Month: April 2017

The Phoenix Convention of States is, among other things, a political pageant, a physical manifestation of federalism, and a reminder that, when they act in concert, the States are the sovereigns in this country.  They created the federal government, and retained for themselves authority over it.  While this Convention will have no legal authority, and can do no more than make recommendations, the very fact that it meets sends a powerful message.

It’s a message the left won’t like.  They’re great believers in direct democracy, and think it’s absurd that Wyoming and Alaska have as many United States Senators as California and New York.  And, of course, they want to abolish the electoral college, since it skews Presidential elections in favor of small States.  But a Convention of States will really annoy them.

The Arizona Legislature called this Convention, and they will plan it and organize it, in consultation with Bill Fruth of the BBA Task Force.  That process will begin after they adjourn in a week or so.  So we don’t yet know the venue, and how much room there will be for the public.  But the floor of the Convention will resemble that of a national political party Convention, with the 50 State delegations each seated together.  Some sort of sign may be used to identify the location of each State, as at a political convention.  But there will be one noticeable difference.  Each delegation will be the same size.   California’s delegates will not outnumber South Dakota’s.  In fact, South Dakota, led by Hal Wicks, may well send one of the larger delegations.  I think that makes a great, and telling, visual picture.

We expect delegations of five or seven, though each State decides that for itself.  Whether they send three or thirteen won’t matter.  It’s one State, one vote.  So there should be three hundred or more delegates.  Each delegation will select a spokesperson, though that task could be rotated.  The delegates won’t dress, or act, like delegates to a political convention.  Everyone will be in suits, the women in business attire.  While there will be a certain number of citizen delegates, most of the delegates  will be State Legislative leaders, Speakers of the House, and Senate Presidents.   They are accustomed to operating in this type of environment.  The proceedings themselves will resemble those of a chamber of a State Legislature, operating under Mason’s Manual of Legislative Procedure.  Regular order will be followed.  This is what all these men and women are used to.  It will all be very professional and dignified.

All of this will be available for viewing by the public, hopefully on C-Span.  It will be such an extraordinary contrast with what’s happening in Washington.  It will be a wonderful way to introduce Article V to the public.

Politically, it was a no brainer.  It wags the dog, in the sense that it forces the media to cover an actual event, as opposed to their incessant back biting rumor mongering.  It shows not only strength, in stark contrast to Obama, it shows decisiveness.  It separates him from Putin.  It earns praise from overseas, and from all Americans who love seeing the bad guys blown up.  It distances him from his alt-right support, and makes him appear compassionate.  It sends a clear message to ruthless killers all over the world, including, especially, the Norks, to wit:  there are very few places in the world where you can hide from American power.  Cruise missiles are only one asset available to a President.  From B-1’s to drones to stealth bombers to Navy Seals, with more on the way.   If we know where you are, we can kill you.`

In poker, it pays to be unpredictable, and, as Nixon knew quite well, it works for a President as well.  Who knows what Trump is capable of?  Chinese President Xi must be rethinking his position.  China is in no way a match for the United States Navy, as he well knows.  And after witnessing, up close and personal, what Trump is capable of, maybe he’ll think twice about a confrontation in the South China Sea.  And he may want to think hard about the Norks as well.

We’ll figure out a way to deal with the Norks soon enough.  What really matters is avoiding military conflict with China.  If that was going to happen, it was going to be over navigation around the Spratly “Islands”.  If Trump had timed this whole thing to impress the Chinese, it couldn’t have gone any better.

It turns out The Resistance is futile, and the Gorsuch win removes a grave threat to our basic liberties as Americans.  Federalists and conservatives will continue to control the Court.  The rule of law is upheld.  The Roberts Court won’t go on offense, as the Obamacare decision showed.  But they will defend our constitutional rights.

This has got to be the proudest moment of Mitch McConnell’s political career.  It makes up for a lot.  And Trump did as he promised.  A big one.

Tomahawk is a bad ass sounding name, but I suppose it’s racist.  Although it wouldn’t be to the Aniak Halfbreeds of the Kuskokwim River.  Most of the kids are part white, so in the 1970’s they decided to adopt Halfbreed as their mascot.  They’re actually proud of their mixed race heritage, and are unapologetic about their name.  They fly to Anchorage every winter for the big Division IV Basketball championships, and proudly take the court wearing Aniak on the front and Halfbreeds on the back.  I always rooted for them.

 

Cenk Uygar is the founder of the progressive political organization “The Young Turks” (TYT) and a founder of Wolf-PAC, which seeks to end corporate personhood and publicly finance all elections in the United States.   You may call him a dreamer, or something else, but for me, for the moment at least, he is my ally.  Our common enemy is George Soros, who is attempting to destroy Wolf-PAC.  The details are in this link.

TYT believes in Article V, and for that reason alone I ally with them.  And it is for that reason alone that Soros wants to kill us both.  TYT has five blue States, including Vermont, where the State Senate, acting like Soros lapdogs, recently voted to rescind its Article V Wolf-PAC Resolution.  We need to kill this Rescission bill in the Vermont House.

