In two important decisions last week, the U.S. Supreme Court made clear that Chief Justice Roberts and the four liberal members believe they are legislators.
The first decision was on the DACA case. The court said the DACA order by the Obama administration can't be rescinded by the Trump administration because "they hadn't properly followed the Administrative Procedures Act." What's interesting is that President Obama didn't follow APA either when it released the DACA order! So you get it, the Court turns itself into a pretzel to reach the outcome they seek.
In the DACA case, the Court inserted itself into an area where Congress should legislate, but has wholly failed to do so.
In the second decision, expanding Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, the Court expanded the prohibition of employment discrimination on the basis of sex to include sexual orientation and identity.
To be clear, LGBTQ, etc. identity was not part of the intent, nor the debate, of the 1964 Civil Rights legislation.
This is yet another example of legislating and interfering with Congressional responsibility. Critics say the decision undermines equal opportunities for women, limits religious liberty and calls into question the ability of women sports leagues to continue to be exclusively for women assigned female at birth. The case would allow any male athlete who identifies as a female to be allowed to compete with biological women. This already has occurred in high school sports, allowing for unfair competition due to actual males having a physical advantage.
Beyond that, it strongly reopens the old debate, men in women's bathrooms and locker rooms if the men identify as female. The Court decision would seem to open the door to legalize that conduct.
It's Not Just Houston, All Over The Country
Left-Wing Newspapers Spike Stories They Don't Like
TCR's favorite local paper, the Houston Chronicle, should really stop calling themselves a newspaper and call themselves a left-wing opinion paper. The Chronicle, during the recent protests, violence and looting, failed to report on the latter two! The internet is full of videos and photos of violence and destruction promulgated on downtown Houston. None was reported in the Chronicle!
This censorship disease has happened all over the country. One that incensed me was the failure to cover the riots and destruction that took place in the Fairfax area of Los Angeles. The rioters attacked police and said, "kill the Jews."
The LA Times failed to cover the anti-Semitic hate crimes, incidents, the attacks on synagogues and schools. They failed to cover the fact that BLM-LA's lead organizer had a history of anti-Semitism and allied themselves with some of the most vicious anti-Semitic hate groups and individuals in the US led by the Nation of Islam and Louis Farrakhan.
Peaceful demonstrations are as American as apple pie. Violence, looting and property destruction are not.
Worth A Listen: Tony Buzbee's Level Headed Takedown Of Art Acevedo
TCR Comment: Tony Buzbee, 2019 Mayor of Houston runoff candidate, recently laid bare the massive hypocrisy of Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo. This could be a preview of the 2023 Mayoral election.
Observations On Our Time Of Trouble
After watching with shock, revulsion and sadness the killing of George Floyd by an out-of-control Minneapolis policeman, we at TCR have some observations and questions:
- Why is it that the vast majority of major cities where these incidents between the police and innocent black civilians have taken place have been run for years by liberal Democrats?
- Why haven't these liberal Democrats reformed their police departments by dismissing the bad cops and instituting rules of engagement to protect the civilians and police?
- Why have we not banned the "crime" of "driving while black"? This is a serious problem reported by many, including U.S. Senator Tim Scott, an African-American from South Carolina, who has been stopped "18 times since 2000."
- Why aren't we looking for a way to help those in poverty in America regardless of race?
- Isn't it time to consider putting incentives in place to encourage two-parent households? The same Senator Scott opines "you'd reduce poverty in the African-American community by 85%."
- Why aren't we having a full discussion about the failure of our education system? The fact is we need quality education everywhere. The fact is that what we are doing is failing many students, particularly in low-income areas. It is time to stop letting the teacher's unions pursue their agenda and make it easier to fire bad teachers.
- Why is there even any disagreement that black lives matter? There is way too little discussion or outcry about black-on-black crime and the murder epidemic of blacks in our major Democrat-run cities. Doesn't anyone care?
- Isn't it time that our all communities relearn a critically important concept of mutual RESPECT? In many instances where things go south between police officers and citizens, its cause is lack of respect and understanding on both sides. The media, our churches and our community institutions can all play a part in this critical endeavor.
- As for the protests, both violent and not, post-Mr. Floyd's murder, don't we know from history that non-violence is more successful?
- This moment in our history can be positive for the country going forward, but not if apologists ignore looting, the destruction of property and seek to defund the police. There is a thin blue line between safety and anarchy. Remember there are those in the U.S. and other countries who want to see our country weakened and crippled by revolutionaries.
A Great Awakening By Neland Nobel, Contributing Editor
One of the odd byproducts of the Wuhan virus pandemic, and its subsequent lockdown, has been the growing realization of the perfidy of China, its malevolent influence on the World Health Organization and other international institutions, and the dependence the U.S has on that Communist nation for pharmaceuticals and other important manufactured goods. Indeed, the awkward integration of supply chains with a hostile competitor is a revelation to many.
Beyond that, others have started to notice the Chinese Communist influence on American campuses through Confucius Institutes, and the increasing dependence of higher education on hundreds of thousands of full paying Chinese students. That they obtain excellent educations and some go back to the homeland to plot our demise, is both disheartening and dangerous.
Then there are the multiple cases of military and industrial espionage, and significant influence, if not control; of marquee commercial organizations like the NBA, Nike, Disney, and multiple other beneficiaries of our free enterprise and the rule of law.
