December, 2018, Part 2, Political Class Insanity: More Ocasio-Cortez Ignorance, More Government Waste, and More Political Arrogance

It is another month which means it is again time to review the latest political class insanity from Washington and around the world. Political class insanity takes many forms including the wasting of taxpayer wealth, criminal fraud within government programs, inane and stupid political quotes and actions, the inability to create and implement effective and efficient government programs, stupid and ill performing economic policies and strategies, and other forms of insanity that continue to evolve and surprise and shock us.

Let’s get started:

1) Nancy Pelosi has always been our go to politician for stupid, inane, and simply out of touch with reality quotes. However, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, elected Congresswoman from NYC may now be our new favorite for those types of quotes. Put her name in the search box above for the many idiotic quotes we have already discussed that have come from her mouth.

And she is not slowing down. She recently put forth this gem of ignorance: "If we work our butts off to make sure that we take back all three chambers of Congress — Uh, rather, all three chambers of government: the presidency, the Senate, and the House." Very, very sad, and scary, that an elected member of Congress has no clue how our republic and government is structured, something that a grammar school student probably knows: executive branch, Congress branch, and judicial branch.

If she is so ignorant about this basic fact, how comfortable are you with her deciding on legislation that affects all of us? Stupid is as stupid does and this type of ignorance is really stupid...but keeping with her track record.

To hear actually mouth this insanity, go to:

https://freedomoutpost.com/dumber-than-a-box-of-hammers-alexandria-ocasio-cortez-doesnt-even-know-the-3-branches-of-government-video/

2) The Federal government’s national debt is currently pushing rapidly towards a whopping $22 TRILLION. The Washington political class and the inept government functions it is responsible for waste untold billions of dollars every day with not positive impact on the American taxpayers who actually pay for that waste. The Convention of States website recently discussed a single instance of abuse in only one state that shows this concept of waste at its worst:

• California prison inmates have been siphoning off Social Security financial benefits while in prison.
• According to a quote from the Washington Free Beacon:”The inspector general for the agency reported 123 inmates received the disability and retirement payments despite the Social Security Act prohibiting payments to individuals "confined to a jail, prison, or certain other public institutions for committing a crime."
• The IG report found that 123 inmates received the $3.5 million in improper payments.

This waste was from only one state? Makes you wonder how much more taxpayer wealth is being improperly paid to prison inmates in the 49 other states and other instances in California that have not been uncovered yet? No wonder we are $22 TRILLION in debt, those politicians and bureaucrats in Washington have no clue on how to NOT waste our tax dollars.

3) The Convention of States website recently had the following gems of ignorance from the political class:

• A recent Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee ran an ad that accused the Republicans of raising taxes and energy costs even though the Trump tax cuts will reduce taxes for well over 100 million taxpayers, energy costs have been dropping steadily over the past two years, Nancy Pelosi and other leading Democrats have been calling for tax increases. Talk about being out of touch.
• Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren was recently ranting that since Trump did not win the popular vote that it was unhealthy for our democracy. She failed to mention that a lot of that deficit of the popular vote was in California, a state that is rife with voter fraud, that we do not live in democracy, we live in a Constitutional republic, and the election went exactly the way our Constitutional is set up. May she come from the same school of government ignorance that Ocasio-Cortez attended.
• And finally, Democratic Senator Cory Booker claims that, “he tries to understand "other folks" by reading books like Hillbilly Elegy and travelling to midwestern, southern, and western states. Sorry, Sen. Booker. If you want to connect with everyday Americans, you probably shouldn't talk about them like they're animals in a zoo.”

To see these actual statements of ignorance go to:

https://conventionofstates.com/news/these-three-federal-politicians-are-so-out-of-touch-it-hurts-watch

Let me conclude today’s discussion of political ignorance and incompetence with some words from the Convention Of States website. It does get depressing always discussing how inept the American political class is: they are ignorant, self serving, greedy, and never resolve any of the major issues facing Americans. They always leave office much wealthier than when the enter office even though their performance while in office is usually never worthy of even their paycheck, never mind the the unexplained incremental wealth. 

The Convention Of States, however, gives us some hope that we can fix all that is broken Washington. I will let them explain their purpose and goals to fix what is certainly broken: “It's time to take power away from these D.C. swamp monsters and return it to the states and the people. The states and the people best understand how to solve the problems facing their local communities. Far-away politicians and bureaucrats clearly have no idea what everyday Americans are thinking and feeling, which is why they so often make such terrible decisions.

That's why we need to call the first-ever Article V Convention of States. A Convention of States can propose constitutional amendments that restore the balance of power between the states and the feds and ensure that our clueless D.C. "representatives" can't wreck our country any more than they already have.”

