Two Years Later
 I wrote thie essay on the Iran Deal around September 2015. It has been circulated around the Internet and other media. I hope you take the time to read it. It is a bit lengthy

My hope in writing it is to show how duplicitous the Congress is and how easily voters, especially the numbed down tea party are easily led. You must conjure yourself back to the time that it was written, for a better understanding. Many GOP supporters have such a short memory. I trust that is not the case with you.

In any event, the Iran Deal is getting a lot of attention these days, so if any are wondering just how it came into being, how the GOP paved a fail safe path through congress for the infamous Iran "Deal" then please read on

The Iran "Deal” is in effect today. Boeing just agreed to sell to Iran 100 jets. The Iran “deal” was not just about nuclear bombs.

The Iran “Deal” makes shareholders happy everywhere.

You must conjure your mind back to September 2015, nearly two years ago, to appreciate the political climate when it was written. It explains how the Iran Deal came into existence.

Please feel free to comment or discuss.

September 2015

Do the Joneses and their row house neighbors understand what is about to happen in the next few weeks? In between working for a living, sitting in traffic, listening to the latest updates on deflategate and Caitlin Jenner, not to mention the ever growing count of vestal virgins coming forward to claim an unwanted liaison with Bill Cosby, is anybody really paying attention?

I know, I know, everybody is busy. Lots to keep up with and there’s mouths to feed and bills to pay and important stuff like NFL Football and NASCAR.

Let me tell you, this is a good time to pay attention if you haven’t been already.

First things first.

As Howard Beale in the 1976 movie, Network, tells us:

“I don't have to tell you things are bad. Everybody knows things are bad. It's a depression. Everybody's out of work or scared of losing their job. The dollar buys a nickel's worth, banks are going bust, and shopkeepers keep a gun under the counter. Punks are running wild in the street and there's nobody anywhere who seems to know what to do, and there's no end to it. We know the air is unfit to breathe and our food is unfit to eat, and we sit watching our TV's while some local newscaster tells us that today we had fifteen homicides and sixty-three violent crimes, as if that's the way it's supposed to be. We know things are bad - worse than bad. They're crazy. It's like everything everywhere is going crazy, so we don't go out anymore. We sit in the house, and slowly the world we are living in is getting smaller, and all we say is, 'Please, at least leave us alone in our living rooms. Let me have my toaster and my TV and my steel-belted radials and I won't say anything. Just leave us alone.' Well, I'm not gonna leave you alone. I want you to get mad! I don't want you to protest. I don't want you to riot - I don't want you to write to your congressman because I wouldn't know what to tell you to write. I don't know what to do about the depression and the inflation and the Russians and the crime in the street. All I know is that first you've got to get mad. You've got to say, 'I'm a HUMAN BEING, God damn it! My life has VALUE!' So I want you to get up now. I want all of you to get up out of your chairs. I want you to get up right now and go to the window. Open it, and stick your head out, and yell, 'I'M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I'M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!”

Now that that is out of the way, let me tell you what is going to happen in the US Congress in the next few weeks.

A resolution will be introduced in the House and then the Senate for the Congressmen and Senators to vote on declaring their disapproval for the Iran Nuclear Agreement.

“Agreement”? I thought it was a Treaty between several nations. Why are you calling this Treaty an “Agreement”?

More on that later.Now here’s the good part, the Congressmen and Senators will make great speeches condemning the Agreement, warning of global chaos, a nuclear holocaust right around the corner and then when it comes time, they will very predictably vote overwhelmingly against the Iran Nuclear Agreement and then go home to their States and Districts and tell their constituents they did everything they could, that they voted against this deal with the devil, this deal that will allow Iran to build a nuclear bomb and destroy Israel and America. So, that should be the end of the story, right? The end of the Iran Nuclear deal, right?

Wrong! The vote on the deal by the House and Senate will not stop the Iran Nuclear Treaty.

I repeat:

“THE VOTE ON THE DEAL BY THE HOUSE AND SENATE WILL NOT STOP THE IRAN NUCLEAR TREATY!”

The Iran Nuclear Agreement as it is written today will still be alive and well and the USA will still be a party to it.

Yes, you heard me right. Both chambers of the US Congress just voted it down. Despite the rejection on Capitol Hill by our duly elected and bible sworn public servants, there vote will have no impact on the Iran Nuclear Deal. The Senate could vote 100-0 against and the House could vote 435 0 against and this Iran Deal could still become the law of the land.

