Ol' Fuzzy's Soapbox

Wednesday, June 28, 2017

Supreme Rulings

So SCOTUS sided with Trump on the travel ban, in part. That only makes sense to put a stop to the ridiculous misuse of legal precedent to make the country unsafe for a little political mileage. Why are the conservatives gloating. It isn’t like a major victory was won. Every one of those judges that decided to block all of the president’s actions on national security because he said things during the campaign that offended them knew it was judicial overreach. I am only glad we are not paying for their one-up-man-ship already. It is only a matter of time to see if any terrorists slipped in while they held the door open.

But let’s become civil now. It has been over six months since Trump took office and the country is still in operation. Congress is still the opposite of progress. And the Supreme Court of the United States is still reducing the rights of American citizens at home. Did you know that you do not have a right to an attorney in post conviction (that means after the appeal is exhausted) procedures? SCOTUS has ruled that a lawyer can wreck your chances of obtaining justice once the appeal is over and you have no recourse. Just have to suffer.

When a lawyer represents a client in a court of law, it is an awesome responsibility. The court cannot entertain any communications, motions, etc. from the litigant except through the attorney. They are the gatekeepers of your so called right to access to the court. If the lawyer doesn’t like the client or is lazy or negligent, the client’s life and the lives of those who rely on him/her are ruined. Do lawyers care? I don’t know. From my experience, I would say no. So what can be done about it? I’m open to suggestions.

Ol’ Fuzzy is not employable and was denied for disability benefits. The only thing I have is the blogs. But I don’t qualify for ads on the blogs until September. If you like the scribbles I post, please help me keep it going. You can leave me a gratuity by dropping a buck or two in Ol' Fuzzy's Tip Jar. This is a PayPal account I opened on Wednesday, April 5, 2017.

Friday, June 23, 2017

Health Care and Grudges

So the Republicans in the Senate have put out their version of the new health care law. The hyperbole is not fulfilled. But what did you expect? Political reality must be faced. The House version is probably the one that will be finally sent to Trump’s desk anyway. Let’s hope that we can get health care when it’s all over.

The problems they are trying to address stem from the nature of free market insurance. No self-serving businessman is going to volunteer to lose money. His board of directors and the stockholders would be in arms to get rid of him. So that’s why Obamacare is failing. What the Republicans have put up as a replacement isn’t a complete overhaul, but a patch on Obamacare.

Remember, Obamacare was originally copied from Mit Romney’s health care plan in Massachusetts. Romney was, is and will remain a Republican. The Republican objections to the original plan are based not on the source, nor the method, but on their fixation with states’ rights and the Marketplace god. The real reason they hate it, however, is that they didn’t have a say in it. It was rammed down their throats by the Democrats when they held the majority of both houses of congress. All the political drama of the past nine years stems from that grudge they’re still nursing. That is why we have to let our politicians know we don’t care about political grudges.

Oh, I am so sorry. You do care about political grudges? Well if you can’t get over it you don’t love this country. The political grudge-keeping is what is tearing the nation apart. We are never going to repair our political system so long as we carry the extra baggage of grudges against the opposition. They are opponents, not enemies. When you view political opponents as enemies, you give your real enemies a free hand in destroying you.

Conservative or Liberal, we all are patriotic Americans, we all care about the nation. Let us work together by thinking about our shared values and throw the grudges on the ash heap where they belong.

Rant over….

Thursday, June 22, 2017

Georgia on my Mind

The special election in Georgia is over. The Republican won, not surprisingly. The district is soundly red. So why do the Liberals complain about rigged elections? The liberal media polls showed the Democrat leading. They always do. If you only ask people who agree with you the answers will only reinforce your prejudice.

Let’s get over it, put it behind us and move on. If there was voter fraud, and I doubt there was, it will be caught and the parties responsible punished. I find it ironic that the Democrats, notorious for stopping all laws aimed at ending voter fraud, would complain about their entitled election being lost to voter fraud. I worry about the souls of people who fill their minds with such negative thoughts. They make themselves appear like a three-year-old having a melt-down in the store because “mommy wouldn’t buy me candy.” If it’s ugly to see a child do it, it’s that much uglier to watch an adult do it.

Y’all quit being so ugly to each other!

Rant over….

