SCOTUS Messed With Texas

Conservatives should rejoice at the SCOTUS ruling telling Texas it has over regulated abortion clinics. The ruling gets government out of people’s lives — but conservatives won’t because many conservatives are religiously driven, not smaller government conservatives.
SCOTUS said that there is a right to have an abortion, and that Texas had unnecessarily put roadblocks to that right. Now you can argue that it shouldn’t be a right, but once the Supremes declare it a right, you may not impede that right!

Texas, my home state, put a fig leaf of medical necessity over their regulations, but that fig leaf was so transparent it could be Saran Wrap!

I argue that abortion should be left up to the states because it is not in the Constitution, and therefore the Tenth Amendment applies. All laws should be so short and understandable: 

“The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.”

That is about as clear as anything, but it is continually ignored by SCOTUS. In Roe v Wade, SCOTUS invented a right to privacy, which is not in the Constitution, and then based a right to an abortion on the invented right to privacy.

But so long as there IS a right to an abortion, Texas cannot block it by flimsy subterfuge. They tried…they failed.

Don’t Underestimate George Will

As a minor league columnist, let me say that I do not know how many people I influence on any given issue — if any. I don’t even know if anyone actually reads my columns but I do know that several newspapers believe I am read because they have kept me published continually for 34 years. 
Several of my fellow local “Opinion Molders” publish on-line “Vote Recommendations” and I rely on those for local public positions about which I don’t know, but I have no idea how much or how many voters also do that.

I do know that my un-advertised blog has more than 350 subscribers, and I have no idea how they even found my blog because it is not mentioned in my column. I use it as a test bed for columns — concepts and first drafts, sort of like this blog. 

All of that is a lead in to my comments about George Will leaving the Republican Party. Trump supporters say, “So what? He is a RINO anyway!”

But those brushing off Will may not recognize what effect a “major league columnist” may have on voters who are not True Believers. Trump is behind by five, seven or twelve percent depending on the poll, and Trump needs as much support as he can muster because there are a lot of independents on the sideline waiting and watching.

Does Will have any influence on those independents? Newspapers across the nation who publish him have thought so for decades.Will is not just filler. Fox doesn’t have Will as a panel member because he is attractive!

TrumpBots brush off the Will changing political parties at their risk, a risk permissible for a leading candidate, but too large to take as an underdog! 

And Will’s departure from the Republican Party is probably the tip of the iceberg.

Labeling Precludes Debate

Would someone please tell the Washington Post, indeed all liberals but the Post puts it In print, that not everything that liberals disagree with is caused by racism.
The Post headlines, “The Uncomfortable Question: Was the BREXIT Vote Based on Racism?”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2016/06/25/the-uncomfortable-question-was-the-brexit-vote-based-on-racism

Ahhh…no, as a matter of fact it was not. The Post, indeed most liberals use racism as the default position each time something doesn’t go their way, which is happening more and more often these days.

Labeling opponents “racist” has lost its sting, through overuse.

Of course there are other reasons cited by liberals: Xenophobia is a good standby excuse, and a charge largely overused when patriotism is a more likely reason, but then everyone who is not a virulent globalist is xenophobic to the left.

This sort of extreme labeling is a product of the left, designed to end debate — a debate liberals are afraid they might lose. 

Global Chaos is GOOD!

We tend to concentrate on the effect BREXIT has on the stock market, Britain and the Pound Sterling, without taking into account the effect BREXIT has had on the EU.
The EU is scrambling because it may well have been hit below the waterline. It is taking on water fast. There was no contingency plan for BREXIT to pass because pundits, polls and politicians all were positive it would not!

France, Holland, Poland and Greece have Center-Right political parties that are organizing to deal further blows to the Global Order, and although Brussels has yet to admit the possible fates blow, the individual major nation leaders are worried.

The initial reaction was to punish Britain for their cheeky challenge to the Order. On more sober reflection, and a look at the EU bank account showing the bureaucrats are about to lose billions of pounds of income, and attitude adjustment is in order. There is a movement to offer Britain an “Associate” position.

Poland is leading an effort to reform the EU to placate the restless by easing the regulations that are the irritant in the shoes of so many nations. The threat of rebellion against the Order is in order, and it is as if Texas had a serious route to secession — even Obama would have to notice!

Perhaps he already has…the Washington Post headlined “A brutal week for Obama and his liberal vision of an interconnected world”

One can only hope that WaPo speaks the truth!

Take Your Regulations And Stuff It!

The EU’s stifling micromanagement was obvious to all when it presumed to tell each participating nation how many Refugees it must take.
Many nations, led by Poland, told the EU to… Well you can guess.

The bureaucrats were known before the vote to be ready to ban certain toasters and tea kettles. The bureaucrats purposely shelved regulations that would impose rules upon toasters and tea kettles — shelved for later after the BREXIT vote. The EU didn’t want to negatively impact the vote, but the newspapers reported the plan.

No one should challenge the British love for their tea, and the EU over-regulators were planning just that. No one is going to exit the EU over tea kettles, but that may have been the final straw. The British, indeed all the members of the EU face similar regulations over every aspect of their lives, much as the transgender bathroom in schools engendered much negative reaction, here.

Of course the campaign for leaving was run primarily on emotion, as most campaigns are, and in this case, unchecked immigration based on orders fro Brussel’s. It’s not that the campaign was wrong, the EU is being overrun by refugees because they celebrate not having them, and there was no indication that Brussel’s had the situation under control or had the interest in doing so. While the liberals celebrate “diversity” it is becoming a plague when it is instituted too quickly.

