It’s A Feature, Not A Bug

“It’s not broken, it’s supposed to do that.”

“It’s not a bug, it’s a feature.”

“The system’s working fine, you’re just using it wrong.”

“The only problem here is user-related.”

I’ve heard many phrases like this in my life-long association with technology, but the phrase “It’s a feature, not a bug” didn’t really come into the lexicon until sometime in the early 2000’s, when some higher-up from Microsoft was quoted saying that in response to customer complaints about error screens they were getting in Windows. Since then, it’s become an inside joke within the IT world to describe a feature, device, program, or system that doesn’t work for the end user, but part of it, usually the error checking, is working normally.

Why am I talking about an IT inside joke? Because I feel that it’s relevant to the current situation.

Today is January 22, 2018. Monday. And Day 3 of the United States Government Shutdown. A shutdown that was completely avoidable, and 95% the fault of the Republican Party. I reserve 5% for the Democrats involved, but this is the same level of blame one would give to the owner of a dog that chewed a hole through the fence at the boarding kennel, broke out of the yard, and dug up the neighbors flowerbed. Sure, they could have done more to make sure the dog wasn’t left at a neglectful kennel, but they’re about fourth or fifth down the chain of responsibility.

Anyway, on Friday, I watched the Senate vote and fail to pass a spending bill. I sat back, had a couple glasses of wine, and heckled the television as Mitch McConnell blamed the Democrats for not passing the cloture threshold on the spending bill. While asking which one of the Ninja Turtles turned to evil and grew up to become a Senator from Kentucky, I realized a few things.

I have absolutely no social life whatsoever at this point, and I’m happy with that.
This shutdown was completely avoidable.
I really like sweet red wine.
This was put into motion last year when Trump rescinded the DACA protections.
The White House has no interest in negotiating in good faith.
The Republican Party Leadership is complicit in this mess.
At any point in the last 4 months, since CHIP funding ran out, they could have reauthorized it, but decided to use it as a bargaining chip.
At any point since October, Congress could have passed bipartisan legislation to codify DACA.
This shutdown is a feature, not a bug.

That last one struck me. Not as hard as the headache the next morning when I woke up, but it still struck me. This shutdown was planned out since last year when Congress refused to give Trump even a penny for his border wall. Okay, “planned” is a little strong for these people. They can’t plan a lunch without screwing it up. But, the option of a shutdown was put into place.

I think that the Trump White House thought a Government Shutdown would be beneficial for them for a few reasons.

It would force Congress to push their agenda.
It fits with Trump’s “negotiating style.”
It would make the Democrats look bad for standing against them.
It would make the Democrats look bad for agreeing with them.
It would shut down the Congressional Investigations into Trump.
It would shut down the Special Counselor’s Investigation.

Congress doesn’t want to pay for a Mexican Border Wall, or a Muslim Immigration Ban. Congress doesn’t want to screw up all of the trade agreements, or mess with the treaties in place. They want to keep the lights on, keep things running, and lower taxes for their donors. Anything else is window dressing.

As far at “The Great Dealmaker” goes, a shutdown is the only way that he can fall back on his traditional methods of negotiation. From looking at Trump’s history in business, here’s how a typical business deal goes down…

Engage in negotiations with someone in a lower position than you, like a small company or someone desperate for business.
Demand onerous terms from the other party, while agreeing to give very little.
Fail to deliver on even the pittance that you agreed to give in the first place.
Fight your partner now opponent at every step of the way, until they’re no longer capable of defending themselves.
Continue to attack your opponent and blame them for the eventual failure of the business while you run it into the ground to squeeze it for every spare penny possible.
Shut the business down in an attempt to shift the blame, liquidate the assets, and move on to the next deal.

Any halfway competent President would have avoided a shutdown at the last minute when Chuck Schumer was willing to negotiate funding for the Border Wall in exchange for DACA. That right there should have been the end of the game. They could have walked out of the White House, shaking hands, high-fiving, and carried that bill proposal to the House and Senate for a vote. Instead, Trump is a terrible dealmaker. He wants everything, is unwilling to compromise, and is either too stupid to see a great deal, or is working for other means.

