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dreaminginthedeepsouth · 2 months

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LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

March 4, 2024

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

MAR 5, 2024

Today the Supreme Court ruled unanimously that states cannot remove Donald Trump from the 2024 presidential ballot. Colorado officials, as well as officials from other states, had challenged Trump’s ability to run for the presidency, noting that the third section of the Fourteenth Amendment prohibits those who have engaged in insurrection after taking an oath to support the Constitution from holding office. The court concluded that the Fourteenth Amendment leaves the question of enforcing the Fourteenth Amendment up to Congress.

But the court didn’t stop there. It sidestepped the question of whether the events of January 6, 2021, were an insurrection, declining to reverse Colorado’s finding that Trump was an insurrectionist.

In those decisions, the court was unanimous.

But then five of the justices cast themselves off from the other four. Those five went on to “decide novel constitutional questions to insulate this Court and petitioner from future controversy,” as the three dissenting liberal judges put it. The five described what they believed could disqualify from office someone who had participated in an insurrection: a specific type of legislation.

Justices Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor, and Ketanji Brown Jackson in one concurrence, and Justice Amy Coney Barrett in another, note that the majority went beyond what was necessary in this expansion of its decision. “By resolving these and other questions, the majority attempts to insulate all alleged insurrectionists from future challenges to their holding federal office,” Kagan, Sotomayor, and Jackson wrote. Seeming to criticize those three of her colleagues as much as the majority, Barrett wrote: “This is not the time to amplify disagreement with stridency…. [W]ritings on the Court should turn the national temperature down, not up.”

Conservative judge J. Michael Luttig wrote that “in the course of unnecessarily deciding all of these questions when they were not even presented by the case, the five-Justice majority effectively decided not only that the former president will never be subject to disqualification, but that no person who ever engages in an insurrection against the Constitution of the United States in the future will be disqualified under the Fourteenth Amendment’s Disqualification Clause.”

Justice Clarence Thomas, whose wife, Ginni, participated in the attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, notably did not recuse himself from participating in the case.

There is, perhaps, a larger story behind the majority’s musings on future congressional actions. Its decision to go beyond what was required to decide a specific question and suggest the boundaries of future legislation pushed it from judicial review into the realm of lawmaking.

For years now, Republicans, especially Republican senators who have turned the previously rarely-used filibuster into a common tool, have stopped Congress from making laws and have instead thrown decision-making to the courts.

Two days ago, in Slate, legal analyst Mark Joseph Stern noted that when Mitch McConnell (R-KY) was Senate majority leader, he “realized you don’t need to win elections to enact Republican policy. You don’t need to change hearts and minds. You don’t need to push ballot initiatives or win over the views of the people. All you have to do is stack the courts. You only need 51 votes in the Senate to stack the courts with far-right partisan activists…[a]nd they will enact Republican policies under the guise of judicial review, policies that could never pass through the democratic process. And those policies will be bulletproof, because they will be called ‘law.’”

—

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

#Letters from an American #Heather Cox Richardson #corrupt SCOTUS #illegitimate SCOTUS #14th amendment #election 2024 #insurrectionists #Mitch McConnell #J.Michael Luttig

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leslie-lyman · 2 years

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Punchbowls & Pincushions (Congressman Marcus Pike x f!reader)

summary: The duly elected representative from Texas’s 27th congressional district has a meeting, takes a walk, and meets a woman.

pairing: Congressman Marcus Pike x f!reader

rating: general audiences for this installment, though this series will be explicit and my blog and its content are only for those 18 and up

warnings: none

word count: 2.7k

a/n: Y’all, I’m excited for this one. This is the first installment of what I hope will be a more relaxed fit-ish series I’ve been thinking about for a long time: an AU in which Marcus Pike decides to turn in his badge and his gun and try a different kind of public service. I’ve just been waiting for the right excuse to finally get this first bit down on paper, so thank you as always to the lovely folks at @writer-wednesday for the photo prompt! Big thank yous also to @ezrasbirdie, @whataperfectwasteoftime, @magpie-to-the-morning, and @the-ginger-hedge-witch for letting me ramble at them about this idea for far too long, and to Birdie for looking this over for me!! ❤️

punchbowl: the Secret Service’s code name for the United States Capitol Building.

pincushion: the Secret Service’s code name for the Rayburn House Office Building, one of three main buildings where members of the House of Representatives and their staffs’ offices are actually located.

Main Masterlist. | Series Masterlist. | Taglist.

———

It’s not going to happen.

The words play on a loop in Marcus’s head as he tries to calmly traverse the halls of the Capitol.

Leonard, I campaigned on this.

I know, Marcus, I’m sorry.

Look, if this is about HR 86 -

It’s a matter of cost, Marcus.

Bullshit. The whole package is $57 billion. You’re telling me $100 million to expand drug treatment courts is the straw that breaks the CBO’s back?

It’s a miracle we got all the things in that we did. It’s gonna be hell trying to get this through the Senate as it is.

And what am I supposed to tell my constituents in the meantime?

To get used to disappointment. Or just blame the Senate. I always do.

Leonard -

It’s not going to happen, Marcus. Next time.

Marcus had scowled, recognizing that continuing to argue with the Chairman of the Appropriations Committee was going to get him nowhere.

It’s not going to happen.

He should go back to his office. His chief of staff, Linda, is expecting him. They’re supposed to go over a few things he has coming up this month, make some decisions on what events he’s been invited to that he’d actually like to attend, discuss strategy for the rollout of an education bill he’s introducing soon…

But the thought of heading back to the tiny three-room suite of office space each Congressperson is allotted, one whole room of which is designated just for him with its deep blue walls and heavy drapes and uncomfortable leather furniture, makes claustrophobia start to claw its way up his throat. There’s no air in this place, there’s no room to breathe. Between the windowless House chamber, old stone office buildings, and underground tunnels connecting everything, he can go hours without seeing the sky.

Three months he’s been in this job. Three months since he put his hand on a Bible and swore an oath to defend the Constitution from all enemies foreign and domestic, and swore an oath to himself that he would do right by the people of San Antonio who had placed their trust in him to represent them in Washington.

He’s not sure how successful he’s been so far. When he was an FBI agent, his life was governed by rules, by procedure, by the book. His working life had structure, it had guardrails. It had clear objectives: track down the art, arrest the bad guys, solve the case.

Congress, too, is governed by rules. The orderly structure by which bills move through the House, the procedures dictating how hearings are run, the ethics laws spelling out what he can and cannot do in his capacity as an elected official.

But there are so many unspoken rules, too. Ones that offer guidance on how to get your issues noticed and your priorities heard. How to strike deals, even how to just get into the room where the deals are struck or a seat at the table where the horse-trading happens. How to, as the famous book title says, win friends and influence people. There are ways to get things done, but Marcus can’t seem to get a handle on any of it.

You’ll learn soon enough, one of Marcus’s septuagenarian colleagues had told him during his first week on the Hill. Keep your head down, don’t make waves, kiss all the leadership ass you can. Freshmen Members always think they’re hot shit, but here? You’re just one of 435. All of us won our elections same as you, except most of us have been doing it a lot longer. You’re at the back of the line in this place, kid. Try not to get crushed. Good luck.

The man hadn’t been purposefully cruel, it’d been phrased as genuine advice.

Marcus texts Linda that he’s taking a detour.

He exits the Capitol on its west side, dodging both reporters and tourists and escaping unnoticed. At first he thinks he’ll just walk the Mall, just keep going until he hits the Washington Monument, or even the Lincoln Memorial, however long it takes him to regain some sense of calm, his dress shoes be damned. But as he crosses the street, the lush entry to the U.S. Botanic Gardens on the corner beckons him.

