#i do not trust that there will not be overreach because see: the united states' LONG history of overreach to an *excessive* extent

[uncanny-tranny]

Even if you don't agree with incarcerated people having access to education, monetary compensation for work, or whatever, I really hope you acknowledge that so long as you provide the state incentive to imprison people (free labour or whatever it may be), the state will continuously imprison people - especially for non-violent crime.

[gemsofthegalaxy]

I really really hate that WOTC are *still* trying to deauthorize the OGL1.Oa (still remains to be seen if they legally can but they are going to try and it will be an expensive legal battle to determine the answer)

And I do not trust their "no harmful content" clause for one second. Thankfully, a lot of community members seem to still be talking about the issues with it and not automatically falling for this garbage.

However, I could understand why it sounds okay-ish on paper for WOTC to be allowed to force the removal of 3rd party material over it being "harmful, discriminatory, obscene, or illegal."

But they also get to decide, at their sole discretion, what constitutes "harmful, discriminatory, or obscene", and by publishing under this license, you would be agreeing that you CANNOT challenge their decision.

As a queer person, I am extremely wary of a company in the United States getting to define what "obscene" means to them. Sex-related things are often considered obscene, and "gay and trans people" are often treated as inherently related to sex, which is used as an argument for discriminating and stigmatizing queer communities. Sex itself is often considered bad and inappropriate by many people, even in 2023. Does that mean if I, say, publish a dnd 5e expansion that has "sex worker" as a background, I am violating this rule, despite the fact that sex workers, yknow, exist, and it's not at all unreasonable for adults to want to tell stories and include them in our game concepts?

I really don't trust it. Many things that range from unpleasant to genuinely horrible in real life might fall under "harmful" or "obscene", but might still be fun to play out when you are literally giving the Players and their characters agency over them. Another example, an adventure where a group of fantasy-marginalized characters run a game where they overthrow discriminatory systems (I plucked this one from Roll of Law on youtube).

I fully understand why WOTC themselves, a giant company that is owned by a very family-friendly, whitebread brand, would attempt to put out fairly general, open and non-riqsue content (despite the fact they continuously come under fire for having implicit discrimination in their books and very bad implications with some of their set ups, especially when it comes to character races...) but I do not think 3rd parties should be as restricted and I do not see it as WOTC's responsibility to take those things down, not least because other parts of the agreement state that WOTC does not endorse 3rd party content. Especially not when WOTC get to decide what "harmful" means and there is NO recourse for challenging it or for actually hearing the definition, and no way to know that if you revise the book you could possibly remove the "problematic" elements because they will not tell you what they are.

So. Please don't believe their bullshit. They are using diverse communities as a shield for their overreaching and easily-abused licensing agreement. I do not think you should trust them to use this agreement to try to keep us "safe".

[septembersung]

Alright then (cracks knuckles) here we go:

I’m having trouble fleshing out the give and take of the dystopian future which is the setting for “the next great american (catholic) space novel.” My goal is have several clear factions, in the different parts of the society, with different goals and interpretations, and their fighting around the main characters is the context of the plot.

I’m going to lay out the narrative set up and the goal (so spoilers I guess) and would love suggestions on how to make this work in 3D. I’ve got a crystal clear vision of a hazy concept, as it were.

The year is 2100-something and over regulation and woke think prevails in the United States, politically and in the Catholic Church.

Politically: the government takes overpopulation very seriously, despite rock bottom birth rates; the bogeyman of “resource scarcity” does a lot of heavy lifting. Life and gender issues are legislated in ways that make it difficult to be a faithful Catholic openly or even to mind your own business. The kinds of things you see happening now in various places but ramped up and more universal.

Religiously, I think it would be neat if orthodox Catholics had to operate underground a la China but I need more concrete information to write that. How does one even learn what that���s like? This is a society where the woke version of the faith is the only acceptable one and because of equality and hate speech laws, society gets to enforce that in a way.

Part of the reason I’m having trouble is because I don’t actually care too much about the specifics, I just need an atmosphere of persecution because the protagonist and her people do a lot of “illegal” things and this interplay contributes to the climax. Like, the protagonist’s brother attends an underground seminary with a cover job and her sister is a reporter whose articles hide coded messages to the underground church in diaspora. I’m less interested in why it has to be that way than the fact that that’s just cool and I want to see their adventures.

Another reason is I want real and recognizable problems to illustrate the problem for the characters but I don’t have the political imagination to guess what that could look like. Really I just want a couple solid foundation concepts to set a backdrop for the action which until the very end is pretty much character based.

The story is actually in 3 parts. There’s the “present”, which I’m trying to flesh out politically here, the flashbacks to the founding members of the farm in pioneer days in the form of a rediscovered journal the protagonist reads, and the “future” which takes place in space with the protagonist’s descendant(s).

The arc of the “present” story is that the protagonist comes from a family farm with a long history which has withstood attempts to be bought out for generations and stayed in business by the skin of its teeth and adapting despite governmental overreach and other problems (what other problems? Idk.) She wants to take over the farm some day (her siblings are doing other things) but Something ?? forces her to go to the city and work there where she ends up doing secret pro life work. She wants to come back to the farm permanently. The big new thing is that “life ships” are real now and there’s government versions and private sector versions and deep space colonization is the exciting new frontier. Some people think this is a great win for freedom and some think the gullible are being rounded up for nefarious purposes; some that the government and private sector are in conflict and some think they’re cooperating behind the scenes. Huge ethical questions about governance and what’s real vs misinfo and prisoners and colonization and then there’s smaller but very focal faction that thinks humanity is a blight and shouldn’t continue or colonize, which turns to terrorism. The extended family has tensions within itself and different family groups don’t agree with or trust the others. The tension is, the farm is coming under scrutiny and probably going to be taken away from them; the world is falling apart with wars, famine that keeps coming closer, and then a plague; and the protagonist who wants to stay at home and farm ends up on a life ship against her will. By accident? Forced by the government? Kind of both? Idk.

This story has been in development since like 2017 and I’m a bit annoyed that real life events keep being a little too on the nose tbh.

Also the major fictional private sector life ship corporation is Star Tech, because I’m hilarious. (Don’t tell me if this already exists just let me have my fun.)

If you have fun thoughts to add to the mix feel free to reply here or message me!

For the record I absolutely intend to answer everyone’s questions about these sci-fi dystopian government concepts and generate discussion I’m just chained to real life for a bit and I’ve got to figure out how to make a nebulous concept do words

[astralaffairs]

concept: first lady mc reads of fotp!tjeff’s speeches and edits them for all the things she thinks are stupid or unethical. and he’s like “sweetheart, my party isn’t ready for universal healthcare. i can’t be pissing people off within the first month of my presidency.” but she couldn’t give a fuck and continues marking up his speeches with a red pen all while insisting he gets a new speech writer.

y'all need 2 STOP hitting me w concepts i like this much i have 0 self control and WILL write every damn one of them. there are like 4 sitting in my inbox rn smh.

(by which i mean pls keep sending me concepts like this i love writing fotp drabbles)

---

"What're you still doin' up?"

Y/N's eyebrows shot up as she looked up; a small, tired smile graced her lips as Thomas entered their bedroom, shaking his blazer off as the door fell shut behind him. "Hey. I'm glad you're back," she said softly. "I've just been tying up a few final loose ends with what I've been working on before I go to sleep."

"Can it wait until the morning?" he asked. He laid his blazer on the back of a chair at the side of the room before immediately starting to loosen his tie. "It's gettin' late. And I miss spendin' time with you. You work too much."

She scoffed, but her smile was only growing at his words. "Did you, the President of the United States, just tell me that I work too much?" He rolled his eyes as she spoke, just discarding his tie on the floor beside their bed. "That really is rich coming from you."

"Yeah, yeah, make fun all you want," he said, crossing the room to join her on their couch, "but you always overwork yourself, and you know it. You've been doin' it for as long as I've known you."

"Alright, I'll come to bed in a few minutes." He took a seat behind her, and when he rested his hand on her inner thigh, it sent shivers rippling across her skin. She looked up. "You go get some sleep. I'll finish this quickly. I promise."

"What're you workin' on, anyway?" She didn't protest when he withdrew the paper from her lap, glancing over it, and the corners of his lips quirked up. "Is this the address I'm givin' on Friday?"

"The very same."

"You shouldn't be losin' sleep over this," he said matter-of-factly, turning his head back toward her as he squeezed the top of her thigh lightly. "Either lose sleep spendin' time with your dear, sweet husband who's fucking sick of thinkin' about legislation, or just come to bed, hm?"

He passed her back the paper, instead looping an arm around her waist as he kicked his legs up onto their coffee table, and when he pulled her in to rest against his shoulder, she put up no protest.

"Just five more minutes. I promise." The barely-concealed yawn in her voice made Thomas look down at her skeptically.

"Alright, but I'm holdin' you to that. If you're still working in five minutes, I'll carry you to bed myself."

"No complaints here." She turned her head to kiss the corner of his mouth gently before she turned back to her paper, fidgeting with her red pen as she reached the last page of the document. Thomas's eyes had fallen shut; he was more than content to just sit there with her until she finished, as he had no desire whatsoever to think anymore about pushing his healthcare bill through Congress.

He opened his eyes when Y/N scoffed. Her pen ran down the page in a long slash, and she was pursing her lips as she jotted notes in the margins, but it made Thomas furrow his brow.

"Hey, now, what was so wrong with that paragraph?"

"Seriously?" She raised a skeptical eyebrow, glancing back at him. "You keep treating healthcare like it's some privilege that poor people should have to grovel at the feet of the rich to have access to. It can't be conditional like this."

"I'm not actin' like that," he defended. "I'm just sayin', hiking up taxes threefold isn't a sustainable way to fund this. It'd be an overreach from Congress. We've gotta use money efficiently."

"You fucking libertarian," she muttered. "The part of the bill about work requirements is gonna get killed in Congress. There's no way the House Democrats will vote to pass it unless you get rid of that."

"What's that got to do with my speech?"

"You're misrepresenting the legislation if you keep that paragraph," she said, proceeding to scribble out a sentence in the paragraph after. "And get rid of this. If you're trying to implement a public option, focusing on the private sector will get you nowhere. You're just gonna make people angry."

"I'm not 'misrepresenting' anything." He scowled. "Both those things are important for the bill."

"But this isn't a bill, Thomas; it's a speech," she huffed. "Anyway, the legislation needs to be universalized, or you can't 'mitigate poverty' how you claim to. Do you have any idea how many of the people who can't meet the work requirements on healthcare are going to end up in poverty because they can't afford the care they need?"

"I hear you," he started, "but this is the best way to make it more affordable without tankin' the economy."

"Have you even considered capital gains taxes?"

"That's gonna kill entrepreneurship."

"You're so full of it sometimes," Y/N scoffed. "'Entrepreneurs' won't be affected. It only affects, like, Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg, and they have so many assets that it literally doesn't matter."

"I'm not gonna sit here and argue with you about this. I'm not sayin' you're wrong, but I am sayin' this bill needs to be somethin' I can convince the Senate to pass," he said, and Y/N rolled her eyes.

"Then write a new bill that doesn't mean the people who are the worst off don't get coverage," she said, jotting that down on the side of the paper, "because this doesn't resolve the issue."

"I'll bring it up when I get the chance," he assured her, and she glanced back at him with a grateful smile. "Can I ask why this is so important to you?"

"Because I'm an empathetic person, and I care about people?" she replied, tone scathing, and he raised an eyebrow.

"Woah, there. That wasn't an attack, sweetheart," he said. "What's got you worked up?"

"I'm not 'worked up,'” she bit back, but when he gave her an apologetic look, gaze soft, her annoyance began to subside. “This is just a sore subject for me." Y/N finally lowered the paper in her lap, turning her head toward Thomas. "I know I've told you about how long my parents spent in the hospital before they passed."

"Yeah. Yeah, you have," he said softly. He turned, orienting himself in Y/N's direction so he could pull her into his lap, and while she sighed, she laid back against his chest.

"When they died, I was left with most of their healthcare debt," she continued. "I was living far below the poverty line for almost a decade because of it."

"I'm so sorry," he whispered, and she laced her fingers into his with his arms around her waist.

"It was a long time ago," she replied. "I just don't want anyone else to end up in anything like the situation I was in. Nobody deserves that."

"No, they don't. I'll see what I can get past Congress." He kissed the side of her neck, and she hummed contentedly, squeezing his hands. "But I've still gotta discuss my plan for healthcare on Friday, so stop demolishing my speech."

"You asked me to look over it," she said frankly, and though her eyes had fallen shut when she laid against him, she cracked one open to glance at him skeptically. "These are my edits. Change the bill."

"That's an awful weighty edit, sweetheart."

"Hey, I also improved your phrasing," she went on, holding his paper up where they could both see it. "I'm making your speech better, don't complain about it."

"You cut my section about deductibles?"

"No one wants to talk about deductibles, babe." She tapped the paper with the back of her pen. "They want to know whether they'll be insured or not. They won't listen to the nuances of your bill in your public address. You're going to need a press release for that."

"And the part about family values?"

"It was useless." She shrugged. "I know you're just pandering to your party and all, but it sounded stupid in the context of the speech."

"Harsh," Thomas said, and the offense in his voice was mostly dramatized. Y/N pursed her lips. "But I can't be breachin' party lines in this speech. I'm not gonna get anything done if I turn the Senate Republicans against me."

"Listen, I'm not a political strategist, so that's your prerogative," she said matter-of-factly. "But if you don't like my feedback on your speeches, then hire a damn speechwriter, Thomas."

He hummed reluctantly. "But havin' you review my speeches gives me an excuse to spend more time with you. I don't have a whole lotta interest in having even longer meetings with White House staffers."

"Then take my edits to heart." She pursed her lips. "You know very well that I'm the only reason you have bipartisan support. If I didn't pick fights with you once a week about green energy, all the Democrats would still oppose all your stances on it."

"I'll look back over the speech in the mornin', then," he decided, and she shifted on the couch to face him, legs still draped over his lap. "I trust you."

"Good," she replied, and she looped her arms around his neck as she pulled herself up to kiss him. "But stop exploiting my degree in journalism."

"I'm not exploitin' it."

"Then what do you consider asking your wife to edit your speeches pro-bono to be?"

"A nice li'l side effect of managin' to convince someone so smart to marry me." She laughed as he pulled her back in to kiss him, but she gasped when he bit her lip teasingly, and his mouth drifted down her neck. "I love you," he murmured against her skin.

"I love you, too."

With that, Thomas hooked his arm up under her legs, and his smile widened against her neck when she yelped as he picked her up. "Now, I seem to remember sayin' something about carryin' you to bed if you were workin' for more than five minutes, so you don't get to negotiate anymore."

She squirmed in his grasp, but any of her efforts to get out of his arms weren't in earnest. She huffed. "So much for respecting personal liberty. Just wait until your voting bloc finds out all that rhetoric was just a lie."

"Oh, hush, let's not pretend you mind," he said as he tossed her down onto their bed, and she bounced when her back hit the mattress. He didn't hesitate to climb on after her. Though she tried to pull herself up to rest on the throw pillows, Thomas was on his hands and knees above her; she didn't have much of a range of movement when he dipped down to kiss her. "If you did, you wouldn't have married me."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever, Jefferson," she grumbled, despite wrapping her arms around his neck. "Talk all you want, but I dunno how smug you're gonna be when I up and leave you one of these days."

He grinned. "You know I don't buy that for a second." She rolled her eyes, but the corners of her lips twitched upward when he kissed her forehead. "You love me too much."

Despite everything, Y/N could feel herself flush. "Just go put on some pajamas so we can go to sleep."

"Alright, if you insist," he huffed, rolling off of her. "Be right back."

"You'd better hurry, or I might run off with Dolley and elope," she called after him, and Thomas laughed.

"'S cute, but we both know you aren't goin' anywhere."

"And why not?"

He raised a confident brow. "I'll tie you down if that's what it takes to keep you here, sweetheart."

"Wouldn't be the first time," she mumbled, turning to discard the throw pillows from the bed onto the floor.

When she looked back at him, his grin was still wide, smug, but the look in his eyes was soft. She pursed her lips as her own smile broadened. "Now go change. I'm not going to sleep without you."

"Fine. You need some rest.”

“Yeah. So do you.”

[lady-plantagenet]

Tumblr History Ask meme, No. 30! (An AU where George was never executed but Edward IV still dies at 40, and his sons both die of the plague or sweating sickness, leaving GEORGE to be King of England! what think you? 😆)

Hohoho ho. I have a lot of thoughts on this. Hell I even wrote an entire fictional AU series on AO3 on this topic - you can find it here (please R&R I’m desperate). So yes sorry for the late reply and I really hope you enjoy my usual bursting out in an essay (as per usual). Mwah x

Without speaking about it anymore and spoiling I’ll just answer your ask straight. Ok so George becomes king. Princes dead or not this may still cause issues because technically speaking Elizabeth of York has a stronger claim to the throne (Edward IV recognised the same in 1469 and before presenting her as his true heir presumptive not George).

While on a practical level George would easily be able to hold the throne against Elizabeth of York (who on her own did not command enough support to overthrow Richard III despite the illegitimacy rumours not really being considered as true by most), if Elizabeth married and got a son it would wreak havoc. Everytime King George fails in any way people will look at Elizabeth’s son as an alternative. Sure he could pull a King John I and keep her unmarried under house arrest until the end of her days (what happened to his niece Eleanor of Brittany) but how will he manage to do this will all 5 sisters?

