Below is my column at Fox.com on this Fourth of July and what we can learn from the Framers — not just at the beginning of our nation but at the end of their lives. This is also the date of the passing of Thomas Jefferson and John Adams. Their renewed friendship in their final years should be a lesson in itself for all of us during this age of rage.
Here is the column:
For many of us, the Fourth of July is a favorite holiday as families gather around barbecues and picnic blankets to this quintessential American experience. Yet, in the midst of the food, fireworks and friends, it is also a holiday to reflect, if only briefly, on what brings us to this moment each year in celebration of the Declaration of Independence.
This year, the holiday seems even more important. The core values that define us as a people are again under attack, particularly the right that defines us as a people: free speech.
In my book, “The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage,” I discuss our struggle with free speech through the stories of the heroes and villains of our Republic. Two of those figures, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, also happened to die on this date.
Adams and Jefferson were fierce political enemies who would rekindle their friendship in their final years before they both died on the very same day, July 4, 1826. Jefferson died first at Monticello, Virginia, around noon, He was 83. A few hours later (without knowing of his friend’s death), Adams passed away in Quincy, Massachusetts, at the age of 90.
In his 1826 eulogy for both men, Daniel Webster (like many in the country) could not escape the weighty significance of the date of their mutual passing or accept that it was mere coincidence. For Webster, it was “Providence” that “the heavens should open to receive them both at once.”
As explored in my book, Adams and Jefferson are complex figures who displayed some of the same doubts about core rights that many today harbor. While they would be unlikely to declare our Constitution “trash” on MSNBC or demand that we “reclaim America from constitutionalism,” they had their own crises of faith.
Adams displayed the most shocking collapse in faith after he became president. The man who praised the “Dignity, Majesty, [and] Sublimity” of the Boston Tea Party, immediately turned on his political opponents with a crackdown under the infamous Alien and Sedition Acts. Even members of Congress were not immune from the arrests as he met citizen rage with state rage.
James Madison and Jefferson were appalled by the attack on free speech and even used code in letters to protect their own communications. Madison referred to these prosecutions as the “monster” that dwells within our legal system, emerging during times of fear or anger.
Jefferson would ultimately pardon those convicted under Adams. Yet, he would also yield to that “monster” in using the criminal system to target his own critics, though to a lesser extent as his predecessor.
The story of Adams and Jefferson should seem all too familiar to many today in this presidential election. Jefferson ran against Adams in 1800 on his crackdown of free speech and his use of the criminal justice system against his opponents. He won in part on the issue of free speech, a lesson that should not be lost on Donald Trump, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Jill Stein, Chase Oliver and Cornel West.
If they want history to repeat itself in November, they should make free speech a central issue in their campaigns. Joe Biden is undeniably the most anti-free speech president since Adams in his support for an unprecedented censorship system that a federal court called “Orwellian.”
Yet, there is a broader lesson for the rest of us. Our country in 1800 was as divided and angry as it is today. Indeed, these politicians were not just talking like they wanted to kill each other, they were actually trying to kill each other with the use of sedition prosecutions. Jefferson referred to Adams and his Federalist administration as “the reign of the witches.” Federalists denounced Jeffersonians as “Jacobins” and “traitors.”
Today President Biden and his allies are declaring that democracy will end if Trump is elected and that he will, according to MSNBC host Joe Scarborough, “throw away” democracy. On ABC’s “The View,” host Whoopi Goldberg warned journalists and “gay folk” that Trump is planning to round them up and “disappear you.” Former Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., warned that, if Trump wins, this “may well be the last real vote you ever get to cast.”
Back then, the rhetoric was equally overwrought. Media was also openly biased and Federalist newspapers declared that “Murder, robbery, rape, adultery, and incest will be openly taught and practiced, the air will be rent with the cries of the distressed, the soil will be soaked with blood, and the nation black with crimes.”
Conversely, a Jeffersonian writer warned that, if the Federalists were elected, “chains, dungeons, transportation, and perhaps the gibbet” awaited citizens. Others predicted that under Adams they “would instantaneously be put to death.”
So our Constitution and Bill of Rights were written not just for times like our own but in a time like our own.
However, something happened. We came together as a nation. Indeed, in their final years, these two fierce enemies would exchange warm letters and reestablish their friendship and mutual respect.
That may be the greatest lesson of all. If John Adams and Thomas Jefferson could find a core shared identity as Americans, there must be hope for the rest of us. All of the political tensions and animus that followed in our history pales in comparison to that one transcendent moment when we declared as a people that we would be free.
