Tag Archives: ethics

Citizen’s Arrests

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New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham (D) has no understanding of duty or of law.  It seems that an armed group of citizen militia caught 200 illegal aliens in the act of illegally entering our nation near Sunland Park, NM, and they detained those illegal aliens until US Border Patrol agents—which those citizens called—could arrive and take charge.

In her response to this, Grisham said,

It should go without saying that regular citizens have no authority to arrest or detain anyone[.]

On the contrary, it should go without saying that regular citizens have both the authority and the duty to arrest and detain until the arrival of formally constituted authority—police or Border Patrol agents, for instance—persons committing crimes in the presence of those citizens.  It also should go without saying that that authority and that duty derive from the plain duties of citizenship.

It’s both instructive and illustrative that this Progressive-Democrat does not understand the obligations of citizenship.

Vaccination and Quarantine

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Various jurisdictions in a number of States have begun barring unvaccinated students from schools following an outbreak of a contagious disease, particularly measles and chicken pox (so far).

Some school districts in the US are booting unvaccinated students from campuses where infectious-disease cases have been confirmed, as the spread of measles accelerates in some states.

“Quarantining” on the basis of vaccination status (not the classic quarantine, which blocks departure from a specific location, but one that prevents entry into specific locations) is hitting the courts, too.

In Kentucky, 32 cases of chickenpox at Our Lady of the Assumption Church and Academy in Walton resulted in unvaccinated students being removed from school in March for three weeks, the time it would take for symptoms to appear. An 18-year-old unvaccinated student lost a lawsuit challenging the ban on religious beliefs.

The court ruled entirely correctly on that suit.  A family is entirely within its rights to decline vaccination on religious grounds.  However, that right does not extend to exposing others to the outcome of that non-vaccination; that family may not expose others’ children to the disease targeted by the vaccination.

Nor do such families have any right to expose other families’ pocketbooks to the costs of outcomes from non-vaccination.  Families exercising their right to not vaccinate cannot, legitimately, inflict the costs of treatment on other families, whether those other children have been vaccinated or not.

The Tyranny of Progressive-Democrats

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In the ongoing saga of the Progressive-Democrats, and others, to get their hands on President Donald Trump’s personal and business tax returns, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Congressman Richard Neal (D, MA) requested demanded the IRS surrender several years of those documents to him by 10 Apr.  The deadline came and went as IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said they needed more time to study the Neal-cited law to be sure they could turn over the returns.  After all, other laws demand that tax records be kept private, as the personal information they are, for all Americans, and the cited law only permits tax records to be given to the House Ways and Means Chairman (and/or to two other Congressional positions) and only under tightly circumscribed conditions.

Since neither Rettig nor Mnuchin said, “Yes, Sir” and meekly and unquestioningly submitted, Neal now has sent a letter to Rettig giving a 23 April deadline or he, Neal, would yank Rettig into Federal court over the latter’s disobedience.  That letter says, in part,

It is not the proper function of the IRS, Treasury, or Justice to question or second guess the motivations of the Committee or its reasonable determinations regarding its need for the requested tax returns and return information[.]

Because the Executive Branch is not a coequal branch of our Federal government with the Legislature and the Judiciary.  It, together with its subordinate Departments and Agencies, are the obedient servants of Progressive-Democrat committees of the House of Representatives.  The Executive is not permitted to make its own determination of the legality of complying with Neal’s demand.  They’re supposed merely to shut up and deliver.

Law be damned.  Constitution, especially, be damned.  These are just more-or-less guidelines to be ignored whenever they show themselves inconvenient to the Left and their Party.

Of What are they Afraid?

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Attorney General William Barr, during testimony before the Senate Appropriations Committee, said he thought the Trump 2016 Presidential campaign had been spied on by Federal authorities, and he wanted to be sure whether that spying was legitimately done or not.

I think spying did occur.  The question is whether it was adequately predicated. …  Spying on a political campaign is a big deal.

Oh, the hoo-raw.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D, CA):

I don’t trust Barr, I trust Mueller.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D, MD) now insists that Barr’s “loyalties were compromised.”

He is acting as an employee of the president.  I believe the Attorney General believes he needs to protect the president of the United States.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler (D, NY):

Barr’s vow to probe the FBI’s 2016 counterintelligence probe amounted to nothing more than “Republican conspiracy theory nonsense.”

And there’s the manufactured whine over petty terminology.

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D, CA):

[Barr] should not casually suggest that those under his purview engaged in “spying” on a political campaign.

Senator Richard Blumenthal (D, CT)

said Barr should immediately retract his statement and apologize.
“The only spies interfering in the 2016 campaign were Russian ones.”

Senator Brian Schatz (D, HI):

took issue with Barr’s word choice, saying “the word ‘spying’ could cause everybody in the cable news ecosystem to freak out.”

And:

NBC News‘ Chuck Todd said this was a “conspiracy theory”

Of course, contra Schatz, the only folks who will “freak out” are those looking for excuses to display their virtuous outrage.  And those with something to hide.

Instead, Progressive-Democrats should welcome the Barr’s investigation; they then could use his finding of nothing to see to further impede Trump and to get their own candidates elected far and wide.

Unless….

Cable News Strikes Again

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MSNBC has illustrated why so much of the Left’s news outlets on cable have so little credibility.

This time, the outlet is complaining about President Donald Trump’s alleged interference in Israeli politics by supporting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s reelection—openly, rather than secretly and with illegal means as Russian President Vladimir Putin has done in our elections.

Here’s Chris Matthews:

American presidents from both of our parties have abstained from getting involved in Israeli politics, opting instead of playing two roles; friend of Israel but also a regional honest broker. But not this time. President Trump broke with his predecessors, taking a number of steps to help insure that his friend Bibi Netanyahu was victorious today.

And

Always, our president from Eisenhower—from all the way up to W, although some lean towards Israel, some leaned against them a little bit…they’ve always played this other role as honest broker in the region so they can bring peace and play a bigger global role than just being buddies with Israel.

It’s certainly true that Trump supports his friend Netanyahu.  It’s certainly true, though, that not always have our Presidents abstained from getting involved in Israeli politics—by supporting a friend in word and encouragement.

Ex-President Barack Obama (D) had his State Department transfer taxpayer money to OneVoice, to oppose Netanyahu in an earlier election.  This goes far beyond mere words of encouragement.

Matthews knows this full well; he’s illustrated why the NLMSM can’t have nice things.