In the 1960’s there was a great film entitled Seven Days in May.  In the film, a General, played by Burt Lancaster, plans a coup against the President, only to be thwarted by an honest Marine Corps officer, played by Kirk Douglas.  The movie shows us just how fragile is our republic, and how easily unscrupulous forces could destroy it if honest people fail to speak up and act to save it.  As this is written, we are enmeshed in an attempted coup much more insidious than the fictional one in Seven Days in May.  The coup in the film was to be carried out by military officers who rejected civilian rule, and who planned to prevent the media from exposing their scheme.  It was easy to tell the good guys from the bad, and it was presumed that, once the truth came out, the media would set the record straight.  The current coup against President Trump is much worse.  It’s being perpetrated by elected officials who have a duty to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution, and instead are planning to destroy our founding document.  And it is being aided and abetted by a corrupt media, that permits the Democrat perpetrators of this coup to lie, and then swears to their lies.  Democrats were trying to impeach Donald Trump even before he was inaugurated.  They’re relentless.  Stormy Daniels was going to get Trump, but her case got dismissed, she was ordered to pay Trump money, and her lawyer’s going to jail.  Michael Cohen was going to get Trump, but he went to jail.  Manafort would squeal on him, only he didn’t.  Bob Mueller would provide the evidence to impeach Trump, only there wasn’t any.  No Russian collusion, no obstruction of justice; no problem.  Now the infamous Ukranian phone call.  Aha!  We’ve got him now.  Donald Trump did collude, this time with Ukranians, who he tried to force to investigate Joe Biden and son, to to get foreign help for the 2020 election.  Sounds bad, right?  Except it’s all bullshit.  It must be confusing too, because even noted constitutional scholar Nancy Pelosi can’t tell Ukranians from Russians.  Nancy, she of the loose dentures, still claims the Russians (bitter enemies of the Ukranians) are really behind this collusion “scandal.”  It all comes back to the newest Democrat scheme to rid themselves of Donald Trump.  Those rascally Democrats have bought a new impeachment kit from the Acme Impeachment Company.

This time, it’s the August 13th so-called whistle-blower complaint.  I say so-called, because the blower is really not a whistle-blower in law.  Whistle-blowers provide first-hand information of wrongdoing.  This blower, reportedly a CIA operative, has no first-hand information.  No problem though, because the CIA Inspector General obligingly amended the whistle-blower application to waive that requirement.  What this CIA blowjob alleges is the plot for a new movie; Seven Lies in August.  (There are far more than seven lies.  I had to pare it down).   The lies:  1. The President used his power to solicit help from a foreign government to aid in the 2020 election.  No.  The President long ago announced that the Justice Department is investigating what prompted the bogus Mueller investigation, and Attorney General Barr has U.S. Attorney Durham doing just that.  The favor Trump asked for was for this investigation.  The reference to Biden’s son likewise was proper because a President named Bill Clinton signed an agreement with Ukraine which requires them to assist in criminal investigations. (Irony is a bitch).     2.  Trump pressured Zelensky to help his reelection campaign.  No.  The released transcript proves it.  “If you could look into it” isn’t pressure, and Ukraine says there was no pressure.  3.  Trump ordered the Ukranians to turn over the DNC servers.  No.  Read the transcript.  No such request, and don’t look now, but the Justice Dept. is still investigating the servers.                     4.  Trump tied the completion of the Biden investigation to US aid to Ukraine.  Not even close.  The subject of money wasn’t mentioned, and Ukraine was not even aware funds were being delayed till months after the phone call.   5.  Trump tried to restrict access to the transcript.  He put the transcript in secure storage, as have previous presidents, and then, Hello, he released it to the public without redaction.  6.  The Ukranians were led to believe that they would get no meeting or phone call from Trump unless they investigated Biden.  This is an out and out lie.  Trump had already called the Ukranian president when he was elected, and again, read the damn transcript.  He never demanded an investigation.         7.  Adam Schiff’s statements.  Schiff for Brains’ performance could be entitled, The Dance of the Seven Lies.  Schiff made up his own transcript, “We’ve been very good to your country.  Very good.  No other country has done as much as we have.  But you know what, I don’t see much reciprocity here.  You know what I mean?  I hear what you want.  I have a favor I want from you through.  And I’m going to say this only seven times, so you better listen good.  I want you to make up dirt on my political opponent, understand? And don’t call me again, I’ll call you when you’ve done what I asked.”  Unlike in the movie, the media won’t confront any Democrat on any of their lies, and we seem to be painfully short of honest Kirk Douglas types.  That this latest plot comes from the CIA is telling, but not surprising.  John Brennan is up to his bald pate in the coup, which he undertook for Hillary and Il Duce Obama in 2016.  The Dems have done everything they accuse Trump of doing, including colluding with Russia, Ukraine, Australia, Malta, Italy, Britain, and who knows what others to affect an election.  Biden actually bragged about getting his son’s prosecutor fired, but he’s beyond reproach.  Trump’s done nothing wrong, and he’s guilty without evidence.  This is a race.  Democrats must remove Trump before AG Barr nails the whole dirty Democrat cabal for their 2016 crimes; the greatest political scandal ever.  It’s a shame the news media is going to miss it.

