James Gillen

Bill Maher announced weeks ago that he’d agreed to have dinner with the current occupant of the White House, Donald Trump. This has made a lot of people very angry and was widely considered a bad move. On his Friday show for April 11, he took the first part of the show to give a ‘book report’ detailing exactly what went down.

I should link it, but that would mean giving his show more exposure, so no.

He started by saying that this all started because he got an invitation to the White House “from my good friend Kid Rock” – and I imagine a lot of liberals would say ‘there’s the problem right there.’ Not necessarily. Remember when Kid Rock played with Sheryl Crow? He used to be cool, or at least not AS much of a douche as he is now. I actually liked Kid Rock before he started rhyming “things” with “things.”

But Kid’s cultural relevance has declined in proportion to his political alignment, and maybe Bill should have taken that as a clue. Maher said that Trump had a sense of humor and could laugh at himself. Which was a tell that Maher isn’t as clued-in and informed as he believes. Even I have seen speeches where Trump could make jokes at his own expense. Bill said “I never felt like I had to walk on eggshells around him, and honestly, I voted for for Clinton and Obama, but I would never feel comfortable talking to them the way I was able to talk to Donald Trump.”

Maher’s own conclusion, that Trump is a different person in private than the image he projects, ought to have told him something. One of those presentations is an act. Probably both.

The real tell I see in the long term was in what happened afterward with the guests and the Overtime debate panel after the scheduled show. On the Overtime bit played on CNN and YouTube after the HBO show, Maher had Washington Post columnist Josh Rogin on with none other than Steve Bannon and courtier journalist Piers Morgan. Bill’s previous idea of hearing out both sides was to have a debate panel with one token conservative on with two establishment/media liberals, and Bill would gang up with the liberals on the conservative. This week it was the other way around.

Rogin said “I think you’ve fallen into the trap, and I think I represent 99% of the internet when I say this: you’ve played the game of proximity is principle.” Rogin said that Maher got buttered up to get Trump’s approval. Himself recognizing this tendency, Rogin started to play to the crowd, saying “We all love Bill, right?” And Bill just said, “Don’t patronize me … I don’t even know you, I never met you.”

I mean, Bill did enough of a heel turn last Friday that I thought he was going to hit Josh Rogin with a steel chair.

Trump might not be book smart, but he is an idiot savant when it comes to conniving and grifting. Emphasis on the idiot. If Trump is reasonable and self-aware in person, why does he act like a half-orangutan for the press? How did Trump enthrall the entire Evangelical movement, when he is that much less an Evangelical than Bill Maher? Because he played to them, he flattered their expectations, and he told them what they wanted to hear. So now they serve him. And now, so does Bill Maher.

Like any other con man or stage magician, Trump has no miraculous power in and of himself. He needs his marks to buy in to what he’s selling. They give him power by giving him validity.

Bill Maher of course said years ago, “Look, conservatives: I know you don’t like it when I call you stupid, but you’ve really gotta meet me half way and quit being stupid.” They didn’t, so Bill decided to meet them halfway, and started being stupid. Or at least, willfully oblivious to the things he has already observed, and which have not changed. I like the take from Vlad Vexler: “Maher said insubstantial things and made substantial conclusions from them.”

Is the important take that, yeah, Trump acts like a goon for the camera but can be a real human when he wants to? What’s on camera is what’s making policy. Why is the allegedly pro-wealth, anti-socialist president forcing economic controls that will destroy the global market? Why can’t the president pressure the dictator of a tiny country to release one legal resident who was sent to him by our leave, if he can pressure Ukraine to surrender its provinces and thousands of citizens to Russia?

Perhaps these questions should be a stronger focus than whether Mr. Trump extends his pinky when drinking a Diet Coke?

In the abstract, yeah, I can see Bill and Kid Rock’s point that you need to have dialogue with the other side. That you need to “break bread” with them. But not here and not now. You want us to break bread with the guys who tried to stop Joe Biden’s inauguration by force? You want us to break bread with the guys who started the Civil War? Sure. AFTER Sherman has his march to the sea. AFTER Sherman marches through Atlanta and turns it into a pile of smoking rubble. AFTER the traitors have learned their lesson. NOT BEFORE. Because we are at war, and it started when they declared war on the rest of us.

This idea of the Bill Mahers and Chuck Schumers of the world, that we can just get back to dialogue and negotiation, is exploited by the alternative-to-being-Right, becase reasonable dialogue was not working for their side, and it will not come back in this era because they destroyed it, and now are just exploiting the liberal need for good faith negotiation, when they will never act in good faith. People like Steve Bannon are self-described Leninists: not in the sense that they want to destroy global capitalism (though they are doing a fine job of that) but in the sense that they only act within liberal-bourgeois systems until they have gained enough control over them to neutralize opposition, and at that point, there is no dialogue, just dictating.

Bill, don’t give us this “I’m not important, I’m just a comedian” spiel. So was Zelenskyy, when he started out. You are good enough at what you do that people pay attention to what you say, and that’s why Trump wanted to coup you. And he did.

Now you will be just like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, elitist liberals who used to be on the completely opposite side and bought into Trump for the sake of their ulterior motives, and in exchange he destroyed their brands by association. Your reputation as a truth-teller is gone. And just like how Trump switched and told his cult to buy electric vehicles to support his new friend, all the “conservatives” who despised you for repeatedly making fun of them are going to yuk it up and cheer you on like you’d agreed with them all along. Because they are gullible and stupid. But as we can see, you don’t need to be stupid to be gullible.

Fuck you Maher, I am never watching your show again.

“Sometimes a man wants to be stupid, if it lets him do a thing that his cleverness forbids.”

• John Steinbeck, East of Eden

One of the reasons that the world is stuck in the current Age of Trump is that everything that could be said against him is already baked in. One might say it’s part of the appeal. When he does something, no matter how disastrous it appears even to Republicans, Trump just blows off his critics, says belligerently stupid things and makes goonish faces at the camera, ALMOST AS IF he were a total retard who can barely spell his own name.

Which begs the question of whether the performance skills that serve to be a clownboy for public amusement are sufficient to lead the largest government in the world. I mean, even Jerry Lewis knew how to direct movies.

The main example right now is “Liberation Day,” or the broad based global tariff program announced April 2 (because April 1 would have been too obvious). It was so popular and business friendly that Trump held his press conference to announce it after the markets closed. In the following days the markets loved the policy so much that it wiped out over 11 trillion dollars compared to the week before Trump was re-inaugurated.

On Wednesday morning, Trump declared he was putting most of the across-the-board tariffs on a 90-day “pause”, which caused the markets to rise 3000 points.

All bow down and serve our new Lord and Savior, who causes the grass to grow and the birds to sing. Who is the only reason the sun rises in the east every morning, by his allowance. Verily, let us all love and worship our new Lord and God, Donald John Trump. Cause he makes that Jehovah guy look like a fuckin’ pussy.

