There are no self-executing laws. That by itself doesn’t mean things aren’t illegal, of course. It just means that there’s no point in having it be illegal unless somebody’s going to enforce what the law supposedly is.

We learned some time ago that they won’t.

President Constitutional Law Prof is channeling his inner Richard Nixon:

When the President does it, that means that it’s not illegal a war.

FWIW, this was never really authorized under the War Powers Act even before the window closed. The arguments made before that it did were incredibly weak, but now even those weak arguments do not apply.

You mean President Nobel Peace Prize Winning Constitutional Law Prof …

It’s funny that Walker calls this “new.” Perhaps it is “new” for him? The US has been doing exactly this for over a century. There’s absolutely nothing new about this activity whatsoever.

This country is totally degenerate. Time to start over.

Maybe that’s to what Camping is referring. He just got the events wrong. It’s “The Rapture of POTUS”

The President asked for a resolution of support today.

Again, I think that Congress deserves as much if not more blame than the President here.

I really, sincerely hope a Republican–any damned Republican–wins the presidency in 2012. We are far better off having a declared Republican in the White House than a stealth Republican. It would motivate the stupid Obamabots to oppose some of this shit.

The only way out of this rabbit hole is to bust the legacy parties of the oligarchs and global power elite. I posted a strategy for doing that in No Confidence Protest Vote 2012. We cannot expect rule of law as long as we allow the legacy parties and the global elite oligarchs to rule. We the people need to take our power back instead of continuing to enable them…

If a repub won the presidency, the obamabots would blame everyone else, especially progressives for not drinking enough kool-aid. Given all of the ‘good’ leadership obama has provided and all of the ‘good’ things that he has accomplished, how could we turn our backs on him?

Well, we know what has to be done. Our problem is that we don’t control the vote count. As long as the oligarchs have that, the potus does their will, the congress implements their laws, and the scotus gives them the veneer of impartial legal authority.

You mean President Nobel Peace Prize Winning Constitutional Law Prof …

What an excellent epithet.

I think that we are looking at Empire in action here.

“the obamabots would blame everyone else, especially progressives for not drinking enough kool-aid”

We need to start ignoring the legacy parties and their supporters. As long as we’re caught up in arguing with them or worrying about what they might think we are wasting our time. We should be 100% focused on busting the legacy parties owned by the oligarchs and the global elite.

No Confidence Protest Vote 2012 is a strategy I have presented to do that. If you have other ideas please present them to the community. Let’s stop wasting our time and start figuring out how we can change the discussion and make space for real change to emerge…

The war has been illegal from the start. The War Powers Act allows the President to use military force without Congressional approval for 60 days only in certain limited circumstances, none of which were present here. See Glenn Greenwald’s explanation.

–Robin

I think Bush declared WWIII oh, around 2002. Maybe some president declared it during Korea, I was just a baby and hadn’t yet put away childish things back then.
Let’s see, WWI. depression, WWII, The Cold War; which wasn’t so cold as these then followed: Korea, Vietnam, Gulf Adventure and Weapons Trade Show, does Bosnia count? now what 3-4 simultaneous fronts. Sounds like WWIII to me.
and our gov is ready to bring it on home any time we misbehave.

Maybe the End of Days really did come today?

You are absolutely right!! And that’s the point of calling this a “new normal.” If the illegality of it goes unchallenged that, in effect, makes it legal, or rather expands war powers of the president by precedent. Glenn Greenwald makes this last point in the link provided in the first sentence of Walker’s diary.

The office of the Chief Executive became the office of the Unitary Executive under that pioneer of despotism, Five Deferments Dick. The consummate bureaucratic entrepreneur, Cheney parlayed his dummy, George The Lessor, from the owner of a baseball team to Commander In Chief and set him ABOVE THE LAW.

Our second modern president, Clarence Thomas Obama (master of deceit) has institutionalized Cheney’s innovations. It is now established that American Presidents have the divine right of Kings. Except that they have no volition of their own. They serve the global corporate monopolists.

Non-billionaires (former citizens) of the U.S.A. are now subjects of a Fascist Police State and all citizens of the world must fear their corporate masters who have at their disposal the American war machine.

No new combination of Democrats and Republicans in Washington will change anything. Our political institutions, the legacy parties, are the agents of Fascism and must be defeated and replaced. There is no other political agenda. We must put aside our petty differences or accept permanent poverty and serfdom.

