When the Soviets downed KAL Flight 007 on September 1, 1983 it felt to most Americans that the world was spinning out of control and that we might well be headed towards war. With the above speech the nation was reassured that President Reagan was in charge of the situation and would make certain that the Soviet government would not escape the blame for this atrocity.
Yesterday in the wake of the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 over the Ukraine we had this:
An earlier Reuters report claimed that it was feared that as many as 23 U.S. citizens had perished.
Go here to read the rest. An empty suit would be a better president for this country than Barack Obama. I tremble for this nation, if, as I fear, we face a serious war before this useless fool and his clown administration are out of office.
Clint Eastwood seems like a prophet now in his depiction of Obama as an empty chair:
It appears that rebel Ukraine insurgents are responsible, mistaking the Malaysian Airlines plane for a Ukrainian military transport – tape is on you tube apparently.
More than likely. This is directly at Putin’s door.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znjJzBvfAtA
Don – here’s the you tube link.
Thank you Don!
The only man on the planet that is happy about this is Jimmy Carter. He is (by far) no longer the worst POTUS in history.
The question is: can the Republicans muster a real President again? The Democrats with their open advocacy of baby murdering and sexual perversion are clearly disqualified. That their President would think so lightly of a terrorist act against a civilian jet liner is simply consistent with their overall disregard for the sanctity of human life – that is to say, every human life but their individual own.
Paul, most of the Republicans at the national level are just as compromised as the Dems. If we get a real president again, he will have to come from an independent political movement not controlled or compromised by either party.
Stephen E Dalton: “If we get a real president again, he will have to come from an independent political movement not controlled or compromised by either party.”
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My thoughts exactly for many months.
And he would have zilch chance of becoming President and ensure the election of the Democrat.
Don, the Republican Party is a dying party. The leadership is totally out of touch with its base. Any candidate who dares to run as a traditional American is either ignored or shot down by the national leadership. Even the Tea Party groups are disillusioned with the GOP. It’s the suicidal policies of the GOP, if continued, that will ensure it will never have a truly American president in the White House again. So why even bother to vote GOP if all they’re going to do is offer us a donkey in an elephant’s skin?
Which is why we should elect a liberal Republican like Jeb Bush or Chris Christie, so we can (maybe) teeter on the brink instead of plunging over the cliff with a progressive Democrat like Hillary Clinton or Elizabeth Warren? Yeah, that’ll work.
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I realize I’m getting ahead of events, what with a midterm still coming up. Still, I’d rather have somebody in office I could actively oppose that somebody I’d have to passively not support.
“Don, the Republican Party is a dying party.”
Actually by number of seats in Congress, legislative chambers controlled and the state houses occupied, the Republican party has not been stronger since the time of Calvin Coolidge.
“The leadership is totally out of touch with its base.”
No, the problem is that too many conservative candidates run in presidential primaries, especially too many no-hopers, and divide up the conservative vote. Perry would have probably been the nominee last time even so, if he had not self destructed.
In 1960 at the Republican convention Goldwater told his fellow conservatives to grow up and take control of the party, and that is what happened under Goldwater and Reagan. That is what needs to happen again. A third party is a colossal waste of time and a dead end, as even a cursory study of American political history reveals.
If Republican’$ we’re focused and united in beliefs would there of been a movement such as the Tea Party?
Was not the birth of the mvt. brought about by weak divided Republicans that caved into the liberals mentality. I am asking seriously speaking. Not sarcastically.
I would happily vote for Romney Ryan. If the republicans could unite, we could stand a chance. Some are so in the clouds ( or maybe the weeds) That they don’t use their common sense.
Romney Ryan are two honest people who love. Obama and the people around him lie and manipulate. They don’t have that good foundation of truth and love. They are Self serving. Prone to lies, seek power for power sake. Romney Ryan are the polar opposite of Obama people.