He wanders onto the grounds, past the main greenhouse and into the outdoor gardens. Flowering plants are just barely starting to bloom, and it’s early enough in the month that the spring break tourist crowds have yet to fully descend on the city. A few families linger here and there, but the further away Marcus walks from the greenhouse the fewer people there are. He spots a bench set away from the main path, nearly up against the stone wall that encircles the garden, and sits. The sound of a small stream trickling along nearby is nearly drowned out by the white noise of cars passing by on Independence Avenue just on the other side of the wall, but he tunes it all out.

It’s a pretty, peaceful space. Not as iconic or picturesque, perhaps, as the famous cherry blossoms down by the Tidal Basin, but he's grateful for the corresponding lack of people.

He can still see the dome of the Capitol above the trees, the sun glinting off the painted cast iron and threatening to blind him, the sight of it apparently inescapable even in the midst of this urban oasis. Marcus drops his head into his hands, digging the heels of his palms into his eyes and trying to block it out - the meeting, his schedule, his frustration, his uncertainty, the damn outline of the damn building looming over all of it, all the time...

"Rough morning, Congressman?"

The sound of a voice quite close by makes Marcus sit up straight in surprise. His head whips to the left, in the opposite direction from the Capitol, to find its owner, a new source of aggravation making him want to grind his teeth.

Can he not get a moment to himself, even here...

"Sorry!" The voice says again. "I didn't mean to startle you."

Then he notices: there's another bench to his left, slightly behind him and half-hidden by the low-hanging branches of a nearby tree. And on it sits a woman.

Marcus's irritation starts to melt away as quickly as it came. She's dressed casually, in jeans and a cream-colored moto jacket, her ankles crossed and tucked under the bench. As far as Marcus can tell, she's there alone, and is perhaps a few years younger than he is. And there's something in the way she's looking at him, bright eyes framed by long lashes, the corner of her mouth pulled upward in an apologetic half-smile...

She's beautiful.

And for a moment, he just…stares at her.

“It’s okay,” he finally says after several beats too long, his brain and his mouth trying to play catch-up. “It’s fine. You’re fine.” He winces, hoping she doesn’t take that the wrong way. But her smile widens, just a little.

“It has been a bit of a rough morning,” Marcus admits. “I’ve been having a lot of those lately, to be honest.”

“No rest for the elected, huh?” It’s a gentle teasing, which is a welcome respite from the disappointed - or even downright hostile - tone many people use when they find out he’s in Congress.

Although that begs the question…

“How’d you know I was - ”

She taps her jacket collar, jutting her chin in the direction of his own lapel. He looks down automatically, already knowing what he’ll see - the gold-and-silver pin a little larger than a quarter, stamped with the Congressional seal and pinned to his suit coat. His Member pin, a little metal disc that served to identify him as a Congressman, in lieu of an ID badge.

Heat creeps into his face.

“I keep forgetting I’m wearing it,” he mutters, abashed. The woman shrugs.

“A lot of Members refuse to take it off. Everywhere they go in this town, they want everyone to know how important they are.”

Marcus visibly shudders.

“I should tell my chief of staff that if I ever become that kind of person, she should slap me before telling me to retire.”

The woman laughs, a small, tinkling burst of sound, like someone rapidly opened a music box and allowed only a few notes to escape before shutting it again. She lifts a hand to smooth it over her hair, and that’s when Marcus notices she has a camera in her lap. A very nice, very expensive-looking camera.

She must see him notice it, just as she must see the way tension creeps unbidden into his shoulders, his neck, his jaw, because she turns the lens to the side, away from him.

“I’m not press,” she reassures him. “I’m just here to see what’s in bloom.”

The strain in his muscles eases, just a bit.

“Do you wanna talk about it? Your rough morning?”

He shouldn’t. She may not be a reporter, but she could easily pass on anything he says to one. She knows he’s a Member, and even if she doesn’t recognize exactly who he is, it wouldn’t be hard to figure out. He’s, on average, three decades younger than most of his colleagues, and the combination of what his campaign manager called progressive charisma and movie star good looks had gotten him a level of national attention while he’d been running that he’d neither wanted nor felt he deserved. To this day, he’s still not sure how he let his team talk him into saying yes to the Vanity Fair cover…

He has no reason to trust this woman. Nothing but a feeling in his gut. And Marcus refuses to be made so cynical by this town already that he spurns a kind offer from a pretty stranger.

“Off the record?” He asks, just to try and cover his bases.

She chuckles again.

“I told you I’m not press. But if it’ll make you feel better, yes.”

He takes a breath, turning on the bench to face her more fully, and launches into an abbreviated version of today’s events.

“It’s like I’ve been thrown into the deep end of a pool,” he says at the end, “and I haven’t been able to get my head back above water yet.”

The woman nods in sympathy, having listened attentively to his sorry tale.

“Can I ask you a question?” She asks, leaning forward to rest her elbows on her knees. “Why did you decide to run for Congress?”

How does he begin to answer that question? He used to have a precise, snappy, inspiring response, one edited down and workshopped and focus group tested to use at every campaign stop:

San Antonio is where I was born and raised. It has always been home to me. I love this place and its people, and I was taught that when you love someone, you fight for them. You care for them. You give back to them. And when it is clear that they are not being served by those in power, when it is clear that their leadership is failing them, you say something. You do something. And that is why I am running…

But that feels disingenuous here. This woman isn’t asking Marcus, the candidate. She’s asking Marcus, the person.

“I wanted to help people,” he says simply. “When I see an injustice, I can’t ignore it. Crime, poverty, inequality, violence. And the man who held this job before me wasn’t doing nearly enough to fix it.”

She’s quiet for a moment, absorbing his words.

“Too many people forget that being an elected official is supposed to mean being a public servant,” she tells him. “It sounds like you’re here for the right reasons. Keep remembering why you wanted to come here in the first place.”

Marcus smiles wryly at her.

“You work on the Hill?”

Her face immediately scrunches up in disgust, a sound a cross between a scoff and a gag escaping her lips before she clamps a hand over her mouth, clearly worried that she’s insulted him.

But Marcus throws his head back and laughs at her unfiltered reaction. It might be the first time he’s laughed all week.

“That’s a ‘no’, I take it?”

She shakes her head, grinning.

“No. I mean, it’s not that I don’t respect the work, it’s just…the environment leaves a lot to be desired.”

Marcus can’t fault her there.

“Do you come to the gardens a lot?” He asks, gesturing vaguely at the flora around them.

“Not as much as I’d like,” she admits. “This is my first day off in forever, and I’m more used to shooting people; this lets me stretch my creative muscles in a different way. And it’s so beautiful here.”

Marcus hums in agreement.

“I don’t think I’ve ever been here before,” he realizes. “Even during the times I was based in DC with the bureau, I never made it down here.”

“Well now that you have, what do you think of it?”

“It’s definitely exceeding my expectations,” he says, and he doesn’t miss the way her breath hitches, just the tiniest bit.

Marcus clears his throat and sheepishly rubs the back of his neck.

“You know, there’s a couple dozen cherry blossom trees out around the east side of the Rayburn building. I read that they’re expected to hit peak bloom this week, if you’re looking for new plant subjects to photograph without fighting the hordes at the Tidal Basin.”

She fiddles with the camera in her lap before looking up at him through her lashes.

“I wanted to, last year. Missed peak bloom by a couple of days. But maybe I should try again.”

Marcus opens his mouth to agree when the tinny vibration of his phone in his pocket breaks the moment. He makes an apologetic face at her before fishing it out and tries not to grimace at the name on the caller ID.

“I - it’s my chief, give me one second?” He pleads with her. He turns his body slightly away from her and answers the call.

“Linda?”

“Marcus. They’re about to call votes. Please tell me you haven’t gone AWOL such that you can’t make it back to the chamber in the next five minutes.”

