The second amendment says that executive branch is under the president. How is he in violation of the constitution? There are a lot of people in this country who think that the federal government is bloated and not accountable to the taxpayers. I would like to know how my money is being spent. Trump is trying to reduce the defense budget. And you are free to call him whatever you want in public. I don’t know what to call that but it certainly isn’t fascism. Thanks for the interesting article.
The original public meaning of our constitution structures an oligarchy of wealthy white men, racial and gender inequality. I’m a researcher who has studied this for 15 years. Since 1982, Republicans have moved closer to oligarchy, Citizen’s United and reduced regulations put it on steroids. 2016, Putin infiltrated NRA and evangelical groups, got Trump elected. Trump was a chaotic authoritarian for the wealthy and the people rose up and elected Biden. I knew they would come back forcefully with a sham election to install a totalitarian oligarchy. That’s where we are. Russia and China are pulling America apart, Trump is their useful idiot. We are now a pariah state, citizens will be oppressed, dissent punished, oligarchy enriched, like Belarus and Hungary.
We might slow them down if Dems would fight back, but Schumer/Pelosi are operating under the old world order, too slow for a totalitarian oligarchy world order we have now. Their goal is to crash the economy of workers to teach us a lesson, stop asking for livable wages, affordable health care. Be happy with what we give you, punishing any dissent. Dems need to fight now.
You have overlooked Trump’s Achilles heel. He is illegally President and the Supreme Court Chief Justice broke the law swearing Trump in. The Supreme Court isn’t the ultimate power, that power rests in the Constitution, which is the agreed document between States of the Union. Thus, the States can say that that agreement is in breach because Amendment 14 has been ignored and the Supreme Court, being under the Constitution cannot gainsay it.
What if there are no midterms? Some invented crisis - a war, rioting, who knows - will become a pretext for “postponing” them “in the interest of national unity” and then they’ll just never be unpostponed. Hitler playbook.
I hope you are right. Is there a scenario where yes the states hold midterms - and maybe only the blue states at that - but there’s nothing federal on the ballots?
The system wasn't set up to deal with a muzzled media, public that reads at a 6th grade level, and the extreme corruption of both the White House occupant and Congress. It was inconceivable to the Framers that we'd sink so far IMHO
It’s hard to recognize that the status is no longer quo when it has been stable for one’s entire lifetime.
1. There is no guarantee that elections will continue and even less certainty that they will be “free and fair.”
2. Impeachment has been tried and it failed. Success of impeachment has nothing whatsoever to do with what the public wants, and everything to do with a significant percentage of Republicans agreeing to overthrow their own government - at significant and immediate personal risk to themselves, their families, and their bank accounts.
3. Congress won’t force him out. See reasons outlined above.
The only remaining power in the US significant enough to force the government to revert to a democracy is labor (a national strike).
I went to law school 30 years ago. When we studied constitutional law, while we certainly acknowledged the “liberal” versus “conservative” debates over constitutional interpretation, we still looked at these as good-faith differences in legal analysis. Today, one of my children are in law school, and they and their fellow students see constitutional law as “all about politics” with analytic differences as window dressing for political views. So the delegitimization of the Supreme Court as a checks and balances institution seems pretty much a done deal…
So now what? I’m just a normal every day person and I’m unsure of what to do. I’ve started emailing my senators and congressman and spreading the word about our rights but what else can we do seriously? Please someone tell us what to do.
Call them. Emails get spam counted and ignored. Call their offices, in DC and in your district, and show up at any protest or event around it. Call their offices again, and again, and again.
My own Rep's office went from having no response to now having a detailed statement to give (and a very testy aide to give it). Over time they are pressured into acting, though it should not have taken this long.
Even if they are Republicans call them. The Republicans would have it that they have a mandate to do this, but angry constituents matter.
Also if lawsuits are filed, donate to the suits or the orgs doing them if you can. That enables tie up in the courts.
It isn't everything of course and it isn't instant but it is something.
