A Slice of Life Concerning Donald Trump, sent from an informant to EL Zorro

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You all might like to know… This was sent to me from a friend, I do not know who did the research or if it is factual:
JH
(El Zorro)

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Looked up Trump last night and read much the same as below sent to me this morning by a friend. Informative. At least he won't be giving away my hard earned money to everyone who asks for it!

Specifications: 

    *   Donald John  Trump, was born June 14, 1946.   

    *   He will be 70  years old on election day.    

    *   From the  Internet, he is 6'2" or 6'3' and weighs between 195 and  200  lbs.   

    *   He has a full  head of blond/brown hair (which is long and elaborately combed) and blue  eyes.   

    *   The Internet  tells us he wears a size 12 shoe. 

    *   Donald Trump  was born the fourth of five children who were born over eleven  years.   

    *   The oldest,  Mary Ann, was born in 1937 and is currently a Federal  Judge.    

    *   His older  brother, Fred Jr, died in early adulthood as a result of complications from  alcoholism.   

    *   He has another  older sister, Elizabeth and a younger brother,  Robert.

    *   Donald Trump  has been married three times.   

    (1)   Trump's first  wife, Ivana, was an immigrant from Czechoslovakia and a divorcee who has  been married 4 times in her life. She is a lifelong avid skier and worked in  design at the Trump  Organization.   

    (2)      Marla Maples,  Trump's second wife is an actress and model   

    (3)   Trump's third  wife, Melania is an immigrant from Slovenia (born in Yugoslavia) and has  been a super model.

    *   Two of Trump's  children, Donald Jr and Ivanka, have gone to Penn. on Eric, went to  Georgetown.   

      *   Donald Trump  tells us that he is Presbyterian.    

    *   Donald  Trump  does not appear to have had any interest in occults, mysticism,  or exotic mythologies.   

    *   Donald Trump's  oldest daughter, Ivanka, and her three children are Jewish.   

    *   Trump's oldest  daughter, Ivanka, is married to Jared Kushner who is, among other things, a  newspaper publisher. The Kushner family is very successful in New York City  area real estate.   

    *   Donald's  grandmother, mother, first wife, and third wife are all  immigrants. 

    *   Donald Trump  was born and raised in Queens NY   

    *   Though his  family was very wealthy, Trump's boyhood home in the Jamaica  Estates section of Queens was not a grand mansion. The Trump home was a  larger version of the homes Fred Trump was building for his  tenants.   

    *   There are no  indications that the Trump family lived among the wealthy elites on  vacations or country clubs.   

    *   Queens is the  largest of New York's five boroughs and the most ethnically  diverse.   

    *   Trump attended  a local private day school, the Kew Forrest School, in  Queens until about 8th grade.   

    *   His secondary  schooling was at New York Military  Academy which is about 60 miles north of NYC in Cornwall on  the Hudson. He was the class of 1964.   

    *   Trump was never  a "Preppie".   

    *   Trump never  embraced any aspect of the "Hippie" movement of the  time.   

    *   Trump was  a very good high school athlete - football, soccer, and especially baseball.  He had potential to become a professional baseball  player.   

    *   Even in high  school - Trump liked women and women liked him   

    *   Trump was  generally popular in high school.   

    *   Trump's  boarding school room mate liked him.   

    *   He attended  Fordham University in NYC for two years and tansferred to the University of  Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business.   

    *   At that time,  the Wharton School offered a rare program for Real Estate  Business.    

     *   Though he was  of age, Donald Trump did not serve in Vietnam.   

    *   He was not  drafted due to bone spurs in his heels (4F) and also student  deferments.   

     *   Ultimately, in  the draft lottery, he drew a high number. 

    *By all we know,  Donald Trump does not smoke, drink or use recreational drugs. He'll be the  first President in more than 25 years who hasn't smoked  weed.   

    *   BTW: Trump's  children don't smoke or drink   

    *   Trump makes it  well known that he enjoys sexual interaction with  women.   

    *   I am unaware  that Donald Trump is a recreational gambler.   

    *   His doctor  publicly announced Donald to be in excellent  health.

I  think that to really know Donald Trump, you must know his family  background.  The  Trump family story is a very American story. 

