A letter to Mark-Wayne Mullen

ICE is now sending agents around to people who write critical letters about ICE, warning them it is criminal offense to threaten federal officials when all  those letter writers did was complain about ICE tactics.  I thought Mark-Wayne ought to know about this, so I mailed the following letter today:

Mark-Wayne Mullen, Secretary

Department of Homeland Security

500 12th St., SW

Washington, D.C. 20536

Dear Secretary Mullen:

I have heard accounts of ICE agents confronting people who have contacted that agency and criticized some of its policies.  I am sure that as a Cabinet Secretary you are familiar with the words of the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights.  Congress shall make no law abridging the right of the people “...to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

Evidently your ICE agents need a refresher course on our Constitutional rights.  It seems evident to me that many of these agents are poorly trained or not trained at all.  

Prior to your appointment you had the honor of representing Oklahoma in the U.S. Senate.  You took an oath to uphold the Constitution then and as a Cabinet member.  You need to take that oath seriously.  Your agents are supposed to obey the law, not ignore it.  You need to do better.

My return address was clear.  I’ll let you know if an ICE agent shows up in the next few weeks.

BTW, I also helped a small snapping turtle to cross Pohopoco Drive, so at least I did one useful thing today.

A Song of Peace

In a church service I attended this morning the congregation sang “A Song of Peace.”  The tune was from “Finlandia” by Jean Sibelius.  I told everyone it was the national anthem of Finland, but I learned tonight on Wikipedia that it was proposed as Finland’s national anthem but not adopted.

In any case, it should be a national anthem for somebody.  No bombs bursting, no rockets’ red glare.  Here are the words

This is my song, O God of all the nations, 

A song of peace for lands afar and mine;

This is my home, the country where my heart is,

This is my hope, my dream, my shrine;

But other hearts in other lands are beating

With hopes and dreams the same as mine.

My country’s skies are bluer than the ocean, 

And sunlight beams on clover leaf and pine.

But other lands have sunlight too and clover,

And skies are sometimes blue as mine.

Oh here my song Thou God of all the nations,

A song of peace for their land and mine.

Happy 4th?

We had a nice dinner with friends, the day was pleasant, I did some work in the garden, and yet I didn’t feel like celebrating.  

ICE is now arresting on average over 1000 immigrants each day.  These are not the “worst of the worst” but everyday people who clean toilets, work construction, help people in “memory care” facilities, do farm work, cook our food.  The quotas have recently been increased.

A few days ago we had a decision on the 14th Amendment which showed that a good portion of our Supreme Court justices put ideology ahead of the Constitution.  Early in World War II when a case was brought to the Court to deny citizenship to Japanese, the Court didn’t even need to hear the case.  It was dismissed out of hand–the meaning of the 14th Amendment was that self-evident.

And the Blowhard-in-Chief was going to give a 4th of July speech, although I understand he wimped out because of a “threat” of a storm, the pussy.

I’m not celebrating.  I’m doing what the patriots did in 1776.  I’m fighting against tyranny.

A fundraising letter from Trump

I somehow on a mailing list for right wing causes.  I get all kinds of appeals from “Judicial Watch,” “Turning Point,” and various Republican candidates.  I never answer them unless they include a prepaid postage envelope.  Those I answer with sarcastic comments, since the sender must pay the return postage.

This week I received one from Trump   There was a box you could mark yes and send a contribution from $35 to $2026.  The money would supposedly go to the Republican National Committee “to aid in the election of leaders who will work with you [Trump] to bring lasting change and reform to our nation.”

Or I could check the box that said NO.  If I checked the NO box and didn’t send any money, that meant:

I am turning my back on you President Trump, and also deserting the Republican Party.  You and Republican candidates are on your own to face the vicious Democrats, well-funded liberal special interests, and the hateful, bitter biased media who desperately want to elect Democratic Majorities in Congress, cut your term in half, and start impeachment hearings against you.  I long for a return of Joe Biden’s failed, inflationary economic and jobs-killing green energy polices.  I want open borders.  I want endless government growth and higher taxes.  I believe America should apologize for our strength and success.  And I want liberal Democrats to restrict my Constitutional rights and censor the political speech of my friends and neighbors.

The letter was not accompanied by a prepaid postage envelope, so I didn’t mail it back. 

Two types of Trump supporters

My friend Bill set me a meme with a message I feel a need to share.  It shows a guy in a market wearing a shirt with this message on the back:

There are two types of Trump supporters:

1.  Billionaires

2.  Idiots

Check your bank account to see which one you are.

Return of the "Spoils System"

I was never one of those professors who used the same lecture notes year after year, but generally the basic ideas of American government–the federal system, the separation of powers, the Constitutional order–were much the same from one year to the next. 

I always had a unit on what were called the Independent Regulatory Agencies, sometimes known as the 4th branch of government.  These were commissions set up by Congress to regulate certain aspects of the American economy.  The first one was the Interstate Commerce Commission, formed in 1887 to regulate the railroads.  It was abolished in the 1990s, although other agencies took on some of its responsibilities.  

You may have heard of the Security and Exchange Commission, set up during the New Deal to regulate the Stock Market.  And I know you have heard of the Federal Reserve Board.  The commissioners who ran these agencies were insulated from the president and congress so they could regulate the various aspects of the economy without worrying about being fired.  Until this week.

The Supreme Court ruled that President Trump could fire Rebecca Kelly Slaughter, a Democratic member of the Federal Trade Commission.  The vote was 6-3.  President Trump, who often lies and exaggerates, called this a BIG WIN, and said it was a “Historic and Unprecedented Ruling, one of the most important ever given with respect to Presidential Powers.” 

This time Trump is correct.  Over a century of precedent has been overturned.  Independent regulatory agencies are a thing of the past.  The Supreme Court has completely abdicated its responsibilities, and we are back to what was once called “the Spoils System.”  To the winner belongs the spoils.

I might add here that the Court said Trump could not fire a member of the Federal Reserve Board.  I don’t know any logical reason to carve out an exception for a single regulatory agency.  It was simply an arbitrary ruling.

A disquisition on the 14th Amendment, Section 1

In Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857), considered by many Constitutional law scholars to be the Supreme Court’s worst decision, Chief Justice Roger Taney wrote that slaves were not citizens even if they were taken to a free state.  He then went on to say that black people in the U.S. could never be American citizens because they were black.  Their children also could not be citizens.  There would always be an underclass of non-citizens.

In 1868, after the Civil War, the 14th Amendment was adopted.  The first line in that amendment is clear and easy to understand.  “All persons born or naturalized in the United Stares and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”

The president at that time was Andrew Johnson.  He opposed adoption of the Amendment.  He is reputed to have said, “This would mean that even Chinese could become citizens.”  Or, as I told generations of American government sudents, “If you are born here, you are one of us.”  You are an American.  End of story. 

When Americans decided they had enough of Prohibition, did the President issue an executive order ending it?  No, he did not.  Presidents have no power to change an Amendment.  Did Congress pass a law ending Prohibition?  No, it did not.  Congress can’t change an Amendment.  Did the Supreme Court declare Prohibition unconstitutional?  No, it did not.  The Supreme Court cannot declare part of the Constitution unconstitutional.  

The only way you can change an Amendment is to adopt another Amendment.  Today three Supreme Court justices did not understand that basic fact that my American government students understood.  This is how far this Supreme Court has sunk.