Miscellaneous

It appears that the climate is changing. Babbie and I live in the foothills of the Sierra, at 2700 feet, and we’ve been in a severe drought. That could be changing. Or not. God only knows.

The one constant of mother earth’s climate is that it changes. Always has, and always will. Humanity must adapt or die. We came close to dying around 70,000 years ago, during a global heat wave. A small band of humans managed to survive in a small ecological pocket in Africa. All of us homo sapiens are descended from them.

We’re survivors. By definition, every living thing is a survivor. Thank the Lord you’re alive..

We seem to live in two different worlds, but that can’t be true.  There is only one reality, one truth. 

There is such a thing as human nature.  It’s in our genes.  You can ignore it, or pretend it’s not there, but that doesn’t alter its reality.

I feel like we’re heading to a “come to Jesus” moment, when the bizarre, the fanatic and the perverse will be confronted by reality, and have no choice, in the end, but to face it.

But that’s not a sure thing.  Mental illness is not always cured.

“40 Years of politics on the AKSCT”

40 years ago I was in my political prime.  I was a 37 year old lawyer with a beautiful wife and three fine looking little boys.  For services rendered in his 1978 reelection campaign, Gov. Jay Hammond had designed a seat in the State Senate especially for me, and I was ready to start my legislative career.

I’d come back to Alaska in 1974 after law school with the intention of taking out Democratic U. S. Senator Mike Gravel, a liberal and a whack job.  But Frank Murkowski beat me to it, so now I had my sights on liberal Republican Senator Ted Stevens.  I couldn’t run against Congressman Don Young because Don was a good conservative and there would be no point to it.

I made no secret of my intentions, and I had my political game plan all worked out.  In 1980 I’d been chairman of Reagan for President, Alaska.  In 1990 I would run in the Republican Senate primary hard to Stevens’ right, and attack  his liberalism as out of touch with the majority of Alaska’s Reagan Republicans.

A few months after I was sworn in to the State Senate, Justice Jay Rabinowitz handed down his opinion in Carpenter v. Hammond, 667 P. 2d 1204.  It threw out Hammond’s 1980 reapportionment, and gave Democratic Governor Bill Sheffield a free rein in reapportioning the whole state.  Sheffield hated my guts, so my career in the State Senate would end in 1984.

 To this day legal scholars have a hard time figuring out Carpenter v. Hammond.  Legally, it’s nonsensical.  But it wasn’t really a legal opinion.  It was purely political.

My political momentum was stopped cold.  I was never able to regain it, and I never ran against Ted Stevens.

For 40 years Alaska’s Supreme Court has been faithfully fulfilling the Rabinowitz legacy of left wing political activism and judicial imperialism.  Republican Governors have attempted to appoint conservatives, but have been stymied by the lawyer-dominated Alaska Judicial Council, which refuses to nominate them.  They’re trying it again right now, giving Governor Mike Dunleavy a list of exclusively leftist activist nominees, all in the mold of Jay Rabinowitz.

But this year there’s a difference.  Dunleavy is the first two term Republican Governor in 44 years, so he doesn’t have to worry about reelection.  The leftist lawyers and media can hold their breath, roll on the floor, and turn purple, but he doesn’t have to pay any attention.  It’s an historic opportunity, which let’s hope he takes advantage of.  He doesn’t have to appoint any of these people.

He can just say no.

Fritz Pettyjohn blogs at ReaganProject.com

Some are moved to despair at the state of our country, but in fact the fourth revolt against the elites is well and underway.  In 1800 the Jeffersonian Democrats took power from the federalist elites who first ruled.  These gentlemen elites had refused to embrace the Bill of Rights and sought to exclude the common man from the political process. 

In 1860 Lincoln and the Republicans broke the power of the slaving elites, passed the Civil Rights Amendments and began to put into practice the ideals enshrined in the Declaration of Independence. 

In 1932 Franklin Roosevelt defeated the economic elites who had taken the bounty of our wealth and kept it for themselves.

In 2024 Ron DeSantis and the Reform Republicans will defeat the corporate, cultural and media elites who have turned their backs on the basic values of traditional Americans.,

Aside from the Civil War, these political revolutions have proceeded peacefully, and are triumphs of constitutional government.  Their success is the result of the wisdom of our Founding Fathers, who knew that to endure a system of government must be capable of adapting to the evolving needs of society.  They studied the fall of the Romans and others and learned that unless a founding document could be lawfully amended, it was not destined to endure.

