Being a Good Citizen

For John, BLUF:  It is easy to complain about our Government, but we, as citizens, have obligations to keeping the ship of state in the proper channel, and doing an ever better job of looking out for the crew and passangers.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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The Bill of Obligations: The Ten Habits of Good Citizens
Author:  Richard Haass
Kindle Version:  237 Pages
Publisher:  Penguin Press
Language:  English
ASIN:  B0B8R2HJVJ
Publication Date:  January 24, 2023

the author of this little handbook on Democrcy, Doctor Richard Haass, is the outgoing President of the Council on Foreign Relations.  He has made a career in foreign relations, including being Director of Policy Planning at the Department of State, a position once held by Mr X, George F. Kennan.

As Mr Haass tells us, his answer to the question, "What keeps you up at night" is:

The most urgent and significant threat to American security and stability stems not from abroad but from within, from political divisions that for only the second time in U.S. history have raised questions about the future of American democracy and even the United States itself.

He is one of those who subscribes to the theory that the 6 January 2021 riot on Capitol Hill is the result of scheming by Members of Congress and the President, claiming there is "overwhelming evidence".  If there is such evidence, former Speaker Nancy Pelosi has kept it well hidden.

Calling on his background in Government the author has framed ten obligations of citizenship, things that should happen but that the law cannot require.  The reason for these obligations is the fact that the promises of the Declaration of Independence has not been fully delivered.  Only by all of us communicating with each other can we move beyond the issues in society toward the full promise of the Declaration.  The Author points to slavery, the status of women and the treatment of Native Americans, with the discrimination based on race, gender, religion or nation of origin or some other characteristic.  Progress has come in these United States slowly, but it has come through people learning more and then taking political action.

It is that learning and political action that Author Hass has incorporated in his ten obligations:

1. Be informed
2. Get involved
3. Stay open to compromise
4. Remain civil
5. Reject violence
6. Value norms
7. Promote the common good
8. Respect government service
9. Support the teaching of civics
10. Put country first

At first I was disappointed that voting was not his number one obligation.  However, voting without being informaed can do as much harm as good.  As I worked through the list I saw the wisdom in the choices and order.

Voting is very important.  It is one of the big hammers in a democracy, another being campaign contributions.  Elected officials respond to Voters.  If the voting numbers fall off, the politicians feel free to proceed as they will.  If voters increase in number, the local politicians pay attention.  I encourage people I meet to vote.nbsp; I try to do it with humor.  But, I want my fellow Citizens to vote.

Voting is very important, but it should be informed voting.  We gather what we know from our family and our friends.  In the past we bought newspapers and news magazines.  Today not so much.  There is the Internet, with news available from original sources and from collections of articles, such as Drudge and memorandum.  The key is the reader and his or her choices of sources.  Some searh to reinforcee their existing beliefs and some search out opposing views, to test their views.  I favor the second.

The rest of the list is the mechanics of making a diverse society work as the various members and groups compromise for the greater good.

I highly recommend this book.  The author has just retired and he can use the royalties.  The rest of us can use the book as a civics booster shot.  That booster is important as we go into an election campaign that seems more fraught than normal..

Regards  —  Cliff

The FBI Spying on US Citizens

For John, BLUF:  During my youth Mr J Edgar Hoover was head of the FBI, and apparently played fast and loose with the rules.  We didn't know.  It didn't get better and in the last three Administrations it may have gotten worse.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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DOJ collected Project Veritas emails but didn't reveal it to federal judge overseeing case

From Hot Air, by Reporter John Sexton, 27 March 2022 3:30 PM ET.

Here is the lede plus one:

An attorney for Project Veritas sent a letter to District Court Judge Analisa Torres accusing the Department of Justice of sidestepping her prior rulings designed to protect the journalistic and attorney-client privileges of the organization.  Microsoft recently revealed that the DOJ had previously seized Project Veritas documents from a cloud account using a warrant which was not revealed to the court and which Microsoft was forbidden from revealing until recently.

At the base of all of this is the FBI investigation into how Project Veritas wound up in possession of Ashley Biden’s diary.  An FBI raid of homes belonging to Project Veritas CEO James O’Keefe and two former PV journalists, resulted in the FBI seizing a number of phones, laptops, thumb drives, etc. last November.  Project Veritas asked Judge Torres to appoint a Special Master to review the seized information and determine what should and should not be turned over to authorities.  Judge Torres agreed and ordered everything that had been gathered turned over to the Special Master.  But even after she issued that decision, the DOJ didn’t reveal the PV documents it had already collected from Microsoft and went behind Judge Torres back and the back of the Special Master she appointed to keep the previously seized documents a secret.

