The Utah Legislature-Always Ready to Waste Your Tax Dollars

Once upon a time (2001), in a land close by (Utah) the legislature passed a bill creating a “Porn Czar” (officially called the obscenity and pornography complaints ombudsman), with an annual budget of $150,000. When it was created, it made for some good late-night comic routines. Two years later, tired of being the laughingstock of the nation, budget cuts in the AG’s office forced the porn czar out of business. The Utah Legislature, however, did not officially remove the position until 2018.

That crowded bastion of self-righteous, hypocritical male Republican Mormons just could not let a good thing die. This year (2020), for your amusement and waste of taxpayer dollars, Rep Brady Brimmer, R-Highland, introduced a bill that will require all print and hard-copy porn to carry a warning label, and require online purveyors of naughtiness to have a 15 second warning flash on the screen of porn viewers. Failure to have a label on printed material, or a warning flash on the screen, will result in a $25,00 fine per violation-to be shared with the citizen enforcers who turn the material over to the state AG’s office for prosecution.  The bill has cleared the House Judiciary Committee 9-2 and is now headed to the Utah House floor, for discussion.

So, if you want to make a problem for a magazine publisher, 

movie distributor, or book author, you can report them to the Utah State AG’s office for prosecution. The bill does not set any standards for what is, or isn’t, porn. Shakespeare, Cosmopolitan, National Geographic, Vanity Fair, Chaucer-the list is endless.

I can hardly wait to see what the total cost to the taxpayers is for

all the court fights that will come from this bill. Utah will lose the court battles, just as it did when the legislature went after pay-per-view adult movies in hotel rooms, but it will be an expensive fight.

And we are still dead last in education funding. Go figure.

As always, your thoughts and comments are welcome, just click on

the pencil in the white box below! Thanks for reading my blog.

R.M. “Bob” Hartman

The President of the Untied States of America

Has many solemn duties to perform, among them is to “preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States.”

The Constitution of the United States was born by a people who   

had seen, firsthand, what a monarchy can do to it’s citizens; they 

were determined to create a system of government that was of the people, by the people, and for the people. Keeping this end in sight, they established three equal but separate divisions of government: the Judicial, Legislative, and Executive branches. The goal was to establish a system of checks and balances that would keep the government on an equal basis, avoiding excesses and malfeasance by the equal branches of government. (Most of us know this from our civics and history classes in public schools.)

The Founding Fathers did not expect this triangular based

government to always, or even regularly, go smoothly, they envisioned there would be disagreements between the branches, and within the branches; they had faith, however, that even these disagreements would be settled out in a manner that respected the views of all parties, even those in disagreement with the final outcome. Over time, this excellent system has been improved, codified, and strengthened, to the betterment of all Americans. The Founding Fathers showed a group wisdom and intelligence far beyond what could have reasonably been expected of them as individuals.

Our Founding Fathers were well aware of the results of a monarchy

or dictatorship; that is, everyone who served in a government could be removed from his or her position simply for disagreeing with the head of government, regardless of the validity of the disagreement.

That same Constitution therefore provides that the President shall

nominate, and with the advice and consent of the Senate, shall appoint Officers of the United States, such as the Director of National Intelligence.

As of today, no less than 13 government departments are headed by

“acting” leaders, as opposed to those who have been approved by the Senate, as provided for in our constitution. These include: The Departments of Labor and Homeland Security; The White House Chief of Staff, Director of the Office of Management and Budget, the Director of National Intelligence, and the Director of the Small Business Administration.

Still reading? Good. Other offices under “acting” leadership

include OSHA, FDA, USCIS, CBP, FEMA, and ICE.

That’s right, my fellow citizens. Your on-the-job-safety, drug safety and pureness, and the federal government’s emergency management agency, are run by acting directors. Feeling a little worried? Don’t let me stop you; the Directors of National Intelligence, Homeland Security, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement are also “acting.” That’s right-our homeland security, immigration, and national intelligence departments are run by acting directors, who owe their office solely to President Trump, and have not been vetted by the Senate.

And what qualifies the acting directors for their particular

positions? To a person, they have demonstrated undying loyalty to President Trump. Many had made financial contributions to the President’s initial election campaign. They have, in the main, no knowledge of the departments they head, nor do they share a past experience of managing large groups of employees.

Why have these positions been filled by acting directors? The

President said, in an interview with the press, that he liked acting directors. It allows him to move quickly.

I guess we found out yesterday what he meant by move quickly.

When a DNI briefing to the House intelligence Committee reported that Russia was again interfering in our electoral process, and that Russia preferred Trump as the next President, the President angrily discarded his acting DNI,( Joseph Maguire) and replaced him with another acting director, Richard Grenell, who is currently the U.S. Ambassador to Germany. Mr. Grenell has no intelligence background, nor any experience leading a large government agency. His sole attribute, if you will, is his unquestioning loyalty to President Trump.

This behavior-using unqualified acting heads of government

bodies- must come to a stop. It is up to the Senate, our elected officials, to call a halt to the President’s flagrant disregard of Article II, Section 2, Clause 2 of the United States Constitution, and demand the President submit qualified individuals for “the advice and consent” of the Senate.   

Thank you for reading; as always, your thoughts and comments are 

appreciated. Just click on the pencil in the white box below.

R.M. “Bob” Hartman