There’s a reason we don’t teach the constitution, US history, and civics. We are, all of us, at the mercy of our high school teachers. And they are at the mercy of their districts. We don’t know much because we don’t teach it. Chomsky right. There’s little money in it for the power brokers if there’s an educated populace making informed decisions. And if all citizens voted (or suppression was tackled…) - they’d all be in big trouble. Not trying to be reductive but if we had 130% voter turnout - look for voter fraud. At 60% - we’re not adding fake ballots to the equation. From comments in so many social media posts, it’s unlikely that 1 in 5 would pass a basic citizenship test. Keep doing your work here. You’re an important voice.
If the masses are ignorant, then they must ultimately be responsible for their ignorance.
I have never met a public school alumnus that did not take multiple classes on US history by the time they graduated high school. I have met many, many more people that did not pay a shred of attention and then went on to post meaningless screeds like your own.
Anyways, if people actually wanted to learn, Wikipedia is free.
What is happening in the USA is looking more and more like the rise of Nazism (look up the Gleichschaltung), but it's really close to the salami tactics of the Hungarian Communists 1945-1949, during which the originally minority Stalinists took the ministry of justice and the vice-premiership, and then created a secret police (the ÀHV) under Làszlò Rajk that fairly quickly took apart all opposition... The Bondi-Patel combo is very dangerous. And while I still hear Democrats dreaming about winning the midterms.... they don't seem to realize that the Trump Cult will simply twist the truth, go after the Dems, etc... Should the economy stumble, they will hide the figures. The hearings are showing us all that the GOP has failed in its constitutional duties.
To some of us, it looked like -that- in 2016, and we -tried- to warn people, but no, we were "trivializing the holocaust", so a decade later, and THIS is no longer its "rise" sadly, that happened a ten YEARS ago, this, is it's triumphant "return"....
Yes, indeed. The holocaust deniers were long festering in the USA (and elsewhere)... But I can back up your statement. I got on Twitter or some other platform in the fall of 2016, and within a few days, when it became apparent that the DJT was attracting anti-Semites, was receiving some pretty harsh deniers... This is Trump's technique: He plays to a lot of different hate groups and a lot of people for whom thinking is a burden.
It's so bizarre to me that these people even exist, I simply can't fathom it, even though I understand in an intellectual fashion, that they DO exist obviously. I mean my mind just refuses to "compute" this kinda shit, the antisemitism, the racism, misogyny, or bigotry of any kind really, I just don't get it. I "understand" it well enough, ie, it isn't "innate", it's a "learned" thing, I simply cannot fathom being too intellectually challenged to think your way out of it. I feel like I'm living in a Doctor Who episode, where we've entered some weird alternate time stream, the perpetual weirdness is gonna kill me.
I have written a fair amount about conspiracy theory on my website (during the pandemic), because I was always somewhat fascinated by the mental conniptions people have to go through to see the world in paranoid terms.... It's among the conspiracists that one finds that weirdness you mention. I realized, too, that most of these people don't read much, and what they read is sloppily reasoned stuff, so you have to give up. There is no point discussing things with them... they move the goalposts freely, because they have no clear logical system in their heads...
Irony of ironies, Supreme Court gives Trump right to ignore them! The only way we can stop him is massive uprisings. I hope people are beginning to awake to what we have done by putting this madman in the White House.
I meant article two of the constitution. I’m a dipshit sorry.
The second amendment says that executive branch is under the president. How is he in violation of the constitution? There are a lot of people in this country who think that the federal government is bloated and not accountable to the taxpayers. I would like to know how my money is being spent. Trump is trying to reduce the defense budget. And you are free to call him whatever you want in public. I don’t know what to call that but it certainly isn’t fascism. Thanks for the interesting article.
This is the end...
