False papers mean not wanting to say you're illegal

Jack Doppelt

Jan. 27, 2021 

[A version of this piece was published on Immigrant Connect on Jun 2, 2009]

Audio version

My parents were immigrants. I didn't think of them that way, though I was embarrassingly aware that they were from the old country. By the time I was born, both of them were citizens, and they didn't consider themselves immigrants. 

They had come in different immigration waves. My dad came with his family in 1920 after World War I. He and the family followed his dad who had come before the war. They had been separated for nine years. 

My mom also came after the war, but World War II. Her family, what was left of it, was in Israel. Her parents and two siblings had been killed in, or on their way to, a concentration camp after being taken from their home. My mom had lived out the war as a Catholic with her sister and her sister's son. 

Dora Amster's French
identity papers, 1947

My dad and the family came for economic reasons, as part of what is sometimes called the Great Economic Emigration, to see if America promised something better than Sanok, Poland. My mom came as the spouse of a citizen. After the war, she tried to return to Sanok, where she too grew up, but someone had moved into the family home, they refused to acknowledge her existence, and so did everyone else in Sanok. She lived in France for a couple of years, married my dad in Marseilles and came to the United States in 1948, on July 4. Independence Day. 

They were both born in that same small town, Sanok, which is probably best described as being on the River San or in the Carpathian Mountains because the river and mountain haven't changed. The country has. At one time or another in my parents' lives, it was part of the Austro-Hungarian empire, Ukraine, Russia, Poland and Galicia. 

When my dad left in 1920, there were fewer than 10,000 residents; when my mom left in 1939, there were double that. At both times, more than                                                      30% of them were Jewish. Sanok now has 40,000 residents. 

Recently, I came across this poem about Sanok, written in Polish by Eliezer Sharbit, and translated into  English by Jerrold Landau as “Thou Art the Town:” 

“Forgotten and forsaken art thou, remembering and remembered. The wanton ones did evil unto you, did they even cause you to be forgotten from our heart? They lessened your image, like all other lofty cities, Will your crusaders have brought loathing to every pained and loving friend? 

Are you still my mother town that bore me? In my nurtured body, there is yet a caress and pampering embrace from then, warm and bright. Like the warmth of a maternal kiss in moments of memory I will grasp. 

For I will never see it again, and never again sit in its bosom. Like you, as you were, empty eyes look toward you. It is you, and another. For you were tranquil and also overturned. The confession of those suffering pangs of conscience still echo. You were orphaned as well as widowed. My town, you were destroyed and also murdered!” 

My parents didn't consider themselves Polish. I never have either. They were Jewish, so am I, and they tended to say, if pressed, that their country of origin was Poland, though they preferred to say Galicia. After I was born, neither returned to Sanok or to Poland. Neither wanted to. 

  

My dad's certificate of citizenship is dated April 9, 1948, though he had actually become a citizen 25 years earlier, in June of 1924, after being in the United States as a young man for four years. 

My mom's certificate of naturalization is dated Jan. 9, 1951, about 2-1/2 years after she got here, and about a year before I was born. 

Dora Doppelt's Polish passport, re-issued

                                                                in France, Oct. 27, 1946

She had entered the United States on a Polish passport, which was a forgery, or as she called it - "false papers" - created so she could survive in Poland during the war. It had her birth date as five years younger than she actually was. A few years after I'd already graduated from college, I discovered to my mother's shame that she was five years older than I or anyone else had thought. She believed to that day that if it somehow came out, she could be deported. She had lied to get into the United States and to become a citizen, she thought. She was illegal.

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My dad, the closet Talmudic scholar

 

Jack Doppelt

Jan. 27, 2021

[A version of this piece was published under the name Jack Chaim Doppelt on Storied Stuff on June 17, 2020.]

My dad came to the US before WWI and retained a quaint, stiff, accented English in his speech and writing. He became an orthodox rabbi about the time Jewish life was evolving into a more relaxed reform culture. He didn’t get a synagogue pulpit and went into the family leather goods business. 

By the time I came along almost 30 years later, he’d abandoned most pretenses of an orthodox Jewish home. My mom was the one who kept the traditions alive. My dad’s advanced age made it hard for us to do many of the father-son activities of the era. No catch in front of the apartment, no bike riding, no hiking, no camping. We played tennis, just him and me. I cherished it and made the tennis team. He drew fish. We played some chess. He brought home handles from his leather goods business and I sat on the floor and painted them black with newspaper under me. He, my mom and I watched TV every night that I was home. I got to stay up with them for parts of the talk shows after the 10 pm news. We didn't own a record player and didn't play much music in the apartment. 

Friends bought me a record player my first year in college, They delivered it for my birthday. Some drove, some hitchhiked and were picked up by Steve Goodman, the folk singer we all adored. He  happened to be headed to my college to perform, driving a steady 90 mph.

My dad died when I was in college. 

Much of my dad’s past remained a mystery to me. Family secrets can be affixed tight with super glue. I discovered in casual encounters with people that my dad was something special once upon a time. 

“Are you Marcus Doppelt’s son,” someone asked me. “You know that “he was a Talmudic scholar.” 

Not while I was alive, I thought. I got it confirmed by cracking open a corner of the family secrets. I also discovered that my mom and dad were first cousins. My mom had me, an only child, when she was 47. As I’ve often said, I’m about as good as I could have been. 

