Calling A Spade...

“The right of voting for representatives is the primary right by which other rights are protected.  To     take away this right is to reduce a man to slavery, for slavery consists in being subject to the will of     another, and he that has not a vote in the election of representatives is in this case.” ~ Thomas Paine    

     The Freedom to Vote Act, Joe Manchin’s bill, died in the Senate last week.  A Republican filibuster was the murder weapon. 

     Instead of handwringing, those who take the oath seriously must thwart those who do not.  Therefore the President must send a message to Congress and “recommend to their consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient.”  (Article II, Section 3)  Change the name of Manchin’s bill to the Consent of the Governed Act and remove the Photo ID provision, which advances the Republican lie about voter fraud.  Pass the amended bill in the House on a roll call vote so the GOP can filibuster in the Senate again.  Then produce a list of suspects and put out a WANTED poster of those responsible for its failure. 

     Meanwhile, Republican Governors and Legislatures have passed bills—in violation of the Fourteenth, Fifteenth, Nineteenth, Twenty-fourth, and Twenty-sixth Amendments—that deny or abridge the right to vote.  But they had accomplices.  The door was opened by the Chief Justice who gutted the guard outside, Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act.  Then, once in, Sam “The Stiletto” Alito did the same to Section 2. 

     Despite the fact that Congress has the power to pass legislation pursuant to the aforementioned   amendments, the Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act, and allowed Republican Governors and Legislatures to undermine “the primary right by which other rights are protected.”  And that confirms a warning made over two centuries ago. 

     “(T)hough individual oppression may now and then proceed from the courts of justice, the general  liberty of the people can never be endangered from that quarter; I mean so long as the judiciary remains truly distinct from both the Legislature and the Executive.  …(L)iberty can have nothing to fear from the judiciary alone, but would have every thing to fear from its union with either of the other departments; that as all the effects of such a union must ensue from a dependence of the former on the latter, notwithstanding a nominal and apparent separation….”  (Alexander Hamilton, The Federalist Papers, No. 78; emphasis added) 

     Two dubious elections, in 2000 and 2016, made a 6-3 self-styled “conservative” majority possible.  Thus, Bush the Younger appointed John Roberts and Samuel Alito.  Then the Chief Traitor appointed Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney  Barrett.  But President Obama appointed no one because of the McConnell Rule.  For the Majority Leader said, "The American people should have a voice in the selection of their next  Supreme Court Justice"; and by making something up he denied a hearing and a vote on the nomination of Merrick Garland. 

     The gentleman from Kentucky ran afoul of the Constitution, when his deed is compared to the words of one of the Framers in regard to “the nature of the agency of the Senate in the business of appointments.”  For Alexander Hamilton contradicts the McConnell Rule: “There will, of course, be no exertion of CHOICE  on the part of the Senate.”  And Hamilton shows what the Majority Leader did was an abuse of power:  "They might even entertain a preference to some other person, at the very moment they were assenting to the one proposed, because there might be no positive ground of opposition to him...."  (The Federalist Papers, No. 66; emphasis added)  Then, in 2020, the McConnell Rule was ignored when the Majority Leader did indeed “entertain a preference to some other person.”  But the damage had already been done.  And now there is “every thing to fear from… such a union…, notwithstanding a nominal and apparent separation….”  After all, Justice Amy Coney  Barrett paid homage to him at the University of Louisville’s McConnell Center. 

     Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Alito chose to ignore a basic precept of Anglo-American law supported by William Blackstone, James Madison, and Chief Justice John Marshall—“Where there is a right, there is a remedy.”  And now is the time to provide relief and stop those who are breaking the tablets. 

     In taking the oath to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States,” the President must then “take care that the laws be faithfully executed”; and the Constitution is “the supreme law of the land…any thing in the Constitution or laws of any State to the contrary notwithstanding.”  (Article II, Section 1, Clause 8; Article II, Section 3 & Article VI, Clause 2)  According to Article IV, Section 4, “The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a  republican form of government....”  It is clarified through brief remarks by James Madison.  “A republic, by which I mean a government in which the scheme of representation takes place....”  (The Federalist Papers, No. 10)  And that is another way of saying “the consent of the governed.”  Therefore the Executive must go to a District Court to get cease and desist orders against States in violation and couple Article IV, Section 4 and Section 2 of the Fourteenth Amendment.  The latter provides the means to enforce the former so that “the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of...citizens shall bear to the whole number of...citizens (eighteen) years of age in such State.”  (Fourteenth Amendment, Section 2; the citation has been adjusted to reflect subsequent amendments that gave women the right to vote in all the States and that lowered the voting age to eighteen; emphasis added)  Thus, the recalcitrant would have fewer members in the House. 

