Constitution and Norms under Attack: Military, Judiciary, Administration, Congress, International 4
Dit is een voortzetting van het onderwerp Constitution and Norms under Attack: Military, Judiciary, Administration, Congress, International 3.
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1margd
CBS News poll: Most say congressional Republicans should let Trump investigations run their course
Anthony Salvanto, Kabir Khanna, Jennifer De Pinto, Fred Backus | April 17, 2023
...By two to one, Americans would prefer congressional Republicans to let the law enforcement investigations into Trump run their course, rather than try to stop them.
Differing sharply from the rest of the country, a 56% majority of Republicans say Republicans in Congress should try to stop these law enforcement investigations — a view driven by those who consider themselves part of the MAGA movement. That helps define a split within the party. It's notable that over four in 10 Republicans disagree, preferring the investigations run their course...
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-investigations-republicans-congress-opinion-p...
Anthony Salvanto, Kabir Khanna, Jennifer De Pinto, Fred Backus | April 17, 2023
...By two to one, Americans would prefer congressional Republicans to let the law enforcement investigations into Trump run their course, rather than try to stop them.
Differing sharply from the rest of the country, a 56% majority of Republicans say Republicans in Congress should try to stop these law enforcement investigations — a view driven by those who consider themselves part of the MAGA movement. That helps define a split within the party. It's notable that over four in 10 Republicans disagree, preferring the investigations run their course...
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-investigations-republicans-congress-opinion-p...
2margd
What Could the Supreme Court Do on Abortion This Week?
And everything else you need to know about this mifepristone case.
Mark Joseph Stern | April 18, 2023
...Last question: I thought America being in a constitutional crisis would be more obvious, or feel like a bigger deal? What is going to happen next, and how much worse could it get?
Well first, it could get a lot worse! Republicans are increasingly seeking carceral solutions to the ongoing, widespread availability of medication abortion. One activist has filed a lawsuit attempting to bankrupt several Texas women who helped their friend obtain mifepristone. Conservatives will keep enlisting courts, prosecutors, and prisons to crack down on these pills even if their frontal assault on FDA approval fails.
The people fomenting this constitutional crisis are smart enough to push it forward step by step. It will not happen all at once, but instead unfurl slowly, so that most Americans don’t realize it’s happening until it threatens them directly. (One reason this case has gotten so much attention is that it has caused residents of blue states to understand the stakes here.) A bare-knuckled power struggle within the judiciary is an omen of more frighteningly anti-democratic maneuvers to come. By the time you feel this crisis yourself, it may be too late to stop.
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2023/04/mifepristone-abortion-scotus-case-ex...
And everything else you need to know about this mifepristone case.
Mark Joseph Stern | April 18, 2023
...Last question: I thought America being in a constitutional crisis would be more obvious, or feel like a bigger deal? What is going to happen next, and how much worse could it get?
Well first, it could get a lot worse! Republicans are increasingly seeking carceral solutions to the ongoing, widespread availability of medication abortion. One activist has filed a lawsuit attempting to bankrupt several Texas women who helped their friend obtain mifepristone. Conservatives will keep enlisting courts, prosecutors, and prisons to crack down on these pills even if their frontal assault on FDA approval fails.
The people fomenting this constitutional crisis are smart enough to push it forward step by step. It will not happen all at once, but instead unfurl slowly, so that most Americans don’t realize it’s happening until it threatens them directly. (One reason this case has gotten so much attention is that it has caused residents of blue states to understand the stakes here.) A bare-knuckled power struggle within the judiciary is an omen of more frighteningly anti-democratic maneuvers to come. By the time you feel this crisis yourself, it may be too late to stop.
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2023/04/mifepristone-abortion-scotus-case-ex...
3margd
Alex Theodoridis @AGTheodoridis | 5:06 PM · Jun 22, 2023:
Political Junkie/Scientist Assoc Prof @UMassPolSci; Co-Director @UMassPoll; Opinion, Elections, Polarization, Causal Inf...
The vast majority of Democrats & a plurality of Republicans favor term limits for justices who serve on the U.S. Supreme Court. @UMassPoll
Poll results ( https://twitter.com/AGTheodoridis/status/1671987990799822850/photo/1 )
Americans are evenly split on expanding the number of justices on the U.S. Supreme Court, with Democrats in favor & Republicans opposed. @UMassPoll
Poll results ( https://twitter.com/AGTheodoridis/status/1671987992699842561/photo/1 )
Political Junkie/Scientist Assoc Prof @UMassPolSci; Co-Director @UMassPoll; Opinion, Elections, Polarization, Causal Inf...
The vast majority of Democrats & a plurality of Republicans favor term limits for justices who serve on the U.S. Supreme Court. @UMassPoll
Poll results ( https://twitter.com/AGTheodoridis/status/1671987990799822850/photo/1 )
Americans are evenly split on expanding the number of justices on the U.S. Supreme Court, with Democrats in favor & Republicans opposed. @UMassPoll
Poll results ( https://twitter.com/AGTheodoridis/status/1671987992699842561/photo/1 )
4margd
Opinion: How DeSantis’s own lawyers accidentally exposed his anti-woke deceit
Greg Sargent Columnist | July 11, 2023
In recent weeks, plaintiffs who are suing to invalidate Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s “Stop Woke Act” have been confronting its defenders with a seemingly loaded question: Would the law, which restricts school discussion of race, prohibit a public university professor from endorsing affirmative action in a classroom setting?
Surprisingly, lawyers defending the DeSantis administration just answered this question with a qualified “yes.” Which exposes a core truth about his anti-woke directives: They really do constitute efforts at state censorship, not just of concepts he likes to call “woke indoctrination” but also of viewpoints that are contested yet remain squarely within mainstream academic discourse.
The bizarre admission comes in a new filing by lawyers defending the Stop Woke Act against a lawsuit from professors and free-speech advocates who argue that it violates the First Amendment and restricts academic freedom. (Last November, a federal judge agreed, temporarily blocking the law’s application to public universities.) The plaintiffs have objected that under the law, a professor might risk her job by uttering the phrase “I agree with affirmative action.”...
(free access?) https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/07/11/desantis-stop-woke-act-affirm...
Greg Sargent Columnist | July 11, 2023
In recent weeks, plaintiffs who are suing to invalidate Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s “Stop Woke Act” have been confronting its defenders with a seemingly loaded question: Would the law, which restricts school discussion of race, prohibit a public university professor from endorsing affirmative action in a classroom setting?
Surprisingly, lawyers defending the DeSantis administration just answered this question with a qualified “yes.” Which exposes a core truth about his anti-woke directives: They really do constitute efforts at state censorship, not just of concepts he likes to call “woke indoctrination” but also of viewpoints that are contested yet remain squarely within mainstream academic discourse.
The bizarre admission comes in a new filing by lawyers defending the Stop Woke Act against a lawsuit from professors and free-speech advocates who argue that it violates the First Amendment and restricts academic freedom. (Last November, a federal judge agreed, temporarily blocking the law’s application to public universities.) The plaintiffs have objected that under the law, a professor might risk her job by uttering the phrase “I agree with affirmative action.”...
(free access?) https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/07/11/desantis-stop-woke-act-affirm...
5John5918
State guard set up by DeSantis is being trained as personal militia, veterans say (Guardian)
A Florida state guard established by the rightwing governor, Ron DeSantis, under the guise of a civilian disaster relief force is instead being trained as an armed, combat-ready militia under his personal command, according to military veteran recruits who have quit the program. Several veterans resigned after an encampment last month having become concerned at the “militaristic” training and “abuse” one disabled veteran suffered at the hands of instructors... Promoted by DeSantis as an “emergency focused, civilian defense force” when it was established in June 2022, the state guard has quickly morphed into something quite different, the report found. Volunteers have been trained for military combat, including the use of weapons; khaki polo shirts and pants were replaced by camouflage uniforms; and recruits were “barked at” by boot camp instructors at the joint training base who woke them before dawn and imposed lights-out by 10pm. Additionally, DeSantis’s compliant, Republican-led state legislature has contributed to the change of direction, this year approving a massive expansion in the force’s funding, size and equipment. Its budget increased from $10m to $107.5m, and its maximum size more than tripled from 400 recruits to 1,500. On the governor’s shopping list were helicopters, boats, police powers and reportedly even cellphone-hacking technology for a force outside of federal jurisdiction, and accountable directly to him. “The program got hijacked and turned into something that we were trying to stay away from: a militia,” Brian Newhouse, a retired navy veteran with 20 years’ experience, told the reporters...
6margd
Opinion: In this mean-spirited moral free-for-all, we need to put justice back in charge
Rosalie Silberman Abella | August 14, 2023
...Regrettably, that regressive climate {vituperative reaction in which progressive judgments were anathema} is where we find ourselves today, especially about the judiciary. Critics call the good news of an independent judiciary the bad news of judicial autocracy. They call women and minorities seeking the right to be free from discrimination special interest groups seeking to jump the queue. They call efforts to reverse discrimination “reverse discrimination.” They say courts should only interpret, not make, law, thereby ignoring the entire history of common law. They call the advocates for diversity “biased” and defenders of social stagnation “impartial.” They prefer ideology to ideas, replacing the exquisite democratic choreography of checks and balances with the myopic march of majoritarianism.
All this has put us at the edge of a global era unlike any I’ve seen in my lifetime. We’re in a mean-spirited moral free-for-all, a climate polluted by bombastic insensitivity, antisemitism, racism, sexism, islamophobia, homophobia and discrimination generally. Too often, law and justice are in a dysfunctional relationship. Too often, hate kills, truth is homeless and lives don’t matter.
We need to put justice back in charge, and to do that, we need to put compassion back in the service of law and law in the service of humanity. We need the rule of justice, not just the rule of law. Otherwise, what’s the point of law? Or lawyers? What good is the rule of law if there’s no justice? And to make justice happen, we can never forget how the world looks to those who are vulnerable. It’s what I consider to be the law’s majestic purpose and the legal profession’s noble mandate...
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/08/14/justice-rule-of-law-ruth-bade...
Rosalie Silberman Abella | August 14, 2023
...Regrettably, that regressive climate {vituperative reaction in which progressive judgments were anathema} is where we find ourselves today, especially about the judiciary. Critics call the good news of an independent judiciary the bad news of judicial autocracy. They call women and minorities seeking the right to be free from discrimination special interest groups seeking to jump the queue. They call efforts to reverse discrimination “reverse discrimination.” They say courts should only interpret, not make, law, thereby ignoring the entire history of common law. They call the advocates for diversity “biased” and defenders of social stagnation “impartial.” They prefer ideology to ideas, replacing the exquisite democratic choreography of checks and balances with the myopic march of majoritarianism.
All this has put us at the edge of a global era unlike any I’ve seen in my lifetime. We’re in a mean-spirited moral free-for-all, a climate polluted by bombastic insensitivity, antisemitism, racism, sexism, islamophobia, homophobia and discrimination generally. Too often, law and justice are in a dysfunctional relationship. Too often, hate kills, truth is homeless and lives don’t matter.
We need to put justice back in charge, and to do that, we need to put compassion back in the service of law and law in the service of humanity. We need the rule of justice, not just the rule of law. Otherwise, what’s the point of law? Or lawyers? What good is the rule of law if there’s no justice? And to make justice happen, we can never forget how the world looks to those who are vulnerable. It’s what I consider to be the law’s majestic purpose and the legal profession’s noble mandate...
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/08/14/justice-rule-of-law-ruth-bade...
7margd
David Frum @davidfrum | 7:15 PM · Sep 6, 2023:
Sr editor at The Atlantic
Suppose secretaries of state in 1 or more swing states succeeded in keeping Trump off the ballot. Then suppose President Biden wins re-election by winning the Electoral Votes of states that debarred Trump. What does this country look like afterward? Chaos.*
You may ask, "What's the harm in at least trying the Section 3 remedy, then seeing what the federal courts say?" Hear are some harms, I'm sure there are others I've overlooked: (THREAD TO FOLLOW)
Harm 1
Pursuing Section 3 switches the ballot issue in 2024 from issues that mobilize anti-Trump coalition (abortion rights, 10% tariff hike on consumer goods, chaos and criminality) to one that mobilizes the pro-Trump coalition: "elites" rigging the system against Trump.
Harm 2
Pursuing Section 3 potentially demobilizes the anti-Trump coalition by feeding them false hope that "somebody else" will do the job of defeating Trump. The anti-Trump coalition is big but unstable, and it faces a voter turnout challenge among the younger and poorer.
Harm 3
Section 3 remedy entrusts way too much power to the federal courts. Courts have thus far done a decent job rejecting Trump's most outrageous legal claims and applying justice to Trump's criminal subordinates and followers. But ...
But ask the courts a tougher question you may not like the answer. What happens eg if the Supreme Court rules that January 6 2021 was *not* a "rebellion" in the sense contemplated by the 14th Amendment. They well might do that, and Trump would claim vindication.
Harm 4
The Section 3 pipe-dream will rapidly become a huge fund-raising project. Every dollar raised for this project diverts money that should be used to beat pro-Trump candidates down the ballot. (And of course there are grifters in anti-Trump America too.)
