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THE BILL

The people who didn’t believe this country should be one big unit insisted that the Constitution, ratified in 1789, have an attachment that specified the rights of American citizens.

It’s what we now call The Bill of Rights. It took more than two years to adopt the ten amendments that comprise the bill, meaning that even though there was eventual agreement on the idea, it was like pulling teeth for James Madison and the other anti-federalists.

As part of my mission to heed the overwrought MAGA T-shirt wearers demanding we all read the Constitution, that’s what I’ve been doing the past few weeks.

I have some thoughts.

— Here’s the text of the First Amendment: 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.

This amendment, like some of the ones that came later, carries quite a load.

First, the next time these people talk about God is integral to American life, tell them to READ THE CONSTITUTION. Not only can Congress not make a law requiring some specific religious practice – be it an official faith or sect, or forcing kids to recite a prayer in a classroom. 

It also doesn’t restrict your right to pray. As has been said many times, notably by Ronald Reagan, “As long as there are final exams, there will always be prayer in schools.”

You just can’t force anyone else to do it.

The second part deals with the idea of free speech.

We heard a lot about when pre-Musk Twitter and pre-obedient-Zuckerberg Facebook banned Trump following the 2021 insurrection. The usual Trump flag waving homes and businesses had signs saying “Protect Free Speech!”

So let’s be clear. Facebook has the right to stop you from saying whatever you want. So does your local shopping mall. So does CNN and The New York Times; as does Fox News and The New York Post.

Because the amendment says Congress shall make no law abridging free speech. And the people who own Facebook, the mall and those media outlets have the right to stop you from spouting your beliefs – in part based on this amendment.

The next time you see or hear some MAGA putz cry about free speech, ask them when would be a good time for the transgender rights or anti-automatic weapon protest at their house. And watch their response.

The proof that the free speech “absolutists” – at least as far as letting Trump spew what he wants – are full of crap is what’s happening right now to Mahmoud Kahlil.

He’s the Palestinian-born U.S. resident who advocated for Hamas in protests at Columbia University. And he was pretty much abducted by ICE goons from his dorm and taken to Louisiana, where Herr Trump’s minions are working to deport him.

I unequivically do not support Hamas. They’re goons who kidnapped Israeli children and elderly people, killing a lot of them. 

But I also unequivically do not support extralegal justice in what proclaims itself to be the world’s freest country. If you think there’s a legitimate reason to send Kahlil back to Middle East, take it up with a judge. But to seize and hold him before evidence of an actual crime committed is presented to a grand jury is Dictatorship 101.

Letting this happen is one step from just grabbing anyone – citizen or not – and expelling them from this country.

— Here’s the text of the Second Amendment: A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

There was a United States of America before most of its major city police departments were created. New York’s – with 50,000 officers and other personnel – came into existence in 1845, 56 years after the Constitution was ratified.

Why do I bring that up?

In 1791, when this amendment came to be, the most common way to arrest someone who broke the law was for a sheriff to round up a posse – think of old Westerns – and bring the lawbreaker to justice.

With the creation of police departments, the need for deputies ended. There were cops. 

The first four words of the Second Amendment always seem to be skipped over. The idea of the amendment was to allow those sheriffs and, later, those cops to get the weaponry to enforce the law.

They were not – as evidenced by the words “A WELL REGULATED MILITIA” – meant to allow some crackpot to collect AR-15s. Madison and his peers probably thought semi-automatic weapons were an impossible fantasy. They also don’t say anything about having the guns to shoot up a bunch of deer, unless you somehow believe deer compromise the “security of a free state.”

As much as I loathe guns, I don’t support repealing the Second Amendment. I just wish 21st century Americans would actually read it – and then, in its adherence, eliminate the right to hold weapons that sick people use to shoot up schools, shopping malls and churches.

— Here’s the text of the Third Amendment: No Soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the Owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.

Among jurists, there are people known as originalists, people who believe the wording of the Constitution should be applied as if it were the 18th century.

This gives the men who wrote the Constitution and Bill of Rights not only legal weight, but also prognostication expertise. 

Despite their large egos, I personally don’t think they wanted it. Madison didn’t foresee computers. Hamilton didn’t foresee big Broadway musicals.

And Washington, the presiding officer of the Constitutional Convention, had no idea that there would be huge military bases in Texas, California and Germany – as well as having no idea that any of those three places existed.

The point is that there’s no reason whatsoever that someone’s Third Amendment rights should ever need to be invoked. The Third Amendment is a relic of a fledgling nation that didn’t have a large standing military.

What does that say about the other parts of the Constitution? Interpreting this document as if it’s 1791 is silly. 

And yet, we had Antonin Scalia, rest in peace, interpreting things that way. And we have Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas doing that now. 

— Here’s the text of the Fifth Amendment: No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.

When somebody takes the Fifth Amendment in a criminal or civil case, do you assume guilt?

If you don’t, congratulations. You have followed the intentions of the framers of the Constitution. Again, they had no foresight of threats from mobsters or social media or any of the modern reasons for invoking the Fifth Amendment.

But Trump has not been a big fan of this fundamental U.S. right. This is what he said when some of Hillary Clinton’s staff invoked it during the infamous e-mail server crisis of 2016:

“When you have your staff taking the Fifth Amendment, taking the Fifth, so they’re not prosecuted, when you have the man that set up the illegal server taking the Fifth, I think it’s disgraceful.”

Six years later, during the case of The People of the State of New York v. Donald J. Trump over whether he falsified business records to pay hush money to a woman he slept with, Trump didn’t find invoking the Fifth Amendment so disgraceful.

He did it 400 times.

It didn’t stop the state from proving its case before a jury of Trump’s peers, not once but 34 times. But it was his right.

Now that Trump, and this still blows my mind, has regained the presidency, we’re going to see if MAGA is going to Make Taking the Fifth Disgraceful Again. 

What are the odds?

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LET’S STAY TOGETHER

I’m a big fan of Al Greens.

There’s no apostrophe missing there. Of course, you need to be made of stone not to enjoy the minister who sang “Let’s Stay Together” and “I’m Still in Love With You.”

But the other Al Green, a Democratic Congressman from the Houston area for 20 years, made some fans (me) and a bunch of enemies (not me) when he verbally challenged Trump during his “Look at Me” speech last night. Green was removed from the House floor by order of one of Trump’s pets, Mike Johnson.

I’m not usually a fan of disruptors, Civility requires listening to other people’s points of view.

But that was when we were a civil society. Something that ended on January 20. Since then, thousands of federal employees are no longer at their jobs, tariffs have been imposed on the two best neighbors any country in the world has ever had and the bravest politician in the world – a leader whose valiant nation has held off a brutal invader for three years – endured a public temper tantrum by two Russian dolls.

