Dutch Wrote:

The more I see about our "government" and its people in it, the more I'm feeling that I live in Africa, instead of an country with "proper laws" and "serious" well "educated" people in it. It also means that we are stuck in this self created "mud" forever. I guess "Greene" and others are very proud of themselves. But yeah an Biden just lets it "go" because he's religious. (Love thy neighbor") ha ha.

Don't let me laugh about the "circus" here. Putin is laughing all the way in his "castle" about this country.

Dutch, I agree with the anger but what, exactly, can Biden do?

As for serious, well educated people? Humans are idiots. They are not idiots all the time but they are idiots. Trump made it OK to say “ni##er” basically and the racism spewed out. Beyond that people are more interested in mindless crap and preventing other people from doing things they don’t like. People dressing in drag harms no one.

Dutch Wrote:

All of this "case" shows how our "representatives" are "elected. The point I'm trying to make is how many other senators got in by the same or worse lies. What did it say in Jordan's qualification check"? and in "Greene's" qualification check" ? etc. I bet plenty of GOP members lied about their "knowledge" of "governing" or "the "laws" let alone knowledge about the "world" and the "why" of living on this planet.

Most of them are "mis-informed" or are lacking world knowledge or the basic knowledge of "uniformity" or how to streamline things. Let alone have "management experience" or learned on how to "trouble shoot".

Doing things in an coherent fashion and do such without manipulation seems to be impossible.

All of this shows that the only thing what seems to count is as I've said so many times before is: How much money can the person "raise" and who are his/her buddy's who help to promote the person. Therefore "background checks have to be done" by an solid well educated independent group of "specialist" who can determine if the person is suited for the job. I was screened many times by whole groups of specialist, before I got the job and got my clearances worldwide to be able to negotiate contracts with airlines and governments/military etc. Why not the same for an Government job?

Sorry to say, no wonder our government gets an January 6th situation if you don't make sure that even an incoming President should be "qualified" for the job in the first place ; not by an "hoopla" circus like how Trump got the job. I guess his "background check" was not important enough and made no headlines. However the dumb ass people here still voted for him. So something must be wrong in the education of the general population here as well.

Therefore if the next President gets "elected" in 2024, then if nothing is done about "qualification" and an thorough screening, then we will get the same chaos as we have now, over and over again. The "Santos" case shows were the "cracks" are in the system.

Happy Arbor Day, Merry Christmas, Happy Valentine’s Day, Happy Saint Crispin’s Day, Happy New Year’s Day.

Actually, peace to everyone.

And, Dutch? Money will never be removed from American politics. Sad, I know. The political will is lacking.

Dutch Wrote:

Lonely, sorry but I don't agree on your statement that Europe has the same problem, may be except England.

In Europe they "adapt their "base laws" on an daily basis, but not here. Thus the laws are up to date there. Here they just mess with "case laws" (after the fact laws) which are manipulated all the way by all kind of "partisan" lawyers as well depending on the "quality" and mindset of the elected people in the government.

Lots of "games" are played with it and the "lawyers" make fortunes from it. Also it creates "ton's" of paperwork and research into the past, what was done or written and its interpretation of it in "modern times". At a certain time it will "collapse" because of that in modern times things don't work anymore like it did 200 years ago. Take the "gun" laws for instance ( The "Second Amendment") where we still had "militia"; we have no longer "front loading muskets" but other "killing tools" which are much worse; but the laws for it are still not caught up to the times we live in. Case laws don't work because they also become outdated as the Second Amendment, the way it was written in those times. The very few "Amendments" on the Constitution show that at a given moment "case laws" also get outdated and have to be updated; which in the end becomes an impossible administrative situation.

Therefore Europe has not the "turmoil" as here related to "up to date" laws as it should be. So make it the same; I advise do as they did in Canada, which does not have such turmoil as here related to "laws".

Constitutional laws get outdated; our "impeachment" process showed already that there were no laws for it written in 1776. neither did they have intercontinal missiles, nukes, computers, cars, trains, planes and a "zillion lawyers" as well "world wars" or Putin types. Let alone "billionaires" who act like "god's"and have their own laws.

An"parliamentary" system keeps things up to date; what we have is an "self inflicted wound" with lots of bandages to stop the bleeding. The "paperwork" here is asking for lots of "anomalies" and " interpretation" ; it is like fumbling in an garbage heap to find your lost "diamond" with the help of lots of "zombies". It is an total "joke" as proven when we have elections etc.

The Constitution was written more than 200 hundred years ago; our society has changed so much that it may as well be the dead sea scrolls. People's life and living conditions are totally different than in in 1700. At given moment you can't "update" an "base law" anymore because of all the changes in the world since 1700. Therefore there were very few "Amendments" made but those are also not up to date anymore.

No wonder that this country stays in "turmoil" over and over again. However this country is very "stubborn" and "arrogant" and "knows" it all; thus there is little hope that they will chose an better working uniform "law" system. But yeah "Rome" did the same thing and the result is known.

You can't run an country with "ego trippers" and "smart crooks" alone. Laws and "rules should be strictly adhered too; depending if the "laws" and "rules" are sound "without loopholes" or "outdated". Ask "Rittenhouse" how fantastic it works for him.

Dutch,

I get your concerns. I agree with the vast majority of them. But we have to look at what reality is.

