Tag: Constitution

Featured

Election Day Chaos: The Political Climate Crisis and the Top 10 Constitutional Remedies

By: Jeffrey Winograd

Election Day is on the doorstep and the related political climate crisis is threatening to overwhelm the American social fabric.

The Congressional Research Service (Election Day: Frequently Asked Questions) describes Election Day as “the day legally established for the general election of federal public officials: President, Vice President, and U.S. Congress.”

It is obvious that Election Day in America has been hijacked by the various states. “State and local elections are often, but not always, held on the same day as federal elections,” according to the CRS.

In fact, Election Day, as now practiced, is a misnomer of epic proportions – better to call it Election Weeks. The result is that more than 100 election lawsuits that impact the conduct of federal elections are now on court dockets across the country.

Typical Election Issues Circa 2022  

Looking at the United States from outside its borders, it must be unimaginable to view a laundry list of issues that continue to overwhelm the judiciary in various jurisdictions.

The issues contributing to the chaos run the gamut from requiring photo identification to signature matching to the use of unregulated drop boxes for ballots.

No wonder there are so many Americans who have been labelled “election sceptics.”

The Constitutional Fix

While the Constitution and federal statutes provide a structure for elections and voting in the United States, election administration is primarily a state responsibility, explains the CRS.

A second CRS publication (Campaign and Election Security Policy: Brief Introduction) delves a bit further and, as if by magic, emerges a golden constitutional nugget: “The U.S. Constitution and federal statute regulate the division of governmental responsibility for election security, although no statute is devoted specifically to the topic. Most broadly, the Constitution’s Elections Clause assigns states with setting the ‘Times, Places and Manner’ for House and Senate elections, and also permits Congress to “at any time…make or alter such Regulations” (Art. I, §4). [Emphasis Added]

It would seem that, if projections on the eve of Election Day are accurate, the Republican Party is likely to be the majority in both the Senate and House of Representatives.

Consequently, the GOP can claim “ownership” of the issue and deliver a comprehensive package of federal election reforms for delivery to the White House for signature.

Top 10 Fixes

A series of bicameral legislative hearings could produce a comprehensive package of reforms that would withstand any constitutional challenges and progressive Democratic claims of racism and other bogus issues.

Take a look and even compile your own Top 10:

#1 Establish a 3-day period named Election Days, running from a Sunday through the following Tuesday, with no early voting except via restricted absentee ballots.

#2 Valid photo identification is a must with provisions to give low-income citizens, regardless of race, such identification.

#3 Given the open border in the south, proof of citizenship is essential. Passports and birth certificates (along with a photo ID) are common-sense possibilities with others to be added.

#4 Mail-in ballots and absentee ballots only for cause and with 100% signature matching by humans.

#5 Drop boxes for ballots must be restricted, regulated and placed at secure locations.

#6 Specific standards for voting machines must be established and enforced.

#7 Ballot harvesting must be prohibited.

#8 Ballot counting timeframes and procedures must be established and enforced.

#9 So-called ballot curing must be prohibited unless carefully regulated.

#10 No voter registration on Election Days.

Pennsylvania Calamities

The argument for restricted early voting is best made by the unfortunate case of John Fetterman’s candidacy for the Senate. Most fair-minded persons among those who have already voted for him would now likely want to reclaim their vote.

And then there is a significant ballot counting issue that has been festering in the Keystone state for more than two years. Read about it at the risk of winding up totally confused.

-30-

Featured

Democrats Are Strangling The Constitution

By: Jeffrey Winograd

Events over that past month or so have cast a dark shadow over American democracy and history will eventually place the blame squarely on the Democrats, albeit with help from some Republicans.

What took place on Capitol Hill on January 6 was a totally transparent view of American citizens clearly exercising their lawful rights under the First Amendment to the Constitution which states:

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.”

Those happenings are clearly separate and distinct from what occurred inside the Capitol.

It was the unfortunate invasion of the Capitol itself, which with just a modicum of proper security measures would never have happened, that has been distorted beyond recognition to suit what is likely to play out as an un-American, unprecedented and naked political stranglehold.

Here are some occurrences that cannot be distorted to fit a Democratic narrative and have the potential to topple the constitutional order carefully crafted by our Founding Fathers.

Override of Trump Veto

In his veto message to the House of Representatives for H.R. 6395, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021, President Trump cited the failure of Congress to either repeal or “even make any meaningful changes” to Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.

While stressing the national security aspects of Section 230, Trump certainly had another issue in mind.

As generally understood, with this provision intact, Big Tech – Twitter, Facebook, Google and Apple – can exercise unfettered power to censor and even ban the use of their services without any legal consequences.