Sunday, June 18, 2017

Enough Already

Alright, people. These immature tantrums have gone on long enough. You political activists have so much hyperbole floating around that there’s no real way to tell fact from fiction. People have been injured and killed over memes and hyperbolic posts that don’t have much connection to reality. The facts are that the government of the United States of America is working as the Constitution intends. If you don’t like the Constitution because it allows people to disagree with you, you don’t like the United States of America, a nation founded on the concepts of political freedom and the right to disagree with the government and the other political factions.

Let us get it out in the open. Everyone who hates the United States Constitution for the freedom it allows others to disagree raise your right hand. Okay, look around at the raised hands and you will see the ones who have the courage of their convictions to admit they’re enemies of the United States. Those are the ones to watch for treasonous activities.

Now the real problem is all the ones who agree with the hand-raisers but were afraid to raise their own or were too sly to let anyone know what they’re planning. There have been too many riots called protests and too many violent acts perpetrated in the name of some political agenda. News flash: Communism is a bankrupt concept that has always failed and Fascism will be vigorously resisted wherever it appears. So don’t try to bring it to these shores.

When the fascists tried to take over the United States government in the 1930s, Gen. Smedley Darlington Butler, USMC (Ret.) swiftly put it down because they were fool enough to try to recruit him into their scheme. The Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines that served in combat over the last decade and a half are not going to support any violent overthrow of the government. That leaves you with the cowards, the incompetent and the untrained. Don’t expect to overthrow the government with them. They are vastly outclassed by the ones they oppose.

There is a reason the United States has lasted so long. It’s recorded in all those patriotic songs that anti-American activists hate so much. Because free men and women are willing to place their lives in danger to protect that freedom from those who would impose tyranny upon us in any form, the United States is free. And we’re going to keep it that way so long as there is blood in our bodies.

I for one took an oath to defend the Constitution of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic. That oath didn't come with an expiration date. Ask Tammy Duckworth, the courageous Democrat in Congress who gave her leg in Iraq, what that oath means. In the words of the United States Marine Corps, with whom I served when service was politically incorrect, Semper Fidelis, always faithful. OORAH!

Wednesday, June 14, 2017

Assault on Dignity

Today a peaceful ballpark in Alexandria, VA was disrupted by gunfire. An untrained (thankfully) gunman opened fire on members of the United States House of Representatives as they practiced for the annual baseball game between Democrats and Republicans in the House. I don’t care that it was a practice by the Conservative members that was attacked. That is not the issue I intend to address today. What I do want to talk about is the cause of the shooting.

Liberals will claim the Conservatives brought it on themselves. Conservatives will make equally preposterous claims about the Liberals. The fact is the hate between these two groups has gotten to the point that some people believe they have to shoot members of the other side. I thank God it wasn’t a veteran who did the shooting, there would have been a massacre and it would have provided more grist for the mill of vet-bashers.

Folks, hate breeds violence, which in turn breeds more hate. When do we get off this merry-go-round of self destruction? We don’t need to hate. We want to. Is it because we have so isolated ourselves from direct contact with each other that hate is the only strong emotion we can muster? Whatever, as a society we must change the way we view each other and the way we post about each other.

If a conservative and a liberal wee to sit down together and talk about the issues they care about, they would discover a lot more they have in common than what divides them. The only real difference between Conservatives and Liberals is the means they use to accomplish those ends. Conservatives are more personally liberal, generous with their time and money to help the people in need around them. On the other side of the coin, Liberals tend to espouse massive government programs to do the same things. The other issues are merely distraction from the main one.

Since there’s so much the two sides have in common, why do they hate each other? Let’s put an end to it now. Let’s stop posting and sharing inflammatory memes and slogans. Let’s stop projecting our fears into the perceptions of our fellows for our opposite-party members. Let’s decide to be civil toward one another and heal our society before we wind up without one.

Tuesday, May 23, 2017

After the Manchester Bomb

Last night a despicable coward blew himself up outside a stadium in the city of Manchester, UK. There were over fifty people, mostly children and young adults, the vast majority female, who died in the blast that was triggered as the people were exiting a pop concert by one of the most popular singers in Western culture, especially among young girls.

The choice of target was no accident. The evil mind chooses the most vulnerable and easiest to harm. It is far less dangerous to the attacker to attack young women and girls than it is to attack young men and boys. And our culture places a premium upon the security of our young women and girls. The target was chosen to horrify and cow us into submission to the fiends who are trying to destroy Western culture.

