Ideas, Opinions, Genealogy, and Book Reviews
Mark Meadows, Donald Trump’s chief of staff, has been indicted in Georgia for his role in trying to disenfranchise thousands of Georgia voters by by participating in Donald Trumps’s conspiracy including asking the Georgia Secretary of State to violate his oath.
Does he actually believe this was part of his his official duties?
Continue reading “Does Mark Meadows believe this was part of his official duties?”
This may be one of those records that stands forever or at least a very long time. A good example of this type of record is Lou Gehrig’s record of playing in 2,130 consecutive baseball games. This record stood for 56 years until surpassed by Cal Ripken Jr. of the Baltimore Orioles.
Donald Trump’s may be an even greater record. In over 200 years of US history, no former President has ever been criminally indicted as far as I know. But in just in a few months, Donald Trump has been criminally indicted 4 times.
Continue reading “Donald Trump sets a record”
First of all, I think this is a really good book. It is also an important book. The book is “American Whitelash: A Changing Nation and the Cost of Progress” by Wesley Lowery
Whitelash may not be a term familiar to all. Slang.net defines it this way:
Whitelash is a political term that refers to a resistance by white voters against social progress among minority groups.
Previously, I had written about the Supreme Court overturning Roe v Wade. I do not believe an originalist interpretation of the Constitution makes sense or at least should not be the most important consideration.
But some Justices on the Court seem to believe that the interpretation of the Constitution and laws should be based on 18th or 19th century beliefs. Or guesses as to what we think was believed.
But here is a bit of the relevant history.
Continue reading “History on Abortion Laws – Roe v Wade”
I read an interesting piece on 14th Amendment of the US Constitution today. It was written Heather Cox Richardson, an American history professor. We’ve only been free subscribers for a week or so and enjoy these articles.
It covers quite a bit but I just wanted to comment on one part of it:
Continue reading “Did the Supreme Court ignore the 9th and 14th Amendments in Roe v Wade ?”
I liked this book. I agreed with much of it but disagreed strongly with one part. I’ll get into that later in this review. It is the type of book that gets you thinking. The book is The Purple Presidency 2024: How Voters Can Reclaim the White House for Bipartisan Governance by C. Owen Paepke.
I thank both Netgalley https://www.netgalley.com and RealClear Publishing for the chance to read this before publication. The book will be published on June 13.
At first it just seemed a bit stupid and a bit wrong. Then the more I thought about it, I came to think that it was not only stupid and wrong but possibly unconstitutional. Or maybe just outdated by more recent laws
Congress has the legislative power (see Article I of the U.S. Constitution). They make the laws. They say what will be spent and appropriate the funds. They would borrow money if needed. Then the Executive Branch carries out the law (see Article II). A simple division of responsibilities. It was designed by the Founding Fathers, enshrined in our Constitution, and worked well for over 100 years.
But Congress tried to improve things. They passed a debt ceiling law which gave borrowing to the Executive branch which did make life a lot simpler for Congress. But they blocked the Executive branch from exceeding a certain amount of debt for any reason unless Congress agreed to raise the debt ceiling. It seemed kind of stupid but since the debt ceiling was always increased before it was exceeded, it did not seem to be a major problem.
There is a group in the House of Representatives that does not want to pay the debts the federal government has borrowed to pay for past spending. An appropriate name would seem to be the deadbeat caucus. The group consists of 217 Republicans who voted for H. R. 2811. 4 Republicans voted against this bill and 1 did not vote. All Democrats voting opposed the bill.
I think if you owe a valid debt, you should pay it. I think most would agree. Those who refuse to pay the debt or want to make re-payment subject to conditions not in the loan are deadbeats’
I think there are valid arguments about what the government should spend going forward but refusing to re-pay loans already made unless you get your way for future spending negotiations is the wrong way to go about it.
The credit of the United States is at stake in this debt ceiling stand-off. If the deadbeat caucus has their way there will be catastrophic consequences. Reember this is not about future spending but about payinf debts we owe.
The bill does a bunch of other things which you may of may not agree with so it is definitely worth learning about it.
The recent outbreak of classified documents found in in politicians’ homes makes me think we really need a Librarian of National Intelligence (LoNI). Libraries are pretty good at keeping track of their books.
I find ridiculous that our National Intelligence agencies do not keep records on what they have and who checked it out. Perhaps they do but recent history suggests otherwise.
Was Elizabeth Warren right? Is the “tax the rich” wing of the Democratic party on to something important? Or on the other hand, maybe the Republicans who generally want to cut taxes on the rich are right. It is certainly an issue many have strong feelings about.
Many of the rich and powerful are meeting in Davos at the World Economic Forum this week. I just read an article on CNBC.com about a large group of millionaires who are urging the Davos participants to tax the rich and help ordinary people.
Continue reading “Should we tax the rich more?”
A few months ago I wrote about several things Republicans were doing that did not seem conservative to me, yet many of these Republicans claim to be conservative or even very or extremely conservative.
My list of not conservative things included:
Continue reading “Not paying bills is not a conservative thing”
Do you cheat on your taxes? Let the other guy pay more to make up for your savings. It turned out someone finally got wise to your cheating ways. A few months ago the government add some funds for the IRS for increasing tax compliance and improving service.
Make the tax system less subject to cheating. Fairer most would think and also raise billions of dollars rather than run up the deficit.
Monday the Republicans in the House voted to cut that funding, It was a good day for tax cheats (at the cost of adding billions to the deficit). fortunately for the rest of us, this seems unlikely to become law.
The House Republicans have been trying to elect a Speaker for the past few days. After 13 failures to elect Kevin McCarthy the House Republicans voted to adjourn until 10 p.m. By the time you figure in nominating speeches and a roll call vote it may be midnight or so until we know the outcome. Maybe even later if there are issues or multiple ballots.
So who will be the midnight Speaker if we have one?
Once again Just Security has published a great article related to efforts to overturn the 2020 Presidential election.
Continue reading “Fake Electors”
We do live in interesting times. You could also call them dangerous times or very bizarre times.
We learn that the guy who wants to terminate the Constitution not only thinks he would be a good candidate for President but supports the werewolf candidate in the Georgia US Senate runoff.
Continue reading “Say NO to Tex”