Sic Semper Tyrannis

Finito Sic Semper Tyrannis

We are done here.  turcopolier.com is working now.  I have cancelled all guest author ships here.  RSS is enabled on the new blog.  Comments will no longer be moderated on SST.  pl

turcopolier.com

My new blog is now public.  available at turcopolier.com  I will be moving all business to that blog shortly.  Authors on the new blog are being notified of their status.  I will leave this one up for a while to enable use of the archive.  pl

Brigadier Farooq Ali has left us.

 

"After the great and good fight, at the age of 92, Brig F.B.Ali has made his final graceful bow, and walked out into the sunset and beyond.

And in so doing, he has left the world a poorer place.

If one were to pick out the finest sons of the land, such a list would be incomplete without the Brigadier being included in it among the very top..

In him intellectual brilliance, moral rectitude, courage of conviction, and professional excellence came together in rare and felicitous harmony.

I first heard of him when an officer, some years my senior, with ill-concealed relief, thanked God for making the GHQ competitive essay "open" again.

Those were the days when there used to be an annual GHQ essay competition in which all officers could participate. For years on end FB won this competition, till at last GHQ decided to "open" the contest by withdrawing FB's right to participate!."

-------------

I will see you at the last jump, brother.  pl 

https://defence.pk/pdf/threads/from-the-vault.656556/page-42#post-12939298

Facebook page closed

I have voluntarily closed my FB page.  I do not want to participate in the censorship circus.  pl

No floor action yet in Congress on an impeachment (updated)

By Robert Willmann

Four impeachment resolutions were filed on 11 January 2021 in the House of Representatives against President Donald Trump :  H.Res. 34 by Maxine Waters with 8 cosponsors, H.Res. 26 by Sheila Jackson Lee with 33 cosponsors, H.Res. 32 by Ilhan Omar with 84 cosponsors, and H.Res. 24 by David Cicilline with 160 cosponsors.  H.Res. 24 seems to be the one getting the most attention [1]. 

The proposed resolution to ask Vice President Mike Pence to start the 25th Amendment's procedure to declare a president incapable of executing the duties of the office has zero cosponsors, and is H.Res. 21, introduced by Jamie Raskin.  An attempt to get unanimous consent to take the resolution to the floor failed.  I think there will not be any floor debate on that one (See update below).

So far today, 12 January, the House has done nothing on any of the resolutions.  This morning it was in session for almost four minutes about electing members to standing committees, and then recessed subject to the call of the Chair [2].

The "Blue Dog Coalition" of 18 Democrats in the House are not Trump supporters but will probably not be in automatic agreement with everything Speaker Nancy Pelosi might want, which may narrow the Democratic majority on some issues [3].  

Careful investigation of the events of 6 January at and around the White House and Capitol building is essential, along with the public release of all videos and images that can be obtained.

UPDATE, 5:27 p.m. central time:  The House is going ahead with a floor debate about H.Res. 21 to suggest to Vice Pres. Pence that he start the process of the 25th Amendment.  It can be seen at the "live" House website at the link below and at c-span.org.

[1]  House Resolution 24, filed on 11 January 2021.

https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-resolution/24/all-info

https://www.congress.gov/117/bills/hres24/BILLS-117hres24ih.pdf

https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-resolution/24/text?format=txt

[2]  https://clerk.house.gov/

https://live.house.gov

[3]  https://bluedogcaucus-costa.house.gov

 

Trump signs the pork-laden spending and covid-19 bill. Maybe a vote to come on more money and section 230.