Rep. Green stood up to say what this is – bullshit. Letting it go unchecked and adulated by the sycophants in the Republican Party wasn’t an option for him.

It shouldn’t be one for us.

—-

Anyway, I’m still reading the Constitution backward. I skipped Amendment 16 last week because I wanted to emphasize the Reconstruction amendments – 13, 14 and 15 – to cap Black History Month. 

So let me start with 16, and then look at 12 and 11.

16th Amendment: The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States, and without regard to any census or enumeration.

Given the animosity with which Red states direct toward taxation, it might surprise you to know which state legislature first ratified the 16th Amendment. The answer will be below.

Somewhat timely, before this amendment’s ratification in 1913, the federal government’s main source of revenue was tariffs. Importers would bring in whatever they were selling in this country, the government would add the tariff and then the product would be sold.

As then, the country targeted by the tariff wasn’t paying it – the final consumer was. The other country was hurt by the fact that their products were less competitive in the marketplace than those made in the United States. Tariffs, in addition to being revenue sources, were aimed at protecting American businesses – that’s their normal rationale.

They usually aren’t imposed for some nebulous reason or some lame political aim. People in the 1890s would be dumbfounded by what Trump did.

Because consumers paid the final cost, they were seen as regressive. People with lower incomes were spending a larger percentage of overall wealth on things than those who were wealthy.

So the impetus for the 16th came from the West and South. The opposition was primarily in the Northeast – of the four state legislatures that rejected the amendment, two were Connecticut and Rhode Island. Pennsylvania never considered it.

The amendment blocks the idea of each state needing to contribute a specific amount and that size of the state’s population is not a factor in the levy.

Alabama was the first state to ratify the 16th Amendment. It’s probably embarrassed by that fact now.

12th Amendment: The Electors shall meet in their respective states and vote by ballot for President and Vice-President, one of whom, at least, shall not be an inhabitant of the same state with themselves; they shall name in their ballots the person voted for as President, and in distinct ballots the person voted for as Vice-President, and they shall make distinct lists of all persons voted for as President, and of all persons voted for as Vice-President, and of the number of votes for each, which lists they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the seat of the government of the United States, directed to the President of the Senate; — the President of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the certificates and the votes shall then be counted;

 — The person having the greatest number of votes for President, shall be the President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of Electors appointed; and if no person have such majority, then from the persons having the highest numbers not exceeding three on the list of those voted for as President, the House of Representatives shall choose immediately, by ballot, the President. But in choosing the President, the votes shall be taken by states, the representation from each state having one vote; a quorum for this purpose shall consist of a member or members from two-thirds of the states, and a majority of all the states shall be necessary to a choice. And if the House of Representatives shall not choose a President whenever the right of choice shall devolve upon them, before the fourth day of March next following, then the Vice-President shall act as President, as in the case of the death or other constitutional disability of the President. 

— The person having the greatest number of votes as Vice-President, shall be the Vice-President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of Electors appointed, and if no person have a majority, then from the two highest numbers on the list, the Senate shall choose the Vice-President; a quorum for the purpose shall consist of two-thirds of the whole number of Senators, and a majority of the whole number shall be necessary to a choice. But no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States.

Four points about this amendment:

— So, as all you “Hamilton” fans know, in the first few president elections, each member of the Electoral College cast two votes for president. The man (no 19th Amendment yet) with the highest total that was a majority of the votes cast became president. The runner-up became vice president.

If this rule was in effect now, we’d still have Trump. But we’d also have Vice President Kamala Harris (again). The person a heartbeat away from the presidency could, theoretically, be very interested in making that other heart stop beating – and vice versa.

And, in 1804, when a pissed off Aaron Burr blamed Alexander Hamilton for finishing second in the prior election. Burr finished Hamilton.

So that was one of the primary purposes of the 12th Amendment. Now, the Electoral College voted for separate people – running mates – for president and vice president.

— In the last sentence of that first section, do you see anything that indicates the person counting the Electoral College votes – the president of the Senate, who’s the sitting vice president – has any leeway into how those votes are counting?

Where do these people get these stupid ideas? Mike Pence might not have been the smartest guy in America on January 6, 2021. But, thankfully, he could read.

— Right in the middle of that wordy second section above is the date of March 4th. If he he 20th Amendment hadn’t passed in the early 1930s, Inauguration Day would have been this past Tuesday.

Which would have been worse – waiting four months to inaugurate Trump or beginning the chaos we’ve experienced since January 20 a couple of days ago?

— It’s not only the 22nd Amendment that stops Trump from having a third team. It’s also the 12th. Because the 22nd specifies that Trump can’t run again in 2028, he’s constitutionally ineligible to be vice president, which some have suggested might be his way around the third term thing.

11th Amendment: The Judicial power of the United States shall not be construed to extend to any suit in law or equity, commenced or prosecuted against one of the United States by Citizens of another State, or by Citizens or Subjects of any Foreign State.

I, a New Yorker, am limited in the ways I can go to federal court to get remedy from a perceived wrong in another state.

This amendment means I can’t try to overturn Texas’ draconian abortion laws in federal court, and some yahoo in Waco can’t try to overturn New York’s laws.

The federal government, on the other hand, is still free to go after states for stupid laws – that’s how a lot of Jim Crow laws got bounced in the 1960s.

This seems like one of those amendments that’s a little fungible.

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AND SO THIS IS BLACK HISTORY MONTH

Black History Month 2025 is coming to an end.

When February comes around, news outlets, educators and others who mark Black History Month tend to focus on personalities. Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks, Frederick Douglass, Barack Obama and others. 

And that’s great – usually, there’s a story of a Black American hero that’s forgotten or little told. How Katherine Johnson and other Black women “computers” made this country’s space program possible was a revelation to millions when the film “Hidden Figures” was released in 2016.

But to commemorate Black History Month – and to continue to, as so many MAGAs like to say, “read the Constitution” – let’s skip around and focus on Amendments 13, 14 and 15.

These are often referred to as the Reconstruction Amendments, ratified between 1865 and 1870, aimed at correcting the American sin of slavery that resulted in the Civil War.

I doubt there are MAGA types – despite their self-proclaimed literacy about the Constitution – who have seriously read 13, 14 and 15. If they have, they do an amazing job of ignoring them in word and/or spirit.

13th Amendment: Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

Slavery isn’t peculiar to the United States and wasn’t newly thought up in the 16th century, as anyone who’s casually read a Bible knows.

But it seems few countries embraced slavery with the gusto that this one did – particularly, but far from exclusively, in the South.

