Author: haroldblackphd

Harold A Black

We just spent the week camping near Asheville at Lake Powhattan Recreation area. It is a beautiful campground with plenty of space between campers. Asheville was in the process of removing the memorial to Zebulon Vance who commanded a regiment of North Carolina Volunteers in the early days of the Civil War. Vance then was elected governor in 1862 and proceeded to be a thorn in the side of Jefferson Davis. During Lee’s campaign against Grant, Vance refused to send his militia to Lee’s aid. North Carolina’s ten thousand may have made a difference with Lee running short of men in his bedraggled army. But the confederacy was one of state’s rights and Davis had no authority to order Vance to support Lee. Vance said that he needed his troops to protect the home front from Sherman who was advancing through South Carolina and threatening North Carolina.

Vance was an enigma, both pro Union and pro slavery. He once said “the general welfare and prosperity of our country, the very foundation of our society, of our fortunes, and, to a greater or lesser extent, the personal safety of our people, combine to make us defend [slavery] to the last extremity.”  Although he opposed succession, when succession came like most of his fellow southerners he chose to cast his lot with his state and fight for the south.

In downtown Asheville stands a memorial to Vance. It is a 75 foot tall monument dedicated in 1897. As part of the cancel culture Asheville decided to remove the monument. That was blocked by a lawsuit filed by the Society for the Historical Preservation of the 26^th North Carolina Troops – Vance’s regiment. The North Carolina Supreme Court denied the suit ruling in the city’s favor and demolition began on May 14.

I, for one, am glad that the memorial and others like it throughout the south are being removed from town squares. Such memorials were elected during a time that I call the southern reign of terror, where blacks had no power, were subjected to Jim Crow laws, had to “stay in their place”, feared lynchings, denied the vote, had no elected officials and no voice in public proceedings. I looked upon all these memorials as a finger to us blacks and hated them all. When I was in school in the 1950s-1960s in Georgia, the state did not celebrate Memorial Day. Rather it observed Confederate Memorial Day. My schools refused to commemorate dead confederates and did not fly the racist Georgia state flag which had the rebel banner added to it after the Brown decision in 1954.

I was glad when schools throughout the south took confederates names off their schools. I would not have wanted to have Robert E. Lee’s name on my diploma despite the fact that I admire Lee greatly. I was sad to see that one school district in Virginia decided to reinstate the names of Stonewall Jackson and cavalry officer Turner Ashby to two of its schools. Again, most black parents have little choice as to where to send their children to school. Although some protested the move and favored a more generic name for the schools, the school board reverted to the confederate names. Again, I would not want the name of Stonewall Jackson on my diploma despite the fact that he was a great general.  The county is rural with a small population of only 3.2 percent black. It is not surprising that these residents do not have much of a voice and much of an impact on the county’s politics. I would hate to be black in that county. For us blacks, the names and memorials symbolize racism in America, despite the protestations of those embracing the “Lost Cause”. I tell those who glorify the confederate generals that Rommel – the Desert Fox – was a great general but there are no memorials to him in Germany. Why? How was Rommel’s role any different from Lee’s? Again recall that my maternal great great grandfather was a sergeant in the 6^th Georgia who never disowned his black son born to a cook on the Jarrell Plantation in Jones County, Georgia. My son and nephew have paid a visit to his grave to tell him how his offspring are faring. But we are glad he lost and I would not want a Jones County school named in his honor.

More random thoughts

I take back most – but not all – of my criticisms of John Fetterman. Who knew that he would be the only vocal supporter of Israel in the senate while the Jewish senators are mostly quiet. Chuck Schumer actually went on the senate floor to call for a change in government in Israel. I didn’t see any criticism of Schumer from AIPAC.

Most Jews are democrats so why are their most vocal supporters republicans?

Does Biden’s withholding weapons from Israel mean that he is courting the Muslim vote (those who support Hamas) while thinking that the Jews will vote democrat regardless? He may be right. AIPAC is supporting Bob Casey in the senate rate in Pennsylvania even though he has been less forceful than his republican opponent David McCormick who has been loudly pro Israel.

