CONSTITUTION DAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2020,
COMPILED BY DICK BENNETT FOR A CONSTITUTIONAL USA
CONTENTS, CONSTITUTION, SEPTEMBER 17, 2020
Celebrating Constitution Day
Constitutional Crises in US History
Constitution and Privacy: Surveillance USA
Trump v. Constitution
Palast, How Trump Stole 2020
Bernie Sanders on the Orderly Transfer of Authority
www.archives.gov › news › topics › constitution-day
September 17 is designated as Constitution Day and Citizenship Day to ... The Electoral College and the Constitution - September 17, 2020, 12:00 p.m. EDT ...
Constitution Day - September 17, 2020 | U.S. Constitution
Constitution Day is September 17, 2020. Celebrate the ratification of the U.S. Constitution. The Constitution of the United States of America is the supreme law of ...
Constitution Daily Blog - National Constitution Center
On this day, the Constitution was signed in Philadelphia. September 17, 2020 by NCC Staff ... Weekly, our email roundup of constitutional news and debate, at bit.ly/constitutionweekly · Top myths about the Constitution on Constitution Day.
Celebrate Constitution Day in 2020 by reading this founding ...
www.tennessean.com › story › opinion › 2020/09/15
2 days ago - Celebrate Constitution Day in 2020 by remembering and reading the ... Hear more Tennessee Voices:Get the weekly opinion newsletter for ...
Constitution Day 2020 - Bill of Rights Institute
billofrightsinstitute.org › constitutionday
Celebrate Constitution Day on September 17, 2020. Join the conversation on YouTube Live on September 17 anytime between 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. EST as we ...
History of Constitutional Crises
https://portside.org/2017-07-03/fourth-july-youve-never-seen-it
A Disputed Election, a Constitutional Crisis, Polarisation … Welcome to 1876
CONSTITUTION AND PRIVACY
SURVEILLANCE STATE USA
OMNI
SURVEILLANCE v. CONSTITUTION NEWSLETTER #7, September 11, 2013,
for a CULTURE OF PEACE AND JUSTICE. Compiled by Dick Bennett.
http://jamesrichardbennett.blogspot.com/2013/09/us-surveillance-newsletter-7.html
#1 Jan. 28, 2008; http://jamesrichardbennett.blogspot.com/2008/01/bushs-violating-of-constitution-evokes.html
#2 Jan. 22, 2011;http://jamesrichardbennett.blogspot.com/2011/01/surveillancemilitarism-usa.html
(temporarily unlocated: #3 Oct. 25, 2011; #4 Jan. 31, 2012;
#5 June 9, 2013;) http://jamesrichardbennett.blogspot.com/2013/06/us-surveillance-newsletter-5.html
#6 July 22, 2013.http://jamesrichardbennett.blogspot.com/2013/07/surveillance-newsletter-6.html
TRUMP V. US CONSTITUTION
Sources 2016-20: Politico, Washington Post, The Atlantic, U.S. Constitution.org, USA Today, Constitution Center.org. New York Times, WhiteHouse.gov, Time,
TRUMP VS. THE CONSTITUTION, Google Search (9-17-20)
Trump vs. the Constitution: A Guide - POLITICO Magazine
www.politico.com › magazine › story › 2016/08 › 201...,
Aug 4, 2016 - In the interest of judging Trump's competence to follow through on the oath of office if he does become president, here's a short guide to the ...
Trump ignores Constitution in assertion that his 'authority is total'
www.washingtonpost.com › nation › 2020/04/14 › tru...
Apr 14, 2020 - Trump later clarified his position further, telling reporters, “When somebody is the president of the United States, the authority is total and that's ..
Trump Is Threatening to Subvert the Constitution - The Atlantic
www.theatlantic.com › trump-adjournment-constitution
Apr 17, 2020 - The Constitution, then, grants the president the power to adjourn only in the narrow, tie-breaking circumstance when the House and the Senate ...
President Trump, Mocking the Constitution | Constitutional ...
www.theusconstitution.org › blog › president-trump-m...