Harm 5, finale.
Despite the vast damage he has done, Trump has also unwittingly conferred gifts on US society. The most important: inspiring Americans to participate in their self-government to defeat Trump. The Section 3 idea invites Americans to delegate the job instead.
---------------------------------------------------------------
A clause in the Constitution may disqualify Trump from returning to the White House?
September 6, 20235:09 AM ET
Transcript (7-Minute Listen)
https://www.npr.org/2023/09/06/1197824633/a-clause-in-the-constitution-may-disqu...
Sr editor at The Atlantic
Suppose secretaries of state in 1 or more swing states succeeded in keeping Trump off the ballot. Then suppose President Biden wins re-election by winning the Electoral Votes of states that debarred Trump. What does this country look like afterward? Chaos.*
You may ask, "What's the harm in at least trying the Section 3 remedy, then seeing what the federal courts say?" Hear are some harms, I'm sure there are others I've overlooked: (THREAD TO FOLLOW)
Harm 1
Pursuing Section 3 switches the ballot issue in 2024 from issues that mobilize anti-Trump coalition (abortion rights, 10% tariff hike on consumer goods, chaos and criminality) to one that mobilizes the pro-Trump coalition: "elites" rigging the system against Trump.
Harm 2
Pursuing Section 3 potentially demobilizes the anti-Trump coalition by feeding them false hope that "somebody else" will do the job of defeating Trump. The anti-Trump coalition is big but unstable, and it faces a voter turnout challenge among the younger and poorer.
Harm 3
Section 3 remedy entrusts way too much power to the federal courts. Courts have thus far done a decent job rejecting Trump's most outrageous legal claims and applying justice to Trump's criminal subordinates and followers. But ...
But ask the courts a tougher question you may not like the answer. What happens eg if the Supreme Court rules that January 6 2021 was *not* a "rebellion" in the sense contemplated by the 14th Amendment. They well might do that, and Trump would claim vindication.
Harm 4
The Section 3 pipe-dream will rapidly become a huge fund-raising project. Every dollar raised for this project diverts money that should be used to beat pro-Trump candidates down the ballot. (And of course there are grifters in anti-Trump America too.)
Harm 5, finale.
Despite the vast damage he has done, Trump has also unwittingly conferred gifts on US society. The most important: inspiring Americans to participate in their self-government to defeat Trump. The Section 3 idea invites Americans to delegate the job instead.
---------------------------------------------------------------
A clause in the Constitution may disqualify Trump from returning to the White House?
September 6, 20235:09 AM ET
Transcript (7-Minute Listen)
https://www.npr.org/2023/09/06/1197824633/a-clause-in-the-constitution-may-disqu...
8John5918
Younger people more relaxed about alternatives to democracy, survey finds (Guardian)
Democracy remains popular across the world, but faced with a global array of challenges from inequality to the climate crisis, young people are far less likely than their elders to believe it can deliver on what concerns them. According to a major international survey of 30 countries published on Tuesday, 86% of respondents would prefer to live in a democratic state and only 20% believe authoritarian regimes are more capable of delivering “what citizens want”. However, only 57% of respondents aged 18 to 35 felt democracy was preferable to any other form of government, against 71% of those over 56, and 42% of younger people said they were supportive of military rule, against just 20% of older respondents... more than a third (35%) of young people felt a “strong leader” who did not hold elections or consult parliament was “a good way to run a country”.
“Our findings are both sobering and alarming,” said Mark Malloch Brown, OSF’s president and a former UN deputy secretary general. “People around the world still want to believe in democracy, but generation by generation that faith is fading as doubts grow about its ability to deliver concrete changes to their lives.” The polling revealed strong support for human rights, with majorities of between 85% and 95% in all regions and at every income level agreeing it was wrong for governments to violate individual rights on grounds of appearance, religion, sexual or gender orientation. At a time of multiplying national and international crises – respondents were most worried about poverty and inequality (20%), the climate crisis (20%) and corruption (18%) – more than half (53%) felt their country was heading in the wrong direction, and about a third said politicians were not working in their best interests... “Confidence in the foundational elements of democracy coexists with profound doubts about its real-world practice and impact”...
92wonderY
About yesterday’s announcement by Kevin McCarthy:
Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) summed up the day: “So let me get this straight: Republicans are threatening to remove their own Speaker, impeach the President, and shut down the government on September 30th—disrupting everyday people’s paychecks and general public operations. For what? I don’t think even they know.”
The center-right think tank American Action Forum’s vice president for economic policy, Gordon Gray, had an answer. Ever since the debt ceiling fight was resolved, he told Joan E. Greve of The Guardian, “there’s a big chunk of House Republicans who just want to break something. That’s just how some of these folks define governing. It’s how their constituents define success.”
Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) summed up the day: “So let me get this straight: Republicans are threatening to remove their own Speaker, impeach the President, and shut down the government on September 30th—disrupting everyday people’s paychecks and general public operations. For what? I don’t think even they know.”
The center-right think tank American Action Forum’s vice president for economic policy, Gordon Gray, had an answer. Ever since the debt ceiling fight was resolved, he told Joan E. Greve of The Guardian, “there’s a big chunk of House Republicans who just want to break something. That’s just how some of these folks define governing. It’s how their constituents define success.”
10John5918
‘We’re facing another old enemy’: Rushdie warns against global authoritarianism (Guardian)
Speaking in Philadelphia on Wednesday, Rushdie said US Republicans are moving away from democratic values including free speech... “If you asked me 10 or 20 years ago, I would probably have said that the main problems facing freedom of expression emanate from religious extremism,” Rushdie said. “I think now we’re facing another old enemy, which is authoritarianism. I think there’s a real rise in authoritarian movements around the world, populist authoritarian demagoguery. Coupled with that, {there is} a willingness amongst at least some part of the population to cease to value the democratic values enshrined in the first amendment. So I think the problem is, I would now say, political more than primarily religious”... Asked about the state of free speech in the US, Rushdie said: “One of the problems is you have essentially only one major political party that seems to believe in democratic values. And you have another one that seems to be doing everything it can to undermine them. When you have the large majority of Republican voters believing that the last election was stolen – as they do every time they’re asked, a very large majority of Republican voters believe that Donald Trump won the last election and that he was cheated of his victory – if the assault on truth has reached that level of success, then we’re in real trouble”...
11margd
David Frum @davidfrum | 10:13 PM · Sep 14, 2023:
https://twitter.com/davidfrum/status/1702505948038721763
If a president can pardon himself, he can commit any federal crime with impunity. He can counterfeit money, engage in piracy, murder the First Lady in the White House, then burn down the White House itself. If the legal outcome is absurd, the legal theory is wrong.
Some reply: Congress could impeach. But impeachment can impose no penalty beyond removal and disqualification. If the theory of self-pardon is true, a president who murdered the first lady on federal property and immediately pardoned himself would face no criminal penalty.
Impeachment as a remedy for presidential crime only works if the president can be prosecuted after he is removed. If a president can self-pardon, then the only penalty he'd face for murdering the first lady on federal property would be the loss of his job.
https://twitter.com/davidfrum/status/1702505948038721763
If a president can pardon himself, he can commit any federal crime with impunity. He can counterfeit money, engage in piracy, murder the First Lady in the White House, then burn down the White House itself. If the legal outcome is absurd, the legal theory is wrong.
Some reply: Congress could impeach. But impeachment can impose no penalty beyond removal and disqualification. If the theory of self-pardon is true, a president who murdered the first lady on federal property and immediately pardoned himself would face no criminal penalty.
Impeachment as a remedy for presidential crime only works if the president can be prosecuted after he is removed. If a president can self-pardon, then the only penalty he'd face for murdering the first lady on federal property would be the loss of his job.
12margd
MAGA threats:
From govt account, Rep Gosar calls for Gen Milley to be hanged.
https://twitter.com/jeffstorobinsky/status/1706093632795660626
https://thehill.com/homenews/house/4221450-gosar-milley-hung/
Trump threatens Dr. Fauci, Gen Milley ("treason"), NBC/MSNBC, Cassidy Hutchinson, Mike Pence, Cassidy Hutchinson.
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/09/trump-milley-execution-incitem...
https://twitter.com/MaddowBlog/status/1706501709978083379
DeSantis promised to slit throats in the civil service.
etc.... :(
________________________________________
Kyle Cheney @kyledcheney | 11:42 PM · Sep 25, 2023:
JUST IN: Trump’s lawyers filed a response to Jack Smith’s proposed gag order that is largely a political broadside against Joe Biden — but they also contend the proposal is too sweeping and restricts Trump’s protected speech.
#60 in United States v. TRUMP (D.D.C., 1:23-cr-00257) – CourtListener.com
Memorandum in Opposition by DONALD J. TRUMP re 57 Motion for Miscellaneous Relief, (Lauro, John) (Entered: 09/25/2023)
https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.258148/gov.uscourts.dcd...
------------------------------------------------------
Lisa Rubin (MSNBC) @lawofruby | 11:10 PM · Sep 25, 2023
NEW: Trump has filed his opposition Jack Smith’s team’s motion for limits on what Trump and his lawyers can say about witnesses and participants in the federal election interference case. And it’s a doozy... https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1706506529619206340.html
___________________________________________
Trump Visits Shop That Sold AR-15 Used in Racist Mass Shooting
Palmetto State Armory has a checkered history.
Ron Filipkowski | 9/25/2023
https://www.meidastouch.com/news/trump-visits-shop-that-sold-ar-15-used-in-racis...
From govt account, Rep Gosar calls for Gen Milley to be hanged.
https://twitter.com/jeffstorobinsky/status/1706093632795660626
https://thehill.com/homenews/house/4221450-gosar-milley-hung/
Trump threatens Dr. Fauci, Gen Milley ("treason"), NBC/MSNBC, Cassidy Hutchinson, Mike Pence, Cassidy Hutchinson.
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/09/trump-milley-execution-incitem...
https://twitter.com/MaddowBlog/status/1706501709978083379
DeSantis promised to slit throats in the civil service.
etc.... :(
________________________________________
Kyle Cheney @kyledcheney | 11:42 PM · Sep 25, 2023:
JUST IN: Trump’s lawyers filed a response to Jack Smith’s proposed gag order that is largely a political broadside against Joe Biden — but they also contend the proposal is too sweeping and restricts Trump’s protected speech.
#60 in United States v. TRUMP (D.D.C., 1:23-cr-00257) – CourtListener.com
Memorandum in Opposition by DONALD J. TRUMP re 57 Motion for Miscellaneous Relief, (Lauro, John) (Entered: 09/25/2023)
https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.258148/gov.uscourts.dcd...
------------------------------------------------------
Lisa Rubin (MSNBC) @lawofruby | 11:10 PM · Sep 25, 2023
NEW: Trump has filed his opposition Jack Smith’s team’s motion for limits on what Trump and his lawyers can say about witnesses and participants in the federal election interference case. And it’s a doozy... https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1706506529619206340.html
___________________________________________
Trump Visits Shop That Sold AR-15 Used in Racist Mass Shooting
Palmetto State Armory has a checkered history.
Ron Filipkowski | 9/25/2023
https://www.meidastouch.com/news/trump-visits-shop-that-sold-ar-15-used-in-racis...
13margd
>12 margd: contd.
"To view each of Trump's calls to violence in isolation -- "he attacked Milley," or "he attacked NBC," or "he attacked the jury, the prosecutor, the judge " -- is to miss his overall plan to "introduce() violence as a natural extension of our democratic disagreement.""
"As Trump responds to the legal cases against him and his supporters with ever increasing threats of violence, it is a reminder that Trump's most enduring legacy is already known. Me from @theatlantic
https://theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/06/trump-arraignment-florida-january-... "
-- Juliette Kayyem @juliettekayyem | 9:02 AM · Sep 25, 2023:
Prof @Kennedy_School, CNN National Security Analyst, @TheAtlantic , Consultant, Author. Obama @DHSgov
. Read THE DEVIL NEVER SLEEPS. Pulitzer finalist.
"To view each of Trump's calls to violence in isolation -- "he attacked Milley," or "he attacked NBC," or "he attacked the jury, the prosecutor, the judge " -- is to miss his overall plan to "introduce() violence as a natural extension of our democratic disagreement.""
"As Trump responds to the legal cases against him and his supporters with ever increasing threats of violence, it is a reminder that Trump's most enduring legacy is already known. Me from @theatlantic
https://theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/06/trump-arraignment-florida-january-... "
-- Juliette Kayyem @juliettekayyem | 9:02 AM · Sep 25, 2023:
Prof @Kennedy_School, CNN National Security Analyst, @TheAtlantic , Consultant, Author. Obama @DHSgov
. Read THE DEVIL NEVER SLEEPS. Pulitzer finalist.
14lriley
>13 margd: As I think most of us know one thing Donald is really good at is projection or projecting his crimes on others. The treason really happens on Jan. 6 when he badgers a crowd of his supporters into trying to stage a coup so as he could stay in power after he had lost the election. The Jan. 6 indictment really is a treason trial and so many of those who answered his call on Jan. 6 have been sentenced to prison some even to very long terms and all because he couldn't accept that he lost the Nov. 2020 election.
