Dutch,

Unfortunately, Biden cannot remove Dejoy. The post office is not set up that way. He should be able to do so but, as I understand it, the board of governors of the post office must do this. Apparently there are, iirc, two openings on the board that the senate will not act to confirm appointees to those positions and so here we sit.

As for any other Trump holdovers if they haven’t been kicked out by now they should be.

Dutch, you have harped regarding the constitution being incomplete. In reality, it is complete. The purpose of the document was the establishment of a system to pass and execute legislation. It does just that.

The problem lies both much deeper and more overt.

Madison as well others wrote of the danger of factions. This is the way of human beings. Information meshes and also clashes with belief systems. Information asymmetry, accidental and intentional, impacts decision-making processes resulting in an extreme range of psychological responses. The laws you have mentioned are not a function of the constitution but of those who were placed in a position to make laws by that document. Those people were put there by “We The People”. The founders feared democracy. They deliberately constructed a system that would allegedly allow for an assumed high level of liberty while also increasing the efficiency that was lacking in the Articles of Confederation. The constitution attempted to create a federal state while also allowing so-called states rights which was a term of art created to mollify those who believed, imo, that there should be 13 states due to, imo, the stupidity of separate colonies. The founders failed. Not because the constitution failed but because man failed. The end results were perhaps predictable but the founders hoped otherwise.

Many of the problems could be attributed to arrogance under the guise of exceptionalism as well as the willingness to permit slavery while hiding that the true nature of the revolution was economic since the crown was damaging wealth. Democratic institutions were necessary to provide cover for the economic rationale. Jefferson’s rhetoric was agitprop to help convince a populace that was less concerned with the economics of wealth. A populist revolution was necessary. Slavery was permitted because a united front of wealth was necessary. The founders also did not anticipate technological development in communications, transportation and weaponry.

So, to return to the constitution, the document prohibits two laws iirc: bills of attainder and ex post facto laws. Everything else as the document is written is permissible. The first 10 amendments were attempts to narrow focus while not limiting freedom which again was undefined. These amendments, again, product of fallible man are and always have been subject to the same vagaries of man’s conflicted and conflicting belief structures as well as imperfect information processing. The laws created by the mechanism created by the document run afoul of belief structures of politicians including those on the SCOTUS which wields power it does not have.

What you have in a nutshell is imperfection. This imperfection is both a hindrance and a potential help.

The problem lies with man.

Interesting idea.

This actually brings up the concept of just war. Along with that is the law of unintended consequences.

So, when, where, how and why do we intervene? What happens if intervention is decided upon? What happens if intervention is decided against?

Humans can only act upon past facts and information. The concept of “the present” is a fallacy. There is past and there is future. Much information may be inaccurate or incomplete. Information interpretation arbitrarily has bias. We must also add in the fact that no one gets to know what would have happened.

cnbc.com/2022/04/14/elon-musk-offers-to...

He states “Twitter has extraordinary potential. I will unlock it.”

A libertarian whack-job, what could possibly go wrong?

There are plenty of people out there who think Elon Musk is great. I am definitely not one of them. He is an egomaniac.

Dutch Wrote:

The subject was the "The conservative mind". But yeah actually it does not exist, because they themselves are only interested in "wealth"and nothing else, they have others do the work for them and let them indoctrinate the rest of the people; they don't want to dirty their own hands. Hitler followed that same process. If in an country things go bad, as it is now with the "virus", then people are looking for who they can blame. In those situations the people with the biggest mouth (and money) pop up and grab power. People on this planet are like sheep and follow the leader. The leader tries hard to stay in place and uses all kind of "tools" to "indoctrinate" these dumb followers. Right now because of that our "leaders" never saw the danger of "capitalism" is has grown out of proportion and the "rich" and "powerful" are richer than ever and want to "dictate" via their "money", so they retain their wealth and untouchable positions. The GOP is an typical party to give them their free ride and does not care if the rest of the people suffer. It is "me , me and "me" only. Once they got a foothold they won't let go. It is the American "greed" which has grown out of proportion. There lies the problem, together with the lack of proper education for the rest of the population. The"right wing" media makes sure of it that their supporters stay stupid here related to the basic rules and needs of "life" on this tiny planet. Once the rich have the "say" here, forget the "handouts" for the poor. Thus create more "chaos" that will help such to "overthrow" to take place. Americans have no notion about what an "communistic" system is like, because this country is acting like an spoiled "island"; we "know it all" on this isolated "island" existing for only 300 years in its present form.

Sorry this country because of its stupid governing "structure" is asking for this to happen. Amen.