Sep 3, 2019 - In the Trump era, Congress and the courts are like cops walking the beat to protect the rule of law. Unfortunately, President Donald Trump is ...
Trump's claim to have total authority: What the 10th ...
www.usatoday.com › news › politics › 2020/04/14 › tr...
Apr 14, 2020 - The president's unprecedented claim of total power met with ... And if there is "one overriding principle" in the Constitution, it is to avoid the ...
Impeachment: Donald Trump v. The Constitution - USA Today
www.usatoday.com › news › politics › 2019/10/24 › i...
Oct 24, 2019 - The Constitution's Article II is the president's job description, and it gives him sweeping powers. But not, as Donald Trump says, whatever he ...
Trump and the Constitution: A year in review and our coverage
constitutioncenter.org › blog › trump-and-the-constituti...
Jan 26, 2018 - In the year since President Donald Trump's inauguration on January 20, 2017, a myriad of constitutional issues has so far arisen during his ...
Trump vs. the Constitution - The New York Times
www.nytimes.com › 2016/11/29 › us › politics › trump...
Nov 29, 2016 - In his campaign and as president-elect, Donald J. Trump has made statements that are at odds with the United States Constitution.
the legislatures of the states, it is the source of all government powers, and ...
President Donald Trump Versus the U.S. Constitution | Time
time.com › Ideas › politicsay 5, 2016 - US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks in New York on May 3, 2016. Jewel Samad—AFP/Getty Images. Ideas. By Chris ...
Searches related to President Trump versus US Constitution
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"No one has told our story of our missing voters like Greg Palast" - Rev. Jesse Jackson.
Follow investigative reporter for Rolling Stone, The Guardian and Democracy Now! Greg Palast as he hunts for the vanished voters of Trump's America.
Yes, the election's stolen but Palast shows you how to steal it back!
"Read this book. It might just save us! Greg Palast is the most incisive journalist on elections. Plus he's @##$% hilarious." --Josh Fox, The Young Turks
Palast lets you in on the nasty secrets of Trump-merica's democracy:
• One in five mail-in ballots are never… Keep Reading
Where to Buy
"No one has told our story of our missing voters like Greg Palast" - Rev. Jesse Jackson.
Follow investigative reporter for Rolling Stone, The Guardian and Democracy Now! Greg Palast as he hunts for the vanished voters of Trump's America.
Yes, the election's stolen but Palast shows you how to steal it back!
"Read this book. It might just save us! Greg Palast is the most incisive journalist on elections. Plus he's @##$% hilarious." --Josh Fox, The Young Turks
Palast lets you in on the nasty secrets of Trump-merica's democracy:
• One in five mail-in ballots are never counted.
; • The chance of your vote being thrown in the garbage is 900% higher if you're Black than if you're white.
• 16.7 million voters were purged from the rolls in the past two years. Guess their color.
In How Trump Stole 2020, you meet the scamps, scoundrels and grifters (or "Governors" as we call them in America) doing the dirty to voters of color. Check out the photo of Palast confronting GOP Governor Kemp of Georgia whom Palast catches under a neon pig at a bar-b-que joint to ask Kemp if he's wiping away Black voter registrations to steal the election. The response: Palast gets busted.
The book includes an exclusive interview with Stacey Abrams on vote thievery--and a 48-page comic book from the piercing pen of Ted Rall.
You may know Palast as the fedora-wearing gum-shoe old-school investigative reporter who busted the theft of Florida in 2000 for The Guardian and in his New York Times bestseller, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy.
"Palast is one of our great investigative reporters. If you are not outraged by what Palast has uncovered, you have no heart. A searing indictment of our rigged electoral system." --Chris Hedges, Pulitzer Prize winning journalist
"Palast's work is invaluable for our community." --LaTosha Brown, Black Voters Matter
BE\RNIE SANDERS: THE ORDERLY TRANSFER OF AUTHORITY
You thought maybe it wasn't as bad as all that...?
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Letter from Bernie Sanders: Here's an excerpt:
Last week Roger Stone, a convicted felon who was pardoned by Trump, stated on a right-wing radio show that Trump should declare "martial law" if he loses the election...
