Tag Archives: politics

The Senate Filibuster

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FH Buckley, Foundation Professor at the Antonin Scalia Law School, claims Republicans should want to get rid of the Senate’s filibuster. After all, the filibuster, he claims in purple prose

makes it harder to get laws enacted, but it also makes them harder to repeal. With all the noxious laws on the books, Republicans should be the party of repeal.
Getting legislation passed or repealed in America is like waiting for three cherries to line up in a slot machine.

Then he blows up his own argument, and I appreciate his assist.

the filibuster, which since 1975 has permitted 41 senators to block a vote on most legislation.

Irony abounds. Buckley wants the filibuster removed because the thing makes it so hard to rescind noxious (or no longer useful, I add) laws.

In a nutshell: Buckley’s “most legislation” that was filibuster-blocked would have included a plethora of additional noxious laws.

Too, Conservatives, and most Republicans, favor smaller government over larger. How much larger would Government be today if that “most legislation” since 1975 had been enacted?

Like all tools, filibuster can be misused. Like all tools, the filibuster is a net good despite its occasional misuse.

Another Progressive-Democrat Gives the Game Away

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It’s Senator Mark Kelly (D, AZ), this time.

I’ll look at any proposal [filibuster reform proposal] and evaluate it, not based on what’s in the best interest of just Democrats, but what’s in the best interest of Democrats, Republicans, the country, and Arizona.

Notice that. His first “best interest” criterion is what’s best for Party—which he emphasized: not…just Democrats, but what’s in the best interest of Democrats…. His second criterion, cynically, is the other party.

What’s good for our nation and for his Arizona constituents are last in his list of who matters.

Also Too Weak

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Recall that President Joe Biden (D) came before the American people and touted a bipartisan infrastructure deal, to the tune of $1.2 trillion.

Recall, further, that barely two hours later, Biden again came before us all and said he would refuse to sign that deal unless and until he had, at the same time, a reconciliation-passed bill that had everything in it that was not included in the bipartisan “deal.”

Now Biden is back before us all, saying he’ll sign the bipartisan “deal” and then work on getting further bills passed that have everything in them that he wants.

So—which time was he lying: the first time, speaking from his heart when he said he’d refuse to sign the bipartisan bill unless he got the reconciliation bill with everything else in it, also, or the second time when he was speaking politically, to cover his political behind?

Or: was he simply engaging in the Biden Flip-Flop and speaking in whichever way gives him the most personal political advantage?

Or: does he not truly understand the situation for longer than a few hours?

Under any of those alternatives, Biden’s word is worthless, his commitments entirely unreliable. Any further negotiation with Biden will be just a waste of effort. Any Republican who takes anything Biden says seriously after this—and that particularly includes Senator Rob Portman (R, OH)—is simply exposing himself as wholly gullible.

Too Weak

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Nike’s CEO, John Donahoe, has given his company’s game away. Recall that, earlier this year he claimed dismay over the People’s Republic of China government’s, and the Communist Party of China’s, abuse, slavery, and overt genocide against the Uighurs.

We are concerned about reports of forced labor in, and connected to, the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR). Nike does not source products from the XUAR and we have confirmed with our contract suppliers that they are not using textiles or spun yarn from the region.

Even that weak statement turns out to have been just pretense, virtue-signaling for his American audience, which is doubly dishonest just for that.

Now, via an earnings call, he

called the sportswear apparel giant a “brand of China” this week, following a fiasco it was involved in earlier this year over concerns about human rights abuses committed by the communist government.

And

…we are a brand of China and for China[.]

With that call, Donahoe announced his utter rejection of everything for which the US, the nation with the economic, political, and moral environment that enabled his Nike to flourish, stands.

With that call, Donahoe has announced his complete acceptance of abuse, slavery, genocide by the nation he prefers to call home.

Reasons enough to not do business with Nike.

Rule By Law

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…and not rule of law, which our Constitution so strongly pushes. That’s what SEC Chairman Gary Gensler has decided to do.

The SEC announced this month that it will suspend enforcement of new rules issued under former Chairman Jay Clayton that subjected proxy advisory firms to the same anti-fraud rules as public companies and required them to disclose their business conflicts.

Just pick and choose the rules the Biden appointee deigns enforce. Don’t move first to change the rule, while enforcing it while it’s in force. Gensler Knows Better which rules are fit, and disdains the need for someone so awesome to submit his wishes to lesser masses who might impudently comment contrariwise to any change he deems necessary during such a rule change’s comment period.

Oh, wait:

Mr Gensler has directed SEC staff to consider revising the rules.

Give him a rule that better suits him. But he’ll still ignore the existing rule as beneath his dignity.

This is rule by law—which is another way of saying rule by men with the raw power to reign.