O’reilly not in favor of Romney, neither rove nor buchanan nor Krauthammer – what if God sent us good people for these particular times and we refused to recognize them because of intra-conservative bickering. If conservatives would agree to bury their high minded hatchets once and work together! They could elect their tea party or their Paul next time. Right now we need a competent president. We could rely on Romney Ryan but I don’t think republicans will do it . It would be sensible.
A new party can gather momentum very quickly and an established one can collapse spectacularly.
The Labour party, formed in 1900, won 28 seats in the 1906 election, mainly because of a 1903 pact that the Liberals and Labour would not oppose each other in that election.
In 1910, they won 42 seats, but in 1922, they won 142. In 1924, they won 191seats, against the Liberal’s 158, with whom they formed a coalition government, under the first Labour Prime Minister, Ramsay MacDonald; the Conservatives won a mere 258 seats.
In a snap election that year, the Conservatives won a landslide with 412 seats and Labour won a mere 151.
The really significant result in that election was that the Liberal party, the party of Palmerstone and Gladstone, of Asquith and Lloyd George, won a mere 40 seats and a rump party it remained for the rest of the century. In 1935, they held on to only 17 seats, 174 fewer than they had won only 11 years earlier and, in 1945, to only 12. In that election, Labour won 393 seats and the Conservatives 197. By contrast, 8 Independent candidates were elected.
In 1951, the Liberals won a mere 6 seats, in five of which they Conservatives did not field a candidate. It is said that, on one occasion, they shared a taxi from the House of Commons to the Reform Club.
Don, that fact that the GOP has all these people in the state houses and in Congress is meaningless if they don’t vote right. Besides, where were all these people when we needed them in2012?
The GOP not out of touch? Yeah, they were so in touch they gave us a Mormon candidate for President, sometime that really went over well with evangelical Protestants and Catholics. At least the Dems had a candidate who was not out of touch with his base of queers, socialists, abortionists, welfare clients, and other deviants.
“Take control of the party”. The big money, country club people hate the Tea Party type people, and have done their worst to neutralize anything they have tried to do. They’re not going to allow us to have any say in the GOP. Oh, they will court us at election time, but when it’s all over, they will ignore us for the next four years like they have been doing all along. And you say 3rd parties are a waste of time? Well Don, what’s your winning strategy?
“Don, that fact that the GOP has all these people in the state houses and in Congress is meaningless if they don’t vote right.”
The great deal of pro-life legislation that has passed in the states the GOP gained control of in 2010 indicates that most of them are voting right. As for Congress we control only one of the chambers.
“Yeah, they were so in touch they gave us a Mormon candidate for President, sometime that really went over well with evangelical Protestants and Catholics.”
Please. Romney’s Mormonism was a non-issue. What hurt him was a general wish-I-wash-I-ness on the issues, his frequent change of stances over the issues and a lack of fire in the belly to win. No shadowy cabal foisted Romney upon the party, but rather his winning the primaries in a divided field of conservative losers with no A-list conservatives choosing to run, with the exception of Perry who self-destructed.
“And you say 3rd parties are a waste of time? Well Don, what’s your winning strategy?”
Taking control of the party which should be relatively simply if in 2016 an A-list conservative runs and if, once again, the field does not consist of 5 or 6 conservatives and one moderates. As for third parties being a waste of time, please name me the last president to be elected by a third party. The most successful third party candidate in recent times was the paranoid lunatic Ross Perot in ’92 who succeeded in getting Clinton elected, and even he, with all his wealth, only got 19%.
“A new party can gather momentum very quickly and an established one can collapse spectacularly.”
Not in American political history for over a century and a half. Major political parties have died twice in American history: the Federalists and the Whigs. The Federalists left no organized successor. Most Northern Whigs formed the Republican party in fusion with anti-slavery Democrats and free soilers. America has never had a shortage of third parties since then, but their chief characteristic in common has been an abysmal lack of success at the ballot box.
“If Republican’$ we’re focused and united in beliefs would there of been a movement such as the Tea Party?”