It took the northern part of the United States, which didn’t rely on slavery as much for economic development, until well into the start of the 1800s to begin agitating against it. For the South, the equation was simpler – slave labor reduced costs. And if it was restricted to people who weren’t white, all the better.

So we fought a Civil War, almost as if it was penance for the horror we as a nation imposed. And, with the passage of the 13th Amendment – a process beautifully depicted by Steven Spielberg in his 2012 film, “Lincoln” – slavery ended in the United States.

Uh, no.

The second clause of the amendment specifically states “except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted.”

That’s the sound of the man working on the chain gang. (Sorry, Sam Cooke)

The 13th Amendment made slavery illegal for people who weren’t convicted of a crime. But it made it legal for people who were, forcing them into prison chain gangs and other such horrors.

And so, the back door to slavery, particularly for thousands of Black Americans, were laws passed in the Jim Crow that severely restricted their actions – so much so that the number of “crimes committed” skyrocketed. 

It’s one of the reasons why this nation has one of the largest rates of incarceration in the world. Particularly of Black man, who become a source of cheap labor for states and businesses who contract with them.

That’s the point of filmmaker Ava DuVernay’s outstanding documentary, “The 13th.” And it’s why when you look up the idea of repealing the amendment – something you would expect from those who think making America great again means reintroducing slavery – you’ll find Black and white liberal members of Congress advocating for repeal of just that clause.

14th Amendment: All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice-President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the Executive and Judicial officers of a State, or the members of the Legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such State.

No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.

The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations and claims shall be held illegal and void.

The 14th Amendment does a lot of work. That’s why many scholars consider it the most consequential of the 28, or at least of the 18 passed after the Bill of Rights.

I’ll try to be brief.

The first section was thought to be required as a way to get around the Dred Scott ruling of 1857. That’s when the Supreme Court ruled that a runaway slave had no rights because he wasn’t a citizen. The backers didn’t want Congress changing its mind about this, so they enshrined “birthright citizenship” into the Constitution.

That’s the part Trump wants to get rid of by fiat, seeing it as a way to deny the rights of children born here to undocumented immigrants – what he and his ilk call “anchor babies.” 

But does that mean that if you are someone born to parents who were in the process of becoming but not yet citizens, your automatic citizenship would be revoked? That’s a legal nightmare in the making.

Yes, his Supreme Court is pretty tame. But if it upholds Trump’s view of this, you might as well rip this whole document up. 

That third section also seems pertinent in 2025. Because he got re-elected in 2024, the effort to hold Trump accountable for what he did on January 6 has died. In the criminal courts, anyway.

I just wonder what would happen if he could be found to have committed insurrection in a civil court and thus made constitutionally ineligible. Lawyer friends, help me out with this.

Also, in case these pardoned felons from January 6 have ideas about getting reimbursed for their trouble, I would suggest reading (READ THE CONSTITUTION!) section four to dissuade you of that notion.

One other point about the 14th Amendment: If you read it and wondered what’s going on if voting is restricted to men 21 and older, you obviously didn’t read the last two parts of this series. First, welcome, belatedly. Second, go back and read ’em – the 19th and 26th Amendments address this.

15th Amendment: The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.

That’s all there is to the last of the Reconstruction amendments. It seems pretty simply stated – American citizens can’t be denied the right to vote because of what they look like.

Understood?

Apparently not. Because the 15th has been so violated since its ratification in 1870 that we needed the 24th Amendment that bars the use of poll taxes and the 1965 Voting Rights Act just to enforce it.

Racists – first Democrats immediately after the Civil War and then Republicans after passage of the Civil Rights Act – have found ways around the 15th.

The poll taxes that the 24th abolished were instituted in Southern states to make it too difficult for poor people – many of whom were Black – to vote. But those Black people who found the money to meet the tax faced so-called “literacy tests” designed to make it impossible for them to pass.

And even with everything that has been done, Republicans have found new ways to stop people of color from voting.

They’ll say that the voter ID laws they seem hellbent on passing are designed to protect against election fraud.

BS. The only fraud being committed is the effort to eliminate people of color and women from voter rolls. Enough of them were taken off by 2024 to possibly have made a difference in who was elected three months ago.

—–

The three Reconstruction amendments are not in the Constitution through the benevolence of the white ruling class of this country.

They are in there because of what rebellious slaves, freed men and women, advocates like Frederick Douglass, and the thousands of Black soldiers who literally fought against sedition and treason.

Amendments 13, 14 and 15 are more promise than realization. Making them work is the job of everyone who cherishes freedom – in Black History Month and the other 11 as well.

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MORE THAN TWICE

Just yesterday, some idiot congresswoman from upstate New York proposed making Trump’s birthday a federal holiday.

The cult is strong with her.

It’s strong with a lot of them. Trump supporters see the chaos, anger and dysfunction taking place and love it. Like it’s a twist in a strange TV series and they’re eager to see what happens next.

One wishlist favorite of the people who go around telling everyone to read the Constitution is the idea that an 82-year-old Trump can run for president again in 2028. 

So I’ll start part two of my bottom-up “reading” of the Constitution with…

22nd Amendment: No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice, and no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of the President more than once. But this Article shall not apply to any person holding the office of President when this Article was proposed by the Congress, and shall not prevent any person who may be holding the office of President, or acting as President, during the term within which this Article becomes operative from holding the office of President or acting as President during the remainder of such term.

You don’t have to read past the first 14 words to know why the Constitution prohibits Trump from running for a third term. Maybe the proponents of such a stupid idea should, I guess, READ THE CONSTITUTION.

Now, I’ve been told that one way around this might be to have Trump run for vice president with some patsy at the top of the ticket. It could be Vance, whose photo alone would define “patsy” in a pictorial dictionary.

Then, the thinking goes, the chump would step aside and Trump legally gets his third term. 

I’m not sure that works – I’m not an legal expert or Constitutional scholar, but I would think there’s something problematic about that.

Actually, if Trump wants a third term, he’d just declare it, claiming Section II of the Constitution. We’ll get to that in time.

This amendment was enacted right after the death of Franklin Roosevelt shortly after he won a fourth term. Republicans were horrified by the idea of another wildly popular Democrat controlling the Oval Office until he wanted to leave. 

FDR broke a tradition, started famously by George Washington (See, going to see “Hamilton” would prove useful one day!) of only two terms.

Democrats supported the idea – maybe someone foresaw Reagan, who might have won a third term even with dementia, and Trump. But they made sure it didn’t apply to Harry Truman, the incumbent.

So forget the run-on second sentence – brevity is not a strong suit among legal types. Truman is the only person to whom that applied.

