Author: Dennis Linthicum

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Judicial “Putsch”

It turns out the Supreme Court has two buckets for holding ideas. One bucket holds the ideas they like and the other the things they don’t like. However, the two buckets aren’t labeled ‘Likes’ and ‘Dis-likes.’ Oddly enough, one bucket is labeled ‘Constitutional’ and the other is labeled ‘Unconstitutional.’

Can you guess which bucket carries which label?

In our nation’s past, the Supreme Court relied on evidence, facts and relevant testimony to determine how any piece of legislation might appropriately fit within its constitutional boundaries.

In the Federalist No. 45, James Madison wrote, “The powers delegated by the proposed constitution of the federal government, are few and defined.”

The next sentence follows, “Those which are to remain in the state governments are numerous and indefinite.” He then adds, “The powers reserved to the several states, will extend to all the objects, which in the ordinary course of affairs, concern the lives, liberties, and properties of the people; and the internal order, improvement, and prosperity of the state.”

Well, the Constitution hasn’t changed.

In fact, since the Bill of Rights can be rightfully considered part of the original Constitution there have only been 15 additional changes or Amendments.  There is no constitutional authority for the the federal government to intervene in the natural, universal and historic definition of marriage.

The Supreme Court came to a wrong opinion with regard to the constitutional facts of the case. The Constitution specifically leaves the ordinary affairs, concerns for life, liberty, and property to the people and their own desires for local governance.

If the Supreme Court can ignore facts and written history can you and I follow their example?  What will happen to our Constitutional rights? Can they also be ignored?

Does this mean restraints on Congressional action no longer apply?  The preamble to the Bill of Rights explains the States’ desire to prevent misconstruction or abuse of federal powers with further restrictive clauses such as:

  • “Congress shall make no law…” (1st Amendment),
  • “This right shall not be infringed” (2nd Amendment),
  • or, “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated” (4th Amendment)

Can Congress, like the Supreme Court and President, ignore these clear restrictions?

The precedent has been set but not by this Court alone:

  1. Under the guise of economic stability the Federal Reserve has created trillions from thin air;

  2. using security as their shield, Congress routinely searches all of our personal effects, without warrant;

  3. hiding behind the facade of compassion the President modifies immigration policy using his cell phone;

  4. and, the Supreme Court has used equality to execute their ruse.

 

What opinions will the Court foist upon us next week?  Maybe, 2 + 2 = 5.

Convincing the Court they got their summation problem wrong might be harder than you think. Especially if the facts, theories and principles of mathematics are left out of the discussion.  If we disagree with the Court, it is only because we have a different view of the real world.  After all, in a 1992 abortion case Justice Kennedy’s opinion included, “At the heart of liberty is the right to define one’s own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and of the mystery of human life.”

Was their ruling simply one of life’s mysteries?

Justice Scalia, in his dissenting view notes, the people have been robbed, “of the most important liberty they asserted in the Declaration of Independence and won in the Revolution of 1776: the freedom to govern themselves.”

Like Scalia, I too am astounded by, “the hubris reflected in today’s judicial Putsch.”  In his closing, Scalia lets his arrow fly straight at the heart of the matter,

“The world does not expect logic and precision in poetry or inspirational pop- philosophy; it demands them in the law. The stuff contained in today’s opinion has to diminish this Court’s reputation for clear thinking and sober analysis.”

America needs help from more people like you and I. People who believe in self-governance, freedom and liberty within our Constitutionally ordered government.

By Liberty, I do not mean a state of licentiousness, where our culture subverts order and  breeds a defiance of rules.  I mean, rather, a well ordered government which is limited by a set of specifically enumerated powers.

The Bill of Rights was a beautiful extension of the Constitution where the founders admitted the possibility of government growth and usurpation. These restraints were designed to protect men’s rights from the designs of those who are “more remarkable for their ambition and cunning, than their patriotism.”

*   putsch : noun
1. a plotted revolt or attempt to overthrow a government, especially one that depends upon suddenness and speed.

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Secrecy Breeds Corruption and Tyranny – Part I

Secrecy breeds corruption and tyranny, while openness and transparency breed Liberty. Especially in matters of governance.

Which would you prefer?

This is a simple question because it is a very straight-forward idea.

Give yourself this test:

Do you want Secrecy or Transparency, when…

  1. Reviewing car repair options with your mechanic?
  2. Discussing possible treatment options for cancer?
  3. Going over your taxes with your accountant?
  4. Buying a new home, car, laptop, loaf of bread or pound of beef?

 

Obviously, each of us values openness and transparency. Why then, is the American public so complacent about the secrecy imposed by the President, House and Senate when they are attempting to legislate far-reaching and corporately focused global trade agreements?

Americans have been purposefully kept in the dark regarding the multi-faceted impacts of the so-called Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP, Trade Deal).  The myriad of agreements falling under the TPP will impact all of the above mentioned items. Not only your purchases of bread, beer, and beef but also your car, cancer treatment options and the price of your mechanic.

The US House and Senate are complicit with the Obama Administration in these “routine” machinations of darkness at the federal level.

Last week, the US House passed (H.R. 644) the ‘Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act of 2015’’ as an amendment to a bill known and entitled – ‘’An Act to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to permanently extend and expand the charitable deduction for contributions of food inventory.’’

Does this make sense? Let me try to summarize: The House passed an IRS bill about charitable tax deductions which magically gets an entirely new (236 page) amendment that is a separate Act of Congress.

Is this open, honest and forthright?

