Tom Elliott @tomselliott
·
Heard Dean: “We have to change [our Constitution]. Our foundational electoral system was affected very much by slavery. This was an effort by the small states, & the slave states to make sure they didn’t lose their influence.”

9:22 AM · Sep 28, 2024 //

Dean, saying the electoral system "was affected... by slavery" is a canard. He is, of course, referring to the infamous 3/5 compromise, which was adopted to prevent the slave-holding states from having an outsized representation by including bondsmen in the tally for the basis of apportionment. That argument has made zero sense since 1865.
Yes, there is an effort by the small states to make sure we don't lose our influence. Most of the country doesn't want to be ruled by Boston, New York, Chicago, and the liberal areas of California. That's why our electoral system works the way it does; that's why the Senate works the way it does, with every state, no matter how small or large, having the same representation. That is anti-democratic by design. That is why the United States is not a democracy. We never were a democracy. We never will be a democracy. //

mopani
a few minutes ago
This wasn't ignorance any more than push polls are really telling us what people think: this is an attempt to get the low info voters outraged and influence how they view the Electoral system.

This is a setup to justify outrage for when Trump has an electoral landslide and still loses "the popular vote" because New York, California, Detroit, and Chicago count 200% of their registered voters.

There are a few unshakable rules in political discourse - only a few, but there are some that never seem to be broken. One of these rules is that it is always the left, never the right, that calls for trashing the Constitution when they don't get their way. This is a fundamental law of the universe, which shall henceforth be known as "Clark's Law of Leftists Destroying the Village to Save It." //

The latest example? As our sister site Twitchy informs us, leftist lunatic Fran Lebowitz, on Bill Maher's HBO show, "Real Time," has called for President Biden to - get this - dissolve the Supreme Court. //

Brent Baker 🇺🇦 🇮🇱 @BrentHBaker
·
Bill Maher guest Fran Lebowitz declares SCOTUS is “so disgraceful it shouldn’t even be allowed to be called the Supreme Court, it’s an insult to Motown...It’s Trump’s harem.” President “Biden should dissolve the Supreme Court.” #StartTheClock

10:46 PM · Sep 27, 2024 //

As for Lebowitz, I'll offer her this challenge, the same one I offer to whiners who complain about the Second Amendment:

Fran, go ahead and propose a constitutional amendment to remove the Supreme Court. Pitch it to whoever your Congressional representative is. See how far you get. Because that's what you'll have to do, and I would remind you that even if you get Congress to go along - doubtful - you will have to gain the ratification of 38 of the 50 states. //

Smiling Alley Cat
8 hours ago
As she bashed the court the audience cheered her. Let that sink in as we need to identify our enemies.

The Shot Heard ‘Round The World.

On a cool Massachusetts morning, April 19, 1775, a group of farmers, tradesmen, and other “Minutemen” led by Captain John Parker, gathered on Lexington Commons to…express umbrage at the British Crown’s illegal attempt to confiscate Colonial Weapons.

“Stand your ground. Don’t fire unless fired upon, but if they mean to have a war let it begin here,” declared Parker.

No one knows who fired the first shot, but at the end of the battle, eight Americans lay dead and as many wounded. This came to be known as the “shot heard ‘round the World” and the de facto beginning of the American Revolution.

Fast forward to today—current Vice President and Democrat nominee for President, Kamala Harris again voices a desire to violate an enumerated constitutional right.

The Second Amendment, arguably written with Lexington in mind, is still the only one we need “permission” to exercise and is still under constant attack by the left. That’s generating backlash among popularly elected local Sheriffs, reports The Wall Street Journal. From the article.

The “Second Amendment sanctuary” movement has taken hold in more than 100 counties in several states, including New Mexico and Illinois, where local law-enforcement and county leaders are saying they won’t enforce new legislation that infringes on the constitutional right to bear arms.

This isn’t a “one-of,” issue—we’re talking about over 100 counties across several states. This indicates widespread popular support, support that is galvanizing locally elected Law Enforcement Officials to take notice—and take action. //

Predictably, there has been the mandatory hue and cry from the left, declaring those Sheriffs to be lawless rogues. Strangely enough, this from locales that support sanctuary cities for illegal aliens. Of course, their screeching is without basis. First of all, the local Sheriffs are on pretty solid Constitutional ground.

The “sanctuary” term has most often been applied to immigration. But there are several different types of sanctuary cities – one of which is related to protecting Second Amendment rights. Indeed, over 61 percent of counties in America have declared themselves sanctuaries for gun rights. This means sheriffs and other local law enforcement would refuse to enforce unconstitutional restrictions on firearms coming from state and local governments.

An example would be what happened in Illinois when its government passed an assault weapons ban. Over half of the state’s sheriffs announced they would refuse to enforce the measure. While these counties did not necessarily declare themselves to be sanctuaries, the nullification principle was in action. //

Trump’s vow to end sanctuary cities will have more ramifications than he likely intends. Sure, it would make it easier to track down illegal immigrants – perhaps dangerous ones. But what is to keep a Democratic president from using this as a precedent to crack down on Second Amendment sanctuaries? //

This is why all politics is local. The governments that are closest to us should have the most say over what rules we choose to live under – not politicians in Washington, D.C. The last thing we want is for the federal government to be empowered to go after cities whose elected leaders uphold the Second Amendment – or other natural rights guaranteed in the Constitution. //

Anna DM
8 hours ago
I respectfully disagree. Illegal aliens are, well, illegal and so cutting off the funding to localities that endorse and support illegal activities is perfectly sane and rational. Gun ownership in the US is protected by the 2A. If some localities decide to disobey the 2A (placing unconstitutional prohibitions on the right to keep and bear arms) and then subunits within that locality decide to disobey the disobeying entity, that's not a sanctuary situation. That's a (very constitutional) middle finger to the entity that is disobeying the constitution. In the end, the courts generally overrule such unlawful incursions against the 2A. The two examples are not the same thing, IMO.

I say defund the sanctuary cities as regards illegal aliens. //

Terrible System
8 hours ago
2nd Amendment sanctuary cities are set up to protect clear 2nd Amendment rights. Immigration sanctuary cities are set up t0 abet violations of federal immigration law, which is clearly within the purview of the federal government to enforce.

There is no legitimate comparison here.

the Electoral College was not just provided for on a whim; the framers spent many hours and days debating the way we should elect our president. Among other goals, they were trying to balance out the popular vote in order to make sure that the most populous regions didn't simply overpower the rest of the country:

The Founding Fathers established the Electoral College in the Constitution, in part, as a compromise between the election of the President by a vote in Congress and election of the President by a popular vote of qualified citizens. However, the term “electoral college” does not appear in the Constitution. Article II of the Constitution and the 12th Amendment refer to “electors,” but not to the “electoral college.” //

There are many reasons why simply abolishing the College might sound good but actually have unintended consequences. Here are some common arguments for keeping it as it was intended:

• The Electoral College ensures that all parts of the country are involved in selecting the President of the United States...

• The Electoral College was created to protect the voices of the minority from being overwhelmed by the will of the majority...

• The Electoral College can preclude calls for recounts or demands for run-off elections, giving certainty to presidential elections...

Raskin and the Democrats hate the Electoral College because it tries to give a regional balance to our presidential elections and helps smaller states have a say, not just blue behemoths like California and New York.

Brian Taber @socalcg69
·
Rep. Jamie Raskin slams Electoral College as an 'obsolete' and deadly system. What an Idiot. The founding fathers knew from history that people migrate to the Coast and Big Cities. The Electoral College was for the future, like now! 😎
7:15 PM · Sep 13, 2024

etba_ss
4 hours ago
Next up is going after the DOJ, prosecutors and judges who have allowed this gross violation of the Constitution in the first place. There have to be consequences. If not, then it will happen again.

This isn't just about J6. We are seeing the same thing with prolife protesters. We are seeing with Trump on his numerous charges in several states. The "justice" system is out of control. If the people doing this do not face prison themselves, then they will do it again. At the end of the day, these defendants have lost part of their lives they can never get back, not to mention the money, stress, etc. What do the prosecutors, judges and DOJ officials lose? Nothing. Maybe a bit of embarrassment, that they really don't care about because they are heroes in their circles for trying.

Without consequences, real and severe, we will just get more of this. //

etba_ss Laocoön of Troy
an hour ago
Ultimately to quote John Adams, "Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other."

Our ultimate problem is that we lack the morality as a society to function under our Constitution. In the end, the Constitution is a piece of paper. It is only as valid as the will of the people to ensure that it is upheld. We are not a nation of laws, but a nation of political will. If the people lack the political will to demand the Constitution be followed, then it is null and void for all practical purposes.

In the past, if someone stepped way out of line of the Constitution, such as prosecuting political enemies, the bulk of the country would not put up with it and would throw that person and their allies out of power. It harkens back to Adams' words. The people have a higher authority that politics or the Constitution. They would call out their own side if required. The left has no limits. They are Voldemort, "There is no good or evil, there is only power."

