Mary Margaret Olohan on November 6, 2020

Democratic New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez suggested Friday that “Trump sycophants” should be held accountable for their “complicity in the future.”

The recently reelected congresswoman tweeted asking whether anyone was keeping track of comments made by “Trump sycophants.” She was likely referring to supporters of President Donald Trump who are alleging that voter fraud is causing the president to fall behind 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden.

Trump has not provided evidence that voter fraud is costing him the election.

“Is anyone archiving these Trump sycophants for when they try to downplay or deny their complicity in the future,” she asked. “I foresee decent probability of many deleted Tweets, writings, photos in the future.”

“Lol at the ‘party of personal responsibility’ being upset at the idea of being responsible for their behavior over last four years,” she added.

Ocasio-Cortez’s comments come as other high profile social media users announced the start of a “Trump Accountability Project” that will “make sure anyone who took a paycheck to help Trump undermine America is held responsible for what they did.”

We’re launching the Trump Accountability Project to make sure anyone who took a paycheck to help Trump undermine America is held responsible for what they did.

Join us and help spread the word.https://t.co/wtVxGIlYOK

— Emily Abrams (@emabrams) November 6, 2020

“We must never forget those who furthered the Trump agenda,” the Trump Accountability Project website says. “We should welcome in our fellow Americans with whom we differ politically. But those who took a paycheck from the Trump Administration should not profit from their efforts to tear our democracy apart.”

The website description continued: “The world should never forget those who, when faced with a decision, chose to put their money, their time, and their reputations behind separating children from their families, encouraging racism and anti-Semitism, and negligently causing the unnecessary loss of life and economic devastation from our country’s failed response to the COVID-19 pandemic.”

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President Trump openly admits blocking funds for the Postal Service to hinder voting by mail; declaring a “rigged election.” Democrats spin “post-office conspiracies” to secure trillions of more dollars for supporters. Meanwhile, the Postal Service warns states mail-in deadlines are too short to ensure ballots are received in time for counting. These actions are a recipe for intentionally inflicted electoral chaos.

The challenge is whether our “leaders” can work for the nation? A Congress that cannot pass regular appropriation bills, may have to immediately implement several constitutional provisions, the Presidential Succession Act, and maybe House Rules for developing a quorum in a “catastrophe” so it can do business.

Wading through the swamp requires meeting immovable deadlines:

1. November 3, 2020, election day.
2. December 8, 2020, resolving election disputes.
3. December 14, 2020, electors cast ballots.
4. December 23, 2020, the president of the Senate receives electors’ ballots.
5. January 3, 2021, House elects the Speaker.
6. January 6, 2021, the Joint session of Congress counts electoral votes.
7. January 20, 2021, the new president is inaugurated.

Meeting the deadlines depends entirely on the states’ timely certification of presidential electors and members of Congress. California counts ballots for 17 days after the election. In recent primaries, it took California 30 additional days after its deadline to count ballots. Complex litigation in several states will follow the final ballot counts. In this time frame, California, with 55 electoral votes, likely misses deadlines for resolving election disputes and electors casting ballots. It is also home to Speaker Pelosi, whose term ends on January 3, 2021.

California, and nine identified toss-up states having 135 electoral votes, could prevent up to 195 electoral votes (36% of all votes) from being certified for a substantial period of time. The only certain result is, at noon, January 20, 2021, President Trump’s term will end as mandated by the Twentieth Amendment.

The Twentieth Amendment and its implementing legislation, the Presidential Succession Act and House rules, start coming into play around January 3, 2021, when the House must have a quorum, 218 members, to do business, i.e. election of the Speaker and the counting of electoral ballots on January 6, 2021.

The House is likely to have a quorum, since most states will be able to certify electors and members of Congress by January 3, 2021. The current House leadership, however, (Pelosi and McCarthy) could be tied up in California’s delayed vote counting.  If they have not been certified winners, they cannot be sworn in to the new Congress.

If the House cannot secure a quorum, its precedents allow the past Clerk of the House to organize the House by securing a quorum under the “Catastrophic Circumstances” provision in House rules.  This is a multi-step process to find, identify, compel, and report the status of members. When the process is complete, the quorum requirements are lowered to reflect the House’s smaller membership. If the House can complete this process before January 20, 2021, and elect a Speaker, the Speaker is first in line to be acting president.  The House can elect anyone Speaker since the Constitution does not require the Speaker to be a member of Congress.

If a president has not been chosen by inauguration day, The Presidential Succession Act provides  “… the Speaker … shall, upon … resignation as Speaker, and as Representative in Congress, act as President.”  If “…there is no Speaker … the President pro tempore of the Senate shall, upon his resignation as President pro tempore and as Senator, act as President.” It appears unresolved how long the Senate must give the House to secure a quorum and elect a Speaker. Another opening for a constitutional mess.

