constitution

Election Connection – The Disgrace at the White House

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Not my photo. (c)2025

This is both a week early and a week late. Next Tuesday is Election Day.

A lot of people still think that off-year election days are less important that presidential or mid-term years. There are no more off-years. We need to be done with that nonsense. Just look at the past year to know the truth in that. Trump should not have won. I don’t say that as a conspiracy theorist, and I don’t know if anything untoward with Elon Musk caused the obvious change in the election, but what I do know is that if you look directly at Trump and his allies, he was losing and he knew he was losing. By the end of the campaign, he could barely stand up or string two coherent words together. And then someone “tried to kill him” in Butler, Pennsylvania. Do I think someone tried to kill him? I don’t know, but I’ll let my quotation marks speak to that. What I do know is that a man who is still whining about an escalator and toilet water has said not one word about his “assassination attempt.” So you tell me, what part of this man’s personality allows him to let this go?

My next point is that Congressional Republicans and the Supreme Court have completely shirked their responsibility and their obligation to their oath with the embarrassing failure of keeping the checks and balances on the Executive Branch. Almost none of his executive orders are legal. His tariffs most certainly aren’t. His murder of fishermen in the Caribbean is absolutely illegal and extrajudicial. His indictments of Comey and James are the pathetic cries of his own incompetence, and I swear on all that is holy that if the Justice Dept gives him one penny of the “settlement” he’s asking for, I will not be held responsible for my actions.

And if trampling over the Constitution and using its parchment to wipe his and his sycophants’ asses wasn’t enough, last week (it is hard to believe that it’s only last week) he took a bulldozer to the East Wing of the White House. No permits filed. No money disbursed by Congress. Private companies don’t get to work on an historic building, one that is one of the foundations of our capital city without the proper protocols in place: environmental impact studies, historic preservation, toxic safety. A wing of the building built in 1942 will certainly have asbestos in those walls they just ripped down. I’ve read that the company doing the destruction doesn’t have a permit or a hazardous waste certificate to clear asbestos, but what do I know. The East Wing also rests atop the secure bunker where the President goes when there’s a credible danger or threat. I guess not anymore, right?

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Election Connection: The Weekend Edition: Last Minute Information re: Biden/Harris Administration

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This post will have several pages, which will be linked. This is so that when you click on the “read more” you won’t be bombarded with a wall of text and you can read the information in bite sized chunks.

Below, you will find:

  • Jack Smith’s Final Report (clicking the link below will automatically download it to your device)
  • Statement from the US & Canada regarding the Haudenosaunee’s independent participation in the Olympics.
  • The language of the 28th Amendment
  • Statements from both the President and the Vice-President on the new amendment to the Constitution.
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Pages: 1 2 3

Inspire. July.

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I’m not feeling particularly inspired this month after last month’s partisan, rogue display by the Supreme Court, so I will leave you with two quotations that I listened to today on Jon Meacham’s podcast, Reflections of History, both by Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall:

We must never forget that the only real source of power that we as judges can tap is the respect of the people. We will command that respect only as long as we strive for neutrality. If we are perceived as campaigning for particular policies, as joining with other branches of government in resolving questions not committed to us by the Constitution, we may gain some public acclaim in the short run. In the long run, however, we will cease to be perceived as neutral arbiters, and we will lose that public respect so vital to our function.

Thurgood Marshall, 1981

I do not believe that the meaning of the Constitution was forever ‘fixed’ at the Philadelphia Convention. Nor do I find the wisdom, foresight and sense of justice exhibited by the Framers particularly profound. To the contrary, the government they devised was defective from the start, requiring several amendments, a civil war and momentous social transformation to attain the system of constitutional government, and its respect for the individual freedoms and human rights, we hold as fundamental today. They could not have imagined, nor would they have accepted, that the document they were drafting would one day be construed by a Supreme Court to which had been appointed a woman and the descendant of an African slave. ‘We the people’ no longer enslave, but the credit does not belong to the Framers. It belongs to those who refused to acquiesce in outdated notions of ‘liberty,’ ‘justice’ and ‘equality,’ and who strived to better them.

Thurgood Marshall, on the Bicentennial of The Constitution, 1987

Election Connection: Impeachment, Take Two

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By the time you read this, the second impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump will have begun. You can read about how the trial will proceed in this resolution, however beware that clicking the link will begin an automatic download of the pdf from the Senate website.

From attorney Marc Elias’, Democracy Docket: Second Impeachment, Explained

Here’s What You Need to Know About the Senate Impeachment Trial from NPR

If you’re not able to watch the trial live or choose not to, Elie Honig’s daily (approximately ten minute) podcast, Third Degree, is the way to go. His Twitter is here.

Jennifer Taub is also live-tweeting the trial.

Other reliable summaries should be found at Rachel Maddow’s nightly show at 9pm on MSNBC or on her Twitter.

