Man from Nebraska via America’s Ivy Leagues Sounds Off

A Sasse Moment?

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enjamin Eric Sasse: Plainview (Pierce County), Nebraska-born academic, author, government official

• U.S. Senate seat (January 3, 2015 – term ending 2021) Former Assistant Secretary of Health and Human Services for Planning and Evaluation (December 19, 2007 – January 20, 2009); President of Midland University (December 10, 2010 – December 31, 2014); 
• Author of Them: Why We Hate Each Other and How to Heal (2018); and The Vanishing American Adult: Our Coming-of-age Crisis—and How to Rebuild a Culture of Self-reliance (2017) 

• Harvard University (junior year abroad at Oxford University) government baccalaureate
• St. John’s private non-religious liberal arts college known for its Great Books curriculum (dual campuses in Annapolis, Maryland, and Santa Fe, New Mexico) Graduate Institute’s master of arts in liberal studies
• Yale University history doctorate
  

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asse’s advice on Congressional committees

September 2020 opinion piece - his observations in a nutshell seem sound

“In the presence of cameras, senators ‘aren’t trying to learn from witnesses, uncover details, or improve legislation. They’re competing for sound bites,’ he wrote. ‘Without posturing for cameras, Republicans and Democrats cooperate on some of America’s most complicated and urgent problems.’”

This Sasse observation seems accurate. It is true of members of both houses of congress—and the executive. These people present as crooks and clowns, constantly putting on a show; driving the people into an unbridgeable chasm of tribal warfare, and the nation more and more deeply into failure (America, the failed state).

“The Senate’s tradition wants dramatic change geared toward selling (promoting) debate; not ending it,” he writes. Toward that end, he suggests the following

Lower the cameras.

Most of what occurs in committee hearings isn’t oversight (but) showmanship.

Senators make speeches that get chopped up, shipped to home-state TV stations, and blasted throughout social media.

They aren’t attempting to study (testimony) from witnesses, uncover particulars, or enhance laws.

They’re competing for sound bites.

 [The committee exception he cites is the “Senate Choose Committee on Intelligence” where “the vast majority” of work completed by Republicans and Democrats “is finished in secret, without posturing for cameras.”]

Different committees might retain transparency “by making transcripts and real-time audio (available to) the general public.”

Abolish standing committees.

The Senate is meant to be the world’s best deliberative physique; nevertheless, it operates on about 20 everlasting fiefdoms.

Dividing legislative work is essential, however there’s no company that will deal with its issues by creating 20 everlasting committees and operating each resolution by way of them.

The Senate ought to, as an alternative, create momentary two-year committees, each devoted to creating actual progress on one or two huge issues.

Committees ought to draw energy from their accomplishments—not based primarily on which industries must supplicate earlier than the gavel.

Pack the ground.

Severe debate occurs provided that senators present up (show up in person).

Ninety-nine percent of the time you see a senator speaking on the ground, he’s talking to a chamber with someplace between zero and two colleagues current.

The Senate’s guidelines privilege the bulk, which controls the agenda and ground time.

Senators should be packed on the ground having actual debates.

We will try this by altering the principles to permit committees to regulate some ground time.

Elections have penalties, so … (chief issues ought to manage) the vast majority of the Senate’s time; however, committees ought to be capable of commanding particular occasions for particular debates.

Reside collectively.

Lots of time is spent demonizing the opposition

However, most senators can get along fairly properly.

Senators ought to dwell, eat, and meet in dormitories when the Senate is in session.

It’s laborious to demonize individuals you spend time with day-after-day.

Cancel reelection.

One of Congress' many squanderers of “energy” is the political expediency “to keep away from selections that come from the work of legislating.”

Lawmakers are obsessive about staying in workplace, and one of many best methods of ensuring reelection “is by avoiding laborious choices.”

We should suggest a constitutional modification restricting each senator to at least one time period (one term), though doubled “from six years to 12 years.”

Senators who don’t have to fret about short-term reputation can work … on long-term challenges.

[Alternatively] “… ban fundraising (e.g., sandwiching a sit-down at a $2,000-a-plate lunch fundraiser with running over to make committee votes) while the Senate is in session in Washington.

