A tragic day.

Donald Trump will be sworn in as President of the United States today.

It can be argued, although it will not be, and in fact this is mostly just a mental exercise, that the action will be null, void, and of no effect and that for the first time in its history, by the end of the day, the United States will not have President.

This is why:

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.

Section 3 of the 14th Amendment.

Oh, I know, you're thinking, if you read this late in the day; "I saw Chief Justice John Roberts swear Donald J. Trump in as President".  If you are reading it early, and are inclined to watch, you will see that occur.

Yes, he did, or will.

But, by the same token, John Roberts could have gone down to Hooters with the guys from the court, and rather than leave a tip, have sworn in a waitress as President of the United States.

Here's the thing.  Anyone can take the oath, the Constitution doesn't allow an insurrectionist to be President, unless 2/3s of Congress lifts the disability, and Trump is an insurrectionist.  He can't be President, and therefore, the oath will have no effect.  It will be null and void, ab initio.  

By the same token, the Hooters waitress might be 18 years old and a Ukrainian immigrant.  Swearing her in, won't make her the chief executive.

Trump is the President Elect going into this morning.  He did win the electoral vote and the popular vote.  Nonetheless, he might still be President Elect tomorrow morning, if this reading of the 14th Amendment is correct. Biden isn't President either. His term of office ended.

And J. D. Vance won't be President, he hasn't take the oath.

Now, I know that you may be thinking "but no court had declared him to be an insurrectionist". 

And indeed, while the Special Prosecutor apparently considered charging him with an insurrection related offense, he didn't.

But one court did. A court in Colorado did just that.  The larger fact of the matter is that the Constitution is drafted so that it just doesn't matter.  The 14th Amendment is drafted with the presumption that people know who is, or isn't, an insurrectionist.  After the Civil War, the US didn't put all the Southern traitors on trial. It did lift the ban on quite a few of them, however.

Having said that, in spite of their horrific act in rebelling against the Untied States in order to preserve racist human bondage, almost all of those who served the Southern cause had enough integrity to admit it and, if they chose to resume public life, to come forward and take an oath of loyalty.

This provision, accordingly, works differently than most other such matters.  Like setting the age to be President, it just sets that insurrectionist can't be President.  If there's any doubt that might be had, it would really be up to the supposed insurrectionist to seek a declaratory judgment that they weren't one.

Just as it would be if Justice Roberts, right before administering the oath, announced "I'd like to introduce you to Bubbles, whom I will now swear in as President".

Maybe.

In other words, Trump would have to go back into Court and seek a declaration that he isn't an insurrectionist, although it might be too late as he could be judicially estopped on that point by the ruling in Colorado.

As a result, again if this is correct, he will be just a private citizen, and it could be that everything he does in the next four years, in the unlikely event he is seen to be serving out four years, is null and void as well.

Or perhaps not.  If later challenged, the Supreme Court might say that as it wasn't raised, the validity of his actions will be allowed to stand.  There's some precedent for that.

But, we really don't know.

What we do know, under the 14th Amendment, "President Trump" refers to the past, not the present and the office is vacant.

Or not.

Maybe this is just all wrong, post Civil War history notwithstanding.  As it happened, the country was pretty forgiving following the Civil War and for the most part it just forgave the perpetrators of rebellion.

That's actually part of our current problem.  After the war, the Radical Reconstructionist wanted to treat the traitors harshly.  They were right.

It would have provided an enduring lesson on the cost of treason.  It would also have advanced civil rights in the American South, and the country at large, by a century.  

Likewise, Nixon should have been tried by a court, the failure to do so now resulting in the tragedy we are currently enduring.

And we are enduring one, and its about to get much, much, worse.

It's also remarkable how Synchronicity is rearing its head to give us a metaphysical dope slap today.

Today is Martin Luther King Day, or if you are in Wyoming and prefer, it's Wyoming Equality Day.

King was a great man.  He had his personal failings, as we all do, but it was his greatness, not his failings, that defined him.  He gave his life willingly for the cause of civil rights at a time in this country when resistance to the full civil rights for African Americans remained strong.

It's also the 80th anniversary of the final inauguration of Franklin Roosevelt, as we mark in a different thread.  Roosevelt also had his personal failings, but like his cousin Theodore, he was a "traitor to his class" in that he was a wealthy New Yorker who worked to save the the common American.  At the time of his last inauguration, he knew that he was dying and his running had essentially been a sacrifice of his final months for the nation.

In contrast we're inaugurating today a wealthy New Yorker whose used the common man to return himself to the oval office, but whose personal failings really define him.

