Monthly Archives: August 2021

Some Words from our Vice President

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Vice President Kamala Harris (D) said these things on her gallivant through Southeast Asia.

We know that Beijing continues to coerce, to intimidate and to make claims to the vast majority of the South China Sea. Beijing’s actions continue to undermine the rules-based order and threaten the sovereignty of nations.

And

It is in our vital interest to stand united with our allies and our partners in Southeast Asia in defense of a free and open Indo-Pacific[.]

It would be nice if we could take her seriously. It would be better if People’s Republic of China President Xi Jinping could take her seriously. Sadly, Harris didn’t even indicate that the PRC needed to stop its moves to coerce, to intimidate or to withdraw its claims to the vast majority of the South China Sea. All she had was her empty description of the PRC’s attitude.

It would be useful if the Biden/Harris administration backed up its pretty words with hard action. Do what, exactly, in our stand[ing] united with our allies and our partners?

We’re So Special

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That’s the attitude of Progressive-Democrats, as illustrated by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D, CA).

She held an expensive fundraiser last weekend while her constituents [were] still bound to COVID-19 regulations, which require, among other things, masks to be worn when people are in close proximity with each other.

The principals, from Pelosi to her bank book-opening attendees were maskless. Every single one of them.

On the other hand, the wait staff—every single one of them—had to wear the masks. Because they’re just hir’d he’p; they don’t matter so much.

Congressman Byron Donalds’ (R, FL) description is spot on and broadly inclusive:

They make all their rules for the American people but they don’t follow them. They tell the poor of America what needs to be done but they don’t actually do it themselves. So, they love having crystal on a table and getting jumbo lump crab and all that good stuff without masks, but when it comes to the American people, like let’s say in the city of New York, they are not allowed to go in a restaurant if they don’t present their vaccine card[.]

Because our Betters are Special.

Somebody’s Racism in Action

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Progressive-Democrats; their communications organ, the Press; and the Left generally accuse former President Donald Trump of racism. They hardly pass up a chance to make the accusation, even today.

A just completed Federal Reserve analysis of the just completed Federal census and a Brookings Institute (no right-leaning organization that) say otherwise.

While income inequality exists among racial and ethnic groups, the Brookings Institute points out in several reports that black and Hispanic households have made statistically significant economic progress especially in the years prior to pandemic-related shutdowns in 2020.
An analysis by the Federal Reserve, for instance, found wealth for African Americans and Hispanic Americans grew far faster during the Trump years than for whites.
Between 2016 and 2019, median wealth rose for all race and ethnicity groups, the Fed report states, but growth rates during this period “were faster for Black and Hispanic families.” Wealth increased for Black families by 33% and for Hispanic families by 65% during this period, compared to white families, whose wealth only increased by 3%.

And

[The minority] poverty rate reached record lows in 2019, according to Census data. The Black poverty rate of 18.8% was the lowest it has been since 1959 when poverty estimates were first recorded for this group.
In 2019, the poverty rate for Hispanics, 15.7%, was also the lowest on record since data for this group was first recorded in 1972. The poverty rate for Asians was also the lowest on record of 7.3%. The poverty rate of 7.3% for non-Hispanic Whites in 2019 was the same as the poverty rate of 7.3% in 1973.

It’s not just relative wealth, either. The economic upward mobility that Americans used to enjoy, and then lost in recent years, was greatly improved, also.

…84% of the middle class in 1979 was white, 2% was Black, 2% Hispanic, and 2% “other.”
By 2019, whites had fallen to 59% of the middle class, while 12% was Black, 18% was Hispanic, and 10% was listed as “other.”

The list goes on in the JtN article.

If Trump was being racist, he sucked at it, achieving precisely the opposite for minorities.

No, the racism in action is that of the Progressive-Democrats; their communications organ, the Press; and the Left generally with their routine manufacture of a race beef where they knew, and know today, full well none exists.

