Faulty judgment
The Colorado Supreme Court Justices usurped Congress’ authority when they made their ruling barring Trump from the primary ballot. All attention has been on Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, but Section 5 is not being addressed.
Note that Section 5 of the 14th Amendment gives Congress the sole authority to enforce the 14th Amendment.
Section 5:
“The CONGRESS SHALL HAVE THE POWER TO ENFORCE, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.”
Nothing is in there about states, courts or judges having any power to enforce any portion of the 14th Amendment. That power is reserved exclusively to Congress.
— Jim Peel, Longmont
Real addiction
A response to a letter about “pot addiction” (“Stick to Summaries,” Dec. 21, 2023): First, I will point out I was a heroin addict for two years (ages 19-21) and ONLY was able to quit after landing in jail for a time (drug-related charges).
Once released, I never looked back, stayed away from former “associates” and moved on. To this day, in my 70s, I am still drug free — including prescriptions and tobacco, which was very difficult to put down.
Meanwhile, I happily smoked pot every day for about 10 years, got spaced out, did stupid stuff and managed to support myself doing craft shows. One day, I just said ‘I’m done’ and stopped. I was tired of the lethargy and wanted to wake up out of the fog.
As a former REAL drug addict, I can attest there was no physical problem putting pot down at all. None. And when I had my knee replaced, I used edibles to relieve the pain for a while (to stop using prescription pain pills). I quit that in favor of CBD instead.
No, I’m not a doctor. I’m just saying: I know a little about addiction.
— Andy K., Longmont (last name withheld to protect anonymity while in recovery. Andy’s identity was verified by Boulder Weekly.)
What about Israel?
Here’s a story that belongs in BW’s annual under-reported news stories. It involves Donald Trump and Israel in a shocking and highly illegal scandal.
Trump, of course, was investigated in the Mueller Report for trading favors to Russia for dirt on Hillary Clinton, but the charges were never fully proven. Here we have a similar scenario, only it involves Israel, and there is hard proof.
The FBI’s own Mueller Report details the Trump-Israel collusion. It contains convincing evidence that was never publicly revealed — not until journalist James Bamford of The Nation magazine reported on the heavily redacted FBI documents obtained in a Freedom of Information Act request (“The Candidate and the Spy,” March 24, 2023).
Essentially, in 2016, Trump the candidate met with an Israeli “secret agent” (name redacted in documents) at his penthouse in New York. The Israelis, who have — as Bamford put it in an interview with Democracy Now — a “very, very sophisticated eavesdropping organization” offered Trump the dirt he sought on Hillary in return for two things: U.S. withdrawal from the Iran nuclear-weapons deal (something Trump had already embraced) and recognition of Jerusalem as the new Israeli capital. After his election, Trump delivered on both.
Bradford concludes, “The Israelis got what they wanted, and Trump got what he wanted, and the American public was screwed in the meantime.”
Strangely, the mainstream media, including papers like the New York Times, have been ignoring this story. That’s particularly galling since Bradford says the crimes involved in the 2016 Trump-Israeli collusion are likely being repeated as we speak. In the U.S.-Israeli partnership, once again the tail seems to be wagging the dog.
— Paul Dougan, Boulder