America's 21st century Dred Scott decision?

Born 45 years into the 20th century, I missed the 1857 Dred Scott decision (Dred Scott v. Stanford). It denied blacks, whether slave or free, the right to citizenship, leaving them incapable of suing for their freedom or anything else. It protected slave holders rights under the Fifth Amendment, declaring slaves to be their property. Lastly, it ruled the Missouri Compromise unconstitutional, ending the ability of the federal government to prevent the spread of slavery.

One hundred, sixty-eight years later the Supreme Court issued a middle of the night ‘shadow docket’ decision, allowing a Texas abortion ban to become effective, essentially ending voluntary abortion in the second biggest state of 29 million. A shadow docket allows just a single justice to refer a matter to the full court for prompt review without oral argument and virtually no public notice

In effect, Roe v. Wade which gave women the right to abortion in 1973 has been overturned in Texas. Florida has already signaled it too may use the Texas law to abolish abortion in the third biggest state.

The Texas law, now in force, criminalizes abortion after just 6 weeks and makes no exception for rape and incest. It skirts the federal enforcement issue by placing enforcement in the hands of anti-abortion citizens who have up to 4 years to sue anyone associated with a post 6 week abortion. That can include the doctor, the taxi driver who delivered the woman to the clinic, the person who furnished the fee. One doesn’t have to be against an abortion to file suit. It could be a person seeking revenge some non-abortion related issue or simply the cash bounty authorized by the law.

Guess who will be greatly harmed by the new Texas law? Poor people, especially people of color who have no means to simply travel to a sane state such as Illinois for a basic medical procedure, the right to which every human being deserves. Did the Texas legislature and the U.S. Supreme Court ponder echoes of Dred Scott when the former passed, and the latter ratified this nefarious law and judicial ruling?

Karma might be unleashed upon the law's authors and ratifiers. The Dred Scott decision helped ignite the simmering abolitionist movement which began our nation’s march to end slavery. So too the 2021 shadow docket decision ending Roe v. Wade in Texas might spur the forces championing the rule of law over the rule of men to organize for re-instatement of full abortion rights nationwide.

Peace dividend from Afghan war end? Congress says 'Faggedaboudit’

One of the first thing sensible folks desire when a war ends is the Peace Dividend. Those billions, indeed trillions squandered on senseless war can be redirected to critical domestic needs such as infrastructure, health care for all, combating climate change, promotion of education and rehabilitation for released felons.

For many in Congress those needs are subservient to ever expanding military expenditures. President Biden’s modest 1.6% increase to $753 billion in Fiscal ’22 wasn’t enough for bi-partisan spending sprees on weaponry and military wherewithal. The House Armed Services Committee kicked in an extra $24 billion onto Biden’s proposed budget. The Senate Armed Services Committee was a tad more extravagant, adding $25 billion. That amounts to an obscene $777 or $778 for Fiscal '22 for defense depending upon which branch's budget prevails.

Peace dividend from the Afghan withdrawal? Congress ignores domestic issues to focus laser like on Russia, China, Iran, Yemen, Syria, Somalia, Ukraine, Venezuela, Cuba, North Korea and other countries America must meddle in. Congress reminds me of the shoemaker who takes care of all his customers….while his kids go barefoot.

No peaceful ending to W’s criminal Afghan war

The carnage at Kabul Airport Thursday is a reminder why unjust wars were identified as the supreme international crime at the Nuremberg War Crime Trials. They can continue to claim life, property and destruction of a nation’s sovereignty at the end of the war and well into the future.

That is precisely what’s happening in Afghanistan. The American public is riveted first to scenes of the mad scramble to get out Westerners and their Afghan helpers; secondly to the terror attack that was predicted as inevitable.

It doesn’t matter that most Americans supported the war back in October, 2001. They were primed by scenes of carnage in New York and Washington to believe any fairy tale that America’s response must be to invade a foreign country neither attacking nor threatening the U.S. The logic used to attack Afghanistan, conflating the Taliban with Osama bin Laden, was used in an even more outrageous fashion to attack Iraq 17 months later by conflating Saddam Hussein with bin Laden.

