I'm not a big time Joe Biden fan; however, one thing he's advocated in the past that I'm completely in favor of is limiting the power of the executive branch of government.

The president is not supposed to be a king. Congress needs to reclaim its rightful authority. Trump is a stupid baby but why is there so much talk about him and so little about the inefficiencies of congress? Congress is what should really matter... not stupid donny.

Hooray for the return of J, K, and L pods, and J31's new baby! Let's bring back our resident southern orcas and make the Trump / Pence Evil Empire and those responsible for their illegal occupation of the White House extinct.
@1 Urgutha Forka: Agreed and seconded.

Sigh

Another July 5th come and gone, another Bloody Thursday anniversary without a mention .

Perhaps next year...

@1 well, Mitch McConnell tho.

@3- Thanks, you made me google that and refresh my memory- some of that wonderful, forgotten West Coast history.
It seems unreal that was only 85 years ago, it seems like a vanished world.
If only today's workers could be awakened to that sense of solidarity and use the power of collective action.

@1 Whatever the drafters of the Constitution intended, the president is in fact an elected king. And this is a fundamental flaw baked in to the Constitution - a time bomb that's been ticking away since 1787.

Structures of government that have emerged since the late 18th century demonstrate that no executive as such is required to operate a modern nation-state. UK and Japan are the best examples - the queen and the emperor have to functional role in government what so ever.

The presumption that such a figure is required for a government to operate was just plain wrong. The position should be abolished entirely. Along with the U.S. Senate.

@3: Interesting, but it's unrealistic to expect anniversaries of historical events to be mentioned, much less on Slog.

Comments like #6 really make it clear that they need to start teaching civics in school again. Americans have so much ignorance regarding their constitution and how their government operates. Many such cases! Sad!

@5: Shaft-hartley act prevents that.

@3: So you're claiming that no historical event is ever mentioned anywhere?

@9 - No, just that anniversaries (unlike D-Day perhaps) are typically not on the minds of staffers and news editors (sadly I admit because of inadequate history education). However, if I had the task of compiling AM or PM Slog, I'd always visit 'This Day in History' to add some nuggets.

Also, today (July 6) is Nancy Reagan's birthday. She would have been 98.

@8, exactly. The role of President is primarily to run a government. Can you imagine congress being tasked with the tedium of operating day in day out government functions? Why on earth would you want to do away with one of the legislative bodies? It is true that presidential powers have been expanding over the years, and that’s on congress. Here’s hoping the Supreme Court grows a spine.

@3 - Agreed. What @6 knows about our system of government would fit in a flea's ear, with plenty of room left over.

Back in the Neolitihic (when I was in school), two semesters of civics classes were required to graduate high school, with a minimum grade of C in both (no, I didn't go to school in Washington state).

Screw STEM education. It's becoming distressingly apparent that the subjects that must be reinstated and required are civics and some basic US history.

My nephew's wife recently passed the test to become a US citizen. She now knows more about how our government works than a lot of The Stranger's dumb ass commenters.

Something tells me @6 has yet to read the Constitution.

@12

I'd add political philosophy to the list; Hobbes and Locke can be dull, but I doubt even half the internet politics-screamers out there could tell you what problem democracy was designed to solve.

@14: Autocracy.

Fuck the Dutch!

USA all the way!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

@16: Take off that silly MAGA cap before your head caves in.

@15

That wasn't really considered a problem at the time. Not a terrible guess, though.

@6 in the original version, he was a Summer King, and was to be given to the bonfire after his only term, or in the event he lost a war.

Hmm, maybe those originalist Constitutionalists had something there.