But then, His Majesty said the targeted tariffs on China would actually increase over 100 percent to 125 (it’s probably higher now) prompting the Communist government in Beijing to respond with equal tariffs on us. And that caused everything to crash on Thursday again. The Dow Jones industrial average is still a net -4 percent from April 1. Things picked up on Friday, but who knows how long that’s going to last? You just have to keep watching The Trump Show!

The general consensus was that Trump caved because the same financial class he was trying to impress told him the policy wasn’t working. It is also more evidence that he has less emotional stability than a teenage BTS fan. At the same time he wants to preserve the option of tariffs because that is his main economic agenda.
Several observers, like Senator Chris Murphy (D.-Connecticut) and right-winger Richard Hanania have a different take. Both of them came to the conclusion that Trump’s apparent fickleness on tariffs is actually a form of leverage on the population at large, where “every industry or company will have to pledge loyalty to Trump in order to get sanctions relief.” Hanania: “Trump has always believed in tariffs, but something that he appears to have discovered is that they are an excellent way to aggrandize his own power and sense of importance. Countries and businesses want exceptions, and you get them by deferring to and praising Trump. Politicians who are subject to pressures from private sector interests also must go hat in hand to the president. …This is not to say Trump has ever thought all of this out. Rather, the man has an instinctual understanding of how to manipulate and control others.”

This theory makes a lot of sense, not least in that it tracks with Trump’s desire to see himself as a Mafia boss, and his already demonstrated moves to turn his ‘administration’ into a patronage outfit. There’s just one problem with the theory: This is Trump we’re dealing with.

The US borrows money by selling Treasury bonds. Those bonds are in the hands of rich guys and in the hands of other countries. Like China. The value of these bonds is based on concepts like “the full faith and credit of the US government”, which is no longer guaranteed. Normally in a stock market crash the bond market would stay secure, the problem was that everyone knew that the crash was artificially created and arbitrary, meaning, other assets like bonds are not secure because government (Trump) policy is not secure. After “Liberation Day” there was a spike in creditors dumping US bonds. Jake Broe: “And when bond yields go up, all other asset classes go down, your real estate, your crypto, your gold, because this is the risk-free rate that every investor has to weigh against. ..This is something any individual or nation can do. Why risk your money in stocks or equities, when you can put it in bonds?”

In other words, by directly undermining securities (not just threatening them), Our Lord and Savior was undermining the leverage he needed to control the elites.

Truly, Our Lord is all-good, all-powerful, and all-wise.

But while tariffs may not work as long-term scheme to control the country, the on-again/off-again was a great scheme for insider trading, as Trump twitted “THIS IS A GREAT TIME TO BUY!” as stocks were down, just before announcing the tariff pause. NASDAQ call volume went up 10k volume minutes before the pause was announced.

Which is another reason that when (or if) this colon cancer of a political party is removed from power we need to child-proof the whole process of government.

But in the short term, one might reasonably argue that we depend too much on foreign trade or that our manufacturing sector is too dependent on China in particular. I honestly think that is a national security issue. But clearly the ‘administration’ that put Pete ‘Whiskyleaks’ Hegseth in charge of the Pentagon doesn’t care about national security. If rebuilding the manufacturing sector is a priority then you make it a government priority by incentivizing American businesses to build here (since it was they, not China, that decided to outsource American industry). And you do that BEFORE starting a trade war that does more to undermine American businesses than the Chinese government. Just as Trump clearly seeks to establish not mere self-sufficiency but economic autarky – or as North Korea would call it, Juche – not in the interest of workers, but because he seeks to invade his neighbors (like Canada and Greenland) and minimize the consequences of blockade. Like Germany did.

But when Nazi Germany re-armed, they actually did rebuild both domestic and military industries with economic policies that were dodgy but actually did work in the short term. One thing the Nazis didn’t do was immediately alienate all of their trading partners in the first three months of the regime so that they would start blockading or working around them before the Nazis started their expansion in earnest. They also didn’t alienate the vast majority of the population before starting a war, including the people who voted for them. Clearly the 2024 election demonstrated that a critical mass of Americans don’t think that fascism – excuse me, ‘post-liberalism’ – is a danger and may even see it as attractive. But Trump and his cult are both so high on their own supply that they think they can piss off every American who isn’t them before they attain absolute power, when their margin of popular victory was 1.62 percent in an election where a lot of Trump voters didn’t choose a candidate for Senate, which is why a lot of the swing states that went for Trump still elected Democratic Senators. As a result, Republicans are getting massive protests even in Idaho.

That’s the problem with the Trump Party: They can’t even do fascism right.

Hi, I’m Donald Trump.

Hi, Donald.

And I’m bein’ told… that I’m a dummy.

We’re not here to judge.

But I’m like, the President of the United States, and I’m in control of the largest economy on Earth, and I got some people tellin’ me that it’s not workin’ out.

That’s why we’re here. What would you like to know about economics?

Lots.

Well, can you be more specific?

Well, the tariff thing. Last week, I announced this great, big beautiful tariff plan, cause I wanted Wall Street to like me.

That’s why you did it?

Yeah, cause before I came along they had this thing called progressive income tax where you have to pay more money if you’re rich.

Yes, because the rich have more money.

Well, I’m rich, and I don’t like that. Nobody likes that. But before we had progressive income tax, we had the tariff system. Tariff. It’s my favorite word. And groceries. It’s all about the groceries. Did you know I invented that word? Groceries.

I did not know that.

But the reason this country was so great before the Radical Left took over is cause our government ran on tariffs for consumers and not income taxes on the rich. That’s how it worked with William McKinley.

Wasn’t he the president that got assassinated?
What?
Never mind.

But I announced these tariffs to help the upper class, and they don’t like it! Like, the stock market has been going down by thousands of points every day since! Even Elon Musk is saying free trade is better than tariffs!

Maybe he knows something you don’t.

The whole point is these other countries have been ripping us off cause we give them more money than they give us.

That’s … not how free trade works.

Well, what’s wrong with tariffs, then?

Well, let’s look at one hypothetical case: If the US is the largest economy in the world, and we trade with say, Bangladesh, Bangladesh is a really small, undeveloped country. So by definition there’s gonna be a trade imbalance cause they’re not on the same scale of economy as us.

Okay.

Smaller countries trade with us cause they have some things we don’t have, and we have money and things they don’t have.

Okay.

That’s how ‘trade’ works.

That sounds like a rip-off.

So that’s why you came up with this tariff plan. How does it work?

Well, in my big, beautiful White House presser, I showed everybody the chart and it shows all the tariffs we got against EVERY country in the world.

Except … Russia. And North Korea.

Really? Well, they’re not the ones screwing us. They’re my FRIENDS.

Okay, where are these numbers coming from?

