5/16/2018: ELIMINATING THE SENATE'S 60-VOTE FILIBUSTER RULE

.
*****
NEXT MEETING

PLEASE SCROLL DOWN TO THE NINTH (FIRST UNNUMBERED) SECTION BELOW FOR INFORMATION ABOUT OUR NEXT MEETING.


*****
WHO/WHAT WE ARE

We are a U.S. public-policy monthly discussion group founded in the Fall of 2005 that meets on the third Wednesday of each month (with adjustments to avoid secular/religious holidays).

Since February 2020, we have met via Zoom. [For the first 14.5 years of our existence, we met at the Salt Lake City Library (210 East 400 South) with remote participation via Skype.]

The topic is selected by the attendees of the previous month’s meeting. The focus is usually a book but frequently comprises only news items from magazines/newspapers/etc. This bulletin board serves, inter alia, as a place for members to post comments or additional reference materials prior to each meeting.

Our attendance averages 11-12. Participants come from all walks of life but our regular attendees include 4 attorneys and 3 scientists.

There are approx. 225 recipients of our weekly newsletter, many of whom reside outside Utah and participate by Zoom.

*****
40 SIX-DEGREES-OF-SEPARATION E-MAIL CAMPAIGNS, 4 REPORTS & 9 REPRISES

We take great pride in our Six-Degrees-Of-Separation E-mail campaigns to America's decision makers which, with only a few computer keyboard key strokes, can be sent by each of our members (1) to the decision maker, and (2) to all of the member's friends and acquaintances requesting them to do the same in an unending chain.

Accordingly, we also take great pride that each of our official recommendations has been approved unanimously at one of our meetings or, at most, received only one dissent.

All 40 e-mail campaigns over the years are collected in this section. They include 10 e-mails sent by John Karls that did not receive an official endorsement for the rest of our members to send. The titles of the 30 official recommendations are ALL CAPS and the titles of 10 unofficial recommendations are lower case.

The date of the meeting at which each of the 40 campaigns was adopted is listed so that voluminous additional information about that campaign can be accessed by scrolling down to the sections of this bulletin board that relate to that meeting.

In addition, there are four items whose descriptions begin with “REPORT.” They are reports of our Great Salt Lake Working Group which was formed IAW our “Short-Time Fuse” procedures described in the next section of this bulletin board.

There is also a 1/20/2021 “Report” of our JCPOA Working Group.

Finally, there are eight items whose descriptions begin with “REPRISE.” They describe additional actions that were taken IAW previous official e-mail campaigns to bring their approved policies to the attention of additional decision makers.

*****
SIGNING UP FOR OUR WEEKLY E-MAIL

If you would like to receive our weekly newsletter, please send an e-mail to ReadingLiberally-SaltLake@johnkarls.com with a subject, “Please Add Me To Weekly E-mail List.”

*****
SIGNING UP TO POST ON THIS BULLETIN BOARD

Due to sabotage and porn attacks, only attendees of one or more of our meetings are permitted to post on this bulletin board.

If you have attended one of our meetings and would like to register to post something, please send an E-mail to ReadingLiberally-SaltLake@johnkarls.com with the subject, “Please Register Me For The Bulletin Board.”
Locked
johnkarls
Posts: 2034
Joined: Fri Jun 29, 2007 8:43 pm

5/16/2018: ELIMINATING THE SENATE'S 60-VOTE FILIBUSTER RULE

Post by johnkarls »

.
-----------------------------------------------------
From: ReadingLiberally-SaltLake@johnkarls.com
To: ReadingLiberallyEmailList@johnkarls.com
Bcc: The Approximately 150 Recipients of Our Weekly E-mail
Subject: CALL TO ACTION – “SIX-DEGREES-OF-SEPARATION” E-MAIL CAMPAIGN TO ELIMINATE THE U.S. SENATE’S 60-VOTE FILIBUSTER RULE (only 5 minutes needed to participate)
Date: Mon, May 21, 2018
-----------------------------------------------------

Dear Friends,

We take great pride in our Six-Degrees-Of-Separation E-mail campaigns to decision makers such as the U.S. President which, with only a few computer keyboard key strokes, can be sent by each of our members (1) to the decision maker, and (2) to all of the member's friends and acquaintances requesting them to do the same in an unending chain.

[Indeed, these campaigns are what make us more than an unimportant self-edification group of patriotic policy wonks.]