The Tea Party was a spontaneous manifestation of outrage at the break the bank spending of the Obama administration. The label Tea Party is a misnomer. It is not a party and has had political success only by electing Republicans who sympathize with the movement. It has zero influence in the Democrat party, and any third party aspirations by “leaders” in the Tea Party have been stillborn.
“Which is why we should elect a liberal Republican like Jeb Bush or Chris Christie”
Then work to ensure that they are not nominated. This is not directed at you Ernst, but too many conservatives are great at griping and simply do not learn to do nuts and bolts politics at the local level that allows them to gain influence within the party.
The utter callousness of this public appearance of Mr Obama yesterday, where in about 40 seconds he dispensed with the instantaneous erasing of 295 or so lives and preferably proceeded to his more suited inanely superficial cocktail-style jollity, only highlites even more his supremely self-adoring coldness with regard to others’ lives. This is evident whether seen in regards to those men and women whom he daily disregards being blown up in distant Afghanistan, or to those military now frantically being re-missioned to a situation called “dire” by the head military commandant in Iraq, or to his frank abandonment of 4 lives (it should have been a score or so more) in Benghazi, Libya.
Only the Great Supreme Coryeanth’s life is of import; only the spotlight and focus should be on the Immortal Leader; only the nation cannot live without him.
Usquequo, Domine?
If immigration reform regularizes the status of illegal aliens who will then become eligible to vote (this assumes they aren’t already voting), will it matter which candidate traditional Americans select to run for the Presidency or any other political office?
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Catholic apologist Michael Voris has suggested that the heavy influx of illegal aliens into Texas will alter the electoral college vote of that state which will then permanently swing election results in favor of the Democrat Party.
Steve Phoenix.
Great observation regarding his (Obama ) nonchalant segue into Biden humor.
Might it be his years of blood stained hands supporting the murder of innocent lives? After all, life is cheap in the pro-death camp. What’s 298 more?
Just a drop in the bucket for old Barry.
Prayers for the heartless Nero coming.
Obama commented in May that he was going to turn Texas blue
“Don, that fact that the GOP has all these people in the state houses and in Congress is meaningless if they don’t vote right.”
Many of those not voting right in our state are RINOs and/or neocons. Several of them were Democrats until recently when it became obvious that they would have to have an R by their name or would not get elected to their coveted political position. Changing the capitol letter by their name does not change their political positions/personal convictions–hence the less than conservative votes.
“The great deal of pro-life legislation that has passed in the states the GOP gained control of in 2010 indicates that most of them are voting right. As for Congress we control only one of the chambers.”
In our state there have always been state elected Democrats who would vote with Republicans to pass moderate pro-life and pro-family legislation. Now that many of the Rs are really Ds in R clothing, they are still willing to vote pro-life. In our state, the Republican Party was unable to achieve majority party status for the first time since reconstruction only with the fire power of the TEA Party working in the trenches along side the Republicans. Having the majority status allows the Republicans to have the chairmenship of relevant committees as well as the majority of the membership of given relevant committees–as well as a greater number of pro-life legislation being run. When the Ds were in the majority in both chambers in the past–thereby controlling the bills that were passed out of committee for votes by the full state house and state senate–pro-life bills were simply voted down in committee out of the sight of the public usually with no vote records of how each legislator voted in committee.
I am finding that many of these new Rs call themselves conservative, when in reality the new Rs don’t have a real understanding of conservative political philosophies–they are really just Democrat-lights.
There are a few, truly conservative matters outside of abortion where the Rs in our state vote correctly as a whole–but not many.
Our Republican US Senator and US Congressmen also fail to vote consistently conservative.
Sorry.
I meant to say:
In our state, the Republican Party was ABLE to achieve majority party status for the first time since reconstruction only with the fire power of the TEA Party working in the trenches along side their side.
Barbara, thanks for elaborating on what I already knew to be true. The GOP is nothing more than a slightly conservative liberal party. The last half way conservative that we had in the White House was Reagan, and it’s been downhill ever since.