Angela Merkel is quoted in the BBC as long ago as 17 October 2010, the multiculturalism has “utterly failed,” but she failed to take her own advice, and continued to push multiculturalism not just on Germany but on Britain. Finally the British, who had tried to negotiate reforms, determined that no one was listening.

They heard the Brits finally!

BREXIT, 12 Hours Later

Brexit is just the latest in an easily connected series of dots even here in the US, beginning with the Tea Party and going through the defeat of Congressman Eric Cantor, the taking of both Houses of Congress, the dumping of Boehner, and the rise of Donald Trump.
The natives, worldwide, are restless. They are tired of bureaucrats dictating, and they don’t believe they are being heard!

Can you hear me now?

BREXIT is a world changing shout, that has been ignored so long that the pressure cooker just let go in an explosion that cannot be ignored. In my blogs I have always supported BREXIT but never thought it could happen. I believed the polls. Wrong!

I have drawn the parallels between BREXIT and Prop 13, because in both cases the media, celebrities, politicians, and polls never supported that which the people supported, and everyone predicted doom — and in both cases, the people spoke.

 LOUDLY!

Prop 13 turned out to be a boom not a bust. It remains to be seen how BREXIT turns out, but already those who predicted doom are sighing and saying they will muddle through — just as the politicians did in California after having their heads handed to them.

The recently released book “Flyover Nation: You Can’t Run a Country You’ve Never Been To” is about the same BREXIT sentiment here in the US, the fact that this nation is being run by graduates of Harvard and Yale, and THAT is NOT America. 

America is the Kansas University, Rice, Stanford! People in the middle of the nation, just as in Britain, are not being heard. In Britain the Micromanagers in Brussels are concerned about the use of hairdryers and in the US the Micromanagers are concerned about bathrooms!

In Britain, immigration drove the vote, and that is Trumpism’s central theme as well. The leaders in both nations are not listening to the people.

Pitchforks are being sharpened, tar heated and feathers plucked

Britain, OUT!

Britain, OUT,
It was very much like Prop. 13 here in California — everyone was against it but the people!

Just a as in Prop. 13, where the political chattering class promised the closure of fire and police stations, British pols foresaw the loss of jobs, plunging of the stock market, fire, locusts, and the destruction of the world as we know it.

It didn’t happen in California, and we have no clue what will actually happen with Britain but certainly it will not be as bad as the politicians have predicted simply because nations are self-righting. It is in everyone’s best interest to keep it going — they want to keep their jobs!

There will be new analysis by everyone, and everyone must try to get their footing, but one thing is certain — immigration problems were a, if not the driving factor in the vote and it brings immigration to the fore here. Of course there was a great concern with the stifling bureaucrats and regulations coming out of the central EU offices in Brussels. Brussel’s had begun reforms to attempt to address these objections, not only from Britain but other nations as well. 

BREXIT!

The votes are still being counted, and no one knows which way it will go in Europe, but regardless, the EU is a Dead Man Walking. If BREXIT wins, other nations will be tempted to consider it.

But for now, Britain is the cornerstone, and if they leave, as the second largest economy in the EU, they can really damage the finances of the EU and themselves…but what is freedom worth?
Freedom of setting your own immigration policies is the key, even as it is in the US. Obama tried to put his thumb on the scale on the side of Britain staying, but the Brits were not impressed.

It will not be easy for the Brits if they leave, because the US will not be kind unless there is a complete administration change in January, but the Brits are resilient.

I hope they leave! I am an Anglophile– only raced British cars, and my own racing car was painted in British Racing Green! My love for Britain has waned with their increasing welfare state but history shows long periods of chaos in every country — the greatest Greek Bronze Age went dark for two hundred years — and perhaps Britain will thrive again.

Next I need to worry about America!

Liberals and Conservatives

I am really impressed by Greg Gutfeld, and after reading his quote I understand why:
“I became a conservative by being around liberals (at UC Berkeley) and I became a libertarian by being around conservatives. You realize that there’s something distinctly in common between the two groups, the left and the right; the worst part of each of them is the moralizing.”

One of my favorite columnists was Libertarian Art Hoppe of the San Fransisco Chronicle back in the 60’s. I can’t source the quote right now, but he wrote something like, “Liberals know what’s good for you, and Conservatives know what’s bad for you. Between the two, there’s not much to choose.”

Good reasons to be a Libertarian. When the LOS ANGELES TIMES bought my newspaper, their Editor asked my Editor to define the leanings of his columnists. I was described as an “Independent Libertarian” — close enough!

Venezuela Is Dissolving!

Venezuela is in free fall, with riots in the streets, a recall of the president is being counted by the socialist government, opposition leaders are being jailed and banners even in rich neighborhoods read, “We Are Hungry.”
Even the Organization of American States has criticized the Venezuelan government for jailing opposition leaders. The opposition no longer needs leaders because the people are hungry! The riots are organic.

The US of course is blamed by the government, as is the norm, so even humanitarian aid would be seen as either as interference, or propping up a failed presidency…still an Obama administration aide will meet this week with Venezuelan officials.

Even schools are being canceled, because teachers are standing in line from sunrise to sunset to get food for the family the next day!

Venezuela is dissolving!