Amending the NC Constitution: The Six Proposed 2018 Ballot Initiatives

Posted on August 26, 2018 by forloveofgodandcountry

NC Legislature - building

by Diane Rufino, August 26, 2018

This overview is written for the purpose of educating North Carolina voters on the six proposed amendments to the North Carolina state constitution.

I.  WHAT YOU WILL SEE ON THE BALLOT:  The following will likely be the language you will see on November’s ballot with respect to the six (6) proposed amendments to the North Carolina constitution. I say “likely” because two of the amendments (#3 and #4 below) were challenged by Governor Roy Cooper and a federal judge granted his injunction – meaning that absent a challenge by the legislature that is successful OR having the legislature re-drafting them, those amendments, as originally written and communicated, cannot appear on November’s ballot. Amendments #3 and #4 below contain the re-drafted language, as of August 24, but we don’t know yet if Cooper will re-challenge.

So, as of today (Aug. 26), the language you will likely see on November’s ballot regarding the proposed amendments to the NC state Constitution is as follows:

Amendment 1:           [  ]  For     [  ]  Against

Constitutional amendment protecting the right of the people to hunt, fish, and harvest wildlife.

 

Amendment 2:           [  ]  For     [  ]  Against

Constitutional amendment to strengthen protections for victims of crime; to establish certain absolute basic rights for victims; and to ensure the enforcement of these rights.

 

Amendment 3:           [  ]  For     [  ]  Against

Constitutional amendment to establish an eight-member Bipartisan Board of Ethics and Elections Enforcement in the Constitution to administer ethics and elections law.

 

Amendment 4:           [  ]  For     [  ]  Against

Constitutional amendment to change the process for filling judicial vacancies that occur between judicial elections from a process in which the Governor has sole appointment power to a process in which the people of the State nominate individuals to fill vacancies by way of a commission comprised of appointees made by the judicial, executive, and legislative branches charged with making recommendations to the legislature as to which nominees are deemed qualified; then the legislature will recommend nominees to the Governor via legislative action not subject to gubernatorial veto; and the Governor will appoint judges from among these nominees.

 

Amendment 5:           [  ]  For     [  ]  Against

Constitutional amendment to reduce the income tax rate in North Carolina to a maximum allowable rate of seven percent.

 

Amendment 6:           [  ]  For     [  ]  Against

Constitutional amendment to require voters to provide photo identification before voting in person.

 

II.  WHAT THE AMENDMENTS MEAN and WHAT THEY SEEK TO ACHIEVE: The NC legislature considered various potential constitutional amendments, in addition to the ones which will appear on November’s ballot. Some of the additional amendments considered included removing Article I, Section 4 (“Secession Prohibited”), removing Article I, Section 5 (“Paramount Allegiance to the Federal Government”), removing the provision in Article I, Section 30 (“Militia and the Right to Bear Arms”) which can serve to limit the right of conceal carry (“Nothing herein shall justify the practice of carrying concealed weapons, or prevent the General Assembly from enacting penal statutes against that practice”), and removing the limitation in Article VI, Section 4 (“Qualification for Voter Registration”) which is can be characterized as a Jim Crow-era law.  Instead of putting all of the proposed amendments on the ballot, the legislature polled all their potential suggestions across the state and decided to use only the top six.  The highest-polling amendments were: #1: The Right to Hunt, Fish, & Harvest Wildlife, and #2: Voter ID.  These amendments, by the way, polled highest across political lines, racial lines, income differential, education, etc.  [NC state constitution –  https://www.ncleg.net/Legislation/constitution/ncconstitution.html ]

The following is an explanation of each proposed six constitutional amendment (Ballot Initiative), as well as the corresponding NC bill that contains its full language.  All bills can be accessed from www.ncleg.net

Amendment 1:   [Senate bill 677 – S677]

This amendment enshrines the public’s natural right to hunt, fish, and harvest wildlife in the state constitution, to be free from any potential attempt to limit or to burden such right. While enshrining this natural right (mentioned in Genesis), it also has the effect of setting up potential challenges to hunting restrictions by saying that any limits on this right can only come from laws intended to promote wildlife conservation and to protect the future of hunting and fishing.

 

Amendment 2:   [House bill 551 – HB551]

The rights of people who are victims of crimes are delineated and enshrined in this amendment, and are:

  • Being notified of criminal proceedings against the accused (the perpetrator)
  • The right for the victim to speak at all hearings involving plea, sentencing, parole, or the release of the defendant
  • The right to “full and timely” restitution (the right to be “made whole” by the defendant/perpetrator; the right to be put back into the position as if the crime had not been committed)
  • The right to be “reasonably protected” from the defendant
  • A “prompt conclusion” to the case (prompt closure for the victim)
  • Victims’ attorneys can petition the court to enforce any of the above provisions

 

Amendment 3:   [House bill 913 – HB913]

This amendment would give more power over appointments to the legislature (the General Assembly), thus taking power away from the Governor who currently has been delegated such authority. The proposed amendment clarifies that the General Assembly has “control over any executive, legislative, or judicial appointment,” although the bill (HB913) doesn’t say exactly how the legislature would exert that control.  [The intent is to vest power to make potentially important appointments – ones who exert power and influence over policy and enforcement in the state – with the legislature, which is the body closest to the people. The legislature, or General Assembly, is “the people’s body,” where accountability in government is most achievable.  Legislators in both chambers serve two-year terms.]

 

Amendment 4:   [Senate bill 814 – S814]

This amendment changes the rules for who appoints judges when vacancies occur between elections. Appointments to fill judicial vacanices that occur between elections can account for up to 40% of judges who sit on the courts in the state of North Carolina. Currently, the Governor appoints them. Under the proposed amendment, a system would be set up where anybody in the state could submit nominations to a non-partisan “Judicial Merit Commission” which would then evaluate the fitness of those nominations and then send that information to the General Assembly. The legislature would then pick two names to send to the Governor. In cases where the vacancy occurs right before an election, the Chief Justice of the NC Supreme Court would make the selection instead of the Governor.   [Judicial appointments are extremely important. We’ve all witnessed over the years how liberals and progressives (ie, the Democratic Party) have sought to get around established law or policy, or to advance their agenda faster than the general public would allow thru the ordinary democratic process, by going to the courts where there are too many liberal and otherwise unprincipled, inexperienced, and untested judges, and judges appointed merely in exchange for political favors and donations, who are happy and without conscience to do so. The intent of this amendment is to vest power to make judicial appointments with the legislature, which is the body closest to the people. The legislature, or General Assembly, is “the people’s body,” where accountability in government is most achievable.  Legislators in both chambers serve two-year terms and therefore can quickly be removed for abusing their power or for using the judicial appointments power recklessly.]

 

Amendment 5:   [Senate bill 75 – S75]

This amendment caps the state income tax at 7 percent (7%), which means that the General Assembly would be prevented from instituting an income tax in excess of that. Currently, the NC constitution caps the income tax rate at 10 percent (10%). The initial bill from the Senate would have set the cap at 5.5% which is essentially the current tax rate.

Governor Cooper and left-leaning interest groups are opposed to this amendment because they want the General Assembly to have the flexibility to increase the tax rate should the state need it in an emergency situation. The Republicans, however, have provided for such an emergency, through the state’s “Rainy Day Fund,” which currently contains $2 billion. The legislature further requries each county to have 8% of surplus funds in reserve. Cooper hates the fact that the state has this fund just sitting there. He thinks it should be plundered and used for whatever the state government thinks is more pressing at the time. Cooper believes the proper way to raise emergency funds is by raising the state taxation rate. Republicans, on the other hand, believe that is a bad way to raise such funds. The reason it believes such is that it takes too long to raise the money; sales tax, they believe, is the fastest way.

 

Amendment 6:   [House bill 1092 – HB1092]

This amendment is intended to provide the photo identification requirement for voters that the 2013 NC omnibus Voter ID law required but which was struck down by the 4th Circuit of Appeals in 2016. (It is termed an “omnibus” bill because it made several changes to NC;s election laws, in addition to adding the photo ID requirement).  Currently 34 states have some form of a Voter ID law. And all of the southern states have one except North Carolina.

 

III.  CURRENT STATUS OF THE BALLOT INITIATIVES (the lawsuits)

Four of the six ballot initiatives (proposed constitutional amendments) are currently being challenged; opponents want them kept off November’s ballot.  The only initiatives not being challenged are the ones protecting the Right to Hunt & Fish and Victims’ Rights (which are the first two listed above).

On August 15, Governor Roy Cooper sued to challenge the initiatives that deal with his appointments power (amendments #3 and #4 above).  The language of the amendments above represents the “revised” or re-drafted” language in response to Cooper’s legal challenge.

And the NAACP, along with Clean Air Carolina, sued to challenge those amendments, plus the ones limiting the general assembly on its taxing power and requiring a photo identification to vote. The parties asked for injunctive relief.  Governor Cooper challenged the language of the amendments, alleging they are misleading and do not adequately inform voters as to what provisions in the state constitution they seek to amend and what they seek to achieve. Furthermore, he claimed the amendments would “take a wrecking ball to the separation of powers” in Raleigh. The NAACP and Clean Air Carolina challenged the Voter ID amendment on the grounds that it is will disparately impact African-Americans and is therefore an attempt to target them and disenfranchise their voting rights and challenged the Income Tax cap on the grounds that the legislature shouldn’t be precluded from increasing the tax rate (above 7%) if it needs to.

The original language of the amendments, before the revision, and which was the language challenged by Cooper, was as follows:

Amendment 3:  Constitutional amendment to establish a bipartisan Board of Ethics and Elections to administer ethics and election laws, to clarify the appointment authority of the Legislative and the Judicial branches, and to prohibit legislators from serving on boards and commissioners exercising executive or judicial authority.

Amendment 4:  Constitutional amendment to change the process for filling judicial vacancies that occur between judicial elections from a process in which the Governor has sole appointment power to a process in which the people of the State nominate individuals to fill vacancies by way of a commission comprised of appointees made by the judicial, executive, and legislative branches charged with making recommendations to the legislature as to which nominees are deemed qualified; then the legislature will recommend nominees to the Governor via legislative action not subject to gubernatorial veto; and the Governor will appoint judges from among these nominees.

On August 21, a 3-judge panel agreed with Governor Cooper and granted the injunction. The panel, however, disagreed with the NAACP and Clean Air Carolina on their separate challenges (Voter ID and Income Tax). The panel held that there is no proof to show that Voter ID is discriminatory or that the requirement to present one to vote actually poses a meaningful burden or prevents a person from voting. If a person is truly intent on voting, the requirement of a photo ID poses no reasonable hardship.

[Injunctive Order, issued on August 21 –  https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/4779492-18-CVS-9805-Order-on-Injunctive-Relief.html ]

The 3-judge panel found fault with the language of the amendments (#3 and #4), claiming that initiative #3 doesn’t adequately explain what the amendment seeks to achieve and initiative #4 is simply misleading. Consequently, the NC Board of Elections is enjoined (prevented) from printing ballots containing initiatives #3 and #4.

Does this court ruling mean that the amendments will not be on November’s ballot??   No.  There are two options open to the legislature:  (1)  They can appeal the ruling; or (2) The General Assembly can convene a special session to re-write the ballot text to overcome the defects as identified by the court.  The General Assembly has already has convened a special session. The House met on Friday, August 24, to re-draft the amendments, and the Senate will approve them tomorrow (Monday, August 27).

 

IV.  VOTER FRAUD – Does it Exist?  Is there a Potential for Voter Fraud Here in NC?

Regarding Voter Fraud, the Heritage Foundation explains:

“There are three take-away points:

  • The right to vote in a free and fair election is the most basic civil right, one on which many other rights of the American people depend.
  • Congress and the states should guarantee that every eligible individual is able to vote and that no one’s vote is stolen or diluted.
  • Voter fraud is real and hundreds of convictions have been made and documented.”

First of all, let’s review constitutional jurisprudence on regarding state Photo ID voter laws.

In the years after the turn of the century (2000 onward), the states began becoming aware of voting fraud and voting irregularities. One by one they began instituting laws designed to reduce the likelihood of fraud and to ensure integrity in their election process. A federal commission was even empaneled to study voter fraud and it concluded that it exists and recommended that each state enact some sort of law to address voter integrity. In the aftermath of that conclusion, more and more states began enacting laws. These laws essentially fell into four categories: those with a strict photo ID requirement, those with a relaxed photo ID requirement, those requesting an ID (but photo not required), and those with a strict non ID requirement.  The strictest voter law and the one potentially posing the greatest burden to a person’s right to vote is a Strict Photo ID law. A challenge to such a Photo ID law was heard by the Supreme Court in 2008, in the case Crawford v. Marion County Board of Elections.  [For an overview of the laws in the 50 states:  http://www.ncsl.org/research/elections-and-campaigns/voter-id.aspx ]

In 2005, the Indiana state legislature passed a law requiring all voters who cast a ballot in person to present an acceptable photo ID, issued either by the United States (a federal ID) or by the state of Indiana (such as a driver’s license). Again, Indiana’s Voter ID law was of the strict photo ID type. The Democratic Party of Indiana and interest groups representing African-Americans and elderly citizens filed suit and challenged the law, alleging that it constituted an undue burden on the right to vote.

At trial, the challengers could not produce any witness who could not meet the law’s ID requirement, who could not obtain an acceptable identification. (The Indiana law, as did NC’s Voter ID law, includes a provision that should a person not be able to afford a photo ID or not be able to obtain one, the state would provide one for them, free of charge). The federal district court (federal trial court) upheld the law but on appeal, the appellate court appeared to be divided. The dissenting judge claimed that the law was a “thinly-veiled attempt to dampen turn-out by those likely to vote for Democratic candidates.”  The Supreme Court agreed to hear the case.

Note:  It was not alleged that Indiana’s strict photo ID voter law negatively or disparately impacted any other minority group, other than African-Americans.  It should also be noted that almost all minority groups vote Democratic.  (Why are African-Americans singled out?  Could it be that they are incapable of the same responsibilities that other citizens are capable of?  Or is it more likely related to the fact that 90% or so of African-Americans identify as Democrats and that African-Americans make up the largest of America’s minority groups?)

The Supreme Court heard the case and handed down its opinion in 2008. There were actually two majority opinions written by the court (something very rare). One was written by the very liberal justice, John Paul Stevens, and the other was written by the very conservative justice, Antonin Scalia. The Court held that Indiana’s strict Photo ID law was closely-related to the state’s legitimate state interest in preventing voter fraud and ensuring integrity in its elections. The Court further held that the photo requirement was merely a slight burden imposed on a person’s right to vote which in no way outweighed that legitimate state interest. The Court characterized the strict photo requirement in Indiana’s law as “Neutral and Non-Discriminatory.”