Trump  family history - concise version:

                             

                                 (Omitted here is the fact that Freiderich Drumph returned to Germany after a  time of it in far western Canada and in the Alaska territory during the 1890s.  Some considerable portion of his success came from the operation of tent-brothels, as well as two or three more elegant or ''higher level" hotels.  One of those was an "elegant" brothel.   He returned to Germany with the intention of having his German citizenship reinstated.  These attempts were rebuffed, ostensibly because of his business relationships and activities and / or because of lingering doubts and resentments some German officials may have had concerning the feilty of Drumph.  Many people, especially men of military age,  of the nominally German states of Alsace and Lorraine, chose not to hang around in that overlap-land dividing Germany and France because of the Franco - Prussian War, and the inclination Germany and France had to make war over those lands almost continuously.   There are many other historical and present day matters that have also not been included in the summary below.
     As an interesting aside, among these Alsatians are the forbearers of Harlon Henry Block, born in Weslaco, Texas in 1924, who was one of the Flag-raisers at Mount Suribachi, Iwo Jima, 20 February, 1945.   Another fairly large settle of Alsace - Lorraine people settled what became a still idyllic community known as Castroville, a very few miles west of San Antonio, back during the Republican Period of Texas.

El Gringo Viejo)

    *   Donald Trump's  grandparents immigrated to the U.S. from Alsace (Kallstadt, Germany) which  throughout history has been alternately French and German. The Trumps are  German, originally speaking the same German dialect as the Amish of  Lancaster County, PA.

    *   His maternal  grandparents lived in Scotland.    

    *   Freiderich  (Drumph) Trump made a small but respectable fortune in the late 19th Century  in the mining boom towns o the American Northwest.   

    *   He returned to  Germany to marry his childhood neighbor, Elizabeth  Christ.   

    *   The newly  married Trumps resettled in the Borough of Queens NY    

    *   Freidrich was  establishing a Real Estate business in Queens when he died suddenly at age  49 (1918).   

    *   In 1920, at the  age of 15, Fred Trump (Freiderich's son and Donald's father), started a  business partnership with his widowed mother called Elizabeth Trump and Son.   

    *   This business  was built upon the real estate holdings that his father, Freiderich, had  amassed (worth about $500,000.00 in today's dollars). This is the original  "seed money" of the current Trump  Organization.   

    *   Elizabeth and Fred remained close business partners her entire life (she died in  1966).   

    *   In 1936 Fred  Trump (age 31) married Mary Ann MacLeod (age 24) of Stoneaway,  Scotland.   

    *   During the  depression, Fred Trump built and successfully operated a supermarket (a new  concept at the time) which was sold to King Kullen Co. and  operates this day.   

    *   Fred Trump made  a lot of money building housing for the military during  WWII.    

    *   Fred Trump was  investigated by the Justice Department for making "excessive profits" from  government contracts.   

    *   All (or nearly  all) of the building of Elizabeth Trump and Son's non-government building was residential property in  Queens.   

    *   Fred Trump died  in 1999 (age 94) - beloved and worth between $250 million and $300 million.  His wife died a year later.

   *"The Donald" is the greatest career achiever of the "baby boomer" generation  entertainer,  sports entertainer, Real Estate developer, and currently is a politician.  

    *   Donald Trump  has authored more than 18 books. At least one of them, The Art of the  Deal was a top seller.  

    *   Donald says  that the Holy  Bible is his favorite book. The Art of the  Deal is his 2nd favorite book. And The Power of Positive  Thinking by Norman Vincent Peale is his third favorite  book.

    *   He likes golf.  Donald Trump has developed more than 11 golf courses which bear his  name.   

    *   Donald Trump  has twice been nominated for an Emmy Award   

    *   Donald Trump  has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.   

    *   Donald Trump  has been inducted to the Professional Wrestling Hall of  Fame.   

    *   Donald Trump  has appeared in more than a dozen movies such as Home   Alone 2, Zoolander, and  Little Rascals    

    *   Donald Trump  has been a guest actor in more than 6 TV shows such as Fresh Prince of  Bel Air, Days of Our Lives, Sex and the City, and  others.   

    *   Trump has been  the Executive Producer of 7 TV shows.   

    *   Trump has been  the guest host of 5 TV shows such as Extra, Larry King Live, and  Saturday Night Live and more.   

    *   Donald Trump  has been co-producer of the longest running reality TV  show.   

    *   Donald Trump  performed in several WWE wrestling shows.   

    *   Donald  performed in Wrestlemania 23 which set attendance records and revenue  records up until that time.   

