"I’d rather be a little nobody, then to be an evil somebody."
– Abraham Lincoln, 16th US President
It is said that Abraham Lincoln was assassinated because he ended slavery which enraged the South. He was accused for having broken one of the four pillars of the economy when he outlawed forced and unpaid labour. Labour is labour regardless of cause, effect and impact, reasoned the conspirators.
America coined phrases like ‘manifest destiny’ to steal Native American lands. Thereafter they promoted the disgusting moniker “third world countries” for ‘backward’ Asian and African countries. And then, South American nations became ‘banana republics’ while Europe became ripe for NATO.
Having lived in the USA almost 40 years. I saw, firsthand, the roots of the rot that defied sanity, sanitised evil, worshipped mammon and practised deception day in and day out. I returned home in 2015. Malaysia is still a safe bet as a permanent home.
Americans scoff us, and squeeze the ringgit like getting blood from stone. The Proton Saga never made it to America, but their culture and customs have become addictive in Malaysia. Their 4-R (race, religion, region, rage) is murderous and insane with the aid of the trigger-happy 2nd Amendment.
Which brings us to the recent 34-count felony convictions dumped upon Donald J Trump as a lasting legacy to, and testimony of ‘weaponising’ the law. Democrats are on a rampage to disembowel his election chances. The ‘Get Trump’ mantra is loud in Georgia and New York.
The US Constitution, like our Federal Constitution, is the supreme law of the land. But this supremacy does not prescribe any sanctions for violators in America and in Malaysia. Sounds authoritative and powerful, but at best, it threatens to be merely a parchment promise. Many forces await to bankrupt its potency.
One former prime minister tried the same thing here in 1998 when he made sure he sidelined another future prime minister. But the royal power of pardon is something that many misunderstand, mistake, misconstrue and misinterpret.
If I was in the Biden campaign committee, I would counsel him to pardon Trump in a no-holds barred effort to a second term. Remember when Gerald Ford pardoned Richard Nixon. Royal pardons and executive pardons have their obviously peculiar strategies, reasons and purposes. It’s in the supreme law of the land. That is the key.
In America, the ‘political question’ doctrine is the real test when a case involving politics or politicians winds its way through state and/or federal courts system. It’s a twisted, tricky and testy issue. Courts can refuse and reject judicial review depending on which monkey is on their small, slippery shoulders.
It first found utterance in Marbury v Madison,1803, when then Chief Justice John Marshall declared that “Questions, in their nature political, or which are, by the constitution and laws, submitted to the executive, can never be made in this court.” So, that put the final nail into that coffin. Marbury has never been overruled, distinguished, silenced or moth-balled.
The New York court presided over by Judge Juan Merchan was very well aware of this doctrine. Thirty-four counts for allegedly attempting to silence porn-star Stormy Daniels whose revelation of an alleged tryst would have derailed the 2016 elections. The prosecution could not prove how her disclosures and revelations could have yielded a Democrat win for the 2016 presidency some eight years ago.
Liar and fixer Michael Cohen, a convicted felon, hammered home a few runs after admitting that the whole idea of paying Daniels off was his idea. He took out a housing loan to pay her the $130,000.00. He said so himself in open court. And, he admitted stealing from his boss!
The central issue was ripe and ready for federal court review, but nobody fought hard enough to keep it out of a state court. That was most surprising and appalling. Constitutional issues are aplenty, but it got nowhere. Deep state?
Mind you, America claimed ‘salad republic’ status the moment it put a misdemeanour in a tuxedo and elevated it into a felony which District Attorney Alvin Bragg bragged about ad infinitum. The plan was to bankrupt Trump’s victory in 2024. It almost worked.
Of course, there will be appeals and possibly, most probably, a direct run to the US Supreme Court where the buck decidedly stops. Think Bush v Gore in 2000 when the apex court refused the State of Florida a recount of the votes. Federal election laws trump state laws. Gore lost out.
Likewise, the Supreme Court could very well refuse New York state laws that defined and determined a pay-off to Stormy Daniels as ‘violating campaign-financing laws’, a federal question, that could have affected Trump’s election success in 2016.
Now, America has become the butt of comedy club routines. It forcefully removed the blindfold from Lady Justice, and wrecked the sword and the scales. It awakened the snake at her feet, and that snake did what it does best. It sank its fangs into her veins.
