Tag Archives: Supreme Court

Recent Posts

A Star-Spangled Misfire

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I have been remiss from posting any gobbly gook from the swamp creatures of late, but with good reason. We just returned from a weekend in Tuscaloosa, Alabama to witness our granddaughter graduating from the University. WOW.  Impressive is an  understatement! I’m sure some of you attended a university as large and impressive, as Alabama, but I had not. I was awestruck. At my granddaughter’s suggestion, I even had a “Yellow Hammer,” actually I had three, and I might add suffered the entire next day. LOL

But then I digress. Great article from my favorite presenter. Although growing up only 30 miles from D.C., and having been stationed there for two years, I must admit I really did not know much of  its history. Oh I knew it it was not a state, but beyond that I have to claim ignorance. Just in case you fall into the same category, please copy and paste the link below for a very good explanation of D.C. and why it is not a state from the Encyclopedia Britannica. 

https://www.britannica.com/place/Washington-DC

Then read Greg’s excellent article about Biden’s attempt to simply expect Congress to make it a state.

By Greg Maresca

In May 2008, presidential candidate Barack Obama announced during a campaign stop that he had been to 57 states. Such an embarrassing blunder was glazed over like a Crispy Cream donut. In retrospect, it was perhaps a Freudian slip. Provided Democrats get their way, they will get closer to 57 by adding Washington D.C. as the 51st state with Puerto Rico waiting on deck.

As president, Obama must regret not going for broke with the whole socialist agenda when he had the chance. President Biden has certainly wasted no time in picking up the slack in his first 100-days in office.

Provided you need to be reminded: elections have consequences.

In Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution, the Founding Fathers created a special federal district for the sole purpose of not being a state. Writing in The Federalist No. 43, James Madison clarified that without a separate federal district, the federal government “might be insulted and its proceedings be interrupted with impunity.” It is obvious the Founders did not want to subject the federal government to the sway of any state government.

Moreover, D.C. statehood would violate the intent that states have substantial land mass. Aside from the original 13 states, no state was smaller than 30,000 square miles until Hawaii entered the union in 1959. However, with a total of 137 islands and over 10,000 square miles, Washington D.C. does not even come close.

If that’s not enough, the 23rd Amendment enfranchised D.C. residents in presidential elections with three Electoral College votes, tenured its venue and size, designating it as the “seat of Government.” The amendment established that the only way to repeal a constitutional amendment is with another amendment.

It was no oversight that the nation’s capital is not a state, but rather an exclusive territory under the absolute authority of Congress, where elected representatives and senators from every state in the union could meet on neutral ground to conduct the nation’s business.

The nation understands D.C.’s unique constitutional status. A 2020 Gallup poll said 64% of Americans opposed DC statehood vs. just 29% in favor. Sorted by party and region, there were “no major subgroups of Americans voice support for DC statehood.”

If the city’s denizens do not appreciate their longstanding historical significance, they can always vote with their feet and move. This legislation symbolically labeled H.R. 51 would turn the District into exactly what the Founders rebuffed.

In a dichotomy of the times, Democrats desire to localize what the Constitution explicitly has federalized, while at the same time trying to federalize everything else. The statehood push is ultimately a power play for Democrats who want to turn D.C. into a city-state as the deep blue District will guarantee them two seats in the Senate changing the chamber’s partisan composition in their favor. With the Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee wanting to pack the Supreme Court, adding two additional Senators via D.C. is a Democrat two-fer.

Democrats’ carry-on like this because they know Republicans will not put up a fight. Here is yet another version of Democrat unity and healing where the end goal is a one-party totalitarian centralized state.

This legislation is nothing but a power grab in the first-degree. If it were truly about statehood and the fabricated mantra of “taxation without representation,” Democrats would introduce legislation for D.C. to become part of Maryland from which it was initially ceded. But that doesn’t work as it would not obtain the desired two additional Senate seats.

Without missing an opportunity to race bait, New York Democrat Rep. Mondaire Jones, called arguments against D.C. statehood “racist trash.” Naturally, if you oppose D.C. statehood on any level be it Constitutional, historical, you name it; you are to be smeared as a racist because a majority of its residents are black.

With the Senate filibuster requiring 60 senators to advance any legislation, the odds of D.C. statehood are formidable. Democrat Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia said he will not support the legislation or efforts to eliminate the filibuster. “If Congress wants to make D.C. a state, it should propose a constitutional amendment,” Manchin suggested.

