Congress must immediately assert Article I war powers. This is why we demand that primary candidates commit to using Congress’s full constitutional authority. Demand authorization vote. Refuse appropriations for Venezuelan occupation. Censure the President for constitutional violation. Use inherent contempt power to detain executive officials who defy Congressional authority. Impeach if he refuses to yield to constitutional process.”
I am gobsmacked at both Trump’s audacity and Congress’s complacency. Will this be the crisis that causes them to again fully participate in governing our nation or, perhaps your “anti-Lincoln” metaphor expands to secession and another Civil War run by an idiot rather than a patriot. I, and I am sure many fellow Americans do not want to be a part of such a foul, rogue nation. I do not want my taxes supporting such disregard for the sovereignty of other nations.
In 1776, we fought a revolution against unchecked imperial diktat and now we seemingly are surrendering without firing a shot. The Republic is dead… long live the Republics. If Congress refuses to represent and protect the “will of the people”, then the nation no longer exists and new alternatives must take form as hosts for the spirit of democracy. It would be a shame for such a noble vision to meet such an ignoble death.
Reality is a harsh, sobering concept. We, the People, have a lot to learn from this catastrophic presidency.
1) Citizens cannot be complacent about who they put in offices of power.
2) The People must have a balanced SCOTUS, or else we have the blatant shit that has occurred due to the biases of partisanship currently evidenced in SCOTUS.
3. Our so-called system of swift justice is bullshit when it comes to people of great affluence. Trump should have gone on trial for the crimes he committed and not had the right of appeal after appeal. Justice delayed is justice denied.
Our Congress, that is the Republican House and Senate, is so blatantly pathologic when it comes to morality that we have welcomed enemies of the people into our house. Now we have Trump & ass-kissers given full reign to murder, steal and destroy until Nov 26, assuming that we will have legitimate elections. We, The People, have really fucked up. We put acquisition of stuff as more important before educating our young. We have been consumed by Consumerism as our religion, then about LUV (Legacy, Unity, Vision).
We say we are a Christian nation. To that, I say "bullshit." We are a nation of hypocrites.
If this is Christianity, then it is a form of hypochrisy (intentional misspelling).
Oh, let’s not forget about the special interest money flooding the election process. The last presidential election cost around $15 billion! That certainly wasn’t money well spent from the view of the average American. Citizens United must be legislated away.
Good point and this is a big reason why the democrats need to get a majority in Congress and apply the constitutional checks they were elected to do . Control of the House is almost certainly gonna happen but if the abuse continues then the Senate might be flipped too 🤞
I need to emphasize issues warranting your ongoing need for scrutiny.
1. Trump's actions will enable Xi Jinping to gobble up Taiwan and Putin to grab Ukraine. Our Dictator abets other dictators of great strength will taking out lesser dictators like Maduro.
2. The mainstream media, for reasons that defy commonsense, miss the point of Trump's waging war on Venezuela. It's SUTTON'S Law. Willie Sutton, the famous bank robber who was caught and escaped, and then caught again many times was asked: Willie, you have spent more than half of your adult life in prison, why do you rob banks. “That’s where the money is.” replied Sutton.
3. mainstream media pundits who talk about Trump's unauthorized invasion of Venezuela call it a beautiful operation, one highly efficient. Maybe they should have described the destruction of human life and property and further pollution of our atmosphere during the US-supported Israeli genocide in Gaza. "It sure was the epitome of efficiency." Yep, just like the Nazi's gas chambers. Really efficient. How have we allowed ourselves to be subjected to such utter defiling of what is moral and right from the "beautiful killing of others" or the "superb operation of our military." How disgusting has it become to confess to being an American? What hath Trump wrought to bring this nation to its knees? How pathetic are we? This is no democracy when its supposed democratic citizenry does not rise up against such tyranny and evil.
4. How far removed are so many Americans from reality to think that such a despotic and fucked up psyche like Trump and the GOP Congress will allow a fair midterm when power and money are at stake? Are so many Americans that far removed from history. You have empowered the American Hitler. Americans are now the German citizens of the Third Reich. Do you not see this? Another No Kings march won't do shit unless hundreds of millions of Americans line the streets, and are willing to risk their lives for freedom from tyranny. I won't bet on this.