I hope you are right but I doubt it will motivate Americans to do anything. As long as they have their I-Phones and I-pads they will be content. Sorry for the negativity, just MHO.

Congress agreed to extend the Patriot act.

http://www.salon.com/news/politics/war_room/2011/05/21/patriot_act_extended/index.html

In response to nonpartisanliberal @ 5

I know your pissed and I won’t slam you. This is the greatest country ever. Some of the leaders, not so much.

No, just the end of rule of law.

ha ha…can things get any wierder? We are through the looking glass, people. (that’s one of my favorite Oliver Stone lines…from the JFK movie)

Partisan Democrats and Partisan Republicans are useful idiots for the Fascists.

I am pretty much a lay person and I am a late comer to a lot of this but after reading your post it seemed to me at least it would be something to try. I think something needs to be done. I am not able to do a lot of physical things but I would be willing to help. I plan on re reading your post to make sure I understand as much as my mind can comprehend it. I am not a regular commenter but do read this site everyday. Sometimes I think the regular lay person is skirted over because of their skills and abilities. I ask that you take into account I am not a blogger, lawyer, economist, etc. I am someone who sees our country swirling the drain for the final time. I want something to be left for my kids.

We should be 100% focused on busting the legacy parties owned by the oligarchs and the global elite.

True. And yours is a good idea in my opinion.

Your plan reminds me way too much of this.

Important points…thank you.

Obama files with Congress, on the last of the 60-day window, the required request for permission to wage war. And Congress tentatively schedules a hearing…

Compliance with the letter of the law, but hardly the spirit.

today is truly a sad day for supporters of the rule of law.

It is a sad day for supporters of liberty, freedom, peace, and democracy.

What “rule of law” has to do with this is problematical. A John You type could conjure up some argument to the effect that the Libyan attack is legal and the Roberts court could – and probably would – uphold it.

Who knows. I would love to hear better ideas. If you have them please share. If not, we need to try something. We need to identify the best strategy we can think of to bust the legacy parties and the oligarchical global elite and give it the best try we can. Anything else less giving up. Don’t you agree? What do you propose we do?

People are rightly angry at Congress Members and the President/executive suite.

But one thing that occasionally slips is that none of this lawlessness is possible without complicit and enabling media. Back when news wasn’t monetized, LBJ flat out gave up when he “lost Cronkite.”

Compare to this week when Ed Shultz called up David Sirota and told him to “go to hell.”

A serious anti-propaganda campaign is what is called for too in any solution package.

Thanks for your support popyeye99 and workingclass! I am not sure where this will lead yet but will be continuing to post and build support. If enough support can be built there will come a time when plenty of opportunities to volunteer and help out in many ways will exists.

Keep watching for my posts here, follow me on Twitter @matthewtweets, etc to see how this idea and support for it evolves. In the meantime, the best thing you can do is help spread the word. Comment on other sites with links to my post, use Twitter and Facebook if you’re on there, etc. Right now we need to create awareness that this is an option we the people have. We can unite to bust the legacy parties if we collectively choose to do that.

Right on Cathy..lol.

Indeed, an Empire that is falling flat on it’s face.

“A serious anti-propaganda campaign is what is called for too in any solution package.”

No kidding! We should spread awareness of this as widely as possible and otherwise just ignore mainstream media altogether. An anti-propaganda campaign could take on the task of laying bare the lies and rebutting the propaganda while allowing the rest of us to ignore the mainstream media and focus our energy on strategies aimed at creating space for change to happen…

and let us not forget the Great Depression II which we are living as I type.

So what else is new? Obama likes him some murder, as long as he doesn’t have to get his hands dirty.

IMHO it did. We have descended into hell.

Then, recall the lot of them for dereliction of duty. Otherwise, laws are meaningless, and government has devolved into a system that is arbitrary and capricious.

“We must put aside our petty differences or accept permanent poverty and serfdom.” Thank you.

“Then, recall the lot of them for dereliction of duty. Otherwise, laws are meaningless, and government has devolved into a system that is arbitrary and capricious.”

Well it has devolved in that way. What we need to do is find a way to restore law and order by returning power to the people. No Confidence Protest Vote 2012

You are the reason I have hope. People like you that come and read, that have opened their minds to receive the information being posted here, you are a treasure.

“We must put aside our petty differences or accept permanent poverty and serfdom.”