FWIW they should throw Trump's sorry ass into jail until he goes on trial. The main reason being his threats to judges, juries, witnesses, lawyers etc.etc. etc. No one else in this country would have gotten away with even a small fraction of what he's done since he's been indicted......and it's kind of proven his point of a two tiered justice system though he makes out like he's some kind of victim when over and over he's been the beneficiary. I don't get it really and it makes me wonder whether these justices have the guts to stick his ass away or even whether some kind of accommodation is going to be made for him if he's convicted.
FWIW they should throw Trump's sorry ass into jail until he goes on trial. The main reason being his threats to judges, juries, witnesses, lawyers etc.etc. etc. No one else in this country would have gotten away with even a small fraction of what he's done since he's been indicted......and it's kind of proven his point of a two tiered justice system though he makes out like he's some kind of victim when over and over he's been the beneficiary. I don't get it really and it makes me wonder whether these justices have the guts to stick his ass away or even whether some kind of accommodation is going to be made for him if he's convicted.
152wonderY
There are only a few news sources reporting this, that I can find. This private source appears to cover the details and history quite well.
North Carolina Republicans create "secret police force"
https://popular.info/p/north-carolina-republicans-create
Local news report:
https://www.wnct.com/news/north-carolina/secret-police-nc-legislators-gain-new-i...
Other reports:
https://crooksandliars.com/2023/10/who-needs-warrants-nc-republicans-create
https://politicalwire.com/2023/10/02/north-carolina-republicans-create-secret-po...
Worth noting to see how the major news sources report it.
North Carolina Republicans create "secret police force"
https://popular.info/p/north-carolina-republicans-create
Local news report:
https://www.wnct.com/news/north-carolina/secret-police-nc-legislators-gain-new-i...
Other reports:
https://crooksandliars.com/2023/10/who-needs-warrants-nc-republicans-create
https://politicalwire.com/2023/10/02/north-carolina-republicans-create-secret-po...
Worth noting to see how the major news sources report it.
16margd
The House GOP Is a Failed State
Kevin McCarthy’s ouster is dramatic evidence, if redundant, about the state of the modern GOP.
John F. Harris | 10/03/2023
...McCarthy’s ouster is dramatic evidence, if redundant, about the state of the modern GOP. A party that used to have an instinctual orientation toward authority and order — Democrats fall in love, went the old chestnut, while Republicans fall in line — is now animated by something akin to nihilism...
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2023/10/03/house-gop-failed-state-0011984...
Kevin McCarthy’s ouster is dramatic evidence, if redundant, about the state of the modern GOP.
John F. Harris | 10/03/2023
...McCarthy’s ouster is dramatic evidence, if redundant, about the state of the modern GOP. A party that used to have an instinctual orientation toward authority and order — Democrats fall in love, went the old chestnut, while Republicans fall in line — is now animated by something akin to nihilism...
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2023/10/03/house-gop-failed-state-0011984...
17margd
Anne Applebaum {The Atlantic} @anneapplebaum | 2:27 AM · Oct 4, 2023:
The US now has a multi-party political system that requires cross-party coalitions to create stable government, as in many European countries. American politicians just don't know it yet.
Discussed: https://twitter.com/anneapplebaum/status/1709455103042723933
The US now has a multi-party political system that requires cross-party coalitions to create stable government, as in many European countries. American politicians just don't know it yet.
Discussed: https://twitter.com/anneapplebaum/status/1709455103042723933
18margd
Don Moynihan @donmoyn | 6:08 PM · Oct 7, 2023:
Policy Professor @McCourtSchool Georgetown Immigrant. Administrative burdens guy.
The US does not have an Ambassador to Israel because Rand Paul is a Covid conspiracy crank. The US Navy in the region lacks a chief of naval operations b/c Tommy Tuberville is opposed to abortion.
"...Josh Hawley is blocking all Energy Department nominees because he is waiting on a radioactive waste action plan from the Biden administration. Ted Cruz is blocking Commerce Department appointees. Rand Paul is currently blocking all State Department nominees, because he says he wants more information about the origins of the Covid pandemic, a request unrelated to the qualifications of the appointees in question, and not a request the State Department can actually satisfy. The blockade affects more than 60 nominees, including 38 for ambassadorial posts. All but three of those ambassadors nominees are career officials, who tend to get the most diplomatically tricky positions that cannot be trusted to big donors who take the most glamorous Ambassador positions, including hotspots like Israel, Jordan, Egypt and Lebanon. Some have been waiting 18 months for their nomination to be confirmed. Seems like America would be better off having ambassadors in such places that were not dependent on the whims of Rand Paul..."
Text excerpt ( https://twitter.com/donmoyn/status/1710779225043542117/photo/1 )
-------------------------------------------
America has too many political appointees
Whats the sense of having 1,300 Senate-approved appointments if the Senate won't bother to approve them?
Don Moynihan | Jul 24, 2023
Does the following sound like a good way to run an organization? It takes over a year to find senior executives, four months for them to be approved, and then they leave within two years, starting the search process all over again. The top jobs are vacant about one quarter of the time. Oh, and the executives often lack relevant experience for the job...
More appointees = worse performance
As the appointment system has grown, the public sector became more politicized and sclerotic
The Senate isn’t doing its job when it comes to appointees
Acting like leaders
A bad system could get dramatically worse
https://donmoynihan.substack.com/p/america-has-too-many-political-appointees
Policy Professor @McCourtSchool Georgetown Immigrant. Administrative burdens guy.
The US does not have an Ambassador to Israel because Rand Paul is a Covid conspiracy crank. The US Navy in the region lacks a chief of naval operations b/c Tommy Tuberville is opposed to abortion.
"...Josh Hawley is blocking all Energy Department nominees because he is waiting on a radioactive waste action plan from the Biden administration. Ted Cruz is blocking Commerce Department appointees. Rand Paul is currently blocking all State Department nominees, because he says he wants more information about the origins of the Covid pandemic, a request unrelated to the qualifications of the appointees in question, and not a request the State Department can actually satisfy. The blockade affects more than 60 nominees, including 38 for ambassadorial posts. All but three of those ambassadors nominees are career officials, who tend to get the most diplomatically tricky positions that cannot be trusted to big donors who take the most glamorous Ambassador positions, including hotspots like Israel, Jordan, Egypt and Lebanon. Some have been waiting 18 months for their nomination to be confirmed. Seems like America would be better off having ambassadors in such places that were not dependent on the whims of Rand Paul..."
Text excerpt ( https://twitter.com/donmoyn/status/1710779225043542117/photo/1 )
-------------------------------------------
America has too many political appointees
Whats the sense of having 1,300 Senate-approved appointments if the Senate won't bother to approve them?
Don Moynihan | Jul 24, 2023
Does the following sound like a good way to run an organization? It takes over a year to find senior executives, four months for them to be approved, and then they leave within two years, starting the search process all over again. The top jobs are vacant about one quarter of the time. Oh, and the executives often lack relevant experience for the job...
More appointees = worse performance
As the appointment system has grown, the public sector became more politicized and sclerotic
The Senate isn’t doing its job when it comes to appointees
Acting like leaders
A bad system could get dramatically worse
https://donmoynihan.substack.com/p/america-has-too-many-political-appointees
19margd
>18 margd: contd.
Robbie Gramer @RobbieGramer | 5:18 PM · Oct 8, 2023:
National Security Reporter @ForeignPolicy
Thanks to a near-broken confirmation process, the US does not have a U.S. Ambassador in:
- Israel
- Egypt
- Lebanon
- Oman
- Kuwait
- No confirmed top USAID official for the Middle East for nearly 3 years
-No State Department Coordinator for Counterterrorism for nearly 2 years
Senate aides tell me that the Senate Foreign Relations Committee could rush-order a hearing for Biden’s Israel ambassador nominee - Jack Lew - as soon as this week, though no official announcement made yet
Sen. Chris Murphy in new statement urges the Senate to clear the backlog of national security nominees:
“This is an all hands on deck moment in history, and the administration needs a Senate-confirmed American diplomat present in every capital in the region as soon as possible”
We’ve written about this issue a lot. It doesn’t completely derail US policymaking but it gums up the works—and sets a ceiling on how much influence/access the US can have in foreign capitals, among many other more minor direct and indirect impacts:
The U.S. Lets Ambassador Posts Sit Empty for Years. China Doesn’t.
Crucial posts remain unfilled due to good old-fashioned Washington dysfunction.
Robbie Gramer, a diplomacy and national security reporter at Foreign Policy, and Jack Detsch, a Pentagon and national security reporter at Foreign Policy | January 19, 2023
https://foreignpolicy.com/2023/01/19/the-u-s-lets-ambassador-posts-sit-empty-for...
Robbie Gramer @RobbieGramer | 5:18 PM · Oct 8, 2023:
National Security Reporter @ForeignPolicy
Thanks to a near-broken confirmation process, the US does not have a U.S. Ambassador in:
- Israel
- Egypt
- Lebanon
- Oman
- Kuwait
- No confirmed top USAID official for the Middle East for nearly 3 years
-No State Department Coordinator for Counterterrorism for nearly 2 years
Senate aides tell me that the Senate Foreign Relations Committee could rush-order a hearing for Biden’s Israel ambassador nominee - Jack Lew - as soon as this week, though no official announcement made yet
Sen. Chris Murphy in new statement urges the Senate to clear the backlog of national security nominees:
“This is an all hands on deck moment in history, and the administration needs a Senate-confirmed American diplomat present in every capital in the region as soon as possible”
We’ve written about this issue a lot. It doesn’t completely derail US policymaking but it gums up the works—and sets a ceiling on how much influence/access the US can have in foreign capitals, among many other more minor direct and indirect impacts:
The U.S. Lets Ambassador Posts Sit Empty for Years. China Doesn’t.
Crucial posts remain unfilled due to good old-fashioned Washington dysfunction.
Robbie Gramer, a diplomacy and national security reporter at Foreign Policy, and Jack Detsch, a Pentagon and national security reporter at Foreign Policy | January 19, 2023
https://foreignpolicy.com/2023/01/19/the-u-s-lets-ambassador-posts-sit-empty-for...
20John5918
>19 margd:
Until COVID shut down international travel in 2020 I was travelling regularly to the USA with Sudanese and South Sudanese church leaders to lobby the US State Department and other government agencies for peace in those two countries. Especially in the latter years it was frustrating to meet professional staff persons who had a relatively good understanding, but who would tell us frankly that nothing constructive could happen as there were no decision makers in post at the head of their departments. The USA is fast losing international opportunities and influence due to the destructive political wrangling in your government.
Until COVID shut down international travel in 2020 I was travelling regularly to the USA with Sudanese and South Sudanese church leaders to lobby the US State Department and other government agencies for peace in those two countries. Especially in the latter years it was frustrating to meet professional staff persons who had a relatively good understanding, but who would tell us frankly that nothing constructive could happen as there were no decision makers in post at the head of their departments. The USA is fast losing international opportunities and influence due to the destructive political wrangling in your government.
21John5918
The universal rules of war that emerged after 1945 are being broken – and not just in the Middle East (Guardian)
The world’s agreement to protect civilians was never perfect. But that’s no excuse for leaders in Russia, the US and the UK to row back from it... The need to cause as little harm as possible to civilians is one of the laws of war. These laws have evolved over centuries. They have roots in the Old Testament, the Mahabharata and pronouncements by seventh-century Islamic leaders. The laws took the form of military codes and then, later, of international legal conventions. They covered things such as appropriate resort to force, use of particularly lethal weaponry, protections for medical and humanitarian agencies, the treatment of prisoners, respect for civilians and the safety of women. Respect for civilians is intrinsic to soldiering... the behavioural restraint that all such laws express and require has nevertheless saved many lives, preserved communities and helped to uphold truth and justice. As Anne Applebaum says in an essay in the Atlantic: “These documents have influenced real behaviour in the real world.” Hamas’s attacks on Israel, like the horrific killings in Kfar Aza and elsewhere, could not have been more contemptuous of this culture. Those who ordered and carried them out were trashing ancient norms, many with deep religious roots. But that does not mean those who retaliate are entitled to act in the same way to civilians on the other side... Israel has been atrociously wronged. But Israel and its allies remain bound to uphold their humane principles. Rules like the laws of war are sometimes dismissed as naive and impractical. Some culture warriors will denigrate them as luxury beliefs. But tell that to those who have survived because of them. Ask those who live in fear in lawless lands what they would prefer. Laws of war are part of the world’s imperfect networks of rules, norms and values, which protects human beings from anarchy. They attempt to describe how the world should work, especially in dangerous and conflicted times. They sometimes succeed and sometimes fail. But they are better than no networks and no rules... It’s not just the Middle East. Vladimir Putin’s Russia invaded Ukraine without embarrassment about any conventions it was brushing aside when it did so. Russia continues to target and attack civilian targets without shame. But the western democracies are not exempt from thinking that the rules do not apply to them. Twenty years ago, the US and the UK invaded Iraq without UN support and on doubtful legal grounds. If Donald Trump is elected next year, rules of every kind will be cast to the wind. The respect for international rules has weakened in Britain too. That’s partly a result of Brexit...