That individual campaigned, twice, on the theme of "Make America Great Again".  That the nation has declined from greatness cannot be doubted.  Trump was part of that decline, and a symptom of it.  He's not responsible for much of it, and indeed if prior post war politicians, Republican and Democrat, had not ignored the growing pain of the Middle Class over the past fifty years, we wouldn't be here now.

But Trump isn't going to make American great again.  Indeed, his election may have broken the jar of greatness beyond all repair.  That will soon be very apparent, but will the population be willing to accept the blame?

Blog Mirror: January 20th: Martin Luther King Jr.'s Dream and Donald Trump's MAGA Nightmare.

 

January 20th: Martin Luther King Jr.'s Dream and Donald Trump's MAGA Nightmare.

Helping people up.

It’s a cruel jest to say to a bootless man he ought to lift himself up.

Martin Luther King

Lex Anteinternet: Lex Anteinternet: Civil Holidays. Their observance ...

Recycled again. 

Lex Anteinternet: Lex Anteinternet: Civil Holidays. Their observanc...:This is an old post that I've bumped up in this fashion on at least one prior occasion.

Lex Anteinternet: Civil Holidays:  Leann posted an item on her blog about Columbus Day, urging Congress to consider changing it to Indigenous Peoples Day .  I

I was reminded of it as it's both Martin Luther King Day nationally and Wyoming Equality Day in the state, but outside of state and Federal employees, it's not observed much here. That doesn't mean its not observed at all, but not much.  To the extent it is observed it tends to be observed almost ethnically or politically.  Indeed, people were slow to get to the office today and I had two employees ask me "Is this a holiday?"  It is, but not one that anyone takes off.

I'm not sure of what to make of that.  But I do know that if civil holidays aren't observed by employers there not really holidays.  That may sound harsh, but that's the reality of it.  It's just a day at work without mail.  In some cases, like Veterans' Day, its a day where things might be observed in some fashion; a lot of businesses give breaks to veterans and the movie channels run war movies non stop, but still, a holiday that businesses don't take off isn't a real holiday.

And that's a shame.

If these days are important, well, they should be observed. But unless the government affirmatively requires them to be taken off, most will not be.  Only the self employed who are very secure about their place in the world is going to observe some of them.  But in the United States, which has an aggressive attachment to concepts of free enterprise in the current era, a legal effort to require that business stand down would not go anywhere and would instead be controversial.

And, indeed, this has spread even to weekends, which used to be very widely observed, or at least Sundays were.  Even around here, in a region that notoriously has not had blue laws, it used to be almost impossible to get much more than basic grocery services on Sundays.  As a kid I recall you could not find an open gas station here on a Sunday.  On the 4th of July weekend you had to buy your gasoline early if you intended to go anywhere, or you were going nowhere.

I'm not sure the change has been for the good.

FWIW, I know of at least one law firm that now does provide this as a day off.

Lex Anteinternet: Civil Holidays. Their observance, or lack thereof. A Wyoming Equality Day observation.

This is an old post that I've bumped up in this fashion on at least one prior occasion.

Lex Anteinternet: Civil Holidays:  Leann posted an item on her blog about Columbus Day, urging Congress to consider changing it to Indigenous Peoples Day .  I

I was reminded of it as it's both Martin Luther King Day nationally and Wyoming Equality Day in the state, but outside of state and Federal employees, it's not observed much here. That doesn't mean its not observed at all, but not much.  To the extent it is observed it tends to be observed almost ethnically or politically.  Indeed, people were slow to get to the office today and I had two employees ask me "Is this a holiday?"  It is, but not one that anyone takes off.

I'm not sure of what to make of that.  But I do know that if civil holidays aren't observed by employers there not really holidays.  That may sound harsh, but that's the reality of it.  It's just a day at work without mail.  In some cases, like Veterans' Day, its a day where things might be observed in some fashion; a lot of businesses give breaks to veterans and the movie channels run war movies non stop, but still, a holiday that businesses don't take off isn't a real holiday.

And that's a shame.

If these days are important, well, they should be observed. But unless the government affirmatively requires them to be taken off, most will not be.  Only the self employed who are very secure about their place in the world is going to observe some of them.  But in the United States, which has an aggressive attachment to concepts of free enterprise in the current era, a legal effort to require that business stand down would not go anywhere and would instead be controversial.

And, indeed, this has spread even to weekends, which used to be very widely observed, or at least Sundays were.  Even around here, in a region that notoriously has not had blue laws, it used to be almost impossible to get much more than basic grocery services on Sundays.  As a kid I recall you could not find an open gas station here on a Sunday.  On the 4th of July weekend you had to buy your gasoline early if you intended to go anywhere, or you were going nowhere.

