Here’s the left-wing farce of the day: Kavanaugh Will Kill the Constitution
> So who is Brett Kavanaugh? If he looks like a right-wing apparatchik and quacks like a right-wing apparatchik, he’s almost surely a right-wing apparatchik. Which brings us to the coming constitutional crises.
> The immediate question is how the court will handle Donald Trump’s obstruction of justice, which is likely to reach epic levels very soon. If you think Kavanaugh wouldn’t completely support Trump, I have some miracle dietary supplements you might want to buy.
> Beyond that, what will happen if we eventually get a Democratic Congress and president, who try to move forward with a center-left agenda? What I mean by that, by the way, are things like expanding health coverage and raising taxes on high incomes — things that aren’t radical, and in fact have broad popular support.
> There’s every reason to believe that a court including Kavanaugh would strike down everything elected officials tried to do. Policy substance aside, this would destroy the court’s legitimacy, making its naked partisanship — based, again, on two stolen seats — clear to all. But it would probably happen anyway.
> In fact, the constitutional carnage might well begin as soon as next year.
> So let me make a last-minute appeal to Republican senators who care about America’s future, if there are any left: Don’t do this. A vote for Kavanaugh will be a vote to destroy the legitimacy of one of the last federal institutions standing.
Evidence Please!
Krugman spends one paragraph on Kavanaugh’s 12 years on the bench.
Generally, Krugman characterizes Kavanaugh as anti-environment, anti-labor, and pro-discrimination, but does not back it up with discussion of a single opinion.
Of course, it’s not exactly unusual for conservatives to be more reserved on these issues.
Threat to the Constitution?
What a hoot.
And the pro-discrimination point has no backup at all.
Irony in Krugman’s Stupidity
Should enough senators fail to confirm Kavanaugh, it’s a near certainty Trump would pick someone even more conservative.
On that basis, the Left ought to be cheering for Kavanaugh like mad.
I am pro-choice. So I was initially against Kavanaugh. But we really do not know how he will vote.
I have many difference with Trump, notably on trade and Iran, but Trump’s Supreme Court picks have been quite good.
If Krugman gets his way, I strongly suspect we will know with far more certainty how the next nominee will vote.
So not only is Krugman full of “s***” regarding the alleged “constitutional crisis”, he is not even bright enough to ponder the result if he actually gets what he asks.
Mike “Mish” Shedlock
It should be obvious that the Left and the rest of the establishment will not stop at anything to continue policies that brought us to this point. Other than Trump being blinded by patriotism, allowing the military industrial complex to pull the wool over his eyes, he is trying to reverse policies that have not strengthened the US economy.
There may be only one solution –
5th Circuit ruling is here:
The reason Krugman’s POV is absurd is that we don’t have a constitution. Take a look at my lawsuit against Texas Medical Board personnel:
The details of the incident over which I sued are here:
The 5th Circuit found my civil rights were violated, found that damages were done, but awarded me no money even for attorney’s fees because there was no established law that determined there was an expectation of privacy in a doctor’s office, and medical board personnel has qualified immunity. The patient who sued with me also got no money at all. This was after five years and six figures spent on legal fees and trust me proving a civil rights violation is no walk in the park. Whenever anyone hears of the DEA doing a search of my office, the first thing people think is, “Hmm, what did you do wrong?”, and that is exactly how the 5th Circuit thought.
With no authority at all and after not identifying themselves, DEA investigators went into my conference room, propped their feet up on the desk, and went through patient files like they were the Sunday paper after asking for and getting a subpoena from the Texas Medical Board. Who signed the subpoena? Who knows, and the 5th Circuit didn’t seem to care. Why didn’t the DEA get a warrant? Because they didn’t have probable cause.
They searched patient records illegally and then asked if they could have them with their own subpoena. When I said no, the DEA took me to court and a district court ruled in the DEA’s favor. To its credit, the 5th Circuit voided the decision, but the it also ordered me to produce the charts albeit with some retractions. The DEA in essence had a warrant produced again without probable cause. With the latest lawsuit, the 5th Circuit had new evidence of the DEA’s conduct and now saw the error of their ways. Did the 5th Circuit allow the DEA to legally search patient records after these same records had been illegally searched by the DEA already? Yep.