22margd
Here’s Why Mike Johnson Is More Dangerous Than Donald Trump
CHRISTOFACISM
The former president only cares about himself. The new Speaker of the House actually wants to make America a Christian theocracy.
David Rothkopf | Oct. 26, 2023
...Thomas Jefferson said he viewed with “solemn reverence that act of the whole of the American people” which established “a wall of separation between church and state.” George Washington approved a treaty that explicitly stated, “The government of the United States is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion.” The very First Amendment in America’s Bill of Rights states “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.” The principal author of the Constitution, James Madison, in his treatise, “Memorial and Remonstrance Against Religious Assessments,” described 15 reasons why the U.S. government must avoid backing any religion.
There is a reason the word “God” does not appear a single time in the Constitution. The founders were breaking with an England and Europe that were still in the thrall of the idea that rulers derived their powers from heaven above, “the divine right of kings.” But in the Constitution it explicitly states their view that the powers of government are derived “from the consent of the governed.”...
https://www.thedailybeast.com/heres-why-mike-johnson-is-more-dangerous-than-dona...
--------------------------------------------------------------
"consent of the governed" v. "God raises up the ones in authority...ordained..."
Ashton Pittman @ashtonpittman | 9:54 PM · Oct 25, 2023:
News Editor, Mississippi Free Press
When Mike Johnson says he believes God raises up the people in authority, you should absolutely believe him and absolutely understand he believes he was chosen by God for this job.
From Acyn
0:36 ( https://twitter.com/ashtonpittman/status/1717359117382152689 )
--------------------------------------------------------------
Ron Filipkowski @RonFilipkowski | 9:41 PM · Oct 26, 2023:
Editor-in Chief http://MeidasTouch.com
Speaker Mike Johnson tonight: “Someone asked me today in the media, ‘People are curious, what does Mike Johnson think about any issue?’ I said, ‘Well, go pick up a Bible off your shelf and read it. That’s my worldview.”
0:13 ( https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/status/1717718043525099743 )
CHRISTOFACISM
The former president only cares about himself. The new Speaker of the House actually wants to make America a Christian theocracy.
David Rothkopf | Oct. 26, 2023
...Thomas Jefferson said he viewed with “solemn reverence that act of the whole of the American people” which established “a wall of separation between church and state.” George Washington approved a treaty that explicitly stated, “The government of the United States is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion.” The very First Amendment in America’s Bill of Rights states “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.” The principal author of the Constitution, James Madison, in his treatise, “Memorial and Remonstrance Against Religious Assessments,” described 15 reasons why the U.S. government must avoid backing any religion.
There is a reason the word “God” does not appear a single time in the Constitution. The founders were breaking with an England and Europe that were still in the thrall of the idea that rulers derived their powers from heaven above, “the divine right of kings.” But in the Constitution it explicitly states their view that the powers of government are derived “from the consent of the governed.”...
https://www.thedailybeast.com/heres-why-mike-johnson-is-more-dangerous-than-dona...
--------------------------------------------------------------
"consent of the governed" v. "God raises up the ones in authority...ordained..."
Ashton Pittman @ashtonpittman | 9:54 PM · Oct 25, 2023:
News Editor, Mississippi Free Press
When Mike Johnson says he believes God raises up the people in authority, you should absolutely believe him and absolutely understand he believes he was chosen by God for this job.
From Acyn
0:36 ( https://twitter.com/ashtonpittman/status/1717359117382152689 )
--------------------------------------------------------------
Ron Filipkowski @RonFilipkowski | 9:41 PM · Oct 26, 2023:
Editor-in Chief http://MeidasTouch.com
Speaker Mike Johnson tonight: “Someone asked me today in the media, ‘People are curious, what does Mike Johnson think about any issue?’ I said, ‘Well, go pick up a Bible off your shelf and read it. That’s my worldview.”
0:13 ( https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/status/1717718043525099743 )
23John5918
>22 margd:
We must be reading different bibles. When I go and pick up and read the bible off my shelf, it tells me to love my neighbour; to take care of the poor, the hungry, the sick, the prisoner and the stranger (read migrant); to be a peacemaker; to do what is right, show mercy and walk humbly; to bring good news to the afflicted, proclaim liberty to captives and let the oppressed go free; etc, etc. I eagerly await the US Republican party putting this bible into practice.
We must be reading different bibles. When I go and pick up and read the bible off my shelf, it tells me to love my neighbour; to take care of the poor, the hungry, the sick, the prisoner and the stranger (read migrant); to be a peacemaker; to do what is right, show mercy and walk humbly; to bring good news to the afflicted, proclaim liberty to captives and let the oppressed go free; etc, etc. I eagerly await the US Republican party putting this bible into practice.
24margd
>23 John5918: Long time since I read The Reformation: A History by Diarmaid MacCulloch but one takeaway was that the splintering continues in America. My impression of a very tiny Pentecostal splinter (much less thoughtful, I'm sure, than Johnson's) was of a free-for-all, uncritical reading of the Bible. Lots of politics. Conspiracy theories abounded. Tithing members, mostly all of very modest means. Perceived financial grab lost them at least one family. Quick check of the pastor's education and history did not inspire confidence, but redemption, y'know? A number of people in the tiny congregation considered themselves ministers. Lovely people, individually, but felt like a cult...
25John5918
>24 margd: uncritical reading of the Bible
While all of that is true, I think "uncritical reading of the Bible" is one of the key factors. Take a more than two thousand year old text, which is not actually a single book but a whole library of books written at different times by different authors in different languages for different reasons for different audiences using different literary techniques and genres, from a nomadic pastoralist middle eastern community, and claim to understand it by a literalist reading of it in a modern language in north America without any reference to how the book/library has been developed, used and interpreted in previous centuries nor to modern scholarship... a recipe for misunderstanding and disaster.
While all of that is true, I think "uncritical reading of the Bible" is one of the key factors. Take a more than two thousand year old text, which is not actually a single book but a whole library of books written at different times by different authors in different languages for different reasons for different audiences using different literary techniques and genres, from a nomadic pastoralist middle eastern community, and claim to understand it by a literalist reading of it in a modern language in north America without any reference to how the book/library has been developed, used and interpreted in previous centuries nor to modern scholarship... a recipe for misunderstanding and disaster.
26davidgn
>22 margd: Argentina, in typically straightforward fashion, offers citizenship after two years of legal presence, or permanent residency after three.
27margd
@judgeluttig @judgeluttig | 4:24 PM · Oct 12, 2023
Here is the YouTube video of the Checks & Balances @chkbal conversation today that @DavidAFrench
and I had about the Disqualification Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and its application to the former president. I think we addressed each of the very few serious arguments -- constitutional and political -- against disqualification of the former president under Section 3 (of 14th Amendment), as well as what I consider to be the convincing arguments for the former president's disqualification.
https://twitter.com/judgeluttig/status/1712564888344875276
-----------------------------------------------
Recording: Section Three: Constitutional Remedy or Pipe Dream? (0:55 --1st 4 min are intro remarks)
Checks & Balances | Oct 12, 2023
This virtual event, featuring Judge J. Michael Luttig and David French, was held on October 12th, 2023.
The speakers discussed the legal merits of the argument put forward by authors William Baude and Michael Stokes Paulsen in their forthcoming article “The Sweep and Force of Section Three,”* which posits that Section Three of the 14th Amendment renders the former president Constitutionally ineligible to serve another term.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqHJ-1qEj_M
--------------------------------------------------
* Baude, William and Paulsen, Michael Stokes, The Sweep and Force of Section Three (August 9, 2023). University of Pennsylvania Law Review, Vol. 172, Forthcoming , Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4532751 https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4532751
Abstract
Section Three of the Fourteenth Amendment forbids holding office by former office holders who then participate in insurrection or rebellion. Because of a range of misperceptions and mistaken assumptions, Section Three’s full legal consequences have not been appreciated or enforced. This article corrects those mistakes by setting forth the full sweep and force of Section Three.
First, Section Three remains an enforceable part of the Constitution, not limited to the Civil War, and not effectively repealed by nineteenth century amnesty legislation. Second, Section Three is self-executing, operating as an immediate disqualification from office, without the need for additional action by Congress. It can and should be enforced by every official, state or federal, who judges qualifications. Third, to the extent of any conflict with prior constitutional rules, Section Three repeals, supersedes, or simply satisfies them. This includes the rules against bills of attainder or ex post facto laws, the Due Process Clause, and even the free speech principles of the First Amendment. Fourth, Section Three covers a broad range of conduct against the authority of the constitutional order, including many instances of indirect participation or support as “aid or comfort.” It covers a broad range of former offices, including the Presidency. And in particular, it disqualifies former President Donald Trump, and potentially many others, because of their participation in the attempted overthrow of the 2020 presidential election.
Here is the YouTube video of the Checks & Balances @chkbal conversation today that @DavidAFrench
and I had about the Disqualification Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and its application to the former president. I think we addressed each of the very few serious arguments -- constitutional and political -- against disqualification of the former president under Section 3 (of 14th Amendment), as well as what I consider to be the convincing arguments for the former president's disqualification.
https://twitter.com/judgeluttig/status/1712564888344875276
-----------------------------------------------
Recording: Section Three: Constitutional Remedy or Pipe Dream? (0:55 --1st 4 min are intro remarks)
Checks & Balances | Oct 12, 2023
This virtual event, featuring Judge J. Michael Luttig and David French, was held on October 12th, 2023.
The speakers discussed the legal merits of the argument put forward by authors William Baude and Michael Stokes Paulsen in their forthcoming article “The Sweep and Force of Section Three,”* which posits that Section Three of the 14th Amendment renders the former president Constitutionally ineligible to serve another term.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqHJ-1qEj_M
--------------------------------------------------
* Baude, William and Paulsen, Michael Stokes, The Sweep and Force of Section Three (August 9, 2023). University of Pennsylvania Law Review, Vol. 172, Forthcoming , Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4532751 https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4532751
Abstract
Section Three of the Fourteenth Amendment forbids holding office by former office holders who then participate in insurrection or rebellion. Because of a range of misperceptions and mistaken assumptions, Section Three’s full legal consequences have not been appreciated or enforced. This article corrects those mistakes by setting forth the full sweep and force of Section Three.
First, Section Three remains an enforceable part of the Constitution, not limited to the Civil War, and not effectively repealed by nineteenth century amnesty legislation. Second, Section Three is self-executing, operating as an immediate disqualification from office, without the need for additional action by Congress. It can and should be enforced by every official, state or federal, who judges qualifications. Third, to the extent of any conflict with prior constitutional rules, Section Three repeals, supersedes, or simply satisfies them. This includes the rules against bills of attainder or ex post facto laws, the Due Process Clause, and even the free speech principles of the First Amendment. Fourth, Section Three covers a broad range of conduct against the authority of the constitutional order, including many instances of indirect participation or support as “aid or comfort.” It covers a broad range of former offices, including the Presidency. And in particular, it disqualifies former President Donald Trump, and potentially many others, because of their participation in the attempted overthrow of the 2020 presidential election.
28Molly3028
https://www.rawstory.com/trump-alexander-hamilton/
A 'prophetic' Alexander Hamilton note described Trump almost to a T
In the letter, Hamilton outlines his worries about a demagogue rising to power through unprincipled attacks on the entire governing class that went along with promises that he alone could fix what ails the nation.
"When a man unprincipled in private life desperate in his fortune, bold in his temper, (possessed of considerable talents, having the advantage of military habits), despotic in his ordinary demeanor, known to have scoffed in private at the principles of liberty, when such a man is seen to mount the hobby horse of popularity, to join in the cry of danger to liberty, to take every opportunity of embarrassing the General Government & bringing it under suspicion, to flatter and fall in with all the nonsense of the zealots of the day, it may justly be suspected that his object is to throw things into confusion that he may ‘ride the storm and direct the whirlwind,’" stated the letter from Hamilton.
***
Sadly, this whole statement fits Trump and the MAGA participants perfectly.
A 'prophetic' Alexander Hamilton note described Trump almost to a T
In the letter, Hamilton outlines his worries about a demagogue rising to power through unprincipled attacks on the entire governing class that went along with promises that he alone could fix what ails the nation.
"When a man unprincipled in private life desperate in his fortune, bold in his temper, (possessed of considerable talents, having the advantage of military habits), despotic in his ordinary demeanor, known to have scoffed in private at the principles of liberty, when such a man is seen to mount the hobby horse of popularity, to join in the cry of danger to liberty, to take every opportunity of embarrassing the General Government & bringing it under suspicion, to flatter and fall in with all the nonsense of the zealots of the day, it may justly be suspected that his object is to throw things into confusion that he may ‘ride the storm and direct the whirlwind,’" stated the letter from Hamilton.
***
Sadly, this whole statement fits Trump and the MAGA participants perfectly.
