This Week in PurpleAmerica (1/13-1/19)

The Iowa Caucuses and Their Aftermath; Lionel Hutz! Better Call Saul!-- LETS TALK ATTORNEYS!

The Iowa Caucuses were this week and if ever there was an anti-climactic Iowa caucus, it was this one. The Democrats, fresh from a debacle in Iowa the last time around, skipped it and moved the start of their primary season to South Carolina. That left the Republicans, and Donald Trump had been polling well above 50% since the get go. Everyone knew he would win, the question was just by how much.

In the end, it was by a bigger margin than any Iowa Caucus before. The previous highs were George H.W. Bush in 1980, who won the caucus by 14 points with 42% of the vote. Trump crushed both of those marks with 55% of the vote, winning by almost 30. Now, there is a caveat to that and it’s in the total number of Iowa voters. This was the lowest turnout in Iowa since 2000, and Trump only got 55k votes total. Iowans didn’t seem too excited to come out in the cold to vote for anyone really.

Now onto New Hampshire where Nikki Haley has closed the gap some. With Chris Christie getting out of the race, the non-Trump vote in NH is coalescing around Haley. Since Democrats are not competing there either, and Independents can vote in the NH primary with same day registration, do not be surprised if she makes it competitive and even wins. But that is likely to be it for the non-Trump crusade. Trump will crush everyone else in Haley’s home state of SC, and Super Tuesday will be a coronation.

As for everything else, the NFL moves to the Divisional round with eight teams left, the Emmys (*Yawn*) were Monday and rather non-eventful and we are now adding 4 minutes of sunlight a day until June 21st! Summer is right around the corner, polar vortex be damned.¹

PurpleAmerica’s People of the Past Week

The Good

Jordan Love. Anyone who can make Jerry Jones upset and cry deserves a game ball from all of us at PurpleAmerica.

James Earl Jones celebrated his 93rd(!) birthday this week. As the voices of Mufasa, “This is CNN” and Darth Vader, he’s basically been the voice of God for an entire generation…make that two or three generations.

This good boy. Any excuse to post a pic of a cool dog like this we’re going to take.

The Bad

Nikki Haley. Anyone familiar with American history knows that it has a particularly racist past we are still working our way out of. Apparently Nikki forgot, well, almost everything about American history this past week.

Alina Habba had about as bad a week as anyone could have defending Trump in the E. Jean Carroll defamation trial. Constantly being reprimanded by the judge, making lawyering 101 mistakes and trying to defend the indefensible. It was like she was in a bad spin off of Suits trying to manage this case. Wait until she finds out Trump won’t pay her at all for this charade. Trump is already thinking of upgrading by calling Lionel Hutz to be his next attorney.

Emmy voters. How on Earth could Better Call Saul be nominated 53 times in 5 years and never once earn a single Emmy?

The Ugly

Iowa Republicans. Just, why?

As if we needed another reason to find out the Texas police involved in Uvalde failed the community and those children that day, the DOJ released its report and assessment and it is DAMNING. This was a failure on every level of the Uvalde Police force, before, during and even after the shooter had been killed. Read the whole report here.

Have a nominee for us to consider? Send an email to purpleamericanunity@gmail.com!

PurpleAmerica Pop Culture Random Top Five

This week: The Top 5 Lawyer Films/Shows

Very few legal dramas actually get the profession correct. It’s often a lot of showmanship, posturing and moving around in the court like its a stage show. In truth, its usually boring. The characters don’t look like models. Still, legal dramas are popular because they dramatize philosophical differences and injustices. Here are our top 5 legal dramas:

5. John Grisham’s The Rainmaker. This Matt Damon film covers an attorney right out of law school thrust into an insurance case by a poor family. What makes it compelling is the lack of resources Damon has to compete against a highly paid legal team and a huge corporation and how he goes about it.

4. Presumed Innocent. At it’s most basic, its a legal mystery. Based on the Scott Turow novel, it’s not a matter of the truth, it’s a question of whether he did or didn’t, and can slip through the crack of reasonable doubt. Most every litigator I know loves the attorney played by Raul Julia in this film, and the way he owns every scene he is in is gold, including this one, which wasn’t even his best one in the film (that would be the takedown of the medical examiner). His whole demeanor is suberb.

