Category Archives: Legal/Political Columns

A collections of my popular ramblings concerning the law, Natural Law, and political issues. Enjoy!

The General Stands Again

08 Thursday Feb 2018

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Sen. Rand Paul, the only sane man left on Capitol Hill, is derisively dubbed “General*Paul” by Lindsey Grahamnesty. Lindsey was himself described recently in Taki’s Mag as “suspiciously swishy.”

Today Dr. Paul, the General (I like that, let’s take it away from them), took a hard stand against the bizarre, if predictable, new budget proposal.

Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul is preventing a two-year budget deal from passing, as the White House advised federal agencies to prepare for the government to start shutting down at midnight.

Congressional negotiators were scrambling earlier Thursday to lock in enough votes in the House, and that was before Paul, a Republican, made public his dissatisfaction with the deal, which would raise government spending, avert a government shutdown and lift the debt ceiling.

A senior administrative official said the White House is instructing agencies to begin shutdown preparations in the event that Congress fails to pass a budget before the midnight deadline.

Paul is pushing for an amendment to maintain budget caps, but Senate sources say leaders have no plan to give Paul such a concession, meaning that he can continue to prevent a vote until after midnight, when government funding runs out.

The colossal bill, which lawmakers have been negotiating for months, would be a game-changing piece of legislation, clearing the decks for Congress in dealing with major spending issues as well as doling out disaster relief money.

The overall deal also does not address the high-profile issue of immigration, a key sticking point for many Democrats; but it does increase spending caps by $300 billion for the Pentagon and domestic priorities, a crucial incentive for getting enough votes from both parties.

The Convertible of State is aimed at the edge of a cliff. The Elephant at the wheel floors the gas pedal. The Donkey passenger shouts, “Go, Man, Go!” This is the bipartisanship the people claim to be all crazy about – “gettin’ the people’s business done!” Most don’t realize they’re in the backseat behind the two dumb animals, headed for the edge at high speed.

I guess Rand is more like a traffic cop than a general. Hey, still a man in uniform, right? Maybe that’s what Grahmnesty meant by the remark; you know, what he digs…

The uniparty hasn’t been able to pass a whole and complete annual budget for about a decade. Stopgap after appropriation after special package after… Now! Now, they’ve got us a twofer in store, doubling down (up) to make up for lost responsibility. Deficits and the debt be damned.

Go ahead. Shut her down. Leave her down.

American history repeats itself: There stands Paul like a stone wall!

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CNN (sightly modified).

*Lindsey ridiculed Dr. Paul for wanting to bring our standing armies home and end the oldest war in US history. (I’ve never used the term “cuck” here, you know). Neocons like Grahamnesty should favor the idea, giving the troops a breather before the next war with Iran and/or North Korea and/or Russia and/or China and/or Whomever it is. You know, the war just after the depression and before the civil…

The FISA Memo, the Surveillance State, the Tin Horn

08 Thursday Feb 2018

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Both “sides” of the uniparty world do well to consider Judge Andrew Napolitano’s assessment of the greater tragedy of the situation (beyond Trump, FBI loyalty, or “Russia”). The players, knowing and not caring, will not. The supporters, largely neither knowing nor caring, wouldn’t even know how to consider. But they should. It has happened.

The journey that domestic spying has taken in 40 years has been one long steady march of massive increase in size and scope. The federal government now employs more than 60,000 people to spy on all Americans, including the White House, the Pentagon, the federal courts and one another. As well, the National Security Agency and the intelligence arm of the FBI have 24/7 access to the computers of all telecoms and computer service providers in the U.S. And certain politicians have access to whatever the NSA and the FBI possess.

…

The surveillance state is now here.

…

The Supreme Court has ruled that electronic surveillance constitutes a search under the Fourth Amendment. That amendment prohibits warrantless searches and requires probable cause of crime as the sole trigger for judges to sign search warrants. FISA only requires probable cause relating to a foreign agent on one end of a phone call — a far lower standard — to trigger a warrant. The government has convinced the FISC that it should grant warrants based on probable cause of talking to someone who has ever spoken to a foreign person, whether an agent of a foreign government or an innocent foreign bookseller.

