“Determine never to be idle. … It is wonderful how much may be done, if we are always doing.” —Thomas Jefferson (1787)
IN TODAY’S DIGEST
Douglas Andrews
It’s hard to imagine what our nation’s COVID death toll would’ve been under a President Joe Biden, but we can be certain that the number would be higher than 300,000.
Consider these two stubborn facts: First, President Donald Trump shut down travel to and from China early on, a crucial decision that bought our nation time and likely avoided an early, overwhelming blow-up of COVID-19 cases. A day later, Biden called the decision “hysteria, xenophobia, and fearmongering” before flip-flopping and retroactively embracing it more than two months later.
Too late, Joe.
The other fact could be seen with our lyin’ eyes, rolling out of a Pfizer plant in Portage, Michigan, Sunday morning on so many tractor-trailers: a COVID-19 vaccine imagined, created, tested, manufactured, and now being distributed nationwide. In less than a year, compliments of Trump’s Operation Warp Speed. This, too, will save countless lives. And Biden and his ilk said it couldn’t possibly be done.
“Mainstream journalists celebrated news of the country’s first COVID-19 vaccinations on Monday,” reports National Review’s Tobias Hoonhout, “after claiming for months that the Trump administration’s push to deliver a vaccine in record time was ill-advised and unrealistic.”
“Ill-advised and unrealistic”? Remember Biden’s DNC nomination acceptance speech? That’s when Debbie Downer declared, “No miracle is coming.”
As Hoonhout continued, “CNBC reported Monday morning that the vaccine’s development ‘shattered every record in modern medical history,’ considering that Pfizer and BioNTech began their vaccine partnership on March 17 of this year. But in October, CNBC clipped a segment of the final presidential debate — in which President Trump stated that the vaccine is ‘going to be announced within weeks, and it’s going to be delivered’ — with the headline ‘President Trump says Covid-19 vaccine will be coming by the end of the year, despite contrary evidence.’”
Typical of the mainstream media’s dismissiveness — even derision — of President Trump ever since he said months ago that we could have a vaccine by year’s end was a May 15 conversation between MSNBC’s Brian Williams and the Trump-hating network’s house “expert,” Dr. Irwin Redlener, who referred to the president’s statement as “another day of POTUS in Wonderland” and “preposterous.”
Who’s looking preposterous now, Doc?
Typical of the mainstream media’s mad scramble to pour cold water on this spectacular news, to downplay this great American success story, to describe as a loss this unequivocal win for the Trump administration is the following headline from the Associated Press: “Vaccine comes too late for the 300,000 US dead.”
Really? That’s the worst you can do, AP?
The article continues down the same path of abject misery and unalloyed Trump hatred, telling us how the awful path of destruction taken by this pandemic “represents an extraordinary failure in our response” and how our efforts to resolutely cope with some 3,000 deaths per day “as though it were just business as usual … represents a moral failing.”
Good news comes out eventually, though, despite our media’s efforts to ignore it. Like the story of the first front-line worker to get the COVID-19 vaccine.
“I felt a huge sense of relief,” said Sandra Lindsay, a Jamaican immigrant and an ICU nurse at Long Island Jewish Medical Center in Queens, “hope for everyone around the world that healing is coming, that we took a step in the right direction to finally put an end to this COVID-19 pandemic.”
Responding to fears about the vaccine — fears that have been shamefully stoked by Democrats from Joe Biden and Kamala Harris on down — Lindsay said, “As a nurse, my practice is guided by the science. I believe in science. What you should not trust is COVID-19. I hope that me taking the vaccine today is an inspiration to you.”
Thomas Gallatin
The Electoral College electors from all 50 states formally convened on Monday to cast their votes for the presidency, and the result was as expected — Joe Biden defeated President Donald Trump 306 to 232. Interestingly, the number of votes exactly matched Trump’s 2016 victory over Hillary Clinton. While Biden plagiarized Trump in touting his EC victory as a “landslide,” the truth of the matter is that his margin of victory in the swing states was even smaller than that of Trump’s in 2016. Trump won by besting Clinton by 77,744 total votes in the swing states of Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, whereas Biden slipped by Trump by 42,918 votes combined in Arizona, Georgia, and Wisconsin.