There are many things to consider, for one, George was popular in London and if there was an outspread plague and he gave the princes a state burial I really think people could believe him that they were not murdered. Not to mention under these circumstances, Richard III would be the protector so the blame would fall on him anyway - pretty excellent for George id say. Hell he could even use the kid’s death as some sort of God’s divine judgment propaganda against his brother’s reign. He would need to continue denigrating Edward because his daughters (as explained above) will continue to be an issue. He would most likely continue with the ‘Edward IV was a bastard’ rumour. Otherwise, George could use the ‘by law I’m Lancaster’s heir’ as some sort of further support his reign and why he can overreach his nieces and their sons.

Another question remains ~ is Isabel dead or not? Assuming you mean this is 1483 and she dies, I am certain George would get remarried once he becomes king because while his part in the Mary of Burgundy marriage shamaz remains unclear I think what it shows is that he was more likely than not to want to remarry. This need would further increase if he became king because two young children (only one of which is a boy) is no secure line of succession. George took no decisive steps to get married to Mary upon his brother’s refusal (eg scheming for a dispensation or trying to go abroad) so I will assume that in this timeline George remains unmarried until 1483 and Mary dies in 1482 as canon. Mary (and his sister Margaret behind her) would have gained him great support in keeping the throne, England and Burgundy would have pretty much united (if Edward of Warwick died prematurely and George and Mary’s son became the next king) and England may have become the dominating European power as opposed to the Habsburg empire.

However since Mary is out of question, I can’t think of some other foreign Princess at that time that would have brought with her considerable power. George seems to have had no wish to war with France so that’s nice. I can’t say that Louis XI had great admiration for him but his place in the Picquiny committee (one of the four) implies that France trusted that he would keep the peace. George (mostly because of Warwick) was hated in Burgundy but Margaret clearly would have guided Maximilian (Mary’s real husband who took up control after she died) towards good relations with England and given Maximilian’s support of the York Pretenders in Henry VII’s reign I think he was the type of man who had no strong opinions towards any individual in England so would have been fine with it.

Anything else is difficult to say. George was described by Hicks (who is very very un-pop-history in his biography/PhD thesis of George) as a man ultimately unsuited to his role because of his temperament. His actions even before Isabel’s death do suggest something like that but the way he was after her death (Dec 1476 - May/June 1477) was just so uncharacteristically erratic and one-after-another that many people (including me) think it was him becoming unstabilised by his wife’s death as opposed to a reflection of his general fortitude and decision-making capabilities. So I ask: was it a phase he would have gotten out of by 1483 or was he permanently going to stay this way even if he did get remarried? I don’t think he was mad - certainly not, but a bit perturbed definitely and I don’t know how it would affect some aspects of his reign eg being merciful, pardoning people who’ve done him wrong, giving patronage of influence to his ministers... etc. However, if he did get out of this phase (or at least calmed down a bit by 1483) I think he could have genuinely been a good king. His role as a regional magnate shows him as generous, pious, eloquent, handsome, popular, refined, extremely knowledgeable of the law and good at peace-weaving. On a downside he also seemed inflexible in his approach, disproportionately harsh on certain penalties (eg Poaching), quick to act in certain aspects yet full of procrastinative habits in others, prideful, vengeful, susceptible to flattery, suspicious and with something suggestive of an overly superstitious personality.

Nevertheless, it is one thing to be a baron and another thing to be king. George had become quite detached from the national stage (let alone the international) towards the end of his life so he would have a lot of catching up to do. And as always is the issue with a king coming from the nobility and not the crown directly, there may be factional issues and the Neville affinity might expect certain favours and privelages from him especially since his heir Edward comes from their line. As we know, Neville support for George waned after Isabel’s death but the few that remained would expect great favour from him - this being at odds with those who were in power during Edward IV’s reign eg William Hastings, Anthony Woodville etc. After all, they really saw him as their earl (Rous speaks of him in the same terms as he spoke of his predecessors the Beauchamps).

George would inherit a country full of administrative issues and as much as I believe he was genuinely concerned with ‘the common weale’ and deserved all the praise given to him by his contemporaries, I see him falling into the same trap as Edward IV. Circumstances would likely force him to strengthen the crown’s authority and people would call him a hypocrite for this. Otherwise, he would let himself become a small centre around which others revolve but I don’t know if his pride would allow that either. Nevertheless, I think he would lead England into the ‘renaissance’ culturally. He would continue patronising the printing press, continue with the previous monarchs’ cultural endowments of colleges, churches and such (as he had done in his own lands), he would also share in Edward’s popularity with the city and trade (he gave great privileges to his burgesses says Rous, his permanent retinue had burgesses in them and many other stuff point to him respecting the place of trade) - though he wouldn’t engage in them because (as according to Hicks and others) he didn’t have a good business sense. This could go at odds against him most likely attempting to retain military retention privelages to the barons which in itself was a factor which worked against the development of a early modern state. This is the odd thing about George, in some ways he appears beyond his time and in other behind his time. All we can hope is that Warwick had tried to cultivate him a bit in national leadership and that it stayed with him.

Will he reign peacefully or get deposed? It could go either way but I am certain his reign would be filled with problems. If he gets his own Bosworth (with his niece’s sons or Henry Tudor) I think he would get romanticised as the last Plantagenet king in case of the latter because unlike Richard III he wouldn’t have nephew killing as his issue. A saving grace of George was that he was a master propagandist so I have bit of faith in his posterity and image and I think it could have made his reign flow more smoothly to a degree.

[96thdayofrage]

No, Biden, This Is About Freedom and Personal Choice

  No, Biden, This Is About Freedom and Personal Choice – Reason.com                

It's time to stop "states of exception" that justify government overreach into more and more of our lives.                                                                                         

There is every reason to believe that President Joe Biden's vaccine mandate for COVID-19 will not survive legal scrutiny even as compulsory vaccination for the disease enjoys broad popularity among the public. As former Rep. Justin Amash (L–Mich.)—like me, a pro-vaccine, anti-mandate libertarian—has bluntly noted, "There is no authority for this. This is a legislative action that bypasses the legislative branch."

The courts will almost certainly strike down this executive branch overreach and the sweeping new rules that wave away longstanding distinctions between public and private spheres of activity. This is what happened to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's eviction moratorium. It's foundational to American life that the president is not a king who can subject citizens to his whims.

Yet the most important passage in Biden's remarks reveals a governing philosophy that should give all Americans pause, especially in light of the massive and ongoing expansion of the federal government over the past several decades. After duly noting the "progress" made in terms of vaccinations, Biden pulled up short to say that we the people are just not doing what he wants when he wants:

This is not about freedom or personal choice. It's about protecting yourself and those around you — the people you work with, the people you care about, the people you love.

My job as president is to protect all Americans. So tonight, I'm announcing that the Department of Labor is developing an emergency rule to require all employers with 100 or more employees that together employ over 80 million workers to ensure their work forces are fully vaccinated or show a negative test at least once a week.

As Jeffrey A. Singer, a surgeon and senior fellow for the Cato Institute, has noted, COVID-19 has a "0.2 percent fatality rate among people not living in institutions." Fully 80 percent of deaths have occurred among people over 65 and just 358 children under the age of 17 had died of the disease as of July 29, 2021. We are not talking about smallpox, which affected all populations and had a fatality rate of 30 percent. COVID, argues Singer, "will not be eradicated" and will become a small-scale, endemic problem that should be minimized by targeted interventions to protect the most vulnerable. From a public health perspective, it should not become the casus belli for a radical restructuring of society and a massive expansion of presidential (or governmental) powers.

Vaccines are not only effective against getting COVID-19 in the first place, they virtually guarantee you will not die or even be hospitalized if you do contract it. Let Washington state's King County—where the first cases of COVID presented back in early 2020—stand in for the nation as a whole. Unvaccinated people there are seven times more likely to catch COVID, 50 times more likely to be hospitalized, and 30 times as likely to die. Age-adjusted death rates show the benefits of vaccination in unmistakable terms (see chart above).

The rapid development and deployment of safe and effective vaccines—a medical miracle that could have gone months faster had the Food and Drug Administration not acted as ploddingly as a wizened old draft horse—makes possible the return to normalcy that was promised in the early days of the pandemic. We are now capable of setting and enforcing our own risk limits on what sorts of activities we want to do. The information is out there and individuals, employers, and establishments can set and are setting their own rules based on what they want. If we don't all agree, that's not chaos, that's freedom in all its unregimented, varied glory. It allows comedian Patton Oswalt to cancel shows in places that won't follow his protocols while letting other performances to take place under less-stringent conditions.

As important, the "vaccine-hesitant" are hesitant for all sorts of reasons. Poorer people tend to be less vaccinated than average, and so are blacks and Hispanics and younger people, and, weirdly, people with doctorates. A flat, imperious mandate that doesn't speak to these groups' differing concerns will only sharpen political and cultural divides even as Biden claims to be acting in the name of national unity. This is already happening, as individuals and groups are becoming less nuanced in their responses and simply signing up for whatever political tribe they feel bound to. Hence, a sizeable chunk of conservative Republicans are not simply anti-vaccine mandate but anti-vaccine, and the ACLU, which only a few years ago denounced most vaccine mandates, has now fully embraced them. While done in the name of protecting "all Americans," Biden's mandate clearly escalates ongoing culture wars.

So even as he ends the war in Afghanistan, Biden beefs up the war on COVID. It's understandable, wanting to be a wartime president, whether the threats to the country are truly existential or mostly invented and overstated (as they certainly were in the war on terror). Being at war ushers in what the Italian philosopher Giorgio Agamben calls a "state of exception," which allows the leaders of nominally limited governments to suspend restrictions on their power.

Heavily influenced by Michel Foucault, who like the public-choice economists argued that power is routinely expanded using medicalized "helper rhetoric," Agamben was a leading critic of the global war on terror when Western powers, including and especially the United States, vastly expanded surveillance, police, and military actions in the wake of the 9/11 attacks—always in the name of defending a free society (go here for a video lecture I gave at Bard College on this). When his Italian government started one of the first and most draconian lockdowns related to COVID-19, he sounded the alarm again even as many of his leftist allies called him crazy. Yet over the past several decades, governments at all levels in the United States and elsewhere have squandered whatever trust and confidence we once accorded them. When it comes to the Covid-19 response, our official agencies can no longer claim the benefit of the doubt due to an ongoing series of "arbitrary, dubious, and ever-changing recommendations."

Yet rather than use persuasion and dialogue to get his way, Biden is invoking a state of exception as the pretext for issuing a massive expansion of his power over more and more aspects of our daily lives (Donald Trump, Barack Obama, George W. Bush, and other past presidents all did something similar, of course). We must push back not simply because of what his new order would actually do but because of the expansion of political power it continues and expands.

We want to live in a country and a world in which "freedom or personal choice" is growing, not constantly being swept aside as an obstacle to a leader's plan.

[cursivescrawl]

Rescue

Rating: PG-13 Category: Elementals Summary: “Father’s wrath,” Hawk whispers.  “What happened here?”

“Fuck,” snarls Flash as he storms into Jen's room.  “Grace.  You in here?”

Grace jumps from her half-doze, one hand going to her sword hilt, pulse hammering in alarm.  “What is it?”

“I need your permission.”  His hand flutters at his side, tapping his thigh.  Grace glimpses red in the dark irises shaded by Flash's cowl. “To authorize a mission.”

Images flicker into Grace's mind, the viewpoints of her teammates.  They've all been approached by members of Feline Team – Fire to Fire, Water to Water, Wind to Wind, and Earth to Earth.  And all of them are displaying similar signs of nervousness.

Leaden dread adds force to Grace's pounding heart.

“Permission?” she repeats, struggling to stay calm.  “Panther, you're the Second. You don't need my permission.  You outrank-”

“Oh, for fuck's sake,” Flash snaps, then lowers his voice, glowering.  “Just listen-”

“It's a search and rescue,” says Zephyr to Vani, his words echoing in Grace's hearing.  “They're under”

“your jurisdiction,” says Flash.  “Courage,”

“Patience,” says Lake to Leah. “Metallic is alive.”

Silence settles thick over the ringing in Grace's ears.  Metallic Team.  Her team's former apprentices.  The four young warriors haven't been seen in over a month, not since that mission to track and burn a Colorado nest of wights.  Even optimistic Elizabeth had started to assume they'd died.

But, and the thought is flavored with Leah's indecision, there haven't been any bodies found.  No proof of Metallic's murder.

Flash – and his team – are speaking again, so deep in their own connection that they trade words and talk in one voice.  Grace listens numbly.  She wishes she could tune out Vani's hope, Leah's anxiety, Elizabeth's determination.

Metallic has been captured, Feline Team is saying.  They are being held by the Winters. The base is quite near to where Metallic burned out those wights.

(Guilt clouds Grace's thoughts.  Why did she override her teammates' objections, why did she push to give Metallic that mission?  Everyone else had known they weren't ready.  Elizabeth reaches out, taking the guilt upon herself – they all should have known.)

“Where did you-” Leah begins, looking at Lake.  But she trails off, and Elizabeth finishes the sentence for Jag.  “-learn this?”

“Rozzo informant,” Zephyr says to Vani.  “It was a bribe. They want us to ignore that, ah,”

“tussle,” supplies Lake.

Zephyr flicks his hand.  “-that they had with Yuugao,”

“which caused the latest tornado,”

“in Oklahoma,” Flash finishes.

Grace's head aches.  Teams showing off their connection are the worst.

But Metallic.  Metallic is alive.  Leah's voice whispers that running chant in the back of Grace's mind, in the back of all of their minds.

“Where are they?” Grace asks.

“Utah,” says Flash.

Zephyr spins over to a detailed map of the continental United States on the wall of the Wind planning room and considers it.  Then he pins a certain location.  “Here.”

“It's a closed ski resort,” says Lake.

It's very near to the site of the old church, Vani realizes after a moment of looking.  She's furious.  Why had they sent Metallic there?  The team connection wavers, frays, and Grace joins her in anger until their minds steady back together.  Her nails bite into her palms.

There were other teams.  Metallic could have been spared this fate.

If the Holders were awake, they would know what to do.

Once again it's Elizabeth who pulls the team from grief.  She examines the chalkboard on her wall that holds the names of the Daytime teams available to take assignments.

“We'll dispatch someone in the morning,” says Grace.  Her voice shakes. “Dimension, or Sin-”

But Jag and Zephyr are shaking their heads, and Lake makes a noise of dissent, and Flash speaks.  “No.  It has to be tonight, because,”

“we don't know what they're doing,” bursts out Zephyr.  “And if they know we know,”

“they'll know we're coming for Metallic, and they'll,”

“probably kill them.”  Jag crosses his arms.  “That's why,”

“we need to dispatch Raptor Team.  Now.”

Raptor Team?  Leah stares at Lake, who spoke last.  “But Raptor is just as young as Metallic.”

“We,” says Flash, “did not shelter our apprentices,” says Jag.

Grace winces.  Had they done Metallic a disservice by not letting them fight earlier?

Maybe they'd been wrong, ventures Leah.  Grace can feel her pulse speeding up to match her anxious teammate's.  Raptor was fighting.  Maybe Metallic could have been useful, if they'd been allowed to be.

But Raptor was a Nighttime team.  They mostly dealt in spies and skirmishes.  Elizabeth's logic cut through the anxiety, calm and collected.  Metallic was Daytime, like Virtue themselves, and they would have been on the front lines.

If they weren't ready now, they certainly wouldn't have been before.

“Do you trust Raptor enough for this?” whispers Vani.

Zephyr makes an impatient movement with his hands.

“Yes,” Flash snaps.  “We wouldn't suggest it otherwise.”

Elizabeth tightens her ponytail.  They're all looking to Grace, offering opinions, waiting for her decision.  She closes her eyes and tries to focus on her own thoughts.

Metallic is captured.

Metallic must be rescued.

Feline Team seems confident that it can happen tonight.

What kind of a mentor, what kind of a Champion is Grace if she lets them suffer one moment longer than necessary?

There's no other option when she thinks of it that way.  Elizabeth supports her; Vani and Leah fall into line.  The disparity of thought and Grace's headache subside.

“Alright,” she says without opening her eyes.  “We give you permission.  Bring back Metallic Team safely.”

The door opens, then closes.  In her mind's eye Grace sees the other members of Feline Team leave her teammates alone.  Grace stumbles over to the chair at Jen's bedside and sinks down again, exhausted, keyed up, nauseous, famished.

Soon, whispers Vani, a single word and multiple sentiments.

Soon, Elizabeth echoes.

“Maybe,” says Leah aloud to a silent room.

“Soon,” says Grace, louder, to her Holder's corpselike figure.

None of them will be sleeping tonight.

There's no future, thinks Alyss, in rushing.

Tori dryly points out that she'd thought it in Flash's sardonic voice.  Raina laughs.  Alyss redirects them both back to their mission.

Nothing's happening, Tori protests.  Her great wings scoop at the air as she circles lazily over the Winter base, an unassuming little lodge perched among ski slopes. Everything's quiet.  We're good to go in.

We are not walking in the front door. Audrey is ridiculously firm about this.  There's at least fifteen traps set up, and I feel footsteps inside.  Hold your horses.

Raina and Alyss exchange nervous thoughts.  Raina patrols around the edge of the base, marking out paces and finding wards in the darkness.  Alyss stands over Audrey, who is kneeling in the powdery snow with her hands pressed to the hard earth underneath, focused on sensing and changing her element.