We must put aside not only our petty differences but also our significant difference. We must put aside ALL of our differences other than bringing down the global elite oligarchs and their empire. The only thing that matters right now is returning power to the people. All other differences are simply irrelevant until we do that. Progress will not be made on any front until government is responsive to its citizens. No Confidence Protest Vote 2012

Well I certainly back your idea. I have had no problem voting ‘outside’ of the box for years. It’s been no secret to me that we have had a one party system for years. (I think back to Perot with his charts and graphs. I think he was responsible for waking up a lot of people even though to many he was a failure, I see him running as a success.) I will be following this closely matthewj.

I literally cannot believe I’m saying this, but I’m almost certain I’m going to vote for Ron Paul in the 2012 election. Unless some seriously intrepid leftist manages to challenge and beat Obama in the primary (by a wide-enough margin to take superdelegates out of the equation). Please do not take this as an endorsement of Ron Paul. It isn’t. I have piled criticism on him regularly around here.

Otherwise I don’t see any viable alternative. The list of things that I vehemently disagree with Paul on is almost infinitely longer than the one where we have constructive overlap. However, none of those disagreements amounts to much when they’re standing the shadow of a completely lawless executive.

I can prepare for the stupidity of trying to go back to the gold standard, but I can’t prepare to be randomly targeted by the government for harassment, imprisonment, or death.

Thank you for your kind words. I am hesitant to post comments at times because I am not as advanced as the people here. Thanks again.

This is truly the new Roman Empire, with the exception that we have learned from the Romans past mistakes and since our Empire can effectively communicate around the world in seconds and there is no standing military to defeat us. Look for world domination for the next 1000 years.

I have been thinking about the exact same thing. It is unfortunate that I am even considering voting for a Republican who will destroy the social net as it is today. However, recently I feel that there is no choice but to show some independence from the Dino’s we have in power.

What makes you think news wasn’t “monetized” under LBJ?

I am hesitant to post comments at times because I am not as advanced as the people here.

That is EXACTLY how I feel often. (Although obviously it hasn’t stopped me from commenting. :)

But I just wanted to say to you that you are not alone in that feeling. I feel it everyday. Some days I read a thread and can’t even comprehend what a disagreement was over, why there was even any disagreement, or even which side of the disagreement the folks were on.

It does keep from me commenting sometimes, but then I think, and this is WHY I RESPONDED TO YOU, that there are probably lots of readers that aren’t that advanced either, so maybe it’s a help if us less advanced folks drop in a thought or two???

That’s my excuse (and I’m sticking to it), and after reading your comments I’d sure love it if you would consider that too and post more. But mostly I just wanted you to know that you’re definitely not alone with those feelings. There are at least TWO of us.

They won’t need an army. They’ll just hack all the computers and shut us down, remotely. It will be a fitting end to the empire.

The worse thing about the continuation of this combat campaign in Libya is that it is obvious not related to humanitarian aid as Nato and the UN stated that it was. Just listen to some of the Nato commanders who don’t talk about saving lives but about getting rid of Ghaddafi. If all these people were truly against Ghaddafi he would not still be in power. This is about oil, and control of the new government of Libya.

Great point. We need to change the culture – change the way people see things as indoctrinated to do so by the media. This was the significance of the 60s. Naysayers love to say the 60s changed nothing. They didn’t really change politics, or the economy… they changed something far, far more important: the culture.
Then the 80s came along and greed became good, and Huey Lewis came out with that brilliant piece of propaganda, “Hip to be Square”. The elites have been working very hard to change the culture back to pre-60s zeitgeist. That is how you can tell that the 60s had impact.
Change the culture. One person at a time if you have to. As long as we’re all jacked into the matrix, and we, too, still love the poison they feed us, we have only ourselves to blame.
I don’t even pay attention to the mainstream media anymore. I get my news from other sources. Say what you want about the far right, but they have done a marvelous job of convincing their constituents that the mainstream media is poison (of course, they have replaced it with a more deadly poison, and shifted the Overton Window further right in the process).
I don’t have a lot of money, so I give with my mouth: every opportunity I get, I mention things like Democracy Now! and FDL and commondreams.org to folks who don’t even realize that these things exist, but who are probably as hungry for the truth as I am.

I really enjoy your post because you seem to analyze and say common sense things. Maybe more will feel the compulsion to post and put in their 2 cents worth. This is basically my only source for news and analysis. Most of the people here are courteous and respectful especially to me. I have been allowed to say what I feel without being ridiculed and run off. In fact I am too old to care what people think of me, I am who I am.