His gaze drifts upward to where he can see the Capitol beyond the trees. He’s known Linda since he was six years old, and while there’s no one in DC he trusts more, he can’t bring himself to admit to her where he is, or why he blew off their scheduled time to chat without explanation.

“I just…needed some air,” he says lamely. “I won’t miss the vote window.”

He can hear her suppress a sigh.

“Can we at least go over the education bill stuff while you’re en route?”

“Hang on.” He swivels back to look at the woman on the bench, wanting more than anything to stay here, to keep talking with her, to keep feeling lighter than he has in a long while.

But she’s gone.

Marcus shoots to his feet, looking around to see if he can spot her. But aside from a young family nearby watching some ducks bathing in the stream, he’s suddenly alone.

In his past life, Marcus would have gone after her. There’s only so far she could have gotten; there’s an entrance at the garden's westernmost edge near the benches, she’s probably just on the other side, standing on the corner and waiting for the light to change. Marcus could follow her, find her, ask her for her name, for her number, if he could see her again, talk to her again, find out if she feels the connection he’s feeling -

He almost does it.

But then Linda’s voice is coming through his phone’s speaker, pulling him back to reality. He has to go vote. He has a job to do. A schedule to keep. And when has running after a woman ever gotten him anything but eventual heartbreak?

He puts the phone back up to his ear, the gravel path crunching under his feet as he walks back in the direction of the Capitol.

“I’m here, Linda. Talk to me about the bill.”

“Are you heading back to the chamber?”

He is, and he tells her as much. And if a part of him feels like he’s heading in the wrong direction, he keeps it to himself.

#pedro pascal #pedro pascal fanfiction #Marcus Pike #marcus pike fanfic #the mentalist fanfic

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dontmeantobepoliticalbut · 1 year

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Former President Donald Trump loves calling for other people to be charged with crimes. Instead, today, he’ll be formally accused of committing a few himself.

Trump told his 2016 Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, she’d “be in jail” if he won the election, in the middle of a presidential debate. He accused former President Barack Obama of committing “treason.” He slammed President Joe Biden’s “crime family.” He called a journalist a “criminal” for failing to report news Trump wanted to hear.

But today, Trump will be arraigned in a Manhattan courtroom shortly after 2:00 p.m. EST, on charges widely expected to arise from a $130,000 hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels.

youtube

Now that Trump is the one being charged with a crime, Trump and his allies are blasting the move as an unacceptable politicization of the criminal justice system, overlooking the many times Trump lobbied, inside and outside the White House, for his political opponents to be investigated and criminally charged.

They’re also glossing over the fact that Trump is hardly alone among his friends: A truly staggering number of people Trump likes to pal around with—including his advisors, lawyers and top supporters—have also been found guilty of committing a wide variety of crimes, from financial fraud to lying under oath and more.

Viewed in that light, Trump is just the latest of his friend group to catch a case.

Trump’s longtime Chief Financial Officer, Allen Weisselberg, is currently wrapping up a five-month sentence in the notorious Rikers Island prison complex after entering a guilty plea on 15 criminal counts ranging from grand larceny to tax fraud.

Trump’s personal attorney Michael Cohen is now expected to be a prime witness against Trump at the former president’s upcoming criminal trial. Cohen was sentenced to three years in federal prison after pleading guilty to eight criminal counts, including tax evasion and orchestrating unlawful contributions to Trump’s presidential campaign. Cohen said he was directed by Trump to set up hush money payments to women who said they slept with Trump before the 2016 election. (Trump denies all charges, and has repeatedly insisted he did nothing wrong.)

Trump’s former campaign and White House advisor, Steve Bannon, was convicted of contempt of Congress last summer, and is now defending himself from a new round of criminal fraud charges related to a private non-profit group that aimed to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border. New York prosecutors accuse Bannon of defrauding donors to a charity We Build The Wall. Bannon has pleaded not guilty.

Then there’s Paul Manafort, Trump’s former campaign chairman, who was sentenced to seven years following his convictions for financial crimes, only to be pardoned by Trump. Trump also pardoned his longtime political advisor Roger Stone, who’d been convicted at a jury trial on charges of obstruction, false statements, and witness tampering relating to the Congressional investigation of Russia’s interference in the 2016 election.

Even Trump’s business has been found guilty of committing crimes.

Trump’s company was convicted of all 17 criminal counts against it during a trial in late 2022, which took place in the very same courtroom where Trump’s personal criminal case is now set to play out. He’ll even have the same New York Supreme Court Judge Juan Merchan overseeing his personal case.

Trump’s criminal drama in Manhattan, of course, isn’t the only legal jeopardy he’s facing.

He’s also being investigated by an Atlanta-area prosecutor for his attempts to reverse his 2020 election defeat in Georgia. And a federal special counsel named Jack Smith is overseeing two investigations. One concerns whether Trump broke the law by stashing secret government documents at his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida; and the other concerns whether Trump committed crimes while trying to stay in power despite losing the 2020 election.

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ausetkmt · 8 months

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Topline

A Georgia judge on Friday denied bond for Harrison Floyd, the only one of 18 co-defendants in former President Donald Trump’s election interference case in Fulton County to stay in jail, and the former Black Voices for Trump leader has a history of politics and legal trouble.

Key Facts

Floyd, a 39-year-old U.S. Marine veteran, served as the director of the political group Black Voices for Trump during the 2020 election cycle, and was charged last week in the Fulton County case with violating Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, for influencing a witness and conspiracy to commit solicitation of false statements.

According to the indictment, Floyd pressured Ruby Freeman, an election worker in Fulton County, after she refused to change the results of the county’s vote in the 2020 election for Trump, with Freeman testifying before the House January 6 Committee last year that she was forced to leave her home for two months and quit her job after receiving threats after the election.

Floyd, a graduate of George Washington University, had become a prominent Republican in Georgia in recent years, running in 2019 for a Congressional seat.

Floyd dropped out of the race just over a month after announcing his candidacy, saying he “might be the guy doing this in the future,” while expressing his support for a GOP state representative in his place (Democrat Carolyn Bourdeaux won the district in 2020).

In 2020, Floyd led the organization Black Voices for Trump, and also served as executive producer of right-wing outlet Bright News and as a partner at Washington D.C.-based Commonwealth International, according to his LinkedIn page.

Floyd had been charged in a separate case in May with second-degree assault and arrested for allegedly attacking an FBI agent who had served him a grand jury subpoena in the Department of Justice’s investigation into efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

According to a complaint in federal District Court in Maryland, Floyd refused to accept the subpoena, putting his finger to the face of one of two FBI agents who arrived at his residence, yelling: “You haven’t given me anything; I don’t know who the f**k you are.”

Later that night, Floyed called 911, accusing the agents of accosting him and saying: “They were lucky I didn’t have a gun on me, because I would have shot his fucking ass,” the Huffington Post reported.

Forbes has reached out to Floyd’s court-listed attorney in Maryland, Carlos Salvado—Floyd does not have an attorney listed in the Georgia case.

On Friday, Fulton County Judge Emily Richardson denied bond for Floyd after he determined he posed a flight risk and a risk to commit further criminal felonies if released on bail (Georgia state law requires defendants to be determined to pose no “significant risk of fleeing” and pose no “threat or danger to any person” or of committing a felony to be released on bail).

What To Watch For

Richardson said in her determination on Friday that the terms of Floyd’s bond “will be addressed,” but that the full terms fall on Fulton County Judge Scott McAfee, who is overseeing the case. Floyd, however, has contested his bond denial, telling Richardson on Friday: “There is no way I’m a flight risk. I showed up here before the president was here.”