You can access their website and join the effort from the link below. More insanity to follow, with the gross reality that a former Washington politician is about to become a billionaire, yes a billionaire with a “B” even though his track record while in office was abysmal.

Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:

www.loathemygovernment.com

It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

Please visit the following sites for freedom:


http://www.reason.com
http://www.cato.org
http://www.bankruptingamerica.org
http://www.conventionofstates.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w

Why There Is Still Hope For America, Part 2......Despite The American Political Class

Unfortunately, when discussing the political class in America it usually gets pretty depressing. Runaway national debt, leaky borders, escalating healthcare costs, a lost war on drugs, failing public schools, selfish politicians whose only priority in life is their own personal enrichment and egos, a government bureaucracy that fails at everything it does, etc. It can get pretty depressing with all of the bad news that originates with a petty and inept political class. 

This situation led us to write the book, “Love My Country, Loathe My Government,” a fifty step plan to fix what ails the country. Sadly, since the book was published in 2009, the politicians in this country have followed absolutely none of the common sense steps that were proposed. Doing so would have put the country in a much better position today vs. what we are currently living through.

So rather than dwell on the continuing bad news that is spawned by today’s political class, lets take a couple of days, starting yesterday, to talk about some good things that are going on that should give us all some hope that eventually we can actually fix what the political class has broken and finally actually resolve some major issues of our times.

1) Back in 2011, Michelle Bachman, a Congresswoman from Minnesota, was trying to become the Republican candidate for President. At that time, when gas prices had been skyrocketing under the Obama administration, she promised to get gas prices down to $2 a gallon if elected President.

She was universally ridiculed for such a goal, especially by the main stream media. Time magazine called her goal a "fantasy." Well, she either got really lucky or knew more than most of the world as gas prices are fast approaching $2.00 a gallon, and in some parts of the country has already broken down below $2.00. That should give everyone hope and a little economic relief.

See more on her accurate prediction at: 

http://lastresistance.com/9408/michele-bachmann-mocked-2-gas-claim-now-proved-right/#c6a7WlIJrpJkqEsh.99

2) As we discussed yesterday, according to Gallup polling, more Americans than not now believe that government is the biggest threat to this country. A recent article on the Conservative Tribune website did a nice summary job of how almost three dozen states and their citizens are fighting back against the oppression and misdeeds of the Washington political class.

The method of fighting back is via Article V of the Constitution, an Article that forces Congress to call a Convention of States to propose amendments to the Constitution if two thirds of the state governments request one. The article went through how close the country and its citizens are to reining in an out-of-control Washington political class:

• Michigan became the 34th state to submit its Article V petition.
• However, it is not clear that all state petitions are valid or still in effect since some have been rescinded.
• The 34 states that have submitted petitions, even if they have been rescinded include Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, and Wyoming.
• The good thing about this list is that it is pretty diversified: states from all four corners of the country, states that are both liberal leaning and conservative leaning, poorer states and more affluent states, etc., indicating a nationwide disgust with how Washington operates.

So yes, there are some problems to work out. But the country and its fed up citizens are getting very close to calling a Convention of States to fix what Washington has broken, an unprecedented Constitutional effort required because of an unprecedented ineptness of Washington politicians.

3) An October 28, 2014 article by Heather MacDonald for the Heritage Foundation reported that according to FBI statistics, violent crime in the country has declined rapidly over the past few years, certainly good news. Details of the crime rate drop includes the following:

• From 2000 to 2012, the nation's violent crime rate fell by over 23%.
• This drop follows another big drop in the violent crime rate which was a 32% drop from 1993 to 2000.
• The article states the greatest beneficiaries of the crime rate drop has been minority neighborhoods.
• The drop in violent crime overall was accomplished by drops in each category of violent crimes and across all sections of the country.

According to Ms. MacDonald, there is not clear cut reason or reasons why this has happened but it has happened and that is the good, hopeful news for all of us.

4) One final bit of good news today. Long time California Senator Barbara Boxer has announced that she will retire after her current term expires. Why is this good news? Since no major issue has been resolved during her Senate tenure, I am assuming she is part of the problem and not part of any elusive solution. 

I applaud any long term Washington politician leaves office, it gives us a hope that her their replacements can do a better job. Lord knows they could not do much worse.

That will do it for the good news for today. A long term incumbent politician is retiring, violent crime is down, the price of gas is way down, and Article V efforts. Keep in mind that these good news items and hopes are in spite of Washington politicians rather because of these politicians.

One more day of good news and hope will be done tomorrow, after which we go back to the insanity, idiocy, and waste that is today's political class.

Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:

www.loathemygovernment.com

It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

Please visit the following sites for freedom:

Term Limits Now: http://www.howmuchworsecoulditget.com
http://www.reason.com
http://www.cato.org
http://www.bankruptingamerica.org
http://www.conventionofstates.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w

Will The Center Hold Update, Part 1: Texas Tells The Feds To Pound Illegal Immigration Sand and More

Last month we ran a series of posts based on two questions:

1. Given that states, counties, cities, and citizens are rising up against an overreaching and oppressive Federal government, “will the center hold” when the Fed tries to impose their will on other levels of government and individuals, given all of the push back activities that are under way already?
2. What would happen if Washington passed a law and the rest of the country simply ignored it?

And the areas of push back seem to get wider and deeper every day with significant efforts to nullify or fight against everything from Obama Care to western land management to gun control to term limits to balanced budget to NSA spying on citizens to runaway national debt to Common Core to other areas of Federal interference. The initial post in that series can be accessed at:

http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2014/04/will-center-hold-april-2014-part-1.html

We will take a few days to update where many of those efforts are currently and where they might be heading.

1) Let’s start off with a general summary that was recently posted on the Capitalism Institute website. The summary pointed out how all of these push backs against Federal authority are permissible under Article V of the U.S. Constitution, they are not unlawful or radical efforts to create civil war. They are allowed under a Constitutional mechanism that the founding fathers saw fit to include as a safety valve against Federal government overreach and tyranny.

According to the Institute’s research:

- There are at least nine states that have taken steps to nullify Obama Care. They are doing this via a four step process:

• Step 1 - Ban state enforcement, participation, and material support.
• Step 2 - Reject Medicaid expansion.
• Step 3 - Protect residents from mandates.
• Step 4 - Challenge the IRS’s illegal Obama Care taxes.

States that are taking these actions to fight back against Obama Care are Arizona, Georgia, Indiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Tennessee.

- The Second Amendment of the United States Constitution guarantees that the people’s right to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. Unfortunately, over time, the Federal government has enforced numerous laws, statutes and regulations that do, in reality, infringe upon that basic, fundamental and inherent right of people to arm themselves.

Some states have taken steps to roll back gun control, both at the Federal, state, and local level, by overriding local ordinances, expanding gun rights, and passing legislation that nullifies federal laws within their borders, like the Second Amendment Preservation Act:

The Second Amendment Preservation Act reasserts the right of a state to determine what is best for its own citizens when it comes to gun laws. The Act declares that any and all federal laws that are viewed as unconstitutional or an infringement of the Second Amendment will be null and void within the state, and no agent or officer of the state may enforce, or cooperate with Federal enforcement of, these gun control measures. Some states have even added criminal penalties to this act.

Some of the states that have passed or are considering legislation similar to the Second Amendment Preservation Act include Arizona, Idaho, Kentucky, Missouri and Tennessee, among others.

- A third way that states and citizens are fighting back an encroaching Federal government is via the Convention of the States movement. According to the Capitalism Institute’s website posting, another way that states can fight back against the Federal monstrosity is through an Article V Convention of the States.

A Convention of States is based upon a provision within Article V of the Constitution, which deals with the amendment process. If 2/3 of states submit special applications, they can call for a convention that will propose new amendments to the Constitution through state delegates. If 3/4 of the state legislatures agree on the proposed amendments, they will become part of the Constitution, bypassing both Congress and the President.

A number of states are working through this process and are at various stages of their consideration and application process for the Convention. 

The Institute sums up the reasons for these push backs quite nicely:

Unfortunately, the federal government has mostly slipped the bounds that were set upon it by the Constitution, and has become unmoored from it’s foundation. It is time for the states and people to reassert their rights and authority over the federal government, which is supposed to work for us.

Well said and well overdue.

2) The Federal government is supposed to protect all of this country’s sovereign borders from illegal entry of others. Given that best estimates put the number of illegal immigrants in this country at over 10 million people, it is not a stretch to say the federal government and Washington political class has failed miserably in this area of responsibility.

Which leads to a new arena for telling the Federal government to get out of the way and let a state do the job right. The state of Texas recently got so fed up with federal incompetence in securing our border that it decided to do the job itself. During a recent three week period, Texas law enforcement resources essentially shut down the border to illegal crossings in the Rio Grande border area with Mexico.

Texas Lt. Governor David Dewhurst recently explained what went down in the face of Federal border security ineptness: 

“In the Rio Grande Valley sector, nearly nothing moved in those three weeks. We shut it down. We had teams of Texas law enforcement in the brush, high altitude aircraft, gun boats, and more, Our intel revealed that the Gulf cartel was growing frustrated with our three-week effort.”

“The border issue is just about dollars and cents. This proves Texas can do the job the Federal government has refused to do — to invest in the border and shut it down from illegal activities that are hurting Texans and other Americans. Texas will protect our own citizens and other Americans from the criminal gangs that are destabilizing our state and our nation.”