A cloud passes over the moon.  Alyss shivers.  Her cloak doesn't do this weather justice.

“Um,” murmurs Audrey.  Her connection wavers.  Something else is stealing her concentration.  “There's something- underneath-?”

“Underneath?” repeats Alyss in a whisper.  She relays the words to Raina and Tori.  “Underneath where?”

Audrey doesn't answer immediately.  Then she sits back on her heels, tugs her gloves off, and presses her bare hands to the earth instead, shivering.

Wards. Osprey-?

On it, Raina responds after a moment of searching Audrey's mind.  Alyss half-closes one eye to watch as Raina finds a certain ward marking and carefully, ever so carefully, alters it by degrees until Audrey can get through.

It's a bit of a risky move.  Alyss frowns.  If a Winter Elemental notices that alteration, they'll be found out immediately.  But information is a good thing, so it's probably worth it.

One heartbeat of silence.  Two. Three.  Tori turns for another circle over the lodge, keeping a close watch on Raina as Alyss watches Audrey.

Four. Five.  Six.  Something rustles; Alyss whirls around, her hands going to her knives, before the distinctive thud of Tori's hand-mounted crossbow slams over her head.  A rabbit leaves a bloody skid trail across the powdery snow.

“Ew,” Alyss grumbles.  Its dead eyes stare at her.

Sorry.

Focus, you idiots, hisses Raina. Audrey is too wrapped up in her magic to respond.

An owl hoots somewhere.

Audrey gasps and jerks up, shaking snow from her hands, trembling.  Alyss drops to one knee beside her.

“What is it?”

Audrey's eyes fade from green to brown, focus on Alyss, and she struggles to form words.  Images and sensations flow into Alyss through the team connection.

A familiar power.  Voices she hasn't heard in months.  A scream she has never wanted to hear.

“Metallic,” Audrey breathes.  “They're-”

Alive, says Tori.

“Here,” says Alyss.

Shit, says Raina.  She dives to the side, rolling through the powder just as a silver blade pierces the ground where she was.  Her spear forms in her hand.

The Winter Elemental is a flash of pale fury in the night.  Frost entraps Raina's hand as she tries to get up; she slams it with the butt of her spear, spins the spear, blocks his blade with her shaft as she struggles to her feet.

Here!

It's Tori.  Raina ducks and tilts her spear.  The Winter Elemental overreaches, draws back, spins once more to face Raina, just before Tori drops from the sky and kicks him to the ground.

A gust of wind blows her to a softer landing than the Winter had. Raina lunges forward, burying the point of her spear in the Winter's throat.

Alyss watches through Raina's eyes as he goes into his dying convulsions.

Audrey stands up, pulling her gloves back on.  There goes secrecy, she grumbles.

Fuck secrecy, says Alyss, Metallic is here.  She looks around the dark resort, formulating a quick plan.  Are those footsteps? They'd better not be.  She reaches for her knives just in case, scanning the night as she directs her teammates.

There isn't time to argue.  They all know that.  Raina begins breaking wards, shattering the Winter Elementals' protections with carefully careless swipes of power and spear.  Tori kicks into the sky, summoning a wind that bites at Alyss' face and threatens to sweep her hood off, sealing the door of the lodge shut.  Audrey drops to her knees and clears a section in the snow, then begins murmuring under her breath.  And Alyss puts her head down against the wind and sprints.

The lodge didn't seem so far away when Alyss was looking at it through Tori's birds-eye view.  Now twenty meters seems like twenty kilometers.  The wind kicks up snow, driving, howling, as Alyss forges through the cold as quickly as she can.  Tori can't really shield Alyss without draining more of her power than she needs to use here.

Finally Alyss can see the lodge.  It's hardwood, she thinks, squinting – definitely not concrete or cinderblock, which is absolutely fine with her.

Putting the wind to her back, she circles around until she's in the lee of the lodge.  Fire scorches her skin.  The feeling of Winter Elementals is close – like the freezing wind on her face, cutting open her chest, striking deep into her heart.

She reaches out and calls fire to her fingers.

Warmth courses through her veins, shutting out the pain in Alyss' chest. She stares hard at the lodge and imagines it in flames.

She huffs a sharp exhale.

Pure crimson power leaps from her fingers to the wood.

A Winter Elemental shrieks from inside.  Alyss steps back and raises her hands, concentrating on the tiny flame, feeding it power so it will catch and burn brighter.  Edged with black, it begins to spread.

The wind redoubles, blocking off exits, forcing Alyss to drain more of her power.  A stitch pierces her side.  The reserves of her strength are depleting quickly – but it doesn't matter, not now, because the flames found pine sap and in a satisfying whoosh they catch light and burn alone.

Alyss steps back.

Impulse through the connection.  Here.  Now. Audrey ducks into the tunnel she's made, scrambling down into the earth.  Tori folds her wings and dives for it.  Raina yanks herself through the connection to Alyss' side, her cowl blown back from her face, her cheeks chapped.

“C'mon,” she yells.

They sprint together.  The Winter Elementals scream from inside the burning lodge.  Alyss tries her best not to hear.

The tunnel, where is the tunnel.  Here.  Raina nearly trips into it. Alyss lunges, seizes her upper arm, helps her teammate descend before jumping in herself.

Audrey steadies them both.  Tori's wings are gone; dissolved back into air, too large for this cramped little crawlspace.  With a gesture of Audrey's hand, the tunnel seals.

“That won't last long,” she gasps aloud.

Alyss flicks fire to her fingers.  Raina uses the light to straighten her cloak and pull up her hood again.  Tori looks paler than usual.

“Let's go,” Alyss whispers.

Audrey leads the way.  Tori reloads her crossbow with another bolt, relying on Raina's touch to guide her.  And Alyss brings up the rear.  This isn't one of Audrey's better tunnels – it's rough, unfinished, there is dirt falling everywhere and certain places where they have to squeeze through narrow passageways in rock.  But it's better than trying to fight their way through an entire base of Winter Elementals.

Minutes pass in silence.

Alyss feels it when the fire dies aboveground.  It's like an absence of warmth in her core, a deep exhaustion reaching to her bones.  She stumbles.  Raina reaches back to steady her.

Audrey pauses.

“Just a little further,” she whispers.

“Good,” hisses Tori, claustrophobic and antsy.  Alyss grits her teeth and draws on Audrey's strength to ease the exhaustion.

“Go.” She pushes Audrey lightly.

A few more steps, and the tunnel widens into a stone-cut hallway. Alyss stumbles out after her teammates.  Tori turns one way; Raina steps out and turns the other; aiming crossbow bolt and spear point at opposite ends of the hall, watching, waiting.  

Audrey unsheathes a dagger.  Alyss fits the hilts of her knives into her hands.

Footsteps pound down stairs, echoing in the stone corridor.  Tori closes one eye.

“Osprey. Your side,” she says after a moment.

Raina's grip tightens on her spear.  Shouts of panic, of rage, echo from Alyss' right.  She and Audrey turn together to flank Raina.

The first Winter Elemental appears – a woman with fluffy white hair and a wicked-looking crystal battleaxe.

Audrey draws one foot back and throws her dagger.

The Winter deflects it easily.  It spins away and sinks into the stone wall.  The ground trembles.   Alyss can feel it as Audrey draws power from them all, from the team connection.

She gasps with effort.  Cracks web out from her dagger.  The Winter is almost upon them, and Raina steps out once more, leveling her spear. More Winter Elementals are rounding the corner.

“Owl!” Tori hisses.

Audrey convulses and drops to one knee, slamming the heel of her palm into the ground.  The stone ceiling caves in with a shattering, dusty sound, rock crashing and Winter Elementals screaming and bones breaking with awful crunch sounds.

The charging Winter falters.  Alyss hesitates only a moment before she leaps forward with her knives drawn.

The Winter crumples in her own blood.

Tori lowers her crossbow hand and kneels by Audrey.  The Earth is panting and pale.  Sweat beads on her forehead.

“Come on,” she gasps.  “Gotta-”

“Hold up,” Tori murmurs, pressing her hand to Audrey's forehead.  Alyss waits.  The connection wavers, then stabilizes as Tori gives up some of her power to keep Audrey going.

“New ability?” Raina asks as Tori helps Audrey up.

“Wanna sleep for a week,” Audrey replies, grimacing.  “C'mon.  Metallic should be close.”

They walk.  Part of Alyss wants to run, but she forces herself to keep to a steady, though brisk pace.  She can't leave Audrey behind.  Her teammates are too important to take chances.

Feline Team didn't tell them who they'd be rescuing.  Alyss isn't sure where the thought starts, but within moments, everyone is focused on it. Why?  Does Feline not trust them to keep their cool?

“Maybe they're trying to lead Astral-style,” Tori says aloud.  Her thoughts clarify the statement, showing incidents in which the Holders gave different information to different teams.

“Astral is in a freakin' coma,” Audrey mumbles.  “If Feline goes and lands themselves in one, I'm gonna kill Ocelot – you guys take your mentors.”

Alyss laughs.

Raina covers a jaw-cracking yawn with her hand.

An earsplitting scream drives all thoughts of yawning from Alyss' mind.

Urgency gives them all new life, panic blazing through the connection and Alyss' veins.  She breaks into a dead sprint.  Her teammates' steps pound in unison with hers.

There is a door at the end of the hallway.  Flimsy wood.  Five meters. Four.  Three.  Tori flings out her hand; a blast of wind slams it open, an armored Winter Elemental turns, Tori's crossbow discharges with a wicked thrum-hiss. The Winter staggers backward.

Tori breaks stride to reload.  Alyss pulls ahead, leaping over the dead Winter's body, drawing her knives as she enters the unknown room.

The door leads into a small raised area.  The floor drops off to tile about half a meter ahead..  The room's scent hits Alyss a moment after she registers this; dark, despair, damp, blood.

Raina is beside her, spear gleaming.  Audrey fans her position out so Tori can enter.

A girl hangs in manacles on the wall.  Her golden hair is matted with blood, her clothes tattered.  Webs of horrible gleaming scars glint dully on her body, on her face.

Two Winter Elementals stand before her.  One is young; holding a (familiar?) spear too big for her; the other snarls as she sees Raptor Team, arrows of ice forming in the air around him.

“Eliana!” he snaps.  “Do it!”

The arrows fly.  Alyss throws up her hand.  A wall of fire flares from nothing, a stitch curving beneath Alyss' ribs.  The icy arrows melt and fail.  Black spots dance in Alyss' vision.  She staggers, feeling her power desert her and curl back into the center of her chest, stretched far too thin for the moment.

Raina has to reach out to steady her.

A man screams, gurgling, choking.  Alyss catches a flash of horror and color from Audrey's sight.  The other Winter's spear is buried in the first one's body, his blood gushing over her hands and splattering over her face and chest.

She releases the spear and stumbles back.  The male Winter collapses to the ground.  His blood drips from her fingers.

Alyss straightens up as Tori switches her aim, her bolt pointing for the bloody Winter's chest.  The air shimmers and coalesces.

“Stop it,” Bellamy's disembodied voice chokes out.  “Just stop.”

She takes form in the air, then drops to the ground, stumbling, weak, long hair tangled and in her face.  Shaking hands push it back as she positions herself in front of the murderer.

The girl in the chains takes a rattling breath.  “Eliana...”

“I'm sorry,” the silver-haired one whispers.  She wavers forward, staring at her bloodsoaked hands, then trips and falls to her knees in front of the chained Clare.  “I failed you.”

Eliana? Surely Alyss can't have heard that right.  Eliana is loud, sarcastic, caustic, dark-haired and cheerful.  This Winter girl is too thin and too pale to be Eliana.

But that is Eliana's spear, Audrey points out, numb with shock.  It is. In the dead Winter.  Eliana's silver spear.  The silver spear of Silver of Metallic Team.

Bellamy grits her teeth, tears collecting at her lashes as she stares Tori down.  Raina silently draws Alyss' attention to a cell in the back before she picks her way down the stairs, across the bloody floor, and over to an imprisoned Aly, breaking the wards with a word and the lock with the heel of her hand.

She has to support Aly across the dungeon floor.

Alyss descends as well, reaching for Clare's chains.  They come apart with a touch of fire.  Clare falls limply down into Alyss' arms, too light for her muscle mass and height, eyes fluttering shut.  Her wrists are rubbed raw.  The frost burns across half of her entire body are worse than Alyss thought.

A sob tears itself from Bellamy's throat.  She collapses onto the hard, bloody floor, hiding her face as tears rack her frame.

Tori lowers her crossbow in slow horror.

“Father's wrath,” Alyss whispers, voicing the sentiment of her entire team. “What happened here?”

[patriotsnet]

Who Are Republicans For The Rule Of Law

New Post has been published on https://www.patriotsnet.com/who-are-republicans-for-the-rule-of-law/

Who Are Republicans For The Rule Of Law

Other Conservatives Are Starting To Make Noise

Republicans for the Rule of Law Ad Featured on Shepard Smith

Republicans for the Rule of Law is not the only group of conservatives mobilizing against the presidents efforts to politicize the DOJ. On Wednesday, the New York Times profiled a new group organized by George Conway husband of White House senior counselor Kellyanne Conway called Checks and Balances.

We believe in the rule of law, the power of truth, the independence of the criminal justice system, the imperative of individual rights and the necessity of civil discourse, the group said in a statement. We believe these principles apply regardless of the party or persons in power.

The Times reports that the group is meant to encourage debate about some of the Trump administrations policies and actions among legal organizations that usually support him, like the Federalist Society.

Despite his wifes central role in the administration, Conway has emerged as an outspoken critic of Trump especially on Twitter.

This is flabbergasting.

George Conway

Conway has also been critical of Trumps decision to appoint Whitaker. Asked about Conways criticisms during a question-and-answer session with reporters last week, Trump dismissed him as a selfish attention-seeker.

Hes just trying to get publicity for himself, Trump said.

In Relation To Economics

One important aspect of the rule-of-law initiatives is the study and analysis of the rule of law’s impact on economic development. The rule-of-law movement cannot be fully successful in transitional and developing countries without an answer to the question: does the rule of law matter to economic development or not?Constitutional economics is the study of the compatibility of economic and financial decisions within existing constitutional law frameworks, and such a framework includes government spending on the judiciary, which, in many transitional and developing countries, is completely controlled by the executive. It is useful to distinguish between the two methods of corruption of the judiciary: corruption by the executive branch, in contrast to corruption by private actors.

The standards of constitutional economics can be used during annual budget process, and if that budget planning is transparent then the rule of law may benefit. The availability of an effective court system, to be used by the civil society in situations of unfair government spending and executive impoundment of previously authorized appropriations, is a key element for the success of the rule-of-law endeavor.

Studies have shown that weak rule of law discourages investment. Economists have found, for example, that a rise in discretionary regulatory enforcement caused US firms to abandon international investments.

Theyve Been Jabbing At Mike Lee & Praising Maryland Governor Larry Hogan On Social Media

The women of Utah have questions for Senator Lee, including: Do you mean you already fully understood his utter disregard for the rule of law, and just dont care?

Republicans for the Rule of Law

Republicans for the Rule of Law recently reposted a letter to the editor that appeared in the Salt Lake Tribune, slamming Utah Senator Mike Lee. The letter, written by the Utah chapter of Mormon Women for Ethical Government, asked Lee why he continues to stand by the president. The letter reads:

When you state that nothing in this report changes your view of this president, do you mean that you already fully understood that President Trump was doing whatever he could to obstruct justice and was saved only because his staff refused to follow his orders? Do you mean that you support the president despite this unethical and self-serving behavior?

Republicans for the Rule of Law has also been showering praise on Maryland governor Larry Hogan. Hogan is the son of the late Maryland representative Lawrence Hogan, who was the only Republican representative to vote for all three articles of impeachment against Nixon. More recently, Larry Hogan made headlines when he called the Mueller Report disturbing and said it didnt exonerate the president.

Also Check: What Is Republicanism And What Does It Value

A Loyalist Runs The Justice Department

Trump made no secret that his antipathy to former Attorney General Jeff Sessions was rooted in Sessionss decision to recuse himself from the Russia investigation a move that ultimately resulted in Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein appointing Mueller as special counsel.

The ad that Republicans for the Rule of Law ran on Fox & Friends highlights comments Whitaker made during TV appearances before his stratospheric rise to the top of the DOJ, such as the appointment of Bob Mueller I dont think was necessary or appropriate and what I see is a president that is starting to figure out that if I want to I can terminate you legally there is certainly a way for that to happen.

Perhaps the most prominent member of the group, Bill Kristol, shared video of the ad on Twitter.

Republicans for the Rule of Law is running this ad on Fox and Friends this morning.

Bill Kristol

Whitaker thus far has given no indications that he plans to recuse himself from overseeing Muellers investigation. Trump reportedly became a fan of his thanks to TV appearances where Whitaker suggested Muellers work could be brought to an end by slashing his budget, and characterized his appointment as ridiculous and a little fishy.

Related

The many scandals of Trumps new acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker, explained

Status In Various Jurisdictions

2005 map of Worldwide Governance Indicators, which attempts to measure the extent to which agents have confidence in and abide by the rules of society. Â;Â;90â100th percentile* Â;Â;0â10th percentile *Percentile rank indicates the percentage of countries worldwide that rate below the selected country.

