No, Glenn. Read the 20th Amendment

Where Glenn is wrong:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OCN-OvYsW0&t=535s

John Roberts can stop Trump, no one else

Who decides whether a president is eligible for office. Congress certainly can on January 6th - but that is not the last possible moment. Anyone with standing can seek an injunction in the DC Federal District Court to stop Trump from being sworn in. Ultimately, it is up to Chief Justice John Roberts to decide if his constitutional oath to protect the Constitution from all enemies, foreign and domestic, includes not swearing Trump in. He can do so the very moment he is to swear in Trump, instead swearing in Vance under the provisions of the 20th Amendment. He could even notify the House Administration Committee of this issue, which would force them to require a 14th Amendment vote for the president-elect to be qualified. Regardless, there is no way that the electoral vote count can be used to elect Kamala Harris as President-elect. The key provision is 20, not 14.

January 6, 2025 and the power to ask the question

True power comes from within. No one can give it to you, to wit: the power to ask a question. To do something, anything, you have to first ask yourself if you have the power to do that thing. If you do not ask the question, you have no power to act. If you say or believe that you cannot ask the question, than you deliberately surrender your power.

Has anyone ever said that before? Let me know. If not, quote me.

The question is, are the people of the United States, through their elected representatives, satisfied with the process by which the Republican Party chose the President Elect? 

Remember, the founders feared factions. It is why (aside from slavery - which by the way they thought would end because the cotton gin did not make it profitable) they created the Electoral College and the Senate. Political parties are oligarchic. They always represent the propertied people within their ranks. Constitutional systems are a check on that power.

If the Democrats can convince enough Republicans in each house that they can, in fact, ask the question as to whether the President-Elect's ability to serve under the 14th Amendment is open, then those new majorities have the power under the 20th Amendment to force the question into the open.

Invoking the 14th and 20th Amendments is a political question. Congress does not need Trump to have been convicted of the actual crime in court. All it needs is to temerity to ask. After asking, they can create a process to see - perhaps by a joint ethics panel. After consideration, they can then, by a two-third's majority, decide that the process that has transpired until now should be trusted, giving him permission to hold office - which, if given, ends all question of his legitimacy to serve.

Those in Congress (or in the media) who think this question cannot be raised have, in fact, answered that question - i.e., that they are fine with how things turned out. 

The logic of the question also dictates why capitalism is still with us when there are alternatives. The workers must believe they have the inherent right to ask the question of whether they are fine with the status quo. Maybe they would simply like the company to offer direct housing or mortgage finance, which by the way, they do with employee sponsored credit unions and similarly by having employee child care and medical personnel - or even hospitals. Indeed, the U.S. military is the ultimate socialistic organization. The hierarchy may coordinate decisions, but the members make sure that they control commissaries, credit unions, hospitals and the like. Workers can ask for the same level of service, and vote with their feet if other companies do and their company does not. That is how the free market works.

The key is to empower themselves with the right to ask the question as to whether they have the power to ask. The answer is always yes.

Keep SMU in the playoffs

Leaving Alabama out is easy. If you need an additional SEC body in the playoffs (don't touch Tennessee, they beat Bama), take a B1G team out. Ohio State lost to Michigan and got ugly at the end. Punish them. Or take out Indiana.

Why Trump won (and Harris lost) - the real math.

Yes, there was racism and misogyny and yes the Democrats need to talk about the working class more. (When did they not do so? Just asking). The reason is that moderate Catholic men in swing districts could not sign up for being the voting bloc that has Harris sign a bill to restore Roe v Wade (which they think of as abortion on demand). The Midwestern bishops say that is aiding abortion. It is not. If you tell an individual to get one, or pay for it, or do it, canon law says you are excommunicated. This does not apply to what the law should be. Catholic bishops tell pro-choice politicians to not take communion because they believe they are entitled to obedience by being the one voice on this issue. That the issue is abortion is an afterthought.

BTW, I don’t believe that mortal sin is a thing, but don’t tell that to the voters.