I assume you are from the tarheel state Barbara. On the pro-life front 2013 was a busy year:
“What Happened in 2013:
•North Carolina enacted an omnibus measure that includes a provision prohibiting sex-selection abortions and giving the state Department of Health discretion to apply ambulatory surgical center standards to abortion facilities.
•The state limited funding for abortion through the health insurance plans offered through the health insurance Exchanges required by the Affordable Care Act or offered through local governments.
•North Carolina enacted legislation requiring a physician to be present during the performance of the entire (surgical) abortion procedure. Physicians administering chemical abortion must be present for the administration of the first drug in an abortion-inducing drug regimen.
•In a busy legislative session, the state also enacted a measure requiring public schools to teach children that there is a link between abortion and pre-term birth. The instruction will be part of a mandated public health curriculum.
•North Carolina appropriated $250,000 to Carolina Pregnancy Fellowship.
•The state enacted “Lily’s Law,” a measure providing that the crime of homicide includes situations where a child is born and dies from injuries received in utereo.
•North Carolina considered legislation that would make assisted suicide unlawful; however, the bill lacked a criminal penalty for violations.
•The state enacted a provision protecting individual healthcare providers who object to participating in abortions. The state also considered legislation offering or expanding protection for healthcare payers, but such legislation would not be enforceable against the so-called “HHS mandate” that requires nearly all health insurance plans to provide full coverage (without co-pay) of all “FDA approved contraceptives.””
None of this would have been possible of course without both legislative chambers and the statehouse in North Carolina being controlled by the Republicans.
“If immigration reform regularizes the status of illegal aliens who will then become eligible to vote (this assumes they aren’t already voting), will it matter –which candidate traditional Americans select ..”— Slainte.
Back in Phoenix, Arizona in the 2000’s, an in-law family member who is quite identifiably Mexican-American (because she is, but a legal US citizen, if it matters these days) sidled up to several Spanish-speaking, Mexican mothers (they said so in their conversation with her) meeting at the local elementary school up the street before a school bond election. They admitted in the course of their conversation that each of them were Mexican citizens and not legal US citizens or residents, but since they had children in the schools, the school district personnel “had invited them to vote” in the election.
Our in-law, Diana, asked them how it was that they could vote: they explained that the school showed them how to obtain voter registration, ostensibly when they signed up for a drivers’ license; or, a second means were the many Democratic party registration workers who completed and turned in voter registration forms for them. It was all so easy. And once on the voting system, they were rarely purged. This is still why in one or two of the congressional districts in Arizona a reliably D. candidate will always be elected.
So, look out, Texas: coming your way next.
I admit to being perplexed by those who strongly advocate for the elimination of producing proof of identity at voting precincts. It seems a reasonable measure to ensure the integrity of the voting process.
I don’t know if Barb is from the Tarheel state, but one thing that is overlooked about these victories is that a federal judge can declare some or all or these victories unconstitutional, just like all the state laws forbidding same sex marriages that were recently overturned by judicial fiat. So, what will the Tarheel GOP do then? Nullification anyone?
And voting third party does zilch to deal with the problem of an out of control Federal judiciary. Making certain that the next President is not a Democrat would help, and no third party candidate, even Teddy Roosevelt in 1912, and if it could be done he was the man to do it, has ever come within shouting distance of being President.
Don, I didn’t even mention 3rd parties in my latest post. Besides, since federal judges are appointed for life, voting for any party wouldn’t get rid of them. And I doubt the GOP has enough clout to impeach a single one of them. The only possible ways I can see to deal with this ongoing mess is nullification and if worst comes to worst, secession. The GOP will continue to ‘listen’ to it’s conservative base every election time, and turn around and betray the base by not doing anything about the current problems or helping to passing laws like the so-called Homeland Security Act that left us with fewer liberties that we had before.
I’m mildly shocked that no liberal/progressive has jumped on all this and called you “racists!”
Of course, the definition of “racist” is someone that wins an argument with a liberal.
“since federal judges are appointed for life, voting for any party wouldn’t get rid of them.”