One thing that really bothered me is that the courts rarely rule in your favor if there evidence you are a criminal, so the Texas medical board came after me with both barrels doing all they could to get me criminally charged, and they did get me dinged with a civil violation. When I asked for a motion to stay a proceeding based on the civil rights lawsuit, it was denied. These executive branch personnel who hear these cases are called judges for some reason, and they decided that the Constitution and civil rights didn’t apply to this case.
The quasi-judicial proceeding Texas uses to evaluate doctors is a joke. “TMB’s most recently available records reflect that in the 10 years from 2007 to 2016, charges were dismissed in less than 1% of the contested cases”; https://www.austinchronicle.com/news/2018-03-16/medical-board-loses-a-case-and-attacks-the-judge/
Hitler and Stalin would have given said proceedings their seal of approval.
What was going on was that someone was using my name to obtain controlled substances illegally. Whoever that someone is didn’t go to jail. Why? Because an illegal search was done, and the US attorney prosecuting the case would have gone before the public, and I think the public would have more pissed at the DEA than the criminal. From what I have seen, anytime the public is not looking, the courts rule for the executive branch like they did here.
A police officer told me, “Doc, the reason the DEA came after you is that it’s just easier for them to convict you than anyone in the public.” Criminals may have the right to remain silent but doctors don’t.
The military has a rule only fired when fired upon, but a police officer can shoot and kill you if he fears for his life (whatever that means) and get away with it via qualified immunity. A prosecutor with no evidence at all can call you a pedophile and get away with it because he has absolute immunity from any slander or libel suits.
Who gave the executive branch this qualified and absolute immunity crap? Not the public/people. Not Congress. The court made that up all by themselves, and Mish you have fallen in the trap. You seem to think abortion is more important than immunity? Why? Any woman who wants an abortion these days can take a few pills and have one. People seem to think the only time the courts made up law was with Roe v. Wad when in reality they do it all the time.
Hell, the courts took away our civil rights and no one seems to notice. Anytime anyone mentions a civil rights violation, we have been trained to think that person is guilty.
Only civil right we have left is the second amendment, and the second amendment was put into place to make sure all the other civil rights were followed. For the first time in my life, I am actually thinking about buying a gun.
To summarize, Krugman was wrong about a Constitutional crisis because we don’t have a Constitution. If you read the 5th Circuit ruling, the irony is that Judge Willett after ruling against me seemed to be pleading with me and my attorney to push my case forward to the Supreme Court. How screwed up is that? Are the nation’s civil rights really being left in my hands?
The work “apparatchik” with all of its connotations describes PERFECTLY the functioning of the NYT these days. Political engineering, not investigating or reporting. Krugman is just another cog in their agenda.
If a pre-condition to be on the Supreme Court is that you will find against Trump on some fictional obstruction charge, Krugman is actually proving that the Court is already completely political and compromised, not a last institution standing. The fact that abortion rights all hang on decisions by a court on a document written 200 years ago by people who were all against abortion also shows how illegitimate the whole thing is. Pass legislation, like they do in other countries, when a change in the law is desired !! Change the electoral system. This hanging on to some seemingly sacred thing 200 years ago in a completely disfunctional system shows what an impasse American society has reached. It’s normal to change a consitution or amend the laws or recalibrate the electoral system to changed circumstances.
Regarding electoral system opinions hang on whether it favors their party or not. My authoritarian “Mark Levin trained” friend used to wax philosophically prior to the election of Trump, just how wise our forefathers were to establish the electoral college. Great morality!
Krugman has NO clue about what he is spouting about.
Trump also has NO clue who he is nominating as Supreme Court justices…
Trump being clueless buffoon that he is has been “advised” on Supreme Court picks by Whitehouse lawyer Donald McGahn.
Trump’s cabinet is full of NEVER-Trumpers, Kochies like VP Pence (huge amount of Pence’s political career has been funded by donations from Koch Brothers and they only donate to candidates who advance more illegal immigration, more wage dumping and amnesty for illegals) and Bushies.
The same Donald McGahn that just surprised Trump by revealing that he talked for 30 hours with Mueller is the one who has in reality PICKED both Gorsuch and Kavanaugh.
Gorsuch already has shown himself to be an unhinged Liberal because Gorsuch voted with Supreme Court liberals in 5-4 decision to make it IMPOSSIBLE to deport many immigrants convicted of certain violent crimes, including sexual assault, kidnapping and burglary unless House and Senate amend the law and list these crimes specifically as grounds for deportation.
