Month: August 2023

What Is A Conservative?

College of Political Knowledge

Election series

Since we are entering into the 2024 election cycle and so many people are floundering around politically I thought it would be a good idea for people to understand terms that they are throwing about….words like ‘liberal’ and ‘conservative’….and that is where I want to pick this up.

Let’s start with those aggravating conservatives….

Let’s dispense with one popular answer to this question, asserted by many American conservatives and liberals alike: that proper conservatives are devoted to “small government” or engaged in protecting “individual liberties” from a big government. These are slogans of today’s Republican Party, but there’s no good argument to believe that the party behind the War on Drugs (Richard Nixon, and later Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and every Republican since), the PATRIOT Act (George W. Bush), the first and second Iraq War (Both Bushes), massive police funding, eliminating the right to abortion, Don’t Say Gay laws, and school book bans is, in any way that makes sense, devoted to “limiting” the power of the government. To make sense of the word “conservative” we have to dig deeper than headlines and slogans.

Like a lot of our political vocabulary — see also: “left” and “right,” — the political meaning of “conservative” came as a result of the French Revolution of 1789, when democratic radicals deposed the monarchy and the aristocracy. Soon after, in 1818, defenders of the French Old Regime founded a pro-monarchy journal, Le Conservateur, that first used “conservative” in the modern, political sense. The magazine listed what it stood for in its first issue: “religion, the King, liberty…and upstanding people.” These were the things under threat from the new society formed after the Revolution.

Modern-day conservatives don’t necessarily want to protect or “conserve” the same things as their 19th-century brethren. (Not too many Americans will admit to being monarchists.) But they do share a fundamental dilemma with their French forebears: Defining yourself in terms of an old order and its enemies makes it difficult to explain the sort of future you want to build. On one hand, conservatives defend tradition and duty; on the other, the definitions of these things shift with every generation. And what good is a tradition if it changes all the time?

https://www.teenvogue.com/story/what-is-a-conservative

In short a conservative is a hypocritical slug that uses misinformation and lies to function in government….they champion small government but expand it whenever in power….they spend like a drunken sailor and go to battle over spending…..

Not to worry I will be critiquing ‘liberals’ soon (hint they are not what they seem)….no more Left than your right foot.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Another BRIC In The Wall

In my mind I can hear Pink Floyd but that is not what this post is about…..

BRICs stands for Brazil, Russia, India, China and later South Africa, a group that was formed because some nations were tired of the US trying to control the economies of the world.

In the recent summit in South Africa the world is about to change….

The BRICS international summit in South Africa this week is drawing interest from countries that are sick and tired of the Western-led blocs.

More than 40 countries have expressed interest in joining Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa in the BRICS bloc as an alternative to Western-led international groupings, Reuters reported on Tuesday, citing South African officials.

South Africa is hosting the 15th summit of the BRICS bloc in Johannesburg from Tuesday to Thursday. The group is considering adding members to its alliance at the meeting.

Of those who have expressed interest, nearly two dozen have formally asked to join the group that represents a quarter of the world’s GDP, per Reuters.

South Africa hasn’t published a list of new candidates to the bloc, but some of the interested countries include heavily sanctioned Iran and Venezuela, Southeast Asia’s largest economy of Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.

https://www.businessinsider.com/brics-summit-countries-interested-brazil-russia-india-china-south-africa-2023-8

New members have been announced….

Iran and Saudi Arabia are among six countries that will join the BRICS bloc of developing economies as new members from 2024, South Africa’s president said Thursday. United Arab Emirates, Argentina, Egypt, and Ethiopia are also set to join the bloc that is currently made up of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, whose country presently chairs BRICS, made the announcement at a bloc summit in Johannesburg, the AP reports. The five current members agreed at this week’s summit to expand the bloc after two days of talks, although Ramaphosa said the idea of expansion had been worked on for over a year.

This is the second time that BRICS has decided to expand. The bloc was formed in 2009 by Brazil, Russia, India, and China. South Africa was added in 2010. The BRICS bloc currently represents around 40% of the world’s population and contributes more than a quarter of global GDP. Three of the group’s other leaders, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and Chinese President Xi Jinping, are attending the summit and were present alongside Ramaphosa for the announcement. Russian President Vladimir Putin did not travel to the summit after the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for him in March for the abduction of children from Ukraine.

