Word. In fact, one could argue that the older a law is the more potent it is since it stood the test of time.
sigh
5 Likes
The Constitution, it could be argued, has done more than stood the test of time. It’s been changed and improved by the Amendments.
3 Likes
Well yes. Laws that become outdated are usually revised or repealed and the constitution is a good example. It has been amended as we’ve grown and changed.
Until Trump and the GOP came along. Rome also stood the test of time for centuries until the Vandals came along.
3 Likes
That’s a ridiculous over-simplification of the situation. I guess that’s why The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire is just a bit of light reading for a summer afternoon.
2 Likes
I had a general idea of what the Hatch Act involved, but what’s the scandal behind it? Pernicious?
ETA: Seems to me very much what is happening now. History lesson needed?
3 Likes
The Trump administration is worse than that police officer in Kenosha who shot Jacob Blake in the back seven times: clueless, smug, insouciant, incompetent, vicious. Goons all.
2 Likes
Point I was making was the do first, ask for forgiveness later aspect. Which they likely will not. Trump is a man who dashes off NDAs at the blink of an eye. But understanding that invading the privacy of someone requires permission both legal and ethically is suddenly not understood? They are playing an edge, knew and went for it anyway.
That brand new citizen in the photo with Trump appears to have no idea he is immediately being utterly exploited as a new citizen. That’s Republicanism: cheating, lying, exploitation.
Violating the Hatch act is child’s play for this administration – nothing at all for a president who is a treasonous repeat offender, fully supported by the Republican party.
2 Likes
You mean Trump is not a freaking Attila laying waste to everything that stands on his path?
OT
This caught my eye.
" Every rose that was planted by a first lady from 1913 forward was ripped up as part of the Rose Garden renovation and the cherry trees were cut down so they could get a better camera angle for Melania trump,"
4 Likes
Amen to that and amen again.
Frank Wilhoit’s assertion that, “conservatism consists of exactly one proposition, to wit: There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect" leads to an equally unequivocal assertion about any movement that claims to resist this, whether it calls itself liberal, progressive, socialist or whatever; i.e., “the law cannot protect anyone unless it binds everyone, and cannot bind anyone unless it protects everyone.”
6 Likes
Thank you.
These folks make Aaron Burr look like a true patriot and courageous and honorable hero.
Not the Party of George Washington: Trump and his minions lied about cutting down cherry trees, too.
To call this aristocracy is of course imprecise, since many Repubs are not people of means or well-educated and sophisticated, although their leaders are mostly these (with notable exceptions). Rather, it’s more a movement and ideology of racial and cultural exclusivity and hierarchy, based on the belief that some types of people are naturally superior to all others types, based on their ethnicity, beliefs and way of life (a convenient belief of course to those who one of these types), and that laws and structures should therefore favor these people over all others.
It’s the opposite of egalitarianism and democracy, rejecting both and actively seeking to undermine them. Of course not everyone who calls themselves conservative actually believes all this. Many just pretend to, to justify their efforts in advancing it. It’s also not about meritocracy, at least the kind based on peoples’ inherent and socially redeeming talents, efforts and achievements. Rather, it’s “my people are better than all other people, because of their skin color, beliefs and culture”.
Is there a poli sci term for such a political ideology? I’m sure that there is. Every country has some version of this, so it’s hardly unique to ours or to our time. Conservatism, sure, but that’s too broad and doesn’t explain what is being conserved. Political Racism? Cultural and Racial Aristocracy?
1 Like
By now I would think people, especially here, would have been informed that the trees were flowering crabapples. Cherry trees have a life of 50 years so would have been in need of replacement as an excuse by Mel’s designers.
1 Like
He WAS impeached. His cronies decided not to remove him from office, and that’s where he knew he could get away with anything.
2 Likes
Let me ask you: if YOU were elected President, or if YOU had a wish list for Biden, would you want him to hold back the last salaries of Wolf and Pompeo and KAC and Kudlow? The executive ie PRESIDENT is the one who is supposed to monitor Hatch violations. Well, Jan 21, 2021 if that is good ol’ Joe Biden should he say “I” am enforcing the Hatch Act…Oh yeah, McEnany is speaking too.
These people HAVE to be inconvenienced in SOME way, dammit, they are breaking the law.
I don’t know that the Act allows for withholding salaries but if it does sure.
Otherwise, if they are charged and found guilty of violating the Act then whatever - fines, etc, the Act says is what the DOJ should go for.
This isn’t the President’s bailiwick.