Tangent

Trump was indicted by a grand jury in Fulton County last week on 13 felony counts, including racketeering, solicitation of violation of oath by a public officer, conspiracy to commit forgery, false statements and conspiracy to impersonate a public officer.. After just over a week, Trump surrendered to authorities in a brief procedure on Thursday, posting a $200,000 bond after giving a mug shot and his fingerprints before promptly leaving Georgia. All 18 of his co-defendants also turned themselves in by Friday, with Pastor Stephen Lee becoming the last to do so before the 12 p.m. deadline, following a group of former Trump aides and attorneys, as well as so-called fake electors in Trump’s legal team’s dubious plot to overturn the results of his election loss to President Joe Biden.

Further Reading

Trump Co-Defendant Harrison Floyd Denied Bond: Why He’s Still In Jail (Forbes)

#Who Is Harrison Floyd: Trump Co-Defendant And Black Voices For Trump Leader Still In Fulton County Jail #harrison floyd #trumpets #black trumpers #liars #election fraud #rico #fulton county jail #locked up #Georgia #Fani T Willis DA #Black Voices for Trump

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tomorrowusa · 5 months

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Nancy Pelosi is able to put the country's interest ahead of petty name calling.

Former Congresswoman Liz Cheney says she never had a lengthy conversation with Nancy Pelosi before the then-House Speaker asked her to join the House January 6 committee. Their odd-couple relationship, Cheney wrote in her new book, ended up being critical to a sprawling investigation that became one of the largest in the lengthy history of congressional probes. As a sign of just how unusual it was, Cheney said she later found out that a Pelosi staffer tried to talk the speaker out of her unusual request. "Later, I would learn that when the Speaker was deciding whether to appoint me, her staff pulled together a list of the 10 worst things I ever said about her," Cheney wrote in "Oath and Honor: A Memoir and a Warning" which was published on Tuesday. "Speaker Pelosi took one look at the list, handed it back to her staffer, and asked, 'Why are you wasting my time with things that don't matter?'"

Contrast Pelosi's professional attitude with Donald Trump's vindictive approach to just about everything.

Trump's desire to repeal Obamacare has nothing to do with healthcare or government philosophy.

The deeply unsettling reason that explains Trump’s attacks on Obamacare

The truth is, Trump’s latest vow to repeal Obamacare is not about policy. Trump has other aims. First, he believes going after the signature achievement of President Obama plays well with his base. The ACA has the support of nearly 60% of Americans, so it might seem an unlikely target of political attack — except for the fact that Obama was extremely unpopular with the GOP base. Among Republicans, only 18% approved of how Obama handled his two terms in the White House. Second, Trump has long appeared obsessed with attacking — and if at all possible undoing — Obama’s legacy. When Obama left office in January 2017, a CNN poll showed him with a 60% approval rating, landing him near the top of the list of presidential approval ratings upon leaving office. In contrast, Trump left office with a 34% approval rating — the lowest of his term. Those numbers must stick in the craw of a braggadocious man who has always seemed obsessed with being the biggest and the best.

Yep, Trump wants to end healthcare for tens of millions of Americans just because he doesn't like Obama and he is jealous of Obama's legacy.

All Trump can point to from his time in office:

A disastrously botched response in the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic which led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Americans and yet another Republican recession.

A failed coup d'état which trashed the US Capitol and almost tanked American democracy.

A crumbling border wall which Mexico didn't pay for.

Packing the US Supreme Court with anti-abortion fanatics.

A foreign policy in which he embraced totalitarian dictators while disdaining longtime loyal allies of the US.

Oh yeah, more tax breaks for the filthy rich which widened the income gap in the US.

Trump is a narcissistic and mean-spirited sociopath who isn't qualified to hold ANY office. He doesn't have a fraction of a fraction of the class of Nancy Pelosi.

#nancy pelosi #liz cheney #“oath and honor”#house january 6th committee #donald trump #barack obama #obamacare #healthcare #trump is a narcissistic sociopath #election 2024

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racefortheironthrone · 1 year

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Dear Master Steven,

I'm intrigued. What do you think would have happened if the Wade Davis bill had passed? Also, weren't some states majority black? Couldn't they have rejoined the Union automatically, on the basis that freedmen living there who formed the majority of the population opposed the Confederacy?

Thank you in advance

If the Wade-Davis Bill had passed, it would have slowed down the process of Southern states being readmitted to the Union under Presidential Recontruction, since it's a lot easier to find 10% of a Southern white male population who can swear an oath of future allegiance than 50% of the same population who can swear an oath of past and future loyalty.

Moreover, the use of the Ironclad Oath was highly significant. Emerging out of the shock that had been the revelation during the secession crisis that prominent members of the Buchanan Administration were Confederate sympathizers, the Ironclad Oath was initially imposed on the Federal government itself as a bid to purge it of Confederate sympathizers and potential spies during the war.

Its extension to Southern states had a two-fold purpose: first, it was intended to ensure that ex-Confederates were excluded from the political system, as part of a broader process that today we might think of as de-Confederization of the South. Second, Congressional Republicans were under no illusions that it was highly unlikely that a majority of the white male population could swear the Ironclad Oath in good faith when it came to non-office-holding related rebellious activities like fighting in the army or providing the army with supplies. However, they thought that either they could begin to spread a kind of revisionist historical memory in which all "good" white Southerners had only supported the Confederacy because of forced conscription and requisition, or they could hold the possibility of perjury investigations over the heads of white Southern men as a kind of enforced pledge of good conduct. As for black majorities, yes it is true that a few Southern states were majority black - Mississippi and South Carolina - and some other states (Louisiana, Alabama, Georgia, Florida) they came quite close. However, in most Southern states they were in the minority. Moreover, at the time of the passage of the Wade-Davis Bill in 1864, even Radical Republicans had not yet come around to support black suffrage.

#history #u.s history #wade-davis bill #civil war #reconstruction

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carolyn-magazine · 8 months

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This is a letter I wrote to my Secretary of State in regard to the disqualification of Donald J. Trump, and any others, from holding public office, per the United States Constitution, Amendment 14, Section 3.

[Disclaimer: this letter has been altered by me to remove the name of this state's Secretary of State in case anyone else would like to copy and send it to their Secretary of State or Lieutenant Governor. [Note: In Some States the Lieutenant Governor also serves as the Secretary of State and/or Chief Election Officer]

Dear Secretary of State [insert name] ,

In addition to serving as Secretary of State of [insert state], you also serve as Chief Election Officer. As a proud resident of [insert state], I am aware that you stand by the wisdom of The United States Constitution, as we all should. I implore you to please read, and take into serious consideration, the below information.

I am writing to your offices urging a formal review of whether Donald J. Trump, and any others, are barred from the ballot in this state by way of Section 3 of the 14th Amendment. That Amendment disqualifies from the ballot any person who “shall have engaged” in an “insurrection.”

For such a disqualification, there is no requirement that Trump or any person be first convicted of any crime - as the Congressional Research Service notes.

Additionally, last year after a trial in New Mexico, a judge ruled that Jan. 6 was an “insurrection” within the meaning of the 14th Amendment and that Otero County Commissioner Cuoy Griffin was removed from office and disqualified from the ballot for “engaging” in that attack. Mr. Griffin is also prohibited from ever holding an elected position in the state of New Mexico.

Donald Trump’s actions - as detailed in the final report of the “Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack” - far exceed the actions of Griffin in terms of “engaging” in the Jan. 6 insurrection. While that New Mexico ruling is not binding in this or any other state, it is persuasive in its reasoning, and I urge your offices to read it.

Recently, conservative legal scholars (former Federal Judge on the Court of Appeals 4th circuit, J. Michael Luttig, and Professor Emeritus at Harvard Law School, who taught Constitutional Law at Harvard for nearly five decades, Laurence Tribe) have recently penned articles reaching the conclusion that given Trump’s conduct, the US Constitution does in fact bar Trump from the ballot.

