Convention

Convention. It’s an odd word, it can mean “the way that something is usually done” especially within a trade or industry, it can mean something like a treaty, but not quite as formal, or it can mean a large gathering or meeting of people, usually in an industry, or with similar interests.

We’re going to talk about conventions today, including, of course, Liberty Con, and SF cons in general, but branching out beyond that as well. Grab a drink and let’s get started. On your way by, please notice the tip jar where we collect for the mess.

Thanks to the folks that have chipped in to keep the place running.

I want to talk about Liberty Con up front: In the unlikely event that you don’t give a rat’s ass about SF cons in general, and L/C in particular, by all means skip ahead to the askterisks.

This was my first time going to L/C so I’m seeing it with fresh eyes. Let me emphasize that none of what I am about to say is meant to be derogatory, I will be back, and I would prefer not to catch rotten eggs to the face when I show up.

That said, L/C is NOT your typical S/F Con. At least not as I have experienced them. This is not a “Fan Con” with hall parties and hall costumes, Fanzine tracks, Furry tracks, “Alt lifestyle” tracks, and so on. It was started by a guy and his family, and they still run it, and they run it family friendly. If that’s a problem for you, be warned. Some of the stuff I have seen at west coast cons, and heard of at Dragon Con, Things like “Scenes” taking place in the hallways (If you know, you know. If you don’t know, it’s probably better that you stay ignorant of this particular behavior… Lets just say that the Meese Report would not have approved.)

Conventions in general (by the third definition) fall into a few different types:

1) the Trade show or convention. A lot of SF cons come under this, but so do things like the NRA convention… It’s an opportunity to sell stuff associated with the subject matter, buy stuff, and listen to a few bigwigs in the field tell you about whatever it is that they’re shilling. Narrow target SF cons are particularly this way (Star Trek cons, etc.) and these are often but not always designed to strip fans or audiences of their cash as quickly as possible and send them on their way.

2) Fan Cons. The largest number of SF cons fall into this category, as do cons and seminars on things from knitting to BD/SM (and no we’re not going to examine the Venn diagram of folks that want to attend both.) These often have multiple different classes taught during the convention, some are presentations by pros either shilling something, or talking about how they do things, some are interactive classes, and some are just chances to Fan Boi out with one of the Guests of Honor. They cater to the hard corps fans who live and breath the subject matter, and the parties and gatherings all revolve around, to a greater or lesser extent, the subject matter. There are usually a limited number of pros, and the main thrust is celebrating “The Thing” whether it’s welding, S/F, or baking.

3) Business Cons. These are things where an organization, from the political parties, through unions and organizations like the Federal Manager’s Association, conduct their official business. There will still be dealer rooms and such but the main thrust is the business meeting that will report on last years stuff and set the goals for this year’s work. Everyone there is part of the “pro” group for that thing, and it’s of very little interest to those outside of that organization (unless that organization controls your life or livelihood, like: Oh, say, the DNC or RNC)

4) PRO cons. This is actually sort of a hybrid. It happens when there’s no “organization” that controls the industry, (and for those in the know, don’t you dare mention the SFWA, I’ll make you wash your mouth out with soap) but there’s a lot of interest in getting together and sharing techniques, new tools, etc… It also brings in the hard corps fan folks, who really want to understand and maybe join the industry. Yes, there will be fans, but they won’t outnumber the pros by more than at most 2:1. Most of the attendees want to get better at the target of the con, or are looking to network, and want to know what’s going on in the industry. This is Liberty Con.

Is Liberty Con Conservative? Well, yes, a little, more like libertarian, or OLD school liberal, but by modern definitions, it’s conservative. While I saw a smattering of “alt lifestyle” and LGBTQUILTBAG folks, it wasn’t shoved in anyone’s face, nor was any particular religion shoved in anyone’s face. This is a very “Live, and let Live” style place, like everywhere used to be, before the alphabet soup Nazis decided they were big enough to take over and enforce their beliefs on the rest of the world. I think it would be fair to say that “your personal beliefs and proclivities will be tolerated no matter what they are, as long as you don’t force it on others.”

