Scalia, the Constitution, and the Court

 

With the recent passing of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, folks are writhing in fear over the prospect of Obama appointing a new SC Judge. “This”, they say, “could be the most monumental appointment in history and could drastically change our political landscape” and this “is especially true with regards to how the 2nd Amendment is interpreted.”

This is all true, if you buy into the erroneous notion that the Supreme Court is the final arbiter of constitutionality, and if the States do hot adhere to their duty, as Madison said, to “interpose for arresting the progress of evil” when a branch of the general government assumes powers never consented to it.

Scalia’s death has exposed what many who have studied the constitution’s history have said for years: That the court has assumed too much power in anointing itself -through “case law” and “court precedent”, rather than actual “constitutionalism”- as “the final say” on what the constitution means.

This is not what the Founders intended, and it is not what the constitution allows.

More @ The Abbeville Institute

GOP BOSSES SPIT IN THE VOTERS' FACES

Via Wes

 Bob Lonsberry

VERBATIM

You're not fighting Trump. 

You're fighting the people who are voting for him. 

The anti-Trump effort being waged by the Republican Party is essentially a fight against democracy. 

It's not that this monster has raised himself up to threaten the ivory castles of the blue bloods, it's that millions of people have stood up and said, “Enough is enough.” 

It is they against whom the GOP establishment is fighting. 

And that fight never turns out well. 

Donald Trump isn't Barry Goldwater in 1964, he is Andrew Jackson in 1828. He is going to storm the White House, and he is going to bring his unwashed hordes with him. The Trump campaign is built on the uniquely American premise that the people are sovereign, and that does not jibe with cozy arrangements of the country-club Republicans. For too long, the Republican Party has exploited its constituencies, instead of served them, and the beaten dog is about to bite.

Some have gone off after Ted Cruz, but most have gone off after Donald Trump.

Together, something approaching 80 percent of Republican voters thus far this primary season have told the party establishment to pound salt. You have the clueless elite, and then you have the voters who actually care about America.

And they have picked up a baseball bat to drive the money changers from the temple. 

It might be Trump who is being slammed upside the GOP head, but it is not Trump doing the slamming. It is the American people. Veterans and taxpayers, moms and dads, young and old. They are tired of being screwed, they are tired of being ignored, they are tired of being played. 

And Trump is their tool. 

And the Republican Party can resist them at its peril. 

Because the people will be heard. In this party, or the other party, or in a new party. In this election, or a future election, but certainly someday they will be heard. What Donald Trump has done is crack open the door of opportunity, he has given the voters a choice other than Party Hack A versus Party Hack B. When you give the people a chance to order something that's not on the menu, they do it. 

Bernie tried on the Democrat side, and has failed. 

Trump is trying on the Republican side, and is succeeding. 

And the party is losing. 

Every time you stand up and tell the voters that they are wrong, every time you disavow the results of your own party's primaries, every time you pledge to disqualify the candidate backed by the people, you unleash a firestorm of pent-up electoral rage. Traditional Republican voters have been punked by their party in election after election, with promises unkept and problems unsolved for generations on end. They are now joined by new voters who are unaccustomed to docility and disrespect. 

And it's payback time. 

While the Republican bosses go on the evening news to say, “Let them eat cake,” Republican voters go to the ballot box and say, “Let them eat lead.” This is one of those elections where they dip their finger in ink and hold it aloft as a sign they've voted. Except in this case it's the middle finger. 

And, yes, the goal is the White House, the objective is the federal government. But right now the Republican establishment stands in the way, and it can either be part of the solution or it can be part of the roadkill. 

Thus far it seems intent on self-destruction. 

And that's fine by me. 

Last night the people spoke, and the Republican bigwigs went into the backrooms to debate brokered conventions and third-party candidacies. Little did they realize that they were writing the last details of their own political obituaries. 

Because this isn't about Trump. 

It's about the people who vote for him, in record numbers. People who have flocked to the Republican ballot box in numbers unknown since the days of Reagan. The pigs at the trough of Republican power are condemning their party in the name of self-interest. They've got theirs, and they'll be damned if anyone else is going to get any. 

But they fight the unbeatable foe. 

The American people. 

The Republican Party is not trying to steal this election from Donald Trump, it is trying to steal it from the American people. It is trying to deny the franchise to those who fail to kiss its arse. It is declaring Trump voters second-class citizens.
And that never ends well. 

A fish rots from the head, and all the Republican Party needs is a good decapitation. 

Which every party attack on Donald Trump and his voters makes ever more certain.

- by Bob Lonsberry © 2016

Another Hate Crime: Third Marine Says He Was Beaten Unconscious

 

Grant Gray, who enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps in 2011 and spent most of 2015 serving in Afghanistan, tells Columbus, Ohio police he was the target of a hate crime.