29margd
Jewish-American Rep Jamie Raskin defends First Amendment rights of Palestinian-American Rep Rashida Tlaib ("From the river to the sea"):
Raskin slams 'cancel culture' (12:59)
Forbes | 7 Nov 2023
https://twitter.com/tribelaw/status/1722283044982382743
_______________________________________________
House passes resolution to censure Tlaib over Israel comments
Clare Foran, Melanie Zanona, Annie Grayer and Morgan Rimmer | November 8, 2023
...The vote was 234 to 188 with four Republicans voting against and 22 Democrats voting in support of the censure resolution...introduced by Georgia GOP Rep. Rich McCormick
... Following the vote to advance the censure resolution, Tlaib delivered an emotional speech on the House floor...“It is important to separate people and governments. No government is beyond criticism. The idea that criticizing the government of Israel is antisemitic sets a very dangerous precedent, and it’s been used to silence diverse voices speaking up for human rights across our nation...I can’t believe I have to say this, but Palestinian people are not disposable. We are human beings just like anyone else”.
...A censure resolution is one of the most severe forms of punishment in the House, which has historically been saved for the most egregious offenses such as a criminal conviction. A censure does not remove a member from the House and carries no explicit penalties beyond a public admonition.
Most recently, the House voted to censure Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff of California in June, a key lawmaker in the Democrats’ congressional investigations into former President Donald Trump...
https://www.cnn.com/2023/11/07/politics/rashida-tlaib-censure-vote/index.html
Raskin slams 'cancel culture' (12:59)
Forbes | 7 Nov 2023
https://twitter.com/tribelaw/status/1722283044982382743
_______________________________________________
House passes resolution to censure Tlaib over Israel comments
Clare Foran, Melanie Zanona, Annie Grayer and Morgan Rimmer | November 8, 2023
...The vote was 234 to 188 with four Republicans voting against and 22 Democrats voting in support of the censure resolution...introduced by Georgia GOP Rep. Rich McCormick
... Following the vote to advance the censure resolution, Tlaib delivered an emotional speech on the House floor...“It is important to separate people and governments. No government is beyond criticism. The idea that criticizing the government of Israel is antisemitic sets a very dangerous precedent, and it’s been used to silence diverse voices speaking up for human rights across our nation...I can’t believe I have to say this, but Palestinian people are not disposable. We are human beings just like anyone else”.
...A censure resolution is one of the most severe forms of punishment in the House, which has historically been saved for the most egregious offenses such as a criminal conviction. A censure does not remove a member from the House and carries no explicit penalties beyond a public admonition.
Most recently, the House voted to censure Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff of California in June, a key lawmaker in the Democrats’ congressional investigations into former President Donald Trump...
https://www.cnn.com/2023/11/07/politics/rashida-tlaib-censure-vote/index.html
30John5918
Geert Wilders’ win shows the far right is being normalised. Mainstream parties must act (Guardian)
That sentence on "economic protection from the state" is ironic since conservative parties traditionally oppose state intervention and proectionism. Isn't the availability (and thus movement) of labour a necessary part of the capitalist free market philosophy?
The Party for Freedom leader succeeded last week because he has become part of the Dutch political furniture. This disturbing trend needs to be halted... Far-right parties in Europe primarily attract voters on their core issues of immigration and multiculturalism. Most also express a populist message, criticising political elites and calling for popular sovereignty. Wilders’ PVV is no different... Wilders linked economic and cultural issues, claiming that welfare should be preserved for the “native” population by halting immigration and limiting benefits for “undeserving” ethnic minorities. This “welfare chauvinist” position is typical of far-right parties, and appeals to culturally conservative voters who desire economic protection from the state... All this signifies the normalisation of far-right politics. In 2000, when the Austrian Freedom party entered a coalition, other countries widely condemned the move and the EU imposed diplomatic sanctions. In 2023 it is common for European countries to be governed by far-right parties often in collaboration with centre-right parties... Mainstream politicians have a moral obligation to uphold liberal democratic norms. While citizens’ concerns about cultural change and immigration can be legitimate, there is something fundamentally problematic about the far right’s idea of a “leading culture”. Society is inherently diverse, comprising individuals and groups with differing values and preferences. “The voter”, a term repeatedly used by Dutch politicians to suggest that citizens are united in their beliefs, does not exist. Mainstream parties should recognise this and steer well clear of the far right’s anti-liberal frame that there is a “general will”.
That sentence on "economic protection from the state" is ironic since conservative parties traditionally oppose state intervention and proectionism. Isn't the availability (and thus movement) of labour a necessary part of the capitalist free market philosophy?
31John5918
From Gaza to Ukraine, what would the pioneers of human rights think of our world today? (Guardian)
During the week when we mark 75 years of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the 1948 convention on the prevention and punishment of genocide, I have been thinking about the genesis of both events and how we should commemorate them now. Adopted within 24 hours of each other in Paris in December 1948, the universal declaration seeks to protect individuals, while the convention seeks to protect groups. That moment in Paris was revolutionary: a recognition that the rights of the state are not unlimited, that the days of being allowed as a matter of law to trample over human lives were over...
33margd
2 bitter wars with a long history and no solution in sight
Greg Myre | December 29, 2023
{Anne Applebaum} "I think we've reached the end of a particular period in history when it was even possible to talk about some kind of universal values or rules"
"The (Russian) tactics have been to hit civilians, hit sites of industrial production, hit the electricity grid, hit hospitals...The war in Ukraine is really an attack on those laws, on that system itself."
..."In an era of really harsh partisanship {in US}, it will be much more difficult to maintain a consistent foreign policy over time...The assumption that the U.S. could at least be relied on to have the same policy over several different administrations, that probably belongs to the past"...
https://www.npr.org/2023/12/29/1219717852/2-bitter-wars-with-a-long-history-and-...
Greg Myre | December 29, 2023
{Anne Applebaum} "I think we've reached the end of a particular period in history when it was even possible to talk about some kind of universal values or rules"
"The (Russian) tactics have been to hit civilians, hit sites of industrial production, hit the electricity grid, hit hospitals...The war in Ukraine is really an attack on those laws, on that system itself."
..."In an era of really harsh partisanship {in US}, it will be much more difficult to maintain a consistent foreign policy over time...The assumption that the U.S. could at least be relied on to have the same policy over several different administrations, that probably belongs to the past"...
https://www.npr.org/2023/12/29/1219717852/2-bitter-wars-with-a-long-history-and-...
34John5918
>33 margd: "The (Russian) tactics have been to hit civilians, hit sites of industrial production, hit the electricity grid, hit hospitals...The war in Ukraine is really an attack on those laws, on that system itself."
Thanks for posting this. The author is speaking of two wars, Russia-Ukraine and Israel-Palestine, as the title suggests, but I think it's worth reposting that quote substituting "Israel" for "Russia": "The {Israeli} tactics have been to hit civilians, hit sites of industrial production, hit the electricity grid, hit hospitals...The war in {Palestine} is really an attack on those laws, on that system itself."
The same could be said of the current war in Sudan, and was certainly true of many of the main belligerents in Wordl War II: "The (German, British, US and Russian) tactics have been to hit civilians, hit sites of industrial production, hit the electricity grid, hit hospitals..." There is no such thing as a "good war".
Thanks for posting this. The author is speaking of two wars, Russia-Ukraine and Israel-Palestine, as the title suggests, but I think it's worth reposting that quote substituting "Israel" for "Russia": "The {Israeli} tactics have been to hit civilians, hit sites of industrial production, hit the electricity grid, hit hospitals...The war in {Palestine} is really an attack on those laws, on that system itself."
The same could be said of the current war in Sudan, and was certainly true of many of the main belligerents in Wordl War II: "The (German, British, US and Russian) tactics have been to hit civilians, hit sites of industrial production, hit the electricity grid, hit hospitals..." There is no such thing as a "good war".
35margd
>34 John5918: There is no such thing as a "good war".
"War may be necessary and right, even though it may not be good. In the case of a country that has been invaded by an occupying force, war may be the only way to restore justice." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Just_war_theory
"Just war" criteria can be applied to Russian invasion of Ukraine, but not Sudan and Syria and Burma and ________? Israel/Palestine and South Africa and Yugoslavia are in between?
"War may be necessary and right, even though it may not be good. In the case of a country that has been invaded by an occupying force, war may be the only way to restore justice." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Just_war_theory
"Just war" criteria can be applied to Russian invasion of Ukraine, but not Sudan and Syria and Burma and ________? Israel/Palestine and South Africa and Yugoslavia are in between?
36John5918
>34 John5918:
Jus ad bellum (moral justifications for going to war) requires not only that the cause for war is just, but also that the right authority makes the decision; the decision is made with the right intention of bringing about peace; the war is a last resort; the overall evil of the war does not outweigh the good. One also has to take account of jus in bello (moral principles to follow during war), which include the treatment of prisoners, requires the protection of civilians, and prohibits the disproportionate use of force. A third part of just war theory is jus post bellum, denoting justice after war. (link)
Most people would agree that the Ukraine conflict meets most of the criteria for Jus ad bellum, but arguably the last one ("the overall evil of the war does not outweigh the good") cannot be met. Also it seems that there is no "right intention of bringing about peace", as both protagonists seem more intent on military "victory" than seeking peace. The principles of jus in bello are not being followed (protection of civilians and disproportionate use of force), and there is no guarantee of jus post bellum. I wouldn't be too quick to declare the slaughter and destruction going on in Ukraine as justified.
Not sure how you figure that Israel/Palestine is "in between". While Israel has a right to defend itself against Hamas, the campaign that Israel is currently waging does not meet any of the criteria of a just war as far as I can see. There was a "just cause" for self defence, but not for a completely disproportionate genocidal response which includes the slaughter of tens of thousand of civilians, the deliberate destruction of homes, infrastructure, health facilities, etc, the forcible displacement of a huge percentage of the population, and refusal to allow humanitarian assistance.
Jus ad bellum (moral justifications for going to war) requires not only that the cause for war is just, but also that the right authority makes the decision; the decision is made with the right intention of bringing about peace; the war is a last resort; the overall evil of the war does not outweigh the good. One also has to take account of jus in bello (moral principles to follow during war), which include the treatment of prisoners, requires the protection of civilians, and prohibits the disproportionate use of force. A third part of just war theory is jus post bellum, denoting justice after war. (link)
Most people would agree that the Ukraine conflict meets most of the criteria for Jus ad bellum, but arguably the last one ("the overall evil of the war does not outweigh the good") cannot be met. Also it seems that there is no "right intention of bringing about peace", as both protagonists seem more intent on military "victory" than seeking peace. The principles of jus in bello are not being followed (protection of civilians and disproportionate use of force), and there is no guarantee of jus post bellum. I wouldn't be too quick to declare the slaughter and destruction going on in Ukraine as justified.
Not sure how you figure that Israel/Palestine is "in between". While Israel has a right to defend itself against Hamas, the campaign that Israel is currently waging does not meet any of the criteria of a just war as far as I can see. There was a "just cause" for self defence, but not for a completely disproportionate genocidal response which includes the slaughter of tens of thousand of civilians, the deliberate destruction of homes, infrastructure, health facilities, etc, the forcible displacement of a huge percentage of the population, and refusal to allow humanitarian assistance.
37margd
We'll never agree on Ukraine, I think, because the damage that is being avoided can never be quantified.
{ETA: One might note, however, that meeting little reaction in 2014 when it took Crimea and eastern Ukraine, Russia came for the rest of Ukraine in Feb 2021, in the most brutal manner. Moldova and other European countries have reason to worry, esp., if Russian invasion of Ukraine is unchallenged. Finland and Sweden are so concerned they actually broke long held independence and formally joined NATO.}
Israel/Palestine is "in between" outside-invasion and internal-war, depending on whether two-state or one. It was one--some aim for two--states? I'm not sure which would be the right and just outcome. A Mandela and/or Messiah needed, that's for sure.
{ETA: One might note, however, that meeting little reaction in 2014 when it took Crimea and eastern Ukraine, Russia came for the rest of Ukraine in Feb 2021, in the most brutal manner. Moldova and other European countries have reason to worry, esp., if Russian invasion of Ukraine is unchallenged. Finland and Sweden are so concerned they actually broke long held independence and formally joined NATO.}
Israel/Palestine is "in between" outside-invasion and internal-war, depending on whether two-state or one. It was one--some aim for two--states? I'm not sure which would be the right and just outcome. A Mandela and/or Messiah needed, that's for sure.