The only actions taken by Trump that Biden kept were the tariffs. Now he has doubled down on the Chinese tariffs, ironically imposing them on green items that are not produced in volume in the US. Way to go Brandon.

Seemingly to celebrate Biden’s tariffs, BYD just launched the world’s first plug in hybrid pickup truck, the Shark, in Mexico for $54,000. BYD and Li have announced plans to build factories in Mexico claiming that the cars and trucks are not intended for the US market. Of course, they are lying.

Biden’s trade representative said that the tariffs would not have any impact on US prices saying “I think that that link in terms of tariffs to prices has been largely debunked.” Where did she learn her economics? 

Have you wondered why the campus protests are so small? As I have noted before, those that are protesting don’t have a clue about the Middle East and are not serious students. In fact, many protestors are not even students. Regardless, the vast majority of students are not participating. Yet the media is filling their 24/7 with campus protests.

Why are most of the tents of the student squatters at all the encampments the same green and white (Hamas’ colors)? Did the antisemitic student organizations get a volume discount?

How do you tell a terrorist from a civilian? Israel is telling people to leave certain areas in the Gaza war. Is it any surprise that when they flee to an area that the Israelis have cleared of Hamas, that fighting reoccurs in the once cleared territory? I guess they should let everyone flee except young men.

The Treasury is finding it harder to sell T bills and T bonds at its auctions. The Treasury issues the securities to fund government spending. The high interest rate on Treasurys, contrary to public opinion, is not determined by the Fed but by supply and demand. Given the rapid rise in spending and the increased volume of Treasurys, the only way that the Treasury can sell the requisite amount of bonds is at a lower price (higher yield). What happens if the Treasury cannot meet the financing needs of the government? It can sell them to the Fed which is called monetizing the national debt. Needless to say this is highly inflationary. Inflation also results in higher yields since investors want to preserve their purchasing power and suffer no decrease in the real value of their purchases. All this points to a possible collapse in the market for Treasurys if the congress doesn’t rein in spending. Lots of luck with that one.

RFK, Jr once called the Tea Party the resurgence of the confederacy. Excuse me but I was a Tea Party supporter having spoken to them at a rally in Knoxville and I hate the confederacy.

It’ll be interesting to see the relationship between Jewish students and professors going forward at the universities with the pro Hamas crowd and compliant administrators.

Wouldn’t it be great if the neo Nazis went on campuses to support the protesters in the student encampments?

We have just completed our “end of life” crisis. You have heard of the middle age crisis where you buy a sports car, get a hair weave (Joe Biden), and lose 20 pounds? Well the end of life crisis is where you sell the sports car (Porsche 911 cabriolet) to get a convertible that you can get into and out of (Mercedes 350CLK), sell the BMW, Honda and Indian motorcycles and get two Can Ams (Spyder and Ryker), and downsize your fifth wheel from a 36 foot 12,000 pounder to a 28 foot 8,000 pound Cougar 23MLE. 

We love Knoxville and the Knoxville house (I designed it and it has trees and the lake) and won’t downsize to the Georgia farmhouse (I designed it too) until I get too old to drive the 4 hours back and forth.

More Random thoughts

Joe Biden reminds me of the political cartoon I saw when living in Washington. It was Jimmy Carter walking into a room with screens showing the results of the latest polls. Carter looks at his aide and says “Let’s see what our policies are today.” How else can one explain Biden’s strong support of Israel following the October 7 Hamas raid and his position now?

Joe Biden is a serial liar and the media lets him get away with it. In a recent speech in Pennsylvania, he lied at least 9 times.

         What about his uncle being eaten by cannibals?

         Or inflaton being 9% when he came into office?

         Or never making more than $400,000?

         Or China as more people in retirement than working?

         Or cutting the federal deficit by $1 trillion?

         Or going to Iraq and Afghanistan 40 times?

