The unheeded advice in George Washington’s farewell address
Source: Tenth Amendment Center
by Mike Maharrey
“When people remember or discuss the address, they most often recall his warning against political parties, his admonition to avoid entangling foreign alliances, and his insistence that ‘religion and morality are indispensable supports’ to political prosperity. But we often read right over an even more poignant warning in Washington’s address; a warning we failed to heed to our own detriment. Washington advised that we should hold tight to the original Constitution and avoid giving in to the temptation to turn it into a ‘living, breathing’ document that changes at the whim of whoever holds power. As Washington put it, we must ‘resist with care the spirit of innovation upon its principles, however specious the pretexts.'” (09/19/18)
Note to bigots: Read Bill of Rights, watch Mister Rogers & lay off Kaepernick
Source: USA Today
by Susan Paterno
“‘As Orange Goes,’ so goes the future of American politics. That was political scholar Karl Lamb’s thesis in his 1974 book presaging the rise of Ronald Reagan and the evolution of Orange County, California as a national battleground for the November election. I grew up in Orange County, and read ‘As Orange Goes,’ as a college freshman. I’m still here, experiencing the last gasp of ugly bigotry that permeated the county of my youth. This month in my school district, Los Alamitos, Roni Ellis-Burns, an elementary school principal, publicly called Colin Kaepernick an ‘anti American thug’ for exercising his First Amendment right to peacefully protest. While school superintendent Sherry Kropp expressed concerns, rather than immediately repudiate Ellis-Burns'[s] ignorance and racism, she praised her as ‘a spectacular principal.’ More than 2,500 parents didn’t buy it and signed an online protest. How did the district respond? With a Mister Rogers message that said, basically, we don’t say mean things about our friends and neighbors.” (09/19/18)
FBI, DOJ plan illegal foot-dragging, redactions in release of declassified information
Source: Bloomberg
“President Donald Trump has demanded the ‘immediate declassification’ of sensitive materials about the Russia investigation, but the agencies responsible are expected to propose redactions that would keep some information secret, according to three people familiar with the matter. The Justice Department, FBI and Office of the Director of National Intelligence are going through a methodical review and can’t offer a timeline for finishing, said the people, who weren’t authorized to speak publicly about the sensitive matter.” [editor’s note: The US government’s classification system exists due to executive order. That means that what is or is not to be treated as classified is, as a legal matter, ENTIRELY up to one Donald J. Trump, not to his subordinates – TLK] (09/19/18)
Electric Libertyland, episode 90
Source: Lions of Liberty
“On this week’s Electric Libertyland, Brian looks at the sad state of Norm MacDonald, and how Norm’s #MeToo take (which has him in so much hot water) defines the ‘one-woman’s word’ issue plaguing SCOTUS candidate Kavanaugh. Brian then looks at other current events including California forcing companies to place at least one female member on their boards by 2019, the Dallas police ‘finding’ 10.4 grams of weed in Botham Jean’s apartment after he was murdered by an off-duty cop and the $150B spending bill no one cares about.” [various formats] (09/19/18)
Congress finds a new excuse to avoid balancing America’s books
Source: National Review
by Michael Tanner
“[E]conomic growth will only go so far if no one in Congress is willing to tame spending, and the ‘minibus’ spending packages that congressional Republicans and Democrats are currently negotiating to avoid a government shutdown won’t do the trick. But not to worry; both the Left and Right have discovered a magic money tree in the form of a concept known as Modern Monetary Theory (MMT), an idea prominently promulgated by Bernie Sanders’s chief economic adviser, Stephanie Kelton, that is now being used to argue that lawmakers shouldn’t worry about the size of the national debt. MMT essentially says that the government’s capacity to finance its debt is limitless. Since the U.S. government is the sole printer of dollars, it faces no binding revenue constraint because more dollars can always be printed. Therefore, the theory goes, the national debt is mostly a harmful fiction preventing us from having nice things such as ‘free college’ or ‘free health care.'” (09/19/18)
https://www.nationalreview.com/2018/09/modern-monetary-theory-excuse-to-ignore-deficits-debt/
Amazon’s electricity sweetheart deal
Source: The American Conservative
by Josh T Smith
