Monday, April 4, 2016

Secession Hypocrisy: The Case of West Virginia

 https://a4cgr.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/lincoln-wanted.jpg

Many people know that the state of West Virginia came to be during the Civil War, but very few know that its admission to the union was particularly controversial. Even in the north, free from the influence of the departed southern states, many opposed Lincoln’s desire to admit West Virginia. Opposing Lincoln’s ultimate stance, those who offered candid deference to the Constitution considered Congress’ enabling act that admitted West Virginia as an unconstitutional usurpation.

Still, the genesis of West Virginia’s a complex story, beginning with Virginia’s response to an impending demonstration of force against the south. On April 16, 1861, Lincoln called for 75,000 troops to be raised while Congress was not in session. The new force’s sole purpose was to prepare for an invasion of the southern states. For the first time in American history, a president intended to raise an army by himself without congressional approval. Additionally, he aimed to direct the forces to invade American states and use force against any opposition that stood in his way.

In response, an assembly comprised of delegates representing all of Virginia’s counties organized a convention to consider secession. This was hardly a rush to judgment – just two weeks earlier, a prior convention in the state consciously voted against an ordinance of secession, hoping for a compromise to be adopted. Several settlement plans had been proposed in Congress, and war was not a foregone conclusion at that point. Despite the urgings of the states in the Deep South that had already seceded, Virginia embraced a candid course for resolution before May.

Why Trump’s Antiwar Message Resonates with White America

Via Ryan @ Hard Right America


MY grandma — we called her Mamaw — loved her country. Born in eastern Kentucky coal country at the beginning of the Great Depression, she credited so much of the good in her life to America’s bounty. When I interviewed her about her life for a school project, she spent most of the time talking about World War II: her dad’s love letters from the Pacific; how her younger brother lied about his age in an effort to enlist. “We did it,” she told me, still beaming with pride more than a half-century later. “We freed the whole world from tyranny.”

Mamaw said something else entirely when, just a few weeks after America invaded Iraq, I told her that I had enlisted in the Marine Corps. “You’re a grade-A idiot,” she shouted, and though her anger stemmed in part from worry, I knew that she saw the conflict as the indulgence of an elite president who knew nothing of sacrifice. She liked George W. Bush’s folksy demeanor and admired his Christian faith, but as the war dragged on, her criticisms grew increasingly personal.

More @ The New York Times

How To Make A Grown Man Cry :)

 
 

Religious life here I come!

At the age of 7, I had the seeds of being a consecrated religious planted within my heart.  At 17, I resolved to study religious studies at a Catholic University.  Graduating Notre Dame de Namur Univ. with a double B.A. in religious studies and sociology in 2004, I have since been working with children as a teacher, tutor, nanny, and behavior therapist.  I will gladly send you some homemade bread for your donation to my fund and please be assured of many prayers as well as graces for you for your generosity!

Please let me know if you would prefer Feta Cheese Cranberry, Apple Banana Peanut Butter Chocolate, or Apple Almond butter bread.  I can also send personalized note cards hand painted or drawn!  I truly appreciate your prayers as well and would love to send you email correspondence with updates of this journey before I enter the convent.  God love and bless you always dearest friends in Christ!
More @ Go Fund Me

Burns Chronicles No 18 1984

 big-brother-is-watching-you-1984-george-orwell

Count 5 of the Superseding Indictment reads:

(Theft of Government Property)
(18 U.S.C. § 641)

On or about January 15, 2016, in the District of Oregon, defendants JON RITZHEIMER and RYAN BUNDY, willfully and knowingly, did steal, purloin, and convert to their use and the use of another cameras and related equipment, the value of which exceeded $1000, which is property of the United States government, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 641.

The Statute cited is:

18 U.S.C. § 641: Public money, property or records

WATCH: Violence Breaks Out at Austria-Italy Border Over New Immigration Controls

Via Mike
 

Demonstrations by pro-migrant social centers at the Austrian Brenner border with Italy tuned violent Sunday, with protesters hurling stones and flares at the Austrian police, injuring five officers, according to reports.

Some 700 protesters from Italy, Austria and Germany spent the day on Sunday at the Brenner Pass, publicly criticizing Austria’s plans to deploy soldiers at the Brenner border to deal with rising numbers of migrants trying to get to northern Europe.

The demonstrators gathered in front of the Italian train station near the crossing and from there marched across the border into Austria. A number of the protesters wore life jackets to call to mind the migrants who have drowned trying to cross the sea into Europe.

Austrian riot police numbered approximately 100 officers, aided by a helicopter, and the Red Cross was present with seven ambulances as well.

More @ Breitbart

Mark Dice: They Are ‘trying to incite some psycho to take out Donald Trump’

Via David


Youtuber Mark Dice just released a vid Thursday, detailing the fact that continuous death threats are being issued against Republican Presidential Candidate Donald Trump not only by random people, but by competing candidates — most recently of which is Ted Cruz who appeared on the Jimmy Kimmel Live show, which Dice also maintains is “pretaped” and is just another “lie” to dupe the American people.