The Crawford case tells us, and each state legislature, that a strict photo requirement in a voter law: (1) Poses no meaningful burden to the right to vote; and (2) is, on its face, “Neutral and Non-Discriminatory.”  It should also instruct every court in the federal judiciary of the same. Supreme Court opinions, once handed down for the first time on a particular issue, become precedent.  Precedent refers to a “preceding” opinion which is to be regarded as a guide to be applied in subsequent similar cases.

The 4th Circuit Court of Appeals should have applied the Crawford opinion when it heard the appeal from the NAACP and other interest groups regarding the NC Voter ID law rather than substituting its own judgement for that of the NC General Assembly on a law that was, on its face, neutral and non-discriminatory (and in fact, more relaxed than the Indiana law), and therefore it should have upheld it.

Discussing Voter Fraud and the unfortunately opinion by the 4th Circuit, Jay Delancy of the NC Voter Integrity Project explained that 90% (or more) of African-Americans are registered as Democrats and vote Democratic. And so there will always be a racial impact, or a racial component or racial argument, in anything having to do with politics, political posturing, political decisions, or political policy. There will always be a racial impact when a state legislature does any tweaking to its election laws or when it re-draws its district lines, or gerrymanders.  Because of the extraordinarily high political identity of African-Americans with the Democratic Party, one can never truly separate race from politics or from political party.

He continued, explaining that a law designated to prevent voter fraud (which has been consistently and historically perpetrated primarily by the Democratic Party) will of course be seen racial. The re-drawing of district lines designed to benefit the political party in power, which happens to be allowed by law, will necessarily also have a racial component. It is NOT intentional discrimination based on race and there is NO impact based on race. It is what it is simply because of the extraordinarily high racial political identity.

Jay has educated groups, the NC legislature, the NC Board of Elections, other states, the FOX News audience, and even Rachel Maddow over the years on voter fraud, instances of actual voter fraud, the many insidious ways that fraud is committed, the various ways that the potential for fraud exists, and how such potential can be mitigated. For example, in 2012, the NC Voter Integrity Project reported to the State Board of Elections 30,000 deceased voters still on the NC voter registration rolls. Under Democratic control at the time, the Board chose to do nothing and the names were never purged.  Also in 2012, the Voter Integrity Project noted that 175,000 “inactive” voters suddenly became active by in-person, on-the-day-of-election voting. Most of those 175,000 “inactive” voters had been highly suspicious to begin with. They had unreliable addresses or had mail returned to the Board of Elections. Yet suddenly, a huge number of such voters showed up to vote.

Looking for instances of fraud, Jay decided to use a novel method which cross-referenced two different lists of individuals. He looked at the information provided by the state Board of Elections of those who voted in the 2012 election and cross-referenced those names with those individuals who had sought to be disqualified to serve jury duty in the state. In North Carolina, persons can legally get out of jury duty, subject to perjury, if they fall into any one of 4 categories: (1) felon;  (2) non-citizen;  (3) reside outside the district;  (4) cannot speak English.  Jay looked at the list of individuals who got out of jury duty by asserting they are “non-citizens” and cross-checked to see how many of them voted in the 2012 election. He found thousands of such potentially fraudulent voters. He took the information to the NC Board of Elections (state Board of Elections) and after several years, they finally settled with the matter out of court. Jay said he is pleased with the outcome.

Here are some of the ways that voter fraud is committed:

  • Voting early and voting often (or just voting often), in the same jurisdiction
  • Duplicate voting – registering in multiple locations and voting in the same election in more than one jurisdiction
  • Using the name of a person that has died (but whose name still remains on the state voter registration rolls) to vote
  • Voting as an illegal alien (Jay has found many persons who presented, under penalty of perjury, that they couldn’t serve jury duty because they were not a legal citizen yet voted)
  • Voting using the name and address of someone who has moved away
  • Voting using the name and address of a convicted felon (felons temporarily lose the right to vote but remain registered)
  • Voting even though the person is a convicted felon
  • Voting using a false identity
  • Voting using a false registration: (voting under fraudulent voter registrations that either use a phony name and a real or fake address or claim residence in a particular jurisdiction where the registered voter does not actually live and is not entitled to vote). In Wake and Durham counties, 150 fake voters were created by ACORN. The NC Voter Integrity Project believes there were more, but they stopped looking at some point. They took the information to the state Board of Election by it chose not to investigate or prosecute
  • Fraudulent use of absentee ballots (requesting absentee ballots and voting without the knowledge of the actual voter; or obtaining the absentee ballot from a voter and either filling it in directly and forging the voter’s signature or illegally telling the voter who to vote for)
  • Voting using a non-existent address (those campaigning for office and who canvass neighborhoods to talk to voters, using information provided by the Board of Elections will find addresses on the list but no physical address existing)
  • Using the address of someone the person knows for purposes of voting fraudulently (Ex: sometimes there will be 8, 10, 12, 15, 20 persons voting using the very same address, even when the address is in an area zoned only for single-family)
  • Buying votes (paying voters to cast either an in-person or absentee ballot for a particular candidate)
  • Voting in multiple counties for the same election
  • Voters creating fake addresses
  • Unions providing funds to have its members establish “temporary” residences in targeted states prior to elections (while not actually moving or living there) and then voting in those states
  • Persons misappropriating other person’s addresses (a friend of mine, just for the heck of it, looked up her address with the Board of Elections and found that several persons were registered to vote from her address, in addition to her and her husband, the only legal residents)
  • Political “community-organizers” going into high schools to register students, including those who are illegal, by giving out false information (such as “you can vote even if you aren’t a citizen”)
  • Groups intent on perpetrating fraud on the election process have gone through cemeteries, taking down names and other information from gravestones of those who recently passed away (each state has a law that instructs the Board of Elections of how often it must purge the names from its voter rolls of those who have passed. See the Appendix at the end of the article)
  • Voters intent on committing voter fraud have purposely voted in more than one state for the same election (for example, Jay has found several who have voted not only in North Carolina, but also in Tennessee and Florida in the same election)
  • Volunteers with a political party (usually Democratic) going to nursing homes, retirement communities, and other elder care facilities to register or re-register members, and then filling out their mail-in ballots or busing them to the polling location and voting for them (under the guise of being a caregiver); many elderly persons in such homes, communities and facilities lack the mental capacity to know how they are voting or lack the ability to prevent the volunteer from coercing their vote
  • Handing out fake ID’s to homeless persons, addicts, or other persons who cannot provide proof of residence (usually providing a free lunch or $5.00) and then taking them to the polls
  • Illegal “assistance” at the polls (forcing or intimidating voters—particularly the elderly, disabled, illiterate, and those for whom English is a second language—to vote for particular candidates while supposedly providing them with “assistance”)
  • Altering the vote count (changing the actual vote count either in a precinct or at the central location where votes are counted)
  • Ballot petition fraud (forging the signatures of registered voters on the ballot petitions that must be filed with election officials in some states for a candidate or issue to be listed on the official ballot)

Jay Delancy is the foremost expert in North Carolina on voter fraud and speaks about it frequently. He is a watchdog who works tirelessly to identify instances of voter fraud, to identify schemes, to support efforts by our state legislature to protect against voter fraud, to suggest ways to minimize potential voter fraud, and to educate about voter fraud. He provides updates on his Facebook page, including this one video he made:  https://www.facebook.com/11818728/videos/10105605658577189/?id=11818728

With all the opportunities and potential for voter fraud, the state values the procedures and provisions put into our election laws to address the problem, including the provisions for cleaning out voter registration lists and the provision for “Confirmation Mailings” (to confirm that a listed voter still resides at the address registered).  These provisions are common-sense and valuable.

However, liberal judges don’t necessarily think so. There have been several instances where courts have instructed Boards of Election to reinstate voters who have been removed from the voter registration rolls for good and documented cause and recently, a judge struck down a provision allowing voters who have been determined to no longer reside at a certain address to be removed from the voter rolls.

On August 8, a federal judge invalidated part of North Carolina’s election law – the provision that allows one voter to challenge another’s residency. This provision was used successfully by watchdog and election integrity groups to scrub thousands of names off the voter registration rolls in NC ahead of the 2016 election. (Not one error was made and no one was disenfranchised of his or her right or ability to vote). The goal of this provision, of course, was to prevent someone seeking to fraudulently cast a vote or to cast an additional vote by using the name and address of someone no longer living or no longer residing at the address.

Volunteers with the NC Voter Integrity Project had used this provision to purge 3500 – 4000 voters from the voter registration rolls in Cumberland, Moore, and Beaufort counties. The NAACP challenged the removal of those names, and challenged the provision itself, alleging that the purge of voters disproportionately targets African-American voters. (Again, everything negatively impacts only African-Americans).  The NAACP, however, did not make clear how it believes the provision so disproportionately targets them.

Jay Delancy, the director of the NC Voter Integrity Project, said the effort in those counties had one purpose and one purpose only and that was reduce the potential for voter fraud.

In striking down the provision, the judge (Judge Biggs) said that the provision is pre-empted by the 1993 federal “Motor Voter” law, an initiative by the Clinton administration aimed at expanding voter opportunities by registering teens when they go for their drivers permit and license. The “Motor Voter” law (officially name: “The National Voter Registration Act”) mandates certain procedures to reduce the risk that a voter’s registration might be erroneously cancelled. The judge said that allowing one voter to challenge another’s residency contravenes these procedures and frustrates an important goal of the law.

It should be noted that the residency challenges under the challenged provision are not frivolous challenges, but are in line with established election law. Each residency challenge in Cumberland, Moore, and Beaufort counties followed after a postcard was mailed to a particular voter and it was returned as “Undeliverable.” [This scheme was devised by a member of my Tea Party group].  County Elections Boards are allowed to accept returned mail as evidence that the particular voter doesn’t currently live at the address. But that isn’t the end of the inquiry or determination. Before the name is removed from the voter registration rolls, a hearing is called where the challenged voter can present evidence to show that he or she still lives there. If the voter doesn’t appear for the hearing or cannot or does not refute the evidence, then he or she is removed from the voter roll. In other words, North Carolina election laws ensure that their provisions meet due process requirements.

Regardless of the fact that due process requirements are met, Judge Biggs nevertheless struck down the common-sense provision and ordered the Boards of Elections in Cumberland, Moore, and Beaufort counties to reinstate all of the 3500-4000 cancelled voter registrations.

Jay is asking the state legislature to revise state election law to add provisions to once again empower citizens who wish to help minimize the opportunity and potential for voter fraud by helping to identify and challenge illegal and fraudulent voters.

 

References:

Jay Delancy addresses voter fraud on Facebook:   https://www.facebook.com/11818728/videos/10105605658577189/?id=11818728

Voter Identification Requirements – Voter ID Laws –  http://www.ncsl.org/research/elections-and-campaigns/voter-id.aspx

Governor Cooper’s Injunctive Order, issued on August 21 –  https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/4779492-18-CVS-9805-Order-on-Injunctive-Relief.html

NC state constitution –  https://www.ncleg.net/Legislation/constitution/ncconstitution.html

Heritage Foundation Explains Voter Fraud –  https://www.heritage.org/election-integrity/heritage-explains/voter-fraud

Maintenance of State Voter Registration Lists: A Review of Relevant Policies and Procedures –  https://nass.org/sites/default/files/reports/nass-report-voter-reg-maintenance-final-dec17.pdf

 

APPENDIX:

MAINTENANCE OF STATE VOTER REGISTRATION LISTS:  A REVIEW OF RELEVANT POLICIES AND PROCEDURES

Referenced at:  https://nass.org/sites/default/files/reports/nass-report-voter-reg-maintenance-final-dec17.pdf

Verification of Voter Registration Information —

The voter registration system attempts to match driver’s license numbers with the motor vehicle database. If the last four digits of the voter’s social security number (SSN4) are provided, the number is checked against the Social Security Administration (SSA) database through the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators (AAMVA). If no match is found, the voter will be notified. If the information remains unverified, the applicant must show identification before voting.

Address Confirmation Procedures —

County boards of elections attempt to verify the address of initial voter registration applicants by sending a notice to the applicant by non-forwardable mail, at the address provided on the application form. The county will register the applicant if the Postal Service does not return the notice as undeliverable to the county board. If the first notice is returned as undeliverable, then the county board will send a second notice by non-forwardable mail to the same address to which the first notice was sent. If the second notice is not returned as undeliverable, then the county board will register the applicant. (See NCGS § 163-82.7)

Each county board of elections conducts a program to remove from the registration list voters who have moved out of the county, and update registration records of persons who have moved within the county. (163-82.14)

After every congressional election, each board of elections sends a confirmation mailing to every voter if the board has not confirmed the voter’s address by another means. (163-82.14)

If a voter fails to respond to a confirmation mailing, and does not vote in an election from the date of the notice through the next two general federal elections, the voter will be removed from the voter registration list. (16382.14)

Removal of Names –

A voter will be removed from the registration list if the voter:

  • dies;
  • is convicted of a felony;
  • confirms in writing a change of address outside of the county;
  • fails to respond to a confirmation notice and does not vote or update the voter’s registration through two general elections. (163-82.14)

Obtaining the Names of Voters who are Deceased or Convicted of a Crime –

Each month the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services provides the State Board of Elections with the names of deceased persons who were residents of the state, and the Board distributes the appropriate information to each county board of elections. (163-82.14)

Each month the State Board of Elections provides the county board of elections with the names of persons from that county who have been convicted of a felony. (163-82.14)

Upon receipt of a notice of felony conviction from the US Attorney, the Executive Director of the State Board of Elections will notify the appropriate county.

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Thanks Ronald Reagan for the Speeches and the Laughs, but Mostly for Your Wisdom and Your Example

Posted on August 24, 2018 by forloveofgodandcountry

RONALD REAGAN - black and white

by Diane Rufino, August 24, 2018

I’d like to take a trip down memory lane, back to the time when Ronald Reagan was president, when most Americans admired our leader, trusted him, and felt comforted and safe knowing he was in charge. He had class and a certain gentility, yet also having a backbone to stand up for our country’s values and to stand firm on his moral convictions.

Ronald Reagan should be a role model for all Americans. He was civil and polite and even if he disagreed with you, you felt that it could never shake the bonds of friendship or make him have any less respect for you. For him, government served a purpose and that purpose was clear and limited. To view it any other way was to sacrifice individual liberty and to diminish its security.  He believed our country was founded on individual liberty to secure individual liberty.  Yet he was fully aware that government belongs and serves all citizens and it is their voice, at the ballot box, that sets its course.