21st Amendment: The eighteenth article of amendment to the Constitution of the United States is hereby repealed. The transportation or importation into any State, Territory, or possession of the United States for delivery or use therein of intoxicating liquors, in violation of the laws thereof, is hereby prohibited.

The only way you can get rid of a provision of the Constitution is by an amendment repealing that provision.

If what Trump has tried to do with birthright citizenship was legitimate, FDR would have ended Prohibition by executive order.

As it was, the 21st Amendment getting rid of the 18th Amendment was pretty popular after the abject failure of banning booze. So Roosevelt was on pretty firm ground to let this repeal go the right way. Amazingly, Utah – not known as a haven for “intoxicating liquors” – is the state that made repeal effective.

Besides the fact that Prohibition was less observed than any law other than the one stopping you from tearing off a mattress tag, the 21st Amendment allowed states to ban alcohol on their own. Mississippi was completely dry for another 30-plus years.

20th Amendment: The terms of the President and the Vice President shall end at noon on the 20th day of January, and the terms of Senators and Representatives at noon on the 3d day of January, of the years in which such terms would have ended if this article had not been ratified; and the terms of their successors shall then begin. The Congress shall assemble at least once in every year, and such meeting shall begin at noon on the 3d day of January, unless they shall by law appoint a different day. If, at the time fixed for the beginning of the term of the President, the President elect shall have died, the Vice President elect shall become President. If a President shall not have been chosen before the time fixed for the beginning of his term, or if the President elect shall have failed to qualify, then the Vice President elect shall act as President until a President shall have qualified; and the Congress may by law provide for the case wherein neither a President elect nor a Vice President elect shall have qualified, declaring who shall then act as President, or the manner in which one who is to act shall be selected, and such person shall act accordingly until a President or Vice President shall have qualified. The Congress may by law provide for the case of the death of any of the persons from whom the House of Representatives may choose a President whenever the right of choice shall have devolved upon them, and for the case of the death of any of the persons from whom the Senate may choose a Vice President whenever the right of choice shall have devolved upon them.

In 2020-21, there were 78 days between Election Day and the inauguration of Joe Biden . That gave Trump and his henchmen a little more than two months to conceive and execute the January 6 plot to overturn the election.

Imagine if they had another 43 days to put things in place.

Or, this year, given how quickly they moved to rend the fabric of American democracy, if they had another 78 days to organize their bullshit.

The 20th Amendment moved Inauguration Day to January 20 to March 4. It also decided to make being in Congress more of a real job by making sure it met every year and started to work on January 3.

This amendment also tries to relieve some of the hypothetical havoc of what if something happens to the president-elect, vice president-elect or both.

There’s something simplistic about it, though – as if Congress is going to rise to the crisis and agree on an acting president. 

Good luck with that.

19th Amendment: The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.

American women did not fully have the right to vote until 105 years ago.

You would think it’s unthinkable to repeal the 19th. But some of the Againers in MAGA believe going back to a time before suffrage would create an American paradise.

Mark Robinson, the clown Trump supported to be governor of North Carolina last year, said in 2020, “I absolutely want to go back to the America where women couldn’t vote.” Then, Robinson posited, we could get the real change Americans need, which he believes is freedom from government.

Robinson’s not alone. There are several MAGA bros who think the women should shut up and let the guys decide how the world runs.

And while I concede that this is a distinctly small minority of the populace expressing such thoughts, I do notice that Trump won both his elections against highly more qualified women and lost to an exceedingly decent man.

The 19th Amendment might still be in effect. But the belittlement of thinking women continues uninterrupted.

18th Amendment: After one year from the ratification of this article the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors within, the importation thereof into, or the exportation thereof from the United States and all territory subject to the jurisdiction thereof for beverage purposes is hereby prohibited. The Congress and the several States shall have concurrent power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

Apologizing to a liberal advocate for a scathing letter he sent her, former Wyoming Sen. Alan Simpson, a Republican, quoted a former Democratic colleague by saying “When I make a mistake, it’s a doozy.”

It’s hard for our times to conjure what a failure Prohibition was. It was an attempt by the center and bottom of the country to dictate morality to the rest of it.

The result was not a sober America. It was an America in which unregulated alcohol killed people. It was an America where people lost respect for the rule of law. It institutionalized organized crime. It destroyed honest family businesses that had been distilling or brewing for generations.

It should have served as a warning to future generations.

Instead, it seems that that America – a proven failure as shown by the 18th Amendment – wants to pull this kind of a stunt again. Banning abortion, or birth control, or IVF, or same-sex marriage, or recriminalizing marijuana will backfire in a godawful way.

Just like Prohibition.

17th Amendment: The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, elected by the people thereof, for six years; and each Senator shall have one vote. The electors in each State shall have the qualifications requisite for electors of the most numerous branch of the State legislatures. When vacancies happen in the representation of any State in the Senate, the executive authority of such State shall issue writs of election to fill such vacancies: Provided, That the legislature of any State may empower the executive thereof to make temporary appointments until the people fill the vacancies by election as the legislature may direct. This amendment shall not be so construed as to affect the election or term of any Senator chosen before it becomes valid as part of the Constitution.

Until 1913, your state’s U.S. Senator was chosen by your state’s legislature. Marty Massachusetts did not cast a ballot for Daniel Webster. Kenny Kentucky did not check off the box for Henry Clay.

It was spelled out in Section I that senators weren’t directly elected. You could argue that your assemblyman voted in your interest when he (remember, our trip from bottom to top goes back in time, so the 19th Amendment hasn’t passed yet) cast his vote for senator.

But the problem was leaving it up to your assemblyman. He apparently didn’t agree with the guy your state senator wanted. And soon, Senate vacancies were taking an inordinate amount to fill, sometimes leaving states with no representation.

In addition, a Senate opening became an opportunity to make bank. Bribery and payoffs were widespread.

Of course, in the 21st century, we’ve evolved to the point at which money doesn’t control politics at all. Campaign spending is minimal. Ambassadorships and cabinet posts are awarded on merit, not on how much you contributed to a campaign.

And the moon is made of green cheese.

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Uncategorized

MAYBE THEY’RE THE ONES WHO SHOULD ACTUALLY READ IT

One of the tenets of MAGAism is that their opponents haven’t actually read the Constitution of the United States.

If they did, they “reason” (that’s not a word easy to apply to these people) that we’d all understand why women and people of color should be second-class citizens, immigrants have no business being here and everyone should arm to the teeth.

So, let’s take them up on the challenge. And because people tend to stop reading after the top of the page – especially when a document is started in 18th century English – let’s start from the bottom. With the last six amendments to the Constitution, numbers 28 to 23.

— 28th Amendment: Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex. The Congress shall have the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article. This amendment shall take effect two years after the date of ratification.