But they chose the wrong nation in which to stage such an attack. Historically, the British people have always rallied when attacked, no matter what their various ethnic origins. All they need is a leader around whom to rally, and I think they have one in the person of Prime Minister Theresa May. Her short speech to the public this morning was reminiscent of the greatest orators of her land, people like Sir Winston Churchill. And the British will not be cowed into submission to fear and terror.

Kudos to Ms May and to the people of Manchester who rallied to the aid of the victims, and to the victims themselves who didn’t give in to fear.

Friday, April 28, 2017

Offshore Drilling Dangers

In today's news is the item about President Trump signing an executive order opening the East Coast of the United States to offshore drilling. This is not deja vu. It really did happen before. Only the last time President Obama was reluctant to sign the order, and one week later he got a convenient excuse to rescind it in the explosion on the Deepwater Horizon well. I would be interested in knowing how the protesters plan to stop the drilling this time.

The unique set of coincidences that led to the biggest disaster in oil spill history are telling. The unnamed crewman who left the platform on the Greenpeace boat that Greenpeace knows nothing about, the safety equipment being turned off when it would be needed, the timing coincident with the drilling order, these all add up to an unbelievable number of events that investigators were quick to discount as unimportant. Yet they still raise questions in my mind.

What is likely to be done to stop Trump, who is not reluctant to open the offshore oilfields to exploration, is a topic of concern. It’s not very likely an explosion on an offshore platform would get the same treatment as under the previous administration. The current administration would likely investigate with rigor not seen under the previous one. It is likely an explosion would result in a conviction this time.

Let’s keep our eyes open and our minds clear of preconceived conclusions so we can see the forest in spite of the trees.

Thursday, April 27, 2017

Nonsense

Yesterday’s news reported demonstrations in South Korea against the installation of an anti-missile defense system to protect the Koreans from nuclear warheads out of the North. How does it make sense to protest someone keeping you form harm? I don’t understand it. It looks like the same kind of irrational behavior exhibited by a spouse who calls the police to enforce a restraining order on an abusive husband and then attacks the officers for arresting the abusive violator of the order. Where is the logic in that?

I see it as a product of Northern propaganda and agitation by agents of the communist regime. “I don’t want you to keep me alive. Let him kill me!” Duh! People, this is not the product of thought, but emotional manipulation of the gullible. Where do these gullible people come from? Is there a drug that is added to the water supply?

I have even seen it in American political protests. “Let the terrorists come into the country. You”re just a religious bigot if you stop them.” That’s what the protesters of the reasonable ban on travel from unsecured nations in current turmoil over Radical Islamic Terrorism. Note I don’t say all Muslims ought to be banned. It was an extremely unfortunate choice of words by Candidate Trump to propose banning all Muslims. It has only given the treasonous anti-Trump crowd a weapon to use to stop reasonable measures to protect our security.

Does anyone think past his own personal prejudice? I don’t like the loud mouthed bully in the White House any more than they do. But I won’t put my name on a lawsuit to stop measures that are intended to keep out the agitators, recruiters and terrorists. Why would anyone, after careful thought, do so?

Friday, April 21, 2017

World War Three

Any student of the history of the Twentieth Century will see a frightening parallel to the lead up to the two World Wars in the conditions of world politics today. A polarized world with entangling alliances, rampant tensions between the sides, a general lack of respect for the strength of democratically ruled nations, and overbearing ambition in the minds of dictators were all qualities of the early nineteen hundreds. Today it is almost the same except there is a plurality of sides in the conflict of the day, Western democracies; Russian sphere; Chinese sphere; the Islamic State, Al Qida, Taliban; and the hapless states caught in between these sides makes up today’s roster of factions.

In 1914, it was a Serbian terrorist that led the alliances into the “Great War to End all Wars.” Today it could be the egoistic dictator of some backward state like North Korea or the minor terrorist splinters of the radicals that drags us all into a conflagration that would once again leave the world in ashes. My hat is off to Rex Tillerson for mitigating the tweets of his president and avoiding the lighting of the fuse to this bomb we call a world. After seventy-two years, it looks as though Pax Americana is about to end.

Are you prepared for the deprivation and hardship of the kind of war that defined the last century? With so many of the nations out there owning and deploying nuclear and chemical weapons, the coming war will be far more devastating to the civilians of the battlefield lands than even the Second World War. Prepare for the loss of a quarter to a third of the Earth’s human population. Acts of terror will be considered valid tactics by more than one faction, just as they were considered valid by the Nazis and Imperial Japan.