We have sent these men and women to Congress to protect our Liberties and America’s sovereignty above all else. Have they abandoned their oath of office and responsibility?  Be assured Congress is trampling our future.

With regard to the details of  TPP, there is actually little to no information available.  Julian Assange, founder and publisher of WikiLeaks, is trying to get the information discovered and published. He wants to raise $100,000 (through crowdsourcing) as a reward to anyone who reveals the entire TPP text (all twenty-nine chapters). Today, WikiLeaks has only five chapters online.

(Note: Don’t be afraid to read these documents. They are available online. Your web-browser may issue a “security warning” which will make you feel like you are doing something “unsafe” but this is part of the lie that liars tell.  The TPP information that is available will not destroy your laptop or shatter world peace. Instead, it may help stop the White House along with the cowards in Congress.)

We have heard this Administration brag that it is, “the most transparent and ethical administration in history,” then why the secrecy?    House Republicans are no better. Remember, in 2011, their own pledge was to “restore trust” by giving all Representatives and citizens at least three days to read bills before any votes would be taken.

In reality, transparency is not their goal, power is.

Openness and transparency are abhorrent to tyrants. Their power and corruption grows more readily under the cover of darkness and misinformation.  This is why, if you have written or called your Congressman asking for details about the TPP, the answer was cloaked in obscurity.

The Patriot Post reveals the depth of secrecy:

“[It’s] So secret that, even if you’re a member of Congress and want information, you have two choices: You can attend a classified briefing that requires you to leave your staff members and cell phone at the door, or you can amble down to the basement of Capitol Visitor Center for a read. Again, one’s cellphone must be surrendered. And only one section at a time is provided, with someone watching over you as you read. If you take any notes they must be surrendered prior to leaving. After you leave, you are forbidden to discuss any aspects of the bill in public.

“On the other hand, here’s a list of 605 “cleared” corporate insiders who have been granted access for some period of the nearly 10 years of negotiations on this pact that have been taking place. Insiders who represent pharmaceutical companies, Hollywood studios, Wall Street, car and oil companies, and other corporate interests.”

All this time you and I have been thinking of trade in terms of commodities like barley, beef and bananas or ,manufactured products like cell phones, cars and cameras.

The truth is these agreements are designed to harvest the rewards of American prosperity to further socialist economic pursuits. (See more in Part II)

Our founders had a different idea. They believed in limited government. Their focus was on lowering the burdensome nature of taxes while allowing citizens the liberty of engaging in free, open and prosperous markets. They believed in private enterprise from families like yours and mine. They lived and died fully invested in the defense of their grand experiment.

Good decision making is based upon an accurate assessment of the best available knowledge. This is a simple concept and it is easy to demand from Congress. The more we know and understand, the better our odds of making good choices.

We do this in our private affairs daily using every opportunity to negotiate the best deal. We use store coupons, attend Fabulous Friday sales, and return soda cans for nickels.  When it comes to public affairs we need to exercise the same diligence. The destruction of our national sovereignty and economic prowess is of greater importance.

“[I]f you are negligent or inattentive, the ambitious and despotic will entrap you in their toils, and bind you with the cord of power from which you, and your posterity, may never be freed.”   – Cato I, New York Journal,  September 27, 1787

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Secrecy Breeds Corruption and Tyranny – Part II

As I mentioned in Part I,  the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP, Trade Deal) is a secretly engineered scheme that unashamedly supports centrally planned economies.

In this article, I have pulled an excerpt from the TPP which I will use to illustrate this globalist agenda. This portion highlights healthcare where pharmaceutical companies, medical device manufacturers and public health entities will be jockeying for positions at the public trough.

Given the poor performance and rising costs of Obamacare, what will happen when Congress allows the President (via the TPP) to wedge his insatiable bureaucrats deeper into your wallets and future health decisions.

The following excerpt from the TPP showcases the socialistic tenor of the entire agreement. I chose this example to emphasize 1) a subtle call for universal amnesty, and 2) global pharmaceutical insiders don’t like the notion of transparency. (Neither does President Obama .  Below is an excerpt from Chapter 10, regarding pharmaceutical products and medical devices. (All annotations, mine)

The first bullet (#1 in red) is the nail in the coffin for opposition to universal amnesty. It paints a false picture of your individual health as a public good that is government’s a-priori commitment. The phrase, “for their nationals including citizens and the public” translates into “everyone, regardless.”  You and I, as citizens, are included but also included are illegal aliens, undocumented workers, and everybody else. In other words, everyone by “treaty” will gain access to entitlements at the public trough.

The second bullet (#2 in red) highlights the recommended striking of the word “transparent.” This is because some numbers (xx) of participants oppose that concept in favor of the idea of impartiality.  Meaning, in effect, they won’t be judgmental, but they want to remain secret!

The third bullet (#3 in red) is a strategically placed “or by” clause which digs a hole large enough to swallow the American Dream. The two ideas presented on either side of this “or by” clause are entirely incongruent. These ideas don’t even belong in the same class.

The first concept represents the American ideal – the notion of competitive markets. The second is a statist, collectivist, or socialist ideal – the desire for centralized control and management.  The language which says, “or by adopting or maintaining procedures that appropriately value” simply means that, “price controls are fine, as long as government maintains them.”

This ought to tell you what the Republicans in the House and Senate think of free-markets.

Apparently, neither House is worried about defending your rights to Life, Liberty and Property as Constitutional intentions mandate. They are more interested in catering to large-scale moneyed interests while placating the public with empty noise about helping Americans get “jobs.”

The two major political parties have fallen victim to a devastating worldview – Statism – the belief that only through government force and coercion can society function properly. They have come to believe that if they can get control of the steering wheel, gas pedal and radio buttons on the federal machinery the US will prosper.

Our founders had a different idea. They believed in limited government. Their focus was on lowering the burdensome nature of taxes while allowing citizens the liberty of engaging in free, open and prosperous markets. They believed in private enterprise from families like yours and mine. They were fully invested in defending their grand experiment with their lives, fortunes and sacred honor.

Good decision making is based upon an accurate assessment of available knowledge. This is a simple concept and it is easy to demand from Congress.

The more we know and understand, the better our odds of making good choices. This happens when we purchase our cars, homes and daily bread.  In fact, “full disclosure” laws exist to help people become informed citizens so that they can participate in the marketplace. The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) was designed to allow citizens to participate in self-governance and to keep government in check. Yet, the Obama administration has set the record for censoring government files by denying access to nearly 50,000 requested documents.

Take pride in self-governance. Demand openness and full disclosure from the men and women who are serving on our behalf.

We must not allow this federally sponsored takeover of America’s open markets and prosperous industry under the cheap excuse that nations must compromise their traditions, principles and heritage in order to work together.

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Stand Firm Against EPA’s Latest Tyrannical Designs

Last Wednesday, the Obama administration issued new rules defining the EPA’s  jurisdiction under the Clean Water Act. These rules are supposedly aimed at protecting the nation’s drinking water. But, this isn’t really about drinking water. This is a classic case of federal over-reach.

The EPA’s definitions are a bureaucratic attempt at justifying federal intrusion into issues that belong to local and regional jurisdictional bodies.The complexity of the rules and minutiae associated with their definitions is supposed to be proof of their objectivity.

The story being spun by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is that “They really do care and their actions only highlight the depth of their concern.”

In support of the EPA’s designs, the Army Corps of Engineers (another Federal Agency specializing in “carefully orchestrated over-reach”) has issued  documentation supporting the EPA’s schemes.

The Corps stated that the changes mark a “historic step for the protection of clean water” and would help roughly 117 million Americans who get drinking water from streams not clearly protected before these regulations.

Are you and I really going to fall for this fake emergency? Does the federal government  really think a full 33% of America’s entire population is drinking water that is unsafe? Is there any “real” danger here? Or, is this only another boogie man pulled from the statist’s closet?

Supposedly, the rule would clarify which smaller streams, tributaries and wetlands are covered by EPA’s anti-pollution and development provisions in the Clean Water Act.

Notice, the phrase “anti-pollution and development”. This is the key to the whole equation. The EPA is operating under a false understanding of stewardship. Their stewardship model links development directly with pollution and claims that the world would be better off with lower human populations and lower levels of human prosperity.

The EPA’s decree would unilaterally expand federal authority over all areas of water, whether for consumption or not. This would crush jobs in developing cities and metropolitan areas as they would be saddled with an onslaught of regulations, rules, paperwork, permits and filings. Additionally, these same issues would lead to losses in agricultural development and food production.

More than 30 governors and government leaders rejected the EPA’s water rule. Local leaders know better than any bureaucrats walking the marbled halls of Washington about local water conditions, uses, and needs.

North Dakota Republican Rep. Kevin Cramer said in a statement these regulations “trample on the rights of private property owners as well as local and state governments” and vowed to work with colleagues to overturn it.

EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy, tried to deny the charges of tyrannical over-reach by stating “the rule will only affect waters that have a ‘direct and significant’ connection to larger bodies of water downstream that are already protected.”

Yet, contrary to McCarthy’s statements, the EPA has said 60 percent of the nation’s streams and waterways are vulnerable, and these regulations would only kick in, “if a business or landowner takes steps to pollute or destroy those waters.”

Now, that sounds like something that is at the top of every business person’s “To-Do List”, doesn’t it?

The collectivists, socialists and statists have gone crazy in Washington and they are mounting efforts to destroy the very Freedom that made America great.

Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., also disagreed with McCarthy’s innocent assessment of the EPA’s new rules. Inhofe said the rules make it “more important than ever for Congress to act.” He said the final rule allows the EPA to regulate isolated waters — even ponds in farmers’ fields — by declaring them a “regional water treasure.”

Inhofe, chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, said his panel will try to force legislation which would require the EPA to withdraw and rewrite the rules this summer.

We need more conservative values in Congress. True representation should includes the voices of those who believe in Freedom and Liberty.

My recommendation is to Stand Firm Against the EPA’s Tyrannical Designs.

Stand Firm against any, and all, federal intrusions. Whether the EPA, TSA, IRS, USFS, FWS, BLM, NSA, DHS, BOR, NPS, USDT, DHHS, NLRB or any of the other more than 3500 federal organizations that are usurping authorities that rightfully belong to our state, and ourselves.

Remember, “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”, Article Ten, United States Constitution

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Take Proper Care of the Pigs in your Life

Tea Party Patriot and Republican groups are organizing and sponsoring “Petunia Pig Visits.”  Petunia (the giant pig) is the one doing the visiting. She recently stopped into the Josephine County Commissioner’s offices and she may be coming to Klamath County, too.

Don’t let that happen! – Vote NO on Tax levies. These levies promise to fund utopia with only one more fistful of our tax dollars.

Petunia eats well on government waste. She is actually quite a messy pig. She is more than happy to soak taxpayers with false hopes while lavishing them with decent sounding but, empty promises. Tax Levy proponents don’t promise any tangibles because they know they can’t. It’s always some vague public good, like “public safety”, or “well behaved children who know how to eat right and garden well”.

Klamath County, and all of Oregon, needs your help.

We need to put government on a diet. Obesity is now a national dilemma for the general population as well as our Federal, State and Local governments.

However, we can’t blame McDonalds for our over-grown government. It’s our own fault. We have continually allowed ourselves to be duped by an unelected politburo enthralled with its own lust for power and mesmerized by its own collectivist doctrines. Unless we say no to these parasites, the host will perish and so will American capitalism and the prosperity and freedom that it has fostered.

We need to say NO!

It’s going to be hard for Petunia to turn down all the junk and goodies – so we have to do it!  Tax-credits, subsidies and permanent operating District Levies are easy diggings.  A pig like Petunia won’t even get dirty rooting in the pockets of Klamath’s easy-going citizens but when we stand tough, the tearing canines and crushing back teeth will certainly make their marks. Pigs, as you may know, can be savage even on their own offspring.

Actually, a strict diet is the answer.

One of our Presidents from the early 60s saw the problem of obesity and started the “President’s Council on Physical Fitness.” Maybe it’s time to bring back some of his early ideas.

Tell Government :

  • Eat Properly:  If you’re full, stop. (Quit dreaming about 2007, when rich-and-gooey chocolate desserts were in abundance.)
  • Eat Properly: No Junk Food. (Sure, we have needs but program trimming is also needed – it’s like trimming hooves – only harder.)
  • Exercise: Walk, whenever possible. (Don’t wallow in your pigsty; clean up and get going.)
  • Weigh In: Be honest, open and accountable.

After all, even little piggies grow into enormous hogs. Take Care and don’t let that happen!

Don’t wait for Petunia to Fly – VOTE ‘NO’ on any Tax levies that are on your County’s Ballot.

If you’re in Klamath County, Vote NO on 18-100 and 18-101!

To read more about Petunia’s exploits visit her at http://www.ocwf.org/

For more info on Klamath County’s 18-100, visit http://www.klamathjaillevy.com/

For more info on Klamath County’s 18-101, visit http://www.klamathchildren.com/

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Oregon’s Gun Grabbers Strain Reality

Oregon’s Gun Grabbers Strain Reality

The most insidious part of  Oregon’s SB 941 is that it is designed to solve a problem that doesn’t exist. Illegal or criminal gun transfers and/or purchases are not happening amongst law-abiding citizens. This is disingenuous and farcical at best and down right evil at its worst.

Call or write these folks to tell them “NO on SB 941”

“NO on SB 941”

Rep Paul Evans 503-986-1420 Rep.PaulEvans@state.or.us
Rep Brent Barton 503-986-1440 Rep.BrentBarton@state.or.us
Rep Deborah Boone 503-986-1432 Rep.DeborahBoone@state.or.us
Rep Brian Clem 503-986-1421 Rep.BrianClem@state.or.us
Rep Betty Komp 503-986-1422 Rep.BettyKomp@state.or.us
Rep Caddy McKeown 503-986-1409 Rep.CaddyMcKeown@state.or.us

In the “Screwtape Letters,” C.S. Lewis has Uncle Screwtape say,

“I live in the Managerial Age, in a world of ‘Admin’ …  The greatest evil is not now done in those sordid ‘dens of crime’ that Dickens loved to paint. It is not done even in concentration camps and labor camps.  But it is conceived and ordered (moved, seconded, carried, and minuted) in clean, carpeted, warmed, and well-lighted offices, by quiet men with white collars and cut fingernails and smooth-shaven cheeks who do not need to raise their voice.”

Oregon’s Democratic-led legislature appears to be made of the same sort of quiet men and women. Those, who have the same white collars and skirts, who have smooth-shaven body parts (based on their gender preference) and who will not need to raise their voices, while they take away our liberties.

Crossing the Lines throughout History

Matt Bracken warns us with his recent article at Western Rifle Shooters:

Q_openI am telling you now that disastrous unintended consequences will happen if Congress passes new laws banning presently legal firearms. To make it very easy to remember, and in the spirit of our beloved Department of Homeland Security’s old color-coded security threat levels, let me spell out three lines of demarcation.

The Yellow Line:

The yellow warning line will be crossed with national gun registration laws, including laws forbidding private gun sales without government permission. When that law passes, millions of Americans will feel that they have been pushed directly to the edge of the abyss above the mass graves of history. Defenders of the Second Amendment know what happened in Turkey, the USSR, Germany, China, and other nations that fell under totalitarian rule: in every case a necessary preliminary step on the road to genocide was national gun registration, followed by confiscation. The Jewish survivors of the Nazi Holocaust say, “Never again!” And so do we.

The Red Line:

The red line will be crossed with the passage of laws mandating that currently owned weapons, ammunition magazines, and ammunition quantities above a certain number must be turned in to authorities or destroyed, and thereafter their simple possession will be a felony. At that point, the nation will be on a hair trigger, with a thousand flaring matches nearing a thousand primed cannon fuses aimed directly at the next Fort Sumter.

The Dead Line:

The next line requires a bit of history to explain. In some primitive Civil War POW camps, where lack of funding or logistical constraints did not allow the construction of proper fences, a knee-high continuous railing of wooden slats encircled the prison grounds. Guards with rifles were positioned at the corners and in crude towers. If a prisoner so much as stepped over the narrow plank, he was shot dead without warning, obviating the need for a real fence to contain him. Hence the term “dead line.” Cross the line and people die, right now.

And this is what liberal utopians must understand: after passing the yellow line with national gun registration and transfer requirements, and the red line by making possession of currently legal firearms felonious, the dead line will be breached with the first SWAT raids upon citizens suspected of owning legal firearms made illegal by the new gun control laws. People will die resisting confiscation, in large numbers.

Confiscation crosses the dead line, make no mistake about it.

So this essay is really for you, Mr. Security Agent, because it won’t be elite Manhattan or Malibu liberals or Ivy League professors or politicians or columnists who will be ordered to strap on the sweat-stained body armor and enforce the new gun control laws at gunpoint. No, that grim task will fall to you.

But as long as you are an honorable agent of the people while an employee of the government, and as long as you honor your oath to uphold and defend the Constitution, then you will encounter no problems at all with gun owners. Why? Because you will refuse to take part in gun confiscation raids. Period. End of sentence, end of paragraph.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation is the leading American law enforcement agency, at least in terms of its long history and high prestige. Dear Mr. Security Agent, please consider that F.B.I. also stands for Fidelity, Bravery, and Integrity. Soon, your fidelity to your solemnly sworn oath may be severely tested. It will take a lot of bravery to make your personal integrity a higher calling than following illegitimate orders, simply to maintain your steady paycheck and benefits.

On the other hand, if you no longer resemble the upstanding and honorable federal agents I have known in the past, if that whole oath-to-the-Constitution shtick was a big fat joke to you and you would accept a transfer to the old Soviet KGB or East German Stasi for a ten percent pay raise…then we are definitely going to have a problem. So that oath you swore really matters, one way or the other, and so does your personal sense of honor.

Dear Mr. Security Agent, let me spell it out. If you find yourself in the sub-basement of an annex to a secret intelligence center on the far end of town, waterboarding citizens into revealing the locations of suspected “illegal caches” of firearms, ammunition or ammunition magazines that were legally owned in 2012, then know this one simple fact: tens of millions of Americans will most surely consider you a betrayer of your sworn oath and a traitor to your country.

And so, if you find yourself silently dismounting a covert SWAT vehicle at zero-dark-thirty, dressed all in body armor, counting down to the time-coordinated explosion of battering rams and flash-bang grenades, on a raid against a sleeping household intended to result in the confiscation of firearms, ammunition or ammunition magazines that were legal to own in 2012, millions of Americans who also swore an oath to defend the Constitution will consider you their domestic enemy, and they will resist you with force of arms. Just as the soldiers of King George were resisted on another notable gun confiscation raid on April 19, 1775. It used to be called “The Shot Heard ’Round the World.”

You may consider the sentiments expressed above to be absurd, hyperbolic, dangerous, ridiculous, or simply wrong-headed. But please understand that tens of millions of Americans feel this way to their cores, and they will not be disarmed without a fight. Well-meaning but naive liberals should understand the certain-to-follow consequences of new gun control laws intended to disarm their fellow citizens in the name of “public safety.” LEOs and FLEAs should understand the dire consequences of participating in gun confiscation raids, in direct violation of their sworn oaths to uphold the Constitution, including the Second Amendment.

The unintended consequences of this misguided utopian fool’s crusade to ban guns would include a second civil war as agonizingly painful as the first one, if not more so, since there would be no front lines and no safe areas for anybody, anywhere. Every sane American wants to prevent such a calamitous outcome as a “dirty civil war” on United States soil.

But know this: those tens of millions will never be quietly disarmed and then later forced at government gunpoint Q_closeonto history’s next boxcars. If boxcars and detention camps are to be in America’s future, then you, Mr. Security Agent, will have to disarm them the hard way first. Not Piers Morgan, not Michael Moore, not Rosie O’Donnell, not Dianne Feinstein, not Chuck Schumer.

Original Post by: Matt Bracken was born and raised in Baltimore, and graduated from the University of Virginia and Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL Training in 1979.

 

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Federal Over-reach Damages Us

The Federal Payment-In-Lieu-of-Taxes (PILT) and Secure Rural Schools (SRS) payment schemes are not in the best long-term interests of Oregon’s citizens. I have attended countless budget meetings where hard-working folks strive to manage their limited resources. However, the hard-truth is that relying on these monies will only place us on the same street corner next year, with the same cardboard sign, asking once again, “Please, Sir, More…”

All of these federal disbursement models are outdated, whimsically amended, and hobbled by bureaucratic ineptitude. They are built on a mishmash of legislative actions from self-interested parties that are forged deep within the marbled halls of our nation’s distant capital. Worse yet, most federal actions are rank with either executive or legislative over-reach or pregnant with deplorable raids on the US Treasury.

Federal usurpations directly damage Oregon’s health and economy while indirectly damaging all of us. Yes, my contention is that every citizen pays heavily as the national interests intrude on responsibilities that are, “reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”

Here is a brief review of small handful of sordid federal intrusions in Oregon:

    • Executive Over-reach #1 – Between 1904 and 1906, President Roosevelt went tearing through Oregon maps creating ten new forest reserves: 1904 – Baker City; 1905 – Chesnimnus, Maury Mountain, Wallowa and Wenaha; 1906 – Blue Mountains, Fremont, Goose Lake, Heppner and Siskiyou.

 

    • State’s Defensive Response – In 1907, Oregon’s U.S. senator Charles W. Fulton introduced an amendment to eliminate the president’s authority to establish national forests in Oregon. This amendment appropriately gave responsibility back to Congress and changed the name from forest reserves to national forests in order to make it clear that the forests were to be used, not preserved.

 

    • Executive Over-reach #2 – In 1907, the night before signing Sen. Fulton’s bill, Roosevelt grabbed another 16 million acres, deridingly known as the “Midnight Reserves.” Opponents were furious, but five new national forests were proclaimed in Oregon: Blue Mountains National Forest (added to the older Maury Mountain Forest Reserve), Coquille National Forest, Imnaha National Forest (created from the older Wallowa and Chesnimnus Forest Reserves), Tillamook National Forest, and Umpqua National Forest (Coast Range).

 

    • Congressional Pandering – The next year, 1908, Congress invented the 25 percent annualized receipts sharing plan to placate states and counties whose land assets were completely nationalized through Roosevelt’s takings.

 

  • Whimsically Bureaucratic Fixes– Since Congress first impaled counties in this economic death trap, Congress has never repealed federal misdoings but have only amended or modified the original acts with cheery acronyms like, “Payment in Lieu of Taxes”, “Safety Net Payments”, “Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act”,  “Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act”, “Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act”, “The Emergency Economic Stabilization Act” and the  “American Taxpayer Relief Act”.

This ought to remind everyone of the Obamacare debacle. It’s cleverly named the “Affordable Care Act” but there’s little that’s affordable or caring about it. What was sold as a well-intentioned new idea has turned into a wasteful, ineffective nightmare. We should know better than to believe the cleverly named bad policies from Washington, D.C.

Look at the 1976 Federal Land Policy Management Act (FLPMA). This is where PILT was birthed. This is also where Congress declared a fundamental transformation of its Public Land goals. Up until this single event the federal government had a legislative mandate for disposing of public lands. After FLPMA the focus became one of land retention.

Land retention is the skunk in the woodpile. This is exactly why PILT and SRS exist. These monies are aimed at buying our complacency through the bankrupt budget and monetary policies of our federal government. Don’t mistake their offer for a mere 25 percent of the revenue as the answer to our county’s difficulties.

Instead of talking about PILT, SRS and O&C monies, it is time to start talking about the Transfer of Public Lands to states, counties and private enterprises. Dismantling federal land jurisdiction would give local communities control and management over their own natural resources.

It’s time for us, as loggers, ranchers, entrepreneurs and elected officials to believe in our own future. We should not allow the Politburo in Washington D.C. to plan our lives for us.  Focusing on government handouts is never the right answer.

I know local families, businesses and communities are hurting. I know county services will face constraints but Congress needs to admit that it has promised more than it can deliver. The feds have over-spent our hard-earned money by throwing $18.2 trillion down the proverbial rat-hole while our Commissioners are scrounging the pavement looking for Road Fund nickels and dimes.

Instead of being placated by the empty words of career politicians we should place our faith in local control and open markets as the best means of restoring and preserving our water, fish, game, timber, and mineral resources.  This is the road we must be willing to travel to secure the blessings of Liberty for ourselves and our posterity.

 

For more information visit : http://americanlandscouncil.org

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Wonderful Satire – Travel back to the trials of life in 1903

Rare Original Letter from 1903

Originally Posted on April 10, 2015 by Dani

(Seeing as how this column (5 reasons marriage doesn’t work anymore) has become quite popular lately, I thought it was fitting to share this similar concern from a distressed gentleman in 1903, written to the New-York Tribune in a fit of distress.)

(Not really, this is my satire. But you get it… don’t you?)   –  Dani

 

Dear Sirs,

I am writing to this esteemed publication because I have a serious concern about the future of our cities, indeed the very fabric of our great nation. It is my belief, as a gentleman of New York and an established member of society, that marriage can no longer be the sanctuary and happy haven it once was, in our new industrial age.

What is the hindrance to domestic bliss, you ask? I shall give you five reasons. The first, my dear sirs, it is nothing less than Henry Ford’s cursed invention, the automobile.

No more can gay parties of young people ride out for a day of fox-hunting or horsemanship, and so become engaged to a worthy partner of their choosing. No longer to docile ladies and comfortable gentlemen engage in Sunday drives in small buggies, just the right size for appropriate closeness to one’s spouse.

No! No! Today we zoom about in these infernal machines, so loud we cannot engage in civilized conversation and so dirty that our driving-clothes are reproachably sullied after a short outing, requiring much more time and energy spent on the laundry. No lady, no matter how beautiful, can be made to look desirable in those hideous goggles, and we daily see young people dashing about with hair askew and windblown, quite the opposite of the order and decency that makes for healthy matrimony. The automobile is so corrupting our morals and meddling with our society that I fear within 20 years young people will not wish to marry at all, but will live listless lives of unproductive excitement-chasing, all in the pursuit of speed and thrills.

Which brings me to my second point. Young men, rather than donning a sharp waistcoat and boots to meet ladies of repute, are now walking about in whatever dismal jacket they see fit, without so much as a proper hat to appear respectable. It’s no wonder the young ladies are so unwilling to become tied down to one of these scamps – indeed, my esteemed neighbor, Mrs. Winston, informed me last evening that her niece neglected to become engaged until the eve of her 28th birthday, because of lack of suitable mates. I’d wager she finally found herself a fellow with a clean waistcoat, but I fear for her fair, younger sisters.

So, this leads me directly into point three. I married my own bride when I was only just 20 years old, fresh from university, with a steady income from my family’s estate and pockets full of dreams, all set to marry a young lady my parents approved of. Why on God’s glorious Earth are these young ladies and gentlemen not doing the same? Why not marry, set up house, bring forth lovely children and make your families proud? I will go back to my first point, that the automobile has much to do with this, although I also fear that we have been too lax with our youngsters and indulged their whims for too long. Our country shall suffer without these blessed young marriages, I’ll tell you.

Point four follows in equally dismal observations: that more young men are ceasing to farm and breathe the healthful country air, but are instead hanging about in dirty cities, with uncivilized work. What gentleman runs factories, I ask you? Not a genuine one, as all the real gentlemen are growing food and families in the broad countryside of our lovely nation. Time in cities will not serve our young people well, I tell you, as they will age into minds as cramped as a Harlem tenement. Do not even conscience the thought of the young ladies they shall find in such places – all immigrants and servant-girls and ladies of ill-repute, to be sure.

Which brings me to my last and final point, indeed the most grievous one of all to me – that our young ladies and gentlemen can hardly be called such anymore, as the old names and old crests mean nothing to today’s youth. Why, just the other day I was purchasing goods at Mrs. Parris’ shop and a young fellow had never heard of my family name. I tell you, this might be America but my grandfather is from good English stock and his lands and titles ought to mean something. Young people nowadays should have some respect for the old ways and the old country, even if we are in the new world.

For these five points and many more, I regret to say that I fear marriage is done for, dear sirs. I hope that we may yet rescue it, but only if we burn every automobile and industrial building to the ground. With modern contrivances I just simply cannot see how anyone can remain in a happy union, and so I shall retire to the country with my dear wife and wait out the end of my days in despair for my beloved children, who have been so led astray by that damnable Henry Ford and his ilk, inventing needless contraptions and ruining our society.

Sincerely, the Honorable Mr. Alastair Jenkins, Esq.

View the original post here and give this girl a nice “Thank you” for a job well done!

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Consensus is Not Truth

The Consensus Agenda

Today’s regulatory enterprise is following the same pattern as Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman during the American Civil War.  Sherman’s strategy was to gather livestock and crop production data from the Federal Census of 1860 to effectively lead his troops through areas where his army could do the most damage. Today, the EPA, USFS, USGS, NOAA, BOR, FWS, BLM and IRS are following the same pattern.

They are amassing enormous volumes of data which enables them to push their agenda driven preferences onto the American scene. The problem isn’t the data collection per se. The problem is the agenda driven data interpretation which happens in the secret recesses of their bureaucracies.

The data being stockpiled and the interpretations being propagated are uniquely prejudiced. Isolated results are paired with faulty scientific modeling and rigged with invalid assumptions which has led to the advancement of consensus as truth.

There only problem is consensus is not truth – Truth is truth.

Truth is Truth

Truth matches the real world. It is the way things are apart from man’s temporal interpretations.

Apples fall and sincere or empathetic wishing cannot make them stay aloft. Gravity is gravity, even while we sleep. Additionally, anyone can tinker, experiment or investigate this universal truth because 1) the mathematics and modeling provides a good representation of the world as we know it, 2) it has great explanatory power and 3) it has great predictive power.

If this sounds reasonable to you then, you are not part of the consensus movement. However, the EPA is vigorously using your own tax dollars to attract adherents to their world-view.  They are trying to recruit you and your kids.

Industry and special interest lobbying groups are regularly appointed to positions on the EPA’s Science Advisory Board. This policy of encouraging, or ignoring, biased judgments and conflicts-of-interest presents a hazard to the public-good and threatens the integrity of the entire federal bureaucracy.

Whether these tendencies lead only to ideological advances or monetary gains for the participants is irrelevant; it is the process which is corrupt.  Data does not arrive into the scientific endeavor with a toe-tag which provides the explanation. The interpretive activity must originate within the confines of the laboratory and it requires as much data scrubbing as possible to limit exposure to corruption.

The EPA’s agenda-driven regulations place an undue burden on vast swaths of American industry. In turn,  industry-wide compliance issues become even more ominous as the science behind the enacted policy remains secretive. During both terms of the Obama Administration there have been routine denials under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) for underlying documentation.

The EPA has purposefully avoided publishing scientific studies, policy discussions and regulatory options. This ultimately harms every state, industry or business entity which is striving to achieve palatable economic and environmental results.  This week,

Q_openThe House of Representatives passed a bill intended to require the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to disclose the scientific research it uses to justify changes in its regulatory policies.

The bill passed Wednesday on a mostly partisan 241-175 vote, with its Republican supporters claiming the measure as the first step toward a win for transparency between the EPA and the American people. House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said the legislation will prevent the EPA from using “secret science” to underpin controversial rules changes.

“Right now, the EPA is trying to impose harmful regulations based on scientific studies that Q_closeno one can check — not the public, not independent scientists, not even the United States Congress,” McCarthy said. “It’s called ‘secret science’ and it’s wrong.”

President Obama has vowed to veto this legislation.

President Obama and the elites guiding these policy initiatives in Washington have cut loose from the underlying ideas embedded in our nation’s founding.  The most notable cast-off is the belief in an underlying moral order. As this foundational truth is abandoned any policy can be re-formulated to achieve any specific agenda driven preference. The result is a pragmatic approach to problem solving  which promotes irrational consensus simply to avoid “letting any crises go to waste.”

Solution – Limits on Federal Over-reach

Any and all necessary environmental controls should be developed and owned by the 50 free and independent sates. For illustration, the health and future of Klamath Basin Watershed, where I live, should not be determined by legislators from rural Kansas, Gulf-coast Florida, or any of the other 50 states. At most this should be a compact between two states – California and Oregon.  The policy controls belong in the hands of local citizens not the denizens of power in Washington, DC, or Omaha, NB.

Our US Congress’ lack of adherence to the US Constitution and its limits on Federal power has enabled the EPA to continue in its bureaucratic overreach. Unfortunately, state governments obediently follow along in the hopes of receiving federal subsidies, grants, exemptions, or other regulatory niceties.

The EPA’s power-grab is gaining momentum under the current administration while Congress appears powerless in its demands for accountability. The statists in Washington are more than happy to shield the EPA’s agenda behind a mask of impunity among the elites in Washington.

It is time for us, as individuals to demand accountability from our representatives in Congress.  Americans must be willing to fight for the preservation of our constitutionally federated republican form of government where free-markets and environmental stewardship flourish under the twin-pillars of individual liberty and personal responsibility.

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Today’s MUST DO

Today, I have a MUST DO for you (and your posterity…)

I want to recommend a book that is a literal gold mine of history, ideas and strategies for Conservatives.

The book is TAKEOVER by Richard A. Viguerie.

Viguerie’s style and story-telling is entertaining and informative. He provides great insight into the political machinery that is enamored with using the utopian ideals from a failed progressive platform to harm today’s Constitutional Conservatives. And, all within the Republican party.

Reading the book will be the easy part.  Restoring America to its founding principles, those of self-governance, free-markets and individual liberty, will not be as easy.

For right now, let’s not get bogged down in the seemingly impossible but concentrate on the do-able and get the book!

While you read, enjoy the knowledge, wit, wisdom and history that Viguerie presents. In the end you will see the value of simply remaining true to your common-sense desire for freedom. The ideas we carry concerning liberty are not complex. They are simple, self-evident and part of our American heritage. Clarence B. Carson, a historical economist, writes in his book, The American Tradition:

“That the central American tradition was erected around the goal of liberty is manifest in the great documents of our history. It was explicitly stated in the Declaration of Independence and implied in the structure of government provided for in the Constitution of 1787. Liberty was declared to be the object of the Massachusetts Body of Liberties of 1641, and was undoubtedly the purpose of the first ten amendments to the Constitution.”

Therefore, it will be worth your while to get a copy of TAKEOVER and contemplate the ideas and associated actions that will be necessary to restore our American tradition of individual liberty.

Jenny Beth Martin, the co-founder and President of Tea Party Patriots, wrote the Forward which I will share here:

Q_openThere is a bitter political civil war taking place that will determine whether America remains a constitutional republic. It is a timeless struggle between those who have power and those who desire to be free. The modern version of this struggle is not between Democrats and Republicans, but within the Republican Party itself.

This civil war began over one hundred years ago and not with the rise of the Tea Party movement in 2009.

It is a civil war between limited-government, constitutional conservatives and the progressive, establishment wing of the GOP. And make no mistake: the establishment wing of the Republican Party is progressive, and has been ever since conservatives stymied Teddy Roosevelt’s attempt to reclaim the Republican presidential nomination in 1912 and make progressivism the governing philosophy of the Republican Party.

In the years since 1912, this civil war has been playing out, and for the majority of that time, from the Taft-Eisenhower campaign of 1952 to the Tea Party’s battles to nominate and elect limited government constitutional conservatives in 2010 and 2012, Richard Viguerie has been in the thick of the battle.

Richard’s objective in writing this book is to provide a plan for conservatives to win this civil war based on the lessons he has learned—from both success and failure—in over fifty years of being active in the conservative movement at the national level.

It is a plan for constitutional conservatives to take over the GOP so that we may restore the liberty and opportunity that the Founders intended and protect that great document, the United States Constitution.

The millions of Americans who are drawn to the Tea Party movement understand that progressives in both the Democratic and Republican Parties have usurped power and overrun the Constitution. The Obama administration is the most extreme example of progressive rule, but the road to where we are today was built with the willing participation of establishment Republicans.

James Madison foresaw the likelihood of this civil war, although not within a political party, in Federalist No. 44, where he wrote, “In the last resort a remedy must be obtained from the people who can, by the election of more faithful representatives, annul the acts of the usurpers.”

Madison’s “remedy” must play out within the Republican Party since the Democratic Party has been completely taken over by progressives whose policies cannot succeed without ignoring and violating the Constitution.

In TAKEOVER Richard shows us that the ballot box of the Republican primaries is where we must begin to fulfill Madison’s remedy of electing “more faithful representatives.”

Time is running out, and if we fail in this task, our children, grandchildren—our posterity—will never know the America for which millions have sacrificed their labor, capital, lives, and limbs. Unless the Republican Party fulfills its promise and becomes the constitutional alternative to the progressives, I fear the “American experiment” is over.

The rise of the Tea Party citizenry and the election of young, principled constitutionalists to the Congress and in state legislatures is a sign that this war is about to turn, and in TAKEOVER Richard Viguerie gives us a road map to make it turn in our favor.

Where we are now is the culmination of decades of struggle, which is why the younger people in our movement especially must know what has worked and what has failed up until now.

It is to the younger generation, who has the most “skin in the game,” that TAKEOVER is addressed. Those who join us in this civil war are fulfilling an obligation to our children, grandchildren, and generations yet to be born that I dare say is no less consequential than that of the Founders.

Q_closeThe goal of Richard Viguerie’s TAKEOVER is for limited-government constitutional conservatives to take over the Republican Party and govern America in 2017. I urge you to read the book, follow the plan, and get in the fight today.

 

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Forward was originally published at ConservativeHQ and can be read here: Permalink