He went on to explain that after the state’s initial investment for equipment and aircraft, for a relatively nominal sum of $5 million a month, Texas shut down the illegal immigrant and illegal drug cartel drug running for three weeks. The state plans to put a full time effort into continuing the shutdown, appropriating $60 million annually for the effort. 

The importance of such security, according to the lieutenant governor is not just for poor Mexicans trying to get a better economic future in the U.S. but to also disrupt the collusion of Mexican drug cartels with domestic organized crime gangs. He asserts that the cartels are actively already present in all major Texas downs and that seven of the eight cartels use Texas as a staging area to ship their drugs to the rest of the country.

He concluded his statements that while he was in favor of legal immigration and legal immigration controls, he and his state were not going to wait any longer to secure their state border with Mexico, that until the President and the Washington political class start to get serious about border security and the crime that comes with non-border security, then Texas will take care of it themselves.

That’s a good start for today. We will go into more details in other areas over the next few days. But people around the country are taking action, whether it is signing up to help with the convention of the states or supporting the local efforts, like in Texas, to do what the Federal government should be doing or to stop the Federal government from doing what it should not be doing.

FYI, the following website is a good first step to get involved in the Convention of States movement:

www.conventionofstates.com

Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:

www.loathemygovernment.com

It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

Please visit the following sites for freedom:

Term Limits Now: http://www.howmuchworsecoulditget.com
http://www.reason.com
http://www.cato.org
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w

Will The Center Hold, Part 3: More Calls For A Convention Of The States, Humping The Feds on Hemp, and More

This is our third post this past week on how the middle core of the country might be coming apart as the Washington political class becomes more and more oppressive in its policies and overreach. This is causing state governments and individual citizens to push back agaiinst the oppressive tactics of the Federal government which is hindering the states’ and individuals' rights and freedoms as laid out in the Constitution. This wide ranging pushback raises two critical questions for our nation’s future:

• What if Washington passed a law that no one obeyed?
• If this behavior became widespread, would the center of the country hold or would the Federal government as we know cease to exist?

Never in the history of our country has Washington been held in such low regard and contempt. Issues causing this friction range from gun control to overbearing and ineffective education requirements to Federal land grabs, to Obama Care resistance, etc.

The nation has stayed united through depressions, recessions, world wars, a civil war, the Nixon administration and a range of other problem eras. However, it remains to be seen where the current friction across the country will take us.

The first two parts of this series can be viewed at:

http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2014/04/will-center-hold-april-2014-part-1.html

http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2014/04/will-center-hold-april-2014-part-2.html

1) Common Core is the Federal government’s idea to institute a one size fits all educational curriculum across the country. However, early reviews on the effectiveness of such a single focused mentality for all kids in all schools are are not good. That ineffectiveness has caused a multitude of states to opt out of all or some of Common Core’s requirements, a slap in the face to the Federal government which is trying to control the education of our kids, a job that was traditionally handled at the local and state government level.

A concerned mother (by the way, this mother works as a literary consultant to urban schools so she probably knows a little about English tests besides holding a PhD in English) investigated the English class  Common Core material in some detail after her ninth grade daughter had an experience with a Common Core English test. The daughter came home and told her mother that:

• “These are such weird questions.” 
• “This test is crazy.” 
• “This is a stupid, impossible test.”

Given that teenagers can often be a little overly dramatic, the mom decided to try to answer a few of the Common Core tests for herself. She was so shocked by the material that she wrote a letter to the President to describe the many problems the material presented to ninth grade kids. The critical paragraph of her letter goes as follows:

“I have a Ph.D. in English, I’ve been in college and high school classrooms for over 20 years, and for much of that time I’ve trained and coached high school English teachers. I was shocked that the ninth grade test included an excerpt from Bleak House, a Dickens novel that is usually taught in college. I got seven out of 36 multiple choice questions wrong on the eleventh grade test. And I had no idea what to do with this essay prompt on the third grade test.”

If a highly educated, PhD holding woman cannot ace a ninth grade test in her area of specialty, who thinks that a seventh grade kid can? And if that is truly the case, what educational value did those seventh graders receive? I am not saying all tests should be easy. School should be hard and challenging, but not impossible. This is just one reason why many people are telling Washington to kiss off on Common Core, it does not work, much like just about everything else that Washington politicians touch.

Her entire letter can be viewed at:

http://www.ijreview.com/2014/04/132870-mom-writes-president-obama-letter/

2) Many states are moving forward and calling for the so-called “convention of the states,” allowed under Article V of the Constitution. This Article allows for a convention to be held to install changes to the Constitution once two thirds of the states, 34 states, pass resolutions or bills calling for a convention. Never before in my memory do I recall anything close to the states taking the initiative to push back an over reaching Federal government.