What will come out the other side of such a war? I can’t begin to predict, only hope. Survivalists have one thing right, we need to prepare for the worst case scenario.

Thursday, April 13, 2017

Glimmers of Hope in the Political Arena

President Trump isn’t the only one who keeps changing his mind on positions. It seems President Putin of Russia has the same quality. This can be a good thing when the two are at crossed sabers. The ability to make a compromise is of utmost importance to the political process. When we try to do things too rapidly or leave no room for compromise in our positions, the entire process becomes detrimental to ourselves and our friends. The art of politics, like the art of diplomacy, is the art of compromise. This is an art lost to the American political scene.

The problem that we have is the grudges held by the two major parties against one another for slights they don’t even remember. When the two can let go of their grievances and compromise, we will have a functioning government again. So long as they’re bickering over remembered insults, we will always have deadlock. But there have been signs of hope. Some of the Congressmen and Senators, returning from town-hall meetings where they were confronted by angry voters chanting, “Do your job,” have begun to reach across the isle to the members of the other party. They must realize that the ones who hired them can also fire them.

If this trend continues, we may just have a government that does the job described in the Constitution for it. How long has it been since there was real bipartisan cooperation and compromise in Washington? I ask because I can’t remember. Except for the vote right after 9/11 that gave the president power to wage war on terrorists and the USAPATRIOT act, I can’t recall active cooperation since President Kennedy was in office. I was in kindergarten when he died. That is a long time to go without functional government.

I urge you to continue to press your elected officials to do their jobs. So long as they realize that it’s the voters, and not the donors, for whom they work, they may just try to be civil toward one another across party lines. Wouldn’t that be wonderful to have, a government of grown-ups who do what they were hired to do?

In another vein, Putin must be enraged at his intelligence officers. They spent all that time and money trying to influence the United States election in 2017 so Trump would be the president only to find out that Trump is not the pliant putty they thought they could mold to their purposes. I am actually excited by the fact that the Russian plot backfired.

I think we owe all the animus with Putin to the nasty way W treated him when he was in office. This is another example of unintended consequences coming back to bite you. Theodore Roosevelt said that the key to diplomacy is, “Walk softly, and carry a big stick.” Every president after him did one or the other, but not both. Now it looks like Tillerson can do the soft walking while Trump wields the stick. It may just work too.

Friday, April 7, 2017

Trump, China, North Korea and Syria

There are so many political happenings today that it’s difficult to chose where to start first. I guess it’s best to look at some background. The president and his Chinese counterpart are supposed to be talking about what to do with Kim in Pyongyang. China wants the U. S. presence in the region to be decreased, but the antics of Kim Jong Il make it necessary for the U. S. to increase its military presence. The situation is one of Beginnings making in the first place, thinking a strong North Korean leader would create a good buffer between the U. S. Army in South Korea and the Western border on Manchuria, the Northwestern most province of China. Of course, if China hadn’t intervened in the Korean war in 1950, there would be no U. S. Army presence in Korea at all.

Now Trump is examining all options in how to take care of the problem of Kim playing with nukes on missiles that can reach Japan and possibly even California. Add to that the cruise missile attack last night on the Syrian airbase from which Assad launched his nerve gas attack on civilian non-combatants. Let me assure you, if Trump tells Chi he’s going to do something about North Korea on his own if China won’t help, Chi will believe it’s not a bluff.

Chi tells his people that Trump is an unpredictable madman. The action last night goes a long way to reinforce that impression in the Chinese mind. Of course the people of China don’t get the full story. And atrocities don’t effect the Chinese the way it offends Americans. The history of China is rife with atrocity.

The problem with Assad is that his frustration over the fragility of his grip on power has eroded his respect for the people he claims to rule. Those who are rebelling against Assad are objecting to the minority that Assad belongs to running the whole country without concern for their needs. They would have accepted Assad’s continued leadership if he only gave them a voice in the government. But Assad feared that would water down his absolute authority.

Now we have Russian, Iranian and other fringe Shiites backing Assad. But Assad is the only leader in the region who protects the Christians under him. In rebel held areas Christians have been purged through intimidation, violent expulsion and murder. While all this was going on, even though the media reported it, the United States Department of State did nothing to succor the Christians. In fact, Christians were routinely denied refugee status by State while Muslims were allowed in.