...the assistant secretary of public affairs at the Department of Health and Human Services, made the outrageous suggestion that left-wing voters are planning an armed revolt following the election. He stated in a video to his social media followers: "If you carry guns, buy ammunition, ladies and gentlemen, because it’s going to be hard to get."
Think about that. A senior Trump official is telling Trump supporters to purchase ammunition for an armed conflict here at home.
Full text:
Yes. This is a presidential election between Joe Biden and Donald Trump.
Yes. This is an election about health care, education, the economy, climate change, criminal justice, and so many other important issues.
More importantly, however, this is an election about whether or not we retain American democracy. This is an election we must not lose.
Today, virtually every national poll and most battleground state polls have Biden ahead. Yet, Trump continues to repeat a message he tweeted several weeks ago: "The only way they can take this election away from us is if this is a rigged election."
Think about what that means. What he is saying is that if he wins the election, that's great. But if he loses, it’s rigged. And if it’s rigged, then he is not leaving office. Heads I win. Tails you lose.
Never before in the history of this country have we failed to have a peaceful transition of power from one president to the next. And now, for the first time, we are facing an election where it is not clear that a sitting president will voluntarily leave office if he loses.
I am not in the habit of quoting former President Ronald Reagan, but I think something that he said in his first inaugural address makes the point about how important this part of our heritage is.
Here is what President Reagan said:
“To a few of us here today, this is a solemn and most momentous occasion; and yet, in the history of our nation, it is a commonplace occurrence. The orderly transfer of authority as called for in the Constitution routinely takes place as it has for almost two centuries and few of us stop to think how unique we really are. In the eyes of many in the world, this every-four-year ceremony we accept as normal is nothing less than a miracle."
Protecting this “orderly transfer of authority,” as President Reagan characterized it, is absolutely essential if all of us — Republicans, Democrats, Independents — want to protect our democracy. And the truth is that Donald Trump poses the biggest threat to our democracy that we've ever seen from a sitting president.
Remember: Donald Trump is the president who made the preposterous statement after the 2016 election, which he won, that "millions of people voted illegally." That's when he won. What will he say in 2020 if he loses?
This is the president who was asked by Chris Wallace on Fox News whether he would accept the election results. Trump refused to give a straight answer, and said: "I have to see. No, I’m not going to just say yes. I’m not going to say no, and I didn’t last time either."
This is the president who has talked about delaying the election.
This is the president who's now talking about a third term, in violation of the Constitution.
And it gets worse.
Last week Roger Stone, a convicted felon who was pardoned by Trump, stated on a right-wing radio show that Trump should declare "martial law" if he loses the election.
Roger Stone continued to say:
"The ballots in Nevada on election night should be seized by federal marshals and taken from the state. They are completely corrupted. No votes should be counted from the state of Nevada if that turns out to be the provable case."
Stone is following the rhetoric from Trump that mail-in ballots will be "rigged," and the election should be called into question before a single vote has been counted.
And just the other day Michael Caputo, a right-wing political operative who, incredibly, is the assistant secretary of public affairs at the Department of Health and Human Services, made the outrageous suggestion that left-wing voters are planning an armed revolt following the election. He stated in a video to his social media followers: "If you carry guns, buy ammunition, ladies and gentlemen, because it’s going to be hard to get."
Think about that. A senior Trump official is telling Trump supporters to purchase ammunition for an armed conflict here at home.
Trump himself has recently threatened to use the Insurrection Act— a law that allows the president to bring in the National Guard to confront civil unrest. If there are protests on election night, Trump says: "We’ll put them down very quickly if they do that. We have the right to do that. We have the power to do that, if we want.”
At a time when Trump is urging tens of thousands of his supporters to intimidate voters by becoming "poll watchers,"he is now threatening to bring in the National Guard if there are protests.
It is becoming clearer by the day that Donald Trump will do whatever it takes to maintain the power of the presidency.
Miles Taylor, a life-long Republican who previously served as chief of staff inside the Trump administration’s Department of Homeland Security, warned that Trump will stop at nothing to defeat Biden.