It certainly radically impacts the new judges appointed, since they all nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate. The only way to do anything about the Federal judiciary is not to have the Democrats in control of the Senate and the Presidency. The Hobby Lobby case is a prime example of the usual difference between Republican nominated judges and those nominated by the Democrats. Neither secession nor nullification is a solution since neither would hold up in court, and any attempt to implement them by force would be a prime example of attempting to cure a patient by killing him.
Don, the voting demographics changed the last presidential election. Obama was elected by what amounted to a coalition of racial, ethnic, and religious minorities that our flawed immigration policies made possible. The Government giveaway programs will also insure that no matter who gets in power, if his party want to stay in power the freebies will have to continue to appease the minorities. The minorities are also increasing in population, while the British, German, Scandinavian, and French descended population is decreasing. Unless something’s happen to change this picture, the type of people who support the Republican party now will have no power or influence by 2050.
“Unless something’s happen to change this picture, the type of people who support the Republican party now will have no power or influence by 2050.”
Precisely the same thing was said in the 1890’s when huge waves of immigrants came from Southern and Eastern Europe. Such projections ignore plunging birth rates among Hispanics on both sides of the border, and the steady process of assimilation. Italians were once regarded as solid Democrats. Now they are mainly Republicans.
Don, the people coming into this country right now don’t want to assimilate into our culture. They want to impose their third world culture on us. I don’t see large groups of Muslims wanting to join our churches or eat a pork chop. Rather, I have a mosque in my neighborhood, and halal food featured at the local restaurants. The Indians who have moved into our area have their temple in my neck of the woods. I don’t think large numbers of them are going to be eating a beefsteak or showing upo for baptism any time soon either. And these people who are coming across our border, may be nominally Catholic, are not here to become good Americans, but to make our southwestern states a part of what they call Aztlan. And based on what I’ve heard, they tend to drift away from even nominal Catholicism in a few years and become secular. Just what we need more of in America, eh? Assimilation was only possible when the founding stock was the majority population in this country. We are no longer the majority, and unless our population increases, assimilation will go the other way. BTW, how’s that Republican outreach to minorities doing? From what I’ve heard, they don’t give a damn about becoming GOP members. You don’t have any free stuff.
Couldn’t disagree more. With the possible exception of the muslims all these groups will assimilate into America over time. Your comment about the Republican outreach to minorities reminded me that prior to 9-11 most muslims in this country voted Republican. The idea that any minority group in this country is irrevocably locked into one party is historically false.
Precisely the same arguments were made against the Irish immigrants in the 19th century by the Know-Nothings, that they would never assimilate into the American mainstream. Such fears betray a fundamental lack of faith in this ongoing experiment in self-government. We need to control the borders, but given time I have no doubt that assimilation will occur with the groups currently in this country.
@slainte, I realize your question is likely rhetorical, but since you are a lawyer, you tell me: Those who seek to enfranchise all, are playing off the ideal that voting is so important, such a sacred right, that to accidentally disenfranchise one person for lack of identification at the polling place would be tantamount to civic murder. ?
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Somehow based on the principle that “It is better that ten guilty persons escape than that one innocent suffer.” The presumption of innocence. ?
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We’re never going to turn this thing around until a statesman or stateswoman stands up to defend the ideal that voting is so important, such a sacred right, that to accidentally enfranchise one person who is not a citizen is… stupid? Which requires a heartfelt defense of citizenship and sovereignty. But really, can it be so hard to say: Why should Mexican citizens vote in US elections? Why should US citizens vote in Mexican elections? And so forth.
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Politicians are too afraid to say this, even though it might appeal to legal immigrants of all nationalities, including legal immigrants from Mexico et al.
Of course, the focus of this article is on Ronald Reagan, “Back When We Had a President..”; and the contrast, with smoothly arrogant, cocktail-joking Barry is painfully evident, meanwhile as military personnel are trying to hold the fort at Afghanistan and their counterparts are getting the consolate roofs ready for a Miss Saigon exit in Iraq, bargaining with their lives in the process.