Not many family mementoes of my dad exist. I’ve preserved the few that do. One cluster has been up on a wall wherever I’ve lived. They commemorate my dad’s “smichas,” a Hebrew word I doubt I’d know the meaning of if it didn’t mark my dad. It refers to the ordination of a rabbi and it means learning, or someone you can rely on because of his learning. 

The other is the family “cose” or kiddush cup that my dad used for 

special occasions like for Friday night Shabbas dinners and for Passover, 

when my dad shined. He’d take a sip and pass it to my mom and me. 

I take it off the shelf to use on those occasions too. I take a sip and pass it along to my wife and kids. 

L’chaim, dad. 

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The pantheon of national music needs renditions of "The House I Live In"

Jack Doppelt

Jan. 23, 2021

[A version of this article was published on Medium on Jan. 24, 2021]

A cursory listen to the national music showcased at this year's series of Inauguration events is a reminder of the opportunities to include other music in the pantheon.

There was of course "The National Anthem," "America the Beautiful," and at more and more events recently, "This Land Is Your Land," and "Amazing Grace."

The repertoire extends to hymns, marching songs, and adaptations of Broadway show tunes.

Regular staples are "My Country, 'Tis of Thee," "God Bless America," and "The Battle Hymn of the 

Republic."

                                                    [Click on the photo to listen to Kate Smith 

                                                  introducing the song for the first time in 1943]

Plenty of web sites offer their own best lists. Take 21 Patriotic Songs to Make You Proud to Be an American or The best patriotic songs.

The songs need not have been written with a non-partisan or non-ideological spirit so long as over time, a song's often caustic or piercing lessons lift and are transformed into whatever listeners want to read into them. With "This Land Is Your Land," a verse or two of Woody Guthrie's lyrics tends to be overlooked to get the job done. Jennifer Lopez's version this year segued into "America, The Beautiful" and a Spanish invocation, "Una nación, bajo Dios, indivisible, con libertad y justicia para todos, ignoring this verse, as most versions do:

"As I went walkin' I saw a sign there,

And on the sign, it said 'No Trespassing.'
But on the other side, it didn't say nothin'.
That side was made for you and me."

One song I often think of that fits the bill and that is particularly pertinent now is The House I Live In.

I've had both the Frank Sinatra and Paul Robeson versions on my Spotify playlist. This morning I discovered a Sam Cooke version (as I careened down a rabbit hole to fill in some curiosities after watching the film, One Night in Miami). Now that’s covering some political landscape. 

The corker is I also found a 10-minute short film with Sinatra in it that was made in 1945, just as WWII was ending. I also discovered a pack of savory ironies relating to the film: 

The film was written by Albert Maltz, who was one of the Hollywood Ten who were jailed in 1950 for their refusal to testify before Congress about their alleged involvement with the Communist Party. They and many other entertainment industry figures were blacklisted and denied employment in the industry for years. 

The film plot is Sinatra, playing himself, takes a break from a recording session and steps outside to smoke ‘em since he had ‘em. He sees a gang of local hoodlums of the day chasing a Jewish kid. He intervenes, with chit chat, then with a short speech replete with newsreel footage of the war, then he breaks into song. He drives home that we’re all Americans, that “one American's blood is as good as another's,” and that all our religions are to be respected equally. 

As for the song itself, the music was written by Earl Robinson, who wrote the union organizing anthem "Joe Hill" and who also was blacklisted during the McCarthy era for being a member of the Communist Party. 

The lyrics were written during the war, in 1943, by Abel Meeropol under the pen name Lewis Allan. About 15 years later, Meeropol adopted two boys, Michael and Robert, who’d been orphaned when their parents Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, a Jewish couple, were executed in 1953 for slipping top-secret intell on nuclear weapons to the Russians. 

When the film premiered in 1957, Meeropol was pissed that a verse of the song was not used in the short. The film version deleted the phrase that referred to "my neighbors white and black." None of the three versions – Sinatra’s, Cooke’s, and even Robeson’s - that I have on spotify include it either. So here it is: “The house I live in, my neighbors White and Black, the people who just came here or from generations back, the town hall and the soapbox, the torch of Liberty, a home for all God's children, that's America to me.” 

The film is in the Library of Congress’ National Film Registry because in 2007, it was selected for preservation as "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant." As such, it’s now available on the World Wide Web.

                                            [Click on the photo to view the 10-minute film short]

Or enter here - The House I Live In (1945).

Trigger warning: For me, it’s a crier. 

Spolier alert: Stay for the last moments of the final scene. The kid is worth the wait, and the whole film is only 10 minutes. 

https://www.facebook.com/jack.doppelt/posts/10159295867591098

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Trump’s fitting final day from the pardon platform: A sketch

Jack Doppelt 

 Jan. 19, 2021

Pres. Donald Trump spent much of his final night in office doting on the pardons he worked out to say goodbye. 

He made sure not to watch the memorial ceremony that the successor he didn’t recognize held at the Lincoln Memorial with 400 candles commemorating 400,000 covid-19 deaths. The lighting cast a reflecting glow over the National Mall. 

He carefully wrote down names, handed them to aides to get word out over social media. That’s no longer an act he can do on his own, with a click on Twitter. 

He has aides who still have access. He selected one in particular whom he could trust. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, whom Trump appointed in June, five months before the election, was to be responsible for transferring the pardons to the Office of the Pardon Attorney in the Justice Dept., which processes presidential pardons. 