The constitution is NOT a collection of laws. It is a foundational document laying out the methodology of a democratic republic. Imo, the founders particularly Jefferson believed that the people elected to federal office would be of their class, the “accidental aristoi” meaning wealth/position aristocracy. They did not believe in democracy, in the will of the people. This is shown in the document itself. Only one half of the three branches of government are elected directly by the people. The document did not layout extensive criteria to be eligible for federal office because, again, they thought the candidates would be from their class.

As to things like the taxes of the candidates unless it is established as law no candidate is required to reveal their taxes. I agree that they should be required but they are not. Now, you bring up case law and I get and agree with the frustration. That being said I would wager that every European democracy has the same problem. Here the problem is exacerbated by the position of the US on the world stage. Laws are put into place and then situations occur which do not fit exactly to existing law so legal decisions are handed down by courts via criminal/civil cases.

Finally, unless there is a situation of defeated belligerents in a war such as occurred with the Nuremberg trials leaders of countries in essence are immune from prosecution. The same applies in reverse with Bush2 re: Iraq and possibly Clinton re: the Balkans. We can of course argue that such should not be the case and the International Criminal Court is an attempt to holder people accountable. We will never see an American president or high official from an administration brought before that court.

Dutch Wrote:

Thanks for your reply. I always thought that an President has more "executive priveledges" than than anyone else. He can use this to "do" things like Trump at least dared to do. At least , how is it "possible" that an ex President can "rally" and " stoke the fire" everywhere and "interfere" all he likes. While in the meantime committed "crimes" by "stealing" secret documents from the W.H. as well never wanted to provide his "Tax returns" and still is fighting that. All previous Presidents did provide these "tax returns" before running for the job. So I consider him an "criminal" which should not be able to run. Thus Biden should take action to stop him from running because of it. So something is "drastically " wrong here. The coming 2 years will be an disaster if Biden does not stop this crook. Garland also should have stopped him from running because of it.

Sorry this country is not any better than any S.American country. Amen

Biden can’t take any action beyond proposing legislation that would prevent Trump from running. The founders believed, not in democracy, but in a system where what Jefferson called the “accidental aristoi” would be the pool supplying those who would enter politics to govern the country. In essence, an aristocracy of landed, educated, white men.

So, regarding Trump, Biden cannot in any manner create a law which would bar Trump. Garland can and should move against Trump on, imo, the classified documents issue. This is not Biden’s weakness but rather the result of a system which was a massive improvement over the Articles of Confederation but also required a relatively convoluted method to pass legislation. We certainly can have a discussion over whether a parliamentary system is better than the democratic republic that we have here but that doesn’t change that we have what we have.

Dutch Wrote:

However, looking at "history" of this country then I've not seen any ex-president serving "jail" time. All the "mafia" types are still running around freely as well. Actually the whole of the GOP belongs in jail the way they operate.

I bet he will "weasel" again out of all of this, as usual due to our "weak" Biden and our near dead DOJ head.

Neither on the news anything more about the "documents" he stole, let alone his "tax" returns; it will all end up in the toilet.

It is time that this country gets decent "solid" laws and "legal" people with "integrity" in government issues.

"Football players" have shaking up "brains" and know nothing of the world, let alone if they got any "decent" education at all.

Sorry this country is "laughable" related to running or "electing" an Government. The "chaos" during these times shows that the "system" here is "garbage". The "crooks" rise to the top; the people with normal "brains" are "invisible due to all the "noise" from the "money" hungry big mouth society. Just running an "election" where "billions of dollars" were "injected" and ended up in the wrong pockets, only proves on how totally "corrupt" this country is and "stays". Amen

Dutch, Biden has no authority to force Trump to appear before to Jan 6 committee. He cannot force the DOJ to do anything about Trump as the DOJ is not his personal law firm. That was what Trump believed the DOJ was. He can ask for Garland’s resignation if he wants but he won’t do it.

As for ex-presidents serving jail time the only one who could have ended up there was Nixon. The pardon issued by Ford eliminated that possibility.

Yes, there is corruption. Yes, I think that the current system allows for corruption to exist. A quick glance at Poland, Hungary and Italy show RW authoritarianism is on the rise and holding political power in Europe. Humans are susceptible to charlatans no matter where they are.

I actually think that these sites all have a sort of half-life. They eventually shrink until they are simply a site with little to no contribution. Is that arbitrarily bad? Not necessarily. Humans always have things going on that take up time. As humans cannot multi-task despite claims that they can it is unsurprising that events and circumstances occur that require prioritization. Frankly, I do believe that the political economy of the country is not simply broken but is beyond repair. To try and repair would require an almost complete tear down and rebuild. That isn’t going to happen unless and until conditions actually devolve into instability and unsustainability. We are not there yet but we are getting closer.

The election of a fill-in-the-blank Democrat to the presidency will not substantially change things. It does not matter what Biden has or has not done. The crucial “glue” holding a society together has fractured. Cohesiveness has vanished as the combination of idiot libertarians and religionists/misogynists/homophobes/racists has achieved their wet dream of deconstructing society. Bannon’s idiocy of deconstructing the state is meaningless. Society organizes using the nation-state on this level. That the nation-state becomes oppressive does not mean that it does not exist. The lack of state would be even more catastrophic.

My alternative is simple and extremely dangerous: break up the country. The so-called American experiment has run aground on the one critical thing that the founders neglected which is the concept of “states” within a nation being sovereign. That great failure has come to destroy the country.

Well, with all the psychosis in this country I thought you could use a laugh.

twitter.com/Elastic_minds/status/154556...

So, I will ask the question…

Is it time to break up the U.S.?