If there is a democratic Presidential election in 2028, and a decent human being wins, he or she should employ the "Unitary" Presidency" theory supported by the current Fascists in the Supreme Court. That future President should immediately draft and executive order under the Insurrection Act and declare Trump and his accomplices (his entire administration) domestic terrorists. The January 6th, 2021, attack on Congress should be enough evidence. However, there is a supertanker full of other Trump terrorist crimes to cite. The next action of he future Unitary President would be to arrest the Fascists on the Supreme Court and ask Congress to impeach and convict them. The third thing that a future Unitary President of the USA should do would be to ask Congress to draft a constitutional amendment that would make it illegal for a convicted felon to serve as President of the United States. In that amendment there would also be language that would outlaw future Unitary Presidencies. (I have a dream).
I fully support efforts, hopefully bipartisan, to reform SCOTUS with enforceable ethics rules like those in the lower courts, term limits, and, if necessary, expanding the number of justices to 13.
I am a big fan of The Contrarian, but when I read a line like, "...there is considerable uncertainty about whether Democrats will gain control of the House of Representatives and the Senate" I totally cringe. There is NO. Absolutely NO uncertainty that the Democrats will gain control of the House. The Senate is less certain, but certainly within reach. This attempt to find a "horse race" to report on is unworthy of The Contrarian, that claims to be "truthful, not neutral."
I hope your crystal ball is right, but the fact is that the mid-cycle gerrymander gave Republicans a ten-seat structural advantage. It's not a forgone conclusion that Democrats will take the House.
Nothing is a foregone conclusion. But not flipping the House is about a 1 in 100 chance. We need to keep working, but if we do we have the house. The question is how big is our margin.
If the general public is lead to believe this is true, a lot of them will not bother to vote because they will think “it’s in the bag”. We need Democrats to vote in large numbers and to do that no one should be complacent and think something like “there is absolutely NO uncertainty that the Democrats will gain control of the House”. That is very dangerous thinking.
I have a different understanding of human psychology. People want to be part of a winning team. They are more likely to vote if they believe they are on the winning side. One of the reasons Harris lost is that she kept promoting an underdog persona while Trump claimed to be winning. The enthusiasm gap is huge and favors Dems. As I said originally, we have to continue to do the work. But hoping to motivate people by saying we are in a 50-50 horse race when all the evidence is to the contrary is not a winning strategy.
They are entitled to their opinion, just like you are. Never underestimate the actions of the Speaker of the House when it comes to seating the new congress. All he and the clerk of the house have to do is refuse to announce the new members and swear them in to toss the whole election into the current house.
Kettering Foundation senior fellow J. Michael Luttig published last Thursday "The Final Battle for America's Democracy" in The New Republic. He warns that the Speaker could remove the Clerk of the House before the next Congress convenes and install a temporary replacement who refuses to place duly elected members on the opening-day roll.
If enough duly elected members were left off that roll, the people organizing the House on January 3 might not reflect the majority the country actually elected in November.
Luttig argues the Clerk would have no lawful authority to do that. His concern is what happens if a temporary Clerk does it anyway.
Why does the Clerk matter? The Clerk prepares the roll of Representatives-elect and, on opening day, calls the House to order and calls that roll as the new House begins organizing itself.
The House does not have until January 3 to begin addressing that possibility. Action needs to begin this week.
The mechanism is straightforward. House Rule II gives the Speaker unilateral authority to remove the Clerk. Separately, 2 U.S.C. § 5501 provides temporary appointment authority when that office becomes vacant.
The House cannot unilaterally change the statute. But it can change its own rule. A narrowly drafted amendment could require the House itself to approve removal of the Clerk, eliminating any Speaker's unilateral ability to create the vacancy that activates § 5501.
On January 3, the 119th Congress will be gone, and the incoming House will not yet have adopted its rules. The procedural tools available to the current House are not simply waiting there on opening day.
A member of Congress needs to introduce a narrowly tailored Rule II resolution this week, while every route to a floor vote is still open.
The simplest route is for leadership and the Rules Committee to allow a vote. If they refuse, discharge is a difficult backstop requiring 218 signatures and waiting periods measured in legislative days. Even the Major Richard Star Act petition, with extraordinary bipartisan support, currently stands at 217 signatures.
"All of which, SCOTUS has since affirmed, is just fine. The Court greenlighted Texas’s mid-cycle redistricting, initiated after Trump’s DOJ explicitly instructed the state to target majority-minority districts, which they did. In yet another stunning but also unsurprising decision, the Court allowed Alabama to force through a redistricting map that erased a majority-Black district — a map that lower courts had repeatedly concluded reflected intentional racial discrimination."
This is so important for every American to know and understand. The six Christian Nationalists on the Supreme Court simply ignored and overruled the 1982 Amendment to the 1965 Voting Rights Act. Since the decision of "Citizens United", the Court has become political and simply illegitimate.
