Month: July 2016

In some countries if you lose an election you go to jail.  We’ve never done that in this country and we shouldn’t start now.  As everyone knows, our laws are so complex and pervasive that a U. S. Attorney could indict a ham sandwich.  Or you.  Or me.  Or a former President.  A rogue attorney’s general’s office in Austin has attempted to criminalize the practice of politics in the State of Texas, and has had some success.  We don’t want that in America.

That’s why Gerald Ford pardoned Nixon, and was right to do so.  And it may have played a part in FBI Director Comey’s decision not to recommend prosecution of Hillary Clinton.  All things considered, it was the right thing to do, especially since he had the courage to condemn her behavior in very strong terms.  He made the case against her, and left it to the voters to decide.  The Clintons are career criminals, but I don’t want the precedent set of the FBI deciding elections.

One thing Comey accomplished is to make it more difficult for Clinton to respond to Trump’s declaration that he is the law and order candidate.  Some lefties will call that a dog whistle for repressing the black community.  But to most people it’s just common sense.  It’s the kind of issue regular people, including low information voters, talk about at the dinner table.

I don’t think, especially given her email issues, Clinton has an adequate response.  So score one, maybe a  big one, for Trump.  And if we start getting race riots, he can win the election on this issue.  He won the nomination, in the end, when the violent protests against him helped give him his big win in Indiana.  It could happen again in the general.  George Soros, take note.  Funding Black Lives Matter may not be such a good idea after all.

Kurt Schlicter writes at the Townhall website, and he’s not a happy camper today, and he’s got a point.  You can only push people so far, and you’re going to get push back.  Killing police officers is a revolutionary act, in any country, at any time, and it must be responded to in the most forceful way.  We can count on Obama not to do so, and this is a problem for Clinton.  She can’t stray too far from him, without seeming disloyal.

Because of all this, and the normal post Convention bounce, I would be surprised if Trump doesn’t catch  Clinton in the polls.   May the Saints preserve us.

I don’t like to think about Trump because I don’t know what to think.  On the one hand, he’s a nut.  On the other hand he’s spot on concerning many of the big issues.  On trade, NATO and immigration he’s an American nationalist, which is smart.  But he’s a nut.

It’s pretty obvious where Ted Cruz’s head is right now.  2020 baby.  He likens himself to Reagan, and this year is his 1976.  His speech to the Convention will be a call to arms for constitutional conservatives.  It’s the one part of the Convention I’ll be sure to watch.

If Trump wins (God, I hate typing those words) he should appoint Cruz to Scalia’s seat, and Cruz should accept.  It may be that the Supreme Court is where the Good Lord intends Cruz to serve his God and his country.  You never know.

I assume Rubio is thinking the same thing.  That will be an fascinating dynamic to watch, Cruz and Rubio both shadow boxing for 2020.  Hey, it’s more interesting than anything on TV.

The sad thing is, there are a lot of crazy people in this country, and the only thing between them and us is the police, and our own firearms.  And I’d prefer not to have to deal with these crazy bastards myself.  I think that’s the way most people feel, and this issue, as much or more so than immigration, can turn an election.  And I think Paul Manafort is smart enough to understand that, and so is Donald Trump.  It’s not rocket science.

This election seems like it’s been going on forever.  And I feel black swans coming.

I haven’t really dived into Trump’s head to figure out where he’s really coming from, even though he’s got a one in four chance of getting elected.  Those are odds you get for flipping a coin twice and getting heads both times, so it could happen.  And the police massacre in Dallas, the Orlando shootings, and unknown tragedies to come in the next four months could even make him a favorite.  But he’s too impulsive to rely on, even if you think you did have him figured.  The fact that he’s a bully, a braggart, a coxcomb and a liar mean, to me, that he’s not worth the effort.

