This is why structural solutions—things like more parties—are better than new rules and standards to check executive power and corruption.

Robert Black@hurricanexyz.bsky.social · 3mo ago

This, by the by, is what I'm really worried about for next year Not so much that he'll try to stop Congress from convening or whatever (though he likely will also try that), but that he'll just..... ignore them

Again, adding a few seats to SCOTUS is now the table ante bare minimum moderate position. More serious positions are also available: - No clerks - No building - No shadow docket - No pay raises - 25 justices - 47 justices - 101 justices - Riding the circuit, preferably on horseback

Mark Joseph Stern@mjsdc.bsky.social · 4mo ago

The Supreme Court's fifth and final decision is Blanche v. Lau, another 6–3 split. Per Thomas, the government does NOT require clear and convincing evidence that a green card holder committed a crime before divesting them of their lawful status at the border. www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/25p...

it's because the major questions doctrine is a crock of shit

The fact that nobody seriously believes there is an institution in this country that will check the president—that we’re all just sitting here hoping that he gets distracted and fails to follow through on his genocidal threats—is the most damning indictment of our political system I’ve seen yet.

Worker power in action! Let's get it!💜

As the Supreme Court term begins, keep this framework in mind: Autocratic Legalism. Instead of “rule of law” (law constrains the power), we get “rule by law” (law as a weapon for power). Authoritarians usually have to install allies. Trump started his second term with that step already complete.

An independent court doesn’t help one man evade justice. An independent court doesn’t silence voters, ban abortion, and purge independent agency watchdogs. This court has chosen sides—and it's not the people. We must remind them. This country is FOR and BY the people.

I was back at 26 Federal Plaza today, where an ICE agent violently threw this bereft woman to the ground in front of her kids. She had not touched him. She did not pose any threat. She had to be taken to the hospital. (🎥: Elias Eliahu)

Congress js a dead letter, because upper chamber bicameralism is an outdated relic, and the two-party system fails to represent most Americans. We are experiencing a system-wide failure.

Joshua Erlich@joshuaerlich.bsky.social · last yr.

they’ve learned Roberts’ lesson that it all makes sense if you operate under the presumption that Congress is a dead letter

👇🎯 Folks look at you like you’re crazy when you say we’re in the midst of the worst Article I constitutional crisis in 🇺🇸 history, & then, well, 👇🤷‍♂️

Don Moynihan@donmoyn.bsky.social · last yr.

To sum up: the President is not enforcing the law about TikTok access in order to structure the timing and sale of another giant social media platform to his political allies.

It's almost like the fact that the US political system gives white, rural voters way, way more representational power than the rest of us has some kind of distorting effect on our national discourse.

Matt Darling@besttrousers.bsky.social · last yr.

It's incredibly weird that folks have convinced themselves that the Covid vaccines - which had an ~82^% take up rate - were unpopular.

Once again, we are in the midst of the worst, most unprecedented Article I constitutional crisis in 🇺🇸 history

Politico@politico.com · last yr.

White House declares $4.9B in foreign aid unilaterally canceled in end-run around Congress' funding power.

On the slate gabfest this week, she discussed a revealing part of their strategy, which is to find takes that will generate engagement and reach, especially through arguments that generate intra-left conflict. I suspect you can create a successful business on this premise, but not so much a polity

Having a plurality of extremists in your electoral coalition is a huge problem when institutions empower them directly

I’m a fan of the fight in @chrismurphyct.bsky.social — but I live here, and it doesn’t feel like a distraction to me. It feels like they are preparing to occupy the city so it’s easier to maintain power after they lose the election.

Chris Murphy@chrismurphyct.bsky.social · last yr.

All just a stunt to distract from the economy being a mess, health premiums about to go up by 75%, Epstein coverup. But the media keeps covering like it's straight news about crime in DC.

Yep. As I try to argue in this pod chat, Trump's military occupation of DC and LA, his threat to end vote-by-mail via executive order, and the corrupt Texas gerrymandering scheme are part of the same big story.

Nils Gilman@nilsgilman.bsky.social · last yr.

