GUEST: A palace coup has been executed by the U.S. Republican party and the U.S. Supreme Court .

A palace coup has been executed by the U.S. Republican party and the U.S. Supreme Court .

The deed is done .

Consequences will last decades.

By: Amilkar Velez-Lopez, BA, MSW, JD, LREA

The writer is a former judge of the Newark municipal court.

On June , 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court essentially struck down the heart of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 by a 5-to-4 vote, which permitted nine states, mostly in the South, to change their election laws without advance federal approval. The net result is that over 20 states have now set up new laws to restrict minority voting since the 2010 midterm election. Since 2010 six states have strict photo ID requirements, seven have laws making it harder for citizens to register, six cut back on early voting days and hours, and three made it harder to restore voting rights for people with past criminal convictions and closed or the changed thousands of voting locations, shifts that used to require federal approval. (1).

Indeed the deed is done now. The regrets for those that voted for Trump will come sooner than expected. In a few years the doers will be undone. A self-destruct mechanism has been set in place, which will lead to the destruction of this country as we know it. What emerges , if we manage to survive, will be unrecognizable. In reality, the world is in danger. “To quote James Hansen, I fear this may be game over for the climate,” said Dr. Michael E. Mann, a professor of atmospheric science at Pennsylvania State University, (2) , not to mention the possibility of more and bigger wars.

Trump will directly affect the deportation of millions of undocumented persons ( including their American-citizen children), the destruction of the agriculture element of the economy, the destruction of medicare, Medicaid, social security, and of medical insurance for over 20 million people (Obamacare).

Even though the Democrats failed to address lack of jobs, anxieties and other minority issues, the fact remains that the U.S. Supreme Court gave Trump his victory. The Chief of the U.S. Supreme Court, John Roberts, has had as his mission for over 30 years to eviscerate the Voting Rights Act. (3).

The US Supreme Court has, in fact, implemented the systematic denial of the right to vote by minorities. They have permitted many states to discriminate. Such states as Wisconsin, have systematically DENIED ID with photos to voters. Many states got rid of Sunday voting and in those states Clinton lost by small margins. These were states where they had early voting and on Sundays and where the Black and Latino churches would take the ” souls to the polls” and since they voted mostly for Democrats , the Republicans eliminated that option.

Incredibly , Trump will appoint one member of the U.S. Supreme Court immediately and may appoint up to 4 altogether ( 2 are over 80 years old , one is 78) . They serve an average of 26 years and thus the Trump effect will be felt for the next 30 or more years. You can forget about appealing to the U.S. Supreme Court when the Trump court becomes reality.

Voting suppression was evident throughout the U.S. However, sadly, the Obama administration FAILED to attack these efforts effectively. The truth is that she lost by 27,000 votes in each of those states with suppression efforts. Wisconsin turnout plummeted to its lowest point in 20 years in the first election where voters were required to present an ID to vote. Trump won the typically presidential blue state by just over 27,000 votes. Wisconsin’s elections chief told The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel he believed voter ID depressed turnout in high poverty wards, as the City of Milwaukee saw 41,000 fewer vote (4). Meanwhile over 300,000 person had been illegally denied the photo id required to vote in Wisconsin (5). Studies and some court rulings have said that ID laws have disproportionately impacted racial minorities, a group that tends to vote Democratic.

The reality is that A November 2016 report by the Leadership Conference Education Fund found that voters had “at least 868 fewer places to cast ballots in the 2016 presidential election than they did in past elections, a 16 percent reduction,” a finding it attributed to widespread polling place closings since the Supreme Court decision. Many of those were in Arizona, a battleground state that Clinton lost but turned so competitive the AP did’t call it until November 10 (4).

Nearly half of counties that previously approved voting changes with the federal government HAVE CUT polling places this election (7). This was very evident in North Carolina where in one black majority county that in 2012 had 15 voting site this time had 1. Voter turnout dropped by 20 percent in the counties of North Carolina that had multiple polling sites during the first week of early voting in 2012 but just one site during the first week in 2016. In Arizona they had 112 less voting sites and in Texas, they had 403 less voting sites.

