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.?

that guy in AZ Wrote:

Vindman's book is worth reading.

Although Alexander Vindman retired last summer, his twin brother was likely going to be promoted for full colonel in March of this year. Alexander is currently working on a doctorate

American Marxism by Mark Levin remained #1 in nonfiction last week, selling more than 57,000 copies. The Truth About Covid-19 by Joseph Mercola, released in April, had a big week, with sales rising to 21,500 from under 2,000 in the prior week, putting it in second place on the adult fiction list. Alexander Vindman’s Here Truth Matters was third on the category list, selling almost 16,000 copies in its first week on sale.

https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/bookselling/article/87122-print-book-sales-fell-8-last-week.html

The fact that a garbage book by a conspiracy theorist outsold a novel by a Purple Heart veteran says a lot about our country.

Levin has been described as "right-wing" by The New York Times, CNN, NPR, and Politico.[6][7][8][9] He is known for his strident criticisms of Democrats and encouragement of primary challenges to congressional Republicans that he considers to be "Republican In Name Only" (RINO). He endorsed Ted Cruz in the 2016 Republican presidential primary and declared himself "Never Trump", but reluctantly endorsed Donald Trump after Trump won the Republican nomination.[10] Since the start of the Trump presidency, Levin's commentary has become strongly pro-Trump.

https://www.politico.com/news/2021/03/15/yevgeny-vindman-promotion-post-trump-476038

Mark Levin is a horse’s ass. Which is an insult to horses.

I grow weary of the insipid right and their use of socialism, communism and Marxism to rile up the base. They either don’t know the definition, which I doubt, or they know just attaching the words to anything will score them points.

How will it end? I am uncertain.

Why do we war? Because we can. We, as a species, are hardwired for fight or flight. That being said the evolution from tribal, nomadic units to nation-states has, on occasion, dampened the tendency to fight. There is, however, much more tied up in this. The only true lenses to view the past including near-past and the future especially near future are sociology, anthropology and psychology. Humans have advanced technologically at an astounding pace and achieved astounding things. They are still, unfortunately, emotionally primitive. I would also be willing to bet that many are less than stable.

Power holders seek to maintain their power and utilize agitprop to do so. Power seekers utilize agitprop as well. I doubt this will ever change. I am reminded of a quote from Heinlein in Methuselah’s Children: I am not in danger from my friends and you are not in danger from your friends but I am in danger from your friends and you are in danger from mine. Tribalism will NEVER go away. The type of social beings that humans are combined with emotional fragility makes tribalism inevitable.

Finally, the health of the state is not war, it is coercion based upon the susceptibility of the populace to emotional, simplistic agitprop.

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.