Adam Kotsko — “Reasonable people disagree.”

About normalization. Donald Trump, who campaigned against Barack Obama's "government by executive order," now wants to use his own executive order to change the US Constitution as if that were "normal."

I’m old enough to remember when we suddenly had a “national conversation” about torture. As soon as the idea of the legitimacy of torture had the slightest toehold in the national discourse, every staged “debate” was oriented toward extorting torture opponents into admitting that there were some circumstances where it was warranted. Hence the infamous “ticking time bomb” scenarios. You see, absolute opposition to torture was an extreme position that couldn’t possibly be right — the truth had to be “somewhere in the middle.” And when the American people repudiated Bush and the Republicans to a degree unprecedented in the last forty years, Mr. Moderation himself decided that it was time to look forward and not backward and didn’t prosecute any of those well-intentioned patriots who let themselves get carried away and wound up doing a few regrettable things. And you have to admit, don’t you, that they kept us safe!

And I’m worried the same thing will happen here — that birthright citizenship will be permanently damaged by the very existence of this sham debate between the constitutional status quo ante of the last century and a half and this new idea that just popped into Trump’s head, both of which are equally legitimate “sides” in the brilliant “debate” that the media will be so proud of themselves for covering so even-handedly.

I am much more concerned about normalizing the view that the President can change the US Constitution unilaterally by executive order. That would, in effect, be the end of the legitimacy of the constitutional and constitutional process, making it what the president says it is. If that is not dictatorship, I don't know what is.

An und für sich

“Reasonable people disagree.”

Adam Kotsko

See also

Now, I do think that the birthright citizenship thing may be a stunt that won’t go anywhere. And I agree with those who say it’s a trap: Trump is trying to get us to debate the idea in order to legitimize it. Even if he can’t actually do it, by introducing the notion, he makes it more viable in people’s minds, thereby increasing the chances that it will someday happen. By entering into an argument about it, we give Trump exactly what he wants….

Current Affairs
Be Careful About Relying On The Constitution

Nathan J. Robinson | Editor of Current Affairs

See also

Reuters
Trump citizenship plan may not conflict with constitution: Pence

U.S. senator [Lindsey Graham] says will offer bill to back Trump birthright citizenship plan

See also

Balkinization
The Invalidity of the Proposed Executive Order on Statutory Grounds

Gerard N. Magliocca | Samuel R. Rosen Professor at the Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law

Also

Truthdig
Trump Falsely Claims Power to End Birthright Citizenship

Jacob Sugarman

See also

Lawfare
The Invisible Caravans
Stephanie Leutert | Director of the Mexico Security Initiative at the University of Texas at Austin

Brad DeLong — Abigail Adams (1776): "I long to hear that you have declared an independency...

Abigail Adams quote.

From Wikipedia:

Abigail Adams (née Smith; November 22, [O.S. November 11] 1744 – October 28, 1818) was the closest advisor and wife of John Adams, as well as the mother of John Quincy Adams. She is sometimes considered to have been a Founder of the United States,[1] and is now designated as the first Second Lady and second First Lady of the United States, although these titles were not used at the time.

Adams's life is one of the most documented of the First Ladies: she is remembered for the many letters she wrote to her husband while he stayed in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, during the Continental Congresses. John frequently sought the advice of Abigail on many matters, and their letters are filled with intellectual discussions on government and politics....

Grasping Reality
Abigail Adams (1776): "I long to hear that you have declared an independency...Brad DeLong | Professor of Economics, UCAL Berkeley

IPA — Attacking Syria “Impeachable”

[Francis] Boyle is professor of international law at the University of Illinois College of Law. He said today: “Any U.S. attack targeting the Syrian government or its forces would clearly violate both U.S. and international law. When Obama was in a similar position in 2013, his advisor Ben Rhodes [see below] has since commented that they turned back largely because they were afraid of impeachment. That fear is well founded. While the prospect of impeaching Trump is thrown around frequently for partisan purposes, on this issue, the constitution is clear: Initiating a war or any such attack without authorization is clearly impeachable.... 

