Category: Guest Contributors
Guest Contributor – Tregonsee – 09AUG2025 – Constitution on Census
I actually looked at the constitution with respect to the census in a comment in another blog ( https://thenewneo.com/2025/08/07/trump-calls-for-new-census-that-doesnt-count-illegal-aliens/ ) Looking at the text of Article I, Section 2, Clause 3 of the US Constitution (partial) we have
Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons, including those bound to Service for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons. The actual Enumeration shall be made within three Years after the first Meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent Term of ten Years, in such Manner as they shall by Law direct.
So first issue is that the 3/5 clause is made moot by the 13th amendment as slavery is now forbidden, as are terms of service for a period of years . The “Indians Not Taxed” Portion has been nullified by legislative action in 1924 by the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924 so native Americans DO count towards the census. This effectively leaves us with
“according to their respective Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons”.
Sadly the most direct reading of that is NOT citizens but humans (actually counted/enumerated). It might be possible for the legislature to clarify the meaning to citizens (making legislative changes similar to what it did to include Native Americans). More sure would be a change in the constitutional language in the form of a constitutional amendment. A purely legislative change is likely to see judicial challenge given large blue states would get hammered by it. At present I doubt an amendment could be gotten through Congress let alone the 38 states needed for ratification. Probably worth a shot via the legislature as the Supreme Court might view that change as a clarification of the definition of Persons, analogous to the change created by the Indian Citizenship act.
With respect to the inaccuracy of the count alleged by the Trump administration the language uses the words count and enumerate. This does NOT seem to leave slop for the various estimates used in the blue cities with respect to transient and homeless populations as well as to count illegal aliens who do not directly reply to the census. The language implies that you have to actually count the people. Only people so counted, to be repetitive, count. This would be challenged but is on far stronger ground with the current Supreme Court’s tendency to being more constrained by the text.
Finally the language concerning whether you can do another census sooner than 2030 says “The actual Enumeration shall be made within three Years after the first Meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent Term of ten Years, in such Manner as they shall by Law direct.” That implies no more than 10 years between enumerations but Congress may legislate when within that period. So it would seem they could require an enumeration sooner, but it may take legislative action depending on the law as it exists.
Of course, I am NOT a lawyer, nor do I play one on TV, so this and $2.50 will get you a cup of coffee (maybe). This particular idea of restricting the redistricting to be based on citizens (or similar) seems like a win. It also seems like what the founders intended as the purpose of redistricting is to avoid rotten boroughs, as seen in 17th-century England and trying to keep representation in line with citizens/population.
If Congress WERE to write an amendment to restrict the enumeration to citizens I would think that they should also go with something like the Wyoming rule (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wyoming_Rule), adding seats so that there is less of the discrepancy on representation/seat where some small states votes are disproportionate to districts in larger districts. Last I looked the Wyoming rule would require ~570 seats instead of the current 435 in the House. It is something the Left complains about A LOT and I do not think the Wyoming rule would have much effect on overall balance as the red areas get a fair addition of seats too.
Guest Contributor – Glenn W – 08AUG2025 – What Counts
I’m very interested to see how this plays out. I worked for the Census Bureau for six years and who got counted in the decennial census was always very contentious. After every census the Bureau would be sued by several states who believed their population were undercounted (states always want to maximize their population to get the maximum number of congressional seats). The Census’ position always was that the Constitution states that they are to count the number of “persons” in each state without any other qualifiers. There is a historical basis for this since slaves were not citizens and they were to be counted (the 3/5 rule would be mute otherwise). Of course slaves were here legally. I suspect the legal folks at the Census Bureau are scrambling right now and I don’t know how they are going to officially react. We live in interesting times for sure.
Guest Contributor – Tregonsee – 01AUG2025 – Kamala “Come Back Kid” Harris
After she burned a billion dollars and change in the like 3 month campaign she had I thought the Democrat party’s money providers were adamant it would be a cold day in hell before they ever gave Ms. Harris money again. She must have something on somebody big (not the Clintons, clearly 🙂 ) to even approach the presidential campaigns tangentially. Either that or all the white zinfandel killed off her few remaining sad brain cells.
What surprises me is that no one in the Democrat party has had the guts to tell Ms. Harris to take a long walk off a short pier. I understand that looking for someone rational or an adult in the room in the Democrat party is pointless. But even the most deluded Democrat hardliners (but I repeat myself) have to know that:
1) She hasn’t got a paper dog’s chance in hell of the presidency in 2028
2) If they let her get going she’ll “suck all the oxygen out of the room”.
