Time To Start Building Our Fallout Shelters

Am I the only skeptic still waiting for whatever was really going on to come to light while we were all being inundated with the media blitz of “The sky is falling, the sky is falling!!” Overwhelmed by Russian collusion, Sanctuary cities, Dreamers, Roy Moore, the Mueller investigation, Trump’s affair, and then, as captivating as the Grand Finale of Disney’s fireworks spectacular, they add a government shutdown to the list.

Maybe I’m still too jaded from obama, but the past few weeks have seemed like that Jackass is still running the show. And sadly, in many ways; he still is. Half his henchmen are still keeping the seats warm in both the House and the Senate. Colluding and whatnot, to continue to cover-up their involvement in whatever Trey Gowdy has in his 4-page summation of his Investigation of Hillary Clinton's private email server, or looking for a way to further destroy evidence.

Then on Tuesday we find out that more than 50,000 texts were exchanged between two FBI officials who have come under fire for exchanging anti-Trump messages during the 2016 election, Attorney General Jeff Sessions revealed Monday.

And low and behold, another tech glitch in Washington, five months of texts between Peter Strzok and Lisa Page have apparently just…disappeared. The missing messages from Strzok and Page span a crucial window, between the presidential transition and the launch of Robert Mueller’s Russia probe -- where both officials previously were assigned.

During the window of missing text messages, a lot happened.

President Trump took the oath of office; National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, whom Strzok interviewed, was fired; the controversial anti-Trump dossier was published; the president fired FBI Director James Comey; and special counsel Mueller was appointed to investigate Russian meddling and potential collusion with Trump campaign associates during the 2016 presidential election.

“The loss of records from this period is concerning because it is apparent from other records that Mr. Strzok and Ms. Page communicated frequently about the investigation,” Johnson wrote in a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray over the weekend, requesting more information and questioning whether the FBI had done a thorough search on non-FBI devices belonging to Strzok and Page during that period.

A source on one committee in receipt of the new text messages told Fox News it was “outrageous” that the FBI had not previously indicated the five-month gap in messages existed. The source said it was incumbent on the FBI to prove that the missing texts do not constitute “obstruction” of congressional oversight or “destruction of evidence.”

Last month, the Justice Department released hundreds of text messages that Strzok and Page had traded. Both served for a short period of time on Mueller’s team, with Page leaving over the summer and Strzok being reassigned late last year to the FBI’s human resources division after the discovery of the exchanges with Page.

Many of the texts revealed a clear anti-Trump and pro-Clinton bias, and included discussions of the Clinton email investigation.

Rep. Jordan said Monday that the lapse in documents is reminiscent of the mysterious disappearance of emails from former IRS official Lois Lerner during the Obama-era IRS/Tea Party targeting scandal. Lerner’s emails disappeared during congressional investigations.

“The Lerner thing was huge,” Jordan told The Daily Caller. “My gut tells me this is probably bigger.”

Maybe they were using Hilary’s wiped server as their text message relay? At least thats my best guess.

All I’m saying is my Mac auto-updated to High Sierra (again) in the middle of the night on the 21^st, wiping everything as it installed a completely new operating system, and it may have taken me a few days of relentless attempts to retrieve these 4,000+ words, but by God, I did it. And my profession has NOTHING to do with technology.

For fuck’s sake, the FBI has every bit of data we, civilian Americans transmit via a mobile or wifi data network. They have it dated/time-stamped and then securely stored for when the day comes to start rounding up the dissidents, yet they are, once again baffled as to a) how they lost sight of over 50,000 text messages (mind you, they were transmitted between two mobiles issued to the agents by the FBI.) and b) still trying to convince (us) and (themselves) that they're really not to blame. It was "a defect in the Samsung operating system," that caused it.

Funny, my new Samsung (synced to my Mac) is exactly how I retrieved this post. Sittin' right there in the 'Samsung Secure' backup folder.

I mean, come on; how much longer do they expect us to just play along?

Rep. Mark Meadows, (R)-N.C. said it best:

"It reminds me of hard drives missing with [former IRS official] Lois Lerner and email servers," Meadows told Fox News Monday night. "At what time are we going to have an IT backup system that can keep things that are appropriate? They're supposed to be out tracking terrorism and we can't even find our own text messages?"