The inclusion of Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates together in the same economic or political organization would have been unthinkable in recent years amid escalating tensions following the collapse of Tehran’s 2015 nuclear deal and a series of attacks attributed to the country since. But the UAE was first to reengage diplomatically with Iran as it emerged from the coronavirus pandemic and following missile attacks on Abu Dhabi claimed by the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels of Yemen. In March, Saudi Arabia and Iran announced they reached a separate détente with Chinese mediation

International economics is about to get a lot more interesting.

The G7 and the G20 will be floundering to explain why countries are not so thrilled with the US control of world economies.

This bears attention for it could effect trade and your prices.

Any thoughts on this situation?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

GOP Debate–24Aug23

I apologize this was going to be my lead post of the day but events in Russia made it less important.

The first debate of the announced GOP candidates, all but one, his royal highness Lord Donald, who decided to skip the first debate.

Although I am not now or have I ever supported a GOP candidate I had to watch the Show of Shows, theater of the absurd if for nothing else to see where the tone of the campaigns will be in the upcoming dash to the nomination.

I watched so my readers did not have to bother themselves. (You are welcome)

Sit back and enjoy the silliness…..

Eight Republican candidates not named Trump were trying to break out in the first Republican debate Wednesday night in Milwaukee. In the early going, 38-year-old entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy took flak a number of times. Details:

  • “Let me just address a question that is on everybody’s mind at home tonight,” Ramaswamy said in his introduction, per the AP. “Who the heck is this skinny guy with a funny last name?” He defended being inexperienced politically and said an “outsider” was needed, as opposed to “professional politicians,” per the Washington Post.
  • Mike Pence: “Now is not the time for on-the-job training,” he said during an exchange with Ramaswamy, per the New York Times. “We don’t need to bring in a rookie. We don’t need to bring in people without experience.”

The first hour of the Wednesday night Republican debate was largely devoid of the topic of Donald Trump. That changed in hour two, however, as the Fox News moderators asked about the absent frontrunner. At one point, the specific question was posed: Did Mike Pence do the right thing when he refused to go along with Trump’s request to refuse to certify the election results? Some highlights:

  • Ron DeSantis: He would not initially answer the question and said the focus should be on 2024, not 2020. When pressed by Pence himself, DeSantis said, “Mike did his duty, I’ve got no beef with him,” per the New York Times.
  • Chris Christie: “Mike Pence stood for the Constitution,” he said, offering the strongest praise. “And he deserves, not grudging credit, he deserves our thanks as Americans for putting his oath of office and the Constitution of the United States before personal, political, and unfair pressure.”
  • Tim Scott: “Absolutely, he did the right thing,” said Scott, per CNN.
  • Nikki Haley: “I do think he did the right thing. We need to give him credit for that. But she added, “We have to face the fact that Trump is the most disliked politician in America. We can’t win a general election that way.”
  • Doug Burgum: “Mike Pence did the right thing on Jan. 6.”
  • Pence: Trump “asked me to put him over the Constitution,” the former vice president said. “I chose the Constitution and I always will.”

When the topic of Donald Trump emerged in the second hour of the first GOP debate, the Fox News moderators asked the eight candidates on stage to raise their hands if they would support Trump as the nominee even if he is convicted of a crime. Only Chris Christie and Asa Hutchinson opted not to do so, reports Politico. (Christie did actually seem to raise his hand, but he explained he was wagging his fist.) That prompted some fireworks between Christie and Vivek Ramaswamy:

