Constitution is made of paper and that makes us vulnerable
Make sure to visit the Chapman Museum's holiday decorations this year
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When I travel west these days over five time zones, my inner clock never really resets. So for most of the past week or so I'm wide awake before the sun rises. I like to walk out onto what the Hawaiians call the lanai, an outdoor porch or veranda at the oceanfront condo we rent, to read and sometimes write.
It is there the tropical breezes caress my cheek and embrace me with a calm I rarely find elsewhere.
In the distance there is a rumble from an ocean I cannot see.
If there is heaven, then it must be somewhere near where I am sitting right now.
Yet, this morning, I found myself unsettled by the distant rumble, and the tropical breeze was more aggressive than I remembered.
I was feeling an anxiety, an angst, a knot in my stomach that has gone unabated since the night of Nov. 5.
I am certain I am the only person within a square mile who is worried about the Insurrection Act while sitting in the Garden of Eden.
The Insurrection Act of 1807 is a federal law that empowers the president of the United States to deploy the U.S. military and federalize National Guard troops to suppress civil disorder, insurrection or rebellion.
When you hear the President-Elect threaten his enemies like he has since the election, you can't help but think the worst.
It is what I call the "It can't happen here" scenario.
We are told the Constitution will protect us. But the Constitution is just a piece of paper behind bulletproof glass in the National Archives.
If only its words were bulletproof.
For the Constitution to protect us and serve our greater national interests, our leaders must respect it and defend it.
They must believe those words act with religious fervor to defend them.
There is no sign they will do that.
The experts who talk on television and those in Congress who tell us all these things are against the law fail to consider the former and future president has rarely abided by the law.
Miles Taylor, a chief of staff at the Department of Homeland Security during Trump's first term, describes Trump chomping at the bit to invoke the Insurrection Act - or what he called his "magic powers" - to stop illegal immigrants in 2019.
The Insurrection Act powers are so broad and place so much trust in the president's judgement that Sen. Richard Blumenthal authored legislation after the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol to limit the president's power.
It remains in committee with little hope of passing.
So while the Constitution has no provision for a president to invoke military rule, who will stop him if he does?
In recent days, that has kept me up at night, not the rumbling ocean.
What if the new president tells us there is a national emergency?
What if insists he must invoke martial law?
And that the military must round up his enemies in the interest of national security?
But that's against the law, I am told.
That is forbidden by the Constitution, I am reminded.
New York Times columnist David French looked at the possibilities of a president imposing martial law after it happened in South Korea this past week.
He pointed out that Abraham Lincoln declared martial law in 1862 aimed at the rebels in the Confederacy.
He reminded us Franklin Roosevelt declared martial law in Hawaii after the attack on Pearl Harbor - very understandable - then rounded up Japanese-Americans in the western United States in internment camps, which remains an American atrocity.
Most frightening of all, French discovered that if a president were to invoke those powers, Congress has no control over him.
That's why they are his "magic powers."
French writes this: "We have long trusted presidents not to abuse their power, and most presidents have proven worthy of that trust. Trump is not. While we can hope that the courts and Congress will restrain him in his second term, American law gives him more power than he should rightfully possess."
To take it one step further, what if Trump were to immediately pardon all those convicted on January 6 and deputize them into a private security force to do his bidding?
Have I sought counseling, you may be wondering?
On another lanai somewhere below me, a man is talking loudly on his cellphone, threatening a business associate, maybe a contractor. He is using the language of lawyers and litigation as he leans on the man who is not here in paradise.
I imagine the man's wife pushing him out the sliding glass door so her breakfast won't be ruined.
His words, his business has become part of my morning and I am annoyed by that. I want him to be quiet and let me consider the Insurrection Act some more.
I wonder if he notices the ocean in front of him.
As my anger rises, I'm not sure what is fueling the flame - the man shouting into his cell hone or my worries about the future?
Finally, I go inside.
I take a walk and try to appreciate paradise.
When I finally return, the man has gone inside and there quiet except for the ocean.
But the Insurrection Ace remains a possibility and the knot in my stomach has not gone away.
The right diet
I wrote on Monday about being prescribed a low fat diet after being diagnosed with chronic pancreatitis.
I reached out with my doctor and asked for a referral to a nutritionist. It took weeks, but I finally got that. When I called on Tuesday to ask for an appointment, they said I had to wait six months.
I hung up in disgust.
This is the state of our healthcare where we are often left to fend for ourselves.
Another theory
New York Times columnist Frank Bruni came up with another theory why Donald Trump has been allowed to survive scandal after scandal after scandal which would have ended the careers of any other politician.
He believes it is the sheer volume of his offenses.
It believes his offenses were so numerous, and came along with such frequency, that no single scandal could get lasting attention.
"Each faded into the crowd," Bruni wrote in Friday's New York Times. "Trump desensitized his audience as his improprieties became their own unremarkable norm. And while he may not have plotted it that way, he definitely learned his lesson. His selections for senior jobs in his new administration attest to that education."
Ultimately, his choices of so many unqualified and corrupt candidates for his candidate will allow a good number of them to be approved.
Chapman decorations
If you did not make it to the Chapman Museum's open house last weekend, hope you get a chance to check out the six Christmas trees, penguins and Christmas nutcrackers that are all part of the holiday celebration at the Chapman.
We're asking for a $10 donation this year with the addition of all the decorations to support the museum's mission of telling the story of local history.
It is open 10 to 4 Tuesday through Saturday and 12 to 4 on Sunday.
Start a new tradition and bring the entire family to see the decorations.
Local journalism
There has been a lot of talk about local journalism lately. If you missed my book The Last American Newspaper when it came out, it is a memoir that celebrates the great work done by the journalists at The Post-Star over a 20-year period and how it benefitted the community.
It chronicles how the newspaper became one of the best small newspapers in the country and its gradually decline over the past decade. It mirrors what is happening to small newspapers all across the country.
I believe it is an important book.
I am also developing it as a play for Adirondack Theater Festival so stay tuned.
Photo of the Day
Here is my photo of the day after visiting the Battleship Missouri and the Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor on Monday.
Ken Tingley spent more than four decades working in small community newspapers in upstate New York. Since retirement in 2020 he has written three books and is currently adapting his second book "The Last American Newspaper" into a play. He currently lives in Queensbury, N.Y.
You've been "reading my mail." I awaken every morning with that knot in my stomach when I sit down with my coffee to catch up on the news in this frightening time. But we must stay informed and live with resolve to push back. My concerns are with the local immigrant population here in Washington County and the LGBTQ population. The members of those communities live among us. I have a beautiful and loving trans grandchild who I will go to the ends of the earth to support. And I fear for the world my other two grandchildren will inherit.
Morning Ken....Can't "deal" with the politics this morning...However, I have my PHD in nutrition and diet after 3 bouts with cancer and one heart attack. Google low fat diets and start educating yourself. I found nutritionists don't really have a clue and everyone is a little different. Listen to your body and you'll be fine. Happy Wednesday.