The rule of law has been considered one of the key dimensions that determine the quality and good governance of a country. Research, like the Worldwide Governance Indicators, defines the rule of law as: “the extent to which agents have confidence and abide by the rules of society, and in particular the quality of contract enforcement, the police and the courts, as well as the likelihood of crime or violence.” Based on this definition the Worldwide Governance Indicators project has developed aggregate measurements for the rule of law in more than 200 countries, as seen in the map at right.

Recommended Reading: What Do Republicans Stand For Today

Republicans For The Rule Of Law Ad Targets Johnson Over Covid

Republicans for the Rule of Law have announced an ad campaign targeting GOP U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson for pushing ahead with efforts to fill a vacancy on the U.S. Supreme Court while opposing a new COVID-19 relief bill.

A group spokeswoman said it is spending more than $250,000 on TV in the Madison and Milwaukee markets on Fox News, MSNBC and CNN. The buy runs today through Sunday with a digital component as well.

The group describes itself as life-long Republicans dedicated to defending the institutions of our republic and upholding the rule of law. Its also targeting: U.S. Sens. Ted Cruz, R-Texas; Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa; Bob Portman, R-Ohio; and Marco Rubio, R-Fla.; as part of an overall $1 million ad campaign.

Johnson hasnt said if he plans to run for re-election in 2022 or if he will stick to his pledge to serve two terms in the Senate.

The narrator in the ad says Johnson blocked a confirmation vote in 2016 before playing a clip of him saying, Eight months before the election, why not let the American people decide the direction of the Supreme Court?

Now, the narrator adds, Johnson supports rushing through a new judge, but refuses to pass COVID relief.

Call Ron Johnson and tell him to pass COVID relief now and let the peoples voice be heard on the Supreme Court, the narrator says to close the ad. Sen. Ron Johnson is letting Wisconsin down.

The Rule Of Law In The United States

The Constitution serves as the foundation for the rule of law in American justice. It establishes a system of rights, freedoms, and checks and balances that ensure a fair and just society for all without government overreach and tyranny. This includes separation of power between three distinct branches of government .

Ultimately, no person, whether individual or policymaker, has the right to subvert the rule of law. Amendments are possible if and when societal shifts make them necessary, but the process is challenging for a reason. Not only does it prevent rulers from changing the law to suit their needs, but it also helps to maintain a more stable government and freedom for all Americans.

Also Check: Which Region In General Supported The Democratic Republicans

About Republicans For Voting Rights

Republicans for Voting Rights is an initiative of the Republican Accountability Project with the purpose of defending the accessibility, integrity, and competitiveness of American elections.

Voting is a sacred American right. But after the 2020 election, some Republicans began pushing for more restrictive voting laws designed to support unfounded accusations that the election was stolen and the results were illegitimate. Some even believe that voting is harmful to their electoral prospects. More still believe our electoral system is rife with fraud and security failures.

Republicans for Voting Rights rejects the false choice between voting access and election integrity. We believe that Republicans in federal, state, and local government should protect the right to vote, protect our election systems from partisan or foreign interference, and help build trust in our democracy.

What Happened To Bill Kristol And Republicans For The Rule Of Law

Did you ever imagine the President could act like this?

In 2013, American Conservative Union head David Keene took a direct shot at then Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol, while;addressing;a crowd at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference.

Some political operatives think we lost because of our ideas and valuesand what we really ought to do is change them, said Keene, attacking Republican strategists concerned over electoral defeat, including Kristol.

A lot has changed in seven yearsin terms of political players and issuesbut Keenes warning still holds true.

In an act of appeasement toward the political left, many self-professed limited government conservativesonce heralded as firebrands by their supportershave abandoned the conservative tradition.

Theres no doubt that the recent death of George Floyd raises questions about the state of the current justice system. Any conservative or libertarian-minded individual truly concerned about big government should fight to hold everyone accountable to the law.

But establishment GOP leaders and consultants have shifted their reform efforts. Instead of standing up for traditional conservative valuesgovernment accountability, the rule of lawtheyve pinned the blame on those stubborn conservatives.

Take for example, Max Boot, one of President Donald Trumps strongest critics.;According to;Boot, The president is pouring gasoline on the flames of racial division, and the Republican Party is holding the jerrycan for him.

Also Check: How Many Registered Democrats And Republicans In The Us

About The Rule Of Law

Rule of law is an ancient philosophy first outlined by Aristotle in ancient Rome. It purports that all people and entities, including the government, must be bound to the same system of laws and regulations. This prevents rulers from abusing their powers or engaging in tyranny while also setting guidelines under which all people pursue happiness without harming others.

This does not necessarily mean that all governments who adopt the rule of law are forced to follow the same exact system. For example, both Canada and the US believe in the rule of law, but the justice system adopted by each contains very different laws. The term rule of law is more about the government and the people agreeing to the same system as a whole.

Republicans For The Rule Of Law Is Financed By A Democrat

Just hours after Jeff Sessions resigned as attorney general last Wednesday at the presidents behest, #TheResistance found its newest target for destruction: Sessions interim replacement, Matthew Whitaker….NeverTrump conservatives are aiding Schiff and the media in their campaign to paralyze if not remove Whitaker. Commercials attacking the acting attorney general were aired on several Sunday morning political shows. The ads were sponsored by Republicans for the Rule of Law, a group founded earlier this year by Bill Kristol, the editor-at-large of The Weekly Standard. The groups primary role so far appears to be pimping for the Mueller probe, a political witch-hunt that Kristol and his fellow NeverTrumpers pray will lead to the impeachment and removal of the president. The Left and their NeverTrump footsoldiers fear Whitaker will thwart the special counsels investigation instead of rubber stamping Muellers ever-expanding investigation as Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein has done over the past 18 months.

Recommended Reading: Why Do Republicans Hate Ted Cruz

The Council Of Europe

The Statute of the Council of Europe characterizes the rule of law as one of the core principles which the establishment of the organization based on. The paragraph 3 of the preamble of the Statute of the Council of Europe states: “Reaffirming their devotion to the spiritual and moral values which are the common heritage of their peoples and the true source of individual freedom, political liberty and the rule of law, principles which form the basis of all genuine democracy.” The Statute lays the compliance with the rule of law principles as a condition for the European states to be a full member of the organization.

In Relation To Culture

The Treaty on the Protection of Artistic and Scientific Institutions and Historic Monuments or Roerich Pact is an inter-American treaty. The most important idea of the Roerich Pact is the legal recognition that the defense of cultural objects is more important than the use or destruction of that culture for military purposes, and the protection of culture always has precedence over any military necessity.The Roerich Pact signed on April 15, 1935, by the representatives of 21 American states in the Oval Office of the White House . It was the first international treaty signed in the Oval Office.The Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict is the first international treaty that focuses on the protection of cultural property in armed conflict. It was signed at The Hague, Netherlands on 14 May 1954 and entered into force on 7 August 1956. As of June 2017, it has been ratified by 128 states.

Don’t Miss: How Many Republicans Voted For Daca

A Viral Ad Released By The Group Says Republican Silence On The Mueller Report Is Deafening

Republicans, your silence is deafening. Stand up for the rule of law.

Republicans for the Rule of Law

A new ad from the Republicans for the Rule of Law has been going viral on social media; you can see it above. Many people are retweeting it and adding instructions to listen with your sound turned all the way up, because this video is supposed to be all about silence. The spot, shot in black and white, features close-ups of Republican Ben senators Sasse, Lindsey Graham, Ted Cruz, John Kennedy, Tim Scott. Theyre all looking straight ahead and saying nothing. You can hear a bit of static and the faint sound of a ticking clock.

A caption at the end reads, Republicans: Your silence is deafening. Our president attempted to obstruct justice. Stand up for the rule of law.

Some Trumpists Turn Against Cheneys Successor

Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York, who entered the House as a centrist in 2014 but has recast her as a Trumpist with support of Trumps disinformation, has been endorsed by House GOP leader McCarthy as Cheneys successor.

But some Trumpists are already jabbing at Stefanik as a moderate in disguise. Rep. Chip Roy of Texas sent a memo to every Republican representative that Stefanik had cast a series of votes opposed to Trumpism.

We must avoid putting in charge Republicans who campaign as Republicans but then vote for and advance the Democrats agenda once sworn in that is, that we do not make the same mistakes that we did in 2017.

With all due respect to my friend, Elise Stefanik, let us contemplate the message Republican leadership is about to send by rushing to coronate a spokesperson whose voting record embodies much of what led to the 2018 ass-kicking we received by Democrats.

Members of the hard-right Freedom Caucus have privately expressed reluctance, if not opposition, about Stefaniks ascendancy.

The New York representative has sought to appease critics by promising that she would resign as Conference chair before casting a vote that differs from the majority of House Republicans. She told reporters on Tuesday, We have a great deal of support from the Freedom Caucus and others.

Freedom Caucus co-founder Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio and Trump have backed Stefanik.

Read Also: Why Do Democrats And Republicans Disagree

International Commission Of Jurists

In 1959, an event took place in New Delhi and speaking as the International Commission of Jurists, made a declaration as to the fundamental principle of the rule of law. The event consisted of over 185 judges, lawyers, and law professors from 53 countries. This later became known as the . During the declaration they declared what the rule of law implied. They included certain rights and freedoms, an independent judiciary and social, economic and cultural conditions conducive to human dignity. The one aspect not included in The Declaration of Delhi, was for rule of law requiring legislative power to be subject to judicial review.

The Secretary-General of the United Nations defines the rule of law as:

a principle of governance in which all persons, institutions and entities, public and private, including the State itself, are accountable to laws that are publicly promulgated, equally enforced and independently adjudicated, and which are consistent with international human rights norms and standards. It requires, as well, measures to ensure adherence to the principles of supremacy of law, equality before the law, accountability to the law, fairness in the application of the law, separation of powers, participation in decision-making, legal certainty, avoidance of arbitrariness and procedural and legal transparency.

[writefasttalkevenfaster]

ah sorry I definitely could have been clearer 😅 I was referring to how the government is trying to mandate vaccines and even boosters (even though there's no proof that boosters are anything other than another round of the same shot and not proven to do anything) and want covid shot cards to be used to allow/deny entry into places. how science has been changing so quickly when something new is learned about covid (like recently it came out that the blue masks actually don't help protect you very much?) but it's barely being reported so the public can be made aware.. and on top of that so many government officials are super hypocritical in asking people to stay home and wear masks, but then we see pictures of parties and events where our leaders aren't wearing masks or social distancing.. idk it seems sort of authoritarian to me, because I genuinely can see the reasons people have for not wanting the vaccine and I feel like in the wrong government this could go downhill really fast...

tl;dr: i can understand what you mean, but i don't think i agree with you, at least not completely.

the federal government hasn't tried to mandate vaccines at all. hell, i live in a state where a majority of people have gotten the vaccine and there's no mandate here. i don't believe biden has even attempted to do a vaccine mandate because he knows that would be met very poorly by a large portion of the public.

as for the boosters, i don't think there's enough data right now to make a decision either which way, and although biden has been probably jumping the gun on distribution (from the little i've read on this in the past week).

i can see the problematic nature of covid vaccine shot cards -- especially when it comes to exemptions and the invasion of privacy that might entail. however, this is a different world now. and i can see why people want them. there's no mask mandate or vaccine mandate -- and this means that people who don't have the vaccine and don't wear masks, can just walk around. for me, i honestly would like the cards sometimes because i have family members who are severely immunocompromised. i'm scared to even go to school. even though my school requires proof of vaccination, i've had to limit my time on campus b/c i live too far away and public transport isn't an option for me anymore because there is no vaccine or mask mandate.

i don't know about blue masks not helping very much -- i tried googling it and i don't see anything come up. i think it was known very early on that some masks are better than others -- like obviously n99 and n95 masks are top of the line, and then masks with liners, cotton masks, etc and so on. however, i think any mask is better than none because anything covering your face is stopping droplets from spreading to other people, whether its all, most, or some.

i can understand what you mean by government officials being hypocritical. I know in the beginning of the pandemic, it was definitely frustrating and honestly disgusting. i agree with you.

i can understand people being hesitant about the vaccine, but honestly the science backs it up. it's been through FDA approval, its based on decades of science (it's not new in any regard), and no steps were skipped or expedited in making these vaccines. and health professionals everywhere who have read the studies, done their research, and understand this a hell of a lot better than most lay people do are all recommending it and getting it themselves. i see no reason to doubt them.

i can understand fearing the government, but at the united states hasn't been overreaching in my opinion -- i think they haven't been doing enough. at the very least, i would like a mask mandate. i do think its okay to have a sense of wariness when it comes to the government -- you should never trust anything or anyone blindly -- but here, the data backs up vaccines and masks. and i don't really have a problem with the government requiring it.

[statetalks]

Who Are Republicans For The Rule Of Law

Other Conservatives Are Starting To Make Noise

Republicans for the Rule of Law Ad Featured on Shepard Smith

Republicans for the Rule of Law is not the only group of conservatives mobilizing against the presidents efforts to politicize the DOJ. On Wednesday, the New York Times profiled a new group organized by George Conway husband of White House senior counselor Kellyanne Conway called Checks and Balances.

We believe in the rule of law, the power of truth, the independence of the criminal justice system, the imperative of individual rights and the necessity of civil discourse, the group said in a statement. We believe these principles apply regardless of the party or persons in power.

The Times reports that the group is meant to encourage debate about some of the Trump administrations policies and actions among legal organizations that usually support him, like the Federalist Society.

Despite his wifes central role in the administration, Conway has emerged as an outspoken critic of Trump especially on Twitter.

This is flabbergasting.

George Conway

Conway has also been critical of Trumps decision to appoint Whitaker. Asked about Conways criticisms during a question-and-answer session with reporters last week, Trump dismissed him as a selfish attention-seeker.

Hes just trying to get publicity for himself, Trump said.

In Relation To Economics

One important aspect of the rule-of-law initiatives is the study and analysis of the rule of law’s impact on economic development. The rule-of-law movement cannot be fully successful in transitional and developing countries without an answer to the question: does the rule of law matter to economic development or not?Constitutional economics is the study of the compatibility of economic and financial decisions within existing constitutional law frameworks, and such a framework includes government spending on the judiciary, which, in many transitional and developing countries, is completely controlled by the executive. It is useful to distinguish between the two methods of corruption of the judiciary: corruption by the executive branch, in contrast to corruption by private actors.

The standards of constitutional economics can be used during annual budget process, and if that budget planning is transparent then the rule of law may benefit. The availability of an effective court system, to be used by the civil society in situations of unfair government spending and executive impoundment of previously authorized appropriations, is a key element for the success of the rule-of-law endeavor.

Studies have shown that weak rule of law discourages investment. Economists have found, for example, that a rise in discretionary regulatory enforcement caused US firms to abandon international investments.

Theyve Been Jabbing At Mike Lee & Praising Maryland Governor Larry Hogan On Social Media

The women of Utah have questions for Senator Lee, including: Do you mean you already fully understood his utter disregard for the rule of law, and just dont care?

Republicans for the Rule of Law

Republicans for the Rule of Law recently reposted a letter to the editor that appeared in the Salt Lake Tribune, slamming Utah Senator Mike Lee. The letter, written by the Utah chapter of Mormon Women for Ethical Government, asked Lee why he continues to stand by the president. The letter reads:

When you state that nothing in this report changes your view of this president, do you mean that you already fully understood that President Trump was doing whatever he could to obstruct justice and was saved only because his staff refused to follow his orders? Do you mean that you support the president despite this unethical and self-serving behavior?

Republicans for the Rule of Law has also been showering praise on Maryland governor Larry Hogan. Hogan is the son of the late Maryland representative Lawrence Hogan, who was the only Republican representative to vote for all three articles of impeachment against Nixon. More recently, Larry Hogan made headlines when he called the Mueller Report disturbing and said it didnt exonerate the president.

Also Check: What Is Republicanism And What Does It Value

A Loyalist Runs The Justice Department

Trump made no secret that his antipathy to former Attorney General Jeff Sessions was rooted in Sessionss decision to recuse himself from the Russia investigation a move that ultimately resulted in Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein appointing Mueller as special counsel.

The ad that Republicans for the Rule of Law ran on Fox & Friends highlights comments Whitaker made during TV appearances before his stratospheric rise to the top of the DOJ, such as the appointment of Bob Mueller I dont think was necessary or appropriate and what I see is a president that is starting to figure out that if I want to I can terminate you legally there is certainly a way for that to happen.

Perhaps the most prominent member of the group, Bill Kristol, shared video of the ad on Twitter.

Republicans for the Rule of Law is running this ad on Fox and Friends this morning.

Bill Kristol

Whitaker thus far has given no indications that he plans to recuse himself from overseeing Muellers investigation. Trump reportedly became a fan of his thanks to TV appearances where Whitaker suggested Muellers work could be brought to an end by slashing his budget, and characterized his appointment as ridiculous and a little fishy.

Related

The many scandals of Trumps new acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker, explained

Status In Various Jurisdictions

2005 map of Worldwide Governance Indicators, which attempts to measure the extent to which agents have confidence in and abide by the rules of society. Â;Â;90â100th percentile* Â;Â;0â10th percentile *Percentile rank indicates the percentage of countries worldwide that rate below the selected country.

The rule of law has been considered one of the key dimensions that determine the quality and good governance of a country. Research, like the Worldwide Governance Indicators, defines the rule of law as: “the extent to which agents have confidence and abide by the rules of society, and in particular the quality of contract enforcement, the police and the courts, as well as the likelihood of crime or violence.” Based on this definition the Worldwide Governance Indicators project has developed aggregate measurements for the rule of law in more than 200 countries, as seen in the map at right.

