Exposed as a Bully

2024 Trip to South West United States, Extremism

 

Shortly after we arrived in Arizona,  the author E.J. Carroll won a big damage award from a jury as compensation for defamatory remarks made about her  by the former President Donald Trump. She actually successfully sued him twice! The second jury awarded her $83 million after the second trial. Immediately after the first trial, Trump defamed her again, eliciting a second trial, and second multi-million-dollar award for damages.

Shortly after the second trial was over, she was interviewed by Rachel Maddow on television together with her two female attorneys. This must have driven Trump nuts to be bested by 3 women!

Carroll is an 80-year-old author who had been sexually abused by Donald Trump. That was determined by the jury in a private tort trial. It was not a criminal trial. The government’s Department of Justice did not start the claim. This was not a case of the “deep state” nor “started by Biden’s “corrupt Department of Justice” as Trump has so quick to claim as a result of other hearings. This was a case of 2 independent juries, and not biased Democrats, or liberal media,  deciding that Trump had sexually abused this woman and then told lies about what he had done.  And they were so disappointed with what he had done and said that they awarded her $83 million as compensation for his bad behaviour.

Carroll admitted she was terrified before the trial. She was so scared she lost her voice and could not speak.  But she had been sexually abused by Donald Trump and did not want to let him get away with it. This took tremendous courage because Trump is a significant foe. But as Carroll said triumphantly on the Rachel Maddow show “We’ve planted our flag.  We’ve stood up to the man…He is not there…He is like a rhino snorting.”

 

At the trial Carroll and everyone who watched it quickly realized Trump was a bully, and like so many bullies “he was nothing. We don’t need to be afraid of him.”  Carroll’s lawyer Roberta Kaplan said after the verdict had been rendered, “We can stand up to the US’s biggest bully. We are not afraid of him.” The other lawyer for Carroll, Shawn Crowley who gave the summation to the jury asked them to consider “How much does he have to pay in order to stop him.” The first verdict was $5 million in the first case.  That was not enough to stop him. But Trump could not keep quiet and defamed her a second time right after the first verdict. He just refused to follow the rules. Crowley said about the jury, “They just saw it with their own eyes.”

Roberta Kaplan, the other lawyer for Carroll, said,

“Our thesis in this case was that Donald Trump was a bully who is incapable of following the rules. Then during the trial he acted like a bully and showed that he was incapable of following the rules. We almost didn’t need to say anything. The jury just watched him.”

 

I wish the Trumpsters had seen him. The case exposed the former president as a weak bully!

I know some Americans like bullies. They want a bully as President. They want a strong man, but I really think a majority don’t like bullies. Let’s wait and see. The election will tell that story.

 

Yearning for a Strongman Government

2024 Trip to South West United States, Death of Democracy, Populism, Right-wing Extremism, Trumpism, Tyranny and Fascism

 

Recently, I watched the Rachel Maddow show on television. She is an unrelenting liberal so I don’t watch the show very often, figuring I get enough of that already. After watching the show though, I might change my mind. I just watched a small part of the show and it was very interesting.

First, she showed brief interviews with Trumpsters who had each been asked one simple question:  “If you had a choice of 4 more years of Joe Biden or 4 more years of Donald Trump as a dictator what would you choose?”

The answers were shocking. Each one chose Trump!  One said, “This country needs a dictator. I hate to say it, but it’s true.” He looked sheepish but he said it.  Another said, “Sometimes in life we need a good paddling from the principal to set our life on the right path. And this country needs a little of that.”  A young woman said, “I’d pick Trump all the way.” She also had a sheepish grin, but again, said it.  A number of them said “Trump” with enthusiasm.  They seemed to want a dictator.

Is it really true that Americans want a dictator? Dictatorship seems to have a lot of appeal in the US. Why is that?  Rachel Maddow said, many Americans want a strong man government and think that is what Trump will give them.

Hate Speech from both sides Now

2024 Trip to South West United States, Free Speech, Hate, racism

 

Unfortunately, in the United States where we are now staying for 3 months, like Canada where we live permanently , hate speech is on the rise. The War between Israel and Hamas has helped to spike the numbers. Hamas leaders and even North American supporters have been heard echoing the phrase “From the river to the Sea Palestine will be free.” It sound innocuous. but is this hate speech? Many in Canada and the US have used this to generate hate against Jews. Many Jews consider it anti-Semitism. It is often interpreted as a wish by members of Hamas, or their supporters  to wipe Israel off the face of the map. That surely would certainly be anti-Semitism.

The original 1977 party platform of Likud one of Israel’s major political parties, stated that “between the Sea and the Jordan there will only be Israeli sovereignty.” The party has always emphasized the right of Jews to settle in this area, no matter what the declaration of the State of Israel said.  This has been a major influence on Zionist exclusionist policies.  Is this hate speech? How is it different from what Hamas or anti-Semite say? Palestinians see it the same way.

