tiny american civics lesson for those here and abroad who woke up going “uh, so the travel ban is lifted because one judge in seattle said so? I mean, cool, but really?”
that’s how the whole fucking system is supposed to work.
we’ve got 3 parts to how laws are made and enforced in America: Executive (the president), Judicial (the court system), and Legislative (Congress).
I know we’ve not done a good job in the past few weeks showing this, but it is a system of checks and balances. we were very much explicitly not supposed to ever have a king or a king-like executive. that’s why it took them so fucking long to write the founding documents, because there weren’t many good examples of that method, at the time.
anyway, the president can do stuff with executive orders (though tr**p has very much overreached, surprising nobody), and then the other two parts of the wobbly-ass tri-corner hat holding up the rule of American law get to exact checks and balances against it.
right now? It’s the judiciary branch going “hey there slow your roll you unmitigated disaster of an executive branch.”
sometimes, if Congress can get 2/3 of them to agree, they can do much the same thing, but I currently heavily identify with:
Anyway if the three don’t agree (for example, this morning), we end up with a situation called a “constitutional crisis,” which, despite sounding like a lost Hamilton song, is actually a large problem that’s gonna be a shitshow to sort out (andhopefullyendsupwithSOMEONEgettingimpeached).
but we can have this shitshow, because we don’t have a king. we never have, we never were supposed to, and yeah it’s been an awful two weeks of us remembering that we don’t, but hey! the american rule of law! it was vaguely well put together!
(another side of this philosophy is that, you know, we get to hit the voting booths EVERY YEAR, GO VOTE EVERY TIME, MY GOD, and also, impeachment doesn’t involve beheading someone)
Land totaling the size of Connecticut has been targeted in a new bill
in the Republican House, uniting hunters and conservationists in
opposition
Chaffetz, a Tea Party Republican,
claimed that the 3.3m acres of national land served “no purpose for taxpayers”.
The 10 states affected are Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana,
Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah and Wyoming.
House Bill 621
Now that Republicans have quietly drawn a path to give away much of Americans’ public land, US representative Jason Chaffetz of Utah has introduced what the Wilderness Society is calling “step two” in the GOP’s plan to offload federal property.
The new piece of legislation would direct the interior secretary to
immediately sell off an area of public land the size of Connecticut. In a
press release for House Bill 621, Chaffetz, a Tea Party Republican,
claimed that the 3.3m acres of national land, maintained by the Bureau
of Land Management (BLM), served “no purpose for taxpayers”.
But many in the 10 states that would lose federal land in the bill
disagree, and public land rallies in opposition are bringing together
environmentalists and sportsmen across the west.
Hey guys, FYI, 621 and 622 are new enough that your congressman may not have a stance on them yet - and that being the case, it’s a lot easier to weigh in because they won’t be retracting anything (as everyone knows, most Republicans are the kind of dumb that doubles down).
I just called mine and the fellow I spoke to hadn’t even heard of it yet (and thus continued to treat me like a person rather than an annoyance), so this is a good time to call and say DON’T YOU FUCKING DARE to them.
Article dated Tuesday 31 January 2017
For the purposes of tracking these, current as of Feb 1 2017:
H.B. 621 - Disposal of Excess Federal Lands Act of 2017, currently referred to the Committee on Natural Resources.
H.B. 622 - Local Enforcement for Local Lands Act, currently referred to the Committee on Natural Resources and the Committee on Agriculture.
And here are the committee memberships, in case one of your representatives is on there:
Wtf “no purpose to taxpayers” What about preserving natural environments? Protecting wildlife? Teaching the next generation? About appreciating and respecting nature? Do you really not see how selling off fucking national parks not only screws us over in the future, but is an insult to American history? Theodore Roosevelt would be rolling in his grave.
If you don’t play bassoon reblog this because it applies to you too
THE AMOUNT OF PEOPLE REBLOGGING SAYING THEY DON’T EVEN KNOW WHAT A BASSOON IS MAKES ME HAPPY. NON MUSICIANS SPREAD THIS SHIT. DON’T KNOW WHAT A BASSOON IS? GOOD!