As far as the Democrats go, there’s no way they would come out of this in a good position. If they agree to the spending bill, they lose any chance of getting DACA on the floor for a vote before the March deadline. If they don’t agree, they’re stuck in the middle of a shutdown, and they actually realize how that’s a bad thing.

But, what if this is all part of some master plan by Trump and his Russian allies to shut down the government and the investigations into him? Well, that’s something to think about. Congress will be too busy arguing with each other to engage any committee work, and all of their pages and assistants are temporarily sort-of unemployed. The only work that Congress is doing now is restoring funding so that the government can work.

As far as Mueller goes, his investigation continues. Special Counselor investigations are funded by a special permanent indefinite appropriation, not an annual one like the standard budget. So, while the parks are closed and soldiers don’t get paid, Mueller’s team keeps showing up to work.

By the way, Senator Claire MacCaskill proposed an amendment to a bill that would allow the military to still be paid during the shutdown, but it would require unanimous consent. Mitch McConnell objected.

CLOTURE THRESHOLD

I mentioned earlier about the Cloture Threshold. Cloture, sometimes called a super majority, is the vote threshold that is required in the Senate to break a filibuster. A filibuster is an action or speech where a Senator can take the floor and not yield to anyone or anything. Currently, that threshold is 60. Unless special rules are enforced, like the reconciliation process used for the Tax Bill and the attempted Obamacare repeal, all Senate votes are treated as though they need to break a filibuster. This is because the filibuster has been relegated to a procedural tool to clog up work in the Senate.

The vote was 50-49 in favor of the last ditch spending bill. John McCain was in Arizona getting medical care. 5 Democrats, all from conservative states and facing reelection, voted for the bill. 4 Republicans, none of which are facing reelection in 2018, voted against it.

That’s it for now. I’ll be back later with some updates that happened over the weekend, including a story about several Russians attending Trump’s inauguration.

Thank you, and have a good one.

2017 Retrospective

Hello there, it’s been a while. December has been a very rough month for me. I’ve had maybe 3 days this month where I haven’t been sick, and 2 of those were spent fighting a broken furnace.

But it’s that time of the year when everyone and their mother throws together a compilation list of the best and worst stuff that happened in the past 365ish days, then go on vacation for the rest of the year.

I hate those posts.

I don’t like nostalgia for nostalgia sake, and 2017 doesn’t deserve a “best of” send off.

I hate it when people talk about the “good old days” and wax poetically about a memory of a time that was a hell of a lot worse than their rose-tinted glasses made appear.

Instead, I want to talk about what changed in 2017, what stayed the same, what was learned, and why it’s worth fighting.

While this is mostly concerned with what has happened in the News, I’m also including personal change as well. I’m hesitant to call it growth, but change is accurate.

WHAT CHANGED IN 2017?

For anyone reading this after waking up from a coma that started the last week of October 2016, I’ve got some bad news. Trump won the Presidential election. But, as we’ve come to learn, he didn’t do it alone. He had a lot of help from his friends in Russia, and there were more than enough Americans that helped him as well.

2017 started off weird, as the Obama Administration has just instituted several major new sanctions on Russia. Trump didn’t seem to want to do anything to Russia, and evidence was still coming in about what happened in November. The MSM was still hoping that Trump, a 70 year old misogynistic, racist, ignorant fool would somehow not embarrass the country in front of the world, and that if we gave him a chance, he might actually not suck.

That hope lasted all of about two days.

After a small inauguration event, Trump’s team went into full-on propaganda mode by distributing false photos of the event where they photoshopped a much larger crowd, while going after anyone who spread the real photos. At the same time, his Administration went after the Parks Service, trying to erase any mention of climate change from Government sites.

That’s when the Resistance started.

The Women’s March. The Alt accounts. The March for Science. The Airport Protests. The March for Reason. More people had marched against Trump by April of 2017 than against Cancer all year long.