    *   In his first  candidacy for public office, Donald Trump received the most popular votes  for the President of the United States out of a field of experienced  and successful politicians. And in most cases, he achieved this with less  money than any of his opponents. 

     Keeping  in mind that 90% of start-up businesses fail, Trump's record of enterprise is nothing short of amazing.  

Donald  Trump has enjoyed success in at least 11 very different 

enterprises: 

  Professional football, Ice Skating rinks, Fragrance, Ice, Steaks, Wines, Model management, Airline, blenders, Men's wear, Bicycle races, world class beauty contests, and many others. In some of these, such as model management,  his firm has risen to the top of that particular  industry.  

    *   There are 31  buildings that bear his name.   

    *   The largest  private real estate development in New York is Trump Riverside. Drive down the Henry Hudson Blvd; you can't miss them.   

    *   There are at  least 12 Trump Towers   

    *   There are at  least 6 Trump Plazas.   

    *   There are at  least 11 Trump Golf Course developments    

    *   And much, much,  more in real estate.   

    *   Trump  Entertainment, casinos and resorts was recently sold to Carl Ichan.   

    *   Donald Trump's  personal managing of the Wollman Ice Skating Rink project in the early  1980's is the quintessential case study for MBA students in Wharton,  Harvard, and other business schools. His performance there was  phenomenal.   

    *   Donald Trump's  privately held businesses have employed more than 

200,000  people.   

    *   In the casino  business in Atlantic City, Trump had to do business with known mobsters -  and he stayed "clean" and alive.   

    *   Aside from his  personal investments, Donald Trump has never been a Wall Street  "player".

   *The  Political Trump: 

about  1967 - 1987 - Democrat (he was a supporter of Ronald  Reagan) 

1987  - 1999 - Republican 

1999  - 2001 - Reform Party (he supported Ross Perot) 

2001  - 2009 - Democrat 

2009  - 2011 - Republican 

2011  - 2012 - Independent 

2012  - Present - Republican 

Donald  Trump was openly supportive of Mitt Romney's candidacy. 

Donald  Trump does not seem to hold political party organizations in high  regard.  For  the most part, his political involvement has been for practical  reasons. 

Donald  Trump does not appear to be held to political  ideology.

 

Some  of my take aways: 

    *   Trump has an  extraordinarily energetic central nervous system much like Teddy Roosevelt  but more targeted to industry and enterprise.   

    *   Trump's  presidency will be very energetic, transparent, and  communicative.   

    *   Trump will be a  very hard working President.   

    *   His interaction  with his older brother (who everybody loved) tells me that he thinks that  everybody is like him - or wants to be - or should  be.   

    *   His  relationship with his older brother was a hard lesson in tolerance for  him.   

    *   Trump is the  Babe Ruth of career achievements.    

    *   He is dumb like  a fox. When you think he just said something stupid - he didn't. It's just  that you were not his target audience.   

    *   Trump knows the  people - "the folks".   

    *   His son, Donald  Jr. is right: "Trump is a "Blue Collar  

Billionaire".   

    *   More than  anything, his TV show, The  Apprentice, was his passion. 

He wants all Americans to have  confidence (like he does) to venture.   

    *   Donald Trump is  attracted to and marries smart, high achieving  

women.   

    *   The highest  levels of a Trump Administration is certain to have 

many women - and they  will be bright and assertive.   

    *   Donald Trump's  children are very important to him. And it shows.

PS.   Yes, we know nothing of our current president with 2 terms in office. 

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The following commentary is from El Gringo Viejo:

     While much of the above is salient and perhaps a rigorous prefabrication of fact, truth, and the American way, there are certain un-stated negatives, certain genealogical "hop-scotch" so to speak in the above cotillion announcement.  There are also value judgements and personal evaluations that could be debated in beauty parlours, barber shoppes, and saloons from now until the sun sets in the East.

     For instance, one might argue that any voter who could fall the argument that he/she should vote for Trump because of what Trump said, of course, has a problem.   Trump, at times and even frequently, contradicts what he has said in the next sentence, on the next day, or with a declarative denial that he ever said such a thing.   Such "forgetfulness" and/or "reasoning" should...let us say...at least give a voter pause.