So I have mixed feelings about Assad. The man is criminal, committing crimes against humanity with more regularity than he changes his socks. Yet no one else is willing to defend the Church in the Middle East. What to do? Thanks to the rhetorical statements Trump made in his campain, he will be blocked by all those judges appointed by Obama when the Democrats removed the 60-vote requirement for clocher in the debate over appointments other than the Supreme Court.

One hundred years ago today (April 7, 1917) the United States Congress voted to declare war on the Central Powers (Germany, Austria and Turkey) in World War One. The entire continent of Europe had been tied up in alliances between kingdoms and countries for “mutual defense.” A Serbian separatist assassinated the heir to the throne of the Holy Roman Empire, and also the Austro-Humgarian Empire, Archduke Ferdinand, in Sarajevo, Bosnia in August 1914, and dragged the entire continent into a protracted and bloody brawl that lasted more than four years. President Wilson vowed to keep us out. His campain slogan in 1916 was, “He kept us out of war.” But American commercial interests in France and the United Kingdom, as well as the rest of the Allied Nations, led the German Navy to sink American ships carrying food and weapons to Europe. Enough open submarine warfare led to a bellicose attitude in the American people and Congress went along for the ride.

Today we have a reason to remember the U. S. entry into the bloodbath that was the First World War. The world is once again polarized between power blocks. But now there are three, not two. The Chinese want to control the Far East without American meddling. Europe and the other democracies allied with it want to live their own way, buy and sell, and talk down on less developed countries. Russia wants to regain the “glories” of the Soviet days, but Putin rules as a Czar. Then there are the wild cards that will drag us all into conflict, Islamic State, North Korea, Taliban, Iran, etc. I wouldn’t try to do Trump’s job if I would get all his money to do it.

Wednesday, April 5, 2017

Hypocrisy in Action, Your Politicians

Listening to this morning’s news, I was disgusted by the mutual hypocrisy of the politicians in Washington this week. The great rule change in the Senate that is about to happen (if it hasn’t yet) is the fault of the animosity of the two parties tward each other, and the shenanigans each party pulled to get one over on the other. The two parties have been at each other’s throat for decades. it’s as bad as some of the centuries-old tribal wars we see on the evening news. When are the American voters going to get sick of it?

A little bit of historey: In the 1960s the democrats got their political activist judges appointed under Lyndon B. Johnson. Starting in the 1970s, these judges helped to circumvent the Congress by legislating from the bench without regard for the will of the American people. Roe v Wade was the first big case that changed the Constitution by judicial fiat, not by Constitutional ammendment as the framers intended. In that case a constitutional “right to privacy” was invented that is not found in any of the articles or amendments. The tactic worked so well that the most liberal branch of the Democratic Party regularly pushed their judges into the queue to be appointed by Democratic presidents. The Congress would not act on the hyper-liberal agenda as the proponents wanted.

In the 1990s, the Republicans began to push back. The battle for control of the judiciary became the main thing that drove the appointment process, and jurisprudence became an afterthought. Today the courts are so politicised you can’t get a decision that isn’t based on party politics. That is why President Trump can’t do anything to keep out terrorists and recruiters for terrorists without some judge issuing an injunction halting it. I expect to see a few dozen nasty terror attacks on U. S. soil by foreign actors soon. In this battle, all other considerations are ignored to further the party cause.

Neal Gorsuch is considered a “strict constructionist” on constitutional issues. That means if the issue was not in the Constitution in any article or amendment, he doesn’t make up a new constitutional right to cover it. The Democrats can’t tell us they object to that. So they trump up the excuse that they don’t like his rulings in favor of corporate interests over private citizens. News flash: Democratic appointed judges are just as likely to support corporate over private interests. It was a precident set in the 1940s, and both party’s judges have expanded it over the years.

As far as I can tell there are only two things wrong with American politics in the Twenty-first Century: Democrats and Republicans.

Ol’ fuzzy started an account on Pay Pal to receive gratuities. I call it Ol’ Fuzzy’s Tip Jar. If you like my writing, you can drop me a buck into the tip jar.

Tuesday, April 4, 2017

Hate, Narcissism and Nihilism in Congress, and Other Issues

This morning the news is filled with predictions that the Senate rules on filibuster during the confirmation debate for Supreme Court justice nominees. This was already done by Democrats when the Republicans filibustered to block the appointment of the very activist judges that are blocking every security measure attempted by President Trump based on campaign rhetoric. The acknowledged reason for the Democratic opposition to Gorsuch is the refusal of Republicans to give the Obama nominee a hearing last year. In other words, “You hurt me, I hurt you back.”

