Foreign Meddling

Posted on 6 February 2019 by eehines

More European nations have recognized the Guaidó government as the legitimate government of Venezuela following the passing of those nations’ Sunday deadline for Maduro to schedule free elections with no action by Maduro (though left unaddressed is the conundrum of how Maduro could schedule anything if he’s not the legitimate head of government).

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin demurs.

…domestic issues should be solved by Venezuela and its people. “Attempts to legitimize usurped power” constitute[] “interference in Venezuela’s internal affairs….”

This is a preview of Foreign Meddling. Read the full post (313 words, estimated 1:15 mins reading time)

Emergency Powers

Posted on 12 January 2019 by eehines

President Donald Trump is giving very serious consideration to declaring a national emergency so he can reallocate certain funding toward building the border wall that’s so necessary in various places and that the Progressive-Democrats are so dead set against funding, even though they’ve voted, within the last decade, an order of magnitude more money for a wall than Trump is requesting.

Trump clearly has the legal authority to declare such an emergency and to carry out the funds reallocation.

Trump, though, has another way to force the Progressive-Democrats’ hand. Here’s what Article II, Section 3 says, in pertinent part:

This is a preview of Emergency Powers. Read the full post (210 words, estimated 50 secs reading time)

Religious Bigotry?

Posted on 11 January 2019 by eehines

North Dakota wants to let its high schools teach a Bible studies class, and the ACLU (among others) has gotten its institutional panties in a twist over it. State Congressman Aaron McWilliams (R) has a bill moving through the State’s legislature that would achieve that. He said

The intention of this bill is to provide an option to schools to teach a class on the bible from a historical perspective. My position is that no religious text should be excluded from being taught as it relates to the historical or philosophical influences in our history or on our society today.

This is a preview of Religious Bigotry?. Read the full post (428 words, estimated 1:43 mins reading time)

Center of the Political Spectrum

Posted on 4 January 2019 by eehines

Where is it? The German news outlet Deutsche Welle seems to typify Europe’s view of it, and its view is illustrated in this article about the inauguration of Brazil’s new President, Jair Bolsonaro.

DW labeled Bolsonaro a right-wing politician. Why? Because he’s “pro-gun, anti-corruption,” as though wanting a safe population living and working in an honest market with an honest government is somehow not what everyone wants. Oh, wait—here it is: Bolsonaro said on his assuming Brazil’s presidency that Brazil has been

“liberated from socialism and political correctness.”

And in his separate inauguration speech, Bolsonaro had promised to

This is a preview of Center of the Political Spectrum. Read the full post (277 words, estimated 1:06 mins reading time)

Of Course They Can

Posted on 4 January 2019 by eehines

President Xi Jinping of the People’s Republic of China increased pressure on the Republic of China to surrender and be “unified” with the PRC.

Mr Xi said differences in political systems can’t be used as an excuse to resist unification.

Of course they can. Those differences are what makes the two nations separate from each other. Never mind that the two have been independent of each other ever since the mainland under Mao Tse-tung won then-China’s civil war and drove the Kuomintang off the mainland onto the island of Taiwan, with Mao then creating the PRC. The reason for the civil war was precisely those differences, differences over which the Communists were willing to kill those who opposed them.

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Side Note

Posted on 31 December 2018 by eehines

Much has been made of the Republican Party’s “control” of a unified Federal government these past two years, with Republicans “controlling” the House of Representatives, the Senate, and the Presidency. Much is made, also, of the Republican Party’s continued “control” of the Senate, indeed its increased “control” following the mid-terms, as a result of which Republicans extended their majority from 51 to 53.

The latest is Matthew Continetti’s claim on last Friday’s Special Report (hosted by Bret Baier on Fox News): in discussing the Schumer Shutdown Redux (my term, not Continetti’s), Continetti insisted that this shutdown began in that unified government—repeating particularly the claim that Republicans “controlled” the Senate.

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Foolish Misunderstanding

Posted on 21 December 2018 by eehines

CNN‘s Fareed Zakaria is dismayed with our Constitution and the concept of a republican democracy.

[T]he Constitutional concept of equal representation in the U.S. Senate [is] a “structural problem.”

And

…”new dividing line in Western politics,” which [Zakaria] describes is the “less-educated rural populations” he calls “Outsiders” who “feel ignored or looked down upon” and “feel deep resentment towards metropolitan elites.”

And

…30% of America is now electing 70% of the Senate. All those states with—you think of Wyoming. It has roughly a million people. It has two senators. California with 70 million people has two senators as well. So we have a kind of structural problem here where the land is being overrepresented. The people are being underrepresented. So both sides feel deeply wronged.

This is a preview of Foolish Misunderstanding. Read the full post (307 words, estimated 1:14 mins reading time)

Pre-Determined Outcome

Posted on 15 December 2018 by eehines

New York’s Attorney-Elect Letitia James says she’s made her decision about the guilt of a man, a family, and a business, and now he’s going to collect the information needed to support her decision.

We will use every area of the law to investigate President Trump and his business transactions and that of his family as well.
We want to investigate anyone in his orbit who has, in fact, violated the law[.]

She’s already determined, prior to any investigation whatsoever, that they’re guilty of having violated one or more [unnamed] laws.

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Faith in the PRC

Posted on 14 December 2018 by eehines

The People’s Republic of China is broadening the reach of its religion.

Officials have threatened to close the Early Rain Covenant Church in the central city of Chengdu by the end of the year in keeping with new religious-management regulations, according to several congregants who said they had been waiting for the net to fall. In coordinated raids starting Sunday night, police detained Pastor Wang Yi and more than 100 of the church’s 500 members, said Li Yingqiang, a church leader.

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A Conservative’s View….

Posted on 10 December 2018 by eehines

My latest effort, a pamphlet on the American legal system (because I don’t lack for ego), A Conservative’s View of the American Concept of Law, has been released, and it can be found on amazon.com: https://amzn.to/2L4iVXx . Links also can be found on my Books page.

Our legal system is explicitly founded on natural law through our Creator’s endowment—the origin and source of our fundamental principles.

This is a preview of A Conservative’s View….. Read the full post (528 words, estimated 2:07 mins reading time)

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