Lobbying is protected by the First Modification; nevertheless, it shouldn’t be the first focus of senators after we’ve obtained work to do.

Repeal the 17th Modification.

Ratified in 1912, it changed the appointment of senators by state legislatures with direct election. Completely different states convey completely different options to the desk, and that should be mirrored within the Senate’s nationwide debate.

The previous saying was once that everyone’s politics is native; however in the present day—due to the Internet, 24/7 cable information, and a cottage trade devoted to political habit—politics is polarized and nationwide. That will change if state legislatures had direct management over who serves within the Senate.

Sundown the whole lot.

For many years, Pennsylvania Avenue has been a one-way road, as authority flowed from Congress to the chief department.

When the unelected paperwork gets energy, it doesn’t let go.

 We ought to finish that with the Senate’s creating a ‘tremendous committee’ devoted to reviewing all such delegations of energy over the previous 80 years; after which proposing laws to sundown the authority of whole bureaucracies on a rolling foundation.

For example, does the ‘Well being and Human Providers Division’ ever reply for its aggressive regulatory lawmaking? No. Sundown all its authority in 12 months, and watch lawmakers begin to make precise legal guidelines.

Anchor Funding process in statutory principle

The ability of the purse is Congress’s major lever—and the place where Congress is most unserious.

The course of funds is totally damaged, and every few months lawmakers are confronted with a monumentally silly resolution:

‘Shut down the federal government or spend 102 percent of what was spent during the fiscal year, with no oversight.

It is a limitless sequence of all-or-nothing brinkmanship fights—persevering with resolutions, omnibus spending offers and debt-ceiling hikes.

We ought to repair that with two-year budgeting that features all federal spending, together with entitlements.

We ought to finish the excellence between appropriation and authorization.

Laws that authorize federal motion must also accept the cash to pay for it.

“These aren’t partisan proposals,” Sasse declares. “Congressional dysfunction isn’t a partisan problem.”

Over years, Congress (Republican and Democratic lawmakers) decided “to shirk its obligation and cede energy to the chief department” (the executive branch of government).

“Restoration shall be laborious. Nevertheless, it is time that Congress constructs some muscle and works out the best way to serve the American people— once more, doing our constitutionally mandated jobs.”

 

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asse’s record of sounding off: Votes and comments 2016-2020

 2016

 During primary season, Sasse reportedly announced that he would not support then-Republican front-runner Donald Trump; and questioned Trump’s commitment to the Constitution of the United States.

In the event of a Trump nomination, he reportedly said, “he would vote neither for him nor for then-Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton; but would probably ‘look for some third candidate—a conservative option, a Constitutionalist.’”

‘If the Republican Party becomes the party of David Duke, Donald Trump, I’m out.’”

Senator Sasse went on record as

“the only senator from either party to vote against the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act, which was intended to address abuse of heroin and opioid drugs by providing funds to the states for treatment and prevention programs and by making the anti-overdose drug naloxone more widely available to first responders and law enforcement agencies.” 

[Naloxone (sold under the brand name Narcan, among others) is a medication used to block the effects of opioids; is commonly used to counter decreased breathing in opioid overdose (Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naloxone.]

2017

Sasse reportedly describes President Trump as a “‘megalomaniac strongman’” whose “tariffs on steel and aluminum imports (are) ‘dumb,’; and whose “escalating trade war with China (is) ‘nuts.’”

February 2019

With fifteen other senators voted against legislation containing $1.375 billion for barriers along the United States-Mexico border, and “preventing a partial government shutdown.”

March 2019

With eleven other senators, Sasse cosponsored a resolution imposing a constitutional amendment limiting to nine the total number of justices on the Supreme Court of the United States.

2020

Sasse delivers a speech on the occasion of a commencement ceremony at his high school alma mater (Fremont Senior High School, Fremont, Nebraska) in which he reportedly attacks China “over the COVID-19 pandemic.” The school board later issues an official statement “disavowing responsibility for Sasse’s comments.”