A non-mutually exclusive series: 1. Gerrymander the Wrongs out of contention 2. Strike the Wrongs from the voting rolls 3. Make it logistically difficult for the Wrongs to vote 4. Intimidate the Wrongs from voting 5. Refuse to count the Wrongs’ votes 6. If the Wrongs still win, claim fraud & annul

checkpoints are by definition stops made without reasonable suspicion. They are presumptively unconstitutional. I don’t know what they’re saying this is about, but I’m certain whatever they say will be a pretext for general crime-detection and that that is not ok.

Watching video today of ICE agents roaming the streets of American cities and reading about the anger and fear of Bostonians during the Fugitive Slave crisis is a reminder of why it is so important that the institutions charged with interpreting the past be allowed to do so without interference.

lol

the thing everyone is going to have to accept is that the post-trump period, whenever it comes, will not and cannot be a project of national unity, it must be a project of partisan project of renewal, in the same way that reconstruction and the new deal were partisan projects of renewal.

"Strength lies in organisation, in careful long-range planning and implementation, in consistency of action over an indefinite period of years, in the scale of financing available only through joint effort, and in the political power available only through united action and national organizations."

The reason for this asymmetry is in part because rural voters' votes are worth more than urban voters' votes. They count more than we do in our political system. In fact, they count disproportionately more than any other country in the world. www.economist.com/graphic-deta...

Upper legislative houses tend to be biased and malapportioned

Variation in district sizes benefits conservatives, but not in lower chambers

economist.com

Mark Copelovitch@mcopelov.bsky.social · last yr.

Republicans can lie & say dehumanizing things about urban 🇺🇸/Americans with impunity The second Democrats are even accused of saying something derogatory about rural 🇺🇸, it is a nonstop National Conversation™️ about "civility" & What Democrats Must Do to respect/engage Real Folkz Happy week, everyone

👇🎯 A lot of folks don't seem to understand that 90+% of our authoritarian problem is the total failure of Article I of the Constitution, not Article III.

Senator Dr. John Brown stan account, Esq., PhD, MD, JD, LCSW@johnbrownstan.bsky.social · last yr.

Our country has some problems that, taking the law at face value and refusing to engage in chicanery, require constitutional amendments to fix. But this is absolutely not one of them.

From a director at the … American Enterprise Institute

I guess it will at least be amusing to watch the Roberts Court twist itself into knots to declare the new Texas map legal, moral, and virtuous, and the new California map a brazen perversion of democracy.

Politico@politico.com · last yr.

Newsom says he will seek to call a Nov. special election to have voters approve new House maps that boost Democrats.

Again, the platform needs to be institutional reform. None of the policies can get through our failed, broken, incredibly anti-democratic electoral, legislative, & judicial institutions. And the guardrails of democracy have failed. Fixing that is first, second, & third order. 👆 is simply not it.

Mark Copelovitch@mcopelov.bsky.social · last yr.

This is why Democrats need a platform focused on institutional reform. Having to adopt policy positions opposed by supermajorities of the national public to win the hyper-malapportioned Senate is anti-democratic, & promising policies you can never pass is political suicide. bsky.app/profile/mcop...

👇🎯 Norms and duct tape worked for a long time. Sort of. But we’re all out of norms, & we’ve shredded our last rolls of tape.

Filipe Campante@filipecampante.bsky.social · last yr.

If/when we get out of this mess, we need to understand that a democracy cannot rely just on norms and forbearance. Rules will need to be codified and spelled out, like in other countries with better, more robust institutions.

Folks look at you like you’re crazy when you say we’re in the midst of the worst, most unprecedented Article I constitutional crisis in American history, & then, well, 👇🤷‍♂️🤦‍♂️

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · last yr.

Mike Johnson: "God miraculously saved the president's life -- I think it's undeniable -- and he did it for an obvious purpose. His presidency and his life are the fruits of divine providence. He points that out all the time and he's right to do so."

This is part of the structural problem with Article I. It was always lousy, but it's especially bad now that parties have fully nationalized. Why?

Molly Reynolds@mollyereynolds.bsky.social · last yr.

This is the massive imbalance of power between Congress and the executive branch on $$$ in a nutshell: if individual GOPers care only about their own specific asks, and if the WH/OMB is willing to "fix" them, there's no incentive for a collective response from the GOP on behalf of the institution.