Here’s the first bone of contention.

What’s commonly known as the Equal Rights Amendment was supposed to have been approved by three-quarters of the state legislatures by 1982. It came up three states short by the deadline. But since 2017, three states – Nevada, Illinois and Virginia – have voted to ratify.

After the 2024 presidential election, Democrats pushed to have President Biden declare that the amendment was ratified. They were not acting without legal support – the American Bar Association agreed that the amendment could be enacted. Even after the deadline – and even after six states changed their mind and voted to rescind ratification.

Biden sort of said “Why the hell not?” and declared the amendment ratified, especially given the two-year clause for taking effect had passed.

He knew that the idea that men and women are equal under the Constitution – something not specifically spelled out in the 237+ years prior – would piss the hell out of Trump and the pet rocks who support him.

The idea of ignoring deratification has precedent. Southern legislatures tried to do that with the 13th and 14th Amendments, the ones that abolished slavery. For once, the Jim Crow types lost – those rescinding moves were ignored.

Ignoring the seven-year deadline for ratification is another matter. It isn’t part of the amendment’s text (READ THE CONSTITUTION!), so whether it has standing is in dispute.

My thought here is this: After all the unchecked actions taken by Trump in the first three weeks of this debacle, it’s pretty rich for the right to complain about something Biden declared following approval by the requisite 38 states. 

Best of all, if you happen to be a woman who disagrees with my position, your rights are protected under this 28th Amendment.

— 27th Amendment: No law, varying the compensation for the services of the Senators and Representatives, shall take effect, until an election of Representatives shall have intervened.

The only people I can imagine opposing this are those who sought Congressional seats to make bank from the public payroll.

Basically, nobody in the current Congress – the 119th – can collect on a vote to raise their pay until the 120th. And that’s after the people of their state or district have a chance to consider whether that pay raise is a good idea.

— 26th Amendment: The right of citizens of the United States, who are eighteen years of age or older, to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of age.

This amendment passed just in time for me – I turned 18 the year after its ratification and voted for the first time in the 1972 New York presidential primary.

No amendment has been ratified faster than the 26th. That’s surprising, because its adoption came at a particularly fraught time – in the midst of all the protests of the Vietnam War and during the administration of Richard M. Nixon, who was not perceived as the kids’ choice.

Opponents thought 18-year-olds were too immature to pass judgment on civic matters. There was just one problem with that – they certainly appeared to be mature enough to die in a Vietnamese rice patty.

The 26th passed with widespread support in both parties. There are many on the right who would like to take that back. 

Good luck with that.

— 25th Amendment: In case of the removal of the President from office or of his death or resignation, the Vice President shall become President. Whenever there is a vacancy in the office of the Vice President, the President shall nominate a Vice President who shall take office upon confirmation by a majority vote of both Houses of Congress. 

Whenever the President transmits to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives his written declaration that he is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, and until he transmits to them a written declaration to the contrary, such powers and duties shall be discharged by the Vice President as Acting President.

Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President.

Thereafter, when the President transmits to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives his written declaration that no inability exists, he shall resume the powers and duties of his office unless the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive department or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit within four days to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office. Thereupon Congress shall decide the issue, assembling within forty-eight hours for that purpose if not in session. If the Congress, within twenty-one days after receipt of the latter written declaration, or, if Congress is not in session, within twenty-one days after Congress is required to assemble, determines by two-thirds vote of both Houses that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall continue to discharge the same as Acting President; otherwise, the President shall resume the powers and duties of his office.

Troppe parole! They needed a lot of words to resolve what they saw as a complicated problem.

Here’s one simple thought:

Had Trump tried to stage the insurrection in December 2020 instead of January 6, 2021, there’s a good chance that last sentence would have been invoked by Trump’s cabinet. Starting with Mike Pence, who was the guy who the MAGAts wanted at the end of a rope.

It is clearly not going to be invoked by this bunch of pillbugs. And it certainly wouldn’t pass the muster of supplicants like House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune.

The dolts in this cabinet are loyal to Trump. Not to the Constitution. There’s no provision in the 25th for the people of the country to attempt removal of someone as clearly unfit as Trump.

— 24th Amendment: The right of citizens of the United States to vote in any primary or other election for President or Vice President, for electors for President or Vice President, or for Senator or Representative in Congress, shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any State by reason of failure to pay poll tax or other tax.

A lot of the MAGA types, when they tell us to READ THE CONSTITUTION, think that there’s some need to require voter ID to exercise your franchise.

The 24th Amendment can be construed as an answer to that. 

Poll taxes were imposed in the South as a way to restrict Black adults and less affluent whites from voting. There were also citizenship tests with really dopey questions aimed at frustrating people.

Can voter ID be construed as a poll tax? Yeah.

Voter ID is not free. It’s something like a driver’s license or a passport. You are requiring people to get these things whether they want them or not – and whether they can afford to pay for them or not. 

That applies to any other of the stupid rules being enforced by states like Texas, Georgia and Florida. They violate the 24th Amendment.

READ THE CONSTITUTION!

— 23rd Amendment: The District constituting the seat of Government of the United States shall appoint in such manner as Congress may direct: A number of electors of President and Vice President equal to the whole number of Senators and Representatives in Congress to which the District would be entitled if it were a State, but in no event more than the least populous State; they shall be in addition to those appointed by the States, but they shall be considered, for the purposes of the election of President and Vice President, to be electors appointed by a State; and they shall meet in the District and perform such duties as provided by the twelfth article of amendment.

Remember that whole thing about taxation without representation? Well, welcome to Washington, D.C.

Living in the nation’s capital doesn’t afford you the same rights as someone living in Washington, Illinois. You don’t have senators or a representative in the House. Your local legislative body has no power to change the Constitution. So laws in this country are made without your input.

Thanks to the 23rd Amendment, Washingtonians have some say in who lives on one of the biggest pieces of property in town. But they didn’t get that right until 1961 – for 174 years, they were completely powerless.

There’s one big reason why Washingtonians won’t get any more rights anytime soon. It’s the fact that 62% of the population isn’t white. That scares the hell out of people in the red states – imagine two more senators and one representative voting in the interest of people of color.

MAGA types talk about feelings of helplessness against the system. They don’t seem too bothered by the idea that there are Americans who are Constitutionally helpless against the system.

Admitting D.C. as a state or amending the Constitution to require representation are the only ways to right this wrong. That ain’t happening.

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Economy

WE NEED A RAISE

The median monthly rent in the United States, as of 2023, is $1,348, according to the Census Bureau (assuming Musk and his rodents haven’t been screwing around with the data).