Article VI of The United States Constitution reads, "This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any state to the Contrary notwithstanding."

Amendment 14, Section 3 of The United States Constitution reads, "No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability."

As Americans, we should always take the Constitution seriously, and most people do, including Donald Trump, as we've witnessed him repeatedly standing by the 1st and 5th amendments.

We can't pick and choose which amendments are legally binding because each one is considered part of the supreme law of the land, as stated above in Article VI of The Constitution.

The time is now to review if Trump, or anyone for that matter, has done just that, and is barred from the ballot - well before the 2024 election.

George Santayana once famously wrote, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."

We must learn from History and there is a reason why Section 3 of the 14th Amendment was written into The Constitution - as a way to prevent our democracy from being destroyed.

Thank you for considering this issue that is vitally important to protecting our Republic.

Sincerely,

[insert your name here]

References

https://www.senate.gov/about/origins-foundations/senate-and-constitution/constitution.htm

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/08/donald-trump-constitutionally-prohibited-presidency/675048/

https://acrobat.adobe.com/id/urn:aaid:sc:VA6C2:d5f3903a-9ef1-413d-8b62-d42d1e8f44a5

https://nmpoliticalreport.com/2022/09/06/nm-judge-orders-couy-griffin-to-be-removed-from-otero-county-commission-bars-him-from-holding-any-office-in-the-future/

https://www.c-span.org/video/?507774-1/president-trump-video-statement-capitol-protesters

https://iep.utm.edu/santayan/

https://youtu.be/5Aaqz4qiQYM?si=ls1xrwNcKcFZrVMd

#United States Constitution #Amendment 14 section 3 #disqualification #insurrection #letter to secretary of state #barred from ballot #threat to democracy #stop the madness #inciting an insurrection #george santayana #history #remember the past #don't let history be repeated #secretary of state #facts #MSNBC

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acquariusgb · 1 year

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Talking it Over- HRC column

Hillary’s weekly column: 21st January 1997 Inauguration Day for Bill and me ended early Tuesday morning after a whirlwind tour of 15 Inaugural Balls. We arrived at the White House around 2 a.m. exhausted but exhilarated. We were also famished. We hadn't eaten since lunch and headed straight to the refrigerator in our private living quarters. As we ate leftovers from a family dinner Bill and I had missed earlier that night, we chatted and recalled our favorite moments of the day. It all began with a prayer service at the historical Metropolitan AME Church in Washington. I couldn't have thought of a better way to start Inauguration Day and the day honoring Martin Luther King Jr.

As Bill prepares for another four years in office, he knows that he won't be able do his job alone. He needs his faith and people of faith to support him. The morning service, which brought together representatives from Christianity, Judaism and Islam, boosted the congregation's spirits and reaffirmed my belief that much more unites us than divides us. Friends from throughout Bill's life spoke and sang at the service. Bill Hybels, pastor of Willow Creek Community Church outside Chicago, spoke of the visits he and my husband have shared every month for the past four years, praying and talking together, strengthening their faith and building a friendship. Jesse Jackson and Tony Campolo, an evangelist minister from Philadelphia, delivered sermons challenging us all to remember our obligations to the poor. And Jennifer Holiday closed the service with a rousing rendition of "Amazing Grace" that lifted the roof and our hearts. After the service, Bill and I returned to the White House, where we greeted congressional leaders who had come to escort Bill to the Capitol. As we drove to the Capitol, I looked out the window and saw people already staking out seats along the parade route. I also saw a few protesters, who reminded me of the greatness of our democracy and our right to disagree with each other openly and peacefully. It was cold and overcast as Chelsea and I took our seats with Tipper Gore and her children at the oath-taking ceremony. I held Bill's Bible open to a passage he had selected - Isaiah 58:12 - which he later used in his speech when he said we should all be "repairers of the breach." When he repeated his name after Justice Rehnquist, "I, William Jefferson Clinton," tears welled up in my eyes, and I thought I was going to cry. I felt proud and awed as I watched my husband walk toward the podium on the West Front of the Capitol, looking out toward the mall and the Washington monument.

I had been worried about Bill's voice for three days. It had turned hoarse on Friday, and I had pleaded with him to stay in for the weekend. (I am known in my family as an incurable worrier.) But Monday, his voice was strong and clear. As Bill began his speech, the sun emerged from the clouds and bathed him in light. Chelsea and I were amazed by the weather's good timing. After the ceremony, we went to Statuary Hall, one of the most historic rooms in the Capitol for lunch with members of Congress. The menu was composed of dishes Thomas Jefferson served 200 years ago while he was in the White House. I sat between my husband and House Speaker Newt Gingrich (who, ironically, was seated to my left). Chelsea sat next to Strom Thurmond, who at 94 is still one of the Senate's greatest charmers. When Sen. Warner presented the President with the traditional gift of an already-framed picture of the morning's ceremony, I did not remember the same event occurring four years ago. Looking back, I realize I was too anxious and overwhelmed to take in the details of my husband's first inauguration. This time, I was much more relaxed and savored every moment. I was thrilled at the number of people who had come out on such a cold day to watch the inaugural parade. Bill, Chelsea and I walked the last few blocks to the White House. We saw familiar faces in the crowds and waved to them. Bill even caught sight of a man he had worked with on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee while he was a student at Georgetown University 30 years ago. The parade itself had everything from mariachi bands to polka dancers to gymnasts. I was especially pleased to see groups that I had personally invited, including Florida A&M's prized marching band and the Yelm, Wash., Elementary School Choir. The hardest part of the day was finding the energy to change into our formal wear for the evening's balls. I was afraid to nap between the parade and the balls for fear of not being able to get up. But before we knew it, Bill and I were in the motorcade, dropping in on one ball after the other and dancing to "Unforgettable." The energy of the people having a good time kept me going, even as my feet protested with every step. And when Bill and I returned to the White House, we realized we had carried all of the day's good feelings home with us.

#the clintons #hillary clinton #bill clinton #testimonials #personal testimonials #hrc weekly column #White House Years #bill and hillary

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spacetimewithstuartgary · 9 months

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Crashed UFOs? Non-human 'biologics'? Professor asks: Where's the evidence?

Congressional testimony this week about reverse engineering from crashed UFOs and the recovery of non-human "biologics" sounds like science fiction.

And that's the realm in which it will remain unless scientific and other hard evidence enters the picture, says Northeastern University assistant physics professor Jonathan Blazek.

He says he finds it "very frustrating" that former intelligence officer David Grusch "back(ed) away from specifics" in his July 26 testimony before a House Oversight subcommittee on national security.

"I think what I find most surprising is that lawmakers seem to be taking him so seriously at this point. I'm sure they know things that I don't," Blazek says.

Grusch, a U.S. Air Force veteran who previously worked at the National Reconnaissance Office, told members of Congress that the U.S. is operating a secret crash retrieval and reverse engineering program and that he "knows the exact location" of unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAPs) in the government's possession.

He also said that remains of non-humans had been recovered and that he knew of people who have been harmed or injured in connection with the phenomena.

As startling as his testimony was, Grusch did not offer firsthand accounts or corroborating evidence of his claims, saying repeatedly that "I can't discuss that publicly."

Where's the evidence?

"I don't find Grusch very credible," says Blazek, who read a summary report of the hearing.

Besides lacking specificity, Grusch has made "increasingly implausible claims," including telling News Nation that allegedly retrieved crafts could come from other physical dimensions, Blazek says.

It may be that members of Congress "don't want to be seen as suppressing anything, so it's better to be transparent about the sorts of claims being made," he says.

"Hopefully this is part of a process to get everything out into the open so that the community can proceed to look into the more credible and/or actually mysterious things."