It’s also the first whispers that something wasn’t right in the White House. In between trying to undo everything Obama did and implement his Muslim Ban, word came around that Mike Flynn was in some serious legal jeopardy. (SPOILER ALERT: He’s now a convicted felon.) Trump’s team was told in late January by Acting Attorney General Sally Yates that Flynn had lied to the FBI. She was fired the next day. Flynn resigned 18 days later.

This is just up to February.

A couple things changed in February for me.

First, I found PostimusMaximus on Reddit, and read a lot of his posts. I assume it’s a him, but I could be wrong. Reading his work was eye opening, but insane. I saw many of the markers of old school conspiracy theories, but there was something different with his work. Instead of citing places like Coast to Coast, he cited real sources like the Washington Post and New York Times. I decided to keep an eye on him.

Next, I rejoined Twitter and started following a few people. Claude Taylor, Louise Mensch, and John Schindler. Eventually I followed a lot more people like Countercheckist, Tea Pain, Eric Garland, Rick Wilson, and more politicians, lawyers, and spooks than exist outside of D.C.

There was a weird feeling following these people on Twitter. It was sort of like joining a conversation halfway through and only catching small slivers, and then realizing that the slivers are in a different language. They were talking about indictments and grand juries and investigations by the FBI, the Steele Dossier, SIGINT from the Mayflower Hotel, while the rest of the world was still stuck on Trump and Twitter.

In March, that’s when Russia came roaring in to the picture. During a late night rage tweet, Trump said Obama had tapped his phones. Even though this was a horseshit claim, the House Intelligence Committee decided to hold a hearing about it and invited FBI Director James Comey to testify.

The Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigations confirmed, under oath, that the Trump Campaign was under a counterintelligence investigation that started in July 2016, and that grand juries had been impaneled to deal with that investigation.

Hole. Lee. Shit.

This confirmed that at least part of what the Rumor Mill was saying was true, and that it was worth looking into the rest of their chatter, if just to see if it was a case of a broken clock being right twice a day, or if there was something to this group fighting for Democracy.

Over the next few months, I noticed a few other changes. I stopped viewing the CIA and FBI as “the enemy.” I questioned the source of my news more often. I viewed what other people took as gospel and investigated it myself. I became more politically active. I started sounding like a complete nutter when I tried to describe what I was seeing and hearing about Trump and Russia. I was becoming more and more outspoken in my criticisms.

I also realized that these were historic times, and I should write down what happened so one day my kids could ask me “What The Fuck, Dad?”

I toyed with the idea of doing this blog back in May when Trump fired Comey and Robert Mueller was named the Special Counselor. I was looking into it when news of the June 9 meeting broke, and Donnie Jr proved to be the Dumbest Mother Fucker in the history of Dumb Mother Fuckers. I eventually got around to it in July, and I’ve been here since.

WHAT STAYED THE SAME IN 2017?

This is still the United States of America, a country of laws, not men, or wealth, or personalities.

WHAT DID WE LEARN?

I learned not to take the press for granted.

There are quite a few people willing to sacrifice the future for small gains now, and those people must be dealt with. Unfortunately, there are quite a few more of them than I originally thought, and a lot of them have too much money. That doesn’t mean they’re invincible, it means the battle will be that much harder.

Sometimes conspiracies do exist.

A conspiracy is only as strong as the weakest person involved. It’s been 5 months since George Papadopoulos turned States Evidence against the Trump Campaign, and less than a month since Mike Flynn was convicted and flipped. George is a young man who doesn’t want to grow old in jail, and Mike Flynn just became a granddad.

There’s still a lot we don’t know about Trump and Russia, but the evidence at this point leads to a conspiracy between them to steal the election in Trump’s favor. Nearly every member of his campaign and transition team either had contact with Russians, or knew about it.

Trump is a micromanaging asshole. No one in his circle does anything without his approval.

Donald Trump is unable or unwilling to change his ways.

The Trump Family is a crime family.

Some laws are easier to convince a jury about than others.

IS THIS WORTH FIGHTING FOR?

Absofuckinglutely. The moment we give in is the moment that everything this country was built on dies.

This is America. Churchill said it best when he said that we will always do the right thing, we’ll just try everything else first.

