Category Archives: Editorial

2016, Clinton, Dirty Tricks, Editorial, Foreign Policy, National Security, True Talking Points, Uncategorized

Hillary’s Top Staff on Her Illegal Email Server, “There Is Just No Good Answer”

November 5, 2016 Chuck Norton 1 Comment

Democrats say that this email thing is “just BS” and here is why.

In spite of the fact that we are literally talking about hundreds of thousands of violations of the Federal Records Act. We are also talking about, with her mishandling of classified material, at least hundreds of violations of the Espionage Act.

Hillary revealed classified places, persons and methodology in her emails and it is likely that one CIA asset in Iran was executed as a result. People do not plead the 5th Amendment in mass over “just BS.”

We also know that her server was hacked at least 5 times. That could mean that foreign countries have blackmail material on the possible next President of these United States.

This email exchange happens shortly after the New York Times reported that she had an illegal email server with possible classified information.

“There is just no good answer,” Clinton aide Philippe Reines tells campaign chair John Podesta in a panicked mail from March 2015 in which they discuss Clinton’s reasoning for using a private email server. Also included in the email chain is her staff lawyer Cheryl Mills and her communications director Jennifer Palmieri.

James Comey said in July that they had no intent to do wrong, this sets the truth to that lie.

Via WikiLeaks read the email for yourself HERE.

there-is-just-no-good-answer-podesta-mills-email-flap

2016, Clinton, Editorial, Egypt, Global Security, Israel, Jihad, Libya, Obama, Treason, True Talking Points, Uncategorized

Hillary Clinton Armed Jihadist Groups to Undermine Secular Middle East Governments (video)

November 4, 2016 Chuck Norton Leave a comment

On October 25th 2012 this very writer made a lengthy case that the Obama Administration and Hillary Clinton at the State Department, were deliberately undermining Middle East peace by ousting secular governments who wanted peace with Israel and replacing such governments with Muslim Brotherhood/Al-Qaeda, yes, the same people who hit us on 9/11.

This very scenario did indeed come about with secular governments in Egypt and Libya being replaced with Muslim Brotherhood/Al-Qaeda while the ousting of the secular Syrian government was underway.

The Muslim Brotherhood government in Egypt immediately threatened war with Israel and started exterminating Christians and other minorities. President Obama’s response to the new Muslim Brotherhood government was to sell them F-16 fighter planes, in this writer’s opinion and also quite obviously, to use against Israel.

Fortunately the Egyptian military, which is largely secular, trained in the United States, and knows very well that war with Israel is hopeless if not suicidal, overthrew the Muslim Brotherhood government, took power, and worked to stop the persecution of said minorities. President Obama’s “punishment” was to demand that the Muslim Brotherhood government be restored and he halted the sale of the fighter planes.

Fast forward to Benghazi, Libya where four Americans were killed and dozens injured, secret documents in both our consulate and CIA annex were exposed, national security compromised. It was all avoidable.

We know that in spite of the fact that they asked for better security hundreds of times, Hillary stripped their security from them and Hillary actually hired an offshoot of Al-Qaeda to provide security for our consulate.

There is evidence to show that the State Department was using the facility to send weapons to Muslim Brotherhood and pre-ISIS Islamic radicals. The fewer patriotic Americans on site who would leak such idiocy if they found out about it the better, hence most of the American security was stripped from them…and now they are dead.

[See our previous Benghazi and Libya coverage HERE]

One of the weapons dealers the State Department used was Marc Turi. After they used him and after things went bad as they did in Benghazi, the Obama Administration decided to “tidy up” and moved to prosecute Turi and accuse him of dealing weapons to terrorists, even though he was doing so on orders from the United States Government, in particular, Hillary Clinton’s State Department.

So in order to fight back, Turi, who apparently kept meticulous records and evidence, threatened to expose Hillary’s role in all of this highly illegal activity. The Department of Justice then petitioned the Court to drop all charges against Mr. Turi and made it clear that the petition to the court was for political reasons.

Watch the video carefully.

2016, Clinton, Dirty Tricks, Editorial, Lies, National Security, True Talking Points, Uncategorized

35 Lies on Hillary’s web site about her mishandling of classified documents and emails

November 2, 2016 Chuck Norton Leave a comment

By Jeff Capella

The complete list of 35 Email Lies Hillary Is Still Posting On Her Campaign Website

Lie #1 – “We’ve put all the information about Hillary Clinton’s State Department emails here.”

This is the first sentence of the “fact sheet,” and it sets the tone for the rest of the document. The FAQ leaves numerous questions unanswered, as the rest of the Clinton campaign’s responses show.

Lie #2 – “Her usage was widely known to the over 100 State Department and U.S. government colleagues she emailed, consistent with the practice of prior Secretaries of State and permitted at the time.”

Clinton’s email habits were not consistent with her predecessors nor was her practice of exclusively using a personal email account permitted. Colin Powell, who served at the beginning of George W. Bush’s term, used a personal AOL account to conduct some government business. But he did not have a private server in the basement of his home. Condoleezza Rice did not use email at all.

Lie #3 – “Was it allowed? Yes.”

The State Department’s IG report, released in May, explicitly stated that Clinton’s email system was neither allowed, nor was it approved by anyone other than Clinton. The report states that State’s Bureau of Diplomatic Security and Information Resource Management division would not have okayed the system “because of the restrictions in the [State Department Foreign Affairs Manual] and the security risks in doing so.”

Lie #4 – “Clinton only used her account for unclassified email.”

As Comey stated last week, Clinton sent or received 113 emails that contained information that was classified at the time they were originated. That’s in addition to more than 2,000 emails that contain information that is considered to be classified now.

Lie #5 – “No information in Clinton’s emails was marked classified at the time she sent or received them.”

FBI investigators discovered three emails that bore classification markings when they were sent to Clinton. Clinton and the State Department have claimed that two of the emails should not have had markings and that they were left there because of “human error.” There is no evidence that Clinton raised any concerns about the improperly marked email at the time she received it, however.

Lie #6 – “Clinton hopes the State Department and the agencies involved in the review process will sort out as quickly as possible which of the 55,000 pages of emails are appropriate to share with the public.”

There is not a factual misstatement here. But Clinton’s actions leading up to the email scandal and and throughout strongly suggest that she has no interest in sharing information with the public.

Lie #7 – “Classified information was viewed in hard copy while in the office.”

Clinton viewed classified information on her personal BlackBerry, which she almost exclusively used to send and receive emails. She was not allowed to use that BlackBerry at her office for security purposes.

Lie #8 – “While on travel, the State Department had rigorous protocols for her and traveling staff to receive and transmit information of all types.”

Clinton used her commercial-grade BlackBerry to transmit information, even while overseas. A Daily Caller investigation showed that Clinton sent dozens of emails while in spy-riddling nations like China and Russia. (RELATED: Hillary Sent Dozens Of Emails From Her BlackBerry While In China And Russia)

Lie #9 – “A separate, closed email system was used by the State Department for the purposes of handling classified communications, which was designed to prevent such information from being transmitted anywhere other than within that system.”

Clinton transmitted classified information on her personal email system.

Lie #10 – “Is Department of Justice conducting a criminal inquiry into Clinton’s email use? No.”

In his statements last week, Comey said he would not be recommending charges against Clinton for mishandling classified information. Criminal charges were possible, which means that the investigation was criminal in nature.

Lie #11 – “This was not criminal in nature as misreported by some in the press.”

The investigation was criminal in nature.

Lie #12 – “Clinton hopes … that the release will be as timely and as transparent as possible.”

This one is a judgment call. But Clinton has been hammered repeatedly, including by liberal members of the press, for refusing to come clean about her email setup.

Lie #13 – “She also directed her team to give her server that hosted her email account while she was Secretary of State to the Department of Justice…”

The Justice Department requested Clinton’s server, and she gave it to the agency. It ended up in the hands of FBI investigators. Clinton did not hand over the device because she is magnanimous.

Lie #14 – “Clinton has pledged to cooperate with the government’s security inquiry.”

The government was conducting an investigation, not a security inquiry.

Lie #15 – “Even if Clinton’s emails had been on a government address and government device, these questions would be raised prior to public release.”

Clinton makes this statement in order to defend against charges that she sent or received classified information, as if that was the only critique of her email practices. But it obscures the fact that she used a private email system that consisted of a server housed in her basement.

Lie #16 – “It was her practice to email government employees on their ‘.gov’ email address. That way, work emails would be immediately captured and preserved in government record-keeping systems.”

This is a deceptive statement. It is unlikely that Clinton emailed government officials on their .gov email accounts just so that the records would be captured and preserved for record-keeping purposes. And it places the burden of protecting those records on her email partners.

Lie #17 – “Why didn’t Clinton provide her emails to the State Department until December 2014? The State Department asked for the help of the four previous former Secretaries in meeting the State Department’s obligations under the Federal Records Act.”

Clinton has portrayed the State Department’s request for her work emails as part of a large-scale effort to retrieve all past secretaries’ emails. That wasn’t the case. As the State Department said last year, the discovery by State Department lawyers that Clinton used a private email account sparked the agency’s decision to request her emails as well as those of her predecessors.

Lie #18 – “In providing these emails to the Department, Clinton included all that she had that were even remotely work-related.”

This is flatly false. Comey said that FBI investigators recovered “several thousand” emails from Clinton’s server that she did not give to the State Department. The majority were most likely deleted by Clinton’s legal team after the review of her email account was conducted in Fall 2014.

Lie #19 – “…erring on the side of over-inclusion.”

Clinton claims that the trove of emails she gave the State Department was “over-inclusive” because the agency deemed around 1,250 to be personal in nature. But she was actually under-inclusive given that she failed to turn over the “several thousand” emails that the FBI later recovered.

Lie #20 – “After providing her work and potentially work-related emails, she chose not to keep her personal, non-work-related emails, which by definition, are not federal records and were not requested by the Department or anyone else.”

Clinton directed her legal team to delete “several thousand” work-related emails.

Lie #21 – “As Clinton has said before, these were private, personal messages, including emails about her daughter’s wedding plans, her mother’s funeral services and condolence notes, as well as emails on family vacations, yoga routines, and other items one would typically find in their own email account.”

“Several thousand” of the emails Clinton had deleted were not “private, personal messages.” The FBI is reportedly turning those records over to the State Department, and they could be made available through the Freedom of Information Act.

Lie #22 – “As noted, the emails that Clinton chose not to keep were personal emails — they were not federal records or even work-related.”

Flatly wrong, as noted above.

Lie #23 – “In March 2015, when Rep. Gowdy issued a subpoena to Clinton, the State Department had received all of Clinton’s work-related emails in response to their 2014 request.”

Flatly wrong, as noted above.

Lie #24 – “Were any work items deleted in the course of producing the printed copies? No.”

Flatly wrong, as noted above.

Lie #25 – “This entailed a multi-step process to review each email and provide printed copies of Clinton’s emails to the State Department, erring on the side of including anything that might be event potentially work-related.”

Flatly wrong, as noted above. Clinton’s campaign has given inconsistent statements about the “multi-step process” used to search her emails for work-related records. Last March, her campaign spokesman, Nick Merrill, told Time that Clinton’s lawyers read all of her emails. Last week Comey said the lawyers used keyword searches to narrow down possibly work emails but did not read all of the records.

Lie #26 – “Did she withhold any work emails? She provided the State Department with all work and potentially work-related emails that she had, including all of her correspondence with Sid Blumenthal.”

Flatly wrong, as noted above.

Lie #27 – “She has also taken the unprecedented step of asking that those emails be made public.”

This is a deceptive statement. Clinton took an unprecedented step by asking that her emails be made public knowing that the State Department would not unilaterally release the records. Nor would they do so without a thorough review or through the FOIA process.

The most unprecedented step Clinton took was to use a private email server to maintain a personal email account. No other cabinet official is known to have done that in the history of the United States.