But his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and his daughter Ivanka, both seem like intelligent and sensible people, and I believe he takes their advice seriously, if no one else’s.  And they have got to be telling him to pick Mike Pence of Indiana as his running mate.  It just makes so much sense politically, that it’s a no brainer.  Christie’s just a mini-Trump and Gingrich is a whack job, and Gen. Flynn on the ticket does him no good.

Trump is taking heat for offering to defend Article Twelve of the Constitution, which has seven Articles.  But there are 28 Articles of Amendment, and Article 12 of the Amendments may be what he was referring to.  It’s been used twice, most famously in 1824, when John Quincy Adams won in the Corrupt Bargain.  In 1836 the Whigs had a plan to beat Van Buren by throwing the election again into the House, where they controlled a majority of delegations.  They came up short, but did succeed in throwing the election of the Vice President to the Senate.

Which brings me to Johnson for President.   If he were to win enough electoral votes to throw the election into the House, and the Republicans maintain control of the Senate, Mike Pence could be the next President.  Right now the Republicans have a majority in 33 of the 50 State Congressional delegations, and Trump would need 26 to win the election there.  But if eight Republican delegations voted for Johnson, and held tough, none of the three candidates could get a majority, and the Presidency would be vacant.  Then if 51 Senators chose Pence over the Democratic Vice Presidential candidate, Vice President Pence would assume the office of the vacant Presidency.  It would be a crazy end to a crazy election.  And I’ll wager you that almost every Republican in the House prefers Pence to Trump.  They know and admire Pence.  While he was there he was among the best of them.  He would make an outstanding President.

And, getting back to Trump’s head, what to make of this?  The Queen of the Hive (NYT) asks him if he intends to serve if elected, and he answers, “I’ll let you know when the time comes.”  What the hell does that mean?

I’m all in on honoring our veterans, but we need to all show more appreciation to the police.  What a job.  I see these guys in Oakland all the time, and I don’t envy them.  In large areas of Oakland the people they police hate them.  There’s a no-snitch code, so they get very little cooperation.  And now, especially after Dallas, every time they get out of their car, they have to wonder if some crazy son of a bitch has got him in their sights.  And they have to ask themselves, would I rather be carried by six or judged by twelve?   That may have gone through the officer’s head in the Minnesota incident.  When you’re dealing with a man with a gun you don’t take chances.

I was driving back to Kadoka for my Uncle Fritz’s burial when I got pulled over by a South Dakota State Trooper.  Foolishly, I had my registration in my center console, where I also kept my .38 in a little bag.  When I got the registration he saw the bag, and asked me if I had a gun in the car.  When I said yes he told everyone in the car to put their hands up, and hold them there, which we all did.  He got my .38, and told us we could put down our hands.  What he did was standard police procedure, and if he thought I was making a move for that gun he would have shot me, justifiably.

Well, at least I demonstrated to my sons how to handle yourself around law enforcement.  I told the Trooper we were going to bury my Uncle Fritz, and it turned out he knew the family.  So he just took my bullets and gave me back the .38.  He would have done the same thing if my skin was black.

Uncle Fritz and his four brothers are now all buried on a hill near the White River, just east of the Badlands.  They were born near there in a sod house.  All served in uniform in World War II.  I once asked my sperm donor father if he’d killed any Germans in the war, and he said no, Uncle Fritz killed enough for the whole family.

R.I. P.

From the time Babbie and I arrived in Alaska in 1974 until we left in 2001 I was trying to figure out a way to get into the United States Senate.  When I finished my eight years in the state legislature, I started writing a column in Alaska’s largest newspaper and got a radio talk show in order to maintain my viability as a candidate.  But I never got my chance.  I was kind of pissed off when we left.  I would have liked to at least taken a shot, but it wasn’t meant to be.

Thank God for that.  As I observe the absolute dysfunction in the Senate, and the House as well, I feel like getting down on my knees and thanking the Good Lord I’m not in the middle of that clown show.  Republican or Democrat, it doesn’t really make much difference.  Ben Sasse of Nebraska seems like an intelligent and honorable man.  I wonder if he’s happy at work.

