On June 2, 1924, President Calvin Coolidge signed the Indian Citizenship Act into law, granting citizenship to all Native Americans born within the territorial limits of the United States.
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Citizenship
Neoconservative writer Bill Kristol doesn’t like the prospect of Donald Trump running as the Republican presidential candidate this year. And Kristol’s not just going to talk about it. He’s trying to get something done.
But instead of doing the rational thing and lobbying each and every delegate to the Republican convention, pleading with them to vote their consciences, not their fictional primary “commitments,” he’s trying to recruit an independent candidate to run against Hillary and Donald. (Donald isn’t worried.)
At first he mentioned, in fleeting, Mitt Romney as the type of candidate “coming soon.” But in discussing his mission, he kept the candidate’s identity secret. He was trying to create a stir of interest.
Yesterday it was leaked that Kristol’s Great White Hope is . . . David French.
Writer for National Review.
And the American people say, together, Who?
No matter Mr. French’s many virtues, the truth is that he’s the darkest of dark horses.
I’m sure his principles align somehow with Kristol’s. But be realistic: the Libertarian Party ticket sports far more plausibility — two former two-term governors, former Republicans of blue states.
It’s still possible that this newest story is just a leak to get us to a false sense of . . . well, whatever this is.
After all, Kristol is a neoconservative. He has secrets and strategies above us mere mortals. Conspiracy buffs might contend that throwing another “right-wing” candidate into the mix is his way of splitting “the right,” allowing his real (if secret) favorite, Hillary Clinton, to squeak by. She is the one candidate he could count on to keep throwing money at the Pentagon — and dropping bombs overseas.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
Photo credit: Gage Skidmore on Flickr
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La Rochefoucauld
Sincere enthusiasm is the only orator who always persuades. It is like an art the rules of which never fail; the simplest man with enthusiasm persuades better than the most eloquent with none.
La Rochefoucauld, Réflexions ou sentences et maximes morales, (1665, 1678), 411th maxim.
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Tennessee, Kentucky
On June 1, 1792, Kentucky was admitted as the 15th state of the United States. Four years later, Tennessee became the 16th state.
Yesterday I asked the question, “Who comes first: the vets or the politicians?”
We all know who should come first. And we all know who actually does come first.
The Is/Ought Dichotomy in full view — the fact/value distinction.
America’s politicians have legislated themselves wonderful healthcare coverage. Meanwhile, they’ve legislated something very different for veterans: a huge, unaccountable bureaucracy.
The federal archipelago of substandard VA clinics and hospitals is so ineffective that vets have died waiting for any medical care at all.
The problem isn’t a lack of public support. Americans obviously want to help take care of veterans. The many charities are just one indicator of this.
Instead, it’s an unmistakable sign of how completely beyond citizen control Washington has wandered.
Heads haven’t rolled in the Veterans Administration bureaucracy. Fact. But why not? Because of insider values. Why should congressmen even worry their pretty, little re-electable heads about it? None of their heads have rolled for their incompetence or indifference.
In a Congress loathed by the people, only one incumbent congressman has been defeated for re-election this year — and he was facing a 29-count felony indictment for racketeering, etc.
One might wonder if anything ever happens in Washington other than waste, fraud and abuse.
For decades, the lack of care for vets has been an ongoing scandal. But it’s merely a symptom of a much bigger scandal: our government is out of our control.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
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Freedom Rider
On May 31, 455, Emperor Petronius Maximus was stoned to death by an angry mob while fleeing Rome. On the same date in 1678, Lady Godiva’s procession through Coventry began.
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Mikhail Bakunin
The liberty of every individual is only the reflection of his own humanity, or his human right through the conscience of all free men, his brothers and his equals.
I can feel free only in the presence of and in relationship with other men. In the presence of an inferior species of animal I am neither free nor a man, because this animal is incapable of conceiving and consequently recognizing my humanity. I am not myself free or human until or unless I recognize the freedom and humanity of all my fellowmen.
Only in respecting their human character do I respect my own.
Last week, when asked by reporters about the arguably deadly wait times that vets have endured (or not), Veterans Affairs Secretary Bob McDonald replied, “What really counts is how does the veteran feel about their encounter with the VA. When you go to Disney, do they measure the number of hours you wait in line? . . . What’s important is: What’s your satisfaction with the experience?”
The national commander of the American Legion, Dale Barnett, calls the remark “an unfortunate comparison”:
“People,” after all, “don’t die while waiting to go on Space Mountain.”
The secretary also errs about Disney, as Fox News’s Neil Cavuto noted. Disney does measure the time people must wait in line. The for-profit company goes out of its way to entertain folks while they wait.
But the clowns running the Veterans Administration shouldn’t take up entertainment.
Fix the problem.
Democrats Hillary Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders both seek to throw more money at the VA. They seem most concerned in protecting the Veterans Administration, not veterans. And Sanders’s real beef turns out to be with Disney.
Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, tweeted: “Obama’s VA Secretary just said we shouldn’t measure wait times. Hillary says VA problems are not ‘widespread.’ I will take care of our vets!”
But will he? Through the VA system?
A zillion reform efforts have failed.
Let’s demand more than a simple promise sans details.
Do congressmen wait months to get a medical appointment? No. Then why not close the VA and give veterans the same healthcare coverage as our (pardon the term) representatives?
On this Memorial Day, who comes first: the vets or the politicians?
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
Photo credit: Xiaojun Deng on Flickr
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Decoration Day
On May 30, 1868, the United States observed Decoration Day (the predecessor of the modern “Memorial Day”) for the first time.
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Karl Kraus
Karl Kraus, about his newsletter, Die Fackel.
My public and I understand each other very well: it does not hear what I say, and I don’t say what it wants to hear.