Dutch, you are mistaken. This is not about greed. To borrow from Heinlein’s Citizen of the Galaxy: people will do strange things for money but they will do more drastic things for power over money. Money is for many but not all merely a means of keeping score. It is also a tool. The goal is power and money is the primary tool for obtaining and holding power.
I have been to Hillsdale College and I know a guy who graduated from there. You can see ads that occasionally pop up amongst various other ads on Democratic Underground for “real” history of the United States put out by Hillsdale’s publishing arm. Conservatism, at least the conservatism of the last 80 years has becoming increasingly full of cognitive dissonance, racism, misogyny, homophobia, rampant religionism and, as you mentioned, greed. The true believers exist both in the controlling segment of conservative agitprop all the way out to the fringes. Fellow travelers, generally racists, misogynists and homophobes, cling to conservatism because they are cast adrift due to their fears and hatred. They actually have no political home and so are happy to play useful idiots.

I give the country less than 30 years.

Imo, the time has come to break up the United States. Either it is done peacefully or it will be done violently. Beyond that, imo, the era of the large geography/large population nation-state is coming to an end. What happens after that is anyone’s guess as the authoritarian tendencies in humans due to groupism are far stronger than any pull democracy might seem to have.

What will 2022 bring?

The question is almost meaningless.

Societies create governments as tools to organize themselves. The effectiveness of those tools is entirely dependent upon the people and what they expect and how their expectations are met. Expectations does not arbitrarily mean that the people always get what they want. The two biggest psychological inputs that are required for a government to function on any acceptable level are belief and confidence. The people must believe in the system and they must have confidence in the system. Belief again does not mean that the people always get what they want. Rather it means that the people see the functioning of the system and that the functioning is transparent enough for the people to see, understand and accept what is going on. Confidence is critical because it means that the system must continue to function normally so that the people are confident that their belief is sound from a foundational standpoint.

Several things have happened over the last 70 years or so that have undermined both confidence and belief. Most has been by the right but the left bears some responsibility as well. Included in bearing responsibility is the media and finally the people themselves.

In the late’40’s and early ‘50’s you had the arrival of five figures that were critical in the changes: Russell Kirk, Leo Strauss, William F. Buckley, Ayn Rand and Friedrich Von Hayek. These 5 impacted belief structures in ways that have manifested themselves as intensely destructive. The rise of the theomythology of individualism and exceptionalism pushed forth by these 5 and likely others is anathema to the concept of a democratically organized society. Goldwater’s candidacy underscored the danger but it went unrecognized because the belief and confidence of the people was still fairly in tact. We must also note that the system established by the founders carried within itself the seeds of its own destruction in the form of slavery. The abolition of slavery and the destruction of Jim Crow played large roles in the undercutting of belief and confidence precisely because the system had been built upon that foundation. The Democrats moved to projecting that the system could be the same just that everyone could participate. This was actually unacceptable to a portion of the population which had bought into the fallacy of white superiority. Still the system continued to function although it was in need of maintenance.

Then came the Vietnam War followed by the election of Nixon, a man so absent of morality as to be astounding. Confidence was being eaten away but still the people believed. The next step was crucial as was the step after that. The campaign and election of Reagan delivered a massive blow to confidence and belief. The idea that government was the problem is completely corrosive to belief and confidence in government. The next step was actually two things: the rise of Newt Gingrich and the so-called Vulcans and the shift by Democrats from being at least allegedly for the worker to the toxic “third way” espoused by Clinton. The third way meant sucking up to mega donors and to the F.I.R.E. sector. Workers came to believe that they had been abandoned.

The last crucial step was one that caused the first of two tipping points. The election of Barack Obama was unacceptable because it went completely against the system established at the origin. Nothing Obama did could atone for his being black. Confidence and belief were now eroding at an accelerated clip. The second tipping point was obviously the election of Donald Trump. Trump’s very nature, personality and mental illness have caused belief and confidence to basically completely collapse. By openly targeting racists, religionists and conspiracy theorists he has destroyed the country. If Republicans do not take the house or the senate the courts will become clogged with untold numbers of lawsuits or states controlled by Republicans will attempt to void the election results that do not please them.

I could go on and on but this is too depressing.

Geez, I am tired of the idiocy. Far too many in this country equate success, usually in business, with greatness. Imo, the overwhelmingly vast majority of successful businesspeople are NOT great. Success in business, which is always due to more than just the “entrepreneur”, does not equate to having an automatic understanding of other issues. I once heard someone on a board say that Bill Gates was “well-read” as though that meant intensive study in a field. I consider myself well-read relatively speaking and I know I am no expert.

Enough with worship of “entrepreneurs (read: salesmen)” when it comes to things outside of their company.

Parke Godwin wrote in Waiting for The Galactic Bus that America is as susceptible to charlatans as a dog is to fleas.