Egos were bruised. The Democrats felt they were entitled to make the Supreme Court into their brand of an activist progressive force in this country that would be able to circumvent any Republican moves in Congress. The Republicans rightly read the tea leaves on that danger, but their ham-handed move to block the nomination was just another nail in the coffin of American statesmanship. it’s all about power, ego, hate and revenge. This is becoming worse than the tribal wars fought in faraway places over a stolen cow two thousand years ago.

Unless the American electorate changes its collective mind on the two party system, we are definitely bound for civil war. The petty battles over abused egos in these two parties has inhibited their ability to govern. Let’s wise up.

In other news: Attorney General Sessions is giving police a free pass on systematic unconstitutional practices in the name of building relationships. What comes next, a suspension of the Bill of Rights? No intelligent observer would truthfully deny the fact that some police forces have become so entrenched in unconstitutional practices that they can’t police themselves. AG Sessions now says that’s alright with him. Look for more unarmed citizens to be shot or beaten to death while handcuffed.

Monday, April 3, 2017

Funding Through Gratuities

Ol’ Fuzzy is in a quandary. I am absolutely destitute, but I don’t want to beg. The strain on my sister’s retirement account incurred by paying my rent and power bill is driving us apart. And I still don’t have internet in my apartment after six months. There is simply no job in Macon County, North Carolina that I can do and is willing to hire me. All I have is my blogs, but I don’t qualify for ads until September. What to do?

I considered all the funding options I can find and nothing else seems to work except ask for gratuities to keep the blogs going. My needs are small. So I am researching a way to allow you, my readers, to send me a gratuity when you read my blogs to help me keep them going. I will call it, “Ol’ Fuzzy’s Tip Jar.”

Please don’t remain silent on this issue. Ol’ Fuzzy needs feedback, opinions and suggestions. Leave comments for me on my blogs as well as on Facebook.

My three blogs are:

Ol’ Fuzzy’s Cave, for spiritual articles (olfuzzyscave.blogspot.com);

Ol’ Fuzzy’s Soapbox, for political commentary from a neutral point of view (olfuzzyssoapbox.blogspot.com); and

Ol’ Fuzzy’s Hearth, for random musings and observations about life and science, etc. (olfuzzyshearth.blogspot.com).

Thank you for reading my blogs.

Sunday, April 2, 2017

Hyperbolic Politics

The Democratic Party spokesman on NPR this morning kept throwing out the word “radical” as a description of Judge Gorsuch. Analysis of the stand Gorsuch takes to which the Dems object shows that the label is being applied in a radically novel way. When I was a child, the idea of judicial activism was still new and considered radical. Judge Gorsuch stated that his belief is that the legislature is supposed to write the laws and the judiciary is to interpret them. The judicial activists see no problem with judges making new law.

Political language use is so hyperbolic and vitriolic that we can no longer take words on their face meanings, if they are spoken or written by a pol. The majority of Americans have checked their verbal vetting apparatus at the door of political discourse and accepted whatever their favorite politician spouts. So we have a never-ending feedback loop of exaggeration of expression that, on its face is patently false, but taken as political hyperbole will be easily checked with a reality moment.

Heck, anybody with a memory that goes back only one decade can see the falsehoods for what they are and make adjustments for the hyperbole. But the Baby Boomers grew up with a fifteen-minute attention span, and can’t remember anything outside of it. Later generations grew up with less. So the only way to fix the problem is a paradigm shift in thought patterns and attention spans.

Fact: the Democrats feel cheated in not getting their activist justice confirmed last year and won’t forgive the Republicans for stopping it. Just like the many state attorneys general who are going to sue the president whenever he tries to stop terrorists from entering the country because he spoke in hyperbolic terms of a Muslim ban, the two parties are not considering anything beyond their hate for each other.

Fact: the United States no longer has a functional government. Without the ability to compromise on important issues, Congress is unable to do the basics of legislation. The importance of the Legislative branch of the government is actually greater than one third of the government. The laws and budget begin in the Congress. While we often joke about the damage Congress does to the country, the reality is we need them. It is illegal, unconstitutional, for the president to rule by fiat, and Liberals won’t like it, but the courts are not the place to make laws.

