superrific
Legend of ZZL
- Messages
- 9,576
1. Establish a board of experts: 9 people appointed on a non-partisan basis. Each year one rotates out; the board itself selects the replacement. I'm not sure yet if this would require legislation.
2. Define a list of conditions that must be respected: no criminal immunity for presidents, faithful execution of the law by the executive branch, no arbitrary detentions, no deployment of troops. Etc. This will be the meat of the policy. The conditions will be established up front but can be subject to further clarification through the consultation process. The conditions will include: any attempt to disband the board, nullify its policies, or in any way interfere with its operation.
3. The board will then select a "jury pool" of 1500 people, selected for integrity, competence and expertise. This jury pool will be on standby. All references to the jury here are just terminological; they aren't juries in a traditional sense.
4. In the event that the executive branch tries something grossly illegal, the board can designate the action for consultation. A jury of 600-700 of the experts will be convened; it's called a jury, but there aren't deliberations or extensive argument. They get a relatively brief -- 15 pages, perhaps -- summary of the legal issue. I don't think it matters who will prepare it. Then they vote on the legality.
5. If the jury finds that the action qualifies, it is referred for remedy. All attempts to interrupt this process shall be deemed automatically illegal and referred for remedy.
6. Remedy. This requires some setting up:
A. Americans are issued (technically can buy for a small fee, just an implementation detail) a non-transferable bond that pays a good interest rate and can be redeemed or renewed every N years. Let's say its face value and redemption value is $1000.
B. The bond has a provision: in the event of a remedy, the bond will convert into a new bond exactly like it, and a regular US treasury bonds worth $X. $X is determined randomly within a range specified by the remedy. For instance, a class I remedy would be, say, $200-$1000; a class II remedy would be $1000-$5000, etc. There are some details about how the remedy class is determined but they aren't important here, I don't think. It's not integral to the main idea.
C. The conversion shall not occur for any resident of a state that voted for the administration that triggered the remedy.
****
This is a public finance variation on the classic poison pill (aka "shareholder rights plan") that is routinely used to defend corporate takeovers. Essentially, the idea is that if the government does something grossly illegal, it will immediately trigger a process in which trillions of debt will be distributed to the American public, but not to Americans that support the regime. In the present environment, it would mean that residents of blue states would stand to gain $15000 each and red states would get nothing.
Because the terms are contained within a bond document, they are vested as property rights. No court or subsequent administration can erase them because it would be a taking and anyway the attempt would be to trigger the highest remedy. If needed, the remedy-issued debt can be parked in an escrow account at the Fed or some other agency. it costs nothing to pre-issue the debt since as long as it is in escrow, it's just money the government pays to itself. Then the escrow immediately releases upon the occurrence of the remedy.
We only want this process to be a check, not a veto or a policy making body, so there should be a relatively high standard of "clearly illegal." That would be applied both by the board and the jury. The reason the jury is so big is specifically to prevent it from being captured by any side. And because the jury is so dispersed, it is unlikely it could be organized into a political force. The board is selected for its integrity and the board selects the jury. In essence, the system is set up to select people with integrity and good faith to judge whether the government is being fascist (that's shorthand here for a legal standard).
But I think this will be a check on a fascist takeover. In essence, the fascist would have to destroy the country and its solvency in order to do its deeds. The system operates automatically, or as automatically as possible -- at least as automatically as I can imagine -- so it can't be coopted or short-circuited.
***
I know this seems fanciful and unrealistic. But it absolutely could happen with political will. If we dismiss ideas like this out of hand based on some sense that they are unrealistic, they will be unrealistic. They dismissed Obama's candidacy as unrealistic too, but neither he nor his early supporters listened. I don't know if this is the best idea; there might be better approaches but the point is to consider them. Stop being fatalistic and saying America Is Done. It's so easy to slide into that despair and I've done it too, but we have to fight through the final buzzer no matter what we see as the odds.
One thing the Federalist Society did over the years was nurture crazy fucking ideas. Most of the shit they talked about was batshit crazy, including the strong form of the unitary executive and the blood-and-soil conception of America and American citizenship. Now they have been put in a position to implement all that batshit crazy stuff. If they can make BSC happen, surely we can make good government guarantees happen.