A recent article on the Capitalism Institute website reported how Alaska became the next state to call for such a convention. Highlights of the article include:

• Alaska’s Senate passed a resolution calling for a Convention of States, matching the Alaska House to make their application official. 
• Alaska joins Georgia as the only official applicants thus far, but states including Alabama, Arizona and Florida are close to making their applications official as well.
• A signature by the state’s governor is not necessary for the application to be valid, only passage through both houses of the legislature is required. 
• The Alaska resolution resolves “to call a convention of the states for the sole purpose of proposing amendments to the Constitution of the United States that impose fiscal restraints on the Federal government, limit the power and jurisdiction of the federal government, and limit the terms of office of Federal government officials.” 
• If 34 states officially apply for a convention, Congress will be compelled to call it to order. 

The article explains that the likely agenda items at an Article V convention would be strictly limited to a balanced budget amendment, a Congressional term limit amendment, and possibly an amendment prohibiting Congress from exempting themselves or other government employees from the laws they pass.

This may be the only way to attack what has become a $17 TRILLION national debt burden, return us to a much smaller but hopefully much more effective Federal government as required by the Constitution, and the implementing of term limits so that we get rid of the entrenched and useless politicians that got the country into the mess it is in now in the first place. 

Heaven knows the current Washington political set has shown no ability or desire to do what has to be done, forcing states and individuals to ban together to use the only tool left to them, Article V.

3) Another recent article from the Capitalism Institute also announced that the state of Florida had also passed a binding resolution calling for a Convention of The States to reign in the Federal government. What is interesting about the convention of the states drive is:

• The effort is only about a year old.
• However, there are organized Article V teams already up and running in all 50 states.
• Seven states who are well ahead of the rest of the states and include Alaska, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Missouri, New Mexico, and South Carolina.
• These states include a broad cross section of geographic areas from Florida in the most southeastern part of the U.S. to Alaska in the most northwestern part of the U.S. to Missouri in the Midwest to Arizona to New Mexico on the southwest, i.e. Americans across the entire country are fed up with Washington.

4) We recently came across another state government push back against the Federal government that we have not previously discussed. It is against Federal law for any American to grow industrial hemp in the country. Industrial hemp, it is my understanding, while a relative of marijuana, does not contain any of the mind altering properties of marijuana. 

I am assuming that the Feds have long banned it since it looks like real marijuana. Another theory I have heard in the past is that Dupont, who makes a lot of man-made fabrics, did not want to compete with the fabrics that could be developed from hemp and thus, successfully lobbied the Federal government to ban this competitive product. That crony capitalism story can wait for another day.

Industrial hemp has a lot of different uses across the world, it would provide a nice boost to American farmers by giving them another crop option to use or to rotate through their lands. To that end, on April 16, 2014, the state government Assembly of Tennessee took the final necessary steps to send legislation to the Tennessee governor, which if signed, would nullify the Federal ban on hemp in the state.

The Tennessee Assembly Bill 2445 was sponsored by State Representative. Jeremy Faison and it would mandate that the state authorize the growing and production of industrial hemp within Tennessee, Senator Frank Niceley was the chief Senate sponsor of the legislation.

Some media reports say that since hemp production is still banned on the Federal level, the Tennessee legislation will only take effect begin cultivation once the feds change the law. However, the legislation makes no such stipulation with regards to waiting on the Federal government since the bill reads:

“The department shall issue licenses to persons who apply to the department for a license to grow industrial hemp.”

According to Mike Maharrey, communications director for the Tenth Amendment Center, one word strengthened the bill considerably: “By including the word ‘shall’ in this legislation, it has a great deal of impact. This means that rather than keeping it open-ended like other states have done, hemp farming will be able to move forward in Tennessee whether the [Federal] regulatory bureaucrats there want it to or not.”

Wow, another state telling the Federal government to back off on another Federal law. Tennessee joins three other states that are also working to ignore or nulllify Federal hemp banning laws: Colorado, Oregon and Vermont have already passed bills to authorize hemp farming, but only in Colorado has the process begun. 

That will do it for now. Push backs against the Federal government meddling in a whole range of our lives including harmless hemp growing, a doomed-to-failure national education program, term limits, out of control federal spending, and more. Again, 1) what if Washington passed a law that no one obeyed and 2) will the center hold if the previous point becomes common place? Interesting times.

Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:

www.loathemygovernment.com

It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

Please visit the following sites for freedom:

Term Limits Now: http://www.howmuchworsecoulditget.com
http://www.reason.com
http://www.cato.org
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w

Will The Center Hold. Part 4: Americans And States Push Back Againdst An Overreaching Federal Government

We have spent the past three posts covering the various measures, in some cases extreme measures, that states and individuals are taking to protect their freedom and liberty and force the Federal government and Washington political class to adhere to the tenets of the Constitution. Never before has such civil disobedience to the dictates of the Federal government been so strong and widespread, leaving one to ponder the question: what happens if the Federal government passes a law that no one obeys?

