https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/news/releases/attorney-general-ken-paxton-wins-case-challenging-17-trillion-federal-funding-bill-passed

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton secured a major victory in defense of the United States Constitution, with a court ruling that the $1.7 trillion omnibus spending package was unlawfully passed by the U.S. House of Representatives in 2022 without a quorum physically present as constitutionally required. The Court enjoined the defendants—the United States Attorney General, the United States Department of Justice, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and their officials—from enforcing a provision of the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023 against the State of Texas that was proved to impose unjust cost burdens on the State.

The Quorum Clause of the U.S. Constitution mandates that the chambers of Congress must have a majority of members physically present to constitute a quorum before most official business may be conducted. However, in December 2022, fewer than half of the House of Representatives were physically present when they passed the $1.7 trillion Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023, with those not present voting by proxy. When President Joe Biden signed the illegally passed law, Attorney General Paxton sued and sought an injunction against the implementation of certain provisions of the law affecting the State of Texas.

“Congress acted egregiously by passing the largest spending bill in U.S. history with fewer than half the members of the House bothering to do their jobs, show up, and vote in person,” said Attorney General Paxton. “Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi abused proxy voting under the pretext of COVID-19 to pass this law, then Biden signed it, knowing they violated the Constitution. This was a stunning violation of the rule of law. I am relieved the Court upheld the Constitution.”

The Texas Public Policy Foundation served as co-counsel. “This meticulous, 120-page opinion was written after a full trial on the merits,” said TPPF senior attorney Matt Miller. “The Court correctly concluded that the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023 violated the Quorum Clause of the U.S. Constitution because a majority of House members was not physically present when the $1.7 trillion spending bill was passed. Proxy voting is unconstitutional.”

RICHARD D. LAMM, 2005

If you believe that America is too smug, too self-satisfied, too rich, then let's destroy America. It is not that hard to do. No nation in history has survived the ravages of time. Arnold Toynbee observed that all great civilizations rise and fall and that 'An autopsy of history would show that all great nations commit suicide.'"

"Here is how they do it," Lamm said: First to destroy America, "Turn America into a bilingual or multi-lingual and bicultural country. History shows that no nation can survive the tension, conflict, and antagonism of two or more competing languages and cultures. It is a blessing for an individual to be bilingual; however, it is a curse for a society to be bilingual. The historical scholar Seymour Lipset put it this way: 'The histories of bilingual and bi-cultural societies that do not assimilate are histories of turmoil, tension, and tragedy. Canada, Belgium, Malaysia, Lebanon all face crises of national existence in which minorities press for autonomy, if not independence. Pakistan and Cyprus have divided. Nigeria suppressed an ethnic rebellion. France faces difficulties with Basques, Bretons, and Corsicans."

Lamm went on: Second, to destroy America, "Invent 'multiculturalism' and encourage immigrants to maintain their culture. I would make it an article of belief that all cultures are equal. That there are no cultural differences. I would make it an article of faith that the Black and Hispanic dropout rates are due to prejudice and discrimination by the majority. Every other explanation is out of bounds.

Third, "We could make the United States a 'Hispanic Quebec' without much effort. The key is to celebrate diversity rather than unity. As Benjamin Schwarz said in the Atlantic Monthly recently: 'The apparent success of our own multiethnic and multicultural experiment might have been achieved! Not by tolerance but by hegemony. Without the dominance that once dictated ethnocentrically and what it meant to be an American, we are left with only tolerance and pluralism to hold us together.'"

Lamm said, "I would encourage all immigrants to keep their own language and culture. I would replace the melting pot metaphor with the salad bowl metaphor. It is important to ensure that we have various cultural subgroups living in America reinforcing their differences rather than as Americans, emphasizing their similarities."

"Fourth, I would make our fastest growing demographic group the least educated. I would add a second underclass, unassimilated, undereducated, and antagonistic to our population. I would have this second underclass have a 50% dropout rate from high school."

"My fifth point for destroying America would be to get big foundations and business to give these efforts lots of money. I would invest in ethnic identity, and I would establish the cult of 'Victimology.' I would get all minorities to think their lack of success was the fault of the majority. I would start a grievance industry blaming all minority failure on the majority population."

"My sixth plan for America's downfall would include dual citizenship and promote divided loyalties. I would celebrate diversity over unity. I would stress differences rather than similarities. Diverse people worldwide are mostly engaged in hating each other - that is, when they are not killing each other. A diverse, peaceful, or stable society is against most historical precedent. People undervalue the unity! Unity is what it takes to keep a nation together. Look at the ancient Greeks. The Greeks believed that they belonged to the same race; they possessed a common language and literature; and they worshiped the same gods. All Greece took part in the Olympic Games.

A common enemy Persia threatened their liberty. Yet all these bonds were not strong enough to over come two factors: local patriotism and geographical conditions that nurtured political divisions. Greece fell.

"E. Pluribus Unum" — From many, one. In that historical reality, if we put the emphasis on the 'pluribus' instead of the 'Unum,' we can balkanize America as surely as Kosovo."

"Next to last, I would place all subjects off limits ~ make it taboo to talk about anything against the cult of 'diversity.' I would find a word similar to 'heretic' in the 16th century - that stopped discussion and paralyzed thinking. Words like 'racist' or 'x! xenophobes' halt discussion and debate."

"Having made America a bilingual/bicultural country, having established multi-culturism, having the large foundations fund the doctrine of 'Victimology,' I would next make it impossible to enforce our immigration laws. I would develop a mantra: That because immigration has been good for America, it must always be good. I would make every individual immigrant symmetric and ignore the cumulative impact of millions of them."

Look, when you hire someone as the CEO, do you want a guy that will just give nice talks, make promises, then work behind the scenes to steal from the company and put it in further debt?

  Or do you hire a guy that talks a tough line, vows to take action against those stealing from the company, and vows to work diligently to make the company stronger and make the company number 1?

  We're electing a president, not appointing a Pope.   I want a guy that can do the job.

  They have taken the pages right out of the totalitarian playbook.

  Add to it the judgement way exceeds the threshold of any damages (there are none) and the DA and Judge both know there is a likely event that this will be tossed on appeal.

  So set the number extremely high, deny Trump the time to prepare an appeal, oh, and now since he and his sons are barred from doing business in NY, they can't even approach financial institutions to assist in setting up a bond.

  Let's drill down a bit further.  Think this ends with Trump?  Hardly.   NY needs homes for all their new found residents (illegals).  This sets a precedent for the government to use lawfare to begin ceasing private property for all sorts of things they consider "illegal".

   NY state has crossed over into full communism, and they are proud of it.  Look for other blue shitholes to follow suit.

Why people still live in the blue shithole states and cities is beyond me. 

  I'm sick and tired of this.

  First of all, it's not immigration.  Immigration is the process of legally entering a country that may lead to citizenship.   What we are dealing with on our border is an invasion.  These are criminals that are evading our immigration laws.

  Then we hear our government "we need to create laws to deal with immigration".   Bullshit.

  We already have a comprehensive set of laws that deal with immigration, and they work.   We also have laws already to deal with people who enter our country illegally.   No new laws needed.

  What we need is a government that will carry out our laws.  The Executive and Legislative are responsible for this mess.  And they keep gas lighting the public about the need for more laws (read= more appropriations)

  These invaders are here and we can't remove them.  Even if the next president decides to start removing them, congress will intervene and stop it.

  Another week has passed and congress has done absolutely nothing to stop the invasion.