Lawmaking: Celebrating the Semiquincentennial, Part III

The US Constitution consists of three articles—one for each branch of government—plus four more articles with general rules about citizenship and money and such things, and then come the amendments, which are numbered, and of which the first ten are considered the Bill of Rights.

So this month we’re going to talk about the legislative branch, and lawmaking, which is the task of the legislative branch.

But first, a couple of other semi-relevant celebrations. This week, March 4, marks 15 years since I started the Spherical Model blog. Hurray!

And also this week, March 2, we mark the Independence of Texas, from Mexico, in 1836.

As with the US separation from Great Britain, all avenues of diplomacy aimed at having our rights respected had failed, leaving separation—even if by war—as the only alternative for a people who would live free.

In the case of Texas, Stephen F. Austin had traveled to the Mexican capital to express the territory’s grievances and require the Mexican nation to abide by its constitution. In answer, he was placed in an underground dungeon, in which he could not stand, for 18 months. He never fully recovered his health from that ordeal and died a few short years later. Austin came home and declared that the only alternative left to them was to fight. And while the siege at the Alamo was ongoing, the Texas Declaration of Independence from Mexico was signed at Washington-on-the-Brazos (newly re-opened museum info here). Within a few weeks, Sam Houston’s army surprised Mexico’s Santa Anna, the dictator, at San Jacinto, captured him alive, and forced him to recognize their independence and end the war. (By the way, because the Texians won, that place is pronounced Say-ann Juh-SIN-toe.)

As the US Declaration of Independence reminds us, we humans are born to be free. Governments are established to protect our lives, our liberty, and our property. But government, like fire, needs to be carefully circumscribed, so it doesn’t get out of control.

As Thomas Paine put it in Common Sense,

Society in every state is a blessing, but government even in its best state is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one; for when we suffer, or are exposed to the same miseries by a government, which we might expect in a country without government, our calamity is heightened by reflecting that we furnish the means by which we suffer.

For this reason, when the founders wrote the Constitution, they limited government to certain enumerated powers—and nothing else, without specific amendments passed by the majority of the United States.

To read the full article, FOLLOW LINK TO SUBSTACK.

Convention Season and Platform Resolutions Time

 

After the Primary Election Day this coming Tuesday, then commences the convention season, through which we elect delegates for the next level of convention and submit resolutions to go into the state party platform

Two years ago I wrote about the process and content for writing a resolution.  I’m going to repeat that here, and then follow it with some ideas for possible resolutions to submit this year.

How to Write a Resolution

Once the primary election is over, then convention season is underway. At each convention level we choose delegates for the next level up, and we put forth resolutions for the platform. At the local level, our platform resolutions move on up to the senatorial district level (some places move up to the county level, but our county has many senatorial districts in it), where they are sorted, refined, and sent on up to be considered for the state platform. (Texas Republican 2024 Platform here.)

The Process

How do those ideas get started? If you’re new to the process, how would you go about putting forth an idea?

You write it down, take it to your precinct convention (or whatever version of that you have in your area), and present it to the other grassroots participants. They might like it as is. Or they might reject it. Or they might suggest amendments to make it something they could support.

To read the full article, FOLLOW LINK TO SUBSTACK.

Republican Primary Picks 2026

 

samples of recent campaign flyers

Early voting for the Primary Election starts Tuesday, February 17, here in Harris County, Texas, with Election Day on Tuesday, March 3. So I’m working to make my choices and recommendations.

Once again, we have the longest ballot in the nation—maybe the world. And this may be my longest post ever. I didn’t want to split it up, because early voting is only days away, and people are asking me for my picks.

The quick version is this chart. While I try to make it all worth reading, this is so long, you may want to scroll to what you need.

As I’ve written this blog for the past 15 years, I stand by what I’ve said. Occasionally further information comes out, which may change what I would say, and a few times I’ve gotten information from sources that turned out to be wrong. Those instances have been few. But when I write about my ballot choices—which mainly comes up at these biennial Primary Election times—I am less certain than I am about my other writing. I have consistently, always, tried to make the best choices, among the choices available, to support strong constitutional conservative candidates. But I have at times been disappointed.

This is to say, feel free use my opinions here as a data point, but do your own research. Get to know as much as you can about the candidates. I’ll share what I know, but under a time crunch, I might not yet know enough.

We’ll go down the ballot, US Senate and Congress, then statewide races first. Then we’ll do local races and propositions.

To read the full article, FOLLOW LINK TO SUBSTACK.

Preamble to the Constitution: Celebrating the Semiquincentennial, Part II

 

image of the US Constitution Preamble from Wikipedia

This is Part II of a monthly series, the way I’m celebrating our country’s 250^th birthday. Last month, in Part I, we went over the Declaration of Independence. This month we’ll begin looking at the US Constitution, covering just the Preamble.

First of all, let’s note that not all countries have a birthday. The US does: July 4, 1776. We chose the date of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, separating the 13 original colonies from Great Britain’s colonial rule.

