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Mr. Joe Arpaio, President Donald Trump, and the Pardon Power

August 14, 2017

Joe Arpaio, President Donald Trump, and the Pardon Power

What a Pair!

Trump says he’s considering pardon for Joe Arpaio by Matt Zapotosky for the Washington Post gives you today’s disgraceful news.* And it’s our jumping off point!

I wrote Pardon! and No Egos at Mark Rubin Writes. Pardon? in June and July, respectively. When I wrote the pieces I really expected President Donald Trump would give his family his first high-profile pardons. No matter, for those pardons will surely follow. For now, the Arpaio pardon raises some interesting issues.

Sheriff Joe Arpaio was sued several years ago.** The suit involved racial profiling. Judge Murray Snow, a U.S. District Judge in Phoenix, held the sheriff and others in civil

Chief Justice William Howard Taft, Joe Arpaio, Mark Rubin, MarkRubinWrites, pardon, President Calvin Coolidge, President Donald Trump, President Warren Harding, Prohibition, U.S. Supreme Court

Law, The Rest of Everything

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Cacophony of Crap: The Trump Decades

August 3, 2017

Mark Rubin

Cacophony of Crap: The Trump Decades

cacophony crap

Cacophony of Crap, Mess of Merde, Superadundance of … well, you get the idea! The man has been in office for just about 194 days. Roughly 16.693 million seconds. I’m exhausted, and not shy about fessing up!

Remember when President Donald Trump fired James Comey, the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Within a day or so the president said, about the firing: “I faced great pressure because of Russia. That’s taken off.” We all screamed obstruction of justice. Remember? Wait. What? “Who’s James Comey?” Feels like eons ago!

There’s good stuff happening in the Time of Trump, for sure. Check on your retirement accounts. You’ll smile. For me, at

Garrison Keillor, General John Kelly, James Comey, Mark Rubin, mark rubin writes, Paris Climate Accord, President Donald Trump

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Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, and the Promise

July 24, 2017

Mark Rubin

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, and the Promise

Mr. President

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels came to mind a bit ago, as I contemplated yet another piece of high drama in the never ending “let’s mess with health care” drama.* Truth be told, I don’t know whether there’s any plot linkage between repeal and replace, and the twists and turns associated with the Big Con on the Riviera. (Not a movie I ever saw.) The title fits, and that’s more farce than this despicable disgrace deserves.

Republicans offer one primary justification for repeal and replace: the promise. Ladies and gents, have you ever made a promise, only to find out later that what you promised won’t work anymore? Or, reflecting, that you were wrong from the

ACA, Affordable Care Act, Mark Rubin, mark rubin writes, Obamacare, President Donald Trump, promise. repeal and replace

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No Egos at Mark Rubin Writes. Pardon?

July 20, 2017

Mark Rubin

No Egos at Mark Rubin Writes. Pardon?

Mr. President

Here at Mark Rubin Writes we keep our egos in check. Truth be told, that’s not a challenge. There’s just me, Mark Rubin, and I show up with not a lot of ego. Psychoanalysis might explain the situation—the last go around, years ago, provided some insights—but for a lot less time, effort, and money (the 45 minute hour ain’t cheap), I’ll just stick with the length of my subscriber list, and views per day. Short, and not so many, and both explain adequately the lack of ego!

Ego issues aside, I read with interest Trump Team Seeks to Control, Block Mueller’s Russia Investigation, from the Washington Post on July 20. (The

MarkRubinWrites, New York Times. Mark Rubin, pardon, President Donald Trump, Sari Horwitz, Washington Post

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The Anti-Israel Boycott Act … and More

July 19, 2017

Mark Rubin

The Anti-Israel Boycott Act … and More

I ran across U.S. Lawmakers Seek to Criminally Outlaw Support for Boycott Campaign against Israel recently. Glenn Greenwald—who worked with Edward Snowden*—and Ryan Grim wrote the piece for The Intercept, an impressive journalism enterprise which Mr. Greenwald started with others.

