“A top Justice Department lawyer,” the Washington Post reports, “has told lawmakers that the Trump administration can continue its lethal strikes against alleged drug traffickers in Latin America — and is not bound by a decades-old law requiring Congress to give approval for ongoing hostilities.”

That law is the War Powers Resolution, which requires the president to inform Congress within 48 hours of commencing military hostilities, and to cease those operations within 60 days unless Congress authorizes their continuation.

The first admitted US military strike on a boat in the Caribbean occurred on September 4; under the War Powers Resolution those strikes (which have killed dozens) would necessarily end on November 4 unless Congress says “sure, keep on going.”

But it’s more complicated than that, and not just because White House Office of Legal Counsel chief T. Elliot Gaiser claims the War Powers Resolution only applies when US troops are “in harm’s way,” and that the drone strikes  in question pose no such danger.

The big issue with the War Powers Resolution is that it’s unconstitutional. Not for the reason most administrations claim — that it limits an imagined presidential power to wage war at will and on whim — but in the other direction.

The US Constitution assigns the power to declare war exclusively to Congress. Not after the president has done whatever he wants for 60 days, but from the very beginning. Aside from immediate defense against direct attack, a president waging war prior to or outside of a congressional declaration is an impeachable “high crime.”

Some argue that the passage of time and advancement of technology imply a necessary expansion of presidential war powers: He must be able to act in the moment and not wait around on a dawdling Congress. It’s actually the other way around.

In 1941, it took 29 hours and 30 minutes from the first explosions at Pearl Harbor for Congress to declare war on Japan. That was before members of Congress could hop on planes to return to Washington — or, for that matter, boot up their laptops for Zoom meetings.

Since Congress has used remote and proxy technology before (during COVID), the infrastructure is already there for Congress to act quickly if its members believe a war is called for. Absent something on the level of a nuclear holocaust, the president could receive full war authority within single-digit hours.

But let’s take Gaiser at his word for a moment: If the drone strike campaign in the Caribbean isn’t war, what is it?

It’s not law enforcement. In law enforcement, there are investigations, charges filed, judicial warrants issued, and attempts at arrest. These drone strikes include none of those elements except, supposedly, investigations. They also take place entirely outside the legal jurisdiction of the United States.

Not war. Not law enforcement. What, then?

Murder. Murder most foul. Murder plain and simple.

Instead of whining at the administration to explain itself pursuant to legislation which illicitly assigns congressional war powers to the president in violation of the Constitution, Congress should impeach,  remove, and forward criminal referrals to the Department of Justice concerning, the president, the secretary of defense, and military commanders who issued unlawful orders to commit dozens of murders as a distraction from the president’s domestic failures and political problems.

And then Congress should address one of those distractions by releasing the Epstein files.

Thomas L. Knapp (X: @thomaslknapp | Bluesky: @knappster.bsky.social | Mastodon: @knappster) is director and senior news analyst at the William Lloyd Garrison Center for Libertarian Advocacy Journalism (thegarrisoncenter.org). He lives and works in north central Florida.

PUBLICATION/CITATION HISTORY

On October 23, US president Donald Trump exercised his constitutional clemency powers to pardon Changpeng Zhao, co-founder and former CEO of cryptocurrency exchange Binance.

As the usual suspects howl as if Zhao was some kind of hardened criminal, and hint darkly at the possibility of a corrupt motive on Trump’s part (I’m not discounting that possibility), it’s worth noting that the “crime” Zhao pled guilty to and served four months in prison for wasn’t a crime by any sane definition of the word.

Zhao’s “crime,” according to the US Department of Justice, was “violating the [Bank Secrecy Act] by causing Binance to violate the BSA by causing Binance to fail to implement an effective anti-money laundering program.”

In English, that means Zhao didn’t display sufficient enthusiasm in spying on Binance’s customers for the US government.

Yes, really. Binance served its customers instead of surveilling those customers on behalf of the DC ruling class. In a free society, that would be called “ethical human behavior,” not “crime.”

Zhao, a Canadian national, no longer a “convicted felon” in the United States, should henceforth face fewer travel restrictions and possibly a recovered ability to serve on the boards of companies in certain government-regulated industries.