In the video Dice explained how the strategic comments may actually serve a purpose — to incite someone, a “psycho,” to actually commit murder.

In the video’s description box Dice wrote:

Modernity Has Not Been Kind to the Celt

Via comment by indyjonesouthere on Majority of Americans Now Support Donald Trump’s P...

  

 
Introduction: Why You’re Not Going to Like Anything I Say

I moved to the mountains of southwestern Virginia in August of 2008. Granted, I was relocating to the New River Valley (i.e. Blacksburg) so I didn’t really get to see the heart and soul of this area until I moved out into the country two years later. Nevertheless, it became clear to me, as I hit the Bedford County line that summer afternoon and saw the Blue Ridge rising up in front of me, that I was entering a different world. As it would turn out, the deep, dark hills of western Virginia are different from the plains and coastline in many ways.

Like many in this part of the world, I’m a big fan of the TV show “Justified.” Not only is it well-written and well-acted (and unlike so many television serials, well-ended), but it evokes rural Appalachia in a way that few forms of media are able to do these days. To quote a song from a different time, “Justified” captures the suffering, the sorrow, the glory, and the shame of the mountain culture that has been sadly degraded by its communion with the larger society around it. Truth be told, though, if you’re a native of the mountainous parts of the rural Southeast, your exit from the physical plane probably won’t be at the hands of a career criminal like Boyd Crowder or some violent Oxycontin addict. It’s much more likely that your departure from this mortal coil will be due to the adipose tissue surrounding one or more of your vital organs.

By 2065, No Racial or Ethnic Group Will Be a Majority

Via John

By 2065, No Racial or Ethnic Group Will Be a Majority

A snapshot of the United States in 2065 would show a nation that has 117 million more people than today, with no racial or ethnic majority group taking the place of today’s white majority, according to new Pew Research Center projections. About one-in-three Americans would be an immigrant or have immigrant parents, compared with one-in-four today.

These projections show that new immigrants and their descendants will drive most U.S. population growth in the coming 50 years, as they have for the past half-century. Among the projected 441 million Americans in 2065, 78 million will be immigrants and 81 million will be people born in the U.S. to immigrant parents.

More @ Pew Research

Republican Crisis May Deepen If Trump Loses Wisconsin

Via Billy

http://assets.bwbx.io/images/iQ5NBM.Kcuuo/v1/1200x-1.jpg

A series of blazing red billboards with white capital letters rise above the Wisconsin tree line with a dire warning for conservatives: “The Republican Party Started Here. Vote Trump and It'll End Here, Too.”

But the crisis posed to Republicans on the billboards paid by some of the party's top financiers may be just as severe if Trump fails to claim the nomination.

That's because the goal of the anti-Trump movement—beating the New York businessman in a delegate fight at the party's national convention—risks alienating his motivated base of supporters.

This passionate core of true believers has contributed to record turnout numbers in the first wave of primary polls, and, despite a series of missteps from Trump, they're not wavering in their support for the front-runner.

“If Trump has the most delegates and they go with someone else, I’m out,” said Joe Geiger, a Trump supporter from Kenosha, Wisconsin.

More @ Bloomberg

Mexico tortures migrants – and citizens – in effort to slow Central American surge

Via Billy

Juárez sisters Mexico

Amy and Esther Juárez were edgy with excitement as they boarded the bus full of seasonal workers heading for a farm at the other end of Mexico from their home in the poverty-stricken southern state of Chiapas.

Although their brother Alberto,18, had made the same journey the previous year, it was the first time Amy, 24, and Esther, 15, had left the tiny indigenous community where they had grown up.

But about half-way there, immigration agents boarded the bus, and after checking all the passengers’ papers, ordered the three siblings to get off.

The officials accused them of carrying false documents and lying about their nationality. Then they told the youngsters that they would be deported to Guatemala, a country none would have been able to place on a map.

The Excuse For Everything

Via Merlin


NC: Lt. Gov. Dan Forest takes aim at campus censors

Via Cousin John


The University of North Carolina at Greensboro bans “disrespect.” N.C. Central says students in its dorms must avoid saying or writing anything that “offends.” East Carolina prohibits “jokes about sex or sexual orientation.”

These student polices are known as speech codes, which the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education defines as any policy that “both clearly and substantially restricts freedom of speech.”

The rules flagrantly violate the First Amendment. When challenged in federal court, they are struck down with great gusto. FIRE’s nationwide Stand Up for Speech Litigation Project, which represents students punished for free expression, has yet to lose a case.

But speech codes remain ubiquitous at North Carolina’s public colleges and universities, staining student handbooks and keeping coeds clammed up, fearing disciplinary sanctions if they fail to toe the line.