Recommended Reading: What Do Republicans Stand For Today

Republicans For The Rule Of Law Ad Targets Johnson Over Covid

Republicans for the Rule of Law have announced an ad campaign targeting GOP U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson for pushing ahead with efforts to fill a vacancy on the U.S. Supreme Court while opposing a new COVID-19 relief bill.

A group spokeswoman said it is spending more than $250,000 on TV in the Madison and Milwaukee markets on Fox News, MSNBC and CNN. The buy runs today through Sunday with a digital component as well.

The group describes itself as life-long Republicans dedicated to defending the institutions of our republic and upholding the rule of law. Its also targeting: U.S. Sens. Ted Cruz, R-Texas; Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa; Bob Portman, R-Ohio; and Marco Rubio, R-Fla.; as part of an overall $1 million ad campaign.

Johnson hasnt said if he plans to run for re-election in 2022 or if he will stick to his pledge to serve two terms in the Senate.

The narrator in the ad says Johnson blocked a confirmation vote in 2016 before playing a clip of him saying, Eight months before the election, why not let the American people decide the direction of the Supreme Court?

Now, the narrator adds, Johnson supports rushing through a new judge, but refuses to pass COVID relief.

Call Ron Johnson and tell him to pass COVID relief now and let the peoples voice be heard on the Supreme Court, the narrator says to close the ad. Sen. Ron Johnson is letting Wisconsin down.

The Rule Of Law In The United States

The Constitution serves as the foundation for the rule of law in American justice. It establishes a system of rights, freedoms, and checks and balances that ensure a fair and just society for all without government overreach and tyranny. This includes separation of power between three distinct branches of government .

Ultimately, no person, whether individual or policymaker, has the right to subvert the rule of law. Amendments are possible if and when societal shifts make them necessary, but the process is challenging for a reason. Not only does it prevent rulers from changing the law to suit their needs, but it also helps to maintain a more stable government and freedom for all Americans.

Also Check: Which Region In General Supported The Democratic Republicans

About Republicans For Voting Rights

Republicans for Voting Rights is an initiative of the Republican Accountability Project with the purpose of defending the accessibility, integrity, and competitiveness of American elections.

Voting is a sacred American right. But after the 2020 election, some Republicans began pushing for more restrictive voting laws designed to support unfounded accusations that the election was stolen and the results were illegitimate. Some even believe that voting is harmful to their electoral prospects. More still believe our electoral system is rife with fraud and security failures.

Republicans for Voting Rights rejects the false choice between voting access and election integrity. We believe that Republicans in federal, state, and local government should protect the right to vote, protect our election systems from partisan or foreign interference, and help build trust in our democracy.

What Happened To Bill Kristol And Republicans For The Rule Of Law

Did you ever imagine the President could act like this?

In 2013, American Conservative Union head David Keene took a direct shot at then Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol, while;addressing;a crowd at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference.

Some political operatives think we lost because of our ideas and valuesand what we really ought to do is change them, said Keene, attacking Republican strategists concerned over electoral defeat, including Kristol.

A lot has changed in seven yearsin terms of political players and issuesbut Keenes warning still holds true.

In an act of appeasement toward the political left, many self-professed limited government conservativesonce heralded as firebrands by their supportershave abandoned the conservative tradition.

Theres no doubt that the recent death of George Floyd raises questions about the state of the current justice system. Any conservative or libertarian-minded individual truly concerned about big government should fight to hold everyone accountable to the law.

But establishment GOP leaders and consultants have shifted their reform efforts. Instead of standing up for traditional conservative valuesgovernment accountability, the rule of lawtheyve pinned the blame on those stubborn conservatives.

Take for example, Max Boot, one of President Donald Trumps strongest critics.;According to;Boot, The president is pouring gasoline on the flames of racial division, and the Republican Party is holding the jerrycan for him.

Also Check: How Many Registered Democrats And Republicans In The Us

About The Rule Of Law

Rule of law is an ancient philosophy first outlined by Aristotle in ancient Rome. It purports that all people and entities, including the government, must be bound to the same system of laws and regulations. This prevents rulers from abusing their powers or engaging in tyranny while also setting guidelines under which all people pursue happiness without harming others.

This does not necessarily mean that all governments who adopt the rule of law are forced to follow the same exact system. For example, both Canada and the US believe in the rule of law, but the justice system adopted by each contains very different laws. The term rule of law is more about the government and the people agreeing to the same system as a whole.

Republicans For The Rule Of Law Is Financed By A Democrat

Just hours after Jeff Sessions resigned as attorney general last Wednesday at the presidents behest, #TheResistance found its newest target for destruction: Sessions interim replacement, Matthew Whitaker….NeverTrump conservatives are aiding Schiff and the media in their campaign to paralyze if not remove Whitaker. Commercials attacking the acting attorney general were aired on several Sunday morning political shows. The ads were sponsored by Republicans for the Rule of Law, a group founded earlier this year by Bill Kristol, the editor-at-large of The Weekly Standard. The groups primary role so far appears to be pimping for the Mueller probe, a political witch-hunt that Kristol and his fellow NeverTrumpers pray will lead to the impeachment and removal of the president. The Left and their NeverTrump footsoldiers fear Whitaker will thwart the special counsels investigation instead of rubber stamping Muellers ever-expanding investigation as Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein has done over the past 18 months.

Recommended Reading: Why Do Republicans Hate Ted Cruz

The Council Of Europe

The Statute of the Council of Europe characterizes the rule of law as one of the core principles which the establishment of the organization based on. The paragraph 3 of the preamble of the Statute of the Council of Europe states: “Reaffirming their devotion to the spiritual and moral values which are the common heritage of their peoples and the true source of individual freedom, political liberty and the rule of law, principles which form the basis of all genuine democracy.” The Statute lays the compliance with the rule of law principles as a condition for the European states to be a full member of the organization.

In Relation To Culture

The Treaty on the Protection of Artistic and Scientific Institutions and Historic Monuments or Roerich Pact is an inter-American treaty. The most important idea of the Roerich Pact is the legal recognition that the defense of cultural objects is more important than the use or destruction of that culture for military purposes, and the protection of culture always has precedence over any military necessity.The Roerich Pact signed on April 15, 1935, by the representatives of 21 American states in the Oval Office of the White House . It was the first international treaty signed in the Oval Office.The Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict is the first international treaty that focuses on the protection of cultural property in armed conflict. It was signed at The Hague, Netherlands on 14 May 1954 and entered into force on 7 August 1956. As of June 2017, it has been ratified by 128 states.

Don’t Miss: How Many Republicans Voted For Daca

A Viral Ad Released By The Group Says Republican Silence On The Mueller Report Is Deafening

Republicans, your silence is deafening. Stand up for the rule of law.

Republicans for the Rule of Law

A new ad from the Republicans for the Rule of Law has been going viral on social media; you can see it above. Many people are retweeting it and adding instructions to listen with your sound turned all the way up, because this video is supposed to be all about silence. The spot, shot in black and white, features close-ups of Republican Ben senators Sasse, Lindsey Graham, Ted Cruz, John Kennedy, Tim Scott. Theyre all looking straight ahead and saying nothing. You can hear a bit of static and the faint sound of a ticking clock.

A caption at the end reads, Republicans: Your silence is deafening. Our president attempted to obstruct justice. Stand up for the rule of law.

Some Trumpists Turn Against Cheneys Successor

Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York, who entered the House as a centrist in 2014 but has recast her as a Trumpist with support of Trumps disinformation, has been endorsed by House GOP leader McCarthy as Cheneys successor.

But some Trumpists are already jabbing at Stefanik as a moderate in disguise. Rep. Chip Roy of Texas sent a memo to every Republican representative that Stefanik had cast a series of votes opposed to Trumpism.

We must avoid putting in charge Republicans who campaign as Republicans but then vote for and advance the Democrats agenda once sworn in that is, that we do not make the same mistakes that we did in 2017.

With all due respect to my friend, Elise Stefanik, let us contemplate the message Republican leadership is about to send by rushing to coronate a spokesperson whose voting record embodies much of what led to the 2018 ass-kicking we received by Democrats.

Members of the hard-right Freedom Caucus have privately expressed reluctance, if not opposition, about Stefaniks ascendancy.

The New York representative has sought to appease critics by promising that she would resign as Conference chair before casting a vote that differs from the majority of House Republicans. She told reporters on Tuesday, We have a great deal of support from the Freedom Caucus and others.

Freedom Caucus co-founder Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio and Trump have backed Stefanik.

Read Also: Why Do Democrats And Republicans Disagree

International Commission Of Jurists

In 1959, an event took place in New Delhi and speaking as the International Commission of Jurists, made a declaration as to the fundamental principle of the rule of law. The event consisted of over 185 judges, lawyers, and law professors from 53 countries. This later became known as the . During the declaration they declared what the rule of law implied. They included certain rights and freedoms, an independent judiciary and social, economic and cultural conditions conducive to human dignity. The one aspect not included in The Declaration of Delhi, was for rule of law requiring legislative power to be subject to judicial review.

The Secretary-General of the United Nations defines the rule of law as:

a principle of governance in which all persons, institutions and entities, public and private, including the State itself, are accountable to laws that are publicly promulgated, equally enforced and independently adjudicated, and which are consistent with international human rights norms and standards. It requires, as well, measures to ensure adherence to the principles of supremacy of law, equality before the law, accountability to the law, fairness in the application of the law, separation of powers, participation in decision-making, legal certainty, avoidance of arbitrariness and procedural and legal transparency.

source https://www.patriotsnet.com/who-are-republicans-for-the-rule-of-law/

[bethestaryouareradio]

Freedom, Flowers, Sunshine is Living

Miracle Moment®

“Just living isn’t enough,” said the butterfly. “One must also have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower.” Hans Christian Andersen

MESSAGE FROM CYNTHIA BRIAN, Founder/Executive Director It’s been three days short of four weeks since I have been at home, sheltering-in-place, and personal distancing. With mask and gloves, I venture to my office in town once a week to pick up the mail. The parking lot is empty of cars as everyone works from home. The numerous items on my “to-do” list have not all been accomplished, although I admit, I may have overreached in my enthusiasm. I’ve been occupied with over two dozen webinars and teleconferences attempting to figure out how to keep the outreach programs of Be the Star You Are!® non-profit alive and viable as donations have shriveled. Online applications, document gathering, organizing paperwork…tedious and time-consuming. Most of you will relate. I’m so appreciative to Screen Actors Guild, The Authors Guild, Network for Good, and California Association of Non Profits for all of the information they have generously provided to help performers, writers, and non-profits survive during this Covid 19 crisis.

Email requests for virtual volunteer opportunities have tripled as people strive to keep their skills honed during work layoffs. Producing our two radio broadcasts takes an enormous amount of time as I attempt to bring valuable information, entertainment, and enlightening guests to the airwaves. I laugh at the preponderance of Linkedin messages from a variety of coaches asking for a telephone chat so they can help me earn seven figures. Right! Maybe I need to send them a link to donate a bit of their riches.

I am so grateful to have a home and a home office. There have been magical experiences because of our quarantine. My husband and I are enjoying virtual costume parties with our kids via FaceTime at sunset. Instead of working crazy, late night schedules at our respective offices, we are actually sitting down together at the table every day to eat dinner. Most evenings we watch a movie or documentary on Netflix. My garden has become my sanctuary because it is in full bloom providing plenty of hope for a brighter tomorrow. I spend hours working in it daily and I’ve had so much fun in the barnyard with my adopted animals. Every day I post a photo from my mini-farm to my social networks with an inspirational note. Sunday, we’ll do a virtual Easter-egg hunt with our family. How marvelous technology is!

I miss working in films and coaching clients in person. I miss seeing my family in the flesh, meeting friends at restaurants, visiting gardens and museums, and going to the theater. Yet, I am happy we are healthy, alive, and thus far, safe. We have sunshine, freedom, and flowers. This is living!

This will be a memorable Passover, Holy Week, and Easter for all. Enjoy some of the virtual tours of museums and gardens listed below.

Sending blessings and grace. Stay safe, strong, and keep living in the moment.

Cynthia Brian Founder/Executive Director Be the Star You Are!® PO Box 376 Moraga, California 94556 Cynthia@BetheStarYouAre.org

https://www.BetheStarYouAre.org

http://www.BTSYA.org

  P.S. During the lock-down, I am available for consultations, webinars, interviews, or speaking via on-line sources only. If interested, email cynthia@BetheStarYouAre.org

or visit https://www.starstyleradio.com/coaching

  DONATE: https://www.paypal.com/fundraiser/charity/1504

  Virtual Visits: My husband and I were supposed to be celebrating Easter in Prague this year with my Irish/Norwegian penpal from childhood, Nora, and her husband. We love to explore museums and gardens together. Unfortunately I won’t be able to visit Museum Kampa so I took a virtual tour. https://artsandculture.google.com/partner/museum-kampa?hl=en

Here are some links to virtual visits to a few of my favorite museums and gardens in various parts of the world. Experience armchair travel!

Museums: Van Gogh Museum. Amsterdam: https://artsandculture.google.com/partner/van-gogh-museum?hl=en

  RijksMuseum, Amsterdam: https://artsandculture.google.com/partner/rijksmuseum?hl=en

  Hermitage, St. Petersburg: https://artsandculture.google.com/partner/the-state-hermitage-museum?hl=en

  Musée d’Orsay, Paris: https://artsandculture.google.com/partner/musee-dorsay-paris?hl=en

  Palace of Versailles, Versailles: https://artsandculture.google.com/partner/palace-of-versailles?hl=en

  Legend of Honor, San Francisco: https://artsandculture.google.com/partner/legion-of-honor?hl=en

  deYoung Museum. San Francisco: https://artsandculture.google.com/partner/de-young-museum?hl=en

  MOMA, Museum of Modern Art, New York: https://artsandculture.google.com/partner/moma-the-museum-of-modern-art?hl=en

  Gardens: Monet’s Garden, Giverny France: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjWx2WNXFF4

  Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BtZ0dcUzGX8

  HighGrove Gardens, England: https://artsandculture.google.com/exhibit/igLSEOWqhVHoJw

  Keukenhof, Holland: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqMA5s-N1Uw

  Butchart Gardens, Canada: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OoxcZBuf900

  Brooklyn Botanical Gardens Cherry Watch, United States: https://www.bbg.org/collections/cherries

  National Trust Gardens, England, Ireland: https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/lists/virtual-tours-of-our-places

  Other Entertainment

1.For teens, by teens, Express Yourself!™ Radio hosts and reporters continue to interview fantastic guests. Listen to 9 years of incredible interviews : https://www.voiceamerica.com/show/2014/express-yourself

  Lots of exciting guests are lined up to talk about new books, food, climate, medicine, spirituality, the future, and more. Make sure to listen to BTSYA volunteer and host, Brigitte Jia’s meditative hour on Quarantine Communication and Contemplation, https://www.voiceamerica.com/episode/122978/quarantine-communication-and-contemplation-with-brigitte-jia

  For information on new weekly episodes and guests, visit https://www.starstyleradio.com/expressyourselfteenradio

  2. Lifestyle radio programming at its best, StarStyle®-Be the Star You Are!® offers you over 728 hours of LIVE uplifting, informative, empowering broadcasts showcasing celebrities, authors, successperts, and the pioneers the planet. https://www.voiceamerica.com/show/2206/be-the-star-you-are

  Beginning on Wednesday, April 15 at 4:30pm PT, join us for Wine Wednesdays with sommelier and BTSYA volunteer, Heather Brittany. Each week we’ll raise a glass and learn about a different varietal. We can all use a little vino during this down time and Heather Brittany brings us the party to put the bloom on the doom. It's Wine Time! Salute!

Don’t miss our many excellent authors who will be on our programs.