That judicially created standard is so far afield from the Fourth Amendment as to render it legally erroneous and profoundly unconstitutional. Yet the FISA expansion that the president signed into law last month — after the debate during which House Intelligence Committee Republicans intentionally remained mute about their allegations of FISA abuses — purports to make this Stasi-like level of surveillance lawful.

…

Predictable misuse of a terrible standard attached to an unlawful act which replaced a similar illegal procedure. Banana. Republic.

And this incident involves the targeting of the President, both as a candidate and as actual, elected office holder. Take away all political affiliations (apologies to the binary thinkers) and the magnitude, the implication is staggering. If the President isn’t safe from baseless investigative abuse, then who is? No one.

Modern technology aside, this is how lesser nations have traditionally operated, everywhere and throughout history – the rule of men rather than the rule of law. Lights out in the shining city.

And where might all of this go next? Since we’re playing loose with the law, and what constitutes the law has changed so much so recently, just how extreme could the response to these particular FISA violations become?

To use Napolitano’s example: if you, an average nobody citizen, talks to a foreign book seller, are surveilled as a result, and find yourself afoul of the “authorities,” then you just take whatever treatment they see fit to dole out. End of story. You have no (respected) rights and no power. Not so for the subject of the Steele dossier.

Donald J. Trump has extreme power. I noted in a recent video that Trump could, if he wanted, “legally” – as defined by two previous Presidents (several more really), Congress, and the Supreme Court – simply declare all of his enemies and detractors enemy combatants. Indefinite detention. GITMO. Drone strikes.

So far it appears the Donald, for all his pomp and Tweeting, has a remarkably cool head. For that we should be grateful. But will it last? What about the next Chief Executive? Or the next one?

The FISA-FBI-Russiagate episode illustrates the utter failure of the federal government. At this point it’s safe to dispense with the pretense of the old Constitutional Republic.

That’s about all that’s safe.

constitution-in-flames

Eric Peters.

Better Not Get Diarrhea

04 Sunday Feb 2018

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This has nothing to do with Eagles’ fans tonight and tomorrow morning.

Rather it’s of the coming crackdown on illicit drug users – and, by that, I mean you.

Your days of getting high off anti-diarrhea medicines are over.

People have been taking Imodium A-D, also known as loperamide, to maintain their addictions or self-treat withdrawal symptoms, the Food and Drug Administration said. The drug can induce a high that is comparable to heroin, morphine or oxycodone, and it’s a cheaper alternative. Consumers can buy 400 generic pills for just $10.

While the recommended dose is 8 milligrams a day for over-the-counter use and 16 milligrams a day for prescription use, drug addicts are taking 50-300 capsules each day, according to a 2016 study published in the Annals of Emergency Medicine journal.

“We continue to receive reports of serious heart problems and deaths with much higher than the recommended doses of loperamide,” the FDA said, “primarily among people who are intentionally misusing or abusing the product, despite the addition of a warning to the medicine label and a previous communication.”

Forget the heart. What does 300 pills do to the intestines? I would ask, “who could do this?” but we have people eating Tide pods… The lowest common denominator strikes again!

Anyway, look forward to major regulation soon, of life and movements. Imodium will join good cold medicine behind the counter, with limits, registries, fines, higher prices, explanations, guilt trips, “safe” alternatives that don’t work, and maybe a few “accidents.”

You’d better stock up not. That, or you better not get sick.

Congress is Like a Train Wreck

31 Wednesday Jan 2018

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That’s always true in the figurative sense. And sometimes – times like today – it is literally so.

The Trump held forth last night before Congress on the State of the Onion.

CSPAN/YouTube.

He used triggering words like “America” and “American.” Naturally upset, some of the 535 criminals and idiots you’ve elected chose to retreat – to West Virginia. In route: a real train wreck:

Train carrying members of Congress — including House Speaker Paul Ryan — hits a truck

A train carrying members of Congress — including House Speaker Paul Ryan — to their legislative retreat in West Virginia hit a truck Wednesday, multiple sources told CNN.

An aide confirmed Ryan was on the train and is fine. Separately, a congressman on the train told CNN most of the staff and members on the train are OK.

“No serious injuries on the train,” another source said, adding there were only “bumps and bruises” for those on the train.