Meanwhile, Trump has still refused to concede defeat, arguing that some of his continued legal challenges have yet to be ruled on. That said, Trump has had little success in the courts, and it is all but impossible that there remains a genuine means for Trump to remain in the White House. Trump’s lack of concession clearly raised the ire of Biden, who blasted the president and Republicans following the EC vote. He derided their legal challenges as an “unprecedented assault on democracy” while falsely asserting that “no cause or evidence was found to reverse or question or dispute the results.”
But oh, by the way, Biden then talked of this being the “time to turn the page,” “to unite,” and “to heal.” Sure thing.
Biden and the Left spent four years “assaulting democracy” and denying Trump’s legitimacy, and they continue to act as if Trump’s presidency was a disaster. The facts demonstrate the exact opposite, of course, and Biden’s false characterization of the past four years does nothing to encourage Americans to come together. Yet he opined, “In America, politicians don’t take power — the people grant it to them. The flame of democracy was lit in this nation a long time ago. And we now know that nothing — not even a pandemic, or an abuse of power — can extinguish that flame.” That’s a rich statement dripping in irony and abject hypocrisy coming from the number-two man in Barack Obama’s White House, an administration that’s infamous for its abuse of power, that initiated a deep-state cabal in an attempt to oust a duly elected president, and that actively sowed the seeds of divisiveness, identity politics, and racial animus that are currently roiling the nation.
What may have been the most obtuse comment by Biden, however, was his reference to the now more than 300,000 Americans who have died as a result of contracting COVID. Biden continued to push the false narrative that Trump’s response to the novel virus from China was an abject failure even as the lifesaving coronavirus vaccine, developed in record time thanks to Trump’s Operation Warp Speed, was literally being delivered to all 50 states.
On a final note, despite Biden securing the EC vote, demonstrating that a Democrat can still win an election via the Founders’ well-designed system, one New York state elector believes she knows better even as she registered her vote for Biden. Hillary Clinton delivered the same old sore-loser message: “I believe we should abolish the Electoral College and select our president by the winner of the popular vote, same as every other office. But while it still exists, I was proud to cast my vote in New York for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.”
While it would be tempting to claim that Clinton’s remark demonstrates her abject ignorance of federalism, the truth is she knows exactly what federalism is and rejects it because it serves as a roadblock to leftist elitists’ desire to perpetually run the nation without having to consider and be held accountable by voters in red states.
The bottom line: Unless some massive unforeseen developments occur, Joe Biden will be inaugurated the 46th president of the United States on January 21. Buckle up.
Nate Jackson
Attorney General William Barr resigned on Monday, effective December 23. Barr was one of the two smartest and most effective Trump administration employees (the other being Secretary of State Mike Pompeo), and he was one of the best AGs in recent memory. As we have written on occasions too numerous to list, he served his country well, and every Patriot should thank Mr. Barr for doing his job with integrity and tenaciousness.
It’s admittedly unusual that he’d depart a month before the end of President Donald Trump’s term, but perhaps the Electoral College vote was sufficient. Barr’s resignation letter was certainly gracious to the president, who undoubtedly at times made Barr’s job more difficult. “I am greatly honored that you called on me to serve your Administration and the American people once again as Attorney General,” Barr wrote. “I am proud to have played a role in the many successes and unprecedented achievements you have delivered for the American people. Your record is all the more historic because you accomplished it in the face of relentless, implacable resistance.”
Specifically, Barr wrote, “You built the strongest and most resilient economy in American history — one that has brought unprecedented progress to those previously left out. You have restored American military strength. By brokering historic peace deals in the Mideast you have achieved what most thought impossible. You have curbed illegal immigration and enhanced the security of our nation’s borders. You have advanced the rule of law by appointing a record number of judges committed to constitutional principles. With Operation Warp Speed, you delivered a vaccine for coronavirus on a schedule no one thought conceivable — a feat that will undoubtedly save millions of lives.”
Trump was likewise gracious, tweeting, “Our relationship has been a very good one, he has done an outstanding job!”
Yet their very public disagreements of late were likely the real reason Barr decided to take an early retirement from his second stint as attorney general. There was the lack of a full report from U.S. Attorney John Durham on Obama’s malfeasance, the quiet way in which the DOJ conducted its probe of Hunter Biden, and Barr’s statement last month that Justice had “not seen fraud on a scale that could have affected a different outcome in the election.” All three led to disparaging remarks from Trump toward his AG.
As for the job Barr did, consider the cleanup he faced upon taking the job. Barack Obama had turned the Justice Department into a political weapon not just against Trump but against conservatives all over the nation. Barr was tasked with returning the department to upholding Rule of Law, and in the deep-state swamp, that’s a tall order.
In particular, take note of how Barr handled the aforementioned ongoing investigation into Hunter Biden — he did what he was supposed to do and kept it under wraps while it proceeded. That may not have helped Trump politically and, again, Trump certainly complained that Barr didn’t help him, but that’s not the attorney general’s job. To that point, and by contrast, Loretta Lynch secretly met with Bill Clinton on the Phoenix tarmac in July 2016. No, they did not merely talk about grandchildren as they claimed; anyone who says they didn’t discuss the “matter” of the DOJ’s investigation into Hillary Clinton’s illegal email server is lying.
Lynch and Eric Holder before her viewed the AG post as primarily serving as Obama’s political wingman. Barr is nobody’s wingman, and that’s why he didn’t politically leak details of the Biden investigation or push Durham for faster results just to benefit Trump. And yet some folks, including the president, will unfortunately always resent Barr for not giving Democrats a sufficient “dose of their own medicine.”
Just remember that the Left will always denounce Barr for supposedly having been Trump’s political stooge, fixer, and hitman.
However, one of Barr’s final acts was giving “special counsel” status to Durham so he can continue conducting his newly expanding probe into the Obama-Biden administration’s criminal actions regarding Trump’s 2016 campaign and the ensuing coup attempts. That status at a minimum makes it politically difficult for Biden to fire Durham or interfere in any way.
In his resignation letter, Barr noted of the Russia-collusion hoax that Trump’s presidency was “immediately met by a partisan onslaught against you in which no tactic, no matter how abusive and deceitful, was out of bounds” and that “the nadir of this campaign was the effort to cripple, if not oust, your Administration with frenzied and baseless accusations of collusion with Russia.”
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, one of Trump’s greatest defenders, praised Barr. He was, Graham said in a statement, “the right man at the right time in overseeing highly political investigations, and stood in the breach at times against both the left and the right.” Barr stood for the Constitution. While Biden has not chosen his own AG yet, we don’t hold any hope that the same will be said of him or her.
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Mark Alexander
On January 28, a joint statement by President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu set the stage for a series of historic agreements this year. President Trump has now received multiple Nobel Peace Prize nominations for those successes. Notably, those are earned nominations, unlike the “participation trophy” given to Barack Obama for just showing up.
At that historic meeting, Netanyahu said: “Like you, Mr. President, I understand the magnitude of this moment. With you, Mr. President, I am prepared to seize the moment and change history. I know that there will be opposition; there’s always opposition. I know there will be many obstacles along the way — much criticism. But we have an old Jewish saying: ‘If not now, when? And if not us, who?’”
Last week, Morocco became the fourth Islamic nation to signal peace by normalizing relations with Israel — which is a prerequisite for a broader historic peace deal in the region. The previous nations already normalizing relations are the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Sudan. We may well hear more from Saudi Arabia before the end of the year.
According to Netanyahu: “I want to first thank President Trump for his extraordinary efforts to expand peace, to bring peace to Israel and the peoples of the Middle East. President Trump, the people of Israel and the State of Israel will be forever indebted to you for your magnificent efforts on our behalf. … The light of peace on this Hanukkah day has never shone brighter than today in the Middle East.”
Recall the words of Obama’s inept secretary of state — not Hillary Clinton, but her successor, the enhanced version of ineptitude, John Forbes Kerry. In 2016, Kerry, the author of the “Iran Nuke Deal” who, with Clinton, gave rise to the Islamic State, declared regarding Middle East peace: “There will be no separate peace between Israel and the Arab world. I want to make that very clear with all of you. I’ve heard several prominent politicians in Israel sometimes saying, ‘Well, the Arab world is in a different place now. We just have to reach out to them. We can work some things with the Arab world and we’ll deal with the Palestinians.’ No. No, no, and no. There will be no advance and separate peace with the Arab world without the Palestinian process and Palestinian peace. Everybody needs to understand that.”
I am quite sure that presumptive President-elect Joe Biden, his soon-to-be successor Kamala Harris, and their former Obama administration retreads support Kerry’s feckless effort to ensure there would never be a “separate peace between Israel and the Arab world.” They will do their best to undermine the extraordinary Trump administration successes in the region.
Jordan Candler
Barack Obama, with the help of his secretary of state, John Kerry, made the Paris Climate Accord a staple of his presidency. That accord was portrayed as a do-good framework aimed at lowering the global temperature via a reduction in worldwide carbon emissions. The reality, though, was that it would only negligibly lower temperatures at best, and it also wrongly assumed member countries would follow our lead. (Trusting China to follow through on a commitment is tantamount to believing its “official” COVID death toll or that its coronavirus vaccine is 86% effective.) Oh, and most importantly, the climate agreement didn’t follow our Constitution’s protocols. More on that in a bit.
President Donald Trump, then, was wise to say au revoir to the accord. However, Kerry and his henchmen strategically included in it a contingency plan. And given Trump’s unfathomable win in 2016, that plan may end up proving to be quite useful to the Joe Biden administration — unless Trump takes immediate action to do something he should have done from the get-go.
Article 28 of the Paris Climate Accord stipulates: “1. At any time after three years from the date on which this Agreement has entered into force for a Party, that Party may withdraw from this Agreement by giving written notification to the Depositary. 2. Any such withdrawal shall take effect upon expiry of one year from the date of receipt by the Depositary of the notification of withdrawal, or on such later date as may be specified in the notification of withdrawal.”
In other words, any nation’s exit is willfully delayed by four years. And since the accord became official on November 4, 2016, that means the U.S. exit wasn’t official until November 4, 2020. The election, you’ll recall, was on November 3. As the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s Marlo Lewis warned in 2018, “That means the next president could rejoin the pact with a stroke of the pen, picking up where President Obama left off.”
Pretty sneaky, eh?
Lewis was concerned about Trump’s method of abandoning the accord for this very reason. According to Article II, Section 2 of the Constitution, “[The president] shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur.” And as Lewis advised at the time, “To ensure future executives do not try this underhanded maneuver again, Mr. Trump should submit the agreement to the Senate with a recommendation that it be voted down.”
Fortunately, there’s still time — but not much. As reported by The Washington Times, “Presumptive President-elect Joseph R. Biden reiterated his vow Saturday to reenter the Paris climate agreement on the first day of his administration, but that could become a problem if the accord’s foes can ferry it to the Senate first. Conservatives behind the scenes are seeking to foil his plans by persuading President Trump to transmit the 2015 agreement to the Senate for ratification, thus treating the accord as Republicans say it should have been handled all along: as a treaty. … If Mr. Trump transmits the agreement to the Senate after the start of the next Congress on Jan. 3 … then foes of the accord suddenly have a potent new legal argument to block a Biden effort to enter the agreement via executive action.”
Importantly, “Even if Democrats capture both Georgia Senate seats to gain a chamber majority, and swing a few votes from moderate Republicans, nobody thinks they could cobble together enough votes to clear the two-thirds hurdle.” Putting the climate agreement up for a vote wouldn’t just be a fitting tit-for-tat. More to the point, it’s the constitutional thing to do.
Thomas Gallatin
Oracle joined a growing list of big companies pulling up stakes to flee California for greener business pastures. Oracle’s Friday announcement means it’s following in the footsteps of fellow Silicon Valley tech giant Hewlett Packard, which just weeks ago announced its coming move to Austin, Texas.
But this exodus of businesses out of California is not a recent phenomenon that can be blamed on COVID and Democrat Governor Gavin Newsom’s draconian lockdowns, although they have certainly contributed. Instead, this problem has been years in the making, thanks to California’s high taxes and over-regulation. It is estimated that over the last decade some 17,000 businesses have left the state. Tesla CEO Elon Musk is also moving to Austin, where he plans to set up a new auto plant by next year. The Daily Wire pulled up stakes from LA and moved to Nashville. Popular podcaster Joe Rogan left California for — where else? — Austin. Even Tinseltown is bleeding businesses, with tax-friendly Georgia fast becoming the Hollywood of the South.
Jim Wunderman, CEO of the Bay Area Council, rang the alarm bells about Oracle when he stated, “Anyone who doesn’t believe that this latest departure isn’t a threat to California’s economy is a business-climate denier. We are watching the unraveling of one of the world’s mightiest economies and the consequences will be devastating.”
What might have been a trickle a few years ago of businesses leaving has fast become a steady stream, with the tax-happy Golden State making it harder and harder for businesses to justify staying. As prominent California entrepreneur Tom Siebel has advised, “I think every responsible chief executive officer has to consider moving their company out of California. If you’re not considering that, you’re not fulfilling your job for your shareholders and your employees.”
National Review’s John Fund observes, “If California continues its economic decline, something Texas-sized in its ambitions may be called for — whether it’s a moratorium on new business regulations or a restructuring of the state’s corrupt unemployment compensation or reining in suffocating litigation. Nothing less is likely to stem the outflow of businesses and jobs from the Golden State.”
The problem for Texas and Georgia — to name just two of the aforementioned refuges for California businesses — is that the states should welcome the new arrivals but beware the leftist policies the companies and their employees bring with them. “Hollywood of the South,” for example, sounds great … until the Peach State turns blue. Silicon Valley in Austin may be a boon … until deep-blue Austin flips the Lone Star State.
But for now, California serves as a warning to the rest of the country. This is the result of leftist Democrats’ anti-business policies, which prize symbolism and virtue signaling over substance, truth, and individual liberty.
Harold Hutchison
With his Electoral College victory putting Joe Biden one step closer to the presidential oath on January 20, grassroots Patriots have to face a sobering reality: The Supreme Court’s refusal to even grant Texas a hearing in its suit against Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan, and Wisconsin leaves millions of Americans believing our republican form of government as established by the Constitution has been compromised — badly.
The issue isn’t even fraud, although ballot fraud will have to be addressed if Republicans expect to win the White House ever again. The real issue is the failure to follow the law and the U.S. Constitution. When election officials and judges in the aforementioned four states usurped electoral powers reserved by the Constitution to their respective state legislatures, they did far more damage to the norms, standards, and traditions of America than Donald Trump was ever accused of doing.
We simply cannot be confident that every legal vote was counted, nor every illegal vote disallowed. For example, Scott Adams notes that we were forcibly denied transparency during the vote counts in crucial states. That alone is good cause to question just how free and fair the 2020 election was — although Joel Pollak noted in an interview with Adams that there are other reasons to do so as well. The simple question is this: If they had nothing to hide, why did they go to such great lengths to avoid transparency?
Worse, they’ll claim that those who did stand up in opposition to and then demanded accountability for the extra-constitutional changes are the ones harming the country, and then they’ll use such nonsense to justify retaliation. Assuming Biden takes office, that threat will become much greater — especially should he pick Andrew Cuomo for attorney general, given the war on dissent currently being waged by the Cuomo regime in New York.
The situation is undeniable: Our rights under the First Amendment will be in danger. The Second Amendment will also be in their sights. We noted earlier that the deck would (continue to) be stacked against grassroots Patriots by Big Tech and the mainstream media, but we must also be wary of the state and its ever-growing powers.
We’re at a dangerous point. The Left may indeed have defeated Trump, but doing so may prove to be a Pyrrhic victory. Already, there are glimmers of good news. Robert Cahaly of the Trafalgar group — a pollster who called the 2016 election accurately — notes that grassroots Patriots are demanding answers from their leadership. Georgia Republican Party chairman David Shafer is also taking steps to ensure election integrity, even taking on a fellow Republican to do so.
No matter what happens over the short term, grassroots Patriots must maintain hope that the Republic can be reborn from the ashes of this compromised state. Anything less would be a failure, and failure cannot be an option.
Douglas Andrews
How surreal it must’ve been for Selina Soule and the other girls to watch it disappear like it did. Everything they’d worked so hard for in track and field had just evaporated.
Soule had run a great race, missing her personal best in the 55-meter dash by a mere hundredth of a second. And yet she was denied a spot in the Connecticut high school state finals by two “transgender” runners who smoked the rest of the field.
“It’s just really frustrating and heartbreaking,” she said last year, “because we all train extremely hard to shave off just fractions of a second off of our time. And these athletes can do half the amount of work that we do, and it doesn’t matter. We have no chance of winning.”
Soule, who’s been smeared by the always-classy Left as “transphobic” and a “sore loser,” was speaking about her state’s anti-science policy of allowing high school student athletes to compete based solely on their expressed gender identity. This policy is at odds with both the International Olympic Committee and the National Collegiate Athletic Association, which require “transgender” athletes to take testosterone-suppressing drugs to compete in the women’s category. It’s a policy that cost Soule and a number of other girls the satisfaction and the college scholarships that typically accompany championship-level performances in track and field. (To get a sense of the ridiculousness of expressed gender identity, check out Oxford-educated British rapper Zuby, who one day expressed himself as a female long enough to smash the British women’s deadlift record.)
Of course, as our Arnold Ahlert pointed out back in February of 2019, the Left insists there’s no difference whatsoever between boys and girls, men and women.
Connecticut is one of 18 states that allow this abomination — this pitting of biological boys against competitors who are, on average, 9% shorter; whose bones are smaller and weaker both in terms of size and density; whose heads are smaller; whose elbows, shoulders, fingers, and pelvises are physically different; whose torsos are longer and whose arms and legs are shorter; and, critically, whose bodies have a significantly smaller proportion of muscle mass. But hey, that’s just the science talking.
Soule, along with two fellow athletes, Alanna Smith and Chelsea Mitchell, finally had enough, and in February the Alliance Defending Freedom filed suit on their behalf. Their argument is that allowing boys to compete in the female category denies girls “opportunities for participation, recruitment, and scholarships,” and is thus at odds with the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and its Title IX prohibition of discrimination on the basis of sex.
Congress has been curiously silent about this issue. Perhaps our elected representatives are afraid to run afoul of the Rainbow Mafia or be disinvited from all the best cocktail parties. But outgoing Hawaii Representative and former Democrat presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard isn’t afraid. Nor is Oklahoma Republican Congressman Markwayne Mullin, himself a former professional MMA fighter. Last week, they introduced a bill called the Protect Women’s Sports Act to secure the sanctity and fundamental decency of women’s sports by clarifying that Title IX rules apply to female athletes based on their biological sex rather than their preferred “gender identity.”
“Title IX,” says Mullin, “was designed to give women and girls an equal chance to succeed, including in sports. Allowing biological males to compete in women’s sports diminishes that equality and takes away from the original intent of Title IX.”
The bill is a nice parting shot from Gabbard, a major in the U.S. Army Reserve and a libertarian-leaning progressive who’s been a steady thorn in the side of the Democrat establishment, as this paint-peeling 2019 Twitter takedown of Hillary Clinton will attest. She’s represented Hawaii’s second congressional district since 2012 and ran for president this year, but she didn’t seek reelection to the House. Not surprisingly, she’s taken plenty of incoming fire from the Left for her bill, but she spent the weekend hitting back via Twitter and educating via an explanatory video.
“My ‘Protect Women’s Sports Act’ is based on science. It safeguards equality & ensures a level playing field for girls & women competing in sports. It upholds Title IX’s original intent which was based on the general biological distinction between men & women athletes based on sex.”
This is all well and good, of course, but unless this bill gets to the House floor for a vote, it’s little more than posturing. And, come to think of it, what are the odds that Nancy Pelosi and her hard-left caucus will actually acknowledge the science and stand up for our daughters?
December 15, 1791, marks the ratification of our Bill of Rights, the first 10 Amendments to our Constitution, and the Rule of Law it enshrines.
The Bill of Rights was inspired by three remarkable documents: John Locke’s 1689 thesis, “Two Treatises of Government,” regarding the protection of “property” (in the Latin context, proprius, or one’s own “life, liberty and estate”); in part from the Virginia Declaration of Rights authored by George Mason in 1776 as part of that state’s Constitution; and, of course, in part from our Declaration of Independence authored by Thomas Jefferson.
Though the Bill of Rights is commonly referred to as “the first ten amendments” to our Constitution, it is important to distinguish these ten articles from amendments — the former being an integral part of our Constitution, while the latter, over the course of our nation’s history, having modified it.
Because of that distinction, the addition of the Bill of Rights was hotly debated among our Founders, many of whom argued that the mere reiteration of these innate and unalienable Rights of Man within the Constitution might imply that they are somehow subject to amendment, as if granted by the state.
Alexander Hamilton argued in Federalist No. 84, “[B]ills of rights, in the sense and in the extent in which they are contended for, are not only unnecessary in the proposed constitution, but would even be dangerous. They would contain various exceptions to powers which are not granted; and on this very account, would afford a colorable pretext to claim more than were granted. For why declare that things shall not be done which there is no power to do?”
On the other hand, George Mason was among 16 of the 55 Constitutional Convention delegates who refused to sign because the document did not adequately address limitations on what the central government had “no power to do.” Indeed, he worked with Patrick Henry and Samuel Adams against its ratification for that very reason.
As a result of Mason’s insistence, the first session of Congress incorporated those 10 additional limitations upon the federal government for the reasons outlined by the Preamble to the Bill of Rights: “The Conventions of a number of the States having at the time of their adopting the Constitution, expressed a desire, in order to prevent misconstruction or abuse of its powers, that further declaratory and restrictive clauses should be added: And as extending the ground of public confidence in the Government, will best insure the beneficent ends of its institution.”
Read in context, the Bill of Rights is both an affirmation of innate “unalienable rights” of man, and a clear proscription upon any central government infringement of those rights. As oft trampled and abused as the Bill of Rights is by those who’ve sworn an oath “to Support and Defend” our Constitution, most notably “judicial supremacists,” or the “despotic branch” as Jefferson called the judiciary, Patriots must remain ever vigilant in order to sustain our rights.
Jordan Candler
Election Debrief
- Despite record turnout, 80 million Americans didn’t vote (NPR)
- Judge releases Dominion audit report, which claims system “designed” to “create systemic fraud” (Daily Wire)
Regardless of the real cause of the 6,000-vote error in Michigan’s Antrim County, the point is that if this can happen in one place, it can happen any place. It undermines the credibility of not just this election but future elections. The potential for fraud needs to be eliminated — and if that means Dominion ultimately gets forced out, so be it.
Georgia Runoff
- Mail-in ballot requests top one million as early voting begins (Disrn)
- Jon Ossoff says feds should ensure illegal immigrants receive good wages (Free Beacon)
Government & Politics
- Michigan Rep. Paul Mitchell leaving GOP over Trump’s attempt to overturn election (NBC News)
- Special Counsel John Durham is expanding team with prosecutors, making “excellent progress” (Fox News)
Leftmedia
- The New York Times has not covered the Eric Swalwell honeytrap scandal a single time (Not the Bee)
- The Times slams writer not calling Jill Biden “Dr.” Here’s how the NYT referred to Dr. Ben Carson for years. (Daily Wire)
- Media scramble to un-remember their dismissals of Trump’s Operation Warp Speed win (National Review)
Health
- Just 1 in 5 with COVID passes it to others in household, data show (UPI)
Business & Economy
- Governor Cuomo is destroying New York City’s restaurant industry (FEE) | And yet, NYC could face “full shutdown” beyond indoor dining, Mayor de Blasio warns (NY Post)
- United Auto Workers union pays $1.5 million to settle corruption probe (Free Beacon)
Annals of the “Social Justice” Caliphate
- Portland autonomous zone removing barricades after totally weak-kneed mayor and police chief apologize (Daily Caller)
- California church displays nativity scene that incorporates Black Lives Matter (Just the News)
- NFL ratings plummet, despite a pandemic forcing millions to sit at home with nothing to do (Post Millennial)
Double Standards
- Oregon’s newly elected secretary of state violates governor’s order on gatherings (PJ Media)
Heartwarming
- Four-year-old girl donates over $600 of bake sale earnings to food bank (News 9)
Closing Arguments
- Policy: The Right should be relieved SCOTUS rejected judicial activism in Texas v. Pennsylvania (The Federalist)
- Policy: America first is not America alone (Examiner)
- Humor: Biden to introduce new Medal of Honor for Bravery in Journalism (Babylon Bee)
For more of today’s editors’ choice headlines, visit Headline Report.
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Portland CHAZ Sequel Beats Back Attempted Police Shutdown — Ted Wheeler bends the knee again.
Leftists Triggered After Convicted Murderer Executed — Brandon Bernard was complicit in the barbaric killing of two youth ministers.
Price Transparency: How to Fix Healthcare — “We have no idea how much we’re paying for healthcare services,” says Will Bruhn.
Satire: How the Media Wants You To Think — “I’m brave enough to know that what they tell me to think is what I think.”
For more of today’s columns, visit Right Opinion.
Insight: “Crime is contagious. If the government becomes a law breaker, it breeds contempt for the law.” —Justice Louis D. Brandeis (1856-1941)
Non compos mentis: “When federal [immigration] agents arrive at one of these farms, it should be to make sure people are being paid the minimum wage, working in humane conditions.” —Georgia U.S. Senate candidate Jon Ossoff
Alpha jackass, Part I: “[Donald Trump], you are weak, scared, stupid, inept, negligent, vindictive, narcissistic, criminal. I hope you live a long life in prison where you become the most popular boyfriend to the all inmates.” —actress Debra Messing
Alpha jackass, Part II: “Rape is an act of violence. Trump has perpetrated violence on hundreds of millions of people. My hope is (and this is the first time in my life) that the tables are turned and he is the victim of perpetrators.” —Debra Messing
And last… “The Founding Fathers believed that a free press was essential to the preservation of freedom. But we don’t really have a free press today. We have a hyper-partisan press just as committed to one party rule as the talking heads of Pravda were.” —Gary Bauer
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Two months ago, the liberal media assisted Joe Biden’s presidential campaign by essentially ignoring the financial scandal surrounding Biden’s son, Hunter, and aggressively dismissing it as likely Russian propaganda.
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