But how can this be? You-a tell-a me that Congress just voted it down?

But did they?

Not quite!

Actually, they just voted their “disapproval” of it.

The President has simply to veto their “disapproval” and unless the veto can be overridden, the “Agreement” stands as written. A veto override would take 67 votes or a two thirds majority of the US Senate which means it would only take 34 Senators to sustain the Presidential veto. The Democrats in the Senate already have the 34 votes, all Democrats, no duh! that will support the Presidential veto, so passage of the Iran Nuclear Agreement is a done deal.

But that don’t make no sense, you say. The Constitution says the President can only veto legislation that is passed by Congress. You are telling me that the Iran Nuclear Agreement was not passed, but rejected by Congress!

And the President can veto it anyway? WTF?

And it sounds like you are telling me that a Senator or Congressman can vote to disapprove the “Agreement”, but then vote to sustain the Presidential veto.

That’s right, you are picking up what I am putting down.

They can have their cake and eat it, too!

And so basically what you are telling me is that we are stuck with it, unless the Senate can override the Veto which will take 67 votes?

EXACTLY!

Or the House for that matter. Since it appears an override has no path in the Senate, it really doesn’t matter what the House does. Or vice-versa.

WTMF?

No way will they get 67 votes. The Senate does not have 67 Republicans to override a Presidential veto.

And the Senate democrats will always find 34 of their own kind ready to fall on their sword to make sure that their President is not humiliated with a veto vote led by a bunch of Red Republicans, hell bent on besmirching the first black president ever, at every opportunity, not to mention the opportunity to load their canons for the 2016 election season.

I’m-a-tell-you, there will be lots of loudmouths who will jump to conclusions and blame Senator Barbara Mikulski, because she was the last one to join 33 other democrats to support the presidential veto, but if it wasn’t her, it would be someone else. Some other Democrat. But think about it for a minute, she was the likely one. She has no political liabilities. She can easily fall on her sword. Why? She is retiring. But all of this was probably figured out long ago, in the basement of the Russell building, an old Senate Office building on Capitol Hill, all too familiar with these kinds of backroom basement deals, obscure from the public view of people like the Joneses and their row house neighbors. The Democrats got their least vulnerable to take the heat on this one, the ones who aren’t facing re-election next year or the ones that are considered safe from challenge by opportunistic Republicans.

Okay, it’s later, now, and time to talk about that word, “Agreement!”

Is the Iran Nuclear Deal an Agreement? Or is it a Treaty? ?

What’s the difference? Treaty? Agreement? Same thing, no matter what you call it.

Wouldn’t you think?

Well, the simple truth is everybody on Capitol Hill much prefers the word “Agreement”.

Why is that you may wonder?

Real simple answer here.

The US Constitution, that ancient parchment that the GOP likes to parade around at Tea Parties and 2nd Amendment rallies calls it a Treaty.

That’s why!

Where’s the Clive Bundy group when it really matters, when the Constitution is being trampled, not by just Obama, but the whole US Congress.

The US Constitution says in Article 2, Section 2

“He (the President) shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur; “

FYI: Two thirds means 67 US Senators

What if I were to tell you that the Republicans want to pass this treaty just as much, and possibly more than the Democrats?

Believe it or not, that’s the way that it appears.

It appears that everybody on the Hill, save for a handful, wants this Iran deal to go through, despite what they may say in public.

If they called it a Treaty, which is what it really is, then it would be virtually impossible to get it done. Because then at least 67 Senators would have to vote to pass it. (Article 2, Section 2)

Solution! They call it an “Agreement”, and then invent a whole new set of rules for “Agreements”.

So here is basically what is happening.

This Iranian Nuclear Trade agreement aka The Iran Deal or JCPOA (Joint comprehensive Plan of Action) is being "fast tracked".

In February of this year, Senator Bob Corker (R Tennessee) introduced a bill in the Senate designed to create a mechanism where everybody could vote against the Treaty, or Agreement if you prefer, and it would still go through.

It’s a fast track process authorizing the President or Executive Branch to make the Iran deal without the possibility of any Amendments, and then, without objection, it becomes law.

The Senate may or may not bring it up for consideration.

If they don’t bring it up, there’s up to a 60 day period before the clock runs out and it becomes law.