The Amtrak train left Union Station in Washington earlier Wednesday, and was carrying members of Congress, as well as their spouses, some family members and aides to the lawmakers. They are stopped on the tracks outside of Charlottesville, Virginia.

Rep. John Faso, a New York Republican, who was on the train that crashed, said he was able to see the truck that hit the train, and that he was told that injuries were expected from people in the truck, not the train.

“There was (what) looks like a tractor trailer carrying trash that was hit by the train,” Faso, who said he was in the third car of the train, told CNN.

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In other words a trainload of garbage hit a truckload of garbage. Sadly word comes the truck driver died. Another case of skunk drivers escaping unscathed with innocents in their wake.

little-engine-that-literally-cant-even

Reddit/Google.

Those Crazy Teens

22 Monday Jan 2018

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As the times and the world seem to change around us, just remember that we too were once young and crazy. I’m sure you hacked the CIA or bombed a police station back when the hormones ran wild. Right?

British Teen (Actual Teenager [18]) Hacks CIA, DOJ

The hacks were carried out as part of a campaign of harassment against top US officials motivated by his political views, a court heard.

Gamble was just 15 when he posed as a telecoms worker and Brennan himself to gain information including passwords, contacts lists and sensitive documents about operations in Afghanistan and Iraq.

He then taunted the CIA on Twitter about his successes as a leading member of a collective called “Crackas With Attitude”, which supported the Free Palestine movement.

Prosecutor John Lloyd-Jones QC told the Old Bailey Gamble started the group.

Gamble told a journalist: “It all started by me getting more and more annoyed at how corrupt and cold-blooded the US Government is so I decided to do something about it.”

The court heard Gamble “felt particularly strongly” about US-backed Israeli violence against Palestinians, the shooting of black people by US police, racist violence by the KKK and the bombing of civilians in Iraq and Syria.

After Brennan, Gamble went on to carry out a series of similar attacks on other top security figures from his bedroom in Leics.

His victims included the secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson, to whom he sent a photo of his daughter and said he would “f*** her”, the court heard.

He may be on to something with the”corrupt” and “cold-blooded” parts. Sentencing, autism or not, for a later date.

And, in Sweden …

“Teens” Wage War on Formerly Peaceful Nation

In Malmo, Sweden, the third largest city, teens roam the streets with rifles as crime surges and attacks on police become more frequent.

Sweden is or was among the world’s safest, richest and best-run countries enjoying steady growth and rising employment. But it has been experiencing an unprecedented surge of bombings and sexual assaults.

In a country of 10 million people, more than 320 shootings and dozens of bombings were reported in 2017, along with more than 110 murders and 7,226 rapes — a 10% increase on 2016. More than 36% of young Swedish women say they feel unsafe at night.

The crime surges take place in the “areas of social exclusion”, the immigrant areas. In Malmo, where a fifth of the 340,000 inhabitants are under 18, children as young as 14 roam the streets with Kalashnikov assault rifles and bulletproof vests. The London Sunday Times tells us.

Women do not feel safe at night.

Sweden expects 2 million migrants in the next ten years in a country of 10 million.

One out of 8 Swedish women will be raped in their lifetime.

Related: “Teens” with Rifles, Bombs Frustrate Police, Locals

The world does love euphemisms, no?

“One out of 8 Swedish women will be raped in their lifetime.” One might expect a full-blown war in the same lifetime too. Or, at least at fight. Maybe? The Swedish government mulls sending in the cavalry in some attempt to restore civilization order.

Sweden will do whatever it takes, including sending in the army, to end a wave of gang violence that has seen a string of deadly shootings, Prime Minister Stefan Lofven said in Wednesday.

A nice, perhaps appropriate thought, but it seems a little late in coming. Usually the army tries in advance to preempt an invasion.

A few questions:

First, with the Brit hacker kid: why are they sentencing him? Why don’t they offer him a job with the CIA or MI6? He’s obviously more competent than what they have operating now. Probably more cost effective too.

Second, for the Swedes: Given that the army is needed now to deal with the existing plague of teens (some “teens” may be upwards of 35), why invite in 2 million more? Are they determined to make sure the other 7 women get raped too?

I’m sure the answer to the first would have something to do with embarrassment and revenge. The second answer may well be “ethnic foods.”

There might still be hope. Eastern Europe anyone?

