November 18, 19

 Sunny today and cold. The rain ended yesterday about midday.

The discussion this morning about the decision by the Colorado judge that although, in her opinion, though The Former Guy had engaged in insurrection on Jan. 6, the 14th Amendment does not apply to him because the office of President isn't listed in the amendment and his oath to "preserve, protect, and defend" the constitute not, as the amendment specifies. to "support and defend" the constitution. Most of the were perplexed but I wasn't. My history courses covered the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798 was designed to make the criticism of government officials a crime. The Act specified most of the top officials including the President and his cabinet officers. However, the Vice President was not mentioned. Why? The President at the time was John Adams. He and his cabinet were Federalists. But Jefferson was Vice President and Jefferson opposed most of the Federalist agenda. At that time the winner of the Electoral votes became President with the second place winner becoming Vice President. The judge's decision is going to be appealed so it isn't the final word. I think the whole mess proves the point that laws are mostly about keeping lawyers employed. Sanity returned in 1801 and the Acts were largely repealed (except for the section on "alien enemies"). Oh, Jefferson was elected President making Adams the first one term President.

19**********************************************************************

Another sunny day and the weather people have decided to raise the predicted temperatures for the next week.

I have avoided much of the news/commentary shows today. Spent most of the morning on BBC which doesn't spend as much time on the shit clown show (might as well try to be somewhat polite) in D.C. After a couple of hours though they became as boringly repetitive as our news. So I put in one of our DVDs. Time to see what is in the e-mail feed.

One stray thought from yesterday: In a discussion about the problem the U.S. has with its policy toward Israel one of the commentators claimed that Joe Biden's problem is his mind is mired in the past when the policy toward  Israel was formulated and hasn't moved with the changing times. I remember saying much the same back when, in the beginning of his term, he tried to negotiate compromises with House Republicans who weren't, for the most part, interested in compromise. He spent his entire legislative career in an atmosphere where compromise was the name of the game. That started to change in the 1990s and that change, toward intransigence, is in full force. However, in foreign affairs, it isn't just Biden's mind that stuck in the past. Our world view is also. The world has changed but we haven't.