I'm not sure the change has been for the good.

Civil Holidays

 Leann posted an item on her blog about Columbus Day, urging Congress to consider changing it to Indigenous Peoples Day.  I'll confess that I think that's not a good idea, and that taking one unobserved civil holiday and converting it into a second, ethnic based one, would probably only serve to create additional unobserved civil holidays.  But it does raise the question in my mind a to what holidays we observe, and which we do not, over time.

 Columbus Day Parade prior to World War One.  I know that some places still have Columbus Day Parades, but not all that many.  It's mostly an unobserved holiday most places.  Apparently this wasn't always the case.

I didn't even take note that it was Columbus Day, although I should have, as I didn't get any mail. That's the kind of holiday it is. Federal offices close, but that's about all that happens, other than some stores trying to take advantage of the marketing opportunities it probably doesn't provide.  Most places, people just ignore Columbus Day.

Presidents Day has gone that way too.  At one time, I think people did stop to observe Washington's Birthday or Lincoln's Birthday, but combining all the Presidential observances into one day didn't do them any favor.  Sure, I might wish to honor Washington, Lincoln, the Roosevelt's, etc., but I'm not too keen on honoring some others.  I'd be hard pressed to raise a glass of milk to Millard Filmore, for example, and I'm not going to toast John F. Kennedy, who was a terrible President in my view (yes, I know that we're not supposed to say that, but he was).  It hardly matters anyhow, as now the day is so diluted that nobody pays any mind.  These days, Presidents Day and Columbus Day, have passed off of everyone's personal observational calendar.

But some days are in, for sure.  Martin Luther King Day seems widely observed with some civil events in most places.  In Wyoming, it's Equality Day as the legislature balked at recognizing a Civil Rights leader when it seemed to them that we'd been honoring civil rights long before that. They were wrong, but at the time I thought that passage might be easier if they made it Washakie-Ross-King Day, in honor of Chief Washakie, Nellie Tayloe Ross, and Martin Luther King.  I still think that would have been nifty.  I note that everyone around here calls the day "Martin Luther King Day", showing that people weren't as worked up, I think, as the legislature apparently was.

Americans also heartily observe Thanksgiving Day, as to Canadians, although the north of the border holiday just occurred.  Christmas and Easter, religious holidays, are also widely observed by everyone.  Veterans Day remains a huge civil holiday in most places, as does Memorial Day, which brings me to my next curious item.

June 6, the anniversary of the Allied landings in Normandy during World War Two, have practically become auxiliary Veterans and Memorial Days.  Both Veterans and Memorial Days actually honor the same people, veterans and more particularly lost veterans, but June 6 has come to be a memorial to World War Two veterans.  November 11 has to hang on as the memorial for World War One veterans, which is how it started off.  December 7 has also taken on that status, and to a certain extent September 11 has now as well, although its officially Patriots Day.  This is interesting in that it shows that honoring veterans remains a huge deal in the United States, to such an extent really that there are two days associated with big events in World War Two that are nearly axillary holidays simply by popular acclimation.

St. Patrick's Day is that way too, although its really degraded over the years.  St. Patrick is the Patron Saint of Ireland, and originally St. Patrick's Day was simply celebrated with a huge celebration wherever there were a lot of Irish expatriates.  Generally local Bishops gave a dispensation for Lenten observances on that day (it's always during Lent) and there were big Irish parties, often with a lot of beer, but there were also quite a few Masses as well.  Now there are still a lot of parties, but generally its an excuse for people to wear green and drink a lot of beer, irrespective of their ancestry.

Cinco de Mayo is approaching the status that St. Patrick's Day had perhaps 30 years ago, being a celebration of all things Hispanic on that day.  It's curious in that it isn't a big day in Mexico itself, even though it commemorates a Mexican battle. The widely made claim that its "Mexican Independence Day" is flatly wrong as that day is September 19.  A big day in strongly Hispanic areas can also be found in Our Lady of Guadalupe's feast day, which  was a big day long before Cinco de Mayo was.

All this is interesting, I think, in that it shows us what people value at any one time.  Columbus Day has gone from being essentially a day in which Italians could point to somebody they were proud of to being largely ignored, or controversial to the extent its observed.  At the same time St. Patrick's Day has become a huge unofficial holiday and Cinco de Mayo is becoming one.  People want to honor veterans so much that we're basically observing four veterans' days.  We have fewer civil holidays than most other people, we don't observe all that we have, but we do observe a few that aren't official.  I wonder what days we would have found being observed a century ago?