     Any voter who could buy into a campaign slogan such as "Make American Great Again!" might possibly be stiffened in his resolve with a battle cry such as "Remember Whatever....or not....again!!!"   It is worth noting that something like 10 to 15 per cent of those who voted for Barry Soetoro seemed to like that inspiring call to action of "Hope and Change" and now believe in Mr. Trump's platform or solutions.

    Considering that neither "MAGA" nor "H and C" have any meaning without lengthy definition says more about the critical reasoning ability of the voter than even the candidates from which such inspiration flowed.  Perhaps we err in that manner ourselves when we hasten to state that we are amazed at times at the number of people we know to be intelligent and discerning who are convinced on some level or another that Trump is worth voting for.

We place this Rally Sheet before our public, in any regard,  for consideration as food for thought.

El Gringo Viejo

In Memoriam

Corporal Hiram Henry Block

United States Marine Corps

1924 -1945

Killed in Action

Mount Suribachi, Iwo Jima

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In Christ Alone

Fernandez de Kirchner, Maduro, Rousseau....all washed up and no place to go, but further down

Populations of the South American Nations

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                           2014             /     2015

Brazil                 202,033,670       / 203,657,210

Colombia             48,929,706        /  49,529,208

Argentina             41,803,125        /  42,154,914

Venezuela                  30,851,343   /  31,292,702

Peru                     30,769,077         /  31,161,167

Chile                    17,772,871        /  17,924,062

Ecuador               15,982,551        /  16,225,691

Bolivia                10,847,664         /  11,024,522

Paraguay               6,917,579         /    7,032,942

Uruguay               3,418,694          /    3,429,997

Guyana                   803,677          /       807,611

Suriname                543,925          /       548,456

French Guiana       255,455           /       261,729

Falkland Islands        3,052             /          3,058

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South America

        410,932,389    /  415,053,269

      It is a scene akin to Pompeii, or perhaps a combination of Hiroshima and Dresden in 1946, and south Chicago, with two cups of blended brains of Nancy Pelosi.  Three of the top four names on this list of South American nations, Brazil / Argentina / Colombia are in veritable shambles.   They have been reduced, after several years of rule by marxist demagogues, to crumbling reminders of the decay of Cuba during the past 50 years.

     Mrs. Fernandez de Kirchner used her two terms to drag Argentina, predictably, into a morass of currency collapse, coupled with massive inflation, steady deterioration of public facilities, pointless lectures and blame casting, demonization of the productive sectors, and general corruption.  Argentina was number three in the Americas in 1960, behind places with funny names like The United States of America, and the Dominion of Canada of Her Majesty's Commonwealth.  The Republic of Cuba followed Argentina in an near tie for that third place position.
     We are speaking not so much in gross national product terms, but rather in the level of general education, per capita income, medical availability and practice, consumer and product availability and quality.   Now Argentina speeded up its decline to presently find itself well down on the list, as does Cuba, Haiti, and others of the workers' paradises so ardently hoped for by Bernie's and (Sir Edmund) Hillary's zombiecrats.
     It is well to remember that the La Sen~ora Cristina Fernandez was a member of the marxist guerrilla (preceding word pronounced gae - REE - yah ) known as "Los Monteros.  That group was a 1st cousin to the Sendero Luminoso and the visions of Ernesto (Che') Guevara  in "her time", but reformed to "work within the system" (sedicion en ves de guerra {sedition instead of war}).  Working "within the system" was never anything more than a phrase to Cristina....a girl with a German grandmother with the name of Wilhelm.   She was another of the white leftists who abound in the New World who feel compelled to save the masses with free food, housing, medicine, in return for servile servitude and worship.