Dear popeye99 -

No one is all that “advanced” here. Your insights and comments are very valuable and welcome, especially as it appears that you get how the US gov’t has been hijacked by the corporations. Your are very right to be concerned about what will be left for your kids. That’s part of what concerns me, too.

Keep coming back to read the excellent posts here and please keep commenting. I enjoyed reading what you wrote today. Best to you.

There are two kinds of skepticism: the kind that halts before any action, and refuses to commit without guaranteed results.
The second kind of skepticism is that which you appear to favor: Let’s try it.
I am all for that, MJ. We gotta do something. At least we will know that we tried.

“Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it.” – G.B. Shaw

This is about oil, and control of the new government of Libya.

Yes, exactly. This is WAR, Inc, as declared by the corporations and for the corporations but paid for (in both money & lives) by the small people.

This is a WAR declared by ExxonMobile & BP for their sole benefit. Don’t ever think that their corp CEOs won’t be *raking in big buckeroo$$* bc of getting this dirty little WAR started for their benefit.

And citizens of the US better think again, if ya think that this dirty little WAR, Inc. will result in lower prices at the pump. Not bloody likely… but it’ll cost us “small people” dearly… to the tune of $million$$$$$ per day of OUR tax dollars.

I think this could work and I think it could be bigger than anyone of us can imagine. people in spain are protesting that the democracy is a sham that both parties work for bankers and corporations. Paul Craig Roberts just did this interview with max keiser and basically says there is no democracy. I think we should reach out to people like him and get them on board. here is link to the clip

http://maxkeiser.com/2011/05/21/ote110-on-the-edge-with-paul-craig-roberts/#comments

Thanks for your support Mary4! I was only elaborating on your point, not trying to criticize it. I hope we can build enough support to be successful…

Thank you very much. It means a lot to me that someone thinks I have value here. I am not the best at critical thinking yet. Coming from a religious and conservative background as I have it takes a while to switch gears and be something different. Better late than never I suppose.

Great! Thanks for the link mswinkle. Help spread the word all around the net and maybe contact Craig and Max for us. Stay tuned and we’ll see where this can lead…

I will do my bit. But think we need a facebook page. I know you have a twitter tag, but not aware of facebook page. Also aside from info about protest vote, whatever info should we put up there? Should we post examples of how both parties have worked together to rape the american people while enriching bankers and corps that control them?

Should we show how they have used the ‘war on terror” to terrify the american people into being raped further and giving up their fundamental freedoms. Simple facts could be what it has cost? lives lost? list of corporations that have and continue to profit from these wars? liberties that have been loss and so on. I think people need to grasp that no matter what it is impossible to stop all “terror attacks” We have to find a way to live with that and prevent govt using that to unleash all kinds of financial and other attacks on us.

At the heart of it we might want to explain our corrupt monetary system and the private cartel the Federal Reserve.

There are a lot of great videos and articles (many posted here) that can really help educate people.

maybe putting this information out there in one place is too much? thoughts?

“We are now engaged in an illegal war”

The war was illegal from day 1 – the attack wasn’t made based on imminent threat to the US nor was the US attacked by Libya.

Your critical thinking seems just fine to me. If you’re letting go of some consevative mind-sets, then this is the place for you! Ask questions, get involved. Jump in: the water’s fine!

I’m glad you’re here. Sometimes we jump down each other’s throats; not nice; it happens; that’s life. Gotta shake it off and move on. Most are polite, unless we think someone’s here simply to yank chains. Asking reasonable questions in a respectful (not nasty) way is great. Having some disagreements is good. Different perspectives are welcomed as long as respect is there. I’m sure your observations will be helpful and welcome.

I agree. I never thought that there was anything “legal” about it, other than that ExxonMobile & BP wanted it to happen, so their hired gun, Obama, sallied forth to “make it so.”

mswinkle I refuse to participate in Facebook for a variety of reasons but if you’re on there I encourage you to set up a page.

I think we should try to focus on the single issue of busting the legacy parties and their oligarchs and avoid controversy otherwise. We want to unite not divide. We want to bring together everyone already with us avoid looking like the fringe as much as we can. We’ll already be considered fringe by many just for wanting to bust the parties. In order to have as many people as possible be open to joining us we want to be otherwise uncontroversial if possible.

