In January, I wrote about Democrats in the United States Senate proposing a group of changes in US immigration enforcement. Listing some of the suggested changes, I summed them up as largely the adopting of restraints at the US government level “that have generally helped ensure at the state and local level that police violate people’s rights less frequently and can be more likely held to account in instances when they do.”
Wars of choice, a plethora of changing tariffs and sanctions on countries across the world, and a historically high number of executive orders characterize the first year of Donald Trump’s second presidential term. And all this has been accomplished by the executive branch with minimal pushback from the legislative branch.
Eight years ago this month I commented that “I would not be surprised to see the US government legalize marijuana within the next five years.” That conclusion came upon my consideration of the then 64 percent nationwide support for legalization among Americans who had been recently polled by Gallup, plus — for the first time — majority support among Republicans.
The tariffs President Donald Trump announced on Wednesday are massive in size and scope, Indeed, some early analysis indicates Trump has raised the United States average tariff rate to higher than did the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930 that contributed to the American people’s suffering in the Great Depression. A big difference, though, is that Trump on his own was able to impose his sweeping tariffs this week, while the 1930 tariffs were imposed via legislation approved by votes and in the United States House of Representatives and Senate and then signed into law by President Herbert Hoover.
In the November of 2024 presidential election, CNN exit polling indicated that Donald Trump won the support of 76 percent of voters who answered that in the past year inflation had caused their families “severe hardship.” Now, less than five months later, voters are viewing the Trump administration as failing to address this issue sufficiently. A March 27-28 CBS poll found that 64 percent of polled individuals believed the Trump administration was “not enough” focused on lowering prices.
Some things changed in politics in Washington, DC when on Wednesday Republican United States senators via a secret ballot vote selected Sen John Thune (R-SD) to become Senate Republican leader, replacing Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) in the position. One of the things that remained the same, though, was that the Senate Republican leader position, along with the other three top leadership positions — Republican and Democrat — in the Senate and House of Representatives, remains held by a politician espousing devotion to the government of Israel and its war effort.
Most members of the United Sates Congress repeatedly and, it seems, without a second thought vote for legislation that violates the restraints imposed by the US Constitution. It has been this way for many years. That situation has helped a government of limited, enumerated powers become a behemoth.
The United States Congress is in a sad state. The American people recognize this, holding Congress in very low regard. Dennis Kucinich, who served in the House of Representatives from 1997 to 2013 as a Democratic representative from Ohio and is seeking to return to the House as an independent candidate, gives some of the details for why this situation has come about in a Tuesday interview with host Andrew Napolitano at the Judging Freedom show.
In January, Dennis Kucinch began his campaign as an independent candidate to return to the United State House of Representatives, seeking to represent an Ohio district that overlaps with the area he represented as a Democrat in the House from 1997 to 2013.
As an independent candidate, Kucinich bypasses the primary and instead is required to submit petition signatures to participate in the November general election. Last week, Kucinich filed petitions signed by over six thousand individuals in order to secure his place on the ballot.
Marijuana legalization is popular in America. In contrast, President Joe Biden is unpopular. No wonder efforts are being made in Biden’s reelection campaign to paint him as supportive of liberalizing marijuana policy. There is just one problem, over Biden’s three-plus years as president he has done zilch to end the United States government’s marijuana prohibition.