I get that the FBI can lie to us, but we can't lie to them.  However, they can lie to a Judge?  That seems a little too much of an insult to the Bill of Rights.

Democracy does better when the People think that their Government is not violating their rights, or the rights of other of their Federal Citizens  This is a problem for the US Congress to fix.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Freedom to Protest (What We Think is Wrong)

For John, BLUF:  One would think that an organization as large as Amazon would have someone on the payroll to advise when public announcements might be misread by the public or by the press.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Amazon suspends Black Lives Matter from its charity platform

From The New York Post, by Reporter Isabel Vincent, 17 February 2022, 5:49 pm.

Here is the lede plus three:

The beleaguered Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation has been kicked off Amazon’s charity platform for its failure to disclose where tens of millions of dollars in donations it received nearly two years ago have ended up.

AmazonSmile, which gives a portion of eligible purchases on the online shopping site to charities, said it “had to temporarily suspend” the group today, an Amazon spokesperson told The Post.

“States have rules for nonprofits, and organizations participating in AmazonSmile need to meet those rules,” the spokesperson said.  “Unfortunately this organization fell out of compliance with the rules in several states, so we’ve had to temporarily suspend them from the program until they come into compliance.”

Amazon plans to hold any funds that have accumulated for BLMGNF “until they’re back in compliance,” the spokesperson said.  AmazonSmile has raised more than $300 million for charities, according to its website.

The reasoning put forward is plausable, but with it being right after Black Lives Matter Louisville bailed out Mr Quintez Brown, arrested for attempted murder, is suspicious.

Freelance Reporter Andy Ngo Tweeted:

@BLMLouisville has paid the $100,000 to bail out Quintez Brown, the @courierjournal writer & leftist radical who is accused of trying to assassinate a mayoral candidate in a shooting.  Brown wrote columns about white supremacy & is a black nationalist.

What Mr Brown is accused of doing was wrong.  That he was arreated seems fair.  That bail was set in an attempted murder case is questionable.  But, if Amazon is cutting off Black Lives Matter so it can look good now that "wokeness" has gone out of fashion, that is a blot on Amazon.  The Blaack Lives Matter crew may all be Communists, but they have the same Bill of Rights I do providing them Free Speech protection.

The actions of the Canadian Government, and Go Fund Me, and TD Bank, in cutting off contributions to the Truckers Freedom Convoy demonstrating across Canada and especially in Ottowaa, is dispicable.  That folks in the United States would follow suit is embarrassing.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Vaccine Mandates

For John, BLUF:  The President, apparently without consulting with Congress, has assumed dictatorial powers.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Larry Kudlow calls out 'anti-freedom part' of Biden's vaccine mandates

Here is the sub-headline:

'President Biden caused a firestorm yesterday by announcing his mandate'

From Fox Business News, by Anchor Larry Kudlow, 10 September 2021.

Here is the lede plus two:

"If they'll not help... if these governors won't help us beat the pandemic, I’ll use my power as president to get them out of the way."

Don't take it from me. Take a listen to the president himself who is thumbing his nose at our nation's governors and after he thumbs his nose at them, he's putting his finger in their eye.

Federalism is dead. Don't take it from me, take it from President Biden.

The Constitution?  The Bill of Rights?  Roe v Wade?.  The role of the US Congress?

All gone in a flash because not everyone will do as President Joseph Biden says.

It is almost like Donald Trump won in 2020.  Not the real Donald J Trump, but the one pictured in the minds of Progressives and many Democrats.

But, it wasn't just a Bidenism.  His staff was out backing up his move.  For example, on the CNN Don Lemon Tonight Show we have the Director of the White House Office of Public Engagement, former Congressman Cedric Richmond.

Senior White House adviser:  Biden will 'run over' governors standing in way of vaccine mandates

Here is the sub-headline:

'We won’t let one or two individuals stand in the way,' adviser Cedric Richmond declared

And this article's lede:

Senior White House adviser Cedric Richmond declared Thursday that President Joe Biden would "run over" governors that stood in the way of his efforts to mandate vaccinations against the coronavirus in companies with more than 100 employees.

