The Brink

The Democrats are now actively and openly suborning perjury and creating ex post facto crimes to move bills of attainder. It is now I think impossible for the two sides to establish even that modicum of trust needed for any compromise. Indeed the Democrats cannot trust each other and need the momentum of confrontation, which creates an almost physical force, with enemies to hold their troops together. If they hold still then they will strike at the nearest objects, including each other, or sink like sharks.

This places the nation in an extraordinarily dangerous position. It resembles the situation in England during March - April of 1640 when a case was manufactured to force a Bill of Attainder against the Earl of Stafford. Only in the current case the victims are being openly coerced to participate in manufacturing a case against the President.

As we speak Netanyahu in Israel, who is Trump's ally and the great foreign hate object for all the antisemites at home and abroad, is facing indictment on charges which are at best doubtful and which have been prepared by partisans, in a process similar to that used by Mueller and the Democrats, who are allied to those that Obama assisted in an effort to unseat Netanyahu in the last Israeli election.

What can stop this naked coup d'etat? It is possible that America will be torn apart but even if it is not then either due to paralysis or the replacement of the President by those who are genuinely colluding with foreign powers it becomes likely that across the globe we may see orgies of violence. In South America, Africa, South Asia, the Middle East, and East Asia, and possibly in Europe, those who have been restrained by America may strike while the iron is hot. Millions or maybe hundreds of millions may die. Trade may collapse, with even greater devastation to follow. Nuclear war could break out.

The Greens may get their dream of a simple sustainable technologically low energy and recyclable society with a limited population.

We may hope that like a god from a machine some patriots will produce evidence of crimes and conspiracies by Schiff (pederastic statutory rape of boys) and the other Democrats. Supporters of the President have repeatedly voiced the expectation that there was some office, such as the prosecutor in Utah, acting on his behalf to gather evidence and act once the conspirators showed their hand. The hands are showing and the cards are on the table but I do not see who will stop the plot. Hope is not a plan.

Bride of ISIS

The following are not granted birthright citizenship under the XIVth Amendment even when born within the territory of the United States:
1. Children of a foreign sovereign. If the Queen of England gave birth while in America the child would not automatically be a citizen.
2. The child of an accredited ambassador or diplomat on the list of persons with diplomatic immunity under the terms of the Vienna Convention.
3. A child born on a warship transiting territorial waters. Seriously.
4. The child of "a camp follower of an invading army."

The status of the children of illegal aliens has never been adjudicated. If a state government declared the illegals to be invading army, as they can do under the Constitution, or if the federal government so declares them, then category (4) applies.

As I read category (4) if a woman either is an illegal herself or willingly has sex with a person she knew could be an illegal then she could qualify as a "camp follower." If a woman claimed that she had been raped and cooperated with authorities in attempting to locate her assailant then the child would be a citizen. The complexities that could give rise to have literary or theatrical value.

Both Congress and the states have the power to declare the US is under invasion. Congress can declare war but in this case against who? It is unlikely that we would declare war on Honduras and for the ISIS Brides the time arguably has passed. If the President declares the illegals are invaders, as his Emergency Declaration may have done, then it is possible that a determination for denying citizenship could be challenged in court.

For a US citizen who joined ISIS or married into it a judicial determination that citizenship was renounced, possibly with a treason conviction, might be needed. The State Department appears to claim the power to determine that administratively but I can see a due process challenge.

For a child of a person admitted to the US as a diplomat there never was a valid claim of citizenship and absent any subsequent naturalization her child, the former diplomats grandchild, has no claim.

Nothing prevents a person not granted birthright citizenship from applying for naturalization if they wish to become a citizen.

On Noblesse Oblige

Nobility.

What makes for an elite is a sense of obligation to model superiority for the benefit of others. To be fair this may be a sincere intention. The call of noblesse oblige can be real. The argument that luxuries are consumed to demonstrate the superiority of the nation the Nobles represent, and that exquisite manners are performed as a ritual standard that the Commons may wish they could aspire to but also are a burden that the Commons are exempt from. What the aristocrats sacrificed was their freedom of action compared to the peasantry and also their privacy. The King and his family were almost like animals in a zoo, eating on display before crowds. They thought that would endear them to the public.

Calvinist Protestantism made every man a potential noble by refining Luther's "Priesthood of all Believers" into the "Elect Predestined by Divine Grace." While you could not be sure that you were among the Elect you could demonstrate to others that you were worthy by your conduct. In affect the virtues of thrift industry temperance etc of the Protestant Ethic that fueled the Capitalist Revolution as Max Weber described were aristocratic virtues.