Motus Mentis

14 Comments

1. Whitewall says

   http://www.wsj.com/articles/no-political-guardrails-1449792484

   This piece is behind the paywall, but a long pull quote is found on Instapundit. It is Obama’s political legacy–Hillary and Trump. I will add the pull quote in a follow up.

   Posted December 12, 2015 at 9:12 am | Permalink
2. Whitewall says

   The quote plus comment:

   “Mr. Obama doesn’t need anyone to justify his actions, because he’s realized no one can stop him. He gets criticized, but at the same time his approach has seeped into the national conscience. It has set new norms. You see this in the ever-more-outrageous proposals from the presidential field, in particular front-runners Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.

   Mrs. Clinton routinely vows to govern by diktat. On Wednesday she unveiled a raft of proposals to punish companies that flee the punitive U.S. tax system. Mrs. Clinton will ask Congress to implement her plan, but no matter if it doesn’t. “If Congress won’t act,” she promises, “then I will ask the Treasury Department, when I’m there, to use its regulatory authority.”

   Mrs. Clinton and fellow liberals don’t like guns and are frustrated that the duly elected members of Congress (including those from their own party) won’t strengthen background checks. So she has promised to write regulations that will unilaterally impose such a system.

   On immigration, Mr. Obama ignored statute with executive actions to shield illegals from deportation. Mrs. Clinton brags that she will go much, much further with sweeping exemptions to immigration law.

   For his part, Mr. Trump sent the nation into an uproar this week with his call to outright ban Muslims from entering the country. Is this legally or morally sound? Who cares! Mr. Trump specializes in disdain for the law, the Constitution, and any code of civilized conduct. Guardrails are for losers. He’d set up a database to track Muslims or force them to carry special IDs. He’d close mosques. He’d deport kids born on American soil. He’d seize Iraq’s oil fields. He’d seize remittance payments sent back to Mexico. He’d grab personal property for government use.

   Mr. Obama’s dismantling of boundaries isn’t restrained to questions of law; he blew up certain political ethics, too”.

   “The press and political class let him burn it all down because they agreed with him, and besides he was black so to complain would be racist or something. Now they can’t figure out how to survive the wind that will blow, now that everything that can stop it has been removed.”

   Prepare to reap the whirlwind.

   Posted December 12, 2015 at 9:23 am | Permalink
3. libertybelle says

   “I know the American People are much attached to their Government;–I know they would suffer much for its sake;–I know they would endure evils long and patiently, before they would ever think of exchanging it for another. Yet, notwithstanding all this, if the laws be continually despised and disregarded, if their rights to be secure in their persons and property, are held by no better tenure than the caprice of a mob, the alienation of their affections from the Government is the natural consequence; and to that, sooner or later, it must come.

   Here then, is one point at which danger may be expected.

   The question recurs, “how shall we fortify against it?” The answer is simple. Let every American, every lover of liberty, every well wisher to his posterity, swear by the blood of the Revolution, never to violate in the least particular, the laws of the country; and never to tolerate their violation by others. As the patriots of seventysix did to the support of the Declaration of Independence, so to the support of the Constitution and Laws, let every American pledge his life, his property, and his sacred honor;–let every man remember that to violate the law, is to trample on the blood of his father, and to tear the character of his own, and his children’s liberty. Let reverence for the laws, be breathed by every American mother, to the lisping babe, that prattles on her lap–let it be taught in schools, in seminaries, and in colleges; let it be written in Primers, spelling books, and in Almanacs;–let it be
   preached from the pulpit, proclaimed in legislative halls, and enforced in courts of justice. And, in short, let it become the political religion of the nation; and let the old and the young, the rich and the poor, the grave and the gay, of all sexes and tongues, and colors and conditions, sacrifice unceasingly upon its altars.

   While ever a state of feeling, such as this, shall universally, or even, very generally prevail throughout the nation, vain will be every effort, and fruitless every attempt, to subvert our national freedom.”

   Abraham Lincoln, Lyceum Address 1838
   http://www.bookyards.com/en/book/details/12403/Lyceum-Address#)

   The entire Lincoln speech sounds prescient as to where we are presently with politicians’ drummed up cries, intended to gin up the mob mentality in America over hot button issues. The “crisis” then allows the subjugation of The Constitution, under the guise of protecting the “public good”.

   Posted December 12, 2015 at 10:11 am | Permalink
4. Whitewall says

   Libertybelle, very timely post and a good follow on to mine. For 7 years we have had a betrayal of too many oaths of office, worst of all, by the president himself. Crisis number one is simply that he can’t get his ideology passed into law Constitutionally. So he rules by “pen and phone”. Congress only needs to fund it.

   Posted December 12, 2015 at 10:26 am | Permalink
5. Whitewall says

   Well…a warm morning, little wind, and moderate water temp can only mean one thing…time to go bass fishing!

   Posted December 13, 2015 at 6:51 am | Permalink
6. TheBigHenry says

   Well…a warm morning, little wind, and moderate water temp can only mean one thing…time to play duplicate bridge online!

   Posted December 13, 2015 at 12:57 pm | Permalink
7. libertybelle says

   “a warm morning, little wind, and moderate water temp can only mean one thing”

   Lol, time to open the windows and sew.

   Posted December 13, 2015 at 3:50 pm | Permalink
8. Horace Jeffery Hodges says

   Well . . . a warm morning, little wind, and moderate water temp can only mean one thing…time to go waka waka waka!

   Jeffery Hodges

   * * *

   Posted December 13, 2015 at 6:11 pm | Permalink
9. TheBigHenry says

   Now it started to rain. Must get back to playing bridge online …

   Posted December 13, 2015 at 6:50 pm | Permalink
10. JK says

    Newsflash!

    Reuters is reporting that according to anonymous sources lacking authority to speak on the record that “Washington DC has lost its collective f’ing mind.”

    Meanwhile:Police agencies nationwide are being flooded by requests not to issue an Amber Alert.

    Posted December 15, 2015 at 11:31 am | Permalink
11. TheBigHenry says

    “Washington DC has lost its collective f’ing mind.”

    That is not newsworthy, JK — not even for the lamestream media.

    BTW, we all know what “f’ing” stands for, so go ahead and spell it out — f*cking.

    Posted December 15, 2015 at 12:20 pm | Permalink
12. Whitewall says

    JK, you have arrived somewhere? Wet or dry?

    Posted December 15, 2015 at 3:05 pm | Permalink
13. whitewall says

    Malcolm, thanks!

    Posted December 15, 2015 at 4:19 pm | Permalink
14. JK says

    True Henry, the f*cking part at any rate.

    For me it was the requests not to issue the Amber Alerts.

    Wet for a portion WW, looks to be dry from here on out.

    Posted December 16, 2015 at 9:22 am | Permalink