(OPINION) Issues at the Forefront a Year Ahead of the Election

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The opinions expressed in this post belong solely to the author and should not be construed to represent the views of Townsquare Media, News-Talk 1340 KROC-AM and 96.9 FM, or anyone else associated with the organizations.

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The monitoring of a plethora of news is a challenging task, given the entrenched positions of media and political agendas and biases. Despite that, we shall do our best to synthesize and analyze what we think are the most significant events, statements, and analyses.

The new conservative House Speaker Michael Johnson (R-LA) has frightened critical Democrats with his political philosophies and fundamentalist religious background. But he already contributed an acceptable budget deal to avoid a government shutdown and released the films on the January 6 Washington DC demonstrations for media and public consumption. Despite attempts by the Democrats and Deep State agencies to prevent it. Much will be seen and analyzed, leading to criticism and much-needed adjudication and remediation.

Under intense interrogation by House Republicans, FBI Director Wray dismissed allegations that federal agents infiltrated and stimulated the January 6 demonstrations, riots, or insurrection, as various factions label the incident. Wray said he could not comment, affirm, or deny the allegations, given the need for the FBI to protect records, investigations, and procedures. Wray was then shown evidence of the alleged “Ghost Buses” that brought agents in plain clothes to the scene, and was told by a GOP congressman, “Your time is coming.”

The Gateway Pundit and Warner Todd Huston of the Western Journal teamed up to release the latest news about the George Floyd incident and death, the resultant riots, and the conviction of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin. The mid-November news article said Chauvin, convicted by a Minneapolis jury in 2021, filed papers for an appeal and dismissal of his conviction, “based on evidence the jury never saw,” that allegedly offers evidence that Chauvin “did not commit murder in Floyd’s death.”

Chauvin said he “would not have pled guilty had he known about the discoveries of Kansas pathologist Dr. William Schaetzel, who alerted authorities to pathological evidence that Floyd died from medical causes, heart issues and fentanyl concentration.,” and not from, as charged, Chauvin’s positioning of his knee on Floyd’s upper extremities. Dr. Schaetzel based his conclusions on his review of autopsy records, but his attempts to convince officials during the Chauvin trial were rejected. The article alleged former Minnesota Hennepin County prosecutor Amy Sweasy concluded, “Floyd’s autopsy showed no evidence that anything the police did caused Floyd’s death.” The article concluded, “In other evidence, forensic pathologist Dr. Lindsey Thomas has said, “according to the autopsy, Floyd had an extremely high level of fentanyl in his system, and could have died from an overdose, not asphyxiation.” Chauvin, therefore, “is asking the judge to throw out his conviction and order a new trial, or at least open a new evidentiary hearing to look at the evidence.”

The Gateway Pundit reported (20, Nov. 2023) the US. Supreme Court rejected Chauvin’s appeal to reconsider his conviction, without comment or elaboration. Some observers suggested that the decision was based on the same fears that motivated the original judicial and jury conviction. Perhaps the Justices recalled those “mostly peaceful protestors” who visited their neighborhoods during the abortion deliberations. On Nov. 25, reporter Kristinn Taylor reported Chauvin was given life-saving measures and rushed to a hospital after being stabbed by a fellow inmate.

This columnist taught American history during his career, and long offered the conclusion that the concept of “Separation of Church and State” is not in the U.S. Constitution and has been misinterpreted by historians and the media. The new House Speaker, Mike Johnson is familiar with that issue, and controversy, and succinctly schooled a critical CNBC anchor on the issue when the TV host tried to challenge him on it, after criticizing the Speaker on Johnson’s decision to pray on the House floor.

Johnson schooled the news host, saying, the phrase, “Separation of Church and State comes from a letter Thomas Jefferson wrote. It is not in the Constitution, and what he said was, that they did not want the government to encroach upon the church” and religious freedom. The “wall between church and state” is meant “to keep government out of the free exercise of religion, not faith out of government.”

Meanwhile, the naive political, academic, and corporate China sycophants would not even acknowledge President Biden’s accurate statement that Communist China’s leader, Xi Jinping, is a “dictator.” China has not yet been held accountable for industrial, technological, and national security espionage, geopolitical challenges and threats, and the global devastation from the COVID-19 virus. According to Jim Thomas of Newsmax, Speaker Johnson criticized Biden for “projecting weakness and inviting aggression” in his foreign policy outreach to Xi, and “the warm reception given Xi by American tech CEOs with their “standing ovations to a Communist leader of a nation that persecutes its people (and is) causing havoc around the world.”

Thus, these represent some of the countervailing flow of events that will be challenged and sorted out in future elections. The philosophical void in domestic and foreign affairs does not bode well for the eternal optimists who believe compromise and political reconciliation are possible or even desired.

Listen to Tom each Tuesday and Thursday morning after the 11 AM news as he joins Andy Brownell for Rochester Today on News-Talk 1340 KROC-AM and 96.9 FM.