New LIVE shows every Wednesday from 4-5pm PT: https://www.starstyleradio.com/starstyle-radio

  3. If you love behind-the-scenes of movies, TV shows, and more, The SAG Foundation offers Conversations with numerous actors, directors, casting people, and more. The content is free and fabulous but you can also donate: https://www.youtube.com/user/SAGFoundation

4. If you love nature and gardening, a plethora of gardening articles:https://www.cynthiabrian.com/gardening-articles

Our last newsletter had numerous ways to entertain yourselves during our stay-at-home mandate. If you missed it, here’s a link to Press Pass: https://blog.voiceamerica.com/2020/03/30/theres-no-place-like-home/

    SHOPPING ON-LINE! Since we need to stay at home and only go out when absolutely necessary, these are on-line shopping portals that will sell you what you need, offer discounts, and assist our mission as a nonprofit. Please use these web sites for all of your shopping essentials,

1. AmazonSmile donates .5% of purchases https://smile.amazon.com/ch/94-3333882

2. Discounted books at Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/shops/be_the_star_you_are_charity

3. Giving Assistant: Shop. Earn. Give! Use Giving Assistant to earn cash at 3500+ popular online stores, then donate a percentage to BTSYA:https://givingassistant.org/np#be-the-star-you-are-inc

& buy from your favorite stores. 4. Search and GoodShop: Choose Be the Star You Are as your charity to support. You can log in with Facebook, too! https://www.goodshop.com/nonprofit/be-the-star-you-are

5. Shop at over 1300 stores on IGIVE: http://www.iGive.com/BTSYA

6. BTSYA Logo Store: http://btsya.rylees.net

7. Buy or Sell on EBAY:http://givingworks.ebay.com/charity-auctions/charity/be-the-star-you-are-501-c-3/1504/?favorite=link

8. Designer Clothes to Buy or Sell: https://www.unionandfifth.com/charities/be-the-star-you-are-moraga-ca/shop

9. Buy “Read, Lead, Succeed” T-shirts and tanks $19.99 at StarStyle® Store: http://www.starstylestore.net/

10. Are you a gamer, lover of new software, or other digital content? Buy all of your favorites at Humble Bundle. http://ow.ly/cYs130iN6n4

  We appreciate a direct donation most of all via PAYPAL GIVING FUND at https://www.paypal.com/fundraiser/charity/1504

  Checks can be sent to PO Box 376, Moraga, California 94556 http://www.btsya.org ___________________

  Direct Links you can use for Be the Star You Are!® Positive Results: https://www.bethestaryouare.org/positive-results

About Us: https://www.bethestaryouare.org/about_us

Programs: https://www.bethestaryouare.org/programs

How to Help: https://www.bethestaryouare.org/how-to-help

Blog: https://www.bethestaryouare.org/blog-1

Events: https://www.bethestaryouare.org/events

Contact us: https://www.bethestaryouare.org/contact

GREAT NON PROFITS REVIEWS: https://greatnonprofits.org/org/be-the-star-you-are-inc

GUIDESTAR: https://www.guidestar.org/profile/94-3333882

  We invite you to volunteer, get involved, or make a donation. Make a DONATION through PAYPAL GIVING FUND and PAYPAL with 100% going to BTSYA with NO FEES:  https://www.paypal.com/fundraiser/charity/1504

____________

Classified Ads: If you’d like to advertise your service or product while supporting Be the Star You Are!®, we are now accepting approved ads that will benefit readers. Contact info@BetheStarYouAre.org for details.

Enjoy Holy Week, Passover, and Easter in a brand new way. We are still here…apart yet together. Stay healthy and safe. Add sunshine flowers to your life.

Be the Star You Are!® PO Box 376 Moraga, California 94556 Cynthia@BetheStarYouAre.org

https://www.BetheStarYouAre.org

http://www.BTSYA.org

  All donations are 100% Tax Deductible according to law. Thank you! https://www.paypal.com/fundraiser/charity/1504

  Read: http://hosted.verticalresponse.com/672296/318e3a3a8c/288055965/bbd34d3431/

  tags: #Easter,#passover,#coronavirus,#ovid19,#bethestaryouare,#stayhome,#staysafe,#cynthiabrian,#helpforyou,#starstyle,#expressyourself

[goddessgardener]

Freedom, Flowers, Sunshine is Living

Miracle Moment®

“Just living isn’t enough,” said the butterfly. “One must also have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower.” Hans Christian Andersen

MESSAGE FROM CYNTHIA BRIAN, Founder/Executive Director It’s been three days short of four weeks since I have been at home, sheltering-in-place, and personal distancing. With mask and gloves, I venture to my office in town once a week to pick up the mail. The parking lot is empty of cars as everyone works from home. The numerous items on my “to-do” list have not all been accomplished, although I admit, I may have overreached in my enthusiasm. I’ve been occupied with over two dozen webinars and teleconferences attempting to figure out how to keep the outreach programs of Be the Star You Are!® non-profit alive and viable as donations have shriveled. Online applications, document gathering, organizing paperwork…tedious and time-consuming. Most of you will relate. I’m so appreciative to Screen Actors Guild, The Authors Guild, Network for Good, and California Association of Non Profits for all of the information they have generously provided to help performers, writers, and non-profits survive during this Covid 19 crisis.

Email requests for virtual volunteer opportunities have tripled as people strive to keep their skills honed during work layoffs. Producing our two radio broadcasts takes an enormous amount of time as I attempt to bring valuable information, entertainment, and enlightening guests to the airwaves. I laugh at the preponderance of Linkedin messages from a variety of coaches asking for a telephone chat so they can help me earn seven figures. Right! Maybe I need to send them a link to donate a bit of their riches.

I am so grateful to have a home and a home office. There have been magical experiences because of our quarantine. My husband and I are enjoying virtual costume parties with our kids via FaceTime at sunset. Instead of working crazy, late night schedules at our respective offices, we are actually sitting down together at the table every day to eat dinner. Most evenings we watch a movie or documentary on Netflix. My garden has become my sanctuary because it is in full bloom providing plenty of hope for a brighter tomorrow. I spend hours working in it daily and I’ve had so much fun in the barnyard with my adopted animals. Every day I post a photo from my mini-farm to my social networks with an inspirational note. Sunday, we’ll do a virtual Easter-egg hunt with our family. How marvelous technology is!

I miss working in films and coaching clients in person. I miss seeing my family in the flesh, meeting friends at restaurants, visiting gardens and museums, and going to the theater. Yet, I am happy we are healthy, alive, and thus far, safe. We have sunshine, freedom, and flowers. This is living!

This will be a memorable Passover, Holy Week, and Easter for all. Enjoy some of the virtual tours of museums and gardens listed below.

Sending blessings and grace. Stay safe, strong, and keep living in the moment.

Cynthia Brian Founder/Executive Director Be the Star You Are!® PO Box 376 Moraga, California 94556 Cynthia@BetheStarYouAre.org

https://www.BetheStarYouAre.org

http://www.BTSYA.org

  P.S. During the lock-down, I am available for consultations, webinars, interviews, or speaking via on-line sources only. If interested, email cynthia@BetheStarYouAre.org

or visit https://www.starstyleradio.com/coaching

  DONATE: https://www.paypal.com/fundraiser/charity/1504

  Virtual Visits: My husband and I were supposed to be celebrating Easter in Prague this year with my Irish/Norwegian penpal from childhood, Nora, and her husband. We love to explore museums and gardens together. Unfortunately I won’t be able to visit Museum Kampa so I took a virtual tour. https://artsandculture.google.com/partner/museum-kampa?hl=en

Here are some links to virtual visits to a few of my favorite museums and gardens in various parts of the world. Experience armchair travel!

Museums: Van Gogh Museum. Amsterdam: https://artsandculture.google.com/partner/van-gogh-museum?hl=en

  RijksMuseum, Amsterdam: https://artsandculture.google.com/partner/rijksmuseum?hl=en

  Hermitage, St. Petersburg: https://artsandculture.google.com/partner/the-state-hermitage-museum?hl=en

  Musée d’Orsay, Paris: https://artsandculture.google.com/partner/musee-dorsay-paris?hl=en

  Palace of Versailles, Versailles: https://artsandculture.google.com/partner/palace-of-versailles?hl=en

  Legend of Honor, San Francisco: https://artsandculture.google.com/partner/legion-of-honor?hl=en

  deYoung Museum. San Francisco: https://artsandculture.google.com/partner/de-young-museum?hl=en

  MOMA, Museum of Modern Art, New York: https://artsandculture.google.com/partner/moma-the-museum-of-modern-art?hl=en

  Gardens: Monet’s Garden, Giverny France: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjWx2WNXFF4

  Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BtZ0dcUzGX8

  HighGrove Gardens, England: https://artsandculture.google.com/exhibit/igLSEOWqhVHoJw

  Keukenhof, Holland: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqMA5s-N1Uw

  Butchart Gardens, Canada: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OoxcZBuf900

  Brooklyn Botanical Gardens Cherry Watch, United States: https://www.bbg.org/collections/cherries

  National Trust Gardens, England, Ireland: https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/lists/virtual-tours-of-our-places

  Other Entertainment

1.For teens, by teens, Express Yourself!™ Radio hosts and reporters continue to interview fantastic guests. Listen to 9 years of incredible interviews : https://www.voiceamerica.com/show/2014/express-yourself

  Lots of exciting guests are lined up to talk about new books, food, climate, medicine, spirituality, the future, and more. Make sure to listen to BTSYA volunteer and host, Brigitte Jia’s meditative hour on Quarantine Communication and Contemplation, https://www.voiceamerica.com/episode/122978/quarantine-communication-and-contemplation-with-brigitte-jia

  For information on new weekly episodes and guests, visit https://www.starstyleradio.com/expressyourselfteenradio

  2. Lifestyle radio programming at its best, StarStyle®-Be the Star You Are!® offers you over 728 hours of LIVE uplifting, informative, empowering broadcasts showcasing celebrities, authors, successperts, and the pioneers the planet. https://www.voiceamerica.com/show/2206/be-the-star-you-are

  Beginning on Wednesday, April 15 at 4:30pm PT, join us for Wine Wednesdays with sommelier and BTSYA volunteer, Heather Brittany. Each week we’ll raise a glass and learn about a different varietal. We can all use a little vino during this down time and Heather Brittany brings us the party to put the bloom on the doom. It's Wine Time! Salute!

Don’t miss our many excellent authors who will be on our programs.

New LIVE shows every Wednesday from 4-5pm PT: https://www.starstyleradio.com/starstyle-radio

  3. If you love behind-the-scenes of movies, TV shows, and more, The SAG Foundation offers Conversations with numerous actors, directors, casting people, and more. The content is free and fabulous but you can also donate: https://www.youtube.com/user/SAGFoundation

4. If you love nature and gardening, a plethora of gardening articles:https://www.cynthiabrian.com/gardening-articles

Our last newsletter had numerous ways to entertain yourselves during our stay-at-home mandate. If you missed it, here’s a link to Press Pass: https://blog.voiceamerica.com/2020/03/30/theres-no-place-like-home/

    SHOPPING ON-LINE! Since we need to stay at home and only go out when absolutely necessary, these are on-line shopping portals that will sell you what you need, offer discounts, and assist our mission as a nonprofit. Please use these web sites for all of your shopping essentials,

1. AmazonSmile donates .5% of purchases https://smile.amazon.com/ch/94-3333882

2. Discounted books at Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/shops/be_the_star_you_are_charity

3. Giving Assistant: Shop. Earn. Give! Use Giving Assistant to earn cash at 3500+ popular online stores, then donate a percentage to BTSYA:https://givingassistant.org/np#be-the-star-you-are-inc

& buy from your favorite stores. 4. Search and GoodShop: Choose Be the Star You Are as your charity to support. You can log in with Facebook, too! https://www.goodshop.com/nonprofit/be-the-star-you-are

5. Shop at over 1300 stores on IGIVE: http://www.iGive.com/BTSYA

6. BTSYA Logo Store: http://btsya.rylees.net

7. Buy or Sell on EBAY:http://givingworks.ebay.com/charity-auctions/charity/be-the-star-you-are-501-c-3/1504/?favorite=link

8. Designer Clothes to Buy or Sell: https://www.unionandfifth.com/charities/be-the-star-you-are-moraga-ca/shop

9. Buy “Read, Lead, Succeed” T-shirts and tanks $19.99 at StarStyle® Store: http://www.starstylestore.net/

10. Are you a gamer, lover of new software, or other digital content? Buy all of your favorites at Humble Bundle. http://ow.ly/cYs130iN6n4

  We appreciate a direct donation most of all via PAYPAL GIVING FUND at https://www.paypal.com/fundraiser/charity/1504

  Checks can be sent to PO Box 376, Moraga, California 94556 http://www.btsya.org ___________________

  Direct Links you can use for Be the Star You Are!® Positive Results: https://www.bethestaryouare.org/positive-results

About Us: https://www.bethestaryouare.org/about_us

Programs: https://www.bethestaryouare.org/programs

How to Help: https://www.bethestaryouare.org/how-to-help

Blog: https://www.bethestaryouare.org/blog-1

Events: https://www.bethestaryouare.org/events

Contact us: https://www.bethestaryouare.org/contact

GREAT NON PROFITS REVIEWS: https://greatnonprofits.org/org/be-the-star-you-are-inc

GUIDESTAR: https://www.guidestar.org/profile/94-3333882

  We invite you to volunteer, get involved, or make a donation. Make a DONATION through PAYPAL GIVING FUND and PAYPAL with 100% going to BTSYA with NO FEES:  https://www.paypal.com/fundraiser/charity/1504

____________

Classified Ads: If you’d like to advertise your service or product while supporting Be the Star You Are!®, we are now accepting approved ads that will benefit readers. Contact info@BetheStarYouAre.org for details.

Enjoy Holy Week, Passover, and Easter in a brand new way. We are still here…apart yet together. Stay healthy and safe. Add sunshine flowers to your life.

Be the Star You Are!® PO Box 376 Moraga, California 94556 Cynthia@BetheStarYouAre.org

https://www.BetheStarYouAre.org

http://www.BTSYA.org

  All donations are 100% Tax Deductible according to law. Thank you! https://www.paypal.com/fundraiser/charity/1504

  Read: http://hosted.verticalresponse.com/672296/318e3a3a8c/288055965/bbd34d3431/

  tags: #Easter,#passover,#coronavirus,#ovid19,#bethestaryouare,#stayhome,#staysafe,#cynthiabrian,#helpforyou,#starstyle,#expressyourself

[concurringconqueror]

8 Free Music Download And Install Apps for Android - Create Specialist Easier

We are actually properly into the streaming age group of media consumption along with popular music downloads in the age of Spotify, as well as it is actually starting to experience a little bit like Videos in the age of Netflix. Keeping that stated, there's simply one thing reassuring regarding possessing your popular music right there on your gadget without must bother with the vagaries of bad Net links or even keeping yourself occupied on long-haul flights.There are actually lots of excellent paid for services that allow you download and install popular music to your Android tool, yet blessed for you there are actually likewise some awesome totally free ones. Listed below are our favorite apps for installing popular music to your Android tool that will not cost you a dime.1. GTunes Songs Downloader An oldie yet a present

... like Tom Waits. GTunes searches

via several significant domains of downloadable songs for your inquiries where you'll find countless musicians and also tracks throughout eras. The search options are fairly simple, therefore this is well used if you understand exactly what tracks you're searching for and only intend to venture out certainly there and download them.Note that when we utilized the application of the four search engines, merely "C"recovered outcomes, therefore try utilizing that people before complaining that the entire trait doesn't function! GTunes possesses its very own integrated player, also, and also allows you prune your songs and specified tunes as ringtones. It's all fairly simple things however rounds it around a respectable little bit of plan.2. YMusic One of the a lot more exquisite and official-looking songs downloader applications, YMusic permits you participate in any type of YouTube video recording as an audio documents, even permitting you manage it behind-the-scenes

on your phone.The genuine kicker here is actually that you can likewise download online videos as audio reports. You possess the alternative to install them in the M4A as well as MP3 styles, and it possesses an excellent public library UI

that subsequently permits you manage your popular music submits much like you will in a music gamer app.Of all the options on this list, YMusic is actually hands-down one of the most practical(although you perform must install it coming from outside the Play Store )and also very most trusted.

For those main reasons it tops our listing.3. SuperCloud Tune MP3 Downloader When a songs download application isn't offered in the Google.com Play Outlet, you can presume that's due to the fact that it's a bit doubtful overall copyright factor. SuperCloud likely fits

right into that classification, yet there is actually no doubt that it is just one of the most effective repositories for a lot of the readily available popular music along with different preferences. Whether you are actually appearing for mainstream stand out popular music or even below ground Techno collections, you'll find all of it here.Note that you'll need to have to install SuperCloud from the above web link, as well as to perform thus you'll require to permit unidentified resources on your Android device.4. SONGily The Play Store blurb for this is actually somewhat complex, proposing that you require to be some kind of member to enjoy this app. Only disregard that. The complimentary model of SONGily is actually ad-supported and also possesses access to a well-balanced accumulation of popular music new

as well as aged, coming from artists both mainstream and also unknown, from graph popular music to ocean small houses.(It holds true, I located small houses coming from Assassin's Creed IV below. )With each song you find, you'll see options to both play and also download and install the tracks you listen to, as well as they just recently included an attribute that allows you download online videos as well.This is actually precisely the sort of application that I can easily picture Google certainly not just liking a lot of, so do not be actually also startled if it vanishes from the Play Establishment and you find your own self must install it by hand.5. TubeMate Often the greatest applications for your totally free popular music downloads are those which may not be also designed

specifically for that function. TubeMate is actually an app that allows you download YouTube video clips in an amount of formats, including audio merely. As you're perhaps mindful, YouTube is actually one of the most ideal spots to listen closely to your favored

songs, and also due to TubeMate, it is among the most ideal areas to install that popular music, too.You may download TubeMate below(Google.com doesn't enable this in the Play Store, presumably because it overreaches YouTube ), and when you attempt to download online videos as sound (M4A or even MP3 ), you'll also receive cued to download and install MP3 Online video Converter, which syncs up along with TubeMate to transform video clip to audio.6. 4Shared The widely known file-sharing repository 4Shared has actually been producing the arounds on Personal Computer for a long times, as well as it's shown to become a massive hit on Android too. Once again, this isn't developed only for songs, as consumers can easily submit whatever documents they really want to it, but it's as suitable for finding songs as everything else.(There is actually even a choice to look especially for popular music reports.

)4Shared

could be downloaded coming from the Play Outlet yet certainly not with all countries. If you can't receive it coming from the Play Outlet in your nation, you may install the free APK here.7. KeepVid (Perfect for SoundCloud)A deserving option to TubeMate, with the incorporated conveniences of a prettier interface as well as the capability to download music from the greatest resource for electronic collections as well as individual artists, SoundCloud.KeepVid is quickly the best user-friendly complimentary music downloader, although it doesn't let you install music in the M4A layout, which TubeMate performs. That apart, it is actually a fantastic alternative.