Here are my views: what is meant by such statements is a matter of context. To that extent, I agree with the statements made by the university presidents who were criticized for their feckless response to questioning by Republicans in the House of Representatives. Whether or not a statement is racist or antisemitic or not depends on what the person making the statement is really saying and really insinuating. It depends on who is saying it and what does he or she actually mean by saying it? Context is important.  On the other hand, sometimes such statements merely enunciate a political position which all of us are entitled to do. But such statements can be racist. Such statements can be hate.

With apologies to Joni Mitchell, I’ve looked at hate speech from both sides now and it’s just illusions I recall. All I know, is that hate speech is complicated and filled with illusions.

Absolute Presidential Immunity

2024 Trip to South West United States, Corruption, Trump, Trumpism

 

Living in the USA as we are currently doing, we quickly learn that here everything is about Donald Trump. The universe revolves around Trump. He loves that of course. There is no doubt in my mind that he is the most famous person the world has ever known. And again, he loves that too.

While we were in Arizona during our first week, former President Donald Trump, through his lawyers, and in response to a specific question from one of the Appeal Court judges, argued in court that as president he could order the assassination of his political rival and be immune from prosecution. He also argued he could sell state military secrets to a foreign power, and again, be immune from prosecution. In other words, there is nothing a president could do in his official capacity as president that would expose him to criminal prosecution, no matter how corrupt!.  This may have been the most radical proposal ever made in a court of law in the United States.  And Donald Trump took a day off from campaigning to hear his lawyers make exactly this this argument. If elected this could be very valuable to him.

I am astonished that this is even a possibility. But in the FantasyLand in which we currently live, this is a real possibility. We eagerly wait to hear what the court will decide.

This is a question I have for his millions of supporters. Is this what you are prepared to work for? This is what Trump says, but I really wonder what his supporters want. is this what they want?

School Shootings in the US are pretty Ho hum

2024 Trip to South West United States, guns

 

 

Another school shooting was in the news in the US soon after we arrived in Arizona. Ho hum. I learned an interesting thing about the US when we arrived. According to the World Population review the total number of school shootings per country from 2009 to 2018 are telling. They tell us a lot about the United States.  The US leads globally in school shootings by a very wide margin.  It had 288 during that time. Its nearest competitor in this dubious category is Mexico at 8 per year. The US has 36 times as many as Mexico, commonly perceived as a very violent country.  South Africa comes in third at 6 per year, Nigeria and Pakistan both at 4 and Brazil, Canada and France each at 2.  Canada has more than most but is far behind the US. Azerbaijan, China, Estonia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Kenya, Russia and Turkey each average 1. No other country averages more than 1.

I have heard people say this means Americans  love their guns more than their children.

Yet, things seem to be getting worse. I learned that 2021, 2022, and 2023 were the three years with the highest number of school shootings in the US.

What does this tell us about the United States? I think it tells us a lot and none of it is very pleasant.

Tyranny is in the Eyes of the Beholder

2024 Trip to Southwest USA, Right-wing Extremism

 

It has been cool in Arizona since we arrived. This is not uncommon in Arizona in January.  We are just grateful that it is only cool and not cold or worse, not bone-chilling cold. Recently, for the first time we went to the pool that all members of our little community are entitled to use. We enjoy it there. We get to swim, lounge in the hot tub and meet friends. If it were not for the pool, we would not have met very many people here. That is why we prefer semi-public pools to private pools. We deliberately chose our house this year because it did not have a pool. The house we rented last year lost about 80% of its back yard to the pool. A pool we didn’t use! We prefer the extra space and larger communal pool.

As soon as we arrived, we met 2 friends. They are former New Yorkers with a strong New York accident and strong New York opinions. We have enjoyed many chats with them, although we often disagree.  They are not liberals as most people around here would expect. In fact, the husband is a Trump supporter.

He was eager to talk to me about what he called was a “very disturbing incident” he had noticed on the Internet. I was leery, but interested so gladly accepted his gift of the URL when he flagged down our car on the way home from the pool. He wanted my opinion as a lawyer even though I am a lowly recovering lawyer.  So at his request I watched the YouTube report.

Rebel News played a video that apparently is making quite a splash on the Internet.  It outraged my Arizona friend. It showed a reporter approaching Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland aggressively approached by Dave Menzies a reporter for Rebel News as she was briskly walking down a sidewalk or parking lot in a city. He immediately stuck a microphone into her face as she continued walking, showing no interest in being interviewed. He wanted to know why a particular Iranian group was not listed as a terrorist and why her government was supporting “Islamo-Nationalism?”