Is it still a law if it is completely ignored? And more importantly, if such widespread rejection of a Washington law becomes the norm, can the center hold as far as being a country and nation? Fascinating questions for a fascinating, and dangerous, time.

We had thought we would be done by now with the update in his area. However, as quickly as we write, more state level and individual citizen actions come to the forefront that need to be reported and discussed. The first post in this series can be reviewed at:

http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2014/03/will-center-hold-part-1-americans-and.html

Let’s see where the latest action is:

1) In early March, 2014 the Georgia state government legislature passed legislation which called for a Convention of States to amend the U.S. Constitution, as allowed under Article V of the U.S. Constitution. The legislation restricts the convention to topics of limiting the power of the Federal government and establishing term limits for Federal politicians. Georgia’s House of Representatives voted 107-58 to pass the measure, which previously had passed the state Senate.

“An Article V Convention of States would provide an opportunity for the citizens of this great nation to restore the balance of power between the states and the federal government,” Republican state Rep. Buzz Brockway of Lawrenceville said in a statement. Brockway called for other states to do the same in order to rein in the runaway spending and actions of the Federal government.

2) It could be that other states are heeding Mr. Brockway’s advice. Legislation calling for a Convention of States was recently passed by the Alaska House Finance Committee. Its sponsor, state Rep. Tammie Wilson of North Pole, Alaska, said she introduced the bill because she is fed up with Federal government overreach: “The federal government is just not listening to us. The states have certain rights. The Founding Fathers put this process in place for a reason.”

As with Georgia and other state initiatives, the Alaska legislation also specifies that a convention must be limited in what it can consider, as critics have raised the danger of a “runaway” convention that could either take on an ambitious Constitutional rewrite or end up with so many distractions that it fails to accomplish anything. Specifically, Alaska resolution, HJR 22, demands that Congress convene a “convention of the states to propose amendments to the Constitution that impose fiscal restraints on the federal government, limit the power and jurisdiction of the federal government, and limit the terms of office of federal government officials.”

Supporters of the Alaska effort point to a runaway national debt level of over $17 TRILLION that the Washington political class seem unable to control, wasteful spending on pork barrel and crony programs and projects, and an out of control EPA that has exceeded its lawful parameters.

3) Texas voters recently went to the polls to vote on a variety of political office races and issues. Six of the issues on the ballot received overwhelming support in favor of less Federal government intervention in our lives and/or better and saner Federal policies. These ballot questions and the total voting results include the following issues:

• 93% of the Texas voters called for the repeal of Obama Care and the hassles, expenses, and taxes that come with it, only 7% opposed repeal.
• 95% of Texas voters voted in favor of people receiving tax payer funded welfare payments and other government assistance be subject to random drug testing as a condition of receiving those welfare benefits, 5% opposed mandatory testing.
• A whopping 99% of the voters said that all elected officials and their staff should be subject to the same laws, rules, regulations, and ordinances as their constituents, only 1% opposed such a requirement.
• 87% of Texas voters support Second Amendment rights and liberties and want to expand locations where concealed handgun license-holders may legally carry, 13% opposed expansion.
• 97% of voters said they should be free to express their religious beliefs, including prayer, in public places. Only 3% opposed such freedom.
• 88% of Texas voters said the state should abolish the state franchise tax, also known as the margins tax, to encourage business growth, 12% want the tax to remain.

Given that the Federal government presses ahead with the disaster known as Obama Care, continually hands out welfare money without any strings attached, continually exempts themselves from their own legislation, continually attack gun possession rights, continually attacks the religious rights of Christians throughout the country and military, and continually increases taxes and spending to no avail as far as improving the economy, it is pretty evident that at least the people and voters in Texas are fed up with Federal government mandates and controls.

4) As we have pointed out previously, the disgust with government and the American political class is not just with Washington. Many citizens across the country are disgusted with their state political class as well, feeling that those in their state government positions are also out of control and out of touch with citizens that they are supposed to be representing.

As a result, there is a small but growing movement across the country where citizens are making plans and a push to split off from their current state and form new states with new state governments:

• Jefferson, a new state on the west coast, would be made up of Northern California and Southern Oregon.
• A new state called Western Maryland would split off from the current state of Maryland.
• A new state called Northern Colorado would be formed from within the current state of Colorado.
• There is a movement afoot to split California into six new states since some feel that the state government in Sacramento is totally out of touch with people far away from the state capital.