I don’t know about anyone else, but I want my kids to grow up in a world where the United States is still that shinning city on the hill where dreams can and do come true, where everyone is equal under the law, and a persons worth isn’t measured by their bank account, but the content of their character.

That’s it for today. I hope to be back up and writing on a normal schedule soon. Stuff did happen over the past couple weeks, including a confirmation of sorts that the RNC knew about the Trump Campaign colluding with the Russians, and that they actively took part in targeting specific zip codes, using information gained by Russians.

Thank you, and have a good one.

GTKYG – Chain of Succession

Welcome back to the “Get to Know Your Government” series. Today, I want to talk about a subject that might not be known by too many people outside of history buffs and Constitutional Law scholars, but that I feel will be heading to the forefront of conversation in 2018.

The American Presidential Chain of Succession.

As I covered in GTKYG-Presidential Removal Processes, there are a few ways that a presidency can end prematurely. When that happens, the Vice President assumes the role of President, and under the powers granted to them under the Second Section of the Twenty Fifth Amendment, they are allowed to nominate their choice for Vice President. This happened when Gerald Ford assumed the presidency following Richard Nixon’s resignation.

But, how far does the chain of succession go? What if there were a situation where multiple people died at once, or were removed from office? What happens then?

In that case, it goes down the line to then person in the chain.

Following the President and Vice President, the Speaker of the House is third in line. The Speaker is the elected head of the House of Representatives. That position is currently held by Paul Ryan, Republican of Wisconsin.

After them, it’s the President pro tempore of the Senate. This position is an honorary one, awarded to the Senator who has served the longest in the Senate. Currently, that position is held by Orrin Hatch, Republican of Utah.

If, by some chance, all four of these people are unable to assume the presidency, or turn it down, the chain of succession goes through the Cabinet, by order that the position was created, starting with Secretary of State, Treasury, Defense, Attorney General (the original four positions from Washington’s first Cabinet), then through the rest of the positions, in the order that they were added.

CHAIN OF SUCCESSION

Below is a list of those positions, those mentioned above and the Cabinet positions, along with who is in the position, and their party affiliation, if available. OPEN represents that the position is not currently filled, or has an acting head who has not yet been confirmed by the Senate.

President Donald Trump (R)
Vice President Mike Pence (R)
Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R)
President pro tempore Orrin Hatch (R)
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson (R)
Secretary of Treasury Steven Mnuchin (R)
Secretary of Defense James Mattis (I)
Attorney General Jeff Sessions (R)
Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke (R)
Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Purdue (R)
Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross (R)
Secretary of Labor Alex Acosta (R)
Secretary of Health and Human Services OPEN
Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson (R)
Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao (R) NOT ELIGIBLE FOR PRESIDENT
Secretary of Energy Rick Perry
Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos
Secretary of Veterans Affairs David Shulkin (I)
Secretary of Homeland Security OPEN

If, and I mean IF, by some infinitesimal chance that everyone in the list above is not able to assume the office of President, then the chain would go through Congress, in order of the leadership bodies first (Majority Leaders, Minority Leaders, Majority Whip, etc.), then through each person in order of their tenure in office.

THE DESIGNATED SURVIVOR

I’m not talking about the ABC show with Keifer Sutherland, but the idea that the show is based off of.

Before any joint session of Congress where the President, Vice President, and Cabinet get together, one member of the Cabinet is chosen to spend the event in a bunker somewhere. They’re taken to a non-disclosed, secure location, where they’re kept under guard. This is in case the unthinkable happens.

In case the Capitol is attacked, and everyone inside is killed.

If that were to happen, then the Designated Survivor would be sworn in as President, and they would be tasked with restaffing and rebuilding the government.

WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT?

It’s important to understand how things work, especially the government. If something falls apart, we need to know how it can be fixed.

Really? Ok, here’s why…

We are in uncharted waters with the Russian Investigation. I’ve written many times about how many people are tied up with Russia, or have their own looming legal troubles. There is an above zero percent chance that multiple people in the chain of succession could be indicted at once.

Here’s the list again, along with why they might not be able to, or interested in, taking the presidency.