“Just over a year ago, on September 7, 2017, Amazon began searching for a location for its second headquarters, HQ2. Though they haven’t made a public decision yet, meetings in prospective cities by some of Amazon’s leaders have created great hubbub and public interest. The problem is that officials attempting to lure Amazon in with offers of tax incentives and other goodies may not see the benefits they expect. Instead these handouts are likely to shift the costs of government services like road maintenance and policing onto average citizens. Not only is Amazon being offered tax breaks it doesn’t need, it’s receiving favorable deals on electricity from state-run utilities.” (09/19/18)
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/amazons-electricity-sweetheart-deal/
“Brady Bunch” star Maureen McCormick: I traded sex for drugs
Source: Fox News
“Former child star Maureen McCormick is grateful her parents and her now-husband helped her overcome one of the darkest periods of her life. ‘My mom and dad, they almost turned me in to the cops,’ the actress, best known for playing Marcia Brady in the hit ‘70s show ‘The Brady Bunch,’ recently told Us Weekly about her drug addiction. ‘They were at their last … cause they had been trying for years and knew something was going on and I was pretty sneaky and I could hide very, very well. But then I started messing up on jobs and so many things, so I’m sure everyone in the industry at the time knew that I was flaking out.’ McCormick insisted her future husband gave her an ultimatum. ‘[I] met this guy [Michael Cummings] — it was before we were married and we were just dating — and I had my last relapse. He came to me and said, ‘If you ever do this drug again, I’m gone, I’m leaving.’ It woke me up. It was like the coldest shower you could ever take, there’s just no way I’m gonna lose somebody that I love.'” (09/19/18)
Gratitude in an unfree world
Source: Independent Institute
by Robert Higgs
“Everyone who knows me knows that I loathe government as it now exists everywhere. For fifty years, my professional activity has pertained in large part to awful actions that governments at every level have taken. Because governments have been such a pervasive part of social and economic life in the past century or more, bringing into being the welfare/warfare/surveillance/therapeutic/police state under which most people in the world now live, specializing as I have is bound to leave one with a jaundiced view not only of the state but of much of society as well. And such an outlook does not make for personal happiness. But yesterday, as I set out to walk Fly Boy down the road through the jungle as usual, I was struck by what a beautiful day it was, and I determined to count my blessings. They are too many to enumerate here, but let me simply mention some of the greatest.” (09/18/18)
http://blog.independent.org/2018/09/18/gratitude-in-an-unfree-world/
Why the EU should cut Brexit Britain a break
Source: Reuters
by Paul Wallace
“In scarcely more than six months Britain will leave the European Union. That departure on March 29, 2019 could be toxic and disruptive through a failure to reach a deal, hurting Britain most of all, but the EU as well. Or there could be an amicable parting of the ways. For this to happen European leaders meeting in Salzburg this week must now give some ground as the negotiations enter their final stage. Up till now the EU’s strategy has been to secure the union from copycat national revolts in other member states by taking a tough line with Britain. European leaders have closed ranks round the indivisibility of the four freedoms: in goods, services, capital and people. The EU has shunned an à-la-carte negotiation. Instead Michel Barnier, its chief negotiator, has responded to Britain’s original ‘red lines’ such as regulatory autonomy with a menu of unpalatable options. These range from a Norway-style hug that would leave the British government a passive rule-taker, to a Canada-style trade deal far removed from Britain’s current intertwined relationship with the EU.” (09/19/18)
Pakistan: Court orders release of Sharif, daughter
Source: Al Jazeer [Qatar state media]
“A Pakistani court has suspended the jail sentences given to former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and two family members by an anti-corruption court earlier this year, with the three expected to be released after the payment of a bail bond. Sharif, his daughter Maryam and son-in-law Muhammad Safdar were convicted in July by an anti-corruption court of not being able to prove the source of assets used to purchase a set of upmarket London flats. On Wednesday, Islamabad High Court judge Athar Minallah ruled that the National Accountability Bureau, Pakistan’s anti-corruption watchdog, was unable to prove a financial link between the former prime minister and the apartments in question.” (09/19/18)