Becoming a new state, while allowed by the Constitution, faces many hurdles and would eventually have to be approved by the U.S. Congress. However, as we have seen, people around the country have reached a point of frustration and disgust with their current politicians, whether they are in Washington or their local state capital, they are willing and anxious to take the difficult steps of slapping down overreaching governments and the politicians that operate them regardless of where they are.

5) One last bit of rebellion for this month. In late February, 2014, the state of Alabama’s House of Representatives passed a resolution calling for a Convention of the States under Article V of the Constitution. As with other states, the Alabama effort would explicitly limit the purpose of the Convention to just three issues in order to keep things under control: 1) Proposing a balanced budget amendment, 2) Reining in power/jurisdiction of the Federal government and 3) Implementing Federal officials’ term limits.

That will do it for now but rest assured that this will likely not be the last time we need to review the growing and widespread disgust with the American political class as state governments and individual citizens take action to protect their freedoms, lives, and financial well being against an out of control and inept set of politicians.

Keep in mind the still outstanding question of our times: what if the Federal government passes a law and no one obeys it?

Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:

www.loathemygovernment.com

It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

Please visit the following sites for freedom:

Term Limits Now: http://www.howmuchworsecoulditget.com
http://www.reason.com
http://www.cato.org
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w

Will The Center Hold, Part 2: Americans Fight Back Against An Overreaching Federal Government

Yesterday, we discussed a growing phenomenon in this country, one that could have serious national unity and Constitutional implications down the road, namely the fact that states and their citizens are taking steps to force back the overreaching control and authority of the Federal government. From Obama Care to Common Core to drone surveillance, people outside of Washington are pushing back on a Federal government that is growing out of control. Which raises a potential and interesting scenario: what if Washington passed a law and no one obeyed it?

We continue that review and discussion today and tomorrow with more examples of the rest of the country telling Washington, “enough is enough.”

1) News reports indicate that up to eight states have introduced state government legislation that would attempt to keep the NSA out of their states in order to help protect and preserve the Fourth Amendment. However, it appears that Tennessee may be taking the strongest stand against the massive snooping and spying on American citizens by the NSA:

• The “Tennessee Fourth Amendment Protection Act” is working its way through both the senate and house in the state government.
• State senator Stacey Campfield is a sponsor of the legislation: “We have an out of control federal agency spying on pretty much everybody in the world. I don’t think the state of Tennessee should be helping the NSA violate the Constitution and the basic privacy rights of its citizens – and we don’t have to. This bill may not stop the NSA, but it will darn sure stop Tennessee from participating in unjustified and illegal activities.”
• Tennessee is very important in the fight against the illegal and immoral snooping of the NSA since s long-standing, secret NSA computing facility is located Oak Ridge, Tennessee.
• Expert sources claim that the NSA runs most of the data it gathers “from code breaking to word captures,” through computers at it’s facility in Oak Ridge.
• The legislation tries to impede the NSA by “refusing material support, participation, or assistance, to any federal agency which claims the power, or with any federal law, rule, regulation, or order which purports to authorize the collection of electronic data or metadata of any person pursuant to any action not based on a warrant that particularly describes the person, place and thing to be searched and seized.” In other words, protect the rights of state citizens that are guaranteed under the Fourth Amendment.
• Specifically, the legislation 1) Prohibits state and local agencies from providing any material support to the NSA within their domain including the prevention of government-owned utilities from providing water and electricity to NSA operations, 2) makes information gathered without a warrant by the NSA and shared with law enforcement inadmissible in state court, 3) blocks public universities from serving as NSA research facilities or recruiting grounds and 4) disincentivizes private entities and businesses who might try to fill the NSA’s needs not fulfilled in the absence of state cooperation.

Wow, good for Tennessee and their attempt to bring sanity and privacy to the citizens in their state relative to the Federal government’s invasion of privacy without due cause or warrants. 

2) In late January, 2014, the state of Missouri introduced legislation that would prohibit the state from complying with the education dictates within the Federal government’s Common Core education curriculum. The proposed legislation, SB514, would prohibit the state board of education and all other state educational departments from implementing any aspect of Common Core’s education standards. Missouri state Senator John Lamping is the main sponsor of the bill that quite clearly states its aim as: 

“Any actions taken to adopt or implement the Common Core State Standards as of the effective date of this section are void.”

The Federal government is deeply involved in both the formulation and implementation of Common Core, an effort that is Constitutionally not a Federal government function.

Privacy advocates and home school supporters have serious concerns about the growing Federal government’s invasion of privacy and centralization of power within the Common Core tenets. There are intrusive data mining efforts required throughout the law as well as further erosion of state control over education.