Manchin is one Democrat who actually gets it.

Perhaps more will join him.

What  did surprise me was the  29%  who were in favor of making it a state. I wonder how many of those were ignorant, as I, about its history?

Originally posted 2021-05-06 14:13:55.

Current Events

A COVID Christmas

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Please allow me to take this moment to say that I sincerely hope  all my blessed followers had a wonderfully merry Christmas regardless what your local dictators may have said. Mine said have a joyous Christmas with your families and friends, but then I consider myself fortunate by choice to have a sensible, for the people, Governor. My bride and I go to church every Sunday and then to a late breakfast at one of our favorite restaurants.  Life is good in Florida.

I will wish you a very happy new year if you can. I will not have a happy one as best as I can see into the near future. Our MSM wants you to believe 2020 was the worst ever. Well, don’t chalk it up to record books just yet for 2021 may prove to be a close competitor.

Here another thought provoking article from one of my favorite authors.

 

By: G. Maresca

 

American religiosity has been in decline for more than a generation and with the added fear of COVID-19, many Christian leaders have deserted their flocks.

Welcome to Christmas 2020, where the biggest crisis is not a virus but a lack of faith.

Church leaders have conceded to government diktats in this era of COVID-19 in a doleful attempt to brand themselves as benevolent.

The Constitutional right to freely worship, virus or not, was underscored with the recent Supreme Court ruling prohibiting arbitrary limits on church attendance.  Despite the court’s 5-4 decision, religious liberty has never been in more need of defense, especially when New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo dismissed the ruling as “irrelevant” and “political.”

California Gov. Gavin Newsom had imposed a 10 p.m. curfew, which would have made attending Christmas midnight Mass, a criminal offense.  Perhaps Newsom would find Mass more acceptable if it were celebrated in the French Laundry restaurant – site of his crowded birthday party?  This is another example of directives made by the faithless affecting the faithful in the ongoing leftist agenda to secularize America.

Archbishop Fulton Sheen would be appalled how the church hierarchy has acquiesced to the state.  The state prohibits Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, yet liquor stores remain open.  Churches should have had the same rights as beer distributors, pot smokers and abortion clinics – all deemed essential.

Mandatory masking, overflowing hand sanitizer, and social distancing are in vogue in houses of worship, but what is missing are the children.  Churches will not survive without them.  Few in the pews are under age 50.  Sign-up sheets, roped off pews, and parking lot services did little to bring anyone back, let alone evangelize.

Limiting, or worse, cutting off sacramental grace from Christ’s mercy has only deepened the divide.  The science supporting lockdowns has failed to stop the spread, and may prove deadlier than the virus it was meant to heed.

If anything, COVID-19 underscores daily that no human endeavor can prevent our eventual death from any cause.

Any government that has the authority to restrict your livelihood, family gatherings, and houses of worship is worse than any virus.  The alternative is subservience, empty pews, and lost souls.

The COVID-19 generation may never come back.  The unrelenting attack on Christianity will never cease until the faithful stop kowtowing to tyrants.  Science isn’t going to save you and it is no coincidence Democrats are leading the charge.  What do you expect from a political party that has forced religious sisters to provide for contraception?   The left knows all too well that faith can be exorcised by breaking one’s spirit and will.

Too many politicos claiming to be Christian believe Jesus Christ came to put a chicken in every pot rather than to feed souls and offer salvation.  As long as a portion of a bishop’s budget is generated from government service contracts, towing the party line will be its low-hanging fruit.

Where are the bishops’ supernatural faith?

Where are today’s St. Thomas Mores, and St. Joan of Arc’s, or Fulton Sheens?

Prophetic voices must emanate among the bishops to speak truth to this abuse of government power.  As suicides and other mental health issues increase, we need more prayer, not less.  The secularist, dictatorial governors and mayors and designated so-called experts seeking to oppress worship reveal their contradictory priorities, daily.

Christmas is not the time to take counsel of your fears, but recall the hope that only a sincere faith provides.  Has there been a year in living memory when the Christmas promise is in such demand?  The reason for the season is here, and never leaves.  Jesus was born during one of the darkest periods in human history as the Roman Empire begot moral depravity on an unparalleled scale.  Our Lord did so by entering the world in the humblest of ways to show He will go anywhere when invited.