These are Lincoln's words:
"With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation[']s wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow and his orphan - to do all which may achieve and cherish a just, and a lasting peace among ourselves, and with all nations[.]"
Yes, Mike is spot on. Trump is the anti-Lincoln. And Trump is the anti-Christ that defiles the heartfulness and love that true Christianity is all about. Truly we have elected a DIC: Devil-In-Chief.
"Know a man by his deeds." Well, the American public seemed to have missed that Sunday school lesson. Each of us has our modus operandi or OS (operating system). What is Trump's OS?
• Money. Take the money and accrue wealth. Aspire to be the wealthiest man that ever lived. Make your daddy proud, because that was his MO. So, self-aggrandizement through immoral, unethical ambition, and avarice.
• Emulate Putin. Trump is a Russian operative in all that he does. He could be a Manchurian candidate, but forget that. What he, Trump, is doing plays perfectly into the hands of Putin. Putin grabs land and murders people, so Trump does the same. Trump deflects the focus of the world away from Ukraine, so Putin can have his way with Ukraine. What ever happened to the Budapest Memorandum of 1994. How the fuck did the world forget the promises made by Russia regarding Ukraine giving up its nuclear arsenal? WTF is wrong with our Congress to allow Trump to deny the aid needed for the Ukrainians. How many lives has Trump ended via deaths in Ukraine or 20,000 Ukrainian children kidnapped by Russia. Christians my ass.
• Destroy Our Great Experiment (DOGE). Yes, start off with Elon Musk and allow him to create destruction in our government. Then, slowly, violate the shit out of the US Constitution while Congress picks its nose and does nothing. Only when the People finally see their country becoming a "shit-hole" nation is there now rebellion against Trump. But Trump is pumping epinephrine into the military with the plan that the military will side with Trump against the American people. Mark these words. We are now the Germans, the German people, that is. We will see how powerful we are, or we are not, as Trump uses military forces to overcome American citizens. Watch as more and more assets, yours and mine, are diverted into Trump's pockets.
As for Lincoln, don't be surprised if the Lincoln Memorial becomes the Trump-Lincoln Memorial and then the Trump Memorial, with Abe's statue gone and a golden Trump statue replacing Abe. As crazy as this sounds, don't you think where we are right now, on 1/4/26, is beyond anything you would have remotely considered, and thought crazy if someone told you 5 years ago, where we would be right now?
Other predictions:
The world will stand by as Putin grabs much of Ukraine and then eventually kills off any rivals and take back the entire country. Then who knows next what nation will fall next.
Good read, Mike. I'm interested in your response to the following perspective?
The second US Constitution (1787 convention deliverables plus an arbitrary subset of later amendments) is conventionally regarded as a legal document set, with chaotic political implications. My view is it's a political compromise agreement, creating a permanent power struggle between four (five, if you count Congress as two) sources of political authority, with chaotic legal implications. Because within an equity plus common law (as distinct from civil law) legal framework, the constitution means whatever the Supreme Court du jour wishes it to mean, in effect varying according to current (usually "cultural" and recently ideological) conventions. This parallels the way it works in all other Anglo-American common law jurisdictions, regardless of attempts at constitutional codification. Arguably Hilary J's view in 1345 [1], that the rule of law amounts to no more than the will of the justices, is persistent.
(as a side note, arguably the greater Article 3 powers awarded to SCOTUS allowed it to resist modern constitution-hacking methods for an extra decade or two, compared to other common law jurisdictions. Thus I've wondered for many years how the USA could avoid being hacked. Since 2001 my answer slowly has emerged all by itself :(...)
[1] Waldron 2002 [“Is the Rule of Law an Essentially Contested Concept (In Florida)?”]: 6 note 32 ‘Legal historian A.W.B. Simpson tells the story of what he says must have been “a rather slack day” in the Court of Common Pleas in 1345: “[C]ounsel raised the question of how courts should discharge their function under the Rule of Law, arguing that if they did not do as they had done in the past nobody would know what the law was. This provoked a judge called Hilary ... to tell him what the law was: ‘It is the will of the justices.’ Stonore, another judge, was obviously rather shocked by this, and emphatically contradicted him: ‘Not at all; law is reason.’” - See A.W.B. Simpson, Invitation to Law (Oxford: Blackwell, 1988) p. 189. (I am obliged to Carl W. Herstein, “Real Property,” Wayne Law Review, 46 (2000) 1037, at p. 1042n, for this reference.’