By Robert Willmann

President Trump has signed the estimated $2.3 trillion Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021.  Its 5,593 double-spaced pages are stuffed with pork to grease domestic and foreign hands in order to get it passed for the piddling $600 for some people in the U.S., and possibly more for some illegal immigrants.  Referred to as House Resolution 133, the copy still sits at the House Committee on Rules.  Divided up into Divisions A-FF, it may be the longest law ever passed by Congress.  Divisions 'M' and 'N' are for "corona virus response and relief"--

https://rules.house.gov/sites/democrats.rules.house.gov/files/BILLS-116HR133SA-RCP-116-68.pdf

Trump is signing H.R. 133 in exchange for promises, instead of getting the promises passed by Congress first, and then signing all the bills at once.  But this was probably done because the government would run out of other people's money on Monday night, 28 December, and some sort of partial government shutdown would then happen [1]. 

When the Internet was getting underway for the general public with slow dialup connections over a telephone line using a modem, some computer technology companies planned for the future and got Congress -- under the name of the Communications Decency Act of 1996 -- to give them legal liability protection like a common carrier and almost as good as a telephone company.  If someone uses a telephone to slander and defame someone, or to plan or carry out crime, the telephone company cannot be sued in a civil lawsuit, nor can it be charged with a crime as a party or co-conspirator, including for such things as robbery and murder.  It is a "common carrier", and acts as a neutral carrier of communications between people, although a phone company does have to abide by laws concerning such things as wiretapping.  The phone companies used to keep your call records private (the "subscriber information"), unless a court order was obtained.  However, after the George W. Bush administration started the illegal domestic surveillance program, it also secretly got the phone companies (except for Qwest) to agree to hand over your calling information in clear violation of the law restricting disclosure without a court order.  Lawsuits were filed because a phone company was liable for $1,000 for each disclosure.  With millions of customers, that added up to billions of dollars, but Congress kneeled down and gave the phone companies retroactive immunity for their misconduct.  Then section 215 of the USA Patriot Act amended the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) to allow easier collection of call-detail records, and the FISA court, operating in secret, was told by the government that everybody's phone metadata was "relevant", and the "judges" went along with it.  This misuse of the statute became well known to the public in 2013.  But the computer tech companies quietly got their own protection starting in 1996 [2].

Electoral College members meet in the states

By Robert Willmann

Congress set a date for presidential electors to meet as "the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December next following their appointment at such place in each State as the legislature of such State shall direct", which is today.  The Electors meet in their separate states and are to vote for president and vice president [1].  But that is not the end of it.  Parts of the U.S. Constitution apply to the Electoral College, and Congress has set out a procedure in Chapter 1 of Title 3 of the U.S. Code [2].  Ultimately, the U.S. Congress is to approve what the Electoral College does.  The photograph above is Congress counting electorial votes in 1917 [3].

Some states may have a live video of the meeting of the electors but might not keep it for later viewing.

Evidence of significant voting fraud exists, with the focus on Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona, and Nevada, but courts have so far refused to allow the preservation and a forensic examination of electronic voting and counting machines in those states.

The Trump administration continues to challenge aspects of the election, as it is indeed not over at this point, even at the conclusion of the meetings of electors.  Today, White House advisor Stephen Miller appeared on the Fox and Friends television program to say that the problem of voting fraud will continue to be contested, and the interview starts at 23 minutes, 41 seconds into the video until 31 min., 20 sec.--

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSRa7ZpUHlM

A quest for the truth is not stopping.

[1]  https://blogs.loc.gov/law/2012/11/the-electoral-college-what-is-it-and-how-does-it-function/

[2] Title 3, U.S. Code, Chapter 1.  Presidential elections and vacancies.

https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?path=/[email protected]/chapter1&edition=prelim

https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/3/chapter-1

[3]  http://loc.gov/pictures/resource/npcc.27677/

 

My memoir, "Tattoo."