Fact: our national legislature has become so dysfunctional that both of the other branches have been tempted to fill the gap on their own. When judges make laws, they don’t reflect the will of the people, just the parties to the suit in front of them. When presidents make laws they overstep the power of the office.

I am heartened by the chant of the protesters at the town meetings, “Do your job!”

if Congress doesn’t function, we need to hold our elected officials’ feet to the fire and make them realize their job is on the line. We hired them, we can fire them.

Saturday, April 1, 2017

What's Going on in Washington

One of the most basic checks on the power of the executive branch of the United States government is the role of the Senate to advise and consent to all presidential appointments. In a less divided time, the Senate established a rule that all judges must achieve sixty votes out of one hundred Senators in order to be confirmed as a judge. During the Obama administration, the Democrats became so frustrated over the obstruction of Republicans, no judicial appointment was confirmed for over eight months. So the Dems, having a simple majority, chose to change the rules on confirmation of judicial appointments to allow their simple majority to confirm any judge below the Supreme Court level.

Now the Republicans have a simple majority in the Senate, the Democrats are vowing to obstruct the confirmation of a Supreme Court justice, and they’re crying fowl that the Republicans plan to use their simple majority to change thee rules on confirmation of Supreme Court nominees. In effect, the Dems are saying, “It’s okay when we do it, but if you do it, it’s absolutely evil.”

In reality the evil is the very need for something to break the deadlock. Were the parties not so full of hate, the problem of obstructionism would never come up. But these two parties, divided by nothing more monumental than competing economics theories, hate each other so much they would rather destroy the whole country than allow a victory, no matter how small, to the other party.

In other news, we hear of the Republican general (retired), who was fired for lying to the vice president about his conversations with the Russian ambassador, offering to testify to Congress if he is granted immunity from prosecution for anything he might reveal. Does he have something to fear. Yes, even if he didn’t break any laws, he’s going to be prosecuted because he’s a convenient patsy for the Republicans, and he’s everything the Democrats hate.

The Republicans are in shock over the populist takeover of their party. Suck it up guys. You wouldn’t have this problem if you had nominated John McCain in 2000. No you wanted to nominate W because he represented the kind of conservative you like. Turned out you got a feudal overlord, instead of a president, who dragged the country into a war in fulfillment of a family vendetta. The party could have had a lasting legacy of statesmanship.

Then in 2008, you told McCain you would let him be president if he would compromise his values and represent your brand of conservatism. What you got was Democratic control of the White House and both houses of Congress, the Affordable Care Act, and the Tea Party. It’s your own fault for not listening to your constituents instead of your benefactors. Now you don’t even have a party any more.

Democrats, let this be a lesson for you. It took you seventy-two years to recover from the division you suffered in the Civil War. Listen to your constituents, not some subset of them, and do their will. Otherwise you too will be ripped apart by the factions that form in your ranks.

Friday, March 31, 2017

Give Credit Where Credit Is Due

One thing that is getting lost in the partisan noise out of Washington about the Russian election tampering case is really a profound vindication of the United States government efforts to protect our elections. You see, although the Russians did try to force the election in their favor, the FBI says they failed to substantially effect the outcome.

The Republicans are so worried that their legitimacy will be questioned, they deny the Russians even tried to tamper with the election. The Democrats are so sure they deserved to win, they insist the Russians worked in collusion with the Republicans. I mean look at the names, they both start with and “R.” Isn’t that proof enough?

All jokes aside, there is a comforting message for all of us that no one is telling. During the 2016 national election, the United States was under attack, fought a cyber battle, and won. No two ways about it. The toughest black-hat hackers on Earth engaged in cyber-warfare with the United States of America, an act of war, causes belli for the hawks in the land, and they failed to accomplish any of their aims. The only reason Donald Trump won the election was that enough people voted for him that he had a majority of the Electoral College. No one stole the election from the anointed queen. Hillary lost on the merits of the campaigns and the will of the people. it’s only a coincidence that the result of the election was the same as the desire of Putin. Too bad for him that Trump isn’t cooperating the way he had hoped.

The FBI, the Secret Service, the Pentagon, and the other cyber defense warriors in the United States of America did a marvelous job. They won a difficult battle against a sophisticated foe. No one else is giving them credit for the great work they have done. Is the war over? Not by a long shot. All Americans can sleep soundly because these dedicated cyber warriors are on the job. My hat’s off to you.