IPA
Attacking Syria “Impeachable”

Pat Lang — And now, a civics seminar ...

I have long been an originalist, strict construction libertarian believing as did Mr. Jefferson (the slave owner and sage) that "the best government is the least possible." The trick being to discern what the least possible might be.

Therefore I find it odd that I am somewhat disturbed by what is being said on the Democratic Party side of Congress, in the MSM...

Sic Semper Tyrannis
And now, a civics seminar ...
Col. W. Patrick Lang, US Army (ret.)

At the Defense Intelligence Agency, Lang was the Defense Intelligence Officer (DIO) for the Middle East, South Asia and counter-terrorism, and later, the first Director of the Defense Humint Service. At the DIA, he was a member of the Defense Senior Executive Service. He participated in the drafting of National Intelligence Estimates. From 1992 to 1994, all the U.S. military attachés worldwide reported to him. During that period, he also briefed President George H. W. Bush at the White House, as he had during Operation Desert Storm.

He was also the head of intelligence analysis for the Middle East for seven or eight years at that institution. He was the head of all the Middle East and South Asia analysis in DIA for counter-terrorism for seven years. For his service in the DIA, Lang received the Presidential Rank Award of Distinguished Executive. — Wikipedia

Jon Schwarz — It Isn’t Just Donald Trump. The Bush Campaign Plotted to Reject Election Results in 2000

While it’s almost forgotten now, the George W. Bush campaign was planning to challenge the results of the 2000 vote if he lost the electoral vote, but won the popular vote. His campaign hoped to spark a national movement to pressure members of the Electoral College in states where the popular vote went for Al Gore to ignore that and instead vote in line with the national popular vote — thus making Bush president.

In the end, the reverse happened. Bush won the Electoral College vote while losing the popular vote.

But in the weeks before the November 7, 2000, election, it seemed more likely that Gore would get a majority of electoral votes, while Bush, buoyed by a wide margin in his home state of Texas, would have the most votes by actual people. This possibility was widely discussed, including in the Boston Globe and Christian Science Monitor and in an Associated Press polling analysis.

Gore was even preemptively criticized for winning under these circumstances. It “would be an outrage” said Rep. Ray LaHood, R.-Ill. NBC’s Chris Matthews said that “knowing him as we do, [Gore] may have no problem taking the presidential oath after losing the popular vote to George W. Bush.” (Matthews lost interest in this issue when the opposite occurred. He later said that he himself had voted for Bush in 2000.)

The US Constitution has built in a potential constitutional crisis.

The Intercept
It Isn’t Just Donald Trump. The Bush Campaign Plotted to Reject Election Results in 2000
Jon Schwarz

Thom Hartmann — The Second Amendment Was Ratified to Preserve Slavery

The real reason the Second Amendment was ratified, and why it says "State" instead of "Country" (the framers knew the difference -- see the 10th Amendment), was to preserve the slave patrol militias in the southern states, which was necessary to get Virginia's vote. Founders Patrick Henry, George Mason and James Madison were totally clear on that... and we all should be too.…

Hartmann delves into the history and historical documents.

Truthout | News Analysis (5 January 2013)
The Second Amendment Was Ratified to Preserve Slavery
Thom Hartmann

See also

Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad [R] said Monday that he doesn't agree with the decision by U.S. Rep. Steve King [R] to display a Confederate flag on his congressional office desk.

Sioux City television station KCAU ran a Thursday news report on a bill that King supports. The footage showed King's desk with several flags, including a Confederate flag, which southern states used during the Civil War.

The flag has been a source of pride for some Southerners and others, which King has said he understands. However, increasingly such flags have been pulled out of Southern-state public displays as some contend the flags symbolize bigotry in the aftermath of the war that gave African-Americans freedom from slavery.