We are going to run over the Governors?

If I thought the agencies of the Federal Government followed the science, let along understood it, I might have some willingness to concede the President was trying to help us.  As it is, I think he is just swatting wildly at the problem, and breaking things in the process.

Regards  —  Cliff

Vaccine Mandates

For John, BLUF:  President Biden seems to have little tolerence for pushback  If people won't do it his way, he doubles down, the Constitution be damned.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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The Horrific Outcomes of the Jacobson Case You’re Using to Justify Biden’s Vaccine Mandates

Here is the sub-headline:

Biden is about to find out that he’ll have as hard of a time eradicating freedom and personal choice in this country as trying to eradicate the coronavirus.

From The Hannah H Cox Blog, by Ms Hanna Cox, 10 September 2021.

Here is the lede plus three:

It’s been a hell of a news cycle for bodily autonomy.

The left is in histrionics over the new Texas abortion law that bans the procedure after six weeks, and the rest of us are aghast at Biden’s new executive order forcing private companies to mandate COVID vaccines for their employees.

You’ll find few people in both camps, however, a testament to just how partisan and unprincipled our country has truly become.  That’s a tangent for another time, though.  Right now, I want to talk about the legality of Biden’s mandate.

Even before the ink dried one could hear the lawsuits being filed.

The legality of mandating vaccines is based on the 1905 case, Jacobson v. Massachusetts.  This originated in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and made its way to the US Supreme Court.

Then there is the 1927 case, Buck v. Bell.  At the height of the Eugenics movement.  This ruling, written by Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., of Massachusetts, said it was legal to sterilize those who were "feebleminded."

On the other hand, we have Roe v Wade, which legalized abortion.♠  How does "Our Bodies! Our Choice!" fit into this?

If the Courts empower and encourage President Biden in this area we will see a further erosion of our civil rights in the United States and we will become a little more like the People's Republic of China.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  There was no abortion and the name of the child, a daughter was recently revealed.

Top Ten Summer Concerns

For John, BLUF:  It promises to be a long, hot Summer, and interesting.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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The Top Ten Pending Eruptions

Here is the sub-headline:

From American Thinker, by Deanna Chadwell, 30 June 2021.

Here is the lede:

It’s shaping up to be a long, hot summer, one filled -- like Yellowstone Park -- with geysers and hot springs ready to blow at any moment.  But these are political eruptions, not nature's fury.  If I didn’t know that God has things under control I’d be terrified, but in the interest of keeping track of the truth let’s list the top 10 political eruptions we can expect to blow sometime soon.

The List:

1. Hunter Biden.
2. Joe’s mental state, but complicated by Kamala’s mental acuity.
3. Critical Race Theory and the communist infiltration in our schools.
4. Our 1st Amendment being challenged, and so is the 2nd Amendment.
5. Inner city violence.
6. Government spending and the national debt, resulting in inflation.
7. The border crises/invasion.
8. The whole mess with COVID-19 origins, treatment suppression, Fauci/Wuhan/Google/Gates and the vaccine side effects.
9. The election audit efforts.
10. China.

My top concern is number 3, COVID-19, complicated by items 9 and 1.

With regard to election audits, I believe that President Biden was elected by the Electoral College, and that is final.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Fears of Domestic Surveillance

For John, BLUF:  The Democrats in power seem to be gearing up for more domestic surveillance.  We have been here before, and it wasn't pretty.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Tulsi Gabbard:  Domestic-Terrorism Bill Is ‘a Targeting of Almost Half of the Country’

From The National Review, by Writer Brittany Bernstein, 23 January 2021, 10:05 AM.

Here is the lede plus three:

Tulsi Gabbard, the former Democratic representative from Hawaii, on Friday expressed concern that a proposed measure to combat domestic terrorism could be used to undermine civil liberties.

Gabbard’s comments came during an appearance on Fox News Primetime when host Brian Kilmeade asked her if she was “surprised they’re pushing forward with this extra surveillance on would-be domestic terror.”

“It’s so dangerous as you guys have been talking about, this is an issue that all Democrats, Republicans, independents, Libertarians should be extremely concerned about, especially because we don’t have to guess about where this goes or how this ends,” Gabbard said.

