Good or bad, Obama tried to recess appoint three members to the National Labor Relations Board while the Senate was having pro forma sessions, arguing that the Senate was effectively in recess. The Supreme Court ruled against him 9-0 in NLRB v. Noel Canning.
No, not really.
Bless the Free Press of the USA. They have their flaws, but they are all we have on our side in this mess.
I have to seriously question what side you are referring to.
What I recall is that they were refusing to hold votes. A recess appointment wasn’t a great thing, but the Senate was using a loophole to prevent the president from fulfilling his executive duties, so Obama tried to use a loophole to fulfill the duties.
I remember discussion about how to close this loophole–e.g., ruling that if the Senate doesn’t hold an up-or-down vote on an appointment within a reasonable time period (60 days. for example), the appointment is considered approved. Unfortunately, the only way to get such a law would be for the Senate to pass it, and they are to the surprise of nobody uninterested in passing laws that curtail their own power.
Trump is entitled to an up-or-down vote on Gaetz and all the other villains and knaves he proposes. The senate should not coward their ways out of voting Gaetz down.
I agree. That show was bad enough with Gary Busey and Meatloaf. At least they were only ever in charge of selling sandwiches or marketing Trump Omaha Steaks.
Here’s Timothy Snyder on what’s at stake with these appointments. Well-written, as with most of what he writes.
Can the Senate choose to hold a secret ballot on these confirmations like they did for majority leader? AIUI the Senate sets its own rules and I suspect that free of the risk of Trump/MAGA retribution, there may be significant opposition to some of the nominees.
The problem with that is they could also secretly go ahead with the confirmations and never be held personally responsible.
Yes, that is very clear, convincing, and well written. Not sure what any of us is supposed to DO about it, tho - but thanks for the link.
The vote for majority leader was not a vote of the Senate, but rather the Senate Republican Caucus. The caucus isn’t bound by the rules of the Senate because it isn’t a body of the Senate. It’s just the Senate Republicans getting together to decide who will lead them, what their policies and strategies will be, etc.
But more to the point, Senate rules require votes to be public so you would need to change the rules (which requires a 2/3 vote). The Constitution also requires that if a fifth of the chamber requests it, then the yeas and nays on any vote must be published in the Journal.
That is a really good article, and it certainly illustrates the worst case. After reading it, it almost seems to me as though every Republican has agreed to participate in, and enable, a national suicide.
IIRC, there was a lot of teeth-gnashing here when it was considered an abuse of the Republican Senate’s power by denying Obama his recess appointments.
This is going to be a cabinet that wouldn’t dare suggest the 25th- Elmer Rhodes’ paramilitary cohort will convince them that it’s a bad idea. And, along with threats of primarying elected members of Congress who might vote their conscience or otherwise get out of line, Elmer knows where they live.
Thank you for sharing. I just don’t know what to do with it. The people that need to understand it won’t believe it even as they watch it play out. They won’t accept that Trump could want such a thing.
Some of these people will readily believe that George Soros is funding a deliberate secret takeover to turn this country communist, and that Kamala Harris is more leftist than Bernie Sanders or the candidate of the American socialists, Jill Stein. They still believe Obama wasn’t born in Hawaii.
Others are too entrenched in the systemic lies by the right that Republicans are better for the economy than Democrats, that Trump is just a normal Republican with a conservative agenda, and liberals who are concerned about democracy are just engaging in hyperbole like the right. “Communists, fascists, both sides are just throwing around scary labels.”
Yet if I point them at this article, they will discuss it as paranoid ranting by people who just personally hate Trump and are out to get him any way they can. Just like pointing out the very real connections between JD Vance, Peter Theil, and Curtis Yarvin (aka Mecius Moldbug, i.e. the guy who advocates that democracy is broken and wants a techno-monarchy) would be met with disbelief.
I’m truly in shock about what to do. That article is very right and the impetus to feel helpless and fall into inaction, or just watch the people who voted for Trump get what they deserve.
I just read a story that Mike Pence is pushing for RFK Jr not to be confirmed because RFK Jr is pro-choice. That’s not the reason I’d want him to be rejected but if it keeps him from taking the post, it’s a good thing.
Right answer for the wrong reasons?
Dr Phil for minister of propaganda?
If Tulsi Gabbard is confirmed, the current US intelligence community, if they have any continued allegiance to the west, will have to prepare their existing stockpiles of intelligence data for destruction, or disposition to five eyes intelligence organizations.
Otherwise a lot of assets could be compromised and/or killed, and allies could be seriously threatened.
We might see the highest-ranking mole of all time. Although I’m not sure if there’s an intelligence term for an unwitting mole.