President Donald Trump (R) – Russia, RICO, Obstruction Investigations
Vice President Mike Pence (R) – Russia and Flynn
Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R) – Russia, Money laundering at RNC
President pro tempore Orrin Hatch (R) – Clean, but REALLY OLD
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson (R) – NY Fraud Investigations, Russia
Secretary of Treasury Steven Mnuchin (R) – Abuse of Public Trust, Taxpayer Funded Trips
Secretary of Defense James Mattis (I)
Attorney General Jeff Sessions (R) – Russia
Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke (R) – Abuse of Public Trust, Taxpayer Funded Trips
Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Purdue (R)
Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross (R) – Russia, tied to Putin family in Paradise Papers, Money Laundering ties with Paul Manafort
Secretary of Labor Alex Acosta (R)
Secretary of Health and Human Services OPEN
Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson (R)
Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao (R) NOT ELIGIBLE FOR PRESIDENT – Immigrants are not eligible for the Presidency.
Secretary of Energy Rick Perry – Abuse of Public Trust, Taxpayer Funded Trips
Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos – Russia.
Secretary of Veterans Affairs David Shulkin (I) – Abuse of Public Trust, Taxpayer Funded Trips
Secretary of Homeland Security OPEN

The craziest of the rumors I’ve heard have Trump, Pence, and Ryan all being indicted and/or removed from office at once. If that happens, then Orrin Hatch would be the next in line, but he’s 83 years old, has hinted at retirement, and reportedly might have dementia or Alzheimer’s. After him, the next clean person in the list is Jim Mattis, Secretary of Defense.

Is it likely that we end up with President Jim Mattis? No. It’s not impossible, but highly unlikely. This is one of those crazy scenarios that just isn’t likely to happen. Then again, I said the same thing about Trump becoming President.

BREAKING THE CHAIN

There is one other part to keep in mind. Remember when I said earlier that if the Vice President becomes the President, they get to choose their own Vice President?

That could come in to play, and could be used to elevate someone up the chain, especially if there is some kind of Quid Pro Quo in place to provide a stable transition of power.

Let’s face it, Mike Pence is likely to become the 46th President of the United States, and it will happen before 2020. If it has to happen, I’d rather it happen late next year. Under the 22nd Amendment, if a Vice President serves more than half of their predecessors term, they can only run for election once. If they serve less than two years of a term, then they could run for two terms. If it’s late enough in the year, he won’t be able to cause too much harm, and will be stuck in his own legal quagmire with Russia.

Assuming Mike Pence comes to power, he would get to choose his own Vice President, pending approval of both houses of Congress. One of the rumors I’ve heard would have him choosing a “safe” choice that would serve as a place holder while he’s going through his own legal mess. Someone who’s integrity isn’t under question, and knows the lay of the land.

And that’s how we could possibly end up with President James Mattis.

GTKYG-Pardon Limitations

In this installment of “Get To Know Your Government”, I’m going to talk about something that’s been in the news recently, and is floating around like the Boogey Man.

The Presidential Pardon.

There’s a lot of confusion floating around about what it does and doesn’t do, and what it can or can’t be used for. Hopefully, this article can answer some questions.

A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE

The Presidential Pardon is a power granted by the Constitution of the United States to the country’s Chief Executive, the President. Not much is laid out in the Constitution itself, but Alexander Hamilton described the Pardon Power in the Federalist Papers #74 as a means of mercy, based on the power of kings to grant mercy as a last resort. The pardon power can be used at any time EXCEPT IN THE CASE OF IMPEACHMENT. George Washington pardoned two of the leaders of the Whiskey Rebellion instead of hanging them.

WHAT DOES A PARDON DO

A pardon forgives the crime committed, and removes any criminal penalties of the said crime, for the crimes and/or time period specified in the pardon.

A pardon can only be issued by the executive of a jurisdiction, like a President or Governor.

WHAT A PARDON DOESN’T DO

A pardon is not a “Get out of jail, free!” card. Accepting a pardon is an admission of guilt, per Burdick vs. United States.