Lie #28 – “After her work-related emails were identified and preserved, Clinton chose not to keep her private, personal emails that were not federal records, including emails about her daughter’s wedding plans, her mother’s funeral service, family vacations, etc.”

Flatly wrong, as noted above.

Lie #29 – “The server for her email was physically located on her property, which was protected by U.S. Secret Service.”

This is a deceptive non-sequitur intended to leave the impression that Clinton’s email server was safe and secure. But the greatest threat to the server was not physical in nature. It risked being hacked through the Internet.

Lie #30 – “The security and integrity of her family’s electronic communications was taken seriously from the onset when it was first set up for President Clinton’s team.”

This is self-evidently wrong. Clinton must not have taken the security of her electronic communications seriously if she used an email account hosted on a private server housed in the basement of her home to send classified government emails. Both the State Department IG report and Comey noted that Clinton’s system required an around-the-clock team of technicians to ensure its security. She did not have that. Bryan Pagliano, a State Department information technology specialist who had worked on her 2008 campaign, managed the system. State Department records suggest that Pagliano was underqualified for the job.

Lie #31 – “Suffice it to say, robust protections were put in place and additional upgrades and techniques employed over time.”

See above.

Lie #32 – “Was the server ever hacked? No, there is no evidence there was ever a breach.”

Clinton cannot definitively say that her server was not hacked, as Comey suggested last week. He said that there is no “direct evidence” that the server was hacked. But he also said that it was unlikely that sophisticated foreign hackers would leave direct evidence. Comey said it would not be surprising to find out that the server was hacked since Clinton accessed her email system through her personal BlackBerry while traveling overseas and emailing with friends on their commercial email accounts.

Lie #33 – “Was there ever an unauthorized intrusion into her email or did anyone else have access to it? No.”

Clinton cannot definitively say her email was not breached.

Lie #34 – “Was the State Department able to respond to requests related to FOIA or Congressional requests before they received copies of her work-related emails? Yes.”

This is wrong. The State Department declined numerous FOIA requests filed for Clinton’s email records while she was in office. The agency’s records management office rejected the requests because workers were unaware of Clinton’s email arrangement. In one case cited in a State Department IG report issued in January, Clinton’s chief of staff Cheryl Mills was told of a FOIA request for information about Clinton’s email account. The request was rejected even though Mills emailed Clinton almost daily. (RELATED: IG: Cheryl Mills Gave ‘Inaccurate And Incomplete’ Response To Request For Hillary’s Emails)

Lie #35 – “The State Department was able to search and produce Clinton’s emails when needed long before, and unrelated to, receiving the printed copies as they were already captured on state.gov accounts.”

Clinton, Dirty Tricks, Editorial, Elite Media, Lies, National Security, Propaganda, True Talking Points, Trump, Uncategorized

Could WikiLeaks emails be faked? Answers here.

November 1, 2016 Chuck Norton Leave a comment

By the Editor

Could WikiLeaks emails be fake? In order to make the case that they are fake one would have to overcome the following eight facts and problems.

1 – WikiLeaks has NEVER had to retract a story, document, or publication because it was found to be false or faked. WikiLeaks has exposed millions of documents from various governments for over a decade. They have no track record of doctoring anything, when one reads the emails for oneself, they are compelling.

2 – It is not a crime to invent fake documents and call them classified. The fact that US Government wants Assange for spreading classified intel (mostly stuff that was classified because it was embarrassing) by default means the US Government has confirmed that WikiLeaks documents are genuine.

3 – WikiLeaks is a foreign group, they are not Republicans or Democrats, their agenda is transparency with all governments….and that is the agenda of their donors. To risk losing credibility is to risk losing all funding from their crowd sourcing etc. They have every motivation to keep things on the up & up. Also worthy of note is that Anonymous is a foreign hacker group and they say that Hillary is corrupt.

4 – Most importantly, Hillary and her top staff, according to the State Department IG and FBI, were beyond careless and even contemptuous of national security and communications security protocols – their words not ours. In short, they were begging to get hacked and they did.

5 – Exactly ZERO of the dozens of reporters who were caught unethically coordinating with the Clinton campaign have come out and said the emails are fake.

6 – That said, we are talking about dozens of emails every day from the Clinton Campaign’s staff and the DNC – OVER THE COURSE OF YEARS. No one could manufacture hundreds of thousands fake emails and make it all accurate to the minute with the lives of hundreds of people. If it was fake it would be easy to debunk because no one could know that many details about so many people’s lives on a day to day basis over such a lengthy stretch of time.

7 – Information technology is reasonably secure, the complete emails headers, IT routing information etc, is included with each email at a tab at the top, all of which can be tracked and really is not fakable on a mass scale to this degree. The number of servers and routers that would have to be hacked to insert reams of false data makes this nigh impossible.

8 – Many of the emails in question with the Hillary Campaign, including some of the emails with Donna Brazile, used DKIM authentication which even the NSA might not be able to spoof.

DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) is an email authentication method designed to detect email spoofing. It allows the receiver to check that an email claimed to come from a specific domain was indeed authorized by the owner of that domain. It is intended to prevent forged sender addresses in emails, a technique often used in phishing and email spam.

In technical terms, DKIM lets a domain associate its name with an email message by affixing a digital signature to it. Verification is carried out using the signer’s public key published in the DNS. A valid signature guarantees that some parts of the email (possibly including attachments) have not been modified since the signature was affixed.

2016, Clinton, Communications Theory, Culture War, Editorial, Elite Media, Milo, True Talking Points, Trump, Uncategorized

Milo Yiannopoulos Schools CNBC “Journalists” on Western Civilization (video)

October 17, 2016 Chuck Norton Leave a comment

The fact that Milo has to explain basic Western Civilization to these people is VERY indicative of just how far public schools have failed and radical our universities have become.

Everything Milo explains here used to be taught in the eighth grade. Also notice how leftists like Hillary Clinton define Western Civilization, freedom itself, as racist, evil, etc…

And in this video Milo takes a university radicalized feminist to school. It is university who filled her head with this nonsense.

2016, Clinton, Dirty Tricks, Editorial, Propaganda, True Talking Points, Trump, Unhinged, WTF

NYT “Trump Touched Me” October Surprise Story Has Serious Problems…UPDATED!

October 13, 2016 Chuck Norton 2 Comments

This happens every time just before an election.

The NYT accused John McCain of having an affair with a lobbyist and it was just a lie.

The NYT in coordination with the Obama Campaign accused Herman Cain of having multiple affairs and touching women. It also was shown to be a bunch of lies as Cain was able to show that he was not even in the cities mentioned by several of the women. All of the women knew David Axelrod, who was Obama’s campaign manager. One even lived in the same building as him.

[UPDATE II – Kit Daniels at Infowars verifies what we showed below and digs up a few other facts. We are NOT fans of Infowars as some of their journalism is shoddy, but this is a solid piece of journalism and credit is given when it is due – Editor]

Now the NYT says that Trump touched a lady who was flying first class with him decades ago.

Quote NYT:

More than three decades ago, when she was a traveling businesswoman at a paper company, Ms. Leeds said, she sat beside Mr. Trump in the first-class cabin of a flight to New York. They had never met before.

About 45 minutes after takeoff, she recalled, Mr. Trump lifted the armrest and began to touch her.

The New York Times story is highly suspect not just because of their recent election history of dropping lies like this, the cute timing of this story and, thanks to Hillary’s campaign emails being released by WikiLeaks, we know that the NYT coordinates with the Democrats as a matter of routine – even if you toss all of that aside…….

………first class arm rests do not swing up, are large and are completely immobile. Take a look at these pictures of what first class looks like and it becomes obvious why the story falls apart:

But what if it was on an old Boeing 727 or 737? OK take a look:

UPDATE – We now know that the alleged flight was a 727 – Editor

UPDATE –
NY Times Gets Punked! Fake Groping Victim Used Velvet Underground Song Lyrics to Describe Trumped-Up Attack – LINK

2016, Clinton, Editorial, Stuck on Stupid, True Talking Points, Trump, Uncategorized

Perspective: General George S. Patton. If we had fired him for having a big potty mouth we would have lost the war.

October 11, 2016 Chuck Norton Leave a comment

If we had fired General Patton for having a big potty mouth we would have lost the war.

GPM0908000j — Lt. Gen. George Patton with the signal corps, July 11th 1943, Sicily. (General George Patton Museum)

That being said, Wilson, FDR, JFK, LBJ and Clinton were all serial adulterers as well as Democrats. We survived. Please don’t let yourself get stuck on stupid.

Clinton, Communications Theory, Dirty Tricks, Editorial, Elite Media, Obama, Propaganda, True Talking Points, Uncategorized, WTF

CNN Caught Coaching Post-Debate Focus Group (video)

October 10, 2016 Chuck Norton Leave a comment

The “journalist” was caught coaching the focus group on camera…

This is not unusual for CNN. After all this is the network who said on the air that they are doing all they can do to get Hillary elected:

CNN also…and this is just the tip of the iceberg:

1 – Rigged a 2007 presidential town-hall style debate. How? Each “undecided voter” they picked from the audience to pose questions to Republicans ended up being a known Democrat campaign operative who had been on CNN before.

2 – The network asked Democrat campaign operatives in 2008 how the network should respond to “republican attacks” referring to the Democrats as “We”.

3 – Ran propaganda puff pieces for Saddam Hussien.

4 – Falsely added the word “racial” to Trump talking about Israeli profiling methods.

5 – Published misleading headlines and spin to protect Obama over the massive job losses.

6 – Blamed mass shooters who ended up being far left extremists, such as the New York museum shooter, on the TEA Party.

7 – CNN treats real violent left wing protesters as peaceful and peaceful TEA Party activists as violent (2).

8 – On CNN arch leftists are presented as “moderate Democrats” no matter how radical they are and yet Republicans are presented as “right wing”.

9 – The network that actually issued a “content advisory” before playing a part of the National Anthem.

2012 Primary, 2016, Communications Theory, Culture War, Editorial, Uncategorized

Pictures Speak a Thousand Words About Diversity and Rhetoric…

September 20, 2016 Chuck Norton Leave a comment

trump-so-cal-staff-640x480 — Donald Trump’s Southern California Campaign Staff via LA Times

msnbc-all-white — MSNBC Television Line Up 2012

hillary-press-corps-via-politico — The Washington Press Corps That Follows Hillary via Politico

obama-2012-campaign-hq-staff — President Obama’s 2012 Campaign HQ Staff via Daily Beast

huffpo-editorial-board-diversity — Huffington Post Editorial Staff via Liz Heron

Editorial, Uncategorized

To Believe In An Ideal It’s Important To Understand When To Abandon It

September 20, 2016 Chuck Norton 1 Comment

anakinandmom

“To believe in an ideal is to be willing to betray it. It is something that no Sith or Jedi has ever truly learned.” – Traya

It amazes me how much of the philosophy of Cicero is in both Star Trek and Star Wars. It was the Jedi’s unwillingness to bend the Jedi Code and rescue Anakin Skywalker’s mother that more than anything led to his fall to the Dark Side.

The Jedi Counsel was perfectly willing to let Anakin’s mother stay a slave, and then tell Anakin to ignore his visions of her suffering, only because the Jedi Code forbade attachments. How inhuman is that?

Ideals and laws and such are very important, but life itself is an exercise of exceptions. If it wasn’t all we would need is a book of rules to lead us and not leaders.

2016, Clinton, Communications Theory, Dirty Tricks, Editorial, Elite Media, Uncategorized

So Hillary, Let Me Get This Straight…..

September 18, 2016 Chuck Norton Leave a comment

“None of my emails had the classified header and border “- Hillary Rodham Clinton

So Hillary let me get this straight. I take a classified document complete with the border and header markings, and then I open up my email program and start copying the secret information. Because my email program does not have the classified header and border this now makes it all OK. This is what Hillary is saying literally and no one follows up.

