Conservative Partying, Part I: Festivities, Election of Officers, and Rules

 

Last week was the state Republican Party of Texas Convention, June 11-13, with preliminary meetings starting June 8. It was held here in Houston, at the George R. Brown Convention Center, one of just a few facilities in the state big enough to handle this large convention. (The other cities are San Antonion, Dallas, and Ft. Worth, so it’s always going to be in one of these cities.)

There were festivities. But there was also business: elections of officers, and setting the Rules, Legislative Priorities, and Platform for the upcoming biennium. I spent my time editing the platform again (I know I’d said I wouldn’t do it again, but at least I didn’t lead the team or work through any nights). So I’ll cover the other business first and then spend a bit more time on Platform.

Festivities

There was a live elephant. I missed when it came into the main hall, but I saw it in the exhibit hall, behind Governor Abbott, where people were getting photos. They closed the line just before I got there, so I didn’t get pictures with me in them.

Governor Abbott taking photos with supporters

 An elephant, indoors, is pretty awesome. My guess is the Democrats won’t try to compete with a live donkey at theirs. It would be an offense to donkeys, as Ted Cruz quipped.

There were speeches, and songs. Some of the music was really good. I missed much of that, because I don’t get there in mornings, especially when I didn’t get to bed before 3:00 AM. I did listen to livestreams on YouTube. Go to the RPT channel and choose what you want to see.

To read the full article, FOLLOW LINK TO SUBSTACK.

The Bill of Rights: Celebrating the Semiquincentennial, Part VI

We’re reaching the halfway point—and approaching the actual July 4^th birthday—in our celebration of the 250^th birthday of our nation. So far we’ve celebrated by walking through our founding documents: the Declaration of Independence, and the Preamble and first three Articles of the Constitution, covering the legislative, executive, and judicial branches.

If we were simply walking straight through, we’d get to Article IV on through VII of the Constitution. Maybe we’ll come back to these in more detail, but for now let’s just summarize those articles:

Article 4 covers interstate rules, and guarantees for citizens going state to state. There are four sections, including information about how new states may be admitted, and how the federal government guarantees protection to each of the states.

Article 5 offers ways to amend the Constitution: amendments can be proposed by either two-thirds of both Houses, or two-thirds of the state legislatures can propose an amendment. This option has been talked of more in the past few years; 20 states so far have voted to go ahead (including my state of Texas), out of a needed 34.

Article 6 talks about paying debts incurred by the national government, and that the federal government shall be the supreme law of the land.

Article 7 talks about ratification of the Constitution, and signatures from representatives of the states at the Constitutional Convention, where the document was written and revised.

Next come the Amendments. There are 27. The first 10 are what we call the Bill of Rights. And that’s the topic for today’s post. Even so, we might not cover all 10. I’m going to go through a little history and background and at least cover the First Amendment. And since there could be books and books written on the First Amendment, we’ll mostly just get to the first right in the First Amendment.

To read the full article, FOLLOW LINK TO SUBSTACK.

The Empire, the Thucydides Trap, and Other Big Picture Things

 

I’ve been interested lately in the bigger picture—and it’s the more positive picture—of President Trump on the world stage. So much interrelates. I’ve written about it here and here. 

One of my sources has been Glenn Beck. But I was clued in by a friend to another source of just this kind of chessboard thinking: Promethean Action. Mainly, I’ve heard from two women, Susan Kokinda and Barbara Boyd, who study and make the connections and try to share this rather complicated viewpoint with the world. I’m still looking into the background, which I may touch on below.

I had heard Susan Kokinda a time or two on Stephen Gardner’s podcast. I had even gone to her Substack once. But then I forgot to keep going there. So I knew who she was when a friend reminded me of this resource, and I’ve been listening and learning—about things I never knew before—this past couple of weeks.

These people are very pro-Trump, in a very serious and non-cheerleader kind of way. They use a deep study of history, maybe particularly ancient Greek history, to understand what we’re seeing today.

I’d like to use a fair amount of their own words to explain what’s happening in the world, at least their viewpoint, which I find compelling.

The Empire

I think it will help to start with The Empire.

To read the full article, FOLLOW LINK TO SUBSTACK.

Remember Memorial Day Meaning

Arlington Cemetery, from a visit in 2014. Center sculpture is titled “Price of Freedom.”
Lower left is honoring the Battle of Iwo Jima.
Right is the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

I almost forgot about Memorial Day this weekend. It’s the last Monday of May, but there are six days of May after the last Monday. So it came as a minor surprise. I had half written a post for this week, but I’m setting that aside for a few days to do this Memorial Day remembrance.

I admit, it took me a while—longer than it should have—to recognize what Memorial Day was. As a child, it was sometimes called “Decoration Day,” the day we decorated the graves of our ancestors with flowers from the garden. I didn’t attach the military meaning to it; we decorated the graves of all our relatives in a given cemetery, not just military members.

And once I attached the military meaning, then I incorrectly thought of it as a day to honor veterans. I didn’t get it right until maybe a decade and a half ago. Here’s the accurate info:

·       Armed Forces Day, for those currently serving, is celebrated the third Saturday in May (May 16 this year).