     Even if cease and desist orders are granted, the Executive must bring charges against Governors and legislators who have violated the Constitution’s voting rights provisions—the Fourteenth, Fifteenth, Nineteenth, Twenty-fourth, and Twenty-sixth Amendments—and the statutes enacted to enforce them.  For they are engaged in a conspiracy to deny or abridge the right to vote under color of law.  (Title 18, Section 241 & 242 of the United States Code)  Furthermore, their efforts are part of a conspiracy to defraud the United States of America in support of a rebellion or insurrection.  (Title 18, Section 371 & Section 2383 of the United States Code) 

     The actions of the Republicans are the very definition of un-American.  They love to talk about “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”  But they ignore the part about governments “deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”  Had the Founders done the same, the country’s birth certificate would have listed a stillborn. 

Copyright 2021 Marvin D. Jones.  All rights reserved.

 

http://www.marvindjones.blogspot.com/2018/10/the-least-dangerousduring-good-behavior.html

[THE LEAST DANGEROUS…DURING GOOD BEHAVIOR]

https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/politics/mitch-mcconnell/2021/09/12/justice-amy-coney-barrett-supreme-court-decisions-arent-political/8310849002/

[Justice Amy Coney Barrett at the McConnell Center]

A Last Resort

“This Constitution, and the laws of the United States which shall be made in pursuance thereof…shall be the supreme law of the land…any thing…to the contrary notwithstanding.”  (Article VI, Clause 2;  emphasis added) 

THE DEBT CEILING was established by the Second Liberty Bond Act of 1917.  It is the technicality of technicalities and of dubious constitutionality. 

     The debate over debt management or default was settled in the beginning.  The latter was out of the question.  James Madison dismissed “the pretended doctrine that a change in the political form of civil society has the magical effect of dissolving its moral obligations.”  (The Federalist Papers, No. 43)  “All debts contracted and engagements entered into, before the adoption of this Constitution, shall be as valid against the United States under this Constitution, as under the Confederation.”  (Article VI, Clause 1)  The “original intention” was to make our word true.  Thus, Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton gave force and effect to Article VI, Clause 1.  His measures made meaningful the related power “to borrow money on the credit of the United States.”  (Article I, Section 8, Clause 2)  He established the good faith of the nation and gave us our good name.  Therefore the precedent of the Washington Administration must stand. 

     Whenever a dispute arises over Article VI, Clause 1, the President must send a message to the House of Representatives, which has “(t)he exclusive privilege of originating money bills.”  (Alexander Hamilton, The Federalist Papers, No. 66)  Then, after giving due notice, Biden would issue a Proclamation on Public Credit declaring that the United States will not default.  The President would do so through an Executive Order on the Means of Extinguishment and invoke the Gephardt Rule, which simply stated that the debt ceiling was “deemed to have passed” when a budget resolution was approved. 

     “No axiom is more clearly established in law, or in reason, than that whenever the end is required, the means are authorized; whenever a general power to do a thing is given, every particular power      necessary for doing it is included.”  (James Madison, The Federalist Papers, No. 44)  In taking the oath to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States,” the President must then “take care that the laws be faithfully executed”—and the Constitution is the first law.  (Article II, Section 1, Clause 8; Article II, Section 3 & Article VI, Clause 2)  Thus, a Proclamation on Public Credit and an Executive Order on the Means of Extinguishment* can be issued on the basis of prerogative, which John Locke defined as “nothing but the power of doing public good without a rule.”  (Second Treatise of Civil Government, 166)  The same point was made in the debates contained in the Pacificus and Helvidius letters after Washington issued the Proclamation of Neutrality in 1793; it was described in TR’s stewardship theory; and it was restated when JFK said that, at times, a President must use the full powers of the office—“all that are specified and some that are not.” 