Well, it’s so beautiful. What we did is, the figure is trade deficit with a country divided by their exports to us.

That’s NOT how trade works.

Well, who cares.

I’m looking at this list and one of the territories is ‘British Indian Ocean Territory.’

Yeah.

That’s Diego Garcia.

Yeah.

That’s a US military base.

Yeah, well, it said ‘Diego Garcia’, I figured it was Mexican.

Why are you having all these high-level tariffs against territories that don’t even have people?

Well, what happened was, we just ran everything through an AI program to make extra sure. Cause like Howie was saying Sunday, if you leave anything off the list, them other countries are gonna art- artifice – get around the tariff program.

Jesus Christ, you fucking hammerhead, now I see why that assassination attempt failed. The bullet bounced off your skull.

Yeah, well the preachers around me says that I was saved because God wanted me to be President.

Really? Have you read the Bible?

Uh, yeah. Sure I did.

In Exodus, God hardens Pharaoh’s heart and has him resist Moses when he says to let the Hebrews go. So the Hebrews are kept in bondage in Egypt and to punish Pharaoh, God sends a bunch of plagues and they culminate in the death of the Pharaoh’s firstborn son.

Wait, Pharoah does what God wants and then God punishes him for it?

I’m just saying, this God guy doesn’t necessarily have your best interests at heart.

Yeah, well who cares.

Then why are you asking for advice?

Cause- cause look, you seen all them protesters on April 5? How did they get all those protesters? They had thousands of people in Utah! They LOVE me there! How did they get all those protestors? Don’t people have jobs?

Well, maybe a whole bunch of people became unemployed in the last two months for some reason.

They got everybody real antsy! We had Rand Paul sponsor a bill to take my tariff powers away! Rand! He’s like Ron, only with better hair! They can’t take my tariff powers away! That’s not in the Constitution!

Actually it is, sir. Article I.

Well, who cares. If anybody ever read the Constitution, I wouldn’t be here.

True enough.

But it’s worst than that! If I lose enough Senators and enough Congressmen, they’re actually talkin’ about IMPEACHING me! Like, it might WORK next time!

That would be a shame.

I mean, the whole point of bein’ President again was cause I was gettin’ convicted of crimes – crimes which I had EVERY RIGHT to commit, by the way – and if I was a regular citizen again I’d have to pay fines! Might even go to PRISON!

Gee.

I don’WANNA go to prison! …I’m too PRETTY for prison…

There, there.

I never really wann’ed to be president really! I just wanted all the power of an unaccountable god and none of the responsibility!

Really.

Why do you think I got Elon running everything?

That would explain much. But really sir – did you ever think that even if you’re the most powerful man in the world, you can’t always get away with screwing everybody all the time?

….no….

Then you really are a dummy.

Mid-March, you may have seen how Viceroy Donald Trump made a big show of killing the Department of Education, accompanied by the Education Secretary, Mrs. Smackdown herself, Linda McMahon.

The fun thing about this was that somebody had the idea to stage the event at a public schoolroom, with a whole bunch of small children around him, so they gave him a tiny “Resolute Desk” on the same vertical level as the kiddie desks, meaning that Trump appeared to be at the same grade and emotional level as the schoolchildren, which is about right.

Of course the executive branch can’t actually kill an agency created by Congress, but it can do the next best thing and completely gut its funding and personnel, like it’s doing with everything else in Washington.

While that was a substantial policy change, it is probably more telling that one of His Majesty’s other royal proclamations this month was that he rescinded all pardons that Joe Biden made prior to leaving office, ostensibly because he used an “Autopen” as if Trump has never auto-signed anything. If you’re wondering why no one else thought of this, it’s because no one else thinks you CAN cancel a pardon once it’s given, because of double jeopardy and other aspects of common law that apparently no longer apply in America now that Khmer Orange has reset the calendar to Year Zero.

It should have occurred to people that if you’re going to arbitrarily override a pardon and blank out the point that a future president can do the same thing to you and the people you pardoned, then the only reason you can be safe in doing that is if there are not going to BE any future presidents. As it is, Congress is beholden to Trump and they are the only path to legally removing him via impeachment. Some courts, including conservative judges, have ruled against him, but they have no power to enforce their directives against the executive branch. Basically we are going to be stuck with the Clownboy Caesar until he dies, which may never happen, since he can always sign another executive order to make himself immortal. After all, the laws of this country have no power over him, why not flip off the laws of physics?
And even if God lapses in His sadism for a moment and allows His favorite Son to come home and sit at His right hand, that just means JD Vance takes over, and he’s a sincere religious fanatic, as opposed to Trump, whom we all know is just a religious fanatic for the money.

But then if Trump could make himself immortal, he wouldn’t be trying so hard to disguise his real age. He’s the only White guy I know who gets darker as he gets older. And among the many, many articles on “Signalgate” one point gets kind of buried: The Cabinet members discussing the Yemen strike are acting on the passive assumption that Trump approves their actions but he doesn’t seem to be included on the details. Heather Cox Richardson, March 25:

“The messages reveal that President Trump was not part of the discussion of whether to make the airstrikes, a deeply troubling revelation that raises the question of who is in charge at the White House. As the conversation about whether to attack took place, Vice President J.D. Vance wrote about Trump’s reasoning that attacking the Houthis in Yemen would “send a message”: “I am not sure the president is aware how inconsistent this is with his message on Europe right now.” To go back to the Keith Olbermann thing, it’s quite possible the Cabinet did this conference outside classified channels not (just) to avoid having it be subject to access by official government investigation but to avoid Trump being involved. After all, it’s not like this particular Senate is going to hold them to account.

Meanwhile, several outlets have reported the story of Jennifer Mooney, a Canadian actress who came over the border to apply for a work visa and was detained for almost two weeks with limited contact with attorneys. There was another story of a German citizen who was detained at the airport, “stripped naked, and forced into a cold shower”. He is now “reportedly” locked up in an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in Wyatt, Rhode Island.

These are white people, ladies and gentlemen.

In his Substack, Robert Tracinski quotes a Wall Street Journal article:

“The Wall Street Journal reports:

A lawyer at advertising conglomerate Interpublic Group fielded a phone call in December from a lawyer at X. The message was clear, according to multiple people with knowledge of the conversation: Get your clients to spend more on Elon Musk’s social-media platform, or else.

Interpublic leaders interpreted the communications from X as reminders that the recently announced $13 billion deal to merge Interpublic with rival Omnicom Group could be torpedoed, or at least slowed down, by the Trump administration, given Musk’s powerful role in the federal government. …

“We now see brands returning in quite significant numbers, because the easiest route is to just spend a minimum viable amount on the platform,” said Ebiquity’s Schruers, “Not because they want to advertise there and run their ads adjacent to the content on X, but because they are afraid of the legal and political ramifications of not doing so.”