There were more than 100 names on the list. According to the rules, an applicant must satisfy a minimum waiting period of five years before becoming eligible to apply for a presidential pardon of a federal conviction. A pardon is ordinarily a sign of forgiveness and is granted in recognition of the applicant's acceptance of responsibility for the crime. Those are the rules, but an executive pardon need not abide by them. Trump considered that as he determined who shall live (with immunity from federal prosecution, conviction or imprisonment) and whose petition shall die. 

Though there are rules, “the power to grant pardons is vested in the President alone.” No hearing is held, and none was. Documents relating to any cases are confidential. 

Feeling accomplished after he completed the sacred act of pardoning, Trump went to bed, anticipating the party he planned for 8 am at Base Andrews, the base outside DC where Air Force One is headquartered. His invitees, each of whom was free to invite up to five guests, arrived between 6:00 and 7:15 am. After the gathering, Trump flew to the Mar-a Lago Club in Palm Beach, Florida. 

Trump landed in Florida at about the time Biden was inaugurated at noon, to find out that his signature needed to accompany each pardon. It’s not something that can be consummated with a message on social media. Trump had taken care of it. He’d made sure he signed each pardon petition. 

As it turned out though, Postmaster General Dejoy had neglected to file the documents before noon. They were invalid. 

Such is the revenge of the postman’s oath: "Neither Rain, Nor Sleet, Nor Dark Of Night Shall Stay These Couriers From The Swift Completion Of Their Appointed Rounds.” 

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An overnight epiphany on Biden’s “American Rescue Plan” address

  Jack Doppelt 

 Jan. 15, 2021

“Biden, you can't be tone deaf” was the headline I put on my contemporaneous musings after Biden delivered his address last night. I wrote: 

“Have Biden and his advisers been on another planet for the past week with no communication? I listened to his address to the nation, which lasted nearly a half hour, and he didn’t say a word, not a word, about last week’s events in Washington, DC, where he’s about to be inaugurated and work. He didn’t mention the insurrection, the damage to the Capitol, Trump’s speech, the security failures, the impeachment vote, the call for Trump’s conviction in the Senate, anything. 

As soon as the talk ended, the MSNBC pundits and experts didn’t drop a beat and breathlessly returned to what everyone is concerned about and has been immersed in non-stop. MSNBC reinforced with photos, video and new footage how the nation’s capital looks like it’s still under siege. 

Biden used hushed tones to convey the importance of addressing covid, of using a robust stimulus package, of boosting the economy, and of unifying to move forward. He could have written the speech the week before the election, which if I’m not mistaken was either 11 weeks ago or years ago, depending how you mark time. 

Biden’s speech was promoted as announcing a $1.9 trillion package to fight the economic downturn, including $1,400 payments and higher jobless benefits. Were he and his advisers hoping to bury this news? If not, what news outlets did they think would focus on the announcement? I was watching only MSNBC. Over the next hour, they didn’t report more than a few sentences on the announcement. Is that the media being gonzo or is it Biden and his advisers having no clue. This doesn’t bode well. 

[will get back to this later]” 

I’m getting back to it after reading some coverage of it, absorbing the comments and replies to the Facebook post, and sleeping on it. 

In the tumultuous week since the Georgia run-off elections placed two more Democrats into the Senate, Biden has referred to the pulsating rushes of DC events. He and his advisers haven’t been on another planet. For the news conference, they made a calculated decision to get past the week’s events and distance Biden from the messy consequences that accompany him into the presidency. The import of his address wasn’t the bold American Rescue Plan that he’s proposing. Though it’s a good and forward-facing one, he’d floated it during the week. 

He could have heralded the rescue plan and included relevant references to the week that was, both to underscore his points and to keep from coming off so above the fray that the fray is a passing distraction to him. As it was, he used separation of powers as a metaphor. He's the executive who focuses on issues facing Americans and the world, leaving the dirty work of conflict, finger-pointing, anger, division and his own presidential legitimacy to his Democratic congressional colleagues who are dealing with it unceremoniously. Say nothing about the week in his address to rescue the nation, and Biden offends no one, keeps clear of accusations that he’s fanning the flames of anarchy, and conveys he will not be dragged into the muck by Trump or Trump's legions.

Admittedly, it’s a fine line he must walk, with damned if you dos and damned if you don’ts at every juncture. That is his lot, as it was Obama’s and his lot when they took on the economic collapse of 2008. Biden’s address risks positioning himself as a hollow deliverer of generic talking points instead of as the bold thinker, planner, doer, and healer that the address intended. 

There are answers to the questions I had as I watched Biden's address. To use bromides instead to envision a better future is to avoid the hard truths we need Biden to address as he takes the oath on Wednesday.

A few choice reflections on his address as examples:

“The crisis of deep human suffering is in plain sight and there’s no time to waste. We have to act and we have to act now.” How to act now if the imperative agenda of the congressional Democrats is to prosecute Trump in the Senate? ? Can the Senate really figure out how to walk through Biden’s legislative agenda and chew the gum of Trump’s sticky impeachment trial at the same time, as they say they can? 

“Unity is not some pie in the sky dream. It’s a practical step to getting the things we have to get done as a country get done together.” How to count on unity when more than 200 GOP members of Congress and the seeming majority of surveyed Republicans still claim Biden's not the lawful president? 