Hooray! Hooray!  Along with the pardon of Ross Ulbricht, sentenced to two life terms plus 40 years for the “crime” of operating a website, that’s two cheers for Trump in my book.

I can think of at least two candidates for the third cheer, and hope Trump will deliver.

The first candidate is Ian Freeman, a libertarian activist from New Hampshire who’s serving an eight-year sentence for the “crime” of selling Bitcoin without a license. No such license was legally required, or even existed, but the government ignores technicalities like that  when they’re after someone.

Freeman doesn’t belong in prison. The prosecutor knew that when she brought the charges, and the judge knew that when he imposed the sentence — just as Trump will know it if the matter comes to his attention.

Then there’s Roger Ver, aka “Bitcoin Jesus.” In 2014, he renounced his US citizenship and moved abroad, paying the usual bribes (“exit taxes”). Last year, the US government decided it wanted more money and had him arrested in and extradited from Spain.

Ver entered into a “deferred prosecution agreement” earlier this month, under which he’ll fork over another $50 million in bribes … unless Trump pardons him before that agreement goes into effect.

What we really need is a constitutional amendment forbidding the US government to regulate cryptocurrency in any way, shape, manner, or form. But until we get that, Trump should pardon, commute the sentences of, and direct the DOJ to refrain from persecuting, the people changing money for the better.

Thomas L. Knapp (X: @thomaslknapp | Bluesky: @knappster.bsky.social | Mastodon: @knappster) is director and senior news analyst at the William Lloyd Garrison Center for Libertarian Advocacy Journalism (thegarrisoncenter.org). He lives and works in north central Florida.

PUBLICATION/CITATION HISTORY

“TARIFFS ARE VERY IMPORTANT TO THE NATIONAL SECURITY, AND ECONOMY, OF THE U.S.A.,” US president Donald Trump whined in an October 23 Truth Social post (all-caps treatment, of course, his). “Based on their egregious behavior, ALL TRADE NEGOTIATIONS WITH CANADA ARE HEREBY TERMINATED.”

The egregious behavior in question? Telling the truth about tariffs in a $75 million ad campaign. Or, rather, having the late US president Ronald Reagan do so, in his own words:

“Over the long run, such trade barriers hurt every American worker and consumer …. markets shrink and collapse, businesses and industries shut down, and millions of people lose their jobs.”

Letting Ronald Reagan talk to Americans about tariffs, Trump  raged the next day, constitutes “trying to illegally influence the United States Supreme Court” on the non-question of whether Trump enjoys personal legal authority to impose massive tax hikes on American consumers whenever the urge strikes.

Spoiler alert: He enjoys no such authority (the Constitution assigns taxing authority to Congress, not the president).

Nor is it illegal for Canadian politicians, Ronald Reagan, or anyone else to let Americans know that, in addition to themselves being illegal, his tariff policies are stupid, evil, and economically ruinous.

The US government’s tariff revenues jumped to a record $29.6 billion in July, and may end up hitting $350 billion per year.

Trump would like you to believe that those revenues are magic free money, paid by unspecified philanthropists from other countries and somehow accruing to your benefit when the US Treasury collects them.

In fact, tariffs come out of YOUR pocket in the form of higher prices if you can get the goods you want, less consumer choice because you often can’t, and fewer opportunities for you or your employer to sell in foreign markets as other governments “retaliate” with tariffs, or even embargoes, of their own.

Estimates vary — in large part because Trump’s tariffs rates seem to change by the minute on the basis of his whims and tantrums — but over the last few months he’s hiked your household’s annual tax bill by at least $2,500, and probably closer to $5,000.

That’s a lot of money to spend humoring one guy’s “throw myself on the floor and hold my breath ’til I turn blue” approach to trade/tax policy.

Ontario premier Doug Ford, the politician behind the ad campaign, says he’ll end it after Major League Baseball’s World Series.

But now you know the truth. Don’t forget it.

Thomas L. Knapp (X: @thomaslknapp | Bluesky: @knappster.bsky.social | Mastodon: @knappster) is director and senior news analyst at the William Lloyd Garrison Center for Libertarian Advocacy Journalism (thegarrisoncenter.org). He lives and works in north central Florida.

PUBLICATION/CITATION HISTORY