden quickly approaches fulfilling his promise of 100 million vaccinations in his first 100 days in office ahead of schedule, we may be able to begin to heal as a nation and as a planet. It will not be a sudden return to life as we knew it, tearing off our masks en masse like a great Band-Aid. It will be slow as we safely resume social life. Many differences and new habits will be permanent.
The indelible tradition of saying “God bless you” when someone sneezes was born from the bubonic plague raging through Europe after Pope Gregory the Great suggested the prayer would protect them. The people of Hong Kong learned that wearing masks saves lives during the 2003 SARS outbreak. Their continued tactics became a model for the rest of the world during COVID-19. What made the difference was Hong Kong citizens themselves using common sense.
In the United States, Democrats embraced the science, we wore masks, practiced social distancing, and washed our hands. Republicans literally tore up Obama’s pandemic outbreak playbook and refused to follow basic common-sense guidelines. They continue to try to keep us sick, infecting us with their Big Lie and fear. They project, deflect, obfuscate, spin, blame others, and make up their own rules. Like an addict, we cannot force them to get better. Republican voters must want to cure themselves of their cognitive dissonance. And yet, Democrats are the ones who encourage everyone to vote, while Republicans continue efforts to disenfranchise voters.
Democrats heal the economy after the Republicans cripple it. The $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan was signed into law Thursday with not one Republican signature. President Biden has already signed ‘existential’ executive orders on climate and environment to heal the planet after Republicans actively deregulated, siding with dirty energy, the Russians, and the Middle East. Even after we have seen how capable we are of surviving a whole year without wasteful behavior, Republicans are rushing back to the old ways. What will remain one of the biggest challenges is healing the courts and SCOTUS. Democrats have our work cut out for us.
March 10, 2021
What’s really prompting so many Senate Republicans to head for the exit door
There is much speculation about why Republican incumbents are announcing early retirement instead of seeking re-election and how this may affect the republican 2024 presidential candidates.
So far five GOP senators have opted out of the 2022 midterms. The speculation is that the GOP are trying to become even more “Trumpian” with candidates to match extremists Lauren Boebert and Marjorie Taylor Greene. This reminds me of Justice Anthony Kennedy’s sudden resignation from SCOTUS, giving Republicans yet another far-right lifetime appointment. There is ample evidence that Kennedy, whose son worked closely with the Trump Org. at Deutsche Bank, was pushed into early retirement by Trump dangling the Gorsuch nomination. Is this a similar powerplay to push vulnerable republican congressmembers out?
This theory would mean that these GOP representatives are succumbing to a coordinated effort by some dark force with a hell of a lot of power who is focused on revenge, i.e., Trump. But that’s where the theory falls apart. Trump no longer has any power, beyond what may be some very dirty secrets that are about to come out in Trump’s pending investigations and almost certain indictments.
Which brings us to the more reasonable scenario. These representatives are bailing out of the path of a tsunami of ugly new information. They believe their chances for re-election are slim, (Roy Blunt won in 2016 by only 3 points and Toomey is very vulnerable), so the House and Senate won’t flip back to the right and they don’t want to be in the minority.
What does that mean for potential republican 2024 presidential candidates? Given the fact that a CPAC straw poll shows only 55% of republicans would vote for D.J. Trump again in 2024, it makes more sense that the GOP is trying to move on and revamp itself. There will probably be the same long list of primary contenders Cotton, Cruz, DeSantis, Ernst, Haley, Hawley, Rubio and Romney, plus some completely new and untarnished GOP up-and-comers.
Then again, it is still possible that the GOP are crazy enough to try to replace these vulnerable incumbent congressmembers with more Trumpian extremists and run Ivanka or Trump Jr. for president. This might be their strategy. But it’s sure to fail.
March 6, 2021
The odds on Donald Trump’s criminal indictment
After Googling Vegas odds on new Trump indictments, I was surprised to find none. As a seasoned criminal mentored by con men like Fred Trump, Roy Cohn, and Vladimir Putin, Trump obliterated all precedents as POTUS opening the door for corruption. Now with an ethical Department of Justice under Biden, we can better predict the odds for his indictments. Here is my cheat sheet.
Emoluments Clause violations are rarely tested because Presidents avoid even the appearance of impropriety. Trump violated the Constitution by accepting payments from foreign governments through Trump International Hotel, and by not using a blind trust but instead retaining an interest his businesses. But the Supreme Court dismissed two cases and wiped away appeals in court because Trump was no longer in office. Trump ran out the clock, leaving zero odds of indictment.
The greatest lapse in the Mueller investigation was failure to follow the money even after Deutsche Bank’s anti-money-laundering specialists recommended alerting the U.S. Treasury about Trump and Kushner. Manhattan D.A. Vance who picked up where Mueller left off investigating Trump for tax fraud and falsification of businesses is now in possession of eight years of Trump’s tax returns. Also, Trump’s longtime banker, Rosemary Vrablic, who arranged hundreds of millions of dollars in loans at Deutsche Bank over the years, recently resigned. If she flips on Trump, odds are very good for indictment.
