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Watch: Specific Court Reforms
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Isaiah Berlin
If, as I believe, the ends of men are many, and not all of them are in principle compatible with each other, then the possibility of conflict — and of tragedy — can never wholly be eliminated from human life, either personal or social. The necessity of choosing between absolute claims is then an inescapable characteristic of the human condition. This gives its value to freedom as Acton conceived of it — as an end in itself, and not as a temporary need, arising out of our confused notions and irrational and disordered lives, a predicament which a panacea could one day put right.
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David Ricardo
April 18 marks the 1772 birthday of David Ricardo, English political economist and one of the most influential thinkers in economic theory. An advocate for free trade and the abolition of slavery, Ricardo’s most famous work is his Principles of Political Economy and Taxation (1817).
Paul recaps the biggest stories of the week, starting with the Supreme Court and politics:
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Do Not Discuss This!
Some stories linger in the background, under-acknowledged, never really addressed, driving us a bit crazy.
Example? Deficit spending and debt accumulation.
The problems that deficit financing inflicts upon us are many and devastating. We would be a lot wealthier, healthier, and wiser were the federal government not so madly out-of-control. We could invest in all sorts of great things, and prices would be more stable, and . . . and . . . and . . .
But what can we do about it?
It’s not obvious. So we don’t talk about it much.
And the debt only grows, with destructive hyperinflation looming as an ever-increasing danger.
The other under-discussed story is even more disturbing — so we ignore it even more studiously.
Within the last several years headlines in The New York Times and on TV have covered it, yet . . . very few people talk about it, despite the startling revelations.
The issue? UFOs — a strange subject at face value, which, once you poke into it, gets even weirder.
We level-headed yokels used to deny the existence of UFOs, but now the Pentagon has confirmed their persistent plaguing of Navy jets and seacraft, and the Army has acknowledged its ongoing study of UFO-derived “meta-materials.”*
In June, the Senate will be briefed on the subject, per instructions in a recent stimulus bill. (Which brings us back to our first blank-out issue.) Meanwhile, as we wait for what could be big news, new revelations of repeated incursions by UFOs against a Navy fleet 100 miles off the California coast back in 2019 appear in specialty media** but barely make a ripple in major media.
Wait — Fox just featured a segment on a Pentagon confirmation of flying pyramids!
Will we make headway on UFOs before the debt?
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
* French scientist and UFO researcher Jacques Vallee is also engaged in research on UFO-site-retrieved mystery alloys.
** See Richard Dolan discuss these recent Channel Island incursions, based chiefly on the report in The Warzone.
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previously on Common Sense with Paul Jacob:
It’s Aliens (May 30, 2019)
The Whys Behind the Whats (June 25, 2019)
Stranger Things 2019 (January 2, 2020)
Two Conspiracies Unearthed (December 10, 2020)
Why We Still Live (December 18, 2020)
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Deep Throat
Deep Throat to FBI agent Fox Mulder The X-Files in the first season episode, “E.B.E.” (1993), written by Glen Morgan and James Wong.
A lie, Mr. Mulder, is most convincingly hidden between two truths.
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Letter from Birmingham Jail
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., penned his Letter from Birmingham Jail while incarcerated in Birmingham, Alabama, for protesting segregation, on April 16, 1963.
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Term Limits or Death?
“The only responsible choice for Justice Breyer is to immediately announce his retirement,” contends Brian Fallon, executive director of Demand Justice, “so President Biden can quickly nominate the first-ever Black woman Supreme Court justice.”
Not merely pushing identity politics, Fallon is warning of the risk of “Democrats losing control of the Senate before a Biden nominee can be confirmed.”
No retirement announcement yet from 82-year-old Stephen Breyer, who recently advised Democrats against court-packing. Having served on the High Court for the last 27 years, he is the oldest justice and second-longest serving.*
“Democrats’ fears about Breyer come after [Justice Ruth Bader] Ginsburg refused to heed calls from liberals and former President Barack Obama to step down,” notes Forbes, “which ultimately resulted in Trump appointing conservative-leaning Justice Amy Coney Barrett to succeed her when Ginsburg died in September.”
It is painfully obvious: life terms at the highest court have produced gamesmanship — not on the Court, mind you, but in Congress, that cesspool of even longer tenure where our supposed representatives do anything but.
And why allow personal circumstances or the vagaries of death to decide such potentially critical matters in our republic?
To prevent politicians from politicizing the Supreme Court of the United States, put the number of justices (9) into the Constitution and term-limit those justices to a single 18-year term. No renomination. With nine justices, cycle one out and a new one in every two years.
There are other matters to consider and settle. Do so in constitutional form, so the whole country is engaged and the Court is hereafter more secure and independent of that branch most in need of term limits.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
* On the all-time Supreme Court longevity list, Breyer thus lags ten places behind Justice Clarence Thomas, who has served 10,767 days on the court and currently ranks 16th.
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Albert Einstein
Laws alone cannot secure freedom of expression; in order that every man may present his views without penalty, there must be a spirit of tolerance in the entire population.
Albert Einstein, Ideas and Opinions (1954).
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Bergen-Belsen Liberated
On April 15, 1945, the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp was liberated.