Month: January 2017

I’ll be sorely disappointed if Trump doesn’t have a lot done after his first hundred days.  I think his strategy will be to have so many initiatives underway simultaneously that his opposition will simply be overwhelmed.  It will be similar to what’s happening in the Senate, with all kinds of confirmation hearings happening one on top of another.  I expect the bloody sacrifice of a lot of sacred cows, and the howls of rage from the elite media will be a delight to the ear.  They’ll be so pissed off, and so, completely, helpless.

Having served him the nomination, they did all they could to destroy him, and came oh, so close.  But he won, and their power is fading quickly.  They once had a monopoly on the news, the way the Catholic Church had one on Christianity.  Then came Gutenberg, and with the printed Bible in wide circulation the monopoly of the Church was shattered.  The monopoly of the news by the elite media has been smashed by the internet.  Their day has come, and gone.

This makes the watershed political year of 2017 even more significant.  With the dispersal of knowledge you get the dispersal of power, and it’s flowing away from the center.  It’s happening in much of the world, and is liable to continue this year all across Europe.   The center is not holding.

I’ve chided Trump for his lack of interest in federalism,  but he may prove me wrong on that.  The idea of “block grants” is to just give the States the money, and let them figure out how to accomplish the goal of the program.  Perhaps he’ll see the merit in that, when it’s presented to him by someone like the VP.  Pence is the hope for the constitutional conservatives, because he’s one of us.  The more prominent a role he plays, the happier I’ll be.

We’re off to a wet “winter” in the Gold Country.  This may be the year the long drought breaks.  It’s just going to be that kind of year.

 

The last time the Republicans held the Kentucky House was 1921.  They’ve never had the State Legislature and the Governorship at the same time, until now.  They convened one week ago, and they have quickly demonstrated they know what they want to do, and they know how to get it done.  This level of legislative competence is the result of weeks of planning and consultation.  I’ve no doubt that Gov. Matt Bevin deserves a lot of credit for bringing everyone together.

They decided to do the hard stuff first.  Get it off the table, and don’t allow the opposition time to jam the works.  So in the first six legislative days they (1) became the nation’s 27th Right to Work state, (2) abolished the Kentucky version of Davis-Bacon (requiring union wages on State jobs),  (3) passed a restrictive abortion law, and  (4) threw out the Board of Trustees of the troubled University of Louisville, allowing Gov. Bevin to appoint new ones. Now they’re in adjournment until early February.  The State Constitution only gives them 30 legislative days this year, so time is at a premium.

Senate President Stivers is an ardent and seasoned advocate of the Article V BBA, and he has designated a Senate sponsor.   Our Resolution has passed the Kentucky Senate in the past, and we have a 64-36 split in the House.  Based on its first week’s work, you can say with confidence that the Kentucky legislative leadership will pass what it wants to pass, and it wants the BBA.  We should get Kentucky in early March, at the latest.  Wyoming and Idaho should be done by then as well.  Arizona should be close behind, and there’s no reason Wisconsin can’t complete its work by then as well.  When that happens, no later than April, we’ll be at 33, and all eyes will be on South Carolina, Montana and Minnesota.  Virginia, unfortunately, will have adjourned.

Once we get to 33 someone will notice what we’re up to.  If not, I’ll perform the ancient Japanese rite of seppuku, and disembowel myself.  I can’t entirely blame the media for the neglect.  The Obama/Trump transition is the story of the month, and all the action seems to be in D.C.  But we will get noticed eventually, and it can’t happen soon enough for me.

My anticipation is based on my interaction with the California liberals I occasionally associate with.  They’re pretty normal people, except for their politics.  These people like the BBA, a lot.  And I think a whole lot of rank and file Democrats are going to ask themselves, and their political representatives, “With Trump and the Republicans running Washington, why wouldn’t we want to rein them in with a Balanced Budget Amendment?”   I have a very strong hunch that Democratic State Legislators in Maryland, New Mexico and Nevada will not want to rescind their outstanding Article V applications.  Is it really good politics to be opposed to balancing the budget?

There’s always the boogie man of the runaway convention, but five of the most Democratic States in the union  –  Vermont, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Illinois and California  –   have passed Article V Resolutions to overturn Citizens United.  If those five State Legislatures realize the runaway argument is specious, what’s the problem?

Since he won the election I haven’t heard Trump, or anyone associated with him, say one word about federalism, about returning power to the States, and the people.  The whole concept may never cross his mind.   He’s in charge of the federal government, so why should he try to reduce its, and his, power?    But I think there’s a strong constituency for federalism, and it happens to be concentrated in the one place it can do the most good  — in the 50 State Legislatures of this country.  Once these people really “get” Article V, once they understand its potential, I think they’re going to run with it.  And they won’t need any help from Donald Trump.

