Monday, March 27, 2017

Overpayment of Dues

Now, I have to tell you, it's an unbelievably complex subject. Nobody knew health care could be so complicated.     February 27th, 2017
Do you need further proof the man is a moron? Here, let me make it real easy for you. So uncomplicated, even a moron could understand it: A sitting GOP president with a GOP House of Representatives and a GOP Senate could not pass the latest excuse of a health care bill. 

For the moment, the Affordable Care Act remains in place. But don't get all celebratory: the large group of Republicans who pulled their support weren't worried about people losing their health insurance; they objected to Medicaid and its expansion. It wasn't about listening to the millions who have gotten health coverage through ACA; it was about tossing poor people and children under the bus. Love the fetus, despise the mother and the child. 

So rather than figure out you need both sides  involved with this process, they're moving on to tax reform. I am waiting for that big announcement,
Now, I have to tell you, it's an unbelievably complex subject. Nobody knew tax reform could be so complicated.
He doesn't know too many words. 

Taxes. I just did mine...or rather, with the sale of the house and the new book, I actually went to an accountant this year. Yup. I did. He came with a strong recommendation from someone I trust in all matters financial. Good enough for me. And in my meeting, not only did we figure I was getting a bunch of money back, he gave me a present I didn't know I was getting:  a schedule E. For those of you who aren't special enough to know what a schedule E is, I'll tell you....you get it when you have royalties. Once again, my Velveteen Rabbit was showing. And as if that was not enough, he figured out why I didn't get my property tax rebate, fixed, and sent me a new form to sign from last year. Way cool. I can finally afford a Hirschfeld (or two...each kid'll get one after I die.)

I know I've said this before, but it bears repeating: 
Taxes are the dues you pay for living in this country.
You don't have to like everything or every politician, but you still have to support roads and bridges and police and the armed forces. That said, I understand my tax dollars pay the security for whomever occupies the Oval Office. I get that part. However, I don't like paying for Mrs. Oval Office to live in New York while We, the People foot the bill for her living arrangements. Just like Mrs. Obama was told she was leaving Chicago for DC because that's how it's done, so should Miss Mellie and her progeny. Or, Mr. Billionaire should be footing at least part of the expense. Between the trips to Mar-Whatchamacallit and the other presidentially owned golf properties, it's a wonder Steve Bannon isn't getting more done.

Frankly, this whole family shtick is nothing more than shades of Billy Carter and Roger Clinton on steroids. Didn't we learn anything about presidential families the first seventeen or eighteen times?

The truth is, I'm sick of writing this stuff. Every week I have eight or ten items on the hit list by Monday morning, and for the 8th week in a row, I don't want to write about any of them. What I really want is for the Democratic Party to pull its head outta its ass and get to work finding a middle ground...one that will attract not only the center spectrum of Democrats but the terrified, moderate GOP members as well. If we cannot build a centrist coalition, we are doomed. 

The Wifely Person's Tip o'the Week
Not happy with the current government? Get out there and change it.
Only YOU can prevent assholes from governing. 

Monday, March 20, 2017

If You're Still Sucking Air

After Dad passed away, Mom said she was ready to go. 

Then she decided she wasn't so ready to go. She had three  new goals: to live long enough to 
  • celebrate Little Miss's second birthday on October 21st, 
  • dance (sans wheelchair) at Senior Son's wedding on October 30th, 
  • cast her ballot for Hillary on November 8th.

"That way," she told me several times, "when I see your father, I can tell him, "we have a new president and her name is Hillary." 

Then, all bets were off. 

I think the outcome of the election woulda killed her on the spot if she hadn't been dead already.

From Tuesday sundown through Wednesday sundown, we will observe her first yahrzeit...one year since the day she left the building according to the Hebrew calendar...which is only partly true because... leave it to Mom...she died during Adar II, the Hebrew leap month that happens 7 times in a 19 year cycle...the next one is in 2019. I find myself still telling her things, or thinking, "gee I should call Mom with that one." I miss the voice on the other end of the phone, but most of all, I miss that last year, when I saw her every day for the first time since I left for college a million years ago. Being a daughter for at least a little while turned out to be more important that I ever would've guessed. 