It will be available before Christmas.  The trolls should put in a request for extra funds.  pl 

A note to Scott Adams about Supreme Court judges assigned to federal circuits

By Robert Willmann

The creator and writer of the Dilbert comic strip, Scott Adams, has also studied about persuasion, and previously worked for a large company, Pacific Bell telephone.  He recognized the sales techniques that Donald Trump was using in the 2016 presidential election, and predicted that Trump would win.  Adams has also done writing and videos on his Internet website about current and political events. He saw or heard something about the new assignment of individual Supreme Court judges to the different federal appellate court circuits.  Yesterday (21 November), he said, at 12 minutes, 27 seconds into the audio [1]--

"The news is that the circuit courts have been reassigned.  Now, I don't know all the ends and outs of the court system, so I might not have a full understanding of this topic, but I'll try to bluff my way through it.  Uhm, and we're all learning a lot about our government in this process.   So effective immediately, there are four Supreme Court justices assigned to each of four states -- Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Georgia -- to be in charge of the election fraud claims for those states.  This is my understanding of what's happening.  Now, the four justices chosen is the story, right? So here are the Supreme Court justices who might be the deciding people, or at least, you know, the most influential people on whether these four states go to Trump or stay with Biden.  Are you ready?  Here are the names of the four justices:  Brett Kavanaugh, Amy Coney Barrett, Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas.  Do you notice anything that they have in common? ....

"[Starting at 17 min., 12 sec.] Now, if you were the Supreme Court, and that was your greatest interest, to keep the system intact, to keep the credibility of the system intact, and you're asked to judge something that, whichever way it goes, it's gonna be ugly, right?  What do you do?  Well, I'll tell you what I'd do.  I would assign the four most conservative justices, if -- and here's the big part -- if, I believed that Trump would ultimately lose.  That's why I would put four conservative judges on it.  To make sure that if Trump loses, the conservative part of the country says, 'F***, but I trust it'.  See where I'm going?  The Supreme Court needs the conservatives to back down.  The only way it is going to happen is if four super-conservative Supreme Court justices say, 'Look at this people. It's time. It's time.  It's time to to back down. It's time to put Biden in office and deal with it in 2024'.  I think the Supreme Court has just sent the country a big f***ing signal that Trump's not going to get a second term.  And it has nothing to do with the claims, has nothing to do with the lawsuits, has nothing to do with whether the election was or was not fraudulent.  It has everything to do with keeping the country together.  If they were thinking that way, and of course we have to speculate, right?  We can't read anybody's minds ...."

Chet Arthur is president? My God!

Someone supposedly said these words when he learned that President Garfield had died.  I feel much the same way after learning that Joe Biden has been elected by the political analysts at the networks.

I will enjoy watching Juan Williams try to defend this guy on the Five.  

I have decided to postpone my departure decision from SST until 5 January for the purpose of understanding control of the senate.  after that I will decide.  pl

Did President Trump Pull Off The Sting of Two Centuries? by J.

We have all witnessed President Trump both before, and during his Presidency playing level 4 chess with his opponents, as well as dribbling basketball with their brains. 

President Trump is a master of the feign, where he draws his opponents into thinking he is doing this, when in fact he isn't do this, but doing that.  And by the time they realize he had drawn them to the fools court, he was already in another area laying another trap that they wouldn't see coming until they'd fallen right into it.

Such appears to be this Presidential Election, President Trump set out a sting beforehand to ensnare those who would attempt to steal this election.

Infowars guest Steve Pieczenik lays out the groundwork in an interview with Owen Shoryer. 

"According to Pieczenik, President Trump assumed Democrat tomfoolery would be needed to prevent him from securing a second term via the 2020 election.  In order to ensure the election remained fair, POTUS devised an advanced trap.  Hidden, trackable watermarks were allegedly put onto ballots so they could be verified if necessary."

“This is really a sting operation, contrary to what everyone else said,” Pieczenik explained. “We watermarked every ballot with QFS blockchain encryption code. In other words, we know pretty well where every ballot is, where it went and who has it, so this is not a stolen election.”

Steve also said President Trump has been out of the spotlight of the media over the past few days in order to let the Deep State dig its own grave, politically.

Infowars article

QFS Blockchain Encryption Code USPS Patent filed Feb 7 2020

CISA has a graphic showing watermarks are used on election ballots.