Sweden-702x459

First? Or eighth? Voice of Europe.

The Lack of a Budget

21 Sunday Jan 2018

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In the days of old Congress used to pass annual budgets. This process generally started with a recommendation from the President. Next the proposed budget passed through the House, then the Senate. Finally, if he agreed with it, the President signed off on it.

That was then. Today, for more than a few years now, different appropriations have been cobbled together for this and that, rather than passed as a whole. Technically, this is permissible under Article I, Section 7 of the old Constitution. It’s my quibble that the old way was better, smoother. At any rate, at least it’s done. Until it’s not.

Last Friday/Saturday at midnight the Congress failed to agree on the latest stopgap spending bill. As such, “your” government has no budget for the coming fiscal year – running on empty.

A House-passed stopgap bill that would avoid a government shutdown fizzled out in the Senate late Friday night, leaving Congress negotiating frantically as the midnight deadline to fund the government passed.

The measure failed in a procedural vote by a 50 to 49 margin. Five Democrats — Joe Manchin of West Virginia, Joe Donnelly of Indiana, Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, Doug Jones of Alabama and Claire McCaskill of Missouri — had backed it. Four Republicans — Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Jeff Flake of Arizona, Rand Paul of Kentucky and Mike Lee of Utah — opposed it. So did Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell for procedural reasons.

As nearly all Democrats and some Republicans opposed the measure that failed to work its way through Congress on Friday, lawmakers saw government funding lapse, at least temporarily. The proposal that failed in the Senate would have funded the government through Feb. 16 and reauthorized the popular Children’s Health Insurance Program for six years.

As far as I’m concerned, they could permanently shutter the whole operation forever. Fear not, they won’t. In fact, much (most?) of the government will operate pretty much as “normal” for the duration. Most people will notice no difference. I’m releasing a video for FP tomorrow about this and a few related matters. Watch it.

This last happened in 2013. Before that, it was a more pronounced shortage in 1995. We somehow survived those episodes. The sky will not fall. For now, just know that “your” elected representatives are a band of utterly incompetent fools. You should remember this come the next election. You probably won’t though I’ll drop a reminder.

Running on, running on empty
Running on, running blind
Running on, running into the sun
But I’m running behind

–Running on Empty, Jackson Browne, 1977.

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Prosecuting Real Criminals?

18 Thursday Jan 2018

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It’s a thing almost unheard of today or, at least, it’s largely forgotten. The same government that spies on you and railroads prosecutions in cases that shouldn’t exist also assists some foreigners with breaking some laws. Justice, it is not. Rather, as John Whitehead explains, it resembles a police state, a place by and for the government and its owners.

But now a crazy idea is floating around; it apparently might even become actionable. The DOJ (yeah, that DOJ) is seriously considering charging “sanctuary” politicians with felonies.

Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen confirmed Tuesday that her department has asked federal prosecutors to see if they can lodge criminal charges against sanctuary cities that refuse to cooperate with federal deportation efforts.

“The Department of Justice is reviewing what avenues may be available,” Ms. Nielsen told the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Her confirmation came after California’s new sanctuary law went into effect Jan. 1, severely restricting cooperation the state or any of its localities could offer.

Though not mentioned in the above-linked article, the legal avenue is 18 USC 1324, which I’ve been talking about (at least thrice) for the past two years.

Once again:

Any person who …


knowing or in reckless disregard of the fact that an alien has come to, entered, or remains in the United States in violation of law, conceals, harbors, or shields from detection, or attempts to conceal, harbor, or shield from detection, such alien in any place, including any building or any means of transportation …

[Or who] aids or abets the commission of any of the preceding acts,
shall be punished…

in the case of a violation of subparagraph (A)(ii), (iii), (iv), or (v)(II), be fined under title 18, imprisoned not more than 5 years, or both…

In some cases it’s up to 20 years in the clink. At least one California pol, San Fran Mayor Libby Schaaf, says she’s ready to go to jail so as to fully support the polyglot. That’s good; I think we’re ready for that too.

This possible development does little to reverse the decades of legal decline, but it is a refreshing potential start.

The heavens falling may well encompass a few elected rodents falling too.

sanctuarycities

Illegal alien sanctuary only. They don’t care about you, your money, your guns, your freedom, etc.