No One Asked Me But… (January 10, 2024)

By DR. LARRY MOSES

No one asked me but… There are a number of issues with the current uproar about the three college presidents who testified before a Congressional Committee and failed to give what the committee felt was an adequate statement condemning alleged anti-semitic actions on their campuses.

With our nation facing inflation, a rising national debt, the possibility of World War III, an invasion from our southern border, crime running rampant in most major cities in America, and the threat of a government shutdown, one might expect that what is happening on college campuses would not be the big issue facing Congress.

I can imagine an interview with one of our Congresswomen as follows:

Reporter: Representative Stefanik, crime is running wild in America.
Stefanik: We are not going to allow this to go on. We have already forced two of the university Presidents who are soft on antisemitic speech to resign. Thanks to the action of our committee, America has been made safe from these antisemites and the world is being made safe for democracy.
Reporter: Representative Stefanik what has the government done to curb runaway inflation in the country?

Stefanik: We took a major step against inflation when we forced the resignation of Harvard’s President. She was demoted to a professorship making only a little over $900,000 a year. This is a major step in curbing runaway inflation. She will now feel inflation like the average American. Besides, do you realize the Alabama football coach makes more money than any college president?

Reporter: At the University of Alabama, the football team, under the direction of Coach Nick Saban, brought in $130.87 million of the University’s $214.37 million revenue. It cost $78.5 million in total operating expenses, creating $52.35 million in net profit attributed to football. (by the way, I just plagiarized this.) I really don’t believe any student selects their school based on who is the President of the University. In fact, I don’t believe most students even know who is the President of their University. However, the football coach and team is a different story.

Stefanik: Oh my! I guess that is the next American crisis. Congress should investigate.
Reporter: Sorry I mentioned it. Rep. Stefanik, what have you done to curb the flow of illegal immigration on our Southern border?

Stefanik: As soon as we get the plagiarism that is running rampant on college campuses under control we will turn to the issue of the border crisis. Don’t you realize that the President of Harvard plagiarized numerous sources in her doctoral dissertation and other writings? Oh! The inhumanity of it all.

Reporter: Have you read her Doctoral Dissertation: “Taking Charge: Black Electoral Success and the Redefinition of American Policies”? Would you recognize where she plagiarized? I think not. There is a tradition amongst Doctoral students that upon completion of the dissertation and it is shelved in the school library, the author is to place a fifty-dollar bill inside the front cover. They are then to come back each year and check and see if anyone has read the dissertation as evidenced by the removal of the fifty-dollar bill.

Stefanik: I don’t need to read it. I have been told by those who oppose this antisemite. Since when does the federal government have to have proof? Innuendo and accusations have been good enough for the press and it is good enough for me.

No one asked me but… A number of states are making moves to eliminate former President Donald Trump from appearing on the primary and general election ballots of their states.
I am not a fan of Donald Trump but that is not the issue at hand. The issue at hand is: Are the states engaged in this activity working outside the Constitution of the United States?

They base their actions on the Section Three of the 14th Amendment which states: No person (may) … hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof…

However, they conveniently ignore Section One of the same Amendment that states: No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

While you may, like me, not look forward to another Biden/Trump presidential run; the point is that Donald Trump has not been convicted of insurrection, and more likely than not, would not be convicted if an impartial court were to hear the case. The Democrats who are pushing to have him removed from the ballot are merely making a greater martyr of an individual who loves to play the martyr card.

I might remind those who are tempted to remove Trump from the presidential equation that Eugene V. Debs a labor activist, was arrested under the 1917 Espionage Act and the 1918 Sedition Act, for giving an antiwar speech during the First World War. Debs argued that his arrest and sentencing under the act were unconstitutional under the First Amendment, which protects freedom of speech.

A dictionary definition of sedition is conduct or speech inciting people to rebel against the authority of a state or nation. A dictionary definition of insurrection is an uprising against an authority or government. These seem to be very similar in meaning.

Debs ran for president in the 1920 election while imprisoned in the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary. He received 914,191 votes.
Much to my dismay, it looks like there is a good chance that we will see another election where we can choose between Sleepy Eyed Joe or the Mad Hatter.

Thoughts of the week… “Sometimes I wonder whether the world is being run by smart people who are putting us on, or by imbeciles who really mean it.”
-Mark Twain

“Everything is changing. People are taking their comedians seriously and the politicians as a joke.”
– Will Rogers