October 2020

Audio clip of call reportedly obtained by the Washington Examiner

Sasse comments in interview with a “constituent” - Referring to President Trump

“In his partial defense here, I think that lots of the news media has pretended that COVID is literally the first public health crisis ever. And somehow, it’s Donald Trump’s fault. That’s not true. They just wanted to use it against him.”

Sasse continues

“But the reality is that he (President Trump) careened from curb to curb. First, he ignored COVID. And then he went into full economic shutdown mode. … I don’t think the way he’s led through COVID has been reasonable or responsible, or right.”

A Sense of the Electorate

“… [T]he overwhelming reason that President Trump won in 2016 was simply because Hillary Clinton was literally the most unpopular candidate in the history of polling.”

 “I've spent lots of the last year on a campaign bus, and when you listen to Nebraskans, they don’t really want more rage tweeting as a new form of entertainment”

 “[President Trump] … mocks evangelicals behind closed doors. His family has treated the presidency like a business opportunity. [The President] has flirted with white supremacists.”

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asse’s momentary concern? 

That “… young people (will) become permanent Democrats because they’ve just been repulsed by the obsessive nature of our politics; (that) women who were willing to still vote with the Republican Party in 2016 (will) decide that they need to turn away from this party permanently in the future…”

 

Sources

Sasse, Benjamin “Make the Senate Great Again” September 8, 2020 Adam Jacob Technology 0 Consistent News via WSJ https://consistantnews.com/make-the-senate-great-again/

https://apkmetro.com/make-the-senate-great-again/

Constitution of the United States US Constitution Amendment 17 - Senators Elected by Popular Vote. Ratified 4/8/1913. History 

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.

Benjamin Eric Sasse

• Biographical Directory of the United States Congresshttps://bioguideretro.congress.gov/Home/MemberDetails?memIndex=S001197
• Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Sasse

Washington Examiner “Exclusive: GOP Sen. Sasse says Trump ‘kisses dictators’ butts’ and mocks evangelicals” October 15, 2020 by David M. Drucker, Senior Political Correspondent https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/campaigns/exclusive-gop-sen-sasse-says-trump-kisses-dictators-butts-mocks-evangelicals

Wall Street Journal “Republican Sen. Ben Sasse Criticizes Trump on Policies, Ethics” October 15, 2020 by Siobhan Hughes and Madeleine Ngo https://www.wsj.com/articles/republican-sen-ben-sasse-criticizes-trump-on-policies-ethics-11602811020

CBC “Ben Sasse, a potential 2024 presidential candidate, made comments to constituents” Associated Press October 16, 2020 https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/republican-sasse-trump-1.5764781

 

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Do Post-Revolutionary War Americans need armed Militias?

Does a Man or Woman need Cannon at a Picnic?

The problem with frenzied actions (jerk or kneejerk) in crisis is that all the years of action (inaction, neglect, indifference, distractedness, interminable pandering and vote getting or campaigning to hold office or position) leading to out-and-loud crisis—created and compounded the crisis into multiple crises. Sickness!

An example is the immediately preceding US administration. This president acted as if America’s human relations problems and gross economic and general well-being, even basic plumbing, living disparities in the United States were—to paraphrase the eloquent and questionable Nobel laureate Barack Obama—well, just how it is in the United States (which is not so).

The forty-fourth U.S. president’s criminal neglect and indifference— “that’s how it is” and “I can do nothing about it” (also false) concerning Americans’ welfare (like his callously criminal bombing of Pakistan and Afghanistan and Libya and Somalia and other African and Western Asian peoples) —displayed the attitude of an individual existing on another planet.

 

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he Forty-fifth President assumed and increased the detached character of his immediate predecessor.

Instead of using clever words, slick (remember “Slick Willie” Forty-two?) dissembling, and other camouflage, the Trumpster struts his incompetence, and callously celebrates criminal carelessness. Not bombing people is not indicative of man’s weakness. Incompetence and unfitness of purpose are not only indicative of weakness. These conditions are weakening. They render a person vulnerable (in the character of a “leader,” a nation vulnerable) to wherever, and whatever winds.     