The acting president serves until the House is able to elect a president.  To elect a president the Twelfth Amendment requires the House vote by state, each state having one vote, and that a quorum must be present consisting of members from two-thirds of the states and the majority of all the states shall be necessary to choose a president.

Details will matter. Congress needs to prepare, now. Hopefully, Congress recognizes elections are for citizens to choose their leaders, not for politicians to gain advantage from chaos.

This article was first published in The Hill and www.reformthekakistocracy.com

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Chuck Ross on November 29, 2018

A former personal attorney for President Donald Trump pleaded guilty Thursday to one charge in the special counsel’s investigation.

Michael Cohen will plead guilty to making false statements to Congress about his contacts with Russians during the 2016 presidential campaign, according to ABC News.

Cohen will admit to lying to Congress about his efforts in 2015 to build a Trump Tower in Moscow, The Associated Press reported.

Cohen has been met extensively with special counsel Robert Mueller since pleading guilty on Aug. 21 in federal court in New York City to tax evasion and illegal campaign finance charges.

He is expected to be sentenced in two weeks in that case.

Cohen is a key figure in the special counsel’s investigation into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. He is accused in the infamous Steele dossier of visiting Prague in August 2016 to meet with Russians and pay off hackers who infiltrated Democrats’ email accounts.

Cohen vehemently denied the allegations after BuzzFeed News published the dossier on Jan. 10, 2017. His attorney, Lanny Davis, continued denying the dossier’s claim even after Cohen pleaded guilty in the New York federal case. Davis said that Cohen has never visited Prague and that other allegations about him in the dossier were false.

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Molly Prince on November 28, 2018

House Democrats selected Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi as the nominee for speaker of the House on Wednesday in a closed-door meeting with the caucus.

The nomination marks a win for Pelosi in the first major step in her bid to reclaim the leadership position when Democrats take back control of the House in January 2019. She needed only half of the Democratic Caucus to vote on her behalf in order to secure the nomination.

Pelosi served as the speaker from 2007 until 2011 — the only woman to ever hold that position. Her return to the speakership position would make her only the seventh individual to do so on non-consecutive terms.

Despite ultimately running unopposed, Pelosi faced a challenge from a small, but vocal fraction of Democratic congressmen and congressmen-elect who opposed her ascension to the leadership position.

A cohort of House Democrats began circulating a letter in mid-November in an effort to block the California congresswoman from winning the position — the letter was eventually signed by 16 Democratic representatives, citing the need for a new direction within the Democratic Party. In order to obtain the speakership, Pelosi could only afford to lose 15 votes. However, the dissenters were not able to find an adequate challenger, and various signatories of the letter began reversing their opposition and backed Pelosi.

The full House of Representatives will hold a final floor vote to elect the speaker after the new year. Since Pelosi successfully won the Democratic nomination, she is expected to easily win back the gavel.

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By Phillip Stucky

Democratic strategists are planning how to take the US House of Representatives in the 2018 midterms, according to a statement made by a former Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee aide Tuesday.

“The storm clouds that normally hover above a wave election seem to be forming, which is incompetence, scandal and seeming to be out of touch,” the former aide told The Hill.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said the party could flip the House due to Trump’s unpopularity. The top democrat told The Hill that there were more than 40 Republican-held seats in districts that are considered more favorable to Democrats.

“If (the election) were today, I’d feel very confident. It’s not today,” Pelosi said in April.

President Donald Trump is experiencing record low approval ratings amid the ongoing scandal involving former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn.

Other Democratic representatives are more bullish about their prospects.

“When we take back the House in 2018, Democrats are going to hold this administration accountable,” said Rep. David Cicilline, D-R.I., a member of the party leadership. “And we’ll make sure there are real consequences for anyone who tries to use their elected office for personal gain…especially President Trump.”

Democrats would need to win an additional 24 seats in order to gain control of the House, and the DCCC is currently targeting 79 districts in their effort.

So far, the party leadership devoted considerable funds and energy to special elections in 2017, but Republicans have maintained their numbers in the Kansas and Georgia special elections.

The Cook Political Report changed three congressional races from “leans Republican” to “toss-up,” 11 races from “likely Republican” to “leans Republican,” and six races from “solid Republican” to “likely Republican” The changes took place after the House voted on the administration’s replacement of the Affordable Care Act, indicating considerable blowback for representatives who took a stance on the issue.

“Given where Trump’s approval ratings is, we can guarantee that Republicans will lose seats — the question is, how many?” Associate Editor of Larry Sabato’s Crystal Ball Geoff Skelley told The Hill.

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