She continued:  “When you have people like former CIA Director John Brennan openly talking about how he’s spoken with or heard from appointees and nominees in the Biden administration who are already starting to look across our country for these types of movements similar to the insurgencies they’ve seen overseas, that in his words, he says make up this unholy alliance of religious extremists, racists, bigots, he lists a few others and at the end, even libertarians.”

Ms Gabbard is giving us the straight word here.  In the name of domestic tranquility the current Congress and Administration could initiate domestic spying and cause Citizens to restrict their Free Speech in order to avoid drawing attention to themselves  This is the antipithy of the American Way.  This would make us more like some Cold War Socialist nation.

some of the names associated with this kind of talk, such as Former FBI Director James Comey (he who calls for burning down the Republican Party) and former CIA Director John Brennan, are scary from a Civil Rights point of view.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Rights Over Reaction

For John, BLUF:  Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) has the right reaction to the 6 January Occupation of Capitol Hill.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib Delivers Common Sense

Here is the Tweet:

Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib @RepRashida  ·  6h
I’m leading the call for national security powers to not be expanded in light of the attack on our nation’s Capitol that occurred two weeks ago, as such measures often lead to the erosion of Americans’ civil liberties.

The Congresswoman is right on target, delievering Common Sense.

Thank you Congressman Tlaib.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

The Information Dark Ages Coming?

For John, BLUF:  If you harbor deviant thoughts you will be made to shut up.  Of course none of my Progressive relatives and friends believe this.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Twitter bans Trump over risk of violence, but these leftist profs get a pass

Here is the sub-headline:

• Twitter permanently banned President Donald Trump due to “risk of further incitement of violence.”
• For years, Campus Reform has covered professors who have openly encouraged or justified violence, many of whom were not banned or suspended from the platform.

From Campus Reform, by Reporter Jezzamine Wolk, 15 January 2021, 1:45 PM .

Here is the lede plus three:

In one of the latest crackdowns from Big Tech, President Donald Trump has been permanently banned from Twitter, and Parler has been cut off by Amazon Web Services, Apple and Google.  Tech companies have justified the censorship as the necessary course of action for Trump, his supporters, and conservatives due to the “risk of further incitement of violence.”

But, for years, Campus Reform has reported on leftist professor who have explicitly sent ill wishes to conservatives and Trump supporters and who have justified violence as a means of silencing those with whom they disagree.

In October, University of Virginia Instructor David Walsh tweeted that Americans need to do more than protest if the election “worst-case scenario” happens.

“They need to actively try to topple the government,” the tweet read.  The instructor who teaches the course "Hateinnany: Fascism, Antifascism, and the Global Far Right” had also previously tweeted that Democrats will have to utilize “postwar German practice of superficial de-Nazification” upon a Joe Biden win.

Yes, Big Tech, Academia, the Media and the Progressives wish to curate the news we view and hear.

And, Campus Reform had this headline, from a couple of days ago.

Duke profs suggest Biden pursue 'new laws' to combat 'misinformation'

A pair of Duke professors are calling on the incoming Biden administration to establish a new commission aimed at combatting "misinformation."

We could be in real trouble.  It looks like we are dependent upon the mood of Senator Joe Manchin, Democrat of West Virginia.  I am hoping he is lean toward the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, and not toward a Progressive curation of our information, such as Representative Sandy Cortez advocaters.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

FISA Court Stands Up

For John, BLUF:  The FISA Court was created to ensure control of abuses of intelligence collection capabilities to the detriment of the Bill of Rights.  The Presidential Election of 2016 suggested that the supposed safeguards had failed.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Oh My, Interesting Ramifications – FISA Court Requires DOJ/FBI To Provide Names of Targets Within Corrupt Surveillance Applications…

From The Conservative Tree House, by sundance, 3 April 2020.

Here is the lede plus four:

Things are getting interesting, potential ramifications are growing, as the FISA Court responds to the latest information from the DOJ Office of Inspector General (OIG).

After a review of 29 FISA applications, from eight FBI field offices, the OIG informed the FBI and DOJ that none of the surveillance applications were compliant with the Woods procedures.  Meaning zero applications had FBI evidence to support the validity of the claims within the FISA warrants.  That’s a very big problem if those FISA warrants were used to gather evidence used to prosecute the 29 targets of the applications.