And what about who is next in line? Well, consider this excerpt from Ronald Kessler’s newest book, “The First Family Detail”, soon to be released:
Kessler also reveals that Hillary is routinely rude to the agents who are sworn to take a bullet for her.
‘”Because she is so nasty to agents and hostile to law enforcement officers and military officers in general, agents consider being assigned to her detail a form of punishment,” Kessler wrote.’ (Pagesix, Richard Johnson, 7/22/2014)
Tamsin,
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I think many would agree that the integrity of the voting process depends on a careful balancing of a qualified voter’s “right to vote” subject to the state’s enacting measures reasonably calculated to minimize fraud and other abuses at polling precincts.
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In light of the intentional disenfranchisement of members of the African American community (mostly in the southern states) in the 20th century, it makes sense that courts should carefully scrutinize the reasonableness of such security measures to ensure that they don’t, directly or indirectly, act to dissuade or disenfranchise any qualified voter from voting.
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That said, however, laws requiring production of identification at polling precincts (ie., a driver’s license, a passport, employee photo identification, or a state issued ID from the Department of Motor Vehicles) constitute measures which don’t unduly burden or disenfranchise individuals or classes of persons. People routinely produce proof of identity to open bank accounts, cash checks, register their children with schools, and conduct a myriad of commercial transactions, why then would producing ID at a polling precinct be deemed oppressive? The integrity of the voting process trumps the small inconvenience experienced by the qualified voter’ some Courts disagree.
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Producing ID at voting precincts might also help dissuade those who are not “qualified voters” from engaging in an illegal act by casting a vote he or she is not authorized to do.
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Unfortunately there are some within the national political sphere today whose political philosophy is more closely aligned with that of 19th century NYC politician Boss Tweed (head of New York’s infamous Democrat club Tammany Hall) who, with his fellow political operatives, reminded beholden immigrant constituents of the 1850s and 1860s to “Vote Early and Vote Often”; whether Tweed was suggesting that his constituents cast multiple, rather than single votes is open to conjecture
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But there is no doubt that Tammany paved the way to pressure large numbers of immigrant constituents (then the famine Irish) to follow the direction of political operatives. History does repeat.
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National Public Radio recently interviewed author Terry Golway who claims that Tammany, corrupt to the core, has now been reinterpreted and found to have advanced progressive principles which historically benefitted immigrant communities thus qualifying it to be placed on the “right side of history”. What happened in New York in the 1800s is re-occurring on a national scale.
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Here’s NPR’s interview of Terry Golway.
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http://www.npr.org/player/v2/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=286218423&m=286383330
“The party that robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on Paul’s support.” G. B. Shaw
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In other words, Golway is saying, “The end justifies the means.”
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Zero Hedge: “What is the shelf life of a system that rewards confidence-gaming sociopaths rather than competence? Those in power exhibit hubris, arrogance, bullying, deception and substitute rule by elites for the rule of law. The status quo rewards misrepresentation, obfuscation, legalized looting, embezzlement, fraud, a variety of cons, gaming the system, deviousness, lying and cleverly designed deceptions.
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“Our leadership was selected not for competence but for deviousness. What’s incentivized in our system is spinning half-truths and propaganda with a straight face and running cons that entrench the pathology of power.”
Yes, a free photo ID is not oppressive. Given there are so many other ways to stuff ballot boxes, amazing that Democrats resist this one measure to improve (at least the appearance of) ballot box integrity. They must figure it is a greater benefit to them, now and forevermore, to use this one facet of voting to scare black people, and soon enough brown people. The cynicism makes me sad.
In the UK, at polling stations, the clerk, having found the voter’s name and address in the Electoral Register, asks for the date of birth, which appears on the Returning Officer’s copy of the Register, but not in the published editions.
The Register is updated annually, by returning a form sent to each household, or on-line, using a serial number on the return form. Anyone moving between return dates can still register individually.
Most scandals have occurred around postal voting and properties in multiple occupation, where the names of former occupants have been kept on the register by the landlord. Jury citations provide a sort of (unintended) random check on this practice.