In looking at Reagan’s entertainment and then his public service career, we see that he refused to be defined by a particular political party, looking instead to see which party supported the best policies, which party best served the American people and furthered the safety and security of the country. As most people know, he started off as a Democrat but later switched to the Republican Party.

In 1986, speaking at a fundraiser for Illinois Governor James Thompson (running for the US Congress), Reagan recounted a conversation he had in the White House with a man, Jim O’Grady, who went through a similar political transition, or transformation. He said:

     “When he was at the White House, Jim said to me, ‘The great Democratic Party of my father’s and grandfather’s time just doesn’t exist anymore. Mr. President, I didn’t leave the Democratic Party, the Democratic Party left me. That’s why I switched parties.’ And I said, ‘Jim, join the crowd.’”

He went on to share the experience of the great Winston Churchill:

     “I know how tough it can be to change parties. I was working for Republican candidates for some time before I changed my registration. But for anyone who’s concerned about, and thinking about doing, that, I think Winston Churchill—when he changed parties, was a member of Parliament in England. And he answered a question as to why. He said, ‘Some men change principle for party, and some change party for principle.’”

There was a time when the Democratic Party still stood for solid principles and policies.

Being an actor and president of the Screen Actor’s Guild, it would have been very unusual for Ronald Reagan not to be a Democrat. As we all know, Hollywood has been historically Democratic. Most likely, he used his political affiliation only to enhance his own interests, and the Democrat Party was more suited to his own personal advancements in the Hollywood business industry.

Once Ronald Reagan became more successful as a businessman than he actually was as an entertainer and became more involved in politics, it seems he realized that while the Democrat Party was good to address the plight and situation of certain groups of individuals, it was not looking out for the best interest of the country or American citizens as a whole. He realized, despite the policies of the Democratic Party to “take care of people,” at their core, the policies did more harm than good – for both those they intended to help, for taxpayers, and for the rest of Americans. For all the spending that Democrats did on entitlement programs, there was little good to show for it; in fact, the policies did little to actually further individual success, dignity, or advancement, and rather created a problem of dependency, inferiority, and victimhood. As Reagan would point out, entitlement policies were fraught with fraud, abuse, and dependency and they (more than anything else) were enabling government to become larger and larger, something he had always viewed with great skepticism. He found it inconsistent that a country that calls itself free could allow the federal government to have increasing control and influence on citizens’ everyday lives.

Ronald Reagan became a Republican.

Reagan officially switched political parties in 1962, although some say that he wanted to do so even as far back as 1952, when he threw his support for Dwight D. Eisenhower and his running-mate, Richard Nixon.

In fact, in 1964, being asked to speak on behalf of presidential candidate Senator Barry Goldwater, Reagan delivered one of the most significant and famous speeches of all time – “A Time For Choosing.” In that speech he alluded to the choice Americans would have to make in the 1968 election — a choice for big government and less freedom or limited government and more freedom (“This is the issue of this election: whether we believe in our capacity for self-government or whether we abandon the American revolution and confess that a little intellectual elite in a far-distant capitol can plan our lives for us better than we can plan them ourselves.”)

With that speech, California Republicans took notice. They were impressed with his political views and his undeniable charisma. And so they nominated him as the Republican party candidate for Governor in 1966.

The rest is history. And to a great many Americans, he is sorely missed.

Like it or not, agree or disagree, President Trump is a lot like Reagan. Like Ronald Reagan, Donald Trump started off as a Democrat. That makes sense…. he’s a New Yorker. And like Reagan, Trump became more civic-minded once he achieved personal wealth… once he came to understand all the intricacies of how businesses are affected by government policies; how wealth is created.

Both men gravitated to party that allows American citizens to have greater opportunities to control their own destinies rather than be made to be dependent on government agencies.

But most of all, both men heeded the call of the time, to rally a people to change a disastrous course that its government was on.  In fact, the situation presented to both men is incredibly similar. One just needs to continue reading Reagan’s remarks at that 1986 fundraiser event to note the similarities:

      “As you may know, I went to Eureka College. That’s a little bit to the south and west of here. And I’ll never forget graduation day, when the president of the school handed me my diploma. He asked me a question that really stuck in my mind. He asked, ‘Are you better off today than you were 4 years ago?’ Well, I’ve posed that question myself a few times since.

       There was a time, and not so long ago, back in 1980, when the American people had to answer that question with a big, resounding ‘NO!’ The complete mismanagement of the party then in power had made an invalid of the once powerful giant of the American economy. After years of neglect, our proud military had fallen into disrepair and the mighty United States had become a whipping boy for penny-ante dictators and fanatics. A chorus of doom and gloom rose up from our opponents saying our best days were behind us and ringing down the curtain on America.

       But you can be sure the American people never lost faith in our country. They knew that America’s best days were ahead of her, that the future was bright. And all they had to do was to clear out those people in Washington who were making such a mess of things. As usual, the American people were right. We came in and cut taxes, squashed inflation, unburdened the economy of needless regulations, heralding one of the longest peacetime expansions in history. Today there are actually 30,000 pages less in the Federal regulations than there were those few years ago. We built up our military, and around the world we spoke out loudly and clearly for freedom.

       Today America is once again strong and united. Our economy is a powerhouse of economic growth and job creation, and we’ve regained our rightful place as leader of the free world. Now, there’s one change that makes me particularly proud: We have restored pride in the uniform of the military of the United States of America. Today’s recruits—and they’re all volunteers-are the most educated and some of the most highly motivated—simply the finest young men and women who have ever served their country. Indeed, we have a higher percentage of high school graduates in the military than we have ever had in our entire history, even with our wartime drafts. If we ever have to send them in harm’s way, I’m going to make sure they have the very best possible equipment that America can produce.

       But it’s important to remember those dark days 5 ½ years ago, because the tax-and-spend crew is still lurking in the shadows, just waiting for a second chance. The liberal leadership of the Democratic Party hasn’t changed; they’re as addicted as ever to big government, high taxes, and inflation. They’re just itching to repeal our tax cuts, to replace our opportunity society with a welfare state. And their foreign policy is still the same: slash defense and, when in doubt, always ‘blame America first.’ The Democratic leadership would chart the most dangerous course for a nation since the Egyptians tried a shortcut through the Red Sea. You have to think about that one for a minute. We can’t let America be paralyzed by a hostile Congress. We have too much yet to accomplish…

       I’ve come here today to tell you that this election in 1986 will be a crucial moment of decision for our country. Will liberal policies return us to the days of malaise?  Or will America continue down the road to progress? The answer to that question depends on one thing: [the people you elect]…..

       I don’t have to tell you how important it is to have —– supporting our efforts to slim down the Federal bureaucracy and bring government back where it belongs: closer to the people. There are many people in Washington who have forgotten—or who want to forget this nation is a federation of sovereign States, and that is our basic strength……”

[Reference:   http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=37732 ]

Ronald Reagan brought us so much laughter and so much wisdom. He saw the defining issue of the day, laid it out crystal clear to the people of the United States, and put the country’s destiny in their hands. And as Reagan commented above: “The American people never lost faith in our country. They knew that America’s best days were ahead of her, that the future was bright. And all they had to do was to clear out those people in Washington who were making such a mess of things.”

And Donald Trump did the very same thing. Drain the Swamp. Make America Great Again.  The American people knew that it was DC getting in the way of the country’s greatness and the ability of people to get ahead.

I hope when people step into the ballot box in November, they remember Ronald Reagan and they realize the hope of the country lies within them, in their ability to appreciate what America needs to continues to be her greatest self and their willingness to make the right choices.  I hope they think back to Ronald Reagan and his path to finding his political identity, and especially to the criteria he used in finding that identity.

Conservatives, we may not have the mainstream media on our side, and we may not have those with the loudest platforms on our side, and we may not have the courts on our side, but if we want to do the right thing for our country, we need to use the one thing we do have…..  the ballot box.

As usual, the American people were right. We came in and cut taxes, squashed inflation, unburdened I hope everyone asks the right questions when they step into the ballot box

 

References:

Remarks given by President Ronald Reagan at a Fundraiser for Gov. James R. Thompson, Jr., in Rosemont, Illinois (April 12, 1986)  –   http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=37732

Video: Ronald Reagan’s Humor over the Years — https://www.facebook.com/diane.rufino.7/videos/10215249902793014/

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Another Brain Rotted Out by Trump Derangement Syndrome

Posted on August 24, 2018 by forloveofgodandcountry

GEORGE WILL - Leaving GOP over Trump

by Diane Rufino, August 24, 2018

One month ago, on July 24, columnist and long-time (now “one-time”) conservative, George Will, was a guest on the MSNBC show, “Last Word,” and was asked to comment on the leaked, secretly-taped conversation between then- candidate Donald Trump and his then-attorney Michael Cohen.

This is how George Will answered:

“At the end of the day we have good decent Americans listening to not John Quincy Adams or Roosevelt or Eisenhower, but listening to this low-life from Queens talking about  paying off his low-lives from Playboy magazine.”

He added that he doesn’t believe that Americans are angry at Trump, but rather “are embarrassed and sad over the state of the country. And I think at the end of the day embarrassment and sadness are more explosive than anger.”    [George Will on “Last Call” –  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YT4Rgyicsw8 ]

Will is a Pulitzer-prize winning journalist with the Washington Journal.  But now he has left the planet. He joins Robert DeNiro, Meryl Streep, Jimmy Kimmel, Kathy Griffin, Rosie O’Donnell, Peter Fonda, Chelsea Handler, Michelle Wolf, Samantha Bee, Cher, Richard Gere, Sarah Silverman, Tom Hanks, Ashley Judd, Madonna, Barbra Streisand, John Legend, Jay-Z, Snoop Dog, Trevor Noah, Seth Meyers, Bruce Springsteen, Tom Morello, Jennifer Lawrence, Stephen King, Louis C.K., Miley Cyrus, George Clooney, Stephen Colbert, and others I can’t think of off the top of my head out in space, where they live in some delusional world that is conjured up on in their diseased minds and somehow strengthened by their living in the bubble they live in, devoid of reality.

We all remember that Cohen purposely leaked his tape. And we all remember who he leaked it to.  He leaked it to CNN, of course, the purveyor of all things negative about President Trump. The only news that CNN is interested in, since November 2016, is that which embarrasses or discredits President Trump. It has no other purpose for its existence.

The secretly-recorded conversation between Trump and his former personal attorney, Michael Cohen, has the two men apparently discussing buying the rights to former Playboy model Karen McDougal’s story about her alleged affair with Trump.

Here is some background about this ridiculous issue that no one cares about, except for CNN and other TDS-suffering liberals:

Karen McDougal, a Playboy model, alleged she had a 10-month affair with Donald Trump. She decided to tell – I mean, SELL – her story to the National Inquirer. The Trump campaign had previously denied any knowledge of the deal that Ms. McDougal made with American Media Inc., the publisher of the National Enquirer, for the rights to that story. (In the end, the National Enquirer had decided not to run the piece). Ms. McDougal then sued the publisher over the deal, wanting her rights to the story back, and the two parties settled earlier this year.

George Will’s comments on Tuesday night, like those of one infected and suffering from Trump Derangement Syndrome, were classic “I hate Trump more than I love my country” talk. He so thoroughly hates Trump that he left the Republican Party in 2016 and is now urging Republicans to do the same. He is also urging Democrats to get out the vote to get Republicans out of office.

He is your classic political nightmare – diseased and having access to the mainstream media.

George Will joins the rank of other diseased and demented liberals/progressives/Democrats who hate President Trump more than they love or care about their country. They come across as being so disappointed in the fact that America is great again….  Is it because of the person who has made it happen? Or, perhaps, is it because Americans are working again, or because there is no longer the huge sucking sound of American’s wealth being transferred to other countries, or because of the likelihood that a wall will be built to stop the constant flood of illegal alien criminals into our country, or because people who work for a living are finally getting enjoying more money in their paychecks rather than paying it to a government that will only spend it on someone else (who won’t provide for himself or his family or is here illegally), or because our military is strong again, or because Trump is dismantling the policies that Obama had put in place (mostly to benefit Muslims and Muslim countries), or is it because conservatives are finally pushing back against the progressive movement and moving their agenda forward?  Perhaps they hate Trump more than they love their country because he possesses so many qualities that they prize in their own leaders (like speaking without thinking, having affairs with women, at times even demeaning women, and often times in his earlier years and careers, acting without class) yet he is the most powerful leader of the conservative movement. Personally, I think the hatred has become toxic and epidemic because President Trump is succeeding in doing something that can fundamentally break the back of the Democratic Party (the vehicle through which the morally-bankrupt progressive left works) and that is by giving Americans – ALL Americans, especially minorities – employment and breaking their dependency on the government, the so-called slave owner that provides funding and support in return for one’s soul, dignity, freedom, and allegiance.

George Will’s rejection of Trump and the Republican Party is a sure sign of his suffering from Trump Derangement Syndrome. I will never understand the mindset of a person who, without the financial chains of the Democratic Party or a need for its endless support for more and more entitlement services, believes the party of Bill Clinton, the serial rapist and womanizer, and Hillary Clinton, who further victimized the victims and who broke many federal laws to enrich herself for the purposes of her 2016 presidential election, and the party of systemic institutionalized racism (known as “Affirmative Action”) as well as the party of “Special Protection” rather than “Equal Protection” for certain extreme minority groups, is preferable to a party headed by a man who actually sacrificed his wealth (and in fact, is now worth less), has the good conscience to honor his campaign promises, and who works tirelessly, unapologetically, and unwaveringly, for the good of the country and its people. I find it unconscionable for a wealthy man who lives a life of comfort (George Will) to change his political position to align with a party that has done nothing productive for the country or even for the people he takes for granted as his stable political base (except perhaps give them more “entitlements” that continues to be plundered from the families of those who the government says “makes enough”) over the party that has already been extremely successful in serving all Americans and in improving the status and security of the country, growing her wealth, and keeping that wealth here in the country rather than sending it abroad. What does it say about a person who expressly rejects the government policy objective “America first.”  That is the purpose of our federal government – to put America first. To make America great. To make America safe. All of these are the reasons Donald Trump ran for office, and all of these reasons are why he won.  Now that’s the hallmark of a great president.

