The President’s Autopen
by Calla Jones Corner
Don’t Blame Thomas Jefferson, S’il Vous Plaît
“For several weeks now, Sir, I have wanted to order from you a shipment of Meursault. But the season has been so rude that I thought it would be better to await milder weather. The delay has lasted to the point that I now find myself with a pressing need. I ask you therefore to send me immediately two hundred and fifty bottles of wine, Meursault Goutte d’Or. I have become so attached to that of Mr. Bachey of the 1784 vintage that if he still has any of it I would prefer it.”
Sometimes I wonder if my distant cousin, Thomas Jefferson (we had the same grandparents: James Keith and Mary Randolph), hadn’t stopped by my 300-plus-year-old Burgundian vintner's house in 1787 for an aperitif en route to Paris. Whilst serving as the U.S. Minister to France, Jefferson, perhaps America’s greatest Francophile and earliest oenophile, broke his right wrist and decided to explore France's vineyards for three months while the wrist healed.
The President’s Autopen
I wonder when the French – as well as the American “legacy” media – is going to blame one of America’s greatest presidents for inventing the autopen? [Editor’s note, supplied by my friend, Grok: Thomas Jefferson did not invent the autopen but was an early adopter of its precursor, the polygraph, a mechanical device for duplicating handwritten documents. Patented in 1803 by John Isaac Hawkins, the polygraph (often referred to as a pantograph in modern terms) used a system of pens linked by mechanical arms to replicate a user’s writing in real time. Jefferson acquired his first polygraph in 1804 and used it extensively, purchasing two—one for the White House and one for Monticello. He praised it as “the finest invention of the present age,” noting its superiority over the less legible copying press, and even suggested improvements to its co-patent holder, Charles Willson Peale. The modern autopen, which automates signatures using a pre-programmed template, evolved later in the 1930s.]
Invention of the pantograph, which President Jefferson made use of…
…led directly to the more practical autopen that President Biden was so fond of.
Now that President Trump (who the French are supposed to despise (though I’ve been told in whispers by several of my French neighbors that they wish they had a Trump-like leader, so don’t believe everything you read!) has started the ball rolling to discover just who was running the Biden administration and signing all those documents, the blame will surely end up in Jefferson’s lap.
I deal with uninformed and absurd anti-Americanisms every day.
I am sure the deceased president will be blamed because a few years ago, during one of my husband’s and my annual trips to visit our family in France, I saw the 10-foot-tall bronze statue by contemporary French sculptor Jean Cardot on the banks of the Seine in Paris’s 7th Arrondissement, splashed with green paint. I told my British husband (who died in 2022) that, as an American and a distant relative, I wanted to buy a scrub brush and bucket and “show the bloody frogs just how wrong they were to denigrate one of their greatest American supporters.”
The statue was dedicated on July 4th, 2006, marking the 230th anniversary of American Independence. Jefferson is portrayed with a quill pen in one hand and a drawing of his Virginia estate, Monticello, in the other. I imagine the sculptor had done his homework on Jefferson and wanted to represent the statesman as a great thinker, architect, and inventor as well as a great president and friend of France.
Besides having used and improved the polygraph, Jefferson’s actual inventions and enhancements include the swivel chair, a pedometer, a machine to make fiber from hemp, the lazy Susan, and a portable desk, upon which he wrote drafts of the American Constitution and most probably that letter to Monsieur Bachey inquiring about the shipment of wine from Meursault.
Here Comes Sally!
Perhaps I feel especially proud and defensive of my distant cousin because I, too, recently broke my wrist tripping on a pebble in a vineyard and wish I had been able to take three months off from granny duties and the hard jobs my late husband once did so it could heal properly. Luckily, mine was my left wrist. Jefferson was not so lucky in breaking his right wrist. As a survivor and pragmatist (the French, who see nothing wrong in extramarital affairs, love to call Jefferson a racist for most likely having his slave, Sally Hemings, as a mistress after losing his beloved wife), Jefferson taught his left hand how to write.
For any members of the left-wing French (as well as the American) press, who would like to blame Americans (even Jefferson) for all their ills, I would like to tell them that Jefferson is said to have broken his wrist jumping over a Parisian wall to impress a young woman. French (and American) men and women might then stop for a minute to appreciate just how human, as well as brilliant, our third president was.