President Trump's 2018 Executive Order that allowed DHS to work with election officials in all 50 states and over 1,000 local jurisdictions to secure election systems.

President Trump's June 22 2020 tweet talking about foreign printing of mail in ballots. [I assume he's referring to China.]

J.

Executive authority at SST

Guest authors have no executive authority here at Sic Semper Tyrannis.  In other words, they write articles and comment on their own material if they wish.  They can write comments on other people's material but if they do, I, the Turcopolier, moderate those comments.  Guest authors do not have the authority to ban anyone.  Only I can do that.  pl 

26 million lifetime page views for SST as of today.

26th Cavalry Regiment (PS)

pl

A few days off

pl

Peanuts, suet and bird seed. 8 August 2020

I have a sizable operation going in one corner of the back garden where I feed birds large and small and a collection of squirrels and chipmunks who think it is a normal thing to be fed peanuts every day.

Feel free to make a contribution to my feed operation.  The donation button is in the upper right corner.

All donations are gifts.  They are not fees for service.  You will get nothing in return that you would not get otherwise.

But the act may make you feel good.  pl

SST

I have been talked into continuing with the blog for a while.  pl 

A note of thanks to the trolls

You keep me in the fight.  Thanks.  pl 

"Contextualization" of STT

In the context of the contextualization of monuments in Richmond and the further contextualization of the statue "Appomattox" in Alexandria I have decided to pre-emptively contextualize the ad for my trilogy, "Strike the Tent."  If you wish, you can search the archive for it.pl

25 million lifetime page views for SST

pl

"The Procurator of Judea" Anatole France

   

"Long did I seek her in disreputable alleys and taverns. It was more difficult to learn to do without her than to lose the taste for Greek wine. Some months after I lost sight of her, I learned by chance that she had attached herself to a small company of men and women who were followers of a young Galilean thaumaturgist. His name was Jesus; he came from Nazareth, and he was crucified for some crime, I don’t quite know what. Pontius, do you remember anything about the man?”"  Anatole France

http://turcopolier.typepad.com/the_athenaeum/2015/04/httpfullreadscomliteraturethe-procurator-of-judea.html

PL 

 

The future of SST

SST is MY blog.  It will remain that until I check out of the net.

SST WILL NOT become a vehicle for; clear enemies of the US, vile people who attack others and seek to wound them,  obsessives compulsive about frenzied hysteria such as climate change, Trump, CODIV-19 or any other such scar on the mind pf mankind.

People, some of whom I clearly know, who once kissed my hand and who now come to SST in the hope of injuring me will be eliminated from participation as I identify them.

SST will continue to publish on a wide variety of subject that I, as editor, find interesting.  

If you can abide by my rules, you are welcome here.  If not, go inhabit some other place.  pl

Congress passes a money virus bill while Britain stealthily downgrades COVID-19 as no longer being a high consequence infectious disease

By Robert Willmann

As a social, cultural, and medical episode about a virus becomes more surreal each day, Congress passed a law to spend massive amounts of money the federal government does not have to assist a badly damaged economy the government itself caused -- along with mass media -- by their frantic, fear-generating publicity that emboldened state governors and local mayors to illegally give orders to restrict and shut down the very movement of people and their participation in personal, family, religious, business, and organizational activities, which were previously sustaining their lives and well being.  By failing to fully disclose and discuss publicly the structure and composition of the virus and its physiological effects before taking ham-handed, drastic steps, all levels of government have trapped themselves with no objective criteria and evidence on which to base a return to sane, normal life.

The virus in question is SARS-CoV-2:  Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus 2.  It is alleged to cause an illness called COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019), earlier called 2019-nCoV.

