The deliberate destruction of the rule of law

 

A lot of people don't seem to understand the real implications of the CDC's issuing a new moratorium to prevent eviction of tenants for non-payment of rent.

First, this was specifically stated by the Supreme Court to be beyond the CDC's powers.  Effectively, the CDC raised a disdainful finger to SCOTUS and said, "To hell with you, and with the constitution, and with the law.  We're going to do as we see fit, and damn anybody who objects."

Second, this was done with the full backing of the Biden administration and the liberal, progressive wing of US politics.  They did so quite deliberately, because it offers them a new lever to derail America as we know it.  They assumed - apparently correctly - that most people would simply shrug and accept the move as necessary, whether or not it was legal, to help people who would otherwise find themselves on the street.  They promoted feelings over fact, necessity over law, and expediency over principle.  If they get away with it in this instance, they've reasoned, they can do so again in future - and over far more serious issues, ones that directly impact any American who still believes that the constitution and laws of this country will protect and defend his rights.

In so many words, tenants facing eviction were and are nothing more than an excuse.  This was an exercise to see if the progressive left could get away with defying the law and the Supreme Court.  So far, they have, just as President Lincoln did when defying the courts over the suspension of habeas corpus during the Civil War.  Biden is no Lincoln - he's about as far from a Lincoln, in terms of his lack of competence and ability, as it's possible to get - but he's taken a page out of his distinguished predecessor's book.  He's defied the law.  He's neutralized the third arm of the tripartite system of government - legislative, executive and judiciary - that has until now lent stability and reason to our country.  That stability now totters unsteadily on only two legs . . . and that can't last.

I regard this as far more of a pretext for revolution than anything that has gone before.  If the rulings of our courts are no longer binding on all of us, then anything goes in America.  Might makes right.  Feelings matter more than facts.  Emotions are more "valid" than principles.  "If it feels good, do it" has ascended from teenage efforts to evade conventional morality to the founding principle of the state - and with results that will doubtless prove just as disastrous in the long term.

Tucker Carlson is 100% accurate in his summation.

If you’re wondering how all of this can possibly be legal, rest assured that it’s not — it’s not even arguably legal. We know for a fact that it’s not. The Supreme Court just ruled on the question, specifically. The court found that the CDC does not have the right to institute a nationwide eviction moratorium. Period. Only Congress can do that. Now, the court didn’t make us guess on their view on this, the court put that in writing, in the clearest possible language. There's no debate about that. The Biden Administration just ignored what the court said.

How can they do that?  

Congresswoman Maxine Waters of Los Angeles understands exactly how they did it. Waters is hardly a genius. It’s likely she’s never read an entire book. But one thing Maxine Waters knows well is how third-world regimes operate. When you want something, you simply take it. You’ve got the guns. Who’s going to stop you? Might makes right. The Fidel Castro method. Waters explained that out loud today, as she pushed Rochelle Walensky to suspend private property in America.

"I don't buy that the CDC can't extend the eviction moratorium," Waters wrote on Twitter, perfectly aware that the Supreme Court had already prohibited it. "Who is going to stop them? Who is going to penalize them?" 

Well, good question, nobody. And Nancy Pelosi knows that too. Pelosi knows that what Rochelle Walensky just did is illegal by definition. She also knows that openly ignoring a Supreme Court ruling will mean the end of our current system. That’s fine with Nancy Pelosi.

"The CDC has the power to extend the eviction moratorium," Pelosi said. She didn’t explain where that power comes from. She simply declared that it exists, as dictators do.

Keep in mind that even Joe Biden, who knows very little, knows that what his administration has just done is against the law. He said it on camera yesterday: 

JOE BIDEN: I've sought out constitutional scholars. To determine what is the best possibility, that would come from executive action or the CDC judgment. What could they do that was most likely to pass muster? Constitutionally. The bulk of the constitutional scholarship says that it's not likely to pass constitutional muster. Number one. But there are several key scholars who think that it may and it's worth the effort.

So the eviction moratorium has been in place for months, it has just been extended as of today. So people have debated this, jurists have weighed in on it, and so we know, it won’t pass, "constitutional muster," says Biden. In other words, it’s illegal. The people doing it are criminals. That’s the word we use for people who knowingly break the law. But like most criminals, they’re not embarrassed by breaking the law, that’s what they do.

. . .

These people are so filthy, but they’re self-righteous. Did you catch that? We don’t have the legal authority to do what we’re doing. But we’re doing it anyway. Because who’s going to stop us?  

Republicans? Mitch McConnell? Please. Mark Milley doesn’t report to Mitch McConnell. Mitch McConnell doesn’t control the FBI or the intelligence agencies. Mitch McConnell is unarmed. What’s he going to do about it? Give a grumpy speech and drive back to his condo? 

That’s what they’re saying. That’s what criminals always say when they shake you down at gunpoint. And make no mistake, that’s exactly what they’re doing. That’s exactly who they are.

There's more at the link.

I've been hoping against hope that we can avoid an actual civil war in this country;  that, despite all the odds against it, enough Americans still had faith in the constitution and the rule of law to prevent a descent into mutual fratricide and destruction.

After this week's events, that hope has been extinguished.

The progressive left had previously gotten away with murder, metaphorically speaking, by stealing last year's election:  but they had not yet demonstrated such open contempt for the Supreme Court and the Constitution.  They at least tried to maintain the fig-leaf, the veneer, of legality.  They are no longer doing so - and they won't stop there.  They'll build on that "success" by doing it again, and again, and again.

Ironically, attempts by the progressive left to prevent and destroy resistance to their efforts will rely on the same legal and judicial framework that they've just trashed over the no-eviction order.  History will probably get the last laugh over that . . . but that depends on which side wins the struggle for freedom.  If the progressive left has its way, their jackboots will snuff out our freedoms forever.

Time to gird your loins, friends.  This immediate issue may not affect you, but I guaran-damn-tee you that another one will, soon enough.  Be ready - and be prepared to pay the price for the America you believe in.  It won't be cheap.  Our survival is not guaranteed.  Nevertheless, if we have to die for a cause, there are worse ones to defend.

More than a few years ago, I swore an oath.

I [name] do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.

That oath had, and has, no expiration date.  It was, and remains, binding on my conscience.  I shall keep it.  Thanks to the antics of the progressive left, I now expect I'll have to.

Peter