McConnell thought he could pass a Defense Department budget.  It’s the core function of any legislature.  You’ve got to fund the government.  But he couldn’t get the votes, so there will once again be no real budgeting done by Congress this year.  They’ll pass a Continuing Resolution.  In other words, they’ll punt.

Since both political parties are rightfully held in such disdain, where is Gary Johnson?  I go to his web site to look for signs of life and I find nothing.  I spend a lot of time on internet news sites, and for weeks now, it seems, he’s nowhere to be found.  What the hell is he doing?  I’m sure he’s got money problems, but he could get some earned media if he showed any imagination.

I don’t see any hope for Congress.  It’s so broken it can’t be fixed.  Regardless of who’s elected President, and who has the Senate majority, Congress will continue to be a national joke.  They’ve rigged the system so thoroughly that 98% of them always seem to get reelected, no matter what abject failures they are.  The only hope is Article V.

If you enjoy a good biography I recommend Anthony Everitt’s Augustus, the Life of Rome’s First Emperor.  He was arguably the most successful ruler of the ancient world, creating order from a series of calamitous civil wars.  But the chalice of power was poisoned.  When his health failed, and he believed the end was near, he went with his beloved wife Livia to an island and made his preparations for his chosen successor, Tiberius.  Some of what he had to do was distasteful,  but he did it and waited to die. Then, to his amazement, he started to recover.  The ships had sailed, the orders had been given, and he was supposed to die.  Knowing his wishes, Livia poisoned him.

His natural heir, his only grandson, was not suitable to be an Emperor, but he felt he had a right to it, and his followers were sure to try to help him seize power from Tiberius.  So, in his last act as Emperor, Augustus had ordered him to be killed.

His dying words were, “Have I played my part in the farce of life well enough?’

The War of the World, by Niall Ferguson, is one of the best histories of the 2oth century you’ll find.  The fourteen years before the Great War are often looked back upon with nostalgia, as a sort of golden age.  Globalism was triumphant, even more so than today.  But they were also troubled times.  Between 1900 and 1913 there were 40 political assassinations around the world, with our own President McKinley as one of the three Presidents killed, along with four kings and six prime ministers.  In the Balkans alone the victims included two kings, one queen, two prime minsters and the commander -in-chief of the Turkish Army.

Most of the world was ruled by multi-ethnic empires, such as Austro-Hungary.  The global elites were content, but when asked by what right they ruled, they had no satisfactory answer.  The nations of the world contained within the empires wanted self determination, and some were willing to die for it.

A Serb, Gavrilo Princip, was one of them.  He killed and died for a free Yugoslavia, and in this he succeeded.  My guess is that Serbs today still admire him.

The assassin in Dallas will soon be forgotten.  Whatever his goal may have been, it won’t be attained, any more than the goal of the moron who killed those people in a black church in Charleston.  I only found out about the shootings in Minnesota, Louisiana and Dallas a few hours ago.  I’ve been in the High Sierra for a couple days, out of touch.  I recommend it.

I’m still in the process of absorbing all that I learned in reading The War of the World.  Here’s a little factoid I’d been unaware of.  After utterly destroying its Navy and winning its war with Russia, Japan wanted to be treated as the Great Power that it was in the process of becoming.  It was on the winning side in the Great War, and was in Versailles to get in on the pickings.  It was rewarded with the German possessions in the Pacific, but came away feeling disrespected.  A Resolution had been proposed at the Peace Conference that all nations, regardless of race, deserved equal treatment, and it would have passed, on an 11-7 vote.  But Woodrow Wilson was a “no”, and he insisted on unanimity, so it failed.  Out of such humiliations wars are born.

