We have been discussing how the Trump Administration seems to be moving aggressively in the opposite direction of much of the world: betting heavily on coal as an energy source as opposed to renewable energy. One group that does not appear onboard with the shift is the Kentucky Coal Mining Museum in Benham, KY. The museum at Southeast Kentucky Community and Technical College has switched to solar power.
Category: Politics
The Trump Administration has proven to be something of a perpetual motion machine churning out novel ethical and constitutional issues from emoluments to nepotism. The latest involves Dan Scavino, the White House social media director, after he went to his personal twitter account to call for the defeat of Michigan Rep. Justin Amash as a “liability” to the GOP. Amash was one of the conservative members of the Freedom Caucus to bar the effort to replace Obamacare. The tweets have raised questions under the Hatch Act as a form of political advocacy from the White House — a position endorsed by Richard Painter, a chief White House ethics lawyer under President George W. Bush. I am less convinced.
Eric Trump may be a bit off script this week. There are legitimate objections to President Donald Trump making his own daughter and son-in-law official advisors in the White House as the definition of nepotism. I have long been critical of nepotism and, in my view, such hiring should be barred under federal law. However, it is currently legal. That does not make it acceptable for many so the comments of Eric Trump raised eyebrows when he said in a Forbes interview that “nepotism is kind of a factor [sic] of life.”
Continue reading “Eric Trump: “Nepotism Is Kind Of A Factor Of Life””
I have written about my mixed views of coverage of President Donald Trump. On one hand, he has caused much of the negative coverage with sensational and insulting tweets — as well as unforced errors by his White House staff. On the other hand, I have never seen more biased coverage by some major outlets which fail to offer counterarguments in favor of Trump or ignore developments supporting his claims. The recent disclosure that the unmasking of Trump aides may have been ordered by President Barack Obama’s national security adviser Susan Rice is a case in point. The most recent story was published by Bloomberg News. The startling disclosure was all but ignored by major outlets and networks or given only passing attention. As I have said on air, the unmasking allegation is a serious one and it is made all the more serious by the denials of Rice that she had any knowledge of any unmasking. [Update: Rice has gone on air and, while refusing to address the requests to unmask these individuals, she insisted that such requests are not unusual and, if done, were not done for political purposes. She did not deny that she was indeed the person asking for the unmasking of the individuals.]
Below is my recent column in The Hill Newspaper on the increased U.S. involvement in the fighting in Syria and Yemen. As usual, there is little concern (beyond Sen. Rand Paul) over the sending of troops into foreign conflicts without congressional approval or anything resembling a specific declaration of war. Indeed, when members insist that modern national security threats do not make specific declarations or authorizations practical, they sound much like “living constitution” advocates. Yet, we have now engaged in hundreds of military actions with only a small number of declarations and a small percentage of authorizations. As the Framers feared, war has become a continual and unilateral exercise of executive authority.
Continue reading “Textualists and Originalists Are Again AWOL in Wars on Syria and Yemen”
In Kentucky, United States District Court Judge David J. Hale has ruled that President Donald Trump’s statements at a campaign rally could be viewed as incitement to violence. At a March 2016 rally, Trump told supporters to :get ’em out of here” in reference to protesters. Supporters proceeded to assault protesters Henry Brousseau, Kashiya Nwanguma, and Molly Shah who filed this action. Hale rejected the claims that the lawsuit violates President Trump’s free speech protections. They are suing for incitement to riot, vicarious liability, and negligence.
Continue reading “Federal Court Rules That Trump May Have Incited Violence At Kentucky Rally”
While the United States government often discusses the threat of Iran in spreading Islamic extremism, it is often silent on the same influence of our close allies in Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and other countries. Pakistan is reportedly moveing to eviscerate any remaining separation of mosque and state buy making Quran education compulsory in not just public but private schools.
Today I discussed how people should not assume that former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn has committed a crime or is turning on President Trump because his lawyer is seeking an immunity deal. Lawyers often seek immunity as an added protection, particularly in cases with powerful political interests. Moreover, some immunity deals are based on a witnesses information and not necessarily a witness’ culpability. It would seem that one person who would have to be convinced of that fact is Flynn himself. Flynn is shown below in 2016 saying that if someone gets immunity it probably means that you committed a crime.
We recently discussed the shocking effort by a California Democratic legislator to curtail free speech in a reckless effort to combat “fake news.” Now the Democratic California Attorney General Xavier Becerra has brought an equally chilling criminal case against two anti-abortion activists responsible for the videotapes that triggered national protests against Planned Parenthood. The 15 felony counts against David Daleiden and Susan Merritt are breathtaking and even warranted a rebuke from the Los Angeles Times. The prosecution could represent a radical shift toward prosecuting activists from environmentalists to animal right activists to pro life/pro choice protesters in their effort to record alleged abuses or violations.
California Assemblyman Ed Chau (Democrat, Monterey Park) appears to be finally running into opposition over one of the most chilling, anti-speech pieces of recent years. Chau is trying to criminalize “fake news” and in the process would curtail free speech for everyone from parodies to comedies to opinion writers. He is the latest example of how some of the greatest threats to free speech around the Western world today appears to be coming from the left of the political spectrum from speech restrictions on campuses to new criminal laws on inciteful or intimidating speech.
With the health care reform defeat, the Trump Administration is moving aggressively toward new goals including tax cuts in Congress. Today, however, he will keep another pledge and dismantle Obama orders protecting the environment and combating climate change and environmental protection. With the rescinding of the orders, Trump will place the United States in the most anti-climate change posture of any major nation, rivaling even China in the lack of hard commitments to move away from fossil fuels. Indeed, he is expected to open up new leases for coal and relax regulations to allow increased fossil fuel consumption. As I have previously discussed, this move is not only running against the grain of other major nations but against the market itself. While other countries are moving aggressively toward clean energy and green markets, the United States will be moving aggressively backward.
I will be again debating Berkeley Law Professor and former Bush official John Yoo on war powers. This will be our third debate on the subject and will be held in Washington, D.C. at George Washington University. The event will be held on Wednesday at noon in the Moot Court Room at the law school.
Continue reading “John Yoo and Jonathan Turley To Debate War Powers”
There has been an outcry against Iowa State University over a short essay assignment for International Studies students. It is a firestorm that most faculty hardly expect with regard to a singe essay assignment of a minimum of 500 words. However, students were told to “Write a paper that gives a historical account of 911 from the perspective of the terrorist network. In other words, how might Al-Qaeda or a non-Western historian describe what happened.” There have been calls for action by the state legislature. I hope that the state legislature will consider the impact of such action against the values of academic freedom. Faculty often try to force students from looking at issues from different perspectives, particularly in the area of international studies. That does not mean that the school favors Al Qaeda or belittles 9-11.
Below is my column in The Hill Newspaper on the disclosure of the possible surveillance of Trump campaign staff and a decision to “unmask” and distribute transcripts of those interceptions. Fox has reported that there is a “smoking gun” linking the Obama Administration. However, Nunes later went on CNN and seemed to backtrack a bit in saying that he did not actually see the evidence. Evidence will reportedly be brought to Capitol Hill this week.
By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor
Adding another example to the list of government debacles, the City of Federal Way, Washington spent over a year and sixty-two thousand dollars for a new logo design that the city council promptly sent to the bit bucket.
The mayor in an interview says he still believes the money was well spent.
Continue reading “City Pays $62,000.00 For A New Logo Then Tosses It Out The Window”