Biden is such liar that its just overlooked because he has told a steady stream of lies throughout his political career.

Is the lawfare conducted against Trump now working in his favor? I wonder if the democrats wished that the trials would put him in jail before the election?

I feel sorry for the Jewish students and professors at schools such as Rutgers, UC Sacramento, Northwestern, Brown and the University of Minnesota that have caved into student demands to disinvest from Israel. Northwestern has also agreed to give scholarships to Palestinians and hire Palestinian professors. Shame on all of them. But of course the campus administrators are leftist “progressives” who likely sympathized with the protestors.

At Columbia and elsewhere the students demanded amnesty when they should have been expelled. Some professors said that they would give everyone an A when they should have flunked out them instead. At UNC one professor said that he would withhold all grades until the administration gave in to the student demands. He should be fired.

Most of the students are ignorant. Many have no idea what they are chanting. When asked to explain “From river to sea” they have no idea what river or what sea.

I don’t understand how parents are willing to pay $90,000 a year for their children to major in such non academic fields as gender studies. What we have is the new generation of college professors in those non academic fields and new teachers who will go into our schools and spread their ignorance to the next generation of students. Likely none of them will be engineers or scientists. Most will be Marxists who favor ending capitalism which has provided them with their wealth. Some have called them useful idiots but I doubt if any of them will be useful additions to society.

What is particularly disturbing is the antisemitism voiced by some law students are some of our most prestigious schools. Thirteen federal judges have said that they would not hire the antisemites. But there are many more that will hire them even though they have disregard for the law.

It will be interesting to see how all of this affects applications to those schools. However, it is clear that many “elite” universities are elite no more.

Lastly, doesn’t it feel that we are less safe with Biden in office? Our adversaries have been emboldened by his incompetence. Russia invaded Ukraine. China is terrorizing the South China Sea and threatening Taiwan. Iran is sponsoring more than a dozen terror groups in the Middle East and Africa such as the Houthis, Hamas and others while trying to make a nuclear weapon. Our southern border is a sieve. It is naïve to think that the terrorist threat to our homeland has not increased.

I saw a car yesterday with a Biden-Harris bumper sticker. Interestingly, the car had an internal combustion engine. I would have thought it would have been electric.

Utility bills have increased by over $20 billion during Biden’s reign with more to come. Europe is now pushing back on net zero because of the costs. When will Americans start to rebel against going green?

The next four years should be very interesting – as in “May you live in interesting times”.

Biden is withholding weapons from Israel that were approved by an overwhelming congressional vote. Why isn’t this an impeachable offense?

It was rumored that Italy paid Muammar Gaddafi $2 billion a year to stop the migrants from reaching Italy. With Gaddafi now gone, the floodgates are open. I was wondering if the US could pay Obrador $2 billion to keep the illegals from entering Mexico. A good friend who knows these things said “No. The cartels would assassinate him immediately.” Then my friend said that he thinks that the Biden Administration has an agreement with the cartels to allow illegal entry into the United States.

No one has mentioned that the new EPA internal combustion engine restrictions will kill the RV industry. The battery banks required to electrify large class A buses will be too heavy and the pickup trucks would not be able to tow the larger fifth wheels. Yet from the RV industry comes only silence.

I am proud of my carbon footprint. I have a big SUV and a diesel pickup to tow my fifth wheel. I also have a Can Am Spyder and a Piaggio motorscooter. 

The positive sentiment of the public regarding the Viet Nam war waned over time with the mounting casualty lists and demonstrations. Will the same thing happen with Israel? Currently, the student demonstrations are having little impact on the public which overwhelmingly supports Israel. Maybe the public just considers them part of the kook fringe as spoiled, privileged, mostly white foul mouth rich kids.

Have you noticed that all the students interviewed and all the professors that are demonstrating are in the Arts and not the Sciences? It is though serious students in business, engineering and the sciences and their (non Muslim) professors are still trying to get an education.