So, just what was really going on there? Lets take a LOOK:

Did You Know:

The government "shutdown" forced U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to temporarily suspend parts of the operation of its E-Verify employment eligibility verification program on January 20, 2018.

Hmmmm…THREE whole days of "undocumented illegals skippin' across our border...

The E-Verify program is mandatory for some employers and is a valuable tool to ensure only those eligible to work in the U.S. are being employed. U.S. law requires employers to only hire workers who are eligible to work in the United States.

In an announcement on Twitter, USCIS officials stated:

“Due to a lapse in DHS funds, #EVerify, #FormI9, #myE-Verify, Self Check and Self Lock services are temporarily unavailable. Our E-Verify website remains online, however, to provide resources.”

Well, THANK GOD for THAT.

But, DON’T WORRY!! As usual, our government has a practical Plan B. By now I'm sure you’ve all heard about the Senate's “nuclear option," open to them to resolve this quagmire. Admittedly, I was a little confused by this semantic development. Last time I checked, there was a Constitutional process for handling such situations. 

“This is totally unconstitutional. They can’t do this. They have to do a quorum call,” I stated (sort of hysterically) to my Dad, so shit-sure of myself that the process was being subverted, when he corrected me by saying, "You're wrong, it goes to the "nuclear vote."

I'm sorry, say again?

We all know I spent the ‘obama years’ overseas; as I publicly vowed to do in this very blog, and that’s just where I was in 2013, when the, ‘Reid Rule,’ now known as, ‘the nuclear option,’ was passed.

But because I fancy my mind an encyclopedia, and I just don't recall that term in the Constitution, I couldn’t let it go. (lol, just tried to bring the Constitution up via Google, and here's what I got:

Thank God, I made sure I downloaded my 'Pocket Constitution' years ago!! So, quick recap for the people in the back:

I. The Constitution (1789)

A) Articles 1­-3: Branches, Checks, and Balances

The first three articles of the Constitution establish three branches of government with specific powers: Executive (headed by the President), Legislative (Congress) and Judicial (Supreme Court). Power is separated and shared. Each branch can check other branches’ actions or balance the actions of other branches with their own actions. There are two forms of powers: express and implied. Express powers are granted in the Constitution. Implied powers are derived from those express powers or the branch’s role.

Lets take a closer look at the section where our Founding Fathers established the Constitutional requirement of a “representative majority,” rather than a simple majority of the members present at the time of voting.

U.S. Constitution – Article 1

Article 1 Section 5

Section 5 - Membership, Rules, Journals, Adjournment

Each House shall be the Judge of the Elections, Returns and Qualifications of its own Members, and a Majority of each shall constitute a Quorum to do Business; but a smaller Number may adjourn from day to day, and may be authorized to compel the Attendance of absent Members, in such Manner, and under such Penalties as each House may provide.

Each House may determine the Rules of its Proceedings, punish its Members for disorderly Behavior, and, with the Concurrence of two thirds, expel a Member.

Each House shall keep a Journal of its Proceedings, and from time to time publish the same, excepting such Parts as may in their Judgment require Secrecy; and the Yeas and Nays of the Members of either House on any question shall, at the Desire of one fifth of those Present, be entered on the Journal.

Neither House, during the Session of Congress, shall, without the Consent of the other, adjourn for more than three days, nor to any other Place than that in which the two Houses shall be sitting.

Article 1 Section 7 

Section 7 - Revenue Bills, Legislative Process, Presidential Veto

All bills for raising Revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives; but the Senate may propose or concur with Amendments as on other Bills.

Every Bill which shall have passed the House of Representatives and the Senate, shall, before it become a Law, be presented to the President of the United States; If he approve he shall sign it, but if not he shall return it, with his Objections to that House in which it shall have originated, who shall enter the Objections at large on their Journal, and proceed to reconsider it.

If after such Reconsideration two thirds of that House shall agree to pass the Bill, it shall be sent, together with the Objections, to the other House, by which it shall likewise be reconsidered, and if approved by two thirds of that House, it shall become a Law. But in all such Cases, the votes of both Houses shall be determined by Yeas and Nays, and the Names of the Persons voting for and against the Bill shall be entered on the Journal of each House respectively. If any Bill shall not be returned by the President within ten Days (Sundays excepted) after it shall have been presented to him, the Same shall be a Law, in like Manner as if he had signed it, unless the Congress by their Adjournment prevent its Return, in which Case it shall not be a Law.