The Trump Derangement Syndrome affects its hosts – liberals/progressives/the entertainment industry/the LGBT community/illegal immigrants and DACA recipients/feminazis/Democrats – like the rabies virus affects an infected raccoon. They act irrationally, crazed, desperate and violent, and making no sense for their species. A rabid racoon will attack a pit bull; a healthy raccoon knows better.  The symptoms we associate with rabies are those displayed in the end-stages of the infection. Can we assume the conduct of rabid liberals and progressives evidences the end stages of the Democratic Party?  The vile rhetoric of the liberal/progressive left and their outrageous and offensive, and yes, un-American conduct may, in fact, be the last desperate acts of a dying political party – one that no longer even remotely stands for American ideals or productive common-sense policies.

The liberal/progressive left (ie, the modern-day Democratic Party) is a political enemy of the United States and all she stands for and should they ever succeed to gain the power they desire, we will lose this country for our children and grandchildren. They are already waging a desperate a coup d-etat. We just need to recognize it for what it is.

 

References:

VIDEO – George Will on MSNBC’s “Last Call” (July 25, 2018) — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YT4Rgyicsw8

Jacqueline Thomsen, “George Will on Trump-Cohen Audio Recording: ‘Trump is a ‘Low-Life From Queens’,” The Hill, July 25, 2018.  Referenced at:  http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/398744-george-will-on-trump-cohen-audio-recording-trump-is-a-low-life-from

 

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Another Liberal Insults Our Country: “America Was Never Great”

Posted on August 17, 2018 by forloveofgodandcountry

CHARLIE KIRK TWEET - Andrew Cuomo (America Was Never Great)

by Diane Rufino, August 17, 2018

On Wednesday, at a bill-signing ceremony, NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo commented that “America was never that great,” mocking President Trump’s 2016 campaign slogan, “Make America Great Again.”

Speaking at the ceremony, he said: “We’re not going to make America great again because It was never that great. We have not reached greatness. We will reach greatness when every American is fully engaged.”  (Whatever that means. Apparently, he believes there is still widespread systemic discrimination against women in this country)

Luckily, his remarks were met with disagreement by his audience.

How sad that Cuomo’s extraordinary experience in the United States has left such a bad taste in his mouth and has caused him to despise the country. You would think that he would offer nothing but praise and gratitude. Andrew Cuomo is the son of Mario Cuomo. Both served the great state of New York as governor. Yet only one generation earlier, the Cuomo family was in Italy, living a meager existence. Mario Cuomo’s parents, Andrea and Immacolata, emigrated to the US – Andrea in 1926 and then Immacolata in 1927, both coming legally through Ellis Island.

Andrew graduated St. John’s University and then St. John’s Law School. He was married to a Kennedy. Mario’s other children are just as successful: a medical doctors, a movie producers, and a TV executive. They are married to America’s business elite.

And all this reminds Andrew Cuomo of the fact that America is not great nor ever was.

Tweeting about his comments, Cuomo continues to criticize President Trump’s plan to “Make America Great Again.”  He says it is a plan to take America backwards…   “We will not go back to discrimination, segregation, sexism, isolationism, racism or the KKK!” he tweeted.

He’s such a typical liberal, trying to manufacture systemic discrimination when none exists; trying to make victims out of people perfectly capable of taking care of themselves, trying to empower immorality over morality, and trying to deny taxpayers their hard-earned money because government can spend it better (on others, of course!).

“America was never that great.”  How insulting.  So many lives have been improved because of the United States. So many people have opportunities they never had in their former countries. So many served and died because of her greatness… so that her greatness could continue.

I’m happy to hear of the backlash against Andrew Cuomo. I’m happy it has stirred the patriotism in Americans. I think every able-minded person knows and believes what President Trump meant and continues to mean when he says “Make America Great Again.” America is Great when all Americans are able to reach their full potential – in their personal lives, in their careers, in the workplace, in the market, and in the global economy… when they can invent, manufacture, trade, build, develop technology, produce, provide services.…..    

If liberals and progressives, and idiots like Andrew Cuomo would just get out of the way and shut up, the greatness will come. 

And that would be true PROGRESS !!

 

***  This Article was inspired by an article by Mary Griswold (aka, “Rightwing Granny” – “My Rant for the Day,” August. 15, 2018, at http://www.rightwinggranny.com), by her comments on the radio show “Wake Up Call” (show to air 8/19/18), and by my sheer outrage at the audacity of his comments.

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Cicero Warned About the Evils of an Ambitious Government

Posted on July 28, 2018 by forloveofgodandcountry

CICERO - bust     by Diane Rufino, July 15, 2018

“When a government becomes powerful, it is a usurper which takes bread from innocent mouths and deprives honorable men of their substance for votes with which to perpetuate itself.” — Marcus Tullius Cicero.

Cicero was a famous lawyer, philosopher, and most importantly and significantly, a Roman senator during Pompey Magnus’ and then Julius Caesar’s rule. Anyone who has studied Roman history knows of the great Cicero. Cicero was the great defender, the great proponent of the Roman republic.

Cicero warned about the evils of an ambitious government. At some point, that government becomes more concerned about its power, its longevity, and its control over its citizens than it is about the rights of the citizens themselves and their legitimate issues. It transforms from a government for the people to a government for the government, and the best way for a government to perpetuate its own power and control is to be able to secure their votes. The best way to secure their votes is to keep them dependent on the government for their essentials, for their sustenance. And that’s when governments move towards socialism.

Keeping people comfortable in their poverty is what the government seeks… keeping them just comfortable enough so that they don’t bother exerting the energy to get a good education and become self-sufficient (which means they become suspicious and resentful of government); keeping them comfortable enough so that they don’t bother exerting the energy to go out and get a good job and therefore jeopardize getting all the free stuff. Man is essentially a lazy creature. If he can get for free what it normally would take a lot of energy to obtain, he has a tendency to get it for free… OR, to take it from those who have “enough.”  Man is also smart. If the incentives are taken away (the incentives that come from a free market economy) for him to be successful, he won’t be willing to put in the many years of education, all the hard work, the sacrifice, and take the necessary risks in order to become successful, to develop a necessary or a novel or a more efficient, effective product, to build a successful business, or to offer important services. If he can’t enjoy the benefits, the fruits, of his hard work and his sacrifice, he won’t put in the energy. And society suffers. Innovation stagnates.

Government needs – absolutely needs –being large enough to maintain the safety and security of the people and securing their inalienable rights yet small enough not to over-regulate the people it governs. As long as government remains small enough and dedicated to the proper aims for its existence, then it should not need to find ways to control people, control the votes they cast, and keep them dependent and thus prevent them from investing in themselves and doing for themselves. Being independent and able to provide for oneself is the absolute way to be objective about government and how it is being run and how it is governing, and therefore the best way to keep it honest and ethical.

Again, Cicero understood the evils that come from an ambitious government.

Cicero had a profound impact on our Founding Fathers, particularly on their understanding of the proper role of government and their design to secure human rights and defend individual liberty by tightly constraining government. As he wrote: “Never was a government that was not composed of liars, malefactors and thieves.”

During the Enlightenment era, philosophers from England and France began to think similarly to Cicero – about the natural role of government rather than a divine right to sovereignty. They, as Cicero did, spent a lot of time philosophizing about the proper role of government and of laws. Frederic Bastiat, for example, recognized that the greatest single threat to liberty is government. The extension of that is that government must be established for the right reasons and must be constrained.

In his writings, Cicero talked about the rightful purpose of laws. He said laws had to serve “right reason’; in other words, laws should promote and reward good behavior while punishing and discouraging bad behavior. In his book, The Law, Bastiat talks about laws needing to be kept in their proper domain which is the protection of every person’s liberty and property.  According to Bastiat: “See if the law takes from some persons what belongs to them, and gives it to other persons to whom it does not belong. See if the law benefits one citizen at the expense of another by doing what the citizen himself cannot do without committing a crime.”

Relying on Cicero’s advice, and Bastiat’s as well, to keep government minimal and constrained, adding in John Locke’s explanation for the natural purpose for government (to secure individual rights), and topping it off with Montesquieu’s advice for the need for checks and balance on government to keep power that is properly divided in check, our Founders came up with the government that was created by the US Constitution.

Our current federal government hardly resembles that government. It has gotten large, bloated, aggressive, and overly ambitious. It is so ambitious that it looks out for itself first and foremost. Consequently, it now longer knows what its “proper domain” is and in many respects, it is no longer interested in protecting every person’s liberty and property. It is certainly not interested at all in property rights. Property now exists for government to tax.

Cicero started man thinking in the right direction – a direction that would ultimately result in a nation defined by the Declaration of Independence and one dedicated to the security of individual liberty. Sadly, the government he believed and stood up for would cost him his life.

During the years when Julius Caesar wrestled control of Rome from Pompey and then sought to concentrate power in just himself, Cicero warned about the dangers to the republic. Concentrating power in himself, Caesar naturally sought to take power away from the Senate, the people’s body, thus taking away government power from the people. Cicero believed and defended the Roman republic. His strength of character and devotion to principle led to his demise. He was assassinated on the order of Marcus Antony and Augustus Caesar, per Rome’s Proscription law, labeled as a traitor for daring to remain loyal to the republic rather than to Rome’s all-powerful leaders, Julius Caesar, Augustus, and Antony. Antony instructed that Cicero be beheaded and that his hands be cut off, particularly the one he had used to compose the speeches against him, portraying him as a despot. Cicero’s head was put on display outside the Senate, by its door, and his hands nailed to the podium on the Senate floor, to deter future insolent behavior.

Let us never forget our courageous founders who put their lives on the line to stake out our country’s independence from a government that had grown tyrannical and disrespectful to individual rights. We get a glimpse of what was at stake for them when we read the final paragraph of the Declaration of Independence: “… we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.” Their act of rebelling against the Crown was an act of treason, punishable by the most cruel and horrible of deaths. They, like Cicero, stood up for responsible government, a government (republic) of the people and responsible to the people, knowing they would likely be punished for being traitorous.

The question is, of course, will we heed Cicero’s advice. Will we appreciate Bastiat’s warning. Are we doomed to an ambitious government that will continue down the road to socialism and political despotism or will be work to take back our government and divest it of its unconstitutional and unnatural powers.

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Where Was the Senate Foreign Relations Committee When Obama Promised Putin He Would Have “More Flexibility” to Negotiate with Him After His Re-Election?

Posted on July 27, 2018 by forloveofgodandcountry


by Diane Rufino, July 27, 2018

Republican and Democratic Senators questioned Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, on Wednesday regarding President Trump’s foreign policy. On its face, it appears that our legislators are concerned as to what exactly is Trump’s policy – particularly with Russia.  But the more likely explanation is that they just want to embarrass and frustrate him in his role as president of the United States, and to plant the seed in the minds of the American people and maybe even the world audience that he doesn’t know what he is doing.

Secretary Pompeo testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, where lawmakers eager and hungry to learn more about what Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin talked about in their two-hour private meeting last week in Helsinki, grilled him. It’s killing them that they don’t know exactly how Donald Trump’s brain works and how he continues to find success after success in his agenda and diplomacy.

As the Hill reported a day earlier: “Members of the Foreign Relations panel will ask whether Trump agreed to make any changes to international security agreements or if he gave any commitments about the future of the U.S. military presence in Syria. They will ask whether Trump pressed Putin on Russian violations of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty or on easing its nuclear posture toward U.S. allies in Europe. [And they will also ask] whether the president discussed relaxing sanctions approved by Congress last year that Trump reluctantly signed into law. (Although the Foreign Relations and Banking committees are considering additional penalties on Russia).”

Some Senators commented that the hearing would not only focus on the Helsinki summit, but also on North Korea (what is the status of diplomatic talks?), Trump’s decision in May to pull out of the Iran nuclear deal (and what will his next moves be), Trump’s trade deals (the scope of those trade deals; will American farming be harmed?; will there likely be a trade war?), and his boldness in criticizing our European allies (which they fear will erode trust within NATO).

But most believe the true target of the hearing was Trump’s private meeting with Putin. They are still angry: (1) first, that Trump chose to go ahead and meet with Putin even though Congress warned him not to go, and (2) second, that he was unable to profess complete confidence and trust, while the country and the world watched, in the American Intelligence Community as it relates to Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

Let us go back and look at the reason President Trump met with Russian President Vladimir Putin. It was not to scold him for meddling in our election, it was not to capitalize on an opportunity to threaten Russia about future attempts at meddling, and it was not to establish a relationship between the two administrations based on mistrust, disrespect, or skepticism. It was not a pissing contest, a chance to beat their chests, or a game of showmanship. The meeting was about establishing a relationship between the two world leaders and opening a respectable and productive dialogue between the two administrations for the sake of world peace and stability. It was about re-establishing a relationship that had chilled and drifted for many years. Some believe the relationship between the US and Russia was at an all-time low. President Trump was not about to accept that. In his mind and in his judgement, the meeting would concentrate on the positive and on achieving mutual benefits. “Constructive dialog between the United States and Russia affords us the opportunity to open pathways towards peace and stability in our world….”  These were the words he used in Helsinki.

He also made very clear his diplomatic mission when he told reporters, with Putin at his side:  “I would rather take a political risk in pursuit of peace than to risk peace in pursuit of politics. As president, I will always put first what is best for American and what is best for the American people.”

And so, at the press conference in Helsinki, President Trump chose not to make Russian meddling in our election (which, by every single account was minor – misleading political ads on Facebook and other social media – and which had absolutely no impact on the outcome of the election) a source of major contention or even a sore spot in what he hoped would be a new start for bilateral relations between the two great superpowers – the two countries that together, control over 90% of all the world’s nuclear weapons.

As Liz Peeks of FOX News commented: “Did anyone really expect him [Trump] to declare the Russian leader a liar on global TV? What would have been the point of traveling to Helsinki and arranging a summit between the world’s two biggest nuclear powers, only to scuttle the chance at a new and improved relationship? It wasn’t going to happen, and in fact Trump hinted at that beforehand, when he told reporters not to expect “a Perry Mason” moment.

He was also not going to give the duplicitous and scheming Democrats the “bone” that they wanted – a statement of confidence in the handling of the Russian interference investigation by the US Intelligence agencies. He knows how Democrats weasel around the truth; he knows that they would someone bring it up, purportedly as fact, that “Trump admitted that he has confidence in the findings of the FBI and DOJ that there was collusion between the Russians and his campaign during the 2016 election.”  The truth is that he has absolutely no reason to be confident in that investigation or in the affairs nefariously initiated within the intelligence agencies against him and his campaign.