Here’s the math.  150 members, 55 Republicans.  75 needed to kill a bill.  If you get all 55 Republican votes, you only need 20 of the 95 Democrats to vote “nay”.  I’m volunteering for this project this evening, via text.  I’d like to start making phone calls on Monday.

If we can unite the Vermont Republicans against rescission, we will have made a deposit in the favor bank for TYT.  This would make us even, since they tried to help us in Montana.

It would also encourage them to get the five States they have  — California, Illinois, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and Vermont —  to send delegations to the Phoenix Convention of States.  These States understood Article V when they passed the Wolf-PAC Resolution.  They have demonstrated, by their votes, that they know all this “runaway convention” talk is hokum.  Article V is good for all States, period.  Let’s see them in Phoenix.

 

 

Politico calls the Soros-funded Democracy Alliance “the left’s secret club”, and it has struck again in Maryland, as it did in New Mexico a few weeks ago, and Delaware last year.  This Soros group has unlimited money, and it is dedicated to preventing a Balanced Budget Amendment, or any other use of Article V.  They apparently understand, as a lot of conservatives don’t, that Article V is the last lifeline of federalism and the Constitution.  George Soros hates the United States Constitution.  He hates this country, and everything it stands for.  On this issue, at least, no one with deep pockets is willing to fight back

With Maryland’s rescission of its 40 year old BBA Resolution, we’re down to 28 States, right we started in January.  Nevada looks as though it could be poised to rescind as well, which would mean we’d be back to 27.   We expect a win early this summer in Wisconsin, which means we’d begin 2018 with 28 Resolutions, six to go: Idaho, Minnesota, Montana, Kentucky, Virginia and South Carolina.  All are under Republican control, and can pass Article V Resolutions on a party line vote, if need be.  I’ve yet to meet a Republican State Legislator who opposes a BBA.  But a few are afraid of Article V.  The Phoenix Convention of States is designed to allay their fears.  If it succeeds, we’ll have 34 by the middle of next year.

That’s because, if they get Nevada, there will be no more States in our column that are completely under Democrat control.  And if we control one chamber, we can kill a rescission.  But that could change after the November 2018 election.  Colorado could flip to the Democrats, as it almost did last year, which would mean it’s during the legislative sessions of 2018 or bust for the BBA.

These rescissions are not unexpected.  When we started to get close, we knew the opposition would mobilize.  Two years ago, when Soros stopped us in Montana, we knew the jig was up.  They were on to us, they hate Article V, they have unlimited money, and they control the Democratic Party.  We will not pass in any Democratic chamber, and they have rescinded where they could.

We didn’t see the 2016 Republican takeover of the Minnesota Senate coming.  Minneapolis media mogul Stanley Hubbard was probably the man behind it.  He has regalvanized the Republicans in the State Legislature, and with some help from a Trump bump, we won the Senate, 37-36.  By the skin of our teeth.  Without that 37th Senate seat, we would not be able to get to 34 next year.  Which means maybe never.

Thank you, Stanley Hubbard.  For the last four years you and your cohorts have fought the Democracy Alliance, and George Soros, over the Legislature of Minnesota.  And the winner is:  Stanley Hubbard.  With Minnesota under our control, we can get to 34.  Just barely.

It feels as though things are coming to a head.  It’s as if political continents are colliding, and resisting one another, and cataclysmic forces are about to be unleashed.  All over the world there’s a revolt against the Center, as people seek to regain control over their fate.  Resistance may be futile in the end, but it is fierce.  Something’s got to give.

The campaign for a Balanced Budget Amendment is about the dangers that lie ahead, and what we can do to save ourselves.  It’s abstract, mathematical, and logical.  Not exactly a good fit for the times we seem to be living in, which are all about passion and justice and freedom.  What the BBA Task force is trying to do is so sensible that logic would seem to demand that it be done.   But it’s in the trenches fighting every step of the way.  We need a break.

And that’s what I sense coming, a sudden release of tectonic forces, a political earthquake.

36 years ago, on March 30, 1981, we had such an event.  It was the attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan.  If Reagan had been killed, God knows what would have happened to this country.  But he survived, bravely and gamely, and the American people loved him for it.

It was only with this wave of popular affection and support that Reagan was, that summer, able to rally the people behind his tax cuts.  Speaker Tip O’Neill had a thirty vote Democratic majority, and he fought Reagan every step of the way.  But in the end he caved, because he knew public opinion when he saw it.

Those tax cuts led directly to Reagan’s reelection landslide in 1984, and were the bedrock of his popularity.  If he hadn’t been shot, he may have never gotten them.

I’m certainly not predicting any sort of national calamity, far from it.  It won’t be the act of a lone mad man who shakes things up.  Rather, a sudden break, that becomes a crisis.  And, as a wise man said, you never get an opportunity like you do in a crisis.  That’s when you can shake things up.

It may take some sort of financial crisis, but I hope not.  What could come is a crisis in confidence in Congress as an institution.  They may reach gridlock, unable to do anything with the budget, adding a trillion to the deficit, and no end in sight.  It could come later this year.  Right after the Phoenix Convention of States.

And then people might ask themselves, why not get a balanced budget using Article V?  Do you need to be Doctor Spock to figure that out?