This is a good challenge. You're right that the Constitution is political compromise creating permanent power struggle, not static legal code with determinate meaning. And you're right that "rule of law" often reduces to "what judges say it is" rather than Platonic reason discovered through interpretation.
But this supports rather than undermines the Lincoln/Trump distinction.
Lincoln operated within the framework of contested authority. He expanded executive power, Congress checked him (or didn't), courts reviewed (or didn't), and he submitted to election that could remove him. The constitutional meaning was contested *through the mechanisms the Constitution provides for contesting it.* That's the power struggle working as designed.
Trump operates outside that framework. When courts rule against him, he declares them illegitimate. When Congress investigates, he refuses subpoenas and claims absolute immunity. When elections constrain him, he claims fraud and attempts to prevent certification. He's not contesting constitutional meaning through constitutional process—he's rejecting the contestation mechanism itself.
Your sophisticated realism about constitutional meaning actually strengthens the case for defending constitutional process. If law is ultimately political rather than discovered reason, then *how* we struggle over power matters even more. The framework structures that struggle. Without it, political contestation becomes Hobbesian war—whoever has force wins, no procedure, no accountability, no peaceful alternation of power.
Lincoln understood this: preserve the framework that makes constitutional struggle possible. Trump doesn't care: eliminate constraints that prevent him from doing what he wants. The post-2001 immunity gap you saw coming is exactly this—executive power operating outside the separation-of-powers structure that makes contestation possible.
So yes, the Constitution means whatever current justices/politicians/citizens say it means through ongoing political struggle. That's precisely why defending the mechanisms for that struggle—Article I war powers, judicial review, elections, statutory remedies for violations—is the only alternative to force.
Mike, I'm grateful to you for such a thoughtful and clear response.
Many thanks for closing off one issue that for brevity I hadn't raised ("Lincoln operated within the framework of contested authority. He expanded executive power, Congress checked him (*or didn't*), courts reviewed (*or didn't*)"); and for something I hadn't until now considered ("If law is ultimately political rather than discovered reason, then *how* we struggle over power matters even more"). I remain concerned that, necessarily, the "mechanisms" in need of defense are also subject to judicial interpretation/construction, but I won't pursue the issue until I've researched and thought a bit. Much food for thought!
Lincoln suspended habeas corpus, jailed political opponents, censored newspapers, and ruled by decree, claiming the crisis justified ignoring the Constitution. He bypassed Congress, centralized power in the executive, and set a precedent that emergencies excuse unlimited authority. By doing all this, he didn’t preserve constitutional government—he replaced it with rule by executive fiat. The logic he used then is the same logic used by modern presidents to expand power: claiming unique circumstances, concentrating authority, and leaving the office stronger and less constrained than before.
Trump’s attack on Venezuela and the abduction of Maduro and his wife for prosecution likely isn’t merely part of a spontaneous or ill-conceived oil grab. All of the authoritarian and antidemocratic issues currently playing out in America notwithstanding - as the destruction of our democracy is merely an early casualty and one aspect of a larger plan - this is likely the first of many aggressions on the way to establishing American dominion in a new tripartite world order.
The Venezuelan invasion is astoundingly Putinesque. Part of a long-term but accelerating strategy to carve up the world into three primary spheres: Russia gets Ukraine and as much of Europe as it can take while Trump’s Amerika sits idly by, withdraws troops, and cuts deals for a share; China gets Asia, including Taiwan, maybe the subcontinent and Japan(?), as Amerika again cuts deals to stay away or to also get a piece of the take; and Amerika gets Central and South America - maybe Greenland and Canada? Watch Trump’s wealth further explode as he uses tariffs, financial tools, surveillance technology, and our military to extort bribes and tokens from whoever will pay for protection and from Russia and China in exchange for Amerika looking the other way. Meanwhile, his broligarchs will be relatively unfettered (and aided by our military muscle) to plunder the oil, rare minerals, and other resources of not only Venezuela but of whatever nation next succumbs (Greenland seems high on Trump’s wish list) - so long as they continue to pay Trump, Inc. to play.