When I attended my niece’s inauguration as president of Harvey Mudd College, the ceremony which was at neighboring Pomona College was delayed when a group lay in front of the auditorium and covered themselves with sheets. The police let the platform party and family into the back entrance and the other participants and attendees were taken to a site on the Mudd campus. Mudd is an engineering school and one of their professors told me that he doubted if any of the protestors were Mudd students. He said they were likely from one of the liberal arts schools because “Mudders were too serious to be engaged in such nonsense.”

If I were in university administration I would have told the students that they can protest but cannot disrupt the business of the university. No encampments. No threats to Jews and Jewish students. No hateful slogans espousing violence. Those who disobey will be expelled (not suspended) from the university. This close to the end of the semester and graduation an expulsion would have a deterring significant impact.

Remember how the media covered the right wing demonstration in Charlottesville? White nationalists, neo-Nazis, the KKK and the alt-right kooks showed up to protest the removal of a Robert E. Lee stature from a city park. The protest turned violent. Trump was president and said that “You had some very bad people in that group. You also had some very fine people on both sides.” The media went ballistic condemning Trump for not unilaterally condemning just those on the far right. Well Biden did much the same thing when he condemned antisemitism and islamophobia. No criticism from the media here. Talking about walking down the proverbial middle of the road.

Why isn’t it hate speech when student protestors say vile things about Jews? Students joined by outsiders are chanting the most vile slogans. Consider “From river to sea, Palestine will be free” advocates the eradication of Israel and the killing of 10 million Jews. How about “Globalize the intifada”? The last time this praised the suicide bombings of temples and Jewish businesses. “Death to Zionists” is hardly subtle. Neither is “Burn Tel Aviv to the ground”. Then there are chants at Jewish students of “Go back to Poland”, “Death to Zionists” and “Go back to Germany and get gassed.” I won’t list the obscene ones.

What about the university in Iran offering scholarships to students expelled by their American universities? I can just see the “Gays for Palestine” and the “Queers for Hamas” flocking to Iran and its warm embrace of the LGBTQ crowd.

My other half watches Fox News. I noticed that they have adopted the language of the left calling illegals “migrants.” On their website they are even capitalizing “B” in black. One wonders if their conservatism is just marketing.

The Republican AGs are the only line of defense against the tyranny of the Biden Administration. Several states have said that they are not adopting the Title IX mandates on transgenders. The EPA is being sued to block its carbon rules which go beyond its authority. There is a suit to block the rule on background checks at gun shows. A suit on the pausing of natural gas exports. The AGs have asked the EPA to stop using civil rights laws to investigate actions and policies in pursuing “environmental justice.” The AGs sued the Department of Agriculture over its LGBTQ guidance (the Department of Agriculture?). The AGs sued when Biden reinstated California’s emission standards. They sue when Biden stopped the Keystone pipeline. They are suing the Biden administration over its policies on school and workplace protections for transgender people alleging that the rules go well beyond the law. There are others as well. Again the question is what are the republicans in congress doing other than making fools of themselves with their endless bickering?

Thoughts on the Israeli-Hamas War

Harold A Black

Don’t get me wrong, I am no fan of Israel. I have never forgiven them for the bombing of the US Liberty and never will. The Israelis and their sycophants worldwide proselytize, cajole, bribe, manipulate, distort and influence politicians and the media. It is therefore interesting that the media has turned on Israel and are sympathetic to the pro Hamas crowd. It is always said that the United States is Israel’s closest ally. That may be true but it is clear that Israel does not return the favor. Israel is primarily focused on its own survival – a fact that I completely understand – and everything is predicated by that fact. I am not opposed to arms sales to Israel but I am opposed to giving them grants when they are perfectly capable of paying for the armaments themselves. I am not opposed to their extermination of Hamas – or Hezbollah – given their threat to the survival of the country. I do not know enough about how to conduct a war, much less urban warfare, to be critical of their tactics in Gaza. However, the mere fact that Israel was totally unprepared for the events of October 7 is a real puzzle. The Israelis have strict gun control laws. One would have expected that every household near their borders would be heavily armed. One would have thought that Israel’s border defenses would be stout and vigilant. One would have thought that there would have been a military presence at the music festival that was ravished by the Hamas raiders. Yet none of that is true. It is as though the Israelis were inviting an attack by Hamas, presumably to give them an excuse for going into Gaza to eradicate the threat. However, the counter to that is why would the citizens living near the border not insist on security 24/7? I have no answers.