Barack Hussein Obama and Donald John Trump possessed that common character and, mindlessly, they locked step with their predecessors.

 

They took orders from shadowy entities, and served the aims of brand-name masters such as Boeing and Lockheed, GlaxoSmithKline and Purdue Pharma, the Sackler, Gates and Walton families, BIG media-oil-tobacco Inc, BIG Ivy Georgetown Harvard-Stanford-Yale Inc, BIG pocketed long tentacles Adelson, Buffett, Goldman Sachs, Soros.

 

They pandered to, paid for, and played to malleable (easily hoodwinked) crowds.

 

In their policies, executive orders, and one after another disgraceful act, these U.S. presidents accelerated (Donald Trump continues to accelerate) a psychosis of neglect, blame distraction, and violence—with the predictable consequence of piled-on crises in social and economic, health and welfare sectors at home and abroad.

 

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merica stands before the world in indisputable crisis—compounding, multilayered crises. 

 

In the midst of this self-made disaster, one of the institutions of entrenched Washington, Georgetown Law, joins the frenzy. Purports to instruct when a president and a people are oblivious to reason, and far beyond the stage of listening.

Nevertheless, in light of the televised and social media’rized rise and spread of variously named street militia and the reported attempt by at least one of these groups to kidnap Michigan’s governor and lay seize to the state capital, the Georgetown Law Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection’s set of “Facts on Unlawful Militias” has pertinence.

Part of their teaching 

All 50 states prohibit private, unauthorized groups from engaging in activities reserved for the state militia, including law enforcement activities.

 

The Constitution of the United States and the laws of individual U.S. States use the term ‘militia’ to refer to all able-bodied residents between certain ages who may be called forth by the government when there is a specific need;

but private individuals have no legal authority to activate themselves for militia duty outside the authority of the federal or state government. 

 

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he Second Amendment, like much of the U.S. Constitution and other major documents (outside government, religions texts), has been misused, conveniently interpreted or deliberately misinterpreted to serve individually personal or ideological purposes; or, by politicians, to pander to narrow interests.

When politicians and media are in the pockets of vested interests, lobbyists of various kinds and connections; when there are no substantive and objective checks by responsible and knowledgeable government officials who stand firm in their devotion to upholding the meaning, derivation, historic setting of 200-plus year-old constitutional expressions, abuse and ramifications in further deepening social and human relations problems are the consequences.  Crisis upon Crisis!

Amendment Two

Patriots of Thirteen American Colonies defeated the British in the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783). In the post-Revolutionary War era, colonists were skeptical of tactics that had been used by the British at the start of this war. One of those tactics was the confiscation of colonists’ firearms. The text of Second Amendment (1791) was intended to protect colonists and colonies from threats by the Crown.

The Revolutionary War ended 237 years ago. The documentation of America’s Declaration of Independence from Britain is 244 years old. In these years, there has been no British threat against colonies, colonists, or Americans more generally.

One would think, Americans are not (or should not be) a threat to one another; nor, therefore, would Americans have reason to arm against one another. In either case of the British or fellow Americans, the Second Amendment lacks relevance to or ability to help resolve America’s internal conflicts, or solve America’s underlying and preexisting domestic problems.

Arming can only worsen conflict and add problems. Grease poured on flames causes a raging, all consuming fire. Crisis piled upon Crisis creates impenetrable Crises!   

 

Key Questions neither government officials or academics are asking:

• Why?
  

• Why do Americans feel the need to form militias?

• Why armed militias?

• Why do Americans feel the need, individually, to arm themselves?

• Why does one need a “militia” in post-Revolutionary / post-Civil War eras?
  