Ms Freeland immediately veered off to the other side of the sidewalk and kept walking without talking to hm. Although the reporter walked right up to her, sticking the microphone in her face I did not see that he touched her. The Deputy Prime Minister was accompanied by her personal RCMP detail, which is hardly surprising since she has been accosted by extremists on a number of occasions. She is entitled to her security and has no obligation to talk to everyone who approaches her on the street whether a reporter or not. She had the right to ignore the reporter. The police have a duty to protect her.

In my opinion the police officers over reacted by arresting the man. They said they were arresting him and later I believe briefly charged him with assault, but quickly released him without charges. The police would have been much smarter to talk to him to make sure he was not a danger to the Cabinet Minister, and then once assured that she was not in danger, let him go. Arresting him or charging him was not necessary or even helpful in my view. Reporters do what he did, from time to time. It is rather rude and annoying but would not amount to an assault in my view. A police man claimed the reporter had pushed into him, but I could not see what he did. I suspect it was minor incident.

Menzies was upset at his treatment. While handcuffed he talked to his own cameraman and his own microphone and told viewers,

 “This is your Canada now folks. This is the Gestapo taking Black Faces’ orders [referring to Prime Minister Trudeau]. Outrageous! Meanwhile the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp is not a terrorist organization…It is against the law in Black Faces’s Canada to ask insensitive questions.”

 

But Rebel News was outraged. And so apparently is the entire right wing led by, of course, Fox News, the largest cable news network in the US.

What is my take? The police over reacted. There was no need as far as I could see to arrest him. The police  had the right to keep the reporter away since Ms. Freeland did not want to talk to him, but he did nothing as far as I could see to reason to arrest him.  However, there is also no need for the right-wing apoplexy over what happened. This was not a major gestapo incident.  Tyranny is in the eyes of the beholder. Fox News finds tyranny where it wants to. Other news outlets do the same. We viewers should watch them all with our critical lenses securely in place. We, on either side of such issues, should not make mountains out of molehills

I am afraid my America friend will be disappointed in my Casper Milquetoast answers. Maybe, he should get a better lawyer.

 

Using Artificial Intelligence to Amplify the worst of religion

2024 Trip to South West United States, 2024 Trip to Southwest USA, Artificial Intelligence, religion, Religious Quest in the Modern Age

 

Somewhere on this trip to the southern USA I also learned  that in India spiritual guides are giving advice to truth seekers.  Nothing really unusual about that, in the most religious country in the world. India, not the United States has earned that designation. But this time there is a difference. The spiritual guides are AI Chatbots! Spiritual advice is being given online by machines without human intervention. Apparently, thousands of people have signed up for the spiritual advice from the Bhagavad Gita an epic scripture that has the answers to all our problems.  Many Indians in the past have got spiritual advice from that source but not with the twist of AI to tailor the advice to you!

 

According to Salimah Shivji of the CBC, people are now fearful that some will use religion online to spike up political violence?  This is not impossible. We have all seen what happened in the US in earlier elections. As well, look at some of the things American televangelists have done. Much of it does not inspire confidence. After all, the internet is quite capable of amplifying the worst of religion, just as it currently does with politics!

 

Garbage Guru

2024 Trip to Southwest USA, Simple Life

 

 

On our second day in Arizona we attended to urgent business. We went for supplies including Costco and then refreshments from Total Wine where we passed a man wearing T-shirt that read, Garbage Guru.  What is a garbage guru?

Since I had no idea when I got home, I checked with he who knows everything. Professor Google.

I found there were a few people or organizations who claimed the title. The most interesting one I found was the was one from New York City.  Ms. Nagle the New York Sanitation Department’s very own anthropologist-in-residence going by the name of Nats.  Nats is a garbage guru who studies garbage in the largest city in America. She pointed out, quite fairly, that we (all of us not just New Yorkers) are part of a throw-away culture where few people pay any attention to our stuff that we throw out. We don’t pay attention to the consequences of just throwing everything away.

As Nats said, “we are also therefore creating a kind of waste stream that will probably outlive even our children’s children because plastic in particular is such a new product, such a new chemistry, in human history, we don’t know it’s half-life.” Her position with the City is actually honorary. I found that a bit disappointing.

She is actually a professor  at New York University who spends a lot of time looking at garbage. She reminds me of this guy who used to regularly go through Bob Dylan’s garbage and then report on it to his legions of fans. Even though I was a big Dylan fan, I did not think this would be worth a lot of time.

Speaking to a bunch of sanitation workers at a workshop, Nats explained to them, “I will also make clear to you that it is far more dangerous than being a cop or a firefighter. According to the bureau of labor statistics you are three times more likely to be killed in the line of duty as a sanitation worker.”

Who would have known that?