Lt. Gov. Dan Forest has had enough. The Republican is working with legislative leaders to introduce the Campus Free Expression Act, which would protect speech, assembly, petition and protest rights at all UNC system campuses.

Those Stubborn Facts: In Manufacturing, US is Number…Four

Via Frank

http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/Blogs/The-Avenue/2016/03/15-angry-voters/MM-and-SK-on-Voter-Anger--Manufacturing-Employment-Decline1.jpg?la=en


Switzerland per capita manufacturing output per person, 2014: $15,000

Germany per capita manufacturing output per person, 2014: $9,500

Japan per capita manufacturing output per person, 2014: $7,000

US per capita manufacturing output per person, 2014: $6,500

China per capita manufacturing output per person, 2014: $2,100

Majority of Americans Now Support Donald Trump’s Proposed Muslim Ban, Poll Shows

Via Billy

 



A MAJORITY of Americans now agree with banning all non-citizen Muslims from the United States, according to a new poll coming less than four months after Donald Trump first proposed the policy.

A YouGov/Huffington Post poll published this week found that 51 percent of Americans now support the ban, up from 45 percent in December. The same poll also found strong support for Sen. Ted Cruz’s proposal to “patrol and secure” Muslim neighborhoods, with 45 percent of Americans in favor.

CBM: The Trammps - Hold Back The Night

Here's our 1992 remake of the Philly classic. The Trammps were on tour with my guitar player, Erwin Keiles, and I cut five tracks with them, this one, along with "Feet Don't Fail Me Now", "Conversation", "My Love Is Free" and "Ten Per Cent". We also did another version of this song, "Hold Back The Night", as a sort of duet along with pop group KWS, which charted top thirty. But here's the version we did of just The Trammps, remaking "Hold Back The Night"

Both parties represent the interests of about 20% of the public.

Via WRSA

 https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/d8/TeaPartyByFreedomFan.JPG

The End of Mass Democracy

In modern America, it is impossible to know if what appears in the press is real news or some made-up nonsense intended to trick the public. The increasingly important site Conservative Tree House posted up a sampling of entire fake media people and operations the other day. When you are paid to write on behalf of a party, you’re not a journalist. You are an advocate. When you are an advocate posing as an independent media, you are a fraud.

Even though much of what is in the press is agit-prop, there’s information to be gleaned from it. This story in Bloomberg the other day about how the GOP is preparing to end popular selection of their nominees is a good example. Ostensibly, the “report” is about how they will navigate a brokered convention. What they really want to do is introduce the idea of ending the primary system or at least severely curtailing it.

The Democrats have largely made their primary system a beauty contest. The super delegate system lets party officials put their thumb on the scale to the point where Clinton could lose the rest of the primaries and still win the nomination. Of the 2382 delegates at the Democrat convention, 712 will be controlled by the party. In other words, Sanders will have to have own 71% of the delegates in the primaries to win the nomination.

An important thing to remember about America politics in the technocratic era is that there is only one party.

More @ The Z Man

NC: Will Freedom Survive? Have Super-PACs and Dark Money Stolen our Birthright?


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Mike Scruggs

On January 21, 2010, the Supreme Court of the United States decided a case, Citizens United versus the Federal Election Commission, which has dramatically changed the relative influence of American voters on government policy for the worse. The average voter is scarcely aware or as yet much concerned that his relative influence and voice have been reduced to a whisper beside giant Political Action Committees (super-PACs) that spend unlimited millions on political and media propaganda campaigns. Moreover, legal arrangements can now hide the identity of donors in what are called “dark money” PACs. This has probably already resulted in laundering foreign or criminal money and influence into U.S. election campaigns. How much Muslim Brotherhood money from Saudi Arabia and Qatar enters our political arena or directly influences our political leaders? How much Sharia Finance influence buys or defeats bills before the North Carolina and South Carolina legislatures? Furthermore, there seems to be little accountability for truth in the PAC advertising I have seen in 2016 Presidential Primaries.

Campaign finance money has always been important to winning political campaigns. Communication is all-important to the persuasion of voters, and unless candidates have a genius for generating free, favorable media exposure, the costs of buying competitive media exposure in print, mail, telephone, television, radio, and internet are tremendous, especially for federal or state executive and legislative offices. Door to door campaigning is quite effective but time and energy generally limit it to a small fraction of voters.

Campaign financing is crucial to both major parties and even more to third parties and third party candidates that do not have high name recognition and issue identity. It is much more important to Republicans, because most of the communication and education media favor liberal and therefore Democratic Party agendas.  In addition, the Democrats usually have considerable automatic income and manpower advantages because of their close identity with labor unions. Furthermore, due to a historical consensus that huge donors should not dominate fiscal support for candidates and thereby dominate elections, campaign donations by individuals and organizations have traditionally been limited by ceilings of several thousand dollars. This, however, had the effect of making it even harder for Republicans to compete against liberal media dominance and labor union dues and manpower. This also tended to suppress free speech for those who had the money to influence elections and public opinion, often defensively, but were severely limited by the Federal Election Commission in doing so.
    