The Senate voted 96-0 to pass the bill at 11:17 p.m. on Wednesday, 25 March.  All laws appropriating money are required to start in the House of Representatives, so the Senate took an existing bill with a different subject relating to appropriations that had earlier passed in the House -- H.R.748 -- and replaced its contents with Senate amendment 1578, which was put into the Congressional Record on pages CR 2063 to 2156--

https://www.congress.gov/116/crec/2020/03/25/CREC-2020-03-25-pt1-PgS2063-3.pdf

Today, Friday, the House passed it by a shifty, and possibly outlaw procedure, bulldozing past Representative Thomas Massie (Repub. Kentucky), who demanded that a quorum be proved and that a recorded vote be taken on the proposed law.  It is not clear at this time exactly what took place within the context of the House rules and the constitution. 

The official version of the Senate bill in the Congressional Record provided above has a small font, appearing as small lettering.  The Senate bill which was passed by the House has 852 pages and is now available with a larger typeface [1].

An experiment in commenting

I will try turning on the comments for a few days to see how people behave.  pl 

No more comments

The commentariat on SST has degenerated into a bickering, backbiting mess.  I have decided to dispense with it.  All Guest Authorships remain in effect.  People who think I might be willing to have them write on SST can write and seek to persuade me to give them a Junior Authorship which will allow them to submit drafts to me for approval.  Some of our old friends here will be very welcome on that basis.  I will need an actual name, a moniker and an e-mail address for such requests to be considered.  pl

Happy New Year World! - 2020

  pl

Happy New Year Australia - 2020

Seeking a guest author

for Virginia government affairs.  pl

Time Off

I am going to take something like ten days off over the period of my eye surgeries.  Sissy?  Sure.  Why not.  If you want me to start up again put some money in the till.  That would be a gift, not a fee.  Otherwise I must say that I have become fatigued with this site and its ever growing troll infestation.  Au revoir!  pl

Re-roofing today and tomorrow

  pl

24 million lifetime page views for SST

pl

A rule about comments and commenters

(Did the check come yet?)

Anyone who wishes to post bitter old folks style comments to the effect that American society and government are frauds should desist from writing comments.  I am not about that and am tired of the BS and will not allow them to be posted.  Guest authors take note.  PL

Off the net

I  had eye surgery today "corneal debridement" and will not be doing much on SST for a few days.  pl

Letters by the complainant and inspector general about the president's phone call to Ukraine

By Robert Willmann

The letter of 12 August 2019 and possibly the entire appendix from the complainant to Congressional Committee chairs about the president's 25 July 2019 telephone call to Ukraine was released, with a few redactions (9 pages)--

https://intelligence.house.gov/uploadedfiles/20190812_-_whistleblower_complaint_unclass.pdf

The letter of 26 August 2019 from the Inspector General of the Intelligence Community to Joseph Maguire, the Acting Director of National Intelligence, about the complainant's letter and appendix, was also released (7 pages)--

https://intelligence.house.gov/uploadedfiles/20190826_-_icig_letter_to_acting_dni_unclass.pdf

Joseph Maguire (Vice Adm., ret.) is testifying before the House Intelligence Committee.

Update, 1:52 p.m.   The complaint was most likely written by a lawyer, or a lawyer helped the person write it.  The main clues are the use of the term "inter alia" on pages 2 and 4, and the wording of footnote 1 on page 2.

Robert C. O'Brien is appointed to be the new National Security Advisor

By Robert Willmann

President Trump appointed Robert C. O'Brien to be the new National Security Advisor.  He is presently the Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs at the U.S. Department of State--

https://www.state.gov/biographies/robert-c-obrien/

Here is some initial material about him.  He has been associated with Mitt Romney and John Bolton for quite a while, and is a Mormon.  He is a lawyer operating primarily out of California in a firm called Larson O'Brien--

https://www.larsonobrienlaw.com/attorney-detail/robert-c-o-brien

Apparently he and Hugh Hewitt, who appears some on television and radio, moved from one law firm to the present one.  Hewitt seems to no longer be in that firm.  But their association has led to interviews of O'Brien by Hewitt. 