Barack barely mentioned abortion. I made sure by calling Alice Germond in 2008 during the convention (who had been my boss at NARAL) - hopefully others did too - and it was not mentioned. Indeed, Obama said he did not like the idea of any form of late term abortion and wanted to talk with the pro-life movement about it.

They responded after the election with the lie that a Freedom of Choice Act was in the cards - which was a lie. Not so much now - and Kamala essentially promised to sign it this time rather than telling the truth - which was that both sides are promising a federal law and no one has the votes to pass it. Instead, moderate Catholic men (and women) saw themselves being excommunicated by voting for it. 

Democratic women (and progressive men) don’t need a promise from the party nominee to protect abortion, including signing a Freedom of Choice Act (which has as much chance of passing as a 15 week ban). The sweet spot is still fetal hospice and no intrusive measures to kill the child in the wound after the point where it looks human.

Democratic candidates should not use the economy as an election issue. They need to call for change and compromise to get change at every possible moment - especially when not in power. They need to get Trump to say he agrees that the minimum wage should go up and then organize a movement to do it among TRUMP voters. Do the right thing - don’t make it a campaign promise.

Spinoza, the Universe and Fundamentalists

If Spinoza and Bill W. are correct, with the God of Spinoza being the God of Einstein, then God is Pantheistic - meaning the Father is Being itself - which is what Moses is told at the Burning bush (I am who am). John, the Orthodox Counsels  and Aquinas make Jesus the Son the Word by which the Universe was made - or rather how we know existence. This also make the Son a daughter - as Wisdom or Sophia (or Alita). This terms of Physics, the Son is the Standard Model of Particle Physics.

Free will does not necessarily exist in Pantheism, at least as regards to what happens and the lack of blame for these things - that we design our life events with God before this incarnation and judge ourselves by how we make people feel. The knowledge of good and evil is really a human thing, not a divine thing. God is love, not judgement. We face both the Good and Evil we do to others in our life review. No indulgence or sacrament lets us off the hook for this process, although it is not torture because we do so in a Spirit filled way - with Her love to support us.

This brings up the topic of cheap grace. Maybe that is what was planned for the life course of those Fundamentalists, so we cannot blame them for who they are - it is ordained. Of course, they (and Catholic Traditionalists) are obsessed with sin, particularly the sins of others. Humankind cannot advance until we give up our obsession for the evil that others do. Until we get to that point, we are not housebroken enough to join a galactic society. Warp travel is not the yardstick, giving up Original Sin - the practice of hating others for their conduct - is how we are measured.

The Gospels

This is a riff off of James Tabor’s videos on the synoptic Gospels. He has previously stated that Mark was written with Paul, who took the narrative and applied what prophesy (from the Septuagint perspective) in Alexandria - where Mark was Patriarch. James may have controlled the Didache at first, which includes the Sayings of Jesus called Q. Or Matthew could have condensed Luke - which was Tabor’s hypothesis. Where would Luke have gotten the extra material - especially what was not in Q? Obviously, from Peter, James and John in Antioch. The Acts have a Petrine element and those three were with Jesus on Mt. Tabor - they may have taught these things, but their authority is personal experience. This puts Luke in Antioch, where the scriptures put Peter (not in Rome). 

Fixing Cultural Theory

Today is the last day of classes. This semester, I took sociology and focussed on modifications of Grid Group Theory as explained by Thompson, Ellis and Wildavsky. They put drop outs in what is called the Fatalist way of life. In Sociology, these people are non-conforming individualists - which is also where we find the sales, CEO and small business class - but not the working class. Both Individualists and the Working Class (who want stuff, not Revolution or a place in the Management hierarchy or the obligation to sell stuff).

This is the topic I addressed in my class on Inquiry - which produces a dissertation grant proposal on MAGA as a Sectarian Way of Life - along with Egalitarians. Sectarianism is where they bump heads - or in sociological social psychology terms - battle with people of equal status. - the Democrats and Republicans. Wildavsky ignores MAGA because it did not exist in his lifetime. Now that the Tea Party and MAGA have become science deniers (evolution, the need for gun control, wearing masks and getting the jab - not to mention storming the capital, the only place to put them is the radical class, in an intuitional group acting based on feelings rather than thinking, authenticity rather than compliance, attitude rather than competence. Michael Thompson has already written the book on science denial. My task is to prove his point for our fellow cultural theorists - using the January 6th riot as the example to be researched.

