#reinstatement

[tomorrowusa]

Tennessee Rep. Justin Jones returns to Capitol after Nashville Council reinstates him

Tennessee state Rep. Justin Jones, who was expelled from the state House last week alongside former Rep. Justin Pearson of Memphis, was reinstated to his seat Monday on an interim basis.

Republicans can keep expelling him all they like, but Justin Jones will always be back. ∞

Rep. Jones (D-TN-House-52) is back in the Tennessee House again after Tennessee Republicans under racist Speaker Cameron Sexton voted to expel him.

Nashville's Metro Council has unanimously voted to reinstate freshman Democrat Justin Jones to his seat in the Tennessee House. The GOP-led legislature expelled Jones last week for gun reform protests he led on the chamber floor after the Covenant School shooting.

The vote puts Jones into the seat on an interim basis until a special election can be held for the seat.

"Justin Jones has been elected to the vacancy of Tennessee House 52 pursuant to the state law and the rules governing the Metropolitan Council," Vice Mayor Jim Shulman announced at Monday's specially called meeting, as cheers erupted in the gallery.

It all happened with great speed.

Rep. Jones still has to run in a special election. But because GOP gerrymandering placed Jones in an overwhelmingly Democratic district, there’s little doubt about the outcome.

On Wednesday, all eyes in Tennessee will be on Memphis where a local council is expected to appoint Justin Pearson to his old seat.

EDIT: There are now allegations that far right Speaker Cameron Sexton of the Tennessee House does not live in the district he’s representing. That puts him in violation of Article II, Section 5a of the Tennessee Constitution.

Where does the Tennessee House Speaker actually live? 

[ivovynckier]

The My Pillow CEO Lindell has a new date for Donald's reinstatement. When a cult expects the Rapture but the Lord tarries, it picks another date. Too bad Joe Biden, not Trump, was the chosen one... (painting: The Last Judgement, Michelangelo, Sistine Chapel)

[posttexasstressdisorder]

Shit is really flyin’.  The acceleration has been going on for a little while, and big things have been going on in the background, and in the DC courts, and around the world that will have a huge impact.

It’s been so shitty this past month, even moreso than before...but there is now maybe the slightest hint of a wind shift in the direction of justice.  

[contemplatingoutlander]

Opinion | What my civics textbook says about Trump getting ‘reinstated’

Including what the Founders had to say about reinstatement.

As is often the case, Alexandra Petri’s satire is spot on. 😁 

Where does reinstatement appear in the Constitution?

Reinstatement does not appear in most editions of the Constitution. It does, however, appear in a famous early version of the Constitution riddled with printer’s errors, popularly called the “Devil’s Constitution,” which, because of a series of bewildering misprints, vows to form a “less perfect union, disestablish justice, and destroy domestic tranquility,” advocates the violent storming of the legislature in the event of an electoral outcome with which a minority of the people is dissatisfied, and, confusingly, gives detailed mention to the filibuster more than two decades before it was invented. Reinstatement is often mentioned in this “Devil’s Constitution” as a preferred alternative to losing an election fair and square. The “Devil’s Constitution” is popular with collectors and former attorney general William P. Barr alike, as it includes no Article I whatsoever and Article II says the president may do whatever he wishes. The section on the electoral college, however, is entirely unaltered.

[tomorrowusa]

Memphis commissioners reappoint ousted representative Justin Pearson to Tennessee House

"Nashville thought that they could silence democracy," Pearson said following the vote.

The Shelby County Board of Commissioners in western Tennessee voted unanimously to send Justin Pearson back to the Tennessee House of Representatives.

The far right Republican supermajority in the Tennessee House voted to expel Justin Pearson and another black Democrat Justin Jones late last week. Rep. Jones was reinstated earlier this week.

County officials in Memphis voted unanimously on Wednesday to reappoint Justin Pearson to the Tennessee House of Representatives, less than a week after the legislature voted to expel him and another Black Democratic lawmaker for participating in a protest against gun violence.