38John5918
Claudine Gay’s resignation had nothing to do with plagiarism
Al Sharpton says ousted Harvard chief was ‘scapegoat’ in fight against diversity
Both from the Guardian
Any political observer who is not too stupid or too full of himself to notice what is going on knows that the resignation of Claudine Gay, the president of Harvard University who was driven from her job this week, had nothing to do with plagiarism. There are all sorts of factors that make this obvious: there is the reality that Gay’s field, political science, is a data-driven discipline in which abstracts from one paper are not-infrequently copied as parts of a literature review in another, and that the borrowed phrases and summaries that account for Gay’s “plagiarism” are not crimes of theft but of sloppiness, with little bearing on the originality of her work. There is the fact that Gay’s “plagiarism” scandal arose belatedly, brought up in tenuous relation to a similarly fatuous and opportunistic false claim by the Republican congresswoman Elise Stefanik that Gay had abetted antisemitism at Harvard. (The same accusation also led to the ouster, last month, of the University of Pennsylvania president, M Elizabeth Magill). There is the fact that rightwing propagandists, prominently the anti-education crusader Christopher Rufo, openly admitted the pretextual nature of their plagiarism smear against Gay, and frankly spoke of their intention to manipulate the national media into creating a baseless controversy that would drive Gay, Harvard’s first Black president and only the second woman to lead the university, out of her job. But recounting all of this is tedious, and cedes the terms of the debate to the authors of this false controversy–fighting on their territory, arguing the questions they pose, giving good-faith rebuttals to allegations they do not pretend to believe even as they make them. As the sociologist Victor Ray put it, “Accepting the bad-faith framing is a choice to ally oneself with the bad-faith actors.” But this is what much of the mainstream media, over the past weeks of the so-called “controversy” over Gay’s tenure at Harvard, has been doing with unnerving enthusiasm...
Al Sharpton says ousted Harvard chief was ‘scapegoat’ in fight against diversity
The civil rights leader the Rev Al Sharpton hosted a protest outside the office of the Harvard alumnus Bill Ackman on Thursday after Ackman criticized diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives at Harvard following the resignation of the former university president Claudine Gay... “They {have} said that this will now be the first step in their fight against diversity, equity and inclusion,” Sharpton said. “Since they want to make it a fight, we’ve come to their office to let them know that we’re prepared to fight,” he added. Sharpton was also joined by the New York City comptroller, Brad Lander, who is Jewish. Lander criticized Ackman’s remarks as antithetical to addressing antisemitism. “What I know for certain is that the way we will defeat antisemitism is by joining together in struggle with leaders for diversity and inclusion,” Lander said...
Both from the Guardian
39davidgn
>37 margd: The history is rather different than you lay it out, but it's pretty clear we're not going to agree on that. I've shared any number of documents that re-frame the narrative more objectively, but with an all-encompassing propaganda machine working overtime, I can't be surprised that you (or most) are unable to take their perspectives on board.
Nevertheless, let me share one more, from our last ambassador to the Soviet Union, Jack Matlock, on the eve of the invasion.
Kennan would be rolling in his grave.
I was there: NATO and the origins of the Ukraine crisis
After the fall of the Soviet Union, I told the Senate that expansion would lead us to where we are today.
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/2022/02/15/the-origins-of-the-ukraine-crisis-a...
with an update from the good Ambassador's blog ca. November '22.
https://jackmatlock.com/2022/11/there-must-be-a-negotiated-settlement-with-russi...
And here's Professor Jeffrey Sachs, who lays out all the updates as of this month -- including many of the scandalous developments that never seem to get much play in our media. Minsk II was a good deal and we should have ensured it was implemented, rather than using it as a delaying tactic to arm Ukraine -- as Merkel et al. have openly confessed. That would have prevented the war entirely. Sadly, preventing war was never really on the West's agenda.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnS_e0n476Y
The only silver lining I see is that Putin is not quite the insane ravenous imperialist he is made out to be. If he were (or, more chillingly, if a succeeding Russian leader should so prove -- which is a very legitimate consideration), we would be quite as screwed as the most shrill hyperbole of the neocon hawks have made out. The current situation is bad enough, and it is of our own making. History (assuming the future retains the ability to support the historian's enterprise) will once day show as much.
ETA:
Incidentally, a forthcoming publication very much worth looking out for next year --
https://twitter.com/I_Katchanovski/status/1712523242332733816 from Ivan Katchanovski (who, among other things, has done yeoman's work on illuminating certain elements of covert statecraft carried out during the Maidan)
But probably the wrong thread.
Nevertheless, let me share one more, from our last ambassador to the Soviet Union, Jack Matlock, on the eve of the invasion.
Kennan would be rolling in his grave.
I was there: NATO and the origins of the Ukraine crisis
After the fall of the Soviet Union, I told the Senate that expansion would lead us to where we are today.
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/2022/02/15/the-origins-of-the-ukraine-crisis-a...
with an update from the good Ambassador's blog ca. November '22.
https://jackmatlock.com/2022/11/there-must-be-a-negotiated-settlement-with-russi...
And here's Professor Jeffrey Sachs, who lays out all the updates as of this month -- including many of the scandalous developments that never seem to get much play in our media. Minsk II was a good deal and we should have ensured it was implemented, rather than using it as a delaying tactic to arm Ukraine -- as Merkel et al. have openly confessed. That would have prevented the war entirely. Sadly, preventing war was never really on the West's agenda.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnS_e0n476Y
The only silver lining I see is that Putin is not quite the insane ravenous imperialist he is made out to be. If he were (or, more chillingly, if a succeeding Russian leader should so prove -- which is a very legitimate consideration), we would be quite as screwed as the most shrill hyperbole of the neocon hawks have made out. The current situation is bad enough, and it is of our own making. History (assuming the future retains the ability to support the historian's enterprise) will once day show as much.
ETA:
Incidentally, a forthcoming publication very much worth looking out for next year --
https://twitter.com/I_Katchanovski/status/1712523242332733816 from Ivan Katchanovski (who, among other things, has done yeoman's work on illuminating certain elements of covert statecraft carried out during the Maidan)
But probably the wrong thread.
40margd
>39 davidgn: it's pretty clear we're not going to agree
Yes.
--------------------------------------------------
Michael McFaul McFaul | 2:17 AM · Jan 5, 2024:
Professor of Political Science, Director of Freeman Spogli Institute & Hoover Senior Fellow all at Stanford University. U.S. Ambassador to Russia, 2012-2014.
We disarmed Ukraine in 1994.
We gave Ukraine hardly any arms after Putin invaded in 2014.
We failed to deter Putin's invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
We cannot fail Ukraine again by delaying military aid any longer in 2024.
We're better than that.
Yes.
--------------------------------------------------
Michael McFaul McFaul | 2:17 AM · Jan 5, 2024:
Professor of Political Science, Director of Freeman Spogli Institute & Hoover Senior Fellow all at Stanford University. U.S. Ambassador to Russia, 2012-2014.
We disarmed Ukraine in 1994.
We gave Ukraine hardly any arms after Putin invaded in 2014.
We failed to deter Putin's invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
We cannot fail Ukraine again by delaying military aid any longer in 2024.
We're better than that.
41John5918
From Gaza to Ukraine, brute force threatens to triumph in 2024 (Guardian)
Assassinations, atrocities and invasions, along with uncertain US leadership, presage a year of rising violence...
42John5918
>40 margd:
That sound bite is a very selective check list. Including many of the factors which davidgn and others have provided would give a rather more nuanced and comprehensive picture.
That sound bite is a very selective check list. Including many of the factors which davidgn and others have provided would give a rather more nuanced and comprehensive picture.
43davidgn
>40 margd: I never came out decisively against funding Ukraine further. My position, though, is that it won't change the ultimate outcome. From a cynical perspective, one might argue it would be better to postpone the final settlement (or collapse) -- if possible -- until after the U.S. elections. But that would amount to exchanging Ukrainian blood for Democratic electoral prospects (and, some might add, some more Russian blood -- if that's the sort of thing that floats their boat). A rather fraught calculus, I'd say.
Some fun leisure material to review.
https://jamestown.org/event/watch-the-video-preparing-for-the-dissolution-of-the...
ETA:
And a major point you may want to add to the timeline.
https://www.intellinews.com/top-ukrainian-politician-david-arakhamia-gives-seven...
ETA:
Finally, don't think I don't know what's coming:
Neocons Will Blame Anyone But Themselves For Losing Ukraine | With James Carden
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5QwC2GfovY
cf.
The Coming Battle: ‘Who Lost Ukraine?’
An effort to rewrite history is happening in real time.
James W. Carden
Aug 7, 2023
12:03 AM
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/the-coming-battle-who-lost-ukraine/
Some fun leisure material to review.
https://jamestown.org/event/watch-the-video-preparing-for-the-dissolution-of-the...
ETA:
And a major point you may want to add to the timeline.
https://www.intellinews.com/top-ukrainian-politician-david-arakhamia-gives-seven...
ETA:
Finally, don't think I don't know what's coming:
Neocons Will Blame Anyone But Themselves For Losing Ukraine | With James Carden
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5QwC2GfovY
cf.
The Coming Battle: ‘Who Lost Ukraine?’
An effort to rewrite history is happening in real time.
James W. Carden
Aug 7, 2023
12:03 AM
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/the-coming-battle-who-lost-ukraine/
As it becomes more and more difficult to deny what is happening on the battlefield in Ukraine, a grinding war with hundreds of thousands of casualties, establishment media continue to present a picture of the war designed to rally the public, should its enthusiasm for this latest American overseas adventure begin to flag in the face of long and hard realities.
In June, the Atlantic published a cover story by Anne Applebaum and Jeffery Goldberg which asserted that “The future of the democratic world will be determined by whether the Ukrainian military can break a stalemate with Russia and drive the country backwards—perhaps even out of Crimea for good.”
On July 12, New York Times op-ed columnist Nicolas Kristof informed his reader(s) that “The Ukrainians are sacrificing for us. They’re the ones doing us a favor, by degrading the Russian military and reducing the risk of a war in Europe that would cost the lives of our troops.”
National Review put it even more starkly. Two days later, July 14, senior editor Jay Nordlinger wrote, “The nationalists among us, as much as anyone, ought to be inspired by what the Ukrainians are doing: fighting for their national survival, trying to fend off a behemoth neighbor that seeks to re-subjugate them.”
As Gore Vidal quipped, “There is little respite for a people so routinely—so fiercely—disinformed.”
Yet the above examples also appear to be part of an effort by these individual writers to decontextualize the Ukraine War, to wipe away its messy history and present it in its most simplistic form: as a battle between good and evil. It is a strategy that seeks to avoid a substantive conversation about how and why Russia and the West arrived at this, the most dangerous point since the Cuban Missile Crisis.
These sorts of pieces are an elite project designed to shrink the parameters of permissible thought with regard to the war in Ukraine. And it serves to purposely confuse and infantilize Americans’ understanding of what is actually happening in Ukraine—and why. But that, one might suppose, is the point: Applebaum and the rest are laying the foundation for what is to come, once it becomes undeniable that Ukraine has lost the war....
44John5918
>43 davidgn: how and why Russia and the West arrived at this, the most dangerous point since the Cuban Missile Crisis
The Cuban missile crisis is a lesson worth remembering. It shows what can happen when two military superpower blocs begin not simply to encroach into what each considers to be their sphere of influence, but to be able to station missiles right next door. In 1962 the situation was resolved without immediate bloodshed. Tragically this time round it hasn't been.
The Cuban missile crisis is a lesson worth remembering. It shows what can happen when two military superpower blocs begin not simply to encroach into what each considers to be their sphere of influence, but to be able to station missiles right next door. In 1962 the situation was resolved without immediate bloodshed. Tragically this time round it hasn't been.
452wonderY
White House for Sale: How Princes, Prime Ministers and Premiers Paid Off President Trump
The House Oversight Committee Democrats Report (156 pages)
https://oversightdemocrats.house.gov/sites/democrats.oversight.house.gov/files/2...
The House Oversight Committee Democrats Report (156 pages)
https://oversightdemocrats.house.gov/sites/democrats.oversight.house.gov/files/2...
46John5918
Global pandemic agreement at risk of falling apart, WHO warns (Guardian)
The accord, aimed at preventing another health catastrophe, is losing momentum due to ‘lies and conspiracy theories’...
47margd
Greg Abbott @GregAbbott_TX | 2:14 PM · Jan 24, 2024:
{Texas governor}
My statement on Texas’ constitutional right to self-defense.
Text ( https://twitter.com/GregAbbott_TX/status/1750235544951349275/photo/1 )
----------------------------------------------
Adam Carlson @admcrlsn | 10:14 PM · Jan 24, 2024
Recovering political pollster (formerly gsg), election nerd & Bay Ridge Democrat.
Greg Abbott is openly defying a Supreme Court ruling and essentially daring Biden to take control of the Texas National Guard
New York Times: “Nah we’re not gonna cover that, we need to stay locked in on Nikki Haley’s dress and a $1.7 million toilet”
https://twitter.com/admcrlsn/status/1750356441574121701/photo/1
https://twitter.com/admcrlsn/status/1750356441574121701/photo/2
---------------------------------------------
Texas is exploiting a loophole in a new Supreme Court ruling to keep putting up razor-wire fencing at the border
Natalie Musumeci | Jan 24, 2024
Texas is apparently taking advantage of a loophole in a recent Supreme Court ruling involving the US-Mexico border in order to keep putting up more razor-wire fencing along the Rio Grande riverbank.
The Supreme Court's 5-4 Monday ruling delivered a huge win to the Biden administration in its ongoing legal battle with Texas over the southern border by allowing federal border agents to cut or move barbed wire fencing the Republican-controlled state installed at the border.