Accordingly, we also take great pride that each of our official recommendations has been approved unanimously or, at most, received only one dissent at one of our meetings.

The following e-mail campaign was approved unanimously at our 5/16/2018 meeting.

The reasons for the campaign are contained in the already-prepared e-mail that appears below and that we recommend you send to U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and to all of your friends and acquaintances.

If you agree with it, please send it to Sen. McConnell by --

(1) cutting and pasting into your browser -- https://www.mcconnell.senate.gov/public ... fm/contact;

(2) selecting from the menu that appears -- Contact Senator McConnell;

(3) enter your contact info (name, address, etc.);

(4) select from the “Topic” drop-down menu -- Congressional Rules and Procedures;

(5) for the next box labelled “Please type the subject of your message” please cut-and-paste --
Request of a 150-Member 12-Year-Old Monthly Public-Policy Study Group in Salt Lake City;

(6) for the next box labelled “Please write your message” please cut-and-paste -- the already-prepared e-mail appearing below and labeled “Your Suggested E-mail For Sen. Mitch McConnell – Part I of II.”

THEN PLEASE --

(A) Since Mitch McConnell’s website has a message limit of 3,000 characters, repeat steps 1-6 for the already-prepared e-mail appearing below and labelled “Your Suggested E-mail For Sen. Mitch McConnell – Part II of II.”

(B) Send to all your friends and acquaintances the already-prepared e-mail package that comprises everything below the immediately-following string of asterisks -- so that, through no more than six degrees of separation to 100% of the American population, we reach everyone in a cascading chain.


******************************************************************************
To: All of your friends and acquaintances

Subject: CALL TO ACTION – “SIX-DEGREES-OF-SEPARATION” E-MAIL CAMPAIGN TO ELIMINATE THE U.S. SENATE’S 60-VOTE FILIBUSTER RULE (only 5 minutes needed to participate)

Dear Friends,

I have been requested to participate in the referenced "call to action" and request that you participate as well.

It is the 28th such Call to Action on various topics recommended by a monthly patriotic public-policy study group over the last 12.5 years comprising already-prepared e-mails that can be sent to decision makers on important policy issues. Such e-mail campaigns require unanimity or, at most, one dissent -- the following proposed e-mail was approved at our 5/16/2018 meeting.

The group’s attendance averages 11-12 from approximately 150 worldwide recipients of our weekly newsletter (nonresidents can participate by Skype). Participants come from all walks of life but regular attendees include 5 attorneys and 3 scientists. [Our meetings over the years on thorium fission, on nuclear fusion, and on Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster have been led by a PhD in Nuclear Engineering from the U/Tenn - Oak Ridge National Nuclear-Research Laboratory.] More information about the group is available on http://www.ReadingLiberally-SaltLake.org.

The campaigns are based on the fact that there are NO MORE THAN SIX DEGREES OF SEPARATION between us and 100% of the American population.

And that, on important occasions, we can send to all of our friends and acquaintances an already-prepared e-mail (1) for them to send to decision maker(s), and (2) for them to send to all of their friends and acquaintances to do the same in an unending chain.


**********
YOUR REQUESTED ACTION (5 MINUTES NEEDED TO PARTICIPATE) --

The reasons for this e-mail campaign are contained in the following already-prepared e-mail for sending to U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

If you agree with it, please send it by --

(1) cutting and pasting into your browser -- https://www.mcconnell.senate.gov/public ... fm/contact;

(2) selecting from the menu that appears -- Contact Senator McConnell;

(3) enter your contact info (name, address, etc.);

(4) select from the “Topic” drop-down menu -- Congressional Rules and Procedures;

(5) for the next box labelled “Please type the subject of your message” please cut-and-paste --
Request of a 150-Member 12-Year-Old Monthly Public-Policy Study Group in Salt Lake City;

(6) for the next box labelled “Please write your message” please cut-and-paste -- the already-prepared e-mail appearing below and labeled “Your Suggested E-mail For Sen. Mitch McConnell – Part I of II.”

THEN PLEASE --

(A) Since Mitch McConnell’s website has a message limit of 3,000 characters, repeat steps 1-6 for the already-prepared e-mail appearing below and labelled “Your Suggested E-mail For Sen. Mitch McConnell – Part II of II.”

(B) Re-send to all your friends and acquaintances this entire e-mail package -- so that, through no more than six degrees of separation to 100% of the American population, we reach everyone in a cascading chain.


