We are former U.S. Government Officials who resigned from our respective positions over the last nine months due to our grave concerns with current U.S. policy towards the crisis in Gaza, and U.S. policies and practices towards Palestine and Israel more broadly. We are subject matter experts representing the interagency, and are a multifaith and multiethnic community of professionals and patriots dedicated to the service of the United States of America, its people, and its values. Whether in the civil service, foreign service, armed forces, or as political appointees, each of us has sworn an oath to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States, and as our nation celebrates its Independence Day, each of us are reminded that we resigned from government not to terminate that oath but to continue to abide by it; not to end our commitment to service, but to extend it.
Tag: Constitution
The President Can Now Assassinate You, Officially
Under this new standard, a president can go on a four-to-eight year crime spree and then retire from public life, never to be held accountable.
Related:
Immunity for Me but Not for Thee
President Obama ordered a drone strike in Yemen to kill Anwar al-Awlaki, an American citizen and Islamic Imam critical of American foreign policy in the Middle East. Before releasing the drones that killed al-Awlaki and two others, the White House sought and received a Memorandum from the Department of Justice providing legal justification for the attack.
Several questions come to mind. Should the memo from DoJ authorizing the killing of an American citizen abroad without judicial due process immunize President Obama for violating the federal criminal statute that imposes criminal penalties for the extra territorial killing of an American citizen?
Could a subsequent President, a member of the opposing political party, direct a new Attorney General to investigate whether the killing of the U.S. citizen by drone attack in Yemen violated federal criminal law? If an indictment is returned against the now former President for that killing, should President Obama be allowed to claim immunity or be forced to stand trial?
Sean Gervasi, 1992 lecture: The US Strategy to Dismantle the USSR
Sean Gervasi, 1992 lecture: The US Strategy to Dismantle the USSR
Related RAND Corporation documents:
Economic factors affecting Soviet foreign and defense policy: a summary outline
The Costs of the Soviet Empire
Sitting on bayonets : the Soviet defense burden and the slowdown of Soviet defense spending
House Votes To Extend Warrantless Spying Powers
Tulsi Gabbard is running for Opportunist-in-Chief
Tulsi Gabbard is running for Opportunist-in-Chief
But what’s disappointing about her recent Maga makeover is that she’s abandoned a lot of the positive portions of the Sanders agenda she once espoused, policies designed to help working people: higher wages, better health care, and stronger unions (she got a 100 per cent voting score as a congressperson from the AFL-CIO). Instead, she now dismisses all aspects of Bidenomics as “fascism” and plays up the culture wars.
Related:
Former Hawaii congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard will be keynote speaker at Mar-a-Lago fundraiser
Read More »Trump revealed Tuesday that he’s considering Gabbard as a running mate.
The fundraiser is not technically for Trump; it’s for the 917 Society, a nonprofit that promotes education about the Constitution.
After Inexplicably Allowing Unconstitutional Book Ban To Stay Alive For Six Months, The Fifth Circuit Finally Shuts It Down
Texas is in a close race with Florida for the title of “Most Unconstitutional Laws Enacted.” Florida’s legislators will probably end up taking this title because they seem crazier/more productive than their counterparts in Texas.
After Inexplicably Allowing Unconstitutional Book Ban To Stay Alive For Six Months, The Fifth Circuit Finally Shuts It Down
Unions in Wisconsin sue to reverse collective bargaining restrictions on teachers, others
Seven unions representing teachers and other public workers in Wisconsin filed a lawsuit Thursday attempting to end the state’s near-total ban on collective bargaining for most public employees.
Unions in Wisconsin sue to reverse collective bargaining restrictions on teachers, others
Related:
Wisconsin’s Act 10 Is in Jeopardy (WSJ)
The law, signed by former Gov. Scott Walker, has saved the Badger State from turning into Illinois or New York, where public unions essentially run the state government for their own benefit. According to the MacIver Institute, Act 10 has saved Wisconsin taxpayers $16.8 billion since it was passed in 2011, making public finances more manageable at every level of government.
Progressive mayors who publicly rail against the law know that repealing it would wreak havoc on municipal budgets. According to Wisconsin Right Now, Milwaukee’s budget says it has saved about $345.4 million in health insurance since 2012 because of Act 10’s requirement that public employees contribute to their health plans.
The lawsuit by teachers and other public unions focuses on a narrow part of the law that exempts public-safety employees. The unions say this creates a “favored” class of workers and imposes “severe burdens on employees in the disfavored group.” Act 10’s “anti-democratic regime,” the unions continue, subjects “general” employees “to a panoply of burdens and deprives them of important rights,” while exempting police officers and firefighters from “all its injurious provisions.”
Attacks on Public-Sector Unions Harm States: How Act 10 Has Affected Education in Wisconsin
A Decade After Act 10, It’s A Different World For Wisconsin Unions
WSJ quotes MacIver Institute, from the Atlas Network via State Policy Network, Bradley Foundation, and Americans for Prosperity (Kochtopus). Former WI Governor Scott Walker, another Atlas/Koch tool, does not rule out intervening.
Neocons are panicking over another possible Trump presidency
The Atlantic: Two Men Running to Stay Out of Prison
Liz Cheney warns US ‘sleepwalking into dictatorship
Robert Kagan: A Trump dictatorship is increasingly inevitable. We should stop pretending.
…We can expect more of this when the war against the “deep state” begins in earnest. According to Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), there is a whole cabal determined to undermine American security, a “Uniparty” of elites made up of “neoconservatives on the right” and “liberal globalists on the left” who are not true Americans and therefore do not have the true interests of America at heart. Can such “anti-American” behavior be criminalized? It has in the past and can be again.
So, the Trump administration will have many avenues to persecute its enemies, real and perceived. Think of all the laws now on the books that give the federal government enormous power to surveil people for possible links to terrorism, a dangerously flexible term, not to mention all the usual opportunities to investigate people for alleged tax evasion or violation of foreign agent registration laws. The IRS under both parties has occasionally looked at depriving think tanks of their tax-exempt status because they espouse policies that align with the views of the political parties. What will happen to the think-tanker in a second Trump term who argues that the United States should ease pressure on China? Or the government official rash enough to commit such thoughts to official paper? It didn’t take more than that to ruin careers in the 1950s.
Their panic just shows how out of touch they are with the working class! As for Kagan, there’s so much more that I could say, but for now I’ll just roll my eyes! 🙄
Democrats Ignore The First Amendment With Censorship Demand Letter To X
A group of over 25 Democratic members of Congress have raised allegations against X, once again ignoring the First Amendment and calling for online censorship.
Democrats Ignore The First Amendment With Censorship Demand Letter To X
It’s not about antisemitism or terrorism. Israel is losing the information war. It’s why they want to ban TikTok, as well.
Previously:
Israel lobby wants to brand antiwar students as “terrorists”
Fueled by demands from Israel lobby groups, US students who are organizing against Israel’s genocidal attacks are facing accelerated repression by their own university administrations.
Israel lobby wants to brand antiwar students as “terrorists”
Related:
Ms. Cat’s Chronicles 
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