I have been contemplating a change in or addition to our vocabulary as “no confidence” has a negative connotation and after discussing over the past couple weeks I think a positive connotation is likely to be much more effective. Keep an eye for my future posts.

Thanks for helping to spread the word…

I hear you about facebook and stopped using it a long time ago. Thought it might be worth it for this, but on second thoughts, maybe not.

I think we should try to focus on the single issue of busting the legacy parties and their oligarchs and avoid controversy otherwise. We want to unite not divide. We want to bring together everyone already with us avoid looking like the fringe as much as we can. We’ll already be considered fringe by many just for wanting to bust the parties. In order to have as many people as possible be open to joining us we want to be otherwise uncontroversial if possible.

I understand, but what information will you give so people can understand why both parties are co-opted and controlled by oligarchs?

How can America, a country born from a… REVOLUTION AGAINST FOREIGN DOMINATION…

Now think we have the right to impose that very same domination on other countries ?

We have forgotten where we came from…

WE HAVE LOST OUR WAY !

Both the Democrats and Republicans have been corrupted to the core by the exact same cabal of Wall Street-Bankers-Military Industry-Wealthy Special Interests. Corruption is destroying the country.

The time has come… we must stand up to corruption.

I actually think Facebook would be extremely useful for this and strongly encourage anyone on there to use it to spread the word. I just refuse to use it myself for a variety of reasons and wouldn’t specifically ask people to use it as that would be hypocritical. But if you’re on there or decide you want to use it I do think it would be very useful.

I understand, but what information will you give so people can understand why both parties are co-opted and controlled by oligarchs?

I have two thoughts on this. First, I think uniting people who already see the truth is more important than convincing those who don’t agree. The truth is pretty obvious and people are coming around to see it every day on their own.

But to answer your question more directly, the more I’ve been thinking about it the more I see that this can be done with Kelly’s scorecard if it’s done right. What we need to do is figure out criteria that will weed out oligarchy and empire supporters. This piece of the scorecard needs to be a litmus test that results in a score of 0 if they do not pass the test. It also needs to be based on actions not promises as we all know that it doesn’t really matter what they say, especially when they’re campaigning. I think this is sufficient for the campaign itself.

Other folks are doing the work of telling the truth (FDL, Glenn Greenwald, Bill Moyers, Naked Capitalism, Matt Taibbi, Democracy Now, Naomi Klein, Naomi Wolf, etc). What we need to do is offer people a place to go when they see the truth. We need to offer hope, unity, solidarity, and confidence.

Sorry for the run-on paragraph but FDL is not letting me insert paragraphs for some reason…

I am not sure about the scorecard. Maybe a simple statement will suffice. As you said those awake will know it is true and those starting to awake can find information to learn it is true.

thought you would like this tweet

https://twitter.com/#!/birgittaj/status/72023086463074305

I was skeptical of the scorecard at first also but Kelly got me thinking. He asked the question: don’t we want to rate the alternatives that we want people to support? The point here is that if this gets momentum the establishment will do everything in their power to co-opt it and neuter it.

In order to prevent that from happening we need to have principles in place from the beginning that prevent that from happening. An extremely strong scorecard is a tool that could be very effective in helping to do that.

I do not support any scorecard that would result in Democrats that aren’t very low or 0 in their score. When Kelly begins asking for criteria from the community you could help make it as strong as possible so we don’t end up with one here at FDL that allows purported progressives who roll when it counts (Kucinich included) to score well.

And that is a nice tweet. We live in the belly of the beast but we the people can if we are united…

He asked the question: don’t we want to rate the alternatives that we want people to support?

the problem with that is it conflicts with this I think we should try to focus on the single issue of busting the legacy parties and their oligarchs and avoid controversy otherwise. We want to unite not divide.

If the goal is to keep it simple than that is what it should be. Scoring politicians adds to the complications and opens the floodgates to people arguing about people’s political score and maybe losing sight of the big picture.