They are not waiting for the 60 days. It appears they want it done quickly before momentum continues to build against it and people begin to understand this deceitful process.

If they bring it to the floor, they could vote 100-0 to disapprove it, not likely, but look for a substantial majority to vote to disapprove.

Or they could filibuster and it would never get a vote which would prolong the misery, maybe up to the 60 day period, depending on which way the political winds are blowing, and then it would become law.

This things has several fail-safe routes through Capitol Hill and no Stop Signs. This bad boy was designed to pass.

The reality! It was a done deal before it got in the public eye.

So anyway, that bill that Senator Bob Corker, a Tea Party Republican introduced last February, ended up passing 98-1. It became known as the Corker Menendez bill, but eventually it was the House version that passed.

Just so you know the House version was introduced on March 2 of this year by another Republican, a Congressman from Pennsylvania by the name of Lou Barletta. Talk about obscure. With all those bigwigs on Capitol Hill, they get this relatively unknown guy from Pennsylvania to carry the dirty water.

OH, yes! I did say March 2? Isn’t that the very day that the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, at the invitation of the GOP and over the objections of the President and other democrats addressed a joint session of the US Congress? Yeah, it was that very day. Can you believe this smoke and mirrors right in front of our very eyes?

So, the House version of the Corker Menendez bill which passed 98 to 1 created a fast track path for the Iranian deal. It basically says that Obama, who is the Executive branch makes the "treaty" and then Congress can vote to disapprove it. Obama simply vetoes the disapproval and then they must override the veto, or the treaty can be executed. Or just do nothing, nada, not jack for the 90 day period and it becomes law.

An override takes 67 senate votes, so if 34 sustain the veto, there is no override

They can vote against it and it still passes. Ninety eight Senators voted to do it this way and so did 400 Congressmen, a true consensus between the two major parties if I ever saw one.

They figured it out. They can have their cake and it eat it, too.

Bipartisanship exists. It is for real and it is flourishing!

It may appear as a battle between two parties, but the 98-1 vote in the Senate and the 400-7 vote in the House laid bare the fact that this battle between the two great ideologies is just an illusion, political theatre for the masses. The Iranian Nuclear deal was guaranteed safe passage last February when the Corker Menendez bill was introduced. All of those fiery speeches since then have been just for public consumption, for the Joneses and their row house, blue collared neighbors.

It was barely a week after Corker first introduced his fast track legislation that the GOP shamelessly paraded Israeli Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu in front of a joint session to make all of his apocalyptic warnings

Both Corker and Menendez have publicly opposed the Iranian deal and will vote to disapprove it, but it’s their bill from last February that guarantees passage. I don’t know about the Joneses, but the duplicity is killing me.

It’s an old trick, this fast track thing. It got us CAFTA, NAFTA and the TPP, all treaties that the American public have opposed. Do not be fooled by the contentiousness between the two parties. It’s a finely orchestrated Kabuki show designed to keep you guessing and to further institutionalize the two party system that is strangling the lifeblood out of the middle class of this country.

What else that is fatally wounded is the Constitution itself, fallen victim to the lust for power and the greed that feeds it.

Article 2, Section 2 demands that the Senate confirms all treaties with 2/3 vote of all Senators present. That would be 67.

They call it an “Agreement”, a “deal”, but it has all the traits of a treaty.

“A rose by another name is still a rose” Shakespeare said that.

So, if we are paying attention, we are seeing the Constitution turned upside down, in plain view, in front of our very eyes, the Joneses and their picket fence neighbors oblivious to it all, in fact, many believing that its Obama and his “Liberal” gang of Democrats that are the Communist Kenyan culprits behind all of this, and that it’s the “Conservative” Republicans that are standing in the breach, going down with the ship.

Whereas it should take 67 US Senators voting to approve it, in the public eye, as the treaty that it is, with all of the incumbent political liability, now they have manipulated the system to have at least 67 vote against it and it still passes, with the expectation of little or no accountability from their constituents.

Instead of the 67, it will only take 34 to ensure that this Treaty becomes law.

A Constitutional mandate has not only been ignored, it has been reversed.

This essay is not about being for or against this Treaty. I would hardly know what is in it or understand it even, it is written so cryptically. No, this is about the process, the devious manipulation of the Constitution and the naïve trusting people in this country.

Be Vigilant, my friends.

©Michael A Acree