This is a circular trade—money for power for more money for more power—typical of the corrupt logic of authoritarian regimes. Musk uses his political connections to shake down advertisers for money, which he then uses to prop up the media platform that is the source of his political power.”

How’s that for a free-market economy?

Of course Musk is doing this because his real cash cow, Tesla, is imploding in the public eye, not just because of his noxious political allegiances but because of minor technical stuff like having to recall all of his Cybertrucks because their doors are falling off. Last week Musk had to have a employees’ meeting, telling everyone to “hang on to your stock.” This matters insofar as Tesla is one of the few auto manufacturers with no unionization at all, and keeps wages down by compensating workers with stock options – which are now nosediving. “National car shopping site Edmunds said this week that Tesla owners are trading in their electric vehicles at record levels.”

A real capitalist would accept the results of his actions in the marketplace, including the marketplace of ideas. But as with other examples of the elite, Musk would rather not be a real capitalist. Unlike most of these people, he has an entire government to shield him from the consequences of his actions.

If you technically have a smaller government but it is more under the control of one unaccountable individual (who may be indebted to an even less accountable individual) and that person seeks more unitary control over the country, that is not a gain for liberty.

But failing to grasp the distinction accounts for a big part of the woke Right’s internal contradiction and American authoritarianism’s main difference from old-style fascism. The new Right wants to be both fascist AND libertarian, and contrary to the current ownership of the Libertarian Party, that’s just not gonna work. Why? Because people expect government to give them stuff. And that is how fascists traditionally cement their support. Fascists clear marshes. Fascists build Autobahns. Fascists have Four Year Plans and Five Year Plans. Fascists have Lebensborn agencies to encourage the birth rate. Trumpniks ban abortion on one hand but take away the support structure for women and infants on the other. Statism is socialism, but if it makes life worse, then statism is fine.

If you make people more dependent on government and then turn around and make government undependable, that is not a recipe for success in elections.

But again, you don’t do this sort of thing if you plan on having competitive elections.

If there’s no consistent philosophy to this, why is it done?

The Occam’s Razor answer is: Because they can.

As we say, the cruelty is the point. It’s not like there is any other one.

Many Americans, including former conservatives like myself, have long joked that since Reagan, the premise of Republican election campaigns is that government IS the problem and not the solution, and then once they get elected, they do everything they can to prove it. As with so many other things on the Right , the Musk-Trump regime is simply taking the previous standard and stretching it to the most absurd extreme. In this case the formula is to use government to make everyone’s lives a living hell, and then, because people are conditioned to be dependent on government and authority, cast themselves as the saviors who will solve the problem that they created. And if you think that doesn’t work, how did Trump win re-election four years after giving us all Trump Virus? ™

This is the sort of belief that can only be justified by a religion that believes in quid pro quo from God and still has to justify why God doesn’t always (or usually) provide it. The idea that you can get anything you wish for if you just pray hard enough. And if God doesn’t grant your wishes, you just have to accept it, because who knows God’s plan? What happened was going to happen anyway. You have no agency.

It’s a very convenient philosophy if you’re trying to justify autocracy against its manifest record of incompetence and failure. But it was Voltaire who said “Anyone who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.”

I was putting together a different sort of commentary about the Musk-Trump occupation government, (Tusk? Mrump? Mump?) but the thing we have to address now is that the Trump Cabinet had a meeting over Signal, a commercial, non-government service, over personal phones, to plot a strike against Houthi rebels in Yemen, and National Security Advisor Mike Waltz invited The Atlantic Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Goldberg in on the chat. This led to an expose that has since been called “Signalgate”, in keeping with the post-Nixon standard of attaching “gate” to any scandalous government event which once might have been cause for making officials resign but is now just business as usual.

We can tell this because just a day or so after the Atlantic story, most of these officials were called upon to testify on Capitol Hill on what would have otherwise been a scheduled briefing, and denied under oath that they had revealed classified data. Fox News himbo and accidental Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said, “Nobody was texting war plans. And that’s all I have to say about that.” So The Atlantic then revealed the full transcript of the chat server, listed as “Houthi PC small group” which clearly showed that Hegseth and the Cabinet were, in fact, coordinating a military strike over Signal. (Houthi PC Small Group would be a great name for a punk band, by the way.) Goldberg’s transcript also confirms that Mike Waltz invited him to the Signal chat. Of course since Republicans are the Trump Party, they are not going to do anything about the officials lying under oath on matters that in the past would have gotten people electrocuted.

Milblogger Jake Broe shared a social media post from Piers Morgan saying, “If you don’t consider this to be classified info about imminent war plans, it * may * be that you’re too partisan to recognize the truth when it slaps you around your tribal chops. If this had happened on Biden’s watch, Republicans would have rightly gone berserk.”
Piers Fucking Morgan, people. Who has never met a Republican ass he didn’t kiss.

Vice President Trump, of course, told reporters that he knew little of the details or whether the discussion was classified data. “Eh, I’m just the most powerful guy in the world who demands complete loyalty and obedience from everybody under me, that don’t mean I know what they’re doin’.” But then, plausible deniability is a lot more plausible when you’re senile.

Just today, Keith Olbermann’s podcast had the headline, “THEY USED SIGNAL TO BYPASS TRUMP THEY KNOW HE’S GOING CRAZY“. Now on one hand this could be more Olbermann raving, but seriously: If you were trying to keep the lights on in a house run by King Ook-Ook Gorilla, how much would you want him to know?

I am not sure what is worse, the fact that the Musk-Trump regime is obviously traitorous and fascist, or the fact that they’re so fucking bad at it.

Of course Hegseth and the others sneered that this was all ginned up by a biased mainstream journalist. But that gets to my take, which I’m not sure anyone else has addressed yet. We know that the Trump Party, which is really the Putin Party, does not consider Russia the enemy. We also know that they do consider the mainstream Liberal Media to be the real enemy. So that raises the question: If you don’t care about letting classified data into the hands of authoritarian governments, why don’t you care about letting it into the hands of liberal journalists? The cabinet failed to practice data security against the real enemy, and that is the failure.

If I were a Trumpnik right now, I would be looking at myself in the mirror and asking why I should support people who are counterproductive even to my goals.

What this all means, ladies and gentlemen, is good news and bad news. The good news: When, presumably not if, Trump dies, Democrats will get back in charge. That was less likely given the returns on the last election, not to mention demographics turning against Democrats in both the Electoral College and Senate races. But now that the Putin Party is going after Social Security people will know who’s responsible. And when Democrats are in control of Congress, they will do investigations and launch prosecutions of all these malicious bumblefucks, perhaps aided by some pro-military Republicans who would no longer be in fear of Trump’s literal personality cult.

