Musings:
•The Sins of Donald J. Trump (chapter nine). He has:
Reduced the funding of all indigenous colleges and universities;
Ended the Transportation Security Administration’s “Quiet Skies” programs which monitored passengers in airports and on airplanes who might pose a security risk;
Eliminated half a billion dollars in grants to organizations which serve public safety, including gun violence;
Nationalized the National Guard in California to “neutralize” the protestors in Los Angeles who resist his immigration policies;
Signed an executive order allowing the doctors in Veteran Administration hospitals to decline to treat patients with physical characteristics not explicitly protected by law;
Bombed some of Iran’s nuclear facilities and proclaimed a “total victory”;
Terminated the Temporary Protected Status program which applied to Haitian refugees residing in the U.S.;
Weakened the rules which prevent contamination of drinking water;
Retained the tax credits given to oil and gas companies for “carbon capture” technologies, even if they don’t work;
Withheld funding for state and local schools’ summer and after-school programs;
Increased fees for foreign tourists entering national parks and revoked a range of DEI rules in all parks; and
Moved to slash grants which prevent human trafficking.
•Revisiting proposed Constitutional amendments:
1. Independence for all U.S. territories – Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, and the Northern Marianas – long overdue. Alternatively, some of these territories may elect to join other independent territories. That would be their prerogative.
2. Independence for Hawai’i – a wrong made right. Hawai’i was seized by force in 1898 and turned into a U.S. territory; the indigenous population had no say in the matter. The amendment would cede the islands to their original inhabitants.
3. Statehood for the District of Columbia – also long overdue. Remember “no taxation without representation,” dear reader? This was the rallying cry of the British colonies in North America. The residents of D.C. pay their taxes, but they have no voting representative in Congress and cannot vote in national elections. They are Americans like you and me and ought to be brought into the fold, eh?
4. Term limits for members of the House of Representatives and the Senate (but see #5) – no more politics-as-a-“career,” don’t you know? Six two-year terms for the lower chamber and one six-year term for the Senate are sufficient; each generation will make their wishes known to people like them rather than relying on doddering old fools who have no thoughts beyond re-election.
5. Abolition of the U.S. Senate. This so-called “gentlemen’s club” has never been that, if you look at American history. The Senate was added to the Constitution as a means of balancing the House, which the Founders viewed as a “mob,” and of mollifying the southern states whose agricultural society was threatened by the industrial northern states.
Practically, the upper chamber duplicates the powers of the lower chamber and sometimes act as a “mob” itself. The so-called “special powers,” e.g. ratifying treaties, nominating Federal judges, and acting as judges in impeachment trials, can be easily performed by the lower chamber. Senators who are serving their terms would be allowed to complete their terms, after which their seats would be vacated permanently. No new elections would be held. (Addendum: with the emptying of the Senate, the current House districts should be broken up into smaller districts in order to give more people representation. No more gerrymandering!)
6. Term limits for Federal judges – and especially those on the U.S. Supreme Court – more doddering old fools, don’t you know? One ten-year term is sufficient to play around with the Constitution. The Founders roll around in their graves with each new “interpretation.”
Just a thought.