Now Israel is poised to go into Rafah despite the warnings from Biden who looks weak by trying to placate both sides. But Israel must go into Rafah or else it would have lost the war, leaving intact the threat of Hamas. Although Hamas cannot be eradicated it can be reduced from a fighting force to a bunch of single suicide bombers. That is Israel’s goal. Some have said that if Israel attacks Rafah it will become a pariah nation. Whoopie. It would then join Russia, China, Iran, Cuba, Venezuela, North Korea, Sudan, Afghanistan, Belarus, Myanmar and more than a few others with that label. 

Israel will only negotiate with Hamas and agree to a cease fire only if it is in Israel’s interests. To have a cease fire without the return of all the hostages would result in the removal of Netanyahu so that is off the table. I think that the reason Hamas has not agreed to release the hostages is that most of them have been killed. Once that is a known fact then all that has transpired will look like child’s play. I think that the gloves will come completely off and Israel will stop trying to somewhat placate its critics in minimizing civilian casualties. Some Israeli apologists have pointed out that the civilian to terrorist ratio is low compared to other conflicts. But how does anyone know given that the civilian casualty statistics come from Hamas?

I have little doubt that Israel will successfully degrade Hamas as an effective military and political force because the Israelis do not care to coddle the opinion of others. They will ignore Biden, the student protestors, the rising antisemitisms in the Western world and do what they think is best. What I think is interesting is that the Arab world seems to be sitting idly by and not coming to the aid of Hamas. Even Hamas’ main patron, Iran is doing nothing visible. Iran’s response to the Israeli assignation of its generals was feeble and impotent at best. Jordan partnered with Israel and the US in thwarting the Iranian missile attack. Egypt has continued to strengthen its border at Rafah to keep the Palestinians out. No Arab country has offered the Palestinians asylum – except of course the stupid Biden Administration. One would think that the Arabs have no love for Hamas and the Palestinians. It appears that their only support manifests itself in the leftist “progressive” politicians, Muslim communities and the impotent protests of a small group spoiled, privileged children on college campuses. 

I was disappointed that Mike Johnson did not attach a southern border security package to the Ukraine funding bill. Given that the majority of both Houses favor funding Ukraine, I thought that such an attachment would win. However, I do not favor Johnson’s ouster. I know that my representative (whom I still like), Tim Burchett is among those who would vote to vacate. But I oppose such a move. Leading republicans today is akin to herding cats and I sympathize with anyone with the gumption to try.

I don’t understand, as I have previously suggested, why Johnson doesn’t have the republicans to enact a simple change in their rules: namely that any motion to vacate must be accompanied by a nominee for speaker. That would end nonsense like Marjorie Taylor Greene’s threats.

Personally, I don’t know why we fund Israel. It is a developed country with a strong economy and actually has a budget surplus. Are the funds grants or loans? I am not opposed to our selling them armaments but I question why we have to give them funds when they have the ability to pay. 

As to Ukraine, it is a European problem and the Europeans need to shoulder most of the load. I understand our commitment to NATO but Ukraine is not a member of NATO. Besides, the EU is a much larger economic entity than Russia so I don’t understand why we get blamed for not supplying the Ukrainians. Why not have the EU purchase the military hardware from us and gift it to the Ukrainians?

I had the worse turkey season ever. Not only were there no gobbles – so I could not locate the birds, I could find no signs on the 70 acres that I hunt in Georgia despite being overrun by turkeys during deer season. Still it was great being back in the woods.