“We need to make sure that workers who have COVID-19 symptoms are quarantined and those who need to take care of their family members with COVID-19 symptoms should be able to stay home from work and still get paid.” How to assure people how to deal with COVID-19 when dozens of GOP members of Congress refused to wear masks when they were bunkered, and a number of congressional colleagues tested positive from the exposure? 

“It includes much more, like an increase in the minimum wage to at least $15 an hour. People tell me that’s going to be hard to pass. Florida just passed it. As divided as that state is, they just passed it.” Florida is divided? Any other place come to mind? 

“I look forward to working with members of Congress in both parties, to move quickly to get the American Rescue Plan to the American people. Then we can move with equal urgency and bipartisanship.” How to work across the aisle with bipartisanship when the vote on Trump’s impeachment, for instance, was overwhelmingly partisan? 

"There will be stumbles, but I will always be honest with you about both the progress we’re making and what setbacks we meet and there will (be setbacks).” How to expect honesty from Biden as there are stumbles when he isn't candid during the nation’s most humiliating pratfall? 

“We’ve seen clearly what we face now and I remain so optimistic about America, as optimistic as I’ve ever been.” If it seems clear, why do Democrats and Republicans look at the same footage and emerge with polar takes on what happened and what we’re facing? 

“God bless you all and may God protect our troops.” Is even this boilerplate sign off about the troops a myopic oversight of those protectors who were actually in harm’s way during the siege? 

https://www.facebook.com/jack.doppelt/posts/10159271733546098

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For courage and leadership, I take Twitter over politicians

Jack Doppelt 

 Jan. 9, 2021 

Everyone knows of Donald Trump's complicity in the storming of the Capitol on Wednesday. We may need to leave the question to courts and legal debates whether it is legally sufficient to constitute criminal incitement to imminent lawless action. Trump says it was “totally appropriate.” 

 If we want clarity and accountability, Twitter is a far better lodestar than politicians from either of the two parties. 

Twitter permanently suspended Trump's account Jan 8. It had 88.7 million followers. 

Other social media sites and platforms piled on in various iterations. All are being roundly criticized, particularly from the right flank, for squelching speech and singling out Trump. 

In the blog post justifying its action, Twitter accounted the reasons. 

Twitter took away Trump's privileges permanently and immediately. Immediately because his posts risk further incitement of violence. 

Twitter concluded that two of his recent tweets read together make it dangerously clear that he was speaking directly to the 75 million American Patriots who voted for him and who "will have a GIANT VOICE long into the future." He told them he was not going to the Inauguration on Jan. 20. 

Twitter invoked its published policy dating back to 2019 that bans the Glorification of Violence because the tweets could inspire others to replicate the criminal acts that took place at the U.S. Capitol.

When promulgated in 2019, the policy, in conjunction with related policies, was directed specifically at the actions of world leaders. The policies explained that Twitter will err on the side of leaving content up if there is a clear public interest in doing so to provide "a place where people can openly and publicly respond to their leaders and hold them accountable." The policies were focused on public officials who have more than 100,000 followers. 

Twitter did its homework in concluding from Trump’s statement that he will not be attending the inauguration is being received by supporters as further confirmation that the election was not legitimate and that he was disavowing his previous claim of an “orderly transition” on Inauguration Day that was tweeted by one of his deputy chiefs of staff. 

Twitter was concerned that the tweets "may also serve as encouragement to those potentially considering violent acts that the Inauguration would be a 'safe' target, as he will not be attending, and that the use of the words “American Patriots” to describe some of his supporters is also being interpreted as support for those who committed violent acts at the US Capitol. 

Being attuned to dog whistles, Twitter concluded that Trump "plans to continue to support, empower, and shield those who believe he won the election." 

Twitter advised that most menacingly, "plans for future armed protests have already begun proliferating on and off-Twitter, including a proposed secondary attack on the US Capitol and state capitol buildings on Jan. 17." 

It didn't help that Trump posted a video in the throes of the Capitol chaos that in telling his overzealous supporters to go home, he reinforced that the election was fraudulent, that it was stolen, that he won in a landslide, that "we can't play into the hands of these people," and that "we love you. You're very special." 

Twitter's decision on Trump's account was decisive, reasoned, immediate and permanent. 

That can't be said for our politicians, Republicans or Democrats. 

There are far too many Republicans for us to live in a civilized democracy who continue to publicly espouse the conviction that the election was stolen, that Trump won, and that Biden is not lawfully president. All are fire kindling, reporting for duty. 

They can be grouped by clusters of pretexts, with mouthpieces for each: 

• The Dems illegitimized Trump's presidency even before his Inauguration. They started it and this is payback. In convening a news conference after the election, on Nov. 20, to tout Trump's handling of the covid pandemic, his press secretary Kayleig McEnany said: "Trump was never given an orderly transition of power. His presidency was never accepted." During the current House debates, Cong. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), whom Trump rewarded with a Presidential Medal of Freedom, referred triumphantly to the session in 2017 that certified Trump’s election, railing against the hypocrisy of Democrats for complaining about GOP attempts to undermine Biden’s presidency now. Jordan continues to claim falsely he’s free from any culpability in formenting Trumpers to believe the election was stolen. Yet the attempt to challenge the certification of Trump's electoral win in Jan. 2017 was thwarted before it started by then-Vice President Biden who chaired the joint session. 