The bad news is, the Putin Party is fully aware of that future, and that is why they are making all the radical changes they are making as quickly as they are, because they know that in a normal democracy they would be reversed on the next go-around which is why they’re trying to trying to make sure there are no free and fair elections again and why they’re trying to accelerate from mere Turkiye/Hungary style strongman regime to full blown dictatorship. That’s why they’re sending ICE on public raids to round up anybody who disagrees with them, even if they’re “accidentally” white people or American citizens. The problem, of course, is the execution of the agenda. I mean, clearly they are planning to create a goon squad but how well is it going to work when the rank-and-file don’t know what the hell their orders are and what the hell their superiors are doing?

Good Evening. I’m Elissa Slotkin. I’m a Democratic Senator representing the great state of Michigan. And I’m giving the Democratic Party response to Donald Trump’s address to the joint Congress. It is a tradition in America that when the President speaks to the Congress on the state of our union, the opposition party sends a person to deliver a response. And as is also tradition in both parties, that person is someone you’ve probably never even heard of.

But that’s okay. Because I’m just like you. I think I’m just like the millions of people who since January 20, get up every day and ask, “What fresh hell has that fucking moron inflicted on the planet today?”

And I venture to say that now includes a lot of people who voted for Trump. I’ve seen the social media posts from people who voted for Trump but lost their government jobs because of Elon Musk’s haphazard firings. I’ve seen the town halls where people in districts that voted for Trump by double digits are asking their Republican Congressmen why they don’t stand up to Trump and Musk and why they should treat Trump like our king.

We were promised that if we elected Trump, the price of eggs would go down. Instead, it has skyrocketed due to bird flu, something that the Trump Administration hasn’t done anything about because of the hands-off policies of its bureaucrats. Those who still have jobs.

Tonight, Mr. Trump took credit for everything he could possibly imagine, but what he didn’t tell you is that just this Tuesday, the stock market crashed by over 500 points because his broad-based tariffs came into effect against countries including China, Mexico and Canada. And because of his belligerent posture towards Canada in particular, and his betrayal of Ukraine, Canada and other NATO countries are asking themselves if they should work together without the United States.

It’s almost as if Elon Musk and Donald Trump were hired by a hostile government to destroy our international alliances and economic infrastructure so that China and Russia could divide up the world.

And when I say that, I know what some of you are thinking. “Democrat hoax”, “witch hunt”, “no colusion”, “RussiaRussiaRussia” – I’ve heard it all before. And you have too.

I’m not telling you that Vladmir Putin has blackmailed Trump. I can’t tell you that Putin has bribed Trump. But you need to ask yourself a serious question: If Donald Trump WERE a known Russian agent, would he be doing anything differently?

Would he not be trying to normalize relations with Putin? Would he not be trying to start trade deals with Russia, to break the sanctions regime that is even now crippling Putin’s ability to wage war on the innocent? Would he not be agreeing with Putin’s demand that peace negotiations occur without Ukraine, or the EU, and that Ukraine must agree to a new election to remove Volodomyr Zelenskyy before a final peace deal is signed? Would we be agreeing to lower our defenses to Russia? This week, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced that we would no longer engage in cyberoperations against the Russian Federation. I would like to ask Mr. Hegseth a question: Did we ask our new buddies in Moscow if they would return the favor?

Would we be giving that treatment to any other nation, including our allies? Would we be giving so much deference towards any Democratic president, or indeed, any other Republican?

That’s why I’m here to represent the Democratic Party. Because it’s our job to represent the voters of this country, to defend working people, not billionaires and oligarchs. To defend our rights under the Constitution, not treat the president like a divine monarch.

Or not. I mean, I can only speak for myself. Because I don’t know what the national Democratic Party leadership has planned to deal with all of this leading up to the next election. I don’t think they do either. I mean, if the party knew how to get its collective thumb out of its collective ass last year, we wouldn’t be in this mess now, would we?

At least when it became obvious that our president was too old to handle the job, we got a replacement candidate. Trump is only three years younger than Joe Biden but acts older. Maybe that’s why he’s got Elon as his handler.

We didn’t really have much of a plan for the economy, or Ukraine, other than to keep doing what we were doing, which nobody liked. But still, in 2024, Joe Biden’s America, we reached a historically low unemployment rate. Gross domestic product expanded over 3 percent. Since Joe Biden took office, overall employment is up 12%, average pay is up 19%. Your Social Security was safe. Your Medicare was safe. And America was respected throughout the world as a strong defender of freedom.

Admit it… doesn’t that sound so much nicer than what we’ve got right now?

So, in less than two years, America is going to have a congressional midterm election. And if you’ve decided by then that you’ve had too much winning, remember, the Democrats are here for you. Or, Trump could suspend all elections and have us deported to Guantanamo. But hey, I hear Cuba has free health care.

Thank You, and God Bless America.

Most of the remaining Constitution can stand as is, although I want to do some analysis.

Article IV

Section 1

Full Faith and Credit shall be given in each State to the public Acts, Records, and judicial Proceedings of every other State. And the Congress may by general Laws prescribe the Manner in which such Acts, Records and Proceedings shall be proved, and the Effect thereof.

Section 2

The Citizens of each State shall be entitled to all Privileges and Immunities of Citizens in the several States.

A Person charged in any State with Treason, Felony, or other Crime, who shall flee from Justice, and be found in another State, shall on Demand of the executive Authority of the State from which he fled, be delivered up, to be removed to the State having Jurisdiction of the Crime.

No Person held to Service or Labour in one State, under the Laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in Consequence of any Law or Regulation therein, be discharged from such Service or Labour, but shall be delivered up on Claim of the Party to whom such Service or Labour may be due.

Section 3

New States may be admitted by the Congress into this Union; but no new State shall be formed or erected within the Jurisdiction of any other State; nor any State be formed by the Junction of two or more States, or Parts of States, without the Consent of the Legislatures of the States concerned as well as of the Congress.

The Congress shall have Power to dispose of and make all needful Rules and Regulations respecting the Territory or other Property belonging to the United States; and nothing in this Constitution shall be so construed as to Prejudice any Claims of the United States, or of any particular State.

Section 4

The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against Invasion; and on Application of the Legislature, or of the Executive (when the Legislature cannot be convened) against domestic Violence.

Article V

The original text: The Congress, whenever two thirds of both Houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose Amendments to this Constitution, or, on the Application of the Legislatures of two thirds of the several States, shall call a Convention for proposing Amendments, which, in either Case, shall be valid to all Intents and Purposes, as Part of this Constitution, when ratified by the Legislatures of three fourths of the several States, or by Conventions in three fourths thereof, as the one or the other Mode of Ratification may be proposed by the Congress; Provided that no Amendment which may be made prior to the Year One thousand eight hundred and eight shall in any Manner affect the first and fourth Clauses in the Ninth Section of the first Article; and that no State, without its Consent, shall be deprived of its equal Suffrage in the Senate.