Biden is panderer in chief. He is trying to cancel student loan debt to bribe former students to vote for him. His crushing green agenda is for the greenie weenie vote. He has decided to delay the proposed ban on menthol cigarettes to avoid alienating black smokers. He is trying to walk the Israeli-Hamas war down the middle of the road by criticizing Israeli military tactics while endorsing additional funding for the Israelis. He has become rabidly pro-abortion to keep the women’s vote. But despite all of this, Biden still has the lowest approval ratings of any incumbent president and is running behind Donald Trump.

Speaking of Trump, I once thought that all the indictments were aimed at getting Trump nominated. The democrats thought that the indictments would galvanize the right wing of the republican party around Trump and intimidate the rest into supporting the former president, thinking that Trump was the only republican that Biden could beat. That strategy worked. However, Biden is such a disaster that he has made Trump look good. Now I think the strategy is to bankrupt Trump and to keep him off the campaign trail by tying him up in courtrooms. I think most everyone knows that Trump cannot get a “fair” trial anywhere in the country and that he will lose in New York, Atlanta, and DC even though all the cases against him are a joke. However, he will be forced to spend millions defending himself and will have to expend additional millions upon appeal. I think that each conviction will be overturned on appeal. But the fact that all this is occurring during a presidential campaign cements the Biden and his surrogates as turning the country into a banana republic (without the bananas). 

California has raised its minimum wage to $20 and hour. I am assuming that there might also be benefits with the job meaning that the realized wage is even higher. Not surprisingly, businesses are raising prices with the cost of a Happy Meal now creating frowns. Businesses are also laying off workers. Many small businesses will fail, creating more unemployment in the state that has the highest unemployment rate. I know that California has lost over a million residents but why the remainder put up with this nonsense is beyond me.

I love living in Knoxville. I was going past a local school when I saw young people with signs. I thought “you mean there is a pro-Hamas demonstration in Knoxville?” The signs said “Want swimming lessons?”

AMA: Straight white Christian male doctors are responsible for inequities in health outcomes. Who knew?

Remember Rocky and His Friends when Boris Badenov and Natasha Fatale were turning smart people into idiots by spraying them with goof gas? Well it is obvious that the American Medical Association is one of their victims. How else to explain their stances on social issues? Like many universities and other institutions infected by wokeness, the AMA has produced a guide in which they try to change standard language into woke speak. George Orwell would be proud. The “Advancing Health Equity: A Guide to Language, Narrative and Concepts” should be an embarrassment to all physicians. The guide juxtaposes conventional statements to revised ones. Consider “Native Americans have the highest mortality rates in the United States.” The revision is “Dispossessed by the government of their land and culture, Native Americans have the highest mortality rates in the United States.” Really? Is the “dispossession” of land responsible for mortality rates? Then I guess all those who have their land grabbed by the government under eminent domain must also have higher mortality rates. Or how about “Low income people have the highest level of coronary artery disease in the United States”? The revision is “People underpaid and forced into poverty as a result of banking policies, real estate developers gentrifying neighborhoods and corporations weaking the power of labor movements, among others, have the highest level of coronary artery disease in the United States.” Who wrote this stuff Saul Alinsky? Consider the assertion that health equity is impossible unless there is “explicit recognition and reconciliation of our country’s twin, fundamental injustices of genocide and forced labor.” In the AMA’s own words: “The dominant narratives in American medicine and society reflect the values and interests of the historically more privileged socioeconomic groups—white, heterosexual, able-bodied, cisgendered, male, wealthy, English-speaking, Christian, U.S.-born.” Egads! I guess I should find a queer, nonbinary, poor, non-English speaking crippled, Third World heathen doctor! Understand that the ones who are condemning the above are most likely white males damning themselves. Being an empiricist, I want the AMA to produce evidence that a change in language positively affects medical outcomes. It’s a pretty safe bet that no such evidence exists. Moreover telling the majority of doctors that they are racists and are not colorblind in their practice of medicine does not engender better medicine.