Never underestimate two things:

The stupidity of the American people

The impact of shifting demographics

These two things, along with others like a hatred for intelligence, lead inevitably to yearning for authoritarian strongmen who claim to be the best and able to do everything. The counterbalance to swing the pendulum back is desperately needed. That as many Americans as believe the lunatic ravings of a madman like Trump should be not simply taken note of but viewed with alarm.

that guy in AZ Wrote:

Mafia boss John Gotti, who was nicknamed the “Teflon Don” after escaping unscathed from several trials during the 1980s, is sentenced to life in prison after being found guilty on 14 accounts of conspiracy to commit murder and racketeering. Moments after his sentence was read in a federal courthouse in Brooklyn, hundreds of Gotti’s supporters stormed the building and overturned and smashed cars before being forced back by police reinforcements.

On April 2, 1992, John Gotti was found guilty on all counts and on June 23 was sentenced to multiple life terms without the possibility of parole. While still imprisoned, Gotti died of throat cancer on June 10, 2002.

Sound familiar?

Trump has been involved in over 3500 suits in his long and unsavory career.

Sometime he wins.

Sometimes he loses.

He is the only president in the history of the United States that was impeached twice. Despite his obvious guilty, he was not convicted either time.

During his presidential campaign, the "Access Hollywood" tape was released, and many people believed his campaign was doomed.

By an amazing coincidence, a day later, information that had been stolen from the Clinton campaign was released by Wikileaks, who conveniently did not reveal the fact that Russia helped him get the information.

When the election was held, he lost BIGLY (by 3,000,000 votes) but managed to get sworn into office because he managed to eke out enough electoral college votes to get in.

In 2020, he lost even more BIGLY (by 7,000,000 votes) , but Joe Biden got EXACTLY the same number of electoral college votes that Trump did in 2016, and all of us sighed in relief - until January 6.

The Trump campaign filed 60 lawsuits challenging the results of the election, and lost 59 of them.

For some reason, Trump himself, and nearly 50% Republican voters, still think that Trump won.

Arizona has already had 2 audits of the ballots, and concluded that Joe Biden DEFINITELY won Arizona.

Karen Fann, the senate president, was still not convinced, so she hired a firm that had NO prior experience in conducting audits to conduct ANOTHER audit. In addition to examining ballots with blue lights, and looking for watermarks and bamboo in the ballots, they barred almost all observers from the coliseum where the "audit" is being conducted.

The last paragraph explains why the Department of Justice recently send a "what the fuck?" letter to Ms. Fann.

The paragraph below explains one of the concerns of the Department of Justice:

The Arizona Senate is dropping, for now, a controversial plan to go door-to-door to ask local residents about their voting history as part of its audit of Maricopa County's election.

The decision, which Senate President Karen Fann included in a letter to the U.S. Department of Justice on Friday, comes after federal officials raised concerns that the canvassing could violate civil rights laws aimed to prevent voter intimidation.

https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/arizona/2021/05/07/arizona-audit-plan-visit-voters-homes-dropped-fann-tells-doj/4996668001/

Do remember when John Gotti's supporters stormed the building?

Trump's supporters are just as crazy.

Gov. Doug Ducey has ordered Arizona Department of Public Safety protection for Secretary of State Katie Hobbs and her family after she received death threats related to the Senate contractor's ongoing audit of the November presidential election in Maricopa County.

C.J. Karamargin, a spokesperson for Ducey's office, on Friday confirmed that Ducey ordered the protection.

https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/arizona/2021/05/07/arizona-audit-secretary-state-katie-hobbs-dps-protection-death-threats/4994172001/

Trevor Noah had a few comments about the "audit" last night:

"Now, you might think it's crazy to have election conspiracy theorists in charge of an election audit," Noah said. "But to me, this makes perfect sense. Because don't forget, this is the third audit they've done in Arizona. At this point, you aren't going through the effort of counting again unless you know the guys you're hiring are going to give you the result you want. This is just smart."

https://www.azcentral.com/story/entertainment/media/2021/05/07/arizona-election-audit-daily-show/4990159001/

Not long after Trump got elected, news broke that he had had sex with Stormy Daniels, and adult porn star, when his son Barron was less than a year old. He instructed his long-time attorney, Michael Cohen, to pay hush money to Daniels so that she would not reveal the affair. Eventually, she received $130,000, which many people thought was a clear violation of election laws.

We all have pretty much forgotten about Stormy - until yesterday.

The Federal Election Commission announced Thursday that it won't proceed with a case examining whether former President Trump violated election law with 2016 a hush-money payment made through his then-lawyer Michael Cohen.

https://news.yahoo.com/fec-drops-trump-hush-money-022301454.html

For now, he's still "Teflon Don" , but he's still facing legal challenges from Scotland (money laundering) , New York (tax evasion) and Georgia (violation of the Ku Klux Klan Act) and possibly from members of the Capital police, who were injured during the insurrection of January 6.

How long do you think his luck is going to last?