It was a shared moment for Adams and Jefferson that would rekindle as friendship. At the very end of their lives, they remembered who they were and what they meant to each other. It is a moment still shared by all Americans. It reminds us that what we have in common as a free people is far greater than what divides us.
So Happy Fourth of July to us all.
Well done and a worthy reminder to us all that ‘this too shall pass.’ The ‘hated’ Republicans versus the ‘hated’ Democrats shall converge, when who knows and how as well, but just as Adams and Jefferson saw the light as they neared end of life at those ripe old ages — this too shall pass.
Jonathan: You say “free speech” is one of the “core values that define us as a people”. No disagreement there. But then you go on the claim, as you have in other columns, that “Joe Biden is undeniably the most anti-free speech president since Adams in his support for an unprecedented censorship system…”. That claim happens to be “undeniably” UNTRUE.
In Murphy v. Missouri last month the Court ruled in a 6-3 decision that plaintiffs lacked standing because they couldn’t show any direct injury from the Biden administration’s attempts to urge social media platforms to take down “misinformation” and “disinformation”. Alito, Thomas and Gorsuch were the lone dissenters. Alito called the decision “one of the most important free speech cases to reach the Court in years”. Alito lost the argument. So did you. As it turns out Biden is NOT the “most anti-free speech President since Adams”. As a constitutional scholar how could you just ignore the Murphy decision?
Dennnis, while SCOTUS got Murphy WRONG. Your analysis is garbage.
First SCOTUS did not find no injury, it merely found that the plantifs in the case were not injured.
What SCOTUS has essentially said in Murphy is that a Class action by those who were censored by the Biden administration would result in a dramatic award in their favor.
Regardless, Murphy did NOT find in favor of Biden. It did NOT find his actions justified. It did NOT find the first amendment was not violated,
It did NOT find that no harm was done.
It merely found that the wrong people brought the suit.
Standing is an important legal doctrine. But it is also one that is constantly abused by courts – including the supreme court trying to duck difficult decisions.
SCOTUS was wrong on Standing in Murphy – The AG of Missouri represents the Citizens of Missouri. The Citizens of Missouri were harmed by the censorious acts of the Biden administration. Some where deprived of the right to speak, but ALL were deprived of the right to hear views that the Biden administration did not wish heard.
SCOTUS was also wrong in its standing decision in TX vs. PA in the election. First because the right of states to sue each other in the supreme court is actually enshrined in the constitution. And further because the failure of a state to follow its own laws in a federal election does harm other states.
John Say: Good to hear from you again, John. “Standing” is an important component for SC review. A party can’t make a generalized claim about some government action. The five plaintiffs could not show in Murphy they suffered some direct injury as a result of the Biden administration’s interactions with social media platforms over Covid or other issues. Justice Barrett found the lower courts “relied on factual findings that were clearly erroneous”. In other words, the plaintiffs had to invent facts that didn’t exist. Barrett pointed out that actions taken by social media platforms to modify content relating to Covid vaccines were taken BEFORE any contacts by the Biden administration.
The point of my comment is that Turley keeps asserting that “Joe Biden is undeniably the most anti-free speech president since Adams…”. But the Murphy decision doesn’t provide any support for that proposition and Turley has been unable to point to ANY instance in which someone was censored due to actions taken by the Biden administration. But you claim “SCOTUS got Murphy WRONG”. Please explain and indicate any case that would support Turley’s unproven allegation. Otherwise, your comment is “garbage”!
I would note that SCOTUS this term decided 9-0 in an oppinion written by Sotomayor that government engaging in censorship by proxy was unconstitutional in NRA vs. NY.
What was the difference ? The NRA – the party being censored sued, NOT government.
The NRA clearly had standing and clearly were harmed by government censorship by proxy.
All SCOTUS has done in Murphy is said that States can not sue the federal government to protect the first amendment rights of their citizens.
That those censored must do so directly.
They did NOT find the Biden administration did no harm – which BTW is NOT the standard for the first amendment. Infringment of first amendment rights is IRREBUTTABLY PRESUMPTIVELY harmful.
They merely found the Missouri State AG did not have a right to sue the federal govenrment to protect the first amendment rights of Missouri citizens.
Dennis, I would note one other thing about the extensive censorship efforts of the left.
They MIGHT have worked to the extent that supressing the Hunter Biden laptop likely altered the 2020 election.