The ruling does not call for Texas to take any action in the matter — and the state's Republican governor, Greg Abbott, suggested in a post to X on Wednesday that Texas will keep putting up the fencing, even if federal border agents take it down...
https://www.businessinsider.com/texas-supreme-court-border-fence-ruling-more-raz...
{Texas governor}
My statement on Texas’ constitutional right to self-defense.
Text ( https://twitter.com/GregAbbott_TX/status/1750235544951349275/photo/1 )
----------------------------------------------
Adam Carlson @admcrlsn | 10:14 PM · Jan 24, 2024
Recovering political pollster (formerly gsg), election nerd & Bay Ridge Democrat.
Greg Abbott is openly defying a Supreme Court ruling and essentially daring Biden to take control of the Texas National Guard
New York Times: “Nah we’re not gonna cover that, we need to stay locked in on Nikki Haley’s dress and a $1.7 million toilet”
https://twitter.com/admcrlsn/status/1750356441574121701/photo/1
https://twitter.com/admcrlsn/status/1750356441574121701/photo/2
---------------------------------------------
Texas is exploiting a loophole in a new Supreme Court ruling to keep putting up razor-wire fencing at the border
Natalie Musumeci | Jan 24, 2024
Texas is apparently taking advantage of a loophole in a recent Supreme Court ruling involving the US-Mexico border in order to keep putting up more razor-wire fencing along the Rio Grande riverbank.
The Supreme Court's 5-4 Monday ruling delivered a huge win to the Biden administration in its ongoing legal battle with Texas over the southern border by allowing federal border agents to cut or move barbed wire fencing the Republican-controlled state installed at the border.
The ruling does not call for Texas to take any action in the matter — and the state's Republican governor, Greg Abbott, suggested in a post to X on Wednesday that Texas will keep putting up the fencing, even if federal border agents take it down...
https://www.businessinsider.com/texas-supreme-court-border-fence-ruling-more-raz...
48margd
>47 margd: Insurrection 2?
Republican Governors Band Together, Issue Joint Statement Supporting Texas’ Constitutional Right to Self-Defense
Republican Governors' Association | January 25, 2024
WASHINGTON, D.C. – 25 Republican governors released the following joint statement in support of Texas Governor Greg Abbott and Texas’ constitutional right to self-defense.
The statement comes as the Biden Administration continues to attack Texas and refuses to take action or responsibility for the crisis at the Southern border.
“President Biden and his Administration have left Americans and our country completely vulnerable to unprecedented illegal immigration pouring across the Southern border. Instead of upholding the rule of law and securing the border, the Biden Administration has attacked and sued Texas for stepping up to protect American citizens from historic levels of illegal immigrants, deadly drugs like fentanyl, and terrorists entering our country.
“We stand in solidarity with our fellow Governor, Greg Abbott, and the State of Texas in utilizing every tool and strategy, including razor wire fences, to secure the border. We do it in part because the Biden Administration is refusing to enforce immigration laws already on the books and is illegally allowing mass parole across America of migrants who entered our country illegally.
“The authors of the U.S. Constitution made clear that in times like this, states have a right of self-defense, under Article 4, Section 4 and Article 1, Section 10, Clause 3 of the U.S. Constitution. Because the Biden Administration has abdicated its constitutional compact duties to the states, Texas has every legal justification to protect the sovereignty of our states and our nation.”
Signatories include: Governor Kay Ivey (AL), Governor Mike Dunleavy (AK), Governor Sarah Sanders (AR), Governor Ron DeSantis (FL), Governor Brian Kemp (GA), Governor Brad Little (ID), Governor Eric Holcomb (IN), Governor Kim Reynolds (IA), Governor Jeff Landry (LA), Governor Tate Reeves (MS), Governor Mike Parson (MO), Governor Greg Gianforte (MT), Governor Jim Pillen (NE), Governor Joe Lombardo (NV), Governor Chris Sununu (NH), Governor Doug Burgum (ND), Governor Mike DeWine (OH), Governor Kevin Stitt (OK), Governor Henry McMaster (SC), Governor Kristi Noem (SD), Governor Bill Lee (TN), Governor Spencer Cox (UT), Governor Glenn Youngkin (VA), Governor Jim Justice (WV), and Governor Mark Gordon (WY).
https://www.rga.org/republican-governors-ban-together-issue-joint-statement-supp...
-------------------------------------------------------
Meanwhile, Trump is trying to torpedo Congressional compromise on border:
GOP senators seethe as Trump blows up delicate immigration compromise
Manu Raju, Melanie Zanona, Lauren Fox and Ted Barrett | January 25, 2024
Senior Senate Republicans are furious that Donald Trump may have killed an emerging bipartisan deal over the southern border, depriving them of a key legislative achievement on a pressing national priority and offering a preview of what’s to come with Trump as their likely presidential nominee.
In recent weeks, Trump has been lobbying Republicans both in private conversations and in public statements on social media to oppose the border compromise being delicately hashed out in the Senate, according to GOP sources familiar with the conversations – in part because he wants to campaign on the issue this November and doesn’t want President Joe Biden to score a victory in an area where he is politically vulnerable...
https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/25/politics/gop-senators-angry-trump-immigration-dea...
Republican Governors Band Together, Issue Joint Statement Supporting Texas’ Constitutional Right to Self-Defense
Republican Governors' Association | January 25, 2024
WASHINGTON, D.C. – 25 Republican governors released the following joint statement in support of Texas Governor Greg Abbott and Texas’ constitutional right to self-defense.
The statement comes as the Biden Administration continues to attack Texas and refuses to take action or responsibility for the crisis at the Southern border.
“President Biden and his Administration have left Americans and our country completely vulnerable to unprecedented illegal immigration pouring across the Southern border. Instead of upholding the rule of law and securing the border, the Biden Administration has attacked and sued Texas for stepping up to protect American citizens from historic levels of illegal immigrants, deadly drugs like fentanyl, and terrorists entering our country.
“We stand in solidarity with our fellow Governor, Greg Abbott, and the State of Texas in utilizing every tool and strategy, including razor wire fences, to secure the border. We do it in part because the Biden Administration is refusing to enforce immigration laws already on the books and is illegally allowing mass parole across America of migrants who entered our country illegally.
“The authors of the U.S. Constitution made clear that in times like this, states have a right of self-defense, under Article 4, Section 4 and Article 1, Section 10, Clause 3 of the U.S. Constitution. Because the Biden Administration has abdicated its constitutional compact duties to the states, Texas has every legal justification to protect the sovereignty of our states and our nation.”
Signatories include: Governor Kay Ivey (AL), Governor Mike Dunleavy (AK), Governor Sarah Sanders (AR), Governor Ron DeSantis (FL), Governor Brian Kemp (GA), Governor Brad Little (ID), Governor Eric Holcomb (IN), Governor Kim Reynolds (IA), Governor Jeff Landry (LA), Governor Tate Reeves (MS), Governor Mike Parson (MO), Governor Greg Gianforte (MT), Governor Jim Pillen (NE), Governor Joe Lombardo (NV), Governor Chris Sununu (NH), Governor Doug Burgum (ND), Governor Mike DeWine (OH), Governor Kevin Stitt (OK), Governor Henry McMaster (SC), Governor Kristi Noem (SD), Governor Bill Lee (TN), Governor Spencer Cox (UT), Governor Glenn Youngkin (VA), Governor Jim Justice (WV), and Governor Mark Gordon (WY).
https://www.rga.org/republican-governors-ban-together-issue-joint-statement-supp...
-------------------------------------------------------
Meanwhile, Trump is trying to torpedo Congressional compromise on border:
GOP senators seethe as Trump blows up delicate immigration compromise
Manu Raju, Melanie Zanona, Lauren Fox and Ted Barrett | January 25, 2024
Senior Senate Republicans are furious that Donald Trump may have killed an emerging bipartisan deal over the southern border, depriving them of a key legislative achievement on a pressing national priority and offering a preview of what’s to come with Trump as their likely presidential nominee.
In recent weeks, Trump has been lobbying Republicans both in private conversations and in public statements on social media to oppose the border compromise being delicately hashed out in the Senate, according to GOP sources familiar with the conversations – in part because he wants to campaign on the issue this November and doesn’t want President Joe Biden to score a victory in an area where he is politically vulnerable...
https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/25/politics/gop-senators-angry-trump-immigration-dea...
49margd
Register to read:
The Case for Disqualification
Sean Wilentz | 25 Jan 2024 (February 22, 2024 issue)
The Supreme Court must decide if it will honor the original meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment and bar Donald Trump from holding public office or trash the constitutional defense of democracy against insurrections...
...lawyers—indeed, all the academics and pundits quailing at enforcement of the Constitution—would profit from the words of Abraham Lincoln at the outset of the Civil War. The American people, Lincoln said, had established that they could successfully create and administer a democratic government. They had yet to establish, however, whether they could maintain that government “against a formidable internal attempt to overthrow it.” Now they were left “to demonstrate to the world that those who can fairly carry an election can also suppress a rebellion.”
The conservative majority of the Supreme Court—and the historical legacy of the Roberts Court—have reached a point of no return. The law, no matter the diversions and claptrap of Trump’s lawyers and the pundits, is crystal clear, on incontestable historical as well as originalist grounds. So are the facts of the case, which in any event the Supreme Court is powerless to review. The conservatives face a choice between disqualifying Trump or shredding the foundation of their judicial methodology.
But the choice is far more profound than the Court’s consistency. In 2000 it disgraced itself by manipulating the Fourteenth Amendment to produce Bush v. Gore, a ruling that changed the course of history and was later described by Justice Antonin Scalia, who concurred in it, this way: “As we say in Brooklyn, a piece of shit.”
Now the Court must decide whether it will honor the original meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment and disqualify Donald Trump. If it does so, it may redeem in part the terrible judicial malpractice of 2000. If it does not, it will trash the constitutional defense of democracy designed following slavery’s abolition; it will guarantee, at a minimum, political chaos no matter what the voters decide in November; and it will quite possibly pave the way for a man who has vowed that he will, if necessary, rescind the Constitution in order to impose a dictatorship of revenge.
https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2024/02/22/the-case-for-disqualification-trump-...
The Case for Disqualification
Sean Wilentz | 25 Jan 2024 (February 22, 2024 issue)
The Supreme Court must decide if it will honor the original meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment and bar Donald Trump from holding public office or trash the constitutional defense of democracy against insurrections...
...lawyers—indeed, all the academics and pundits quailing at enforcement of the Constitution—would profit from the words of Abraham Lincoln at the outset of the Civil War. The American people, Lincoln said, had established that they could successfully create and administer a democratic government. They had yet to establish, however, whether they could maintain that government “against a formidable internal attempt to overthrow it.” Now they were left “to demonstrate to the world that those who can fairly carry an election can also suppress a rebellion.”
The conservative majority of the Supreme Court—and the historical legacy of the Roberts Court—have reached a point of no return. The law, no matter the diversions and claptrap of Trump’s lawyers and the pundits, is crystal clear, on incontestable historical as well as originalist grounds. So are the facts of the case, which in any event the Supreme Court is powerless to review. The conservatives face a choice between disqualifying Trump or shredding the foundation of their judicial methodology.
But the choice is far more profound than the Court’s consistency. In 2000 it disgraced itself by manipulating the Fourteenth Amendment to produce Bush v. Gore, a ruling that changed the course of history and was later described by Justice Antonin Scalia, who concurred in it, this way: “As we say in Brooklyn, a piece of shit.”
Now the Court must decide whether it will honor the original meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment and disqualify Donald Trump. If it does so, it may redeem in part the terrible judicial malpractice of 2000. If it does not, it will trash the constitutional defense of democracy designed following slavery’s abolition; it will guarantee, at a minimum, political chaos no matter what the voters decide in November; and it will quite possibly pave the way for a man who has vowed that he will, if necessary, rescind the Constitution in order to impose a dictatorship of revenge.
https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2024/02/22/the-case-for-disqualification-trump-...
50davidgn
Glad the MSNBC crowd, at least, have finally got their shit straight. Those who have not have much crow to eat, whichever way SCOTUS decides.
Lawrence: Historians’ brief teaches Supreme Court 14th Amendment’s real history
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eo2PmAH2Fs4
MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell analyzes new filings to the Supreme Court as it prepares to hear oral arguments in Donald Trump’s challenge of a ruling by the Colorado Supreme Court that found he was ineligible for the state’s primary ballot after violating Section 3 of the 14th Amendment.
More coverage:
https://www.theguardian.com/law/2024/jan/28/us-historians-sign-brief-to-support-...
The brief:
https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/23/23-719/298895/20240126151819211_23-719...
Lawrence: Historians’ brief teaches Supreme Court 14th Amendment’s real history
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eo2PmAH2Fs4
MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell analyzes new filings to the Supreme Court as it prepares to hear oral arguments in Donald Trump’s challenge of a ruling by the Colorado Supreme Court that found he was ineligible for the state’s primary ballot after violating Section 3 of the 14th Amendment.
More coverage:
https://www.theguardian.com/law/2024/jan/28/us-historians-sign-brief-to-support-...
The brief:
https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/23/23-719/298895/20240126151819211_23-719...