Prior to watching the bulk of the trial, these podcast episodes are worth a listen:

House Managers for Impeachment (Follow on Twitter)
Rep. Jamie Raskin, Lead Manager
Rep. Diana DeGette
Rep. David Cicilline
Rep. Joaquin Castro
Rep. Eric Swalwell
Rep. Ted Lieu
Rep. Stacey Plaskett
Rep. Madeleine Dean
Rep. Joe Neguse

Also follow: Dan Goldman, former House Impeachment Lawyer

Election Connection: Welcome to the Biden Administration

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The Election Connection series will be a bit more sporadic, posted on a need-to-know basis now that we have an Administration that cares about its citizens in all the important and even in the most mundane ways. I still feel waves of PTSD at moments and then I see Press Secretary Jen Psaki swatting stupid questions, not arguing with White House correspondents, and offering experts to give briefings and answer questions, and I remember that it’s all going to be okay. It’s like the last four years were a dream, and I’m Pamela Ewing.

Unfortunately, the last four years weren’t a dream, and as nightmarish as it was to live through, it wasn’t a nightmare either. It was very real.

We need to take that same energy from the last years, the same energy brought to the Georgia Senate race, the same energy brought by the summer protests, and we need to focus it unrelentingly on the next two years, and then the two after that, and then the two after. We can never get complacent again.

Complacent = Complicit

We came very close to losing our republic. As it was, we witnessed a coup attempt, an insurrection that struck at the heart of our democracy. Five people died, including a Capitol police officer, but hundreds of others were injured. Two members of law enforcement have committed suicide. And still, there are Republicans who refuse to comply with law enforcement requirements to go through a magnetometer before entering the House floor. I mean, let’s be realistic and honest here, they’re also refusing to wear masks despite common sense and Executive Order, putting their colleagues and staff at risk (four members of Congress plus one spouse became covid infected because of Republican negligence on January 6th, and that was without their obvious complicity in the attack on the Capitol).

So, it’s time for a Civics lesson, and I will go extra slow as if I were speaking to the newly elected Senator from Alabama (this one) who doesn’t know the three branches of government (see below*) or a Supreme Court justice (this one) who doesn’t know the five rights guaranteed in the First Amendment (see below*).

Some things are etched in stone – the Constitution including the Bill of Rights is one of those things. The Constitution may be amended, and there are procedures in place to do that. In fact, we have amended the Constitution twenty-seven times, most recently in 1992.

Some things are not – Number of Supreme Court justices, the use of the filibuster. Supreme Court justices were based on the number of circuit courts, which have increased to thirteen. This is why many experts feel that the Supreme Court should be expanded to cover each circuit court with its own justice (as established in 1869 with what is known as the Circuit Judges Act).

The filibuster is not part of the Constitution, which makes it easier to change than amending the Constitution would be.

A couple of points:

Unity does not mean to continue to allow ourselves be abused or gaslit.

Unity does not mean giving in to bullies.

Unity does not mean power sharing when Democrats have a clear mandate.

Below the cut are Twitter follows of the Biden Administration, the House Managers of the Impeachment Trial, a selection of podcasts, and other accounts that I follow regularly and find are very informative and honest. Add your own in the comments and I can include them in the next Election Connection.

*Branches of Government
| | |
Legislative Executive Judicial

*5 Rights Enumerated in the First Amendment:
1. Freedom of Speech
2. Freedom of Religion
3. Freedom of the Press
4. Freedom to Assemble
5. Freedom to Protest the Government

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What is Treason and When Did It Stop Mattering? | Opinion

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“A republic, if you can keep it.”

As attributed to Benjamin Franklin when asked in Philadelphia if we have a republic or a monarchy.
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What Does the 4th of July Really Mean?

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We celebrate our independence, just before the Revolution, and that was the first step, the birth of this American Experiment. And so today, with so much of our norms being obliterated, and our patriotism being co-opted, our country changing, for the worse, right before our eyes, I thought I would do something different than previous Fourth of Julys. No grilling, no fireworks, no parades.

I started today by sitting quietly and reading the Constitution. It’s not very long. It made my heart smile as the language changed from British Colonial to more modern day parlance, as rights were enshrined and bestowed on those without access to them previously. I say it that way, because rights cannot be given, only recognized. In the reading, I remembered some familiar phrases, some amendments that I’ve read more than a few times, some I’ve never read. I interpreted some a little differently than I had previously.

I share my art and an immigrant’s podcast and a destination that opens up the world to you.

Happy 4th, but more importantly, Happy 243rd Birthday America. I know you’ve got a few more in you. Now, get to work!

I had this in my head for a few days before sitting down to art it. As I wrote it, and as I read the preamble to the Constitution this morning, I sang it Schoolhouse Rock style; it is the only way I remember it even if I’m only singing in my head. Original Art. (c)2019

Podcast: Stay Tuned with Preet (Bharara): What Patriotism Means to You (with Heidi Schreck)   

National Constitution Center, Philadelphia, PA

The United States Constitution 

Direct download of the Constitution 

President Obama’s Speech on the 50th Anniversary of the Selma March, 2015: 

September – Back to School – Photo/Art

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Clockwise: Flag and Fireworks, Preamble to the Constitution, Thomas Jefferson quote about freedom of the press, Scales of Justice. (c)2018

In honor of last week’s Constitution Day as well as attempting to counter the current narrative in this country that the press are the enemy of the people and wrong is right. I have faith in our country, but more importantly its people that we can turn this crazy train around and get back on the right track.