Alexander Hamilton

Not one generally to cherry-pick the Founders, I can't help it when Hamilton appears to prophesy the rise of a Demagogue like trump.

"Why does he write like he's running out of time?" -Lin Manuel Miranda

OK, that one wasn't it. It's this one, prompted by a tweet of Peter Daou. And as I have to check the source, I have the volume of Hamilton's writings from the Library of America edition from which the quote was taken. Here's a cut and paste:

A Bad Day for fascists

In honor of the French election in which the far-right, nationalist candidate resoundingly lost, we hope and pray for America and share the following:

Take that, fascists!

President Obama's Farewell Address

Yes, I liked the speech. It reaffirmed that the President's views of politics and the Constitution are very much like mine. I don't agree with him 100%, but it's in the nineties.

This is a great speech. This is the best President of my lifetime.

I provide here the full text of the speech as found on CNN. I provide no further commentary at this time, but I have highlighted the parts I like the best.

Starting to Bern

Rolling Stone has a great interview with Bernie Sanders. I encourage you to read the whole thing. And for you Conservatives out there, I want to make special note of a few passages that might even help you.

First of all, how long has it been since we had a Boy Scout as President? Gerald Ford? Bernie was a Boy Scout:

Dick Cheney's Illegitimate Child - DAESH

It probably isn't helpful to cast blame, but I had to get your attention.

The Second Iraq War (as opposed to the justified and true-coalition sanctioned, First Gulf War) will go down in history as one of the worst blunders of US History. The buck stops at George W. Bush, but his dad, George H.W. Bush, now blames "Iron-butt" Cheney and former Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfield. Although there is blame also to the Congress, including later Secretaries of State Clinton and Kerry who voted to authorize the wrong war in the wrong place at the wrong time. And, yes, the American public share blame who were whipped into a frenzy by false intelligence of the Bush Administration and the media, led by the New York Times (Judith Miller). So there's plenty of blame to go around (oh, yeah, Tony Blair). And, of course, the buck is now with President Obama and his opponents can blame him all they want. And he hasn't done everything right, but he's trying.

So, why DAESH instead of ISIS or ISIL or Al Queda in Iraq? For a very good explanation of that and the history of the latest terrorist group now claiming to be the restoration of the Islamic Caliphate, see this great article at Vox, Why John Kerry and the French President Are Calling ISIS "Daesh."

ISIS, or Daesh controlled areas as of October 22, 2015, from the New York Times.

Boehner-Obama Budgeting - Not Funding Non-Action

The President and John Boehner accomplished a sort of Holiday Miracle by not shutting down the government. The managed to get a year-long spending bill approved in the House. Called the "Cromnibus" as in "CR" for Continuing Resolution, and "Omnibus" for a bill of multiple agency appropriations, the Republicans put enough "crappy" stuff in to make that the "CR" part. 

Shutdown 2013 Update No. 1

My boss called me in today. He's a really good guy. He tried so hard to soften the message. "Well, I, uh, -sit down. I regret this, but I need to let you know that, well, you have been officially designated as 'non-essential.'"

My response: "Ha! No problem! I've been 'non-essential' for 30 years! I was shutdown by Reagan and Tip O'Neill!" He is too, of course.

We also found out, and I'm not supposed to say much about this, but certain persons, while still "non-essential," are paid out of different sources of funds. And as their salaries are already paid, they have to work. Of course that also means they will have no worries about being paid. When we get furloughed, we are legally prohibited from performing any work. And we have no expectation of being paid.

Why I Continue My Fight

Time for a little open-heart reflection and explanation why I continue my fight against Senators Cruz, Lee, & Paul along with the tea-party Representatives and the political entertainers Beck & Limbaugh.

I've read a little history and seen enough old news reels to wish somebody had stood up to Senator Joe McCarthy earlier. I also wish more people had stood up to Cleon Skousen too. Even Ernie Wilkinson could have used a bit more of a kick in the rear when he imposed his anti-communist spy-ring on my alma mater. So I'm standing up to the demagogues now in hopes of saving them and their followers from worse abuses like those we've known in the past in this very country. And they've mostly come from the extreme Right.
.
Bottom line, what I fight against is the demagoguery that pulls in some very good friends and family that I care about.