That is why, at that moment in Helsinki, when asked by a reporter whether he holds Putin liable for any complicity in the 2016 US presidential election, President Trump was unable to make the statement that those at home hoped he would. He chose not to be confrontational. He chose not to be adversarial.

Jeff Mason, of Reuters asked President Trump:  “Mr. President, you tweeted this morning that it’s US Foolishness, stupidity and the Mueller probe that is responsible for the decline in US Relations with Russia. Do you hold Russia at all accountable for anything in particular? If so, what would you consider them that they are responsible for?”

Trump responded:

      Yes, I do. I hold both countries responsibility. I think the United States has been foolish. I think we have all been foolish. We should have had this dialogue a long time ago, a long time frankly before I got to office. I think we’re all to blame. I think that the United States now has stepped forward along with Russia. We’re getting together and we have a chance to do some great things, whether it’s nuclear proliferation in terms of stopping, we have to do it — ultimately, that’s probably the most important thing that we can be working on.

      I do feel that we have both made some mistakes. I think that the probe is a disaster for our country. I think it’s kept us apart. It’s kept us separated. There was no collusion at all. Everybody knows it. People are being brought out to the fore. So far that I know, virtually, none of it related to the campaign. They will have to try really hard to find something that did relate to the campaign. That was a clean campaign. I beat Hillary Clinton easily and, frankly, we beat her. And I’m not even saying from the standpoint – we won that race.  It’s a shame there could be a cloud over it. People know that. People understand it. The main thing — and we discussed this also — is zero collusion. It has had a negative impact upon the relationship of the two largest nuclear powers in the world. We have 90 percent of nuclear power between our two countries. It’s ridiculous what’s going on with the probe. It’s ridiculous.

The line “I think we’re all to blame” is the statement that immediately stood out to everyone during the press conference. According to CNN, of course, Trump’s statements amounted to an unprecedented refusal by a US president to believe his own intelligence agencies over the word of a foreign adversary and drew swift condemnation from across the partisan divide. Disgraced former FBI head, John Brennan, moronically characterized Trump’s comments as “high crimes and misdemeanors” and accused Trump of treason. And Congressional Democrats, as well as some Congressional Republicans, and advisers and commentators from both sides, have accused Trump of making a colossal diplomatic blunder by not using the opportunity at Helsinki to scold Putin.

Jonathan Lemire, a reporter with AP, asked Trump: “Just now President Putin denied having anything to do with the election interference in 2016. Every US intelligence agency has concluded that Russia did. My first question for you, sir, is who do you believe? My second question is would you now with the whole world watching tell President Putin — Would you denounce what happened in 2016 and would you warn him to never do it again?’

Trump answered in these words:

     So let me just say that we have two thoughts. You have groups that are wondering why the FBI never took the server. Why haven’t they taken the server? Why was the FBI told to leave the office of the democratic national committee? I’ve been wondering that. I’ve been asking that for months and months and I’ve been tweeting it out and calling it out on social media. Where is the server? I want to know, where is the server and what is the server saying? With that being said, all I can do is ask the question. My people came to me, Dan Coats came to me and some others and said they think it’s Russia.

      I have President Putin. He just said it’s not Russia. I will say this. I don’t see any reason why it would be, but I really do want to see the server. But I have confidence in both parties. I really believe that this will probably go on for a while, but I don’t think it can go on without finding out what happened to the server. What happened to the servers of the Pakistani gentleman that worked on the DNC? Where are those servers? They’re missing. Where are they? What happened to Hillary Clinton’s emails? 33,000 emails gone — just gone. I think in Russia they wouldn’t be gone so easily. I think it’s a disgrace that we can’t get Hillary Clinton’s 33,000 emails. So I have great confidence in my intelligence people, but I will tell you that president Putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today. And what he did is an incredible offer. He offered to have the people working on the case come and work with their investigators, with respect to the 12 people. That’s an incredible offer. Thank you.

Putin asked to comment:

      I’d like to add something to this. After all, I was an intelligence officer myself. And I do know how dossiers are made up. Just a second. That’s the first thing. Not the second thing. I believe that Russia is a democratic state and I hope you’re not denying this right to your own country, you’re not denying that United States is democracy. Do you believe the United States is a democracy? And if so, if it is a democratic state, then the final conclusion in this kind of dispute can only be delivered by a trial, by the court. Not by the executive, by the law enforcement.

     For instance, the concord company that is brought up is being accused, it’s being accused of interference, but this company does not constitute the Russian state. It does not represent the Russian state. And I brought several examples before.

     Well, you have a lot of individuals in the United States — take George Soros, for instance, with multibillion capitals, but it doesn’t make him — his position, his posture the posture of the United States. No, it does not. It’s the same case. There is the issue of trying a case in the court and the final say is for the court to deliver.

     We are now talking about the individuals and not about particular states. And as far as the most recent allegations is concerned about the Russian intelligence officers, we do have an intergovernmental treaty. Please do send us the request. We will analyze it properly and we’ll send a formal response. As I said, we can extend this cooperation, but we should do it on a reciprocal basis. Because we would wait our Russian counterparts to provide us access to the persons of interests for us who we believe can have something to do with intelligence service.

     Let’s discuss the specific issues and not use the Russia and US Relationship as a loose change for this internal political struggle.

Given what Trump has been subjected to since he has been a candidate for president, and especially being told that the FBI has a file on him colluding with Russia in the days leading up to his inaugural, the never-ending witch-hunt by Special Counsel Mueller, the raiding of offices and prosecutorial coercion of anyone related to him, and his own experience of being set up, framed, and relentlessly persecuted by the fatally-flawed entirely politically-biased American “intelligence community,” is it any wonder that given the choice, at the press conference, of which side to have greater trust and confidence in – a choice between ex-KGB agent Vladimir Putin and the rogue American intelligence agencies – that he preferred a more diplomatic answer?  As Sidney Powell of The Daily Caller wrote: “At that moment in Helsinki, Trump must have felt like the choice between Scylla and Charybdis. Either would destroy him, and no matter what he said, the Left would shriek the sky is falling yet again.”

Anyway, on board Air Force One, returning to Washington, President Trump sought to clarify his position at the summit, which he understood was not well-presented. He tweeted: “As I said today and many times before, “I have GREAT confidence in MY intelligence people.” However, I also recognize that in order to build a brighter future, we cannot exclusively focus on the past — as the world’s two largest nuclear powers, we must get along!”

In assessing the success or lack of success of the summit, from a diplomatic point of view, taking into consideration the overall goal Trump sought to achieve, we would have to conclude that it indeed was a success. Paraphrasing what Ms. Connie Hanna wrote in her July 24 article, “Trump Report Card,” …..  What we saw from President Trump at the Helsinki summit was a successful example of American diplomacy, by a skilled and gracious national leader. The thawing of relations, as we were fortunate to witness, is certainly preferable to tension and conflict any day of the week!!

Nevertheless, with yesterday’s hearing, the Senate was clearly letting the American know that it has little confidence in Trump’s ability to conduct foreign policy, while at the same time throwing a collective hissy fit that he isn’t sharing details with them.

So, what ended up happening at Wednesday’s hearing?

Basically, Secretary clashed with Senators, from both sides, who really wanted to accuse President Trump of not knowing what he is doing and in particular, as they believe the Helsinki summit proved, of being soft on Putin. Luckily, the man who actually knows and who is privy to Trump’s policy agenda, firmly and strongly stood up for the president.

For example, Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker (R-Tenn), characterized Trump’s approach to diplomacy as a “ready, fire, aim” approach – as if he “wakes up every morning and makes it up as he goes.”  Pompeo responded that “this administration has been tougher than previous administrations” on Putin and that Trump plays a direct role in taking aggressive actions against Russia.

At one point he wanted to know why President Obama was never interrogated over his whispered message to Putin: “I’ll have more flexibility after the election.” [Of course, comparison to Obama only enraged the Committee].

In giving examples of how Trump and the White House are tough on Russia, Pompeo outlined a variety of measures taken by the Trump administration against Russia, including making lethal defensive weapons available to Ukraine (a move, by the way, that was resisted by the Obama administration), and the expulsion of dozens of Russian operatives from the US following the poisoning of a former agent. He also explained that the US condemns Russia’s annexation of Crimea and will never recognize the legitimacy of that annexation. In fact, as he said, there will be no relief of Crimea-related sanctions by the Trump administration until Russia returns control of the Crimean peninsula to the Ukraine.

Pompeo told the Committee that Trump threatened “severe consequences” for any future Russian meddling in America’s elections, even though his posture and words at Helsinki may not have reflected that position. And he reminded its members of President Trump’s very public opposition during the NATO talks to the planned Nord Stream 2 pipeline from Russia to Germany, which he says poses national security risks to European countries by increasing their dependence on Russia.

Secretary Pompeo wasn’t going to be bullied by Sen. Corker, or the Committee: “Senator, I just disagree with most of what you have said. Somehow there is this idea that this administration is free-floating. This is President Trump’s administration. Make no mistake who’s fully in charge of this, and directing each of these activities that is causing Vladimir Putin to be in a very difficult place today.”

Pompeo was also asked a few questions regarding the status of negotiations with North Korea and the status of plans for denuclearization of the North Korean peninsula.  He answered: “We are engaged in patient diplomacy, but we will not let this drag out.”  And he also admitted, or confirmed, that North Korea continues to produce “fissile material” (needed for nuclear weapons) but would not confirm publicly whether or not Kim Jong Un has decided to continue to advance his country’s nuclear program.

All in all, Secretary Mike Pompeo stood his ground, took on the Senators, strongly defended President Trump and his administration’s policies abroad, and emphasized that Trump knows exactly what he is doing and that his approaches have been and continue to be successful for the good of the United States and for the world.

Now, the question that many are asking is this: Where was that same concern when President Obama was caught, luckily for the American people. on an open microphone, delivering a secret message to Putin – that he would have “more flexibility after the (2012) election” to negotiate with Russia?  Where was the grilling on Capitol Hill?  Where were the accusations of being soft on Russia?

We all remember this incident.

On March 27, 2012, while President Obama was taking part in a global nuclear security summit in South Korea, and he was caught on tape (open mic) asking Russian President (at the time) Dmitry Medvedev for “space.”  He was leaning over to Medvedev, and appearing to speak more secretly to him, said: “This is my last election. After my election I have more flexibility.” He wanted this message to be conveyed to Vladimir Putin, which Medvedev assured he would do. His response was: “I understand. I will transmit this information to Vladimir.”

Last year, Rep. Francis Rooney (R-FL) was asked by Katy Tur of MSNBC if he thought Trump would be strong enough to stand up to Russia.  He said he was and then attempted to remind her of the “open mic” incident. She said she had no idea what he was talking about. He brought her up to speed.  As he said to Tur, in his opinion, the message President Obama was conveying was this: “Tell Putin I’ll have more flexibility to give him what he wants after the re-election.” Roomey further commented: “No one really ever pushed the president on what he meant like that, but I can only imagine for a thug like Putin, that it would embolden him.”

What did President Obama mean when he said “more flexibility”? Was he referring to his ability to deal with missile defense issues?  Did he intend to hint that he could negotiate more leniently or favorably to Russia without having to worry about the consequences at election time??

The language “more flexibility (when election consequences aren’t a concern)” should have peaked intense interest with our lawmakers.  More than anything Trump said, these words by Obama, to any reasonable person, would imply that he was willing to ignore or surrender US interests.

Here is a video of President Obama whispering to Medvedev over an open mic:

Where was the concern when President Obama broke with protocol and bowed to King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia in 2009 at the G2 Summit?  Diplomatic protocol indeed decrees that presidents bow to no one, as it is a sign of weakness. Bowing is forbidden. In fact, there was great concern at the time of this outrageous “break in protocol,” particularly as rumors circled of his leanings toward Islam and his including Islamic groups as advisers in his administration. Even The Washington Times wrote that Obama’s greeting “belittled the power and independence of the United States” because he was “bending over to show greater respect to Islam.”

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President Obama also bowed later that year to Japanese Emperor Akhito and his wife. Dick Cheney, then the recently ex-Vice President, weighed in, in an interview with Politico: “There is no reason for an American president to bow to anyone. Our friends and allies don’t expect it, and our enemies see it as a sign of weakness.”

If there was such a significant and noteworthy break in diplomatic protocol, particularly to the leader of a Muslim country and to the leader of a country that once waged relentless and inhumane war against the United States, why didn’t the Senate Foreign Relations Committee follow up with questioning?

And where was the concern when President Obama had his private meetings with foreign leaders? The details of those meetings were kept private and were never disclosed. Why wasn’t the Senate Foreign Relations Committee even curious as to what this president, with absolutely no proper background for the job, talked about with foreign leaders?

Also, where is the concern over the revelation, by Putin himself, that an operative (one Putin believes was arranged by the US) was sent to Russia to secretly donate to Hillary Clinton’s campaign.

Putin revealed this information in response to a question by Jeff Mason, a Reuters reporter. Mason asked:  “Why should Americans and why should President Trump believe your statement that Russia did not intervene in the 2016 election given the evidence that US Intelligence agencies have provided?  Will you consider extraditing the 12 Russian officials that were indicted last week by a US Grand jury?”

This was Putin’s response:

     As to who is to be believed, who is not to be believed: you can trust no one. Where did you get this idea that President Trump trusts me or I trust him? He defends the interests of the United States of America and I do defend the interests of the Russian Federation. We do have interests that are common. We are looking for points of contact.

     There are issues where our postures diverge and we are looking for ways to reconcile our differences, how to make our effort more meaningful. We should not proceed from the immediate political interests that guide certain political powers in our countries. We should be guided by facts. Could you name a single fact that would definitively prove the collusion? This is utter nonsense — just like the president recently mentioned. Yes, the public at large in the United States had a certain perceived opinion of the candidates during the campaign. But there’s nothing particularly extraordinary about it. That’s usual thing.

      President Trump, when he was a candidate, he mentioned the need to restore the Russia/US relationship and it’s clear that certain parts of American society felt sympathetic about it and different people could express their sympathy in different ways. Isn’t that natural? Isn’t it natural to be sympathetic towards a person who is willing to restore the relationship with our country, who wants to work with us?

      We heard the accusations about it. As far as I know, this company hired American lawyers and the accusations doesn’t have a fighting chance in the American courts. There’s no evidence when it comes to the actual facts. So we have to be guided by facts, not by rumors.

     Now, let’s get back to the issue of this 12 alleged intelligence officers of Russia. I don’t know the full extent of the situation. But President Trump mentioned this issue. I will look into it.