     “There is no position which depends on clearer principles than that every act of a delegated authority, contrary to the tenor of the commission under which it is exercised, is void.”  (Alexander Hamilton, The Federalist Papers, No. 78)  The debt ceiling is a statutory provision while Article VI, Clause 1 is reaffirmed by Section 4 of the Fourteenth Amendment:  “The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law,…shall not be questioned.”  Thus, the Second Liberty Bond Act of 1917 was not “made in pursuance thereof” and, is, therefore, void.   (Article VI, Clause 2) 

     THE END OF THE PREAMBLE makes clear the purpose of the Constitution—to “promote the general welfare and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity.”  But that becomes impossible if we cannot survive in the material world.  And those threatening to make the nation destitute—who will condemn the use of prerogative, “the power of doing public good without a rule”—must consider James Madison’s words regarding interpretation of the supreme law of the land.  

     “There are two rules of construction, dictated by plain reason as well as founded on legal axioms.  The one is that every part of the expression ought, if possible, to be allowed some meaning, and be made to conspire to some common end.  The other is that where the several parts cannot be made to coincide, the less important should give way to the more important part; the means should be sacrificed to the end, rather than the end to the means.”  (The Federalist Papers, No. 40)

(c)2021 Marvin D. Jones.  All rights reserved.

*On January 9, 1790, Alexander Hamilton sent the First Report on Public Credit to the House of Representatives.  He stated that “…(T)he creation of debt should always be accompanied with the means of extinguishment.”  Therefore, in his Executive Order, President Biden should instruct the IRS to carefully review provisions of the tax code that would increase revenue.  In the Second Report on Public Credit, on December 13, 1790, Hamilton proposed the creation of a national bank. 

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2011/05/how-dick-gephardt-fixed-the-debt-ceiling-problem/238571/    [the Gephardt Rule]  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2T6jqTedp2A    [Mitch McConnell objecting to his own debt ceiling proposal]

Too Many Notes

 THE AFGHANISTAN WITHDRAWAL presents an opportunity to move beyond the narrow band and expand our awareness.  For the tendency to view things in isolation must change. 

     Events may create a false impression.  But, as the song goes, however they seem, “It ain’t necessarily so.”  Appearances can be deceiving:  America is not in decline but in confusion. 

     Transitions are waves which ebb and flow between calm and stormy like a whisper or a howling wind.  In the Great Republic, history shows these to be particularly difficult to navigate—a natural death, an assassination, a disputed election. 

     Misguided decisions can be made due to a natural death or an assassination.  But the reverberations from a disputed election may cause a tsunami, a disaster set in motion by a political discontinuity—a misalignment of means and ends, where a minority rules a majority. 

     When FDR died, the Allies were months away from victory.  Truman saw it through to the end.  But had Roosevelt lived, the French position in Indochina would have been weakened without American support, and Vietnam would not have been subject to colonial rule. 

     Had JFK lived, the withdrawal of advisers from Vietnam would have continued with 1,000 out by      December 1963 and the rest by 1965.  But Johnson committed combat troops. 

     In 2000, had Florida not purged its voter rolls, or if the recount had not been halted, Gore would have been elected.  Then a full, smooth interregnum raises questions as to whether 9/11, Afghanistan, and Iraq would have happened. 

     In 2016, a perfect storm of chutzpah and complacency led to a slow motion and continuing catastrophe.  As Alexander Hamilton noted, “Nothing was more to be desired than that every practicable obstacle be opposed to cabal, intrigue, and corruption.  These most deadly adversaries of republican government might naturally have been expected to make their approaches from more than one quarter, but chiefly from the desire in foreign powers to gain an improper ascendant in our councils.  How could they better gratify this, than by raising a creature of their own to the Chief Magistracy of the Union?”  (The Federalist Papers, No. 68)  Yet the failure to understand that the Electoral College has two functions—popular choice and national security—allowed the man with fewer votes, plus the Russian Connection, to be raised to the highest office.  But, as James Madison noted, “One advantage of Electors is, although generally the mere mouths  of their constituents, they may be intentionally left sometimes to their own judgment, guided by further information that may be acquired by them….”  (The Electoral College by Lucius Wilmerding, Jr., 180-181)  Thus, the chance to make use of the final check on fraud was missed.