Every Order, Resolution, or Vote to which the Concurrence of the Senate and House of Representatives may be necessary (except on a question of Adjournment) shall be presented to the President of the United States; and before the Same shall take Effect, shall be approved by him, or being disapproved by him, shall be re-passed by two thirds of the Senate and House of Representatives, according to the Rules and Limitations prescribed in the Case of a Bill.

Anybody else remember?

How a bill becomes a law:

A. Legislation is Introduced

- Any member of either the House or the Senate, collectively known as, “Congress,” can introduce a piece of legislation

House: Legislation is handed to the clerk of the House or placed in the hopper.

Senate: Members must gain recognition of the presiding officer to announce the introduction of a bill during the morning hour. If any senator objects, the introduction of the bill is postponed until the next day.

B. Committee Action

- The bill is referred to the appropriate committee by either the Speaker of the House, or the presiding officer in the Senate. Most often, the actual referral decision is made by the House or Senate parliamentarian. Bills may be referred to more than one committee and it may be split so that parts are sent to different committees. The Speaker of the House may set time limits on committees. Bills are placed on the calendar of the committee to which they have been assigned. Failure to act on a bill is equivalent to killing it. 

Bills in the House can only be released from committee without a proper committee vote by a discharge petition signed by a majority of the House membership (218 members).

Steps in Committee:

-Comments about the bill's merit are requested by government agencies.

-Bill can be assigned to subcommittee by Chairman.

-Hearings may be held.

-Subcommittees report their findings to the full committee.

-Finally there is a vote by the full committee - the bill is "ordered to be reported."

-A committee will hold a "mark-up" session during which it will make revisions and additions. If substantial amendments are made, the committee can order the introduction of a "clean bill" which will include the proposed amendments. This new bill will have a new number and will be sent to the floor while the old bill is discarded. The chamber must approve, change or reject all committee amendments before conducting a final passage vote.

*In the House, most bills go to the Rules committee before reaching the floor. The committee adopts rules that will govern the procedures under which the bill will then be considered by the House. A "closed rule" sets strict time limits on debate and forbids the introduction of amendments. These rules can have a major impact on whether the bill passes. The rules committee can be bypassed in three ways:

1)    Members can move rules to be suspended (requires 2/3 vote)

2)    A discharge petition can be filed

3)    The House can use a Calendar Wednesday procedure.*

*Calendar Wednesday: A procedure in the House of Representatives during which each standing committees may bring up for consideration any bill that has been reported on the floor on or before the previous day. The procedure also limits debate for each subject matter to two hours.

C. Floor Action

1. Legislation is placed on the Calendar

House: Bills are placed on one of four House Calendars. The Speaker of the House and the Majority Leader decide what will reach the floor and when. (Legislation can also be brought to the floor by a discharge petition.)

Senate: Legislation is placed on the Legislative Calendar. There is also an Executive calendar to deal with treaties and nominations. Scheduling of legislation is the job of the Majority Leader. Bills can be brought to the floor whenever a majority of the Senate chooses.

2. Debate

House: Debate is limited by the rules formulated in the Rules Committee. The Committee of the Whole debates and amends the bill but cannot technically pass it. Debate is guided by the Sponsoring Committee and time is divided equally between proponents and opponents. The Committee decides how much time to allot to each person. Amendments must be germane to the subject of the bill - no riders are allowed. The bill is reported back to the House (to itself) and is voted on. A quorum call is a vote to make sure that there are enough members present (218) to have a final vote. If there is not a quorum, the House will adjourn or will send the Sergeant at Arms out to round up missing members.

Senate: debate is unlimited unless cloture is invoked. Members can speak as long as they want and amendments need not be germane - riders are often offered. Entire bills can therefore be offered as amendments to other bills. Unless cloture** is invoked, Senators can use a filibuster*** to defeat a measure by "talking it to death."

**Cloture: A motion generally used in the Senate to end a filibuster. Invoking cloture requires a vote by 3/5 of the full Senate. If cloture is invoked, further debate is limited to 30 hours; it is not a vote on the passage of the piece of legislation.