     One dirty secret, do not tell anybody, but Barry, and (Sir Edmund)Corkscrew, and even Bernie the Pinko all want what Cristina wants.....access to wealth by taxation....not just to high wages...but wealth.   The labouring classes who happened to have set-aside pensions similar to 401s and State Employees' Pension plans etc., learned and could not believe it was true.  But there were active plans, and implementation was beginning with the preparation of legislation in the lap-dog Congress to begin a taxation.  That levy would be of instruments, certificates of deposit, savings accounts, bonds of medium and long term, foreign "insertions" and deposits, precious metals and jewels, collections of paintings and firearms and antiques and properties and the like.  In short, take from the rich and give to the politicians to buy votes with other people money and property.
     The problem is that many union workers learned fairly quickly that they were part of the "rich".   Frequently a long-term worker might find that he/she might have 53,000 +/- USD on deposit in a pension fund that is titled in his/her name....as it should be. That is the was of the  Texas State Employees and Texas State Teachers' and Education Employees' Retirement System.   It should be done this way, and not as the American style Social Security System Ponzi-scheme.
      But, fear not!   Cristina only seemed to want something "reasonable" like four per cent per annum.   But, fear....and be very afraid!   Cristina had become frumpy and damaged in the cranium, apparently (sound familiar?...with a name that rhymes with 'Billary'?) She thought she was the re-appearance of Evita and the people would love her forever and drown her plumed and ribboned black horses drawing the black and glazed carriage with her silver coffin with roses thrown of a thousand colours by the adoring masses.    But not so much.   Even the downtrodden labouring masses came to hate Cristina.....not Evita....but Cristina.
     Where does sin, avarice, self-indulgence, and greed end and Shirly Temple begin?  Cristina wanted the people's money, and Evita wanted to be gazed upon and cherished.  Both were deranged, and if forced, were I to be an Argentine, to choose one or the other....it would be Evita.  All of them...Jane Fonda, Frida Kahlo, Barbra Streisand and a thousand other thrippets who think they are the first ones to worry about the poor and peace....who pretend to equality to that poor, self-deluded girl....Evita....are not qualified to drink muddy water from her slipper.   Hillary care about "the poor"?   Can we be very serious for a moment?

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    Now, comes Venezuela.  The weeping masses, learning of the death of Father Hugo Chavez, the military dictator of Venezuela who gave so that the masses could have.   They wailed and bewailed when he died of all kinds of 'social' diseases.   He went for treatment to Cuba, because Cuba has the best medical system in the world, and it's all "FREE".  There were even thrashing and gnashing of teeth in the streets among the professionally poor in the streets of Caracas when Saint Hugo died.....people howling, "Who is going to take care of me????  Oh! Who will give me what I need?"   It was a beautiful send-off to a jerk who knew that there are enough people who are stupid and ignorant enough to believe in the phrases, "Hope and Change" and "A cada quien lo que necesita! (to each what he/she needs)."

   The political godfather of the present president was Hugo Chavez, a totally deranged egomaniac.   Hugo's successor, Nicolas Maduro, is equally deranged, not quite as smart, and pitifully unskilled in the arts and science of governance.   Within two years since the demise of Chavez, Maduro has managed to give away all hope of normalisation of the economy or society.   In short, things were desperate because of Chavez's "print and spend" economic philosophy, coupled with his continuing harassment of the productive sector.  When the price of oil fell, Maduro became a useless Nero presiding over a country in total ruin.
     Food riots....can the OROG imagine a food riot in Venezuela...basic supplies, toilet paper, pampers, canned goods, even tropical fruit and vegetables, even fish and shellfish....unavailable.  But, the blame, as is the case with all marxists, is laid at the feet of the businesses and persons who provided what once was a bounty of food, drink, and product.   Venezuelan currency is all but worthless at this point.  People have turned to using deposit-bearing soft drink bottles as a form of currency in rural areas, in lieu of bolivares.
     Food and currency and banking and supply riots, along with daily (and day long) demonstrations by people who grew accustomed to Chavez's largess, still want their free ride, and they want it now!   Oddly, this time they are blaming Maduro, and not the "rich people".

     In Venezuela, a military take-over should be anticipated and is probably necessary by this point.

      As far as Brazil is concerned, this story is terribly and boringly complicated.  Thankfully, it can be closed, at least temporarily, with the knowledge that Dilma Rousseau has been impeached, and like her sister-in-crime, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, she is being convicted and further charged with all nature of massive fraud, theft, and misrepresentations.   She has been removed from office.
   Rousseau, Fernandez de Kirchner, and Maduro....all phoneys, all marxists, and hopefully all washed up. 

More later.
El Gringo Viejo

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The Anglican Curmudgeon nails it again.....must reading for OROGs on the Right

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    We urge all to review this entry into Mr. Alex Haley's excellent blogline found by clicking here:

 "Anglican Curmudgeon".