The wokeness of the AMA has spilled down to our medical schools which now ask applicants about their views on racism, diversity, equity, inclusion, sexual orientation and gender identity. I bet that 100 percent of the applicants lie. Not only is wokeness on the application but has also been incorporated into medical education. The AMA says that “we believe this topic deserves just as much attention from learners and educators at every stage of their careers as the latest scientific breakthroughs.” Huh? Boris Badenov strikes again! There have been virtually no studies that have shown that teaching of Critical Race Theory and the woke glossary have produced better outcomes. Rather the research shows that instead of enlightenment, such teaching builds resentment and racial/class strife. I guess toney educations don’t prevent one from being a fool.

Next there is the AMA’s position on transgenders and transgender “care”.  The AMA vigorously supports the use of one’s chosen pronouns and has filed several amici briefs in cases where such pronoun use has been at issue. The AMA is all in stating “Gender-affirming care is medically-necessary, evidence-based care that improves the physical and mental health of transgender and gender-diverse people.” Excuse me? The evidence is to the contrary. Several European countries recognize that gender dysphoria by the young is often the product of mental strife and that most grow out of it. They urge caution in performing surgeries such as the removal of breasts and castration. A recent study in Great Britain showed that the country’s national health service was “failing thousands of children, and prescribing puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones despite “remarkably weak evidence”. 

The British study is a rebuke of the gender-industrial complex. Recall that Vanderbilt University was revealed as one that performed these surgeries and that they were highly profitable – never mind the harm they were inflicting on the children. There has got to be a special place in Hell for the doctors who perform these surgeries. 

Excuse me but are these your bullets? 

An American tourist is being held in jail in the Turks and Caicos because their equivalent of TSA found four hunting cartridges in his bag. He faces up to 12 years in prison. He admitted that the cartridges were his and were from a previous hunting trip. One wonders how our TSA could have missed the cartridges. However, they did and the unfortunate tourist, rather than being faced with a fine, is in prison.

The incident brought back memories of something similar that happened to me on one of my bow hunting trips to South Africa. I landed in Johannesburg and went from the international terminal to the domestic terminal to catch my flight to Polokwane. Going through their security I was summoned to come look at the x-ray of my carryon which showed a rifle cartridge. The agent asked if he could open the bag. I said yes. From it he pulled out a .375 H&H. I told him that I was going bow hunting and did not own a rifle with that cartridge. The H&H is a big bore cartridge used for large game such as rhinos and elephants. The agent didn’t care. He said “it is in your bag so it is yours”. He said he was going to have to call the airport police who would take me to their office for questioning. That would mean that I would miss my flight. The hunt was three hours from Polokwane and the outfitter would be on his way to pick me up and due to the lack of cell phone service could not be contacted. I then asked if there was anything I could do in order to make my flight. The agent then said “walk with me.” He grabbed my bag and walking to the gate said that his friends were “very thirsty.” I took out a $100 bill and asked if he could use this to buy them a Coca-Cola. He held out his hand. I let him palm the money. He gave me my bag and said “Welcome to South Africa.” What he meant of course was “Welcome to South Africa, sucker.” I made my flight. When I told the outfitter what had happened, he said that it was a common scam played on hunters at the airport. I naively thought that when I went to South Africa that I would be greeted as a long lost brother. Silly me. I was just another easy mark.

Another incident occurred on a bear hunting trip to Canada. Although hunting is a major source of revenue, the Canadian custom agents act as though they do not like hunters. We are usually the last allowed to go through customs and are often harassed. On one trip to Alberta, the customs agent pulled a can of bear spray from my bag and informed me that it was considered a “projectile” and not allowed to be brought into the country. I showed him a list of items that the outfitter had suggested I bring with me. One of the items was “bear spray.” I then asked the agent if I could buy bear spray outside the airport. He said yes and that it was available in most every store in the province. He was going to confiscate my spray and because of the letter from the outfitter he was not going to fine me. Instead, he was going to make a record of my transgression and allow me to enter the country. As I was leaving he said “Have a good hunt.”