Tuesday, March 21st, the old-fashioned first day of spring, would've been FIL's 96th birthday. The proposed cuts to the FDA woulda sent him and the walker right over the cliff. He was a Fed almost his entire veterinary career, seeing to health and safety of large animals and fowl....cows and chickens. "Everyone wants a shortcut," he used to grumble, "but no one wants to own tainted food." He sure had a lot to say about the peanut butter/salmonella debacle back in 2008-2009. It was a shame he didn't live long enough to see them all go jail. The proposed cuts to FDA regulations would've had me driving him downtown to the office to raise holy hell. 

So I spent much of the weekend thinking about my folks, about FIL, about the good times. I avoided the not-so-good times because I want to remember everyone laughing about something. I tried to remember what they each believed, and what they told me was important. Each one had a different agenda, but they shared one thing in common: leave the planet better than you found it. For Mom, it was a matter of treating people with kindness and compassion...even when she thought they were assholes. For Dad, it was cleaning up plant waste with an ecologically sound process. And for FIL, it was safety throughout the food chain.

Overall, the message from all three was to think of others. I think the folks drilled that into us pretty well. I know Ziggy was the recipient of FIL's farmer-ecology lessons from the time he could sit up, and yes, they made a difference. 

Wanna know what I wanna know? Why doesn't everyone get that training? 

How is it some parents never educate their kids to civic responsibility on behalf of the planet? How is it that some people think safety nets and regulations are hindrances when they are in place to protect us from ourselves and Lord knows, we need the help. How many people have to die from mis-processed peanut butter? How many chicken-kills have to happen? How many Flint, Michigans must we have? How many droughts? How many polluted smog-inversions? How many coal miners with black lung disease?

I really don't care what party occupies the White House so long as they put the well-being of We, the People, first. The destruction of the EPA, the FDA, the NIH, the NEA, and all rest of the alphabet soup that makes up the life blood of this nation cannot be for our benefit. It's for someone else's profiteering. Whoever is running this show (and I have my doubts about who it is) is doing the piracy thing with our national inheritance. You take away inspections, people die. You take away the EPA, and water becomes unpotable. Take away PBS, NPR, and the rest of the arts, you lose the ability for critical thought. 

And not to neglect the global stage, the Secretary of State intimates the US could instigate military action in North Korea. Um....I guess he's not old enough to remember the last police action in Korea, or that little divertissement in Vietnam. All things considered, having two Toddlers-in-Chief with their little chubby fingers on red buttons is not exactly the set up for an exercise in self control. Anyone out there old enough to remember Duck and Cover?

This is not right. You know it. I know it. We all know it. What we don't know is how to stop it before it's too late. We'd better start figuring that part out now.


The Wifely Person's Tip o'the Week
No one can tell you how to grieve.

You can't see it, but there's a virtual stone on top.
Wish I could put it there in person.
Soon


Monday, March 13, 2017

LAND

Saturday morning, I attended a funeral in a small town in Minnesota.

I had a chance to visit the family farm. It supported its own family, and it provided sustenance to others. Listening to the siblings talk about growing up there was a revelation. This is family land and the family will decide what to do next. There are choices.

Thousands of farms just like this one once made up the backbone of this country. You didn't have to be a mega-farm to survive, you had to be part of the food chain. FIL's family never homesteaded, they rented, but he always talked about the importance of being part of the food chain. He believed, like so many of people at the farm, that good stewardship of the land begins with the family farm. 

The idea of stewardship kept rolling around in my head the rest of the weekend. Driving there and back, we passed through black-dirt country. The soil is black even in the dead of winter. It's the most fertile farmland in the world. It's the Valley of the Jolly Green Giant. Wonderful things grow here, and there is still a taste of Minnesota when you buy locally grown produce. Even whizzing past endless fields, you know why they came here from Scandinavia and Germany, England and Ireland, Vietnam and even Mexico and Somalia. They came in wave after wave, immigrants looking for land, looking for something better. Looking for a place that would accept their roots.

But the harsh reality is that this land was not unencumbered. There were people scattered across this prairie who lived and died according to the rules of nature. The past cannot be undone. We cannot restore the lands as they were to the indigenous peoples. Nor can we restore the prairies and the grasslands, the forests and the rivers to their original conditions. But we can do better than we are doing now. 

No, let me revise that: we MUST do better than we are doing now.

There is no comparison that can be made between this kind of real estate and the kind our sitting president and his family buy and sell. What was homesteaded was REAL estate, not play money or speculative gamesmanship.  REAL estate was, is, and will be about preserving and protecting the land, not raping it for profit.