   This is the best commentary pertaining to Anglican / Episcopal / Orthodox Christian legal matters, as well as religious / philosophical / current cultural issues on a continuing basis in the English-speaking blogosphere.   (In my humble opinion, of course)

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What's Wrong with the Law, and in Particular, with Harvard Law School

     This is one of the more remarkable, blatant and contemptuous liberal screeds ever to appear on the Internet. I graduated almost fifty years ago from the school where this man now teaches, and to connect the dots from then to now is a task that is beyond my imagination. If you want to know how the left sees the law as a crude tool to get by judicial fiat what they cannot achieve through the legislatures, and if you want to know why the U.S. Supreme Court is no longer a court, but a Supreme Legislature that exists only to serve the left's political agenda, look no farther: 

Several generations of law students and their teachers grew up with federal courts dominated by conservatives. Not surprisingly, they found themselves wandering in the wilderness, looking for any sign of hope. The result: Defensive-crouch constitutionalism, with every liberal position asserted nervously, its proponents looking over their shoulders for retaliation by conservatives (in its elevated forms, fear of a backlash against aggressively liberal positions). 

It’s time to stop. Right now more than half of the judges sitting on the courts of appeals were appointed by Democratic presidents, and – though I wasn’t able to locate up-to-date numbers – the same appears to be true of the district courts. And, those judges no longer have to be worried about reversal by the Supreme Court if they take aggressively liberal positions. (They might be reversed, but now there’s no guarantee.)... What would abandoning defensive-crouch liberalism mean? ... 

1  A jurisprudence of “wrong the day it was decided.” Liberals should be compiling lists of cases to be overruled at the first opportunity on the ground that they were wrong the day they were decided. My own list is Bakke (for rejecting all the rationales for affirmative action that really matter), Buckley v. Valeo (for ruling out the possibility that legislatures could develop reasonable campaign finance rules promoting small-r republicanism), Casey (for the “undue burden” test), and Shelby County. (I thought about including Washington v. Davis,but my third agenda item should be enough to deal with it.) Others will have their own candidates. What matters is that overruling key cases also means that a rather large body of doctrine will have to be built from the ground up. Thinking about what that doctrine should look like is important – more important than trying to maneuver to liberal goals through the narrow paths the bad precedents seem to leave open.

So much for the traditional doctrine of stare decisis ("to stand with the things that have been decided"): decisions that one disagrees with are simply wrong from the start and need to be overruled at the first opportunity. Do you notice the one case that is not on this man's list? (Hint: it starts with "H" and rhymes with "Yeller", and has to do with the Second Amendment.) It's probably omitted because, after all, the man does not want to lay all his agenda out there for everyone to see. He continues: 

2  The culture wars are over; they lost, we won. Remember, they were the ones who characterized constitutional disputes as culture wars (see Justice Scalia in Romer v. Evans, and the Wikipedia entry for culture wars, which describes conservative activists, not liberals, using the term.) And they had opportunities to reach a cease fire, but rejected them in favor of a scorched earth policy. The earth that was scorched, though, was their own. (No conservatives demonstrated any interest in trading off recognition of LGBT rights for “religious liberty” protections. Only now that they’ve lost the battle over LGBT rights, have they made those protections central – seeing them, I suppose, as a new front in the culture wars. But, again, they’ve already lost the war.). For liberals, the question now is how to deal with the losers in the culture wars. That’s mostly a question of tactics. My own judgment is that taking a hard line (“You lost, live with it”) is better than trying to accommodate the losers, who – remember – defended, and are defending, positions that liberals regard as having no normative pull at all. Trying to be nice to the losers didn’t work well after the Civil War, nor after Brown. (And taking a hard line seemed to work reasonably well in Germany and Japan after 1945.) I should note that LGBT activists in particular seem to have settled on the hard-line approach, while some liberal academics defend more accommodating approaches. When specific battles in the culture wars were being fought, it might have made sense to try to be accommodating after a local victory, because other related fights were going on, and a hard line might have stiffened the opposition in those fights. But the war’s over, and we won.

You're welcome to what your victory will bring, I'm sure ("let thy will, not My will, be done..."). If this is what they teach at law school, can the seminaries be far behind?