In a FISC order released today [pdf here] presiding Judge James Boasberg is ordering the FBI to identify who those targets were; and asking the DOJ to explain what they did with the evidence gathered as a result of the fraudulently obtained FISA warrants.  Big.

If evidence obtained by execution of a fraudulently obtained warrant was used in the prosecution of any of those targets; there’s a possibility those cases will be reopened.

Considering the twenty nine applications from the OIG go back to 2015, there’s a lot of potential for some downstream consequences not only for those 29 applications, but also for all FBI FISA applications with a similar level of neglect.

I am cautiously optimistic that the wrongs will be corrected.  What optimism I have is based on my faith in Attorney General Bill Barr.

Since those in the Department of Justice who messed this up are unlikely to be punished, it is very important that any whose civil rights were violated are set free and compensated.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Our Collective Future

For John, BLUF:  Yes, given the way the Government is waffling re Lieutenant General Michael Flynn and the way he was prosecuted, it is time for all of us to encourage our elected representatives to clean up the exceptions to our Bill of Rights protections.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Schiff protects intel 'status quo' power by sinking wide-reaching FISA reform:  Source

From The Washington Times, by Reporter Jeff Mordock, 15 March 2020.

Here is the lede plus fourI can't decide if this is about Representative Adam Schiff's irrational hatred of President Trump or his:

Attempts to rein in the government’s ability to spy on Americans fell flat after Rep. Adam B. Schiff intervened to protect the types of powers that the FBI used to go after the Trump campaign in 2016.

Mr. Schiff, California Democrat and chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, ran roughshod over House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, New York Democrat, whose panel had control over the battle to reform the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, said advocates on both sides of the aisle.

The power struggle created an awkward moment in which Mr. Nadler canceled the markup of his own bill just minutes before it was scheduled.

FISA allows U.S. intelligence agencies to meet with judges behind closed doors and explain why spying is needed without anyone to question their evidence.  The process has come under scrutiny since revelations last year confirmed that the FBI abused FISA to surveil Trump campaign figure Carter Page as part of its probe into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

Liberal civil libertarians and conservative defenders of President Trump united in an attempt to curb the government’s powers with FISA reforms.  Instead, Mr. Schiff, at the urging of the intelligence community, pushed for smaller tweaks to the law.

I can't decide if this is about Representative Adam Schiff's irrational hatred of President Trump or if he is just in thralldom to the Deep State.  Neither is a good thing.

But, this is just part of the Larger issues we face, but fits easily into the angst expressed by Columnist Rod Dreher at The American Conservative (16 March 2020):

The Germs Of August

In the column Mr Dreher looks to the future and sees our liberal political system (in the old sense) being superseded by something like China's authoritarian Social Credit System.  He sees the authoritarian actions in response to the Coronavirus continuing on long after the pandemic has receded.  Here is how it ends:

It will not end there, though.  The system will stay in place after the crisis has passed, and most Americans, traumatized by the pandemic’s destruction, will be happy with that. It will then be deployed to protect the “health and safety” of the body politic by monitoring political and religious dissidents.  The logic of what we have all seen on campuses — speakers shut down because their points of view supposedly threaten the health and safety of “vulnerable minorities” — is going to be deployed by the state against dissidents of the political and religious right.  The rhetoric of public health is going to be unassailable after this crisis passes — and the political right, having destroyed itself over its Trumpian response to the crisis, will be unable to stand up against it.

It’s coming, eventually.  But I also believe that the professor is right for the shorter term about the possibility of Trump seizing emergency powers.

Either way, the end of liberalism is upon us.  I don’t think any of us foresaw that it would come from a virus.  For that matter, most people on both the left and the right don’t even see how bad it is likely to get.  They still think we’re in normal time, but in truth, it’s August 1914.

I have friend who is a hardened Democrat.  He wrote today:

Renember he ignores science and denies facts.  Whether he has simply gotten the message or not, it still is historic the damage he has done to federal organizations due to his beliefs.  He cant obscure that fact.
Nancy passed a bipartisan bill.

He didn't mention how Speaker Pelosi♠ put a poison pill in the initial bill.♥  But, we are making political progress, and I am expecting we will have an Election on 3 November.  And, if whoever the Democrats pick wins, we will have a peaceful transition of government in January 2021.  This is a pandemic, not the end of democracy as we know it.  But we all have to fight for our God given "Rights (as Englishmen)" and our Constitution.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  AKA Nancy the Ripper.
♥  She had, buried in the bill, a repeal of the Hyde Amendment.