Hell, Eric Flint was a L/C Guest of honor for multiple years, and the Master of Ceremonies three times, and he was an avowed and active member of the Socialist Worker’s Party, whose politics sat somewhere between Trotsky and Lenin. But here’s the thing: He wasn’t a bomb thrower, and he didn’t demand that you believe the way he believed or say you were the devil if you didn’t. He even got along with Tom Kratman, who is probably the furthest thing from a communist in this fallen world.

Primarily this is the place where the pros, from little guys like me, to THE big names in the industry, rub elbows and chat without gatekeepers and handlers.

Where the guy that just stepped on the back of your shoe and elbowed you in the ribs by accident is SM Sterling, and the guy that sets you up with your new publisher is John Ringo. Where people that have known each other on the book of faces for years, but never met, actually get to meet in meat space, and have a drink.

Where people you don’t know from Adam’s off ox walk up to you and say “are you ‘the Scuttlebutt? I love your stuff, I read it every week!” thus allaying (slightly) my fears that the only people that read this rag are a few friends that do it out of pity, and my mother. (yes, imposter syndrome is a thing.)

The Con committee say: “Here, we’re all family, but we’re the parts of the family that LIKE each other.” They’re not wrong. It’s not Cons as I have known them, but that’s not a bad thing.

It’s lower pressure, less crowds (although the Koffieklatch was so noisy and so crowded that I don’t think I’ll do that part again, I don’t do very large noisy groups well.) Oh, and if you go, get over to a restaurant called Attack of the Tatsu, it’s walking distance. It’s also worth going to Bea’s: southern food, fed farmhouse style, and if you leave less than filled to the brim with good food it’s your own damn fault.

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Now let’s talk about some other conventions. For years there has been a convention that power is more and more residing in unelected bureaucrats. The Supreme Court just stop punched that shit. They stood up to Trump and told him that he could not fire a Governor of the Federal Reserve, which is (no matter what the tinfoil hat boys want to paint it) the “bank of banks” whose governing body sets banking policy for banks in the US.

It is NOT part of the government, although the Governors are appointed by the President, with advice and consent from the Senate. In this (and only this) the Fed is more like the Judicial Branch, where you can appoint, but you can’t fire, because they’re required to be isolated from the politics of the day.

Oh and they didn’t actually say “you can’t fire them” they said “You can’t fire this one now, until her lawsuit challenging her firing is settled.”

The key sentence in the decision is “Not only the fact of independence but also the appearance of independence is key to the Federal Reserve’s design”. The decision went on to say, paraphrased “you CAN try to fire her for cause, but you have to make the case, and she gets to defend herself against the charges. What you can’t do is fire her because you don’t like her.”

Now while they limited the Presidency on that, they also said that “Independent Regulators” are not some magical fourth branch of the government, but work for the Executive.

A little review is in order, because so many people seem to have forgotten or were never taught the three branches of the government.

Put simply, the Legislative branch creates laws, and sends them to the Executive. They also control the checkbook.

The Executive branch enforces the laws and signs off on them. The President can veto a law, but can also be overridden, if enough of the legislative branch wants something. The Executive also runs the military but that’s not pertinent to this discussion.

The Judicial branch decides whether or not a law is legal under our constitution, and interprets the law. They get to say “naw, that shit ain’t right.” Or “Yeah that’s good, and you, sir are in violation of that good law, to prison with you.”

Nowhere in this do you find anything about Independent Branches answerable to no one, that exist to audit or overrule elected officials. That seems to be the novel argument that Federal Trade Commission Commissioner Slaughter wanted to use as a justification for why she could not be fired. She seems to have claimed that though she was exerting the powers of the executive branch, she could only be fired by congress.

