THE GOP MAY WANT A KING BUT WE THE PEOPLE DO NOT. AND WE NEVER WILL

What we’re reading… SCOTUS appears on the cusp of negating the Fifteenth Amendment. Which will indicate they believe they, not Congress, can determine how to enforce the right of citizens to vote. If so, the south will go back to one-party rule, with unfettered gerrymandering, which will effectively make the US as a whole look like the American South from about 1874 to 1965. The Voting Rights Act will be gutted. Trump promised during the 2024 campaign that he was “not going to start a war,” and promised “to stop the wars.” But the wars in Ukraine and Gaza have gotten hotter. And now the US military is building up resources in the region near Venezuela. The Pentagon has deployed 10,000 troops to the area. The US Navy has sent eight warships and a submarine. But we’ll be in the dark on this buildup because there is no media left in the Pentagon to report. No media because they did the right thing by walking out en masse when asked to vow they wouldn’t use their First Amendment rights as reporters. Trump compared US strikes on “drug boats” with public executions Hamas supporters have carried out in Gaza in the wake of the ceasefire deal there. “They killed a number of gang members,” Trump said. “And that didn’t bother me much, to be honest with you. That’s ok, it’s a couple of very bad gangs. You know it’s no different than other countries—like Venezuela sent their gangs into us and we took care of those gangs.” Trump announced that he has the power to pay furloughed troops by taking any unused funds Congress appropriated for fiscal year 2026 and using that money to pay the troops. As pointed out, this is wildly illegal. Only Congress can appropriate money and determine how it is spent, a constitutional requirement reinforced by the Antideficiency Act clarifying that it is illegal for the government to spend money that was not appropriated for that purpose. Trump’s order should not be necessary. Congress could pass a measure to pay the troops easily if only Speaker Johnson would call the House into session. Democrats have been begging Johnson to bring such a measure to the floor. But Trump says that because he is commander in chief, he has the right to this power. No Kings Day is on Saturday. But as far the Trump administration and the GOP Congress are concerned he’s already crowned. Y’all are now just his willing courtiers. Best to remember you all work for we the people. And we don’t bow.