Carter Page Sues the DNC, et al

For John, BLUF:  This is actually a sad outcome, in that if the Presidential Campaign of 2016 had not involved Deep State actions this would probably not have come to pass.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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BOOM:  Carter Page Sues DNC Over Bogus Steele Dossier:  'This Is Only the First Salvo'

Here is the sub-headline:

From PJ Media, by Reporter Matt Margolis, 30 January 2020.

Here is the lede plus one:

Fox News reported Thursday morning that former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page has filed a lawsuit in federal court against the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and the law firm Perkins Coie for their role in funding the unverified Steele dossier that was used to justify surveillance against him.

Page's attorneys described the suit, which was filed in U.S. District Court in the Northern District of Illinois’ Eastern Division on Thursday, as the “first of multiple actions in the wake of historic” Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) abuse.

“This is a first step to ensure that the full extent of the FISA abuse that has occurred during the last few years is exposed and remedied,” Page's attorney John Pierce told Fox News.  “Defendants and those they worked with inside the federal government did not and will not succeed in making America a surveillance state.”

Pierce added, “This is only the first salvo.  We will follow the evidence wherever it leads, no matter how high."

And well he should.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Healing Past Wrongs

For John, BLUF:  We need to have a better knowledge of our past, of the wrongs inflicted, if we are going to move forward.  No flinching from the truth.  And, no placing blame on the people of today for what wrong was done in the past, if it has been renounced.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Possible Mass Graves Discovered From 1921 Tulsa Race Riot Massacre

From PJ Media, by Mr Rick Moran, 17 December 2019.

Here is the lede plus four:

It was the worst spasm of racial violence in the history of the United States. And it has been largely ignored in history.

The Greenwood district in Tulsa was the richest black neighborhood in the country, known at the time as "The Black Wall Street."  In 1921, a riot began over the Memorial Day weekend when a young black man was accused of assaulting a 17-year-old white girl.  Angry whites gathered at the jail while some black men, hearing rumors of a lynching, also headed to the jail.  At that point, history and myth merge and what happened to set off the crowd is unknown.

At one point, planes were employed to strafe the crowds of black women and children fleeing for their lives.  Property damage was immense.  More than 10,000 blacks were left homeless and an unknown number had been killed.  Official statistics put the number of dead at 36 with about 800 seriously injured.  Some believe the actual number of dead is in the hundreds.

The state established a commission in 1996 to investigate exactly what happened.  At that time, the commission found evidence of three possible mass grave sites, but the evidence had been inconclusive.

A more recent survey using far more sophisticated technology may have given state authorities enough evidence to begin an archaeological dig at some of the sites.

A blot on our history, and worthy of further investigation.

We need, as Americans, to make right what was wrong.  We need to acknowledge that the Tulsa Riot of 1921 was people, Caucasian American people, behaving badly.  Apologies are in order.  And good historic research to reveal all that really happened.  And, if we want to ever heal and unite, it includes acceptance of apologies.

If we are going to move forward as a nation, rather than breaking down into squabbling states, like we are the new Balkans, we have to unite going forward.  Please.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Some Democrats Misunderstand the Horowitz Report

For John, BLUF:  Three years of misinformation.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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A Tweet of Infamy

Here is the Tweet:

Adam Schiff
@RepAdamSchiff
The IG is independent, and shielded from political influence. His investigation found no evidence that bias affected the opening of the case.

Bill Barr has shown himself to be Trump's Roy Cohn — only interested in promoting Trump’s personal interests.

You choose who to believe.
Quote Tweet

The Washington Post
@washingtonpost
· Dec 2
Attorney general disputes inspector general's finding that FBI was justified in opening probe of Trump's 2016 campaign
4:30 PM · Dec 10, 2019

I, on the other hand, caught portions of today's Senate Hearing on the Horowitz Report.

Imagine being Mr Carter Page through all this.

Imagine being Representative Adam Schiff and trying to keep your story straight.

Regards  —  Cliff

Freedom For Democracy to Flourish

For John, BLUF:  We have had some awful press in the past, and if we stick to the Bill of Rights will in the future.  And will survive.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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"It's really important that people can see for themselves what politicians are saying, so they can make their own judgments.  And, you know, I don't think that a private company should be censoring politicians or news."