The Democrats normally remind me of the Upper Party members in 1984 they’re in it for the power, nothing else. Apparently, I have massively overestimated them, because it seems to me that if they don’t get their act in gear, they’ll be almost as relevant as the Whig party is come 2032. Perhaps they hope she’ll tire of this if they just ignore her, but somehow I doubt she’ll give up before the start of the Primary season in 2027 or so. Particularly because given her 2020 primary (i.e. Zip Nada Zilch) showing she’s likely to quickly crash and burn, but you can bet in the process she’ll damage the other candidates. Instapundit always says don’t get cocky, but man, if this is the Democrats grand plan they’d best find advisors better than Harpo, Chico and Zeppo in Duck Soup .
Guest Contributor – ArthurinCali – 31JUL2025 – Sydney Sweeney Redux
One angle about the whole “SS Hitler” affair is how weird it is to feign outrage at a clothing company over the perception that the ads are mainly targeting White people, yet examples abound of marketing aimed at other demographics for specific products. I mean, Abercrombie & Fitch, Banana Republic, American Eagle, and a slew of other clothing brands are mostly White-coded, so it’s not the 2nd coming of the Waffen-SS when their ads reflect that.
I didn’t know many non-melanated folks who were mad brands like Footlocker, FUBU, and Urban Outfitters didn’t overtly pander to their demographic. Furthermore, no one is stopping minorities from purchasing these styles of clothes if they so choose. Social media (and parts of mainstream media) pretend that people are posted up at the store entrance in the malls, keeping minorities out as if it’s 1954 Little Rock.
Guest Contributor – Neil Dunn – 29JUL2025 – Guadelupe River Flood
A few weeks ago, you asked for some input about the Guadalupe flood in Texas and I think you were interested in some of the possible political shenanigans.
Well, we live in Kerr Co. on the Guadalupe and lost at least 3/4 of the trees on the river. It looks like a war zone. Our home and other buildings are on the top of a rise 30+ feet above the river. The debris line crested just over the top but all our buildings were fine.
Over the next two weeks after 7/4 we had over 300+ search and recovery people (many from in and out of state; all were dedicated, hard-working, serious, polite, courteous, respectful) searching through massive amounts of debris (one pile was 75 ft x 25 ft x over 5 ft high) with excavators, skid-steers, a SHERP, many-many chain saws, 2 scuba divers, multiple cadaver dog teams (to include two ladies from NYC-one of whom participated post 9-11) and horseback riders on our stretch of river (about 1500 ft)–>tragically, they found 6 victims over that time which will provide closure to loved ones. I wish that no one has to go through something like this.
Politics: Discussions have begun at the state level but seem pretty nebulous at this time.
I have seen a couple of articles tracing the history of what has been done about statewide flood control and relative to the Hill Country, I am not impressed.
Locally, I obviously don’t know what has been going on behind the scenes, but things have just started at the City Council in Kerrville and at the County Commissioners of Kerr County. There is a public hearing this Thursday at 9:30am at the Ag Barn (properly known as the Hill Country Youth Event Center in Kerrville) on disaster preparedness and flooding put on by The Texas Legislature’s Joint Committee to hear testimony from officials with the City of Kerrville and Kerr County relative to the emergency response to the July 4 flood.
The Mayor, City Manager, and Kerr County Judge are scheduled to speak. Citizens who sign up will each be allowed to speak for 3 minutes. I plan on attending, and if there is any interest, I can try to provide a follow up. I envision this disaster response and responsibility assessment to go on for some time.
If interested: there is a 37 min Utube video of the 30+ rise of the G.River at the Center Point bridge about 12 miles east of Kerrville. The last 2 minutes/so show a house floating down the river and lodging at the bridge. The water crests over the bridge with sizeable debris being deposited. That water is what all of us on the river were exposed to. It is being described as a “thousand year” flood.
I Have My Priorities
So today was an early day because I had to head to the office. I was already running late when Camera Girl walked out of the kitchen and said, “Don’t react or the dogs will start barking but there are a couple of momma turkeys at my bird feeder with about eight young. Go take a look.”