  • Ramaswamy: “Let’s just speak the truth. President Trump, I believe, was the best president of the 21st century. It’s a fact.” He said the campaign of Christie is based solely on “vengeance and grievance” against the former president.
  • Christie: He said Trump’s “conduct is beneath the office of the president of the United States.” When he was met by loud boos (including when he said Ramaswamy made him laugh), he told the crowd: “This is the great thing about this country; booing is allowed, but it doesn’t change the truth.” He also said of Trump: “Someone’s got to stop normalizing this conduct,” per CNN.
  • Hutchinson: Though he said he couldn’t pledge to support Trump, Hutchinson cited a somewhat technical reason: that Republican National Committee rules would prohibit backing Trump should he be convicted, per the New York Times. He also noted that some conservative scholars have suggested that Trump already is disqualified from running again. The crowd booed his answer.
  • Pardon? Ramaswamy challenged Mike Pence to pledge to pardon Trump on day one of his presidency, as he would. Pence said only that as president, he would give fair consideration to any pardon requests, per the Washington Post.

As usual this was not a debate but rather a verbal slugfest and as usual no signs of anyone with guts or a spine was on the stage.

With that said we Americans need winners and losers…..so who did…..

Without former President Trump on stage, the eight “underdogs” taking part in the first Republican presidential primary debate Wednesday in Milwaukee had the opportunity to “differentiate themselves in the field,” reports the New York Times. Many seized on the chance and “at certain points, you could see a flash of an old kind of pre-Trump Republican Party debate, deliberating over government spending, illegal immigration, and foreign policy,” per Vox. Still, “the debate had the feel of an undercard,” per CNN. Indeed, many pundits see the former president and frontrunner as the clear winner of the night. Views on four key candidates:

  • Ron DeSantis: A strong early candidate who has lately floundered, the Florida governor had “the most to prove and the most to lose” and in the end “seemed like the apparent leader,” having touted his successes while largely evading attacks from his rivals, per the Times. However, “his monotonous responses didn’t inspire much of a response from the audience either,” per Vox. According to the Washington Post, DeSantis needed to make a splash, but didn’t and “ceded center stage to [Vivek] Ramaswamy for most of the night.”
  • Vivek Ramaswamy: Much criticism was directed at the political newbie who’s risen to third place in recent polls, but he was “unfazed,” per the Post. He actually seemed “to enjoy being attacked as much as he appeared to relish going after experienced candidates over their records,” per the Times. He was highly visible and spoke often, which made him a “big winner” in the eyes of Republican lobbyist David Urban. But his “Trump-lite grenade-slinging schtick grew tedious” and “he started to get booed with more frequency after he declared that climate change was a ‘hoax,'” per Vox.
  • Nikki Haley: The former South Carolina governor and ambassador to the UN “stood out … as a voice of reason,” particularly when she challenged Ramaswamy’s lack of foreign policy experience, per the Times. She spoke up on abortion, stressing the effect political decisions have on women, which made her deserving of “a second look,” according to former Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway. She was also “first to criticize Trump by name” and “one of the few candidates to acknowledge that climate change is real,” per CNN. She “presented the most compelling vision of an alternative Republican politics, at least for a general election,” per the Economist.
  • Trump: “It could scarcely have turned out better for [Trump],” per the Post. The big risk in not participating was being unable to defend himself against attacks. But the candidates largely ignored him and Ramaswamy frequently defended him. The biggest shots came when former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie claimed Trump’s conduct was “beneath the office of the president” and Haley criticized nearly $8 trillion of federal spending during his presidency. Still, “no candidate emerged as a clear alternative,” making Trump “the clear winner,” per Vox.
  • Others: In attacking Trump and sparring with Trump’s defender Ramaswamy, Christie ran afoul of the crowd of 4,000, who drowned him out with boos, per CNN. Neither former Vice President Mike Pence nor South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott “really showed much,” per the Post. Scott “was largely a spectator,” while “Pence tried to make the case that he is the tried-and-true conservative in the race, but he seemed to be making a case to a Republican Party that doesn’t really exist anymore.”

This whole process was about as thrilling as watching flies mate.

Now aren’t you glad that there is a politics nerd to help you in this time of comic reactions?

Turn The Page!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

In A Blaze Of Glory

News breaks that the leader of the Wagner Group may have died in a fiery plane crash…..

Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin is believed to be dead following the crash of a private jet in Russia’s Tver Oblast. Russian authorities told the media that Prigozhin was listed as a passenger of the plane and that all 10 people onboard were killed in the crash.

