On May 6, 1862, American author, philosopher and abolitionist Henry David Thoreau was born.
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“There are really no limits on the amount of money you can give to a campaign,” explained Chuck Todd on his MSNBC program, The Daily Rundown. “We could claim there are limits, but they don’t really exist because of the way the system works.”
Todd isn’t talking about you and me. We have limits. By law, each person in each election can give no more than $2,600 to any single candidate.
He’s focused on billionaires. You know, the Koch brothers we hear so much about, or gambling magnate Sheldon Adelson. And, on the Democratic side, the super-rich Tom Streyer, Michael Bloomberg, George Soros and others.
But billionaires have limits, too. Their advantage is simply being able to afford the work-arounds. They can hire lawyers to advise them through the maze of speech and finance regulations. They can fund a SuperPAC or an independent expenditure or start a whole new organization if necessary to get their message out.
I’m not complaining. Billionaires have an inalienable right to flap their jaws and spend their money.
I’m only saying that we merely aspiring billionaires — the great American mostly washed middle class — should also be free to flap our jaws, to make our big political contribution and to have our say.
But we don’t. It’s a federal crime for you or me to donate one dollar more than $2,600 to the general election campaign of a congressional candidate we deeply believe in.
That it is a crime is the biggest campaign finance scandal of all.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
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Magna Carta Libertatum, Clause 41
All merchants may enter or leave England unharmed and without fear, and may stay or travel within it, by land or water, for purposes of trade, free from all illegal exactions, in accordance with ancient and lawful customs. This, however, does not apply in time of war to merchants from a country that is at war with us. Any such merchants found in our country at the outbreak of war shall be detained without injury to their persons or property, until we or our chief justice have discovered how our own merchants are being treated in the country at war with us. If our own merchants are safe they shall be safe too.
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May 5, Magna Carta and Cinco de Mayo
On May 5, 1215, rebel barons renounced their allegiance to King John of England, which eventually led to the signing of the Magna Carta.
In 1862, troops led by Ignacio Zaragoza stopped a French invasion in the Battle of Puebla in Mexico — an event leading to the popular “Cinco de Mayo” celebration.
Gilad Woolf, an Israeli farmer, had a problem.
He had broken his leg . . . but that wasn’t the problem. The problem was the bumpy ride he often had to endure while using a wheelchair until his leg could heal. And so — discomfort and inconvenience being the mother of reinvention — Woolf came up with an idea for a kind of wheel that could soak up the impacts of uneven terrain.
Developed over the last three years by the startup Tel Aviv firm SoftWheel, the hub of this special wheel shrinks or expands as needed to smooth out the ride. The wheel absorbs most of a shock instead of transmitting it to the vehicle and the person driving it.
“Very quickly we understood it’s not just about putting the suspension inside the wheel,” SoftWheel CEO Daniel Barel told The Jerusalem Post. “The beauty of our technology is not only that it’s an integral part of the wheel, it’s selective and symmetric. That’s the game-changer.” (See video of a Softwheel wheelchair on steps.)
The company will first create its wheels for wheelchairs, the bikes and aircraft landing gear. After several more years of work, SoftWheel expects that the technology can be applied to cars.
Thus, five or six thousand years after somebody came up with the wheel, we’ve got a smart and flexible solution for the problem of stairways, potholes and other bumps in the road.
Very cool. I can’t wait to see what’s next.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
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Magna Carta Libertatum, Clause 39
No freeman shall be taken, or imprisoned, or outlawed, or exiled, or in any way harmed, nor will we go upon him nor will we send upon him, except by the legal judgement of his peers or by the law of the land.
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Birth of Prescott
On May 4, 1796, American historian William H. Prescott was born. Prescott’s “History of the Conquest of Mexico” and his “Conquest of Peru” remain classic works of well-researched, “scientific history.”
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Townhall: Term Limits, Now More Than Ever
A recent poll determined that Illinois citizens are the most restive. That is, more of them than citizens of any other state would leave their state, if their situations allowed.
Why? The weather?
More like the political climate: corruption.
But they are doing something about that. Click on over to Townhall.com for this weekend’s dose of Common Sense. Then come back here to root around the story in greater depth.
- Term Limits & Reform: campaign website
- TIME: A Brief History of Illinois Corruption
- Chicago Tribune: The Madigan Rules
- Chicago Tribune: Madigan ally seeks to derail term limit, remap amendments
- ABC Chicago WLS-TV: Rauner collects ‘more than enough’ signatures for term limit measure
- Chicago Tribune: Quinn now backs term limits for statewide elected officials
- Eric Zorn column: “That term-limits ballot question comes with a potentially big bonus for the winner of this fall’s gubernatorial race. And I don’t think it’s a good idea.”
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Alexis de Tocqueville
[A]bsolute excellence is rarely to be found in any legislation.
Two anti-initiative bills were defeated this week by a unanimous vote in a state senate committee in Colorado. This outcome, thanks to a coalition of groups and civic leaders from left, right and in-between that rallied people to get involved. Here two leaders, Elena Nunez with Colorado Common Cause and Dennis Polhill with the Independence Institute, speak with Jon Caldara (also with II). All three are very knowledgeable about how initiatives work and also understand why the initiative process is so important.