[Click on the photo to see and hear Biden during that session tell objecting House Democrats that “it’s over.”] That’s the same procedural session that 14 GOP Senators and 121 GOP members of the House set out to stop last week, and almost did with the timely actions of fomented insurrectionists. 

There's little doubt that the Democrats and thousands of others gave Trump little chance to govern without entrenched, vocal opposition, not because they challenged the legitimacy of his 2016 election but because of the draconian decisions he made, the executive orders he imposed, and the inhumane agenda he set out within his first hundred days in office. Minority leader Schumer referred to it then as “incompetence leading to chaos.” Meekly deferential, if you ask me. I wrote a piece then that appealed to Senate Republicans to give Trump a probationary year before holding a hearing on the first Supreme Court vacancy in his term to ensure that he's not impeached by then. 

• Only a handful of rioters breached the Capitol, and who says they were Trump supporters and not disguised Antifa anarchists, the all-encompassing shorthand the right uses for left-leaning protesters? Rudy Giuliani urged the agitated crowd before the Capitol onslaught to "have trial by combat” of the lawmakers about to vote to certify Biden as president. And on a podcast that has already been removed by YouTube, Giuliani said later that Antifa forces were to blame. "Believe me, Trump people were not scaling the wall. So there's nothing to it that he incited anything…And there's equal if not more responsibility on the fascists who run the Democrat Party.” 

 • The refusals to certify Biden's presidency are acts needed to memorialize bona fide objections to the election thefts in the key swing states. The Rule of Law Defense Fund, a fundraising arm of the Republican Attorneys General Association, sent out robocalls the day before the Capitol storming, encouraging people to march to the Capitol and call on Congress to stop the steal." [click on the link to listen to the robocall, as published by the watchdog group, Documented.] For weeks after the election, GOP lawmakers supported Trump's incessant claims of rampant election fraud, citing the American principle that everyone should have a chance to challenge elections in court and through recounts. After the courts and election officials ruled one by one without exception that there was no credible evidence of fraud or mis-counts, a different strategy emerged. GOP Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Missouri) seized onto the idea that one more avenue was paved for Trump’s grievances. He issued a statement in the name of the Conservative Action Project to protect the Republic on behalf of 21 named conservatives and the more than 50 million American voters “who believe the election was stolen or somehow illegitimate,” and called on the Senate to continue to contest the electoral votes from five swing states. He noted that substantial evidence has been presented to courts and state legislatures. Yet not one court, state legislature or election body found the evidence worthy of denying Biden’s certification. Three days later, his Senate colleague Ted Cruz (R-Texas) seized onto a legal strategy he was convinced would do the trick of postponing the certification of Biden for 10 days. He issued a statement with 12 other GOP Senators calling for postponement because the election “featured unprecedented allegations of voter fraud, violations and lax enforcement of election law, and other voting irregularities.” Cruz manufactured the illusion, knowing it to be the same flat lie that Hawley was propagating. “Ideally, the courts would have heard evidence and resolved these claims of serious election fraud.” That is precisely what courts and election officials spent weeks doing - hearing evidence and resolving all the allegations. Cruz’s home newspaper, the non-partisan, nonprofit Texas Tribune reported on the release of the statement as continuing to pursue unsubstantiated claims of a widespread voter fraud in "disputed states," despite no evidence of fraud. 

 • Trump's supporters are understandably frustrated by the rampant election fraud, and attempts to demonize or prosecute them will only deepen their justifiable frustrations. A base of 74 million people voted for Trump, and a month after the election, the Washington Times claimed that Fox News analyzed a poll that concluded that 68% of Republicans believe the election was stolen from Trump and that among Trump voters, 77% think he actually won. Lindsey Graham (R-S. Car.), Trump's friend when he chooses to be, ultimately decided not to contest Biden's certification. Two days later, he was greeted with shouts of "traitor" in a chance encounter at a Washington, DC airport. The tweet that has attracted more than 11 million visits shows a crowd yelling, "you know it was rigged." The shrill appeals were to AUDIT OUR VOTE. Those were tame recriminations compared to the "Hang Pence" chants leveled at the vice-president who had traded in his resolute support for Trump's stolen election conspiracy for a statement released the morning of the Capitol insurrection, that he could not stop the certification. True patriots are cowards to allow a rigged election without a fight. 

• This has gone too far and the country must be taken back from the election fraudsters, socialists, and dangerous Democrats by true American patriots like those who secured independence from Britain. Derrick Evans, a newly elected GOP legislator from West Virginia, who live streamed himself among those storming the Capitol, yelled, "We're taking this country back whether you like it or not. Today's a test run. We're taking this country back." Though he has since resigned, his grandmother selected Twitter to thank Trump for “invoking a riot at the White House.” [click to appreciate her heartfelt thanks] 

Each of the pretexts shares an entrenched, chilling and festering mythology that the election was stolen from Trump. The fervent beliefs reject the decisions of more than 50 courts, both state and federal, many composed of Trump-chosen and Republican judges, including the Supreme Court. They choose to overlook the inability of Trump's lawyers to produce any verifiable evidence of election fraud in any states. Instead, they choose to believe the election was stolen and Trump is the lawful keeper of the throne.