“The Embraer plane was flying out of Sheremetyevo to St. Petersburg. There were three crew and seven passengers on board. They all died,” Russia’s Emergencies Ministry told TASS.

Russia’s Federal Air Transport Agency said that “an investigation of the Embraer plane crash that happened in the Tver Region this evening was initiated. According to the passenger list, first and last name of Yevgeny Prigozhin was included in this list.”

A video circulating on social media purports to show the plane falling from the sky, and other videos show a devastating wreck. A Wagner-linked Telegram claimed Russian air defenses downed the plane, but nothing is confirmed, and other Russian channels speculated a bomb may have been planted onboard.

Russia’s Federal Air Transport Agency published the list of all the passengers who were also on the plane. The list includes Dmitry Utkin, a Wagner commander who is believed to be a co-founder of the mercenary group.

The incident occurred just two days after a video of Prigozhin was posted on Telegram, where he appeared to be in Africa. In the video, he vowed to make Africa “more free” and “Russia even greater on every continent.”

Before the video, which was posted on Monday, Prigozhin had stayed relatively out of the public eye after his short-lived mutiny against Russia’s military establishment was put down in June.

The downing of the plane came after reports surfaced that Gen. Sergei Surovikin, who is suspected of having foreknowledge of Prigozhin’s uprising, was removed from his position as the head of Russian Aerospace Forces.

When asked by reporters about the news, President Biden said he didn’t know what happened but that he was “not surprised.”

(antiwar.com)

And I bet you thought that all was forgiven by Putin, huh?

At least this opponent did not fall out a window.

Is he is or is he ain’t?

Any thoughts?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Second Amendment Week

Here in Mississippi we have a special tax free week for the buying of guns and ammo…..and we are in the middle of that tax free week.

A sales tax holiday is an annual event during which the Mississippi Department of Revenue allows certain items to be purchased sales-tax-free at any participating retailer within the state.

Mississippi allows you to purchase the following items tax-free during their annual sales tax holidays: $100 worth of clothing and footwear in July; all firearms, ammunition, archery, and certain hunting supplies in September.  (we got started early this year)

The September firearms and hunting supplies sales tax holiday is officially called the Mississippi Second Amendment Weekend (MSAW).

This is not something new….Mississippi has had an annual “Second Amendment” sales tax holiday since 2014. This tax holiday is meant to encourage participation in the upcoming hunting season, and enables sportsmen to purchase guns, ammunition, and other hunting supplies tax-free. 

There you go an incentive for people to buy more guns and ammo….just what this state needs….more idiots packing heat in a time when we have a major problem with gun violence….it all seems so logical (sarcasm)….

I do not know if other states have this benefit for gun lovers….I just know that my state does not need an incentive to sell more guns.

But what can I expect from a deep Red State where logic is a dirty word.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

When Did Climate Weaponize?

My granddaughter asked this the other day….and me being an old fart I tried to explain it to her…she knew that I had been around in the early days of the debate.

I explained that it pretty much began in earnest in 1973 with the formation of the Heritage Foundation, a GOP think tank…..and in 1981 they offered up the first of the conservative programs that become the platforms for candidates and elected officials….

Not much has changed in all these years….the newest incarnation of their ‘policies’,

The Heritage Foundation’s 2025 Presidential Transition Project released the ninth edition of Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise in April, and that mandate includes significant rollbacks to federal efforts to tackle the climate emergency, as E&E News reported Wednesday.

“Make no mistake: this is a battle plan,” End Climate Silence founding director Genevieve Guenther tweeted in response to the news. “The war being waged is against our children’s future.”