      So far, I can say the following. Things that are off the top of my head. We have an existing agreement between the United States of America and the Russian Federation, an existing treaty that dates back to 1999. The mutual assistance on criminal cases. This treaty is in full effect. It works quite efficiently. On average, we initiate about 100, 150 criminal cases upon request from foreign states.

      For instance, the last year, there was one extradition case upon the request sent by the United States. This treaty has specific legal procedures we can offer. The appropriate commission headed by Special Attorney Mueller, he can use this treaty as a solid foundation and send a formal, official request to us so that we could interrogate, hold questioning of these individuals who he believes are privy to some crimes. Our enforcement are perfectly able to do this questioning and send the appropriate materials to the United States. Moreover, we can meet you halfway. We can make another step. We can actually permit representatives of the United States, including the members of this very commission headed by Mr. Mueller, we can let them into the country. They can be present at the questioning.

     In this case, there’s another condition. This kind of effort should be mutual one. Then we would expect that the Americans would reciprocate. They would question officials, including the officers of law enforcement and intelligence services of the United States whom we believe have something to do with illegal actions on the territory of Russia. And we have to request the presence of our law enforcement.

      For instance, we can bring up Mr. Browder in this particular case. Business associates of Mr. Browder have earned over $1.5 billion in Russia. They never paid any taxes. Neither in Russia nor in the United States. Yet, the money escapes the country. They were transferred to the United States. They sent huge amount of money, $400 million as a contribution to the campaign of Hillary Clinton. Well, that’s their personal case. It might have been legal, the contribution itself. But the way the money was earned was illegal. We have solid reason to believe that some intelligence officers, guided these transactions. So we have an interest of questioning them. That could be a first step. We can extend also it. Options abound. They all can be found in an appropriate legal framework.

Donald Trump, in everything he has done, with every act as president, with every one of his campaign promises and initiatives, and with every word he speaks as president, seeks to put American first as well as its businesses, its people, and its safety and to Make America Great Again.  Obama, clearly was a different president. He often apologized for America, apologized for its people, apologized for our history, undermined our interests, and made enemies out of ordinary American citizens over radical Islamists and other terrorist organizations.

Yet Congressional leaders refuse to accept his sincerity of purpose and his mastery in getting the job done. Always seeing the glass half empty, they continue to treat him like a school child, a bumbling buffoon.

Oh, the double standard.

Trump needs to fail before he earns their approval. He needs to fail before members of Congress will be willing to work with him rather than spend every waking moment resisting him.

To be fair to this story and to President Trump (after all, no one else is), and for the record, here is a refresher on some of the abuses of the Intelligence agencies under President Obama, Trump’s history with the American Intelligence Community and the Deep State entrenched there, and his experience of being set up, framed, and relentlessly persecuted by those who refuse to acknowledge his rightful election to the presidency:  [The following is taken from The Daily Caller article written by Sidney Powell, “Trump Has Been Set Up-Framed and Relentlessly Persecuted by the American Intelligence Community,” dated July 19, 2018]

  • Former CIA Director John Brennan, appointed by President Obama in 2013, had the CIA spying on members of Congress, and indeed, the entire Senate Intelligence Committee. One wonders if the mentality of J. Edgar Hoover has become firmly entrenched in the FBI, where American Intelligence gathers “information” on members of Congress and even the president and his family, to use as a means of coercion to get those members to conform to what the government expects. Chuck Schumer once described our intelligence community this way: “Cross our intelligence community and they have six ways from Sunday to pay you back.” That’s not an endorsement of trust, but rather of fear. (Perhaps Schumer knows more about that than he lets on). Brennan, by the way, is – and has been – an intense Trump-hater.
  • Then there’s Director of National Intelligence (DNI), James Clapper, the second Trump-hater, who recently departed from his position at the top of our national intelligence community. Clapper is the guy who had the NSA collecting all possible data on all Americans and then lied to Congress about it. Spying on Americans, and collecting their personal and private information is the most egregious use of our intelligence agencies. Mr. Powell refers to these agents as “petty men” who “peep about to find [themselves] dishonorable graves.”
  • Even more important, according to Mr. Comey’s own memos, which were leaked to the New York Times, combined with Obama National Security Advisor Susan Rice’s “note to self” within minutes of Trump’s inauguration, we know that Brennan, Clapper, Obama, Comey, Rice, counter-terrorism advisor Lisa Monaco, Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates and Vice President Biden, met in the Oval Office just before Comey went to brief the president-elect. Not only did they decide to limit information about Russia to be shared with the incoming team, they dispatched Comey to set up Mr. Trump for the media explosion of the entire false narrative and Steele dossier.
  • On January 6, 2017, on instructions from Clapper, Comey met one-on-one with Mr. Trump in Trump Tower. Comey “executed the session just as [he] had planned.” He dropped the bombshell of only the “salacious” details of the Steele dossier. He ran to his car to write down the details of the conversation, then he reported to Clapper and possibly Brennan, one of whom leaked it to CNN. Comey’s briefing provided the very “news hook” they all knew the media wanted to run with the existence of the unverified, Clinton-bought-and-paid-for dossier.
  • That remarkable setup, by the highest members of our “intelligence community” and Obama himself, sparked the media firestorm of the Trump-Russia-collusion lie that has besieged the Trump presidency to this day. Indeed, that was its purpose, if not to trap Trump into action that Democrats could label as “obstruction of justice” and then use that as grounds for impeachment.
  • Don’t forget Peter Strzok — the FBI’s lead investigator for the “intelligence community”— hardly the epitome of trustworthiness. Strzok is the self-avowed despiser of Trump and any possible Trump supporter. Strzok is the epicenter of the Clinton email “investigation,” the Russia narrative, and the Mueller team until last July. Discoveries of his innumerable venomous expressions of hatred for the president “clouded” the Clinton email investigation and compelled his removal from the Special counsel team. Even more egregious conduct compelled his physical removal from the FBI.
  • And then there is this: James Comey, Andrew McCabe, Peter Strzok, and Sally Yates, aided by others in the “intelligence community” more recently including Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, obtained multiple FISA warrants to spy on members of the Trump team. All those applications were based primarily on the Clinton-bought-and-paid-for Steele dossier of lies.
  • We can’t forget Susan Rice. Susan Rice, Obama’s national security advisor, who tripled the unmaskings of Americans during 2016 — grossly abusing the government’s surveillance apparatus to target the political opposition.
  • Sally Yates, of course, used those unmaskings to set up General Michael Flynn who was simply doing his job. She got him fired from his new position as President Trump’s national security advisor, had FBI Agent Strzok ambush Flynn in an interview, and McCabe may have helped tee him up with false allegations for Special Counsel Robert Mueller.
  • And there’s more. As the chief judge of the super-secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court found in an opinion heavily redacted but unclassified last year, the Obama/Comey/FBI’s rank abuses of raw surveillance data of Americans extend back to 2015 (when Trump announced—if not further). The court found egregious Fourth Amendment violations by the FBI and that it had given private contractors (probably Fusion GPS—Steele dossier creators—and Clinton-connected CrowdStrike) wrongful unlimited and unsupervised access to that data. The court so distrusted the FBI itself that it took access away from it, and NSA Director Admiral Rogers proceeded to eliminate the use of “about queries” completely.

Again, consider the position President Trump found himself, when asked by journalists whether he has complete confidence in our intelligence agencies. And in that reflection, ask yourselves if his response was worthy of the rebuke he got from Congress and worthy of the treacherous comments from potentially true traitors like John Brennan.

- 2018 (condo, July) (3)

References:

Alexander Bolton, “Pompeo Faces GOP Grilling on Russia, North Korea ,” The Hill, July 24, 2018. Referenced at:  http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/398703-pompeo-faces-gop-grilling-on-russia-north-korea

VIDEO:  Obama open mic slip: “After my election I have more flexibility.”  Referenced at:  https://youtu.be/XsFR8DbSRQE

Tim Harris, “MSNBC Host Can’t Remember When Obama Promised Putin Flexibility,” Real Clear Politics, February 20, 2017.  Referenced at:  https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2017/02/20/msnbc_host_cant_remember_when_obama_promised_putin_flexibility.html

Greg Re, “Pompeo Fights Back After GOP Sen. Corker Hits Trump for ‘Purposeful’ sowing of ‘Doubt and Distrust’,” FOX News, July 25, 2018.  Referenced at:  http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2018/07/25/pompeo-says-us-wont-recognize-russias-crimea-annexation.html

Sidney Powell, ”Trump Has Been Set Up-Framed and Relentlessly Persecuted by the American Intelligence Community,” The Daily Caller, July 19, 2018.  Referenced at: http://dailycaller.com/2018/07/19/trump-has-been-set-up-framed-and-relentlessly-persecuted-by-the-american-intelligence-community/    [Sidney Powell is a former federal prosecutor]

Liz Peeks, “Outrage over Trump, Putin Helsinki meeting – Did We Expect President to Call Putin a Liar on Global TV?,” FOX News, July 17, 2018.  Referenced at:  http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2018/07/17/liz-peek-trump-critics-predictably-melt-down-over-helsinki-summit.html

Staff, “What Trump and Putin Actually Said in Helsinki (TRANSCRIPT),” Foreign Policy News (FP News), July 16, 2018.  Referenced at:  https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/07/18/heres-what-trump-and-putin-actually-said-in-helsinki/

Jennie Neufeld, “Read the Full Transcript of the Helsinki Press Conference,” Vox, July 17, 2018.  Referenced at:  https://www.vox.com/2018/7/16/17576956/transcript-putin-trump-russia-helsinki-press-conference

Kenneth Rapoza, “What Reporters in Helsinki Asked Trump and Putin,” Forbes, July 16, 2018.  Referenced at:  https://www.forbes.com/sites/kenrapoza/2018/07/16/what-reporters-in-helsinki-asked-trump-and-putin/#65ce0d093e25

Jeremey Diamond, “Trump Sides with Putin Over US Intelligence,” CNN, July 16, 2018.  Referenced at:  https://www.cnn.com/2018/07/16/politics/donald-trump-putin-helsinki-summit/index.html

Constance Hanna, “Trump Report Card,” The Daily Compass, July 24, 2018. [Connie Hanna does a weekly update on President Trump in The Daily Compass]

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Government Targeting Political Opponents (an American Story, thanks to Barack Obama)

Posted on July 23, 2018 by forloveofgodandcountry

MAXINE WATERS - protesters burn flag outside Waters' Office

by Diane Rufino, July 21, 2018

On Thursday, July 19, supporters of Democratic Congresswoman Maxine Waters showed up at her Los Angeles office and put on a very troubling and unpatriotic display. I suppose their conduct was either in line with their diminished intelligence, their natural tendency to thug-like, violent behavior, or the indoctrination of the Thug Queen herself, Maxine Waters. At one point in the video taken of that protest, one lady not only parroted the vile hatred that Waters has been spewing but she also sounded exactly like her. It was disturbingly unsettling.

Waters and her ilk are the lowest of the low, and should have no place in the kind of country that was established for close-knit communities predicated on the mutual respect for our country’s ideals, our collective desire to get along, and our intelligent duty to conduct ourselves as decent members of society and to support the Rule of Law.

Last week, the constitutionally conservative group known as Oath Keepers called on members to show up outside the controversial Congresswoman’s South Los Angeles office for a “protest against Maxine Waters’ incitement of terrorism, and a stand FOR ICE and the Border Patrol.”  Supporters of Waters (ie, the demonstrators) showed up with the intent of countering that protest, but police at the protest site told the Los Angeles Times that the group had notified authorities that it no longer planned to hold the demonstration, in order to keep the peace.

Rather than go back home, the Pro-Waters crowd, which numbered a few dozen and included union workers, church leaders, South Los Angeles residents and members of activist groups, many holding signs that read “Resist!,” proceeded to demonstrate and display the hatred that Rep. Waters so often uses her platform to encourage and incite. At one point, a pick-up truck drove by, and believing it to belong to a member of the Oath Keepers, the demonstrators gathered around it, opened the doors and terrorized the driver, and then snatched his American flag from the truck bed.  No doubt, they were offended by a real American, a conservative. They proceeded to stomp on the flag and then set it on fire. They chanted “Black Power” and shouted “America was never great” A few even yelled: “This is not the American flag, this is their flag.”

…….  Not exactly the kind-of crowd you look forward to enjoying a 4th of July picnic with.
MAXINE WATERS - protesters stopping pick up truck and stealing man's flag outside Waters' Office

Ever since the election of Donald Trump, an election he won fair and square, and against an avalanche of behind-the-scenes crooked dealings, alliances, pay-offs, abuses of power, government-DNC collusion, and a phony Russian scandal, Democrats and others on the left have become unhinged and have shown their opposition in ways that exceed those allowed by the First Amendment, that offend all rules of common decency, that frustrate the traditional university goals of robust intelligent debate, and that violate our civil and criminal laws.  We see the rhetoric of hate, we see threats of violence against conservatives and against Republican members of Congress and members of Trump’s administration, we see Republican state and federal leaders and members of Trump’s administration (and their families) being shouted and threatened out of restaurants, movie theaters, and ball games, we see violence against conservative speech by Antifa and hooded thugs on campuses, we’ve witnessed the intentional shooting of Republican Congressmen (last year’s Congressional softball game), we’ve learned of the arrest of at least one Antifa member who amassed a cache of bomb-making materials and guns and who had a Manifesto outlining his mission to kill conservatives, we hear the most vile of rants and name-calling from members of the Entertainment Industry against Trump and against conservatives, we hear talk-show hosts and actors call for the rape and sodomization of members of Trump’s family and administration, we watch in disbelief as Democratic leaders in Congress become increasingly unhinged and unpatriotic in their messages and in their conduct, and we see Black Lives Matter protestors, including the likes of Al Sharpton and other race-baitors and poverty pimps, calling for the slaughter of members of law enforcement.

We see a common thread….   All of these groups, all of these so-called people belonging to the Democratic Party.

What should happen ideally is that all of these types of people, including hoards of illegal immigrants and Middle-Eastern refugees, be moved into the communities and neighborhoods of Democratic legislators, Democratic politicians, Democratic Party leaders, activist judges, Hollywood actors and actresses, liberal talk-show hosts, and editors, producers, columnists, reporters, and commentators of the mainstream media. If these people want to empower such anti-social, violent, psychotic, unpatriotic, dis-believing, dependent, entitled, abhorrent, crazed, unstable, mentally-imbalanced, irresponsible, law-breaking, terrorist individuals, then at least they should know what it’s like to have them living among them.