3. A Civil Action. Based on the real life account of attorney Jann Schichtmann, what starts out as a routine mass tort action gets bogged down by his arrogance, poor negotiating, rising costs and the balance between the client and the legal fees which become so cumbersome they end up higher than what could be expected in a verdict, killing the case. It also demonstrates that in most cases, there is more occurring outside of the courtroom than in it. One of Travolta’s best.

2. Philadelphia. Everything about the legal scenes, interactions between lawyers, discussions on the facts and law seem extremely genuine. Even the quality of attorneys from a polished Mary Steenburgen to Denzel Washington’s mediocrity that plays out in positive ways, seems like it could have come directly from an actual case and trial.

1. Better Call Saul. The other movies may nail a case or a client down cold, but BCS nails down the entire legal profession. From the corporate law firms, to the boutique firms, to the prosecutors, to the public defenders to the ambulance chasers. They discuss with regularity the mundane aspects of the job; discovery, pre-trial motions, document review, negotiations, mediation and arbitration, the asymmetry of banks and companies vrs “little guys.” Paralegals, legal secretaries, shady “fixers,” student filmmakers making cheesy legal commercials. It has it all. Oh, and it also has cartels and criminal enterprises to boot.

Honroable Mention: My Cousin Vinny. It’s a fun movie and the legal scenes are just so-so, but I would remiss if I didn’t mention most every judge I have ever talked to loves this movie.

Got a favorite you think we missed? Email us at PurpleAmericanUnity@Gmail.com and let us know.

PurpleAmerica’s Subscriber Mail

When we here at PurpleAmerica Respond to the Teeming Millions (well, we’re still working on that first million)

Question: How on f**king earth can we be on the verge of electing Donald J. Trump again?

—ColoradoGuy324

Dear ColoradoGuy324,

That is a great question. Here is my response.

Glad I could help you on that. Keep reading—share and subscribe!!!

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PurpleAmerica’s Historical Note from This Week

With Congress at a standstill and facing another potential government shutdown, and Ukraine and foreign military aid being one of the sticking points, I thought it was pertinent that on January 19, 1920, the United States Senate voted down a provision to join the newly created League of Nations.

Following the first World War (originally called the “Great War”), Woodrow Wilson sought to establish a diplomatic world order, of which he made 14 points. One was the creation of an international forum in which countries could air and negotiate disputes without the need to militarize or go to war. Most countries saw the positive attributes of such a forum and signed on; the United States did not. The United States had the opportunity to be at the forefront of the world stage, and instead chose isolationism.

The results were horrendous. The League of Nations was toothless as fascism and communism took over Europe. With the rise of Hitler in Germany only 10 years later, the stage was set for another giant conflagration, and the United States stayed on the sidelines until we were attacked in December 1941. Coming out of World War II, we changed our attitude, and the United States created a new world order and placed itself and the other victors at the top through the United Nations, and for our allies and European Security through NATO. This has worked very well for us since then.

Now, as those allegiances are questioned and isolationism creeps in again, Republicans are questioning whether it is worth it to arm and support Ukraine, Taiwan and other hot spots. The answer is undoubtedly yes, because the costs of not doing so only compound when things spiral out of control and direct challenges to U.S. hegemony occur.

This should not be an issue; politics stops at the water’s edge. It is in the interests of the United States to support and arm Ukraine. Period.

PurpleAmerica’s Dad/Uncle/Cheesy Joke of the Week

Following Green Bay’s HUGE win over Dallas last week, I came across these beauties:

What’s the difference between a Cowboys fan and a baby? The baby will stop crying after a while.

How many Vikings fans does it take to change a light bulb? No one knows. They are so used to living in the Packers’ shadow they like to stay in he dark.

How do you know someone is a Packers fan? Don’t worry, they’ll let you know – over and over again!

And with that…

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Footnotes and Fun Stuff

1. OK OK OK. Its colder than the deepest, darkest hole in hell right now. But it pays to stay optimistic.