Since this amendment of the law will NOT happen thanks to Democrats NOT supporting it that means that the “celebrated” Gorsuch made it IMPOSSIBLE to deport many immigrants convicted of certain violent crimes, including sexual assault, kidnapping and burglary.
Gorsuch’s IDIOTIC reasoning went along the lines of Scalia opposing laws that would have punished AMERICANS for crimes without clearly stating the crimes in detailed way.
DEPORTATION is not a punishment, it is an administrative decision to keep United States safer AFTER the convicted criminal immigrant has served his sentence that is his actual punishment.
Gorsuch is a DISAPPOINTMENT and is responsible for logical gymnastics that are FLAWED and IDIOTIC and those Gorsuch ideological gymnastics led to Gorsuch voting with Supreme Court liberals to make DEPORTATION of immigrant criminals convicted of certain violent crimes, including sexual assault, kidnapping and burglary IMPOSSIBLE.
Gorsuch was a FAILURE as Supreme Court pick and with Gorsuch’s ideological gymnastics Gorsuch will be siding with Supreme Court Liberals for the next 30-40 years making deportation of violent criminal immigrants more difficult and making sensible immigration policies harder to achieve…
You are completely misrepresenting the recent Supreme Court decision on immigration. Our Supreme Court is tasked with interpreting laws, not creating them. All the SC said was that it is Congress’ job to craft immigration legislation, not theirs. That IS the conservative position. Activist judges are a big reason we have the problems we do.
Irony:
“It is an illogical fallacy that because some fool (Krugman) calls another (Kavanaugh) “bad”, then it must be that later individual is instead good.”
Gliderdude does just what he says but in the opposite sense. Assuming everything is bad just because Trump supports it.
Gliterdude, you are a hypocrite and a fool.
Mish, well spotted, with that hypocrisy angle. For the record I strongly support Trump’s peace overture with NK (something HRC would not have done IMO), so it is not all bad in truth. I do tend to think of Krugman as an HRC establishment tool, and of Trump as a pre-fascist authoritarian demagogue. But your right, even Hitler himself might choose a good SC nominee.
Getting back on point, your argument is “show me the evidence”. So how about addressing the arguments cited in the Nader article, and making an argument for or against Kav based on analysis rather this Krugman red herring?
In a comment below you criticize Alan Dershowitz for supporting Trump because Dershowitz is a Jew and Trump is so pro-Israel yet here Trump is the pre-fascist Hitler? You guys are something else.
You need to think a little bit.
There are plenty of Jews that do not support excesses of Netanyahu and AIPAC and disagree with Dershowitz. It has become a political strategy to equate any critique of Israeli policy with anti-semitism.
Obviously HISTORY RHYMES, but does not repeat itself in details. Fascism as occurred in Germany blamed the woes of the voter on outsider influences. In the case of Trump this is clearly represented by his MAGA demagogue speeches inciting the cult to believe hoards of brown Mexican rapists and murders are entering the country and causing their problems. Witness the new level of our own kind of nascent concentration camps. Time will see how far it goes.
Another case of TDS
MAGA has nothing to do with Mexicans you are the typical Dem moron twisting everything around. Get your head out of your ass.
Had to look up TDS:
“Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS) is a mental condition in which a person has been driven effectively insane due to their love of Donald Trump, to the point they will abandon all logic and reason”
First off I am definitely not a Dem, and if one of us has TDS it is you. Explain how Trump, his Wall, and Mexicans are not relevant? Not understanding your point.
It is also funny Mish, how out of all my replies on this site, you waited for such a trivial gotcha moment to express your conservative angst towards me. Nevertheless I enjoy your website and liberal policy about not deleting opinions contrary to your own, as my socialist democrat libertarian tendencies so often are.
Regarding article saying:
“…Krug characterizes Kav.. as anti-environment, anti-labor, and pro-discrimination.., not unusual for conservatives to be more reserved on these issues”
Mish, this bit needs edit since conservatives are not “more reserved” but rather are “more supportive” of each of those issues. I can see that doesn’t sound so good, but that is the truthful way to state your point.
Gliderdude: “The fact that Trump chose this man assures me he is an asshole.”
Wow -Talk about admitting 100% bias. You totally discredited yourself. No one is always wrong. Heck, I think Krugman is right 20% of the time.