A pardon does not eliminate civil liability. If someone were pardoned for committing a murder, the family of the victim can come after them in civil court, but could also use that persons acceptance of the pardon as evidence in the civil trial.

A pardon can only be applied to specific crimes listed, not to other crimes committed by the person. Using the murder example, if it turns up that they also littered as well, they could face penalties for that. Not the murder, just the littering.

A pardon can only be applied to criminal charges inside of a specific jurisdiction. Charges for the same or similar crimes can still be brought by an individual state if they were pardoned in federal court, and vice versa.

A pardon doesn’t protect someone from self-incrimination. Since accepting a pardon is an admission of guilt, and the person cannot be tried for the crime they committed, the person receiving the pardon cannot claim to protect themselves from self-incrimination since they’ve already admitted guilt. In other words, they waive their Fifth Amendment rights.

HOW DOES THIS PLAY OUT?

Now, we’ve come to the question of the day. Can Donald Trump pardon himself and his co-conspirators?

Short answer: No.

As I’ve described in Lateral Movement, Nixon already asked if he could pardon himself. This brief describes what his legal team determined. Short version, a President cannot pardon themselves nor their co-conspirators, as doing so would put them above the law.

Is there a case on this which answered the question? No. We are in uncharted territory. Courts don’t rule on hypothetical cases. The idea that a President would not only be so corrupt that they would commit multiple crimes, but that they might try to pardon themselves was unthinkable by the Founding Fathers. They anticipated some corruption, but this level was unfathomable. There was no need to codify the pardon powers then because they didn’t think it would be needed. Sort of like the warning on a bottle of Windex that says “Do not spray directly into eyes.”

Let’s assume for a moment that Donald Trump’s legal strategy consists of pardoning himself and his co-conspirators. First, if it’s involved with an Impeachment, no can do. A presidential pardon cannot be used in cases of Impeachment. There are some fine hairs that need to be split, but the two main questions are at what point does Impeachment begin, and are all crimes in an impeachment non-pardonable, or just the Impeachment process of removing a person from office?

Here’s my prediction. And by mine, I stole part of this from @AltScalesofJustice. Things are going to come to a head. Criminal indictments will be served to Trump’s staff, family, and President Donald Trump. Donald Trump will pardon himself. Maybe his family, but definitely himself. This pardon will immediately be challenged in the Supreme Court. In a unanimous decision, (Maybe 8-1 or 7-2 at the weakest, but the SCOTUS would want to make a statement with this) the Supreme Court would rule that no one, especially the President of the United States, is above the law. By attempting to pardon himself, Donald Trump attempts to circumvent Due Process, and place himself and his co-conspirators in an extra-judicial position. The SCOTUS puts a restriction on the pardon power, Trump tries to fire back at the SCOTUS, and Trump is then removed from office.

WHAT IF THE PARDON SURVIVES SCOTUS REVIEW?

So, let’s assume for a moment that the SCOTUS rules 5-4 that the President can pardon themselves. What then?

In that case, Donnie’s fucked 8 ways from Sunday.

If he leaves out one co-conspirator, they’ll turn on him faster than a fidget spinner. They will turn states evidence for whatever state indicts him first, second, third, fourth, and fifth.

Next, he’ll get impeached and removed from office as fast as the Senate can move.

Once he’s removed from office, here come the State Indictments. He pardoned himself of Federal charges, not State charges. New York will own his ass. Literally. Enterprise Corruption is the state statute of RICO.

While he’s facing hell from at least 39 states (all of the ones that had their voting systems hacked on his orders), the Feds will come at his with a Civil RICO charge. Using his pardon as evidence against him, the government will seize his assets. All of them.

It gets worse for Donnie. Remember all of those crimes he pardoned himself for? He can be subpoenaed to testify in court about each and every one of those, and what he did, who he worked with, and why. And he can’t refuse an answer, since he has no rights to avoid self-incrimination.

So, in short, instead of dying in Leavenworth, penniless and infirm, he’ll die in Riker’s Island, or in Chino, or in any other prison, penniless and infirm.

On that happy ending, I’ll finish this article.