Trump tax records show that he reduced his tax bills from 2010 to 2018 by writing off $26 million in consulting fees. A payment of $747,633 to an unnamed Trump Org. consultant was the exact amount Ivanka declared on her own public filings when she joined the White House in 2017, suggesting she was hired as a consultant on the same hotel deals she helped manage while on Trump Org. payroll. Another investigation is a $2.1 million tax deduction for Trump’s Seven Springs property valuation to claim a conservation easement in 2015 that may have been grossly inflated. Manhattan D.A. is looking to flip Trump Organization CFO, increasing odds of indictment.
Trump campaign finance laws violations are corroborated by witness testimony from Michael Cohen and a paper trail of Trump paying hush money to Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal before the 2016 presidential election. The payments may have never been discovered had Trump not properly accounted for them in its financials. Odds are good this will be one of the indictments.
Although Trump was impeached a first time for extortion in his Ukraine scandal, but acquitted by the Senate, Trump threatened Georgia Secretary of State Raffensperger with “a criminal offense” to extort him into election fraud if he didn’t come up with 11,000 votes to overturn the Georgia election. Now that Fulton County D.A. in Georgia put her criminal case against Trump before a grand jury, odds are good for a criminal felony indictment.
The Senate acquitted Trump of his second impeachment for “incitement and insurrection” on January 6th, but soon-to-be U.S. A.G. Merrick Garland vowed to prosecute, noting that prosecutors had successfully convicted domestic terrorists McVeigh and Nichols under existing laws. Odds are good for indictment.
February 23, 2021
How Merrick Garland will get down to business
Although the first corrupt U.S. Attorney General came under the incapacitated Democratic president Woodrow Wilson when A. Mitchell Palmer initiated “Palmer Raids” known as the “Red Scare” it has been Attorneys General under Republican presidents that have carried on the precedent of abuse. From A.G. Daugherty’s Tea Pot Dome scandal, to A.G. Mitchell advocating Nixon’s unauthorized use of wiretaps, to G.W. Bush’s A.G. Ashcroft endorsing the use of torture in Abu Ghraib, the list goes on.
When former Alabama Republican Senator Jeff Sessions misled the Senate about his contacts with Russian officials during Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, serving as A.G. under Trump, he recused himself from the investigation into Russian collusion. When Trump learned that A.G. Rosenstein had appointed Robert Mueller to head the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, Trump famously said, “I’m fucked.” But Trump turned things around by appointing corrupt Bill Barr as Attorney General who would forever tarnish Robert Mueller’s previously unblemished record as a tough prosecutor of white-collar criminals. We may never know how, but Barr was able to completely hamstring Mueller’s investigation.
Enter Merrick Garland, twice considered to fill vacated seats to the U.S. Supreme Court and considered by Republicans as “a consensus nominee.” In March 1997, when Bill Clinton nominated Garland to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit, most of the Republican-controlled Senate voted 76-23 to confirm, including McCain, Hatch, Collins and Inhofe, with McConnell, Grassley and Sessions voting against. Therefore, it’s not surprising that, in 2016, when President Obama finally nominated Merrick Garland to fill the vacancy of Justice Antonin Scalia, Mitch McConnell blocked it for a record 293 days.
Garland is considered a judicial moderate and a centrist. As a Supreme Court Justice, Garland’s record leaning moderate to conservative on civil rights could have been an issue. In ten criminal cases, Judge Garland disagreed with his more-liberal colleagues, in each, adopting the position that was more favorable to the government. However, as a U.S. Attorney General, Garland has a strong record of prosecuting terrorists. After the Oklahoma City bombing, Garland led the investigation and wanted to personally prosecute Timothy McVeigh.
Just yesterday, Garland publicly vowed to target white supremacists and others who attacked the U.S. Capitol on January 6th. This was a smart strategy preempting expected attempts by Senate Republicans like McConnell who have already promised to disrupt the hearings with fake demands such as an investigation into Hunter Biden.
Although the first corrupt U.S. Attorney General came under the incapacitated Democratic president Woodrow Wilson when A. Mitchell Palmer initiated “Palmer Raids” known as the “Red Scare” it has been Attorneys General under Republican presidents that have carried on the precedent of abuse. From A.G. Daugherty’s Tea Pot Dome scandal, to A.G. Mitchell advocating Nixon’s unauthorized use of wiretaps, to G.W. Bush’s A.G. Ashcroft endorsing the use of torture in Abu Ghraib, the list goes on.
When former Alabama Republican Senator Jeff Sessions misled the Senate about his contacts with Russian officials during Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, serving as A.G. under Trump, he recused himself from the investigation into Russian collusion. When Trump learned that A.G. Rosenstein had appointed Robert Mueller to head the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, Trump famously said, “I’m fucked.” But Trump turned things around by appointing corrupt Bill Barr as Attorney General who would forever tarnish Robert Mueller’s previously unblemished record as a tough prosecutor of white-collar criminals. We may never know how, but Barr was able to completely hamstring Mueller’s investigation.