The current administration is preparing the lands for rape and pillage. The White House has presenting a budget that guts the E.P.A. It slashes environmental reclamation and preservation programs.... including the following:
  • Puget Sound:  cut from $28 million to $2 million.
  • The Great Lakes: cut from $300 million to $10 million.
  • The Chesapeake Bay: $73 million to $5 million.
  • Research on endocrine disruptors: from $7.5 million to $445,000.
  • Diesel emissions: eliminated
  • Beach water quality testing: eliminated.
  • The U.S.-Mexico border: Sewage and garbage management from $3 million to $275,000.
  • Environmental education: from $8.7 million  to $555,000.
NYC 1963 - Before the Clean Air Act
Global warming is not a liberal hoax, nor is smog or acid rain, or holes in the ozone. These are not opinions, these are scientific facts. Our ability to breathe is dependent upon these facts. 

We inhabit this planet and we are the ones in charge of its well-being. We can choose to turn away from the administration's plans. We can pretend nothing will change. But we know better than that. 

If you have to choose one stand to take, one aspect of activism, one postcard to send, do it on behalf of the earth. If the planet is damaged any more than it already is, the rest of the debate is nothing more than empty, meaningless commentary. 



The Wifely Person's Tip o'the Week
Stand up and be counted as a building block for a good cause.
Be an advocate for Planet Earth. 

Monday, March 6, 2017

Eternal Vigilance Is The Price Of Liberty

No society, not even one as rich and fortunate as the United States has been, is guaranteed a successful future. When early Americans wrote things like “Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty,” they did not do so to provide bromides for future bumper stickers. They lived in a world in which authoritarian rule was the norm, in which rulers habitually claimed the powers and assets of the state as their own personal property.
If you haven't read David Frum's HOW TO BUILD AN AUTOCRACY in the ATLANTIC, stop what you're doing and read it now.  Then we can talk.


********************

I know I've asked this question before, and I suppose I am going to continue to ask it: when have we had enough lies?


Okay, let's put this in plain English everyone can understand: The sitting president of this country is not simply a liar, he is a pathological liar with no-class, and a horrid excuse for a human being. He is beyond pathetic; he is disgusting. it's just that simple. This not a creature (one can hardly call him a man because he lacks the most basic social skills... not to mention morals, ethics, or common sense) I would ever host at my table, and I've hosted some pretty oddball folk in my time. He does not qualify.

Talk about a fool on the hill. 

His latest round of midnight shitter-twitter fired at the previous administration should be sending rocket flares up across America: he is a liar. He has no evidence. He gets his information from people who write about two-headed chickens. He thinks he's the most powerful man in the free world. NOT! That designation only goes to someone with a functioning brain. That rules him out since he hasn't had an original thought in his head since before bannon started feeding him lines. 

This is about his perception of power. Since the sitting president reputedly has a penis the size of a mini Tootsie Roll, he has come to the bizarre conclusion that swinging a pretend dick around will fool people into thinking he actually has a penis. 

The sitting president is probably dickless AND definitely illiterate. He has never read the Constitution, couldn't tell an amendment from a statute, and has no clue what the three branches of government are, never mind how they work as checks and balances. He's too stupid to figure out this is NOT North Korea. Or the Philippines. 

©Steven G. Arley - Artleytoons
This sorry excuse for human feces is actively participating in the destruction of the parchment that established this nation with his misdirection, prevarication, and never-ending twitter stream of unmitigated bullshit. He does not know a fact from a turd,and his handlers like it that way. Nancy Pellosi called him a Master of Deflection, more like a Master of Defecation. We hear he spends lots of time on the can because that's where he gets his best tweet inspiration. Why doesn't this surprise anyone?

Anyone who has ever spent time directing in the theater has watched pathetic, dead-eye performances and this last one before congress was just like the any other half-ass actor with attitude who thinks he's God's gift to the stage. This failed actor who couldn't even make a reality show seem real is too stupid to learn his lines beyond "you're fired!" and is way too stupid to understand what he's talking about. He can't even act like he's competent. Probably because he is not. He's nothing more than a narcissistic, bombastic, vacant pot. It's not easy being anencephalous.