This is an old propaganda trick known as “smoke screening”. Smoke Screening is when you present a small, partial fact (or lie) as truth as if shown to you out from behind a smoke screen so that you cannot see the rest of the truth or context in hopes that a completely false narrative can be presented to you through implication and attitude. Parents know that bratty teens do this all the time to try and get out of trouble, except they are usually not very good at it.

2012 Primary, 2016, Corporatism, Cruz, Editorial, Mitt Romney, True Talking Points

Romney Presidential Aspirations Fall Flat with GOP Lawmakers

January 15, 2015 Chuck Norton Leave a comment

The 2016 nominee has to be new blood. Voters are not buying that the same people who have been in and out of government for decades are suddenly going to reform it.

Romney, hoping that the K Street crowd, who is scared to death of ethical reformers like Ted Cruz, would rally to him, leaked that he wants to run for the purpose of stopping Ted Cruz and he did Newt Gingrich.

Talk about running for the wrong reasons. The American people are suffering and certain power players are treating the reigns of our country as if it their personal play thing, as if this is some sort of soap opera.

The Hill:

Republican lawmakers aren’t jumping on the Mitt Romney 2016 bandwagon.

Even among his onetime allies, the news that the former Massachusetts governor is considering a third consecutive run for president is being met with criticism or cool indifference on Capitol Hill.

Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), Romney’s congressional liaison for his 2012 run, said Tuesday he might support one of his Senate colleagues for president.

Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), who backed Romney before the 2012 Iowa caucus, said he’s going to “wait and see.”

And another senator who spoke on background to offer a candid assessment of how Romney could affect the 2016 race offered a stark dismissal.

“What we know about Romney last time, he lost the election with working Americans,” said the conservative senator, who backed Romney in 2012. “[Among] those making $30,000 to $50,000, he lost it by 15 percent, and [those making] under $30,000 by 28 percent. You can’t win an election like that. And it can’t just be words. I’ll be looking for candidates who are authentic, who have credibility.”

Remember the problems with Mitt Romney in 2012:

1 – He smeared Newt Gingrich for starters in ads that were just plain dishonest. This cost Romney votes in North Florida among other areas. Millions of conservatives stayed home.

2 – He changed his views on illegal immigration and global warming depending on what group he was in front of.

3 – He trashed all the other 2012 candidates for not having perfectly conservative records when he had the least conservative record of them all.

4 – He let Obama paint him as a man who was responsible for the death of employees that had died after he left the company. These ads ran in OHIO for a month before Romney even responded. Losing Ohio alone will cost the election.

5 – His tax reform plan was the mildest proposal of all of the candidates.

6 – And then there were the debates….

Communications Theory, Dirty Tricks, Editorial, Gangsta Govt, Lies, Millhouse, Obama, Propaganda, Treason, Uncategorized

Govt to study ‘social pollution’ (Political Speech) on Twitter

October 30, 2014 Chuck Norton Leave a comment

As we have stated in the previous several posts, the government has no business regulating, or even trying to regulate political speech.

What you will read below is the beginning of several very creepy efforts to destroy freedom of political speech and conscience. Those efforts will likely manifest themselves in three ways:

I – First and most obviously, this “study” is designed to develop techniques to identify the political leanings of Twitter users. That way opinion leaders and top influencers can be singled out for IRS audits like they did to Becky Garritson; or spied upon like they did to reporters James Rosen, Sharyl Attkisson, as well as the entire Washington Bureau of the Associated Press.

This went as far as the government putting classified documents on Sharyl Attkisson’s computer in case they ever decided to charge her with possession of classified documents. Perhaps you are spreading messages someone doesn’t like or you grow to be an influencer on Twitter; so they sneak a little kiddy porn on your PC using government hacking tools and you go bye bye.

II – The study will “determine”, by the standards of “truth” as defined by the Democrats in power who paid for it, what is “true” or not. This is so obvious that it does not even need to be said, but we will say it anyway. Who lies more than government and politicians? Any attempt by them to declare something true or false will be done by pure political motivation. Even if that is not the intent of this study the results and resulting software will be used for just such a purpose, it is only a matter of time.

III – The study will determine what messages propagate through Twitter via mass fake accounts and “astroturfing” vs how messages that genuinely go viral propagate. This will be done for the purpose of perfecting methods of astroturfing to further manipulate and control the messages you see and hear on social media.

Read the following carefully….

Via The Washington Post:

By Ajit Pai – Ajit Pai is a member of the Federal Communications Commission.

If you take to Twitter to express your views on a hot-button issue, does the government have an interest in deciding whether you are spreading “misinformation’’? If you tweet your support for a candidate in the November elections, should taxpayer money be used to monitor your speech and evaluate your “partisanship’’?

My guess is that most Americans would answer those questions with a resounding no. But the federal government seems to disagree. The National Science Foundation , a federal agency whose mission is to “promote the progress of science; to advance the national health, prosperity and welfare; and to secure the national defense,” is funding a project to collect and analyze your Twitter data.

The project is being developed by researchers at Indiana University, and its purported aim is to detect what they deem “social pollution” and to study what they call “social epidemics,” including how memes — ideas that spread throughout pop culture — propagate. What types of social pollution are they targeting? “Political smears,” so-called “astroturfing” and other forms of “misinformation.”

Named “Truthy,” after a term coined by TV host Stephen Colbert, the project claims to use a “sophisticated combination of text and data mining, social network analysis, and complex network models” to distinguish between memes that arise in an “organic manner” and those that are manipulated into being.

But there’s much more to the story. Focusing in particular on political speech, Truthy keeps track of which Twitter accounts are using hashtags such as #teaparty and #dems. It estimates users’ “partisanship.” It invites feedback on whether specific Twitter users, such as the Drudge Report, are “truthy” or “spamming.” And it evaluates whether accounts are expressing “positive” or “negative” sentiments toward other users or memes.

The Truthy team says this research could be used to “mitigate the diffusion of false and misleading ideas, detect hate speech and subversive propaganda, and assist in the preservation of open debate.”

Hmm. A government-funded initiative is going to “assist in the preservation of open debate” by monitoring social media for “subversive propaganda” and combating what it considers to be “the diffusion of false and misleading ideas”? The concept seems to have come straight out of a George Orwell novel.

The NSF has already poured nearly $1 million into Truthy. To what end? Why is the federal government spending so much money on the study of your Twitter habits?

Some possible hints as to Truthy’s real motives emerge in a 2012 paper by the project’s leaders, in which they wrote ominously of a “highly-active, densely-interconnected constituency of right-leaning users using [Twitter] to further their political views.”

Truthy reminds me of another agency-funded study, in which the Federal Communications Commission sought to insert itself into newsrooms across the country. That project purported to examine whether news outlets were meeting what researchers determined were the “critical information needs” of the American people. And it involved sending out government-funded researchers to ask editors and reporters questions about their news philosophy and editorial judgment.

Once this study was brought to the attention of the American people, howls of protest from across the political spectrum led the FCC to scrap the project — thankfully. The episode reaffirmed that the American people, not their government, determine what their critical information needs are and that the First Amendment means the government has no place in the newsroom.

That principle applies here. Truthy’s entire premise is false. In the United States, the government has no business entering the marketplace of ideas to establish an arbiter of what is false, misleading or a political smear. Nor should the government be involved in any effort to squint for and squelch what is deemed to be “subversive propaganda.” Instead, the merits of a viewpoint should be determined by the public through robust debate. I had thought we had learned these lessons long ago.

Now, I do understand the motivation behind this scheme, even though I disagree with it. To those who wish to shape the nation’s political dialogue, social media is dangerous. No longer can a cadre of elite gatekeepers pick and choose the ideas to which Americans will be exposed. But today’s democratization of political speech is a good thing. It brings into the arena countless Americans whose voices previously might have received inadequate or slanted exposure.

The federal government has no business spending your hard-earned money on a project to monitor political speech on Twitter. How should it instead have reacted when funding for Truthy was proposed? The proper response wouldn’t have required anywhere near 140 characters. It could have been, and should have been, #absolutelynot.

Communications Theory, Dirty Tricks, Editorial, Lies, Propaganda

Internet Snow Job Propaganda

June 16, 2014 Chuck Norton Leave a comment

Some attitude change propaganda is easy to spot for those who are vigilant, but those who create such propaganda know that all too many people simply “want to believe“….

Every graphic below creates a false narrative and is yet believed by many people.

This graphic, like most well executed propaganda is largely true, but a lie is inserted and a key truth is omitted to create a false narrative.

In 1890 the US Government did kill 290 civilians including women and children who were asked to surrender their arms and did so, when they were slaughtered.

What does the graphic omit? It was called the “Battle of Wounded Knee” in some older history books. Of course, since the winner usually writes the history, that explains why this event was called a “Battle” and not a “slaughter” which is much closer to the truth.

What is the lie? This event did not happen at a school.

Below is yet another example of out of context selective editing:

What President Obama actually said is quite different as he was talking about standing by Pakistani Americans should they face persecution because of Al-Qaeda.

Actual quote from “The Audacity of Hope” [pg. 261]:

Of course, not all my conversations in immigrant communities follow this easy pattern. In the wake of 9/11, my meetings with Arab and Pakistani Americans, for example, have a more urgent quality, for the stories of detentions and FBI questioning and hard stares from neighbors have shaken their sense of security and belonging. They have been reminded that the history of immigration in this country has a dark underbelly; they need specific assurances that their citizenship really means something, that America has learned the right lessons from the Japanese internments during World War II, and that I will stand with them should the political winds shift in an ugly direction.

In today’s examples we see propaganda that is designed to target the sensibilities of traditionalists and conservatives. Propaganda from “the right” is usually far less sophisticated and of lower production value than examples from the progressive left. There are several reasons for this.

The “right” just aren’t very good liars. To most traditionalists, Christians, Conservatives and Libertarians lying is held in disdain. Conversely, when one reads most any major leftist/progressive thinker be it Hegel, Marx, Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Weber, Gramsci, Alinsky, Lippmann, etc they all endorse deception as a legitimate political tactic going so far to say that “rationality must be imposed from above”, “the ends justifies the means”, “the truth is anything that advances class struggle”, “all morality is secondary to the class struggle polemic”, “those who oppose the advance toward a leviathan state should be painted as rubes”, etc.

A great deal of this propaganda comes from outlandish conspiracy sites and/or from small bloggers who are trying to drive up traffic by coming up with something to grab attention.

Some of this type of misinformation is created by leftist sites and pressure groups so they can out “conservative lies” and thus bring attention to themselves. Creating controversy for the purpose of playing the hero is hardly a new tactic in political activism.

Political candidates from both parties have been known to put up fake “patriot” web sites that propagate disinformation and smears on rival candidates designed to target the sensitivities of conservatives. Social Media often picks up this misinformation and runs with it. The elite media often refers to such tactics as “campaign dirty tricks“. Mitt Romney employed this tactic against Fred Thompson and got caught. Ron Paul supporters have been caught doing this as well.

Communications Theory, Dirty Tricks, Editorial, Propaganda

How Alex Jones’ Conspiracy Propaganda Works

June 16, 2014 Chuck Norton Leave a comment

As a part of our attitude change propaganda series today we are looking at Alex Jones.

Alex Jones uses several tricks to make his site look like a real information source. Aside from slick graphics that make parts of his site look like other legitimate news sites, he takes work from credible publications such as Human Events, recycles them with his hype and conspiracy theories added, and then tells people that the ONLY source of this information is him and that everyone else conspires to keep this from them (OK that one is partially true). Like all conspiracy theorists such as “9/11 truthers” those who effectively disagree with Jones automatically become a part of “the conspiracy”.