Thursday, March 30, 2017

The Grownups Weigh In

The Senate Intelligence Commitee has announced that they will pick up the investigation into Russian meddling in the last national election. The difference between the Senate committee's approach and the House’s approach is telling. Finally, a bipartisan effort to cooperate on getting to the facts of the issue is under way. Why this couldn’t happen in the House is a question that I ponder. But there is light in this lantern. I am happy to see that some politicians can act like statesmen and women even in this day.

In the Senate, the office holders generally have been there a while. And they only have to run for election once every six years. This means they have leeway to do their job as it ought to be done, instead of grandstanding to their political base. The members of the House run every two years, and can’t think beyond what the polls will look like if they do what is right. When the electorate follows feelings from sound bites, the Reps in the House have to pander to those feelings, instead of working on the needs of the nation as a whole. Retention of power trumps statesmanship in these situations every time.

If we Americans would grow up, maybe our politicians would do so too. When we all act like third-graders on the playground, is it any wonder that our politicians do so too? Politics is called the art of compromise, yet American politics has degenerated into a playground melee between rival factions. Demand of your elected officials that they act like grownups and maybe they will.

Wednesday, March 29, 2017

Washington Playground Politics

The political infighting in Washington has gotten so bad that it looks like the government is going to shut down again this year. Sad that grown men and women can’t talk to each other with respect or listen to each other’s ideas. The saddest thing I have heard about Washington politics is the expanding number of Congressmen and women who supported a position until the other party proposed it, then changed their minds and opposed it. That’s so childish I wonder why the people who vote for these playground fugitives continue to send them back.

What we ought to do is break the strangle hold the two main parties have on politics in America. There are so many other parties to chose from, you can find someone who represents you better than the Democrats and Republicans. Shoot, the Republicans ought to break into at lest three parties, Tea Party, Old Line Conservatives (read big business lackeys) and Populists. Meanwhile, the Democrats ought to split two ways, Progressives and Special Interest Liberals. Maybe we could add in a moderate party to round it out, and then Washington will look more realistic. The other political parties, like the Greens or the Libertarians, will also fit right in then.

Think about it. We already have political cacophony in Congress, we may as well look like Europe.

Sunday, March 26, 2017

Sunday Evening Rant 3/26/17

Today the news is full of protests in Russia against the corruption of the government, aimed at Putin’s hand picked premier, Medvedev. Remember that Putin first came to power on the promise that he would curb corruption, dismantle the mob and bring prosperity to the people. He took over most business and criminal activity in the name of the government. What little he doesn’t control is too petty to be of significance. But there’s goods in the stores, food enough to eat two meals a day, and enough vodka to forget the promises Putin made and failed to keep. So the people love Putin; it’s Medvedev they blame.

Any sensible voter would see that Putin is the one corrupt and Medvedev is the whipping boy to distract responsibility. But when a cult of personality enforced with terror is the head of state, people can’t be sensible. There is a lesson here for the United States.

We need to remember that the man on the horse is just another man with ambition and greed. To blindly follow is to be blind and lost. Look past the tweets of the day and remember the past. Americans have a tendency to forget what happened yesterday and believe the pie in the sky promises of the leaders who win our fancy. If we don’t watch our leaders, we will wind up in the same basket as Russia.

Germany looks to be wiser than the leaders feared. The extremists failed to make inroads into the political leadership in the small state election held today. Add to that the sensible result in Netherlands and the easing of the political turmoil in France and it looks like Europe is straitening itself out. The only place of contention is still the Middle East, where the Caliphate of the Islamic State is brutally mistreating whomever gets in the way. And when no one gets in the way they’ll take someone at random.

The world has dodged a bigger bullet than we realize.

Kudos to the United States Central Command for owning up to the responsibility for air strikes on the building where the Islamic State fighters were using human shields. The loss of life is reminiscent of the Second World War in France or Italy when United States Army forces reduced whole villages to rubble to drive out Wehrmacht troops. The difference is that we have weapons available that can shoot the I.S. fighters without rubling the building, unlike the 1940s. The soldiers just forgot they were not facing any civilized enemy that fights under the Law of War. We must keep in mind that we’re not fighting a legitimate nation state, but a gang of liars, murderers and theves.

That’s enough rent for a Sunday. I’ll rant more tomorrow.