“It makes the regulatory apparatus unstable by design.”
This is the entire point. Instability. The project of destabilizing the regulatory apparatus is part of a broader project, which is to hollow out the federal government of productive capacity of any kind, so there is no regulation, no implementation, no oversight, nothing of consequence getting done, unless it’s profitable for those funding the movement to hollow out the federal government. It’s the Kochs and Scaifes, but also the Musks and Bezoses and Altmans and bitcoin tycoons. They all have slightly different versions of their perfect outcome, but the underlying goal is the same.
All regulatory apparatus is the target, but so are the State Department, DOJ, DoD, the tax regime, and everything else that’s part of the “administrative state.” And all they have to do is destabilize it all to make it functionally disappear.
Damn right this "project" would not receive the consent of the public, if they were made aware of it. Your brilliant analysis, as in 'Counterfeiters at the Seam' deftly pulls back the veil to reveal the insidious machinations of the rapacious extractive industries with the goal of undermining our constitutional government. What we need now is to make this awareness available on a massive scale and mobilize popular resistance.
Had to read this several times to appreciate the content. Funny thing, I have understood for a long time that the Republicans are exquisitely good at branding, maybe because businesses are so familiar with advertising techniques.
Yesterday was the organized mind-altering drug presented by the aristocracy.
The aristocrats want you to maintain the current social system that allows them to abuse the general population and promote their profit-making interests. They want you to believe in the beauty of our country's history, which holds that for 250 years, we have been a successful experiment in democracy. They do not want you to look at our country's history as it was, but rather as they present it to you in the form they want. An uneducated citizen allows them to continue promoting their two-tier society, where the wealthy deserve their wealth and the public benefits from their success. Consider what their primary fear is when they hear the term "revolt".
Yesterday was the day of an organized presentation of their illusionary America. Our famous forefathers gathered and agreed on our Constitution, and we, as a country, prospered. As a result of this agreement, we grew, and we were all happy and proud of what we had done. This is not our history. We enjoyed the Kool-Aid; we allowed them to take advantage of us. They, on every cable and TV station, present their make-believe America.
Yesterday was an outright lie. We sit in the cave and watch the shadows. We think and believe that what is presented is accurate and true when it is not. Our knowledge of American history comes from our movie world, not our history books. They want to keep us in the cave, and yesterday was all garbage, sheer illusions presented by the controlling billionaires and their millionaire cohorts. Yes, we had tall ships, and we fought and won the war against Hitler. What about the rest of our history and our millions of slaves, whom the southern aristocrats killed, and our destroying the native population, and most importantly, what about the fact of our naturally embedded resources that promoted our growth, and it was not the form of government that promoted our growth?
Think about it: European nations had taken control of all usable space in Europe; there was no room to expand, and suddenly a vast country was discovered with enormous space and excellent resources, available to any country for the taking—vast resources, fertile land, rivers, and forests, and a similar temperature to Europe. America was the vast land of promise. There was no limit to America's potential; it had land not owned by any foreign country, so a rush to own this vast expanse began. Every European country recognized our resources, and our natural resources promoted our growth. Democracy is not what makes one successful; we were bound to be successful by our natural resources, and our democracy had nothing to do with it!
Our form of government, created by these famous founding fathers, was haunted by slavery and differences in spiritual beliefs that have existed up to the present. We had a group of southern states that wanted to secede, and they were correct in their belief. Lincoln was wrong in his decision to stop the secession, which cost our country six hundred thousand casualties and left the country still divided. Europe resolved its differences by forming individual countries, and we should have been at least two countries, the north and the south.
Democracy is the principle of government in which power is vested in the people, and our country has never really had that. The powerful aristocrats always controlled us, first in the form of slave owners, then by billionaire businessmen, and now by the billionaires and entrepreneurs. Our vote was influenced and controlled by these billionaires' money.
The myth of success has permeated our national belief system. We have become addicted to a two-tier society, allowing a massive accumulation of wealth to reside in the upper class. We almost enjoy the sense of royalty that exists in our society, and maybe having an upper class satisfies a need for a group leader; they are our royalty, and, like many societies, we also need our king, our pope, our royal family—considering that the entire history of our race has always been dominated by a few over the vast majority.
This past Saturday also paid homage to our royal couple, who were married at Madison Square Garden and, among them, have amassed a billion dollars in wealth and shared none of it, and who must have spent millions to get married in the garden, and we are OK with that. I am not aware of any hospital or school they funded; only self-indulgence is accepted and not questioned. What the aristocrats want is for us to remain in the cave of ignorance, without questioning, and for them to become the authoritarian rulers of our country and our lives. I, for one, am waiting for our revolt.
This is an impressive deconstruction of the of long term project of Neo- conservatives and the wealthy donor class.
In my view, not to be forgotten are the neofascist religious components. It is not an accident that what are essentially catholic integralists, occupy the 6 right wing seats on the court. This right wing catholic moment has ties to the charismatic Christian right who define Trump’s power as god given". That they describe him as the “anointed one” gives him god’s sovereignty in their eyes. This is an important element in understanding the intransigence and irrationality of a large contingent of maga voters as well the coordination of the government in maga’s image. These are not Christians in traditional sense of the word meaning follower of Jesus Christ. They eschew the gospels embracing carefully curated Old Testament verses to justify their radical views. They are anti abortion, anti democracy, pro gun,anti LGBT and vehemently pro capitalism. Support for none of these views can be found in the gospels.
In my view Christianity is one of the foundation stones of democracy.However these Dominionists are enemies of the republic, hold views antithetical to the teaching of Jesus and embrace a view radical libertarianism. To them most of governments purpose is to sustain property rights no matter what inequality a market economy engenders. Authoritarianism is at the heart of this movement so interpretation of the constitution by them is in essence meant to destroy it. So contradiction and unserious legal thinking is expected.
I disagree with your assessment of the right wing legal Federalist Society’s beliefs being genuine. I think justice Alito flying the adopted flag of the violent Charismatic wing of the Evangelicals and his recorded statements reveal him to be duplicitous. This flag was ubiquitous among the Jan. crowd. Note that Leonard Leo, long time head and of the Federalist Society, is closely tied to the criminal Catholic organization Opus Dei. Speaker Johnson as well as a least a dozen other house members are associated with the charismatic movement.
I don’t take originalism to be a serious constitutional interpretation. The fact that some academics treat it as such doesn’t change its incoherence. Note the the degradation of universities by the business like reorganization and the influence of big capital on their endowments. No wonder they did not fight Trump. 50 years ago they would have . But now they are owned by the donor class.
Isgur is a regular on NPR and making the rounds promoting her book on the SCt, where she’s working to discredit—if not disqualify—any and all criticism of the Roberts court as political. It’s inherently dishonest but she is slick
This is one of the most beautifully constructed pieces you have written and you have written many. I hope it receives the attention it deserves. Brilliant, necessary…
my eternal gratitude for your continued efforts to slap people upside the head, as it were.
“It makes the regulatory apparatus unstable by design.”
This is the entire point. Instability. The project of destabilizing the regulatory apparatus is part of a broader project, which is to hollow out the federal government of productive capacity of any kind, so there is no regulation, no implementation, no oversight, nothing of consequence getting done, unless it’s profitable for those funding the movement to hollow out the federal government. It’s the Kochs and Scaifes, but also the Musks and Bezoses and Altmans and bitcoin tycoons. They all have slightly different versions of their perfect outcome, but the underlying goal is the same.
All regulatory apparatus is the target, but so are the State Department, DOJ, DoD, the tax regime, and everything else that’s part of the “administrative state.” And all they have to do is destabilize it all to make it functionally disappear.
Damn right this "project" would not receive the consent of the public, if they were made aware of it. Your brilliant analysis, as in 'Counterfeiters at the Seam' deftly pulls back the veil to reveal the insidious machinations of the rapacious extractive industries with the goal of undermining our constitutional government. What we need now is to make this awareness available on a massive scale and mobilize popular resistance.
Had to read this several times to appreciate the content. Funny thing, I have understood for a long time that the Republicans are exquisitely good at branding, maybe because businesses are so familiar with advertising techniques.
Yesterday was the organized mind-altering drug presented by the aristocracy.
The aristocrats want you to maintain the current social system that allows them to abuse the general population and promote their profit-making interests. They want you to believe in the beauty of our country's history, which holds that for 250 years, we have been a successful experiment in democracy. They do not want you to look at our country's history as it was, but rather as they present it to you in the form they want. An uneducated citizen allows them to continue promoting their two-tier society, where the wealthy deserve their wealth and the public benefits from their success. Consider what their primary fear is when they hear the term "revolt".
Yesterday was the day of an organized presentation of their illusionary America. Our famous forefathers gathered and agreed on our Constitution, and we, as a country, prospered. As a result of this agreement, we grew, and we were all happy and proud of what we had done. This is not our history. We enjoyed the Kool-Aid; we allowed them to take advantage of us. They, on every cable and TV station, present their make-believe America.
Yesterday was an outright lie. We sit in the cave and watch the shadows. We think and believe that what is presented is accurate and true when it is not. Our knowledge of American history comes from our movie world, not our history books. They want to keep us in the cave, and yesterday was all garbage, sheer illusions presented by the controlling billionaires and their millionaire cohorts. Yes, we had tall ships, and we fought and won the war against Hitler. What about the rest of our history and our millions of slaves, whom the southern aristocrats killed, and our destroying the native population, and most importantly, what about the fact of our naturally embedded resources that promoted our growth, and it was not the form of government that promoted our growth?