O'Brien was a foreign policy advisor to Mitt Romney both times he ran for president.  Other people such as Michael Hayden and Michael Chertoff were also unfortunately advising Romney in 2012.  O'Brien was said to be a foreign policy advisor to Scott Walker and Senator Ted Cruz during the 2016 presidential campaign.  This transcript is from 23 August 2012--

https://www.hughhewitt.com/romney-senior-foreign-policy-advisor-robert-c-obrien/

In 2016 O'Brien wrote a book entitled "While America Slept, Restoring American Leadership to a World in Crisis", published by Encounter Books.  He did around a 12-minute interview on 15 September 2016 with Hewitt about the book, making general comments about policy--

https://www.hughhewitt.com/wp-content/uploads/09-15hhs-obrien.mp3

A 28 March 2018 interview with O'Brien is about John Bolton being made National Security Advisor--

https://www.hughhewitt.com/robert-c-obrien-long-time-colleague-of-ambassador-john-bolton-on-president-trumps-selection-of-bolton-for-the-nsa/

From the type of legal cases he has been involved in, he should have a smoother and more palatable demeanor than John Bolton, but his philosophies are what matter.  We will see how they play out.

 

Alex Acosta let the cat out of the bag: the Justice Department knew all about the Jeffrey Epstein Florida plea deal

By Robert Willmann

A taboo in our culture that is also a crime is sexual contact with a child or young person -- usually less than 17 or 18 years old -- by an adult or older person.  An exception is sexual experimentation during the struggle of adolescence, when the persons are no more than around two or three years apart in age, as long as there is consent. A greater age difference creates the crime often called "statutory rape", in which a statute (a law passed by a legislature) says that legal consent for sexual contact cannot be given by the underage person.

This taboo is a strong one, even more so than homicide, about which there are various levels and justifications, such as self-defense.  All over the country on a regular basis, underage sex crime cases are tried to a jury, even without medical or forensic evidence.  And with just one complainant and victim.

But then Jeffrey Epstein is named as a suspect in underage sex crimes in Palm Beach County, Florida, with not one complainant, but with at least 20.

What was the local State Attorney, Barry Krischer, going to do? Apparently, not very much. Attention shifted to the federal U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, Alexander Acosta, and the FBI. Was a federal prosecution pursued?  No.  Nothing.

A secret plea bargain and non-prosecution agreement with the federal government is what happened. It shifted the public face to the Florida state court system with Epstein pleading to two state prostitution crimes, which implied, of course, that the complainants were prostitutes. The public is now aware that the result was Epstein sleeping at the county jail and then going to his office during the day, for 13 months. Registering as a sex offender has not curtailed his travel or daily activity.

The whole nasty business disappeared from view and would have stayed hidden in its nicely wrapped package except that two civil lawsuits have pulled some of it into the light.

"AOC's chief of staff comments just killed the Green New Deal" Washington Examiner

"Chakrabarti had an unexpected disclosure. “The interesting thing about the Green New Deal,” he said, “is it wasn’t originally a climate thing at all.” Ricketts greeted this startling notion with an attentive poker face. “Do you guys think of it as a climate thing?” Chakrabarti continued. “Because we really think of it as a how-do-you-change-the-entire-economy thing.”

The Green New Deal has always rested on deception. Ocasio-Cortez and her backers have argued that we are facing catastrophic emergency and that if we don't act immediately the looming devastation will be unavoidable. But at the same time, the plan is a wish list of ideas that American socialists would be pushing regardless of the climate issue, and they are in no way necessary to address the global emergency: free college, more union jobs, free healthcare for all, economic security, and "guaranteeing a job with a family-sustaining wage, adequate family and medical leave, paid vacations, and retirement security to all people of the United States."

The resolution on the Green New Deal, by the way, was co-sponsored by six 2020 presidential candidates: Sens. Bernie Sanders, Kirsten Gillibrand, Kamala Harris, Elizabeth Warren, Cory Booker, and Amy Klobuchar.