She was relying on an old ruling called “Humphrey’s Executor” that ruled back in the 30’s that President Roosevelt shouldn’t have been able to fire FTC commissioner Humphrey over policy disagreements. The court of the time made the ruling based on the claim that the FTC and other agencies like it had been created by congress as “Quasi-legislative” or “Quasi-judicial” agencies.

Now the truth here is that FDR was racking up quite a record of trying to become “king in all but name” by the time this ruling came down, and the Executor ruling was more about politically reigning in an imperial president, than it was good law.

So, what, you ask, is the difference between the Fed’s powers and the FTC’s powers?

Good question.

The FTC can investigate, issue trade rules having the force of law, fine people, and charge people or companies with crimes that if convicted in court will send folks to jail, close their business, or take their money.

The Federal Reserve sets interest rates, controls the liquidity of money by printing more, or tightening up the supply, enforces some regulations on how much a bank can “play the market” and can, with reason, shut down a bank. It also governs the transfer of money between banks, to limit the amount of hanky panky.

To me, the big difference, and what I interpret the findings by SCOTUS to differentiate based on, is this:

One can put people in jail, or fine them. That’s Executive Branch powers.

The other can limit money supplies, and otherwise mess with the US monetary policy. Think back to which branch owns what… The Legislature owns the checkbook.

Other news on SCOTUS includes the ruling that mail in ballots postmarked by the day of the election can be counted, which is being billed as a loss for Trump. I see it as a victory for deployed troops. They refused to hear an appeal by Trump of the $5 mil. Jury verdict in a suit against him, and Trump also lost his case against Birthright citizenship, as SCOTUS ruled that being born on US soil, even if you’re born to illegal aliens, or theoretically to an alien species makes you an American. Obviously, it’s time for an amendment here.

But, they also handed down a bitch slap to Hawaii on their latest anti gun initiative that would make it a crime to bring guns into a public facing business without express permission, so that was nice. Of course, Hawaii (like all the other anti-freedom states) will just go back to the trestle board and draw up some new illegal way to fuck with gun owners… But I’ll take the “W”.

We’ve got one final definition of Convention to mention, the “slightly less than a treaty” piece, which brings us to Iran. Every time there’s a deal made with Iran, the mad mullahs wait less than a week to break it. The latest one was just last night, with still more shooting at civilian vessels for the “sin” of being in the international waters that Iran promised not to attack people in. This of course was followed by the US blowing up the newly disclosed radars that hadn’t radiated until then.

Look, this is the game:

Don’t use a radar, so no one knows where it is, until you need to. Once you light that puppy up, people know where it is, and can take it out. Until then a radar is the easiest thing in the world to hide. That’s the game Iran is playing.

It’s time to quit playing “wack a mole” and quit playing Charley Brown to Iran’s Lucy Van-Pelt. I always wanted to see Charley aim the kick for her head, instead of the football. Right now, it’s time to see if we can kick a Dolband between the uprights, with the head still in it. You can’t make a deal with someone that sees deals only as “a chance to reload.”

Closing roundup: Kira Davis wrote a beautiful piece on Scott Weiner getting bitch-slapped by the people he has been using as his power base at screw-democrats-like-scott-weiner Surprisingly, fags, communists, and muslims Queers for Palestine, DSA, and CAIR don’t give a fuck if you’ve supported them financially and politically; if you’re a dirty jew, you gotta die. Kira is more sympathetic about this than I am, I hope they do to him what he cheered about them doing to his co-religious brothers and sisters. He deserves it.

Governor New-scum came out against the California state bill to tax billionaires “because no one should have that much money,” with the argument that “this is bad for the state, because they’ll just move out.” At the same time, Candidate New-Scum came out with a proposal to Federally Tax billionaires because no one should have that much money…Hey Gavin, think this thing through, just a little bit, Huh? I know that thinking hurts your head, but, TRY.

QOTD: “Independent agencies are not so independent after all.”

Supreme Court Judge Gorsuch.

Yours in Service,

William Lehman