Categories
election law partisanship

Values of the DFL

Republicans and Democrats in Minnesota held party caucuses last week, featuring straw polls in the governor’s race. Grassroots politics!

“Caucus attendees can also vote on potential changes to the party’s platform,” The Minnesota Reformer informed readers before the big night, reporting afterwards that caucusgoers “approved a bevy of resolutions to alter the DFL’s party platform, including abolishing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, defunding the Department of Homeland Security and assuring people have access to gender-​affirming care.”

Then I discovered that Democrats — called the Democratic-​Farmer-​Labor Party (DFL) in Minnesota — allow noncitizens to participate and vote in their caucuses. 

Four years ago, a three-​judge appeals court panel ruled that the “criminal penalties of Minnesota Statutes … which punish unlawful voting as a felony, do not apply to voting in precinct caucuses.” 

That led then-​DFL Party Chair Ken Martin to announce: “Our party can finally live its values.” Responding to reporters, Martin had explained at the time that “we are governed under our own First Amendment freedom of association rights and we can determine whoever we want to participate in the party.”

Okay. “Immigrants who aren’t U.S. citizens can caucus and become convention delegates,” a change approved unanimously by the party’s executive committee, according to Minnesota Public Radio News.

“By opening the front door to historically excluded neighbors,” argued Emilia Gonzalez Avalos, a noncitizen union organizer from Mexico, the DFL is “making sure that those affected by the issues in our platforms have a say in the process and can grasp power to truly hold our own side accountable to our shared vision.” 

There are many things in my house, upon which I don’t let my neighbors vote. The DFL is free to do as it wishes in its own elections.* We are free to take note.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

* This from the Minnesota Reformer is interesting: “As the Office of Secretary of State makes clear, these are party-​run functions, but the results of the straw polls will be posted on the Secretary of State’s website.” If state law doesn’t apply because the parties are private associations, then why is the Secretary expending resources to report the votes? 

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Thought

Erasmus

I am a lover of liberty. I will not and I cannot serve a party.

As quoted in Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam (1900) by Ephraim Emerton, p. 377.

Categories
Today

Lithuanian Independence

On February 9, 1991, voters in Lithuania voted for independence from the Soviet Union, eleven months after independence from the Soviet Union had been declared on March 11, 1990. Just over 93 percent of those voting voted in favor of independence, while the number of eligible voters voting “yes,” was 76.5 percent, far exceeding the 50 percent threshold. Independence was subsequently achieved in August 1991.

Categories
Thought

Thomas Sowell

The fact that so many successful politicians are such shameless liars is not only a reflection on them, it is also a reflection on us. When the people want the impossible, only liars can satisfy. 

Thomas Sowell, “Big Lies in Politics” (Townhall, July 31, 2012).

Categories
Update

Pizzagate Redux?

Jeffrey Epstein, murder, death, pedophile, conspiracy, paranoia,

The big news this past week has been the info dump — over a million files! — regarding the Jeffrey Epstein case. The story is mainly chaos right now. But Matt Kibbe’s interview of Rep. Thomas Massie (R‑Ky.), who is chiefly responsible for this ungainly disclosure, offers an interesting perspective on the mess. He makes a good case that blackmail was not the chief method of Mr. Epstein:

For a deeper dive, consider Tucker Carlson’s discussion of “pizza and grape juice” (and other oddities found in the release of data) with the notorious Ian Carroll:

Kim Iverson quotes the original Pizzagate researcher, Ben Swann:

It is quite a story, unfolding before our eyes. Sort of. And it reviving the Pizzagate story isn’t outré enough, why not reconsider the question of whether Jeffrey Epstein is really dead?

But what do the files say? The above appraisal does not analyze all the purported postmortem photos available:

There are a lot of issues to deal with regarding the Jeffrey Epstein case. One issue hanging out there, like a matzo ball: Epstein claimed to be an agent of the Rothschilds.

Categories
Thought

Robert Sheckley

I know you’re sane and you know you’re sane. But what if we’re both wrong?

Robert Sheckley, “The Death of the Dreammaster,” in Martin H. Greenberg (ed.), The Further Adventures of Batman (1989), p. 24

Categories
Today

Commies Give Up

On February 7, 1990, the Central Committee of the Soviet Communist Party agreed to give up its monopoly on power, thus ushering the way for the dissolution of the putatively communist empire.

Categories
education and schooling

Equality, Not Excellence

Zohran Mamdani, schools, education, New York City, egalitarianism

The really socialist mayor of New York City, Zohran Mamdani, the city’s new Handicapper General, wants to prevent the brightest children in the city’s school system from getting any extra training of their gifts and intelligence.

So he’s trying to do what one of his predecessors, the pretty socialist Bill DeBlasio, failed to do: eliminate the public school system’s Gifted and Talented programs.

What benefit could there be to students, their parents, and New Yorkers in general, in preventing gifted children from studying in schools and classrooms that give them the best chance of developing their gifts early in life? 

None whatsoever. 

Killing the more demanding academic work does not thereby improve what the average public-​school classroom offers students. It also does not improve the ability of students who are not currently qualified to enter the most advanced programs. The only goal achieved is that of a nearer approach to the egalitarian “ideal,” the world of “Harrison Bergeron.”

If the concern were really to improve the average or below-​average classrooms, this could be done — conceivably — by focusing on what could be improved in those classrooms. Are there bad teachers who could be fired? Disruptive students who could be better disciplined or shown the door? Vapid, unchallenging, or politically warped curriculum that could be overhauled?

Under the DeBlasio mayoralty, many parents protested his plan to erase opportunities for the Gifted and Talented, managing to thwart that plan. They’ll have to protest again if they want to stop Mamdani from stomping out excellence.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

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Philip K. Dick

That is not how you do it; you do not solve one problem with another, greater problem.

Philip K. Dick, The Transmigration of Timothy Archer (1982).
Categories
Today

Falcon Heavy

On February 6, 2018, SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy, a super heavy launch vehicle, made its maiden flight.

The payload was random/​not-​random: A Tesla Roadster. Elon Musk runs both SpaceX and Tesla.

Paul Jacob wrote about this at the time.

SpaceX boasts the Falcon Heavy as one of its chief successes: 

Falcon Heavy is composed of three reusable Falcon 9 nine-​engine cores whose 27 Merlin engines together generate more than 5 million pounds of thrust at liftoff, equal to approximately eighteen 747 aircraft. As one of the world’s most powerful operational rockets, Falcon Heavy can lift nearly 64 metric tons (141,000 lbs) to orbit.