Can you blame thousands upon thousands of people for getting engulfed in a fire that is destined to spread with dry GOP kindling fueling it, with juntas of law enforcement embedded throughout the country, and with right-wing media outlets serving as accelerants? 

The Democrats are of course a horse of a different color. They can be clustered by the actions they are intent on taking now to make sure people don't conclude that Trump's actions are without consequences. Though Democrats don’t admit it publicly or have themselves become self-deluding, each action is symbolic, won’t stop or deter Trump from whatever he chooses to do before Jan. 20, and don’t seem to account for the legions of duped Trumpers who believe to the core that Biden isn’t a legitimate president. 

• Resignation – In recalling the successful attempts by Republicans in 1974 to cajole Richard Nixon to resign, Democrats tried to convince themselves that Trump has a similar incentive to do so. Resign and have Pence pardon him. Have they just met Donald Trump? He will not go quietly into that good night, as poet Dylan Thomas wrote. “Old age should burn and rave at close of day; Rage, rage against the dying if the light. The man is the ultimate rager.

• 25th Amendment - The House introduced a resolution calling on Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment and vote with Trump’s cabinet to declare Trump unable to perform his duties. Trump has an opportunity first to declare he’s fine, thank you. The House will then give Pence 24 hours to decide with a majority of the cabinet that Trump is not fine. If they do, 2/3 of both houses also have to vote that Trump is unable to discharge his duties. Pence has stated publicly that he’s not game. Other than the actual existence of a 25th Amendment, this Democratic option reads either as a bad joke with no punchline or as the tantrums of a frustrated party that has tried and failed at every turn to suffocate Trump’s presidency. The two-year Mueller investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, and the first impeachment that culminated in Trumps’ acquittal in the Senate backfired badly. They energized Trump’s base, galvanized his fundraising, spiked his poll approval ratings, and set the stage for him to attract 74 million votes and almost win a second term in office. 

 • Impeachment – The House drafted one Article of Impeachment for “incitement of insurrection” and approved it by a mostly partisan vote of 232-197. Trump’s phone call to the Georgia Secretary of State, the audio of which is recorded, that tried to get Brad Raffensperger to “find’ the votes that would boost Trump’s total over Biden’s wasn’t included in the article. Before the debate itself, the issue seemed to be fixed on whether an impeachment can be fast-tracked and resolved before Inauguration Day or if this second impeachment will encroach on Biden’s agenda as he opens his term in office. Now that it's been voted up by the House with all deliberate speed, outgoing Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has stated definitely that the earliest possible it can be considered on the Senate floor is Inauguration Day. It’s not, but he’ll make it be, even though at one point, he told associates that he believes Trump has committed impeachable offenses and he’s pleased the Democrats are following through on summary impeachment proceedings. 

The Democrats should overcome their frustrations and get on with the buildup to Biden’s presidency. Of course they’re frustrated, as Trump has said of his patriots. Frustration isn’t in short supply and it’s become a dangerous emotion.

In the short run, the sublimely fortunate short run, Trump has the Democrats outmaneuvered again. He is a master conman who has spent his life perfecting the con on bankers, foreign investors, his extended family and the IRS before strutting down the escalator with Melania and a thumb up in 2015 to open the game of using the presidency to con the public, the news media and Republicans who early on considered him to be “a malignant cow” [former Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.)], "unsound, uninformed, unhinged and unfit" [former GOP Gov. Tim Pawlenty from Minn.)], "a con artist (who) is about to take over the Republican Party and the conservative movement and we have to put a stop to it," [Sen. Mark Rubio (R-FL)], "a race-baiting, xenophobic, religious bigot” [Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S. Car.)], and “the distraction.” [Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah)] 

Take heed. Biden is president, two corrupt incumbent GOP Senators from Georgia have been defeated by two first-time Democratic challengers, and the Senate will no long be strangled by McConnell and his obstructionist GOP colleagues. Getting on with it is not communicating that Trump’s action have no consequences. 

Yes, there’s plenty Trump can and will do in the week he remains president. I expect he will issue 11th hour pardons to his most loyal associates, his entire family, himself and the patriots who honored him at the barricades. He may do more. If he does or doesn’t, Trump has set himself up to be prosecuted in multiple locations in the country. If he can pardon himself at all, it’s only for federal crimes. 

My concerns are about his legacy, as I noted above: 

• the juntas of law enforcement among the ranks of ICE, Homeland Security, sheriff’s offices, police unions and now Capitol police who are embedded throughout the country. Fortunately his efforts to recruit the military and the FBI failed. 

• right-wing media outlets that are spreading like kudzu on television, radio and social media. 

• the thousands of people who are building up a fierce resentment and distrust of Biden’s presidency, of science (during a pandemic), and of reliable information. 

 We have Twitter at least to thank for gumming up Trump’s works.

https://www.facebook.com/jack.doppelt/posts/10159268608171098

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Dear Sen. Ted

Jack Doppelt

Jan. 6, 2021

The Honorable Ignominious Raphael Edward Cruz

US Capitol Still Standing

Dear Sen. Ted--

I am writing to let you know how I'm doing and to thank you for for providing me with a week of calm. When you told Maria Bartiromo and Fox News last Sunday of your plans to mobilize GOP congressional colleagues to object to President-elect Biden's convincing electoral victory, you advised the rest of us "to calm down," adding that "this is already a volatile situation."