But overall the efforts at censorship backfired.
The US is still not the USSR or the CCP or even the EU or UK.
Truly supressing speech remains impossible in the US.
Nearly all of us eventually learned the truth regarding
The collusion delusion.
Trump’s remarks about Charlottesville
J6
the Hunter Biden laptop
Covid
and the so many other things the left, the media, democrats and the biden administration conspired to keep people from knowing.
The result:
Increasing numbers do not trust the press.
Because we do not trust the MSM we are increasingly relying on alternate news sources.
That is partly good – as people like Glenn Greenwald, Barri Weiss, Matt Taibi, Micheal Shellenberger and many many other independent journalists are very succssful.
But it is partly bad as it also means actually nuts claims – not the lefts “Right wing conspiracies” but truly nonsensical claims get much more attention than they desirve.
Fool me once
Shame on you
Fool me twice
Shame on me.
I believe Fox’s ratings are down about 50%. Yet they STILL dominate the MSM – because it is not just Fox that has lots Trust, but the entire MSM.
Ultimately there has been very real harm done by Censorship – both government censorship and that of the left.
That harm has been to trust in our institutions – in government, in the media, in public experts, in the MSM.
And that damage to Trust in institutions is a GOOD thing – we should always be distrustful of all collective power
Regardless, though the Supreme court SHOULD have used Murphy to reign in government censorship by proxy,
doing so would only be icing.
The ultimate harm of censorship has been to the credibility of the censors.
Do you think many of us Trust the 51 former intelligence community members who told us the hunter Biden laptop was Russian disinformation ?
Of course liberals think Trump will throw out democracy…because he has already tried. He might even do it without getting elected if he can pull off a coup.
Sammy, it was not a coup. The SC said so. Your narrative is failing.
SCOTUS never addressed the issue. Because if they did they would have to call it a coup. Also SCOTUS has orange lips so what they say has little connection to reality.
Do you think before you type?
They also never mentioned the word insurrection, because there was none, just like there was no coup.
I am willing to bet 6 of the 9 SCOTUS can define what a woman is, and they are not biologists.
Trump spearheaded a weeks long illegal attempted to ignore the result of an election and install himself as an unelected president. He orchestrated the fake electors, tried to get his DoJ to falsify the results of their investigation into the election, and pressured Pence to throw out EC votes. His advisors were helping plan J6. Of course it was an attempted coup. Not as violent as the stereotypical coup, but still a coup.
But of course you already know this and wanted the coup to be successful.
When JT talks about free speech, it’s never clear where he draws the line on unhinged zealotry. The “age of rage” surrounding the election of 1800 took place in a different moral, cultural milieu — it was an honorific society. There was a shared understanding about individual actions that were cowardly vs. honorific. Dueling was one of the consequences for taking political disagreement (OK) to the level of personal affront (not OK), and thus acted as a deterrent to sleazy, under-the-belt blows. There were also shared understandings about normal vs. mentally ill — those of feeble mind did not deserve to have public rantings taken seriously. Immaturity was recognized as undeserving of the same level of political credibility as the seasoned adult able to carry responsibility. People who were educated, articulate and of goodwill and respect had a larger say than those who were illiterate and minimally involved in public life. When I think about what freedom of speech meant in the Founding era, I think of it in these terms. In such an honorific society, would someone who was “at great odds politically” express by acting out in anonymous, sneaky underhanded ways?
Would political disagreement be grounds for doing what Lee Atwood did to John McCain in 2000 (pushing out a whopper that McCain had fathered an illegitimate black child)? No. You could call your adversary a “traitor”, but that was attacking person’s political position as disastrous for the country — not a bit comparable to the immoral, serpentine tack taken by Atwood.
Free speech in our age of rage is qualitatively different — the shared understanding of honorific norms is much weakened, and this can be seen in dishonorable forms of “rage” like tire-slashing and “keying” of your opponent’s car, doxxing them to threaten their home and children, and working clandestinely to get them fired from their job.
Do you see the difference?
I may be wrong, but I take JT’s notion of free speech as bound by honorific self-restraint. I have complete agreement on that principle. Where I raise doubts is expanding the scope of free speech to cover the use of intentional deceits, personal intimidation, and the urging of lawbreaking. I have to make these exceptions explicit, because parts of our society are no longer bound by honorific restraint. Morally, we are not in the same place as 1800. Norms are not what they once were. And that relaxation of norms of self-restraint means having to qualify exactly how far free speech should be extended and defended.