According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, the last known witch trial took place in 1782.  That’s not true.  There’s one going on right now.  Since 2016, Democrats have resurrected the witch trials that made Salem, Massachusetts famous.  Of course, President Trump is their latter day witch.  The parallels are striking.  In 1692, two young girls in Salem exhibited strange behavior that included fits, screaming, odd sounds, throwing things, contorting their bodies, and complaints of biting and pinching sensations.  The girls attributed their behavior to witchcraft.  (Last week’s U.N. speech by Greta Thunberg is a recent example of such behavior).  Officials demanded that the girls identify the witches, so they provided names.  The accused were hauled into court, where the judges admitted “spectral evidence,”  testimony that the spirits of the defendants appeared to the witnesses in dreams and attacked them.  Those who confessed escaped severe punishment.  When the defendants testified, their alleged victims writhed, whimpered, and babbled in the gallery, seemingly providing evidence of the specter’s demonic presence.  Minister Cotton Mather warned of the dubious value of spectral evidence.  The warning went unheeded, until Massachusetts Governor Phipps’ wife was accused.  Then the rules of evidence changed.  Sound familiar?  However, it was too late for the 19 people executed for witchcraft.  Years later, the Massachusetts General Court apologized and declared the trials unlawful.  It is believed that the two girls who set off the hysteria blamed the others to excuse their own misbehavior.  Fast forward 324 years to 2016.  Donald Trump is elected President, and Democrats begin to exhibit strange behaviors.  They have fits of screaming, they utter odd sounds, they throw things, tear their hair, contort their bodies, and complain of chronic pain, which they attribute to Donald Trump’s election, which they claim was brought about by Trump’s collusion with the Devil.  Satan, Putin, whatever.   The Democrats proceed to denounce the “witches” who were in league with Trump, and to put them on trial.  Flynn, Papadopolous, Manafort, Stone, etc.  Like the defendants in Salem, the accused may escape punishment if they admit that they did the Devil’s bidding, but those who fail to confess are condemned.  As in Salem, our government appointed a special magistrate to investigate the demonic possessions.  But even though the magistrate, Cotton Mueller, changed the rules of evidence, he was unable to prove that the President colluded with the Devil to gain his position or obstructed justice.  However, the aggrieved Democrats persisted in their complaints of pain and suffering at the hands of President Trump.  Clearly, Trump was still bewitching them, and he had to be stopped.  Exorcisms were the fashion in the 17th Century.  Today’s Democrats have substituted impeachment for exorcism.  The result is the same.  Either way the Devil is removed.  The Dems have made a number of accusations they say prove Trump is a witch.  As in Salem, they accused him of sexual misconduct.  They complained about Trump’s having women sign non-disclosure agreements.  (Mimicking the 1692 testimony of the slave Tituba, who testified that she was forced to sign the Devil’s book).  The latest accusation involves a congratulatory telephone call between the President and newly elected Ukranian President Zelensky.  A nameless, faceless “whistleblower,” a/k/a saboteur, who has been identified as a CIA agent (a former underling of John Brennan, whose strange behaviors instigated the Russian collusion hoax) alleged that, in the phone call, the President “crossed the line.”  We were told that Trump demanded that Zelensky give him dirt on Joe Biden, or else Ukraine wouldn’t get foreign aid.  That turned out not to be true.  We were told that Trump mentioned Biden 8 times in the call.  That wasn’t true either.  When pressed, Trump declassified and released a transcript of the phone call.  The transcript shows that the two talked about Europeans having  to do more to help Ukraine.  Zelensky wanted to buy more weapons.  Zelensky told Trump he wants to drain his own swamp in Ukraine, and it was who Zelensky made mention of Rudy Giuliani.  Trump asked Zelensky to do a favor, and look into the Crowdstrike company, which was hired by the DNC to inspect Hillary Clinton’s private server.  