To discard everyone without even looking at the argunments makes you a huge part of the problem.
This is the kind of trash you are always going to get from Paul Krugman. He has training and education as an economist, but his ideology has taken him into lala land. He pretends expertise in matters for which he has neither education or experience, such as matters of law and social science. He has become completely unmoored from reality.
The guy is never going to cause a change to Roe Wade on this planet, ever, for crying out loud. Don’t you know that is purely a Dem hysteria PR fear tactic just to delay this somehow and buy time?
If you think its bad now wait until Trump gets to replace Ruth Bader Ginsburg. That’s going to be glorious.
Trump replaced Scalia with Gorsuch and Gorsuch’s first act was voting with the 4 liberals on Supreme Court in 5-4 decision to make it IMPOSSIBLE to deport convicted criminal immigrants who have committed certain violent crimes, including sexual assault, kidnapping and burglary…
The problem with Trump is that he does NOT have a clue and that he is surrounded by NEVER-Trumpers, Bushies and Kochies thanks to Koch Brothers favorite republican VP Mike Pence leading the Trump transition and picking most of the staff.
Mike Pence has been funded by amnesty-loving and illegal-immigrant-loving Koch brothers his whole political career and Trump picked Pence as his VP after a charm offensive and deference and sucking-up to Trump from Pence while NOBODY bothered to tell to Trump that Pence is in Koch Brothers pocket and has been funded by Koch Brothers through his political career.
Trump presidency has been sabotaged from the START by Koch Brothers thanks to Pence.
Some Kochie in Trump administration got a little carried away and wrote the anonymous NYT opinion telling how Trump is resisted by the cabal of Kochies, NEVER-Trumpers and Bushies inside the Trump administration.
Koch Brothers dream and goal is to get Trump impeached so Pence becomes US president so Koch Brothers will have the US president in their pocket and Pence can then give a mass amnesty to illegals, bring tens of millions of legal low wage immigrants to USA and thereby DESTROY the Republican party that Koch Brothers have HATED since 1980’s and this flooding of USA with tens of millions of legal and illegal low wage immigrants will destroy US federal government ushering in Koch brothers fever dream of Libertarian Utopia bordering on Anarchy that they are unable to get through the ballot box.
Trumps is being played and Trump has been made a puppet of Koch Brothers through Kochie Mike Pence who is showing deference and sucking up and brown nosing Trump in public and private and Trump is basking in Pence’s fake admiration without realizing that he is the mark and that he is being played by Pence and Whitehouse staff Pence picked and Trump has been played since Pence led the transition and now Koch brothers want to use democrats and other leftist crazies and INCOMPETENT Jeff Sessions RECUSAL which allowed Rosenstein to become de facto AG and start Mueller investigation to bring about the impeachment of Trump through Mueller stitching up a case for impeachment after the mid-term elections after Republicans have lost the mid-term elections due to Mueller investigation drip-drip-drip and Woodward’s attack book and all the other tricks that will happen before mid-terms.
Trump is toast unless he gets ALL of his immigration promises done BEFORE mid-terms.
Pence and other Kochies have managed to make Trump forget most of his immigration related election promises with Trump only remembering the wall but NOT doing anything to get it.
Trump promised WALL (should have been done in the omnibus, wall funding of 25 billion is LESS than 0.5% of US budget so it is NOT about money and everyone claiming it is about the money is either illiterate at math or LYING)
Trump promised STOP to birthright citizenship (birthright citizenship has been given thanks to the FAKE interpretation that tourists and illegal immigrants are subject to the jurisdiction of the United States while in USA which is ILLOGICAL interpretation since tourists do NOT pay tax to USA they pay tax to their home countries so they clearly are NOT subject to the jurisdiction of the United States and same with illegal immigrants since they are subject to the jurisdiction of their home country since they are ILLEGALLY in USA.)
Gorsuch could have been chosen by Whitehouse lawyer McGahn and Kochies as first Supreme Court justice to be appointed by Trump because he would vote to keep giving away birthright citizenship that NO OTHER COUNTRY IN THE WORLD gives away like USA.
Gorsuch showed who he is when performing ideological gymnastics to PREVENT deportation of violent criminals committing certain violent crimes, including sexual assault, kidnapping and burglary…
Trump promised mandatory E-verify to stop the jobs magnet (Sessions could do this as Attorney General with one order but so far has NOT done so because Sessions is a Bambi handled by Rosenstein and Rosensteins long time staff he has brought to DOJ to run it.)