Ocasio-Cortez and her allies are of course free to make the case for why the U.S. should move toward a socialist economy. But they don't get to use the pretext of a global emergency to do so. You can make a case that scientists have warned of disastrous consequences without action to curb carbon emissions, and try to shame those who are blocking action. But it's another thing to define "serious action on climate change" as requiring people to embrace AOC's economic vision."  Byron York

----------------

It doesn't get better this.  The clown admits that what he and AOC want is to kill capitalism and create  a commend economy.   pl

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/aocs-chief-of-staff-just-killed-the-green-new-deal

23 million lifetime page views now

pl

SST not for sale or rent

I receive a lot of offers of money as fees for publication of material or ads.  SST is not a commercial enterprise.  It is my retirement hobby.  I accept gifts that are not fees for service.  Those who do not contribute receive the same benefits as those who do.  Fees are not accepted.  pl

Neo-Bolsheviks and proletarians need not contribute.

All those who wish to encourage me to continue with SST, please pony up through paypal.  This is not a fee for payment.  pl

Note from Typepad

"Hello,

Thanks for contacting Typepad support.   We have received other bloggers

reporting this issue using Typepad Connect for their comments.     If you

disable TP Connect at Settings > Comments, the comments should appear.

We are currently looking to resolve the issue with our engineers so you can enable Typepad Connect again.  We appreciate your patience. Please let us know if you have any questions.

Thanks,

Marilyn"

A Break Point

I will be 79 on the 31st of the month. I will think things over until then.  pl

Not in the mood

... to post today.  We had to have one of our dogs (Lola) put down yesterday because of ailments caused by her 16 years.  Maybe tomorrow.  pl

RSS feed

I received a query from a correspondent about problems with the RSS feed from SST.  I contacted Typepad and got the following response:

"Thank you for reaching out to us. I would be happy to help. First, we want to make sure they are using the correct RSS Feed. We recently updated to include an SSL certificate and if they are using the feed URL without that may be the issue.

https://turcopolier.typepad.com/sic_semper_tyrannis/atom.xml

If they are still having issues, we can work directly with the reader.

Have them email us at [email protected]. Have them include this ticket number (6J76DRXZFA2F) so we can connect it to your account."  pl

Should the resolution on Yemen under section 1544(c) of the War Powers law be faithfully executed by the president rather than be subject to a veto?

By Robert Willmann

On 4 April 2019, Congress passed a resolution under the War Powers Act, officially known as the War Powers Resolution, Public Law 93-148, to stop most operations by U.S. Armed Forces in Yemen.  This was noted here on SST [1].  On 16 April, president Trump vetoed the resolution, which was Senate Joint Resolution 7 (S.J.Res. 7)--

https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/presidential-veto-message-senate-accompany-s-j-res-7/

The section of the War Powers Resolution/Act applied in this instance is section 1544(c), "Concurrent resolution for removal by president of United States Armed Forces" [2]--

"(c) Notwithstanding subsection (b), at any time that United States Armed Forces are engaged in hostilities outside the territory of the United States, its possessions and territories without a declaration of war or specific statutory authorization, such forces shall be removed by the President if the Congress so directs by concurrent resolution."

The War Powers law was passed during the time of the Vietnam War to try to give Congress more specific control over actions amounting to war because the Vietnam conflict was not conducted pursuant to a declaration of war by Congress under Article 1, section 8 of the constitution.  President Richard Nixon vetoed the bill, arguing that Congress could use its power to appropriate money and stop funding the war.  However, Congress overrode his veto by at least a two-thirds vote in the House and Senate, and the War Powers Resolution became law on 7 November 1973. 