In a remarkable sign, Jupiter and Saturn crossed paths this past week appearing as one body in the night sky.  They were closer than they have been in nearly eight centuries and was labeled the “Christmas Star.”

Many need to heed the message the angels announced that first Christmas: Fear not!

The child whose birth we celebrate is Emmanuel, “God with Us.”

If God is with us, who can be against us?

 

Originally posted 2020-12-26 10:26:05.

Current Events

The Supreme Court and the Electoral Coup

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The Supreme Court needs to do its job of adjudication. and protect and save the Constitution at this critical time.

By Scott S. Powell American Thinker December 5, 2020

Another good one from “Rip.” He often republishes articles written by Scott Powell from the American Thinker. This is a good one. It recaps all the BS that has gone on from day one of President Trump’s decision to run for CINC and Leader of the Free World. For those of you who may not have a grasp of basic Macro Economics, please read the paragraphs at the end very carefully as it reveals what the MSM or self-appointed Economist are not telling us. As one of those self-appointed Economists (by education and hobby), folks we are are in deep kimchi . And depending on how this election falls out, America will be rapidly become a third-world shithole.

It’s out in the open for everyone with eyes and ears, not only here in the United States but around the world.

The November U.S. Presidential election produced a fraudulent result — appearing to deliver a defeat for extraordinarily popular and remarkably successful incumbent President Donald Trump and a victory for extraordinarily unimpressive Democrat challenger Joe Biden.

Trump drew crowds of 35-40,000 and more at every rally. Biden couldn’t attract more than a few dozen at his public meetings — none of which could be called rallies. Biden’s handlers decided on a basement strategy early on, recognizing that a discharged and failing battery was no match for the orange energizer bunny. Additionally, why take the risk of gaffes in public appearances when you know that the fix is in with upcoming multilevel vote fraud.

First, a refresher and some background.

Donald Trump was elected President in 2016 as an outsider, the candidate whose “Make America Great Again” platform included draining the Swamp and taking on corruption in Washington.

Prior presidents had generally accommodated Washington corruption, and it naturally grew over time. A major contributing factor that compelled Trump to run was that under the Obama administration corruption became egregious. First Amendment rights were violated in new ways with surveillance conducted on select media reporters who criticized Obama, and with muzzling of some 160 patriotic conservative groups by Lois Lerner in her position as director of the Exempt Organizations Unit of the Internal Revenue Service.

Then there was the outrageous saga of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and her husband and ex-president Bill who played tag team in shaking down foreign governments for nearly a billion dollars, which got shoveled into the Clinton Foundation. All the while Secretary Clinton flagrantly violated U.S. Code § 1924 that prohibits the private storing of classified documents and confidential state matters, which she circumvented by use of an unsecure private server and email system. That was obviously implemented to cover up her conflicts of interest while serving as secretary.

And then there was Obama’s achievements: the Iran Nuclear Deal was consummated with the payment of $1.7 billion to the ruling mullahs in Iran, which the Senate wouldn’t have ratified were it a treaty rather than a backchannel deal. Obama’s crowning achievement — er crime — that lead us to today’s vote fraud dilemma was his oversight and approval of massive clandestine surveillance on Trump, his family and his entire campaign staff by way of an earlier fraud — the illicitly obtained FISA warrants to authorize surveillance — that were undertaken to facilitate an impeachment coup.

Because Trump was an outsider committed to fighting corruption and changing Washington’s ways, multiple coup plots against him were contemplated even before he was inaugurated. Taking down General Michael Flynn was just the beginning of the siege of President Donald Trump by the Deep State, instigated by the FBI Director James Comey. Flynn’s takedown was immediately followed by two years of the Mueller Commission investigation into Trump’s alleged ties to and collusion with Russia. Try as they might, no substantive evidence could be found. Then the baton was passed to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi who commenced impeachment hearings. That too failed for lack of evidence.

Since there were no penalties from the previous coup efforts based on the fraudulently obtained FISA warrants, it’s only natural that the Deep State and Democrat Party operatives were emboldened to make a third attempt by seizing on the coronavirus crisis to continue the coup effort in Trump’s fourth year — this time putting in the fix on the November 2020 Presidential election.

They took advantage of the lockdowns and public fear and pushed specific actions to game the system to increase their delivery of votes leading up to election day. First they legitimized the wholesale distribution of ballots and mail-in balloting, and then they blanketed swing states with armies of lawyers filing suits to challenge voter ID laws, signature verification laws and extending the deadlines for mail-in ballots. Changing rules in these ways in key swing states created ambiguities that contributed to voting irregularities, such as over-voting, ballot harvesting, filing fraudulent ballots from dead people still on the voter rolls, ballot dumps, and other fraud and poll place shenanigans.

And then there was the use of Dominion voting machines and software technology that were implemented in various jurisdictions in all swing states as well as 18 others. Dominion vice president of U.S. engineering, Eric Coomer, is on record acknowledging the programmability of Dominion voting technology to fix votes, saying;blicans “Don’t worry about the election; Trump’s not going to win. I made f***ing sure of that!”

Common sense, longstanding predictable voting behavior patterns in many specific jurisdictions, big data statistical pattern analysis and forensic analysis of Dominion Voting Systems machines and software, and polling place wrongdoings in the contested states don’t just reveal garden variety voting irregularities, but rather overwhelming massive voter and polling place fraud.

People who think Trump is hated for his loud braggadocio persona and style don’t get it. Trump was targeted from the beginning because he threatened the Deep State, which includes a self-serving corporate elite, their Washington lobbyists, the internationalist establishment in and out of government, the one-sided politically corrupt media, as well as a myriad of unaccountable agencies that include the FBI, CIA, FEMA — to name only a few powerful bureaucracies that now operate with almost no Constitutional constraints.

Donald Trump was uniquely prepared and chosen for such a time as this. Seen in the context of historical America, the speed at which the demise of Constitutional law and rule in America was advanced during the Bush and the Obama administration’s years is startling. And today, it’s quite obvious — for Supreme Court justices and all Americans to see — that we are in the last stage of the takedown and final usurpation of the Constitution of the United States.

With distrust, division, and corruption being so prevalent in the big cities and lower courts of many of the contested states — as to nullify the seriousness of over 400 affidavits documenting vote fraud and polling place irregularities, documenting that there were more votes cast than registered voters in quite a number of jurisdictions, and overwhelming evidence of massive computer driven vote manipulation associated with key states’ use of Dominion Voting Systems, and pay-to-play corruption at the highest level of Republican Party-led Georgia government to contract with Dominion to use their voting machines — the Supreme Court is compelled to adjudicate.

The American people cannot allow fraudulent election results or even the appearance of such to stand. It undermines the Constitution and demoralizes the citizenry. When people lose confidence in the integrity of elections, their respect for government is eroded and their willingness to comply with the laws it legislates is undermined.

Democrats and some establishment Republicans may want to pursue the easier course of denial and ignore the facts of massive vote fraud because it delivers their desired results and/or it protects their crimes, but the world is watching to see what we do as a nation.

Allowing proven election and vote fraud to stand would irreparably damage the nation’s moral authority and relegate the United States to the status of banana republics and communist regimes. And with that status would come ever more corruption, cynicism and even the collapse of the U.S. currency.

The U.S. dollar is backed by nothing except the full faith and credit of the United States. If that faith and trust deteriorates, so does the nation’s currency. No one wants to talk about it, but the U.S. financial balance sheet is now in its weakest condition in the last 200 years.

Between 1960 and 2000 the total national debt-to-GDP ratio averaged between 35-55%. By 2010 debt-to-GDP rose to 90%. With the $3.5-trillion-dollar COVID pandemic bailout-stimulus, total national debt is now nearly $27.5 trillion and the U.S. debt-to-GDP stands at 128%, a ranking shared with countries like Mozambique and Eritrea.

For those with critical thinking faculties and a knowledge of history, there can be little doubt that this extraordinary energetic leader Donald Trump is what is needed for a time such as this.

With America facing almost insurmountable challenges and unfinished business, a decisive majority of Americans voted for his reelection because they sensed that a return to a corrupt establishment government was simply not an acceptable option.

The Supreme Court needs to do its job of adjudication and protect and save the Constitution at this critical time.

Scott Powell is senior fellow at the Discovery Institute and founder of Remington Rand LLC

Originally posted 2020-12-06 11:36:59.

Current Events

Taxes

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Once again, I am remiss in posting anything. My only excuse is age-related – I guess having turned 83, I’m just slowing down. Otherwise, my health is good. I find this latest from my friend and fellow Marine Greg earth-shattering as well. I cannot believe the Supreme Court can find anything in the Moore case to go along with the government. Absolutely crazy and could change everything about a capitalistic economy.

Taxing Tremors                                                              By: Greg Maresca

A 7.6 earthquake and its resulting tsunami on New Year’s Day that shook Japan set the stage as the faultless metaphor that will reverberate throughout 2024 and beyond.  With the impending presidential election aside, the tremors of improbability arrived a month earlier when the Supreme Court decided to hear a case with profound implications for the federal income tax.

Moore v. U.S. will decide if the federal government can tax unrealized capital gains not yet received under the 16th Amendment.  The justices agreed to hear the Moore’s appeal as the couple wanted their $14,729 refund that the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against. The Ninth Circuit, known in legal circles as the “Ninth Circus,” has the worst record of any appeals court before the Supreme Court.

Like Roe v. Wade did last year, this case will have a huge and lasting ripple effect regarding future taxation that should concern everyone.

It is no secret that the nation is accruing debt that is unsustainable. The day of reckoning approaches. The irony is the case is named Moore – indeed “more” income through taxation.

Over a century of income tax laws has resulted in thousands of pages of decrees that carve out craters of exemptions in a labyrinth of directives. The tax code is a bloated, crony orchestrated, lobbyist measured disaster for those unable to manipulate it by hiring all those cunning accountants and attorneys who are paid handsomely to circumvent it.

When was the last time a member of Congress did their own taxes?

A fundamental reckoning from the ground up is long overdue to bury the income tax along with the IRS and replace them with a consumption tax or flat tax.

To tax unrealized capital gains not yet received is extreme. The power to regulate and tax is the power to destroy. Congress’s authority to tax does not include reinvested capital and personal property as income.

Income is money received.

Assets may increase in value, but until they are collected as interest, dividends or sold, there is no income. If you cannot spend it, it is not income.

You can’t pay the rent or fill your gas tank with paper gains or the appreciation of your home.  When you gain on any financial instrument but do not sell you earn a “paper profit.”  If unrealized gains are taxed, and the taxpayer has no cash to pay, a forced liquidation would be necessary for payment.

Are you prepared to pay a tax because your assets go up in value?  House, car, pets, trading cards, comic books, Auntie Estelle’s antique coffee table – where does it end?   Provided market values decline would monies be refunded?  Stop laughing, that was no joke.

Uncle Sam wants all the golden eggs without having to buy the hens, the henhouse, and the chicken feed. The power brokers in Washington believe everything is subject to taxation real or imagined.

It is pitiful that this case is even necessary.

A tax in bad faith resulted in a revolution nearly 250 years ago. Such taxation realizes the socialist dream of equal outcomes regardless of effort, ingenuity, innovation, or lack thereof. Ayn Rand’s nightmare is finally realized.

The Supreme Court’s job is not about maximizing taxable income for Uncle Sam but to interpret if this tax is constitutional.

A ruling in favor of Uncle Sam will unleash Congress’ taxing power and devastate our economic system as we know it.  Going forward, all unrealized income will become whatever the government says it is.

The Supreme Court’s decision is expected in June right in the middle of the presidential campaign. Provided the government loses and refusing to allow what they perceive as a crisis; Democrats will condemn the decision as a political red herring.

A Moore victory would also challenge other sections of the tax code that stands at nearly 7,000 pages.  Provided they are unconstitutional; they must fall, too.

The income tax has been around since 1913 and its ability to produce revenue has never been assuaged by politics. The hardcore issue is the United States does not have a taxing problem, but a spending problem. Revenue is up but it can’t compete with current spending levels.

A ruling in favor of the government would only exacerbate such spending.

Postscript: I have given up on all the latest coming out of the military and especially our Corps. Absolutely sad! I am simply too old to even bother with it anymore. My stress level is more important to me.

In case you have not read your copy of the latest “Semper Fidelis, or if not retired and don’t get it, I always look at the “Taps” column looking for friends with whom I served. I saw MajGen Dennis Murphy listed this month. Sad, I considered him another Ernie Cheatham – a warrior. He gave me Huxley’s Whores.

Well, this is election year. Do we really believe the liberals are going to allow a legal, valid election? I don’t!