King, a Republican from Kiron, Iowa, is a 14-year officeholder. It is not known how long the flag has been on his desk, amid others that include a U.S. flag and one with the phrase "Don't Tread On Me."

“I don’t agree with that. I guess that’s his decision," Branstad said about the desk flag during his Monday news conference. “People have a right to display whatever they want to, but I’m proud to say that (Iowa was) on the side of the Union and we won the war."Gov. Branstad criticizes Steve King's Confederate desk flag

Sioux City Journal

Gov. Branstad criticizes Steve King's Confederate desk flag

Bret Hayworth

'What to the Slave Is 4th of July?' — James Earl Jones Reads Frederick Douglass' Historic Speech [with transcript]

Lest we forget.

Democracy Now!
'What to the Slave Is 4th of July?': James Earl Jones Reads Frederick Douglass' Historic Speech [with transcript]
Amy Goodman

Hear, Hear!!! This Has Been My Conviction For 20 Years!

   (Commentary posted by Roger Erickson)

hat tip to John Lounsbury, GEI

Americans Are Sick to Death of Both Parties: Why Our Politics Is in Worse Shape Than We Thought

Hear, hear!!!

Besides. Our 1st Pres, George Washington explicitly warned us that this would happen, and begged us not to start factions; aka political parties.

The main goal in writing the US Constitution was to make it impossible for factions to arise and ruin democracy. Unfortunately, our Constitution was completely sold out, before the ink was even dry. As are many causes. Rebellions are always justified, but revolutions are always betrayed?

Political parties = a strategy for confusing, dividing and conquering an electorate. Factions.

How do YOU spell "Benedict Arnold?"

"Colonies do not cease to be colonies because they are independent." Benjamin Disraeli

Time for a new, non-party? Just vote on issues and a cascade of representatives? They don't have to be part of an avowed faction.

Ain't it the truth?  Quit arguing with your neighbors, and start opposing those few in the Upper Looting Class who want you sidetracked arguing with your neighbors and - you guessed it - divided & conquered.

William Hogeland — Ted Cruz and Patrick Henry

Ted Cruz misrepresents Patrick Henry. For US history buffs and those interested in American History and contemporary US politics.

Hysteriography
Ted Cruz and Patrick Henry
William Hogeland

Move to Amend Wins Big at the Ballot: Americans Ready to Amend the Constitution

In Massachusetts, Ohio, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Florida, citizens voted overwhelmingly yesterday for their legislators to pass a constitutional amendment to overturn the U.S. Supreme Court’s Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission ruling and declare that only human beings – not corporations – are entitled to constitutional rights and that money is not speech and campaign spending can be regulated. 

Residents in dozens of cities had the opportunity to vote on measures calling for an end to the doctrines of corporate constitutional rights and money as free speech, and in every single town the vote was supportive. Often by an overwhelming margin.

Common Dreams
Move to Amend Wins Big at the Ballot: Americans Ready to Amend the Constitution

Move To Amend

Robert Parry — Will the Right’s Fake History Prevail?

History lesson.

Constortium News
Will the Right’s Fake History Prevail?
Robert Parry

David Kravets — Justice Sotomayor says technology could lead to “Orwellian world”

Let's hope that Sonia Sotomajor becomes the next William O. Douglas.

Ars Technica
Justice Sotomayor says technology could lead to “Orwellian world”
David Kravets

h/t Yves Smith at Naked Capitalism

Rivera Sun — Oligarchy: As American as Poisoned Apple Pie

What you missed in your mandatory class in American History in high school.

...after the war, the revolutionary notion of democracy produced a counter-revolution. Oligarchs of that era found it difficult to conduct business among the 13 sovereign states, each of which was developing its own laws regulating commerce, taxes and tariffs. The first constitution of the United States (the Articles of Confederation) endured for 10 years, starting in 1778, before the oligarchs could find a way around it. Even then, they had to resort to extraordinary means.

