Tag Archives: ethics

One More Reason…

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…to disband—not merely defund—the Federal Bureau of Investigation, relocate the bureau’s [sic] databases and forensics labs to small towns in the Midwest, reassign the line agents to the Marshals Service and Secret Service, and to return all other FBI personnel from field office agent in charge on up through Director to the private sector—not to any other assignment in the Federal government—and reallocate the FBI’s putative budget dollars to other uses, including payroll funds to the Marshals Service and the Secret Service to cover those added agents.

Senator Ted Cruz (R, TX), during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, quizzed FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate regarding an FD-1023, alleged recordings between a Burisma executive and Hunter Biden and between that executive and then-Vice President Joe Biden (D), and FBI supposed investigations of the allegations therein. Abbate’s repeated answer was nothing but FBI stonewalling:

I’m not going to comment on that, Senator.

And

I’m just not going to comment on information we’ve received [regarding] investigations or other matters.

And

This is an area that I’m not going to get into with you, Senator.

In the course of all of this, Abbate uttered the FBI’s Stonewall of Stonewalls:

I’m going to answer within the parameters that we operate in.

Those are FBI parameters, and for the most part, they’re useful. But the overarching, the controlling, parameter within which the FBI operates is the requirement to be responsive to Congressional oversight questions—in the present case, to be responsive to Senate Judiciary Committee oversight questions.

Congressional oversight requirements supersede FBI internal procedures, as Congressional oversight requirements do all Executive Branch agency internal procedures.

The FBI has long since outlived its legitimacy.

Pro-Green Hysteria, or…?

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The Biden White House recently has canceled or delayed some projects that are critical to American economic prosperity and to American economic independence from our enemies.

On Tuesday [6 Jun] the US Army Corps of Engineers revoked a Clean Water Act permit granted by the Trump Administration for the NewRange copper and nickel mine in Minnesota’s Duluth Complex.

That copper and nickel is critical to the Biden administration’s push for a green transition to battery cars (and to a host of legitimate electric and other projects). Green aficionados objected, despite the fact that the region already is well-mined for iron ore, and in entirely environmentally sound ways. No more mining.

And:

[Biden’s] Interior Department last month delayed a decision on whether to let Alaska build a 211-mile road to a critical minerals mining area.

The Trump administration had approved this one, but green aficionados objected. Hence the delay.

And:

[L]ast Friday [2 Jun] Interior removed from oil and gas development hundreds of thousands of acres of public land in New Mexico within 10 miles of the Chaco Culture National Historical Park.

The folks affected by that development project, the Navajo Nation, badly wanted and whole heartedly approved it for the tens of millions of dollars in oil and gas royalties it would have produced for these Native Americans (whom the Left and the Progressive-Democrats in Congress and the White House pretend to favor). But green aficionados objected. No oil or gas development here, and no prosperity for Navajos.

These project cancelations and delay mean that, in the words of The Wall Street Journal‘s Editors, [t]he US will have to import the minerals from arsenals of autocracy like Russia and China.

Are these moves motivated by Biden’s pro-green hysteria or by Biden’s softness toward the People’s Republic of China? Or maybe both?

“Understand Their Identities”

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In a Fox News article centered on the decision by Georgia’s Professional Standards Commission to remove terms like “equity” and “inclusion” from the State’s teacher preparation standards, Aireane Montgomery, President and CEO of Georgia Educators for Equity & Justice was quoted as objecting.

I cannot imagine thinking that teachers should go into a classroom not having an understanding of how important their students’ identities are[.]

That’s not at risk from the removal of artificial criteria from the State’s teacher professional standards. Regardless, the question of students’ identities is easily resolved.

Have the students recite the Pledge of Allegiance at the start of the first class of each day. Teach them American history, American civics, Western history and civilization.

Teach the students their identity as American children and American citizens. That’s the truly important student identity.

Nor is it really all that hard. It needs only for school boards to enforce standards, teachers to teach to them, and above all, parents to be involved in their kids’ education, beginning with the setting of those standards.

Disgusting Disrespect

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In celebration of Pride Month, President Joe Biden (D) hung two American flags and a Pride flag from the balcony of the White House.

Biden actually is proud of this disgusting display. My disgust does not concern the Pride flag, it’s over the deliberate disrespect for our national flag that Biden is demonstrating with this display.

Tom Fitton, Judicial Watch President, has the right of it:

To advance revolutionary transgender agenda targeting children, Biden violates basic tenet of US Flag Code and disrespects every American service member buried under its colors[.]

He then cited cite US Flag Code §7(e):

The flag of the United States of America should be at the center and at the highest point of the group when a number of flags of States or localities or pennants of societies are grouped and displayed from staffs.

Biden had only two things he needed to get right with this display, and he chose to ignore both of them. Our American flag is not at the center of that display, nor is it displayed higher than the pride [sic] flag.

For all that, Fitton is being generous. Biden didn’t choose only to disrespect every American service member buried under our flag; Biden has chosen with this display to insult every colonial, every militiaman, every service member who, for generations, have fought to defend our flag and the things for which it stands, who were maimed in that defense, and those who died in that defense, and Biden has chosen to denigrate every Gold Star mother, father, brother, sister, son, daughter who has lost a member of that Gold Star family defending our national flag and everything our flag symbolizes. Including Biden’s right to be cavalierly insulting.

But that contempt for Americans and America is par for the course that the Left, the Progressive-Democratic Party, and Party Leader President Joe Biden have been setting for our nation.

Will there ever be an American Pride Month for our nation? Not as long as this gang of miscreants remain in power.

If the Governor Does It…

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Under a just-passed and signed law in Illinois, any Constitutional-based challenge to a State law can be filed only in two counties: Cook and Sangamon. These are the counties that house the failed “city” of Chicago and the State’s government town of Springfield. The rationalization is that inconsistent court decisions about important public issues have repeatedly caused confusion. We can’t have actual court discussions and disagreements in a variety of lower courts, with the differences resolved on appeal—which usually leads to clarity at least; although it takes judges who hew to the text of the statute and of the Constitution to provide legitimate clarity. Those cross-court differences also produce, usually, better discussions of the principles at hand for the appellate courts to consider.

But wait, there’s more. And the more illustrates just how in thrall to public unions is the State’s governing Progressive-Democratic Party:

The venue changes don’t apply to “claims arising out of collective bargaining disputes” between Illinois and the unions.

…that means it’s legal. The courts—and the citizens of Illinois—can just sit down and shut up.