‘Land of the free and the home of the brave’. The ‘vanguard of liberty’. The ‘beacon atop the hill’. ‘The world’s policeman’. Or, a salad republic boasting about its attorney population as the ‘land of the fee and the home of the brief.’
America interfered and wrecked many South American nations in its quest to ‘entrench democracy’. It outlawed the democratically-elected government of Mohammad Mossaddegh in August 1953, and installed the pro-America Shah who was himself ejected by a theocracy led by Ayatollah Khomeini in 1979.
Today America remains a total bully. It wants to keep another eye open in the Asia-Pacific region in an effort to contain China while annoying it with arms-aid to Taiwan. Imagine China and Russia aiding and arming Cuba, Venezuela, Panama or any other South American country geographically a neighbour to continental America.
Nobody is allowed to get strong militarily without America’s express permission, consent and approval. Public, private and customary international law make no accommodation or provision to contain America’s hunger for power and empire-building. Utter shame.
The only thing that frightens America is its people. Some 93 million did not vote in 2016 according to statistics. What if nobody votes in America? Military dictatorship will never happen in America especially with the 2nd Amendment alive and well. People power is too strong in America.
But keep the people focused solely on earning power – employment – to sustain food, shelter, necessities, needs and wants. At least that’s the stinking thinking advanced and perpetrated by career Democrats. But the ordinary people in America would opt for revolution at the drop of a hat. The deep state knows it. January 6, 2021 is cast in stone.
So, is there any available way to contain a super-power like this salad republic? China seems to be ready, willing and able to show the way. Taiwan has become a bee in the bonnet for China with America’s aggressive Taiwan-inspired aid policies. Tit for tat?
China should annoy America by egging Mexico to reclaim and redeem the states of Texas, New Mexico and California that were deceptively taken away from Mexico. Puerto Rico, too, should look elsewhere for political relief. Whether China will agree to help, aid, and assist is not a throw of the dice.
It is said that America will self-destruct. It will not need a foreign power to bring about this implosion. American lefties are pushing the envelope. Gender discrimination has taken off into unchartered territory like Trump’s convictions. Wokeism is the new norm.
Victor Davis Hanson’s The End of Everything is a bitter indictment on where America is heading. The Kool-Aid culture is back in full force. Culture wars are being stoked and fomented. The open southern borders have allowed in ‘undocumented Democrats’ to the tune of 15 million, and still counting.
The salad republic is becoming home to illegal aliens. Squatters are invoking rights never before addressed or acknowledged. Citizens are facing a backlash from state governments to accommodate the tsunami of illegals in their ‘sanctuary’ cities.
Televised congressional hearings aimed at the Attorney General, the Homeland Secretary, federal bench nominees, and other senior officials is a real treat to watch. Watching Republican Senators Joh Hawley, Ted Cruz and John Kennedy tear at their prey is a lesson in law and political science.
The ability to not answer a question with a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’ is an annoying and irritating stretch at these hearings. Every candidate facing questions has become an expert in filibustering even when they are cornered. And, the questioning senators are on a clock!
ASEAN and other Asia-Pacific nations must learn to put America on hold. The mighty dollar has to be put on hold, too. Am I to believe that this salad republic has become unstoppable? What if manufacturing countries looked elsewhere for markets and boycotted America?
Many western economists say that America is the largest consumer nation with a population of approximately 350 million. But China and India have more than 2.5 billion people, so who is a bigger consumer? Am I missing something here? There’s Europe, South America and Africa whose populations far exceed American consumerism.
Nazis and neo-Nazis are condemned and outlawed in America. The Nazi regime during WW2 engaged in genocide, ethnic cleansing and war crimes when they torched a reported 6 million Jews. The word ‘holocaust’ became a buzzword.
Adolf Hitler reasoned that the Jews killed Jesus Christ, and therefore they deserved a lasting and telling punishment. Atheists, deists, theists and agnostics have their very own version of the truth in the salad republic.
The salad republic is teeming with people ready to make the world go upside down, topsy turvy on a permanent rollercoaster ride to remain belly up with morals, truth, justice and law in a rojak bowl full of putrid salad bereft of dressing. Looks very insipid, boring and unattractive.
The views expressed here are those of the writer and do not necessarily represent the views of New Sarawak Tribune.
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