misfitS pOLITICS

We talk. We write. We entertain. Or so we think.
  • Home
  • Misfit Migrants
  • Mess Hall
  • Meet The Misfits
  • Misc. Musings
  • Home
  • Misfit Migrants
  • Mess Hall
  • Meet The Misfits
  • Misc. Musings

Masculinity Matters

11/30/2017

0 Comments

 
Musket
The country is being rocked this year by scandal: sexual scandal. Sexual scandals perpetrated by progressive men against women. This space shall serve as your reminder that at the times Donald Trump and Roy Moore committed their alleged acts of misconduct, they were Democrats.
Picture
Indeed they do. The media and the political left, I repeat myself, will tell you that everyone has a sexual harassment problem. Perhaps, but so far the highlights have all been feminist, woke, progressive men. Why is that? Why are all these enlightened liberals the ones who are committing acts of unspeakable tyranny against women?

Despite the jokes over family dinners and get togethers amongst friends, men are actually fairly complicated creatures. And feminism has compounded those complications. Are we to be the rugged, masculine men from the Ronald Reagan era, or the Hallmark movie watching, sensitive men from the 1990s? Modern feminism wishes to strip us of both. Holding doors open is sexist. Flirting is assault. Landing one’s eyes upon an attractive woman for a tick too long is stare rape. Paying for the first date is all but inconceivable.

In no places are these standards for male behavior more enforced than in Hollywood and the media. Men are simply expected, in open forums, to conduct themselves as sexless, hormoneless, automatons in the media and in Hollywood. Therein lies the problem. In a world where men are not permitted to behave as men, but as the feminist construct of what a man must be, what do you have? Once stripped of the many positive traits that come with masculinity, what being remains?

A predator.

I am reminded of a scene from Terminator 3, where the Terminator, once an ally of the humans, was captured and reprogrammed by the female T-X to kill humans again. Basically, he had all of the positive things about him switched off, and he became a monster. Masculinity (as toxic as it may be!) is inherently protective, even nurturing of women. It is within our DNA to protect, charm, and seduce women, not to ridicule and subjugate them. Alas, those traits have been switched off by feminism, especially in the media and in Hollywood.

Sexual harassment, abuse, and assault, while all completely different things, all share one commonality; they are not about sex, but about power. What Harvey Weinstein did to so many women was not about sexual fulfillment from the act itself, the conquering of a powerless woman was the gratification. Basically the exact opposite of what any masculine male would have done. When women become men, and men become women, and anyone is whatever they “identify” as, you cannot expect there to be zero sociological consequences. A sort of butterfly into a hurricane, but with gender roles.

The answers to all of these acts, and there will be more, will come from passionate speeches from Hollywood actors and actresses, and from op-eds in the New York Times. The answers will come from progressive members of Congress, who have long held the claim that they are on the winning side in the War on Women. And they will all be wrong.

The answers lie within women’s and feminists’ expectations of men, and it lies within men to act as decent human beings. Stripping away the traits that make each sex desirable to the other is not the answer. After all, what remains of a woman once her femininity is pulled away?

A feminist.

Long live the Republic.
0 Comments

The CFPB Monster

11/28/2017

2 Comments

 
Mo
In 2010, as part of The Dodd-Frank Act, Congress created the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau: a powerful, so-called “independent agency” that was charged with enforcing 19 (I kid you not) federal consumer protection statutes that cover everything from home finance to student loans to credit cards to banking practices. The CFPB was given the power to pass rules and regulations, enforce consumer protection laws in federal court, enforce administrative actions before Administrative Law Judges, and issue subpoenas, among other things. The CFPB could also impose wide range of relief, including restitution, disgorgement, money damages, injunctions, and civil monetary penalties.

Typically, agencies fall under the direct control of the President and are part of the executive branch of the government. This means the President has the power to appoint (with Senate advice and consent) and fire, at will, the head of the agency for any or no reason at all. There are exceptions. The Supreme Court, in Humphrey’s Executor, held that the Constitution allows for wholly independent agencies disconnected from the executive branch with members who can only be removed for cause. While I think this is a terrible decision—we should not have a headless fourth branch of government, insulated from and unaccountable to the electorate—the rule of Humphrey’s Executor is fairly well-settled law. But, until the CFPB, these wholly independent agencies were run by multi-member commissions or boards.