Friday's News Part 2 The Election (and Why Harris lost) and the trials

The point is, the voters wanted a CEO type, – one who is authentic. Official Washington, especially pundits, are a bit in the dark on how this paradigm works. Morality exists inside of various paradigms – and they are not the same. In Trump’s paradigm, he did nothing wrong. He has always worked hard at looking competent – but it is not his strong suit – so he wants a medal anytime he is seen that way. This is normal for a CEO, but not for a bureaucrat. The people don’t want a bureaucrat. They don’t trust them. The best thing Trump can do for a balanced country is get good bureaucrats, like Bondi. His book is the Art of the Deal, not the Science of the Deal. Doh!

The election was not stolen. People voted for authenticity over competence. It may not have been the worst choice. Had they wanted competence, Haley would be the President elect. She should have been VP – and may have passed on the job. It would be inappropriate for us to know that answer.

Harris lost because she did not explain the inflation that everyone was feeling (which the economic statistics are now pointing out). She was between a rock and a hard place. If she had said a recession was coming, she could not tout the economy. She should have said that it was coming because of the Trump tax cuts giving too much to Wall Street to play with.

The second reason is the Catholic swing voters. Obama did not mention abortion. Clinton and Harris did, which was a mistake. In Dobbs, the Center for Reproductive Rights and the ACLU did not explain that viability is because at that point, the fetus can be born – instead leading with women’s rights – a bridge too far for moderate Catholics. Once she focused on abortion, she was doomed.

Let’s look at the court cases. Chutkan (and only Chutkan) can nullify the Office of General Counsel opinion if she wants to exercise her powers under Rule 48A – which would force the DOJ to keep going – and would probably order that Smith not be removed. Is getting him so important? Probably not. Getting Stone is – but Trump would just pardon him. I hope that when the story is written, his role is revealed. Trump essentially told people under him to show that he won – probably because Stone said he should – and then they did a really sloppy job of trying to make it happen. Even the fake electors plot was sloppy – but was below Trump’s pay grade.

Either Luck or God kept us from what would have been a real test for the rule of law – which would have occurred if the people in the insurrection whose mission was to get to where members were hiding had succeeded and done God knows what. That may be lost to history. Ask me in 20 years. Eastman was wrong in his strategy. The 12^th Amendment would have simply thrown out the contested votes – but Biden still had more than Trump and would have been the winner. The majority of those votes legally cast – not the majority of the entire electoral college, what the Amendment requires.

The NY case should not have been a felony. The campaign finance angle was too much of a reach. Reducing the charge to a misdemeanor is not tragedy. In Georgia, justice has been done. Once the call to Roethlisberger was excluded from the charge and Rudy was held liable for what happened to Ruby and Shea, nothing more is needed.

The documents case was a dispute on who gets to keep most of the archives. Trump was badly advised. All the information should have been sent to the GSA and stored in Florida or New Jersey (a better option, given global warming). The classified fell into to categories – personal trophies (that as President he could have shared with Putin and may already have) and evidence of his relationship with Putin – all of which is now considered as Official Acts. When Canon first intervened with a special master, keeping those documents – which were overclassified – away from Smith – was reasonable because the question of Official Acts immunity was still open – and could only have been given to Smith once the issue was decided. The Special Master did not get the memo – nor did Smith or Trump’s lawyers. As a former poli-sci doctoral student – the question of official acts immunity is long settled by history – ever since the cases of the Louisiana Purchase and the Barbary pirates. Or even the siting of the national capital. Much of the Virginia side was Washington’s property. Washington could not have gotten away with doing that today.