Want more? How about a few hints for liberal judges (Judge Reinhardt of the Ninth Circuit needs no lessons, since he wrote the book to begin with) on how to get around precedent without bothering to overrule it, or how to fashion doctrine to undermine one's political opponents: 

3  Aggressively exploit the ambiguities and loopholes in unfavorable precedents that aren’t worth overruling. Take Wal-Mart: Confine it to its unusual facts (a huge nation-wide class, a questionable theory of liability), and don’t treat it as having any generative power in other cases. Or Washington v. Davis,which said that disparate racial impact wasn’t enough to trigger strict scrutiny, but that sometimes such an impact could support an inference of impermissible motive: Play the “sometimes” for all its worth. Defensive-crouch liberalism was afraid to be aggressive about the precedents because of a fear of reversal by higher courts. That fear can now be put aside. (Judge Reinhardt’s essay on habeas corpus, in the Michigan Law Review, is an exemplary discussion of how liberals can exploit ambiguities and loopholes.) 4 Related: Remember that doctrine is a way to empower our allies and weaken theirs.Conservative decisions on class-action arbitration should be understood as part of a long-term project of defunding the left. Much of the current Court’s voting rights jurisprudence strengthens Republican efforts selectively to shrink the electorate. Similarly with campaign finance jurisprudence. I don’t mean that these doctrines are consciously designed by the justices to have those effects, but outsiders – academics and activists – should understand that that’s what they do. (Nor do I mean that the efforts always succeed – see Even welfare a failure.)

So whom do liberals want to have sitting on the Supreme Court?

Take a guess: 

5  Our models are Justices William Brennan and Thurgood Marshall, not David Souter or John Marshall Harlan. With some ambivalence I’d add Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg to the list, the reluctance arising from the fact that her work as a judge has been shaped more than it should be by defensive crouch constitutionalism, particular in her sensitivity to the possibility of backlash. Still, when the votes are there, she’s been much like Brennan and Marshall (personality aside). Famously, Brennan said that he’d been around long enough to know what it was like to win, and what it was like to lose, implying that “this too shall pass,” though it’s taken a long time. (Or, channeling Sophie Tucker [or Mae West, or Beatrice Kaufman], he'd been a winner and a loser, and winning is better.)

And he has saved his worst for the last (though I, too have lost all respect for his next target, after the unbelievably awful opinion he wrote in Obergefell v. Hodges): 

6  Finally (trigger/crudeness alert), f[*** -- this is a blog for churchgoers--Ed.] Anthony Kennedy. I don’t mean that liberals should treat him with disrespect. But defensive-crouch liberalism meant not only trying to figure out arguments that would get Kennedy’s apparently crucial vote (not so crucial any more), but also trying to milk his opinions – and more generally, obviously conservative opinions – for doctrines that might be awkwardly pressed into the service of liberal goals. (Think here of how liberal constitutional scholars treated Kennedy’s [truly silly] concurring opinion in Parents Involved[“You can deal with the consequences of segregated housing patterns by locating new school construction carefully” – in districts that are closing rather than building schools], or his “views” about affirmative action, or recasting the Court’s federalism cases as actually good for liberals.) There’s a lot of liberal constitutional scholarship taking Anthony Kennedy’s “thought” and other conservative opinions as a guide to potentially liberal outcomes if only the cases are massaged properly. Stop it. (See agenda items 1 and 3 for how to treat those opinions.)

His parting shot may, alas, be the truest thing Prof. Tushnet wrote in his entire screed: 

Of course all bets are off if Donald Trump becomes President. But if he does, constitutional doctrine is going to be the least of our worries.

Have at him in the comments -- but please keep things on the Christian side of civil.

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    We urge all OROGs and visitors to this site to please use the Mr. Haley's site to review this article and other pertinent observations by this brilliant Pen - to - Mind combination.   Mr. Haley invites competent commentary on his screed, while I do not.  My preference is for the readers to email their critique and applause so that I can enter into a dialogue between friends (or countervailing opinions) due to my here-again / gone again business schedule.

El Gringo Viejo

We Discuss Press and Mexican Myopic Reaction to Trump and American Political Process

TUNE IN HERE TO-MORROW FOR A FIRST-HAND ANALYSIS OF PECULIAR THOUGHT PROCESSES AMONG THE MEXICANS CONCERNING TRUMP AND THE AMERICAN POLITICAL SCENE.   HYPOCRISY, CONTRADICTIONS, LACK OF UNDERSTANDING ABOUNDS....ON BOTH SIDES....AND IT HAS BECOME A BIT BORING, QUITE FRANKLY.   BUT, THE OROG COMMUNITY WILL HAVE A TRUE REPORT....SHORT AND SWEET.... ABOUT THE MATTER.

EL GRINGO VIEJO

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It is best to simply state that we have a double dichotomy.