"Put nothing past Donald Trump," Taylor told the Associated Press. "He will do anything to win. If that means climbing over other people, climbing over his own people, or climbing over U.S. law, he will do it. People are right to be concerned."
In addition, after Trump proposed postponing the election, another Republican, Steven Calabresi, one of the founders of the conservative Federalist Society, wrote an op-ed in the New York Times condemning Trump. Calabresi called Trump's comments "fascistic" and said that his call to delay the election was an impeachable offense.
[BERNIE: BE PREPARED]
So, given this very dangerous situation, what are we going to do about it?
Here is what I believe needs to happen in order to prepare for what could be an unprecedented chain of events following the November election:
· First and foremost, we must do everything we can to ensure Joe Biden wins by the largest possible margin on November 3. The better Joe Biden does, the harder it is for Trump to overturn the election.
We need to mobilize our movement in an unprecedented way to produce the largest voter turnout this country has ever seen. The future of our democracy depends on it. And if we are successful in defeating Trump, we must also stay vigilant and do everything possible to prevent Trump from staying in power if he loses.
· Secondly, we need Congressional hearings with local officials to learn how they plan to handle the Election Day process and the days that follow.
Senator Chuck Schumer, the Democratic leader in the Senate, and I have written a letter to Mitch McConnell urging bi-partisan Senate committee hearings on this issue. At this historic moment we believe that Democrats and Republicans in the Senate must come together to guarantee the integrity of our election process.
Every agency at every level of government must do all it can to ensure that we have a free and fair election where every eligible voter can vote without intimidation, and where no one has to put his or her health or life in danger to cast a ballot. That is why Congress must hear directly from election officials to know what measures are being taken to make voting available to all and to ensure a smooth election process.
· Next, with the pandemic and a massive increase in mail-in voting, state legislatures must take immediate action to allow for votes to be counted before Election Day, as they come in.
The longer it takes to count ballots after Election Day, the more we will be seeing chaos, conspiracy theories and social unrest. Faith in the election system will be undermined if election results are not determined as soon as possible.
Further, what studies show is that most Democrats will be voting by mail while most Republicans will be voting in person on Election Day. This could create a scenario on election night where Trump and down-ballot Republican candidates are shown in the lead before all the mail-in votes are counted and final results become available. Trump, of course, will call the newly counted mail-in ballots "voter fraud" and will try to use it as another reason to discredit the results. Counting mail-in votes as they come in leading up to Election Day will help ensure a reliable and dependable election process while guaranteeing that accurate results are reported in a timely fashion.
· The news media needs to prepare the American people to understand there is no longer a single Election Day and that we may not know the results on November 3.
Properly setting expectations ahead of time will be crucial. Never before have we depended so heavily on mail-in ballots in a presidential election, and we already know that some states may be counting votes in the days following the election. If we fail to have a national conversation about this reality, we run the risk of people buying into conspiracy theories and other disinformation as we process election results.
· Social media companies must finally get their act together and stop people from spreading grotesque levels of disinformation and using their tools to threaten and harass election officials.
It is the responsibility of social media companies to take action against extremists who are spreading disinformation on their websites. We cannot allow any scenario where there is a widespread distribution of disinformation that will harm the integrity of our elections. Further, we need social media companies to prevent users from launching attacks against public officials who are administering the election. Otherwise our whole election process could be compromised.
Let me be very clear:
This is the most important election in the modern history of this country. And for the first time in America, it appears that we have a sitting president who will be reluctant to leave office if he fails to win re-election.
We absolutely must come together in November to defeat Trump by the largest margin possible and stop him from dragging our country in an authoritarian direction. Nothing less than the future of our democracy and our country is at stake.
Over the next 48 days, let us do all we can to deliver a decisive victory for Joe Biden on November 3. And once we do that, let us remain vigilant to see to it that Trump allows for the peaceful transition of power.
In solidarity,
Bernie Sanders
END CONSTITUTION DAY NEWSLETTER SEPTEMBER 17, 2020