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On Covid and Texas, Biden Courts a Constitutional Crisis
When Donald Trump was president, we heard a lot about Norms® and Standards.™ Trump was accused of violating this vague collection of unwritten rules, a convenient tactic when they couldn’t prove actual crimes. The good news was that Biden’s election would restore this Beltway-approved system of etiquette. How refreshing.
Eight months into his administration, Biden has folded, spindled, and mutilated our Norms® and Standards,™ even those mandated by the Constitution. Trump was erratic but Biden is openly courting a constitutional crisis.
Pressured by far-left backbencher Cori Bush in August, the White House reinstated an eviction ban already declared illegal by the Supreme Court. Biden knew it was a violation but said: “by the time it gets litigated, it will probably give some additional time.”
As expected, SCOTUS immediately crushed it stating, “if a federally imposed eviction moratorium is to continue, Congress must specifically authorize it.” Just as it says in the Constitution.
On Thursday, Biden made two more obviously unconstitutional moves. First, he ordered hapless Attorney General Merrick Garland to sue the state of Texas over its new abortion law. The administration was furious that the Supreme Court actually followed the law and refused to issue an emergency stay. The DOJ bizarrely claimed that a state exercising its rights will “nullify the Constitution of the United States.”
Later in the day, the President announced a six-point plan to tackle Covid. Called “Path out of the Pandemic,” his executive orders require millions of Americans to get vaccinated or lose their jobs. The groups include federal employees, employees of contractors that do business with the federal government, and workers in hospitals, home health care facilities, and other medical facilities.
Biden also ordered all private employers with 100 employees or more to require weekly Covid testing, and they are required to give employees paid time off to get vaccinated.
“This is not about freedom or personal choice,” Biden said in a national address. “We’ve been patient but our patience is wearing thin and your refusal has cost all of us.” After attacking Americans, the President took on the states. “If these governors won’t help,” Biden said, “I will use my powers as president and get them out of the way.”
Back in December, Biden promised that he would not make vaccines mandatory. Spokeswoman Jen Psaki repeated this in July. But Biden’s promises are irrelevant, as Americans and allies still stranded in Afghanistan have learned. Wanting voters to forget the crisis overseas, he is creating new ones on the homefront.
The White House has no authority to do any of this, of course. The White House knows they have no authority to do any of this. Biden is doing it anyway.
Norms®? Standards™? Not for Biden. He has chosen constitutional crisis.
Published in Politics
As the author of Liberal Fascism wrote last night on Twitter, Biden wouldn’t have to force me to get the shot if I’d just get the shot.
We are Americas hat!
Only on north-up maps you bigots. Why can’t you guys be more enlightened? Something, something, I’m superior. Something, something, smash the patriarchy. /s
No surprise there. What a backstabbing douchebag he turned out to be.
EDIT: Jonah’s getting absolutely dragged for that comment, which is basically the abusive husband’s excuse: “I wouldn’t have to hit her if she’d stop making me so mad.”
How about this then:
I know in the early days before many people were vaccinated there was speculation that maybe these vaccines wouldn’t work like traditional vaccines and they would allow the inoculated to be asymptomatic carriers. So people would have the virus and be spreading it all over without realizing that they were infected. I have never heard of any confirmation that they work like that. In the early days of Covid there was also a bit of speculation that even without being vaccinated, many people were asymptomatic carriers. But I think that this has been dis-proven. You could have a very mild case of Covid and not realize it but I seem to recall reading that the people with very mild cases weren’t very contagious.
And if true, then it’s not the deplorable unvaxxed who are prolonging the pandemic. It’s the vaxxed.
Yes, that used to be true. But I think it’s now been categorized as “thought-crime.”
As far as I know that’s all true.
Depends on which Marshall, probably.
“This is not about freedom or personal choice.”
No argument there.
As Jon points out, “The White House has no authority to do any of this, of course. The White House knows they have no authority to do any of this. Biden is doing it anyway.”