“Free speech in our age of rage is qualitatively different”
Nope. You clearly are unfamiliar with the political attacks made by Jefferson and adams proxies.
Nothing done By modern politico’s is qualitatively different.
Would those proxies poison Adam’s horse? Claim that Jefferson had fathered an illeg….never mind.
Again you are unfamiliar with history. The claims made by Jefferson and Adam’s proxies were More offensive and MORE false than anything done today.
Jefferson had Callendar slander Adam’s to win the 1800 election. Callendar was then imprisoned by Adams. But the Slander was bought by most americans and Jefferson won the election. Callendar was released by Jefferson after the election, felt that Jefferson owed him – both for helping him win the election and for his time in jail and when Jefferson refused to reward Callendar – Callendar went after Jefferson.
“Callendar broke a story in 1802 that had only been a rumor until then—that the President was having an affair with one of his slaves, Sally Hemings.”
I think PB has a point. As you have pointed out, someone (I forget who), said that the Constitution was made for a moral people, and that it would not work for a non-moral people. I would argue that we are far less moral today, as opposed to the early 1800s.
Eloquent- bilateral it still remains despite all politics are local – you can’t beat city hall. Et al. They can literally old man’s club – hire a local teacher – an let her into the woods to seduce your 30 year husband – but you hardened lose either way … all ways. Their govt employee dint actually have ro sin with my husband – all the needed was me too and a couple exclamation points. And the govt did that. Until the us govt tried to send in a helper – but state teacher wanted it exclusive . Hmm !!!
It’s an overwrought phrase.. but it comes from the Heart, with appreciation on this sacred day: God Bless You, Prof. Turley, for sharing your perspective and wisdom with your writing… and bringing our History to Life.. My sense is that Both Thomas Jefferson and John Adams have taken a deep bow to you to-day from Heaven….
Continuing the intrusive off-topic, there are several translations of Beowulf into English. Most recently printed, after many decades of delay, is the translation by JJR Tolkien, best known for his fantasy “Lord of the Rings”.
I have this book. JRRT helped propel Beowulf into prominence. I can not think of the proper word (epic, saga???) to describe it after Tolkien, but IIRC one of my professors said it was the English equivalent of the Odyssey, and others countries pre-eminent old work. Dang it, what is the stupid word I am trying to think of??? Anyway, here it is:
https://jerrywbrown.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/Tolkien-The-Monsters-and-the-Critics-complete-article.pdf
Maybe “epic” was the right word after all. I had the Song of Roland in mind when I wrote the above, and it is in the list, along with the Finnish Kalevela(which is a durn hard read.) Luckily, they made an actual song of the Song of Roland, (first link, and then Warren Zevon updated it with Roland, the Headless Thompson Gunner (second link)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXWgoKP1AOU
There are numerous versions of the above song on youtube.
Thank you for the link!
I opine that epic will suffice.
It is easier for individuals like Adams and Jefferson to kiss and make-up than for regions of the country to do so. There is a natural anitpathy between the New England states and the deep Southern states that will probably never be overcome. The two main political parties roughly follow this divide, with one party on one side and the other party on the other side. The main source of this antipathy is the belief in the Northeast that they have a special right to rule the country (and, further, the world), and, if they don’t get their way, to destroy the opposing party or other political forces. This diviide is papered over sometimes when there is a particularly popular figure like Eisenhower or Reagan, but otherwise it governs the conduct of our politics.
Edward – the politics of those regions have shifted over time – New England was fiercely individualisticly independent until modern ties in which it has become socialist.
And it was republican for over a century.
While the south was more socialist from the start, democrat from the start, and only within the last few decades has shifted to valuing individual rights and becoming republican.
Your elite analysis holds more merit – for much of this country elites from the south – democrats sought to run this country, typically opposed by elites from the north
Democrats choice of Biden in 2020 was specifically to atleast partly neuter Trumps appeals to blue collar working class democrats.
American politics is quite fluid. The censorhip of the MacCarthy era was mostly though not exclusively driven by republicans – who were oddly right about the threat that communists pose to the country even if they were wrong to abandon the values of the country to get the communists. Today it is Democrats that are the proponents of censorship willing to abridge fundimental rights to acheive their politcial goals.
The 2016 election was just a typical pendulum swing election. What was drastically different was that the democratic party did NOT accept they had gone too far left and tack back towards the center after their 2016 defeat
Instead they doubled down on the far left. Believing that Clinton’s narrow loss was not a reflection of the country taking a step back from the left, but the consequence of nefarious efforts to deny the left their rightful ascendance.