Now, given that this article exists, it raises the question of why my project is even necessary. Well, the fact that we have never had a Constitutional Convention called by the states since original passage, that most Amendments were passed through the Congress or being ratified separately by states, and that the 27^th Amendment was the last one enacted (in 1992) but actually proposed in 1789, indicates that while it is supposed to be hard to change the foundational law of the government, the process in practice is prohibitively difficult.

But again, my proposal at this moment is just that, at the proposal stage. It could still be used in an actual constitutional convention, and parts could be ratified by states. There is nothing I propose that would stand against Article V, given that its only real prohibition is against changing “equal Suffrage in the Senate” (two Senators per State) and that remains the case in my Article II.

Article VI

Original text: 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.

This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding.

The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.

This first paragraph would be modified as “all debts contracted and engagements entered into before the adoption of this Constitution shall be as valid against the United States as under the prior Constitution.”

The second paragraph is similar to my Article I section 17, “The laws of each State, and their State Constitutions, remain in effect upon ratifying this Constitution, except insofar as they are contradicted by it.” It is still specific enough to stand as necessary.

I would also add the text of Section 4 of the 14^th Amendment, “The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the United States nor any state shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, but all such debts, obligations and claims shall be held illegal and void.”

Article VII

The Ratification of the Conventions of nine States, shall be sufficient for the Establishment of this Constitution between the States so ratifying the Same.

---

There we go. Again, it is presumptuous of me to think I can solve the problems with our Constitution in just this one project, but this is both a first draft and a starting point for debate. Because such radical changes might have been unthinkable to a lot of people, but the need for debate becomes more necessary by the day, and the need for change is coming sooner than most of us would want.

Because in my next post I will have to leave the realm of speculation and return to the here and now, where our political situation has been getting worse by the day.

In this post I will go over the judicial branch of the Constitution, which is still Article III. It is mostly unchanged. Mostly.

Article III

Section One

The judicial power of the United States is established in the federal judiciary of the United States, at this time consisting of ninety four federal judicial districts, under thirteen judicial circuits, administered by a Supreme Court. The Supreme Court shall number thirteen Justices who will each administer one of the Judicial Circuits. The Congress may at its discretion create new inferior courts and judicial circuits, but must appoint one new Supreme Court Justice to administer each Judicial Circuit.

Section Two

No federal Judge, including a member of the Supreme Court, shall serve if they are not licensed to practice law in at least one State, and shall not serve if they are not at least thirty years of age and a United States citizen for at least ten years. No federal Judge, including a member of the Supreme Court, shall serve past the age of seventy-five and upon reaching such age shall retire and the Congress shall appoint a replacement. Federal judges, including members of the Supreme Court, are each appointed to one fifteen-year term, limited only in cases of death, retirement or exceeding the age limit.

The Judges of both the Supreme and inferior courts, shall hold their Offices during good Behaviour, and shall, at stated Times, receive for their Services, a Compensation, which shall not be diminished during their Continuance in Office.

The Congress may at its discretion create rules of Ethics for the judiciary to follow, all such rules binding on inferior courts shall also be binding on the Supreme Court.

Section Three

The judicial Power shall extend to all Cases, in Law and Equity, arising under this Constitution, the Laws of the United States, and Treaties made, or which shall be made, under their Authority;—to all Cases affecting Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls;—to all Cases of admiralty and maritime Jurisdiction;—to Controversies to which the United States shall be a Party;—to Controversies between two or more States;—between a State and Citizens of another State,—between Citizens of different States,—between Citizens of the same State claiming Lands under Grants of different States, and between a State, or the Citizens thereof, and foreign States, Citizens or Subjects.

In all Cases affecting Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, and those in which a State shall be Party, the supreme Court shall have original Jurisdiction. In all the other Cases before mentioned, the supreme Court shall have appellate Jurisdiction, both as to Law and Fact, with such Exceptions, and under such Regulations as the Congress shall make.

The Trial of all Crimes, except in Cases of Impeachment, shall be by Jury; and such Trial shall be held in the State where the said Crimes shall have been committed; but when not committed within any State, the Trial shall be at such Place or Places as the Congress may by Law have directed.

Section Four

Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort. No Person shall be convicted of Treason unless on the Testimony of two Witnesses to the same overt Act, or on Confession in open Court.

The Congress shall have Power to declare the Punishment of Treason, but no Attainder of Treason shall work Corruption of Blood, or Forfeiture except during the Life of the Person attainted.

NOTES

As you see, most of this is taken from the original text, except for the first two sections. The current set of courts is detailed, indicating that the new Constitution is meant to apply to the current government and supersede current law as necessary. The Supreme Court is expanded, if only to cover the difference between the number of justices and the number of judicial circuits. The main changes are in Section Two, detailing not only the point that ethics rules apply to the Supreme Court but so do both age limits and term limits. It is also specified that a judge must be qualified to practice law, and must be of minimum age and a US citizen. None of this was in the original text. It is perhaps telling the priority the Founders had for the judicial system that they did not impose the same standard of qualifications that they put on the legislature and the executive.

Next time I want to go over the remaining Constitution, which can stand as is, although I want to do some analysis.

This is the big one.

In the actual Constitution, Article I refers to the Congress, Article II the President and Article III the judiciary. In my previous post, I explained why I put most of the amendments referring to citizen rights in Article I as primary as opposed to being an afterthought. This means that the description of Congress is moved to Article II. And it has a lot of changes, which I will discuss afterward.

The Constitution 2.0 (Part One)

Article II

Section One

The administrative functions of the United States government shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a House of Representatives and a Senate.

Section Two

The House of Representatives shall be composed of Members chosen every four years by the people of their respective States, from local districts to be determined by federal law. No person shall serve more than three four-year terms to the House, except when serving up to two additional years for a previous Representative’s term in the case of vacancy.

No person shall be a Representative who has not been a United States citizen less than seven years, or is not a legal resident of the State of representation. No person shall be a Representative who is less than 25 years of age or more than 75 years of age. A Representative who has passed the age of 75 may retain that office but is ineligible for re-election if not otherwise term limited.

When vacancies occur in the Representation from any State, the Executive Authority thereof shall issue Writs of Election to fill such vacancies.

Representatives shall be apportioned among the several states according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each state. Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons. The actual Enumeration shall be made within three Years after the first Meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent Term of ten Years, in such Manner as they shall by Law direct. The Number of Representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty Thousand, but each State shall have at Least one Representative.

The House of Representatives shall choose their Speaker from among the membership of their Congress, and shall have the sole power of Impeachment for federal officials.

Section Three

The Senate of the United States shall consist of two Senators from every State, chosen by statewide election. Each Senator serves a term of six years, and no Senator may serve more than two terms, except when serving up to two additional years for a previous Senator’s term in the case of vacancy.