"I don't think this particular hearing will make the public take the claims of 'aliens' more seriously," says Blazek, whose primary focus is on understanding the universe using astronomical surveys that cover large areas of the sky.

He says he is looking forward to a report from an independent NASA panel of highly regarded scientists who are looking into the origins of UAPs, be they optical illusions or atmospheric or stranger phenomena.

The panel, which includes retired astronaut Scott Kelly, is scheduled to release a published report any day now. The publication date was originally set for the end of July.

What UFO enthusiasts have to say

Some civilians who investigate UFO reports also question Grusch's testimony.

"The UFO 'street' has understood that material and bodies have been in U.S. custody since 1947," says Bob Spearing, the director of international investigations for MUFON, the Mutual UFO Network.

"This is nothing new except this was allegedly told under oath. That's telling," Spearing says, adding that he is speaking as an individual and not for MUFON.

He questioned whether Grusch's testimony is "a slow turn towards disclosure" or part of a campaign to mislead the public as well as foreign adversaries.

"Until they show the physical evidence, caution dictates it is a misinformation campaign. I think it is all orchestrated," Spearing says.

Serious study of UFOs

Long the subject of official derision, UFO reports are increasingly being taken seriously, at least on paper.

The Department of Defense established the All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office to identify UAPs that might pose a threat to national security in 2022—five years after a blockbuster New York Times story about a secretive DOD UFO program.

The Times also showed the world a declassified video of Navy fighter pilots being outmaneuvered by an oval object that traveled at seemingly mind-boggling rates of speed.

Two of the pilots included in the Times coverage, retired Navy Commander David Fravor and former Navy fighter pilot Ryan Graves, also gave testimony during the July 26 House hearing and described their first-hand, in-flight encounters.

So far, however, the Pentagon has not officially acknowledged the existence of off-earth UAPs.

Sean M. Kirkpatrick, AARO's first director, testified during the open portion of a Senate Committee on Armed Services in April that his office "has found no credible evidence thus far of extraterrestrial activity, off-world technology or objects that defy the known laws of physics."

Grusch previously worked with AARO's predecessor, the UAP Task Force.

Is more information on the way?

As wary as Grusch was about revealing details of his explosive claims—which he says came from interviewing dozens of witnesses—he said several times during the July 26 hearing that he would discuss issues further in a SCIF or sound-proof room for officials with appropriate security clearances.

In the meantime, Blazek is looking forward to hearing what scientists on NASA's independent panel on UAPs have to report.

"There's probably been a realization in the last decades that the culture around this has gotten sort of toxic, on both sides," Blazek told Northeastern Global News following the NASA panel's first public meeting May 31.

"Actual explanations for some of these events would be really interesting."

#science #space #astronomy #physics #news #astrophysics #ufo #ROSWELL #area 51

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edupunkn00b · 8 months

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Decoherence, Ch. 9: True Faith and Allegiance

Creative Commons 1.0, Public Domain

Prev - True Faith and Allegiance - Next - Masterpost - [ AO3 ] - Playlist

“I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same…” -United States Congressional Oath of Office

WC: 2112 - Rated: T - CW: swearing -

2035, April 9 - The White House, Washington, D.C., US

“Lo!” Remus shot up in bed, hand scrabbling at the cold, empty expanse next to him. “Lo?” he called again, louder, but the ensuite was dark, empty. He rushed to his closet, the lights automatically flicking on with his movement. His suits and dress shirts lined one rack, more casual clothes tucked neatly into their little cubbies along the other wall.

“Lo?” he said one more time, quieter. Was it all a dream?

There was a sharp knock on the hidden door just before it opened and a Secret Service agent—Craig? No, Keith—stepped inside. “Mr. President? Are you alright? We heard shouting.”

“I’m fine, Keith, thank you,” Remus nodded, swallowing hard against the growing lump in his throat. It had felt so real. “Just a dream,” he smiled. “Nothing to worry about.”

“Very good, sir. Sorry to intrude,” he said and stepped back into the hall, closing the door behind him.

Both hands tracing the chain around his neck, Remus gently pulled it from under his pajama top and kissed the rings. They were warm to the touch, clinking quietly together in his shaking hands, and they shone under the bright closet lights.

These rings were real.

Lo was real. He had to be.

Lo’s voice echoed in his mind. “Find me, Meus… Find me…” Gold had glinted on his hand as he’d poured the wine. Their matching rings had clacked together when they’d held hands. It was real… real-ish, at least. The rings were real.

He stood in front of the mirror, curls frizzed and sticking out from every which way on his head, eyes wild and he clung to the rings from his dream.

His vision layered and he saw himself tucking two gold rings under his shirt. Under a bright green tank top, a worn and patched blue denim button down layered with a heavy leather apron. An open nehru collar, golden flowers stitched on green silk. A shirt and tie underneath a white lab coat emblazoned with CERN on the breast pocket.

It was all real.

The computer screen next to the closet door dinged and droned out the day’s agenda. Moving by rote, he let his hands ready himself for his jog, mind wandering through possibilities as he dressed. He needed more information and startling the Secret Service with out of the ordinary behavior was not the way to get it.

“Gladys,” he buzzed the intercom. “Can you gather my appointment books for the last six months, please?”

“Of course, Mr. President,” she chirped back, hesitancy in her voice. “Your calendar on your computer should be up to date, sir, if you wish to query it.”

“I… I know.” He’d already scoured the calendar for any mention of Lo. There’d been nothing. ‘Dr. Sanders’ floated through his mind, but he couldn’t find any Sanders or Lo named in any of his appointments. “The sign-in book sometimes has extra details. Assistants’ names, that sort of thing.”

“Understood,” she replied, clearly not understanding. But that was alright. It certainly wasn’t the first odd request he’d ever had, and likely wouldn’t be the last.

While he waited for her to gather the books from Archives, he paced the office, reciting his speech for the new Climate Accord ratification ceremony. He was due to tour the new flood plain outside San Francisco this afternoon, with Airforce One due to take off in three hours. He’d review as much as he could before the flight and, with any luck, might begin to unravel whatever the hell was going on.

2036, September 15 - London, England

Saturday dawned muggy and quiet.

Remus woke early, a swirl of thoughts pulling him in different directions from the moment he opened his eyes. He had the distinct sense of jet lag, but he’d finally drifted off at a reasonable hour the night before.

Shaking his head, he pulled himself out of bed and straightened the quilt before padding across the room to shower. The familiar space gradually cleared his mind and he moved automatically, stripping off his sleep shorts and quickly washing and conditioning his hair. He reached without looking for his face soap, wishing he could just as easily scrub away errant thoughts.

He stepped out of the shower and brushed his teeth, staring at himself in the mirrored cabinet. There were two doors. The right side had held his toothbrush, aftershave, and mustache wax. His hand shook as he opened the other side of the cabinet.

His toothbrush clattered to the basin.

The shelves were lined with familiar products. Another toothbrush. That vanilla spice pomade. A bottle of aftershave. An eyeglass repair kit.

Remus rinsed his mouth then pulled out the aftershave and uncapped it, breathing in the scent of cinnamon and sandalwood and vanilla. It was him. It was Lo’s. He was real, he’d been here. Carefully, reverently, he replaced the cap and moved to the wardrobe. It wasn’t until he’d caught sight of himself in the mirror that he realized he’d lost his gold chain.

Hand slapping his chest, his own gold ring sparkled. Remus stared down at his hand and touched the smooth gold band. If he was wearing his ring, where had Lo’s gone?

One hand reached up and clawed at his neck where the chain had once been—had he worn it last night? He must’ve… He could feel it under his flannel pajama top. Without really thinking, he checked the hamper. But he hadn’t worn pajamas, just shorts. Too hot for that in their little flat with only a ceiling fan to keep it cool.

