Tag Archives: politics

“Finish the Job”

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President Joe Biden (D) announced his decision to run for four more years as President last Tuesday in a three-minute Hollywood-esque video. A video, no press, no citizen, present, and especially, no questions, no spontaneity, nothing extemporaneous or free-flowing.

Just: “Let’s finish the job,” his new slogan.

Here’s one aspect of the job he wants to finish, in the foreign relations environment. American Enterprise Institute Senior Fellow specializing in Iran, Turkey, and the broader Middle East, Michael Rubin:

He entered office speaking about human rights…. First, it was tens of thousands of Afghans who put their faith in and service with us but for whom Secretary of State Antony Blinken couldn’t be bothered to expedite visas. Then there were the millions of Afghan women. The cost for Climate Envoy John Kerry’s pursuit of China’s signature of virtue-signaling climate change declarations is turning a blind eye to Uyghur genocide.

And Israeli Maj Gen (res) Gershon Hacohen, former Israel Defense Forces Northern Corps Commander:

All the players in the Middle East recognize the weakness of the American presence in the region. The American strategy, as expressed in the National Security Strategy document of the White House, established a new order of priorities. In the first place, dealing with the competition with China in the Far East and across the Pacific Ocean….
…
The bottom line is that the state of Israel finds itself isolated like it has not been for decades, and this in itself accelerates the processes of joining regional alliances against Israel.

This is Biden’s continued disdain for Israel layered on top of all the failures vis-à-vis the People’s Republic of China noted earlier.

Finishing jobs like that in the way that he’s begun them would be damaging to our nation in the extreme.

Permit to Buy

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The Delaware legislature is trying again to infringe on American citizens’ right to keep and bear Arms; the Know Betters of the legislature are renewing their drive to require the State’s citizens—who, for those Progressive-Democrats not keeping up at home, also are American citizens—to get the State’s permission just to buy a firearm.

A proposal filed Wednesday in the state Senate would require prospective handgun owners to complete a state-authorized firearms training course and submit an application that would include fingerprinting and an extensive background check. If approved, Delaware’s Department of Safety and Homeland Security would issue a free 180-day permit.

A permit just to buy. The duration of this…requirement…is laid out in the proposed bill:

A handgun qualified purchaser permit is valid for a period of 180 days from the date of issuance….

I have no conceptual objection to requiring training on the firearm, so long as neither the training itself nor the cost of it, are constructed as barriers to the getting and subsequent keeping and bearing, and so long as any license (not permit to buy) is issued on a will-issue basis.

I do object to fingerprinting the prospective firearm keeper and bearer of his weapon. No government has any business keeping track of which of its citizens have weapons and which of them do not. That’s a need only with regard to criminals, and acquiring a firearm is not, by definition, a criminal act.

But beyond that, these worthies are carefully ignoring the key phrase in our Constitution’s 2nd Amendment [emphasis added]:

…the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

Plainly, getting Arms, including the purchase of one or more of them, is a necessary precondition to the keeping and bearing of them. Restrictions on buying a firearm—which is what a State-granted permission slip, of any duration, is—is just that infringement. No permit to buy, no matter its construction, is legitimate; such permission slips start out unconstitutional and they are incurably so throughout their existence.

 

The bill on offer can be read here.

Lobbying

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Even Senators do it on occasion. Senator Joe Manchin (D, WV), a few years ago (and only now appearing in some of the press) lobbied Alejandra Castillo, Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Economic Development, to approve the Appalachian Climate Technology Now coalition’s application for as much as $100 million in Federal funds for

creat[ing] an industrial cluster around a number of climate resilience technologies while focusing on the development of resilient infrastructure and site readiness, attracting, training and retaining a skilled workforce, fostering entrepreneurship and startups, and building community capacity[.]

The coalition ultimately was awarded nearly $63 million in grants for the purpose.

ACT Now is a West Virginia-base entity. So far, so good; it’s entirely appropriate for Senators to front for their constituents.

ACT Now also is a coalition that includes, among others, the Charleston Area Alliance, which is chaired by Jack Rossi. Rossi also is listed as the Treasurer of the Joe Manchin for Senate campaign. Still so far, probably so good; Senators are allowed to lobby for constituents that are in some way connected to the Senator.

When Manchin wrote his lobbying letter to Castillo, he neglected to mention his connection to Rossi. Oops.

That far, no good. Manchin should have done the full disclosure bit and freely mentioned the Rossi-Manchin relationship, and he should have done so up front, in that letter and in any preceding and subsequent communication with Castillo and anyone else with whom he spoke on the matter.

Taking Questions?

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Nah. That’s for rubes. So is speaking extemporaneously, which is involved in taking questions that aren’t from pre-selected questioners with pre-submitted questions and carefully scripted answers.

That’s why President Joe Biden (D) is planning to issue his campaign for reelection announcement by carefully set and scripted video, rather than doing so publicly and taking questions from the madding crowd that is the non-preselected press questioners.

Nor will it even be a current announcement with current reasons for his campaign.

Biden and a producer reportedly filmed the video early this month at the first family’s summer home in the Rehoboth Beach, Delaware[.]

A President who so assiduously avoids direct contact with our nation’s citizens is unfit for the office.

Aiding and Abetting Child Abuse

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Washington and California both have bills wending their way through their respective legislatures that would shut a child’s parents out of the decision-making, even the knowledge that the decision-making is in progress, associated with the application of puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and breast and genital removal, and other “treatments”—cynically called gender affirming care—to their children.

Washington is on the verge of denying parents notice that their runaway children are living in licensed shelters if the children are seeking “protected health care services,” defined as gender affirming care and “reproductive health care” such as abortion and contraception.

And

The California Assembly approved legislation this month…that would let children 12 and up in the Medi-Cal program “consent to mental health treatment or counseling on an outpatient basis, or to residential shelter services,” if the “attending professional person” believes they are “mature enough to participate intelligently” in the services. Legal experts told the Associated Press that would cover gender identity counseling.

Were an individual adult to do this to a child, he’d be guilty of child sexual abuse and metaphorically drawn and quartered, and rightly so. But when an institution does it, it’s OK.

Go figure. And then go figure why any parents would want to risk their children by living in such a State.