So, they were under the bird feeders looking for seeds on the ground that the normal birds spilled out of the feeders. But eventually they weren’t satisfied so they headed out into the fields. Camera Girl saw them heading for the gardens and said, “They’re headed for the raspberry patch. Do you think they’ll eat any of the berries.” I answered knowledgably, “No they only eat bugs and small critters.” Of course, they immediately attack the patch and clearly start picking ripe berries off the canes. I didn’t look back at her but I think there was a look. And I think there might have been a derisive sound. I came back with her own famous statement, “Well, everybody’s gotta eat, right?” So, I announced that I had to leave for work and made a show of ignoring the prehistoric creatures that had invaded my domain.
When I got home, I got the update. They had not only picked all the ripe raspberries but they then cleaned up the ripe blueberries too. Then they went down by the swamp and annoyed Moe and the rest of Camera Girl’s murder of crows that hang out there during the morning. Finally, they walked the perimeter of the fields until they ended up near the road and then made a nuisance of themselves for the motorists until they finally crossed the road and headed for the next swamp in their path.
I’ve always been interested in the turkey population because they provide an opportunity for interesting photographs. But here they were adding insult to injury. They not only didn’t eat any of the copious beetles that are afflicting my vegetables and flowers but they went out of their way to pillage my favorite summer fruit crops. This is the thanks I get for never hunting them or setting the dogs on them or even making fun of their homely appearance, clumsy walking style or spastic flying abilities.
Well, truth be told they’re still in my top five species of birds I like to see around the place. I like seeing the vultures (turkey and black) in the trees. I like to try and get a shot of a Great Blue Heron fishing in the swamp and I also hope one day to lure some of the local ravens into a closer arrangement. I’ve always thought they were fascinating creatures.
But there’s something appealing about a flock of turkey hens with their young walking around in Dunwich in the summer acting like they own the place and livening things up.
Yep, that’s true. However, if they come near the berries again, I may just get some rocks and help them to move along at high speed. At this time of year, I have my priorities.
Tom’s World – 23JUL2025 – The Next Generation
There is an INTENSE need for people who can think and have experience + a work ethic, goal driven. I’m a subset of one out of 300 million+ so I can’t exactly extrapolate but—
Like photog, I’m an engineer but at 76.8 years old, a supposedly retired one. To keep myself in touch and engaged, I have a part time consulting business out of my house. I do design and in addition, construction contract and managing, budgeting and walk dogs on occasion.
I have people coming out of the woodwork begging me to work for them. They tell me that the current system isn’t generating people like me at the needed replacement rate.
I have all the clients I want (2), I work all the hours a week that I want (15) and I have no intention of getting back in harness. I like the commute from my bedroom to my home office but I have problems keeping the cats off my plan table.
Before retirement, we spent a couple of years trying to hire and train my replacement. A number of recent grads but there seemed to be at least something wrong with every one. No motivation, no work ethic, can’t get out of bed, not interested, HUGE holes in their knowledge base, scatter brained. One of them could not generate a simple logical excel based budget to save his life.
I can’t do the typical retired thing, traveling, visiting grandkids, etc. My wife is well into Alzheimer’s but not quite yet a nursing home candidate. So I’m tied here. But if I’m not working on something interesting, I’m pretty sure I would rapidly dry up and blow away.
Tom’s World – 18JUL2025 – It’s the Real Thing
For the last decade or 4, I’ve not had more than 1-2 soft drinks per year and most times not even that. Don’t ask me about craft beers though I don’t even do that now.
When I can get some of the new, I’ll definitely try though. My boyhood memories of the 6 oz bottles with condensation running down on a hot summer day—. When we first got picked bottles, we’d bet a nickel to see who had the bottle that came from furthest away; the bottlers had their location cast into the glass.
Guest Contributor – Chemist – 18JUL2025 – Reason 2,412; Make Coke Great Again
Reason 2,412: Coke is bringing cane sugar back to Coca Cola!
Not to hijack your thread, but this is HUGE!
https://nypost.com/2025/07/16/us-news/trump-says-coca-cola-agrees-to-use-real-cane-sugar-in-us-drinks-its-just-better/
Monsanto hardest hit.
The taste difference between high fructose corn syrup and cane sugar is significant.
Here in Texas, I can buy “Mexican Coke”. It comes in a glass bottle and has cane sugar.
I buy it as a treat, not as my regular beverage because it is expensive (Glass costs a lot to ship) and inconvenient. (Glass breaks.)
But a cane sugar Coke in a can! Man, I’m lovin’ it!