If you are buying into this breitbartian version of America, you're an idiot. You are too stupid to live in the United States and to exercise your right to vote. You don't deserve the freedoms this democracy provides. You need to be living in a neo-fascist, totalitarian regime where all the feckless leader will do is ask you to salute. You are not capable of critical thought. Please don't strain your brain-cells any more than they are already strained. 

If you are capable of reading a book, read this one: On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons From The 20th Century. It's a whopping $2.99. Spend the money, read the book. Try to understand what's happening in this country right now. It should scare the socks right off you.

I listened to Dr. Timothy Snyder on ALL THINGS CONSIDERED today. This is what grabbed me:

And this is exactly why we have to understand history, because where fascism, to use your word, begins is with the neglect or the repudiation of the real world. Fascism says what you and I experience as facts or what reporters experience as facts are irrelevant. All that matters are impressions and emotions and myths.
And so when the president and his aides set out to create a world of alternative factuality, that is the catalyst which helps us slide from one system to another. So yes, there are things on both sides of the balance, but I would say the very last thing we should do is look at this situation and say, oh, it's all going to be fine.

Read the whole interview. It's not very long, but it is incredibly enlightening. Then read the book.

We elect the government we deserve, and we deserve the government we elect. This government is a clarion call to action. Either we get off our collective asses and take back the country at the midterm elections, or we start penning some new verses for Anatevka. The heart and soul of America are on the line, people. Dig deep, and figure out what you want this country to look like.

Now is our chance. Either we fix it or we don't. Whatever we do, we live with the consequences. 



Wifely Person's Tip o'the Week

And just in case you missed it, here's the text of the Constitution of the United States. This is what our fathers and grandfathers fought to preserve during World War II. Maybe everyone should take a moment to read this, give thanks for what we have...then think. 


We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

Article. I.


Section. 1.

All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives.

Section. 2.

The House of Representatives shall be composed of Members chosen every second Year by the People of the several States, and the Electors in each State shall have the Qualifications requisite for Electors of the most numerous Branch of the State Legislature.
No Person shall be a Representative who shall not have attained to the Age of twenty five Years, and been seven Years a Citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an Inhabitant of that State in which he shall be chosen.
Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons, including those bound to Service for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons. The actual Enumeration shall be made within three Years after the first Meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent Term of ten Years, in such Manner as they shall by Law direct. The Number of Representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty Thousand, but each State shall have at Least one Representative; and until such enumeration shall be made, the State of New Hampshire shall be entitled to chuse three, Massachusetts eight, Rhode-Island and Providence Plantations one, Connecticut five, New-York six, New Jersey four, Pennsylvania eight, Delaware one, Maryland six, Virginia ten, North Carolina five, South Carolina five, and Georgia three.
When vacancies happen in the Representation from any State, the Executive Authority thereof shall issue Writs of Election to fill such Vacancies.
The House of Representatives shall chuse their Speaker and other Officers; and shall have the sole Power of Impeachment.

Section. 3.

The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, chosen by the Legislature thereof, for six Years; and each Senator shall have one Vote.
Immediately after they shall be assembled in Consequence of the first Election, they shall be divided as equally as may be into three Classes. The Seats of the Senators of the first Class shall be vacated at the Expiration of the second Year, of the second Class at the Expiration of the fourth Year, and of the third Class at the Expiration of the sixth Year, so that one third may be chosen every second Year; and if Vacancies happen by Resignation, or otherwise, during the Recess of the Legislature of any State, the Executive thereof may make temporary Appointments until the next Meeting of the Legislature, which shall then fill such Vacancies.
No Person shall be a Senator who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty Years, and been nine Years a Citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an Inhabitant of that State for which he shall be chosen.
The Vice President of the United States shall be President of the Senate, but shall have no Vote, unless they be equally divided.
The Senate shall chuse their other Officers, and also a President pro tempore, in the Absence of the Vice President, or when he shall exercise the Office of President of the United States.
The Senate shall have the sole Power to try all Impeachments. When sitting for that Purpose, they shall be on Oath or Affirmation. When the President of the United States is tried, the Chief Justice shall preside: And no Person shall be convicted without the Concurrence of two thirds of the Members present.
Judgment in Cases of Impeachment shall not extend further than to removal from Office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any Office of honor, Trust or Profit under the United States: but the Party convicted shall nevertheless be liable and subject to Indictment, Trial, Judgment and Punishment, according to Law.

Section. 4.

The Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by Law make or alter such Regulations, except as to the Places of chusing Senators.
The Congress shall assemble at least once in every Year, and such Meeting shall be on the first Monday in December, unless they shall by Law appoint a different Day.

Section. 5.

Each House shall be the Judge of the Elections, Returns and Qualifications of its own Members, and a Majority of each shall constitute a Quorum to do Business; but a smaller Number may adjourn from day to day, and may be authorized to compel the Attendance of absent Members, in such Manner, and under such Penalties as each House may provide.
Each House may determine the Rules of its Proceedings, punish its Members for disorderly Behaviour, and, with the Concurrence of two thirds, expel a Member.
Each House shall keep a Journal of its Proceedings, and from time to time publish the same, excepting such Parts as may in their Judgment require Secrecy; and the Yeas and Nays of the Members of either House on any question shall, at the Desire of one fifth of those Present, be entered on the Journal.
Neither House, during the Session of Congress, shall, without the Consent of the other, adjourn for more than three days, nor to any other Place than that in which the two Houses shall be sitting.

Section. 6.

The Senators and Representatives shall receive a Compensation for their Services, to be ascertained by Law, and paid out of the Treasury of the United States. They shall in all Cases, except Treason, Felony and Breach of the Peace, be privileged from Arrest during their Attendance at the Session of their respective Houses, and in going to and returning from the same; and for any Speech or Debate in either House, they shall not be questioned in any other Place.
No Senator or Representative shall, during the Time for which he was elected, be appointed to any civil Office under the Authority of the United States, which shall have been created, or the Emoluments whereof shall have been encreased during such time; and no Person holding any Office under the United States, shall be a Member of either House during his Continuance in Office.

Section. 7.

All Bills for raising Revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives; but the Senate may propose or concur with Amendments as on other Bills.
Every Bill which shall have passed the House of Representatives and the Senate, shall, before it become a Law, be presented to the President of the United States; If he approve he shall sign it, but if not he shall return it, with his Objections to that House in which it shall have originated, who shall enter the Objections at large on their Journal, and proceed to reconsider it. If after such Reconsideration two thirds of that House shall agree to pass the Bill, it shall be sent, together with the Objections, to the other House, by which it shall likewise be reconsidered, and if approved by two thirds of that House, it shall become a Law. But in all such Cases the Votes of both Houses shall be determined by yeas and Nays, and the Names of the Persons voting for and against the Bill shall be entered on the Journal of each House respectively. If any Bill shall not be returned by the President within ten Days (Sundays excepted) after it shall have been presented to him, the Same shall be a Law, in like Manner as if he had signed it, unless the Congress by their Adjournment prevent its Return, in which Case it shall not be a Law.
Every Order, Resolution, or Vote to which the Concurrence of the Senate and House of Representatives may be necessary (except on a question of Adjournment) shall be presented to the President of the United States; and before the Same shall take Effect, shall be approved by him, or being disapproved by him, shall be repassed by two thirds of the Senate and House of Representatives, according to the Rules and Limitations prescribed in the Case of a Bill.

Section. 8.

The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;
To borrow Money on the credit of the United States;
To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes;
To establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization, and uniform Laws on the subject of Bankruptcies throughout the United States;
To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures;
To provide for the Punishment of counterfeiting the Securities and current Coin of the United States;
To establish Post Offices and post Roads;
To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries;
To constitute Tribunals inferior to the supreme Court;
To define and punish Piracies and Felonies committed on the high Seas, and Offences against the Law of Nations;
To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water;
To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years;
To provide and maintain a Navy;
To make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces;
To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions;
To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the Militia, and for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively, the Appointment of the Officers, and the Authority of training the Militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress;
To exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten Miles square) as may, by Cession of particular States, and the Acceptance of Congress, become the Seat of the Government of the United States, and to exercise like Authority over all Places purchased by the Consent of the Legislature of the State in which the Same shall be, for the Erection of Forts, Magazines, Arsenals, dock-Yards, and other needful Buildings;—And
To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof.

Section. 9.

