Muda69

Thank you. FTA: So you believe that state legislators are now so corrupt that popular vote is the only viable way to pass future Constitutional Amendments?

Why was the 21st Amendment the only constitutional amendment to be ratified using this method? I suspect the evil zealot FDR, whose was POTUS at the time, had his hand in it.

Yes.

How Pope Francis Gets "the Common Good" Wrong https://mises.org/wire/how-pope-francis-gets-common-good-wrong Allowing iron-fisted shutdowns to remain in place, the group of scientists added, “will cause irreparable damage, with the underprivileged disproportionately harmed.” Despite their warnings, which first appeared online on October 4, 2020, Francis did not hesitate to mock critics of lockdowns for their alleged overreliance on “personal freedom” to justify their opinion. They are going against the common good, the pontiff wrote, and they are serving “idols.” After governments imposed “responsible” lockdowns, Francis argued, “some groups protested, refusing to keep their distance, marching against travel restrictions—as if measures that governments must impose for the good of their people constitute some kind of political assault on autonomy or personal freedom!” They are wrong, he jabbed. Then why isn’t he? The Seen and the Unseen In his now famous “That Which Is Seen, and That Which Is Not Seen” essay, French liberal school economist Claude-Frederic Bastiat wrote that when it comes to the economy, an act or law brought about by the government “gives birth not only to an effect, but to a series of effects.” What many lockdown critics have consistently argued is that it is the effect that isn’t immediately seen that would be more costly to society than covid itself. It is exactly that concern that has driven the medical professionals associated with the Barrington Declaration to speak up, as well as countless working-class Americans and Europeans who found no other way to vent their frustration but to take it to the streets, as highlighted by Woods: Yet to Francis, the common good dictates we lock down the globe, jeopardizing the future of the young, the livelihood of the working class, and condemning countless kids to a life of mental distress. If the concern for “the least fortunate” is what drives Francis, pursuing a strawman on the New York Times isn’t how he wins. If he is honest in calling for more solidarity in the age of covid, he should begin by being charitable with those praying for an end to the lockdowns. As countless people suffer both physical and emotional pain over the draconian restrictions on basic freedoms, the number of lives lost due to what Woods calls the “covid cult” will only rise.

Karl Marx is an historically famous figure, but nobody ever mentions his sister... Onya Marx, who invented the starting pistol.

I did read it. Quote: "Instead of having State governments ratify Constitutional Amendments, why not instead have the people who elect the State governments ratify the Constitutional Amendments?" Still sounds like a popular vote to me.

So Constitutional Amendment by popular vote. Why didn't you just say it? And yeah, that would turn out real well, would effectively turn the entire USA into California. Interesting that you didn't list the elimination of the Electoral College. Was that because your liberal hero Mr. Biden won this round of the uni-party sweepstakes?

Including Supreme Court Justices? What kind of term limits? Please elaborate.

So exactly what necessary changes would you make to the U.S. Constitution that would prevent "whole sections of cities ablaze, martial law, troops in the streets. " as Bobref puts it?

No strawman. At the time those examples were Settled Science.

Yet you can now say the last 2 are? How exactly? I thought one of the tenets of scientific inquiry was that nothing it truly ever "settled"?

" I hold it that a little rebellion now and then is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical." - Thomas Jefferson

'Losing A Generation': Fall College Enrollment Plummets For First-Year Students: https://www.npr.org/2020/12/17/925831720/losing-a-generation-fall-college-enrollment-plummets-for-first-year-students Yep, these institutions, which have become fat and administration-bloated after feasting on that "free" government loan money for the last several decades, will have to tighten their belts. Boo hoo.

Honestly USC should be in the mix before considering Iowa State.

And now we have a large number of the U.S. populace conditioned to blindly accept future government lockdown edicts. The next one will probably be New Green Deal related, i.e. we all have to stay home and huddle in place in order to reduce our carbon emissions to save the planet.

Frederick Douglass vs. the 1619 Project: https://reason.com/video/2020/12/16/frederick-douglass-vs-the-1619-project/

Americans Are in Full Revolt Against Pandemic Lockdowns https://reason.com/2020/12/16/americans-are-in-full-revolt-against-pandemic-lockdowns/ So when will the brown-shirted government thugs show up to enforce these draconian lockdowns?

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You are you one who threw out that scenario, not I. Tell you what Dante. Get your progressive liberal friends to have "health care" enumerated as an unalienable right in the U.S. Constitution and then we'll talk. Good luck.

Joe Biden Won’t Close Guantanamo Bay, But He Should: https://www.theamericanconservative.com/state-of-the-union/joe-biden-wont-close-guantanamo-bay-but-he-should/ Ain’t that grand? The United States tortures inmates at illegal prisons overseas. The unreliable information they obtain is then used to…keep inmates trapped in another illegal prison overseas! Speaking of torture, the FBI back in 2004 investigated whether anyone employed by the Bureau had witnessed any “aggressive mistreatment” of detainees at Gitmo. Nine personnel admitted that they had, detailing instances of prisoners being threatened with dogs and forced to stand in uncomfortable positions until they wetted and soiled themselves. (Thankfully the military later clarified that it didn’t consider any of this to be torture.) Such is the miscarriage of justice—better call it an abortion, as Christopher Hitchens used to say—that is Guantanamo Bay. No less a sandals-wearing peacenik than George W. Bush began to wind down the prison, transferring 500 prisoners away from Gitmo out of a total population of 780. Barack Obama continued the releases and signed an executive order during the first week of his presidency calling for Gitmo to be closed. Alas he ran into snags: judicial complications, difficulties resettling the inmates, resistance from Republicans in Congress. Then came Donald Trump, who promised of Gitmo that he would “load it up with some bad dudes,” the Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure approach to extrajudicial detainments. Instead he did nothing and the prison remained in stasis for another four years. Now enter Joe Biden. The arguments for closing Gitmo have been made so many times they almost don’t seem worth repeating: our regular justice system can handle the trials; our regular prison system can handle the convicted; no one has ever escaped from a federal supermax prison including El Chapo; how can we chide Bashar al-Assad for vanishing people into prisons indefinitely when we do the same thing? Dick Cheney’s Heffalumps-and-Woozles trips to the war on terror “dark side” notwithstanding, there is no good reason to keep Gitmo open. If Joe Biden wants to restore the American dream, he should start by lancing the country’s most gangrenous sore. Agreed. Let's see if Mr. Biden has the courage to do so.

Andrew Cuomo Continues His Assault on the First Amendment https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/andrew-cuomo-continues-his-assault-on-the-first-amendment/?utm_source=recirc-desktop&utm_medium=homepage&utm_campaign=right-rail&utm_content=corner&utm_term=second

So your health insurance covers your nephew?

Then there obviously wasn't a profitable market for it. Many people also don't really need health insurance. Frankly such "insurance" shouldn't be used for annual physicals, dental cleanings, etc. Just like my care insurance doesn't pay for an oil change and my home insurance won't pay for my house to be re-painted. Again, life isn't fair. And that counts for birth defects as well.

If there is enough of a need for pre-birth disease insurance then the market will provide it. Maybe instead of government regulations perpetuating the WW2-era practice of employer provide health insurance we can have a more free and open market, like we currently do for things like car and home insurance. If you feel your health insurance company is "profiting off of the sick", then don't do business with them. Why should a for-profit insurance company be forced to provide insurance to an individual who smokes, drinks, is overweight, has diabetes, etc.?