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Rankin Senate Issues Hurt Horry County Residents By Dennis Mitchell A recent article by a Columbia news outlet claimed senators are looking to change SC Senate rules in order to remove Horry County Sen. Luke Rankin from his chairmanship of the Senate Judiciary Committee.   The desire to remove Rankin from the committee chairmanship apparently results from his opposition, during the last session, to the SC Justice Act, which proposed to amend liability law to make each defendant in a personal injury lawsuit liable only for their percentage of liability that led to the injury or loss. The passage of the act was important to small business owners, especially those in the hospitality industry.   Twenty four state senators, a majority in that chamber, signed on as co-sponsors of the legislation. However, the bill was stalled in the Judiciary Committee for over a year and, when it did finally get to the floor for debate, a powerful Democratic senator was successful in tabling the am...

  Malfeasance - Job Creation In a world where job creation is the holy grail of economic policy, our valiant government has heroically stepped in to ensure that everyone has a job—even if that job is creating more jobs. Yes, the government has mastered the art of job inception, making the movie "Inception" look like child’s play. The idea is simple: hire a person to find people who need jobs, and then hire more people to manage the people who are finding people who need jobs. It’s job creation, government-style! It’s like a never-ending Russian nesting doll of employment. Only in America, can folks get excited about a jobs report that says over 200,000 jobs were created.   That sounds like good news, but when you realize most of the jobs created were government jobs, one starts to realize that this ain't such a good thing after all.   Many economists would agree with me that a new government job does not add anything to America's GDP.   Look, America is something lik...

  Malfeasance - Don't Go Uncle Joe In the aftermath of the latest Biden-Trump debate, it seems the Democrats are facing a conundrum that even the most advanced Sudoku puzzle couldn't solve: should Uncle Joe stay or should he go? The call for Biden to step down is echoing louder than a cicada convention in August, and it's coming not just from Republicans but from his own party faithful who are starting to wonder if they accidentally voted for a talking head instead of a candidate. The media, meanwhile, is frothing at the mouth like a pack of Chihuahuas who've just discovered the neighbor's garbage cans. Every pundit with a pulse is dissecting Biden's debate performance like it's a Zapruder film, trying to figure out if he blinked too much or if his hair plugs were malfunctioning. They're calling for him to step aside faster than a contestant on "The Bachelor" who just realized they're not there for the right reasons. But let's be real h...

  Royal Prerogative and American Democracy By Dennis Mitchell This week we celebrate the 4th of July and its meaning as the day in 1776 on which the 13 colonies in North America declared their independence from Great Britain. It is the 248th anniversary of this bold action. It can also be celebrated as the day on which government of laws replaced government by the whims of a monarch was introduced to the western world. It is ironic that it occurs just several days after the Supreme Court of the United States declared the American president, whoever it may be, is immune from prosecution for criminal acts within the scope of the president’s official duties. The Court did not specify what official duties it was referring to, leaving that decision to a lower court over which it may rule in the future. In doing so, it can be argued that the Supreme Court reintroduced the concept of royal prerogative into the American system of government. Royal prerogative is defined as a body of author...