No one could have predicted!!1
The original public meaning of our constitution structures an oligarchy of wealthy white men, racial and gender inequality. I’m a researcher who has studied this for 15 years. Since 1982, Republicans have moved closer to oligarchy, Citizen’s United and reduced regulations put it on steroids. 2016, Putin infiltrated NRA and evangelical groups, got Trump elected. Trump was a chaotic authoritarian for the wealthy and the people rose up and elected Biden. I knew they would come back forcefully with a sham election to install a totalitarian oligarchy. That’s where we are. Russia and China are pulling America apart, Trump is their useful idiot. We are now a pariah state, citizens will be oppressed, dissent punished, oligarchy enriched, like Belarus and Hungary.
We might slow them down if Dems would fight back, but Schumer/Pelosi are operating under the old world order, too slow for a totalitarian oligarchy world order we have now. Their goal is to crash the economy of workers to teach us a lesson, stop asking for livable wages, affordable health care. Be happy with what we give you, punishing any dissent. Dems need to fight now.
Incredibly depressing. Nothing we can do? Absolutely nothing?
You have overlooked Trump’s Achilles heel. He is illegally President and the Supreme Court Chief Justice broke the law swearing Trump in. The Supreme Court isn’t the ultimate power, that power rests in the Constitution, which is the agreed document between States of the Union. Thus, the States can say that that agreement is in breach because Amendment 14 has been ignored and the Supreme Court, being under the Constitution cannot gainsay it.
How did they come up with the 19th-century version of the 25th amendment in the 18th century?
AI art sucks ass
Sometimes I don’t have any words. So
😡😡😡🤬🤬🤬😡😡😡
That was a very breezy take.
But Congress has equal power to the president.
1..Impeachment is always an option if Americans want it badly enough
2. Power can be seized by Congress if it needs to do so. A veto proof majority can emerge in both houses if Americans want it badly enough
3. Should Trump’s refuse to leave office Congress can have him removed by force.
Americans will likely flush out the current congress and replace it with determined, combative Democrats in 2 years.
What if there are no midterms? Some invented crisis - a war, rioting, who knows - will become a pretext for “postponing” them “in the interest of national unity” and then they’ll just never be unpostponed. Hitler playbook.
Midterms will happen because the Federal government does not control the state elections, which will happen regardless of ANY federal decrees.
If Trump has a different lever… it might involve stochastic terrorism by white supremicists
I hope you are right. Is there a scenario where yes the states hold midterms - and maybe only the blue states at that - but there’s nothing federal on the ballots?
What will be left of our government in 2 years?
Mitch McConnell, Skeletor and Bible thumpin Mike Johnson: 'Hold our beers'
The system wasn't set up to deal with a muzzled media, public that reads at a 6th grade level, and the extreme corruption of both the White House occupant and Congress. It was inconceivable to the Framers that we'd sink so far IMHO
It’s hard to recognize that the status is no longer quo when it has been stable for one’s entire lifetime.
1. There is no guarantee that elections will continue and even less certainty that they will be “free and fair.”
2. Impeachment has been tried and it failed. Success of impeachment has nothing whatsoever to do with what the public wants, and everything to do with a significant percentage of Republicans agreeing to overthrow their own government - at significant and immediate personal risk to themselves, their families, and their bank accounts.
3. Congress won’t force him out. See reasons outlined above.
The only remaining power in the US significant enough to force the government to revert to a democracy is labor (a national strike).
Even if the president is protected by the sc, co-conspirators who carry out an illegal order are legally vulnerable, correct?
How is the order illegal? Dump can do whatever he likes . The law is what Dump says it is. Dictator 101.
Not if he pardons them.
I went to law school 30 years ago. When we studied constitutional law, while we certainly acknowledged the “liberal” versus “conservative” debates over constitutional interpretation, we still looked at these as good-faith differences in legal analysis. Today, one of my children are in law school, and they and their fellow students see constitutional law as “all about politics” with analytic differences as window dressing for political views. So the delegitimization of the Supreme Court as a checks and balances institution seems pretty much a done deal…
So now what? I’m just a normal every day person and I’m unsure of what to do. I’ve started emailing my senators and congressman and spreading the word about our rights but what else can we do seriously? Please someone tell us what to do.