 

In the Article V movement, we don’t use the term “states rights”.  After Reconstruction ended in 1876 the South used “states rights” to impose segregation and Jim Crow laws on their black citizens.  In 1948 Strom Thurmond ran as a segregationist on the States Rights ticket, and won South Carolina, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.   To my ears, “states rights” still means segregation and Jim Crow.

Federalism is a more general, and neutral, term, and it’s what we use.  But there is no denying that states rights are an aspect of federalism, and if our movement succeeds the rights of the States will be enhanced.  That’s a good thing.  We want power taken from the globalists and returned to the nation.  We want power taken from the federal government and returned to the States.  We want power taken from the States and returned to local government.  We want power returned to the people.

To which the left responds, “What about Alabama?”  White Republicans have a lock on the State government of Alabama.  There are very few white Democrats, and very few black Republicans, and the party system is more or less racial.  If Alabama was left on its own, would its black citizens be somehow disadvantaged yet again?  Can we trust the whites of Alabama, who run the government, to be fair with their black citizens?

This is the question people in California ask themselves.  There’s a prejudice against whites from the Deep South, which we’ll get to see in the Sessions hearings.  It’s the reason there is not a national consensus in favor of federalism.  In this Age of Trump, federalism looks tempting to Californians.  But what about Alabama?  Can it be trusted?

To which I respond, Please see Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, a highly popular black Republican.  What the Republicans of Alabama need to do is find themselves another Tim Scott, and put him in the Senate to replace Sessions.  Then maybe we’ll get federalism, and states rights to boot.

 

 

To me, Trump’s most attractive feature is his enemies.  You don’t have to like a guy to be on his side in a fight.  It all depends on who he’s fighting, and the people out to destroy Trump are, at bottom, opposed to what this country stands for, what it’s all about.  George Soros is a prime example, but he stands out only because he’s honest about it.  He’s a Hungarian Jew, a Davos Man, an internationalist, and a man of the world.  He doesn’t like this country, its history, or the people in it.  In part, because he and his ilk are out to take Trump down, I’ve got to root for the guy, as much as I don’t care for him, personally.

Based on what we’ve seen since the election Trump will be a successful President, and potentially a transformational one.  The market is full of rational exuberance, and we’re in a secular bull run that will last another decade.  Prosperity is just around the corner.

It takes peace and prosperity to be a winner, and I think peace is coming too.  The only people Trump wants to fight are the jihadis, and we’ll make quick work of them.  With Russia fully on board, all the powers of the world will be aligned against them, and the only question is how much damage they cause in their death throes.  The American military will need to cooperate with Russia’s, and it will be a good learning exercise for all involved.  We’ve been planning on fighting the Russians for 72 years, since 1945.  But we’re not going to fight them.  It is not in our national interest to fight the Russians.  Not now, and not ever.  Look at a globe.  If there were ever two neighboring countries who had less to fight over, I’d like to know who they are.

It would be nice if someone in the Trump circle had some imagination, and realized Anchorage, Alaska would be the perfect venue for the first Trump-Putin summit.  This the heart of what once was Russian America, which extended south all the way to Fort Ross, just north of San Francisco.

They could attend services at the St. Innocent Russian Orthodox Cathedral, where Putin could mingle with his co-religionists, most of them Aleuts.  If there was time, they could make a quick side trip to Kodiak, home of the heart of the Russian Orthodox Church of America, the Holy Resurrection Cathedral.  This is the home of St. Herman, a Russian Orthodox priest, and the patron saint of the North American Church.

Putin is a man who is said to have a heart of ice.  If anything could melt it, it would be a visit to this ancient and remote outpost of Russian civilization, and what remains of it.  Mainly, his fellow congregants in the Russian Orthodox faith.  They’ll be glad to see him.

 

Congress is poised to pass the REINS Act, which would require Congressional approval of any administrative regulation costing $100 million or more.  Obama has issued over 600 such regulations, and none of them would be affected.  The REINS Act will be a restraint on the Trump administration, which, hopefully, won’t need restraining, at least in this regard.  For this to have an actual positive impact, a Democratic President would need to be in power.  So, for the time being, this bill is useless.

Nonetheless, Congress will be mighty pleased with itself.  It did something, even if it doesn’t do any good.  All too typical.  Why don’t they make the REINS Act retroactive for the last eight years, so those 600 Obama regs would need Congressional approval?  And why limit it to $100 million dollar regulations?  Why not $1 million dollar ones?  And since, in fact, a regulation is a law by another name, why should any regulation, which has the force of law, go into effect without Congressional approval?

Congress just doesn’t have the time.  They’re too busy.  Doing what, you ask?  Making sure they get reelected.  That’s Job One, Job Two, and Job Three.  If it weren’t for the constant pressure of facing another election, a Congressman might be able to put in the eight hours a day of legislative work needed to supervise the federal government.

Term limits is the answer.  Article V is the way to get them.  Something to talk about at the Nashville Convention of States, on lucky 7-11.