AG James giving the Trump businesses the death penalty was justified – although the real case should have had to do with potential money laundering for Moscow through Deutche Bank. Once that was off the table, the NY cases should have been dropped – but the corruption uncovered in discovery could not have been swept under the rug. This case has legs – since incompetence is no defense for fraud. He needs to designate Bedminster as the site for his presidential library and let the chips fall where they may.

 

Friday's news - Part 1

Bibles

I am fine with teaching the Bible as literature, discussing creation myths as myth in science (astrology needs coverage too) and how the concept of God went from the Canaanite pantheon to the God of the Bible using archeology and anthropology to inform the discussion.

Biondi and Bessent.

Trump is crazy like a fox. He did a solid for Gates (and Johnson) by getting him out of Congress. Mr. Bessent is as competent as Larry Summers and Bob Rubin – and the rest of the Wall Street Oligarchy.  He probably has a bunch of alternative cabinet picks identified – or deputy secretaries who will actually run these departments. Even Gabbard is a good pick if she is the one who briefs Trump. He needs someone he will listen to.

Trump is testing the waters as to how much the Senate will let him get away with. Hopefully they will assert themselves – which Trump probably wants so that he can be Trump without real consequences.

Trump is authentic, meaning he leads with his feelings. He is also a is a sensualist – all people are to some degree in personality theory, and like all CEOs he is an introverted planner – meaning he plans for his self, doing such things as insurrections – which he was never accused of. There were always two alternative scenario, one that provides reasonable doubt – the real one has Trump as an active participant in the riot – knowing what really happened – and it had nothing to do with actually hanging Pence, The other exists because his involvement is coincidental – there are easy alternatives to that narrative that the Government could not eliminate as reasonable doubt.

Note to Trump - be authentic or be great

You cannot be both competent and authentic. Find an ex-Republican who has a set of reforms (hint, hint), give (him) a job and let you take the credit. You can super-charge Space Exploration, balance the budget and eliminate the IRS, all the while making sure families have enough money. 

If you love Trump and have his ear (bad joke), send this to him and tell him to take the deal. BTW, there are a few of us who know how to do what I suggest, provided you slow your roll. MB

News from Nov 13 points 1 and 2

Point One – Kamala lost the election the way Hillary did, by focusing so much on abortion that Swing State Catholics who are on the edge went the other way. Some are pro-life, some are pro-choice and the mushy middle swing – particularly in the Midwest. In 2008, I got a message to Alice Germond, who I had worked for at NARAL, to not let Barack focus on abortion. They took the advice and Obama got elected – promising to begin talks on late term abortion rules beyond the extant law. To prevent any compromise, the Bishops retaliated with the FOCA hoax to build up their mailing list for 2010.

In 2016, the Catholic bishops conspired with Trump, who conspired with the Internet Research Agency to get and exploit Hillary’s views on partial birth abortion. Hillary should have said, when asked, that Partial Birth Abortion was already illegal. She did not – rather she justified why it might be important. Oops.

This year, too much attention was spent on getting the liberal women she already had, rather than explaining that Trump’s policies put too much money into the hands of higher income individuals, who had the juice to outbid everyone else for food and housing. Voters would have understood such an explanation. This would have been a great time to mention that Manchin and Sinema had blocked ending the Trump tax cuts – so the 2024 economy was his, not Joe’s.

Just today, the government announced that inflation is up. This statistic measures what was happening in the period of time just before the election. Oops again!

Point Two Today the Republicans officially took the House. Just as home prices and the stock market are topping – largely due to the 2018 cuts. Congratulations, you caught the car. The only way to get things back on track is to deflate the speculation sector (or have the Fed put so much credit into circulation to sink the dollar) – and the way to do that without hurting the economy is to increase tax rates on capital returns (dividends, interest and pass-through income) and on gains. 

If the Republican Party wants to repay its voters, it needs to grow the consumer economy.  Higher taxes on capital will do this on its own. To do more, increase the minimum wage. In 2021, the GOP offered $10. $13 has the same purchasing power – $14 if the workday is shortened to 7 hours and the week to 4 days. This will get discouraged workers off the couch and their parent’s basements. 