Gray says he doesn’t remember much, but the officer who responded to the call said Gray was “stumbling” and recalled being beaten by three black men who repeatedly referred to him as “white.”

“I’m not going to lie to you. I have a concussion and I really don’t know the full details,” Gray told police. “I even had an Apple watch on and they didn’t steal that.”

More @ Breitbart

NC: Mo Brooks: 'Communist sympathizer' Maya Angelou doesn't deserve post office honor

Via Billy

A proposal to name a North Carolina post office after poet Maya Angelou received a "no" vote from Alabama Rep. Mo Brooks, who questioned if the late author merited the honor.

Brooks and eight other Republicans voted against the resolution to rename a post office in Winston-Salem after Angelou, a Missouri native who spent much of her life in North Carolina.

Angelou died in 2014.

Brooks said he opposed the proposal due to Angelou's support of communism, particularly her backing of Cuban leader Fidel Castro.

More @ AL

The Harassment of the Hammonds – Act I – Scene 2 – October 24 1986 – March 20 1987

 

Note: Numbers shown thus, {nn} refer to PDF page numbers in the "Hammond Legal Trailing Part I" PDF file. 

On October 24, 1986, Dwight Hammond met with the Tom Downs, Dave Johnson, and the Assistant Refuge Manager, to discuss stray cattle and "trailing", the means of herding to move cattle from one location to another.  Dwight discussed his practice during round up, and what he did with strays that were collected with his herd.  {2-3} He didn't think that he should notify people when he trailed his cattle, based upon "past prior rights and/or privileges". 

Apparently, a new policy was being implemented that placed even more obligations on an already hard working rancher.

When on the Refuge land, Dwight would allow his cattle to rest, and when they did, they grazed on grass that was not on his allotment.  A Telephone Conversation Record, dated Feb. 13, 1987 {4}, provides notes of the conversation, within the agencies.

In a letter from Lawrence W. De Bates, Assistant Regional Director, Fish and Wildlife Services (FWS) {10}, dated February 20, 1987, based upon a meeting on the 17th, the follow-up implies that Dwight must move his cattle at a pace determined by the Refuge, and they should not graze off the assigned trail.  He further defends the fencing within the Refuge "for wildlife management purposes".  Finally, he requires Dwight to get a permit to trail his cattle on the reserve.  This is the first instance of requiring a permit to trail his cattle. 

More @ Outpost Of Freedom

NC: An Open Letter & Open Report / Black History Month Part 6

 

H.L. Hunley Funeral/Parade: HK & Dixie

In the continuing effort to commemorate Black History Month, on February 17, 2016, don in the uniform of the Southern Soldier, I would post his Colors between the entrance and exit of T.C. Roberson High School ( Buncombe County, North Carolina ).

As the throng of cars entering and leaving the school would began to slow to a trickle,a Sheriff Car would pull up behind me, and two young Deputies would approach as I returned a salute from a passing car, and a wave from another from both sides of the busy four lane highway adjacent to where I stood in the public easement.

The young Black Officer would say;" Mr. Edgerton, we are not here to ask you to leave. However, we are obliged by the school to tell you not to come on school property, and we are also obliged to help you should you need that help". Stay as long as you like.

My reply as I gave them both a hand salute; God bless you men, and have a good day! And you as well, they would almost simultaneously say. And, I did so much so as I watched the spirits of the people so uplifted by my presence with the Southern Cross. Their hugs, their waves, their shouts of the Rebel Yell, the honks of their car horn, the stories they came to tell, the questions they asked.

On my birthday, February 18; the same day that the Honorable President Jefferson Davis would give his 1st Inaugural Address on the Capitol Steps in Montgomery, Alabama; I would return once again to T.C. Roberson High School to commemorate men like Dr. Alexander Darnes , Rev. Mack Lee, Robert Stover, Dick Popular. And of the love, and deep respect they and their families  shared with and for General Robert E.Lee, General Thomas Jackson, General John Hunt Morgan, General Nathan Bedford Forrest,General Kirby Smith  and so many others whose generosity and love would lead them to become giants in the legacy of Black History second to none ;no matter how much those who are delegated to present and record accurate history choose to ignore. God bless you!
                                              

Your brother,

 HK

 Honorary Life Member Arkansas Division ; Army of Trans-Mississippi

 Sons of Confederate Veterans

www.southernheritage411.com

NATO commander: The Islamic State is “spreading like cancer” among Muslim migrants to Europe

Via Billy

Anyone could have and should have seen this coming. But no one in power cared to do so.

Last February, the Islamic State boasted it would soon flood Europe with as many as 500,000 refugees. And the Lebanese Education Minister recently said that there were 20,000 jihadis among the refugees in camps in his country. Meanwhile, 80% of migrants who have recently come to Europe claiming to be fleeing the war in Syria aren’t really from Syria at all.