The document would essentially serve as a policy blueprint for the first 180 days if Trump—or another Republican—were to gain control of the White House in January 2025, as E&E News explained. Climate and environmental rollbacks in the document include

  • Axing the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy and Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations;
  • Stopping the focus on “grid expansion for the benefit of renewable resources or supporting low/carbon generation” and instead expanding natural gas infrastructure and overall fossil fuel use;
  • Downsizing Environmental Protection Agency (EPA offices including the Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights, the Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assistance, and the Office of Public Engagement and Environmental Education;
  • Preventing other states from adapting California’s stricter environmental standards for greenhouse gases; and
  • Banning the use of scientific studies including private health data in setting EPA regulations.
  • (commondreams.org)

More than 400 people contributed ideas to the final document, which was written by former Trump staffers, industry lobbyists and consultants, and conservative policy experts. The section on the DOE was penned by Trump Federal Energy Regulatory Commission appointee Bernard McNamee, while the EPA section was written by Mandy Gunasekara, who served as the agency’s chief of staff under Trump.

The document doesn’t limit itself to climate and energy policy, but rather contains a chapter on each of the major federal departments.

So when asked who weaponized the climate then you have your answer….The Heritage Foundation.

Behind all the lies and denials of the GOP stands the Heritage to offer disinformation to help make a spurious case.

Then there is social media which these days is leading the charge on disinformation…..YouTube is a major contributor to this situation…..

Google-owned YouTube is again facing allegations of profiting from not enforcing its own ban on the monetization of climate misinformation, this time in a report published Friday amid legislative battles in Brazil over policies on the Amazon rainforest, Indigenous rights, and social media.

Google announced in October 2021 that for advertisers and publishers along with creators on its video platform YouTube, the company would “prohibit ads for, and monetization of, content that contradicts well-established scientific consensus around the existence and causes of climate change.”

For four weeks, researchers with Ekō—a group formerly known as SumOfUs that works to curb the power of big corporations—reviewed 60 YouTube videos in English and Portuguese that contained disinformation and conspiracy theories about Amazon deforestation, Indigenous rights, and the climate emergency.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/youtube-climate-disinformation

I made my thoughts known on this debate 10 years ago….

Climate Change Debate

We have been waiting for an honest debate on the climate since 1977….and we wait….and wait….

Turn The Page!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

2024–A Look Ahead

I know the general election is a couple of months down the road…..but the way this situation is setting up there are a few things we need to look at before the day.

Let’s say that Biden runs against Trump and wins (again)…..but with all the leis about a stolen election will repeat itself and grow louder.

Could we have yet another insurrection similar to 06 January?

I think not. Those mental midgets may have learned a valuable lesson. No I think it will be more of a legislative assault of the election results. By that I mean there is a chance that some states could actually succeed where the rabid mob failed.

Late last month, in one of its final acts of the term, the Supreme Court queued up another potentially precedent-wrecking decision for next year. The Court’s agreement to hear Moore v. Harper, a North Carolina redistricting case, isn’t just bad news for efforts to control gerrymandering. The Court’s right-wing supermajority is poised to let state lawmakers overturn voters’ choice in presidential elections.

To understand the stakes, and the motives of Republicans who brought the case, you need only one strategic fact of political arithmetic. Six swing states—Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona, Georgia, and North Carolina—are trending blue in presidential elections but ruled by gerrymandered Republican state legislatures. No comparable red-trending states are locked into Democratic legislatures.

Joe Biden won five of those six swing states in 2020. Donald Trump then tried and failed, lawlessly, to muscle the GOP state legislators into discarding Biden’s victory and appointing Trump electors instead. The Moore case marks the debut in the nation’s highest court of a dubious theory that could give Republicans legal cover in 2024 to do as Trump demanded in 2020. And if democracy is subverted in just a few states, it can overturn the election nationwide.

Republican lawyers, taking note of their structural advantage among battleground-state lawmakers, set forth the “independent state legislature” (ISL) doctrine. The doctrine is based on a tendentious reading of two constitutional clauses, which assign control of the “Manner” of congressional elections and the appointment of presidential electors in each state to “the Legislature thereof.” Based on that language, the doctrine proposes that state lawmakers have virtually unrestricted power over elections and electors. State courts and state constitutions, by this reading, hold no legitimate authority over legislatures in the conduct of their U.S. constitutional functions.

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/07/moore-harper-scotus-independent-state-legislature-election-power/670992/

There is a real possibility that SCOTUS will help in the desire for the election to be overturned….

The voter needs to consider many things before they vote (most do not) and now there is more that they need to be aware of before they vote.