Here is the sub-headline:

Said Mark Zuckerberg, wisely, quoted in "Zuckerberg on allowing political ads:  'People should be able to judge for themselves'" (The Hill)

From The Althouse Blog, 3 December 2019.

Here is the lede plus one:

I'm only blogging this because I see it's controversial. He's getting a lot of pushback, but he stood his ground, even as the interviewer challenged him with the same 2 ideas that I always see: 1. When people pay to get their message out, it should be different, and 2. If messages are false, it should be different.

This is a terrible trend.  Who do they propose will check the checkers?  in a Democracy we have to be our own checkers.  No thank you to the Government.  No thank you to self appointed fact-checkers.  If you want more Trump this is how you get it, monitoring the news.

Let us trust the Voters.

Hat tip to Ann Althouse.

Regards  —  Cliff

Check You Car, Carefully

For John, BLUF:  The Police should not have ther hands tied, but, on the other hand it shouldn’t mean no constraints.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Cops Put GPS Tracker On Man’s Car, Charge Him With Theft For Removing It.

From Slash Dot, by BeauHD, 19 November 2019.

Yes, Professor Glenn Reynolds is correct, Chutzpah, plain and simple.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Attack On First Amendment

For John, BLUF:  One of the things that has made America great has been the willingness to tolerate divergent, even stupid, ideas.  We seem to be moving away from that.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Democrats Are Going to Regret Beto’s Stance on Conservative Churches

Here is the sub-headline:

The candidate seems not to realize that eliminating tax exemptions for certain religious institutions would be catastrophic.

From The Atlantic, by Professor John Inazu (Professor of law and religion at Washington University in St. Louis), 12 October 2019.

Here is the lede plus five:

The issue of gay rights and recognition and acceptance of the LGBTQ community has moved at warp speed—in political terms anyway—this past decade.

“I believe marriage is between a man and a woman.  I am not in favor of gay marriage,” said the candidate Barack Obama in 2008.

At Thursday night’s nationally televised forum on LGBTQ rights, candidate Beto O’Rourke showed how far, and how quickly, the Democratic Party has moved.  The former Texas congressman caused quite a stir when he said he would support revoking the tax-exempt status of religious institutions—colleges, churches, and charities—if they opposed same-sex marriage.

Though his swift “yes” in response to the CNN moderator Don Lemon’s question received an enthusiastic response from the Los Angeles audience, much of America—including those blue-hued states—might see troubling ramifications of this that go well beyond O’Rourke’s applause line.

The candidate’s view isn’t entirely new to Democrats.  It echoes, for example, then–Solicitor General Donald Verrilli’s concession during his oral argument in Obergefell v. Hodges in 2015 that the tax-exempt status of Christian colleges and universities who hold traditional views of marriage was “going to be an issue.”  And it aligns with the Harvard law professor Mark Tushnet’s policy recommendation to take a “hard line” with religious conservatives because, after all, “trying to be nice to the losers didn’t work well after the Civil War,” and “taking a hard line seemed to work reasonably well in Germany and Japan after 1945.”

. . .

But more troubling than the rhetoric is where it leads. And for that, let me offer three suggestions to people with skill sets I lack: one for pollsters, one for journalists, and one for policy analysts.

First, I would like to mention the aftermath of the American Civil War.  Harvard Professor Tushnet may think that the people of the South could be easily cowed, and cheaply, but that is not obvious to me, Germany and Japan notwithstanding.  There are examples of where repression did not garner obedience, including several Latin American nations, a chunk of Africa, the Middle East, Burma, Tibet and modern day Spain, where the rebellion goes on.  Guerrilla Warfare across the South, and into the Great Plains, would have been very ugly.  Professor Tushnet gave us a flip comment on a subject outside his area of expertise.

With regard to the three issues raised by Professor Inazu, the second stands out to me.  Here is what he writes:

Second, journalists should ask O’Rourke and every other Democratic candidate how this policy position would affect conservative black churches, mosques and other Islamic organizations, and orthodox Jewish communities, among others.  It is difficult to understand how Democratic candidates can be “for” these communities—advocating tolerance along the way—if they are actively lobbying to put them out of business.