Anyway, I digress from my main point which is that Obama targeted political opponents, using the full force of the federal government –  a government absolutely prohibited, under the Bill of Rights, from enacting any law or policy that infringes on one’s freedom of speech, freedom to the press (including every blogger and writer who “publishes” in any way information and commentary), right to own and bear firearms (“Shall Not Be Infringed!”), freedom of conscience, right of assembly, and freedom to be safe from unreasonable government searches and seizures (to be safe and secure in one’s home and in one’s private affairs; “to be king of one’s castle”).

Right after Barack Obama took office as president, in early April 2009, he had Attorney General Janet Napolitano and the Department of Homeland Security re-draft guidelines as to who the “real threat” to America is.  This was done without anyone paying any particular attention to it and was done while the country was still shielding their eyes, as if they were looking at the face of the new “messiah.”  According to President Obama, his advisors, and his administration in general, it was no longer radical Islam that posed the greatest threat to our country, but rather, the very people he made fun of in one of his appearances in Pennsylvania — those who “cling to their religion and their guns.”  The DHS document outlining this threat was titled “RIGHTWING EXTREMISM: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment,” and it was issued by the Office of Intelligence and Analysis (within DHS).  You can read the entire document yourself at:  https//fas.org/irp/eprint/rightwing.pdf.  In it, the Department of Homeland Security explains that people like Tea Party groups, white conservatives. Veterans, Christians, Second-amendment supporters, and the like pose a serious threat to the country (and, as mentioned, to Obama’s administration — as he is a black man). These “rightwing extremists,” the report says, are those who will produce white supremacists, will oppose Obama’s policies, will present opposition to his policies on immigration, and in general, will try to organize against him. Because they support the second amendment, the Obama administration labeled them as dangerous, likely to organize and use violence, and put them on the DHS watch list.

Can you even wrap your mind around the sanity of the federal government in deeming God-fearing, law-abiding, Constitution-loving, patriotic conservative Americans to be dangerous to the country, moreso than the likes of those who slaughtered 3000 innocent Americans on 9/11, who have kidnapped and beheaded several of our journalists and contractors, and who have planned and carried out the many attacks on our military personnel and citizens both here and abroad ???   I certainly can’t. A government that can even think of doing so is simply evil and unconstitutionally ambitious.

In embracing Obama’s policy and attempting to sell it to state and local law enforcement and to the country in general, Secretary Janet Napolitano issued the following press release on April 15, 2009, which was posted on the Department of Homeland Security website: “The primary mission of this department is to prevent terrorist attacks on our nation. The document on Right-Wing Extremism sent last week by this department’s Office of Intelligence and Analysis is one in an ongoing series of assessments to provide situational awareness to state, local and tribal law enforcement agencies on the phenomenon and trends of violent radicalization in the United States. I was briefed on the general topic, which is one that struck a nerve as someone personally involved in the Timothy McVeigh prosecution.”  Turning the government against its law-abiding citizens is the very definition of tyranny.

We associate governments targeting, harassing, drumming up false charges, imprisoning, and killing political opponents with the likes of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party, with Josef Stalin and the Communist Party, with Pol Pot (Cambodia) and the Communist Khmer Rouge Party, with Pinochet in Chile, with Mao Zedong in China, with Mehmet Talat Pasa in Armenia, with Idi Ami in Uganda, and with the leadership in countries like Rwanda, Bosnia, and Darfur.  We all know that the government rounded up Japanese-Americans and put them in internment camps after the attack on Pearl Harbor. With intimate knowledge of and sensitive information about Pearl Harbor having been obtained by Japanese spy, Takeo Yoshikawa, and transmitted ultimately to Admiral Yamamoto in Japan to finalize plans of the attack, the government could not trust Japanese-Americans to be loyal to the United States over Japan. The camps were dismantled after Japan’s defeat.  We also all know of the McCarthy era and the political movement to weed out Communists and Communist spies from positions of power and access to sensitive information, but that was arguably for reasons of true national security. The relationship between the United States and Russia has become adversarial and competitive for control and influence in the world….  It was an era of intense geopolitics. Every move by Russia (the Soviet Union) became a matter of freedom and tyranny… a matter of individuals being able to live freely or to be controlled by a regime of fear and violence. The two countries emerged as the worlds’ two greatest superpowers, with the ability of annihilating millions of people with their nuclear capability (Russia obtaining the technology thru its espionage activities in the US) and each viewed the other as the enemy and an absolute threat to national security.

No one would ever associate modern day United States with political persecution, yet that’s exactly what happened under the Obama administration. Barack Obama deemed anyone whose views were contrary to his and his administration or whose views and background, and potential, posed a risk to his political agenda as “security threats” to the United States, posing a likely threat of acts of domestic terrorism. Is this not mind-blowing or what??  Paranoid kings of England acted in this manner, paranoid emperors of Rome acted in this manner, Stalin and Hitler acted in this manner, and the list goes on…..  those who think differently pose a threat to those in power. Yes, conservatives think the right to have and bear arms is a right meant to be essentially free from government control (except for mental illness and a violent history). Conservatives believe government control of firearms and ammunition, and talk of confiscation are the hallmarks of a tyrant (like King James II and King George III of England),.  Yes, conservatives believe that a sovereign nation without border control, ie, control over immigration, is not sovereign but merely a temporary state ultimately doomed to mob control. Yes, conservatives believe in the vitality and importance of our very first amendment – the rights to religious liberty, speech, press, assembly, and petition. They believe that a person is endowed with the right to think freely and to think as dictated by his or her religious values, his degree of intelligence and understanding, and as his heart and gut instruct (the “right of conscience”) and that government has no place to coerce thought, speech, and conduct that violates that right of conscience.  Yes, conservatives believe that a woman may have freedom over her body and her fertility (her ability to bring forth new life), but they certainly don’t believe the right is absolute and  includes the right to kill a fully-developed, living child that for the unfortunate reason that nature dictates (not yet been born), it hasn’t yet been able to take its first breath outside the mother’s womb.  Yes, conservatives believe in a limited government. They believe in the government created by the Constitution, which by its terms and provisions is certainly one meant to be limited. They believe a free country means that its citizens are able to freely exercise their God-given rights without over-regulation and intrusion by the government.  They believe in the rights of the individual and not the collective, a distinction made very clear when our country and our government system were established. They believe that a government that forcibly takes from some in order to benefit others, and then relies on those “dependents” as a crucial voting block, is an unconstitutional government – one well on its way to being a socialist government. Yes, conservatives believe in personal responsibility, lower taxes, free markets, and unburdened property rights.  And yes, conservatives believe that federal court judges and Supreme Court justices are limited in their roles on the bench; they are limited by the words, meaning, intent, and historical context of the Constitution and by the plain meaning and legislative intent of federal laws. In other words, they must be strict constructionists, textualists, and originalists, for the Constitution is a statement of the people’s intention for their government, permanently documented and ratified by state conventions specifically organized for that purpose. The only way to change the terms of government and to “evolve” with times is to take advantage of the amendment process outlined in Article V.  Conservatives  are strongly opposed to the notion of a “living, breathing, document” which gives judges and justices full reign to mold and transform the Constitution as they see fit and which allows them to by-pass the democratic process where the people dictate how fast society “progresses.”

Democrats, and especially Obama, believe in the complete opposite. The difference between Obama and other Democratic presidents is that he deceptively, secretly, covertly put programs and policies in place to subdue the opposition (conservatives) and as we are learning now, to deprive them the office of the presidency, in order to move full speed on his progressive, liberal (un-American) policies.  Besides his blatant abuse of the IRS to target conservatives, his interference in investigation and potential prosecution of Hillary Clinton for her intentional abuse of national security procedures by using a personal unsecured email server for official emails, and his creation of a “fake” dossier and his illegal abuse of the FISA warrant policy to spy on the Trump campaign, Judicial Watch has just uncovered documents that show that President Obama attempted to institute gun control stealthily by going after ammunition instead of guns. (It has just filed suit in the district court in DC to compel the ATF to produce its records on the matter).  The first shots of the American Revolution, as most of are unaware, were fired not because of taxation but because King George instructed his man in Massachusetts, General Gage, to locate and destroy all the colonists’ ammunition. And as most are unaware, it was this despotic act that prompted one of my favorite founding fathers, Patrick Henry, to exclaim to the Virginia Convention that famous night on March 23, 1775 at St. John’s Church in Richmond:

They tell us, sir, that we are weak; unable to cope with so formidable an adversary. But when shall we be stronger? Will it be the next week, or the next year?  Will it be when we are totally disarmed, and when a British guard shall be stationed in every house?  Shall we gather strength by irresolution and inaction? Shall we acquire the means of effectual resistance by lying supinely on our backs and hugging the delusive phantom of hope, until our enemies shall have bound us hand and foot?  Sir, we are not weak if we make a proper use of those means which the God of nature hath placed in our power. The millions of people, armed in the holy cause of liberty, and in such a country as that which we possess, are invincible by any force which our enemy can send against us. Besides, sir, we shall not fight our battles alone. There is a just God who presides over the destinies of nations, and who will raise up friends to fight our battles for us.  There is no retreat but in submission and slavery!  Our chains are forged!  Their clanking may be heard on the plains of Boston!  The war is inevitable–and let it come! I repeat it, sir, let it come.

Gentlemen may cry, Peace, Peace.. But there is no peace. The war is actually begun!  The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms!  Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle?  Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery?  Forbid it, Almighty God!  I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!

With that speech, he defended the resolutions he had submitted for Virginia to build and train its militia (one in every county), to be ready to fight the British.

It is one thing to think differently, politically, for that is how citizens advance their issues and concerns in government, but it is another thing to use the government against the people because they think differently. And it is also one thing to think compromise is necessary and always a good thing, when sometimes it’s the very way we erode important foundations.  As Richard Dawkins once said:  “When two opposite points of view are expressed with equal intensity, the truth does not necessarily lie exactly halfway between them. It is possible for one side to be simply wrong.”  If the colonists had accepted Britain’s treatment of them, if they had engaged in endless compromise with its leaders, then America would never have pushed for, and fought for, its independence. Compromise breeds complacency.

If we look back on how President Obama insidiously targeted conservatives, we should take note of how he identified certain traditional “American” values and views and tried to explain them away as being dangerous to the country.  Hitler and Goebbels would have been proud.

The assessment, “RIGHTWING EXTREMISM: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment,” is prefaced by the following “Key Findings” by the Office of Intelligence and Analysis (DHS):

Key Findings:

(U//LES)  The DHS/Office of Intelligence and Analysis (I&A) has no specific information that domestic rightwing* terrorists are currently planning acts of violence, but rightwing extremists may be gaining new recruits by playing on their fears about several emergent issues.  The economic downturn and the election of the first African American president present unique drivers for rightwing radicalization and recruitment.

— (U//LES)  Threats from white supremacist and violent antigovernment groups during 2009 have been largely rhetorical and have not indicated plans to carry out violent acts.  Nevertheless, the consequences of a prolonged economic downturn—including real estate foreclosures, unemployment, and an inability to obtain credit—could create a fertile recruiting environment for rightwing extremists and even result in confrontations between such groups and government authorities similar to those in the past.

— (U//LES)  Rightwing extremists have capitalized on the election of the first African American president, and are focusing their efforts to recruit new members, mobilize existing supporters, and broaden their scope and appeal through propaganda, but they have not yet turned to attack planning.

(U//FOUO)  The current economic and political climate has some similarities to the 1990s when rightwing extremism experienced a resurgence fueled largely by an economic recession, criticism about the outsourcing of jobs, and the perceived threat to U.S. power and sovereignty by other foreign powers.

— (U//FOUO)  During the 1990s, these issues contributed to the growth in the number of domestic rightwing terrorist and extremist groups and an increase in violent acts targeting government facilities, law enforcement officers, banks, and infrastructure sectors.

— (U//FOUO)  Growth of these groups subsided in reaction to increased government scrutiny as a result of the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing and disrupted plots, improvements in the economy, and the continued U.S. standing as the preeminent world power.

(U//FOUO)  The possible passage of new restrictions on firearms and the return of military veterans facing significant challenges reintegrating into their communities could lead to the potential emergence of terrorist groups or lone wolf extremists capable of carrying out violent attacks.

It then explains:

(U)  Current Economic and Political Climate

(U//FOUO)  DHS/I&A assesses that a number of economic and political factors are driving a resurgence in rightwing extremist recruitment and radicalization activity.  Despite similarities to the climate of the 1990s, the threat posed by lone wolves and small terrorist cells is more pronounced than in past years.  In addition, the historical election of an African American president and the prospect of policy changes are proving to be a driving force for rightwing extremist recruitment and radicalization.

— (U)  A recent example of the potential violence associated with a rise in rightwing extremism may be found in the shooting deaths of three police officers in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on 4 April 2009.  The alleged gunman’s reaction reportedly was influenced by his racist ideology and belief in antigovernment conspiracy theories related to gun confiscations, citizen detention camps, and a Jewish-controlled “one world government.”

(U)  Exploiting Economic Downturn

(U//FOUO)  Rightwing extremist chatter on the Internet continues to focus on the economy, the perceived loss of U.S. jobs in the manufacturing and construction sectors, and home foreclosures.  Anti-Semitic extremists attribute these losses to a deliberate conspiracy conducted by a cabal of Jewish “financial elites.”  These “accusatory” tactics are employed to draw new recruits into rightwing extremist groups and further radicalize those already subscribing to extremist beliefs.  DHS/I&A assesses this trend is likely to accelerate if the economy is perceived to worsen.

(U)  Historical Presidential Election

(U//LES)  Rightwing extremists are harnessing this historical election as a recruitment tool.  Many rightwing extremists are antagonistic toward the new presidential administration and its perceived stance on a range of issues, including immigration and citizenship, the expansion of social programs to minorities, and restrictions on firearms ownership and use.  Rightwing extremists are increasingly galvanized by these concerns and leverage them as drivers for recruitment.  From the 2008 election timeframe to the present, rightwing extremists have capitalized on related racial and political prejudices in expanded propaganda campaigns, thereby reaching out to a wider audience of potential sympathizers.

 — (U//LES)  Most statements by rightwing extremists have been rhetorical, expressing concerns about the election of the first African American president, but stopping short of calls for violent action.  In two instances in the run-up to the election, extremists appeared to be in the early planning stages of some threatening activity targeting the Democratic nominee, but law enforcement interceded.