The Citizens United decision by the Supreme Court was at first celebrated as a victory for conservatives, but its supposedly unforeseen consequences now threaten to place overwhelming political power in the hands of giant international corporations, business associations, compliant banks and unaccountable government.  Super-PACs had an enormous impact on the 2014 Congressional elections, and that is why The Republican victories were predominantly Republican establishment victories rather than conservative victories.

Whether the public noticed it or not, in 2014, the Republican establishment was campaigning hard and deceptively for more foreign cheap labor, the exact opposite of what their grass-roots conservative constituents wanted. A PAC headed by establishment GOP RINO, Senator John McCain, even spent $1,000,000 trying to defeat NC Third District conservative Republican Congressman Walter Jones. The liberal pro-amnesty GOP establishment is lining up again to try to defeat Jones in 2016. May God forbid!

According to the Institute of Southern Studies in Durham, independent PACs not associated directly with a candidate, but supporting that candidate and attacking their opponents, have spent $270 million so far in the Presidential primaries.  More than $87 million spent supporting Bush and $60 million supporting Rubio were spectacular failures.  As with the Congressional primaries in 2014, the lion’s share of independent PAC spending has gone to candidates supporting amnesty and increased legal cheap foreign labor.

But in North Carolina state legislative primaries, the $1.4 million independent PAC spending reported to date helped elect 77 percent of their candidates. More than $350,000 was spent by the North Carolina Chamber of Commerce. The NC Chamber spends most heavily on candidates that support amnesty and increased cheap foreign labor. Thus they often oppose conservative candidates.

In the 48th NC Senate District Chuck Edwards received outside PAC support of $47,800, tenth highest in the state. Lisa Baldwin received none. Only $13,000 of this PAC support shows up on his Disclosure Report to the NC Board of Elections (NCBE) as of his March 7 filing. $3,500 of it comes from five typically pro-amnesty, pro-cheap foreign labor PACs.  This includes the four PACs  generally associated with the heaviest amnesty and cheap-labor support—The North Carolina Chamber of Commerce, the NC Farm Bureau, The Home Builders, and the Restaurant and Lodging PAC.  But the $1,000 from the Restaurant and Lodging PAC was not surprising or significant, since Edwards is a McDonald’s owner and would probably receive their support whatever his position on immigration issues.  These four organizations actually wrote key parts of NCHB 786 in 2013, which called for driver permits to be given to illegal immigrant workers and for weakening North Carolina’s E-Verify system to prevent hiring of illegal immigrant workers. The driver license provision, however, was struck from the 2013 bill because of public protest.  In 2015, they also presumably wrote a substantial part of NCHB 328, which had the same provision giving driver permits to illegal immigrants. This would have passed the General Assembly, but it was not given a final vote because of growing public outrage on illegal immigration.  According to the NCBE, Edwards’ campaign received just over $26,900 from individuals. He also financed campaign expenditures with money borrowed from himself, a very common practice. As of March 7, his campaign had spent just over $92,000. As yet unreported are the four high quality mail brochures printed and mailed by the NC Chamber, costing perhaps tens of thousands more. Note that $34,800 in PAC support had not yet been reported as of March 7.

Edwards won his campaign handily with 56 percent of the vote against 34 percent for Lisa Baldwin and 10 percent for Dennis Justice. As of March 7, Edwards’ NCBE Report showed spending of over $5.52 per vote, not counting the expensive looking mail brochures printed and mailed by the NC Chamber.  Lisa Baldwin spent $4,500 on her total campaign or slightly over $0.45 per vote.
    
Although Edwards was elected as a special interest candidate probably willing to support liberal positions on immigration, he now has the opportunity to prove he will serve the people rather than cheap-labor interests. What needs to happen is for the voters to take a keen interest in how immigration issues impact their community, state, and country. That will take some independent study on their part. They should keep in mind that illegal immigrant households receive over $14,000 per year more in benefits and services than they pay in all kinds of taxes. According to the Federation of Americans for Immigration Reform, this costs North Carolina taxpayers $2.0 billion per year, at least $1.75 billion net after tax collections.  Who benefits and who loses from this? Another thing to consider is that excess labor supply, whether legal or illegal, costs American workers nearly $2,800 per year per worker in depressed wages. There are other costs to public safety, educational quality, and national security that are unpopular to mention but are very real and a very legitimate concern for all North Carolina voters. Yet we are allowing  political correctness and massive outside super-PAC spending to dominate our elections and prevent the tough common sense decisions necessary for the survival of freedom.