 

The Lost Comments

For those suffering from Lost Disqus Comments Anxiety (LDCA), I will write again that I have arranged with Disqus for them to send me a message containing all those comments.  It is queued up and when I receive it, I will do something to make them available on SST.  Bless your hearts.  pl

Disqus

I am thinking of disabling Disqus on SST.  Many commenters here find them difficult to deal with and lately they have stopped posting approved comments on some basis that is obscure.  Disabling the service will cause some loss of posted comments, but it may be worth it.  Opinions?  pl

Authorship

Any and all articles not signed are written by me.  pl

Oral surgery today and tomorrow

Laser retread on gums.  Carry on.  pl

A joint resolution about the national emergency at the border may have a vote on 26 February

By Robert Willmann

The declaration of a national emergency at the border by president Trump on 15 February was published in the Federal Register on 20 February [1].  On 22 February, Joaquin Castro, a Democrat from San Antonio, Texas, introduced a joint resolution pursuant to the National Emergencies Act to terminate the national emergency [2]--

https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-joint-resolution/46/text?r=5

The resolution was set up to start with 225 co-sponsors, to show that it will pass.  With 435 members in the House of Representatives, 225 votes can pass it.  The only sponsor in that group from the Republican Party is Justin Amash, from the third district of Michigan.

The calendar of the House Clerk shows that the resolution may be taken up this week, "pursuant to a rule".  The calendar of the majority leader of the House, Steny Hoyer (Dem., Maryland), puts it on 26 February, and gun control and background check bills are up this week as well; Hoyer has them for 27 February--

https://www.majorityleader.gov/content/weekly-leader-friday-february-22-2019

After a vote in the House, the resolution will go to the Senate for consideration.

Joaquin and Julian Castro are twin brothers from San Antonio.  Joaquin was elected to the Texas House of Representatives, and then in 2012 ran and was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, where he is on three committees:  Education and Labor, Intelligence, and Foreign Affairs, as vice chairman.  He is also chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.  Julian was elected mayor of San Antonio.  President Barack Obama appointed him to be Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and Julian started that job in July 2014.  He announced as a candidate of the Democratic Party for president in January 2019.  Joaquin is his campaign chairman [3]. 

[1]  https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2019-02-20/pdf/2019-03011.pdf

https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2019/02/20/2019-03011/declaring-a-national-emergency-concerning-the-southern-border-of-the-united-states

[2]  https://www.congress.gov/116/bills/hjres46/BILLS-116hjres46ih.pdf

https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-joint-resolution/46/all-info?r=5

[3]  https://www.texastribune.org/2019/02/21/can-congressman-joaquin-castro-promote-his-brother-president/

 

The proclamation of a national emergency is to be in the Federal Register. Can money be moved without a national emergency?

By Robert Willmann

Even though the chatter in mass media and by various members of Congress is consumed with the declaration of a national emergency, we can pause and look to see if we can find it.  Title 50, U.S. Code, sections 1621 and 31 tell us--

"Section 1621.  Declaration of National Emergency by President; Publication in Federal Register; effect on other laws; superseding legislation

"(a) With respect to Acts of Congress authorizing the exercise, during the period of a national emergency, of any special or extraordinary power, the President is authorized to declare such national emergency. Such proclamation shall immediately be transmitted to the Congress and published in the Federal Register.

...

"Section 1631.  Declaration of national emergency by executive order; authority; publication in Federal Register; transmittal to Congress

"When the President declares a national emergency, no powers or authorities made available by statute for use in the event of an emergency shall be exercised unless and until the President specifies the provisions of law under which he proposes that he, or other officers will act. Such specification may be made either in the declaration of a national emergency, or by one or more contemporaneous or subsequent Executive orders published in the Federal Register and transmitted to the Congress."

President Trump put a "proclamation" on the White House Internet website on 15 February, but it did not appear in that day's Federal Register, or in the document prepared so far for 19 February, after the legal holiday on 18 February [1]--

https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/presidential-proclamation-declaring-national-emergency-concerning-southern-border-united-states/

Calling the action a proclamation rather than an executive order is a little curious, since it would be cleaner to title it an executive order, as the section of the law says, but the title does not affect its validity, especially since it references the National Emergencies Act and contains the words, "hereby declare that a national emergency exists at the southern border of the United States ...."