The story reports on the Israel Anti-Boycott Act, S. 720, and a companion bill which sits in the House of Representatives. S. 720, among other things, prevents U.S. persons who are engaged in interstate or foreign commerce from:

Requesting the imposition of any boycott by a foreign country against a country which is friendly to the United States; or

Supporting any boycott fostered or imposed by an international

AIPAC, Anti-Israel Boycott Act, Mark Rubin, President Donald Trump, Senator Ben Cardon, Senator Bob Menendez, Senator Chris Coons

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The Trump Administration: Farce? Tragedy?

July 11, 2017

Mark Rubin

Mr. President

The Trump Administration: Farce? Tragedy?

Today, Ezra Klein wrote The Trump administration isn’t a farce. It’s a tragedy. Mr. Klein is the Editor-in-Chief for Vox, and one of our very best writers. He’s also only 33, born 117 months, to the day, after President Richard Nixon waved and left the White House grounds on Marine One on August 9, 1974. Read the next paragraph, please, for his age matters.

In his excellent piece Mr. Klein posits that “this must be what it was like to live through Watergate.” His statement begs the question, for as a 33-year-old he was not around. I was!

Honestly, Trump-i-stan feels much, much worse than Watergate. President Nixon was bent, evil, and surely mad.

Ezra Klein, Mark Rubin, President Donald Trump, President Richard Nixon, Watergate

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8 Comments

Dear Mr. President

July 8, 2017

Mark Rubin

Mr. President

Dear Mr. President,

We’ve never met. Still, I despise you more passionately than I ever thought possible. You are arrogant, dishonest, greedy, ill-informed, pompous, selfish, short-sighted, stupid, and untrustworthy. Truly, you are a despicable man.

Alas, you are also the man who, by virtue of a quirky electoral system, sits at the head of our government. (Save that load of horse-hooey about millions of people voting illegally for your opponent for the alt-facts crowd.) You’ve been our servant, now, for 169 terrible days, and you had 72 to prepare yourself for the job we gave you. (You had a lifetime, before Election Day 2016, but I don’t get a sense from you that you place much stock in being prepared.)

G20, Germany, Hamburg, Ivanka Trump, President Donald Trump

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Pardon!

June 16, 2017

Mark Rubin

Pardon!

Mr. President

Lots and lots of words, written and spoken about Mueller, Rosenstein, Russia, and Trump. Most of what we read and hear focuses on who can fire whom, and whether when the firings will happen. In and amongst the noise, though, we get plenty of “there’s no evidence” and “firing Mueller will destroy Trump.”

Bad frames. People, the Watergate break-in happened on June 17, 1972, 45 years ago, to the day. We live in a different world. To the “no evidence” crowd, evidence exists—or not—and we find out about it through investigations. They take time! Reading tweets, watching the news, and knowing the basics does not qualify you to say evidence does or does not exist to support a …

John Rhodes, President Donald Trump, Robert Mueller, Rod Rosenstein

Law, The Rest of Everything

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The Stupidest Public Man … Ever? Donald Trump!

June 1, 2017

Mark Rubin

The Stupidest Public Man … Ever? Donald Trump!

Donald Trump

Many words came to mind this afternoon, as President Donald Trump excised the United States from the Paris Climate Accord. Stupid is the only one I came up with, to describe our POTUS, which gets me past Facebook censors.

I’m taking a pass on the merits of staying in or getting out. Frankly, there’s no intelligent discussion to be had. All of the credible evidence demonstrates the existence of a problem, a problem created by humankind, and a problem for which our country bears a grossly disproportionate share of the responsibility. And a problem whcih threatens the existence we know! (Don’t believe me? Comment below, or send me a

Paris Climate Accord, President Donald Trump

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Post Hoc, Ergo Propter Hoc

March 1, 2017

Mark Rubin

Post Hoc, Ergo Propter Hoc

Donald Trump

Among many logical fallacies, consider Post Hoc, Ergo Propter Hoc. Roughly, the words mean, “after this, because of this.” It’s a common fallacy, and one which comes easily to those with tunnel vision. (For those whose comfort zone involves English, correlation does not imply causation may seem more familiar.)

Certainly, we all want to avoid the fallacy associated with attributing an outcome to an event, just because the former follows the latter. That said, although correlation does not imply causation, events do cause outcomes. And sometimes we need to look with clear eyes at what we’re facing.

So about the threats against Jewish Community Centers. Threats against JCCs or other Jewish institutions did not

President Donald Trump

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