To those who insist on constantly repeating the laundry list of the many things that "may" happen to subvert the midterm elections, please understand that you are doing some of this subversive work yourselves by discouraging voters from turning out ("my vote won't be counted") and by taking time away from efforts you could be mounting to get out the vote and making the election too big to rig. Many hundreds of lawyers are preparing to challenge and stop any such subversion. These include every Democratic state attorney general who have serious resources. The National Democratic Party is partnering with every state party and many independent groups to set up Democracy Protection programs that will monitor elections and coordinate responses. A large percentage of votes are cast by mail, drop box, and early in-person. ICE can not intimidate those voters and the postal service has been blocked by the Supreme Court from refusing to deliver mail-in ballots. Even claims of not seating duly elected House members, while not technically incorrect, are overstated and subject to challenge. (See Robert Hubbell.) In 2020 Republicans launched a coup to overturn the election. Democrats were totally unprepared and yet we still won. This time we are very prepared. If you have to post all your fears the least you can do is include the many ways in which we are fighting back.
Start making plans for a Constitutional Convention to redefine the balance of power, focusing on how Court justices are appointed (should be from representative bodies of judges, with time limits (like Congress and the Executive branches have), and mandatory speed up of the appeals process.. Hard to do? Let's work for it.
Great to receive these important information pieces. . Very disappointed & perplexed at the passivity presented in response. Democracy isn't won by sitting by and crying about how mean those bad inJustices are. Their wonton display of unaccountable power requires an unwavering response.
A loud strong call to action. to compel the silent influential wealthy Liberals to put their money and in fluence where their mouths are. Require the silent influencers in both parties; ie Geoge Bush, Cheny, Hollywood celebrities and moguls, Congressional representatives to show their faces & stand in street with the ordinary folk to make their voices heard. Remind current military leaders and veterans of them sworn Sacred oath to the Constitution & announce this intention to support the existence of this Democracy not the whins of a sad caricature of a dictator. Bring the fight directly to the doorsteps of the SC. To their homes if necessary.
And let them know that THIS SHALL NOT STAND. Will a 2nd Civil War be required to thwart the onset of a dictatorship? NOTHING should be off the table. I am willing to fight and die to preserve OS "Shining city on the Hill," Are you?
The Supreme Court is a Supreme Tragedy that will run until 2028 when Democrats take the White House. If we impeach both T**** and the couch raper, and there is a democrat in charge of the house, would they become president??? Maybe we can make that happen???
If there is a democratic Presidential election in 2028, and a decent human being wins, he or she should employ the "Unitary" Presidency" theory supported by the current Fascists in the Supreme Court. That future President should immediately draft and executive order under the Insurrection Act and declare Trump and his accomplices (his entire administration) domestic terrorists. The January 6th, 2021, attack on Congress should be enough evidence. However, there is a supertanker full of other Trump terrorist crimes to cite. The next action of he future Unitary President would be to arrest the Fascists on the Supreme Court and ask Congress to impeach and convict them. The third thing that a future Unitary President of the USA should do would be to ask Congress to draft a constitutional amendment that would make it illegal for a convicted felon to serve as President of the United States. In that amendment there would also be language that would outlaw future Unitary Presidencies. (I have a dream).
I fully support efforts, hopefully bipartisan, to reform SCOTUS with enforceable ethics rules like those in the lower courts, term limits, and, if necessary, expanding the number of justices to 13.
I am a big fan of The Contrarian, but when I read a line like, "...there is considerable uncertainty about whether Democrats will gain control of the House of Representatives and the Senate" I totally cringe. There is NO. Absolutely NO uncertainty that the Democrats will gain control of the House. The Senate is less certain, but certainly within reach. This attempt to find a "horse race" to report on is unworthy of The Contrarian, that claims to be "truthful, not neutral."
I hope your crystal ball is right, but the fact is that the mid-cycle gerrymander gave Republicans a ten-seat structural advantage. It's not a forgone conclusion that Democrats will take the House.
Nothing is a foregone conclusion. But not flipping the House is about a 1 in 100 chance. We need to keep working, but if we do we have the house. The question is how big is our margin.
If the general public is lead to believe this is true, a lot of them will not bother to vote because they will think “it’s in the bag”. We need Democrats to vote in large numbers and to do that no one should be complacent and think something like “there is absolutely NO uncertainty that the Democrats will gain control of the House”. That is very dangerous thinking.
I have a different understanding of human psychology. People want to be part of a winning team. They are more likely to vote if they believe they are on the winning side. One of the reasons Harris lost is that she kept promoting an underdog persona while Trump claimed to be winning. The enthusiasm gap is huge and favors Dems. As I said originally, we have to continue to do the work. But hoping to motivate people by saying we are in a 50-50 horse race when all the evidence is to the contrary is not a winning strategy.
They are entitled to their opinion, just like you are. Never underestimate the actions of the Speaker of the House when it comes to seating the new congress. All he and the clerk of the house have to do is refuse to announce the new members and swear them in to toss the whole election into the current house.