Trump promised to cancel Obama dreamer amnesty DACA but has so far talked about the dreamers as wonderful kids. (Executive orders EXPIRE with the changing of the presidency and there is NO judicial review of Executive orders so the plan is to make Trump believe that Obama’s executive dreamer amnesty should still mean something and make Trump make all his achievements through Executive orders so they are automatically thrown to trash and cancelled when Trump leaves the presidency, it is a SAD spectacle of Trump showing an executive order that Trump has signed really proudly NOT realizing that he is being played)
Trump promised to STOP illegal immigration but Sessions has just created more boondoggle at the US-Mexico border by sending more judges despite Sessions having a black letter law authority to STOP accepting asylum requests at US border and STOP accepting asylum requests from migrants illegally sneaking to USA and to do this WITHOUT JUDICIAL REVIEW as clearly written in 8 U.S. Code § 1158. Mexico is a party to multilateral agreement called Geneva Convention and Geneva Convention only FORBIDS returning migrants asking for asylum to borders where they would be persecuted or be in danger and since Mexico does NOT persecute migrants and since Mexico is SAFE ENOUGH it would take just 1 order from Sessions as AG to STOP all asylum seekers at the US border and push migrants getting to USA illegally BACK to Mexico despite them asking for asylum.
Trump should have woken up after the previous omnibus that had NO wall and that Pence encouraged Trump to sign what Pence was but Pence telling Trump how smart Trump is keeps Trump blind to what is happening to him…
Koch brothers run the Trump Whitehouse and soon Koch Brothers will have their Utopian dream of Libertarian government experiment in USA After Kochie Pence becomes US president after Trump’s impeachment and gives away mass amnesty and brings in tens of millions of low wage immigrants on top of that which will first destroy the Republican party that Koch Brothers have HATED since 1980’s and then Federal government and all current forms of welfare and healthcare are destroyed while federal government collapses upon itself.
There have been failed experiments for crazy ideas like communism, national socialism, venezuela/cuba socialism that have destroyed countries and continents and next one will be libertarianism as a form of government together with globalism if Koch Brothers get their way and Pence becomes president to make Koch dreams true…
It is an illogical fallacy that because some fool (Krugman) calls another (Kavanaugh) “bad”, then it must be that later individual is instead good.
Mish is a conservative corporatist so has an easy time looking past “pro choice” moral issue for more important matters. The fact that Trump chose this man assures me he is an asshole. Just as it was the take of Repugs regarding the pick Obama should have been able to make. All politics of course. Dems, playing their role of “good cop”, but not really giving a shit about their electorate base, don’t fight like Repugs do for their paying clients, precisely because they have the same paying clients. The electorate is what you brainwash with your paying client’s money. That is what being an American politician is in our corporate oligarchy.
I do agree Trump would just present another asshole if Bret is not confirmed. But so what, would that have stopped Repugs? For another take on Kav, you could try Nader’s article that does reference a couple studies. It would also be helpful to call for the release of Kavs records so one could have more to reference.
Kavanaugh has decided some 307 cases, which are public record. Kavanaugh’s actual case record leaves the democrats with nothing to be able to attack him on.
Booker’s stunt today, backfired on him. That is all the democrats have, stunts. Kavanaugh is well qualified to be Supreme Court justice and the democrats know it.
Kavanaugh is a Kochie and neocon just like Gorsuch:
“At a March 2016 event at the American Enterprise Institute, a neoconservative Washington think tank, Kavanaugh was asked point-blank if he believes that “money spent during campaigns does represent speech, and therefore deserves First Amendment protection.” His answer: “Absolutely.””
“Americans for Prosperity, a group backed by billionaire industrialist Charles Koch, is getting ready for a fight that if won could help enshrine its policy priorities for decades to come.
Americans for Prosperity has already publicly committed to spending up to seven figures in support of a Supreme Court nominee, provided the choice is of the same mold as Justice Neil Gorsuch.
Its extensive work to push for Gorsuch to become part of the Supreme Court in 2017 included its grassroots organizations launching three waves of direct mail campaigns and a series of targeted digital ads in 12 key states in support of him.