The Revolutionary War was underway already, begun April 19, 1775, at Lexington and Concord. And it continued until September 3, 1783, nearly 8 ½ years later. By then the country was functioning under a rather loose document, the Articles of Confederation. The new independent colonies were tied together as the states’ league of friendship, a perpetual union, but loosely defined.

Reenactment of the Battle of Lexington and Concord, April 2025,
at Jesse Jones State Park, in Humble, TX.
I played music, in costume, for the celebration, but I wasn’t in the reenactment.

There were, you might be surprised to learn, ten presidents of the United States of America prior to George Washington. But during their terms, the presidency was much weaker, and their administrations not too memorable. The central government, such as it was, did diplomacy and territorial disputes, but couldn’t manage to raise funds, regulate commerce (including between and among the states), or get delegates to assemble to work out issues.

To read the full article, FOLLOW LINK TO SUBSTACK.

Using the Useful Idiots

 

There’s some debate about the origin of the term “useful idiots.” Was it Lenin? Stalin? But by the Cold War the term came to identify the emotionally manipulated masses who support communism because they think it will be more fair, or kind, or something—despite the hundreds of millions killed by communist regimes.

It sounds derogatory. Note that, if accurately credited, it’s what communist leaders thought of those they easily controlled by making them believe the “useful idiots” were doing good.

So I’m using this term in that sense, not necessarily to describe people as low IQ. Of those on the Marxist side of things, you’re either a would-be tyrant or a useful idiot being manipulated by the would-be tyrants.

We’re looking at Minnesota—again.

If you’ll recall, way back in December, 2025, Nick Shirley did a video exposing massive fraud in Minnesota, regarding daycares and other businesses that were collecting money without providing services. We’re talking $9 billion. Most of it appears to be related to Somali immigrants, the mass of whom arrived with permission from the Biden administration, often unvetted, but technically legal.

Suddenly attention shifts to ICE in Minnesota, where cities such as Minneapolis have declared themselves to be sanctuary cities. Protests ramp up. Police are instructed not to cooperate with federal officials.

To read the full article, FOLLOW LINK TO SUBSTACK.

It’s Been a Year

President Trump gives speech at Davos January 21, 2026, screenshot from here

Tuesday of this week, January 20^th, marked the first anniversary of President Trump’s second presidency. And the next day was his speech at Davos, in which he recounted some of his accomplishments and plans. As the introduction to his speech informed us, a US president has only spoken at Davos two times: both were Donald Trump. And it certainly isn’t because he agrees with the World Economic Forum agenda; it’s to use the stage for his own purposes.

The first thing that was brought to my attention in the speech, before I’d had a chance to hear it myself, was this declaration, about a half hour in (emphasis mine):

The war with Ukraine is an example. We are thousands of miles away, separated by a giant ocean. It's a war that should have never started and it wouldn't have started if the 2020 US presidential election weren't rigged. It was a rigged election. Everybody now knows that; they found out. People will soon be prosecuted for what they did.

Was it headline news? Nope. Crickets.

He has said it before; I think we’re all aware. But the declaration that “people will soon be prosecuted” for stealing that election might be news—if it happens. We’re all getting a bit impatient to see those prosecutions, along with some other ones that identified the previous regime as corrupt and tyrannical.

The most highlighted topic of the speech was something of an aside, as far as accomplishments for the year go. It’s related, but not obviously so. About Greenland:

·       Trump wants Greenland for the US.

·       Trump will not use force.

·       But there will be consequences, if opposition continues: “You can say yes and we will be very appreciative, or you can say no and we will remember.”

He doesn’t say what consequences will be for the opposition, but we could speculate it could mean higher tariffs on those countries, or even withdrawal from NATO, which would demonstrate that NATO has been mainly the US and freeloaders all along.

To read the full article, FOLLOW LINK TO SUBSTACK.

Making Nice Isn’t Good for Society

I visited Minneapolis once, many decades ago, the summer I graduated from college. It was hot and humid, new to me, having grown up in the desert. The “land of 10,000 lakes.” It was green and lovely. And the neighborhoods I observed were neat and tidy, the houses not large, but with basements, which you might as well have, since you had to dig that deep to keep plumbing from freezing. Quite similar to the neighborhood I grew up in.

The people were nice. It was my first encounter with the accent, which, as accents go, is a lot clearer to understand than many. The city was organized into “alphabets”; a set of streets would be named things going from A on through the alphabet, like, “Apple Tree Lane,” “Birch Tree Lane,” Cherry Tree Lane,” etc. Elsewhere the alphabet would be related to something else. It was a way of organizing neighborhoods.

example of Minneapolis alphabetical street names, found here

I didn’t observe any of the chaos we’ve seen there in recent years. You’d think just facing their extreme winter would be challenging enough that no one would want any more trouble than that. But here we are.

It may be that the niceness was a contributing factor to the decline. Nice means pleasing and agreeable. It can also mean kind, but it’s not an exact synonym. There are multiple more meanings for both nice and kind in the Webster’s 1828 Dictionary, probably not helpful here today. 

To read the full article, follow LINK TO SUBSTACK.

 perceive the difference, in others or even from the inside.