In a column for the Guardian on Monday, American writer Francine Prose called for a “nonviolent national general strike” to demonstrate “how many of us there are, how strong and committed we are, how much we can accomplish.”
She wrote: “Let’s designate a day on which no one (that is, anyone who can do so without being fired) goes to work, a day when no one shops or spends money, a day on which we truly make our economic and political power felt.”
Calls to do just that have been circulating online recently, with activists setting Feb. 17 — the Friday before President’s Day — as the day for a #nationalstrike against the presidency of Donald Trump. Read more
Even if you can’t not work, we can all not spend money for a day. I think this is a brilliant idea!
Thank you for the alternative for people who can’t afford to miss work! I feel like that gets ignored in a lot of strike talk.
“Our men and women in uniform, our intelligence and homeland security professionals, and our citizens should feel secure in their knowledge that the critical decisions made by the NSC are free from political considerations. The American people deserve a national security policymaking process that inspires confidence, not cynicism,” said Murphy in a House floor speech.
CALL THIS WOMAN’S OFFICE AND SAY THANK YOU. ENCOURAGE HER TO PUSH HARD FOR THIS BILL. CALL YOUR LOCAL CONGRESSPEOPLE AND ASK THEM TO SPONSOR/SUPPORT IT!
are these your senators? don’t throw up your hands — hold their feet to the fire.
call them every day. they notice. tell them if they don’t stand up to trump you will make it your personal mission to primary them in the next election. bird-dog the shit out of them. show up at their public appearances (especially town halls), their offices, their homes. show them there will be no business as usual until they grow spines. there is at least one group in new york dedicated to this (which iirc is planning to hold trainings in other cities) and there surely are elsewhere, or you can organize your own.
these tactics work. we can and must hold them accountable.
THIS JUST IN: THE DEMS WHO VOTED FOR REX “COCKWAFFLE” TILLERSON AS SECRETARY OF STATE:
If you live in Virginia, North Dakota, West Virginia or Maine, I don’t want to see you fucking reblogging this without adding something about how you called their office today and put a fucking flea in their ear. Politicians are exactly as accountable as you force them to be; stop acting like they’re somehow doing something shocking when they do something you don’t like if you didn’t tell them in the first place. Goddamn, kids.
Democratic Sen. Cory Booker is introducing a bill that would prevent Donald Trump from creating a Muslim registry.
The bill, according to the Washington Post, is sponsored by several key Democrat senators including Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and Jeff Merkley, to name a few.
The legislation would prohibit federal government agencies from establishing any kind of “immigration-related” registry based on religion, race, age, gender, ethnicity, national origin, nationality or citizenship.
The bill would block a program similar to the National Security Entry-Exit Registration System, a database built by Trump transition team member Kris Kobach in 2001 under the Bush administration. Read more
Kids. I want you to listen to me very carefully, okay? The next Executive Order will likely be a sweeping anti-LGBT one. Steve Bannon is orchestrating these shocking, abhorrent EO’s through the President to destabilize and divide us. He is trying to make us tired, he is trying to weaken us so that we are more susceptible (and welcoming) to an authoritarian regime.
Get ready, okay? The next EO will be anti-LGBT. They will crouch it in terms of “religious freedoms” but make no mistake about what it will be. Do not let him divide us or scare us. Be aware of what is happening. Prepare yourselves for this to happen. Stoke your anger now. Put your rage to work. Brace yourself.
Well, I knew it was a matter of time. But my god. Here we are. Already.
Though the White House denied that an executive order affecting LGBTQ rights is in the works, many in the community are already bracing for the planned reintroduction of the First Amendment Defense Act (FADA) — legislation that Trump promised to sign during his campaign. That bill would prevent the government from being able to punish individuals, businesses and institutions who refuse service to LGBTQ people based on religious or moral convictions. The offices of Sen. Mike Lee and Rep. Raul Labrador both confirmed to NBC News last week that they plan to introduce FADA.
As long as Jeff Sessions in not confirmed, she is the acting AG. Call your senators. Protest sessions.
Use this website to find your senators.Find your state from the first drop-down list, and your senators in Congress will come up. Each state has two, so call them both!