A California Judge Has Spoken

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Recall California Proposition 22, which exempted Uber Technologies Inc, Lyft Inc, and DoorDash Inc from a California state gig law that, in essence, requires businesses to reclassify their gig associates from independent contractors to employees. That proposition was passed overwhelmingly by the citizens of California.

A California state judge ruled last Friday that the proposition was unconstitutional and so unenforceable. His rationale:

Superior Court Judge Frank Roesch said in Friday’s ruling that Proposition 22 limits the state legislature’s authority and its ability to pass future legislation, which is unconstitutional.

The judge has ruled that the people are not allowed to limit the authority of their employee, of their government. Keep in mind that, although Roesch couched his ruling in terms of the State’s legislative branch, his own judiciary branch is a part of that government whose authority he’s protecting.

The California government (including Roesch, et al., mind you) is not subordinate to the citizens of California?

Here’s the preamble to the California State constitution, which according to Roesch has no meaning.

We, the People of the State of California, grateful to Almighty God for our freedom, in order to secure and perpetuate its blessings, do establish this Constitution.

It used to be the People of California’s constitution, not the State judiciary’s.

Here’s Art II, Sect 1:

All political power is inherent in the people. Government is instituted for their protection, security, and benefit, and they have the right to alter or reform it when the public good may require.

Here’s Art II, Sect 10(a):

An initiative statute or referendum approved by a majority of votes thereon takes effect the day after the election unless the measure provides otherwise. If a referendum petition is filed against a part of a statute the remainder shall not be delayed from going into effect.

Unless a member of the State’s government, here a judge, demurs. Then the people’s decision is set aside. Because the People are no longer sovereign in California.

Hmm….

A Reading List

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Much has been made of the reading lists promoted by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and JCS Chairman General Mark Milley over the perceived woke and communism-promoting contents of their lists. Few, however, have offered their alternative lists. Herewith, the core (not the totality) of mine. It’s not segregated into suitability for junior, field grade, and flag officers; this is for all.

First:

  • Our Declaration of Independence
  • Our Constitution
  • Your Officer’s Commission as promulgated by the Secretary of [the Air Force in my case]
  • Your Oath of Office

These should be reviewed frequently.

Then, in no particular order:

  • The Federalist Papers
  • The Anti-Federalist Papers
  • Stalin’s War: A New History of World War II, Sean McMeekin
  • The Art of War, Sun Tzu
  • Art of War, Niccolò Machiavelli
  • The Prince, Niccolo Machiavelli
  • Discourses, Niccolo Machiavelli
  • On War, Carl von Clausewitz
  • Hamlet, William Shakespeare
  • King Lear, William Shakespeare
  • The Republic and the Laws, Cicero
  • Meditations, Marcus Aurelius
  • The Republic, Plato
  • The Allegory of the Cave, Plato
  • The Persians, Aeschylus
  • The Seven against Thebes, Aeschylus
  • Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle
  • Republic, Aristotle
  • Apologia, Socrates
  • The Hundred-Year Marathon, Michael Pillsbury
  • Rules for Radicals, Saul Alinsky
  • Just War Against Terror, Jean Bethke Elshtain
  • Just War Theory, Jean Bethke Elshtain, ed.
  • Just and Unjust Wars, Michael Walzer
  • Rethinking the Just War Tradition, Michael Brough, John Lango, Henry van der Linden, eds.
  • The Art of War, Antoine-Henri, Baron Jomini
  • Unrestricted Warfare, Colonel Qiao Liang and Colonel Wang Xiangsui
  • The Fall of Carthage, Adrian Goldsworthy
  • Rethinking the Principles of War, Anthony McIvor, ed.
  • Introduction to Strategy, André Beaufre

At the risk of self-promotion:

  • A Conservative’s View of American National Policy, Eric Hines
  • A Conservative’s Treatise on American Government, Eric Hines
  • A Conservative’s View of the American Concept of Law, Eric Hines
  • A Conservative’s View of the Conduct of Just Wars, Eric Hines

There are many more that would add effectively to an American officer’s library, but these, I claim, make a good start. Others will have other ideas, and I’m all ears, and all eyes on the Comments.