Think about it: European nations had taken control of all usable space in Europe; there was no room to expand, and suddenly a vast country was discovered with enormous space and excellent resources, available to any country for the taking—vast resources, fertile land, rivers, and forests, and a similar temperature to Europe. America was the vast land of promise. There was no limit to America's potential; it had land not owned by any foreign country, so a rush to own this vast expanse began. Every European country recognized our resources, and our natural resources promoted our growth. Democracy is not what makes one successful; we were bound to be successful by our natural resources, and our democracy had nothing to do with it!
Our form of government, created by these famous founding fathers, was haunted by slavery and differences in spiritual beliefs that have existed up to the present. We had a group of southern states that wanted to secede, and they were correct in their belief. Lincoln was wrong in his decision to stop the secession, which cost our country six hundred thousand casualties and left the country still divided. Europe resolved its differences by forming individual countries, and we should have been at least two countries, the north and the south.
Democracy is the principle of government in which power is vested in the people, and our country has never really had that. The powerful aristocrats always controlled us, first in the form of slave owners, then by billionaire businessmen, and now by the billionaires and entrepreneurs. Our vote was influenced and controlled by these billionaires' money.
The myth of success has permeated our national belief system. We have become addicted to a two-tier society, allowing a massive accumulation of wealth to reside in the upper class. We almost enjoy the sense of royalty that exists in our society, and maybe having an upper class satisfies a need for a group leader; they are our royalty, and, like many societies, we also need our king, our pope, our royal family—considering that the entire history of our race has always been dominated by a few over the vast majority.
This past Saturday also paid homage to our royal couple, who were married at Madison Square Garden and, among them, have amassed a billion dollars in wealth and shared none of it, and who must have spent millions to get married in the garden, and we are OK with that. I am not aware of any hospital or school they funded; only self-indulgence is accepted and not questioned. What the aristocrats want is for us to remain in the cave of ignorance, without questioning, and for them to become the authoritarian rulers of our country and our lives. I, for one, am waiting for our revolt.
This is an impressive deconstruction of the of long term project of Neo- conservatives and the wealthy donor class.
In my view, not to be forgotten are the neofascist religious components. It is not an accident that what are essentially catholic integralists, occupy the 6 right wing seats on the court. This right wing catholic moment has ties to the charismatic Christian right who define Trump’s power as god given". That they describe him as the “anointed one” gives him god’s sovereignty in their eyes. This is an important element in understanding the intransigence and irrationality of a large contingent of maga voters as well the coordination of the government in maga’s image. These are not Christians in traditional sense of the word meaning follower of Jesus Christ. They eschew the gospels embracing carefully curated Old Testament verses to justify their radical views. They are anti abortion, anti democracy, pro gun,anti LGBT and vehemently pro capitalism. Support for none of these views can be found in the gospels.
In my view Christianity is one of the foundation stones of democracy.However these Dominionists are enemies of the republic, hold views antithetical to the teaching of Jesus and embrace a view radical libertarianism. To them most of governments purpose is to sustain property rights no matter what inequality a market economy engenders. Authoritarianism is at the heart of this movement so interpretation of the constitution by them is in essence meant to destroy it. So contradiction and unserious legal thinking is expected.
I disagree with your assessment of the right wing legal Federalist Society’s beliefs being genuine. I think justice Alito flying the adopted flag of the violent Charismatic wing of the Evangelicals and his recorded statements reveal him to be duplicitous. This flag was ubiquitous among the Jan. crowd. Note that Leonard Leo, long time head and of the Federalist Society, is closely tied to the criminal Catholic organization Opus Dei. Speaker Johnson as well as a least a dozen other house members are associated with the charismatic movement.
I don’t take originalism to be a serious constitutional interpretation. The fact that some academics treat it as such doesn’t change its incoherence. Note the the degradation of universities by the business like reorganization and the influence of big capital on their endowments. No wonder they did not fight Trump. 50 years ago they would have . But now they are owned by the donor class.
Isgur is a regular on NPR and making the rounds promoting her book on the SCt, where she’s working to discredit—if not disqualify—any and all criticism of the Roberts court as political. It’s inherently dishonest but she is slick
Reading Federalist 69 now and sending to my son an 8th grade civics teacher.
“The country reads.” The country can find it”
This is one of the most beautifully constructed pieces you have written and you have written many. I hope it receives the attention it deserves. Brilliant, necessary…
my eternal gratitude for your continued efforts to slap people upside the head, as it were.
ThankQ for your scholarly work here, it has taught me a lot and opened my eyes wide.
Good on ya', mate 🤠
Mike missed an important interpretation. The courts give Trump so much power but a prez AOC cannot use it because….major questions doctrine!
Listen here folks:
https://youtu.be/aOxvrgVQ6_U?si=8NGMAWVIxLi6jZhB
People should listen to this. They are still building the scaffolding to kill birthright citizenship
https://youtu.be/aOxvrgVQ6_U?si=8NGMAWVIxLi6jZhB