So why are they claiming to be Syrian and streaming into Europe, and now the U.S. as well? An Islamic State operative gave the answer when he boasted in September, shortly after the migrant influx began, that among the flood of refugees, 4,000 Islamic State jihadis had already entered Europe. He explained their purpose: “It’s our dream that there should be a caliphate not only in Syria but in all the world, and we will have it soon, inshallah.” These Muslims were going to Europe in the service of that caliphate: “They are going like refugees,” he said, but they were going with the plan of sowing blood and mayhem on European streets. As he told this to journalists, he smiled and said, “Just wait.” We are waiting in the U.S. as well.

More @ Jihad Watch

Marco Rubio Has a Second Amendment Problem

 

When Marco Rubio was a local commissioner in Florida in 1999, he voted to ban guns from local parks.

Now, politicians make mistakes. And honest politicians “fess up” and move on.

Rubio's problem is that, when Senator Ted Cruz called attention to Rubio's anti-gun vote, Marco’s response was to call Ted a “liar.”

This was part of a larger narrative in which Donald Trump and Rubio were hurling “pants on fire” insults at Cruz.

But when Rubio disavowed his 1999 anti-gun vote -- falsely accusing Ted Cruz of Rubio's own sins -- he made a serious mistake.

Because it turns out that Breitbart had a videotape of Rubio casting the anti-gun vote which he was denying. 

More @ Breitbart

Mississippi will fight Confederate flag lawsuit

Via Billy

Mississippi's attorney general says he will defend the Confederate-themed state flag against a lawsuit that seeks to remove the banner, even though he thinks the flag hurts the state and should change.

Democrat Jim Hood said Wednesday that his opinion about state laws won't prevent him from fulfilling his oath to defend them.

More @ AL

Captain Clay Higgins announces resignation

Via Greg

 

St. Landry Sheriff's Capt. Clay Higgins, popular for Crime Stoppers segments, resigns: 'I'd die rather than sacrifice my ...

The Federalist - If forced into a choice between Clinton and Trump, I will prefer Hillary Clinton.

Ol' Remus 

I Want To Live To See Jane Fonda Die

The Federalist - If forced into a choice between Clinton and Trump, I will prefer Hillary Clinton. This is a painful choice, but the need to live to fight another day is why conservatives should adopt a Hamilton Rule if, God forbid, the choice comes down to Hillary and Trump. My hands almost could not type those words, because I think Hillary Clinton is one of the worst human beings in American politics. But Trump will be worse. Morally unmoored, emotionally unstable, a crony capitalist of the worst kind.

  The Federalist and similar outfits have revealed themselves for the co-conspirators they are . This is why saving the conservative "movement" or the Republican Party is pointless—save it for what? And what does "live to fight another day" mean? When was the first day? Moderation and compromise isn't fighting. Witty repartee and clever comebacks isn't fighting. Congressmen rolling over after ritual jousting isn't fighting. Career conservatives and Republicans, a.k.a. cuckservatives, are so collegial, so timid, so deep into the game they believe the game is all that matters, worse, they think people with legitimate concerns are an annoying distraction . So support Hillary, but don't tell me how self-sacrificing and clever you are. And give Jane Fonda a hug while you're in the neighborhood.

The Harassment of the Hammonds – Act I – Scene 1 – Introduction

 

 Outpost Of Freedom

VERBATIM

Long before the fires (controlled burn in 2002 and a backfire to protect their own property in 2006) that resulted in Dwight and Steven Hammond being imprisoned for 5 years, the dispute over their rights had begun. Nearly four decades of harassment had been directed against them, until, finally, the government could make a very meager case, using a law enacted to cover terrorism, and applied to the Hammonds for doing what the government does, on a regular basis.

The Hammond family had been ranching in Harney County, for many years. They had been grazing on allotments on public lands, and as any rancher, they sought to resolve problems, though resolution had to be practical.

When the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) was the overseer of the land in question, no problems arose. However, when the Fish and Wildlife Services (FWS) became the controlling agency, the protection of wildlife and plants, even to an absurd extreme, became priority, at the risk of a way of life.

The information (cited documents) in the following series, being public records with no indication of any security or confidentiality, were obtained in order to record the history of the Hammond’s relationship with various agencies, in order to continue their business of cattle ranching as they had become accustomed. The documentation revolves around the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge (Refuge).

After 1988, it appears that he problem was solved, as there is no correspondence or entries in the folder to indicate any problems or harassment.

Then, in 1994, we see that the Refuge, once again, tries to obstruct the traditional and historical rights of the Hammonds.

This first Act will cover the decade of the eighties. The second act will cover the decade of the nineties. Throughout Act I, you will find numbers shown thusly, {nn}. They refer to the PDF page numbers in the “Hammond Legal Trailing Part I” PDF file, that being only a portion of the recovered documents. More will be brought out in Act II.