Reflections From a Murky Pond

Soon it’ll be pirating time! Well, privateering, since we’ll have Letters of Marque and Reprisal and, hence, safe ports in the US. 😆 Some of us lads – and a few lassies I’m sure – will be able to hoist the Jolly Roger and prowl the Caribbean for enemy vessels to seize or sink.

And no, Ladies and Gentlemen, I’m not exactly kidding. There’s a bill introduced to Congress granting President Trump the legal authority to issue those Letters of Marque and Reprisal.

S.3567 – A bill to authorize the President of the United States to issue letters of marque and reprisal with respect to acts of aggression against the United States by a member of a cartel, or a member of a cartel-linked organization, or any conspirator associated with a cartel, and for other purposes.

— Sen. Lee, Mike (R-UT)
(Introduced 12/18/2025)

Of course, absolutely nothing will come of this. Nothing! This is just a bit of fun and fantasy. S.3567 is, was, and will remain DOA in committee. It won’t even reach a floor vote, where it would fail anyway, given that Democrats vote against every single bill put forth by American Senators.

Even beyond enemy action or inaction in the Senate, there’s a laundry list of issues that would need to be addressed. While the U.S. Constitution, in Article I, Section 8, Clause 11, empowers Congress to “grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal,” there’s a bit more to it than just commissioning ships’ captains into privateers and setting them upon Venezuelan narcoterrorists and, potentially, tankers violating international and/or American sanctions. A whole legal infrastructure would need to be (re)created, e.g., Prize Courts.

Ah well, it’s a fun thought even though there’s statistically no chance that I’ll ever be able to captain a modern sloop-of-war claiming prizes from Caracus to the Gulf of America.

Tags: America | Humor | Marque | Narcoterrorists | Piracy | Pirates | Politics | Privateers | Reprisal | S.3567 | Society | US Senate | Venezuela

This entry was posted on Saturday, December 27th, 2025 at 10:29 am and is filed under Humor, Politics, Society. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

Yeah sure. The Democrat filth in the Senate are “outraged” over SNAP being unfunded due to their Shutdown. Uh huh. Not, mind you, outraged enough to pass the same clean CR that’s been put in front of them at least 13 times as of this post’s publication.

Yeah, they’re like that these days. Between their own Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS) and that of the farther-left portion of the Democrat party, these filth are in open rebellion against America. I actually believe that they want some number of their constituents – preferably some children – to die.

Tags: America | Democrats | Government Shutdown | Liberals | Politics | Progressives | Rebellion | Snap | TDS | US Senate

This entry was posted on Friday, October 31st, 2025 at 11:37 am and is filed under Politics. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

The only reason for Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Illinois) to block the subpoena for Jeffrey Epstein’s flight logs was that he – and/or other prominent Democrats – was listed on those flight logs. No other possible rationale makes any sense whatsoever. OK… there’s maybe one other plausible rational for Durbin blocking the subpoena request: childish petulance since the subpoena was requested by Senate Republicans.

Tags: America | Child Trafficking | Crime | Democrats | Durbin | Epstein | Pedophiles | Politics | Rape | US Senate

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 14th, 2024 at 10:50 am and is filed under Politics. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

The US Senate has confirms Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination to the SCOTUS. They did so in record time and, unsurprisingly in the extreme, without a single Democrat vote. This secures the safety and efficacy of the Supreme Court for decades to come.

To me, the most interesting and important part of this is that Barrett’s confirmation as a SCOTUS Justice is a critical event but is not truly news. Her confirmation and the timeliness of it were never in doubt. Nor was the total opposition to both by the Democrats, who were, are, and will continue to be seething over not being able to “Bork” her nomination.

Barrett’s confirmation is important to America’s future but that it happened and happened now is just another case of Republicans playing by the Democrats’ “rules” and beating them at their own game. It’s just another day in the death spiral of Congressional politics.

Tags: America | Barrett | Congress | Democrats | Politics | Realpolitik | Republicans | SCOTUS | Senate | US Senate | US Supreme Court

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 27th, 2020 at 7:38 am and is filed under Politics. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

The one thing Americans can count on the Democrats for is that we can’t count upon them for any consistency or any adherence to long-standing norms, mores, or values, but we can count upon them for viciousness, false equivalencies, and general malfeasance. Their stance upon the respective nominations of Merrick Garland by their boy, Obama in 2016 vs. their stance on President Trump’s nominee, Amy Coney Barrett in 2020 is another perfect example of this pernicious behavior.

False Equivalency For the Loss

Democrats, especially those in the Senate, have been quick in their anger to claim that Republican Senators are being hypocritical by having refused to allow Obama’s Garland nomination to move forward while “rushing” President Trump’s Barrett nomination through. But this is just semi-hysterical false equivalency on their part. The underlying situation between the two nominations is fundamentally different, though quite similar on the surface.

That fundamental difference is that, when Obama nominated Garland near-ish the end of his time in the White House, he was not up for reelection; he was term-limited and would definitely be leaving office despite some quasi-hysterical and spurious claims to the contrary.

Senate Majority Leader, Mitch McConnell’s oft willfully misinterpreted statement was true then and non-applicable now.

I believe the overwhelming view of the Republican Conference in the Senate is that this nomination should not be filled, this vacancy should not be filled by this lame duck (emphasis added) president.

The American people are perfectly capable of having their say on this issue, so let’s give them a voice. Let’s let the American people decide. The Senate will appropriately revisit the matter when it considers the qualifications of the nominee the next president nominates, whoever that might be.

— Senate Majority Leader, Mitch McConnell

Yeah, sane and rational people can understand the difference between a POTUS who can’t serve another term in office and one who might not do so. Democrats and the sorts who vote for them? Not so much.

In other words, the Dems are behaving as we, the People have been forced to accept as the norm for them, stupidly, inconsistently except in their quest for either power or destruction, and despicably.

Some Complaints And Tangential Caveats

Sadly, it’s not all righteousness and roses on our side either. There is some rank hypocrisy and cynical realpolitik being spun out by our politicians this shit show. Despite having a firm and steady grasp of the necessities of realpolitik, some things rankle.

I’m not pleased at all that Mitch McConnell cited the “Biden Rule” in 2016 while blocking Garland nomination, but ignores that he did so now. Then-Senator Joe Biden didn’t want any SCOTUS Judges to confirmed during any Presidential election season, not just during the end of a lame duck’s tenure in office.

It also rankles that the 2nd “reason” commonly cited for the difference in behavior in Senate between Garland’s and Barrett’s nomination is that the Senate majority in 2016 was the opposition party to the POTUS, whereas it isn’t in 2020.

Call me naive and/or delusional, I actually agree with Obama’s statement that, “[confirmation of nominees to the] … Supreme Court is supposed to be above politics, not an extension of politics.” The Senate being in the hands of the “other” party shouldn’t make so much of a difference that it is blithely stated as one of the two reasons for a SCOTUS nomination being blocked.

Tags: 2020 Elections | America | Barrett | History | Obama | Politics | SCOTUS | Senate | Trump | US Senate | US Supreme Court

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 8th, 2020 at 6:32 am and is filed under Politics. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.