That is just my two cents.

bearcountry #11:

YES! i want a “count my vote” campaign aimed at the election supervisors to hand count ballots at the precincts. This is the only campaign that would take the election process away from karl &koch bros!

karen

How could we have been so wrong about this President and democratic party. This is not the democratic party that I supported, financed and campaigned for. I am a former republican, now independent who votes democrat but the the democratic party that I voted for has disappeared. Every since Edward Kennedy died there is no one to stand up to this group of corporatist who favor war before dialogue and who favor tax breaks at the expense of the poor. Soon we will see the most vunerable scrambling for the scraps that the wealthy throw out. It is unbelievable that just two and half years ago we elected a biracial leader with a muslim name who had almost 60 percent of the vote and look at where we are today. One step forward, three steps back. Unbelievable!

the problem with that is it conflicts with this I think we should try to focus on the single issue of busting the legacy parties and their oligarchs and avoid controversy otherwise. We want to unite not divide.

If the goal is to keep it simple than that is what it should be. Scoring politicians adds to the complications and opens the floodgates to people arguing about people’s political score and maybe losing sight of the big picture.

You are right about that! My thinking is to score them only on the single dimension of oligarchy and empire. Kelly’s scorecard would indeed be broader, but I would like this to be at the core of his scorecard. By working within the scorecard process here at FDL we will influence their scorecard and get lots of input into how to create an oligarchy / empire litmus test as strong as possible. Then we can keep the criteria that measure oligarchy and empire and leave the rest here at FDL.

Kelly makes a good point in that if we do not have some way to filter out attempts to co-opt us we are likely to get caught on our heels. So in essence, we need a strong litmus test that is limited to the single issue we are uniting around. The scorecard process here can help us develop that. Does this make sense or does it still seem divisive to you?

Are you with us banderson2? No Confidence Protest Vote 2012

That phrase, “supporters of the rule of law,” made me sit up and take notice. It raises the question, are supporters of the rule of law now just one special interest group among many that compete for government favors? Scary.

No kidding.

I guess i would have to see what the criteria is that is used to define them as oligarchs. from what i see on the multiple sites I visit a lot of people are awake and/or waking up to the fact that our current democracy is a sham. I guess we just need to keep it simple. If it catches on though and goes viral it might force politicians to address it and use all kinds of tricks to ridicule and show they are not bought and paid for. We need to be prepared for that and again fight back with information that shows them as liars, but that information needs to be simple.

I agree. Keep it simple, but I do think some simple yet strict criteria could be very effective.

I also agree that it depends very much on what the criteria are. The FDL process is going to be open to the community so I think we should work to help identify a simple yet strict litmus test that we can use and can also be incorporated into the FDL scorecard.

Why has my comment said ‘waiting moderator approval”.. for 2 hours ?

Yup, and the Emperor has no cloths.

I think it’s been about 90 years since we’ve had a President that wasn’t either an Emperor or Emperor wanna-be. Today is Woodrow Wilson and Colonel House’s dream come true:

“Let us build a Navy bigger than hers [British Empire] and do what we please.”

- Colonel Edward House

They’ve got the biggest navy and they most certainly do as they please. I’d say ‘we’ rather than ‘they’ except it seems that we have no say in the matter.

Yeah, Rand Paul was pretty frustrated about this on Anderson Cooper 360 Friday night. He gives an interesting insight into how dissent is prevented on the Senate floor, too: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSlKzbR0gLg&feature=player_embedded

How do I do a blog or post? The Patriot Act is supposed to be put up for a cloture vote for a 4 year extension Monday at 5pm and I wanted to let people know and ask them to contact their reps opposing it.

So we are to just stand by and let dictators slaughter their people? Who stands for what is right. Hell most of these dictators we put in power. Don’t we have an obligation to clean up the mess? As bad as you think the US is do you think there is a public equivilent of FDL in any Arab state?

Does “war criminal” come into play regarding Obama yet?

So it would be:

President Nobel Peace Prize Winning Constitutional Law Prof War Criminal….

Check…?

Why have my comments been “pending moderaton” for 6 hours ?

More FDL hyperbole. If you think providing support in a multilateral response, called on by the UNSC and Arab League, against a dictator equates to “bombing anyone at any time,” then you shouldn’t be writing about these issues. Seriously. If you’re going to write about international relations, go study it first. If you think this changes anything about how war has existed for the past thirty or forty years, you clearly have not been paying attention.

If you think this changes anything about how war has existed for the past thirty or forty years, you clearly have not been paying attention.

Gee, the law has been an afterthought for thirty or forty years so who cares. What a great way to look at it!

Seriously, peace lovers everywhere should expect very strong checks on war powers. The checks are nowhere near strong enough and are being violated anyway. In my opinion war should require a national referendum unless there is an invader on American soil.