Immediately after they shall be assembled in Consequence of the first Election, they shall be divided as equally as may be into three Classes. The Seats of the Senators of the first Class shall be vacated at the Expiration of the second Year, of the second Class at the Expiration of the fourth Year, and of the third Class at the Expiration of the sixth Year, so that one third may be chosen every second Year; and if Vacancies happen by Resignation, or otherwise, during the Recess of the Legislature of any State, the Executive thereof may make temporary Appointments until the next Meeting of the Legislature, which shall then fill such Vacancies.

No Person shall be a Senator who has not been a United States citizen less than nine years, or is not a legal resident of the State of representation. No person shall be a Senator who is less than 30 years of age or more than 75 years of age. A Senator who has passed the age of 75 may retain that office but is ineligible for re-election if not otherwise term limited.

The Senators shall choose their own President of the Senate from among their membership.

The Senate shall have the sole Power to try all Impeachments. When sitting for that Purpose, they shall be on Oath or Affirmation. When the President of the Senate is tried, the Chief Justice shall preside and the President of the Senate shall have no vote, and no Person shall be convicted without the Concurrence of three fifths of the Members present.

Judgment in Cases of Impeachment shall only extend to removal from Office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any Office of Honor, Trust or Profit under the United States but the Party accused shall nevertheless be liable and subject to Indictment, Trial, Judgment and Punishment, according to Law, regardless of the status of the Impeachment.

Section Four

The President of the Senate shall act as the chief executive officer of the United States, until removed by his fellow Senators, or if impeached. In Case of the Removal of the President of the Senate from Office, or of his Death, Resignation, or Inability to discharge the Powers and Duties of the said Office, the Senate shall immediately designate a successor from among their ranks.

He shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur; and he shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, Judges of the supreme Court, and all other Officers of the United States, whose Appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by Law: but the Congress may by Law vest the Appointment of such inferior Officers, as they think proper, in the President alone, in the Courts of Law, or in the Heads of Departments.

The President of the Senate shall have Power to fill up all Vacancies that may happen during the Recess of the Senate, by granting Commissions which shall expire at the End of their next Session.

The President of the Senate shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States, when called into the actual Service of the United States; he may require the Opinion, in writing, of the principal Officer in each of the executive Departments, upon any Subject relating to the Duties of their respective Offices.

He shall annually advise the joint Congress of the State of the Union, and recommend to their Consideration such Measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient; he shall receive Ambassadors and other public Ministers; he shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed, and shall Commission all the Officers of the United States.

Section Five

The Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives shall be regulated by Congress according to Law. All Elections for federal office shall be non-partisan. All federal Elections shall be held on the first Monday in November unless Congress shall by Law appoint a different day.

The Congress shall meet at least once in every Year, and such meeting shall begin at noon on the third day of January unless they shall by Law appoint a different day.

Section Six

Each House shall be the Judge of the Elections, Returns and Qualifications of its own Members,and a Majority of each shall constitute a Quorum to do Business; but a smaller Number may adjourn from day to day, and may be authorized to compel the Attendance of absent Members, in such Manner, and under such Penalties as each House may provide.

Each House may determine the Rules of its Proceedings, punish its Members for disorderly Behavior, and, with the Concurrence of three fifths, expel a Member.

Each House shall keep a Journal of its Proceedings, and from time to time publish the same, excepting such Parts as may in their Judgment require Secrecy; and the Yeas and Nays of the Members of either House on any question shall, at the Desire of one fifth of those Present, be entered on the Journal.

Neither House, during the Session of Congress, shall, without the Consent of the other, adjourn for more than three days, nor to any other Place than that in which the two Houses shall be sitting.

Section Seven

The Senators and Representatives shall receive a Compensation for their Services, to be ascertained by Law, and paid out of the Treasury of the United States. They shall in all Cases, except Treason, Felony and Breach of the Peace, be privileged from Arrest during their Attendance at the Session of their respective Houses, and in going to and returning from the same; and for any Speech or Debate in either House, they shall not be questioned in any other Place.

No Senator or Representative shall, during the Time for which he was elected, be appointed to any civil Office under the Authority of the United States, which shall have been created, or the Emoluments whereof shall have been increased during such time; and no Person holding any Office under the United States, shall be a Member of either House during his Continuance in Office.

No law, varying the compensation for the services of the Senators and Representatives, shall take effect, until an election of Representatives shall have intervened.

Section Eight

All Bills for raising Revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives; but the Senate may propose or concur with Amendments as on other Bills.

Every Bill which shall have passed the House of Representatives and the Senate, shall, before it become a Law, be presented to the President of the Senate; If he approve he shall sign it, but if not he shall return it, with his Objections to that House in which it shall have originated, who shall enter the Objections at large on their Journal, and proceed to reconsider it. If after such Reconsideration three fifths of that House shall agree to pass the Bill, it shall be sent, together with the Objections, to the other House, by which it shall likewise be reconsidered, and if approved by three fifths of that House, it shall become a Law. But in all such Cases the Votes of both Houses shall be determined by yeas and Nays, and the Names of the Persons voting for and against the Bill shall be entered on the Journal of each House respectively. If any Bill shall not be returned by the President within ten Days (Sundays excepted) after it shall have been presented to him, the Same shall be a Law, in like Manner as if he had signed it, unless the Congress by their Adjournment prevent its Return, in which Case it shall not be a Law.

Every Order, Resolution, or Vote to which the Concurrence of the Senate and House of Representatives may be necessary (except on a question of Adjournment) shall be presented to the President of the Senate; and before the Same shall take Effect, shall be approved by him, or being disapproved by him, shall be re-passed by three fifths of the Senate and House of Representatives, according to the Rules and Limitations prescribed in the Case of a Bill.

All Senate votes shall be decided by simple majority and cannot be debated or held up by prospect of debate for more than 24 hours upon reaching the floor, the exceptions to the vote threshold being the three fifths vote required in Trials of Impeachment and a presidential veto of a Bill.

Section Nine

The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defense and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;

To borrow Money on the credit of the United States;

To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes;

To establish a uniform Rule of Naturalization, and uniform Laws on the subject of Bankruptcies throughout the United States;

To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures;

To provide for the Punishment of counterfeiting the Securities and current Coin of the United States;

To establish Post Offices and post Roads;

To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries;

To grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offenses against the United States, except in Cases of Impeachment;

To constitute Tribunals inferior to the supreme Court;

To define and punish Piracies and Felonies committed on the high Seas, and Offenses against the Law of Nations;

To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water;

To raise and support military Forces, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years;

To make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the military Forces;

To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions;

To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the Militia, and for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively, the Appointment of the Officers, and the Authority of training the Militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress;

To exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten Miles square) as may, by Cession of particular States, and the Acceptance of Congress, become the Seat of the Government of the United States, and to exercise like Authority over all Places purchased by the Consent of the Legislature of the State in which the Same shall be, for the Erection of Forts, Magazines, Arsenals, dock-Yards and other needful Buildings;-And

To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof.