But for Covid Trump would have won 2020 in a landslide, Even with Covid it took the unified forces of the media, massive censorship, massive illegal ballot harvesting to barely pull Joe Biden over the line.
There will always be conflict between the left and right in this country. But the modern bitterness of that conflict – like that of the jefforsonians and adamsonians is unusual.
The mistakes of democrats over the pas 8 years will cost them dearly for a long time to come. But I have little doubt that the democratic party will shift back towards the center
and eventually be competitive again.
BREAKING NEWS!!! President Biden is missing!
“WASHINGTON, DC — The president is missing! A source confirmed late Tuesday night that President Biden, apparently spooked by Independence Day fireworks, piddled on a rug before bolting in terror into the woods behind the White House.
The anonymous source said Jill forgot to lock Joe in his crate before the fireworks started, causing him to startle at the loud noise. “He started running in circles, then he peed all over the rug in the bedroom and made a break for it through an open kitchen door,” the source said.
“Unfortunately, the President’s son Hunter left the back gate open, as he was meeting with a pharmaceutical representative in the alley out back,” the source added. “The President bolted off into the woods and hasn’t been seen since!”
I read the disgruntled comments and wonder. The USA is a behemoth industrialized machine and it runs really smoothly. It’s a wonder with at least 10 opportunities to fit in somewhere.
Americans became coddled in some way and lost sight of how difficult their forefathers struggled in building it. Morals are often claimed without understanding that moral become paramount in life and death struggles each day of life. If you err someone may die gives gravity to life.
God bless America this day and everyday for ourselves and our posterity.
Turley keeps trying, without success, to normalize Trump. Our founding fathers could not have imagined a creature like Trump running for president–someone who refuses to pay valid debts, forces materialmen and contractors to sue him, drives up litigation costs, which, in turn, forces settlement on more-favorable terms and then brags about being a master “dealmaker”. Someone who took bankruptcy 6 times–they didn’t have bankruptcy back then. Someone who consorts with nude models and porn actresses, pays them off, falsifies business records to cover up the payoffs and then, when his former home state brings him to justice, verbally attacks the judge, his family, the prosecutor and the entire state legal system. They couldn’t imagine someone who brags about grabbing women by their genitals, who sexually assaulted a woman and was found civilly liable, who was found civilly liable for lying on financial statements and loan applications to a degree the judge called “shocking to the conscience” and who has 34 felony convictions. They would be stunned by this person, himself a draft-dodger, calling military members “suckers and losers” and calling John McCain, a genuine American hero, a “loser” after he voted down legislation that would have taken health insurance coverage away from millions of Americans to be replaced with nothing–all because this legislation was successful and came during the presidency of our first black president. They would be dumbfounded by this person’s ability to look straight at a camera and lie about nonexistent “accomplishments”, and his continued insistence that he “won” when every recount and investigation proves this is not true. His endless projection would shock them–this one, whom multiple prestigious presidential historians called the worst president in modern history, claims this desgination applies his opponent, who turned around the disasterous economic and public health mess he was left, with the country mostly shut down, kids can’t go to school, businesses, factories and restaurants closed and who has gotten passed landmark legislation that his predecessor could not. If facts regarding the insurrection came to light,– such as going on “Stop the Steal” campaigns to lie to his supporters about a nonexistent “victory” stolen by nonexistent “fraud”, trying to bully Secretaries of State to “find” votes he didn’t get, tryng to bully the VP to refuse certified vote totals, and the plot for fake electors to falsify Electoral College forms–I believe our founders would conclude that such a person is a traitor and should be strung up–even without consideration of the Project 2025 plot to force Christian nationalism on the American people, which includes the planned round up of 11 million or so people and putting them in concentration camps, taking away reproductive freedom, including contraception and IVF, massive tariffs that economists warn will destroy our economy, and tax breaks for the wealthiest, paid for by cutting Social Security and Medicare that people have counted on to be there after they retire. Never before in our history has such an unfit person been so power-hungry, aided and abetted by MAGA media that spreads lies about his opponent and downplays his unfitness, and wealthy donors, who have been offered the chance to write an Executive Order rolling back environmental protections for a $1 billion campaign donation and a Jewish woman who wants the US to endorse Israel’s wrongful take-over of the West Bank for a $100 million donation–and an ultra right-wing SCOTUS that just makes up law to benefit this person..