Remus hurried back to the bed. He ripped off the quilt, feeling along the seams of the mattress, the pillow cases, the joints along the bed frame. He checked the floor and under the bed, retracing his steps between the closet and the main room.

Lo’s ring was gone.

He’d had two rings, hadn’t he?

He stared down at his hand. It looked right. A vague recollection of making a ‘practice’ ring for his brother and his partners flitted across his mind and he shook his head.

Coffee. Everything would make more sense with a little coffee. He started toward the bedroom door and realized he hadn’t dressed, so he took a moment to straighten the quilt and pillows on the bed, the mundane action meditative, then opened the wardrobe.

His own clothes were there, familiar and worn.

But, impossibly, so were Lo’s. They weren’t labeled, of course, but… These were Lo’s. A rotating tie rack held a rainbow of colors, hanger after hanger of neatly pressed button down shirts and soft sweater vests. He stepped into the closet and pressed one to his face. It smelled like him.

Lo was real. So where the fuck was he?

Remus dressed quickly and hit the streets. Shoving his keys in his jacket pocket, his fingers brushed his phone screen. He yanked it out. Two missed calls.

Stabbing at the screen, he sighed, disappointment and guilt mixing when he saw it was his brother, and he checked his voicemail. Just Ro announcing they’d made it to the train station for their trip, then again just before they hit the trail to the cabin and lost cell service. Remus scrolled through his call history and found Lo’s contact.

He was real. He was in his phone. Remus’ thumb shook as he tapped call, but the number went right to a generic voicemail greeting announcing the mailbox was full.

Sighing, Remus pocketed the phone and let his feet guide him down the quiet pavement.

Remus walked for hours, finally looking up when his grumbling stomach reminded him he’d skipped breakfast. He turned on the spot, working out just where he’d ended up. He’d passed a café down the street and the rich scents of freshly baked bread and syrupy coffee drinks grew stronger as he approached, likely the trigger of his sudden hunger.

He got a table outside and, after drinking half his coffee in one gulp, nursed the rest as he waited for his order. Foot traffic had picked up during his walk, and the quiet street had transformed around him into its typically bustling state.

Families filled the pavement, likely taking in a bit of fresh air before the late afternoon sun left the streets too balmy to breathe. A doting couple stopped in front of the hat shop—a haberdashery, Lo’s voice filled in—across the street, one turning to the other to straighten a skewed collar.

It hurt to watch, and Remus looked away, fuzzily scanning the opposite side of the street. His eyes snagged on a man at the far end, distinctive blue and grey Aldi’s vest tucked under one arm, eyeglasses barely visible, head down as he maneuvered through the busy walkway. But his raven hair was unmistakable.

Heedless of traffic, Remus stood and ran across the street, only vaguely registering a blaring car horn. He waved it away and stopped a dozen paces from the man.

“Lo—” he began but the man wore no recognition in his eyes and the splash of grey at his temples and lines around his mouth and forehead weren’t Lo's. Remus started to turn away, but then remembered. “Wait—you’re the guy at the store.”

The man—his name badge said ‘Luke’—looked him up and down and shook his head. “Yeah, I don’t know you,” he said, side stepping him and continuing on his way.

“Please, wait!” Remus called after him, stopping short when a large group of young tweens poured out of the Daiso shop next to him, chattering about their purchases. “Wait, Luke, please, do you know—”

He wormed his way through the gaggle of laughing children but by the time he’d cleared the throng, Luke was nowhere to be seen. Moving more carefully this time, he crossed back to the café and reclaimed his seat. Dreams clashed with reality but Remus was now more certain than ever Lo really was out there.

He just had to find him.

1838, August 21 - Wyoming, United States

“Knock, knock, knock,” Ro called from the other side of the heavy bottom half of Remus’ barn-turned-workshop door. He unlatched the little hook and pushed it open, hinges creaking. With a peal of laughter, Virge dashed into the room ahead of him, a flash of denim and grasses clutched in his hand.

“Uncka Re! Wook wha’ I made!” Virge announced proudly, tugging his sleeve and drawing him closer to the big workbench in the center of the barn.

Remus pulled off his smoke-lensed visor and lifted his newly four-year-old nephew up onto a stool. “Well, look at that,” he murmured, tilting his head at the hay-stuffed doll Virgil walked across the worn wooden surface. “May I?” he asked, hefting the toy in his palm.

“Poppy he’ped me put sand in his tummy and feet and hands so he’d sit,” he grinned, clapping briefly when Remus sat him up against a roll of spectrometry paper. The doll sported big eyes, dark blue dots with wide circles drawn around them in the shaky hand of a four-year-old still learning to write.

“He’s wonderful, Virge,” Remus ruffled his hair with a smile. “What’s his name?”

Virgil laughed up at him, his tiny face scrunched adorably. “Unka Woe!” He pointed at the circles around the doll’s eyes. “See? Those are his g’asses!”

“What?” Remus’ wrench hit the floor, narrowly missing his toe and taking a big bite out of the packed dirt floor. “What’d y’say?”

“Hey, Vee,” Ro crouched down and met Virgil’s eyes. “What’s this little guy’s name?”

The little boy’s smile wavered as he looked between his uncle and his dad. “He’s my friend,” he finally said, plucking up the doll and hugging it close before curling into Ro’s arms. He tucked his chin over Ro’s shoulder and watched Remus’ expression.

“Oh, you’re all tuckered out from running your foals, aren’t you?” Ro cooed. “How about we get a little supper into you and then call it a night, yeah?”

He nodded against his dad’s shoulder, nervous eyes following Remus’. “Y’can ho’d him,” he whispered and pushed the doll into Remus’ hands. Virge smiled and wiggled the doll in his hands. “He says ‘It’s supper time.’”

“Come, now, Meus…” Lo’s laughter fills my mind. “The dynamo needs to charge. You worked through the midday… It's supper time.”

“Oh, really?” I pull off the smoked visor and tiptoe closer, swooping in at the last moment to scoop Lo up into my arms. He’s warm and solid and melts into my hold like he was meant to be there. “Only if you come along with me!”

“I reckon he does,” Remus nodded, ruffling Virge’s hair. “Lead the way!”

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houseofbrat · 1 year

Note

I hope you're patting yourself on the back with your Kevin McCarthy prediction. 🤗 Even if he ultimately wins, losing three rounds wasn't a shoo-in and it looks like he'll hafta sell his soul to get speakership.

I've been watching, thinking, 'Daaammmnnn, HoB is Goood...'

Yup! This situation is pretty wild. (I’m writing this between the fourth and fifth speakership votes.)

He’s gone from 203 votes for his speakership to 201. He’s losing support. I don’t see how it is going to get better for him in the next round (aka fifth vote). I’m not even sure how many votes are going to happen at this point. The last time this happened was in 1923.

The House Freedom Caucus (GOP) has no reason to back down. Obviously. They’re getting what they want at the moment, which is for McCarthy to not be Speaker.

McCarthy is running his (Vimshottari) Sun-Ketu dasa/time period from December 2022 until April 2023. The description of this period from the Kalamritam is as follows:

a. Memory will decrease; the mind will be afflicted with troubles; there will be fainting or nervous exhaustion, and the mind will be filled with doubts and misgivings. b. He will go to a distant country or place. Owing to disputes he will live in a different house. c. Troubles among relatives and associates. d. There will be no benefits in this subperiod unless Ketu is well placed and in good aspect to the Sun.

It certainly doesn’t look good for McCarthy right now.

At this point, it wouldn’t surprise me if a few more Republicans just vote present so that they can have Hakeem Jeffries as Speaker just for a day so that they can take the oath of office with their families present for the pictures.

After the election, when I took a look at some further information regarding the 118th Congressional chart, I came to the conclusion that the House is going to be unstable in some way, probably similar to the Jim Jeffords situation that happened in 2001.