Section Ten

The Privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion the public Safety may require it.

No Bill of Attainder or ex post facto Law shall be passed.

No Tax or Duty shall be laid on Articles exported from any State.

No Preference shall be given by any Regulation of Commerce or Revenue to the Ports of one State over those of another: nor shall Vessels bound to, or from, one State, be obliged to enter, clear, or pay Duties in another.

No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law; and a regular Statement and Account of the Receipts and Expenditures of all public Money shall be published from time to time.

No Title of Nobility shall be granted by the United States: And no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State.

Section Eleven

No State shall enter into any Treaty, Alliance, or Confederation; grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal; coin Money; emit Bills of Credit; make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts; pass any Bill of Attainder, ex post facto Law, or Law impairing the Obligation of Contracts, or grant any Title of Nobility.

No State shall, without the Consent of the Congress, lay any Imposts or Duties on Imports or Exports, except what may be absolutely necessary for executing it’s inspection Laws: and the net Produce of all Duties and Imposts, laid by any State on Imports or Exports, shall be for the Use of the Treasury of the United States; and all such Laws shall be subject to the Revision and Controul of the Congress.

No State shall, without the Consent of Congress, lay any Duty of Tonnage, keep Troops, or Ships of War in time of Peace, enter into any Agreement or Compact with another State, or with a foreign Power, or engage in War, unless actually invaded, or in such imminent Danger as will not admit of delay.

Section Twelve

No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any state, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any state legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any state, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.

NOTES

Notice anything different?

Much of the conditions for override in Congress require a three-fifths vote rather than two-thirds. Federal elections are to be administered through the federal government, rather than the states. Congressmen have term limits. Also, the House terms are expanded from two years to four, so that running for re-election is not more of a full-time job than the actual job.

But you may have noticed the big changes which relate to each other. Article II now refers not simply to the legislative functions of the government but the “administrative” functions. And the upper house (the Senate) effectively has the responsibility of the Presidency, because it will select a spokesman (the President of the Senate) in the same way the House selects a Speaker. This means, among several things, there IS no Vice President, since the one current administrative function of that office (nominal president of the Senate) is covered. Replacement of the Senate President is within the ranks of that house. There is no Electoral College, because the President is not elected separately. And the President of the Senate fills the functions of the President in the historical Article II, which compared to the historical Article I is actually rather brief.

The end result is to effectively change the United States from a presidential republic to a parliamentary republic, such as Germany, or Canada, where there is technically a Governor-General representing the British monarch but in practice the Prime Minister (elected as a Member of Parliament) is the executive officer and diplomatic head of government.

Why did I make these changes? Well,, the primary factor in the corruption of our republic and the business of government is the mindless partisanship between the two guaranteed parties of the duopoly, which is part of what has made the Republican Party insane: First, mindless fear of the opposition ( that being the Democrats. To be sure, Democrats are in fear of Republicans, but with considerably more evidence). Secondly, that fear leads to mindless loyalty to a Leader who promises to beat that opposition, which Trump does. Republicans lost most of the contested midterm elections but swept in 2024 and gained somewhat in downballot races in 2020. The main reason Trump lost then was COVID. Finally, that loyalty is reinforced by the fear of what happens if the Leader is defeated in any way, because that means Those Other People get power again and Our Side are second-class citizens at best.

And some would question why this system eliminates the chance to vote directly for a president. But hey, we have the chance to vote for a president now. The Electoral College notwithstanding, the US President is the only federal office that everybody in the country can vote for on Election Day as opposed to the House (which is per local district) or Senate (which is statewide). And in 2024, Trump actually got the most votes, of the people who showed up.

Was that really the best result?

I first propose to make all federal elections regulated by the government as opposed to states, because that will help to resolve issues with gerrymandering which are part of the problem of having certain seats be safe for one party or the other, which in Republican districts makes politics a contest of performative idiocy in order to get the primary nomination, which is the real vote. I also propose to make all elections non-partisan, as many state races (for judicial posts, sheriff, etc.) already are. This is the best I can expect to solve the matter of corrupt party loyalty without actually banning political parties, which would go against both the letter and the spirit of the First Amendment (the text of which is in my Article I). This would not ban parties, it would certainly not ban associations, but it does mean that party affiliation cannot be listed on the actual ballot. Which among other things means that instead of looking at which party is listed on a candidate’s name, voters would actually have to … do their research.

The other aspect of these changes is that if all work is done through the Congress, there is no longer a matter of Congress not being able to enforce its directives on the executive branch, which has been an issue for years, although primarily during the Trump terms. Most importantly, it puts the burden of responsibility on the Congress for the actions of government, whereas in the system as it stands, both the Congress and the voters build a cult of personality (or hatred) around the President and generally assume that the President is a magic man who can solve all the country’s problems by executive order. Right now it seems as though at least one party is under the assumption that that’s how the government is supposed to work, and they’re just there to draw a paycheck and get tax-paid benefits without having to actually do their jobs, namely setting the agenda for the government that the President is supposed to follow, rather than the other way around.

Now, one of the reasons why we have gradually devolved power to the President is that getting anything done through Congress is difficult. In some cases, that’s by design, and all to the good. However much of the current dysfunction is because of the aforementioned party loyalty and also because of various delaying maneuvers, namely the Senate filibuster, which is nowhere in the Constitution but has effectively created an un-Constitutional standard that any vote requires a three-fifths majority to pass even when this is not specified. That is here disallowed. Traditionalists would object that the filibuster is one of the counter-majoritarian checks in the system to protect minority interests and encourage compromise and debate. But again, it was not part of the system as designed. And in practice, it negates the chance for compromise in debate as a minority party can simply hold together to prevent debate from even coming to the floor on the premise that a measure is not going to pass. Defenders would also argue that the filibuster prevents the majority from being able to act with no regard for other parties. The Senate IS that check on the system. The Senate IS the means by which our republic makes sure that plurality interests are not overrun by a gross majority. The fact that the Senate exists in addition to the House is already a counter-majoritarian check on the public, and it doesn’t need an internal filibuster in addition.

Finally, one might ask, if the Senate is supposed to select a president from their own ranks, and there is no separate Vice President and we currently have 50 states, how would we break a tie? Simple. Make either District of Columbia or Puerto Rico a state. Either that or separate Clark County/Greater Las Vegas area from the rest of Nevada, since these are really two different states anyway.

Next time will be Article III, reviewing the judicial system and the Supreme Court. These changes will not be quite so great, but will probably be seen as radical by the supporters of the Republican Party. But they’re the people whose idea for government is to keep the Constitution exactly as it is, but then run the country as thought it doesn’t exist.