Jones uses a regular formula for what he puts out to keep his readers and listeners hooked. Jones mixes 1/3 to 2/3 of real facts with over-hype and his cult of personality conspiracy language. He will show you A + B & then how A + B = C, and then say this is why his X Y Z narrative is completely true. Jones does not explain or demonstrate how he makes the leap from ABC to XYZ in his narrative. Conveniently, when you argue with Jones he throws what is true about the A B C part of his narrative in your face and accuses you of lying or being against “the facts”.

Jones does same thing that Donald Trump did in his demonization of China in his “almost” presidential campaign – ‘IT’S THEM! THEY CHEATED! THEY did this to YOU!’ Now granted China does not play fair, but the truth is that China uses our leaders’ own stupidity against us. While China most certainly intends to damage us to a degree, it is no where near the damage caused by our own deeply flawed leaders. The victim card is mighty seductive to those who have not steeled themselves against it.

Those who are new to politics risk getting caught up with Jones pretty easily. Few will deny that Jones is entertaining. He is a cult of personality propagandist who leverages the appeal of a cloak and dagger soap opera. People who believe Jones over time become emotionally attached, they “believe in Alex” and it becomes less and less about facts or policy. Being a “Joneser” effectively renders someone politically powerless. Jonser’s mostly talk amongst themselves but never gain any political power as those with political experience ignore them. Jonser’s, like most people caught in a cult of personality, are virtually immune to any evidence that indicates that Jones is flawed.

45 Failed Alex Jones Predictions

Beck, Dirty Tricks, Editorial, Propaganda

Right Wing Watch does “selective editing” smear job on Glenn Beck

June 15, 2014 Chuck Norton Leave a comment

To those who follow such things, you might say, “so what else is new”. Even so, it is worth reporting because it is an excellent example of attitude change propaganda mass media theory and it demonstrates how far some people will go to propagate a lie.

The video below from Right Wing Watch shows Glenn Beck talking about two different subjects and then splices them together to create the false narrative/claim against Beck, namely that he is warning that Obama is going to round up conservatives and put them into camps. The splice happens at 1:07 into the video.

At the beginning of the video Beck accurately explains historical examples of when those in power demonize people so as to make them two dimensional and easier to persecute. At the 1:07 mark the video cuts to Beck speculating on how he thinks Obama might react to mass critique if the elite media turned on him. By linking these two clips together using careful editing they have gullible people believing something that Beck simply did not say or intend to say.

The ruse by Right Wing Watch is further given away in the clip they used as Beck can be seen clearly stating that both sides in a conflict often use such demonization techniques.

This is the kind of dishonest shenanigan that “People for the American Way” and “Media Matters” have been caught doing from time to time. Alec Baldwin sits on the board for the group if that is an indication oh how off the rails they can get.

Here is an example where Media Matters was caught red handed doing the same – LINK.

Glenn Beck does three hours of broadcasting a day, so if someone disagrees with him there is room to do it legitimately without resorting to dishonest editing tricks.

Glenn Beck posts the entire audio of his show on his web site and on SoundCloud every day. Anyone can download the entire show and listen for themselves as there is no sign up or membership fee.

The entire post from Right Wing Watch is below:

Glenn Beck Warns Obama Is About To Snap, Will Start Putting Conservatives Into Internment Camps

http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/glenn-beck-warns-obama-about-snap-will-start-putting-conservatives-internment-camps

On his radio broadcast today, Glenn Beck warned that too many crises are piling up all at the same time which will cause the press to finally turn on President Obama. That, in turn, will cause Obama to finally snap and start rounding up conservatives and putting them into camps.

Just as German society demonized Jews for years before the Nazis took power, Beck warned that this nation “has been watering some seeds” for nearly ten years to condition Americans to accept that “there are those enemies of the president that need to be punished.”

Once the press turns on Obama, Beck warned, he “is not going to react well” because he has been coddled his entire life and was always treated like a god who was never to be criticized or questioned.

Saying that Obama is like a spoiled child who is about to be told that he doesn’t get a trophy just for participating, Beck predicted that Obama would respond by lashing out furiously at conservatives and putting them into internment camps.

By Chuck Norton, Editor

Communications Theory, Editorial, History, Propaganda

Attitude Change Propaganda Designed to Prey on the Ignorant and Uneducated

June 2, 2014 Chuck Norton Leave a comment

This is a great example of why so many universities do not teach American History well, virtually ignore American Studies and why Common Core dedicates all of a few lines of text to George Washington, James Madison and Thomas Jefferson.

What we see below is a textbook example of attitude change propaganda in action. It cherry picks certain facts and partial facts way out of context and strings them together with an attitude to create a narrative and an attitude that is entirely false. This kind of lying is no accident. It takes a very deliberate mind to come up with propaganda this sophisticated.

If students were well educated in civics as well as the history of Western Civilization they would not fall for nonsense like this from the FaceBook page of “Being Liberal” which I saw cross posted on the timeline of a recent high school graduate:

Forcing a whole country to abide by the laws of one religion leads to persecution and oppression. We see this not only in the U.S. but other countries. Keep religion out of the Constitution – let everyone choose their own belief system..coexist. – Kelsie Ferguson

It’s important to remember history accurately.

Since we are remembering history accurately today….

The Constitution was meant to be a short and simple framework for government, it was never intended to be the guidebook for governance. This is why honest judges look at the Declaration of Independence (which says that our rights come from you know who), the Federalist Papers, letters and notes from the Founders, early docs that influenced the Constitution like the Virginia Declaration of Rights etc.

It might be important to point out that all 50 state constitutions mentioned God – http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/g/god-constitutions.htm

Also, one does not need to have God to have persecution or oppression. Shall we tally up the number of the dead by regimes hostile to the notion that human rights are God given?

Lets see:

People’s Republic of China 1949-present
Body Count: 73,237,000

Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
Body Count: 58,627,000
1922-1991 (69 years)

Democratic People’s Republic of Korea
Body Count: 3,163,000
1948-Present

Cambodia under Pol Pot
Body Count: 2,627,000
1975-1987

Vietnam (Note: this number excludes the 1,062,000 from the Vietnam War)
Body Count: 1,670,000
1975-Present

People’s Democratic Republic of Ethiopia
Body Count: 1,343,610
1974-1991

Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
Body Count: 1,072,000
1945-1992

People’s Republic of Mozambique
Body Count: 700,000
1975-1990

Socialist Republic of Romania
Body Count: 435,000
1947-1989

This list continues for a long way. It is also important to note that Islamic regimes do not recognize God given human and political rights as we know them.

I see the mention of James Madison. GREAT! The Founders were virtually unanimous in their belief that the state should not create a state church as most every European power had done. In each case a European power cherry picked one denomination of Christianity over the others. The Founders were virtually unanimous in their opposition to that behavior.

That being said most of the Founders, James Madison especially… well take a read:

First, Madison was publicly outspoken about his personal Christian beliefs and convictions. For example, he encouraged his friend, William Bradford (who served as Attorney General under President Washington), to make sure of his own spiritual salvation:

[A] watchful eye must be kept on ourselves lest, while we are building ideal monuments of renown and bliss here, we neglect to have our names enrolled in the Annals of Heaven.[1]

Madison even desired that all public officials – including Bradford – would declare openly and publicly their Christian beliefs and testimony:

I have sometimes thought there could not be a stronger testimony in favor of religion or against temporal enjoyments, even the most rational and manly, than for men who occupy the most honorable and gainful departments and [who] are rising in reputation and wealth, publicly to declare their unsatisfactoriness by becoming fervent advocates in the cause of Christ; and I wish you may give in your evidence in this way. [2]

Second, Madison was a member of the committee that authored the 1776 Virginia Bill of Rights and approved of its clause declaring that:

It is the mutual duty of all to practice Christian forbearance, love, and charity toward each other. [3]

Third, Madison’s proposed wording for the First Amendment demonstrates that he opposed only the establishment of a federal denomination, not public religious activities. His proposal declared:

The civil rights of none shall be abridged on account of religious belief or worship, nor shall any national religion be established. [4]

(Madison reemphasized that position throughout the debates. [5])

Fourth, in 1789, Madison served on the Congressional committee which authorized, approved, and selected paid Congressional chaplains. [6]

Fifth, in 1812, President Madison signed a federal bill which economically aided a Bible Society in its goal of the mass distribution of the Bible. [7]

Sixth, throughout his Presidency (1809-1816), Madison endorsed public and official religious expressions by issuing several proclamations for national days of prayer, fasting, and thanksgiving. [8]

[1] Letter of Madison to William Bradford (November 9, 1772), in 1 James Madison, The Letters and Other Writings of James Madison 5-6 (New York: R. Worthington 1884).

[2] Letter of Madison to William Bradford (September 25, 1773), in 1 James Madison, The Papers of James Madison 66 (William T. Hutchinson ed., Illinois: University of Chicago Press 1962).

[3] The Proceedings of the Convention of Delegates, Held at the Capitol in the City of Williamsburg, in the Colony of Virginia, on Monday the 6th of May, 1776, 103 (Williamsburg: Alexander Purdie 1776) (Madison on the Committee on May 16, 1776; the “Declaration of Rights” passed June 12, 1776).

[4] 1 The Debates and Proceedings in the Congress of the United States 451, 1st Cong., 1st Sess. (Washington, D. C.: Gales & Seaton 1834) (June 8, 1789).

[5] 1 Debates and Proceedings 758-759 (1834 ed.) (August 15, 1789).

[6] 1 Debates and Proceedings 109 (1834 ed.) (April 9, 1789).

[7] Debates and Proceedings in the Congress of the United States 1325, 12th Cong., 2nd Sess. (Washington: Gales & Seaton 1853) (“An Act for the relief of the Bible Society of Philadelphia. Be it enacted, &c., That the duties arising and due to the United States upon certain stereotype plates, imported during the last year into the port of Philadelphia, on board the ship Brilliant, by the Bible Society of Philadelphia, for the purpose of printing editions of the Holy Bible, be and the same are hereby remitted, on behalf of the United States, to the said society: and any bond or security given for the securing of the payment of the said duties shall be cancelled. Approved February 2, 1813.”)

[8] 1 James D. Richardson, A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents, 1789-1897, 513 (Published by Authority of Congress 1899) (July 9, 1812), 532-533 (July 23, 1813), 558 (November 16, 1814), and 560-561 (March 4, 1815).

Editorial, Lies, Pay to Play, Propaganda, True Talking Points

How brazen will politicians lie? Check this out.

April 21, 2014 Chuck Norton 1 Comment

Austan Goolsbee is the former Chief White House Economic Adviser for President Obama. Last week Goolsbee pelted Sean Hannity with the latest Democrat Party talking point, that Obama is a fiscal conservative because he cut the deficit in half!

Hannity rightly took Goolsbee to task on how he came up with such a whopping stretch. Follow these numbers:

In FY2007, the last year Republicans had total fiscal control the yearly deficit was 188 billion and Democrats to this day go on and on as to what big spenders Republicans were under Bush.

Democrats take over the Congress and in FY2008 the yearly deficit goes to 500 billion.

Obama is elected and FY2009 through 2013 the YEARLY deficits are 1200 – 1400 billion per year.

This year the yearly deficit is projected to be just over 680 billion.

“”OMG LOOK WE CUT THE DEFICIT IN HALF!! See how conservative we are!””

This is the kind of twisted logic spoiled children use to get their way. We don’t tolerate it from them, so don’t tolerate it from those in power.

BUT WAIT THERE’S MORE!

How corrupt is the Florida State GOP?

Aside from the fact that the Florida Republican leadership worked to get Allen West out of office in spite of the record amount of money he raised for them, read below via Jennifer Gratz:

Today the Florida Senate rules committee takes up legislation that would force breweries to sell our beer to a distributor, let the distributor mark it up and then sell it back to us before we could sell it in our tasting rooms. Adding insult to injury, the beer would never have to leave the brewery, the distributor wouldn’t have to actually distribute. Talk about getting paid for nothing. What a racket. Little faith in our government these days.

Corporatism, Editorial, Gangsta Govt, History, Thugs, True Talking Points

Former Chief of Staff to Attorney General Ed Meese Says Bundy is Right – UPDATED!

April 13, 2014 Chuck Norton 43 Comments

by Chuck Norton

UPDATE – Aside from the comment section below which has several links, videos and comments, Mark Levin went more in-depth into the BLM’s deliberate abuse of power, creating a legal quagmire to destroy the lives of ranchers, coal miners, small farmers, and commercial fisherman. Listen here:

UPDATE II – Fox News’ Sean Hannity reported today that the Chinese Solar plant Sen. Harry Reid broke ground on is not 213 miles from Clive Bundy’s ranch, it is 35 miles.

Mark Levin, famed lawyer, author, legal scholar, and former Chief of Staff to Attorney General Ed Meese says Cliven Bundy is right.

Levin explained in his April 11th broadcast how Bundy had agreements with the State of Nevada before the BLM claimed jurisdiction.

Originally Bundy and the other ranchers in the area cooperated with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). They negotiated water rights and grazing rights, building of roads and irrigation all with the approval of the state and BLM.

BLM was collecting fees from Bundy and the other ranchers in the area when BLM reneged on their earlier agreements [including agreements with Clark County H/T Michele Fiore]. BLM began a systematic and deliberate campaign to drive ranchers out of Southern Nevada. Levin said that while the BLM had granted itself the power to behave in such a way to make it “legal”, BLM’s war on local ranchers is a deliberate abuse of power.

Among the tactics used by BLM was a mandate for “environmental” reasons that Bundy and the other ranchers in the area decrease their cattle herd to 150 head, which would put every rancher out of business and did, including 52 ranchers in Clark County alone, leaving Cliven Bundy the last rancher standing.

BLM demands that ranchers sign a contract agreeing to new terms before they take payment. While BLM was successful in driving every other rancher out Cliven Bundy refused to agree to the new terms, stopped paying BLM and a 20 year legal battle began, with Bundy not being able to afford attorney’s for a drawn out legal battle (so much for due process). [NOTE: Cliven Bundy’s English is so bad and so broken that he can barely manage to express himself.]

Another tactic that BLM engaged is was to declare much of the land off-limits because they said that the Desert Tortoise was endangered, while at the same time the population of Desert Tortoises was so abundant that the government initiated a program to hunt them.

Levin’s entire April 11th broadcast can be downloaded at the following link:

http://www.stationcaster.com/player_skinned.php?s=2591&c=10771&f=2667713

Late on April 11th, bloggers searching public documents discovered that Nevada Senator Harry Reid, whose former long-term aid now directs BLM, has been negotiating a deal with a Chinese energy firm to build a $5 billion solar energy facility on the land near the Bundy Ranch. Harry Reid’s son represents the Chinese firm looking to develop said land.

[NOTE: While the ground zero point of the Chinese Solar facility is ~~200~~ miles from the Bundy Ranch, it is within the area of the many dozens of ranchers the BLM has driven out in recent years as well as the associated public grazing land. Also water rights can easily be affected by such a large development ~~200~~ 35 miles away (See Update II above). In any case, the overpopulated Desert Tortoise means that horses and cattle can’t graze, but a massive solar facility ….well that is great for the so-called “endangered” tortoise?]

After the news of Harry Reid’s involvement in plans to seize and develop these lands with the Chinese had begun to go viral on the internet, the following morning the BLM agreed to pull its 200 armed men out and return seized cattle to Cliven Bundy. At the time of this writing the BLM had not indicated if the arrival of nearly 2000 (many armed) citizens was a factor in their motivation to stand down.

Editor’s Note:

Has the political class has taken lands in the West much the same way they stole the land from the Indians and slaughtered them? What politician ran on “I am going to seize control of 86% of Nevada”?

They did it by a thousand cuts, incrementalism, and before you know it they have taken control of 86% of the land for no other reason other than they got away with it.

This is the problem, the Congress over time has handed so much “regulatory” authority to the executive branch that they can make up and change “the law” as they go at a whim. We have witnessed the wholesale breakdown of separation of powers.

Is not civil disobedience, the First Amendment right to protest, parts of Article V, and the Second Amendment all checks against the deadly power of lawmaking under such circumstances?

It is important to keep in mind that one of the government’s tactics in takings cases is to drag out court proceedings and make your legal bills so high that you run out of money and give up, which is why Cliven Bundy represented himself in court. Can one honestly say that Cliven Bundy got his due process in federal court with no legal team to help him?

Clinton, Dirty Tricks, Editorial, Elite Media, Libya, Lies

Dear idgits at the NYT…

December 29, 2013 Chuck Norton Leave a comment

At Benghazi the Al-Qaeda mortar teams had each building zeroed in which takes time and training. Distances measured to the meter, advanced scoping of the targets etc. Who brings mortars to a protest?

And this was after Al-Qaeda made coordinated attacks against the British, the Red Cross and other Western targets in Benghazi and took credit for them. We also know from wires to the State Department that our own people on the ground predicted an Al-Qeada attack was inevitable.

– Signed, the editor of this blog who has military munitions experience and everyone else who has had the requisite military training who isn’t paid to lie for you.

Sharyl Attkisson put truth to the latest politicized claim by the NYT that “Hey, maybe it really was a video“:

Whatever the status of the terrorists, there’s now widespread agreement even among Obama admin that they weren’t spontaneous protesters.

This was a piece I wrote in May that I think still holds up pretty well as far as describing Obama admin views: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-250_162-57584921/officials-on-benghazi-we-made-mistakes-but-without-malice/ …

The NYT’s Hillary for President activism begins today.

Editorial, History, Mount Vernon, True Talking Points

How the 17th Amendment stole power from you and gave it to big money interests

December 21, 2013 Chuck Norton Leave a comment

By Chuck Norton

The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, elected by the people thereof, for six years; and each Senator shall have one vote. The electors in each State shall have the qualifications requisite for electors of the most numerous branch of the State legislatures. – 17th Amendment to the US Constitution

One might think off the cuff, what is so bad about that? You mean we didn’t used to directly elect our own Senators?

Before the 17th Amendment Senators served at the pleasure of your state legislators and could be recalled at any time should the Senator work against the interests of your state. So how did changing that take power from you?

What they didn’t tell you is that the way the political parties have structured themselves in the Congress, the direct election of Senators made political party leadership virtually all powerful.

In the Senate today the Majority Leader, Harry Reid holds that position, is near all powerful. He can hold up any and all legislation, he can stop the approval of any executive appointees, he can make rules to allow or restrict any amendments to bills, he can have debate ruled out of order by controlling the rules committee, and by using the power of the Majority Leader position he can change the Senate Rules to almost anything he wants. In the case of Harry Reid, he has shirked his constitutional duty by not allowing a federal budget to be passed for years. Since the passage of the 17th Amendment there is virtually no recourse.

If the Speaker of the House is in the same political party, party leadership (all of two people) will have total control over Conference Committees which shape how legislation in its final form is voted on; such power is near impossible to check.

Does this sound democratic to you? Is this what you have in mind when you think of a congress?

It gets worse….

The Majority Leader uses his power to modify legislation to aid party supporters, to steer appropriations and favorable legislation to Senators who will obey, and punish Senators who do not. As a result Senators are much more responsive to big money interests and K Street lobbyists than their own constituents. Senators get millions of dollars from out of state to run ads which are often used to trick voters with dishonest messaging. This goes quintuple for the Majority Leader. With his power to craft, steer, and modify legislation and the appropriations process he becomes a fund raising behemoth. The Majority Leader will control a “Leadership PAC” to dump campaign money into the coffers of Senators who obey his will.

How many of you have ever had a Senator who could care less what you had to say or your problems? How many of you have asked for constituent service from your Senator only to have his staff blow you off and tell you that is what your House member is for?

Look at states such as Virginia, who have state legislatures that oppose the expensive disaster that is Obamacare, have an elected Attorney General who sued in court to help stop parts of Obamacare and won, when when the people of the state and the members of the state legislature beg their two Senators for relief they are told to go fly a kite.

After learning all this it is no surprise why the 17th Amendment is considered one of the “Progressive Amendments” along with the income tax and other federal power grab amendments designed to centralize power in Washington DC. [Note: Progressives and statists love to create the illusions and trappings of public input and a democratic process – “You will have to pass the bill to find out what is in it” – former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi]

The Senate was created to represent the states and now they represent big money interests. If the State Legislatures control the Senators said Senators would have no choice but be responsive to the will of the people and the state, it would gave the states real representation in the central government once again, it would take the power away from out of state big money interests and power away form K Street lobbyists.

Citizens who wish to talk directly with their state legislator can just simply to his house or call him directly on the phone because the districts are small. State legislators are responsive to the voice of the people because the nature of their small districts forces them to be, thus amplifying your voice in the central government, not diminishing it.

Note: Mark Levin has proposed 11 Amendments to restore the checks and balances that have been broken down by dishonest courts and a Congress that has yielded most legislative power to unelected bureaucrats: http://www.amazon.com/The-Liberty-Amendments-Restoring-American/dp/1451606273

Editorial, Global Security, Treason, Uncategorized

Captain America, The Winter Soldier Trailer Analysis

October 27, 2013 Chuck Norton Leave a comment

As is made self-evident in the trailer Steve Rogers (Captain America) is working for SHIELD with Natasha Romanoff (Black Widow). Rogers begins to question SHIELD’s motives and extra-constitutional way of business.

Rogers visits a WWII museum which features some of his exploits from the war. Rogers seems to be reflecting on who he is and what Captain America really stands for. Notice the kids idolizing him just as they did back in WWII.

Rogers, at some point in the film, decides that he has to part ways with SHIELD and they try to take him into custody. The people Rogers fights in the elevator are SHIELD agents who work for a division of SHIELD called STRIKE. They have STRIKE pins, badges and one has a a STRIKE patch on his arm. Notice that the two men in the quinjet with Rogers and Romanoff at the beginning are two of the men in the elevator.

In the screenshot below you can see both Rogers and Romanoff in civilian clothes. This seems to take place after Rogers leaves SHIELD.
Does Romanoff agree with Rogers and decide to go with him or is Romanoff just playing along to keep tabs on Rogers? We will have to wait for the film to find out. Romanoff is a ruthless liar and killer, but as we saw in The Avengers she is trying to find and establish a moral compass.

Below we see an old SHIELD logo from the late 1940’s. Notice it has the Stars & Stripes shield in the center much like Captain America’s first shield made of iron.

Cap sheds his new SHIELD issued uniform and puts on his old 1940’s uniform. Cap is obviously making it clear that he is Captain AMERICA, he is Captain Steve Rogers U.S. Army; not Captain SHIELD and not Captain international surveillance state. All surveillance state’s become states ran by fear, just as we are seeing in our own government here in the real world. In the trailer Falcon is also seen in battle against a SHIELD quinjet.

As a matter of absolute clarity, SHIELD is an agency with much more than its fair share of liars and killers; they most certainly do violate human rights (in the Marvel Universe). As far as we know, little stands in SHIELD’s way other than people such as Agent Coulson who do have some moral compass.

In episode one of Agents of SHIELD, Agent Ward asked Coulson if he should “scratch off” – meaning murder – members of “The Rising Tide”, an idealistic hactivist group. Coulson’s reaction was one of shock…fortunately.

Those who watch Agents of SHIELD on ABC television are being lulled into a false sense of security. Agent Coulson is a good man, and I suspect that because he IS a good man they have him working assignments on The Bus to keep him, and any would be objections from him, out of the way. Coulson is a threat to SHIELD because if any one man has the influence to turn the Avengers against SHIELD it is Phil Coulson.

While SHIELD is the hero in the show, let us not forget that in several ways they are also an anti-hero (a key dynamic that makes SHIELD so interesting). Power corrupts …and not every SHIELD authority figure is Agent Coulson.

Stark, Banner, Rogers and Thor were and do remain skeptical of SHIELD. SHIELD Director Nick Fury lied to their faces about just wanting the Tesseract to be a “warm light for all mankind”. Fury was in mid-sentence lying to Rogers’ face about using the Tesseract to make weapons when Jarvis finished hacking SHIELD and Stark said, “What were you lying?”

This writer has always liked Captain America because he keeps it real, he keeps things in perspective, he does not let agendas trump principles – in short he IS good. I am impressed that Joss Wheadon is exploring how truly on the edge of dangerous SHIELD is to its own charter.

Econ, Editorial, Elections have Consequences, Elite Media, Health Law, History, Lies, Millhouse, Obama, Pay to Play, Treason, True Talking Points

Government shutdown veiling an assault on separation of powers, oversight, and the budgetary authority of Congress

October 6, 2013 Chuck Norton 3 Comments

by Chuck Norton

UPDATE – Just as we predicted, Democrats in the Senate are floating a bill to allow the President to raise the debt limit in direct violation of Article I of the Constitution. The Democrats have written the bill so that it would take a super majority in both chambers to block the President from giving himself an unlimited credit card.

Congress is not a rubber stamp. What President Obama and the Democrats are doing is a frontal assault on separation of powers, Congress’s power and responsibility of oversight of the Executive Branch, and the budgetary authority of Congress

The Democratic Party is pining for a powerful post-constititional Executive Branch that can illegally line item veto, pick and choose who laws will and wont apply to – Chicago style, and seize power to legislate on its own.

Legislating On His Own

Since the passage of the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, President Obama has taken it upon himself to change the law in ways he sees fit, a power that only Congress has under the Constitution. President Obama has given over 1,400 waivers to political allies be it groups or businesses which is illegal and corrupt.

The Grassley Amendment mandates that the Affordable Care Act apply to Congress just as it would to regular citizens; a law the President has waived under no constitutional authority whatsoever. He has done this in collusion with some in the congressional leadership and over the objection of some Republicans who believe doing so is unfair.

If a Republican president had behaved such a way Democrats and their friends in the praetorian media would be screaming for impeachment and enough Republicans would likely agree to get it done. Until this recent assault on the constitutional authority of Congress, Republicans have been somewhat timid in fear of being called “racist” by the praetorian media.

While Democrats would claim that Obama’s actions fall under the regulatory authority granted to the Executive Branch by Congress, regulatory authority is for the purpose of creating due process in carrying out the laws passed by Congress. It is not license to change the law or invent new laws unilaterally, nor is such authority permission to pick and choose winners and losers by deciding what parts will apply to who and who it will not. The President is seizing the power to legislate on his own and has been doing this more and more be it immigration laws, voting laws, domestic spying, and the list goes on.

UPDATE – Newt Gingrich: The President has decided that he wants to be “Legislator In Chief” – http://tiny.cc/wrtw4w

Many things are negotiable, equality under the law is not.

Assault on the Oversight and Budgetary Authority of Congress

Normally, under the regular order of appropriations and budgeting, committees in Congress will hold hearings on and then vote on how your money is spent, how much is spent, and review the stewardship of that spending after the fact with its constitutionally mandated power of oversight. This is how government is accountable to you and the representatives in Congress that you elect.

Through the committee and appropriations process the separate segmented appropriations measures are put together into a budget which sets the taxing and spending limits of various parts of the government. Next, the parts of the budget are reviewed and combined by certain standing committees in Congress such as the Budget Committee; that budget is then voted on by the entire House and Senate. Once passed the Budget is published and anyone can examine it. This is the process that Congress has generally used for the last 200 years and is why this process is called “regular order“.

Regular order makes sense. When you look at your budget at home, you look at each line item, see where your expenses are going and you make priorities to adjust your expenses so that you don’t over spend, right?

When President Obama was elected the Democrats began to refuse to even consider passing a budget, abandoning all regular order. Since the Democrats control the Senate no budgets have been passed.

The Democratic Party Majority Leader in the Senate, Harry Reid, has said again and again that the House of Representatives has no right to pick and choose what it will fund and what it will not. Then Harry Reid and the Democrats started calling Republicans in the House hostage takers, anarchists, arsonists, terrorists, and every other “ists” you can think of. At the same time the Democrats have said they want an all or nothing blank check in the form of a continuing resolution instead of a budget.

The Constitution of the United States says:

Article I Section VII – All Bills for raising Revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives

Article I Section VIII – The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States; To borrow Money on the credit of the United States;

Article I Section IX – No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law; and a regular Statement and Account of the Receipts and Expenditures of all public Money shall be published from time to time.

The Constitution is clear that all bills dealing with revenue must originate in the House of Representatives; which also must pay the debts, set taxes, borrow money and as Section IX makes clear that the records must all be in a budget for the people to see.

By claiming that the House of Representatives does not have the right to do exactly what the Constitution instructs in plain English, the Democrats are trying to make an unconstitutional “new normal” where there are no budgets, no oversight as we have known it for two centuries, and just write gargantuan blank checks in the form of massive continuing resolutions(CR) for President Obama to spend as he sees fit.

It is for these reasons that there is nothing clean about the Democrat’s demand for a “clean CR”.

Senator Mike Lee, who is well-known to be one of the top lawyers in the country, speaks of this:

Now Democrats are combining the two power grabs above by saying that Congress has no right to revisit Obamacare because it was passed (without a single republican vote) after Obama was elected and that only President Obama has the right and the power to (illegally) change the law on his own.

Of course the very idea Democrats and their friends in the praetorian media are pushing, that Congress can never revisit a law, is silly on its face. Social Security and Medicare are laws that have been on the books for decades and Congress has changed those programs many times.

It is the job of each new Congress to look at existing law and make changes where the people’s representatives see fit. The very notion that one Chief Justice or one President can decide Obamacare’s fate and that the Congress cannot is laughable and yet the praetorian media has been advocating this very point of view every night since the partial government shutdown.

In an effort to keep members of his own party in line President Obama has illegally changed the law by executive fiat to give Members of Congress and their staff a 72% subsidy if they buy the expensive coverage on the Obamacare Exchange, other portions of the law do not apply to Congress as well.

Strong Arm Tactics

Aside from constant smear tactics, name calling, and lies crafted in such a way to sound oh so reasonable, the President has ordered his administration to cause as much pain and disruption on the American people as possible.

The Obama Administration ordered federal police to close the open air WWII Memorial and went so far as to rent “barrycades” to keep visiting WWII vets out.

Republican Members of Congress assisted the aged vets in “storming” their own memorial. Park Rangers, who are veterans themselves, refused to lay a hand on our WWII heroes:

The Obama administration ordered Park Police to close even privately funded memorials, private businesses adjacent to them, and even ordered elderly couples to be ejected from their homes which are adjacent to Lake Mead. In doing so Democrats have blamed Republicans for these outrages and for the most part the praetorian media has gone along with it. None of these parks or memorials were closed in the 17 previous government shutdowns since 1976.

The administration has threatened military priests who attempt to give Mass during the partial shutdown with arrest, and the administration has ordered that thousands of Department of Defense workers be furloughed in spite of the fact that the Defense Department has already been paid for with a separate continuing resolution. Of course President Obama has ordered the military to keep his personal retreat at Camp David open while cutting football and baseball coverage from the Armed Forces Television.

Speaker Boehner is outraged by the administration’s behavior:

President Obama has deliberately tried to spook the markets which affects the savings of millions of Americans in hopes to damage the economy even worse so that he can also blame that on Republicans.

The latest attempt to spook the markets is to threaten default on the national debt if the House of Representatives doesn’t give him all of the power that he wants. The 14th Amendment demands that the President make the scheduled payments on the debt. The Treasury takes in almost $240 billion a month which is much more than enough to pay the debt, Social Security etc. President Obama would have to willingly decide to default on the debt.

President Obama has also said that it is unprecedented for the Congress to attach strings to a raising of the debt ceiling. In fact, Congress has done so dozens of times as that is their enumerated power under the Constitution. When Obama was a Senator he favored just such a tactic himself. The President’s lie was so over the top that McClatchy News, Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, Politico, and Fox News have all reported that the President’s claims are bunk.

The New Republic, a political magazine that favors the Democratic Party, has suggested that President Obama use the military against TEA Party activists. Other media outlets who have historically slanted reporting to favor the Democratic party have found President’ Obama’s rather obvious falsehoods a threat to their own credibility and thus are sending messages that their willingness to spin for him has limits.

NBC’s Chuck Todd grilled Jay Carney on why the White House won’t accept some of these individual continuing resolutions passed by the House to fund portions of the government that will put some people back to work:

A New York Times reporter has said that the Obama admin is, “most closed, control-freak administration I’ve ever covered.”

While Obamacare may offer an expensive policy, which is implemented more like a massive tax, in exchange for “deductible not met”, “claim denied”, & “procedure not covered”; this fight is about much more than Obamacare, it is about power. A massive swing of power from the representatives of the people to the President. This is genuine third world style authoritarian power play.

One might not feel the authoritarian chill as of yet, but just wait until the next debt ceiling or government spending fight that leads to a partial shutdown and the President decides to abuse the power of Obamacare to halt payments for medical visits and prescription drugs as leverage to get his way. It is not a matter of if, it is a matter of when.

Editor’s Note: A reader sent a note asking, “What about the budgets that President Obama proposed and what about the budget that Harry Reid put up in March 2013?”

These are good questions but the answer is well known to those who have followed politics.

President Obama’s budgets got next to no support from his own caucus in the Senate as they were so outrageous that Democrats did not want to sign their name on it or be associated with it. Since the Senate Democrat Caucus would not back the House GOP budgets or the President’s budgets they died in the Senate.

After taking criticism for the abandonment of Regular Order for not passing any budgets for four years, Senate Democratic Majority Leader Harry Reid put up an outrageous budget last March (2013) that was completely unserious, was opposed by four Democrat Senators, violated the Sequestor Law, and amounted to a political gag – as explained by The Hill:

The Senate-passed budget has $975 billion in new taxes, does not balance, and does not cut spending when the fact it turns off sequestration is taken into effect.

The Constitution is clear that tax bills MUST start in the House. Any tax increase that is not approved by the House first is a non-starter. Harry Reid putting up a budget that violated the Sequestor Law and imposes almost a trillion in new taxes was out of Regular Order. Of course Reid knew it, and so did those four Democrats who voted against such a stunt. Reid put up that “budget” to create the illusion of supporting Regular Order when the heat was on. This was no secret as press reports and political blogs reported as much.

UPDATE – Obama campaign manager David Plouffe accuses House Republicans of TREASON for not handing Obama a blank check CR http://tiny.cc/cs7q4w

UPDATE – Obama Administration hires private armed thugs to ring Independence Hall http://tiny.cc/9ybr4w

UPDATE – ‘Gestapo’ tactics meet senior citizens and foreigners at Yellowstone as armed men on orders from the Obama Administration round them up and lock them up – http://www.eagletribune.com/local/x1442580353/Gestapo-tactics-meet-senior-citizens-at-Yellowstone

UPDATE – Senator Mike Lee: The best argument against Obamacare is the behavior of the Obama administration during the “shutdown”; DO WHAT I SAY OR ELSE:

Editorial, Elite Media, Firearms, Gangsta Govt, Obama, True Talking Points

“Stand Your Ground” laws have problems but are necessary

July 21, 2013 Chuck Norton Leave a comment

By Chuck Norton

The recent trial of George Zimmerman has been used as a tool among anti-Second Amendment advocates to attack the concept of self defense, gun ownership, and “Castle Doctrine” laws also known as “Stand Your Ground” laws. While neither the prosecution or the defense argued on the bases of such a law it was still a part of the jury instructions in the case. Those hostile to the human right of self defense such as Van Jones and Eric Holder are putting all of their chips of criticism on a section of law that was merely a footnote in this trial.

UPDATE – Obama co-sponsored a bill that strengthened Illinois Stand Your Ground law – LINK.

The Case Against Castle Doctrine Laws

Some believe that such laws give the person with the firearm “too much” benefit of the doubt in that, some people who might not have absolutely had to use deadly force would use deadly force knowing that the law was in effect. There will be cases, in the view of some prosecutors, where the circumstances did not justify the use of deadly force, but the way the statute is written does. In some cases fear that was not reasonable or immediate could be argued by slick lawyers to make it appear that the person with the gun had a reasonable fear.

In a worst case scenario there may be cases where someone who acted in a moment of rage would dress up that rage as “legitimate fear” of bodily injury and escape prosecution. The way such laws are written is overly vague and may invite disaster that is not completely warranted, thus making a mockery of the intent of the law.

Let us be clear, there have been and will be a small number of cases where this law is misapplied, but is that a case for repealing the law altogether or merely revisiting the law’s language and interpretation for improvement?

The Case For Castle Doctrine Laws

Twenty-one states have castle doctrine laws. The National Rifle Association (NRA) lobbied for such laws for some very good reasons.

“Must retreat” laws have resulted in unneeded deaths and bodily injury as well as a great many unjustified prosecutions of citizens who were defending themselves legitimately. This is not a “may” or a “could” and this is not a theory. There is a long, almost incalculable, list of examples and cases where such laws resulted in great bodily harm or death of innocents. There is an equally long list of prosecutions by overzealous and/or politically motivated prosecutions by prosecutors who are dead against citizens owning firearms or other political reasons that have no place in a court of law.

The George Zimmerman case was just such a prosecution. The chief of police and the local prosecutor refused to file charges against Zimmerman because the the evidence did not warrant it. The police chief was fired under the political pressure and a special prosecutor was appointed. The prosecution was caught breaking the law by illegally hiding exculpatory evidence from the defense about the state of mind and history of Trayvon Martin and it was a prosecution staffer who blew the whistle. The prosecutor lied to the judge, misled the court and was not forthcoming with the evidence. “Criminally perjurious“, “corrupt and politically motivated” is how (liberal) Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz described the prosecution.

“Must retreat” laws endanger the public. Victims of domestic violence and others who are required to make an attempt to retreat tactically give the aggressor more time to carry out their attacks. They require the victim to make snap legal judgments that can mean decades in prison while they should be focused on defending themselves and loved ones in chaotic and crisis situations.

Must retreat laws allow lawyers months to “Monday morning quarterback” someone who was in terrible danger and was forced into making a snap judgment; thus, in application, putting a burden of proof on the victim which is a violation of due process in the 5th and 14th Amendments.

Castle Doctrine laws require that prosecutors do what they have been constitutionally charged with doing since the founding of the republic; prove their case.

Fortunately concealed carry permit holders (which does not include those who merely keep a firearm in their home) have shown themselves to be very responsible gun owners with good judgment.

Since the George Zimmerman trial was in Florida, lets us look at the rate that people given a concealed carry permit have those permits revoked for inappropriate conduct. That rate in Florida is 1.4 revocations per thousand. One knows that the application of the law is never perfect, but a .0014% rate is as close to perfect as anyone could hope for.

The Ridiculous

Stand Your Ground laws must be repealed because George Zimmerman was a racist blah, blah, blah:

It is monumentally irrelevant who is morally guilty in a court of criminal law. If one thinks that George Zimmerman was observing Trayvon Martin for police because Martin is black or if one thinks that there is a 60% chance that George Zimmerman was guilty of some kind of ill will, than the responsible juror must return a verdict of not guilty. Such moral judgments have no place. Why? Because if they did people would get convicted because they were a fool or a jerk, not because they actually violated the law. In short, even a Klansman has the right to defend himself with deadly force against someone who is smashing his head against a four inch thick block of cement.

Stand Your Ground Laws must be repealed because they can be misapplied:

In the George Zimmerman case the law against second degree murder was misapplied, shall we repeal it?

Stand your ground laws are a license to kill any black person you see (you can thank Al Sharpton for this one) :

African Americans benefit from Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” self-defense law at a rate far out of proportion to their presence in the state’s population, despite an assertion by Attorney General Eric Holder that repealing “Stand Your Ground” would help African Americans.

Black Floridians have made about a third of the state’s total “Stand Your Ground” claims in homicide cases, a rate nearly double the black percentage of Florida’s population. The majority of those claims have been successful, a success rate that exceeds that for Florida whites.

You will never see a case where “Stand Your Ground” protects a black person with a smoking gun is standing over a white person (you can thank a guest on the Sean Hannity show for this one):

Roderick Scott (2) says he acted in self defense when he confronted Christopher Cervini and two others saying they were stealing from neighbors cars. He told them he had a gun and ordered them to freeze and wait for police. Scott says he shot Cervini twice when the victim charged toward him yelling he was going to get Scott.

Stand Your Ground allows people with guns to shoot unarmed people:

In 2011, 728 people were killed with hands and feet, 496 with blunt objects, and 1694 with knives; more so than people are killed with rifles and shotguns.

If three men confront you in dark ally and say that they are going to rape you and cut you the prudent person would shoot them even if it was before they saw a knife and even if the three later proved to be unarmed.

Interestingly enough, the NAACP is calling for the release of a black man in Georgia after he shot a white man in self defense:

John McNeil, 46, received a life sentence in November 2006 after killing a white man who was trespassing on his property. Police detectives investigating the case determined that McNeil acted in self-defense, but Cobb County District Attorney Pat Head decided a year later to try the case and won a conviction.

The incident took place Dec. 6, 2005, when McNeil arrived home after his teenage son had called him about an unfamiliar man lurking about their property.

Brian Epp, a hired contractor with whom McNeil had past difficulties, had already pulled a knife on the teenager.

Epp refused to leave, and McNeil, who had called 9-1-1, fired a warning shot into the ground. Epp then charged toward McNeil while reaching into his pocket. McNeil fatally shot him in the head at close range. Court documents state that a pocketknife was clipped inside Epp’s pants pocket. McNeil’s neighbors who witnessed the incident backed his story.

Kennesaw police detectives investigated the case, decided that McNeil had acted in self-defense and didn’t charge him.

In this case it certainly seems that McNeil was justified in using force to defend himself, but this incident happened a year before Georgia passed it’s Stand Your Ground law, so this prosecutor was able to score another conviction in his portfolio. Stand Your Ground would have protected McNeil, a black man, from what police concluded was an obvious case of self defense.

The McNeil case should be reviewed. If one would like to contact Governor Nathan Deal to ask that John McNeil be pardoned, or at least have his life sentence commuted, one can do so HERE.

UPDATE – Law Professor Eugene Volokh seems to have proposed several of the same points – LINK

Editorial, History, True Talking Points

There are always men like you…..

July 20, 2013 Chuck Norton Leave a comment

Just surrender your freedom and the politicians will make it all better….

It is not a question of open or closed minds. Citizens are giving such politicians a benefit of the doubt that history proves they do not deserve.

Too many of those in power want to keep the “sheep” weak, too many with money try to keep others from competing or getting money themselves (hence the put down “new money”) and the list goes on. Such people are prevalent in society and are always with us. These are people who have an inflated sense of superiority, believing they are entitled to rule.

They smile and tell us how they are burdened with glorious purpose to help the downtrodden, the children and the poor, but their interest is only self aggrandizement and power. Our Constitution was written because of people like them. Eternal Vigilance is the cost of freedom because there are always men like these:

I totally understand that you (readers) are a nice people and want to be nice. Hear me, all tyrants would be or otherwise use your own values and your own good will as a weapon against you. Your good nature is worthy of credit, but it can be made to serve the enemies of freedom.

The left lost all claim to the civility card when they started engaging in Saul Alinsky inspired deception tactics. One can still be “civil” but we must be aware of just who and what we are dealing with.

Editorial, Elite Media, Gangsta Govt, Lies

Evidence: Trayvon Martin was at 7-11 buying chems for home made drug cocktail

July 20, 2013 Chuck Norton 1 Comment

It is amazing how the elite media hid this for so long, but as Winston Churchill said, “A lie gets half way around the world before the truth can get its pants on”.

Lean – it is a street drug popular with the “gangsta rap” scene and one of the more popular recipe’s is Robitussin DM, Watermelon flavored Arizona Tea and Skittles. Guess what kind of tea Trayvon Martin bought at 7-11 along with his Skittles.

ABC News:

It’s more than a drug; it’s a culture. It’s what’s known on the street as “Lean,” a highly addictive cocktail of cough syrup, cold medicine, alcohol and candy — so potent it makes you “lean” over when high. The drug first began to get attention a few years ago, when a popular Houston DJ overdosed on it. At that time, it was easy to make and easy to get, says Ron Peters, a professor at the University of Texas School of Public Health. “As far as across Texas, across also the southern part of the United States, estimates have shown that it to be at one time a pretty common drug of choice amongst kids…anywhere from ninth grade all the way up to young adults,” says Peters.

We also know from Trayvon Martin’s toxicology report (2):

Martin had 1.5 nanograms of THC – the active ingredient in marijuana – and 7.3 nanograms of another THC substance found in his blood. Traces of cannabis – marijuana – were also found in his urine.

The liver damage from Martin’s drug abuse was also apparent in Martin’s autopsy report:

What causes patchy yellow discoloration due to fatty metamorphosis of the liver? Well, morbid obesity, Reye’s Syndrome, alcohol addiction, and drug abuse.

Trayvon Martin’s social networking showed that he was actively involved in “Lean” production:

George Zimmerman said in his call to police that Martin was behaving strangely like he was on drugs. This is the kind of trouble our inner city youth are in today and the elite media, Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson and President Obama could not seem to care less.

Dirty Tricks, Editorial, Elite Media, Gangsta Govt, Lies, Obama, True Talking Points

George Zimmerman is no angel? Really? UPDATED!

July 15, 2013 Chuck Norton 5 Comments

Editorial by Chuck Norton

Be sure to also read the special editor’s note below!

As I sit back and go back over the trial video a few things come to mind that thinking people should to be aware of.

The prosecution and the press did a pretty good job of applying ill motives to George Zimmerman, but when one looks closer it was all maybe’s, assumptions, could haves and other assertions not in evidence. It amazes me how easily people adopt false narratives based on emotional appeals and assertions.

He was a “creepy cop wannabe”? Really? Did you know that as a part of the neighborhood watch program he was offered a car with flashing yellow lights, a uniform, and a computer system that tied into law enforcement? He turned it down. Is that what a creepy cop wannabe does? In fact, turning that down showed to be a mistake because if he had that car it would have identified him as neighborhood watch.

George Zimmerman is a racist? Really? The facts: his prom date was black and he mentored two young black children a mentoring program – even after the county ran out of funding. Sanford Police and the FBI did an extensive investigation, including talking to dozens of people who know George Zimmerman. Both police organizations concluded that he has never shown evidence of racism. Just who was it who called who a “crazy ass cracka”?

According to the prosecution, George Zimmerman had ill intent and hate towards Trayvon and looked for an excuse to… Not only did they have no evidence to support that claim, but Zimmerman, while on the phone with police, twice asked nicely for an officer to be sent out. Are those the actions of a hateful man bent on murder in the second degree?

George Zimmerman “stalked” Trayvon? Really? When Zimmerman called police and started following Trayvon until an officer showed up, Trayvon was texting and on the phone with his girl friend and realized he was being followed. After Trayvon hung up it was four minutes later that Trayvon jumped George Zimmerman and started ground pounding him MMA style and smashing his head against the cement. Now stay with me; in that four minutes did Trayvon run away? Nope. Did he run home? Nope. Did he use his cell phone to call the police after he hung up with his girlfriend? Instead he looped back around and came out at George Zimmerman attacking him. So in that four minutes who was stalking who?