Call them. Emails get spam counted and ignored. Call their offices, in DC and in your district, and show up at any protest or event around it. Call their offices again, and again, and again.
My own Rep's office went from having no response to now having a detailed statement to give (and a very testy aide to give it). Over time they are pressured into acting, though it should not have taken this long.
Even if they are Republicans call them. The Republicans would have it that they have a mandate to do this, but angry constituents matter.
Also if lawsuits are filed, donate to the suits or the orgs doing them if you can. That enables tie up in the courts.
It isn't everything of course and it isn't instant but it is something.
Yes Peggy, what are we to do? So frightening.
There’s a reason we don’t teach the constitution, US history, and civics. We are, all of us, at the mercy of our high school teachers. And they are at the mercy of their districts. We don’t know much because we don’t teach it. Chomsky right. There’s little money in it for the power brokers if there’s an educated populace making informed decisions. And if all citizens voted (or suppression was tackled…) - they’d all be in big trouble. Not trying to be reductive but if we had 130% voter turnout - look for voter fraud. At 60% - we’re not adding fake ballots to the equation. From comments in so many social media posts, it’s unlikely that 1 in 5 would pass a basic citizenship test. Keep doing your work here. You’re an important voice.
If the masses are ignorant, then they must ultimately be responsible for their ignorance.
I have never met a public school alumnus that did not take multiple classes on US history by the time they graduated high school. I have met many, many more people that did not pay a shred of attention and then went on to post meaningless screeds like your own.
Anyways, if people actually wanted to learn, Wikipedia is free.
What is happening in the USA is looking more and more like the rise of Nazism (look up the Gleichschaltung), but it's really close to the salami tactics of the Hungarian Communists 1945-1949, during which the originally minority Stalinists took the ministry of justice and the vice-premiership, and then created a secret police (the ÀHV) under Làszlò Rajk that fairly quickly took apart all opposition... The Bondi-Patel combo is very dangerous. And while I still hear Democrats dreaming about winning the midterms.... they don't seem to realize that the Trump Cult will simply twist the truth, go after the Dems, etc... Should the economy stumble, they will hide the figures. The hearings are showing us all that the GOP has failed in its constitutional duties.
To some of us, it looked like -that- in 2016, and we -tried- to warn people, but no, we were "trivializing the holocaust", so a decade later, and THIS is no longer its "rise" sadly, that happened a ten YEARS ago, this, is it's triumphant "return"....
Yes, indeed. The holocaust deniers were long festering in the USA (and elsewhere)... But I can back up your statement. I got on Twitter or some other platform in the fall of 2016, and within a few days, when it became apparent that the DJT was attracting anti-Semites, was receiving some pretty harsh deniers... This is Trump's technique: He plays to a lot of different hate groups and a lot of people for whom thinking is a burden.
It's so bizarre to me that these people even exist, I simply can't fathom it, even though I understand in an intellectual fashion, that they DO exist obviously. I mean my mind just refuses to "compute" this kinda shit, the antisemitism, the racism, misogyny, or bigotry of any kind really, I just don't get it. I "understand" it well enough, ie, it isn't "innate", it's a "learned" thing, I simply cannot fathom being too intellectually challenged to think your way out of it. I feel like I'm living in a Doctor Who episode, where we've entered some weird alternate time stream, the perpetual weirdness is gonna kill me.
I have written a fair amount about conspiracy theory on my website (during the pandemic), because I was always somewhat fascinated by the mental conniptions people have to go through to see the world in paranoid terms.... It's among the conspiracists that one finds that weirdness you mention. I realized, too, that most of these people don't read much, and what they read is sloppily reasoned stuff, so you have to give up. There is no point discussing things with them... they move the goalposts freely, because they have no clear logical system in their heads...
Irony of ironies, Supreme Court gives Trump right to ignore them! The only way we can stop him is massive uprisings. I hope people are beginning to awake to what we have done by putting this madman in the White House.
I don't see uprisings until we have mass starvation. Too many are too comfortable ie 'I got mine, Jack'