I was reading by the shore of upper Virginia Lake, 9770 feet up, when I headed back to the camp ground.  A man and his wife were nearby, and he asked me if I caught any fish.  I said, no, I’d been reading, and he asked me what it was.  I told him The War of the World, about the wars of the twentieth century, and he asked me if I knew who Vladimir Putin was.  He seemed intelligent enough, so I walked back to him and we had a little talk.  It turned out we thought along the same lines.  Somehow we got onto Serbia, and he was saying he had a Croatian friend who hated the Serbs with a passion.  I told him they had a reason for feeling the way they do, but it didn’t mean beans to me, because I’m an American.

Even in the High Sierra it’s nice to be among fellow Americans.

He’s said a lot of dumb things, but one of the worst was when he answered a question about the most important functions of the federal government.  He included education as a top federal priority.  This is the kind of thing you’d expect from a college sophomore, not a potential President.  I suspect, as in so many things, Trump had never really thought it through, and just assumed an important government function like education was in part the province of the national government.  Apparently, the concepts of federalism, the separation of powers, and the restrictions on the power and scope of the federal government are alien to him, even though they’re the essence of the Constitution.

Since he’s got a one in five chance of getting elected, someone needs to explain a few of these things to him.  The reason most college students are as dumb as a Trump is because of the radical leftist teacher’s unions, and their stranglehold on American education.  Abolishing the Department of Education would be a mighty blow against these unions.  It would begin the process of restoring local control of the schools.

But that’s just the first step.  Getting control of education in this country has got to come from the bottom up.  Local school boards should be taken over, and if that’s not possible responsible parents need to get their kids into another learning environment, whether at home or in a charter or private school.

These are the thoughts that occur on our 240th birthday.  I shudder when I think of what an average college student knows about the Declaration of Independence.  In many cases it’s virtually nothing.  In others, it’s the anti-American Howard Zinn’s take on things.

It was, in fact, and always will be, the greatest day in all our history.  What an exciting time to be alive!  By collectively placing their necks in a traitor’s noose, the Founders sent out a challenge to their fellow colonists.  Are you, too, willing to die for your freedom, and for that of your posterity?   When enough said yes, the war would be won, eventually.  Even if not on a battlefield, it would eventually be won.  Conquering three million armed people three thousand miles away was too much for the British.  As long as the American will to freedom was intact, they could never lose.

Smart Brits, like Edmund Burke, understood that.  I believe the British commander in America, Gen. William Howe, knew it as well.  He was convinced of it even before the Declaration, at Bunker Hill.  The British thought they were facing an unruly mob, that would run when assaulted by professional redcoats.  But it wasn’t a mob, it was a militia of Minutemen, and they didn’t run.  Far from it, they killed so many British troops that the British recoiled from ever challenging them again.

I think Howe admired them.  They were his cousins.  After the French and Indian War the citizens of some colony  paid for the erection of a statue in London of Gage’s older brother who had died in fighting near Ticonderoga in the French and Indian War.  He was inordinately proud of his family, and felt kindly toward a people who honored it.  Later in the war Gage missed a number of opportunities to destroy Washington.  It’s almost as though he didn’t want to.  They’d served together in the same war as his brother, at the Battle of Monongahela in 1755.

And then there’as the story of Patrick Ferguson, the finest sniper in the British Army, who had demonstrated his skills to the King.  He had a rifle of his own design, a breech loader, and it was deadly.  Not knowing who he was, he had a clear shot at Washington, but he passed it up.  Later, he said that he just didn’t have the stomach to kill such a fine looking man.

So, after 240 years of separation, I say let’s join back up with the Brits, who are, in fact, our cousins.  You start with a free trade zone between us, just like the old Zollverein in early 19th century Germany.  It led to German unification, and who can say what form our renewal of bonds with the mother country  will take?  That’s up to us, and them.

Do the English want the American Bill of Rights?  Since it’s got the Second Amendment, probably not.  So actual Union is off the table.  But complete freedom of passage is possible, allowing citizens of each flow freely back and forth.

If you’re British, you’ve got a lot to think about right now.  Good luck, mates.

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