***
Thoughts?
2. Define a list of conditions that must be respected: no criminal immunity for presidents, faithful execution of the law by the executive branch, no arbitrary detentions, no deployment of troops. Etc. This will be the meat of the policy. The conditions will be established up front but can be subject to further clarification through the consultation process. The conditions will include: any attempt to disband the board, nullify its policies, or in any way interfere with its operation.
3. The board will then select a "jury pool" of 1500 people, selected for integrity, competence and expertise. This jury pool will be on standby. All references to the jury here are just terminological; they aren't juries in a traditional sense.
4. In the event that the executive branch tries something grossly illegal, the board can designate the action for consultation. A jury of 600-700 of the experts will be convened; it's called a jury, but there aren't deliberations or extensive argument. They get a relatively brief -- 15 pages, perhaps -- summary of the legal issue. I don't think it matters who will prepare it. Then they vote on the legality.
5. If the jury finds that the action qualifies, it is referred for remedy. All attempts to interrupt this process shall be deemed automatically illegal and referred for remedy.
6. Remedy. This requires some setting up:
A. Americans are issued (technically can buy for a small fee, just an implementation detail) a non-transferable bond that pays a good interest rate and can be redeemed or renewed every N years. Let's say its face value and redemption value is $1000.
B. The bond has a provision: in the event of a remedy, the bond will convert into a new bond exactly like it, and a regular US treasury bonds worth $X. $X is determined randomly within a range specified by the remedy. For instance, a class I remedy would be, say, $200-$1000; a class II remedy would be $1000-$5000, etc. There are some details about how the remedy class is determined but they aren't important here, I don't think. It's not integral to the main idea.
C. The conversion shall not occur for any resident of a state that voted for the administration that triggered the remedy.
****
This is a public finance variation on the classic poison pill (aka "shareholder rights plan") that is routinely used to defend corporate takeovers. Essentially, the idea is that if the government does something grossly illegal, it will immediately trigger a process in which trillions of debt will be distributed to the American public, but not to Americans that support the regime. In the present environment, it would mean that residents of blue states would stand to gain $15000 each and red states would get nothing.
Because the terms are contained within a bond document, they are vested as property rights. No court or subsequent administration can erase them because it would be a taking and anyway the attempt would be to trigger the highest remedy. If needed, the remedy-issued debt can be parked in an escrow account at the Fed or some other agency. it costs nothing to pre-issue the debt since as long as it is in escrow, it's just money the government pays to itself. Then the escrow immediately releases upon the occurrence of the remedy.
We only want this process to be a check, not a veto or a policy making body, so there should be a relatively high standard of "clearly illegal." That would be applied both by the board and the jury. The reason the jury is so big is specifically to prevent it from being captured by any side. And because the jury is so dispersed, it is unlikely it could be organized into a political force. The board is selected for its integrity and the board selects the jury. In essence, the system is set up to select people with integrity and good faith to judge whether the government is being fascist (that's shorthand here for a legal standard).
But I think this will be a check on a fascist takeover. In essence, the fascist would have to destroy the country and its solvency in order to do its deeds. The system operates automatically, or as automatically as possible -- at least as automatically as I can imagine -- so it can't be coopted or short-circuited.
***
I know this seems fanciful and unrealistic. But it absolutely could happen with political will. If we dismiss ideas like this out of hand based on some sense that they are unrealistic, they will be unrealistic. They dismissed Obama's candidacy as unrealistic too, but neither he nor his early supporters listened. I don't know if this is the best idea; there might be better approaches but the point is to consider them. Stop being fatalistic and saying America Is Done. It's so easy to slide into that despair and I've done it too, but we have to fight through the final buzzer no matter what we see as the odds.
One thing the Federalist Society did over the years was nurture crazy fucking ideas. Most of the shit they talked about was batshit crazy, including the strong form of the unitary executive and the blood-and-soil conception of America and American citizenship. Now they have been put in a position to implement all that batshit crazy stuff. If they can make BSC happen, surely we can make good government guarantees happen.
***
Thoughts?