I’ve discovered in the three years I’ve lived in France as a widow that there are things other than wine and food that we have in common. They are an innate appreciation of common sense, a desire to survive and, not least, the opposite sex.
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Good review of our current state. And brings to mind the idea of equal protection of the law. In the article our local Santa Barbara police chief indicated the police are here to protect and serve all residents and visitors of our community equally. And that although Santa Barbara is not a sanctuary city, CA is a sanctuary state. Thus our local police are following CA law and are therefore ignoring federal immigration law. For us that means local police will not enforce any federal immigration laws and, will not inquire about citizenship when doing any police business.
This promise from our police chief of equal protection is a hollow claim. From our hallowed constitution, Equal protection of the law also means equal application of the law. From rich to poor, regardless of race, religion, creed or sports team preference. Yet the police and our state legislature are applying laws selectively. Illegal visitors are given a pass from obeying federal laws. They don’t need to prove citizenship, no proof of vaccinations, no proof to work, or even vote. They are given immunity from federal law by our state legislature and governor.
This unequal application of the law is not only unconstitutional on its face, it hurts all of us. When citizens see that some laws are enforced and some are ignored, it removes faith in our government of laws. Breeding cynical views of government and way of life in America. And it hurts people trying to obey the laws, when our housing is filled up with illegals, and illegals receive section eight for housing, SNAP for child care, free medical from the state, free education, free food, free free free for the illegal visitors! This unequal application of the law hurts our legal populations, and deprives them of the basic rights of citizenship. Their voices and votes are diminished, diluted, their faith in a fair government dissolved.
And the reasons for all this government enforced inequality is simple. It’s federal apportionment. Because federal apportionment law requires the census count all persons in the nation, to adjust the number of members in congress. And so the more illegals crammed into liberal cities and liberal states, will create more political power in congress for those liberal states.
Our American Civil War was fought over this issue of unfair application of the laws. The democrats slave states demanded and obtained by threat, 3/5ths vote per every slave they owned. And the slave states used those illicit ‘votes’ to prolong and extend slavery across the USA. The democrat slave states goal was: slavery all the way to the pacific. If the war had not been won by the north and Lincoln, we would have slavery today. But instead Lincoln and the Republicans stood for equal application of the laws, that all men and women shall have equal protection of the laws and equal application of the law. And that is America.
Today California’s quaint decision to ignore certain federal laws, ostensibly to protect minorities, belies the true motive of gaining political power. If there is no limit to illegal visitors, there is no limit to disenfranchising voters and dissolving our constitution. And If the left wants a civil war over this transgression, they may get one.
Let’s contemplate the historical significance of Flag Day, the vision, sacrifices, and contributions of many for our freedom. I hope we remain a country governed by laws, for no more autopen pardons, and we continue to seek to achieve justice for all.
Today’s another intense one from the Middle East to varied emotional perspectives within our neighborhoods over planned events. At 6:30p ET, 3:30 PT, a military parade will roll through D.C. marking the 250th anniversary of the Army — which coincides with President Trump's 79th birthday. I claim military ignorance: I don’t recall, and could have missed, any past American military parade or show of force so I plan to view this one to learn something. At the same time, millions of people are expected to show up in 1,800 cities in all 50 states at “No Kings" protests in response to dark money organized events against the President’s Administration: the BBB, spending cuts, benefit reductions, or is it deportations? Are protestors legitimate; or nihilists, anarchists, and groupies? It’s confusing. Much to research.
The name to market today’s protest events is interesting: “No Kings”. Why not “No Presidents”? Subjects are dependent on the king. The majority residing here are dependent on government benevolence, the POTUS and Congressional funding.
There’s also a Goleta Car Rally. Viewing many flying American flags all over town is a reminder, it’s Flag Day, a time to celebrate America, its history, significance, and to show our gratitude. My great grandfather carried the U.S. Flag in the Battles of Antietam and Gettysburg. According to his handwritten diary, every day most all in the 25 man color guard died, survivors were seriously wounded protecting our flag. His unit a division of the Indiana Volunteers. Every Flag Day and July 4, my father had us recite from memory the Gettysburg Address and preamble to the US Constitution, same as his Grandfather did, as verified by newspaper archieves.