But why? Even if this could get past the courts, the enforcement challenges seem almost insurmountable.
“Sorry, boss, I lost that darn card months ago. But I was vaccinated.”
Maybe the boss will say “Get some kind of proof.” Here is USA Today’s advice about that:
“If you didn’t receive the vaccine card or lost it, your first step is to contact your vaccination provider, such as Rite Aid, CVS or a local government office. If you can’t contact your provider, you can reach out to contact your state health department’s immunization information system. All vaccination providers must report COVID-19 vaccinations to their IIS.
“State health departments will either email or mail a copy of your vaccination card, although it may take one to two weeks.” (Emphasis added)
“If you call the CDC directly, it will not have individual information about COVID-19 vaccinations.” (Emphasis added)
“Dang it, boss, I called the CDC on Tuesday. I’m waiting for them to call me back.”
“Okay, I finally called the drug store. They said they’ll check on it.”
“Well, I took your advice and called that state office. They said they would get back to me in a couple of weeks, maybe.”
Finally, “Oh heck. I’ll just print out the damn card and fill it in myself.”
I suspect that at least part of Mr. Biden’s motivation is to set up all those unvaccinated citizens – and their supporters and those pesky Constitution-obsessed judges – as the reasons why he couldn’t keep his promise to “shut down the virus.” If your administration is failing, it’s best to have your scapegoats ready before the failure is too obvious to deny.
That’s a lot of runaround when “eff you and your demands” is probably the best response.
I am not going to explain how I know about it, but I know for certain that some employers that are mandating vaccines have some very similar thoughts about enforcement.
I hope he’s getting flamed for that.
He is. But he’s still writing. Which means he’s not getting flamed hard enough.
Probably meant Marshall Dillon.
I’m still waiting on some data here. I don’t mean to nag, but I really would like some examples rather than a generic charge of “erratic.” It’s hard to refute generic, which seems to be most of what we hear from NTers. I’ve never once had a response from Gary about which policies of Trump’s he objected to. Not once.
Don’t be like Gary, Jon. It’s not a fair way to
fightconverse.Sounds like the same problem with The Dispatch still existing.
Jon will never admit his post on the 6th was out of line because he still believes it. Otherwise he would have recanted.
I agree. This needs some explaining. A great habit I learned from Dennis Prager is to never assert broad generalizations without providing at least one concrete example. If you can’t come up with an example then you are just blowing smoke.
I’m not asking for a repudiation of Impeach, Remove, and Bar from Future Office. I’m asking for an explanation, with examples, of what he means about Trump being “erratic” in the context of Biden’s lawlessness and unconstitutional mandates.
I don’t really want to relitigate Jan 6 anymore than Jon does. Frankly, I find the subject embarrassing for everyone concerned. The Trespass was a tragic act of mob mentality — mostly tragic for Trump supporters — and Jon’s reaction was, um, overwrought, putting it mildly. Pinning it to the Main was the last straw for me. But, I don’t even want an apology, although it did drive me away from Ricochet up until Boss’s death brought me back. I just want him to explain himself in this post in this context. That’s all.
Yes, exactly this.
ADD means never having to say you’re sorry.
ADD means never having to explain yourself, either.
Jon can be reasonable. The question is, will he?
Reasonable doesn’t seem to be his default position, usually. And he has an indefinite excuse for it.
Sigh.
I bet that you have written a post or two that people have found objectionable, Bryan. What would you think of someone who went into post after post after post of yours to chide you in the comments for that previous post?
I am happy to defend what I have said in the past, or to admit I was wrong if I was.
If someone has a post I have written that you don’t like, then by all means, please call me on it, and, unlike some people, I expect I will be more than happy to either defend or disavow it.
What I won’t do, I can promise you, is ignore it as if it never happened, nor will I be snarky because it was brought it up.
Also, I am not Editor In Chief and my posts do get to be placed automatically on the Main Feed.