***Filibuster: An informal term for extended debate or other procedures used to prevent a vote on a bill in the Senate.

3. Vote

The bill is voted on. If passed, it is then sent to the other chamber unless that chamber already has a similar measure under consideration. If either chamber does not pass the bill then it dies. If the House and Senate pass the same bill then it is sent to the President. If the House and Senate pass different bills they are sent to Conference Committee. Most major legislation goes to a Conference Committee.

D. Conference Committee

Members from each house form a conference committee and meet to work out the differences. The committee is usually made up of senior members who are appointed by the presiding officers of the committee that originally dealt with the bill. The representatives from each house works to maintain their version of the bill.

If the Conference Committee reaches a compromise, it prepares a written conference report, which is submitted to each chamber.

The conference report must be approved by both the House and the Senate.

E. The President

The bill is sent to the President for review.

A bill becomes law if signed by the President or if not signed within 10 days and Congress is in session.

If Congress adjourns before the 10 days and the President has not signed the bill then it does not become law ("Pocket Veto.")

If the President vetoes the bill it is sent back to Congress with a note listing his/her reasons. The chamber that originated the legislation can attempt to override the veto by a vote of two-thirds of those present. If the veto of the bill is overridden in both chambers then it becomes law.

F. The Bill Becomes A Law

Once a bill is signed by the President, or his veto is overridden by both houses it becomes a law and is assigned an official number.

Why should any of this matter to you? 
That’s simple:

Because the Standing Rules of the Senate, that were enacted to protect us for an unrestrained government led by the few to control the many, were, for intents and purposes, revised to serve the wants of the few while totally disregarding the Good of the many.

The Standing Rules of the Senate are the parliamentary procedures adopted by the United States Senate that govern its course of action. The Senate's power to establish rules derives from Article One, Section 5 of the United States Constitution: "Each House may determine the rules of its proceedings..."

**The Constitution provides that a majority of the Senate constitutes a quorum to do business. Under the rules and customs of the Senate, a quorum is always assumed to be present unless a quorum call explicitly demonstrates otherwise. Any senator may request a quorum call by "suggesting the absence of a quorum"; a clerk then calls the roll of the Senate and notes which members are present.

In practice, senators almost always request quorum calls not to establish the presence of a quorum, but to temporarily delay proceedings without having to adjourn the session.

Such a delay may serve one of many purposes; often, it allows Senate leaders to negotiate compromises off the floor or to allow Senators time to come to the Senate floor to make speeches without having to constantly be present in the chamber while waiting for the opportunity. Once the need for a delay has ended, any senator may request unanimous consent to rescind the quorum call.

During debates, senators may only speak if called upon by the presiding officer. The presiding officer is, however, required to recognize the first senator who rises to speak. Thus, the presiding officer has little control over the course of debate. Customarily, the Majority Leader and Minority Leader are accorded priority during debates, even if another senator rises first.

All speeches must be addressed to the presiding officer, using the words "Mr. President" or "Madam President." Only the presiding officer may be directly addressed in speeches; other Members must be referred to in the third person. In most cases, senators do not refer to each other by name, but by state, using forms such as "the senior senator from Virginia" or "the junior senator from California."

There are very few restrictions on the content of speeches; there is no requirement that speeches be germane to the matter before the Senate.

The Standing Rules of the United States Senate provide that no senator may make more than two speeches on a motion or bill on the same legislative day. (A legislative day begins when the Senate convenes and ends with adjournment; hence, it does not necessarily coincide with the calendar day.)

The length of these speeches is not limited by the rules; thus, in most cases, senators may speak for as long as they please. Often, the Senate adopts unanimous consent agreements imposing time limits. In other cases (for example, for the Budget process), limits are imposed by statute. In general, however, the right to unlimited debate is preserved.

The filibuster is an obstructionary tactic used to defeat bills and motions by prolonging debate indefinitely. A filibuster may entail, but does not actually require, long speeches, dilatory motions, and an extensive series of proposed amendments.

The Senate may end a filibuster by invoking cloture. In most cases, cloture requires the support of three-fifths of the Senate; however, if the matter before the Senate involves changing the rules of the body, a two-thirds majority is required.

Cloture is invoked very rarely, particularly because bipartisan support is usually necessary to obtain the required supermajority. If the Senate does invoke cloture, debate does not end immediately; instead, further debate is limited to thirty additional hours unless increased by another three-fifths vote.