If you had a minimum wage job and devoted your entire paycheck – 100% we’re talking, sans vacation, and assuming no taxes are taken out – you’d be short $108 every month. 

Also: heat, electricity, food, transportation and clothing would have to appear magically, since you’d have no money left for anything besides your landlord.

The national minimum wage is $7.25 an hour. It has not risen in 15-1/2 years. Remember all that inflation everyone complained about the past couple of years? It ain’t because people getting the minimum wage are getting rich – makes you wonder who actually is causing prices to rise.

In fact, they keep falling back, making their lives more difficult. In the process, because people getting the minimum wage aren’t getting raises, it allows employers to limit the raises they give workers making a little bit more. “You should be grateful you’re getting $10 an hour because I could be paying you $7.25” is the attitude we’re looking at here.

Somehow, most politicians forgot that the people doing the least desirable jobs in our country might be well-served getting a little more money for doing them.

Now, to be fair, a majority of states and territories have minimum wage rates above the national mandate – the highest being Washington, D.C.’s $17.50. But a lot of states have minimum wage rates at the national average, below the national average or even no minimum wage at all.

It fails to take into consideration the fact that people have lives outside their jobs. That they’re supporting themselves and want to build the kind of financial foundation that allows them to realize their dreams.

Businesses thinks that’s not their problem. Being successful is. But if a business can’t make it without paying the people powering it a living wage, maybe that business needs to rethink what it’s doing and how.

A living wage in 2025 America being something in the vicinity of $20 an hour.

Oh, my goodness, that’s inflationary. That’s what the conservatives – the so-called “job creators” – will say. But, again, we had inflation without anyone – especially getting in the minimum wage category – a raise. 

Not only should the minimum wage allow people to actually make a living earning it, but it should also be indexed according to inflation. In other words, a rise should come just about every year – not every 15-1/2 and counting.

This is not a radical concept. Twelve states and Washington, D.C., all have annual minimum wage adjustments. Three of those states – Alaska, Missouri and Montana – voted for Trump three months ago. We do it for Social Security – and employers seem to able to pass on price increases whether or not they raise workers’ wages.

Now a lot of you are thinking “With all the crap going on since TrumpMusk took over, it seems like raising the minimum wage is a low priority.”

Stop thinking like that.

We should have learned by now that you can’t beat something with nothing. Since the Reagan years, Democrats have had to come in and clean up messes left by Republican presidents.

Let’s stop doing that. Let’s advance an economic agenda that benefits the people who somehow vote against their interest and see Trump as a hero. Let’s offer a better path, actual help for the problems they need solved.

Americans – especially young people and those working the thankless jobs that pay the least – need to be able to afford to live. A program to raise the minimum wage and provide a universal basic income, as I suggested two weeks ago, might go a long way toward remedying the economic anxiety millions face.

It would have the added benefit of making the heads of Trump and the Republicans who enable him spin.

If you get a chance, call or write your representative, your senator, the White House and tell them Americans need a raise.

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Uncategorized

COME ONE, COME ALL

Trump promised his minions mass deportations. 

So why is anyone surprised that the topic of conversation in the United States this week is mass deportation?

The stories of ICE raids in schools and workplaces are heartbreaking and cruel. But just as important, what’s going on is totally in stupid territory and not in any way in the best interest of the United States.

There’s a feeling of screaming into the void. You can tell people their rights and protest all you want. But a plurality of Americans gave Trump a victory and he believes he has a mandate to do this crap.

So here’s what I think is the best way to respond to this BS:

To the people who want to come here from Guatemala and El Salvador, from Haiti and Cuba, from China and Myanmar, from Rwanda and Congo, from Syria and Somalia, there should be one word – albeit in a different language for each.

WELCOME!

The only people we should stop from coming into this country are the ones who want to avoid going through one of the legal doors – I’d be suspicious of their motive in coming here. But for everybody who comes to a border crossing – people fleeing gang violence, political oppression and/or crippling poverty – I think we should tell them to come on in.

I think that’s the right response to Trump.

That might seem crazy. The sentiment among his supporters is these are people leeching off American prosperity. 

They’ve been stoked into this sentiment by decades of xenophobia. There are strains throughout American history and they’ve been applied to all kinds of newcomers. They never seem to go completely away.

The latest strain cropped up around the turn of this century. It was stoked by people like Lou Dobbs, who spent every night on his CNN broadcast proclaiming that America’s borders were broken and that unwanted people were taking American jobs.

And, of course, the terrorist attack of September 11, 2001, exacerbated fears that people were coming into this country to destroy it. Forget that the terrorists came into this country legally. Forget that their gang leader was a citizen of a supposed ally, Saudi Arabia. 

As far as the stokers were concerned, it was the woman trekking hundreds of miles in brutal conditions trying to get in via a boxcar in 110-degree weather or across desert land in the Southwest who was the “real” threat.

It was – and is – bullshit. Because we found ways to exploit them. We used their desperation to put them in jobs citizens didn’t want to do, pay them what we thought were miserable wages and hold the threat of deportation over their heads if they complained. And we did little to improve conditions in the homelands of these folks, forcing them to flee or die.

It was a situation that needed resolution – the “illegal” border crossings were a contrivance, because people felt the need to get here somehow. And there were people in both parties who understood that – who came up with ideas to help resolve the manufactured crisis.

But the gurus of right-wing power madness had other ideas. Immigration was a gift that kept on giving – fear-mongering as a recruitment tool. As a political strategy.

Trump and the Fox News klan latched onto this nonsense and exploited it brilliantly.

The people who believe in humanity – that would be us – always play this game on their turf. We seem to think that there’s a problem because they tell us there’s a problem. So we try to find a way to placate the radicals when all this is their way of gaining and maintaining power.

Here’s what we want:

We want everybody who wants to come here to come here. We want people who are willing to take the jobs Americans don’t want to do – fruit picking, meat packing, lawn mowing, burger frying – to take the jobs Americans don’t to do. If people are desperate to escape oppression and poverty – and are willing to do anything to make their lives better – we should be their champions.

It makes no sense to create this bizarre system that forces people to use desperate measures to get here. What Trump is doing now enables the coyotes – the people who extort the tired and poor, and make them indentured servants. He’s not hurting MS-13, he’s making it more powerful.

And instead of this nonsense of blackmailing Latin American countries into taking people rounded up by Gestapo wannabes on the streets of our cities, we should work with those countries to improve conditions and allow people to live their best lives in their own homeland.

But those who want to come help us – to make America truly great? Let ’em in. Let them help us build a better country. 

A strong country,  a country that calls itself the most powerful in the world, that calls itself the world’s beacon, isn’t afraid of Honduran 4-year-olds. It embraces them, it educates them and gives them comfort and safety. And then when they succeed, it’s our success as well.