That is simply not true. You talk as if one third of government, the judiciary, doesn't exist.
Kettering Foundation senior fellow J. Michael Luttig published last Thursday "The Final Battle for America's Democracy" in The New Republic. He warns that the Speaker could remove the Clerk of the House before the next Congress convenes and install a temporary replacement who refuses to place duly elected members on the opening-day roll.
If enough duly elected members were left off that roll, the people organizing the House on January 3 might not reflect the majority the country actually elected in November.
Luttig argues the Clerk would have no lawful authority to do that. His concern is what happens if a temporary Clerk does it anyway.
Why does the Clerk matter? The Clerk prepares the roll of Representatives-elect and, on opening day, calls the House to order and calls that roll as the new House begins organizing itself.
The House does not have until January 3 to begin addressing that possibility. Action needs to begin this week.
The mechanism is straightforward. House Rule II gives the Speaker unilateral authority to remove the Clerk. Separately, 2 U.S.C. § 5501 provides temporary appointment authority when that office becomes vacant.
The House cannot unilaterally change the statute. But it can change its own rule. A narrowly drafted amendment could require the House itself to approve removal of the Clerk, eliminating any Speaker's unilateral ability to create the vacancy that activates § 5501.
On January 3, the 119th Congress will be gone, and the incoming House will not yet have adopted its rules. The procedural tools available to the current House are not simply waiting there on opening day.
A member of Congress needs to introduce a narrowly tailored Rule II resolution this week, while every route to a floor vote is still open.
The simplest route is for leadership and the Rules Committee to allow a vote. If they refuse, discharge is a difficult backstop requiring 218 signatures and waiting periods measured in legislative days. Even the Major Richard Star Act petition, with extraordinary bipartisan support, currently stands at 217 signatures.
I will respond later. I’m on the road now
Good synopsis.
"All of which, SCOTUS has since affirmed, is just fine. The Court greenlighted Texas’s mid-cycle redistricting, initiated after Trump’s DOJ explicitly instructed the state to target majority-minority districts, which they did. In yet another stunning but also unsurprising decision, the Court allowed Alabama to force through a redistricting map that erased a majority-Black district — a map that lower courts had repeatedly concluded reflected intentional racial discrimination."
This is so important for every American to know and understand. The six Christian Nationalists on the Supreme Court simply ignored and overruled the 1982 Amendment to the 1965 Voting Rights Act. Since the decision of "Citizens United", the Court has become political and simply illegitimate.
To those who insist on constantly repeating the laundry list of the many things that "may" happen to subvert the midterm elections, please understand that you are doing some of this subversive work yourselves by discouraging voters from turning out ("my vote won't be counted") and by taking time away from efforts you could be mounting to get out the vote and making the election too big to rig. Many hundreds of lawyers are preparing to challenge and stop any such subversion. These include every Democratic state attorney general who have serious resources. The National Democratic Party is partnering with every state party and many independent groups to set up Democracy Protection programs that will monitor elections and coordinate responses. A large percentage of votes are cast by mail, drop box, and early in-person. ICE can not intimidate those voters and the postal service has been blocked by the Supreme Court from refusing to deliver mail-in ballots. Even claims of not seating duly elected House members, while not technically incorrect, are overstated and subject to challenge. (See Robert Hubbell.) In 2020 Republicans launched a coup to overturn the election. Democrats were totally unprepared and yet we still won. This time we are very prepared. If you have to post all your fears the least you can do is include the many ways in which we are fighting back.
Start making plans for a Constitutional Convention to redefine the balance of power, focusing on how Court justices are appointed (should be from representative bodies of judges, with time limits (like Congress and the Executive branches have), and mandatory speed up of the appeals process.. Hard to do? Let's work for it.
Great to receive these important information pieces. . Very disappointed & perplexed at the passivity presented in response. Democracy isn't won by sitting by and crying about how mean those bad inJustices are. Their wonton display of unaccountable power requires an unwavering response.
A loud strong call to action. to compel the silent influential wealthy Liberals to put their money and in fluence where their mouths are. Require the silent influencers in both parties; ie Geoge Bush, Cheny, Hollywood celebrities and moguls, Congressional representatives to show their faces & stand in street with the ordinary folk to make their voices heard. Remind current military leaders and veterans of them sworn Sacred oath to the Constitution & announce this intention to support the existence of this Democracy not the whins of a sad caricature of a dictator. Bring the fight directly to the doorsteps of the SC. To their homes if necessary.
And let them know that THIS SHALL NOT STAND. Will a 2nd Civil War be required to thwart the onset of a dictatorship? NOTHING should be off the table. I am willing to fight and die to preserve OS "Shining city on the Hill," Are you?
The Supreme Court is a Supreme Tragedy that will run until 2028 when Democrats take the White House. If we impeach both T**** and the couch raper, and there is a democrat in charge of the house, would they become president??? Maybe we can make that happen???