In February 1787, George Washington (the richest man in the United States) proposed a convention in May in Philadelphia for the alleged purposes of revising the Articles of Confederation. Upon arrival, however, delegates to the Philadelphia Convention were dismayed to discover that Washington, Madison, Hamilton and others wanted to throw out the old Articles of Confederation. In their place, Hamilton proposed a new, second Constitution of the United States, which included a powerful federal government to rule over the state governments, a president for life, a senate appointed for life, an electoral college that elects the president and an appointed for life Supreme Court with authority over the state courts. 

"Nothing but a permanent body can check the imprudence of democracy," Alexander Hamilton is quoted as saying according to the Notes of the Secret Debates of the Federal Convention of 1787 taken by Robert Yates.

Many of the delegates left in protest. Of the 62 delegates appointed, only 39 signed the new Constitution. The Philadelphia Convention, widely heralded today as the birthplace of democracy, was nothing short of an oligarchic coup. Terms for elected officials were a minor concession to the proponents of democracy. The Bill of Rights was tacked on at the insistence of outraged citizens during the process of ratification, but it narrowed the list of protected rights to 10 out of the dozens that were initially proposed.

Today, tourists can visit the sunny, open rooms of Liberty Hall, but in 1787, the Convention took place under strict secrecy. The doors were closed; the windows blacked out and security guards ringed the building. In Notes of Debates in the Federal Convention of 1787, the rules stated, "That nothing spoken in the House be printed or otherwise published or communicated." James Madison, one of the main recorders, refused to publish his notes until all of the framers were buried in the grave....

Truthout
Oligarchy: As American as Poisoned Apple Pie
Rivera Sun, Truthout | Op-Ed

"All communities divide themselves into the few and the many. The first are the rich and the well-born; the other the mass of the people ... turbulent and changing, they seldom judge or determine right. Give therefore to the first class a distinct, permanent share in the Government ... Nothing but a permanent body can check the imprudence of democracy."

Alexander Hamilton
speech to the Constitutional Convention concerning the United States Senate, 06/18/1787, quoted in the notes of Judge Yates

David Ferguson — Ed Snowden claims he raised concerns with NSA officials more than 10 times (via Raw Story )

Ed Snowden claims he raised concerns with NSA officials more than 10 times (via Raw Story )

Former security contractor and National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden said that he tired to bring his concerns to the attention of superiors on at least 10 occasions before deciding to leave the organization with a massive cache of secret…

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Travis Gettys — Religious conservatives behind push to rewrite U.S. Constitution using obscure maneuver (via Raw Story )

Religious conservatives behind push to rewrite U.S. Constitution using obscure maneuver (via Raw Story )

Religious conservatives are pushing an obscure legal maneuver to rewrite the U.S. Constitution to better reflect their views, a secular watchdog group warned Wednesday. The Constitution has been revised throughout the nation’s history by gaining support…

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Gabriel Black — Former NSA chief Hayden praises Obama for “doubling down” on Bush-era spying

Michael Hayden, the former director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and National Security Agency (NSA), used a lecture at Oxford University Monday to candidly praise the Obama administration for constructing and exponentially strengthening the NSA’s illegal spying apparatus.

Hayden told his Oxford audience that while many people see Obama as being “quite different” than Bush, he had in fact “doubled down” on the NSA’s global espionage system.

In the 90 minute address, titled “My Government, My Security and Me,” Hayden also stressed that there was little support within US government circles for offering any kind of plea deal to former NSA contractor and whistleblower Edward Snowden.

Referring to the speech delivered by Obama last month announcing supposed “reforms” to the NSA’s operations, Hayden stated, “The president is essentially trading some restraint, some oversight, in order to keep on doing fundamentally what he has been doing.”