” This is part of a broader movement to curtail voting rights, which began after the 2010 election, when state lawmakers nationwide started introducing hundreds of harsh measures making it harder to vote.

Overall, 20 states have new restrictions in effect since the 2010 midterm election. Since 2010, a total of 10 states have more restrictive voter ID laws in place (and six states have strict photo ID requirements) seven have laws making it harder for citizens to register, six cut back on early voting days and hours, and three made it harder to restore voting rights for people with past criminal convictions “(1).

The media totally missed this and failed to address it. So did Hillary , the Democrats and the pollsters.

The key for the Trump victory was simply passing ID laws and then REFUSING TO ISSUE the Ids required.

For the life of me, I can NOT UNDERSTAND, how a person can be declared the President of the USA, when as of 5 days later , there are still 7 million votes to count.

That is sheer insanity. In California alone 4 million votes remain UNCOUNTED ( 6). So can someone have more votes than the opponent, yet loose ?

The answer is that the Electoral College was set up to help states with many slave owners. Racism have birth to it and racism elected Trump in 2016. In fact you , Randall other U.S. citizens do NOT elect the President or Vice-President—it is the 538 persons appointed to the Electoral College , that elect them. Actually, they can even choose Hillary on December 19, 2016, when they meet. They can choose ANYONE.

” In 2016, 14 states will have new voting restrictions in place for the first time in a presidential election. The new laws range from strict photo ID requirements to early voting cutbacks to registration restrictions.

Those 14 states are: Alabama, Arizona, Indiana, Kansas, Mississippi, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Ohio, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and Wisconsin.

This is part of a broader movement to curtail voting rights, which began after the 2010 election, when state lawmakers nationwide started introducing hundreds of harsh measures making it harder to vote.

In my opinion, ladies and gentlemen the , U.S. Supreme Court has , and will be, conducting a palace coup . In essence this country will be controlled by 9 non-elected individuals , of whom 5 , will immediately be ultraconservative and up to 7 will soon control it TOTALLY and this country will be become a fascist country.

How can you tell a young girl or boy, or anyone who cares, that Hillary Clinton is on course to receive more votes than any other US presidential candidate in history except Barack Obama ( 10 ) has lost the election to puss_ grabbing sexual assaulter Donald Trump? To arrogant, lying, bombastic, egomaniac, blowhard, pompous, Latino-bashing, anti-Muslim, buffoon, narcissist , hateful and hate-inspiring, KKK idol, anti-black, homophobic, DONALD TRUMP. Yes that one. Now some people wants us to accept him as our next savior. Absurd!

YET , Do not give up !There are various ways to fight back.

As someone has said, I truly do fear for this country’s future. It is very it hard to accept that the citizens in such large numbers embraced a man so threatening to our standing in the world and so cavalier about our basic rights. But we cannot allow fear or anger to drive us from the field.

If ever our nation needed a determined, thoughtful and creative opposition, it is now.

Michale Moore has detailed 5 ways to fight back:

Take over the Democratic party and return it to the people. They have failed us miserably.
Fire all pundits, predictors, pollsters and anyone else in the media who had a narrative they wouldn’t let go of and refused to listen to or acknowledge what was really going on.
Democratic politicians should “step out of the way”, unless they are willing to “fight, resist and obstruct in the way Republicans did against President Obama every day for eight full years”.
People must stop saying they are “stunned” and “shocked”. Moore said : “What you mean to say is that you were in a bubble and weren’t paying attention to your fellow Americans and their despair.”
You must say this sentence to everyone you meet : “HILLARY CLINTON WON THE POPULAR VOTE!” The MAJORITY of our fellow Americans preferred Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump. Period. Fact, ( 9 ).

Perhaps Senator Elizabeth Warren best expressed what must happen now to te Democratic Party and to many millions of us: ” “There are things we’re going to end up losing, because we don’t have the White House, we don’t have the Senate, we don’t have the House of Representatives,” she said. “But on those core issues about treating every single human being in this country with dignity, on that we stand up and we fight back.

We do not back down. We do not compromise, not today, not tomorrow, not ever.” ( 11 ).

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