      A disputed election raises questions regarding legitimacy, for power and responsibility are severed, as are rights and duties.  Then the vessel is without proper ballast, and the broken bonds between captain and crew set the ship of state on a perilous course.  The great danger is that they will be ill-prepared for battle or diplomacy.  Thus, the Chief Traitor betrayed the Kurds in 2019 and negotiated the Doha Agreement of 2020—a surrender to the Taliban.  And at home, he encouraged an insurrection. 

     Confusion reigns in Ignorance, and its inhabitants speak loudly and curry a big mob.  But there is more to being an American than birth in the United States, or through the lineage of one’s parents, or by naturalization.  American citizenship is defined by rights and duties, and adherence to ideals even when inconvenient.  Thus, beyond legalities, it is a state of mind. 

     Without memory, we are lost.  Without memory, there is no sense of self, whether an individual or a nation. 

     After his ordeal, Job had a debriefing with God. 

     “Doth the eagle mount up at thy command, and make her nest on high?”  (Job 39:27, KJV) 

     The Great Seal of the United States of America is a reflection of the fact that we are spiritual beings in material bodies.  The eagle can mount up.  But she can only make her nest on high with Divine Providence.  For here, citizenship is about character—the union of thought, word, and deed directed toward a noble end. 

     To achieve true greatness in the material world, represented by the eagle on the Great Seal, we can no longer ignore the reverse side with the All Seeing Eye.  To make our nest on high, there must be an American Renaissance, what Lincoln called “a new birth of freedom.”  Then we can complete the mission and fulfill our destiny. 

     The Great Seal captures the essence of what we are meant to be.  The Capitol reinforces the same.  It is a temple of liberty, and the dome is a symbol of transcendence.     

     The influence of assertion and repetition cannot go unchecked.  Reagan’s error must be corrected.  The restoration—and enhancement—of the fairness doctrine is an absolute necessity.  For anyone who doubts the power of unrebutted falsehood need only look at Afghanistan.  President Biden acted as if the Chief Traitor’s agreement was legitimate when there were grounds for objection. 

     “As to corruption,” John Jay noted, in trying to imagine the unimaginable, “the case is not supposable….  The idea is too gross and too invidious to be entertained.  But in such a case, if it should ever happen, the treaty so obtained from us would, like all other fraudulent contracts, be null and void by the law of nations.”  (The Federalist Papers, No. 64) 

     Knowledge is the foundation of the American Republic.  On the first page of The Federalist Papers, Alexander Hamilton compared and contrasted two systems.  One depends on “accident and force”; the other is guided by “reflection and choice.”  Decisions based on the latter are open to nuance, while the former is chained to the reptilian brain where things are only this or that way.

     The Framers were thoughtful, and they are not at fault if we fail to follow in their footsteps.  As Drill Sergeant Hart, a Ranger, said regarding the Seven P’s, “Poor prior planning produces poor present performance.”  Preparation is a prerequisite of survival, but the failure to consider more than the material prevents the merger of ideals and reality to create A NEW ORDER OF THE AGES.

(c)2021 Marvin D. Jones.  All rights reserved.

1)  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6_eqxh-Qok  [ “too many notes”]  

2)  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Ijhn3FlDQs    [“It ain’t necessarily so”] 

3)  The Best and the Brightest by David Halberstam, 79-84    [the significance of FDR’s death and French colonial rule] 

4)  JFK and Vietnam by John Newman    [the rest by 1965]         

5)  https://fair.org/extra/who-won-the-election-who-cares/    [Gore would have been elected] 

6)  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZVurT6ZiQY    [ill-prepared for battle or diplomacy] 

7)  The remarks on the Great Seal and the Capitol are based on the work of Dr. Robert Hieronimus and William Henry. 

8)  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHdkRvEzW84    [Transcendence]

9)  https://www.nytimes.com/1987/06/21/us/reagan-vetoes-measure-to-affirm-fairness-policy-for-broadcasters.html    [Reagan’s error must be corrected]

 10)  A NEW ORDER OF THE AGES    [NOVUS ORDO SECLORUM on the reverse side of the Great Seal]