Open Letter to Senator Mike Lee

Dear Senator Lee:

Let my start by stating that I am an American Citizen of legal residence in the State of Utah. That makes you one of my two U.S. Senators even though I did not vote for you. But I am your constituent and I write this to offer a little advice.

I understand that you had a little talking-to from your Minority Leader today. It's really too bad you didn't pay more attention to my blog, or your old Home Teacher - Brother Reid, or even your Dad. I knew your Dad. I realize that you must have known him much better. And I can't understand how you came away from such a good man and a conservative of solid credentials to promote the ideas about government and the U.S. Constitution that you do.

There is help that I offer in the form of a publication that one of Senator Hatch's Aides gave me up there on the 8th Floor of the Federal Building in SLC. I went to get some of those copies of the U.S. Constitution that Senators give away so I could pass them out to Boy Scouts working on their First Class Badge. I used to go down to Senator Bennett's office because I liked him best of all, but he seems to be gone. You can also get the book on-line at this place you can click at. Anyway, the booklet is called "Our American Government." Here's a picture in case you haven't seen it:

It's a really cool guide to the U.S. Constitution and our wonderful system of Government. It was printed by the Government Printing Office and produced by a Concurrent Resolution of the One Hundred Eighth Congress of the United States of America. H. Con. Res. 108-139 (so you can have a staffer look it up to check!) That was the Congress elected in 2002 right when President Bush was rallying us all for our patriotic fight in Iraq! Those guys (and a few gals) must have been real patriots! I mean, even the President said that those who weren't with us were against us so I know the Congress went along with him!

Anyway, there's some really good stuff in there about how our Government works with three branches, checks & balances, and all the stuff about how to make laws! That part might really be good since you're now one of those guys with that job!

The Big Lie of "Socialism!"

I got a little snarky on a FB post of a friend with whom I share some political views. In his attempts to promote a little Social Justice from solid, Mormon History, he was met with all the usual screed about the evils of "Socialism." My best comment was:

"Socialism. You keep using that word. I don't think it means what you think it does."

My point here is to try and explain that when tea-partiers on the Right talk about "Socialism" they are not using the classic, dictionary definition of an economic system in which the state owns and controls the means of production.

(By the way, I am not a Socialist. I believe in property rights and open markets regulated by representative democracy. Sigh!)

Syria - The Way to Enter (or Not Enter) a War

Do I personally want the U.S to go to war in Syria? No. Do I want anyone to be gassed by their own government's chemical weapons? No. And I don't think the President wants either of these as well. He just said that he has requested that congressional leaders postpone any vote on the use of force for the US to pursue a diplomatic solution, particularly the one supported by Russia that Iraq declare its chemical weapons and place them under international supervision. I'm just fine with that.

A war in Syria right now does not meet my predetermined standards for going to war. There is no UN authorization, and with Russia, China, and now the UK opposed and on the Security Counsel that is not going to happen. Arguably, there is a legal way to go which would be to consider the Syrian incursions across the border or even the disruption caused by numerous refugees to be an attack on Turkey. As a NATO member, an attack on one is an attack on all. And while the UN acknowledges collective security in these regional organizations, only notice, not pre-approval, is all that is required under the UN Charter (still preserving each nation's sovereignty so no nation actually has to do anything). Yes, I'm overly legalistic as I look to the idealism of international law to structure war and peace. The UN has a messy history, but we're still here instead of flying through the universe as glowing atoms.

Thomas Jefferson Said . . . . (!?#*)

Credit to my buddy Phil at The Liberty Tree
(And Tom didn't really say that!)

It happened again! This time a comment on one of my blog pieces about guns. (So far, I'm getting a lot of interesting material from gun advocates but not a lot that makes much sense). There was another one of those made up quotes attributed to one of the Founders. This time, Thomas Jefferson:

"The two enemies of the people are criminals and government, so let us tie the second down with the chains of the Constitution so the second will not become the legalized version of the first."

Von Mises Institute Secessionist Theory

Discuss:

"With the orderly, legal secession of the southern states, the American genius for self-government reached its highest moral expression." Donald W. Livingston of the Ludvig von Mises Institute.

Discuss is what I did with my good Libertarian friend on Facebook. With his permission, I will post the discussion here. Any other comments are welcome (under the rules of posting down below).