 

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urrent Documented Militias in the United States with date of origin

Militia groups in the United States “are private organizations that include paramilitary or similar elements”; who many call themselves “militia,” “unorganized militia,” or “constitutional militia

1982 Missouri Militia: “private, non-profit civilian defense organization” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missouri_Militia   1989 Ohio Defense Force (ODF): “organized, led, and staffed by private citizens” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ohio_Defense_Force	1994 Michigan Militia: paramilitary “formed in response to perceived encroachments by the federal government on the rights of citizens” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michigan_Militia 1994 Militia of Montana (MOM): paramilitary “formed from remnants of 1992 United Citizens for Justice, … in response to the standoff during the siege in Ruby Ridge, Idaho; … largely disbanded after the Y2K threat turned out to be minor.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Militia_of_Montana
2009 Idaho Light Foot Militia (ILFM): unorganized militia privately organized by private citizens, self-described “as part of the Patriot movement” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idaho_Light_Foot_Militia 2009 Oath Keepers: “far-right anti-government militia organization” that “encourages its members to not obey orders which they believe would violate the United States Constitution” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oath_Keepers	2010 Missouri Citizens Militia (MCM): private militia composed of military veterans, sheriff’s deputies, police, firefighters, and private citizens.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missouri_Citizens_Militia   2011 Arizona Border Recon (AZBR): paramilitary militia “composed of former military, law enforcement and private security contractors” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arizona_Border_Recon
2015 New York Light Foot Militia (NYLFM): privately organized “Constitutional Militia” who “train together in several areas of civilian preparedness such as but not limited to: Land navigation, Basic HAM Radio use, Bug-out bag preparedness and use, Gun safety, Community emergency response team, Incident Command System, First aid, Paramilitary training, Survival skills and basic Survivalism” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_Light_Foot_Militia	2017 Not F------ Around Coalition (NFAC): paramilitary organization “black liberation” and “separatism” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Not_F_____g_Around_Coalition

 

One does not bring a cannon to a picnic.

 

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merica’s problem is about more than law or law and order—though I believe firmly in law and order and in self discipline. All people should be subject to law, order, rule of law, and self discipline.

America needs public officials who are devoted, blindly, without exclusivity or prejudice, to law and order, the rule of law; and to understanding the nature and application of law and order.

America needs men and women who set good examples. 

America needs public officials who are equally devoted, selflessly (not selfishly as the current pattern) to informing oneself, listening and learning with an open mind, and conveying to others the nature of underlying, preexisting conditions (not color, kin, kind superficialities and distractions).

America needs courageous, honest public officials cooperating with colleagues and people outside their circles, communicating respectfully—working, continuously, off-camera, and off social media— in solving America’s problems.

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either lethal arms nor armed militia, neither lawyers nor legal briefs are means toward forming “a more perfect Union.” 

“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”

Remember 1787.

 

 

 

Sources and news pegs

WSWS “Thirteen arrested in far-advanced pro-Trump conspiracy to murder Michigan’s governor and overthrow the state government” October 9, 2020 https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/10/09/mich-o08.html

“The Federal Bureau of Investigation and Michigan State Police have arrested more than a dozen men across the state in connection with well-developed plans to kidnap and kill Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer, seize power in Lansing and install a pro-Trump regime.”  

 

CounterSpin “Mary McCord on Unlawful Militias, Chip Gibbons on Assange Extradition October 9, 2020 https://fair.org/home/mary-mccord-on-unlawful-militias-chip-gibbons-on-assange-extradition/

This week on CounterSpin: In a conversation recorded just before we got word of the arrest of six members of the Michigan militia group calling itself the “Wolverine Watchmen” for conspiring to kidnap Michigan’s Democratic governor, Gretchen Whitmer, as part of a broader agenda of violent government overthrow, we talked with Mary McCord, a law professor at Georgetown University and legal director at the school’s Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection—and an expert on unlawful militias that manage to be part of the political landscape while somehow escaping rigorous media scrutiny.

“Fact Sheets on Unlawful Militias for All 50 States Now Available from Georgetown Law’s Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection” Georgetown Law Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection https://www.law.georgetown.edu/icap/our-press-releases/fact-sheets-on-unlawful-militias-for-all-50-states-now-available-from-georgetown-laws-institute-for-constitutional-advocacy-and-protection/

The Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection is based at Georgetown University Law Center,

 

The Constitution of the United States Amendment 2 - Right to Bear Arms Ratified 12/15/1791:

“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.”  https://usconstitution.net/const.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitution_of_the_United_States

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Revolution

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Militia_organizations_in_the_United_States

 

 

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