Pay attention and vote for the country not some orange tinted dipshit.

Turn The Page!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Trump By A Landslide!

There are some that feel that we should just accept the fact that Trump will win in 2024….I am not one of those….but that aside the landslide I am referring to is that on the GOP nomination….some think that part of the process is over….

When former President Trump confirmed on Sunday that he would be skipping this week’s Republican debate, he cited a new CBS News poll reaffirming that he has a big lead in the race. Trump was not exaggerating the point. His lead over the Republican challengers has only grown as his legal troubles have expanded:

  • Not a close second: Trump is at 62%, with Ron DeSantis in second at 16%.
  • The others: Everyone else is in single digits; Vivek Ramaswamy (7%), Mike Pence (5%), Tim Scott (3%), Nikki Haley (3%), Chris Christie (2%), Doug Burgum (1%), and Asa Hutchinson (1%).
  • Back off: A whopping 91% of respondents in the poll of likely GOP voters say the non-Trump candidates should not attack the former president in Wednesday’s debate and instead focus on making the case for themselves.
  • Belief: 77% say the best explanation of the most recent indictment of Trump—allegations that he attempted to illegally overturn election results in Georgia—is that it is “politically motivated.” Only 8% think the claim is true, and the rest think it’s a little bit of both.
  • Biden: Most GOP voters say Trump has the best chance to unseat President Biden. Trump at 61% is followed by DeSantis (35%), Scott (20%), Ramaswamy (18%), Haley (14%), and Pence (14%).
  • Not so fast: The Atlantic takes note of a different survey suggesting that Trump’s legal troubles might yet cost him support among Republican voters. The premise is that the standard way most polls ask the question leads to answers biased in Trump’s favor.

Predictions are dire for this country….but how can the GOP find a good candidate for the country?

New Hampshire’s Republican governor, Chris Sununu, is not running for president this year, but he has some blunt advice for most of the GOP candidates not named Donald Trump: Get ready to drop out soon. For instance, anyone who doesn’t qualify for the first two debates should exit the stage, he writes in a New York Timesessay. Ditto for anyone still polling in the single digits around Christmas. The governor, who opposes Trump’s reelection, says the former president is a lock to win the nomination if the field remains large. Specifically, Sununu says it must narrow to three or four candidates after Iowa and before his own state’s primary.

“Provided the field shrinks by Iowa and New Hampshire, Mr. Trump loses,” writes Sununu. “He will always have his die-hard base, but the majority is up for grabs. Candidates who seize on the opportunity and present a clear contrast to the former president will earn the votes.” As for all those national polls showing Trump with a seemingly insurmountable lead, Sununu calls them “meaningless” at this stage. “It’s a reflection of the national conversation, name ID, and who is top of mind—not where the momentum is headed.”

Read the governor’s full essay

Can Trump be put in his place?  Can the GOP really find an alternative to the hatred and bile of another Trump candidacy.

I think he can be beat but it will have to take someone stepping forward and showing some guts….is that possible?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

The Constitution And Originalism

Note:  This is a post from my secondary blog, Gulf South Free Press….I am re-posting it here for all those readers that may not follow my other blog.

College of Political Knowledge

Subject:  US Constitution

There are those that feel the US Constitution should be interpreted as it is written….these people are called “Originalists”…..

But what does that really mean?

Originalism is a theory of the interpretation of legal texts, including the text of the Constitution. Originalists believe that the constitutional text ought to be given the original public meaning that it would have had at the time that it became law. The original meaning of constitutional texts can be discerned from dictionaries, grammar books, and from other legal documents from which the text might be borrowed. It can also be inferred from the background legal events and public debate that gave rise to a constitutional provision. The original meaning of a constitutional text is an objective legal construct like the reasonable man standard in tort law, which judges a person’s actions based on whether an ordinary person would consider them reasonable, given the situation. It exists independently of the subjective “intentions” of those who wrote the text or of the “original expected applications” that the Framers of a constitutional text thought that it would have.

Originalism is the idea that we should interpret the Constitution with its original meaning. But what, exactly, is the Constitution’s “original meaning”?

Some originalists argue it’s the meaning as understood by those who ratified the Constitution in the various state conventions, or the public that elected those ratifiers. Others say it’s the understanding of a reasonable, well-educated reader. Still other scholars claim the Constitution is written in legal language and should be interpreted with its original “legal” meaning. With this approach, for example, the term “ex post facto laws” likely refers only to retroactive criminal laws, and not to all retroactive laws.

I bring all this up because the SCOTUS of today is loaded with so-called ‘originalists’ and that could have a lasting influence over American society for decades.

Does ‘originalism’ have a place in our history?

I think not because the Founders were smarter than to believe that the ideas they put forward would last an eternity…..

But I am not alone…..

Columbia Law Review published one of the most important and topical scholarly articles in recent memory, “Delegation at the Founding.” Its authors, Julian Davis Mortenson and Nicholas Bagley, put forth a sweeping argument: They assert that an ascendant legal theory championed by conservative originalists has no actual basis in history. That theory, called the nondelegation doctrine, holds that the Constitution puts strict limits on Congress’ ability to let the executive branch set rules and regulations. Congress, for instance, could not direct the Environmental Protection Agency to set air quality standards that “protect public health,” and let the agency decide what limits on pollution are necessary to meet that goal. Nondelegation doctrine has enormous consequences for the federal government’s ability to function, since Congress typically sets broad goals and directs agencies to figure out how to achieve them. The theory is supported by a majority of the current Supreme Court; in 2019, Justice Neil Gorsuch signaled his eagerness to apply the doctrine, and at least four other conservative justices have joined his crusade.

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2021/03/neil-gorsuch-nondelegation-bagley-mortenson.html

What do you think?

Was the Constitution meant to last an eternity or were the Founders just giving us a guideline to follow and never meant to be eternal?

For instance the 2nd amendment…..when written we were using muskets for protection and providing meat for the table…..did the Founders foresee the advancements is firearms or is it up to changes as the weapons change?

Thoughts?

Be Smart!

Learn Stuff!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Once Upon A Time In The East

There was this minor mash-up that sent the whole world into a patriotic fervor……so much so that countries invested billions in the probable outcome.

Then when all was mundane the news came of the great ‘counteroffensive’ to end the troubling conflict…..and this is where I pick up with this post….

After more than two months of fighting, Ukraine has failed to make a major breakthrough in its counteroffensive and American intelligence officials now believe it won’t meet its main objective, the Washington Post reports, citing sources in the intelligence community. The Post’s sources say US officials have predicted that the Ukrainian push won’t reach the Russian-occupied southeastern city of Melitopol, meaning they won’t be able to cut Russia’s land bridge to Crimea. The officials believe that Ukrainian forces, now more than 50 miles away from the city considered the “gateway to Crimea,” won’t be able to get through defensive lines a few miles away from the city.

While the fact that early assessments were overoptimistic may cause some finger-pointing in Washington, Gen. Mark A. Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, tells the Post that the counteroffensive is unfolding as he had predicted. It’s “long, bloody and slow, and it’s a very, very difficult fight,” he says. Nico Lange, a Ukraine expert at the Munich Security Conference, tells the Economist that over the last two weeks, things have “been gradually tipping in Ukraine’s favor,” with forces slowly making progress and longer-range munitions taking out Russian command centers. “The Russians are in pretty rough shape,” Milley says. “They’ve suffered a huge amount of casualties. Their morale is not great.”

The biggest obstacle for Ukrainian forces has been what the Economist calls “some of the most heavily mined areas in the history of warfare,” with up to five mines per square meter in some areas. Ukraine is short on mine-clearing equipment and soldiers clearing mines have been taking heavy casualties. Analysts say, however, that if Ukraine can get through the first Russian defensive line, the second and third lines may turn out to be brittle. The defense ministers of the Netherlands and Denmark said Friday that the US has given its approval to deliver long-awaited F-16s to Ukraine, the AP reports, though they won’t be delivered in time to be used in this year’s offensive.

So has the ‘counteroffensive’ been a dud?

According to the Washington Post, the US intelligence community has assessed that Ukraine’s Spring counteroffensive will fail to meet its core objectives. Western officials said their war games had predicted massive Ukrainian losses, but that Kyiv would remain committed to the operations and gain the upper hand on the battlefield.

The Post reports it spoke with Western and Ukrainian officials familiar with the intelligence assessment. Washington declined to offer an official statement on the bleak outlook for Ukrainian forces.

Washington hoped Kyiv’s forces would recapture Melitopol, a Ukrainian city near the Sea of Azov in the country’s south. However, Moscow has several layers of defenses and minefields defending the town.

Western countries helped Kyiv conduct simulations of the counteroffensive, which began in early June, for several months prior to the operations. The US and UK concluded that Ukrainian forces would suffer massive losses but believed Kyiv would ignore the losses and maintain the offensive at full scale.

…

The lack of success by Ukrainian forces is creating political issues for the White House. The Post reports that some Republicans are turning against approving Joe Biden’s proposed $24 billion aid package to Ukraine after they learned of the grim intelligence assessment.

(antiwar.com)

Even doe hard warmongers are seeing the fruitless endeavor of this war….

Rep. Andy Harris (R-MD), a co-chair of the congressional Ukraine Caucus, said this week that he’s not sure if the Ukraine war is “winnable” and called for the US to pressure Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to pursue peace talks.

Harris is also a member of the Freedom Caucus, which has many members who have opposed US support for Ukraine. But Harris has been a staunch supporter of the proxy war against Russia throughout the conflict.

“Is this more a stalemate? Should we be realistic about it? I think we probably should,” Harris said at a town hall on Tuesday night, according to POLITICO. Discussing the Ukrainian counteroffensive, Harris said, “I’ll be blunt, it’s failed.”

“I’m not sure it’s winnable anymore,” Harris added. His comments are a sign that the new $24 billion in spending on the Ukraine war that the White House has asked Congress to approve won’t receive as much support as previous packages.

(antiwar.com)

Even some NATO officials are seeing the inevitable close of this conflict…..

A NATO official has suggested Ukraine could cede some territory to Russia in exchange for joining the Western military alliance.

The comments were made on Tuesday by Stian Jenssen, chief of staff for NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, and reported by the Norwegian newspaper VG. “I think that a solution could be for Ukraine to give up territory, and get NATO membership in return,” he said, adding that it should be up to Ukraine when and on what terms to negotiate.

Jenssen said the issue of Ukraine’s status after the war is being discussed within the alliance and that some countries have raised the possibility of Kyiv ceding some territory. The comments come as the Ukrainian counteroffensive is stalling, and Western officials are admitting it’s very unlikely to succeed.

The comments mark the first time that a high-level NATO official suggested Ukraine might have to cede territory to Russia. The US and NATO have backed Ukraine’s demands for peace, which include Russia withdrawing from all the territory it has captured since invading, as well as giving up Crimea, which has been Russian-controlled since 2014.

(antiwar.com)

To push back on the comment above….the Supreme leader of NATO had to keep the home fires burning by stating…..

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg on Thursday said that only Ukraine can decide when to enter peace talks to end the war with Russia and vowed the alliance’s support for an open-ended conflict.

“It is the Ukrainians, and only the Ukrainians, who can decide when there are conditions in place for negotiations and who can decide at the negotiating table what is an acceptable solution,” Stoltenberg said.

His comments came after his chief of staff, Stian Jenssen, drew a backlash for suggesting on Tuesday that Ukraine could cede territory to Russia in exchange for NATO membership, an idea both Ukrainian and Russian officials scoffed at. Jenssen appeared to walk back his comments on Wednesday, saying he made a “mistake.”

Stoltenberg said that the only path to a settlement is “to support Ukraine militarily. If you want a lasting, just peace, then military support for Ukraine is the way to get there. There is no doubt about that.” The NATO chief has made similar comments throughout the war and previously said sending more weapons is the quickest path toward peace.

(antiwar.com)

“If you want a lasting, just peace, then military support for Ukraine is the way to get there”…..that is like saying the only way to preserve virginity is through fornicating.

Enough already!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”