What may be unfolding in America could be the modern equivalent of 1453 Constantinople, a massive shift in the poles of world power, except that the Saracens - who are Trump and the MAGA Republican donor class (the tech and other oligarchs), the actual “enemy within” as foretold by Trump’s projection of same onto Democrats - were already inside and didn’t need trebuchets and cannons to breach walls. We are seeing a seismic shift of power away from America-Europe/NATO (like the once impregnable Constantinople) to Amerika-China-Russia. Our Saracens just needed a few decades of Fox News, social media platforms with Kremlin and Chinese influencers, and an ignorant and angry swath of voters - including reliable evangelicals who’ve been conditioned to believe Jesus was a warrior and that America is a Christian nation under ideological siege.
Is Trump a Kremlin agent? Yes, though perhaps an unwitting one. As Putin and his psyche profilers have long understood Trump’s malignant narcissistic sociopathy and his strong affinity for despots, it was no stretch to flatter him, to stoke his Putin envy and emulation, and to use his insatiable self-interest and raging id to manipulate him to trash America’s alliances, economy (see tariffs, defunding of scientific research and academia, $100k for H-1b visas), and institutions, and to gain his support for this new tripartite world order. And because the world’s oligarchs - whether in America, Russia or China - do not like political boundaries or any diffusion or diminution of their immense wealth and power through democratic norms or other constraints, their recruitment to the Trump MAGA cause, and their participation in a new tripartite world order where their immense wealth will further multiply, has been a no-brainer...
I could be a deluded conspiracist and completely off the mark with this “new tripartite world order” thing. Trump’s destruction of America could really be making us great again, and the Venezuelan decapitation could really be about spreading democracy and liberating the downtrodden and oppressed… But nah, I’m thinking that getting us to believe this has been the real conspiracy…
This makes me incredibly sad. In fact the more that I read articles that others have posted, the more I realize how much we need Congress right now. Then I realized that we really do need to mandate that our children learn Civics again. I now feel like they stopped teaching that in purpose.
It seems we are simply hanging by a thin thread as this latest affront on our constitution —attacking Venezuela—and our rights as citizens to be represented in this republic are no longer working anymore (mainly because Congress and scotus have abandoned us.)
I’ve had to reel in my emotional response to this, to focus on paying attention, listening to the words of the war mongers and let them pass through me with as little shock wave as possible. Like an earthquake rattling loudly and shifting the ground we walk on and yet we have to dodge, keep our senses intact and keep our physical balance as debris and matter unload all around is.
Saturday was the “shock and awe” of psychological and emotional warfare on the people of our country.
Thank you Mike. This is Reality that you write of. And the historical comparisons between the anti-Lincoln and #16 helps to clarify it.
And I'll bet you wouldn't understand how obnoxious non-Americans find that last sentence of yours. The rest of the world is not there for the convenience of the US.
The preservation versus elimination framing cuts through the usual both-sides debate on executive power. What resonated was the distinction between submiting to accountability while using emergency powers versus using emergencys as pretext to escape accountability. I saw this pattern during the COVID debates where some leaders used crisis to strengthen oversight mechanisms while others dismantled them, dunno if constitutional frameworks survive when "good outcomes" becomes the justifcation for procedural bypass.
“This requires constitutional response. Now.
Congress must immediately assert Article I war powers. This is why we demand that primary candidates commit to using Congress’s full constitutional authority. Demand authorization vote. Refuse appropriations for Venezuelan occupation. Censure the President for constitutional violation. Use inherent contempt power to detain executive officials who defy Congressional authority. Impeach if he refuses to yield to constitutional process.”
I am gobsmacked at both Trump’s audacity and Congress’s complacency. Will this be the crisis that causes them to again fully participate in governing our nation or, perhaps your “anti-Lincoln” metaphor expands to secession and another Civil War run by an idiot rather than a patriot. I, and I am sure many fellow Americans do not want to be a part of such a foul, rogue nation. I do not want my taxes supporting such disregard for the sovereignty of other nations.