The Migration or Importation of such Persons as any of the States now existing shall think proper to admit, shall not be prohibited by the Congress prior to the Year one thousand eight hundred and eight, but a Tax or duty may be imposed on such Importation, not exceeding ten dollars for each Person.
The Privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion the public Safety may require it.
No Bill of Attainder or ex post facto Law shall be passed.
No Tax or Duty shall be laid on Articles exported from any State.
No Preference shall be given by any Regulation of Commerce or Revenue to the Ports of one State over those of another: nor shall Vessels bound to, or from, one State, be obliged to enter, clear, or pay Duties in another.
No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law; and a regular Statement and Account of the Receipts and Expenditures of all public Money shall be published from time to time.
No Title of Nobility shall be granted by the United States: And no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State.

Section. 10.

No State shall enter into any Treaty, Alliance, or Confederation; grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal; coin Money; emit Bills of Credit; make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts; pass any Bill of Attainder, ex post facto Law, or Law impairing the Obligation of Contracts, or grant any Title of Nobility.
No State shall, without the Consent of the Congress, lay any Imposts or Duties on Imports or Exports, except what may be absolutely necessary for executing it's inspection Laws: and the net Produce of all Duties and Imposts, laid by any State on Imports or Exports, shall be for the Use of the Treasury of the United States; and all such Laws shall be subject to the Revision and Controul of the Congress.
No State shall, without the Consent of Congress, lay any Duty of Tonnage, keep Troops, or Ships of War in time of Peace, enter into any Agreement or Compact with another State, or with a foreign Power, or engage in War, unless actually invaded, or in such imminent Danger as will not admit of delay.

Article. II.


Section. 1.

The executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America. He shall hold his Office during the Term of four Years, and, together with the Vice President, chosen for the same Term, be elected, as follows
Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors, equal to the whole Number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress: but no Senator or Representative, or Person holding an Office of Trust or Profit under the United States, shall be appointed an Elector.
The Electors shall meet in their respective States, and vote by Ballot for two Persons, of whom one at least shall not be an Inhabitant of the same State with themselves. And they shall make a List of all the Persons voted for, and of the Number of Votes for each; which List they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the Seat of the Government of the United States, directed to the President of the Senate. The President of the Senate shall, in the Presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the Certificates, and the Votes shall then be counted. The Person having the greatest Number of Votes shall be the President, if such Number be a Majority of the whole Number of Electors appointed; and if there be more than one who have such Majority, and have an equal Number of Votes, then the House of Representatives shall immediately chuse by Ballot one of them for President; and if no Person have a Majority, then from the five highest on the List the said House shall in like Manner chuse the President. But in chusing the President, the Votes shall be taken by States, the Representation from each State having one Vote; A quorum for this Purpose shall consist of a Member or Members from two thirds of the States, and a Majority of all the States shall be necessary to a Choice. In every Case, after the Choice of the President, the Person having the greatest Number of Votes of the Electors shall be the Vice President. But if there should remain two or more who have equal Votes, the Senate shall chuse from them by Ballot the Vice President.
The Congress may determine the Time of chusing the Electors, and the Day on which they shall give their Votes; which Day shall be the same throughout the United States.
No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States.
The President shall, at stated Times, receive for his Services, a Compensation, which shall neither be encreased nor diminished during the Period for which he shall have been elected, and he shall not receive within that Period any other Emolument from the United States, or any of them.
Before he enter on the Execution of his Office, he shall take the following Oath or Affirmation:—"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."

Section. 2.

The President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States, when called into the actual Service of the United States; he may require the Opinion, in writing, of the principal Officer in each of the executive Departments, upon any Subject relating to the Duties of their respective Offices, and he shall have Power to grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offences against the United States, except in Cases of Impeachment.
He shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur; and he shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, Judges of the supreme Court, and all other Officers of the United States, whose Appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by Law: but the Congress may by Law vest the Appointment of such inferior Officers, as they think proper, in the President alone, in the Courts of Law, or in the Heads of Departments.
The President shall have Power to fill up all Vacancies that may happen during the Recess of the Senate, by granting Commissions which shall expire at the End of their next Session.

Section. 3.

He shall from time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union, and recommend to their Consideration such Measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient; he may, on extraordinary Occasions, convene both Houses, or either of them, and in Case of Disagreement between them, with Respect to the Time of Adjournment, he may adjourn them to such Time as he shall think proper; he shall receive Ambassadors and other public Ministers; he shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed, and shall Commission all the Officers of the United States.

Section. 4.

The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.

Article III.


Section. 1.