Take note that so as to install SoundCloud monitors you'll need to have to head to SoundCloud after installing KeepVid, select the keep track of you really want, utilize the "Portion" symbol, then pick KeepVid in the options.8. Audiomack If you would like to know that the songs you're downloading and install isn't going

to be actually borrowing on any type of copyright, and you are actually additionally open to browsing through arising talent in the Hip-Hop, Electronic and also Reggae fields, then offer Audiomack a try.This application provides a system to artists without main distribution outlets while still possessing a content-filtering unit in location to ensure that the stuff on there is of high quality. This good-willed task has actually currently driven hip-hop celebrities like T-Wayne, Fetty Wap as well as Migos to capture tag offers and gives you an opportunity to assist discover the following huge star.It's constantly great to recognize that there are actually a huge range of apps on the market that can easily correct you up when you wish to have music actually on your gadget. Streaming is actually all effectively and good, but unless you are actually prepped to pay out, it commonly arrives along with fairly a bunch of limits. Along with popular music downloaded and install to your tool, you reside in command. Is this article practical? Yes No

This content was originally published here.

[zucca101]

Friendship ending

A lot of people have had friends dump them because they either voted for Trump or don’t hate Trump enough.

And when they are forced to see that the friends they try to dump aren’t horrible people, they perform mental gymnastics to convince themselves that their former friends are horrible people.

The following is a long rant from one such friend of mine and my response. If you recognize who it is, I DEMAND you seek no reprisal from them. I am keeping them anonymous to protect their identity for just that reason.

... A leftist, really now. Ahaha, oh wow.

*Link to the post I made about Lincoln being shot by a Leftist*-Z

Yes, noted Confederate sympathizer and anti-abolitionist John Wilkes Booth. A leftist.I was already keeping you at a healthy arm's length while putting up a vague semblance of friendship for the sake of not rocking the boat on that one server we're in, but holy shit have you ever lost your damn marbles. I can't do this, lmaoI mean, you've got an impressive collection of bullshit on that blog of yours all around, but this? chef kissHonestly, on some level, you impress me. How someone can claim to be anti-establishment while sucking up to the establishment every possible way they can, how someone can claim to be "seeking truth" only to disregard all evidence that can't be traced back to some skeezy reactionary Facebook page or another delivered to you through the impermeable little bubble of right-wingers you've created for yourself along with the right wing side of mass media your purportedly loathe so much... tell me, just how much cognitive dissonance do you deal with on a daily basis?How does it feel to claim to be "pro life", or to claim that you care about others only to push for measures to restrict access to healthcare, or to vehemently yell against anything the government could do that would make it easier for people to come out of the vicious spiral of poverty?(edited)How does it feel to constantly pretend to care about minorities, but only ever use us as gotchas to other minorities that you've internally designated as universally bad in spite of any evidence to the contrary - not to mention, without ever listening to us if we tell you you did something wrong, instead cherry picking those of us willing enough to suck up to the establishment to tell you what you want to hear, so you never have to confront the idea you may have done something wrong?(edited)Hell, isn't that what they call "virtue signaling" in your circles?Beyond your dishonesty to others, ask yourself this: are you even honest to yourself? Aren't you robbing yourself of any kind of personal growth by doing all this? Are you really contributing anything positive to this world by constantly spreading unchecked factoids that instantly fall apart the moment you expose them to any actual scientific sources (you know, the ones people in your general political corner like to call "fake news"), or by spreading the idea that people in dire straits should just pull themselves up by their bootstraps?Or for that matter, by resisting any measure of change towards a fairer society and instead vocally gushing about the virtues of a system that, by its very nature, its very definition, its very -essence- is about fucking over who you can, and quietly plugging your ears to anything you hear about the many negative consequences it has for the world, or the people living in it?Come back to me once you've learned how to maintain a shred of integrity, I suppose. Maybe take some time to reflect on what it means to be a good person. I can't be friends with someone to whom I have to explain why they should care about other people.Goodbye.

This is my response:

In 1865 John Wilkes Booth, a Democrat, assassinated Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States.

In 1881 a left wing radical Democrat shot James Garfield, President of the United States who later died from the wound.

In 1963 Lee Harvey Oswald, a radical left wing socialist, assassinated John F. Kennedy, President of the United States.

In 1975 a left wing radical Democrat fired shots at Gerald Ford, President of the United States.

In 1983 John Hinckley, a registered Democrat, shot and wounded Ronald Reagan and paralyzed a member of his cabinet.

... In 1984 James Huberty, a disgruntled Democrat, shot and killed 22 people in a McDonalds restaurant in San Ysidro, CA.

In 1986 Patrick Sherril, a disgruntled Democrat, shot and killed 15 people in an Oklahoma post office.

In 1990 James Pough, a disgruntled Democrat, shot and killed 10 people at a GMAC office.

In 1991 George Hennard, a disgruntled Democrat, shot and killed 23 people in a Lubys cafeteria.

In 1995 James Daniel Simpson, a disgruntled Democrat, shot and killed 5 coworkers in a Texas laboratory.

In 1999 Larry Asbrook, a disgruntled Democrat, shot and killed 8 people at a church service.

In 2001 a left wing radical Democrat fired shots at the White House in a failed attempt to kill George W. Bush, President of the US.

In 2003 Douglas Williams, a disgruntled Democrat, shot and killed 7 people at a Lockheed Martin plant.

In 2007 Seung - Hui Cho, a registered Democrat, shot and killed 32 people in Virginia Tech.

In 2010 Jared Lee Loughner, a mentalliy ill registered Democrat, shot Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and killed 6 others.

In 2011 James Holmes, a registered Democrat, went into a movie theater and shot and killed 12 people.

In 2012 Andrew Engeldinger, a disgruntled Democrat, shot and killed 7 people in Minneapolis.

In 2013 Adam Lanza, a registered Democrat, shot and killed men, women, and children in the Sandy Hook school massacre.

Leftist? Maybe JWB was, maybe he wasn't. But a Democrat, he assuredly was. Perhaps I overreached in saying he was a Leftist, but I should clarify that when I say 'Leftist' I don't mean 'someone on the Left'. I mean someone who believes The Left is the ONLY way. The same way I draw distinction between Muslims and Islamists. Islamists want to push it on others. Muslims are the broadest defition of those who follow Islam.

And what establishment am I sucking up to....? I don't watch Fox with any kind of regularity. I get most of my facts from self-described 'classic liberals' whose hearts are on the Left, but their minds are more centrist. They have intellectual honesty. I listen to Gavin McInnis to blow off steam, Bill Whittle for the Right of Center take on news and Sargon for Left of Center.

I don't care for the mass media because while I suspected that they were liars and obfuscating before, to finally have iron-clad proof of it is extremely liberating.

And I CHALLENGE YOU to show me where I said that women should not have access to healthcare. Or even hinted at it. What, you think because I know Single Payer is garbage that will create a pile of corpses. I'm against healthcare for women? I've even said that my stance on abortions is that it should be between the woman and her doctor, not the woman, the government, the doctor, some pencil pushers and more. Just as my stance on same-sex marriage is that it should be between a couple and the church of their choice, not to make it legally compulsory and simply flip the oppression over rather than making it fair and equal of measure. And where abortions are concerned, the parental rights of the father are nonexistent. Now, in cases such as incest and rape (Which if you look at the stats, represent a small minority of abortions) still strongly urge the mother to consider life, but if she chooses abortion, while I find it extremely distasteful (The child DOES NOT HAVE A SAY IN THIS) I fully understand and sympathize with the decision.

As for helping people out of poverty, you know what's the BEST way out of poverty that ISN'T a government program?

A job. A simple job. And if the government creates conditions that *encourage* job growth, then you accomplish the same end without making people dependent on the governmnet.

That's not to say that there shouldn't be charity for people who TRULY cannot help themselves. That's a given. But when you extend the scope of those within the perview of the government to give money to to include people who CAN help themselves, then you create dependents. And it's not that they're bad or lazy people. They're taking the least complicated route. If you get more money for not working than you do for working, you'll take the one that affords you free time to spend with your family, friends or on your own pursuits.

Constantly pretend to.... universally bad...? WHAT....? Dude, don't even try that one. Blah-blah, anyone Right of Mao is racist, blah. Pardon my French, but go fly a frikken kite. In my tabletop gaming group, my friend Paul, 2nd Generation Japanese immigrant, is the most decent and kind man I've had the pleasure of knowing. He's a good dad to his kids and a good husband to his wife. My freind Zach is from a huge Filipino family and he's the best GM I've ever met, short of my oldest brother. John grew up in a Cadillac before his parents legally became citizens and came up to America from Mexico. These are guys I trust, literally, with my life. And none of us give a crap what the other looks like.

And I admit, for a while I was 100% not on board with Transsexualism. But since then I've come to stand that an adult who has spoken to a therapist and doctor, sorted out their feelings and decided after consideration that they wish to transition is completely fine by me. It doesn't hurt me or anyone else and if they've spoken to a therapist, then they're not setting themselves up for something regrettable. Now, trans-trenders, who want the status of being special and different, but don't want to go through the heartache and effort of making that transition, I call out for their bullshit, because not only are they full of shit, they're robbing REAL transsexuals of their credibility, their agency and their respect. And for some transsexuals to come out and say 'You don't have a right not to have sex with a transsexual', can't you see how that would rub some folk the wrong way?

Don't even try to talk to me about science, friend. I studied biology, agricultural science and psychology and I know a thing or two and when someone obfuscates or has nothing peer-reviewed, then I get suspicious. Again, I'd sorely love for you to point out where I was 'anti-science'.

And if you're suggesting that Socialism is your fluffy 'Fair Society' then I suggest you travel to Venezuala. I have a friend who lives there and the picture he paints is NOT a pretty one. How do you define a 'Fair society'? Because I define it as a society that rewards effort. You do a hard day's work, you make a fair wage and you work your way up the ladder. You can't try to take luck or privilege into account on EITHER Socialism or Capitalism, because there is no way to quantify the variable of luck and when you look at privelege, then it exists in the pipedream of Socialism too, because the people running it will ALWAYS BE BETTER OFF than the people who are not. That's simple human nature. The Great Wheel of Life as the Buddhists describe still exerts its effect on a Socialist state as much as a Capitalist. But unlike Socialism, at least in Capitalism you have, barring disability, the same shot as anyone else does to earn a good living.

I find it laughable that you sit there, where you are, and decry someone you know through occasional chats as either a good person or a not good person based on arbitrary variables.

See, the truth is that life is not as black and white as that. It's an exquisite composition of greys and other colors.

Sometimes life is good, sometimes life is not, but if you are free to self-determination (Something you DO NOT HAVE IN SOCIALISM) then you have a chance to better yourself. You DARE to accuse me of not caring about people out of one side of your mouth, while, with the other, propping up Socialism, which *DOES NOT CARE* about people to the point that a child is worthy of sacrifice due to SIMPLE INCONVENIENCE?! Sorry, but *fuck* that is the very cognative dissonance you accuse me of in plain and flagrant view.

I push myself to be a good person. I don't hurt people, I volunteer, I help the seniors at my church with many needs, I'm there for my friends and family and will drop what I'm doing to help, I treat everyone working retail with respect and actively try to make their day brighter, I don't care what color someone's skin is, I don't care if someone is disabled (My best friend back in Youth Bowling League and a better bowler than I, was a deaf boy named Arron), and I am generally considered to be very 'chill' in person and am so without chemical intervention. Does that make me a good person? I don't rightly know. I just do the best I can with what I've got. And I don't *dare* to assume that I have moral highground unless it's a truly clear-cut case. I've never killed, raped (Even though 3rd Wave Feminism insists that in every man there is a rapist that needs to be taught not to rape_) or stolen anything (Some shoplifting in my youth notwithstanding). In other words, I try to be a decent and polite person and let the world decide if I am or not a good person.

But what boggles my mind is that the line between good person and bad person is tied DIRECTLY to what side of the political spectrum they fall under. That is simplisticly childish. As is the 'Come back to me when you care about people' nonsense.

I will again wait for you to come to your senses and realize that life is not a cartoon with cartoonishly one-note people.

Genuinely warm regards,

-Zucca

[michaelsmediablog-blog]

Final Blog Post: House of Cards

      House of Cards is a currently running political drama on Netflix. It is poised to enter it’s fifth season in May, 2017. The cast is lead by Kevin Spacey as Frank Underwood, Much like the political environment in the show, House of Cards is a work of art. This can be seen from the very beginning of the opening credits to the end of the most recent season. There is a heavy focus on appearance, public appreciation, and lasting influence. Frank Underwood, the shows main character reminds us of this many times, regularly speaking about power and legacy in his asides (an element that screams classical theater, e.g. Shakespeare's monologues and soliloquies). This focus on influence and the struggle between reality and appearance has been philosophized by countless philosophers, from Plato to Marx to Arendt to Baudrillard.

      “The Marxist approach to culture insists that texts and practices must be analysed in relation to their historical conditions of production” (Storey, 61) Keeping this in mind, House of Cards is being created in a time where the historical conditions of production are largely political so it makes sense that the show would be a strong story about the American political system. The conditions of production are an über-political capitalist system steeped in corruption and uncertainty perhaps more than any other time in American history and the show reflects that very strongly.

      I hypothesized that the shows portrayal of politics and the media may be damaging to people's opinions and views about what can and should be done by people in power in our country. Frank’s portrayal as a “ruthless pragmatist” is abrasive on the surface, and is counterbalanced by many small things he does at certain parts of the story. Frank’s media appearance and his focus on power consumes his life. Every waking moment he is focused on how he can secure a legacy for himself through any means possible. The problem comes when we look at the reason why we like Frank, I personally like Frank because of his intelligence, his drive, and his perfectionism. When we analyze Frank’s quest for power and legacy, we find that he is in fact an immense hypocrite. At multiple moments in the show Frank is condescending, rude, and mean to people who he sees as idiots for going after money instead of legacy and power, under the guise that money is only a means to an end and earning money holds no value over time. Despite his views on this he completely misses the fact that there is quite the same conundrum with an unending quest for power; he believes that his power and legacy will have use or value, endlessly validating his need to inflate his ego. He focuses on the immortality of legacy, missing or ignoring the fact that legacy is not lasting, and that it can be created through good or evil methods.

      The other reason one wants to like Frank is that we have a much more intimate relationship with him than any of the other characters do. His asides provide insight and what feels like an honest view of Frank. While this is in fact his own “honest view,” the appearance/feeling of honesty is what matters. These asides don’t just blur the lines between reality and appearance, it removes it. For Frank, and for the show, appearance IS reality. We justify his manipulation of the media because we are shown the stresses his job and actions cause in his own personal life, despite his manipulation being one of those stressors; we see his reality, almost forcing us to have empathy for him. In fact, if the show only portrayed Frank through his media appearances and his public image we would get a much different view of Frank, we might be less or more approving of his political actions simply due to personal bias and ignorance about what goes on behind the facade. One might find him boring and political, or just outright despise him. Making it feel like Frank trusts you, and making you feel like you trust him back, like he’s your friend, is crucial to his relationship with the viewer and is woven near perfectly into his persona, the manipulation of trust and affection being his primary tool for bending and breaking people and their lives. Not even the viewer knows when they’re being lied to because they’ve been shown that everything he has said is “true”, allowing Frank to tell his lies whenever and to whomever he chooses.

      Frank does everything for his own gain, even things he does not want to do or like doing are done with Frank’s interests at heart. He will abuse people who helped him with no regard to the ramifications simply because of the power he feels he has. His power and appearance are simply a house of cards waiting to collapse until it is finally cemented together and left to collapse from time. Throughout the show, Frank shows an almost childish displeasure towards non permanent things; he insists Edward Meechum stays his personal bodyguard, he shows contempt for the Buddhist monks who came and made then eventually destroyed the sand mandala. Because of this Frank ties and unties his political connections with ease, choosing to ally with whomever may increase his chance at permanency.

      One of the driving factors behind the American political system is the capitalist economy we base it on. Capitalism is by no means a bad thing, but the current economic landscape is very toxic. The rich are now very much in power. Marx believed that the rich being in power served to keep the other classes in conflict with each other. This conflict removes attention from the true goings-on of the rulers, and focuses it on more menial grievances like minimum wage, pay equality between races and genders, etc. Marx believed that this hid the larger scale politics involving corporations and their intent to grasp “power” by having a tight hold on money.

      This connection between power and money is not left out of the show, former president Garrett Walker is a very close friend and business partner with Raymond Tusk, a multi-billionaire who owns nuclear power plants around the world. He uses this influence, his near-monopoly on the power in China is used as leverage to end a military conflict between the United States and China. This is strongly capitalized on by Frank, who sees money as a fake form of power, only useful in making people do what you want for a little, and universally fleeting, unlike a legacy. Frank uses a Chinese businessman’s ties to Democratic action committees to spin a story in the media that ultimately ends in Garrett Walker’s resignation and Frank Underwood taking position as the President of the United States of America.