The reason the multi-member commissions are acceptable is they, in theory, reflect a concern for safeguarding individual liberties by diffusing power among several commission members. This guards from concentrating too much power in any one insulated and unaccountable person.

Not the CFPB as originally structured, though. Instead, the CFPB was structured to concentrate all of the Bureau’s power in a single individual—the Director—who could only be fired for cause. In 2016, the D.C. Circuit held, in PHH Corp. v. CFPB, that this structure violates separation of powers, specifically the Article II power of the President to execute laws, and is therefore unconstitutional.

The court observed:
Other than the President, the Director of the CFPB is the single most powerful official in the entire United States Government, at least when measured in terms of unilateral power.
Also,
The CFPB’s concentration of enormous executive power in a single, unaccountable, unchecked Director not only departs from settled historical practice, but also poses a far greater risk of arbitrary decisionmaking and abuse of power, and a far greater threat to individual liberty, than does a multi-member agency.
Instead of striking down Dodd-Frank or the CFPB, however, the court determined that the “for cause” firing provision should be severed from the statute. This effectively made the CFPB a more typical executive agency, with the President retaining the power to supervise and direct the CFPB Director and remove him at will.

Fast forward to mid-November of this year, when the current CFPB Director, Richard Cordray, announced he would resign at the end of November. Cordray was an Obama appointee and the circumstances of his appointment were already clouded from the start by Obama’s attempt to invoke a recess appointment when Congress was not, in fact, in recess. Nevertheless, Cordray was ultimately appointed and remained as Director when Trump took office.

When he resigned this month, Cordray announced, along with his resignation, that he was appointing Leandra English as Deputy Director of CFPB. Cordray and English both contend that Cordray had the power to do this under Dodd-Frank, which allows the Director to appoint a Deputy to “serve as acting Director in the absence or unavailability of the Director.” 12 U.S.C. § 5491.

Notice what the statute does not say. It does not say “vacancy” nor does it refer to resignations. It refers to “absence or unavailability,” which a normal person would understand to mean “the Director is sick” or something similar. Upon Cordray’s announcement, Trump announced he would appoint Mick Mulvaney as acting Director, pursuant to the Vacancies Act, which normally governs Presidential interim appointments. So, both Mulvaney and English showed up to work this week, each claiming to be the lawful interim Director of CFPB.  

A reasonable human being would understand that Trump absolutely had the authority under the Vacancies Act to appoint an interim Director and would acquiesce. Not English. Instead, she filed a lawsuit, claiming she should be interim Director because Cordray is “absent or unavailable” under Dodd-Frank and that that provision, not the Vacancies Act, governs who gets to appoint an interim Director. In other words, under the scheme she and Cordray concocted, Cordray—an unelected, unaccountable bureaucrat—has the authority to appoint his own successor to exercise the tremendous powers of the CFPB.

English’s maneuver raises risks that she, and the Democrats defending her, do not seem to see. First, there is a serious constitutional question raised by the Dodd-Frank provision allowing the Director to appoint the Deputy Director, standing alone, which turns on fairly complicated case law about whether the Appointments Clause in Article II, Section 2 is violated by this arrangement. It’s entirely possible that the provision standing alone is unconstitutional. Not to mention that the purpose of the Appointments Clause, according to the Supreme Court, is to mitigate “the manipulation of official appointments” by strictly limiting the ways in which appointments can be made and the people allowed to make them. What Cordray and English did reeks of manipulation. Second, interpreting the Dodd-Frank provision even more broadly to cover not just absences but also vacancies would be a remarkable, and unprecedented, power grab. The D.C. Circuit has already ruled that the position of CFPB Director holds extraordinarily broad enforcement powers, and that the Director can be removed at will by the President because of that. Permitting the departing Director to name his successor would run right back into the “agency independence” issues the D.C. Circuit warned against.