Many sports and media companies boycott individual states that pass social legislation they detest but see no problems at all engaging in business with a nation that violates treaties in Hong Kong, runs a chain of concentration camps, engages in murderous organ harvesting, and runs a thoroughly dictatorial regime.
It would seem even organizations with impeccable American DNA like Little League Baseball have been penetrated and compromised.
As for American politicians, we likely don't know the half of it. If the Biden Family and the Clinton Family have already been seriously compromised, we should suspect so have other political dynasties.
How far do these Chinese tentacles extend in our society? Is it healthy?
For the most part, the Established Conservative Movement (the ECM) has been slow to respond. After all, the initial outreach to China was by Republican Richard Nixon, whose anti-communist credentials were built around the case of Alger Hiss.
The realpolitik approach, the integration of China into multiple international organizations and the reliance on "globalization" was to a large extent the work of Henry Kissinger, who has always been very influential among Republicans.
America has a noble habit of building up former adversaries like Japan and Germany. But rarely in the history of nations have we seen a world power like the US deliberately cultivate an adversary under the belief that adversary would change its basic history, political system, and culture.
Thus, while the US is accused by the Left of "imperialism", as empire builders go... we fail.
For conservatives with a libertarian slant, the mantra of "free trade" seemed dominant, even though trade relationships were uneven and intellectual property theft was rampant. China's contradictory stance between freedom and free enterprise was brushed aside.
Donald Trump has been consistent critic of China policy for decades. Yet as a Republican President, he is an outsider, and hence not part of either the Republican Party establishment or the network of think tanks and publications that make up the ECM. Therefore, there has been considerable resistance to Trump, even within his own party and certainly among many in the ECM.
To be sure, there were exceptions. Websites such as American Greatness, newspapers like the Epoch Times, think tanks like The Hudson Institute and The Claremont Review of Books, and the military historian Victor Davis Hanson; have been sounding the alarm on China for some time. This is also true to some extent of the Hoover Institution. Among politicians, Senator Tom Cotton has been outstanding.
But just in the last month or so, neo conservative Commentary ran articles critical of China. This intellectual momentum has now reached a tipping point we think, with the special report, June 22, 2020 in National Review, the longstanding flagship publication of the ECM.
The main article written by Daniel Blumenthal of the American Enterprise Institute and Nicholas Eberstadt is summed up on the cover:
"We worked to make China a global power. For more than 40 years. Under both Republicans and Democrats. IT WAS A MISTAKE."
Wow! The article is well worth reading.
It is likely this cover story marks a watershed event in the Conservative Movement. It is no longer a fringe idea to suggest China is a threat to the United States. The vulnerability of many Democrats, including Biden, to Chinese commercial ties, will likely be features of the coming campaign.
Moreover, there is a kind of historical inversion which is taking place.
Trump at first, was incorrectly linked to the America First Movement of pre-World War II, which was "isolationist" and did not recognize the threat of either Imperial Japan or Nazi Germany. Trump was thus seen as reactionary and retrograde among think tank intellectuals.
But in a strange inversion, it was the ECM and Progressives that could not recognize China as a threat every bit as dangerous as Nazi Germany. Trump turns out to be Churchill while the establishment of both parties, and many of America's business leaders, turn out to be a combination of Chamberlain, Lindbergh, and Quisling.
Because China has been so successful at compromising international institutions, getting the US free of the clutches of these international surrogates for China might appear on the surface to be isolationist.
However, if international organizations have indeed been captured by a hostile adversary, Trump's vision of putting America first, and keeping it strong and independent, is wise, prudent, and necessary.
Neland Nobel is an Arizona based free market economist and a contributing editor for TCR.
Houston Public Media 88.7 FM To Feature New Segment
Houston Public Media News 88.7 on the FM dial will feature a Point-Counterpoint segment starting this week with your editor and Dallas Jones.
TCR on the Air
Red, White, and Blue featuring TCR Editor Gary Polland on Fridays at 7:30 pm on Houston Public Media TV 8, replaying Saturday at 6:30 p.m. on Channel 8, Monday at 11:30 pm on Channel 8.2 and on the web at www.houstonpublicmedia.org.
Red, White & Blue, Like all business and education campuses, our show is off the air as we can't meet to tape. We hope to be back as soon as possible.
About Your Editor
Gary Polland is a long-time conservative and Republican spokesman, fund-raiser, and leader who completed three terms as the Harris County Republican Chairman. During his three terms, Gary was described as the most successful county Chairman in America by Human Events - The National Conservative Weekly. He is in his twenty-fifth year of editing a newsletter dealing with key conservative and Republican issues. The last nineteen years he has edited Texas Conservative Review. As a public service for the last 17 years, Gary has published election guides for the GOP primary, general elections and city elections, all with the purpose of assisting conservative candidates. Gary is also in his 18th year of co-hosting Red, White and Blue on Houston Public Media TV 8 PBS Houston, longest running political talk show in Texas history. Gary serves on the Board of Directors of American Values, a national pro-family, pro-faith, conservative organization supporting the unity of the American people around the vision of our founding fathers and dedicated to reminding the public of the conservative principles fundamental to the survival of our nation. Gary is a practicing attorney and strategic consultant. He can be reached at (713) 621-6335.
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