Donald Trump is what we call “a lame duck,” according to Phrase Finder. Now that the president is limiting himself to the refrigerator and the golf course, maybe we should look a little more deeply into his situation. It is not pretty.
The notion of a lame-duck does not quite fit the bill, given that Trump never was especially “previously proficient,” but it can work:’
‘A person or thing that isn’t properly able to function, especially one that was previously proficient.’
Sunday morning, the governor of Arkansas Asa Hutchinson (R) admitted that his administration is helping President-elect Joe Biden’s transition team. The reason was shattering to Donald Trump. The reason is that the president’s words have become “not quite as significant” now that he has lost the election.
Even though Trump has taken over 30 cases before the court, he has lost each one of them. Hutchinson said:
‘The courts have not seen evidence of such extensive fraud. Scores of courts have looked at that and so that’s why the General Services Administration recognized Vice President Biden as president-elect. He is president-elect. We need to work on that transition.’
Then, Hutchison added that the worst part might be a difficulty with “vaccine distribution:”
‘The worst thing that could happen is that we do no have a smooth handoff when it comes to our vaccine distribution. That takes that transition to start now and I’m grateful that it has.’
The Governor continued, noting that he believes the reason Trump never conceded was he intends on challenging more cases into court.
Governor Hutchinson is one of the few Republicans to refer to Biden as the “president-elect:”
‘We’re working with the Biden administration, the likely administration on both the transition and the inauguration as if we’re moving forward on State of the Union.’
Governor Asa Hutchinson of Arkansas is one of a few Republicans to refer to Biden as the president-elect:
‘The transition is what is important. The words of President Trump are not quite as significant.’
Hutchins is able to pull in ideas from a variety of sources. He thinks larger than the immediate problem at hand. He noted that Arkansas’ Justice Reinvestment approach allowed Arkansas to become the first state in the country to create a network of crisis stabilization units. These units allowed the community mental health specialists and law enforcement officers to work together to connect people experiencing mental health crises to the help they need. The professional staff members are also given special training for the program.
How can Arkansas help more people living with mental illnesses avoid jail and get the treatment they need? He responded:
Each year, a ridiculous number of people who have “mental illnesses and co-occurring substance addictions” go to jail:
Studies in individual counties have shown:
‘[P]eople spend more time in lock-up than the average person booked into jail and that they return more frequently. This creates a huge burden on taxpayers, leaves our communities at risk, and could exacerbate the mental illnesses with which people are already struggling.’
Listening to a man describe the utter confusion and frustration he felt between the time of his arrest and his diversion to the Crisis Stabilization Unit “helped me appreciate the challenges people who have serious mental illnesses face across the country:”
‘[I]n Arkansas, we didn’t have the time, nor the luxury, to play politics while our criminal justice system was facing seemingly insurmountable problems.’
Arkansas is among many firsts. Who knows? Maybe the Donald will go there himself:
‘The Justice Reinvestment’ approach allowed Arkansas to become the first state in the country to create a network of crisis stabilization units, enabling our community [to do more].’
That little walk away from the Republicans’ history allowed:
‘a bipartisan group of state and local leaders came together as part of Justice Reinvestment, a federally funded approach that identifies evidence.’
The Mueller Report Adventures: In Bite-Sizes on this Facebook page. These quick, two-minute reads interpret the report in normal English for busy people. Mueller Bite-Sizes uncovers what is essentially a compelling spy mystery. Interestingly enough, Mueller Bite-Sizes can be read in any order.
