Hi…Neil here instead of the bear. I’ll slip in a photo or two from the trip but if you’re not interested in a mostly in the center analysis of today’s news then just skip this post and come back next time.

As the bear has stated before…we’re really screwed in this election as neither of the candidates should be elected. Unfortunately…one of them will be and either of them will issue a whole pile of executive orders implementing policies…many of which conflict with laws or the constitution and those will be justly withheld by the courts. Neither of them will be the “threat to democracy” that both parties are screaming about at this point.

I see today that the President has announced that the SCOTUS is “out of control” and “needs to be reformed”. And while I agree in principle with some of his points…what he and the Democrats are really about here is that they don’t like some of the recent SCOTUS decisions and thus in their enlightened eyes the court needs to be reformed. And really…that’s just a bunch of BS. I understand political differences and ideological differences…and I understand the difference between loose constructionists and strict constructionists and originalism justices and all that…but what we have here is the Democratic Party which is pretty much controlled by the progressives now just as the Republican Party is controlled by the far right isn’t happy with the recent decisions.

In principle…I agree that for the most part I’m a strict constructionist…the Constitution says what it says and not what you want it to say. Regards abortion…I really think that the decision terminating the constitutional right to abortion is correct…because the Constitution spells out the rights granted to each part of the government and specifies that *all other rights* remain with the states. So…under the Constitution, abortion is simply a state issue. Blue states will establish rules one way and red a different way…and that’s just fine because when you look at the name of the country…it’s the United States of America and unless specified by the Constitution rights remain with the states. That may not suit the political leanings of the left…but I took an oath long ago to protect and defend and the Constitution says what it says. It also includes provisions to amend the document…and yes, it’s hard because it was designed to be that way…because the ruling document over the country should not be changed unless a significant majority of the states agree. 

So today…the President announced a a major initiative to “reform” the court. He’s called for the implementation of an amendment to reverse the Presidential immunity decision…and to be fair I really think the recent decision went a little farther than I thought it should. He also has called for legislation to impose a mandatory ethics code on the court and to establish term limits.

Unfortunately…the President…like many in his party…is completely ignoring the Constitution. It states that judges of the SCOTUS serve as long as they have good behavior and thus…it would take a constitutional amendment, not legislation…to actually implement term limits. So let’s next consider a binding code of ethics.

Apparently…many people in the US today either never learned or don’t bother to underwent basic civics that some of us learned in high school.

Under the Constitution, we have three co-equal branches of government…legislative, executive, and judicial…and none of them are superior to the other two…that’s the whole idea behind co-equal. It also establishes checks and balances for each branch on the other two in order to maintain effective government.

The legislative branch is responsible for passing laws and has the check and balance of both approval of executive and judicial appointees…and the right to impeach them and remove them from office if necessary.

The executive branch is responsible for enforcing the laws…and I applaud the recent decision overturning Chevron because Congress is supposed to make the laws, not the bureaucracy of the executive department. Their check and balance is that they select the appointees for departments and the courts.

The judicial branch has 2 sections. The SCOTUS is responsible for determining whether an act by the executive or legislative is in accordance with the Constitution and lower courts are established by (under the constitution) the legislative branch and that branch can establish rules for the lower courts. However…the legislative branch has zero authority to regulate the SCOTUS…any moron reading the constitution should easily understand that.

Now the President’s suggestions have less than zero chance of succeeding…because neither party has had a veto proof majority in the Senate for almost 50 years and the likelihood of rural states approving any constitutional amendment that erodes the power other state is also less than zero. So…this whole “reform” idea is just political bullshit to try and influence voters. I understand that…because that’s what politicians do…but it’s till wrong

In the less than zero chance that Congress passes  a law enforcing an ethics code on the SCOTUS or establishing term limits…both of those are blatantly unconstitutional and the vote to toss out those laws would be 9-0…even the liberals on the court aren’t gong to (I think) go that far.

So…and this is just pipe dreaming pie in the sky talk so take it for what you will.

I personally believe that term limits should be established for both the legislative and judicial branches…but thy should both be in the same amendment (because that is what it would take)…for me the 18 year term for SCOTUS seems reasonable and for legislative I would support 2 Senate terms and 3 House terms. However…the likelihood of either party agreeing so that 2/3 of both houses and 3/4 of the states. I would also support a better code of ethics fort the court as what they have how while better than nothing has no automatic recusal requirements or enforcement…but enforcement has to be managed by the SCOTUS itself.

Democrats seem to think that because financial reporting requirements have been generally adhered to by both of the other branches that an ethics code would be also adhered to. Unfortunately for them…in reality the legislative branch enforcing financial reporting requirements on the other two branches is probably unconstitutional because of the whole 3 co-equal branches thing. I know that both of the other branches have followed those requirements to date…but their decision to do so was a political one rather than a legal one since outside of the stated checks and balances none of the branches has the authority to regulate the other two.

I really hate that things have come to this…but to be honest both parties have become beholden to the extremists in the party and have shifted to the right and left respectively. There’s no ability of compromise anymore because if a legislator does compromise (as happened frequently in times past)…they’ll simply be primary’ed by the extremists and lose their job and maintaining their job is the #1goal of all elected officials…doing the job they were elected for and running the country comes in a distant 3rd or 4th place…and that’s a damn shame.

Ok, rant over…so let me give you a couple of shots from Costa Rica. These are all Scarlet Macaws which is the prettiest bird there. I’m not sure it’s prettier than the Lilac Breasted Roller in Serengeti or the Bee Eater in southern Africa (that I’ll see next year)…but it’s clearly the prettiest bird in Costa Rica.

And these aren’t the really good shots; I’m going to leave them for the bear to post and talk about later. These are only found in southern Central America and northern South America. They’re about 2 pounds in weight and 30ish inches long although that does include the tail. They’re an incredible combination of red, white, yellow, black, and blue plumage and are really the highlight bird to see in Costa Rica. We spent about 3 hours photographing this group and the bear’s next post will have…a lot…of really incredibly images of them static and in flight as our host Dennis took us to an optimum place to see them and positioned us where they were flying towards the camera…what a score.

Cyas.