·       Veterans’ Day, for living former servicemen/women, is celebrated November 11.

·       Memorial Day, for those who died while serving, is celebrated the last Monday in May (May 25 this year).

 

Originally, Memorial Day was celebrated on May 30, whatever day of the week that fell on. That was changed when the majority of our holidays were placed on Mondays, in 1971, to give people a three-day weekend, which allowed for travel and was probably intended to thereby allow for more celebrating of those days. Unfortunately, a three-day weekend has made some such weekends generic. And Memorial Day may have thus suffered loss of meaning, or reverent remembering.

So to remedy that loss of remembering, I’m adding this post here, in grateful thanks to those who gave their all. As Lincoln said in the Gettysburg Address:

…that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Memorial Day is meant as a holy day, not a mere holiday. I expect most of us will enjoy the holiday aspects as well. Maybe a cookout or a family outing. But it would do our country well if we also set aside a bit of time to use the day for its intended purpose—to remember the fallen.

To read the full article, FOLLOW LINK TO SUBSTACK.

That Wounded Beast Needs Defeating Again

Revelation 13:

1 And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.

2 And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.

3 And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast.

 We’ve mentioned the Revelation 13 beasts a number of times here, often enough that it’s starting to feel like a theme. Symbolically, this sea beast is the worldwide cabal, the whore of all the earth, the great and abominable church, the secret combinations, the deep state, the anti-Christ. The symbolism of the sea means it extends beyond one nation; it crosses the seas. So it is multinational. The heads represent leaders, or aspects, or possibly particular countries or organizations. I’m sure you can use your imagination to try to name them. Horns represent powers or abilities, and so do crowns. The multiple numbers of them show great power. Seven is symbolic of completeness; ten also indicates completeness, so it probably means over the whole entire world. The dragon from which the beast gets its power, position, and authority is Satan.

Now take a look at verse 3. One of the heads is wounded. It looks like it is a mortal wound. But then that head is healed, which seems incredible to the world. I think the likely real-world corollary of this wounded head is the taking out of communism/socialism/fascism in the past century. We defeated this beast head in World War II. That should have been the end of it. The many millions who had died because of this beast head were a sure indicator of its evil nature, and the good people of the world wanted it thoroughly and completely defeated.

We thought we had done that. We thought we had conquered the ideologies that led to hundreds of millions of deaths in the last century. The people in general were absolutely against them. No communism. No socialism. No Nazism. We had won WWII. Korea and Vietnam were also against this ideological enemy. But eventually we even won the Cold War.

To read the full article, follow LINK TO SUBSTACK.

The Judicial Branch: Celebrating the Semiquincentennial, Part V

We’re continuing our monthly series celebrating the nation’s 250^th birthday. Here are the previous parts:

·        Part I: The Declaration of Independence

·        Part II: The Preamble of the Constitution

·        Part III: Lawmaking

·        Part IV: The Executive Branch

In our Part V today, we’re getting to Article III of the Constitution, which covers the judicial branch of the federal government. That is, the Supreme Court and other federal courts.

The Supreme Court is somewhat seasonal. It is typical for the session to choose, in late summer and fall, what cases it will hear for the year—and the year is numbered by when the process starts, so we’re currently still in the 2025 session. They will hear oral arguments for those cases throughout the winter and spring. And they make their rulings by the end of June. That’s a general rule. In reality, they can take up an urgent case and rule on it quickly at any time. And they aren’t required to wait until June to rule on any case; they can rule when they have a decision ready. And sometimes they hold a ruling until July or so. It just typically piles up until June, with rulings coming out in multiples the last couple of weeks. It feels a bit like a sports tournament, with results coming down to the wire and everyone paying close attention.

Article III, Sections 1-3

Let’s do our due diligence and make sure we understand the actual wording of this relatively short article of the Constitution.

To read the full article, follow LINK TO SUBSTACK.

The Priority—a Cultural Question

me with the family in the mid-90s; me being grandma in 2012

I want to talk about things I’m thinking about, trying to understand changes in culture, while still holding on (not necessarily clinging bitterly) to traditional principles. This is about what is expected of women. And of men.

It is my assertion that feminism has worked to turn women into bad men, and maybe as a side story also turn men into weaker creatures.

This touches on economics, family, education, and a whole lot of things.

Where to begin?

There was a Jordan Peterson lecture, quite a number of years ago, in which he looks at the societal change of women in the workplace, men and women working together, and saying we haven’t worked that out yet: how to behave toward one another, how to become simply professional coworkers, in a world in which men and women find each other attractive, or not, or maybe want to have friendships with the people they work with but don’t know how to navigate that. He pointed out that half a century is not nearly enough time to navigate such a dramatic societal change.

That’s just a piece of it. What I’d like to start with is the current expectation that women are in the workplace—not at home raising children.

Chances are, you had some kind of reaction to that last sentence, and it was based on a whole lot of unfairness that has been pointed out to you in media of all sorts, and in education, and probably some personal experience—just everywhere.

Somewhere underneath the surface is a change from family economic units to individual economic units. It has been a seismic societal shift in a relatively quick few decades.

To read the full article, follow LINK TO SUBSTACK.