Today is a day for reflection on the character and vision of those who risked their lives to establish America and the absolutely outrageous lack of fitness of one of the candidates to be the leader of the free world. The contrast between our founders and Trump could not be more stark.
At least Trump can name all his grandchildren.
Donald Trump is going to win in November and there’s nothing you can do to stop it.
Nope. You’ve proceeded to prove Turley’s correct in his analyses.
Seek help
OMG! “Our Founding Fathers,” NUTCHACHACHA.
“Our Founding Fathers” would have NEVER provided you with any form or fashion of favor, bias, welfare, or affirmative action, and likely not admission to become a citizen.
They surely would have convicted you for feticide.
I suspect were you not a paid DNC shill, you would have a better view of Reality. Or maybe not. A lot of very Partisan Democrats are simply not very smart. I have noticed that a lot over my 70 years. They are Democrats for the same reasons that some people are Mormons, or Jehovah’s Witnesses – it is what their parents were. There is no real reasoning behind their party affiliation. Many of them, though well-educated, are simply not all that intelligent. Intelligence being the ability to learn and assimilate new facts. Those Democrats are Bitter Clingers. Like Bill Maher, who recognizes the stupidity, yet continues to vote for it.
Gigi, you’re the greatest!
Your ‘Brainwashed Dem’ act is UPROARIOUS!
No wonder you like your own posts!
“Truer words have never been spoken.”
– M.E. Grant Duffy
What FACTS did I get wrong? You MAGAts are great at name-calling and insults, but fall short on responding to FACTS and policy discussions. This election isn’t about me or you–it’s about America. Insulting me isn’t going to change the contents of Project 2025 or the fact that it calls for a totatitarian Christian Nationalist take-over of our government, reversing 50+ years of progress in civil and individual rights and reproductive freedom, and that most Americans do not want these things, especially the president controlling the FBI and DOJ.
” . . . the absolutely outrageous lack of fitness of one of the candidates to be the leader of the free world.”
100% in agreement. But don’t worry, Dennis. Biden will soon be institutionalized or buried.
Sorry, Dennis. Even you make more sense than Gigi.
Gigi should wait a few seconds before upvoting her Bidenesque torrent of lies.
Does Gigi get the only serial gratification in her life by being I the shower with The Big Guy when he’s balling his teenage daughter during those Inappropriate Showers?
Or being the photographer for Hunter Bidens porn videos where, shooting the footage while he rapes pre-teen girls.
“someone who refuses to pay valid debts,”
We have a legal system for that.
Lawsuits over contracts occur all the time
and the courts sort it out.
Trump has done quite well in those lawsuit – indicating that Trump paid VALID debts and NOT random claims.
“forces materialmen and contractors to sue him,”
Lawsuits on construction projects are pretty normal.
They tend to occur because though much of the country has been inculcated into the labor theory of value – beleiving that if you work you must be paid,
in reality the labor theory of value is a fraud. Outide of traditional employment that is what most people are familiar with, Payment is for production- for value delivered, not for labor.
“drives up litigation costs”
Suing people for stupid reasons drives up litigation costs Courts failure to dispose of meritless cases drives up litigation costs.
“which, in turn, forces settlement on more-favorable terms and then brags about being a master “dealmaker”.”
Bizzare argument considering that nearly all Trump’s “Deals” have nothing to do with litigation. They are all about CREATING things.
” Someone who took bankruptcy 6 times–they didn’t have bankruptcy back then.”
There have been no consequential changes in bankruptcy laws in my lifetime.
I have no idea what your argument is.
The greatest entrepeneurs of history and of this time risked everything and often lost.
Listen to Musk about Tesla or Space X, on numerous occasions they were moments away from having to shut the doors.
Amazon lost money for decades. Apple nearly went bankrupt twice.
Bankruptcy or near bankruptcy is a univeral thread to those who have created great things.
” Someone who consorts with nude models and porn actresses”
Really ? That is some great crime of Trump’s – from the party trying to sell drag queen story time ?
“pays them off”
I thought you were in favor of people getting paid by Trump ?
Which is it ?
” falsifies business records to cover up the payoffs and then, when his former home state brings him to justice, verbally attacks the judge, his family, the prosecutor and the entire state legal system.”
Most of the people in the country saw what YOU did for what it was – a Criminal abuse of power. Trump may not seek vengenance. But alot of people are likely to
And the country is unlikely to have any sympathy
“who sexually assaulted a woman and was found civilly liable, who was found civilly liable for lying on financial statements and loan applications to a degree the judge called “shocking to the conscience” and who has 34 felony convictions.”