Crowdstrike announced it had found Russian hacking, and reportedly has the server, which the DNC refused to let the FBI inspect.  (Uh huh, and Trump is colluding with Ukraine?)  Trump offered the help of Giuliani and the Justice Department and told Zelensky, “I would like to get to the bottom of it.”  (Some extortion, huh?)   The President also mentioned the firing of the Ukranian prosecutor who was investigating Joe Biden’s son, right after Joe Biden threatened to withhold $1 billion in aid.  Biden bragged about this on video.   Trumps asked Zelensky to “look into it.”  For this, the Democrats are screaming, contorting their bodies and accusing the President of perpetrating “a typical mob boss shakedown” of Zelensky.  The alleged victim, Mr. Zelensky, says he did not then, nor does he now feel pressured in any way.  He’s obviously been bewitched by Trump as well.  They dragged the Director of National Intelligence into the Intelligence Committee run by Adam Schiff (for brains).  Schiff for brains made an opening statement condemning Trump for threatening Zelensky, demanding that he get him dirt on his political opponent Joe Biden, and ordering Zelensky not to call back until he had done what he was ordered to do.  Schiff’s media accomplices writhed, whimpered, and babbled on the air.  None of what Schiff said happened during the call.  Read the transcript.  Schiff for brains apparently was giving spectral evidence.  Perhaps he dreamed up the schiff that he’s peddling for truth.   It turns out a group of Dem Senators did write to Ukrainian officials to demand that they cooperate with Cotton Mueller to get Trump, ordering Ukraine to report any attempt by the President to hinder their witch hunt.  Democrats had the report of the phone call in August, they have done this now only because Trump’s poll numbers are up.  They have to knock him down.  Once again, Democrats are blaming their own misbehavior on “a witch.”  One thing is sure.  When this witch hunt ends, the Democrats won’t issue an apology.

This week, Democrats in Congress engaged in public child abuse.  They invited young climate activists to demand drastic actions be taken to avert a climate disaster.  One featured witness was 17 year old Jamie Margolin, who told the Committee members, “I don’t think a lot of people in Congress understand the conversations that are happening every day in American high schools.”  Jamie explained that young people fear for their futures.  “We are ‘Generation GND’, the generation of the Green New Deal.  The Green New Deal is a new chapter in American history.  Transforming our culture into one that celebrates and enables radical climate action.”  “I want the entirety of congress, in fact the whole US government, to remember the fear and despair that my generation lives with every day, and I want you to hold onto it.  How do I even begin to convey to you what it feels like to know that within my lifetime the destruction that we have already seen from the climate crisis will only get worse?”  “Everyone who will walk up to me after this testimony saying I have such a bright future ahead of me, will be lying to my face.  It doesn’t matter how talented we are, how much work we put in, how many dreams we have, the reality is, my generation has been committed to a planet that is collapsing.”  Jamie founded the group Zero Hour.  The group’s website says, “Zero Hour will educate communities around the country and abroad about the systems of oppression.”  Zero Hour names as root causes of climate change Capitalism, Racism, Sexism, Colonialism.  WOW.  In these pages, I often have noted that the Green movement is the new face of global Marxism/Socialism.  Zero Hour proves my point.  The group’s founding principles prove that “climate activism” is a proxy for the radical Left.  Here are some of its principles: “Black lives matter.  Queer and trans people must be heard.  Rape culture must be dismantled.  People with disabilities must be included and respected.  Marginalized cultures must be treated with dignity.  Transformative justice is true justice.”  It’s even more overt.  Jamie’s group says, capitalism, colonialism, racism, and patriarchy have led to climate change, therefore we must shift our culture away from these systems.  Now, I have no objection to Jamie’s activism or her zeal to make a difference.  These are laudable traits.  I just think she’s being used by nefarious forces that care far more about political subjugation than about the climate.  So let me address  an open letter to Jamie.