Put in the plainest terms: the government is employing some window-dressing to quell popular outrage over the NSA’s colossal ongoing violation of the Constitution and is also trying to ensure that leaks do not threaten the secret program’s legitimacy in the future. As the WSWS noted at the time, “the only measure that is likely to be enacted is a proposal to institute strict new vetting and security policies designed to prevent anyone from following in the footsteps of Edward Snowden.”

World Socialist Web Site
Former NSA chief Hayden praises Obama for “doubling down” on Bush-era spying

Gabriel Black

Jonathan Turley — Perpetual War And America’s Military-Industrial Complex 50 Years After Eisenhower’s Farewell Address

Below is my article this weekend in Al Jazaerra on the powerful lobby and industry supporting our various conflicts abroad as well as counterterrorism efforts. I previously testified before Congress on this industry and the government’s inflation of counterterrorism numbers to justify huge domestic budgets at the Justice Department FBI, and other agencies. I wrote the article for the anniversary this month of Eisenhower’s famous Military-Industrial Complex speech.

Jonathan Turley
Perpetual War And America’s Military-Industrial Complex 50 Years After Eisenhower’s Farewell Address
Jonathan Turley | Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at George Washington University

One thing that Turley does not mention is that the shift to counterterrorism has shifted the priority of  domestic security away from crime to counterterrorism. Moreover, it has publicly admitted this, altering criminals that the barn door is now open for them.

Chris Hedges — The Last Gasp of American Democracy

This is our last gasp as a democracy. The state’s wholesale intrusion into our lives and obliteration of privacy are now facts. And the challenge to us—one of the final ones, I suspect—is to rise up in outrage and halt this seizure of our rights to liberty and free expression. If we do not do so we will see ourselves become a nation of captives.

The public debates about the government’s measures to prevent terrorism, the character assassination of Edward Snowden and his supporters, the assurances by the powerful that no one is abusing the massive collection and storage of our electronic communications miss the point. Any state that has the capacity to monitor all its citizenry, any state that has the ability to snuff out factual public debate through control of information, any state that has the tools to instantly shut down all dissent is totalitarian. Our corporate state may not use this power today. But it will use it if it feels threatened by a population made restive by its corruption, ineptitude and mounting repression. The moment a popular movement arises—and one will arise—that truly confronts our corporate masters, our venal system of total surveillance will be thrust into overdrive.

The most radical evil, as Hannah Arendt pointed out, is the political system that effectively crushes its marginalized and harassed opponents and, through fear and the obliteration of privacy, incapacitates everyone else. Our system of mass surveillance is the machine by which this radical evil will be activated. If we do not immediately dismantle the security and surveillance apparatus, there will be no investigative journalism or judicial oversight to address abuse of power. There will be no organized dissent. There will be no independent thought. Criticisms, however tepid, will be treated as acts of subversion. And the security apparatus will blanket the body politic like black mold until even the banal and ridiculous become concerns of national security.

Truthout
Chris Hedges | The Last Gasp of American Democracy
Chris Hedges, Truthdig | Op-Ed

Eric Dolan — Illinois Republican: Same-sex marriage debate should be about the Bible, not human rights (via Raw Story )

Illinois Republican: Same-sex marriage debate should be about the Bible, not human rights (via Raw Story )

Illinois state Rep. Dwight Kay (R-Glen Carbon) on Tuesday complained that supporters of same-sex marriage frequently spoke about human rights but neglected the Biblical scriptures. “The other thing I didn’t hear today was the fact that this nation…

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Glenn Grennwald — As Europe erupts over US spying, NSA chief says government must stop media

With General Alexander calling for NSA reporting to be halted, US and UK credibility as guardians of press freedom is crushed

The Guardian
As Europe erupts over US spying, NSA chief says government must stop media
Glenn Grennwald

Democracy, the US Constitution and the Bill of Rights out the window in an exchange of liberty for "security"?

This is what happens when military general officers are appointed to civilian posts in government. The military mind is incompatible with democratic governance.