Here is the nub of the problem.  There are various minority groups, with various minority opinions.  How do we make them all part of America.  We have accommodated the Amish and the Mormons.  We have learned to live with Catholics and Jews.  Today we are making space for Muslims and Buddhists.  But, it won't work out well if we are intolerant of all ideas with which we don't agree.  How do Democrats rationalize this.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Confronting the FBI

For John, BLUF:  Frankly the Security State has gotten a little out of hand and needs to be reigned in.  Normally we would expect the Democrats to do that, but today it isn't politically expedient for them to do so.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Don't Click Here, It Is Just Gossip

While the revelations in the article may be important in helping us understand the limits we wish to place on our intelligence agencies, including the FBI, they do dishonor to some who have gone before us, and whom we have, in the past, honored.

From the [salacious] UK Daily Mail, by Reporter Jack Newman, 26 May 2019.

The actions of the FBI in wiretapping folks like Dr Martin Luther King, Charlie Chaplin, Malcolm X, Ernest Hemingway, Muhammad Ali, Jane Fonda, John Lennon, Paul Robeson, while perhaps important in a few cases, became too wide spread to be supportive of the First Amendment.  What we do in private should be allowed to stay private.  If we are doing wrong in private it is not the job of the police to vet each of us for all possible crime, but for the person harmed to stand up and say so, allowing a legitimate investigation  This goes along with that quaint Common Law belief in "innocent until proven guilty".

The story is that President Nixon was afraid to fire FBI Director J Edgar Hoover, for what Secrets Director Hoover might hold.

But, back to the article, we need to confront the assertion of Lord Acton:

Great men are almost always bad men.

Lord Acton, Letter to Bishop Mandell Creighton, 3 April 1887.

We believe President George Washington was a great man and also a good man.  And we think the same of President Abraham Lincoln.  When I was in Grade School, in the late 1940s and early 1950s we thought the same of Presidents Woodrow Wilson and Franklin D Roosevelt.  Today, President Woodrow Wilson not so much.

Hat tip to Ann Althouse.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

A Right to a Lawyer

For John, BLUF:  I guess that Mr Harvey Weinstein doesn't deserve a decent lawyer, at least in the minds of some of the snowflake students at Harvard.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Harvard investigates 'trauma' among students after law professor agrees to represent Harvey Weinstein

From The Telegraph (UK), by Reporter Harriet Alexander, 21 March 2019.

Here is the lede plus three:

Harvard University has launched an investigation into law professor Ronald Sullivan after he agreed to represent Harvey Weinstein in court.

Mr Sullivan, the university’s first African American faculty dean, joined Mr Weinstein’s legal team in January, ahead of the June trial for rape.

Mr Weinstein himself was spotted on Wednesday meeting a private investigator, Herman Weisberg, who he has hired to assist in his case.  The two men met at a Cipriani Dolci restaurant in Grand Central station, with Mr Weinstein attempting to disguise his appearance with a black baseball cap and dark glasses.

Mr Sullivan, on joining Mr Weinstein’s team, felt the backlash almost immediately, as his students began complaining that his decision to represent the disgraced film producer traumatised them, and put them at risk.

So, Harvard students want to overthrow hundreds of years of Anglo-Saxon jurisprudence.

This is a bad mark for college students in the US.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Public Exposure

For John, BLUF:  It seems a little disrespectful for individuals to flaunt their sexual assets, while expecting others to know where the flaunter is drawing the line.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Breasts

From Ricochet, by Mr Paul A. Rahe, 15 February 2019.

Here is the lede plus one:

Now that I have your attention, I wish to direct it to a split decision handed down today by the 10th Circuit. On equal-protection grounds, the court struck down an ordinance in place in Fort Collins, CO forbidding women from baring their breasts in public except for the purpose of breastfeeding. Ed Whelan at National Review is on the case, and he reports the following:

In his majority opinion (joined by Judge Mary Beck Briscoe), Judge Gregory A. Phillips cites with approval the district court’s objection that the ordinance “perpetuates a stereotype engrained in our society that female breasts are primarily objects of sexual desire whereas male breasts are not.”  In a classic false dichotomy, Phillips concludes that the city’s “professed interest in protecting children derives not from any morphological differences between men’s and women’s breasts but from negative stereotypes depicting women’s breasts, but not men’s breasts, as sex objects.”  Ditto for “notions of morality” that might underlie the law.

I find the judge's ruling here to be disconnected from our civil society.  It isn't just sad.  It is also destructive.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff