Author: Redactor

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initiative, referendum, and recall Update

Measures for Measures

November 2024: There were 146 ballot measures certified for statewide ballots in 41 states. On the Fifth, “Election Day,” these measures were decided by voters. 

According to Ballotpedia, from “2010 to 2022, the average number of statewide ballot measures in an even-numbered year was 161,” making 2024 slightly below average — noting that Louisiana will decide four constitutional amendments on December 7, and five states decided nine measures earlier in the year, bringing the total for the year up to 159.

  • A record number of abortion-related measures were decided this year: eleven.
  • Drug-use policies were on state ballots, including for marijuana (recreational, three; medicinal, two) and psychedelics: six. 
  • Democratic processes were on state ballots, including both for and against ranked-choice voting: ten.
  • Democratic processes more specifically about voting were also on state ballots, including citizenship requirements (all passed) and voter i.d.: ten. 
  • Labor policies, including minimum wage policies, were on ballots as well: seven.
  • The number of education-related measures was the highest in in 18 years: twelve. 

Ballotpedia is a great resource, and if you are looking for good information about what people are voting for and against, ballotpedia.org should be your first resource.

Categories
Thought

Brion McClanahan

I have said that almost every president of the last 100 years deserved to be impeached, but I never suggested any of these people should be charged and tried in court.

Brion McClanahan, “What’s at Stake in the Trump Immunity Case?” May 8, 2024. 
Categories
Today

Areopagitica

On November 23, 1644, British poet John Milton published Areopagitica, a pamphlet decrying censorship.

Revolutions of ages do not oft recover the loss of a rejected truth, for the want of which whole nations fare the worse.

John Milton, Areopagitica; A speech of Mr. John Milton for the Liberty of Unlicenc’d Printing, to the Parlament of England (1644).

The name “Areopagitica” references a speech by Isocrates, the “Areopagitikós” that itself referenced a hill in Athens, Greece, the Areopagus, which had been the site of an important tribunal that the Greek orator had hoped to restore. It may also refer to the defense that St. Paul made before the Areopagus against charges of promulgating alien gods and outré teachings (see Acts 17:18–34).

Categories
general freedom international affairs

Denial Is a River in Argentina?

“In the history of the Earth, there is a cycle of temperatures,” said Javier Milei during a presidential debate in 2023. “We are not going to adhere to the 2030 Agenda [a United Nations list of dozens of goals for curtailing countries’ use of resources]. We do not adhere to cultural Marxism. We do not adhere to decadence.”

Now Argentina’s President Milei is acting to formally withdraw from accords requiring countries to become poorer in order to “save the planet,” etc.

Although Milei has axed many government departments, his government still has a chief environmental officer. This personage had been leading the Argentine delegation attending the COP29 climate summit in Azerbaijan, happening November 11-22, 2024. But Argentina had told the delegation not to participate.

Now Milei has pulled them from the summit. Why? That was not immediately announced. But “Milei has consistently denied the existence of a climate crisis,” moans the Buenos Aires Herald.

Denialist Milei doubtless recognizes hurricanes, tornadoes, and other incidents of drastic weather. He’d probably add, though, that planet earth has seen plenty of crisis-level weather before carbon-emitting industry arrived to take the blame.

Milei’s decision to exit COP29 came a day after his meeting with President-elect Donald Trump, of like mind on environmental and other questions.

Trump is expected to re-withdraw the U.S. from the 2015 Paris agreement, another anti-industrial environmental accord. We don’t know yet whether Argentina will also withdraw. 

But if you’re betting Yes, I like your chances.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

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Today

Templars Suppressed

On November 22, 1307, Pope Clement V issued the papal bull Pastoralis Praeeminentiae which instructed all Christian monarchs in Europe to arrest all Templars and seize their assets.

This was a little over a month after France’s King Philip IV ordered de Molay and scores of other French Templars to be simultaneously arrested. The liquidation of the order of the Templars was a major event of the late Middle Ages.

Categories
Thought

Aristotle

The least initial deviation from the truth is multiplied later a thousandfold.

Aristotle, On the Heavens.

Categories
initiative, referendum, and recall media and media people

Watch Out!

Paul Jacob, fake news, media, truth, fact check

This week, a Google Alert brought a news article from Brady Today, a small-town publication in Brady, Texas. 

The story in the Brady newspaper is strikingly similar to one The Center Square had produced right after the election. Except that the ending — a statement from yours truly — was quite different. 

“Watch out in 2026,” The Center Square article quoted me from our press release. “We have people in another dozen states already anxious to pass these measures and clarify that only citizens can vote in their state and local elections.”

However, the Brady Today story quoted me quite differently. “In 2026, we need to be cautious. There are individuals in several more states who are eager to implement similar measures and ensure that only citizens have the right to vote in their state and local elections.”

Urge caution? Not me. Ever. 

And especially not after sweeping to wins in eight states, adding up to a 14-0 record on Citizen Only Voting Amendments in recent years.

Nolan Brown with Brady Today has me saying something I’ve never said. 

Dan McCaleb of The Center Sqare quoted me correctly. He did his job as a reporter. But Mr. Brown? He appears to have a different task in mind. 

I tried to contact both Brady Today’s management and Nolan Brown. James R. Griffin, III, who owns the small-town newspaper says he had shut down the website a year ago, only to discover (due to my phone call) that it has been revived online by an unknown entity — which has been using his name without permission on articles he did not write. And Mr. Brown? Unreachable.

The upshot is pretty clear: Don’t believe everything you read. 

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

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Today

Temple Dedication

On what we would now render as November 21, 164 BC, Judas Maccabeus, son of Mattathias of the Hasmonean family, rededicated the Temple in Jerusalem. This event is commemorated each year by the festival of Hanukkah. In the Hebrew calendar, this rededication is marked as taking place on 25 Kislev 3597.

Categories
Thought

Democritus

Πολλοὶ πολυμαθέες νοῦν οὐκ ἔχουσιν.

Many much-learned men have no intelligence.

Democritus (c. 460 BC – c. 370 BC), pre-Socratic philosopher.
Categories
election law partisanship

Pennsylvania Steal

Pennsylvania

We must hope that a Democratic effort in Pennsylvania to steal the election for U.S. senator has indeed been thwarted. A new state supreme court ruling with its concurring opinions is definitive.

Problem is, a previous ruling from the same court had already been definitive.

Yet not only have election officials been counting unsigned or undated or improperly dated mail-in ballots in an effort to rescue incumbent Democrat Bob Casey from defeat at the hands of his Republican challenger, Dave McCormick, via a rejiggering recount, at least some of the election officials breaking the law weren’t even bothering to try to obscure the effort with an “Aw geez, this is perfectly compatible with a reasonable interpretation of election rules and the supreme court ruling” fig leaf.

In Bucks County, county commissioners voted 2-1 to proceed with an attempted election-stealing despite the advice of their own counsel.

Bad as this is, get this: Diane Ellis-Marseglia, one of the two Democratic commissioners who determined that it was okay to count bad ballots, announced that she didn’t care about whether she was violating the law. Even though her job is to apply it, not to flout it with revolutionary (or corrupt insider) fervor.

“I think we all know that precedent by a court doesn’t matter anymore in this country, and people violate laws anytime they want,” she said. “So for me, if I violate this law, it’s because I want a court to pay attention to it.”

Attention has been paid. We hope it’s enough.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

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