We Frogs Are Not Quite Boiled...Yet.

It may look like we're well done, but we've still got some things we can do.

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After January 20th, I just hate Mondays. The torrent of bullshit flowing from Steve Bannon’s mouth to official acts by Elon Musk and his sidekick Trump feels almost insurmountable. They’re intentionally working to break government in unprecedented and lawless ways, from refusing to follow the court’s order to lift the freeze on federal grants to an order lifting a ban on bribing foreign officials. Trump continues to openly muse about a third term, and just today removed the government ethics director in the White House. Who needs ethics when you’re looting the government, after all?

For a blink of an eye on Sunday while Trump was watching his team lose at the Super Bowl, JD Vance got a turn in the limelight as he revealed the plan.

Hmmm. The name Aileen Cannon comes to mind when I think about judges trying to tell AGs how to use their discretion as a prosecutor. But I digress.

I’m not going to sugarcoat it. We are in as much of a constitutional crisis as I have ever seen in my lifetime. And yes, anyone who was paying attention absolutely knew this would happen because they said they were going to do it, but even then we were not considering the scope and magnitude of what Republicans would allow greedy Elon Musk and his puppet to do in 3 weeks.

George Conway has a warning:

Here’s the warning:

They have decided that they are going to push the boundaries on executive power by basically infringing on the Article 1 power of Congress.

And they are violating the Constitution, the text of the Constitution in the birthright citizenship issue.

They are violating the text of statutes by having Doge run around and do all the things that have been doing these executive orders.

There's no reason that this government that has decided not to obey the laws and the Constitution of the United States is going to obey a court order.

And here’s the kicker:

There's really only one way that courts can enforce their orders when somebody is being consummated for refusing to obey an order.

And that's to send the U.S. marshals out, to take somebody in and to hold them in contempt where to otherwise enforce court orders.

Well, who does the U.S. Marshals Service work for?

The U.S. Marshals Service is part of the United States Department of Justice.

It reports to Donald J.

Trump.

And what's going to happen here, mark my words, is that at some point, they are going to basically tell the United States Marshals Service, do not enforce any of these orders.

We will not obey them and you are not to enforce them.

And once that happens, I mean, I hope it doesn't happen, but I know in my heart that it will.

Our 236 year experiment in the federal rule of law, in democratic self-governance for the United States of America, in American constitutionalism is essentially over.

Frogs. Boiled.

We are not there yet. Not yet. We still have some things to do. And, I want to remind everyone, no matter what these crooks do, they still need the consent of the governed to do it. Even old King George needed the consent of the governed, and he didn’t get it.

Sherrilyn Ifill wrote in her newsletter yesterday about the cynicism and defeatism she’s seeing this time around, wondering if perhaps people were looking for a deus ex machina to rescue them, manifesting “an irrational longing for a magical way out of this nightmare.”

But this moment we find ourselves in is the result of the reckless voting of our fellow Americans in 2024, the failures of our media over decades, the critical political mistakes of our leaders, the short-sighted greed of the corporate community, and the longstanding lack of urgency about repairing the gaping cracks in our democratic infrastructure over far too many years. There is no magical way out. We are reaping what has been sown by many, many years of inattention to the eroding foundations of our democracy and we must face it.

Yep, not just face it, but do something about it. And because we’re parboiled but not well done at this time, we can still do some things.

To overcome or even slow the momentum of the forces arrayed against us will require our resolve, and an ecosystem of resistance – litigation, activism, organizing, direct action, communications, political pressure, and our voices raised to speak truth to power. We may not be able to score a knock-out punch, but we can score a series of technical knockouts against our opponents to reduce the intensity of their efforts. This will take all of us, committing to do what we can.

We who are not lawyers cannot do the litigating, but we can certainly be activists, organizers, take direct action, apply political pressure and raise our voices to speak truth to power.

Here is one small but important way we can all do this. Go to 5calls.org today or download the app and enter your zip code. You will get a list of issues to call about which you can choose from, and the numbers of your senators and representative. Tapping the number launches FaceTime or whatever the Android equivalent is and they provide you with a script for whatever issue you selected. I asked Senators Schiff and Padilla to fight the confirmation of RFK, Jr. and Tulsi Gabbard. I reached their voicemail in both cases. A staffer for Julia Brownley answered my call on the first ring, where I asked that she and her fellow Democrats force Republicans to stop the lawlessness by refusing to raise the debt ceiling or vote on a continuing budget resolution.

Those three calls took me 5 minutes and I was done. If all of us take 5 minutes to go to the website or use the app, we’re putting political pressure on all the places we can.

Join your local Indivisible chapter to organize and take direct action.

Raise your voice on social media and more importantly, in face to face interaction with people who probably voted for Trump and may be bewildered or in danger as a consequence of his actions. I think right now we have to give some grace to those voters and invite them to join us in opposition. If his support is eroded, it will make a difference. And the same for those toady Republicans in Congress. They also must be called and called daily. If they’re afraid of Trump primarying them, just wait until we, the people do it.

These are the things that can and must be done. We can’t wait for anyone else. As President Barack Obama reminded us, we are the ones we’ve been waiting for.

Bonus Link: Marcy Wheeler warns not to give up in advance.

One Last Thing