I posted a note on Congress failing to check the power of the executive. I mentioned that while our elected representatives in congress are fighting over trivial matters, they are failing to govern. In an earlier post I called them “gutless”. Meanwhile the republican AGs are suing the Biden Administration’s abuse of power.Here is the latest example on the absolutely insane mandates of the EPA.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/25-states-hit-biden-admin-legal-challenge-climate-crackdown-gas-cars

What checks and balances?

Harold A Black

When I was in school I was taught that the United States had a system of checks and balances where no one branch of the government could devolve into tyranny given the oversight of the other two branches. The three branches (for those who have been “educated” by our current system) are executive, legislative and judicial. Legislative is divided into the House of Representatives and the Senate who must pass identical bills that are signed by the president to become law. The president can veto the bills and it takes a two thirds vote in both houses of congress to override. The congress can pass a bill, the president can sign it but the courts can rule the bill unconstitutional preventing it from becoming law. Yet even the courts can be overridden by the legislature by passing a constitutional amendment that is approved by two thirds of the states.

In reality, we no longer have a system of checks and balances mainly because the legislators in the House and Senate have abdicated their responsibilities to the executive branch. The executive has usurped the power from the congress through the use of executive orders which do not require congressional approval. Presidents now typically ignore the congress when they feel that their wishes will not be put into law. Remember when faced with a republican congress, Obama famously said “I’ve got a pen”? He signed 277 executive orders. Bill Clinton signed 361 and Donald Trump signed 220. Biden has signed 130 thus far. In 2023 he signed 24 and his administrative state added 90,402 pages to the Federal Register. When Biden first took office, there were a flurry of executive orders as he sought to eradicate the actions taken by Trump. There was the cancelation of the Keystone Pipeline, the stopping of the border wall, and the review of all Trump actions by department and agency heads. Biden then installed pro DEI and LBGTQ policies and aggressively issued rules on climate change including banning internal combustible engines and liquid natural gas. Remember mask wearing, mandatory COVID shots, the Paris Accord, Iran appeasement, immigration, student loan forgiveness and all the rest? But Trump does not get a pass. Remember the Muslim country ban, the shutting down of the economy (with the exception of big corporations) and the tariffs on our allies?

Congress cannot overturn an executive order but they can sue the government stating that the president has exceeded his authority. Please tell me if there are any suits filed by the congress. I can’t find any. However, the states have sued the government with mixed results. Recently a federal judge in Texas found that a rule issued by the Federal Highway Administration was “unauthorized”. The state of Texas brought the suit. The Kansas attorney general and 10 other republican AGs have sued to stop the Biden’s forgiveness of student loan debt. The private sector can sue as did the steel companies who sued when President Truman ordered the steel mills to be seized by the government during the Korean War. The Supreme Court ruled that Truman had overstepped his authority. I guess the automobile companies could sue the EPA mandate that will ultimately ban gas and diesel vehicles. But the auto actually favor the EPA rule because they can dramatically reduce the amount of labor needed to manufacture automobiles and trucks.

The republicans in congress have abdicated their responsibilities to govern and would rather fight amongst themselves rather than impede Biden’s actions. I believe earlier I called them “gutless”. Perhaps they are hoping that the republican governors and attorney generals will sue the government so that they can continue embarrassing themselves. I have a suggestion: why not unite against Biden’s efforts to radically change our institutions, his attempts to divide the races via Critical Race Theory and DEI, to radically shrink the American economy with his industrial policy, to flood the country with illegals, to allow males to compete in women’s sports and emasculating our military? I guess the congressional republicans are hoping that Trump is reelected so they won’t have to do anything useful. There is no doubt that Trump spend his first few days in office overturning Biden’s executive orders and having his appointees roll back the rules of the EPA and the other federal agencies. It seems that the only hope of slowing down the runaway train of climate hysteria and federal wokeness will be Donald Trump. Let’s hope that he is not so caught up in payback and retribution that he will forget to govern.