Be Afraid America, Be Very Afraid (Day 1 Of The Confirmation Hearings)

I’m watching the confirmation hearing of Jeff Sessions for Attorney General and have a few takeaways. I’m not an attorney by the way but do play one on my blog.

1. The Senate has often been referred to, mostly by themselves, as the “World’s greatest deliberative body.” Like many other Senate hearings I’ve observed. This one is mostly self-serving and decorum is far more important than fact finding. Most of the Senator’s speaking are sure to make some positive commentary about themselves and in some cases seemed their only purpose.
2. If you are one of the 800,000 Hispanics that would be left in limbo if Trump rejects DACA. You should be afraid. Your best hope offered by Senator Sessions is that either Congress will hopefully enact a humane provision and if not, there are too many to be rounded up and deported. If you never get a parking ticket or are stopped and frisked you may be living in eternal fear but might not be deported.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         Photo: mydocumentedlife.org
3. If you were one of the mostly minorities sentenced for crack cocaine related offenses and were sentenced at a 100:1 disparity vs powdered cocaine. There’s good news and bad news. The good news is that recent changes in the law have reduced the disparity in sentencing to 18:1. Maybe that’s not so good because it doesn’t help you but those coming behind you will face a lower level of injustice. For you Senator Sessions stands by his previous votes that if you were unfairly sentenced. You don’t have the ability to appeal your sentencing individually to any body because Sessions questions whether your sentence was the result of a plea bargain and whether you should ever get out of jail. Were it not for the now recognized expense of housing inmates. There’d be no movement at all.
4. Jeff Sessions plans to enforce every law on the book. Dealing i his position with only Federal laws. If Congress with all it’s inability to address much of anything doesn’t address bad laws like those causing hyper mass incarceration. Don’t look for Sessions for help.
5. In dealings with his new boss President Trump. He views his job as to “work with the President” to help him find a way to make legal what he wants to do. He won’t be the Attorney General for the United States. He’ll be the puppet of Donald Trump. Be afraid.                                                                                                                                 6.He acknowledges that during the recent election having made statements where he could be perceived as having a conflict of interest. He indicated he would recuse himself from any investigation of Hillary Clinton for example. I submit by that criteria he should recuse himself from ay issue involving Immigration or Voter Suppression where his comments make him as much in conflict as he was with Secretary Clinton.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      Photo: ktar.com
6.  Jeff Sessions has puffed up his record over the years. He once claimed to have filed “20-30 desegregation cases” while a US Attorney when the number turned out to be much less. He’s claimed to have personally handled cases where the attorneys involved claimed he had “no significant involvement.” Maybe this makes him no worse than any other politician. It does serve to remind us that he is a politician, expect nothing more from him.
7. I like Sen. Al Franken. Minnesota has given us in the past a wrestler as a Governor which didn’t work out so well. When they elected a comedian as a Senator. I was wary of how serious he would turn out to be. He turned out to be incredibly serious as a Senator and one of the few that I respected during the proceedings.                                                                                                         Photo: dailykos.com
8. If you are Muslim and wanting to emigrate to the United States, Jess Sessions doesn’t want to block you simply because you are Muslim. Unfortunately, he thinks it’s fair game to “consider” that you’re Muslim in considering your application. What weight will your religion be given? Who gets to decide? Be afraid.
9. He swore he never chanted, “Lock her up!” I’m waiting for the videotape to appear with the proof otherwise. Be very afraid!”
10. According to Sessions he was rejected by the Senate Judiciary panel for a Federal Judge position, not because he was racist but because he was “understaffed” and misconstrued. He shed a new light on calling the NAACP “Un-American.” He says he didn’t call a black attorney, “Boy!” and never reprimanded someone about how to talk to “white people.”
11. Jeff Sessions is very sensitive. He’s “hurt” about all the awful things that have been said about him, implying that he of all people is “racist.” Just because he’s a “conservative from Alabama” he’s been unfairly tainted by a false claim. I’m sure there are sympathetic Southerners cheering him on while watching TV wearing their Confederate Flag t-shirts.
12. Did he just say that chain gangs promoted “discipline?” I guess the “hitching posts” in use in Alabama during his time there helped instill “good behavior.”
13. I despise Ted Cruz. He uses his time to attack Democrats, President Obama, Eric Holder and Loretta Lynch with little regard for the precise truth. His “celebration” of Jeff Sessions is highly informing.
14. Last and possibly scariest item of the day relates to the Voting Rights Act and voter suppression. Jeff Sessions says, “On the surface he see’s nothing to suggest Voter ID laws are inhibiting minority voters.” Be very, very afraid!