51davidgn
I missed this broadside from Blumenthal the Elder (viz. Sidney Blumenthal) around Christmastime, but it's most excellent.
Will Trump provoke a crisis of legitimacy for the US supreme court?
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/dec/26/trump-us-supreme-court-cri...
Will Trump provoke a crisis of legitimacy for the US supreme court?
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/dec/26/trump-us-supreme-court-cri...
52John5918
In a world built by plutocrats, the powerful are protected while vengeful laws silence their critics (Guardian)
Another example of how the so-called "cancel culture" which right wing ideologues claim is a left wing "woke" plot against them is actually a policy which they themselves have been using for decades to target those who challenge them, and are continually escalating.
In the UK and around the world, those who challenge rich corporations are being hounded and crushed with ever-more inventive penalties...
Another example of how the so-called "cancel culture" which right wing ideologues claim is a left wing "woke" plot against them is actually a policy which they themselves have been using for decades to target those who challenge them, and are continually escalating.
53davidgn
Trying to catch up on SCOTUS. This one is so important, I almost don't want to watch for fear of inadvertently witnessing the exact moment when the republic is lost.
Naturally, the people I want to hear from most are Luttig and Tribe, but neither seem to have reactions to yesterday, only summaries before the proceedings.
Judge Luttig: The most historic constitutional and political case in all of American history
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlcvTOdqQqs
Prof. Tribe on Trump ballot case: Colorado was doing its job applying the Constitution
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W59pzP7bTXI
And Tribe is recommending that everyone read this essay from Timothy Snyder -- repeatedly. (On my docket for tomorrow)
Law or Fear
The Supreme Court Chooses
https://snyder.substack.com/p/law-or-fear
The historians' verdict on the justices' questioning today, I'm sorry to say, is scathing. Saliently: it would seem Justice Thomas, apart from failing to recuse himself, didn't bother to read their amicus brief.
'Appalling!': Historians torch Supreme Court's handling of Trump ballot case
MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell discusses the Supreme Court oral arguments on the case dealing with Donald Trump being removed from Colorado's presidential ballot by that state's Supreme Court with Harvard History Professor Drew Gilpin Faust and Yale History Professor David Blight.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSgQU7jthDM
Naturally, the people I want to hear from most are Luttig and Tribe, but neither seem to have reactions to yesterday, only summaries before the proceedings.
Judge Luttig: The most historic constitutional and political case in all of American history
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlcvTOdqQqs
Prof. Tribe on Trump ballot case: Colorado was doing its job applying the Constitution
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W59pzP7bTXI
And Tribe is recommending that everyone read this essay from Timothy Snyder -- repeatedly. (On my docket for tomorrow)
Law or Fear
The Supreme Court Chooses
https://snyder.substack.com/p/law-or-fear
The historians' verdict on the justices' questioning today, I'm sorry to say, is scathing. Saliently: it would seem Justice Thomas, apart from failing to recuse himself, didn't bother to read their amicus brief.
'Appalling!': Historians torch Supreme Court's handling of Trump ballot case
MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell discusses the Supreme Court oral arguments on the case dealing with Donald Trump being removed from Colorado's presidential ballot by that state's Supreme Court with Harvard History Professor Drew Gilpin Faust and Yale History Professor David Blight.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSgQU7jthDM
54John5918
The world is waging war on its children, in an obscene mockery of international law (Guardian)
Hind Rajab, 6, found dead in Gaza days after phone calls for help (BBC)
From Gaza to Ukraine, from Sudan to Myanmar, youngsters are being raped, abducted, maimed, killed and even recruited as soldiers...
Hind Rajab, 6, found dead in Gaza days after phone calls for help (BBC)
A six-year-old girl who went missing in Gaza City last month has been found dead, along with several of her relatives and two paramedics who tried to save her, after they appear to have come under fire from Israeli tanks. Hind Rajab was fleeing the city in a car with her aunt, uncle and three cousins at the time. Audio recordings of calls between Hind and emergency call operators suggest that the six-year-old was the only one left alive in the car, hiding from Israeli forces among the bodies of her relatives. Her pleas for someone to rescue her ended when the phone line was cut amid the sound of more gunfire. Paramedics from the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) managed on Saturday to reach the area, which had previously been closed off as an active combat zone. They found the black Kia car Hind had been travelling in - its windscreen and dashboard smashed to pieces, bullet holes scattered across the side...
55lriley
>54 John5918: It's something to see 6 year old girls being murdered after watching their entire family being wiped out and we want to send the murderers more bombs.
57margd
Nate Bell (ex-GOP) @NateBell4AR | 11:28 AM · Mar 1, 2024:
Avoiding this type of government is precisely why so many Christians fled Europe and came to the Americas.
It's why the colonists rejected forced membership in the Church of England.
It's why we have the 1st Amendment.
This is as unAmerican as it gets.
Quote
Republicans against Trump @RpsAgainstTrump | 11:19 AM · Mar 1, 2024
Trump’s former (and future?) national security adviser Mike Flynn: “If we are going to have one nation under God which we must, we have to have one religion. One nation under God and one religion under God”
0:26 ( https://twitter.com/RpsAgainstTrump/status/1763599960048615803 )
_________________________________________
Added: not in Constitution
Why Eisenhower Added ‘Under God’ to the Pledge of Allegiance During the Cold War
Becky Little | June 22, 2022
The pledge, as recited by U.S. schoolchildren, wasn’t standardized until World War II, and didn’t contain “under God” until 1954...On June 14, {1054} Flag Day, Eisenhower signed a law adding “under God” to the Pledge of Allegiance. Two years later {1956}, Eisenhower also made “In God We Trust” the United States’ official motto (it did not appear on paper currency or stamps before the 1950s).
https://www.history.com/news/pledge-allegiance-under-god-schools
Avoiding this type of government is precisely why so many Christians fled Europe and came to the Americas.
It's why the colonists rejected forced membership in the Church of England.
It's why we have the 1st Amendment.
This is as unAmerican as it gets.
Quote
Republicans against Trump @RpsAgainstTrump | 11:19 AM · Mar 1, 2024
Trump’s former (and future?) national security adviser Mike Flynn: “If we are going to have one nation under God which we must, we have to have one religion. One nation under God and one religion under God”
0:26 ( https://twitter.com/RpsAgainstTrump/status/1763599960048615803 )
_________________________________________
Added: not in Constitution
Why Eisenhower Added ‘Under God’ to the Pledge of Allegiance During the Cold War
Becky Little | June 22, 2022
The pledge, as recited by U.S. schoolchildren, wasn’t standardized until World War II, and didn’t contain “under God” until 1954...On June 14, {1054} Flag Day, Eisenhower signed a law adding “under God” to the Pledge of Allegiance. Two years later {1956}, Eisenhower also made “In God We Trust” the United States’ official motto (it did not appear on paper currency or stamps before the 1950s).
https://www.history.com/news/pledge-allegiance-under-god-schools
58alco261
>57 margd: Your comment about the slogan not appearing on US currency until the 1950's brought back a memory of money past. Twenty some odd years ago I was the next in line for the bank teller when the lady at the tellers window got really upset and accused the teller of trying to give her counterfeit money. The young girl was obviously floored by the remark and when she asked why the lady thought so the woman responded," Because it doesn't say "In God We Trust" and all US money has that printed on the bill." I knew enough about US money to know the lady was wrong and I also noted the bills the teller had offered looked to be almost uncirculated. I gave the teller a quick high sign and said, "Don't worry madam I'll take them." The lady glared at me, turned back to the teller, the teller gave her some "real money" and put the three bills aside.
After the lady had huffed and puffed her way to the exit I went to the window and looked over the bills. They were bills that had been printed in the late 1930's, they were, as I had thought they might be, uncirculated, and in her rush to accuse the teller of fraud the woman had also overlooked the fact that the seals on the bills were brown and not green.
I accepted the bills as part of my withdrawal, gave the teller (and the manager who had come out from a back office to see what the fuss was about) a brief history of U.S. money and I told them if they ever got any more odd looking U.S. money to give me a call. Oh yes, those bills (two $10 and a $20) were worth then and are worth now a lot more than their face total of $40. :-)
After the lady had huffed and puffed her way to the exit I went to the window and looked over the bills. They were bills that had been printed in the late 1930's, they were, as I had thought they might be, uncirculated, and in her rush to accuse the teller of fraud the woman had also overlooked the fact that the seals on the bills were brown and not green.
I accepted the bills as part of my withdrawal, gave the teller (and the manager who had come out from a back office to see what the fuss was about) a brief history of U.S. money and I told them if they ever got any more odd looking U.S. money to give me a call. Oh yes, those bills (two $10 and a $20) were worth then and are worth now a lot more than their face total of $40. :-)
59margd
Rick Smith @RickSmithShow | 5:35 PM · Apr 9, 2024:
By working people. For working people. Weeknights 9p EST on @freespeechtv. Download the podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-rick-smith-show/id27
Rick: Trump was going to use Schedule F to fire anyone in fed. gov't not sufficiently loyal. Heritage Foundation would vet loyal folks to take those jobs, thus Making Patronage Great Again. Last week, Ofc of Personnel Mgmt moved on a rule that's going to preempt this plan
OPM Issues Final Rule to Protect Federal Employees from Schedule F
April 9, 2024
...The final rule from the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) clarifies and reinforces long-standing protections and merit system principles for career civil servants and it comes as former President Donald Trump hinted at a reinstatement of Schedule F should he return to the White House.
...The final rule implements the following:
· States that civil service protections cannot be taken away involuntarily. “Once a career civil servant earns protections, that employee retains them unless waived voluntarily.”
· Prevents an exception designed for non-career, political appointments from being misapplied to civil service positions.
· Establishes procedures for moving positions from the competitive service to the excepted service and within the excepted service. “This change both creates transparency and establishes an appeals process for federal employees when any such movement is involuntary and characterized as stripping employees of their civil service protections. “
The Biden Administration insists it has done what it can, to protect workers from a Schedule F return.
“We are confident that our final rule is the best reading of civil service statutes and is grounded in the civil service in the statutory language, congressional intent, legislative history and decades of applicable case law and practice,” said OPM Deputy Director Rob Shriver on a call with reporters.
Congressional legislation to codify Schedule F protections into law has so far failed to gain traction.
https://fedmanager.com/news/opm-issues-final-rule-to-protect-federal-employees-f...
By working people. For working people. Weeknights 9p EST on @freespeechtv. Download the podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-rick-smith-show/id27
Rick: Trump was going to use Schedule F to fire anyone in fed. gov't not sufficiently loyal. Heritage Foundation would vet loyal folks to take those jobs, thus Making Patronage Great Again. Last week, Ofc of Personnel Mgmt moved on a rule that's going to preempt this plan
OPM Issues Final Rule to Protect Federal Employees from Schedule F
April 9, 2024
...The final rule from the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) clarifies and reinforces long-standing protections and merit system principles for career civil servants and it comes as former President Donald Trump hinted at a reinstatement of Schedule F should he return to the White House.
...The final rule implements the following:
· States that civil service protections cannot be taken away involuntarily. “Once a career civil servant earns protections, that employee retains them unless waived voluntarily.”
· Prevents an exception designed for non-career, political appointments from being misapplied to civil service positions.
· Establishes procedures for moving positions from the competitive service to the excepted service and within the excepted service. “This change both creates transparency and establishes an appeals process for federal employees when any such movement is involuntary and characterized as stripping employees of their civil service protections. “
The Biden Administration insists it has done what it can, to protect workers from a Schedule F return.
“We are confident that our final rule is the best reading of civil service statutes and is grounded in the civil service in the statutory language, congressional intent, legislative history and decades of applicable case law and practice,” said OPM Deputy Director Rob Shriver on a call with reporters.
Congressional legislation to codify Schedule F protections into law has so far failed to gain traction.
https://fedmanager.com/news/opm-issues-final-rule-to-protect-federal-employees-f...
60John5918
UK voters frustrated with politicians’ ‘desperate’ culture war tactics, survey finds (Guardian)
Voters have been left frustrated with “desperate” culture war tactics deployed by politicians and are prepared to punish those who use them at the ballot box, a survey has found. Electoral strategies based on culturally charged and divisive issues repulse swing and undecided voters, who see politicians as “playing to the crowd” or “jumping on the bandwagon”, according to research from More in Common commissioned by 38 Degrees... the public were more likely to throw campaign adverts “in the bin” that focused on culture war messages rather than local issues...
61John5918
Social media lies can unleash a dangerous contempt for others. We can stop it (Guardian)
In our atomised society, we don’t just reject ideas and identities, we dehumanise those who hold them. There is a way out... something that has crept into our public square that fuels disproportionate disfunction. Contempt. More than mere disagreement, it thinks less of those with whom we disagree. We don’t just reject ideas and identities, we dehumanise those who hold them. This “othering” leads us to – as theologian Miroslav Volf puts it – exclude others from the community of humanity... Hurt is weaponised. Differences are moralised. Those not like us are stigmatised... A less embodied and more virtual world requires less courage and graciousness. We can think less before we type and judge more quickly before we retaliate... Building social trust requires empathy and vigilance...