Dear Jamie,

I strongly disagree with the drastic actions that you and your group would impose upon me and your fellow Americans in the guise of a cure for climate change.  Many of the positions you take are laudable, for instance, protecting the rights of marginalized people and groups.  I share that goal.  However, it is apparent that you are being used by political forces that do not share your benevolent intentions.  This is not your fault.  You are one of the victims of educational malpractice, by the system, as Zero Hour would say, “also known as ‘the State,'” which has refused to teach you about history, and has indoctrinated you with the notion that diversity extends merely to skin pigmentation, and not to opinions.  One of the founding principles of your group is,”We will be humble and learn from each other.”  That’s a good start, but by “each other” I hope you include people outside your group, because one is truly humble only when one is willing to consider what Al Gore might call inconvenient truths.  I certainly understand your fear for the future.  But you should understand that yours is not the first generation to live with such fears.  17 year olds in 1941 faced destruction in their lifetimes.  Millions of them died before the war was over.  When I was a child, we lived with the prospect of imminent nuclear war.  In school, we practiced sheltering under our desks, and we had a bomb shelter in the basement.  In 1962, we came within a hair’s breath of an end far more frightening than a rise in temperatures and melting ice.  You’ve accepted the Green New Deal prediction of climate disaster within 10 or 12 years.  This no doubt feeds your fear and despair, but understand that doomsday hyperbole is not new to your generation.  You respect scientists, and so do I, but their previous apocalyptic predictions have been wrong.  At the first Earth Day in 1970 there were predictions of world-wide famine and the exhaustion of all fossil fuels by 2000.  In the 1970’s scientists predicted a “new Ice Age.” Those things didn’t happen.  “Scientists” keep telling you every month of every year is “the hottest on record.”  The historical record refutes this.  It was much hotter during the Holocene Maximum about 7,000 years ago.  You are led to believe that climate change is a new phenomenon.  It’s not.  17,000 years ago, glacial ice 5 times higher than the Space Needle covered your city of Seattle.  14,000 years ago it melted.  More recently, we experienced “the Little Ice Age,” a 500 year period of extreme cold.  These climate changes were not caused by Capitalism, Racism, Sexism, or Colonialism, any more than the recent changes have been.  Don’t get me wrong.  I admire your dedication.  What I disagree with is your conclusion that the only way to deal with environmental concerns is to destroy our form of government; to trade our liberty for the tyranny of a totalitarian dictatorship, because if you get what you’re asking for, that is your future.  Our system isn’t perfect, it’s just the best flawed system in the world.  The American form of government, that you would scrap has remedied environmental crises far more pressing than a one degree rise in temperature in 100 years.  In the 1970’s, we were using leaded gasoline, and were expelling lead into the atmosphere.  We ended that.  Air pollution was so bad that we had acid rain falling from the skies, and water pollution was so bad that a river in Ohio caught fire.  We fixed it.  We can debate the significance of CO2 levels.  But an inconvenient truth is that  after rising for decades, CO2 levels in the U.S. have declined in recent years to the lowest measured since 1950.  You may say we can do better, and maybe you’re right, but remember that the CO2 levels weren’t reduced by communists marching with signs, but rather by the same capitalists and the same government that you want to replace.  In short Jamie, if you succeed in trading our form of government for your socialist utopia, you will find out what fear and despair really are.  Don’t stop trying to make things better, but look and think before you leap.