What shocks the conscience is the collapse of the legal system in NY.
“They would be stunned by this person, himself a draft-dodger,”
George Bush was the last president to have served in the military.
“calling military members “suckers and losers””
Still trying to sell that debunked left wing nut conspiracy theory.
“calling John McCain, a genuine American hero, a “loser” after he voted down legislation that would have taken health insurance coverage away from millions of Americans to be replaced with nothing–all because this legislation was successful and came during the presidency of our first black president. ”
PPACA has added $2T to US Deficits each decade (and rising) for ABSOLUTELY NO BENEFIT AT ALL.
Contra the left – people were not dying without healthcare, and in fact the US mortality rate has INCREASED since PPACA.
Coffee is not a right – you ust pay for it. Health insurance is no different.
I would further note that though health insurance companies have done 50+ years of research trying to prove a health benefit to health insurance the FACT is there is none.
The benefits of insurance are PURELY financial.
Government subsidized health insurance is nothing more that wealth redistribution of the worst kind. It steals from peter to pay paul and makes healthcare far more expensive for ALL.
Trump’s attacks on John McCain’s military service were uncouth, and deserve criticism. Trump’s attacks on John McCain’s political decisions are well deserved.
“They would be dumbfounded by this person’s ability to look straight at a camera and lie about nonexistent “accomplishments”, and his continued insistence that he “won” ”
“when every recount and investigation proves this is not true.”
Where were these recounts ? Windham Massachusetts did a recount of a single congressional district – the GOP rep gains 400 votes because of a DVS tabulator glitch.
A single county in Michigan did a recount and Trump picked up 6500 votes.
There was a random audit of 5000 mailin ballots in Cobb county GA and 6% did not come close to meeting the legal requirements to be counted, and 0.6% were actually fraudulent.
The only large scale actual recount was in MAricopa county AZ – that took over a year and almost 50% of the ballots had some kind of error – chain of custody problems, printed on wrong paper, various problems that had the law been followed they would have been tossed.
The good news – for the left is that the maricopa county recount – while finding massive propblems – including very serious problems with DVS equipment, that recount did NOT find that the DVS equipment miscounted the ballots. It did however find almost 50,000 ballots cast by only 13,000 people – far more than enough FRAUD to flip the election,
and likely only the tip of the iceberg.
Regardless in the entire US these were the only actual RECOUNTS.
As to the rest. Before Trump was elected I received a book “The worst president in history” Documenting the disasterous Obama Presidency.
Trump remains the best president of the 21st century. And Biden the worst president in US history.
I have repeated dismantled your false economic claims regarding Trump and Biden presidencies.
In most cases government data – such as from NBIR or the FED falsifies the nonsense you claim.
But you can also confirm that your economic claims are complete garbage by reviewing private sources such as Trading Economics.
If you wish to make an argument for Biden or against Trump – try using real word accepted FACTS.
With few exceptions – actual facts do not run at odds to our personal perceptions. When the economy is doing well – MOST, thought unfortunately not all americans are doing well.
When ordinary americans do not “feel” the economy is doing well – it usually isnt.
Contra the left – it is the elites in the country who are “out of touch” with reality.
2-way RCP Poll Average Trump +3.3
5-Way RCP Average Trump +4.9
Top Battlegrounds Trump +3.3
Favorability Ratings Trump +6.1
RCP Betting Odds Trump 5:1
A poll published today in “the Hill” says Trump and Biden are even.
Happy Fourth of July!
America waits for its president to resign.
Kamala Harris will never be eligible for the office of president; Kamala Harris will never be a natural born citizen.
Kamala Harris was born in the country of parents who were not citizens.
Kamala Harris is a “citizen.”
Kamala Harris is not a “natural born citizen.”
The Constitution employs the phrase “natural born citizen” but does not define it; no one knows its definitive definition.
Blackstone defined natural born subject in the context of a monarchical government.
Vattel defined “natural born citizen” in the context of free and neutral government.
__________________________________________________________________________________________
Law of Nations, Book 1, Chpt 19, Sec 212
§ 212. Citizens and natives.