In 1776, we fought a revolution against unchecked imperial diktat and now we seemingly are surrendering without firing a shot. The Republic is dead… long live the Republics. If Congress refuses to represent and protect the “will of the people”, then the nation no longer exists and new alternatives must take form as hosts for the spirit of democracy. It would be a shame for such a noble vision to meet such an ignoble death.
Reality is a harsh, sobering concept. We, the People, have a lot to learn from this catastrophic presidency.
1) Citizens cannot be complacent about who they put in offices of power.
2) The People must have a balanced SCOTUS, or else we have the blatant shit that has occurred due to the biases of partisanship currently evidenced in SCOTUS.
3. Our so-called system of swift justice is bullshit when it comes to people of great affluence. Trump should have gone on trial for the crimes he committed and not had the right of appeal after appeal. Justice delayed is justice denied.
Our Congress, that is the Republican House and Senate, is so blatantly pathologic when it comes to morality that we have welcomed enemies of the people into our house. Now we have Trump & ass-kissers given full reign to murder, steal and destroy until Nov 26, assuming that we will have legitimate elections. We, The People, have really fucked up. We put acquisition of stuff as more important before educating our young. We have been consumed by Consumerism as our religion, then about LUV (Legacy, Unity, Vision).
We say we are a Christian nation. To that, I say "bullshit." We are a nation of hypocrites.
If this is Christianity, then it is a form of hypochrisy (intentional misspelling).
wiresouth.com/zk73nb
Oh, let’s not forget about the special interest money flooding the election process. The last presidential election cost around $15 billion! That certainly wasn’t money well spent from the view of the average American. Citizens United must be legislated away.
Good point and this is a big reason why the democrats need to get a majority in Congress and apply the constitutional checks they were elected to do . Control of the House is almost certainly gonna happen but if the abuse continues then the Senate might be flipped too 🤞
The midterms are a year away. Action must be initiated now to slow the onslaught of authoritarianism. MAGA never sleeps…
Biden sure did, while the country was over run.
Raping Gaddafi with a bayonet was ok with you? Just checking.
I need to emphasize issues warranting your ongoing need for scrutiny.
1. Trump's actions will enable Xi Jinping to gobble up Taiwan and Putin to grab Ukraine. Our Dictator abets other dictators of great strength will taking out lesser dictators like Maduro.
2. The mainstream media, for reasons that defy commonsense, miss the point of Trump's waging war on Venezuela. It's SUTTON'S Law. Willie Sutton, the famous bank robber who was caught and escaped, and then caught again many times was asked: Willie, you have spent more than half of your adult life in prison, why do you rob banks. “That’s where the money is.” replied Sutton.
3. mainstream media pundits who talk about Trump's unauthorized invasion of Venezuela call it a beautiful operation, one highly efficient. Maybe they should have described the destruction of human life and property and further pollution of our atmosphere during the US-supported Israeli genocide in Gaza. "It sure was the epitome of efficiency." Yep, just like the Nazi's gas chambers. Really efficient. How have we allowed ourselves to be subjected to such utter defiling of what is moral and right from the "beautiful killing of others" or the "superb operation of our military." How disgusting has it become to confess to being an American? What hath Trump wrought to bring this nation to its knees? How pathetic are we? This is no democracy when its supposed democratic citizenry does not rise up against such tyranny and evil.
4. How far removed are so many Americans from reality to think that such a despotic and fucked up psyche like Trump and the GOP Congress will allow a fair midterm when power and money are at stake? Are so many Americans that far removed from history. You have empowered the American Hitler. Americans are now the German citizens of the Third Reich. Do you not see this? Another No Kings march won't do shit unless hundreds of millions of Americans line the streets, and are willing to risk their lives for freedom from tyranny. I won't bet on this.
These are Lincoln's words:
"With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation[']s wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow and his orphan - to do all which may achieve and cherish a just, and a lasting peace among ourselves, and with all nations[.]"
Yes, Mike is spot on. Trump is the anti-Lincoln. And Trump is the anti-Christ that defiles the heartfulness and love that true Christianity is all about. Truly we have elected a DIC: Devil-In-Chief.