(U)  Revisiting the 1990s

 (U//FOUO)  Paralleling the current national climate, rightwing extremists during the 1990s exploited a variety of social issues and political themes to increase group visibility and recruit new members.  Prominent among these themes were the militia movement’s opposition to gun control efforts, criticism of free trade agreements (particularly those with Mexico), and highlighting perceived government infringement on civil liberties as well as white supremacists’ longstanding exploitation of social issues such as abortion, inter-racial crimes, and same-sex marriage.  During the 1990s, these issues contributed to the growth in the number of domestic rightwing terrorist and extremist groups and an increase in violent acts targeting government facilities, law enforcement officers, banks, and infrastructure sector.

(U)  Illegal Immigration

(U//FOUO)  Rightwing extremists were concerned during the 1990s with the perception that illegal immigrants were taking away American jobs through their willingness to work at significantly lower wages.  They also opposed free trade agreements, arguing that these arrangements resulted in Americans losing jobs to countries such as Mexico.

(U//FOUO)  Over the past five years, various rightwing extremists, including militias and white supremacists, have adopted the immigration issue as a call to action, rallying point, and recruiting tool.  Debates over appropriate immigration levels and enforcement policy generally fall within the realm of protected political speech under the First Amendment, but in some cases, anti-immigration or strident pro-enforcement fervor has been directed against specific groups and has the potential to turn violent.

(U//FOUO)  DHS/I&A assesses that rightwing extremist groups’ frustration over a perceived lack of government action on illegal immigration has the potential to incite individuals or small groups toward violence.  If such violence were to occur, it likely would be isolated, small-scale, and directed at specific immigration-related targets.

— (U//FOUO)  DHS/I&A notes that prominent civil rights organizations have observed an increase in anti-Hispanic crimes over the past five years.

(U)  Legislative and Judicial Drivers

(U//FOUO)  Many rightwing extremist groups perceive recent gun control legislation as a threat to their right to bear arms and in response have increased weapons and ammunition stockpiling, as well as renewed participation in paramilitary training exercises.  Such activity, combined with a heightened level of extremist paranoia, has the potential to facilitate criminal activity and violence.

— (U//FOUO)  During the 1990s, rightwing extremist hostility toward government was fueled by the implementation of restrictive gun laws—such as the Brady Law that established a 5-day waiting period prior to purchasing a handgun and the 1994 Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act that limited the sale of various types of assault rifles—and federal law enforcement’s handling of the confrontations at Waco, Texas and Ruby Ridge, Idaho.

The assessment also informs: “The information is provided to federal, state, local, and tribal counterterrorism and law enforcement officials so they may effectively deter, prevent, preempt, or respond to terrorist attacks against the United States.  Federal efforts to influence domestic public opinion must be conducted in an overt and transparent manner, clearly identifying United States Government sponsorship.”

Through the DHS and its directive (“Rightwing Extremism…..”), the Obama administration was almost “deputizing state and local law enforcement” to do the government’s bidding.  We truly weren’t a “free country” during those years.

Clearly, the “assessment” by the Office of Intelligence and Analysis (DHS) was meant to identify the threat to OBAMA and to his administration and his agenda, rather than to the United States and to its security and its citizens.  The identification of Rightwing groups and individuals as potential “domestic terrorists” is predicated wholly and improperly on a difference of political opinion and political viewpoint. It is as clear a violation of the First Amendment’s guarantee of Free Speech and Freedom of Conscience as it gets.

Anyone who can connect dots can see that Obama used the full forces of the federal government to target, harass, discriminate against, and to neutralize Tea Party groups and other conservatives. It is why he used the IRS to block Tea Party groups from organizing (they were denied, exclusively, the ability to organize as a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt groups for political purposes), to go out and harass and excessively audit them, and why he had Dinesh D’Souza thrown in jail.  With this in mind, it’s not hard to see why he did everything possible to divide the country into groups violently opposed to conservatives and then to use government agencies to work silently to make sure Hillary Clinton won the 2016 election and to make sure Trump did not. It’s why they are still fighting Trump (and the conservatives in general). It’s become violent.

So far, President Trump reversed that policy and put the focus back on radical Islamists. He has not turned the tables on Democrats and their venomous, vile, and violent ilk and put them under the microscope by Homeland Security. But maybe he should.  Democrats have become a dangerous and obstructive force in our country – spewing and inciting hatred, division, and violence. They care little for political discourse so it isn’t about free speech; rather, it’s about getting Donald Trump out of office in any conceivable way possible, even if it has to be by creating a false and fictitious charge or by bombarding the American audience with a false narrative. It’s strictly a power ploy, designed to make useful idiots out of useless ones (Democrat voters) for the purpose of denying political power to the legitimate party, the Republican Party (duly elected by the people, thru the Electoral System; a government “by the people”) and transferring it, by a political coup, to the Democratic Party elite.

Trump is far too honorable and responsible of a president to ever consider turning the government against its citizens because unlike Obama, who supposedly taught Constitutional Law and an “expert on the Constitution,” Trump has an uncanny understanding of it and a deep respect for it.  He also understands and respects that the government belongs to the people, through their collective judgement and their action at the ballot box, and not to the puppet masters of a Political Party.

Here is another example of an approach where compromise cannot be sought. One approach is clearly wrong.

We must never again allow an administration to forcibly, or even tacitly, silence the voice of political opposition.  We must ever remain vigilant.

“Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear.” President Harry Truman spoke these words on August 8, 1950 in a special message to Congress on the Internal Security of the US.

Liberty, and the US Constitution, must always be those gems worth fighting for.  Both belong to the people; both are the birthright of every American.

 

References:

“Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment,” (An Assessment), Office of Intelligence and Analysis, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), April 7, 2009 –  https://fas.org/irp/eprint/rightwing.pdf

Paulina Dedaj, “Maxine Waters Supporters Burn American Flag Outside California Rep’s Office,” FOX News, July 20, 2018.  Referenced at:  http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2018/07/19/counterprotesters-burn-american-flag-outside-office-maxine-waters.html

Carlos Granda, “Oath Keepers Calls Off Protest Outside Maxine Waters’ Los Angeles Office,” ABC7 News, July 20, 2018.  Referenced at:  http://abc7.com/politics/oath-keepers-calls-off-protest-at-maxine-waters-office/3789197/

“Statement by U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano on the Threat of Right-Wing Extremism,” Department of Homeland Security, April 15, 2009.  Referenced at:  https://www.dhs.gov/news/2009/04/15/secretary-napolitanos-statement-right-wing-extremism-threat

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A “Very Stable Genius” is in the House !

Posted on July 18, 2018 by forloveofgodandcountry

by Diane Rufino, July 18, 2018

I created the following meme to show my inherent trust in the leadership of President Trump. While the mainstream media, the entire leadership of the Democratic Party, the deranged Democratic members of Congress, and certain “politically-disguised” members of the Republican Party categorically refuse to see anything positive in the leadership of President Trump and refuse to acknowledge anything positive that he has done, it must be the people who voted for him and their sane, powerful voices who must drown out these morons and who must by-pass the media and express their faith and trust in him. He has dealt with extraordinarily powerful forces that fight him every minute of every day, on every occasion, and using every possible outlet and forum. He has been dealing with this from day one.

MEMEE - Very Stable Genius in the Houes

Donald Trump has the moral fiber to keep his promises and to show profound love and loyalty to his country, its Constitution, its laws, and to all its people. No other president has worked so hard to honor his campaign promises and to work so hard on the national and international scene to do what is right and fair for the United States, for its business interests, and for its people. There is nothing in his track record as president to suggest that he has anything but the best and strongest interests at stake for the country or that he will even entertain the possibility that other countries can continue to intimidate or take advantage, in any way, shape, or form, the United States or its people.

Liberals and doubters may bash President Trump for his words at the Helsinki meeting with Russian leader Vladimir Putin (because to expect anything else would be unimaginable) but for those like myself who put their trust in this most honorable of US presidents, I choose to believe it when he says “I’m a very stable genius.”

Until he proves otherwise, I will continue to support him and give him the benefit of the doubt. I just wish, for once, Democrats and the mainstream media would try doing the same.

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4th of July: Reflections

Posted on July 14, 2018 by forloveofgodandcountry

4th of JULY

by Diane Rufino, July 4, 2018

Happy 4th of July!

We celebrate the 4th of July as our Independence Day but it’s really not the date that our country, comprised at the time of the 13 original colonies, became independent from Great Britain. The 4th of July is the date when the Second Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence, which is a very significant date in our country’s path to independence. With the Declaration, the colonies were proclaiming to the world their intent to separate or secede from Britain and establish themselves as sovereign independent states. That would be their goal in fighting the British. A single-paragraph resolution was passed prior to July 4 which simply declares the colonies’ independence. That simple resolution accomplished the goal of officially declaring independence from Britain. But the Second Continental Congress wanted a more detailed version, articulating the reasons for seeking independence, in order to make its case soundly “to a candid world.” To that end, Thomas Jefferson was delegated the important task. The character of the independent colonies would depend on the words and ideals that Jefferson wrote. And so, on July 4, 1776, the Second Continental Congress adopted Jefferson’s grand Declaration of Independence.

The war with Britain began on April 19, 1775, with “the shot heard around the world” at Lexington. That was the date when the forces under Britain’s General Gage went looking to confiscate and destroy Boston’s arsenal of ammunition and thereby render them unable to defend themselves. But for the first year, the colonies, through the First Continental Congress, hoped to end hostilities and resume a good relationship with their mother country. And so it pursued a course of negotiations. But, as Patrick Henry emphasized in his famous “Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death!” speech: “We have petitioned; we have remonstrated; we have supplicated; we have prostrated ourselves before the throne, and have implored its interposition to arrest the tyrannical hands of the ministry and Parliament. Our petitions have been slighted; our remonstrances have produced additional violence and insult; our supplications have been disregarded; and we have been spurned, with contempt, from the foot of the throne. In vain, after these things, how can we indulge the fond hope of peace and reconciliation? There is no longer any room for hope. If we wish to be free, if we mean to preserve inviolate those inestimable privileges for which we have been so long contending, if we mean not basely to abandon the noble struggle in which we have been so long engaged, and which we have pledged ourselves never to abandon until the glorious object of our contest shall be obtained, we must fight!”

And so the colonies came together. It was no longer a war only involving Massachusetts. If Britain could exercise tyrannical rule over the citizens of Boston and the rest of the Commonwealth, it would surely do the same to the other colonies. In the second year of the war, the Second Continental Congress conducted and managed the war as one for independence.

The Revolutionary War would end five years later, on October 19, 1861, when General Cornwallis surrendered to General George Washington at Yorktown. The war would officially be over, and the colonies officially recognized by Britain as 13 independent sovereigns on September 3, 1783 when the Treaty of Paris was signed by representatives of King George III and by Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, John Jay, and David Hartley as representatives for the colonies.

The Treaty of Paris declared the intention of both parties to “forget all past misunderstandings and differences” and “secure to both perpetual peace and harmony.” It went on to state:

“Britain acknowledges the United States (New Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia) to be free, sovereign, and independent states, and that the British Crown and all heirs and successors relinquish claims to the Government, property, and territorial rights of the same, and every part thereof…..”

The revolutionary and magnificent principles articulated in the Declaration not only laid the political and philosophical foundation of our country but it changed the course of the entire world. Mankind has been eternally better off for those principles. But the sad truth is that most of the ideals set forth in the Declaration have been rejected by the very history of our country. The Declaration will continue to mean very little until we as a country reject and condemn the actions of Abraham Lincoln when he invaded, coerced, and subjugated the southern states back into the Union when they sought independence. And the Declaration will continue to mean very little until we reject the notion that our government has the right and primary purpose of seeking its own power and permanent existence rather than existing primarily to secure the fundamental rights of the individual (but subject to being altered or abolished when it ceases to serve that goal and instead frustrates the exercise of those rights).

But Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence will always stand as a testament to the best and most noble intentions of man in establishing an ordered society predicated on the inalienable rights of the individual.

HAPPY 4th of JULY!

 

***  I apologize for posting this article late, but my computer crashed and burned, and I had to research and purchase another.

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The #WalkAway Campaign is Helping to Humanize Politics

Posted on July 3, 2018 by forloveofgodandcountry

BRANDON STRAKA - on Tucker Carlson      by Diane Rufino, July 3, 2018

Have you heard of the WalkAway Campaign?  I encourage everyone to check it out. I think this just may be the movement that will save our country from being hijacked by the lunatic fringe. 

The movement was started by Brandon Straka, a handsome, gay (but I repeat myself) NYC hairdresser who was having a hard time reconciling his values and love of country with the party (Democratic) to which he belonged.  So he started a testimonial campaign where individuals could post their video or written testimonials as to why they are fed up with the Democratic Party and liberalism and why they are walking away or have walked away. It’s called the “#WalkAway Campaign (“the hashtag WalkAway Campaign”).

Liberals are going on social media and posting their testimonials. I encourage everyone to check it out – on Facebook, Instagram, on Twitter…   I encourage everyone to join the Facebook #WalkAway Campaign and “The Silent Majority” Facebook page. (Both started by Straka). Minorities are walking away in large numbers, and non-minorities as well.

I believe that this exodus is what just might save this country. This rejection of liberalism is just what might help heal the divide, help all of us as Americans to reconnect, and to help us all get on the same page, which is to make our country great and safe again. This is our home. Our communities are our backyard. The people we put “D” and “R” labels on and criticize and complain about are our neighbors.

Straka is blown away at the response to his campaign and the overwhelming support he is getting, insomuch that he is giving people a voice and a channel and they are taking him up on it.  Even Tucker Carlson highlighted it on his show last night, allowing Straka to explain why he started it and how successful it has become.

As Straka explained, what is even more satisfying to him than the scores of testimonials of liberals is that people on the right are participating we well. He is happy that has been able to help give a voice back to the silent minority, and in some cases, the silent majority. Both have been misrepresented and mischaracterized by the mainstream media. As Straka explains, “So now we’re cutting out the media, which has controlled the narrative as to what it means to be a conservative – which is that all conservatives are racists and bigots. Now people from the right can tell their own stories, and they are saying ‘I’m not a racist; I’m not a bigot.'” 

The #WalkAway campaign is humanizing politics and for that, I think Brandon Straka is a genius. I am extremely grateful for what he has done and for the movement he started to give those on the left empowerment (for there is power in numbers) for making the decision to walk away from the political party which they  once thought best represented them.

I only wish that Tucker Carlson would have given Brandon more time to talk about the #WalkAway campaign. I thought it was a rushed segment but certainly one of the most significant topics in a long time. I hope Tucker will invite him back, and I hope other shows will do the same.    

VIDEO:  Brandon Straka’s appearance on the Tucker Carlson Show –  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwsrPYUazq8&feature=youtu.be

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