      Claire Underwood is a very startling representation of a woman in power and in the fourth season we watch as she sheds her husband’s control over her and reminds us that she herself is just as much a strong and power-hungry sociopath as Frank. Claire finally receives the agency she has desired and that she deserves. Although she uses this agency to do arguably terrible things, the fact that she has this agency is something not seen often in the first three seasons. The most notable scene for Claire before the fourth season is perhaps her interview on CNN in season two where a reporter bluntly asked her about her and Frank’s lack of children. This question would absolutely not have been posited to a male and Claire responds with strength. She turns the question and its subsequent prying into Claire’s past abortions, a private topic that she is essentially forced to lie about in order to save face. She uses this lie to expose a military member, now a general, who raped her and to shift the conversation towards her bill about rape in the military and the victims of it. This is a very powerful refusal to go on what the media wants to get attention for, yet we still feel Claire’s pain of being cornered into answering a question on a topic that has no business being asked about by anybody outside perhaps a healthcare environment.

      Although we see this strength in Claire, she uses it in much the wrong way. Because of the oppression and attitudes surrounding her Claire aspires for something that is almost completely ridiculous, to be the First Lady and the Vice President at the same time. Now, this isn’t ridiculous because she is a woman, it is ridiculous because of the immense conflict of interest and the easy target for government overreach accusations. This use of Claire as a strong character, Frank’s Lady Macbeth finally sharing the stage is very important to the representation that women can have and want power in the same way men do, and although Claire is an awful and powerful person, she struggles much the same way that many other women do under the attempted control from men.

      Because of the “reality” of this television show, the fact that it’s fully contained world almost completely mimics our own makes us think about these hyperbolic representations and consider that maybe some of them aren’t so hyperbolic. It creates worry, or, based on the writings of Zizek (Storey, 112), it illustrates the worry that we already hold in our mind, the worry that is in fact, our reality. This worry has grown exponentially this past year, from the rhetoric spewed by then-presidential-candidate Donald Trump, to the actions and rhetoric still spewed by him and his close allies after he won the presidency. His entire presidency so far has felt like a television show, that is why satire of his characters is so strong it doesn’t even need to be accurate, the worry people have is enough to make the satire all too real. Our reality has become a melding of our dream realities and real life, a personification of our fear for the outcome of our country and the hope that President Trump may at some point not play into our nightmarish views of him and his scary and isolating ideals.

      I believe that my hypothesis was in fact wrong. I believe this kind of representation of power and backroom dealings in fact brings awareness and discomfort to the people who watch it. We watch it not because we agree with Frank or his ideals and practices, but because we have an obsession with triumph. History has been controlled by the powerful and always will be. The triumph over history and truth itself is an immense position of power and many people may have a subconscious desire to have that sort of respect. Admiration of them is not necessary if a leader is strong enough to keep your country looking strong. I think that being powerful enough to have such a strong disregard for public opinion, to the point where you can create and lie about public opinion is enticing. Everyone wants to feel like they have created their own identity and have control over it, and absolute power seems like the ultimate form of control, no matter what history has proven to be true.

“Democracy is so overrated.” -Frank Underwood

“The road to power is filled with hypocrisy, and casualties” -Frank Underwood

References:

House of Cards - Willimon, Beau. “House of Cards.” House of Cards, Netflix, www.netflix.com/title/70178217.

Cultural Theory and Popular Culture - Storey, John. Cultural theory and popular culture: an introduction. Harlow, Pearson, 2015.

[patriotsnet]

Who Are Republicans For The Rule Of Law

New Post has been published on https://www.patriotsnet.com/who-are-republicans-for-the-rule-of-law/

Who Are Republicans For The Rule Of Law

Other Conservatives Are Starting To Make Noise

Republicans for the Rule of Law Ad Featured on Shepard Smith

Republicans for the Rule of Law is not the only group of conservatives mobilizing against the presidents efforts to politicize the DOJ. On Wednesday, the New York Times profiled a new group organized by George Conway husband of White House senior counselor Kellyanne Conway called Checks and Balances.

We believe in the rule of law, the power of truth, the independence of the criminal justice system, the imperative of individual rights and the necessity of civil discourse, the group said in a statement. We believe these principles apply regardless of the party or persons in power.

The Times reports that the group is meant to encourage debate about some of the Trump administrations policies and actions among legal organizations that usually support him, like the Federalist Society.

Despite his wifes central role in the administration, Conway has emerged as an outspoken critic of Trump especially on Twitter.

This is flabbergasting.

George Conway

Conway has also been critical of Trumps decision to appoint Whitaker. Asked about Conways criticisms during a question-and-answer session with reporters last week, Trump dismissed him as a selfish attention-seeker.

Hes just trying to get publicity for himself, Trump said.

In Relation To Economics

One important aspect of the rule-of-law initiatives is the study and analysis of the rule of law’s impact on economic development. The rule-of-law movement cannot be fully successful in transitional and developing countries without an answer to the question: does the rule of law matter to economic development or not?Constitutional economics is the study of the compatibility of economic and financial decisions within existing constitutional law frameworks, and such a framework includes government spending on the judiciary, which, in many transitional and developing countries, is completely controlled by the executive. It is useful to distinguish between the two methods of corruption of the judiciary: corruption by the executive branch, in contrast to corruption by private actors.

The standards of constitutional economics can be used during annual budget process, and if that budget planning is transparent then the rule of law may benefit. The availability of an effective court system, to be used by the civil society in situations of unfair government spending and executive impoundment of previously authorized appropriations, is a key element for the success of the rule-of-law endeavor.

Studies have shown that weak rule of law discourages investment. Economists have found, for example, that a rise in discretionary regulatory enforcement caused US firms to abandon international investments.

Theyve Been Jabbing At Mike Lee & Praising Maryland Governor Larry Hogan On Social Media

The women of Utah have questions for Senator Lee, including: Do you mean you already fully understood his utter disregard for the rule of law, and just dont care?

Republicans for the Rule of Law

Republicans for the Rule of Law recently reposted a letter to the editor that appeared in the Salt Lake Tribune, slamming Utah Senator Mike Lee. The letter, written by the Utah chapter of Mormon Women for Ethical Government, asked Lee why he continues to stand by the president. The letter reads:

When you state that nothing in this report changes your view of this president, do you mean that you already fully understood that President Trump was doing whatever he could to obstruct justice and was saved only because his staff refused to follow his orders? Do you mean that you support the president despite this unethical and self-serving behavior?

Republicans for the Rule of Law has also been showering praise on Maryland governor Larry Hogan. Hogan is the son of the late Maryland representative Lawrence Hogan, who was the only Republican representative to vote for all three articles of impeachment against Nixon. More recently, Larry Hogan made headlines when he called the Mueller Report disturbing and said it didnt exonerate the president.

Also Check: What Is Republicanism And What Does It Value

A Loyalist Runs The Justice Department

Trump made no secret that his antipathy to former Attorney General Jeff Sessions was rooted in Sessionss decision to recuse himself from the Russia investigation a move that ultimately resulted in Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein appointing Mueller as special counsel.

The ad that Republicans for the Rule of Law ran on Fox & Friends highlights comments Whitaker made during TV appearances before his stratospheric rise to the top of the DOJ, such as the appointment of Bob Mueller I dont think was necessary or appropriate and what I see is a president that is starting to figure out that if I want to I can terminate you legally there is certainly a way for that to happen.

Perhaps the most prominent member of the group, Bill Kristol, shared video of the ad on Twitter.

Republicans for the Rule of Law is running this ad on Fox and Friends this morning.

Bill Kristol

Whitaker thus far has given no indications that he plans to recuse himself from overseeing Muellers investigation. Trump reportedly became a fan of his thanks to TV appearances where Whitaker suggested Muellers work could be brought to an end by slashing his budget, and characterized his appointment as ridiculous and a little fishy.

Related

The many scandals of Trumps new acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker, explained

Status In Various Jurisdictions

2005 map of Worldwide Governance Indicators, which attempts to measure the extent to which agents have confidence in and abide by the rules of society. Â;Â;90â100th percentile* Â;Â;0â10th percentile *Percentile rank indicates the percentage of countries worldwide that rate below the selected country.

The rule of law has been considered one of the key dimensions that determine the quality and good governance of a country. Research, like the Worldwide Governance Indicators, defines the rule of law as: “the extent to which agents have confidence and abide by the rules of society, and in particular the quality of contract enforcement, the police and the courts, as well as the likelihood of crime or violence.” Based on this definition the Worldwide Governance Indicators project has developed aggregate measurements for the rule of law in more than 200 countries, as seen in the map at right.

Recommended Reading: What Do Republicans Stand For Today

Republicans For The Rule Of Law Ad Targets Johnson Over Covid

Republicans for the Rule of Law have announced an ad campaign targeting GOP U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson for pushing ahead with efforts to fill a vacancy on the U.S. Supreme Court while opposing a new COVID-19 relief bill.

A group spokeswoman said it is spending more than $250,000 on TV in the Madison and Milwaukee markets on Fox News, MSNBC and CNN. The buy runs today through Sunday with a digital component as well.

The group describes itself as life-long Republicans dedicated to defending the institutions of our republic and upholding the rule of law. Its also targeting: U.S. Sens. Ted Cruz, R-Texas; Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa; Bob Portman, R-Ohio; and Marco Rubio, R-Fla.; as part of an overall $1 million ad campaign.

Johnson hasnt said if he plans to run for re-election in 2022 or if he will stick to his pledge to serve two terms in the Senate.

The narrator in the ad says Johnson blocked a confirmation vote in 2016 before playing a clip of him saying, Eight months before the election, why not let the American people decide the direction of the Supreme Court?

Now, the narrator adds, Johnson supports rushing through a new judge, but refuses to pass COVID relief.

Call Ron Johnson and tell him to pass COVID relief now and let the peoples voice be heard on the Supreme Court, the narrator says to close the ad. Sen. Ron Johnson is letting Wisconsin down.

The Rule Of Law In The United States

The Constitution serves as the foundation for the rule of law in American justice. It establishes a system of rights, freedoms, and checks and balances that ensure a fair and just society for all without government overreach and tyranny. This includes separation of power between three distinct branches of government .

Ultimately, no person, whether individual or policymaker, has the right to subvert the rule of law. Amendments are possible if and when societal shifts make them necessary, but the process is challenging for a reason. Not only does it prevent rulers from changing the law to suit their needs, but it also helps to maintain a more stable government and freedom for all Americans.

Also Check: Which Region In General Supported The Democratic Republicans

About Republicans For Voting Rights

Republicans for Voting Rights is an initiative of the Republican Accountability Project with the purpose of defending the accessibility, integrity, and competitiveness of American elections.

Voting is a sacred American right. But after the 2020 election, some Republicans began pushing for more restrictive voting laws designed to support unfounded accusations that the election was stolen and the results were illegitimate. Some even believe that voting is harmful to their electoral prospects. More still believe our electoral system is rife with fraud and security failures.

Republicans for Voting Rights rejects the false choice between voting access and election integrity. We believe that Republicans in federal, state, and local government should protect the right to vote, protect our election systems from partisan or foreign interference, and help build trust in our democracy.

What Happened To Bill Kristol And Republicans For The Rule Of Law

Did you ever imagine the President could act like this?

In 2013, American Conservative Union head David Keene took a direct shot at then Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol, while;addressing;a crowd at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference.

Some political operatives think we lost because of our ideas and valuesand what we really ought to do is change them, said Keene, attacking Republican strategists concerned over electoral defeat, including Kristol.

A lot has changed in seven yearsin terms of political players and issuesbut Keenes warning still holds true.

In an act of appeasement toward the political left, many self-professed limited government conservativesonce heralded as firebrands by their supportershave abandoned the conservative tradition.

Theres no doubt that the recent death of George Floyd raises questions about the state of the current justice system. Any conservative or libertarian-minded individual truly concerned about big government should fight to hold everyone accountable to the law.

But establishment GOP leaders and consultants have shifted their reform efforts. Instead of standing up for traditional conservative valuesgovernment accountability, the rule of lawtheyve pinned the blame on those stubborn conservatives.

Take for example, Max Boot, one of President Donald Trumps strongest critics.;According to;Boot, The president is pouring gasoline on the flames of racial division, and the Republican Party is holding the jerrycan for him.

Also Check: How Many Registered Democrats And Republicans In The Us

About The Rule Of Law

Rule of law is an ancient philosophy first outlined by Aristotle in ancient Rome. It purports that all people and entities, including the government, must be bound to the same system of laws and regulations. This prevents rulers from abusing their powers or engaging in tyranny while also setting guidelines under which all people pursue happiness without harming others.

This does not necessarily mean that all governments who adopt the rule of law are forced to follow the same exact system. For example, both Canada and the US believe in the rule of law, but the justice system adopted by each contains very different laws. The term rule of law is more about the government and the people agreeing to the same system as a whole.

Republicans For The Rule Of Law Is Financed By A Democrat

Just hours after Jeff Sessions resigned as attorney general last Wednesday at the presidents behest, #TheResistance found its newest target for destruction: Sessions interim replacement, Matthew Whitaker….NeverTrump conservatives are aiding Schiff and the media in their campaign to paralyze if not remove Whitaker. Commercials attacking the acting attorney general were aired on several Sunday morning political shows. The ads were sponsored by Republicans for the Rule of Law, a group founded earlier this year by Bill Kristol, the editor-at-large of The Weekly Standard. The groups primary role so far appears to be pimping for the Mueller probe, a political witch-hunt that Kristol and his fellow NeverTrumpers pray will lead to the impeachment and removal of the president. The Left and their NeverTrump footsoldiers fear Whitaker will thwart the special counsels investigation instead of rubber stamping Muellers ever-expanding investigation as Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein has done over the past 18 months.

Recommended Reading: Why Do Republicans Hate Ted Cruz

The Council Of Europe

The Statute of the Council of Europe characterizes the rule of law as one of the core principles which the establishment of the organization based on. The paragraph 3 of the preamble of the Statute of the Council of Europe states: “Reaffirming their devotion to the spiritual and moral values which are the common heritage of their peoples and the true source of individual freedom, political liberty and the rule of law, principles which form the basis of all genuine democracy.” The Statute lays the compliance with the rule of law principles as a condition for the European states to be a full member of the organization.

In Relation To Culture

The Treaty on the Protection of Artistic and Scientific Institutions and Historic Monuments or Roerich Pact is an inter-American treaty. The most important idea of the Roerich Pact is the legal recognition that the defense of cultural objects is more important than the use or destruction of that culture for military purposes, and the protection of culture always has precedence over any military necessity.The Roerich Pact signed on April 15, 1935, by the representatives of 21 American states in the Oval Office of the White House . It was the first international treaty signed in the Oval Office.The Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict is the first international treaty that focuses on the protection of cultural property in armed conflict. It was signed at The Hague, Netherlands on 14 May 1954 and entered into force on 7 August 1956. As of June 2017, it has been ratified by 128 states.

Don’t Miss: How Many Republicans Voted For Daca

A Viral Ad Released By The Group Says Republican Silence On The Mueller Report Is Deafening

Republicans, your silence is deafening. Stand up for the rule of law.

Republicans for the Rule of Law

A new ad from the Republicans for the Rule of Law has been going viral on social media; you can see it above. Many people are retweeting it and adding instructions to listen with your sound turned all the way up, because this video is supposed to be all about silence. The spot, shot in black and white, features close-ups of Republican Ben senators Sasse, Lindsey Graham, Ted Cruz, John Kennedy, Tim Scott. Theyre all looking straight ahead and saying nothing. You can hear a bit of static and the faint sound of a ticking clock.

A caption at the end reads, Republicans: Your silence is deafening. Our president attempted to obstruct justice. Stand up for the rule of law.

Some Trumpists Turn Against Cheneys Successor

Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York, who entered the House as a centrist in 2014 but has recast her as a Trumpist with support of Trumps disinformation, has been endorsed by House GOP leader McCarthy as Cheneys successor.

But some Trumpists are already jabbing at Stefanik as a moderate in disguise. Rep. Chip Roy of Texas sent a memo to every Republican representative that Stefanik had cast a series of votes opposed to Trumpism.

We must avoid putting in charge Republicans who campaign as Republicans but then vote for and advance the Democrats agenda once sworn in that is, that we do not make the same mistakes that we did in 2017.

With all due respect to my friend, Elise Stefanik, let us contemplate the message Republican leadership is about to send by rushing to coronate a spokesperson whose voting record embodies much of what led to the 2018 ass-kicking we received by Democrats.

Members of the hard-right Freedom Caucus have privately expressed reluctance, if not opposition, about Stefaniks ascendancy.

The New York representative has sought to appease critics by promising that she would resign as Conference chair before casting a vote that differs from the majority of House Republicans. She told reporters on Tuesday, We have a great deal of support from the Freedom Caucus and others.

Freedom Caucus co-founder Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio and Trump have backed Stefanik.

Read Also: Why Do Democrats And Republicans Disagree

International Commission Of Jurists

In 1959, an event took place in New Delhi and speaking as the International Commission of Jurists, made a declaration as to the fundamental principle of the rule of law. The event consisted of over 185 judges, lawyers, and law professors from 53 countries. This later became known as the . During the declaration they declared what the rule of law implied. They included certain rights and freedoms, an independent judiciary and social, economic and cultural conditions conducive to human dignity. The one aspect not included in The Declaration of Delhi, was for rule of law requiring legislative power to be subject to judicial review.

The Secretary-General of the United Nations defines the rule of law as:

a principle of governance in which all persons, institutions and entities, public and private, including the State itself, are accountable to laws that are publicly promulgated, equally enforced and independently adjudicated, and which are consistent with international human rights norms and standards. It requires, as well, measures to ensure adherence to the principles of supremacy of law, equality before the law, accountability to the law, fairness in the application of the law, separation of powers, participation in decision-making, legal certainty, avoidance of arbitrariness and procedural and legal transparency.