Category: General

Democratic Representative Jerry Nadler is advocating for an expansion of the Supreme Court – allowing a Democrat administration to pack the Supreme court and push it to the left – if the current administration goes forward with appointing a replacement for the late Justice Ginsburg.

Democrats can complain all they want about the Republicans pushing through another Supreme Court appointment, but the rules are the rules. It is well within the administration’s legal right to nominate and confirm a new justice to fill an open seat. Do you really think that the Democrats would leave such a seat open?

I’m not worried about another Trump appointment to the Supreme Court; the tides periodically change, and I expect them to come full circle eventually. But what’s worrisome to me is the escalating actions taken by our politicians in their fervor to maintain control for “their” side. It started when Senator Harry Reid (D, NV) exercised the “nuclear option” – twice – to change Senate rules. The second and arguably the more famous of the two occurred in 2013 when Reid eliminated the 60-vote requirement to advance judicial nominations (except for the Supreme Court), essentially ending the filibuster for such appointments and silencing the senate minority. This was quickly used by the Obama administration to pack the federal court system, pushing it further left. But, as one GOP staffer pointed out, such rule changes are doomed to escalate: “Just wait until they get into the minority!”

And escalate it did. When the GOP gained controlled of the Senate in 2016 they used Reid’s rule change to do their own packing of the federal court system. In addition, Republican Mitch McConnell exercised his own “nuclear option” to expand Reid’s change to include Supreme Court nominations. The fact that Democrats are crying about being on the losing end of a fight they started should not be lost in the rhetoric: none of this would have been possible (since a consensus of at least 60 senators would have been required to advance any judicial nominee) if it weren’t for Harry Reid.

But now the Democrats want to do it once again, as if the results won’t be exactly the same: they’ll change the number of Supreme Court justices so that a Democrat president can appoint a few liberals and shift the court left. But what about when the Republicans once again hold power? What’s to prevent them from doing the same thing and shifting the court right? When will it end, and just how many Supreme Court justices will we have? It’s time to stop the madness. We must move now to restore the previous senate rules and require a reasonable 60-vote consensus for judicial nominations.

This is now in our hands, the hands of the American voter. Let’s replace those senators and representatives who see infinite escalation as a viable tactic.  It’s not.

…not as we do, Part II.

Ellen DeGeneres, an advocate for gun control (here and here for example), had her Montecito home burglarized recently. Her response (according to this news site): armed guards.

It’s easy to say people don’t need arms to defend themselves and should rely instead on police when you have your own armed security force. I wonder how Ellen would feel if we told her that her guards could not carry guns, either? Yeah; that’s what I think, too.

Editor’s note: I’m for sensible gun control. This means gun control measures that have a disproportionate impact on criminals and little impact on law-abiding citizens. My recommendations:

1) Universal voluntary instant background checks, with free or low-cost (<$10) firearm transfers facilitated by the local police or sheriff’s department. Use of this service immunizes the transferer from prosecution in the event the transferee is prohibited from owning firearms.
2) If you give, sell or otherwise transfer a gun to a prohibited person, you go to jail. Doesn’t matter whether or not you knew they were prohibited. After all, there is a free or low-cost transfer service available to immunize you from prosecution if you had even the slightest doubt (see #1 above).
3) Every crime gun is traced. If the perpetrator was someone prohibited from owning a firearm, the source of the firearm is charged (see #2 above).

I think that’s enough for now. Let’s see how these work out before we commit to disarming the entire U.S. population for the actions of a few criminals.

The senate unanimously confirmed Gen. Charles Brown Jr. as the next Air Force Chief of Staff.  Gen. Brown is the first ever African-American to serve as the chief of staff for a military service. Gen. Brown was nominated for the position by President Trump in March.

Senate confirms Charles Brown as Air Force chief of staff

In related news, Chief Master Sgt. JoAnne Bass will become the 19th chief master sergeant of the Air Force, succeeding Chief Master Sergeant Kaleth Wright. Bass will be the first woman to serve as the highest-ranking non-commissioned officer in the military.

Air Force names first woman as top noncommissioned officer of any US military branch

An interesting quote from Al Sharpton regarding rioting in the wake of George Floyd’s death at the hands of a police officer, as reported by Fox News [1]:

“Some of the stores that are being damaged are black-owned stores!” Sharpton exclaimed. “So we cannot become so reckless that we are destroying each other in our rage.”

It should not matter the race of who owns a store. Al Sharpton’s statement implies that it’s OK to destroy stores so long as they are not black owned. He should have addressed the damage to society caused by the riots and looting, regardless of the race of perpetrators or victims.

… did the United Auto Workers become the representative for graduate students at Berkeley??

A quote from an article regarding a “wildcat” strike by the students:

The University of California’s chief operating officer, Rachael Nava, wrote a letter to UAW Local 2865, asking them to stop the protests, but the union asked the school to consider to the students’ demands, the Post reported.

The student contract does not expire until 2022. I find it interesting that the union expects Berkeley to honor the labor contract, but doesn’t seem to hold itself to the same standard.

Bloomberg campaign downplays report he is considering Hillary Clinton as running mate

Interesting political cartoon:

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