If appealed, I think it is likely that the SCOTUS will deny certiorari. California and Hawaii will continue to restrict citizens from carrying in public and it seems likely that state legislatures, hostile to the 2nd Amendment will deem more areas “sensitive” making concealed carry permits almost useless in some states.

What has been constantly and conveniently ignored by state legislators and courts in California and Hawaii is that citizens who take the time and effort to get a concealed carry permit aren’t abusing it – or shooting people in public without good cause.

And criminals don’t apply for concealed carry permits because - they are criminals. //

Black Magic
an hour ago
Thank God I live in PA which has extremely good concealed carry regulations, though I still question why the other Constitutional Rights are not so encumbered, i.e., I don't think there should be such encumbrances on our Constitutional Rights.

Having said that, I am still anticipating when it is finally adjudicated and approved by the Supreme Court that it is unconstitutional to halt my concealed carry rights at the state line and I am still wondering why it is that, I believe it is the 14 Amendment (which ensures equal protection), insures interstate cooperation in licensing driving for instance, but stops my ability to defend myself when I leave my state.

Trump has previously said he felt this should be addressed and corrected and I look forward to that.

The framers knew full well that many rights would face perpetual jeopardy, and by enshrining them in the Constitution and creating a system that divided power both between branches and between state and federal governments, they had crafted the surest check possible against future infringement.

While the separation of powers in the national government is often touted in civics and by politicians of all stripes, the federal system, with its two sovereigns — federal and state — is increasingly ignored or forgotten. States absolutely have the power to protect the people if the federal government is violating their rights. This is precisely what Missouri did in enacting SAPA.

Missouri’s law was a clear shot across the bow in the brewing debate over gun control at the federal level and how states could respond. These lawmakers, and leaders such as former Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt and current Attorney General Andrew Bailey, foresaw the danger of a Harris presidency before it was even conceived.

These leaders made clear to current and would-be federal tyrants that Missouri would protect the “promise of liberty” and fight to preserve the critical “tension between federal and state power.” It is a much-needed check against tyranny and abuse, as the U.S. Supreme Court has previously affirmed. Groups such as Gun Owners of America have aggressively supported SAPA and encourage Missouri to stick to their guns by seeking full review of this terrible decision by the U.S. Supreme Court.

This statement caught many by surprise because of the commonly held belief that a guilty plea forecloses any appeal. But, while a plea forecloses most issues that might be raised on appeal, it does not foreclose all of them. Lowell, an experienced and able lawyer, understands this and clearly plans to pursue an appeal to overturn Biden’s tax convictions.

In federal court, the vast majority of guilty pleas are entered pursuant to plea agreements between the government and the defendant, in which the government makes certain concessions such as dropping some charges or agreeing to limits on the sentence. In return, the government usually demands that the defendant waive the right to all appeals, and to habeas corpus filings post-conviction. //

Thus, in most cases, a guilty plea in federal court does mean that there will be no appeal.

Further, because a waiver of appeal rights is standard in most plea agreements, the federal rule of criminal procedure governing pleas requires the court to address this issue and ensure that the defendant understands that he or she is waiving the right to appeal – but only if there is a plea agreement that addresses waiving appellate rights. //

The law provides that unqualified guilty pleas do constitute a waiver of the right to appeal the vast majority of claims that there were defects or errors in the case prior to the plea. Thus, defendants cannot appeal on any ground that challenges factual guilt, evidentiary errors, procedural errors, and even most constitutional errors.

Defendants can still appeal certain kinds of claims even with a guilty plea, however. These exceptions to the usual rule that the plea waives the right to appeal basically fall into three categories.

First, a defendant can almost always appeal on the grounds that the court itself lacked jurisdiction over the case. //

Secondly, the defendant can appeal based on claims that the government lacked the power to prosecute the person in the first place. These are usually constitutional claims, such as immunity, double jeopardy, selective prosecution, or an argument that the charged statute is unconstitutional in some way. These appeals are permitted because they question the legality of the prosecution itself, not whether the person engaged in the charged conduct.

Thirdly, the law provides that the right to appeal certain defects in a criminal case simply cannot be waived by a defendant, whether there is a plea agreement or not. These issues lie at the heart of the functioning of the criminal justice system. So, for example, a defendant cannot waive the right to appeal an illegal sentence (such as one that exceeds the statutory maximum), or the ineffective assistance of the defense lawyer, or misconduct by the prosecutor in the case or the plea bargaining process.

“What the f*** are you talking about? Yeah. One of the biggest threats to America’s politics might be one of the greatest documents that any country has ever found on, if not the greatest ever. That could be a threat to America’s politics. What politics are we talking about? How could you possibly gaslight me enough to go along with you on this?" //

Watch @JoeRogan EXPLODE on this insane New York Times article that argues the Constitution is “dangerous.”

“What the f—k are you talking about?!”

HEADLINE: “The Constitution is sacred. Is it also dangerous? One of the biggest threats to America's politics might be the country's… pic.twitter.com/GuIhQNmSEm

— The Vigilant Fox 🦊 (@VigilantFox) September 4, 2024. //

“Trump owes his political ascent to the Constitution, making him a beneficiary of a document that is essentially antidemocratic and, in this day and age, increasingly dysfunctional,” she wrote. //

Folks making these types of arguments rarely do so because they believe the Constitution does not make us free enough. Rather, they might prefer a document that grants the government even more authority to intrude in our lives and infringe on our natural rights. In the end, any legal document or ideology that limits this authority is dangerous only to those seeking to wield state power to force their will on the rest of us. //

DK1969
9 hours ago
I thought it was pretty simple. If you don't like/agree with Constitution, you have two options: work to amend it through the process, we already have or renounce your citizenship and leave. None of the countries comprising the rest of the world have our Constitution so, the choices are endless. May I personally suggest China, Russia, N. Korea or Iran. Choose one and go.

The Swiss are renowned for crafting the finest watches in the world, such as the Patek Philippe. The Swiss are now credited with inventing the most effective fiscal rules in the world, the Swiss debt brake.

The debt brake was enacted as a constitutional fiscal rule through referendum in 2001, with support from 85 percent of Swiss citizens. Like many countries, the Swiss have encountered recessions accompanied by unsustainable growth in debt. The debt brake was enacted to impose more effective constraints on federal spending and restore sustainable levels of debt. Over the past two decades, the Swiss cut debt as a share of national income roughly in half. //

Like a Swiss watch, the debt brake has several parts that are synchronized to constrain fiscal policies. The most important part is a rule that constrains the growth in federal spending to the rate of growth in potential output. This means that in the long term the federal government cannot grow more rapidly than the private sector.

Another rule is designed to stabilize spending over the business cycle. The federal government can incur deficits in periods of recession but must offset those deficits with surplus revenue in periods of economic growth. The rules cap deficit spending. If the deficits exceed 6 percent of expenditures, the excess must be eliminated within the next three annual budgets by lowering the expenditure ceiling. A compensation account is used to track deficits and surpluses over time. //

The debt brake has fostered fundamental reforms in the budget process in Switzerland. Before the debt brake was enacted, the Swiss relied on a bottom-up approach to budgeting. Each ministry proposed its own budget, and these were then aggregated into a total budget. Bottom-up budgeting is biased toward deficit spending, as each ministry lobbies for its own programs. The debt brake requires top-down budgeting. The finance minister is now required to draft a budget that conforms to debt brake rules, and that budget is then broken down into separate budgets for each ministry. //

The Swiss debt brake has proven to be the most effective of the new generation of fiscal rules enacted in developed countries. The reason is that it replaces discretionary fiscal policies with rules-based policies. ///

It only works for a moral people who have s conscience.

Viewers now get a steady diet of figures like MSNBC commentator Elie Mystal who called the U.S. Constitution “trash” and argued that we should simply just dump it.

In a New York Times column, “The Constitution Is Broken and Should Not Be Reclaimed,” law professors Ryan D. Doerfler of Harvard and Samuel Moyn of Yale called for the Constitution to be “radically altered” to “reclaim America from constitutionalism.”

Georgetown University Law School Professor Rosa Brooks went on MSNBC’s “The ReidOut” to lash out at Americans becoming “slaves” to the U.S. Constitution and that the Constitution itself is now the problem for the country.

I was recently called for a response to Robinson’s call. Yet, it is not clear if Robinson is speaking about the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution as that “little piece of paper.” However, she insists that “[i]n this moment, we’ve got to reimagine it with people that look and love like us at the center.”

Shiva Ayyadurai is fighting to get on ballots, but the naturalized U.S. citizen from India fails to meet a key constitutional requirement. //

In the complaint, Ayyadurai argued that the First Amendment guarantees his right to run for president regardless of the Constitution’s pesky qualifications. And he asserted that such a qualification has been “abrogated and implicitly repealed” by the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution. //

allowing a foreign-born, naturalized citizen access to the presidential ballot changes the Constitution without the benefit of amendment.

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“You guys have no idea how painful it is to … be forced to watch it all unravel”
Captured my feelings: “You guys have no idea how painful it is to have been young during the absolute peak era of the greatest empire in human history and now be forced to watch it all unravel. The saddest part is that we are doing it to ourselves.” (Peachy Keenan on X)

Posted by William A. Jacobson
Saturday, August 17, 2024 at 08:30pm
99 Comments
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https://twitter.com/stillgray/status/1289512762733785088
On June 25, 2024, I wrote about tweets I saw from Gad Saad, “The West has committed the greatest self-immolation in human history”:

“When the leaders hate their civilization more than their enemies do, the civilization is doomed. Never before has history witnessed such a gargantuan self-inflicted death of a civilization that was an existential light in an otherwise world of historical darkness.”

Remember: War is coming to every corner in the West. It might take 5 days, 5 years, or 50 years but it’s coming. The West has committed the greatest self-immolation in human history. Save this post.

I just saw another series of tweets from an account Peachy Keenan along the same lines, but to me more personal:

You guys have no idea how painful it is to have been young during the absolute peak era of the greatest empire in human history and now be forced to watch it all unravel.

The saddest part is that we are doing it to ourselves.

Absolutely agonizing experience. Like watching the most beautiful person you know slowly mutilate themselves.

The reason everyone on Earth wants to move here is because if you squint your eyes, this country still basically “looks” the same, is still powerful, etc.

But we are running on the fumes of the past.

Paradise is no longer paradise after the barbarians rape, burn, and pillage everything not nailed down. And I’m talking about the barbarians in DC, not the ones galloping over the border.

I feel that sadness frequently.

To have grown up in the late 60s and 70s in hindsight was the best fortune I ever had. I wrote about it when I attended my high school reunion a few years ago, My ’70s Show Revisited – 40th High School Reunion [warning, image of me in a leisure suit, NSFW]:

No high school experience is perfect, but Roslyn and Roslyn High School in the 1970s were great places to grow up….

The Vietnam war wound down just as I was entering high school, and the draft would be abolished just before I would have to enter. Selective service registration was not yet in place, so we were in that gap.

What I most remember was the freedom of movement. “Be home for dinner” was about all the parental monitoring we had. We hitchhiked, hung out at Jones Beach and the Roslyn Duck Pond, and once we got wheels, pretty much roamed around unencumbered.

We didn’t have personal computers (those were just a few years away) though some of my classmates were early tinkerers who went on to great success in computer science. We also didn’t have cell phones — those were more than a few years away, so we weren’t constantly monitored. Thankfully, we also didn’t have social media. Whatever normal cliquish and catty behavior took place wasn’t amplified as it is now.

That’s not to say we didn’t have the usual growing pains, including in high school. But all in all it was a great time and place.

I wish I had the answer to stop the unraveling.

Some replies to the Peachy Keenan tweet, a lot of them seem to be from Gen X-ers, not late stage Boomers like me:

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99 Comments Education, Gad Saad, Higher Education, Immigration
Comments

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6 0rhhardin | August 17, 2024 at 8:38 pm
I take it as more opportunities for irony, satire and the like. Unfortunately 1/3 of the population has no sense of humor and they vote.

Avoid sarcasm though. The humor form of adolescents. And women (“something is wrong and you have to figure out what it is because I can’t be bothered”).

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0 0rhhardin in reply to rhhardin. | August 17, 2024 at 8:41 pm
Need a book like “US Politics and the Rise of Cosmic Irony.”

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0 0Thane_Eichenauer in reply to rhhardin. | August 17, 2024 at 10:12 pm
Read The Wall Speaks by Jerr.
http://TheWallSpeaks.com

@jerr_rrej
·
Jan 12
Here is a list of things that men think are masculine but are feminine:

1. Anger
2. Machismo
3. Lack of sexual restraint
4. “Bravery” in showing emotion
5. Sarcasm

https://x.com/jerr_rrej/status/1745881175443275975

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0 24rabid wombat | August 17, 2024 at 8:39 pm
Someone recently went through a life defining moment rose and said:

‘Fight, fight, fight’

Your choice, fight or roll over and die.

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0 14LukeHandCool | August 17, 2024 at 8:43 pm
I’m the same age as you, Bill, and I saw that tweet earlier today and it hit me the same way, too. It was a great time to grow up (except for 1970s fashion).

Our second grandchild was born on Tuesday, and I worry about the world our grandchildren will live in.

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0 6William A. Jacobson in reply to LukeHandCool. | August 17, 2024 at 8:54 pm
Congratulations! You are catching up to me.

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0 1LukeHandCool in reply to William A. Jacobson. | August 18, 2024 at 12:56 am
I don’t think we’ll ever catch up to you. You had a real baby boom going on in your family!

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0 8Paddy M in reply to LukeHandCool. | August 17, 2024 at 9:07 pm
Maybe conservatives should’ve worked to actually conserve something in the last 30 years.

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0 10ChrisPeters in reply to Paddy M. | August 18, 2024 at 12:22 am
Conservatives did. The problem was that they were under attack from both the Democrats AND the RINO’s.

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0 3rhhardin | August 17, 2024 at 8:53 pm
Western culture is actually being preserved by East Asians (Korea, Japan, China), if you follow classical music on YouTube. They abandon their traditional music and take up excellence in Western classical music owing to its intellectual content. Here four Koreans, e.g., that came up the other day, set to the cool second movement of Debussy’s quartet in g minor.

https://youtu.be/5VMQuHMq8QQ?t=382

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0 0JRaeL in reply to rhhardin. | August 18, 2024 at 12:15 am
Thanks for the link. There are some dang fine Japanese shred guitarists as well. If you also like Western music in a different direction.

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0 1JRaeL in reply to rhhardin. | August 18, 2024 at 12:20 am
Christian imagery and themes are also quiet prevalent in Anime. Which I suppose could be another example of Western culture being preserved by East Asians.

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0 0Dimsdale in reply to rhhardin. | August 18, 2024 at 12:05 pm
My child is in the local high school band, showing enough aptitude to advance to first trumpet after a year of playing.

Then we saw some videos of Japanese high school bands. Simply. Amazing.

And why? They practice, they study. The high school “band” members at her high school are simply trying to get out of gym. Honestly, there are about five members that are good, the rest are a joke. They could be good, but have no desire to do so.

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0 8JohnSmith100 | August 17, 2024 at 9:05 pm
For me growing up was 50s and 60s, I launched my first business in 69. I remember a time when gas was 25 cents a gallon, by 72 I was making and wasting $50 K a year, and lost all of it by 73. Yet I was able to bounce back in a few years.

Those opportunities do not exist today. It is far more difficult to rise above wage slavery.

I am thinking about Soro’s MO, and that he and others are profiting from undermining economies.

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0 3alaskabob in reply to JohnSmith100. | August 17, 2024 at 10:30 pm
50’s and 60’s for me also. Even though times turned tough in the mid=60’s for my Dad and me…. still great times to be alive. There was purpose to and for living. Simpson-Masoli was a major hit. Congress promised only one time… right.

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0 12SRF | August 17, 2024 at 9:06 pm
Yes, it’s unraveling. Our government and societal relationships look like a mash up of late Imperial Rome and a middle school student council. I am a bit older than most of the commenters here. Born in 51 in Ohio, when Detroit was the richest city in the country, and the Great Lakes region was not yet the Rust Belt. Draft lottery #31 in ’69 upon HS graduation, so I was going regardless. Was fortunate enough to get into the Military Academy and spent until 2000 in the Army, probably at the pinnacle of American economic and military and societal power, despite our internal problems. Watched and participated as the Army rebuilt itself after VN — found mission, people, equipment, doctrine, training necessary to establish the best Army in the world. Other services rebuilt and looked ahead as well. Military and other institutions could get things done. Despite the rot beginning in education, US education was the envy of the world and provided innovation, perspective, and the ability to set priorities and also say, “no.” Periodic outbursts across society were largely contained and addressed — sometimes not in the most effective or efficient way. Much less vitriol and parties weren’t completely captured by their respective radical fringes. We had the luxury of being the world’s super/hyper power, but we took it for granted and figured that there was nothing constant that we could not change. Big mistake in perspective on the world. Now and in the future we are going to pay for it. We better learn to recite “Ozymandias.”

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0 2Close The Fed in reply to SRF. | August 17, 2024 at 9:54 pm
The fringes are agitated enough to save us. The moderates are useless.

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0 3Paddy M in reply to Close The Fed. | August 17, 2024 at 10:09 pm
Moderates are definitely useless and have ushered in the current insanity.

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0 2Fuzzy Slippers in reply to Paddy M. | August 17, 2024 at 10:28 pm
I get your point, but if the moderates weren’t moderate, they’d land on one side or the other. Then what?

0 11Paddy M in reply to Fuzzy Slippers. | August 17, 2024 at 10:43 pm
Got me, Fuzzy. If moderates continually vote for communists, then they aren’t really moderate. Harris just proposed price controls and “””moderates””” are still up in the air.

2 4gonzotx in reply to Fuzzy Slippers. | August 18, 2024 at 4:43 am
If you consider yourself a “moderate “ in todays world,

Your just ignorant

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0 12JRaeL in reply to SRF. | August 18, 2024 at 12:31 am
I was telling my daughter today that it used to be that when you were graduated from high-school you were ready to start the adult part of your life. The choices being find full time work, join the military, or college, get married or a combination of those. Now it appears to me that many younger people are in a state of perpetual adolescence. The current state of the economy only makes it harder to leave that. Ask yourself what happens when there are no more grown ups. Political charlatans like Harris find pickings easy enough while there are still some adults to expose them. In a world of teen angst, petulance, and demand for instant gratification they get to become gods.

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0 3Dimsdale in reply to JRaeL. | August 18, 2024 at 12:11 pm
And even more sadly, the faculties of the universities are staffed by people that have no or very little practical experience in the real world. They have been, and remain, perpetual adolescents, asking the government (their parents) for handouts so they can continue their “research” and propagandizing the skulls full of mush that come before them in mandatory “core” classes.

I was stunned when I was in the belly of the beast, a local state college. And this was when “political correctness” was the worst problem we had.

On a more happy note, many of the students I engage are most definitely conservatives.

Maybe there is still hope.

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0 0AF_Chief_Master_Sgt in reply to SRF. | August 18, 2024 at 8:11 am
🫡

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0 9Andy | August 17, 2024 at 9:09 pm
I do. I do exactly.

All fleeing the west coast know exactly what it is like.

Saying goodbye to family and friends who either inwardly or outwardly know say they would like to flee too….

The saddest part is seeing it destroyed by lickspittles who are confused on which bathroom to use. Morons whose weaponized stupidity has emptied the jails and turned vibrant cities into open air drug markets.

In high school- they would bus us to the Seattle Science Center and then Pike Place Market and let us run around unsupervised for 4 hours about twice a year 10th, 11th, 12th grade. I wouldn’t set foot w/in 60 miles of that space now.

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0 7AF_Chief_Master_Sgt in reply to Andy. | August 18, 2024 at 8:14 am
“Morons whose weaponized stupidity has emptied the jails”

Those morons are just making space for those of us who will not comply.

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0 11jimincalif | August 17, 2024 at 9:12 pm
Born in ‘58 here and I feel the same way. I weep for my four children, but especially my four grandchildren. Even if by some miracle Trump wins and the deep state does not succeed in assassinating him, it’s just a bump in the road on our path of self destruction. I am looking at my copy of the Declaration of Independence hanging on my wall. Every day I see it and marvel at what the signers of that document did. I wonder what I should do to honor their legacy. I just don’t know. That was a unique inflection point in human history. Can it happen again? Can we make it happen again? If so, how?

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0 5Close The Fed in reply to jimincalif. | August 17, 2024 at 9:55 pm
Get involved. And start creating social groups with the like-minded. And I don’t mean online.

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0 5AF_Chief_Master_Sgt in reply to jimincalif. | August 18, 2024 at 8:23 am
Please remember. Only about 3% of the population participated in the successful fight for our independence.

About 10% of the population fought during the civil war to maintain the republic and free slaves (among other things).

An equally small percentage of Russians participated in their October Revolution.

We have a choice. We can fight to maintain independence, or we can let others fight for our subjugation.

I prefer to fight to maintain what our forefathers bequeathed us.

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0 5Hodge | August 17, 2024 at 9:19 pm
Who is John Galt?

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0 4Paddy M in reply to Hodge. | August 17, 2024 at 9:42 pm
Good question. Conservative, Inc. would deem John Galt as untoward. We know that much.

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0 3henrybowman in reply to Hodge. | August 17, 2024 at 9:52 pm
The real question is: where?

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1 5CommoChief in reply to henrybowman. | August 18, 2024 at 5:59 am
The spirit of Galt; independence, self reliance and individual responsibility is probably within the many small hobby farms with their own well, stocked ponds, gardens, orchards and so on. Lots of folks trending in this direction all over the place. One thing is for sure, if your neighbors are voting in a monolithic d/prog gov’t every election cycle then you ain’t anywhere near the ‘Gulch’ and should probably begin figuring out an alternative.

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0 9RetLEODoc | August 17, 2024 at 9:47 pm
I also share your thoughts and emotions about the decline of our country and our culture. I remember and tell my children and grandchildren that my high school economics teacher told us that our generation was lucky to live at the peak of American power and influence as it was inevitable that after our generation the decline would come. He seemed overly pessimistic to the young students seeing the world of the late 60s but if anything, he may not have been pessimistic enough.

He likened it to family businesses where the first generation started and built the business, the second grew it and strengthened it, the third generation consolidated it and the next generations lived off the business and let it collapse and die.

Watching a culture and country that was built by the sweat and at times blood of our ancestors get reduced by the greed for power and wealth of the current ruling class is painful. I will soon be leaving the stage of this drama but I too fear for the future that my children and grandchildren will inherit.

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0 1Dimsdale in reply to RetLEODoc. | August 18, 2024 at 12:17 pm
From “the dismal science” to the “pragmatic science.”

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0 4healthguyfsu | August 17, 2024 at 9:47 pm
I’m not sure if Barbarians have the capacity to be corrupt and collude in such devastatingly treasonous methods.

I think Peachy is discrediting the nobility of Barbarians by comparing them to DC vermin.

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0 10PrincetonAl | August 17, 2024 at 10:12 pm
GenX growing up under Reagan yeah this does capture what we feel.

Pissing away the greatest country and gift in the world for stupidity.

We best Communism only to be losing to a mutated form of it that the dying Soviet Union infected us with.

It’s going to be a long road back and that’s if we are lucky and work hard.

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0 0Dimsdale in reply to PrincetonAl. | August 18, 2024 at 12:18 pm
“Marching Morons” here we come…

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0 12jb4 | August 17, 2024 at 10:27 pm
I am old as s**t and grew up in the 1950’s. IMO the period after Korea and before the JFK assassination and the Vietnam War was the best.
– No hot wars.
– A public school education in NY City was excellent. Young children walked to and from school by themselves.
– No crime to speak of. No big deal for a kid to walk alone to a neighborhood candy store.
– Most families could afford a home and a mother did not have to work.
– Moral values were strong, families routinely practiced their religion and ate dinner together.
– The TV was an exciting, miraculous invention, in a society not consumed by electronic and social media. People still read books.
– In the winter nothing beat walking to the neighborhood pond with your friends and going iceskating.
– The music of the era was fabulous.
Ah, nostalgia. However, on substance, I think no later period had all of these items. In particular, I think the 3 assassinations in the 1960’s – JFK, RFK, MLK – the Vietnam War and the terrible inflation of the 1970’s changed the country permanently. For example, I purchased my home in 1984, when mortgage rates were 13%. Gone were the days when a home could be bought on one income and most mothers did not have to work.

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0 6AF_Chief_Master_Sgt in reply to jb4. | August 18, 2024 at 8:29 am
True.

But even today, young people bemoan the fact that rising prices and inflation place buying a house out of their reach.

Yet, they want to vote for the very people who caused inflation, who forced two income families, and who now want to have price controls.

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0 3Patriot Dan | August 17, 2024 at 10:30 pm
Professor,

I know we are in seemingly, unprecedented, times but I have great hope and expectation because of the Lord Jesus Christ in my life:
“If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable” (1 Corinthians 15:19, KJV).

It appears as though the next eleven months will have their difficulties, but I expect we and the nations will weather them for the better.

On Christ the Solid Rock I Stand

My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness
I dare not trust the sweetest frame
But wholly lean on Jesus’ name
On Christ the solid rock I stand
All other ground is sinking sand
All other ground is sinking sand

When darkness veils His lovely face
I’ll rest on His unchanging grace
In every high and stormy day
My anchor holds within the veil
On Christ the solid rock I stand
All other ground is sinking sand
All other ground is sinking sand
, , ,
Source: Musixmatch
Songwriters: Traditional / Terry Butler
On Christ the Solid Rock I Stand lyrics © Mercy/vineyard Publishing

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0 2The Gentle Grizzly in reply to Patriot Dan. | August 18, 2024 at 8:40 am
Some will be in church, praying.

Others will be fighting the battles that need fighting.

We all will make our choices.

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0 5TrickyRicky in reply to The Gentle Grizzly. | August 18, 2024 at 8:54 am
Sorry, not a binary choice. I expect many in the battles will be praying as well.

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0 1The Gentle Grizzly in reply to TrickyRicky. | August 18, 2024 at 11:17 am
True.

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0 0Dimsdale in reply to TrickyRicky. | August 18, 2024 at 12:19 pm
Many because we are in the foxholes right now…

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4 5rhhardin | August 17, 2024 at 10:34 pm
The cause is news as a profit center instead of a loss leader to contribute to the prestige of the network. As a profit center they found their 24/7 audience with Jessica in the Well, namely soap opera women. Instead of reading daily about Liz and Richard in the tabloid, they follow the news.

It’s an entertainment choice, and it’s calling itself news, which makes the audience feel even better.

Women prioritize feelings (hence soap opera’s attraction), and men prioritize structure (avoidance of perverse consequences). The Founding Fathers were structure guys, not feelings guys. The female end of the Supreme Court is feelings. (So guys are better at running big systems and women are better at small systems like neighborhoods and households. Stereotype is the too-strict father.)

Hence the collapse of everything through feminization. Amy Wax has a milder diagnosis – the rules of the nursery and kindergarten brought to the academy – but it goes deeper. Feelings attracts eyeballs of women and you can sell those eyeballs to advertisers. Democrats just supply soap opera in return for votes, in a sort of business arrangement with the media.

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0 5jb4 in reply to rhhardin. | August 18, 2024 at 10:20 am
Interesting perspective. I fault the MSM far more directly and have considered them the primary danger for years. By aligning themselves with the Democratic Party and its values, they have abandoned what I regard as a major value of journalism and the media, to bring accountability to Society. IMO if the light of day had been shined on Biden and Harris, Biden’s incipient dementia in 2020 would have kept him from running and Harris’ obvious incompetence would have disqualified her. What this Society lacks is accountability, from the shoplifter in CA, to the Trans in women’s locker rooms and sports, to the politicians at the top. What is not “right”, really isn’t right. Period. No excuses.

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0 0Dimsdale in reply to jb4. | August 18, 2024 at 12:20 pm
Conservative = independence; leftiam = dependence.

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0 0Dimsdale in reply to Dimsdale. | August 18, 2024 at 12:20 pm
Leftism.

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0 12Ghostrider | August 17, 2024 at 11:17 pm
How did America get here?

The other evening, a friend told me that he realized that nothing works in America these days. He is right.

This same guy has a severe medical issue but not an emergency. His specialist can’t see him until December.

When you call to get a prescription refilled, you have to listen to a message offering you the opportunity to go online or speak Spanish, then another telling you to call 911 if it is an emergency.

Our president is nowhere to be found, and the vice president is too dumb to sit for even a softball interview.

The FBI can only solve crimes committed by conservatives. The Secret Service is incompetent.

It recently took the post office two weeks to mail a card to a nephew who lives 4 hours away.

My bank did away with its drive-thru, and inside, there is one teller and long lines.

Doctors’ receptionists are often surly and unhelpful.

Every business has a phone tree, and if you finally reach someone, you can’t understand their heavily accented English.

And on and on and on.

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0 10steves59 in reply to Ghostrider. | August 17, 2024 at 11:35 pm
^^^^ I came here to say exactly this. I’ve taken to saying whenever I have the misfortune of conversing with a “Liberal” that “nothing is built, nothing is back, nothing is better.”
Everywhere we turn in society and business there is incompetence, and when the government is involved it is often malicious incompetence. Rule of law has been dumped in favor of rule by men (remember, we fought a revolution for rule of law). If you are a conservative, you are deplatformed, demonetized, depersoned, and eventually defenestrated.
And sadly this is all being done from within.
I’m waiting for that John Conner figure that will rise up and lead us in the fight against the DemocratLefty machine. I hope it’s soon, I don’t have a lot of time to wait.

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1 7AF_Chief_Master_Sgt in reply to steves59. | August 18, 2024 at 8:34 am
“I’m waiting for that John Conner figure that will rise up and lead us in the fight against the DemocratLefty machine.”

He’s here, but most don’t recognize him. The left just tried to assassinate him.

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0 2steves59 in reply to AF_Chief_Master_Sgt. | August 18, 2024 at 9:18 am
I’d like to think you’re right, but unlike Conner, Trump still thinks he can defeat the Left from within the system. I no longer think that’s possible.

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0 14JRaeL in reply to Ghostrider. | August 18, 2024 at 12:07 am
Nothing brings out my longing for a rotary phone like hearing the words “Please listen carefully as our menu options may have changed.”

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0 1The Gentle Grizzly in reply to JRaeL. | August 18, 2024 at 8:36 am
And… I know of ONE instance where the menu options DID change. My primary care doctor office.

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0 4MDP in reply to Ghostrider. | August 18, 2024 at 12:46 am
We have something that is called a modern high efficiency washing machine that seems to not be able to get all of the load wet, let alone actually wash things clean with
Confidence. Someone in a office removed from the process thinks they know better than those who have been doing it for decades, whatever the “it” is.
The irony, thinking they were wise they became fools.

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0 0jb4 in reply to MDP. | August 18, 2024 at 10:26 am
Just wait ’til they bring that washing machine to prices of the items you buy.

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0 1Dimsdale in reply to MDP. | August 18, 2024 at 12:27 pm
The AI in the new machines will tell you the clothes aren’t dirty enough, and to wear them again.

I have a 30 year old washing machine, a basic Kenmore (remember them?). When my new LG had an electrical issue, I just swapped it in and it worked perfectly. Maybe I should sell the LG….

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0 2LibraryGryffon in reply to Ghostrider. | August 18, 2024 at 8:00 am
At least your nephew got the card. A customer at one of my jobs lost her son in 2022. He lived out of state. His ashes were being shipped to her and the post office lost them. Legally, they are the only people allowed to ship cremated remains.

I opted to pick up our cat’s remains at the vet hospital. If the USPS can lose a person, I don’t trust them with my pet either.

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0 1The Gentle Grizzly in reply to Ghostrider. | August 18, 2024 at 8:38 am
“When you call to get a prescription refilled, you have to listen to a message offering you the opportunity to go online or speak Spanish, then another telling you to call 911 if it is an emergency.”

When you go to the pharmacy to buy an “over the counter” decongestant you have to show a government ID and sign the mommy-may-I book before you can get the medicine. Even though the m3th cooks have gone on to other ingredients Uncle still thinks ephedrine ingredients need record keeping.

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0 1Dimsdale in reply to The Gentle Grizzly. | August 18, 2024 at 12:28 pm
The same ID nobody can seem to scrounge up when it is time to vote?

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0 0rhhardin in reply to The Gentle Grizzly. | August 18, 2024 at 3:07 pm
There are directions online somewhere for the chemical procedure to turn meth back into Sudafed.

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0 1rhhardin in reply to rhhardin. | August 18, 2024 at 3:15 pm
I used to buy 1000 phenylpropanolamine pills for $10.00 on a veterinary prescription (the drug store just handed over the whole unopened bottle). Used in treating urinary incontinence in female dogs along with DES. Both pills now banned apparently. I think the former went into Sudafed as an ingredient. Not only cold sufferers suffering.

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0 0Edward in reply to Ghostrider. | August 18, 2024 at 11:03 am
Amen. I find one area where government actually does something right (amazing, right?). When I need a script refilled from the VA I can go to the on-line My Health Vet website, select refill prescriptions, click on the med(s) box(es) and click “submit”. No phone tree, no speaking with a surly receptionist, just quick and easy refills mailed out.

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0 0henrybowman in reply to Edward. | August 18, 2024 at 7:37 pm
Now compare this with paying your Medicare premium.

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0 5JRaeL | August 18, 2024 at 12:05 am
Reading the comments I have to remind myself that the Fall happened in Paradise not outside of it.

No generation is spared the consequence of living in a fallen world. I doubt there has been a single time when some group of believers did not take the news of the day as proof the Apocalypse was at hand.

Are current events and societal changes accelerating the loss of paradise? Yep. Can it be slowed down? In patches, maybe. Overall, not a chance. Too many people yearn for that bone strewn path to Utopia. I know many will disagree but I believe we have left the battlefield and are now under siege. That means creating smaller worlds for yourself and your loved ones. It involves taking on a fortress mentality. While trying not to abandon charity, hope, and faith. That’s tricky.

I too grew up with more freedom. Some good, some bad. But at least I had the chance to learn the difference.

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0 3MDP in reply to JRaeL. | August 18, 2024 at 12:41 am
I find it interesting that Daniel is told that at the time of the end there will be vast amounts of information and that people will travel all over with abandon… those things are true of our time as never before.
If we seek to save our lives we will lose them, if we lose our lives for His sake we will find them. The original Israel was told to be careful when they grew rich not to forget the Lord their God… the culture largely has jettisoned Him wholesale and thinking we were wise we became fools.
I saw an ad today about how Harris has a history of being a tough prosecutor and will take on the border and the fentanyl problem….as if she hasn’t been part of the enabling of the same crisis, and they expect enough people will be so stupid as to believe it.

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0 4Herve Montague | August 18, 2024 at 2:13 am
Our colleges have been funded for decades by the same people who funded October7th.

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1 1Skip | August 18, 2024 at 6:03 am
Wish I remember where I saw this first and continue to thinking describes our situation the easiest way.

We are ithe looting the Empire stage

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0 1Rupert Smedley Hepplewhite | August 18, 2024 at 7:31 am
It ain’t over until WE say it’s over!

Found this in my mailbox this morning: https://elizabethnickson.substack.com/p/when-the-saxons-begin-to-fight?publication_id=30495&post_id=147720773&isFreemail=true&r=1tuj8g&triedRedirect=true

A little long but so inspiring.

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0 0Edward in reply to Rupert Smedley Hepplewhite. | August 18, 2024 at 12:27 pm
Thanks. I enjoyed seeing the Brits getting to the end of patience, though some of it was pretty dated with a reference to Tony Blair, who left 10 Downing in 2007. And it might well be a case of too little too late, as it will also be here if we don’t take back control of the political system. I can’t say I’m very optimistic of that happening any time soon.

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0 10CincyJan | August 18, 2024 at 7:55 am
I was born in 1949. It has taken the last awful decade of American politics to make me realize what a unique period of time post WWII was. Shared military service overseas united US males into a band of brothers that survived throughout civilian life. It took the misadventures in Vietnam to shake the inherent respect given military veterans. The underlying truth then was that American parents were not eager to have their sons die overseas. And so cracks appeared in the trust of government institutions. Today, after the disgrace of the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, the clear politicization of the DOJ, and the bald faced lies told the American people by their own government, there is little broad respect left for American institutions. That shining city on the hill has slid off its foundations..

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4 1E Howard Hunt | August 18, 2024 at 8:17 am
Never heard of Peachy Keenan. Sometimes I’m lucky that way. For chick reading I stick with Ann Barnhardt, especially on Sundays.

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0 0Arthur Chester in reply to E Howard Hunt. | August 18, 2024 at 12:56 pm
She’s bright. She’s thoughtful. She writes well. She seems to be mid-40s. I have no financial or personal connection to her. Check out her substack. Doesn’t cost you nothin, may slow the onset of what we all inevitably face: age-related crotchetiness.

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1 8The Gentle Grizzly | August 18, 2024 at 8:30 am
I was born in 1949. From my viewpoint, my country died November 22, 1963. Kennedy was, in fact, a so-so president but the man shown by the press was athletic, had this wonderful family, sailed, biked, and did all sorts of family type things. I sincerely believed then, and still believe now, that he gave this nation the attitude that there was not as single solitary thing we could not accomplish when we out our minds to it. That was already proven during Ike’s time (the transistor, polio vaccine, and more).

That all died with him/. In place of this dynamic man we got Lyndon Johnson, just another cynical crook soaking the American people for every penny he could for the benefit of himself and his gang.

I have other opinions about our downfall that I would share with you all, but won’t. First of all, it won’t change anything. Second, I will likely offend every single one of you with my views.

I have no real solutions. I just know that – as a (lapsed) Jew – when the trucks arrive I plan on taking out as many police as I can before I am gunned down or thrown in one of those trucks. And yes, it will be the police doing this, not the military. Just like last time.

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2 4AF_Chief_Master_Sgt in reply to The Gentle Grizzly. | August 18, 2024 at 8:39 am
With Kennedy, at least we have “Camelot.”

With Harris, we’ll have “Cumalot.”

Proof of the decline and the debauchery from the Democrat party.

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3 0E Howard Hunt in reply to The Gentle Grizzly. | August 18, 2024 at 8:43 am
Relax, Grizz.

Adolph allowed for honorary aryans, so your religious negligence and conservative views should easily earn you this exemption.

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0 2CincyJan in reply to The Gentle Grizzly. | August 18, 2024 at 9:58 am
As a fellow 1949er, I can remind you that we were in the 8th grade when Kennedy died. It certainly did not occur to me that America had died with JFK in Dallas. For one thing, my Dad was still there, as fiercely Republican as ever, as determined as ever to safeguard the Republic. I knew it was a significant event, even as the news spread at school, but I certainly did not yet understand the horror of a political assassination. I have been a true believer for most of my life, as I suspect many MAGA supporters were. That we, the true believers, have lost faith in our government, signifies a real disaster for the United States. The most reliable underpinings of our society are disintegrating before our eyes,

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0 4jb4 in reply to CincyJan. | August 18, 2024 at 10:45 am
I was a young adult when Kennedy was killed. No one forgets where they were when they heard. Riding the NY City subway that evening was like being at a funeral. My wife, who is younger, could not understand why her parents were crying. It changed everything and the political hack, LBJ, and the Vietnam War made things worse. Men who fought in WW II were losing their sons in a war that had no justification.

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0 0Br2336 in reply to jb4. | August 18, 2024 at 1:15 pm
The military rationale for American involvement , as I understand it, was:

(1) The threat of communism was real.

(2) JFK had basically allowed Cuba to stay communist, 90 miles from the US. A complete abrogation of 140 years of the Monroe doctrine .

(3) The defense establishment had grown up since WWII with the one basic tenet that communism cannot be permitted to spread.

(4) The defense establishment knew that JFK was a slacker, and a not-serious person. Who probably come to power via voter fraud primarily in Chicago and South Texas.

And so — while the military might well have been willing to walk away from South Vietnam — maybe — once Cuba was permitted to stay USSR-aligned, the feeling was Well , we gotta draw the line SOMEwhere. Also, at the time, it was unimaginable that we could lose militarily in Vietnam.

JFK was viewed as a really young, really kinda incompetent inexperienced rich fratboy— and imho he was killed , from the pov of those who killed him, for the good of the country, and for the good of the world.

That was the logic.
That was the justification.

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0 2The Gentle Grizzly in reply to CincyJan. | August 18, 2024 at 11:47 am
I was brought up in a staunchly Democrat home, but outgrew all that crap because of Vietnam, and other things that brought about an awakening that went all the way through my 20s. It took a while, but, here I am.

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0 3Victor Immature | August 18, 2024 at 10:26 am
I’ve been thinking and saying this for a while. For me, I’m closer to the end than to the beginning, on the back 9. But for someone who is 35-40 and lived through America at it’s best but still has a way to go, they must be pissed and/or depressed.
There’s only one way out of this.

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0 5CincyJan | August 18, 2024 at 11:23 am
In my first post above, I ignored the thrust of Prof. Jacobson’s article – the pain of seeing the America we loved destroyed. Yes, it is almost unbearably painful. Certainly, it was excruciating when the realization first hit. It’s gotten better, I suppose. Perhaps I’ve grown used to it. Acceptance of the unacceptable. Where do we go from here? I wish I could see a clear path forward. I fear for DJT, whether he will survive to win the election, and, if he does, whether any one man can save the Republic in four years. The rot is pretty deep. There don’t seem to be any patriots left in DC.

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0 4The Gentle Grizzly in reply to CincyJan. | August 18, 2024 at 12:17 pm
It is not up to one man to save the republic. But, having DJT in place will provide the catalyst many will need to get the snowball rolling on taking things back.

It can start with telling a cop no, you can’t see my ID for the “crime” of eating my lunch at a picnic table in a public park.

It can be the people who are already fighting their school districts over library books and “gender affirming”.

It can be people pressuring the colleges to get rid of their DIE departments. Same with employers.

It can be many things, but, if people expect one man to do it all, then all is lost.

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0 0CommoChief in reply to The Gentle Grizzly. | August 18, 2024 at 6:24 pm
Correct. Each of has to be willing to our share. Those of us in the more sane States with sensible policies at local, County and State level have been doing so for a while now, which is why those Cray Cray policies have been held at bay. Those in other places have a higher hill yet to climb. What ain’t gonna work is waiting on someone else to save you. Expecting the voters in Red States to rescue folks from the State and local policies of the blue State politicians they keep electing is not gonna be fruitful. No one with any sense in a sane State wants to hand Congress the power to override existing State/local authority for fear the next time those blue State/blue enclave voters get a Congressional majority of their own.

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0 0Stuytown | August 18, 2024 at 11:26 am
Give me back the Berlin wall
Give me Stalin and St. Paul
I’ve seen the future, brother
It is murder

Things are going to slide, slide in all directions
Won’t be nothing
Nothing you can measure anymore
The blizzard, the blizzard of the world
Has crossed the threshold and it has overturned the order of the soul

Leonard Cohen, The Future

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0 0Edward in reply to Stuytown. | August 18, 2024 at 12:45 pm
I looked up Mr. Cohen’s work. It’s a song and I looked up the lyrics (reading lyrics is easier and more accurate for my artillery ears). I find a good word for the work is “Dystopian”. I didn’t seek lyrics on the rest of his work in that album.

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0 7xleatherneck | August 18, 2024 at 12:14 pm
Born in ‘57

All societies are entropic.
All societies, eventually, tend toward disorder. Some, quicker than others.

The one, defining principle, that keeps a society cohesive, is a single dominant culture. Without that, we are doomed.

We have been moving away from that concept, for a long time. So long as we are on this path, our better days will be behind us….

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0 3The Gentle Grizzly in reply to xleatherneck. | August 18, 2024 at 12:18 pm
Much of that started with “Press 1 for English”.

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0 4Edward | August 18, 2024 at 12:31 pm
I grew in the ’40s and ’50s. Carried a weapon of war in a war (really, not Bravo Sierra) mid ’60s. I have been instructing the grand and great-grandchildren, to a greater or lesser degree depending on age, about what life was like in the US in the golden era post war to the riots of the late ’60s-70s. Have been doing the same with a 50 year old neighbor at the lake. Different world today, more’s the pity.

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0 1destroycommunism | August 18, 2024 at 12:48 pm
many children are ungrateful

so they take the riches of the parents/grandparents

and go through it like they were “owed” it and it will never run out

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0 2destroycommunism | August 18, 2024 at 12:51 pm
there are sooooo many laws in place

that it will take “lawbreakers” of a certain character to say

we are not hiring dei we re not pro affirm action

we judge people on their merits

the road to communism is now smooth

the road back to freedom is bumpy ..to say the least

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0 1jb4 | August 18, 2024 at 1:40 pm
I want to personaly thank Prof. Jacobson for posting this piece. IMO it is an important issue to think about, talk about and act upon, to the extent able. Having lived a long life, I shared my thoughts about what I thought was the best period, post Korea to the killing of JFK, which most here have not experienced; and the biggest danger I see, the MSM. It is hard to have any optimism over the obvious trend, so perhaps I should be grateful for not having many years left, albeit sad for my grandchildren.

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1 0AlecRawls | August 18, 2024 at 2:46 pm
The fall to this point would all have been prevented If the Supreme Court had ever started enforcing the Article 4 section 4 guarantee of a Republican form of government.

It is not necessarily too late even now, but this sword Excalibur, the most powerfully written provision in the entire constitution, the only guarantee in the entire constitution, must immediately be pulled from the stone and used to save us.

It was justice Brennan who sank the sword into the stone. Considering the possibility of a guarantee clause argument in Baker v. Carr (1962), Brennan wrote for the majority that he did not know what Republicanism is, and doubted that anyone would ever be able to figure it out: that they would be able to locate “discoverable and manageable standards” for adjudicating it.

But there already was such a standard. That was Alexander Hamilton’s definition of republicanism, which he articulated during in the constitutional debates in New York: “that the people shall choose who shall govern them.”

He even included a manageable standard of adjudication: that “representation is imperfect to the extent that the current of popular favor is checked.”

Thus any law, or any government procedure or action, that either intentionally or unnecessarily checks the current popular favor should be ruled unconstitutional.

There are two most obvious ways that the current popular favor can be checked. First, elections can be stolen by vote fraud or some other kind of election fraud.

One obvious example is the Democrats’ use in 2020 of 2000 mules to stuff ballot drop boxes in five key counties with far more than enough illegal votes to flip five key swing states to Biden.

Another is Arizona in 2022, disabling most of its election day voting machines, when Democrat election officials knew that conservatives mostly vote on election day while Democrats mostly vote early my mail.

The second obvious way to check the current of popular favor is to weaponize the powers of government to suppress political opposition, for instance by using unequal application of the laws to attack and disable leading political opponents, as with the Democrats’ numerous lawfare attacks on President Trump.

The sword has actually already been pulled from the stone, our lawyers just haven’t realized it. Hamilton’s definition of Republicanism was embraced (found to be “discoverable”) by the Supreme Court 11 years later in the 1973 case Powell v. McCormack.

Powell was a ballot access case that did not invoke any Republican guarantee clause arguments, and somehow the link to the guarantee clause was never made. The same thing happened in 1995 where the Supreme Court embraced Hamilton’s definition of Republicanism in US Term Limits versus Thornton, another ballot access case.

As already noted, the manageable standard of adjudication is stated right in Hamilton’s definition. A system of government is unrepublican to the extent that it’s laws and procedures block the current popular favor. No system can be perfectly republican, but the obvious standard of adjudication would be that shortfalls in the attainment of Republican government cannot be either intentional or unnecessary.

Of course it is also illegal under the First Amendment to steal elections (as that undermines rates of association for purposes of effective political participation) but this concern is given very low priority. Just look at how the disabling of the majority of election day voting machines in Maricopa County allowed to stand.

All indications are that it was intentional, but even if it wasn’t, only counting the votes of one political side is grossly incompatible with the Article IV section 4 guarantee that elections systems will do their best to accurately assess the current of popular favor.

If the republican guarantee was being enforce by the Supreme Court, it would have to be given higher priority than every other provision in the constitution. If it ever gives way to any other constitutional provision, the guarantee fails to be a guarantee.

By the meaning of words, it is the Constitution’s sword Excalibur that no other constitutional provision can stand against.

This seird Excalibur is already free. It has already been discovered by the court, and the manageable standards for using it are obvious to anyone who looks at it. It should be invoked in every suit from here on out against the Democrats’ attacks on our electoral system.

Every Democrat attempt to enable vote fraud, from mass mail-in voting the ongoing voter-registration of tens of millions of illegal aliens, it’s all blatantly unconstitutional under the republican guarantee, and everyone needs to start using it.

Another way to check the current popular favor is by the censorship regimes that Democrats have been trying to implement. Gateway Pundit’s suit against systematic government-orchestrated censorship was recently declined by the Supreme Court for lack of standing, of all things, just as the Texas suit against the use of unconstitutional voting systems by Pennsylvania and other states during the 2020 election was rejected for lack of standing.

“Are we not part of the United States,” cried Texas Attorney General Paxton. Yes you are, but for that to matter you would have had to sue under the one provision of the constitution that empowers all parts of “the United States” to act against unrepublican government actions.

The republican guarantee names the “United States” as its guarantor. Of course that means first of all, all three branches of the federal government, but it must also include every state, and even every citizen. We are all part of “The United States,” and therefore all have standing to sue on behalf of The United States.

Ours is a government of the people, by the people, and for the people. We the People can never be excluded from it, as our now fully communist Democratic Party is currently trying finalize.

They succeeded in stealing one election from us, thanks to our Supreme Court’s long abominable lack of due diligence in upholding the Republican guarantee. They must not be allowed to steal another, or the loss of our republican form of government will almost certainly be total.

The founders gave us a sword Excalibur to defend our republican system of government. We must use it.

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2 0Milhouse in reply to AlecRawls. | August 18, 2024 at 4:50 pm
OMG, where to start?

First of all, no, it was not justice Brennan who “sank the sword into the stone”. That happened in 1849, in Luther v Borden. The Supreme Court ruled that the Republican Guarantee clause is not justiciable. It’s up to the president and Congress to enforce it and the courts can’t interfere.

Each house of Congress can enforce it by not seating members it believes not to have been properly elected, and if a house makes such a decision no court can order it to seat that member. (However if the house accepts that a member was properly elected and is qualified, but doesn’t want to seat him anyway, then the courts can and will order it to seat him. Powell v McCormick.)

The president can enforce it by sending troops into a state to overthrow a government he deems not republican. E.g. a stolen state election, or election rules he considers unfair. The only check on him is impeachment.

By the way, the Republican Guarantee clause only applies to the states, not to the United States. It would obviously be silly to charge the United States with guaranteeing that its own government would have a republican form. The constitution itself is that guarantee, and no better is possible.

Also, whatever else stolen elections may violate, they do not violate the first amendment.

Gotta go now. More later, probably.

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0 0AlecRawls in reply to Milhouse. | August 18, 2024 at 6:44 pm
Milhouse is wrong as always. Brennan got a lot right in Baker v. Carr. In particular, he wrote a very clear explication of why Luther v. Borden and other earlier cases were wrong.

That is, he pulled the sword from the stone. But then he sank it straight back in.

He explained how guarantee clause cases do not automatically raise the kind of “political question” conflicts with the other branches of government that had vitiated earlier cases. In particular, Baker v. Carr itself did not raise any such conflicts.

Earlier attempts to apply guarantee clause arguments to election law had all sought to overturn the results of a particular election on that basis, after the will of the people had already been polled and the results certified by the other co-equal branches of government.

That is where the “political question” conflicts were coming from in election law cases. But Baker was not trying to overturn any election result. It was an apportionment case where the plaintiff did not want voters in the adjacent congressional district (with a much smaller number of voters in it than his) to continue to have their votes count for much more than his did. He wanted his vote to receive equal weight in the NEXT election.

Brennan actually did a great job laying out that, if discoverable and manageable standards for adjudicating the republican guarantee could be found, then it could possibly be used to decide Baker’s case.

But equal apportionment was ruled out as a republican requirement, given that it is violated by the U.S. Senate.

At that, Brennan surmised that it was very unlikely that any discoverable and manageable standard of adjudication would ever be found, and the majority signed on to this.

It was absurd. There was no attempt at any kind of historical survey of the meaning of republicanism. No, “hey, does anybody know what the definition of republicanism is?” So they missed Hamilton’s definition. If they had seen it they would have realized immediately that it has broad application, requiring at the very least honest elections and no weaponization of the powers of government against political opponents.

Instead, since Brennan himself didn’t know what republicanism was, he just surmised that no one did and that no one ever would. Crazy.

Luther v. Borden was crazy too. As I said, a long history of Supreme Court failure to conduct basic due diligence regarding the most powerfully written provision in the entire Constitution.

As for the republican guarantee applying “only” to the states. Note that the Constitution gives it to the states to conduct all elections, federal and state. Thus any unrepublican election process, like mass mail-in voting, designed in a way that leaves wide open opportunity for mass vote fraud and election fraud, clearly undermines and hence violates the guarantee of honest elections (one of the requirements of republicanism).

Ditto for any weaponization of the powers of government against political opponents that occurs at the state level, as seen with the trumped-up prosecutions of Trump in NY and Georgia.

Finally, it is obvious that in order to fulfill the guarantee to the states that they shall not be subject to unrepublican government, the federal government can also not be allowed to engage in unrepublican actions.

Every state has the federal government over it. Thus if the federal government adopts an unrepublican form, such as by weaponizing the powers of the federal government against political opponents (as Biden-Harris are doing), then every state is subject to that unrepublican government, violating the guarantee.

Milhouse in reply to AlecRawls. | August 18, 2024 at 8:28 pm
Alex, that is a load of nonsense. The Rhode Island case wasn’t just trying to overturn an election. The rebels claimed (with justification) that RI did not have a republican form of government, so they held their own election and went to court demanding that their elected governor and legislature be recognized, as well as the congressmen they elected, and the senators their legislature elected. And the Supreme Court said that’s not justiciable. It’s up to Congress whether to recognize your congressmen and the president whether to install your governor in power. The judiciary has no role to play.

Also, the term “the United States” means the federal government. Nothing more and nothing less. It does not mean the individual states; only the entity that consists of their union. And it’s that entity that is to guarantee that the states have republican forms of government. It is not to guarantee that it itself has one, nor is it for them to guarantee that. The constitution itself is the only guarantor of that. The form of government that the USA has is the one the constitution mandates, and it makes no difference whether you call that “republican” or some other word. The constitution itself does not use that word for the government it establishes.

Leitmotif
4 hours ago
Civil asset forfeiture is an egregious scam, a violation of basic human rights, and should be completely abolished at the federal, state, and local levels.

Period.

Full stop.

Adam Selene / Simon Jester Leitmotif
3 hours ago
We, as a society have somehow rationalized that 'civil' charges from government are not a big deal - just another lawsuit, so the constitutional protections afforded from 'criminal' charges don't apply. They just take your savings, your property and the labors of years of work. So in the end, you worked (retroactively and involuntary without the option to leave and against your will) without compensation. So basically ex post facto slavery.

The U.S. Constitution explicitly grants Congress the power to issue letters of marque and reprisal (Article I, Section 8, Clause 11), providing a legal foundation for privateering. This concept remains an option under U.S. law. //

Engaging privateers to target the Russian ghost fleet could also have the secondary effect of incentivizing international shippers to register under the U.S. flag. The prospect of U.S. Navy protection against potential retaliation by Russia or other adversarial powers would be a significant draw for these companies. Currently, U.S.-flagged vessels are entitled to the protection of the U.S. Navy, providing a security assurance that can be crucial in unstable maritime environments.

This shift could bolster the U.S. merchant marine fleet, enhance national security, and ensure better compliance with international laws and sanctions. Moreover, a larger U.S.-flagged fleet would create a more robust logistical network — absolutely vital in deterring the PRC across the vast expanse of the Pacific.

when it comes to Roe v. Wade, for example, what did the court decide? Decided that we the people should answer that question, not nine people sitting in Washington, D.C. //

GARRETT: How about affirmative action?

GORSUCH: Much the same thing. What did we decide? We decided that all people are created equal, that it’s not acceptable in this country to discriminate on the basis of race. //

GARRETT: And, for those who would say but I feel something’s been ripped away from me, you would say?

GORSUCH: I would say that we’re taking it back to you. In a democracy, you’re in the driver’s seat. You’re the sovereign. Those famous three first words of the Constitution empower you. Do you really want me deciding everything for you?

GARRETT: And for a woman in a state where she no longer has the rights she once relied on, is that cold comfort?

GORSUCH: Major, all I can say is I don’t know better than you do on these questions. And that most major western democracies have decided these questions through the ballot box. //

part of me just wants to call Vladimir Duthiers an imbecile and leave it at that. His reasoning is so ridiculous as to be worthy of nothing but mockery. Would he say the same about the precedent that once allowed segregation of schools? What about the precedent that once restricted personhood for black Americans? The idea that a precedent is untouchable simply because it exists is moronic. What matters is proper legal interpretation of the law. Nothing more, nothing less.

In the end, what this Gorsuch interview shows is that Democrats have no actual argument. They are simply emoting at any given point, wrapping themselves in contradictions to garner the political outcome they want in the moment. The Supreme Court stands in the way of that, and that's why they are trying to destroy it.

A video of Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) was unearthed on Monday that appeared to show him threatening civil war if Donald Trump won the election.

Raskin was speaking at a discussion on voter rights hosted by a left-wing professor when he made the controversial comments, which included a pledge to disqualify Trump on January 6th, 2025 based on the Fourteenth Amendment. //

He seems completely convinced that he would be the good guy in a scenario where he and other Democrats overturned an election based on their own political whims. He calls Trump supporters "rampaging mobs" despite them representing the side that won the election in his hypothetical.

. How does the court feel about potential changes — term limits, ethics codes that are enforced by someone in ways that it isn't now?

GORSUCH: Shannon, you're not going to be surprised that I'm not going to get into what is now a political issue during a presidential election year. I don't think that would be helpful.

I have one thought to add: It is that the independent judiciary means — what does it mean to you as an American? It means that when you're unpopular, you can get a fair hearing under the law and under the Constitution. If you're in the majority, you don't need judges and juries to hear you and protect your rights — you're popular.

It's there for the moments when the spotlight's on you, when the government's coming after you. And don't you want a ferociously independent judge and a jury of your peers to make those decisions? Isn't that your right as an American? And so, I just say, "Be careful."

The plan has three components:

1) The No One Is Above the Law constitutional amendment (lol) prohibiting criminal immunity for ex-presidents.

2) Supreme Court term limits that permit each president to appoint a justice every two years for an 18-year term.

3) Supreme Court Code of Conduct.

The first item is just a sop thrown to Biden's supporters to act as a soothing balm for their raging case of butthurt over being unable to put Trump in prison. //

As with the rest of this "reform," it is a monumentally unserious proposal. There is no national outcry to make this happen, and there aren't the votes in the House and Senate to pass it even if Chuck Schumer and Mike Johnson decide to take it seriously. //

NightTwister
29 minutes ago
I always say the same thing when anyone proposes a constitutional amendment: "Name the 38 states." //

Watch-tower
an hour ago edited
Net worth of the top 10 richest people in Congress (meaning 525 people are not listed): 2,059,900,000.
That's right, just 10 people; over 2 BILLION Dollars.

Net worth of all 9 Supreme Court Justices: 64,000,000.
Yep 64 million dollars divided by 9 people. Chief Justice Roberts accounts for 40% of that total.

We are more in need of reform in Congress than the Supreme Court. //

mopani Corn Pop 2 minutes ago

This does not come from Joe Biden, this comes from the Democrat Deep-State, gaslighting popular opinion on the structure of the Federal Government by treating SCOTUS as an inferior court, as if SCOTUS is subject to Congress.

It may be an unserious proposal, but it is another chip at the foundations of our Constitutional Republic, and as such deserves to be dealt with seriously.

I want to see it debated and destroyed on the House floor. A serious debate on the Senate floor would help too. It needs sunlight and to be dealt a death-blow.

Congress must defend SCOTUS as a co-equal branch so that SCOTUS can continue to do likewise. Failure to do so will ultimately result in an Imperial Executive.

These type of attacks should not be dismissed as unserious. They need to be curb-stomped as the destructive attacks that they are. Failure to deal with them in a serious way will allow them to be used as attack fodder against Republican or conservative candidates who want to preserve our Constitutional Republic.