The judicial Power of the United States, shall be vested in one supreme Court, and in such inferior Courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish. The Judges, both of the supreme and inferior Courts, shall hold their Offices during good Behaviour, and shall, at stated Times, receive for their Services, a Compensation, which shall not be diminished during their Continuance in Office.

Section. 2.

The judicial Power shall extend to all Cases, in Law and Equity, arising under this Constitution, the Laws of the United States, and Treaties made, or which shall be made, under their Authority;—to all Cases affecting Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls;—to all Cases of admiralty and maritime Jurisdiction;—to Controversies to which the United States shall be a Party;—to Controversies between two or more States;— between a State and Citizens of another State,—between Citizens of different States,—between Citizens of the same State claiming Lands under Grants of different States, and between a State, or the Citizens thereof, and foreign States, Citizens or Subjects.
In all Cases affecting Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, and those in which a State shall be Party, the supreme Court shall have original Jurisdiction. In all the other Cases before mentioned, the supreme Court shall have appellate Jurisdiction, both as to Law and Fact, with such Exceptions, and under such Regulations as the Congress shall make.
The Trial of all Crimes, except in Cases of Impeachment, shall be by Jury; and such Trial shall be held in the State where the said Crimes shall have been committed; but when not committed within any State, the Trial shall be at such Place or Places as the Congress may by Law have directed.

Section. 3.

Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort. No Person shall be convicted of Treason unless on the Testimony of two Witnesses to the same overt Act, or on Confession in open Court.
The Congress shall have Power to declare the Punishment of Treason, but no Attainder of Treason shall work Corruption of Blood, or Forfeiture except during the Life of the Person attainted.

Article. IV.


Section. 1.

Full Faith and Credit shall be given in each State to the public Acts, Records, and judicial Proceedings of every other State. And the Congress may by general Laws prescribe the Manner in which such Acts, Records and Proceedings shall be proved, and the Effect thereof.

Section. 2.

The Citizens of each State shall be entitled to all Privileges and Immunities of Citizens in the several States.
A Person charged in any State with Treason, Felony, or other Crime, who shall flee from Justice, and be found in another State, shall on Demand of the executive Authority of the State from which he fled, be delivered up, to be removed to the State having Jurisdiction of the Crime.

Section. 3.

New States may be admitted by the Congress into this Union; but no new State shall be formed or erected within the Jurisdiction of any other State; nor any State be formed by the Junction of two or more States, or Parts of States, without the Consent of the Legislatures of the States concerned as well as of the Congress.
The Congress shall have Power to dispose of and make all needful Rules and Regulations respecting the Territory or other Property belonging to the United States; and nothing in this Constitution shall be so construed as to Prejudice any Claims of the United States, or of any particular State.

Section. 4.

The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against Invasion; and on Application of the Legislature, or of the Executive (when the Legislature cannot be convened), against domestic Violence.

Article. V.

The Congress, whenever two thirds of both Houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose Amendments to this Constitution, or, on the Application of the Legislatures of two thirds of the several States, shall call a Convention for proposing Amendments, which, in either Case, shall be valid to all Intents and Purposes, as Part of this Constitution, when ratified by the Legislatures of three fourths of the several States, or by Conventions in three fourths thereof, as the one or the other Mode of Ratification may be proposed by the Congress; Provided that no Amendment which may be made prior to the Year One thousand eight hundred and eight shall in any Manner affect the first and fourth Clauses in the Ninth Section of the first Article; and that no State, without its Consent, shall be deprived of its equal Suffrage in the Senate.

Article. VI.

All Debts contracted and Engagements entered into, before the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be as valid against the United States under this Constitution, as under the Confederation.
This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding.
The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.

Article. VII.

The Ratification of the Conventions of nine States, shall be sufficient for the Establishment of this Constitution between the States so ratifying the Same.
The Word, "the," being interlined between the seventh and eighth Lines of the first Page, The Word "Thirty" being partly written on an Erazure in the fifteenth Line of the first Page, The Words "is tried" being interlined between the thirty second and thirty third Lines of the first Page and the Word "the" being interlined between the forty third and forty fourth Lines of the second Page.
Attest William Jackson Secretary
done in Convention by the Unanimous Consent of the States present the Seventeenth Day of September in the Year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and Eighty seven and of the Independance of the United States of America the Twelfth In witness whereof We have hereunto subscribed our Names,
G°. Washington
Presidt and deputy from Virginia      
                                                            
Signers of the U. S.  Constitution