Common Core gives the Federal government the power to collect all kinds of data from children including Social Security numbers, blood type, records of school attendance, supposed learning disabilities, religious affiliation, disciplinary records, parents’ income information. Many believe that the Common Core curriculum also degrades current teaching processes and materials and replaces it with a “one size fits all” ineffective teaching approach and associated materials.

Missouri, along with other states, are standing up to the Federal bureaucrats and their intrusion into an important area of life that they are not entitled to intrude into, the education of our kids.

3) But Missouri and its state legislators are not stopping with Common Core. In late February, Missouri House Representative Mike Moon, along with 16 additional state government representatives, filed HCR 41, calling for an Article V Convention of States to restrain the power, scope, and jurisdiction of the Federal government.

The reason for the bill? According to Representative Moon: “There is virtually no one who believes Washington is not broken and completely out of control, If this is not a time to take another hard look at the Framer’s core mechanism for balancing power between the states and the federal government – there will never be one.”

Keith Carmichael, who is the director for the Missouri Convention of States Project, further explained, “As I visit with state legislators, I try to impress on them that they not only have the opportunity to use Article V as a tool to save this Republic—they have the duty to use it. An unfounded ‘fear’ of using Article V for any reason gives us all a Constitution without it – which is not the one that was ratified; not the one many Americans have sworn an oath to uphold; and not the one many have died to protect.”

To allay misconceptions around using Article V to call an amending Convention of States, Missouri state representatives have also filed the “Article V Convention Delegate Limitation Act” (HB 2036). This legislation would define and outline rules and guidelines for choosing delegates, recalling delegates, and upholding their oath to limit proposals to the topics outlined in HCR 41. Such legislation is meant to ensure that delegates stay within their prescribed limits in a Convention of States.

4) A few more examples of states and citizens fighting back. Late in 2013, the state of Kansas passed a state level nullification gun law its “Second Amendment Protection Act." This legislation states that guns that are made and owned in Kansas, including semi-automatic weapons, are not subject to Federal firearms regulations under the Second Amendment. Any Federal agents who try to enforce the Federal gun control laws can be penalized. 

5) According to a NewsMax article from early March, 2014, Michigan, Virginia, California, and Alaska have enacted laws that nullify a part of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), a part of that legislation that gives the Federal government the power to indefinitely detain individuals without due process of law, an action that is a direct attack on the freedom underpinnings of this country’s heritage.

Similar bills voiding this aspect of the NDAA have been introduced in 10 states, while in two states, South Carolina and New Hampshire, legislation nullifying the Federal law has been passed in at least one legislative chamber.

An Idaho state government lawmaker recently introduced a bill to prevent nearly every EPA regulation from taking effect in the state. The bill’s sponsor, Paul Shepherd, told the Lewiston Tribune that he introduced the proposal at the request of suction dredge miners who were sick and tired of the Federal oversight trouncing on their right to work and earn a living: "It appears the EPA bureaucracy has an agenda in its interpretation of what pollution is," and that his "bill pertains to any regulations not approved by the people."

The NewsMax article quotes legal scholars that the chance of many of these actions standing up to court scrutiny is quite small. However, that is not stopping the movement, with the article pointing out that multiple states are joining forces to fight the Federal government as a single united bloc on "returning healthcare to state management, for restoring federal land management to states with significant acreage, and possibly for retention of highway funds while phasing down the federal gas tax."

Fascinating and potentially dangerous stuff. For example, what happens when a Federal agent tries to arrest a Kansas resident for owning a gun that is legal under Kansas law? It can never be a thing good when three parties have guns and two of those three parties are aligned against the third party on a hot button issue like the Second Amendment.

What happens when an EPA official tries to shut down an Idaho mining operation and the mine and its state representatives say no thanks?

What happens when a state suspends the Federal gasoline tax in the state, keeping the money for itself and the residents of that state? Does the Federal government go gas station to gas station to collect back taxes?

Again, the chances of success may be small but in reality, the Federal government needs the states and the states’ employees and operations to make its programs go in a large number of instances. Civil disobedience, regardless of what the courts say, could effectively shut down many, if not most, Federal government programs. As the cases wind through the courts, likely taking years, the states and ordinary citizens can shut down many Federal programs.

When the Federal government screws up as much as it does, when the President’s job approval is at a low point and trending down, when the approval rating of Congress is only about 10%, when the national debt is over $17 TRILLION, when the Federal government is so incompetent that it cannot even build a simple website despite spending over $600 million and having three years to do so, people eventually say screw it, we will do it ourselves.

That is what is happening now and the question still remains: if the Federal government passed a law and no one obeyed it, is it still a law? More tomorrow as we explore whether or not “the center will hold.”

Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:

www.loathemygovernment.com

It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

Please visit the following sites for freedom:

Term Limits Now: http://www.howmuchworsecoulditget.com
http://www.reason.com
http://www.cato.org
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w