The Earth has a magnetic field that extends far into outer space, and which is caused by the Earth’s molten iron core, making our planet somewhat like a magnet, north and south magnetic poles that are separate from the geographic poles.  In other words, the geographic North Pole is in one place, and the magnetic pole in another.  If you’re wondering what all this has to do with current events, stay with me.  The magnetic field protects us from radiation and creates the northern and southern lights, that are only visible near the magnetic poles.  Our magnetic field protects life on Earth, and aids in navigation.  People can use a compass to navigate, and some animals find their way thanks to the magnetic field.  Now, the molten iron core of the Earth is constantly moving around, as molten metal tends to do.  Since 1831, the North magnetic pole has been moving around 6 miles a year, so it’s over 1,240 miles from where it was back then.  However, scientists (real scientists, not climate change fraudsters)  have found that for the past 20 years or so, the poles are moving much faster, more than 30 miles per year.  Scientists believe that this may indicate the onset of a magnetic reversal, in which the North and South magnetic poles change places, so that a compass will point to the South pole, not the North.  This has happened many times in the past, about every 200,000 to 300,000 years.  The last magnetic reversal was 780,000 years ago, so we may be overdue.  I’ve long suspected that liberals, leftists, progressives, or whatever, have some solid object between their ears which affects their minds.  Stone always was the leading candidate for this substance, but now I think it may be metal, and it may be the ongoing magnetic shift that has caused their derangement.  We all thought that Donald Trump was the sole cause of TDS (Trump Derangement Syndrome), but what if it’s more than that?  What if Trump is simply the catalyst that triggered the lunacy caused by the shifting magnetic fields inside their heads?  We could be on to something.  This, better than any other explanation I’ve heard, would account for the drastic (you should pardon the expression) polar shifts in positions by the Left.  I mean, we always knew that were hypocrites, but what if they can’t help it?  Think about it, during the same period of time in which the poles began moving six times faster than they had been moving, liberal positions have turned around 180 degrees. (A little geographic lingo).  Traditionally, Democrats were friendly toward Russia.  They laughed at Mitt Romney when he suggested there was a new Cold War with Russia.  Now, they all but advocate a real war against Russia.  After 911, Democrats opposed the Patriot Act, claiming that it infringed on the rights of American citizens.  Even before 911, Democrats fought to restrict the activities of the CIA and FBI.  Now, Democrats are in support of unrestricted electronic surveillance on American citizens, up to and including spying on a sitting President, and conduct which amounts to a political coup.  What could have caused this?  It has to be the iron between their ears.  But there’s more.  Recently, Democrats, almost all of them, including Il Duce Obama and Hillary Clinton, the whole cabal, were opposed to gay marriage.  Now, not only are they in favor of it, they say anyone who doesn’t agree is no better than a criminal.  What’s more, you not only must agree with gay marriage, you also must recognize an unlimited number of possible genders, or else there’s something wrong with you.  Has to be iron on the brain.  But it’s worse.  The magnetic shift has caused a reversal of norms.  Democrats now exist in a bizarre world where up is down, good is bad, and legal is illegal.  All Democrats opposed open borders.  Now, they say allowing illegal aliens into the country at will, although against the law, is legal, and enforcing the law by detaining them is illegal.  Before, Democrats supported the Second Amendment and would never try to take away your guns.  Now they favor confiscation.  Before the magnetic shift, Democrats recognized the need for some restrictions on abortion.  Now, they say that executing criminals is wrong, but killing unborn (and newborn) babies is right.  Because their minds have been affected by the shift in the magnetic field, liberals no longer are able to perceive reality.  Case in point.  In the People’s Republic of California, there are tens of thousands of homeless people living on the streets, without even the most basic sanitary facilities.  In the State that pioneered regulations preventing water pollution, and mandating sewage treatment, piles of human feces have turned the streets into open sewers, causing a health emergency.  The Democrats who run California see the same people living in tents and boxes on the street.  They see the piles of human waste, and they see the rat infestations, and call their neglect “compassion.”  This week, the federal government announced plans to step in and get the homeless off the streets and into housing.  Think the iron-for-brains Democrats are grateful?  Think again.   A Los Angeles Councilman said, “Trump wants to ‘crackdown’ on homelessness and put people into ‘government facilities.’ We’ve buried refugee children held hostage in his damn facilities.  What inhumane treatment will he sanction for the unhoused?”  A staffer for the LA Mayor added “They don’t know the work that we’re doing.”  “They’re just not thoughtful — and, quite frankly, not smart enough to know what we’re doing.”  Uh huh.  Getting human beings off the streets, into clean housing, and providing food and medical care is inhumane, while letting them die on the street is humane.  I rest my case.  Brain damage.  But, let’s remember, it’s not their fault.  It’s the magnetic field inside their heads.  They’re just sick.  Maybe, just maybe, those people wearing the tinfoil hats that all this time we thought were crazy are really the sane ones, and it’s Democrat elected officials who are nuts.