The main thing on the agenda is tax reform. Increase the child tax credit to what VP Harris proposed – either in the lame duck so that she can sign it twice (as President of the Senate and then as President when Biden retires early). President Trump doubled the child credit in 2018. Families need it to double again and become refundable. 

It won’t be inflationary. Inflation follows the 90th percentile – not the working class. Giving the working class more money to spend will lead to more spending but not more inflation (until this leads to higher profits – and it will).

We have all of 2025 to work on the rest of tax reform. With both houses and a White House staff which will let Trump have a seat at the table, we need to give it to him. Job one is to get everyone behind a Goods and Services Tax instead of Tariffs – because giving the President enough control over the agenda to end his go-to practice of exercising power in the one way he could in the age of Pelosi. 

If part of enacting a VAT is removing the requirement for personal income tax filing for the vast majority of American families, - as suggested by Michael Graetz, the GOP will reap the benefits of those optics. Channel the child tax credit through wages by including it as an offset to an additional net business receipts tax, aka the Japanese subtraction VAT – as suggested by Lawrence B. Lindsey. Any additional surtax on higher rate individuals can be channeled through this tax. After the offsets to the tax for family income and health care coverage and reform, the surtax could top out between 20 and 26 percent in net revenue gain. To pay down the debt, sell tax prepayment bonds to either high income individuals or their employers – as I suggested to President Reagan and Senator Jepsen in 1984 as I was coming to DC as an intern. 

The only fly in the ointment is capital gains taxation. To transfer collecting this revenue to employers would require more disclosure than anyone wants their CEO or Board of Directors to know about. The alternative is an asset value added tax, which would also end the death tax entirely, although asset sales would be marked to market if sold after inheritance -but zero rated for ESOP sales.

Call this all the Fair Tax, option 2.0, which ends the need to restart Welfare to give money to poor households rather than including it with pay through the NBRT. If the states collect the credit invoice and subtraction VATs and the SEC collects the Asset VAT, Trump will be known as the President who abolished the IRS.

News from Nov 13 Point 3

There are ways, which will not be used, to object to the seating of those members of Congress who cooperated with the capital insurrection. Mr. Jefferson’s Manual is the controlling procedure, which provides for objecting to members of the House taking the oath. This is too late to stop an insurrectionist speaker from being elected (such as someone who was rounding up members to join lawsuits to overturn the election). Also, at any time, members could have submitted names of these members to the Ethics Committee to investigate their involvement to the events of that day. They still can. 

The Select Committee on the January 6th Insurrection should have submitted names as the involvement of members was discovered (such as the members of the House who met with President Trump in December 2020). They could have also asked the bipartisan Ethics Committee to add investigating insurrection to their rules – both regarding members and presidents elect. 

When the Committee reports out each case, instead of requiring a two-thirds majority to expel the member or to invoke the 20th Amendment making the vice president elect the acting president, a two thirds majority of each house would be required to seat the member or president-elect.

 In neither case would this change the partisan majority in the House, whose voters would have likely replaced the expelled members with another Republican. The president elect would be replaced by the VP elect, who will also be acting president if Trump’s mental and physical health continues to decline.

These steps would take courage – especially as they have no electoral benefit (except regarding Ron Johnson or others Republican senators with Democratic Governors. Ted Cruz’s seat would still be Republican, as would many insurrectionist Senators. I don’t expect Democratic members to show such leadership without electoral benefit.

It would take even more courage for Republicans to police themselves – especially regarding Gabbard and Gaetz. Are they serious?

About the Court and the numbering of presidents

Remember the case last summer where the presumption of fact by the government was overturned in environmental law? Not such a bad thing in a Trump second term. Trial Courts now have to decide on facts put forward by environmentalist lawyers. Which was the old standard from when I was taking Administrative Law in Grad School. Every regulation will be settled in Court in a way that could not have been done previous to las summer's ruling. At the time, I said this. Now I can say - I told you so!

The next two justices to go will be Alito and Thomas. They will be replaced with more modern law school graduates and professors. The clock will not be rolled back on social issues. Indeed, the reason affirmative action plans keep getting swatted down is because they are crap. 