The fourth American rebirth is just underway, and we will chronicle it here at the Reagan Project. It will come to fruition with the adoption of the first Artucle V Amendment in history.

How does one explain Judge Jack McKenna’s outlandish decision against Rep. David Eastman?  How can Gov. Mike Dunleavy justify his appointment of McKenna to the Superior Court?  How can such appointments be prevented in the future?

McKenna is not stupid.  He knows that, regardless of what one thinks of David Eastman, the Oath Keepers or their role in January 6th, Eastman is an American citizen, entitled to the protections of the United States Constitution, including the rights of free speech and association.  McKenna also knows that if the Alaska Court System attempts to prevent Eastman from taking office that decision will be reversed in federal court.

McKenna is not attempting to damage Eastman politically.  He knows he’ll be reelected on Nov. 8^th.  If this ruling has any effect on that election, it will help him.  So what’s the point?

By this ruling, which has made national headlines, McKenna has inserted himself into the ongoing political campaign to discredit the Republican Party by associating it with the events of January 6^th, and, by implication, with Donald Trump. 

McKenna is not acting as a judge.  He is assuming the role of a calculating political operative.  He knows that if the election of 2022 is about Joe Biden, and his record, the Democrats will lose.  But if, instead, it’s about Donald Trump, and Jan. 6^th, they can win.  Legally, McKenna’s ruling is inexplicable.  Politically, it makes perfect sense.

So how can Gov. Dunleavy justify his elevation of McKenna to the Superior Court bench?  Alaska’s Constitution vests in him, as Governor of Alaska, the power of judicial appointments.  But as he has painfully learned in the past four years, this power is illusory.  Judicial appointments can only be made of candidates who have been approved by the Alaska Judicial Council, which is controlled by the three members appointed by the Alaska Bar Association.  They, along with the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, have a majority on the Council.  They refuse to approve any judicial candidate who does not share their judicial activist philosophy.  As a result, Alaska’s judiciary is entirely dominated by ideological soul mates.  The Alaska Supreme Court and Superior Courts are partisan, imperial, and unaccountable.  And such they have been for over 40 years.  It doesn’t matter who the people elect as their Governor.  It’s out of his hands.

In the case of Jack McKenna, he was the least objectionable of the candidates Dunleavy was forced to choose from.  One can only  imagine how bad the other choices were.  Until this system is changed, Alaskans can expect more Jack McKennas, and there’s nothing they can do about it.

Unless, of course, Alaska’s Constitution is amended, and the Alaska Bar Association’s control of the Judicial Council is eliminated.  In the Alaska legislature, numerous efforts have been made over the years to propose such an amendment.  But it’s been proven politically impossible to achieve the needed 2/3 supermajority required.  The politicians in black robes who populate our judiciary have enough political allies in the legislature to prevent passage of such an amendment.

So what can be done?  Fortunately, there is a solution in Article XIII, Section 3 of Alaska’s Constitution.  It calls for a referendum, every ten years, on the question of calling a constitutional convention.  This year, on November 8^th, Alaskans can vote for Prop 1, calling a convention.  If it passes, delegates to the Convention may, by majority vote, propose an amendment which would put an end to this judicial tyranny.  If subsequently approved by the people, Alaska’s lawyers will no longer control the judiciary.

A grass roots campaign is being conducted on behalf of Prop 1 by ConventionYES.  They are focused on putting the Permanent Fund Dividend in the Constitution, taking that power away from the legislature.  Such an amendment can only be proposed by a convention.  The legislature will never pass an amendment which strips it of power.  Prop 1 will rise or fall on the question of the dividend, and its future.

But an unavoidable subsidiary issue is judicial reform, which likewise will only be proposed by a convention.  If you are outraged by the political  antics of Judge McKenna, you should not only vote yes on Prop 1, you should join the effort of ConventionYES.  It will succeed if it can get its message heard.  It’s hope vs. fear, reform vs. the status quo, the legal and political elites vs. the people. 

[As you can tell from this article, Suzanne is a pistol.]