Democrats, the news media and I calmed down. We had a peaceful, even jubilant, few days as our attention fixed on Georgia, where two novice Democratic candidates defeated two well-known GOP incumbents for the U.S. Senate where you work.

Looking back, I needed those few days of respite to gird myself for yesterday's surreal, yet predictable, assault on the U.S. Capitol. The nation is already experiencing post-traumatic convulsions, trying to determine if the better characterization of the events is a failed coup, an insurrection, mob violence, a garden-variety riot, or a lawful protest run amok. Words matter as you have so sagely noted.

How to characterize it and attempt to move forward might depend to some extent on whether it was premeditated by people who seized the opportunity to terrorize the American people and subvert democracy, or whether it was in eruption of pent up anger stoked by an ingrained belief that the 2020 presidential election was rigged and that Biden should not be recognized as the lawfully elected president.

Both were foreseeable and both were fanned by President Trump when he exhorted the crowd at his "Save America" rally to march in solidarity with him from the mall to Capitol Hill to "fight like hell" or they won't have a country anymore and to give your weak congressional colleagues "the kind of pride and boldness that they need to take back our country."

Trump chose not to march as thousands of his patriots streamed into the march and met at Capitol Hill.

The Sunday before, after the solemnity of oath takings for your newly elected congressional colleagues,  many told their families to go home. They felt the earth moving under foot.

Recognizing your prowess as a constitutional scholar whose bedrock beliefs of limited federal powers go all the way back to high school, I wouldn't think of taking on the hornet's nest of arguing whether Trump's crowd fulminations were an incitement to imminent lawless action that should be prosecuted.

There is enough blame to go around and to deny with righteous detachment.

Click on the photo to watch the CNN Politics video

Your House counterpart, the estimable contemptible Louis Gohmert told Newsmax, an ultra-conservative mouthpiece, that the effect of one of the many court rulings that unsuccessfully challenged Biden's legitimacy as president-elect was that, in effect, it means that "you got to go to the streets and be as violent as Antifa and [Black Lives Matter.]"

On Saturday, you and a dozen of your GOP Senate colleagues issued a statement calling for Congress to pause on certifying the electoral college voting so a 10-day audit by an electoral commission could take place. Why hatch such a baroque idea?

As the statement emphasized: "The 2020 election featured unprecedented allegations of voter fraud,  violations and lax enforcement of election law, and other voting irregularities." It invoked a Reuters/Ipsos poll and you directed attention to these numbers: 39% of Americans believe "the election was rigged." 67% of Republicans, 17% of Democrats and 31% of Independents believe it.

Those are curious numbers to cite when the summary of the poll itself reported that 3/4 of Americans (73%) believe that Biden won the election based on what they know or have heard. 5% believe Trump won. When asked who rightfully won the election, 63% of Americans believe Biden has, including 95% of Democrats, 29% of Republicans, and 60% of Independents. Only 20% of Americans agree that Trump, who has also claimed victory, is acting responsibly in doing so. Seven out of ten (69%) think he is acting irresponsibly. Your emphasis and that of your dozen colleagues who signed on is a textbook illustration of the abuse of statistics, cherry picked to indicate the opposite of reality.

Why do that? So you and your GOP colleagues could argue, as you did, that the "deep distrust of our democratic processes will not magically disappear."

Apparently the deep distrust that you manufactured, though decidedly among Republicans, would have a better chance of disappearing if people indulged in the need to not certify Biden's victory.

Your home newspaper, the non-partisan, nonprofit Texas Tribune reported on the release of the statement as continuing to pursue unsubstantiated claims of a widespread voter fraud in "disputed states," despite no evidence of fraud.

As a master debater, you are an impressively persuasive fellow. The Texas Tribune reported yesterday that after the assault on Congress, though both houses of Congress voted overwhelmingly to certify Biden's election, most GOP house members from Texas voted with you.

To leave you with an indelible sense of what your persuasiveness has added to Trump's exhortations, Ashli Babbitt has a cautionary epitaph you might learn from. Babbitt is the woman who was shot and killed during the storming of the Capitol. The day before she died, she tweeted under her handle Common Sense Ash, "Nothing will stop us… they can try and try and try but the storm is here and it is descending upon DC in less than 24 hours...dark to light."

She declared Jan. 6 as the day Republicans "start winning." You felt the same. In your scenario, Jan. 6 was to be when Congress would side with you and decline to certify Biden as president.

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Watching Fox News so you don't have to

Jack Doppelt

Jan. 6, 2021

I'm watching Fox News today as the results of the Georgia Senate runoffs settle in, as Congress meets to certify the electoral collage votes while a moronic Republican strain performs its challenge to Biden's election, and as protesters in DC gather to pump up Trump and his GOP sycophants in Congress.

I'm doing it to get a more visceral sense of the national divide as we move into a new era. You may not be  surprised by what you read, but you'll have details that will underscore the complexities of the road ahead.

---------------------------------

In speaking to the hordes in DC, Donald Trump, Jr. tried to jazz the crowd by punctuating something he said with "Amen." He followed with "A woman." Too cute apparently. He was loudly booed and tried to be quick on his feet by turning it around, saying that's how the Democrats would say it.

Right at 11 am Chicago time, Trump began his oration for his "Save America" rally. He opened by slamming the media, challenging them to show the hundreds of thousands of people who are there. On Fox News, they turned the cameras around and focused narrowly on the crowd. Viewers couldn't tell if there were dozens or hundreds or thousands in the crowd. Trump looked out, shielding his eyes from the sun and envisioned the crowd stretching beyond the Washington Monument. Maybe so. He's not one to be trusted on such matters.