I’m here because a century ago Benito Mussolini was a prick in Italy. My wife is here because 75 years ago Mao Zedong was a prick in China. There are millions of us who can tell that story, from every land on this planet. We’ve worked together to create a nation that – at its best – captures the world’s imagination. 

Because we’re not all the same. And a few more in our situation, wherever they’re from, can help.

That’s what we need to push for. Double down, not double over.

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Uncategorized

FREE MONEY

Last summer, in my happy ignorance of thinking there was no way Trump could return to office, I was stuck at a Met game sitting next to a couple of his adherents.

It was a Met game, so you would hope they’d be focused on seeing the Amazins win.

But, nah, why would they focus on that? More than sufficiently lubricated by strong beverage, they began spewing the mantra of the indignant:

There are people getting free stuff!

They spent the whole game complaining about various groups who were getting things they perceived they weren’t. Forget that they were sitting in one of the more expensive sections of Citi Field – and could apparently afford spending a ton on booze. They screeched “These people” – and there was strong language that the people to whom they referred were not of pale complexion – are getting giveaways of money and cellphones and whatever else from Joe Biden and the rest of the Democratic elite.

Alas, they prevailed in November and we are now three days into this go-round. And instead of lamenting what happened, I’m focused on what we should do.

And that is give free stuff to everybody.

Actually, it’s not stuff. It’s money. Cash. 

It seems like a good time to figure out how to initiate some form of universal basic income (UBI) in the United States.

There are several ways to do UBI. But basically, the idea is to give everybody money on a regular basis. The standard idea would be $1,000 a month. It would go to every person in a household, which means if you and your spouse have two kids, that would be an extra $48,000 a year in family income.

And it would go to you no matter your status. Employed or unemployed. Husband or wife. Parent or child.  Billionaire or living hand-to-mouth. 

What would that extra money provide? 

Obviously, if you’re unemployed, it would provide you with some income. (Although it’s likely unemployment benefits might be better – in New York, weekly unemployment pay goes up to $500.)

If you’re working two jobs to make ends meet, maybe you can quit the one you like least. Or you can buy time to get a better job. UBI begins to compensate women for staying at home with their kids. It is a way to help families build the kind of generational wealth so many can’t afford. 

Andrew Yang, when he ran for the Democratic nomination in 2020 and before he lost his common sense, made UBI a cornerstone of his campaign. His argument was that the tech revolution is chewing up jobs faster than it’s creating them – and that giving everyone money would soften the blow for unemployed families and the rest of the community.

There have been several small efforts at UBI around the world. The results are generally positive – people receiving a steady supplement are significantly happier than those who don’t.

It is, of course, a form of socialism. Although a kind of socialism that some doctrinal conservatives seem OK with.

In fact, there is one place in the United States where a form of UBI has been in effect for more than 40 years. It is not a hotbed of liberal thought like California or Massachusetts.

It’s Alaska, one of the most politically conservative states in the union. Every resident of the state get a check from the Alaska Permanent Fund Dividend – paid for by the revenue generated from the production of oil and gas in the state. 

Last year, each Alaskan received $1,702. You and your spouse have two kids – that’s $6,808 just handed to you.

The thing is that Alaska addresses the issue that opponents would flag instantaneously: How do we pay for this? In this case, oil companies are paying to deplete the state’s natural resources and the money is going to people.

It’s likely a UBI program would require an increase in government revenue of about 75%. And right away, critics would scream about imposing an at least 50% tax increase on the American people. Nobody wants that.

So the task facing anyone who thinks UBI might be an idea whose time has come is daunting: paying for it. Is it an effort to get the wealthy to pay a larger share of the burden after they backed Trump in order to get even more tax breaks? Or are there creative ways to generate the revenue: a national lottery, leasing fees from government land?

The idea is to have an idea – to have more than one. Finding ways to improve our lives needs to be the focus, because our warnings about what a horror Trump is went unheeded by a plurality of our countrymen.

So let’s see if CBI is something that we can push and advance – something you can be certain is not in the interest of selfish bastards like Trump and his tech bro friends. 

Because everyone likes getting stuff – if only to pay for another scotch-and-soda in the 6th inning. MAGA types might be less indignant if they’re getting it too.

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Uncategorized

MAKE AMERICA GREATER

There are just four days left in the Biden administration and it is my intention to enjoy each one as a gift.

A decent, hard-working man – perhaps a bit too old for the job but still good at it anyway – graced us from noon ET on January 20, 2021 to this coming Monday at noon. Like every other presidency, Joe Biden’s wasn’t perfect. But it came as close as any in my lifetime.

Joe Biden guided us gently out of the gloom of the COVID-19 debacle inherited from the guy who’s replacing him. They might be a pain in the butt, but all those highway construction projects you see are making our roads – along with the rest of our infrastructure – more suited to the century we’re now a quarter of the way into.

He stood for Ukraine when Vladimir Putin got frustrated by waiting for his imperial dreams to come true. He combatted climate change and showed respect for people who have been traditionally belittled in American society.

The American economy is the strongest in the world. He managed to blast America’s way out of the pandemic-induced recession and then brought the growth lower with a brief spike in inflation.

That spike, however, did in both him and Kamala Harris. And so we get Trump again for four years – assuming the blowhard makes it to age 82.

—-

Both Joe Biden and Barack Obama spent way too much of their presidencies cleaning up the messes left by their predecessors.

Biden, of course, had the aftermath of the pandemic. Obama faced both the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression and an American military presence in Iraq and Afghanistan.

I suspect just about everyone reading this and liking it agrees there will be an equal or worse clusterfuck to deal with four years from Monday.

And yet, that’s the mistake we make and the other side doesn’t.

We concentrate on fighting them. They fight us – don’t get me wrong – but they also develop new, crueler, stupider ideas to foist on both the left and the cucumbers who voted for them in November. 

There will be a lot of angst to go around. But part of their gameplan is to frustrate us – to make us concentrate on their latest perverse idea or vendetta.

Right now, you’re seeing it with the wildfires in Los Angeles. How California is a failed liberal experiment and the disaster is due to a combination of its godlessness, diversity and economic initiatives. Just check out some of the comments from Wyoming Sen. John Horsesasso.

It’s meant to drain our energy. And it has to, at least to some extent. You can’t claim to be a decent human being and then deny aid to Los Angeles, or just uproot millions of people living and working here peacefully because they didn’t get the documents you demand. Or tell women they risk prison or worse if they try in any way to end an unwanted or dangerous pregnancy.

But we need to be better this time. And the way to do that is to think about what we want to do to make America greater.