There was a committee of people including Vice President Mike Pence, then chief of staff Reince Priebus, White House Counsel Don McGahn and Steve Bannon. They did an interview of all the prospective candidates. They recommended three, and then they picked Gorsuch from that group,” Leo said.”
Gorsuch acts just like Koch Brothers want in Supreme Court:
“The court, in a 5-4 ruling in which President Donald Trump’s conservative appointee Neil Gorsuch joined the four liberal justices, invalidated the provision in the Immigration and Nationality Act and sided with convicted California burglar James Garcia Dimaya, a legal immigrant from the Philippines.
Today’s ruling significantly undermines DHS’s efforts to remove aliens convicted of certain violent crimes, including sexual assault, kidnapping and burglary, from the United States,” U.S. Department of Homeland Security spokesman Tyler Houlton said.”
USA is being STOLEN from both Republicans and Democrats by Koch Brothers while both Republicans and Democrats are USED by Koch Brothers to create the result that Koch Brothers want…
RonJ, I kind of doubt Democrats won’t attack Kav, at least for appearances sake, since most like his policies anyway. Regarding stunts, is that kind of like Repugs withholding the voting on Obama’s pick of Merrick Garland?
Krugman said the market would tank when Trump became President and never recover. Krugman is not an economist, he is a leftist propagandist. That is all he is doing in opining about Kavanaugh. Krugman is destroying his credibility.
Krugman doesn’t care about the Constitution. Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz spoke in support of certain presidential powers that Trump has per the Constitution and you would never find Krugman backing Dershowitz up on that. Dershowitz said that Trump had the power to fire Comey and it was not illegal for Trump to contribute any amount to his own campaign.
Krugman is silent on the obstruction of justice by the DOJ and FBI in the Hillary server case, in which Comey said that if anyone else did in the future what Hillary did, they should not expect to go unpunished. It was an effective admission by Comey that the FBI considered Hillary had committed a crime. Thus the wordsmithing of reckless disregard, a crime, into extreme carelessness, to make it appear as if she had committed no crime.
According to a Zero Hedge headline today, a secret grand jury has been empaneled on McCabe. Don’t expect Krugman to be talking about that inconvenient fact.
In other related ZH news, “FBI Hid Fact That Russia Thought Carter Page Was An “Idiot” Unworthy Of Recruiting: Sperry”
Dershowitz is an AIPAC and Trump tool. He fights against the obvious constitutional right to express ones political opinion through BDS because of his personal preferences and could care less about the constitution other than how to interpret it for manipulation. He loves Trump for moving US embassy to Jerusalem and backing right wing extremist Netanyahu.
Alan Dershowitz is a Trump tool?!?!? Now I’ve heard it all! The Left have truly lost their minds.
Gilder, Dershowitz is a Harvard law professor and is correct in relation to what i stated. Constitutionally, Trump had the power to fire Comey. That Dershowitz stated facts does not make him a Trump tool.
Krugman is a “useful idiot” to the Neo-Bolsheviks on the Left.
“Krugman is a “useful idiot” to the Neo-Bolsheviks on the Left.”
Krugman is exploiting useful idiots on the left, who will parrot his comments.
Krugman’s Idiotic…now that’s a tautology. From economist to constitutional scholar. Does Krugman really think the SC is going to block future tax increases, increases that occurred in 3 of the last 4 administrations and will already happen when current rates sunset out? Didn’t an already “conservative” court effectively uphold Obama Care? Kavanaugh is replacing Scalia, who I don’t recall as a strong supporter of Roe in any event. I hope Kavanaugh doesn’t vote to overturn Roe and reopen that can of worms (though I’m not sure there are four other votes if the case gets there), but he is hardly a controversial pick for a Republican.
Gorsuch replaced Scalia. Kavanaugh is replacing Kennedy
Yes, that’s right. I do suspect he’ll be quite a bit more conservative than Kennedy.
“So not only is Krugman full of “s***” regarding the alleged “constitutional crisis”, he is not even bright enough to ponder the result if he actually gets what he asks.”
It is a rare public figure who looks further than the end of her nose these days. No concern about public, consumer, corporate debt. No plan for dealing with an economy that will naturally shrink because our fertility rate has been below the replacement rate since the early 70s. No concern that the 40% who back the current administration will not magically disappear even in the Dems take back both houses. And worst of all, no one, Democrat or Republican, has the slightest idea how to deal with our issues. (In fairness, neither do I.)