It is highly unlikely that Cordray’s and English’s maneuver is constitutional. But, more importantly, if they’re right, they could put the entirety of Dodd-Frank or the CFPB at risk.

Here’s why: Remember that the D.C. Circuit determined that the “for cause” removal provision was severable from the remainder of Dodd-Frank, which effectively saved both the statute and the CFPB from being struck down. The question of whether a statutory provision is severable turns on Congressional intent. Specifically, under Supreme Court precedent, courts must decide whether Congress “would have preferred what is left of the statute or no statute at all” and whether the statute is capable of functioning without the unconstitutional provisions “in a manner consistent with the intent of Congress.”

What we have heard from English defenders this week is that the CFPB was deliberately structured to be an independent agency, insulated from Presidential power. Indeed, Barney Frank, who co-authored Dodd-Frank, insisted just this week that, “When we wrote the law creating the CFPB,… we deliberately tried to give it some protection from the normal political process.” He went further: “In this case because we knew that fighting the large financial interests on behalf of consumers was going to put you in the battlefield everyday, so we did do deliberately special protections. We gave the director of this agency a five-year term, removable by the president only for cause.”

In other words, Frank admits that Congress intended for the CFPB to operate as a completely independent agency, insulated from the political process, and that protecting the Director from firing at will was the manner in which Congress intended to achieve that independence. You want evidence of Congressional intent as to the importance to the statute of how the Director is appointed? Barney Frank is here to help. Frank’s admission should be front and center in the argument that the appointment provision of Dodd-Frank cannot be severed and that the statute should be struck down.

It’s hard to imagine what English and her defenders are thinking they’ll accomplish here. At best, she might get a few weeks as interim Director before Trump appoints a permanent Director and, in the meantime, she’s playing a dangerous game with the constitutionality of Dodd-Frank and the CFPB—which is already structurally dubious. Is it wrong that I’m rooting for her on the off-chance Dodd-Frank is struck?  

2 Comments

Misfit Memo: Turkey Day 2017

11/22/2017

0 Comments

 
Welcome to a special edition of the #MisfitMemo! There's been a little hiatus due to the busy season, but we wanted to check in for Thanksgiving! We normally have topical sections, but because there has been so much going on, we're mostly going to throw them all together to give you a smorgasbord this time around. Much like most Thanksgiving dinners. Don't forget to read our recent blog posts through the links provided at the end and make sure you follow The Misfittiest Tweep of the Week!

Masculinity isn’t faux machismo based on sexual conquests or brute strength. It isn’t hurting or belittling the women in your life.

It’s acknowledging the responsibility to protect, provide for, and cherish your family, and taking pride in doing so. #InternationalMensDay

— Kayla Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt (@VixenRogue) November 20, 2017

If you put bourbon in your morning coffee, it isn't considered day drinking. #RexsRules #InternationalMensDay

— Rex Frampton, Lunatic (@BoonaticRex) November 19, 2017

I wonder how many pictures of Biden inappropriately touching people are being used in SHARP Power Point Presentations? @KurtSchlichter

— Gringo Suave □□ (@2009superglide) November 15, 2017

The cries for Franken or Trump or Moore to step down are an admission that voters are unwilling to hold them accountable.

— Alex F. Baldwin (@VerumVulnero1) November 20, 2017

"And I was like 'so your chosen government representatives used your money to carry on affairs and pay off people they assaulted and you're here talking to me instead of marching them in chains to the gallows?' Anyway, that's how that started." pic.twitter.com/6nwn8Vd0Lf

— CDP □⚾□ (@cdpayne79) November 21, 2017

What Al Franken did was wrong, but let's not not forget that Mike Pence eats dinner with his wife.

— Dan (@danieltobin) November 18, 2017

pic.twitter.com/MoGRdKD1X1

— Federalist Musket (@Patriot_Musket) November 14, 2017

Clearly the solution to hero worship in politics is to raise up other heroes to worship.