See, I think Peruvian restaurants and Hmong gymnasts and Somalian-born soldiers make this country great. Not McDonald’s or Walmart or Tesla – or not by themselves, anyway. 

And it certainly is not a hateful convicted felon who is absolutely clueless about what it takes to lead an amazing land.

So we need to advance our agenda. To come up with ideas we think will improve our country and, maybe with it, the world. 

They don’t have to be popular now. Some absolutely won’t be. But we need to advance the case so that we can sell them from conviction and evidence. And begin the process of educating and converting some of the just shy of 50% of American voters who actually chose Trump over a really smart, energetic woman.

Over the next five weeks, I’m going to put forward some ideas I’ve thought about as ways we can show how we’re looking toward 2100, not 1900.

The ideas:

— Universal basic income: This is what Andrew Yang promoted when he ran for president in 2000, and then got weird. 

Both liberals and conservatives have reasons to like this idea. But Trump and his supporters will see it as free money (that they don’t think they’re getting) and squawk.

— Police reform. I bristle every time I see a car with one of those black versions of the American flag and the blue stripe in the middle. As if policing in this country should go unquestioned and unfettered. 

But when you see three or four cops together, do you feel safer? Or nervous? And do the answers depend on what you look like? Frankly, few things are in more need of improvement in this country than how we police ourselves.

— Immigration reform. Trump and his minions don’t want to reform immigration. They want to abolish it – unless you can make a considerable donation to the GOP after you get here. The question of how we treat people coming here, for more than four centuries, is one of our greatest dilemmas. 

We should aspire to be better than that – this doesn’t seem like that intractable a problem if we come up with creative and humane solutions.

— Getting around. It’s believed one of Trump’s first executive orders will be to maximize oil production and end credits for electric vehicles – the short-sighted, idiotic “drill, baby, drill” mantra.

Let’s get past both those forms of transportation – there have been few innovations in creating new ways to go places compared with communication technology. Let’s encourage imagination.

— Kindness. Mean will be in power starting Monday. Mean will be the default approach of the White House, Congress and Supreme Court. Mean will drive the stories you see on the news and the attitude of the plurality. If you don’t believe that, explain why a house near me still flew its “Fuck Biden” and “Fuck Kamala Harris” flags as late as New Year’s Eve. 

We have to create new, innovative ways to be kind – to look out for people who are pariahs to the MAGAs. Kindness is our not-so-secret weapon for making America greater – a task that will be easier once we get past Trump and his ilk.

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Uncategorized

DECONGESTIVE

Big changes usually happen over time – years or decades.

Which is why New York’s imposition of congestion pricing interests me so much. That and the fact that I live in the suburbs north of the city, where the pitchforks glisten and children listen to hear adults whining in the snow.

Congestion pricing – if you’re not aware of it, you probably don’t care, but I’ll describe it anyway – is a toll on vehicles entering the area of Manhattan from Battery Park to 60th Street. That includes such places as Times Square, Chinatown, Greenwich Village, Wall Street and the World Trade Center. Cars pay $9 in peak periods and $2.25 off peak.

The purpose is twofold. New York’s mass transit system desperately needs upgrading and repair. Legislators, mainly from rural and suburban areas, never fund the system adequately. So this will raise money for the work that needs to be done.

The other purpose is to relieve the unbearable congestion on Manhattan streets. Motorized vehicles were an afterthought for the city fathers of the Big Apple. So we have gridlock on many streets and the accompanying pedlock for people who have to walk around the areas. 

It’s cool that NYC is trying something so different to the American experience. I can’t think of too many changes so quickly imposed – except for the pandemic when everything was shut down and most everyone was forced to stay at home.

It’ll take a few months of analyzing the data to see if congestion pricing is successful in reducing traffic, whether that helps the air quality and if the tolls are raising the money as expected.

But congestion pricing is already considered an abject failure and an insult by the people who live here in the suburbs.

The primary reason is that they want things to stay the same. It’s great for them. They drive down to Manhattan, look for street parking to avoid paying for those $50 garages, and go door-to-door with impunity.

Pedestrians are not their problem. Foul air is not their problem. Rundown subways and clogged bus lanes are not their problem.

Suburban commuters are goaded by the lame politicians they elect. As with other things in this era, they stoke anger about things that are unfamiliar or seem hostile to the status quo.

The idea that New York might impose congestion pricing has been around for at least a decade. But the only response legislators and executives in the suburbs conjured was lawsuits. That was the plan – we’ll sue the city and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, and just the threat will force them to back down.

It didn’t work. Now what they’re hoping is that Trump, after he takes office on the 20th, will work some kind of magic to get rid of the plan.

It’s lazy, stupid  – and typical for the fatasses who worm their way into office around here.

What should they have done?

I’m not denying their right to employ pet lawyers at taxpayer expense to adjudicate a grievance. But maybe, just maybe, while they were doing that, they could have come up with actual plans to help the people they represent adapt to the new reality.

Was there any effort by New Jersey or the New York suburbs to develop alternatives to driving to midtown? Free bus service, either to the city or to the commuter rail stations outside it. New park-and-ride lots – and repromotion of existing ones – to encourage car pooling or to offer shuttles to the zone. Setting up offices in the zone to promote alternatives and provide information about congestion pricing.

No. The knee-jerk solution is the courthouse. Sue the city into submission. Don’t adapt to the reality, obliterate it.

Now, I also don’t want to let this seem as though I’m putting a halo on the people who support congestion pricing. Yes, I think it’s takes some gumption to implement a plan like this. Bravo.

But maybe, just maybe, the proponents could have made people more aware of the alternatives to driving. Yes, we know about the subway, suburban buses and commuter rail. How about creating satellite parking lots near rail stations to encourage using the train? What about using all these abandoned or nearly abandoned strip malls and shopping malls to provide commuter assistance services?

And what about expanding the use of water transportation – in a zone surrounded on three sides by rivers and a bay – to get people to where they need to be quickly and more efficiently?

One other thought: 

When I was walking through Midtown just after Christmas, I would count the cars at every crossing and multiply by $9. There were hundreds of dollars at every intersection, thousands – maybe even millions – of dollars over the course of a day.

It would be cool if, every day or every few days, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority disclosed how much money it took in – and then announced what, specifically, that money will be used for.

If it takes $350,000 to repair an escalator at Grand Central Station, tell people that the receipts for January 9 will be used for that. (I have no idea if that figure is even close, but I use it as an example.)

Let people see specifically what the money is being used for and there’s a chance you might at least shut up some of the numbskulls who keep saying the authority won’t spend the money on improvements.

That would be an out-of-the-box idea. Just like congestion pricing.

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