Snips of Nebraska Republicans

Items of Interest

Update: Jeremy Aspen agrees with Kotok assessment of the Democrat Party (https://omaha.com/opinion/column/column-nebraska-needs-two-functional-political-parties-right-now-we-have-none/article_52aeae26-cc9a-11ee-95da-3b4b54402c4f.html).

Congressman Don Bacon’s campaign is now bragging about all the endorsements he is receiving. I really hate to rag on Republicans about endorsements, but way too often endorsements come off as self-serving nonsense. The endorsements are as paper-thin as toilet paper. Yet, there are so many idiots in politics, it seems to work every time. However, on policy, Bacon is pivoting to adjust by pushing a Remain-in-Mexico policy (https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2024/02/16/rep-bacon-backs-slimmer-ukraine-israel-aid-bill-linked-to-remain-in-mexico) which is good news. However, I still have issues with how well he judges his relationships with other Congressional members after his oversized support for Kevin McCarthy. So on to other matters.

As my readers know, I want the City of Omaha to do a study of the municipal economy and the taxation within regarding consumption taxes. But my advocacy has been dismissed. Instead, the City keeps being pushed to do more on supposed man-made climate change. To make matters worse, my Catholic friends have to deal with the increasing idiocy on this topic. There are strong advocates in Catholic institutions who insist if you start your gas-powered mower, you are murdering Planet Earth. Also, for some reason, publishers still find the need to publish their nonsense as the Nebraska Examiner did (https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2023/08/26/catholic-support-for-science-based-city-climate-action-plan-for-omaha). Sorry. but water vapor is by and large the most dominant greenhouse gas and carbon is merely plant fertilizer. But on to other matters.

Former Nebraska Attorney Don Stenberg has sage advice regarding tax reform. I like Stenberg’s take but he is bending over backwards to not upset anyone. He knows Governor Pillen’s tax reforms will not do much (https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2024/02/13/nebraska-democratic-party-keeps-finding-ways-to-shrink/). Will Stenberg eventually embrace the EPIC Option consumption tax plan?

In other matters, I was shocked to learn of David Kotok’s criticism of the Nebraska Democrat Party (https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2024/02/13/nebraska-democratic-party-keeps-finding-ways-to-shrink/). When he was employed by the Omaha World-Herald, he seemed to always back the liberal position but this article of his suggests he is now disenchanted with what is coming from the left. His approach appears to echo Robynn Tysver, another former Omaha World-Herald writer who left to work for Union Pacific after years of trying to write political issues with fairness.

The above issues are mostly political but the Flatwater Free Press did a magnificent job of researching civil commitments and the sex offender registry (https://flatwaterfreepress.org/nebraska-confines-some-sex-offenders-years-after-their-prison-sentence/). Many conservative readers as well as average readers are going to be confused or upset with my take here. However, on this topic, people’s mentalities tend to match the left in only seeing the oppressor and the oppressed without any consideration of other factors.  My take on this topic is more nuanced and concerned about the law and due process.

I know! Children are supposed to be innocent, but many will discover their own routes to debauchery. How often do you hear the word debauchery? Also, lewd and lascivious activities are considered a crime but how severe should such punishment be? This gives skeptics like me a bit of room to really wonder about those boys supposedly “molested” by Michael Jackson, but I digress.

The problem with sex offender registries is they put the mob in charge of executing the penalty for such offenses. Too often the result is extrajudicial killings, also known as vigilantism. This has happened in Nebraska (https://www.3newsnow.com/news/local-news/vigilante-james-fairbanks-who-killed-sex-offender-gets-40-70-years-in-prison). The Rule of Law must reign, and unleashing the passions of the mob ultimately end up being unjust.

Yes, there is civil commitment, but because of vigilantes, these offenders have good reason not to want to be released. Their therapists may think they deserve to be released from civil commitment but such release means having to worry about some vigilante will kill them. For them, jail is no longer something to avoid but something to covet.

In other words, slavery has been recreated under different terms. Homeless? Slavery can solve your problem. Hungry? Slavery can solve your problem. Jobless? Slavery can solve your problem. Become a slave today and receive free shelter, free food, and a job! In this case, people hate you to the point of wanting to kill you so stay in civil commitment is government-supplied security. For this reason, I would argue civil commitment violates the 13 Amendment of the US Constitution against slavery. Oh, and while I am at it, the Republican Party was founded on the purpose of opposing slavery (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Republican_Party_(United_States)).