Events over the past 72 hours make clear the implications to the First Amendment rights of free speech and a free press.

Twitter and Facebook ban the president of the United States! Amazon is about to deny its computer services to Parler, which is a growing alternative to Twitter now favored by conservatives! Apple and Google has suddenly denied access to the Parler app which was still available to this reporter on the afternoon of January 10! (Here is an informative article).

Both the House of Representatives and the Senate voted to override the presidential veto, an act which required bipartisan support of at least two-thirds of both bodies.

Pelosi Plays Nuclear Football

On January 7, the octogenarian Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), speaker of the House of Representatives, expressed her outrage over the invasion of the “temple of our democracy.”

In a written message to fellow House Democrats, Pelosi, Washington’s top unpaid lobbyist for the plastic surgery industry, called on Vice President Pence “to remove the President by immediately invoking the 25th Amendment” to the Constitution.

Pelosi also threatened impeachment of President Trump which “is the overwhelming sentiment of my caucus, and the American people, by the way.”

She went on to accuse Trump of “inciting sedition” and “incitement of insurrection.”

Yes, this is the same Pelosi who, behind the president’s back and in full view of a prime-time national television audience, tore up Trump’s State of the Union message.

Her finale was this:

“Preventing an Unhinged President From Using the Nuclear Codes: This morning, I spoke to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley to discuss available precautions for preventing an unstable president from initiating military hostilities or accessing the launch codes and ordering a nuclear strike. The situation of this unhinged President could not be more dangerous, and we must do everything that we can to protect the American people from his unbalanced assault on our country and our democracy.”

Perhaps Pelosi should remember the principle of civilian control over the military and the words of Article II, Section 2, of the Constitution:

“The President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States.”

Latest Version of Book Burning

“Simon & Schuster has canceled its planned June publication of ‘The Tyranny of Big Tech’ by Sen. Josh Hawley, one of the main drivers in the Republican effort to challenge the Electoral College results that led to the attack on the Capitol on Wednesday,” Publishers Weekly reported on June 8.

Simon & Schuster said it took the action “after witnessing the disturbing, deadly insurrection that took place in Washington, D.C.”

The company added that it had to balance its responsibility as a major publisher to offer a platform for a variety of opinions against its “public responsibility as citizens.”

Translation – Hawley (R-MO) should be silenced because he chose to exercise his constitutional responsibility as a senator pursuant to Article II, Section 1, of the Constitution.

No shrinking violet, Hawley responded via Twitter:

“This could not be more Orwellian. Simon & Shuster is cancelling my contract because I was representing my constituents, leading a debate on the Senate floor on voter integrity, which they have now decided to redefine as sedition. Let me be clear, this is not just a contract dispute. It’s a direct assault on the First Amendment. Only approved speech can now be published. This is the Left looking to cancel everyone they don’t approve of. I will fight this cancel culture with everything I have. We’ll see you in court.”

Privatizing Elections

It is widely acknowledged that private funding flowed into public election agencies

Is this actually possible or even legal?

Well, if you are head honcho of Facebook, namely Mark Zuckerberg, you can apparently get away with it.

Zuckerberg and his wife, jointly, contributed some $400 million to election agencies.

And now, Facebook cancels or bans those who question the integrity of the 2020 presidential elections.

Creating A New State

Since Election Day, Democrats have been licking their lips but otherwise keeping close-mouthed about negating a provision in Article I, Section 8, of the Constitution in order to expand the Electoral College and gain three more votes.

This provision states that Congress shall have the power:

“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 ….”

In other words, transform the District of Columbia into a new state, with two senators and one representative.

Who will stand in their way?

Utter Silence From Democrats

During a recent interview, Joe Biden had a chance to steer the ship of state back to a constitutional course but chose, in his own inimitable style, to compare Senator Hawley and Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) to the likes of Nazi propaganda guru Joseph Goebbels.

If Hawley and Cruz keep preaching the “big lie” often enough, people will begin to believe them, Biden said.

Just as Goebbels convinced even the American press that 25,00 or 250,000 German civilians died during the World War II allied firebombing of Dresden in 1945, the senators want to keep promoting the big lie of election fraud, he added.

Biden, the soon-to-be leader of the free world, suggested the real number was 250 or 2,500 fatalities but he likely lowballed that figure by at least 15,000.

And, throughout this entire period, not one Democratic senator or congressman publicly acknowledged that there were any possible election-tilting illegalities or irregularities in such states as Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

As they say, you can’t make it up!

                                                          -30-