"Know a man by his deeds." Well, the American public seemed to have missed that Sunday school lesson. Each of us has our modus operandi or OS (operating system). What is Trump's OS?
• Money. Take the money and accrue wealth. Aspire to be the wealthiest man that ever lived. Make your daddy proud, because that was his MO. So, self-aggrandizement through immoral, unethical ambition, and avarice.
• Emulate Putin. Trump is a Russian operative in all that he does. He could be a Manchurian candidate, but forget that. What he, Trump, is doing plays perfectly into the hands of Putin. Putin grabs land and murders people, so Trump does the same. Trump deflects the focus of the world away from Ukraine, so Putin can have his way with Ukraine. What ever happened to the Budapest Memorandum of 1994. How the fuck did the world forget the promises made by Russia regarding Ukraine giving up its nuclear arsenal? WTF is wrong with our Congress to allow Trump to deny the aid needed for the Ukrainians. How many lives has Trump ended via deaths in Ukraine or 20,000 Ukrainian children kidnapped by Russia. Christians my ass.
• Destroy Our Great Experiment (DOGE). Yes, start off with Elon Musk and allow him to create destruction in our government. Then, slowly, violate the shit out of the US Constitution while Congress picks its nose and does nothing. Only when the People finally see their country becoming a "shit-hole" nation is there now rebellion against Trump. But Trump is pumping epinephrine into the military with the plan that the military will side with Trump against the American people. Mark these words. We are now the Germans, the German people, that is. We will see how powerful we are, or we are not, as Trump uses military forces to overcome American citizens. Watch as more and more assets, yours and mine, are diverted into Trump's pockets.
As for Lincoln, don't be surprised if the Lincoln Memorial becomes the Trump-Lincoln Memorial and then the Trump Memorial, with Abe's statue gone and a golden Trump statue replacing Abe. As crazy as this sounds, don't you think where we are right now, on 1/4/26, is beyond anything you would have remotely considered, and thought crazy if someone told you 5 years ago, where we would be right now?
Other predictions:
The world will stand by as Putin grabs much of Ukraine and then eventually kills off any rivals and take back the entire country. Then who knows next what nation will fall next.
Good read, Mike. I'm interested in your response to the following perspective?
The second US Constitution (1787 convention deliverables plus an arbitrary subset of later amendments) is conventionally regarded as a legal document set, with chaotic political implications. My view is it's a political compromise agreement, creating a permanent power struggle between four (five, if you count Congress as two) sources of political authority, with chaotic legal implications. Because within an equity plus common law (as distinct from civil law) legal framework, the constitution means whatever the Supreme Court du jour wishes it to mean, in effect varying according to current (usually "cultural" and recently ideological) conventions. This parallels the way it works in all other Anglo-American common law jurisdictions, regardless of attempts at constitutional codification. Arguably Hilary J's view in 1345 [1], that the rule of law amounts to no more than the will of the justices, is persistent.
(as a side note, arguably the greater Article 3 powers awarded to SCOTUS allowed it to resist modern constitution-hacking methods for an extra decade or two, compared to other common law jurisdictions. Thus I've wondered for many years how the USA could avoid being hacked. Since 2001 my answer slowly has emerged all by itself :(...)
[1] Waldron 2002 [“Is the Rule of Law an Essentially Contested Concept (In Florida)?”]: 6 note 32 ‘Legal historian A.W.B. Simpson tells the story of what he says must have been “a rather slack day” in the Court of Common Pleas in 1345: “[C]ounsel raised the question of how courts should discharge their function under the Rule of Law, arguing that if they did not do as they had done in the past nobody would know what the law was. This provoked a judge called Hilary ... to tell him what the law was: ‘It is the will of the justices.’ Stonore, another judge, was obviously rather shocked by this, and emphatically contradicted him: ‘Not at all; law is reason.’” - See A.W.B. Simpson, Invitation to Law (Oxford: Blackwell, 1988) p. 189. (I am obliged to Carl W. Herstein, “Real Property,” Wayne Law Review, 46 (2000) 1037, at p. 1042n, for this reference.’