Last week, The Wall Street Journal had an opinion piece by University of Oklahoma history Professor Wilfred M. McClay, entitled, Weaponizing History.  In it, Professor McClay reminds us that the true purpose of history is to open up reality to us, by providing a balanced and honest record of the achievements and foibles of humanity.  The Professor warned that history, as it is being taught today, is being used to narrow minds, instead of of to expand them.  History should be used to tell the complex stories of the past, which necessarily must present both the positive and negative features of historical figures.  Instead, as Professor McClay points out, history is being used as a bludgeon, with which to strike out at our forebears.  Heroes of the past are now demonized, with any and all who come to the attention of the historical witch hunters being compared to Nazis.  Hence, AOC (All Out Crazy) compares immigration detention facilities to concentration camps, gabbling about how “This is an opportunity for us to talk about how we learn from our history.”  As Professor McClay points out, Nazi concentration camps are not part of OUR history.  If AOC really wants to talk about concentration camps, though, I suppose someone should explain to her that the closest we ever came to them were the internment camps into which that great Progressive Democrat Franklin Delano Roosevelt forced American citizens of Japanese descent during World War II.  That last musing was mine, not that of Professor McClay, and it illustrates precisely the manner in which the Left is weaponizing our history.  It is indisputable that FDR put Japanese Americans into internment camps, and that they were deprived of their property, as well as their liberty.  However, to pass judgment on FDR based upon this single act alone does him a disservice.  And more to the point, to teach students about only about this part of FDR’s presidency does a disservice to history.  History is weaponized by means of a brutal simplification of the historical record.  To those who would wield the historical bludgeon, figures from the past must be purely good or purely evil.  Reality, and hence history, is not so simple.  Enter the New York Times, Project 1619.  In a recent NYT magazine, the paper proposed a history curriculum which would teach that everything that has made the United States exceptional grew out of slavery.  In the stilted view of 1619, the year the first slaves arrived on our shores, the United States declared its independence from Britain solely for the purpose of perpetuating slavery, fearing that Britain would abolish slavery in the colonies.  It is said that you are entitled to your opinion, but not to your own facts.  The Times wants to teach our children this nonsense, without the least regard for the fact that it simply isn’t true.  I come from the law, where truth is a defense.  For the New York Times, however, and for the pseudo-historians and grievance mongers who put together this garbage, history is not the truth.  Our kids are in enough trouble being taught American history from the perspective of the late, unlamented Communist Howard Zinn.  Our Revolution was fought for liberty, not for slavery.  Britain outlawed the Atlantic slave trade in 1808.  The United States outlawed slave importation at the same time.  It’s in our Constitution.  As Casey Stengel said, “You could look it up.”  Slavery had been abolished in many Northern States in the 1770’s and 1780’s.  True, Washington and Jefferson, and some others owned slaves, and that is the bludgeon with which their memories are being besmirched.  That they owned slaves is a fact to be taught, but it’s not the whole story.  Thomas Jefferson drafted an anti-slavery provision for the Declaration of Independence.  The provision was taken out.  That it was excised to secure the votes of Southern colonies for independence, however, is not proof that America was conceived to perpetuate slavery, but rather is one of those complex factors that is part of history, but not HISTORY itself. The excision reflected the economic reality of the time, which doesn’t excuse the sin of slavery or justify is continuation, but simply provides context.  For the historical weaponizers, however, it’s all or nothing, and a focus on any one negative trait or act is sufficient to damn an historical figure for eternity.  Consider the controversy over a George Washington mural in a San Francisco public school.   The mural was painted in 1935 by a Communist.   Part of the mural depicts Washington interacting with slaves and native Americans.  The artist wanted to show Washington warts and all, not just simply as “the Father of his Country” astride a white horse.  Bravo.  The idiotic School Board decided that the mural could be disturbing to teenagers because it was “racist and degrading,” and wanted to pay $600,000 to have it painted over. (Which seems a bit high.  I know a guy who would do the job for $3,000.  He uses a roller).  The Board recently decided to cover it up instead.  That is, instead of really teaching history, instead of exposing students to all the complex facts about the people of the past, and instead of preparing students  to engage in critical thinking, they prefer to cover up our history to advance an agenda.  This is not education, but rather educational malpractice.  Professor McClay reminds us that, done right, history rescues precious memories from the darkness into which they would otherwise disappear.  He writes, “Our task is to to recover the humane insight of Herbert Butterfield, who taught that the historian should be a ‘recording angel’ rather than a ‘hanging judge,’ let alone a summary executioner.”