When debate concludes, the motion in question is put to a vote. In many cases, the Senate votes by voice vote; the presiding officer puts the question, and Members respond either "Aye!" (in favor of the motion) or "No!" (against the motion). The presiding officer then announces the result of the voice vote. Any senator, however, may challenge the presiding officer's assessment and request a recorded vote.

The request may be granted only if it is seconded by one-fifth of the senators present. In practice, however, senators second requests for recorded votes as a matter of courtesy. When a recorded vote is held, the clerk calls the roll of the Senate in alphabetical order; each senator responds when his or her name is called.

Senators who miss the roll call may still cast a vote as long as the recorded vote remains open. The vote is closed at the discretion of the presiding officer, but must remain open for a minimum of 15 minutes. If the vote is tied, the Vice President, if present, is entitled to a casting vote. If the Vice President is not present, however, the motion is resolved in the negative.

The filibuster is a tactic utilized in multiple types of Congressional negotiations. 1. There is the filibuster used for executive appointments excluding Supreme Court justices, 2.there is the filibuster for Supreme Court justices, and 3. there is the filibuster for legislation. With the last of the three being most significant.

By eliminating a Constitutionally protected quorum call in the Senate, leaving only the historically uncommon, cloture, as the final fail-safe against a run-away government, Sen. Reid accomplished exactly what he set out to do According to a February 15, 2016 Washington Post opinion piece by Senator Harry Reid:

“In response to unprecedented Republican obstruction, Democrats changed the Senate rules in 2013 to allow qualified nominees to be confirmed by a simple majority vote, instead of 60 votes. This change alleviated judicial emergencies across the country by allowing a flood of qualified nominees to be confirmed. (We stopped short of changing the threshold for Supreme Court nominees—maybe that was a mistake).”

Similarly, in October 2016, Reid was quoted as saying:

“I really do believe that I have set the Senate so when I leave, we’re going to be able to get judges done with a majority. It takes only a simple majority anymore. And, it’s clear to me that if the Republicans try to filibuster another circuit court judge, but especially a Supreme Court justice, I’ve told ‘em how and I’ve done it, not just talking about it. I did it in changing the rules of the Senate. It’ll have to be done again.”

And that is why Senate Rule XXII is such a CRUCIAL addition to our parliamentary procedures, and it states, in part,

“…Notwithstanding the provisions of rule II or rule IV or any other rule of the Senate, at any time a motion signed by sixteen Senators, to bring to a close the debate upon any measure, motion, other matter pending before the Senate, or the unfinished business, is presented to the Senate, the Presiding Officer, or clerk at the direction of the Presiding Officer, shall at once state the motion to the Senate, and one hour after the Senate meets on the following calendar day but one, he shall lay the motion before the Senate and direct that the clerk call the roll, and upon the ascertainment that a quorum is present, the Presiding Officer shall, without debate, submit to the Senate by a yea-and-nay vote the question:

“Is it the sense of the Senate that the debate shall be brought to a close?” And if that question shall be decided in the affirmative by three-fifths of the Senators duly chosen and sworn — except on a measure or motion to amend the Senate rules, in which case the necessary affirmative vote shall be two-thirds of the Senators present and voting — then said measure, motion, or other matter pending before the Senate, or the unfinished business, shall be the unfinished business to the exclusion of all other business until disposed of.”

That a majority of the Senate constitutes a quorum to do business, thus protecting the Constitutionally mandated two-thirds supermajority normally required to amend the rules, and replacing it with a simple 51 majority votes to end debates, set a precedent that lowered the vote threshold required by Senate Standing Rule XXII for invoking cloture on most presidential nominations.

The precedent did not change the text of Rule XXII of the Standing Rules; rather, the Senate established a precedent reinterpreting the provisions of Rule XXII to require only a simple majority of those voting, rather than three-fifths of the full Senate, to invoke cloture on all presidential nominations except those to the Supreme Court. And that precedent, we will come to find, will now be, "just the way it is," on every matter that comes before the Senate.

So, to sum it all up for you, the end result from Tuesday’s “win” by use of the nuclear option, may very well kill America as She has always been. May be time for us all to start building our “Fallout Shelters.”

"Can there be a more fruitful source of dispute, or a kind of dispute more difficult to be settled?" -James Madison Speaking at the Constitutional Convention of 1787 on the spending bill battles between the House and Senate that would occur.

Original post at https://politicalpatrol.blogspot.com

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