This is a good challenge. You're right that the Constitution is political compromise creating permanent power struggle, not static legal code with determinate meaning. And you're right that "rule of law" often reduces to "what judges say it is" rather than Platonic reason discovered through interpretation.
But this supports rather than undermines the Lincoln/Trump distinction.
Lincoln operated within the framework of contested authority. He expanded executive power, Congress checked him (or didn't), courts reviewed (or didn't), and he submitted to election that could remove him. The constitutional meaning was contested *through the mechanisms the Constitution provides for contesting it.* That's the power struggle working as designed.
Trump operates outside that framework. When courts rule against him, he declares them illegitimate. When Congress investigates, he refuses subpoenas and claims absolute immunity. When elections constrain him, he claims fraud and attempts to prevent certification. He's not contesting constitutional meaning through constitutional process—he's rejecting the contestation mechanism itself.
Your sophisticated realism about constitutional meaning actually strengthens the case for defending constitutional process. If law is ultimately political rather than discovered reason, then *how* we struggle over power matters even more. The framework structures that struggle. Without it, political contestation becomes Hobbesian war—whoever has force wins, no procedure, no accountability, no peaceful alternation of power.
Lincoln understood this: preserve the framework that makes constitutional struggle possible. Trump doesn't care: eliminate constraints that prevent him from doing what he wants. The post-2001 immunity gap you saw coming is exactly this—executive power operating outside the separation-of-powers structure that makes contestation possible.
So yes, the Constitution means whatever current justices/politicians/citizens say it means through ongoing political struggle. That's precisely why defending the mechanisms for that struggle—Article I war powers, judicial review, elections, statutory remedies for violations—is the only alternative to force.
Mike, I'm grateful to you for such a thoughtful and clear response.
Many thanks for closing off one issue that for brevity I hadn't raised ("Lincoln operated within the framework of contested authority. He expanded executive power, Congress checked him (*or didn't*), courts reviewed (*or didn't*)"); and for something I hadn't until now considered ("If law is ultimately political rather than discovered reason, then *how* we struggle over power matters even more"). I remain concerned that, necessarily, the "mechanisms" in need of defense are also subject to judicial interpretation/construction, but I won't pursue the issue until I've researched and thought a bit. Much food for thought!
Lincoln suspended habeas corpus, jailed political opponents, censored newspapers, and ruled by decree, claiming the crisis justified ignoring the Constitution. He bypassed Congress, centralized power in the executive, and set a precedent that emergencies excuse unlimited authority. By doing all this, he didn’t preserve constitutional government—he replaced it with rule by executive fiat. The logic he used then is the same logic used by modern presidents to expand power: claiming unique circumstances, concentrating authority, and leaving the office stronger and less constrained than before.
Trump’s attack on Venezuela and the abduction of Maduro and his wife for prosecution likely isn’t merely part of a spontaneous or ill-conceived oil grab. All of the authoritarian and antidemocratic issues currently playing out in America notwithstanding - as the destruction of our democracy is merely an early casualty and one aspect of a larger plan - this is likely the first of many aggressions on the way to establishing American dominion in a new tripartite world order.
The Venezuelan invasion is astoundingly Putinesque. Part of a long-term but accelerating strategy to carve up the world into three primary spheres: Russia gets Ukraine and as much of Europe as it can take while Trump’s Amerika sits idly by, withdraws troops, and cuts deals for a share; China gets Asia, including Taiwan, maybe the subcontinent and Japan(?), as Amerika again cuts deals to stay away or to also get a piece of the take; and Amerika gets Central and South America - maybe Greenland and Canada? Watch Trump’s wealth further explode as he uses tariffs, financial tools, surveillance technology, and our military to extort bribes and tokens from whoever will pay for protection and from Russia and China in exchange for Amerika looking the other way. Meanwhile, his broligarchs will be relatively unfettered (and aided by our military muscle) to plunder the oil, rare minerals, and other resources of not only Venezuela but of whatever nation next succumbs (Greenland seems high on Trump’s wish list) - so long as they continue to pay Trump, Inc. to play.