Enter Merrick Garland, twice considered to fill vacated seats to the U.S. Supreme Court and considered by Republicans as “a consensus nominee.” In March 1997, when Bill Clinton nominated Garland to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit, most of the Republican-controlled Senate voted 76-23 to confirm, including McCain, Hatch, Collins and Inhofe, with McConnell, Grassley and Sessions voting against. Therefore, it’s not surprising that, in 2016, when President Obama finally nominated Merrick Garland to fill the vacancy of Justice Antonin Scalia, Mitch McConnell blocked it for a record 293 days.
Garland is considered a judicial moderate and a centrist. As a Supreme Court Justice, Garland’s record leaning moderate to conservative on civil rights could have been an issue. In ten criminal cases, Judge Garland disagreed with his more-liberal colleagues, in each, adopting the position that was more favorable to the government. However, as a U.S. Attorney General, Garland has a strong record of prosecuting terrorists. After the Oklahoma City bombing, Garland led the investigation and wanted to personally prosecute Timothy McVeigh.
Just yesterday, Garland publicly vowed to target white supremacists and others who attacked the U.S. Capitol on January 6th. This was a smart strategy preempting expected attempts by Senate Republicans like McConnell who have already promised to disrupt the hearings with fake demands such as an investigation into Hunter Biden.
February 10, 2021
President Biden’s plan to fight the gun industry
President Biden has a strong record on protections against the gun industry, actively working on two significant pieces of legislation. Also, the Biden/Harris campaign prioritized ending gun violence.
First, in 2004, Senator Biden, along with Senator Feinstein, fought against allowing the 1994 Federal Assault Weapons Ban to lapse. However, congress and the Bush administration failed to extend the ban which ended due to the 10-year sunset provision forced into the original law by the pro-gun lobby.
Then, in 2005 Biden voted against S.397, the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA) passed after successful lobbying by the gun industry. Section 3 of the PLCAA prohibits civil liability action from being brought in any state or federal court against a manufacturer or seller, or any trade association of such manufacturer or seller, of a firearm, ammunition, or a component of a firearm, for damages resulting from the criminal or unlawful misuse of a firearm.
Put simply, the law protects gun manufacturers from being held civilly liable for their products, a protection granted to no other industry. Think of the car industry that is required to issue recalls on defective vehicles and parts. Or consumer products found to be dangerous being recalled from the market. Only the gun industry is completely exempt from such recalls. The PLCAA was also retroactive, requiring pending actions to be dismissed.
There has been only one successful lawsuit in U.S. history against a gun manufacturer. It was won on behalf of a heroic 7-year-old shooting victim, Brandon Maxfield (who became quadriplegic after the incident), and his tenacious attorney Richard Ruggieri who proved an intentional gun defect of the cheap handgun known as the Saturday Night Special.
In a 2004 speech, Senator Feinstein directly referenced Maxfield v Bryco saying, “Brandon Maxfield, a seven-year-old from my state of California, whose case was not frivolous. The jury did not think it was. Without the threat of lawsuits, companies like the one that made the gun in this case will have little incentive to change the design, but this legislation would remove the threat of that suit, depriving Brandon of compensation, but even worse, depriving the public of this key avenue of improving the habits of gun manufacturers.”
The PLCAA was designed to take away this victim’s legal rights. It is notable that Senator Bernie Sanders voted for the gun industry in both cases.
The Biden/Harris campaign promised to fight for protections against the gun industry including implementing assault weapons buy-backs; reducing stockpiling of weapons; closing loopholes around online sales, federal background checks, hate-crime, and fugitive-from-justice rules; reinstatement of Obama’s mental health background checks (that Trump reversed), and many others. You can read the full gun safety plan here.
January 24, 2021
This is what empowerment feels like
Not since November 2008 has the Democratic Party held majorities in the House and the Senate, along with the Presidency, which lasted the first two years of Obama’s administration. However, this time feels much different.
Back in 2008, Democrats were the object of Republican bullying tactics and put on the defense while struggling to remain bipartisan in the name of democracy. The vilification of Nancy and Hillary begun decades before by the Republican (and Putin) misinformation machines continued with the intention of thwarting their careers. It worked against Hillary but not Nancy. McConnell destroyed the Judiciary branch, but not democracy. Putin is former KGB and plays the long game. None of this was accidental.
Now after regaining control of the Executive and Legislative branches on November 3, 2020 and January 5, 2021, the Democratic Party must use these first two years of the Biden Administration to right the many wrongs committed by the GOP under whatever corrupt influence (the truth about which is about to be revealed). The GOP relinquished their right to bipartisanship and Democrats have built a great offense. This is what empowerment feels like.
