 What Originalism Can Lead To
Andy Borowitz, writing for the New Yorker: "Amy Coney Barrett Supports Health Care Available in Year Constitution Was Written" ORIGINALISM will be the philosophy of six of nine Supreme Court Justices after Barrett is selected. Its meaning is supposed to be “the judicial interpretation of the constitution which aims to follow closely the original intentions of those who drafted it.” What it really seems to mean is “under no circumstances should government regulate business or tax wealthy people.” One of the things Justice Barrett is expected to do early on is vote to undo Obama Care. Borowitz explains what the founders would do. *We're Outraged At This
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Contributor: Marcia Avner There has been a lot of attention to the pressures on the United States Postal Service and Trump’s political maneuver to thwart mail-in voting. Vanita Gupta--a Justice Department official in the Obama administration, and now president and chief executive of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights--said she viewed the situation as “the weaponization of the U.S. Postal Service for the president’s electoral purposes.”
We seniors, and all voters who want to vote safely, need to push back on this effort in our role as advocates. (Learn how at https://www.apwu.org/savepostoffice.) And we need to VOTE. Because of the warning that the USPS has now issued to most states, we know we need to move quickly to get our absentee ballots. Request your ballot now and it will be sent as soon as ballots are available. You can vote by mail (or in person early voting) starting on September 18th. Let’s preempt the effort to bury our votes—and us—by voting safely and early. To read more on this issue, check out this article in the Star Tribune. *We're outraged at this *What we need to do about it Republicans Continue To Trend Toward "No Rules" COVID Enhancing Policy
Contributor: Wy Spano Minnesota Republicans are stuck on an individual rights solution for controlling COVID-19. The centerpiece of their policy is attempts to take away Governor Walz' considerable powers conferred by his use of Executive Orders. That most public health experts suggest such executive action is crucial in controlling the pandemic doesn't seem to bother GOP leadership. Another oddity is Republican resistance to wearing masks. What's Being Done By Trump Isn't Totally Clear, But It's Not Good For Social Security For Our Kids and Grandkids Contributor: Buddy Robinson President Trump just signed an Executive Order to pause collection of the Social Security and Medicare payroll tax, deferring the payment of those taxes until after the election. Worse still, he promised that if elected, he may terminate the Social Security payroll tax. That, dear reader, would kill off Social Security.
Contributor: Buddy Robinson You may have heard some say that “Social Security is running out of money, and won't be there when today's young people retire.” However, that's not true. It's a lie, designed to generate support for reducing Social Security Benefits.
You aren't hearing much about this in the news, but it is a big issue in the November election. It's lurking just below the surface. [The Washington Post] Opinion: Trump’s push to spoil the census — and make Democrats disappear8/5/2020 The 2020 Census has been under repeated assaults from the administration. Once the courts tossed out the effort to add a citizenship question to the census in 2019, Trump immediately issued Executive Order 13880 telling the Census Bureau to use administrative records from federal agencies and other others sources to create a new database on citizens, non-citizens, and those in the country illegally.Then on July 21, the President issued a memo that said undocumented immigrants should not be counted for apportionment – the process that provides the number of Congressional seats each state receives.
Now Trump and his enablers are cutting back the time for conducting the census. Because of COVID-19, the administration decided to extend the timeline for completing the census, with the count to end October 31st, 2020. Makes sense. This additional time is needed to reach historically undercounted people - children, low income people, Native Americans, immigrants, people of color. Lots of community organizations have been working hard to get a complete and accurate count, and they expected to have 3 more months to do this in the era of masks and distancing. But:this week Trump reversed course and announced cutting the date for ending the count to September 30th. Why? So that Trump gets the data by December 31st and then can decide on reapportionment - how many Congressional seats each state gets. The only solution to this assault on democracy is for the Senate to agree pass the extension in the next COVID bill. Click here to read the Washington Post’s take on this political ploy.
Social Security is our money! And medicare needs to be expanded, not cut. Another reason that defeating Trump and McConnell in 2020 is critical! Contributor: Marcia Avner  Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced that he and the White House will include the dangerous TRUST Act in the latest Republican coronavirus relief package.
The TRUST Act creates a commission that would go BEHIND CLOSED DOORS to decide how to cut Social Security and Medicare. Once they create a plan, it would be fast-tracked for a vote. Cuts to Social Security and Medicare are wrong, unnecessary and have nothing at all to do with fighting the pandemic or recession. *We're outraged at this  We started this blog to be just about the awfulness of Donald Trump and the desperate need not to reelect him. Recent polls show the public is agreeing that Trump has to go, though a lot of people are writing about Trump's plans to not leave, even if he does lose the election.
But two stories that made the news this week, one about the U.S. Congress, and the other about the Minnesota Legislature, make it clear that our country and our state can't get fixed unless we vote against Trump AND Republicans in Congress and the Legislature. Contributor: Bill Moore
If ever there was reason to vote against Donald Trump for president, the latest revelation that the White House has been consulting with a lawyer about how to sidestep laws and suppress basic constitutional rights is surely compelling. |