What may be unfolding in America could be the modern equivalent of 1453 Constantinople, a massive shift in the poles of world power, except that the Saracens - who are Trump and the MAGA Republican donor class (the tech and other oligarchs), the actual “enemy within” as foretold by Trump’s projection of same onto Democrats - were already inside and didn’t need trebuchets and cannons to breach walls. We are seeing a seismic shift of power away from America-Europe/NATO (like the once impregnable Constantinople) to Amerika-China-Russia. Our Saracens just needed a few decades of Fox News, social media platforms with Kremlin and Chinese influencers, and an ignorant and angry swath of voters - including reliable evangelicals who’ve been conditioned to believe Jesus was a warrior and that America is a Christian nation under ideological siege.
Is Trump a Kremlin agent? Yes, though perhaps an unwitting one. As Putin and his psyche profilers have long understood Trump’s malignant narcissistic sociopathy and his strong affinity for despots, it was no stretch to flatter him, to stoke his Putin envy and emulation, and to use his insatiable self-interest and raging id to manipulate him to trash America’s alliances, economy (see tariffs, defunding of scientific research and academia, $100k for H-1b visas), and institutions, and to gain his support for this new tripartite world order. And because the world’s oligarchs - whether in America, Russia or China - do not like political boundaries or any diffusion or diminution of their immense wealth and power through democratic norms or other constraints, their recruitment to the Trump MAGA cause, and their participation in a new tripartite world order where their immense wealth will further multiply, has been a no-brainer...
I could be a deluded conspiracist and completely off the mark with this “new tripartite world order” thing. Trump’s destruction of America could really be making us great again, and the Venezuelan decapitation could really be about spreading democracy and liberating the downtrodden and oppressed… But nah, I’m thinking that getting us to believe this has been the real conspiracy…
This makes me incredibly sad. In fact the more that I read articles that others have posted, the more I realize how much we need Congress right now. Then I realized that we really do need to mandate that our children learn Civics again. I now feel like they stopped teaching that in purpose.
Congress is AWOL.
It seems we are simply hanging by a thin thread as this latest affront on our constitution —attacking Venezuela—and our rights as citizens to be represented in this republic are no longer working anymore (mainly because Congress and scotus have abandoned us.)
I’ve had to reel in my emotional response to this, to focus on paying attention, listening to the words of the war mongers and let them pass through me with as little shock wave as possible. Like an earthquake rattling loudly and shifting the ground we walk on and yet we have to dodge, keep our senses intact and keep our physical balance as debris and matter unload all around is.
Saturday was the “shock and awe” of psychological and emotional warfare on the people of our country.
Thank you Mike. This is Reality that you write of. And the historical comparisons between the anti-Lincoln and #16 helps to clarify it.
And now, Democrats will defend narco dictators and China, Russia and Iran in our backyard. Nice.
Are you accusing me of defending dictators?
I'm trying to understand the criticism of Trump's actions when there was little criticism of Obama killing Kaddafi and destroying Libya.
Venezuela is a clear point of interest to the US and reestablishing the Monroe Doctrine seems eminently reasonable.
What does this have to do with anything I wrote?
And I'll bet you wouldn't understand how obnoxious non-Americans find that last sentence of yours. The rest of the world is not there for the convenience of the US.
The corallary is that they also should not become a pestilence to the US.
https://bsky.app/profile/cristianfarias.com/post/3mbjlwkmb6c24
Further to this, this article's headline, from the point of view of everyone outside the US, is backwards.
Trump is not the anti-Lincoln, as if Lincoln were normal and Trump the aberration.
Lincoln is the anti-Trump, because we must assume that Trump is normal and Lincoln was the aberration.
Not because we want to, but because we have to.
Because "we will never fucking trust you again".
https://www.readtheline.ca/p/matt-gurney-we-will-never-fucking
The preservation versus elimination framing cuts through the usual both-sides debate on executive power. What resonated was the distinction between submiting to accountability while using emergency powers versus using emergencys as pretext to escape accountability. I saw this pattern during the COVID debates where some leaders used crisis to strengthen oversight mechanisms while others dismantled them, dunno if constitutional frameworks survive when "good outcomes" becomes the justifcation for procedural bypass.
I wish impeachment was an option… hmm how about good old fashioned lynchin???? 😂😟😎🙈😍☎️🥵