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Trump and the Id

May 12, 2016

I read Dear Liberals, Stop Panicking over Trump, written by Michael A. Cohen for the Boston Globe, this morning. Then I read Congress to America: Drop Dead, Nicholas Kristof’s piece for the New York Times. Still panicked,a nd it’s all about the Id for me.

I think it’s unlikely that Donald Trump will ever be the President of the United States of America. Truly, and Mr. Cohen provides a decent amount of assurance! But what we have here—I’m going back almost 30 years to experiences in the world of risk management—is a low frequency / high severity event.

Again, I don’t think President Trump happens, but if it does, it’s President Trump for almost 1500 days. (A second

Donald Trump, Ego, Id, Sigmund Freud, Superego

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Open Primaries

March 22, 2016

Mark Rubin

For many years—decades, probably—the notion of open primaries has fascinated me. Why, I have wondered, should someone who chooses not to be affiliated with a particular party, or any party, get to choose that party’s candidate for any office?

The Grand Old Party aka the Republican Party raised this issue in Ravalli Republican Central Committee, etc. v. Linda McCullough, Secretary of State of Montana, etc., before the U.S. Supreme Court. And it’s about damn time it has happened. Here’s the Emergency Application for Injunction, and here is Lyle Denniston’s analysis, Montana GOP Challenges Cross-Over Voters, at SCOTUSblog.com.

Frankly, I’m shocked, shocked by the fact that issue has never been addressed by the U.S. Supreme Court. Political parties are

N.A.A.C.P. v. Alabama, open primaries

Law, The Rest of Everything

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Ideological Purity is an Indulgence – Part 1

March 12, 2016

Mark Rubin

Call me old, but ideological purity in presidential elections is an indulgence we cannot afford. 33% of Sanders Supporters Will Not Vote for Clinton If She Wins Nomination prompted this piece, although concerns about ideolical purity have worried me for many years.

I know many people do not like Hillary Clinton … and then there are those who hate her. Friends who know her well tell me she’s charming, fun, brilliant, etc. Alas, her winning side is not always evident.

Now I suspect Secretary Clinton will win the Democratic Party nomination. I also believe Senator Bernie Sanders (S-Vt.) will support her with vigor, and that many Sanders supporters will come around. But I worry about that last part,

Al Gore, Bernie Sanders, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, George Wallace, Hillary Clinton, Hubert Humphrey, Jimmy Carter, John Anderson, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, Ted Kennedy

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Presidential Campaign Thoughts

March 4, 2016

Mark Rubin

Well, well, well! Or my, oh, my!!! (Think Stan Laurel, speaking to Oliver Hardy: “Well, here’s another mess you’ve gotten me into.”) Apologies in advance, for I know this is a “family” blog, but What the Fuck! I mean, we’re the fucking US of A, and it’s tumbling down all around us.

The Democratic Party nominating contest involves a serious debate about, more than anything, how we get from here to there. Senator Bernie Sanders wants to get there yesterday; former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has a “go it a little bit slower” approach. (Truth be told, Secretary Clinton is a very conservative person, if labels meant anything today, and for that matter so is President Barack

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Housing Update

February 27, 2016

Mark Rubin

I have been a property owner in Pima County—the county seat for Tucson—since 1983. No more, as of Friday, February 26, 2016. (I told my daughter I no longer owned any real estate. She said: “What about that thingy in that place part way to Phoenix?” “Oh,” I said, always the attorney, “that’s an interest in a company that owns a shopping center in Casa Grande.” Not an ownership interest in real property.)

Our house sale closed this past Friday. Good on that, big time. The last six weeks or so have included a series of visits to the old homestead awaiting workmen, there to make the repairs we agreed to in the sale contract. I like workers. They appreciate

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Justice Antonin Scalia

February 18, 2016

Mark Rubin

At Monday’s Philosopher’s Guild meeting, RF posed the question: Can a person be good and still take pleasure in someone’s having passed? I said yes, at least with respect to a public person. I mourn the loss of life and feel sad for family and friends. Soon after, the public persona takes over. With an appropriate amount of respect, the person becomes fair game.

So, history will judge Antonin Scalia, and the verdict will likely be mixed, and will come after a long while. For me, though, three negative attributes stand out. They are: (1) The originalism conceit; (2) An abysmal lack of judicial demeanor; and (3) A lack of evident empathy. (For an insider’s take, read after I wrote

Chief Justice John Marshall, Justice Antonin Scalia, originalism

Law

Scalia – Thoughts about First Reactions!

February 14, 2016

Mark Rubin

Josh Marshall, the founder / publisher of TalkingPointsMemo.com shared Thoughts on Justice Scalia’s Passing on Saturday afternoon. Here’s his opening paragraph:

Let us first recognize the unexpected death of Justice Antonin Scalia, a 79 year old man with a large family and almost countless admirers, friends and protégés. I think he had precious few supporters or ideological admirers among our core readers. But this is a man who served on the High Court for almost thirty years and unquestionably, for better or worse, will go down as one of the most influential Justices of the last half century. … Our ideological and partisan commitments should never be so all-encompassing that we cannot step aside from them to recognize realities that

Justice Antonin Scalia

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Appellate Court Process

January 18, 2016

Mark Rubin

The Arizona state court system has two primary appellate court levels: the Arizona Supreme Court and the Court of Appeals. The Supreme Court is paramount. It hears appeals from Court of Appeals decisions and in rare cases, directly from the trial courts. The Court of Appeals—there are divisions sitting in Phoenix for the north / central part of the state, and in Tucson for the rest–handles appeals from the Superior Courts, and from the Industrial Commission in workers compensation cases. I offer the foregoing introduction to highlight recent cases and provide some insights into the appellate process.

On November 24, 2015 the Arizona Supreme Court issued its unanimous opinion in DBT Yuma, L.L.C. v. Yuma County Airport Authority. The

appellate court process

Law

Executive Orders

January 5, 2016

Mark Rubin

There’ll be a hubbub about executive action / orders by the time you’re reading this post. That arrogant, pompous wimp of a POTUS we have right now—does anyone else wonder how President Obama can be, at one and the same time, a king and a dictator and a skinny, wimpy dude who doesn’t have the cojones to stand up to anyone—will issue an Executive Order regarding guns in America later today.

From my perspective the Executive Order—a highlights sheet has already been posted—will do little, and ought to bring forth little controversy. Others will surely disagree. Here, and because it’s Law Day at MRW, I want to focus on the basis for presidential authority to act.

Executive Orders have been

executive orders, guns, president, President Obama

Law, The Rest of Everything

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Gray is Good

December 27, 2015

Mark Rubin

My mind has been wandering of late, into the space where black and white meet gray, and gray is good.

Retracing my “steps” reveals, to me, that the thinking started with the research for One-Person/One-Vote. Really? (MRW on 12/7/2015.) The piece focused on Evenwel v. Abbott, No. 14-940 and Harris v. Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission, No. 14-232, argued before the Supreme Court on December 8.

Evenwel, in particular, focused on attempts to get absurdly precise about composing legislative districts. The case deals with the difference between voters and people when redistricting occurs, and the difference raises an interesting philosophical question for our democracy: Do representatives work for voters, or for people? However, redistricting occurs every 10

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