I did just take a look as I finished writing this and saw that the fifth vote is in progress, and McCarthy’s bid has already failed. Again.

youtube

#ask #2023: Year of the Water Rabbit #USA #politics #congress #kevin mccarthy #GOP #republicans #democratic party #vedic astrology

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dontmeantobepoliticalbut · 2 years

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Near the end of the Jan. 6 Committee’s final meeting before the midterm elections, the panel took an historic, unanimous vote on Thursday to subpoena former President Donald Trump, demanding he testify about his failed plot to stay in power after losing the 2020 election.

The subpoena marks the first time a congressional panel has directly targeted the nation’s ex-Commander-in-Chief, and it underscores how high the stakes are in the ongoing investigation of the Jan. 6 insurrection.

“He led an effort to upend American democracy that directly resulted in the violence of January 6th. He tried to take away the voice of American people. He is the one person at the center of the story of what happened… we want to hear from him,” said Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-MS).

“This is a question of accountability to the American people. He is required to answer for his actions, he is required to answer for those police officers who put their lives and bodies on the line,” he added, noting that this was as “serious and extraordinary action.”

Neither Trump’s office nor his top lawyers on these matters responded to a request for comment on Thursday.

Should Trump ignore the subpoena, he faces the same threat of a criminal prosecution for “contempt of Congress” that led to a federal conviction against another MAGA ally: former senior White House adviser Stephen Bannon.

However, consequences for witnesses refusing to testify have been applied unequally. For example, even though Congress held former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows in contempt, the Department of Justice appears uninterested in actually pursuing charges over the House vote. Trump ignoring a subpoena could result in charges, but it also could result in nothing.

For months, the Committee has publicly presented evidence that Trump engaged in frivolous lawsuits to overturn the election, intimidated state officials to erase Joe Biden’s lead in the 2020 election, ignored evidence that he lost fairly, and knew his loyal mob in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021 was armed and seething when he sent them to march on the Capitol building where they attacked Congress. But throughout the panel’s nine public hearings, one voice has been conspicuously silent: Trump himself.

The closest the panel has come was when it played outtakes from Trump’s video addresses during and after the attack on the Capitol, revealing a President who simply refused to concede and still wanted to rile up his enraged followers.

The decision to subpoena the former President—who will likely ignore it—is an aggressive tactic that could go two very different ways. If the president refuses to show up and the full Congress refers the matter to the Department of Justice, prosecutors could refuse to take up the case and embolden resistant witnesses. Otherwise, Trump faces a prosecution similar to the year-long case that will end next week when a federal judge sentences Bannon.

Thursday’s subpoena came from one of the few Republicans who is furthest removed from the party’s loyalty to Trump’s MAGA movement: Co-Chair Liz Cheney (R-WY).

“We must seek the testimony—under oath—of January 6th’s central player,” she said. “At some point the Department of Justice may well unearth facts these witnesses are concealing. But our duty today is to our country, to our children, and to our Constitution. We are obligated to seek answers directly from the man who set these events in motion.”

#us politics #news #donald trump #house select committee #capitol riot #capitol riot investigation #2022 #rep. liz cheney #rep. bennie thompson #mark meadows #steve bannon #subpoenas #Congressional subpoena #contempt of congress #2020 election #the daily beast

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route22ny · 2 years

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Cartoon and commentary by Clay Jones

Here’s what I want to know: Who are the Republican members of Congress who sought pardons from Donald Trump after helping him try to steal the election from President Joe Biden?

One of the bombshells revealed during the Congressional January 6 Committee’s live hearing last Thursday is that several Republican members of Congress who had helped Trump try to steal the election asked for pardons between the election and Trump’s last day in office.

What this says is that not only did these Republicans know they were lying for Trump, but also knew they were breaking the law. Why would anyone believe they need a pardon if they believed they were only raising legitimate questions about the election? Hmm?

Call me crazy, but I don’t think criminals should hold elected office.

The thing is, these Republicans weren’t trying to make sure the election was fair. They were trying to steal the election. They were helping Trump try to commit a coup and become a fascist dictator.

Call me crazy, but I don’t think people who violate their oaths of office should continue to serve in office.

So, who are all these Republicans seeking pardons for the crimes of helping Trump steal an election? According to Jared Kushner, who was put in charge of sorting through all the requests for pardons (another task he was given that he wasn’t qualified for), there were a lot. There were so many pardon requests for him to go through, that the White House legal counsel’s “whining” about having to break the law for Trump was a distraction.

So far, we know that Scott Perry, the current chair of the ultra-conservative House Freedom Caucus (racist cult goons), asked for one of those pardons. Perry denied the claim, tweeting, “The notion that I ever sought a Presidential pardon for myself or other Members of Congress is an absolute, shameless, and soulless lie.” This tweet obviously means he believes there’s no lingering evidence of his request for a pardon. Based on the track record of Perry and everyone else in the goon conference…or anyone who’s ever defended Trump, I think he’s lying.

But who else asked for pardons?

Representative Alexandria Ocasio Cortez tweeted at Congressional Trump goons, Matt Gaetz, Lauren Boebert, and Marjorie Taylor Greene, if they asked for pardons.

Gaetz was tweeting at AOC all day long until she asked the question, so at the very least, she found a way to shut Gaetz up. MTG did not reply either. Boebert did but she didn’t answer the question, instead, changing the subject to shit about gas prices.

Since none of them proudly answered the question or even took the time to lie in a denial like Perry, they’re all suspects. If any of them asked for pardons, this means they’re not qualified to serve in Congress. Of course, we already knew this.

Republicans really have no shame. They help Trump commit a crime, claim it wasn’t a crime, then ask for a pardon so they don’t serve time in prison for the crime.

Call me crazy, but I think members of Congress should be more loyal to the Constitution than to an orange racist gaslighting reality TV show host.

And why is Jared Kushner going through the pardons? Typically, The Department of Justice goes through pardon requests and makes recommendations to the president (sic). But, Trump had a habit of ignoring them such as the time he pardoned the racist Arizona sheriff, or Paul Manafort, or Dinesh D’Souza, or Michael Flynn, or Roger Stone, or anyone he secretly pardoned which we’ll all learn about when they get charged in the future and pull that pardon out of their pockets.

Donald Trump never understood which department did what. While taking pardons away from DOJ, he wanted DOJ to help him steal the election.

Jared also had a pattern of going around federal departments, specifically the State Department as he’d make arms deals with autocratic nations in the Middle East without consulting the Secretary of State. Jared’s only experience with foreign policy is taking bribes from bone saw-wielding sultans. But I guess it’s OK that he’s the one who goes through the pardons since he’s not a lawyer either.

Like his father-in-law, Jared’s only experience to before working in the White House was being a lousy businessman. Keep in mind, that he submitted three applications for his security clearance because he kept forgetting his relationships with Russians before Donald Trump eventually overruled the FBI and gave him a presidential security clearance. Say, did Jared ask for a pardon?

The big challenge here doesn’t end with prosecuting Donald Trump for trying to destroy our democracy in a bloody fascist coup attempt with white nationalist terrorists. We’re also challenged to remove all the criminal fascist goons currently serving in Congress. Obviously, when they’re in yee-haw racist districts that love them some fascism like the one MTG represents, they’re not going to be voted out like Madison Cawthorn.

We need to prove goons like MTG, Matt Gaetz, and Lauren Boebert, among others, actually broke the law. Since they’re not the smartest in Congress (which really says a lot), proving they’re criminals really shouldn’t be that difficult.

Call me crazy, but I believe people who tried to destroy our democracy to turn the United States into a fascist nation ruled by Orange Shitler should not serve time in Congress, but instead serve time in prison.

#january 6th hearings #trump coup #political cartoon #clay jones

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