— Dan (@danieltobin) November 16, 2017

We are being taxed for elected officials in D.C. to pay off their sex crime victims. Think about that and ask yourself: Are we even interested in getting better?

— Rex Frampton, Lunatic (@BoonaticRex) November 17, 2017

Another reminder: Monica Lewinsky paid a much steeper personal price for this than Bill Clinton did. He was a spectacularly wealthy, lauded statesman within five years. Her life was, for all intents and purposes, permanently ruined. https://t.co/0TnJZEuknn

— Alex F. Baldwin (@VerumVulnero1) November 15, 2017

I lost my blue check mark. It's probably in the same place my car keys and favorite pocket knife are. What a drag it is, getting old.

— Rex Frampton, Lunatic (@BoonaticRex) November 17, 2017

I'm pretty sure there is no coherent theory of human rights that is based on how many people retweet you. https://t.co/ia7m7isoYG

— Trypt-Mo-Fan (@molratty) November 15, 2017

Government fearing its citizenry is a feature, not a bug. https://t.co/J85HtiUYHj

— Federalist Musket (@Patriot_Musket) November 20, 2017

If you thought the chainsaw bayonet incident would motivate anti-gun activists to do a modicum of research before tweeting, if only to thwart embarrassment, you thought wrong. https://t.co/JeVp12xz9D

— Kayla Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt (@VixenRogue) November 21, 2017

You know that was a TV show, right? You never really lived there... https://t.co/ZfB5SVofcZ

— Alex F. Baldwin (@VerumVulnero1) November 9, 2017

This sounds like an argument for the second amendment. https://t.co/5ozLipSTk1

— Dan (@danieltobin) November 14, 2017

Lois Lerner insisted she did nothing wrong (right before she illegally invoked her no longer valid #5A rights). What could she possibly fear?

— Rex Frampton, Lunatic (@BoonaticRex) November 20, 2017

Of course you are willing when it isn’t your payment to make. https://t.co/ESX90KjW8X

— J.R. Holmsted (@JHolmsted) November 21, 2017

Nobody has asked the Cleveland Browns how to run a football team either. https://t.co/B2kIFEjnyn

— Marc Logic (@marcannem96) November 22, 2017

Planned Parenthood alone demolishes your premise. https://t.co/EjdPij8FVY

— Dan (@danieltobin) November 19, 2017

I like how we're now fighting over which assaulter politician is worse like it's some sort of competition in which the less worse one gets to stay. Grabass Thunderdome.

— Trypt-Mo-Fan (@molratty) November 23, 2017

Now we will move on to Thanksgiving themed tweets. From all those dreadful "How to Talk to Your Icky Republican Relatives" articles to silly memes, we have a little bit of everything!

How to Talk to Your Family About Planned Parenthood This #Thanksgiving https://t.co/SPmJHlGxiW pic.twitter.com/qQNryn15Mv

— Planned Parenthood (@ppmn) November 23, 2016

Planned Parenthood was founded by someone who wanted to eliminate black people.

Pass the gravy. https://t.co/RZbNP6Yn2s

— Federalist Musket (@Patriot_Musket) November 23, 2016

Bring this chart to Thanksgiving dinner. It’ll come in handy when that family member who always talks politics tells you the Republican tax bill helps the middle class. pic.twitter.com/2EpZ5PxcDY

— Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) November 19, 2017

If you show up at my house with this chart, you'll be eating outside in the swingset fort with the fat raccoon that lives in my tree. https://t.co/XCq0hjasuF

— Trypt-Mo-Fan (@molratty) November 21, 2017

Thanksgiving countdown has begun pic.twitter.com/jaBkYVR7Qt

— Marc Logic (@marcannem96) November 18, 2017

My mom just sent me this and I love her so much. □ pic.twitter.com/CMiCTubIqQ

— J.R. Holmsted (@JHolmsted) November 18, 2017

Throw it in the garbage and have steak.

— Federalist Musket (@Patriot_Musket) November 22, 2017

I just flung turkey juice into my coffee.