Go with random selection of the middle group of applicants (not sure stars or sure failures) and dare people not to sue if legacies are left out of the random pool.

The other "don't be afraid" thing is the child tax credit. It is supported bipartisanly and it needs to be passed during the lame duck. We can even add a sweetener for the Vice President by putting at least some of what she campaigned on into the bill. Assuming she is not the President at some point between now and January 20th.

So Trump is likely to be 48, not 47. Vance will then be 49 due to actuarial factors. From 2001 to 2016, we had two presidents. From 2016 to 2032, we will almost assuredly we will likely have six - unless Vance is elected in his own right in 2028. I am counting Trump twice, because that is how we number regimes.

My note to Joe

 Some items to go out with a bang.

Call a special session to pass the bipartisan immigration reform and child tax credit bills or make sure that they get passed so Trump can sign them as is.

Pardon all undocumented immigrants for any crimes committed that get in the way of their applying for legal status.

Pardon Hunter. He did not deserve what happened to him or

Have Kamala do it. You know that you can make her the first female president - just by retiring early.

Paperwork crimes of Donald Trump

Was Trump involved in the plot to coerce members of Congress to support his stupidly planned plot? Yes. Did either Smith or the Congress do what was necessary to prove it? No. They went after election interference rather than the link to Russia or the violent plot. Prosecutors take the path of least resistance - and that path can be explained away under dirty tricks - just like the perfect phone call with Zaleski.  The actual crime was obstructing missiles to Ukraine as a flavor to Putin. Now the latter is an official act. The documents that Trump took that were classified will be declassified on January 20th. Preventing these from being used against him was why we had an insurrection and have a documents case. 

Official Washington does not like the idea of criminalizing foreign policy. That has been the unofficial policy since the Louisiana Purchase and the raid on the Barbary Pirates. The Supreme Court merely codified what is current practice and has been for over 200 years. 

Again, the cases against Trump were all about bad and fraudulent paperwork - essentially dirty tricks. If the actual knowledge of the violent plot had been prosecuted and the reasons behind it, the charges going away would be a scandal to dismiss. Plots to do bad political theater - especially when both plots (Ukraine and Stopping the Steal) were unsuccessful and entirely pathetic were not seen as important by the Senate Republicans who did not vote to convict.

I have done much better dirty tricks - ones that actually worked and were never noticed. So have most members of the Senate - on both sides.

Is attempting a dirty trick that had no possible way of working really a crime? Voters did not think so. Trump won this election fair and square by expanding his base. I have seen that done too. My career is based on it.

We're going to Mars and compromising on abortion

A few things Trump will likely do:

Make a deal on abortion that gores the oxen on both sides (compromise is the enemy of fundraising) with fetal hospice after the point that a child can be born - sometime between 6 and 15 weeks - and legal abortion before that. Trump is personally pro-choice and term-limited. A compromise would be a huge win.

Elon Musk will get lots of money, as will any practical solution to very demonstrable global warming. Defense will get less, but defense industries will get a net gain. A permanent lunar colony is the real bonus - as something on the far side of the moon may see the asteroid that could kill us all.

Wall Street will not let the coming recession become a depression - note that Dodd Frank worked during the pandemic's engineered recession. Also, the Republicans don't interfere with the debt limit when they are in charge. Taxes on capital will probably go up, - an asset value added tax is the best method - because if the debt is unacceptably high, this is the only place to find the money.  

Obamacare subsidies and the child tax credit may be made adequate by a subtraction VAT paid by employees - in exchange for scrapping the corporate profits tax. The. minimum wage will be doubled.- or at least raised to $12 per hour, as a reward to the Donnie Bros. They need to ask, however, and do so quickly. Instead of tariffs, do a goods and services tax that is border adjustable. Its the same thing as a tariff, without the retaliation - and it can be paid for by ending income taxes for all income under $110,000 per year.

If you want Trump to be great, share this video with Elon Musk and Joe Rogan.