The citizens are the members of the civil society; bound to this society by certain duties, and subject to its authority, they equally participate in its advantages. The natives, or natural-born citizens, are those born in the country, of parents who are citizens. As the society cannot exist and perpetuate itself otherwise than by the children of the citizens, those children naturally follow the condition of their fathers, and succeed to all their rights. The society is supposed to desire this, in consequence of what it owes to its own preservation; and it is presumed, as matter of course, that each citizen, on entering into society, reserves to his children the right of becoming members of it. The country of the fathers is therefore that of the children; and these become true citizens merely by their tacit consent. We shall soon see whether, on their coming to the years of discretion, they may renounce their right, and what they owe to the society in which they were born. I say, that, in order to be of the country, it is necessary that a person be born of a father who is a citizen; for, if he is born there of a foreigner, it will be only the place of his birth, and not his country.
_________________________________
Every president before Obama had two parents who were citizens at the time of birth of the candidate.
A “natural born citizen” is not natural if it does not involve the natural father.
Racist George pretends he doesn’t know the Founders thought of his Prussian hero Vattell as ‘European elitist scum’.
Constitutionalist George presents the law and the fact that the requirement that the president be a “natural born citizen” proves that a mere “citizen” is not eligible, such as the child of an illegal alien who becomes a “citizen,” which is what Kamala Harris is, a mere “citizen.”
Constitutionalist George presents the truth that Vattel was published in 1758 and throughout the Colonies by 1762.
Ben Franklin letter December 9, 1775, thanking Charles Dumas for 3 copies of the Law of Nations:
“…I am much obliged by the kind present you have made us of your edition of Vattel. It came to us in good season, when the circumstances of a rising state make it necessary frequently to consult the law of nations. Accordingly that copy, which I kept, (after depositing one in our own public library here, and sending the other to the College of Massachusetts Bay, as you directed,) has been continually in the hands of the members of our Congress, now sitting, who are much pleased with your notes and preface, and have entertained a high and just esteem for their author…”
Anniny has no viable position and debates simply through ad hominem.
Condolences, Einstein!
Oh my! This is getting out of hand. . . 🙂
https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/inline-images/biden%20jill%20finger.jpg?itok=YmLANrzC
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/sharp-and-focused-sometimes-confused-ap-gaslights-new-fiery-mostly-peaceful-propaganda
Here is a video of a stressed out liberal who was on vacation in Florida, and keyed an SUV which had a Trump sticker. This kind of pluribus, is never going to unum:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-J99s_UsX3s
This kind of OCD is a common thing nowadays.
If you believe in all this left wing crap, have massive amounts of TDS. You’re part of a cult and you won’t allow yourself to deviate from democrat party dogma. Please snap out of it. Independent Bob.
Love reading Johnathan Turley’s piece on Adams and Jefferson…just learned another facts about AMERICA’s past leaders…
He asked to be taken to Jellystone Park, but when he found out that he was taken to Yellowstone, he became enraged.
Regarding the topic, I honestly don’t think the modern left can. They are fully captured by the worst motivations in global history. I do not know how we defeat them at this point, but you’d better believe we are flying our flags hight today at our house. Pray for our country, even if that is just secular good vibes, because we are in a terrible state this fourth of July, and you’d have to be crazy to not see it. Happy Fourth, everyone. Hold the line. It’s tough, but it’s the only thing that will get us through. I hope you enjoy your time with your families or communities today.
Happy Fourth of July!
The border is wide open, nay, nonexistent.
Happy invasion, nay, happy putrefaction in the name of one-man, one-vote “democracy,” which is de facto Marx’s “dictatorship of the proletariat” in Ben Franklin’s restricted-vote republic.
You cannot be American, and you must be communist by order of the communist (liberal, progressive, socialist, democrat, RINO, AINO) party.
The Founders created parameters for a nation, its fundamental law, and its population—the America of 1789, its Constitution of 1789, and its Naturalization Act of 1790.
The nation is gone, the Constitution is gone, and the people are gone.
Americans are down to 61% of the population.
All bio-entities on the planet are Americans-in-waiting, waiting for their “free stuff” and “free status,” right?
Wrong!
The American Founders are rolling over in their graves.
Free stuff. Free status. Free country—free, free, free!
How was America ever created in the first place?
Some Americans are so patriotic they just can’t wait to give the country away; Americans shall not be “xenophobic” or “racist” and must surrender their country, lock, stock, and barrel.
What the —- kind of patriotism is that?
That is not patriotism; that is complete idiocy.
It is a virtue to be compassionate; it is human to be a good neighbor.
It is abject insanity to give your home and your country away.
I was hoping turley would make it through a column without plugging his book but nope.
🤦♀️