The Shelby County Board of Commissioners, which was tasked with appointing someone to fill the seat, convened to discuss reappointing Pearson and voted to send him back to Nashville. Pearson addressed the commissioners and dozens of supporters who assembled at the meeting.

"Nashville thought that they could silence democracy, but they didn't know the Shelby County Commission," Pearson said to cheers following the vote. "So the message for all the people in Nashville who decided to expel us: You can't expel hope. You can't expel love. You can't expel our voice. And you sure can't expel our fight. We look forward to continuing to fight, continuing to advocate, until justice rolls down like water, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream. Let's get back to work."

Before the vote, Commission Chairman Mickell Lowery told CBS Memphis affiliate WREG that many commissioners wanted Pearson to be reappointed. All seven of the assembled members voted to reinstate him.

The GOP supplicants of the NRA thought they could shut down talk of gun reform after the massacre at the Covenant School by silencing protests against Tennessee’s extreme permissiveness when it comes to carrying guns and owning military-style assault weapons. Instead, GOP arrogance created a major embarrassment for the state with the legislature acting like Putin’s State Duma in Moscow.

Pearson still has to run in a special election to make his return to office permanent. But because Republican gerrymandering packed his district overwhelmingly with Democrats, his re-election is largely a formality.

[tomorrowusa]

It seems that the crowds for Trump Reinstatement Day were even smaller than those for 20 January 2017.

And now, a public service message for any hate followers or other MAGA zombies:

Trump lost. He’s a LŪŪZER – and no halfwit ‘cyber ninja’ or pillow peddler can change that. 😎

[tomorrowusa]

In the Republican alternative universe, their spelling fits their delusion.

But just because they are crazy doesn’t mean they can’t instigate lots of harm. The biggest danger is not to take their threat to democracy seriously.

[tomorrowusa]

Maggie Haberman Is Right | National Review

Donald Trump really does believe that he, along with two former GOP senators, will be ‘reinstated’ to office this summer.

It’s not very often that you’ll see articles from the conservative National Review here. But Charles C. W. Cooke is confirming what New York Times journalist Maggie Haberman has reported: Donald Trump really really really believes he’s going to be reinstated as president in a few months.

Mr. Cooke writes...

The scale of Trump’s delusion is quite startling. This is not merely an eccentric interpretation of the facts or an interesting foible, nor is it an irrelevant example of anguished post-presidency chatter. It is a rejection of reality, a rejection of law, and, ultimately, a rejection of the entire system of American government. There is no Reinstatement Clause within the United States Constitution. Hell, there is nothing even approximating a Reinstatement Clause within the United States Constitution. The election has been certified, Joe Biden is the president, and, until 2024, that is all there is to it. 

[ ... ]

That is not how America works, how America has ever worked, or how America can ever work. American politicians do not lose their reelection races only to be reinstalled later on, as might the second-place horse in a race whose winner was disqualified. The idea is otherworldly and obscene.

There is nothing to be gained for conservatism by pretending otherwise. To acknowledge that Trump is living in a fantasy world does not wipe out his achievements or render anything else he has said incorrect. It does not endorse Joe Biden or hand the Republican Party over to Bill Kristol or knock down an inch of the wall on the border. It merely demands that Donald Trump be treated like any other person: subject to gravity, open to rebuttal, and liable to be laughed at when he becomes so unmoored from the real world that it is hard to know where to begin in attempting to explain him.

Republicans who keep parroting The Big Lie are an ongoing danger to democracy. And on the side, they are making enormous fools of themselves.

I’ve mentioned previously that these people will not be treated kindly by history. At best, they are akin to the non-Nazi political and business opportunists in Germany who acquiesced Hitler’s rise to power. Sadly, such people make up a majority of Republicans in both chambers of Congress. 

The fact is that most Republicans simply don’t have the cojones to tell Trump: “STFU!“ They publicly indulge his anti-democratic imbecility and indirectly (even directly in some cases) encourage violent extremist elements to engage in terrorism like the US Capitol rampage. 

Any Republican who feeds Trump’s delusions on this or repeats such lunacy to the public is as unfit for office as he is.