  
     On the one hand we have a blowhard who begins by speaking off the top of his head, stating that the Mexican Government is sending people who ".....are all prostitutes, rapists, and criminals."   It does not matter what Trump actually says or said, because in the function of all good "identity politics" the aggrieved group hears what it wishes to hear and the blowhard group says what it wishes to say, little difference that both sides are wrong on almost all counts.   Days, hours, or minutes later Mr. Trump will assure whoever has been listening to him that the listener did not hear correctly what had been said correctly.  Mr. Trump will assure the world that he never said any such thing even as the video is replaying it in the background.

     So, now we have the spectacle of two different ex-Presidents of Mexico, Vincente Fox Quezada and Felipe Calderon Hinojosa trundling forth to take advantage of "the situation".   It is all made immensely worse because both Fox and Calderon are National Action Party people....or the Mexican equivalent to what we know to be the the Republican Party in the United States.   Fox has been more outspoken, being uselessly over-the-top with the worst possible profanity and expletives, in English.   It seemed to me that his eyes were going to pop out and the top of his head was going to go volcanic.   He was sputtering and stammering so much, it left the impression that he was either having a seizure or he was trying to do a bad imitation of Trump.

     Calderon, on the other hand, was calmer although equally "injured" to hear and see an American presidential candidate call all Mexicans prostitutes, rapists, and murderers.  While speaking in English during a visit to the United States to speak at an international trade convention of some sort he avoided the profanity and really bitter recrimination employed by his predecessor, Fox.
   Both of these men referred to Trump's statement as a clear sign of Trump's racism.   One big problem?   There is no Mexican race, per se.  There are Mexicans who are racially Negroid, Mestizo, Indian, or Caucasian, and there Mexicans who are a mixture of any and/or all  of the above or of no mixture at all.  In that sense, Mexicans and Americans share many similarities.
   
     Ill-defined phrases, and melodramatic over-reactions are the rule.  All sides strut around like winners, few if any really know what is being discussed, but they all know....all of them....that their own side is right.
     Mexican professorial marxists, Hombre-en-la-calle, housewives, labourers, industrial magnates took offense at the specific spin of ".....they are all (degenerates and criminals) and they are being sent over by the government."

     Fast forward to some later moment.   Six guys at the saloon in Mexico...and they are discussing the "situation".  Each is recounting how he or a close friend or relative who lives in the United States somewhere...usually in or near a sanctuary city....has been assaulted or suffered some offense of a substantial nature.   And almost always it is at the hands of a member of the criminal element that used to practice his or her trade in Mexico, or Central America.

     Even, or especially, the Mexican commercial or recreational tourist has to keep his eye peeled and practice a caution that was all but unnecessary 40 years ago.  One is tempted, when the conversation pauses at that table, to turn and say, "I am not a Trump supporter, my lot was with Cruz, but perhaps you see what we deal with in the Southwest, in the bigger cities, and almost anywhere now.  Most of the people causing problems are repeat entrants who have been deported , and yet come back to their old criminal haunts at the first opportunity.  Most are either habitual criminals, violent criminals, or both.  Some are children of unmarried women who bore a child on American soil, thereby qualifying for public assistance.   Frequently there is no father in these homes....only an occasional "boyfriend".  He stays around until he is run off or arrested because his profession is crime, or because he is in Texas or the United States illegally.   This is not something made up.  It is real.  And once again, it did not exist before the extreme amplification of the public assistance programmes."

     To be sure, few of Trump's proposals will function, but only as anticipated by this observer.   Each, even if implemented will have unintended consequences that are easy to predict but difficult for a doltish, self-absorbed portion of the electorate to understand.   Most of Trump's proposals are simply the ravings of a man who is waving his arms and pointing to the sky, bellowing pseudo-aphorisms, repeating himself incessantly, and promising the moon.   Those vote for "Make America Great Again" will stumble into the dustbin of History that is adjacent to the "Hope and Change" dustbin.  The Moon that was promised yesterday will be to-morrow's moldy, fungus laden cottage cheese.

     Until the United States of America's running budget is cut in real terms by 20%, and all public assistance, subsidies, and taxes design to promote "social democracy" are abolished....there will be no "America Great Again" just as "Hope and Change" became "I hope I have some change to buy one last lottery ticket". 

We shall resign for the night and start back in saving the world to-morrow, sometime.
El Gringo Viejo

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