George W. Bush recklessly decided to invade Afghanistan, toppling its rulers to install a puppet government that never gained Afghan credibility. That makes him and his war cabinet liable for all the violence these past 20 years, including the bloodbath at the Kabul Airport.

It is fair to question the handling of the U.S. withdrawal that has resulted in so much chaos and now violence. But to ignore the leaders who set in motion an unjust war that killed over a hundred thousand, displaced 2.7 million and squandered trillions is a travesty of justice and a stain on everything good America should represent.

Americans awake to Afghanistan horror after 20 year snooze

Nothing awakened Americans to our 20 year horror show, the Afghan war, like its August ending. 24/7 coverage of thousands cramming Kabul Airport to escape the victorious Taliban reminded Americans of the last helicopter departure from our Saigon embassy in 1975 with desperate South Vietnam scrambling to climb aboard.

Then the expected suicide bomb exploded, killing 170 Afghans and 13 U.S. service personnel. While President Biden mourned the dead, he reiterated his principled decision to get all U.S. personnel out, mercifully ending the 20 year unnecessary war.

Sadly, the media, congresspersons, and millions of Americans riveted to the chaos and carnage are confronting the enormity and madness of our Afghan war for the first time. Twenty years ago President George W. Bush told us America had to invade, take over and change out the Taliban regime that allowed the 911 attacks to occur. That was a big lie as the war he started was unjust, unnecessary and illegal.

He told Americans he’d protect us so we could ignore his unjust war. He told Americans they wouldn’t be taxed to pay for it. He encouraged us to forget the carnage unleashed in Afghanistan and go out shopping instead of doing our civic duty and challenging his murderous course.

And for the past 20 years the aforementioned Americans might as well have been sleeping as soundly as Rip Van Winkle. They slept thru the 80,000 bombs dropped largely on innocents, including crowds at wedding ceremonies and harvesting events. They slept thru the hundred thousand plus Afghans killed by our utterly unnecessary but murderous war. They slept thru the 2.7 million Afghans who fled America’s war to neighboring countries. They slept while their government squandered over $2 trillion that may as well been thrown into a bonfire.

But when the Military-Industrial Complex vents their fury at a courageous president who said “No more”, many awoke to share in their feigned anger over the messy optics of leaving.

Rip Van Winkle is a fairy tale. Sleeping thru a 20 year war, then awakening to hurl brickbats at a hero for peace is a real life disgrace.

Americans awake to Afghanistan horror after 20 year snooze

Nothing awakened Americans to our 20 year horror show, the Afghan war, like its August ending. 24/7 coverage of thousands cramming Kabul Airport to escape the victorious Taliban reminded Americans of the last helicopter departure from our Saigon embassy in 1975 with desperate South Vietnam scrambling to climb aboard.

Then the expected suicide bomb exploded, killing 170 Afghans and 13 U.S. service personnel. While President Biden mourned the dead, he reiterated his principled decision to get all U.S. personnel out, mercifully ending the 20 year unnecessary war.

Sadly, the media, congresspersons, and millions of Americans riveted to the chaos and carnage are confronting the enormity and madness of our Afghan war for the first time. Twenty years ago President George W. Bush told us America had to invade, take over and change out the Taliban regime that allowed the 911 attacks to occur. That was a big lie as the war he started was unjust, unnecessary and illegal.

He told Americans he’d protect us so we could ignore his unjust war. He told Americans they wouldn’t be taxed to pay for it. He encouraged us to forget the carnage unleashed in Afghanistan and go out shopping instead of doing our civic duty and challenging his murderous course.

And for the past 20 years the aforementioned Americans might as well have been sleeping as soundly as Rip Van Winkle. They slept thru the 80,000 bombs dropped largely on innocents, including crowds at wedding ceremonies and harvesting events. They slept thru the hundred thousand plus Afghans killed by our utterly unnecessary but murderous war. They slept thru the 2.7 million Afghans who fled America’s war to neighboring countries. They slept while their government squandered over $2 trillion that may as well been thrown into a bonfire.

But when the Military-Industrial Complex vents their fury at a courageous president who said “No more”, many awoke to share in their feigned anger over the messy optics of leaving.

Rip Van Winkle is a fairy tale. Sleeping thru a 20 year war, then awakening to hurl brickbats at a hero for peace is a real life disgrace.