He pledged to stop the steal. He boasted that he won the election in both 2016 and 2020. In 2020, he won by even more. A landslide. Does anybody believe that Biden had 80 million votes?  A resounding, no. He complained that the military should be allowed to come up on the stage with him. He's counting on Pence to do the right thing - to make sure that the states should have to re-certify, then he'd be president. He rambled and got the crowd to chant almost at will for a while. He went after the weak Republicans - Romney, McConnell, Georgia Gov. Kemp, Liz Cheney, and any others who don't support the day's agenda to trash the electoral college voting.

[It was during this part of the rant that word leaked out that Biden is nominating Merrick Garland to be the Attorney General. Garland was the judge whom then-President Obama nominated for the Supreme Court to fill the vacancy left by Justice Scalia's death in 2016.]

Trump called on the crowd to march peacefully with him to the Capitol.

The chanting exploded when he called the late night voting results from state-to-state "bullshit." That got the crowd going. The chanting turned to "bullshit, bullshit." When he beseeched the crowd to applaud for Perdue and Loeffler, there was scant applauding. He tried to get the crowd to hoot and howl because he fought for increasing the covid relief package from $600 to $2,000. "Give em a couple of bucks," he said proudly. The crowd didn't go for it.

Where's Hillary? Later, where's Hunter? Not much response to either of those natural rousers.

Some of his preaching did hit the mark with the crowd. Mike Pence has to send the electoral college results back. The crowd came alive again. The chants rang out. "Send it back." Even "get rid of section 230" got some payback.

He warned the crowd he was going to lay out the case for fraud, and they don't mind staying on to listen, right? Murmurs at best. He asked again later. A handful of people responded. Some signaling yes; others no.

He was noticing that he was losing his people. It was hard to not see a crowd of people who were being held hostage in the cold. They had to stay on for the solidarity march to the Capitol. 

As a standup performer, riffing around his notes, he can tell when a crowd is abandoning him. The trick for him at this point is to sense what will get them back. A few attempts took. Most didn't. What he was doing was warming up the crowd.

As he appeared to be moving toward an end, bemoaning that he could go on for hours regaling them with the unprecedented fraud, the crowd gave him the adoration he needed. "We love you," they chanted. He had another half hour in him, which he continued to use to foment the crowd about the illegitimacy of the Biden presidency.

[One hour after Trump opened his "Save America" rally, Congress convened in joint session. Vice President Pence reminded the congresspeople that debate will not be allowed in the session. The limited role of the session, he announced, is for both houses to verify that the certificates of the counts in the states are authentic and appropriate in form. They proceeded through the count state by state in alphabetical order.]

Fox News continued with Trump live, and the congressional session in an adjoining screen with the sound off. Fox News advised its audience that they will switch to the audio in Congress when the roll call gets to Arizona to show the objection to the Arizona electoral count. They did and Pence announced that the two houses will adjourn into separate sessions to debate the Arizona vote. Fox stayed with coverage of the congressional setting. When the session recessed, Fox News introduced a panel to debrief on it. Before they went to the panel, one of the Fox announcers underscored that Pence was standing loyally behind the president now and has at every turn. Another Fox announcer intervened to add that Pence issued a letter to Congress, indicating that he wasn't go to follow Trump's line in the sand.

I had no idea at this point if Trump was aware during the rally of the Garland nomination or of Pence's apparent shift in position to limiting his role and doing it against Trump's wishes.

Fox News would not return to the audio of Trump's rally. Their coverage would stay with the affairs of Congress. At one point, they showed in an adjoining screen the Trump rally moving to the hill and reported that in some cases, trying unsuccessfully to get into Congress.

As the GOP faction of Trumpers were making their case in both houses simultaneously, in the Senate, Mitch McConnell staked out a clear yet unexpected position that the election wasn't even close that it isn't Congress' role to nullify the votes of the electoral majority - of some 80 million people, of the states and of the many courts that have concluded that the voting was lawful. He reinforced that with all the objections to the elections state-by-state, the Trump forces have not managed to provide any evidence of fraud. He described the move by the small fraction of GOP Trumpers as pushing democracy into a "death spiral."

When Ted Cruz spoke in the Senate, he argued for an electoral commission to investigate for ten days the legitimacy of the elections in the swing states. He repeated his contention that half the country, not just Republicans, believe that the presidential election was rife with fraud. His point was that the public needs to be reassured that there was no fraud that would have changed the results. 

Not for a moment did he consider the obvious indisputable truth. The huge numbers of the public, probably millions, who believe that the presidential election was rife with fraud believe it not based on any evidence but on the barrages of disinformation propagated by Trump, fellow Republicans, Fox News and their companions in the far right media. There is no guarantee, not even a likelihood, that Trump's band of miscreants will change their tunes or give up the ghost. As Trump put it before the rally ended, "We will never give up, we will never concede."

Shortly after Cruz spoke, all hell broke loose, or more accurately, all hell broke in. The crowd that seemed to swell off camera on the way from the mall to the hill had breached the meager law enforcement presence at the gates, entered the halls of Congress and begun strutting down the halls. Congress halted the proceedings and took cover. 

All hell had broken in.

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