— Trypt-Mo-Fan (@molratty) November 22, 2017
Picture

​MISFITTIEST TWEEP OF THE WEEK
We enjoy so many of the people that we follow and we wanted to do something to honor one or two or five --we don't have any rules here-- of them each week.
​
It is our pleasure to introduce Ingenious Firebrand as Misfittiest Tweep of the Week! Go ahead and follow on Twitter so you never miss out!

Those towns that just elect a dog mayor are looking pretty smart right now tbh

— Ingenious Firebrand (@INGFirebrand) November 17, 2017

Don't forget to check out our latest posts!
  • ​What 401K Limits Say About Priorities - Alex
  • Reflections on an Abbreviated Life - Rex
  • Ask Alex - November 17, 2017
  • It's Moore Than Enough Already - CDP
  • Timeline of an American Tragedy - Musket
  • The Long Road to Now - Chris Tewell
  • Our Ancestors Came to America Because Mexico Sucks - Cal
  • Ask Alex - November 10, 2017

Editor’s Note:
Happiest of Thanksgivings from the Misfit family to yours! I want to take this time to say that we are truly thankful for the opportunity to be able to have this little piece of the Internet with Misfits. We are immensely grateful to our readers and followers for putting up with our shenanigans. We are continuously overwhelmed and encouraged by the response we receive. I can safely say that we have each enjoyed the endless laughs, learned a great deal, and forged lasting friendships through this project. Thank you all for being a huge part of that! Have a safe holiday weekend!
- J. R.

It would be nice if while they're at it Senators could stop assaulting our liberties, too.

— CDP □⚾□ (@cdpayne79) November 17, 2017

​If you're not following all of us, what is wrong with you? Go to Meet The Misfits and fix that, pronto. Also follow us @MisfitsPolitics to join the #MisfitGifChallenge on Wednesday nights & #MisfitMischief fun every Friday night! As always, keep checking back here for our latest writing endeavors!
0 Comments
<<Previous

    Misfits

    Just a gaggle of people from all over who have similar interests and loud opinions mixed with a dose of humor. We met on Twitter.
    ​Enough said.

    (If that's not enough, you can learn more here)

    Tweets by misfitspolitics

    Archives

    December 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    January 2021
    September 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016

    Categories

    All
    2016
    9/11
    Abortion
    AFB
    Afghanistan
    Air Force
    #alfieevans
    Alfie Evans
    ALS
    Armed Forces
    Army
    Baby
    Ben Carson
    Bernie
    Blog
    Bosnia
    CAOC
    #CelebrateWomen
    Christie
    City Council
    Comey
    Cooking
    Crete
    Cruz
    Deep Fry
    Desert Storm
    Donald Trump
    Drug Companies
    Election
    England
    Europe
    Exclusivity
    F-16
    Fanfic
    Fayetteville
    FBI
    FDA
    Fiction
    Fire
    Florida
    Free Market
    Fun
    Germany
    Gilmore
    Government
    Health Care
    Hillary Clinton
    Hobby
    Iraq
    Italy
    John Kasich
    Kevin Williamson
    Korea
    Kuwait
    LANTIRN
    Life
    Local Politics
    Marco Rubio
    Medical Care
    Memoir
    Military
    MIsfitMemo
    #MisfitMemo
    Misfits
    Misfits Politics
    Moms
    Mother's Day
    Narrative
    National Review
    NATO
    Navy
    #NeverTrump
    Patent
    Pharmaceutical
    Philippines
    Phillippines
    Politics
    Raymond
    Reform
    Rex
    Rubio
    Scarcity
    September 11th
    Service
    Ted Cruz
    Thread
    Tweetstorm
    Twitter
    UK
    Water
    Weekly Rewind
    World Cup
    World Trade Center

    RSS Feed

Home

About

Contact​

Copyright © 2016
  MisfitsPolitics
  • Home
  • Misfit Migrants
  • Mess Hall
  • Meet The Misfits
  • Misc. Musings
  • Home
  • Misfit Migrants
  • Mess Hall
  • Meet The Misfits
  • Misc. Musings