SnakeRiverLib

Collecting more taxes than absolutely necessary is legalized robbery -Calvin Coolidge I like that nuanced description better than the simple taxation = theft. How about another similar quote: Why is it greed when I want to keep more of my money, but it is not greed when you want to keep more of my money?  Thomas Sowell. I use the Thomas Sowell quote because that helps to establish the bar for what is necessary. We the People .  Is how the Constitution begins.  And the purpose? In order to form a more perfect union.   How the national government should be structured, with legislative, executive, and judicial branches, and how they interacted, and the checks and balances with each other. Establish Justice, and Insure Domestic Tranquility .  When those inalienable rights granted by God are violated, there needs to be a court to adjudicate it.  This has been the case probably from the beginning of time, and in the Judeo tradition, before the Kings, Israel had judges, not to

Of course, first, the video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oyIFqf3XH24 Remember back in the day, when the broadcast networks actually taught how the government was supposed to work?  Before starting this tutorial on the Electoral College, as a reminder on past elections: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EF39O_OQm6M The candidates in 2016 knew they were running to win 270 electoral votes.  That was the goal.  They knew that the popular vote meant nothing.  Right?  They all knew the rules.  They all knew the math to get there.  And for those that don't care to remember, As late as the end of October, the Clinton campaign was preparing for a scenario where THEY won the Electoral College, and lost the popular vote.  So it has been since the Twelfth Amendment. (ratified 1804).  That is all in the past.  All she had to do was maintain the Blue wall of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin.  She didn't.  Of course, all Algore had to do was win his home state of Tennessee..

A few hits tonight. People say that all the turnover in the Administration is a sign that President Trump doesn't know what he is doing.  I would say that there is a learning curve, but that he needs people for certain things, and then moves on. I sure wish the media would at least point out the same things happened in the Obama Administration.  Scott Pruitt has taken a lot of trips, yes, he has flown first class, yes.  I don't excuse that, nor do I excuse the charter flights.  After all, when you are changing the dynamic of a whole department, there are security issues in-house, as well as abroad.  Eco-terrorists are known to not be kind to those that have counter view points, especially when they represent  government policy as does Pruitt.  Security is much easier that way.  Oh, by the way, Obama's EPA Administrators took similar lavish trips, in similar fashion, without a peep from the press.  Oh, and the first one, used a pseudo-name to avoid FOIA requests.  This f