Abusive Government Power

Alfie Evans was a 23 month old child when the UK government's national health plan ordered his breathing tubes removed. The young parents did not want that, and were desperate for anything that might save their son's life. Eventually, the Pope was able to get the Italian government to agree to take Alfie and treat him. After the tubes were removed, Alfie did continue to breathe on his own for a while. But the government and the Courts would not let Alfie leave the country for Italy.

Imagine if Alfie were a healthy child and he and his parents were leaving the UK on vacation to Italy. No problem. So, maybe someone can defend the idea of an otherwise "free" society deciding what treatment a child can get, and even whether they should have a chance at life-saving treatment. Maybe someone can explain why a "free" society would act like the former USSR and not let their citizens leave. The fact that Alfie did not survive, and likely could not be saved, is irrelevant. You see, the UK had already decided that Alfie's life was no longer worth the ongoing expense. But then they went a step further and decided that no one else could spend money trying to save Alfie either.

You have to ask why the government was so invested in their national health plan that they deemed it preferable to allowing Alfie to die, rather than release him to Italy. I wonder if all those supporting Obamacare would still mock Sarah Palin when she talked about "death panels." Palin: "The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama's 'death panel' so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their 'level of productivity in society,' whether they are worthy of healthcare. Such a system is downright evil." Amen to that. The decision by the UK's national healthcare plan was downright evil.

Back in the USA, a couple days ago, US District Court Judge T.S. Ellis told the prosecution team of Robert Mueller to turn over to him an unredacted copy of the "scope" memo which set forth the parameters of Mueller's investigation. Congress has already been stonewalled by the DOJ and Rosenstein in their efforts to get the full memo. The Mueller team claimed that some of his powers are secret because they involve ongoing investigations and national security. Secret prosecutions? Again, I have to ask if we are back in the USSR.

The issue arose when Paul Manafort's defense attorneys claimed that Mueller was acting outside the scope of his authority to investigate Russian collusion in the 2016 election. The Judge noted that the alleged crimes by Manafort "manifestly don't have have anything to do with the campaign or with Russian collusion." Judge Ellis: "You don't really care about Mr. Manafort's bank fraud. You really care about getting information that Mr. Manafort can give you that would reflect on Mr. Trump." The Judge noted that the Michael Cohen case was turned over to the US Attorney's office in Manhattan, and questioned why the Manafort case should be handled any differently.

Then the Judge made this extremely important observation: "What we don't want in this country is we don't want anyone with unfettered power." Yet unfettered power is what Mueller and his team seem to believe they have.

Michael Caputo was a former aid to the Trump campaign. Between the investigation and various lawsuits, he has incurred legal fees of $125,000. He has had to sell his house, all because he worked for Trump. Caputo did agree to speak with Mueller's team, and spent three hours doing so. Caputo: "I think they want to destroy the President. They want to destroy his family. They want to destroy his businesses. They want to destroy his friends - so that no billionaire, in let's say 15 years, wakes up and tells his wife 'you know what, the country's broken and only I can fix it.' His wife will say 'are you crazy? Did you see what happened to Donald Trump and everybody around him.'"

Do I think the Left cares about this "unfettered" government power? Not at all. First, for the Left the ends justify the means; and the end here is to get Trump no matter the cost. They hate him. Leftists that I talk to tell me that they hate Trump. Second, and more disturbing, is the fact that the Left craves ever increasing government power over our lives. They were in favor of the government taking over their healthcare. And now Democrats seem to favor socialism over capitalism - government mandated regulation of the economy over the free market. Free speech? Not if they disagree or find it offensive. Many would now have the government regulate our speech. Government mandated maximum wage, not just minimum wage. Government confiscation of guns.

Many on the Left would no doubt say that they don't support socialism, or government control over all wages, or government determining the parameters of speech, and so on. But then ask who they will vote for, and it will be the Democrats every time. The party that seeks ever increasing government power - unfettered power - over more and more aspects of our lives.