-------------------------Your Suggested E-mail For Sen. Mitch McConnell – Part I of II-------------------------

The Honorable Addison Mitchell McConnell Jr.
U.S. Senate Majority Leader


Dear Sir:

Re: Request of a 150-Member 12-Year-Old Monthly Public-Policy Study Group in Salt Lake City


I am associated with a 150-member public-policy study group that has met each month for the past 12.5 years in Salt Lake City.

Noting that America’s “Founding Fathers” embedded in our U.S. Constitution a bulwark against democracy, our members respectfully request that you at least do everything in your power to eliminate an undemocratic feature of that bulwark that is NOT required by the Constitution.

**********
We are sure that such an expert on American history and America’s Constitution as you is keenly aware that America’s “Founding Fathers” created the U.S. Senate as a bulwark against democracy in the following respects --

(A) For two centuries, U.S. Senators were not even popularly elected (that abomination had to wait for the 17th Amendment to the Constitution in 1913).

(B) For the first two centuries, U.S. Senators were appointed by state governors and/or legislatures which, themselves, were not elected by “We The People” since (1) “We The People” did not include women until the 19th Amendment in 1920, (2) “We The People” did not include African-American slaves, and (3) “We The People” typically did not include non-landowners and the illiterate.

**********
The Racist History of the Senate’s Filibuster Rule

None of our 150 members was able to find a single instance prior to the 1987 when the Senate’s Filibuster Rule (which, prior to 1975, had required a 2/3 vote to stop and featured “fake debates” that often comprised U.S. Senators reading names from telephone books) was used for any purpose except blocking Civil Rights Legislation.

As you are no doubt aware, 1987 was when the Senate’s Filibuster Rule was used to block a nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court and ever since, it has been used to block virtually “everything under the sun”!!!

**********
Governing America By Executive Orders and By Nationwide Injunctions by Federal Trial Judges

Since the Senate’s 60-Vote Filibuster Rule has prevented Congress from doing hardly anything for more than a decade, it is not surprising that America has been ruled by Executive Order.

With the foreseeable results that (1) many laws are NOT enforced as a result of Executive Order, (2) many other “laws” are created by Executive Order, (3) many “laws” that were created by Executive Order are simply revoked by a successor’s Executive Orders, and (4) many federal trial judges have joined in the anarchy by decreeing nationwide preliminary injunctions while they take their time deciding whether particular Executive Orders accord with their own whims.

[The remainder of this e-mail will be sent separately forthwith because of your maximum length of 3,000 characters.]


------------------------Your Suggested E-mail For Sen. Mitch McConnell – Part II of II------------------------

[This is the remainder of my e-mail which was sent separately a moment ago because of your maximum length of 3,000 characters.]


**********
The Senate’s Recent Failure To Address DACA and Border Security

We are guessing that you would readily admit that the most egregious recent example of the Senate’s 60-vote filibuster rule causing inaction was the Senate’s rejection of four (count them, four) different bills addressing DACA and Border Security.

This despite universal news reports that virtually everyone in Washington would like to solve the problem posed by DACA having been created by Executive Order -- even President Trump famously proposing during the failed legislative negotiations to double the size of DACA to include everyone who was eligible, not merely those who applied for the program.

And this despite universal news reports that Senate Democrats opposed funding for a “border wall,” an end to the “visa lottery program” and an end to “chain migration” -- for all of which Senate Democrats had recently voted INCLUDING SENATE DEMOCRAT LEADER CHUCK SCHUMER.

**********
It’s High Time To Stop Piece-Meal Elimination of the 60-Vote Filibuster Rule and “Make A Clean Break”

As probably the nation’s leading expert on Senate Rules, you are well aware that ever since the 60-Vote Filibuster Rule began being used in 1987 “for everything under the sun” the Senate has been forced to make exceptions for (1) budgetary matters, if for no other reason than enabling the Federal Government to pay Senatorial salaries, (2) confirmation, beginning in 2013, for executive-branch nominees and judicial nominees except to the Supreme Court, and (3) confirmation, beginning in 2017, for nominees to the Supreme Court.

HOWEVER, for the sake of American Democracy and the sake of America itself -- NOT MERELY the passage of a bill addressing DACA and Border Security -- it is high time to eliminate the 60-Vote Filibuster Rule entirely and “make a clean break.”

ACCORDINGLY, it is respectfully requested that you do everything in your power to make this happen.

Thank you for your consideration.

Locked

Return to “Section 1 – General Info + Info Re Next Meeting”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 3 guests