Russell first recommended the article linked above in this way:

Very well written. Grant, I would like to read a rebuttal on your blog if you can find the time.

Me:

Yikes! My whole blog is a rebuttal to this convoluted argument about the power of states over people. Yes. That's the argument of States Rights. Just a smaller government rather than a big one. And if you've ever been to a City Council meeting, you can see first hand that the idea of "the smaller the government, the better" is a myth. It is still a "state" or "government" power. But can't argue you out of a deeply held belief system. The beauty of the Constitutional Union, in spite of its faults, and your article points out many, is that it allows the government of the people to protect the rights of individuals with the people's power united in a Constitutional system respecting basic human rights. Look, I know I can't convince you. And I don't think even Lincoln can, but here it is in a better summary than I could ever make:

The Right to Bear Government

It struck me in the middle of the night so maybe it was only a dream. Though it seems odd to me that many people consider guns to be a God-given right as tools for self defense or other problem solving measures. And many of these same people deny that government is a tool for the benefit of people. It's not that people always have to be consistent (I'm certainly not). It's just that it seems to fly in the face of the Lincoln philosophy of government of, by, and for the people.

Orrin's Escape Hatch

My wife went to the Republican caucus last night. There were 178 in attendance at our precinct as opposed to 10 at the Democratic caucus. Now is not the time to talk balancing out the neighborhood a little, but the vast infusion of numbers had its influence to moderate the participants into a rejection of the tea party extremists in favor of our sitting Senator Orrin Hatch.

Tempting as it may be to fall into Monty Python "Silly Party" parlance, Senator Hatch is certainly no moderate. He is clearly conservative. But he is not of the tea party. The slight turn towards the center did not bring the local caucus into the moderate middle, but it did save them from going over the cliff on the far right of the mountain pass.

"We Are Met on a Great Battlefield of that War"

I guess I was wrong again. Speaker Boehner does not have his tea party House under control. I'll leave the rest of how I was wrong in that posting to your own conclusions. The Republican House refused to accept the compromise with the Senate and the President, even though the Senate and the President came to a bipartisan agreement on the extension of the payroll tax cut. And now we have several Republican Senators, generally those up for reelection in bluer or battleground states, who are furious at the Republican House for their silly grandstanding.

The payroll tax cut will likely survive somehow. Even if they can't get it done in this pre-Holiday debacle, the Congress could always come back in January and pass it as a furious electorate will likely demand and even "rebate" retroactively what will be charged against all workers' pay beginning January 1, 2012. It could end up sort of like those "stimulus" checks President W Bush used to hand out--yet another win for President Obama in turning a "tax cut" into a "stimulus" he can't get any other way out of this Congress. The dysfunctional tea party House just handed the President a political plum.

Emergency! Everybody to Get from Street! Or - "Can't We All Just Get Along?"*

There is common ground between the Tea Party and the Occupy Movement. I first found the following diagram originating here:

The Constitution Is Not Dead

Do you realize the implication of those like Justices Scalia and Thomas, along with Beck and the late Skousen who argue against a "living Constitution?" I hope they are not saying the Constitution is dead. I much prefer a living Constitution to a dead one.

As far as I can tell, I don't believe those who promote a living Constitution believe it is a "free-for-all" to interpret however we want. To draw a little scriptural analogy, which many on the right are so fond of anyway in spite of the First Amendment and the "no religious test" of Article VI, why can't we "liken the Constitution unto us" and consider its principles as applied to our current situation?

Jon Huntsman Saves the Union!

Well, that's a bit over-stated. But he did something very important yesterday besides showing the political world that there is more to Utah and Mormonism than Romneyesque stiffness and stuffiness.

In his announcement speech to seek the Republican nomination, Huntsman said, "I don't think you need to run down someone's reputation to run for the office of president." That is absolutely amazing, unusual within his party (and it shouldn't be), and so needed in our current political climate. President Obama, while not achieving the high hopes and dreams of so many who supported him, is nevertheless a very important transitional figure in the positive change coming to this great nation.

"Constitutional Compound Republic"

What the heck? Can anybody tell me what this means? Compound?? What?!!

The Utah Legislature thinks it can dictate Civic Education? Big Brother, anyone? This would be so silly if it weren't actually so dangerous.