[Note: Juror 37B said that Trayvon “got mad and attacked George Zimmerman” adding “Trayvon threw the first punch”. More details below and in comments. ]

There is a world of difference between “stalking” someone and merely observing them for police. As much as media pundits drumming up racial angst for ratings shout otherwise, observing someone for police does not make one an “aggressor”.

What verifiable evidence does anyone have that George Zimmerman was anything less than a normal decent guy before that fateful moment?

The ignorant man, wishing to ‘rise above’ as ‘a good post-modernist thinker’, will cast negativity on both sides, judging both with the same condemning brush, so as to create the illusion of their own ‘enlightenment’.

When police tried to trick Zimmerman into making an incriminating statement they lied and told him that a camera had caught the whole thing on video Zimmerman’s response was “Thank God”.

When expert law enforcement witnesses on self defense took the stand were asked “During the attack what alternative did George Zimmerman have besides using deadly force the witness said , “None.”

If Trayvon Martin had survived his wound what would he have been charged with?

[Note: Smashing Zimmerman’s head against the cement block likely would have resulted in charges of aggravated battery, a felony in Florida. This may seem insensitive, but as a matter of law the facts are the facts – Trayvon Martin was, as the evidence indicates, killed in the act of committing a felony.]

It is not often when lawyers Alan Dershowitz and Ann Coulter are on the same page. All of the physical evidence, expert testimony, and eye witness accounts confirm George Zimmerman’s account of what happened. The prosecution was caught breaking the law hiding exculpatory evidence from the defense about the state of mind and history of Trayvon Martin and it was a prosecution staffer who blew the whistle. The prosecutor lied to the judge, misled the court and was not forthcoming with the evidence. “Criminally perjurious“, “corrupt and politically motivated” is how (liberal) Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz described the prosecution.

Now George Zimmerman is suing NBC News for carefully editing the 911 tape to make him appear racist along with putting out demonstrably misleading information on a daily basis to create a demonic false picture of him. ABC News doctored video and pictures of Zimerman to hide his injuries to push the same false narrative. CNN’s coverage was so over the top and unethical that even those who resist claims of media bias were taken aback. It was these news organizations that repeated over and over that police told George Zimmerman not to get out of his car, which is of course demonstrably false.

CNN said even after the verdict that Trayvon Martin was armed with nothing ore than a bag of skittles, ignoring the damage to his knuckles from beating George Zimmerman and omitting the four inch thick block of cement that he was pounding George Zimmerman’s head into.

The actual block of cement Trayvon Martin used as a weapon against George Zimmerman — The actual block of cement Trayvon Martin smashed George Zimmerman’s head into repeatedly

“And the suggestion by the state that that’s not a weapon, that can’t hurt somebody … is disgusting,” O’Mara said.

The elite media showed the world pictures of a nine year old boy who they claimed was gunned down when he went out to buy some Skittles the facts are that Trayvon Martin was a muscular athlete who towered over George Zimmerman.

Cutouts of Trayvon Martin standing next to George Zimmerman

As someone who is well trained in communications law I have little doubt that these ‘news organizations’ will be writing George Zimmerman a hefty check. Elite media consumers motivated by the lies and false narratives are engaging in violence in the streets.

Honestly, I hope that the Zimmerman team refuses to take what ever settlement NBC, ABC and the rest offer him and go to a very public trial, because the nation needs to see just how corrupt the elite media has become.

Remember Richard Jewell.

Editor’s Note: On Piers Morgan last night, Trayvon Martin’s girl friend Rachel Jeantel, according to her phone conversation with Trayvon Martin just before the attack, explained that Trayvon turned hostile toward George Zimmerman because he thought George Zimmerman was gay; perhaps some kind of gay rapist. The left has invested themselves beyond reason and fact into supporting, according to this new evidence, a probable gay basher. Martin had a cell phone and could have called police, but it seems that Martin took things into his own hands.

NOTE: Mediaite, in the link above has edited the story and headline to remove most of the gay comment references. History is being re-written already, however, we expected that so we posted the transcript below in the comments.

So who was violating federal hate crime laws? A case can be made that Trayvon Martin was. Eric Holder’s non-existent civil rights case against George Zimmerman just went out the window. I imagine this is some of the evidence that prosecutors kept from the defense.

Felony battery is wrong no matter if it is against perceived gays or anyone else. In her interview with Piers Morgan Rachel Jeantel explained in ghetto vernacular that George Zimmerman should have known that Trayvon Martin wasn’t going to kill him and that Trayvon just wanted to give Zimmerman a dose of what she called “whoopazz”.

New: the prosecution team kicked the only black person off jury consideration.

UPDATE II – Friends, Hell has officially frozen over. Attorney Leo Terrell who has a long history of saying “everything” is racial BLASTS those who made the Zimmerman case a racial issue. My jaw is agape as I type this. Leo said that the jury decided this case correctly saying this was not a race case at all.

Note** On Zimmerman’s referenced “martial arts training”. His Martial Arts instructor said that on a scale of 1-10 in fighting skill, he managed to get Zimmerman from a 0.5 to a 1 and that he wasn’t a threat to a punching bag.

UPDATE III – Via Kevin B. Shearer:

Sherman Ware. A black homeless man who was beaten by the son of a white policeman in Sanford, FL in 2010. Anyone want to guess who was the one ‘white’ person who went to churches passing out flyers calling attention to a coverup? Anyone want to guess who went to public meetings and demanded that this black man deserved better? Do you know who spent tireless hours putting fliers on the cars of persons parked in the churches of the black community? Do you know who waited for the church‐goers to get out of church so that he could hand them fliers in an attempt to organize the black community against this horrible miscarriage of justice? Do you know who helped organize the City Hall meeting on January 8th, 2011 at Sanford City Hall? You guessed it. George Zimmerman. But the main stream media isn’t talking about that are they.

UPDATE IV – Black Pastor: If you think that George Zimmerman was guilty than you are looking through your black eyes only, not the eyes of Jesus, not through the Blood of Jesus Christ or the Holy Spirit. You are looking through the eyes of hate – you are black therefore George is guilty.

He explains further:

UPDATE V – Bill Cosby: This was not about racism – LINK

UPDATE VI – Evidence: Trayvon Martin was at 7-11 buying chems for home made drug cocktail – LINK

Communications Theory, Culture War, Editorial

Kyle Katarn to appear in a Star Wars spinoff movie by JJ Abrams?

May 14, 2013 Chuck Norton Leave a comment

Who is Kyle Katarn? He is the most popular Star Wars character you have never heard of. Katarn is the protagonist in the uber-popular “Dark Forces” and “Jedi Knight” series of LucasArts video games. He is also featured in a series of popular Star Wars novels.

Big Hollywood:

Abrams’ “Star Wars: Episode VII” is part of big plans for The Walt Disney Co., which bought George Lucas’ Lucasfilm empire last year for $4.05 billion. The company is planning three sequels and two stand-alone spinoff movies focusing on characters from the “Star Wars” universe.

It is difficult to believe that Katarn will not be the subject of at least one spinoff film. Why? Katarn is easily the most interesting character in the Star Wars lexicon.

Katarn is a former Imperial Officer who had a change of heart, became a mercenary for the Rebellion, eventually becoming the personal “fix-it man” for Mon Mothma herself and eventually post Episode VI, Jedi. He is brilliant, conflicted, has an attitude, likes to act as if he is more morally ambiguous than he actually is and doesn’t care too much for rules, codes, or fighting fair. All that and a Jedi Master too. He is almost unique among Jedi in that he is as gifted in the Force as Mace Windu and wields force powers often preferred by the dark side of the force. In short, the Katarn character is a writer and director’s dream.

Notable Katarn quotes:

Luke Skywalker: I sense a disturbance in the force.
Kyle Katarn: You always sense a disturbance in the force, but yeah, I sense it too.

Desann: You? You’re the legendary hero who killed Jerec at the Valley Of The Jedi? You look like nothing more than a bantha herder.
Kyle Katarn: And you look like an overgrown Kowakian monkey-lizard, so I guess looks don’t count for much.

Kyle Katarn: Never trust a bartender with bad grammar.

2012 Primary, Civility, Communications Theory, Dirty Tricks, Editorial, Lies, Obama, True Talking Points

Textbook example of Saul Alinsky ridicule and intimidation tactics

May 11, 2013 Chuck Norton Leave a comment

“Forget moral or ethical considerations… The end is what you want, the means is how you get it” – Saul Alinsky

At the web site of WFAA in Dallas they asked their viewers what they thought of Glenn beck’s speech to the NRA convention. The following is the response of one Saul Alinsky inspired leftist named Darrel Drake, who ironically enough, says that he has a Journalism Degree from the University of Oklahoma. The spelling errors are his:

Glen Beck is a nut job with a reich wing agenda. Since when has the 2nd amendment become more important than the rest, 1st and 14th especially. Funny how Republicans want to use government to control marriage, religion and vaginas, but not jobs or improving our economy. They want smaller, less government for whom? I guess they want it only for themselves and to Hell for the ret of us tax paying citizens.

People see through these pandering self- righteous, GOP “Christian Taliban” wackos like Beck. The country is waking up and finally saying no to hate and bigotry disguised as a religious belief! The majority simply do not want to become a Christian version of Iran! Beck is nothing but a pandering nut job making millions off fearful, ill informed Americans.

This is a textbook example of the hate, racial agitation, bigotry, and red herrings that Saul Alinsky inspired leftists engage in. They will never engage in any substantive debate on verifiable fact. All one can get from them is the type of hateful venom that Darrel gave us a textbook example of. For the Alinskyite, their purpose is to be so nasty with their hate and vitriol that more sensible people will be intimidated by it and just keep quiet.

When you fight back the first thing the Alinskyite pulls is the civility card. Never be intimidated by this tactic. No one who is such a dishonest broker and engages in such tactics has any claim to the civility card.

Editorial

Iron Man 3 Review!

May 4, 2013 Chuck Norton Leave a comment

Iron Man 3 is truly a fun movie. It is long at two hours and twenty minutes but not one minute of it was wasted or dull. The movie gave an ample supply of character development to most of the characters and their relationships while balancing that against showing off the “Iron Men” in combat along with other “bling”.

In Iron Man 3 Tony Stark is suffering from extreme PTSD after the battle of New York which took place in the previous film The Avengers. In spite of that his relationships with Pepper Potts and others around him are starting to mature.

Tony Stark is forced to go back to some “old school” attitudes in order to deal with the latest threat from the bad guys, bad guys who find a way to tear through his armor with little difficulty. The combat scenes are innovative and at times mind blowingly brilliant.

All in all, stories are about people, not just techno-suits in glorious battles. Watching Tony come to terms with himself and the man he needs to be, Pepper needs him to be, and the world he has sworn to protect needs to be, proves to be the best part of this film. Experiencing the development of Pepper Potts from a competent nerdy pretty face to a vital and active participant in saving the world is also very gratifying. They say behind every great man is an even greater woman. Pepper Potts personifies that truism.

The film was a story told almost perfectly, but was hampered by two glaring plot holes. As seen in the released movie trailers, Tony Stark’s home is blown to bits by the bad guys with him in it. Does anyone believe for a moment that Nick Fury and SHIELD are going to do nothing while this happens to one of the Avengers? While a super powered terror group is turning America upside down where was SHIELD? Context and continuity matter in telling any good story. During the movie I could hear people in the theater saying at an appropriate point on the film “Where is SHIELD?” We know from the director’s notes from The Avengers blue ray release (as well as a tidbit in this film) that Tony Stark and Dr. Bruce Banner have grown very close. With Tony presumed dead after his home was destroyed is it even for a moment believable that Banner (The Hulk) would not come to the aid of his friend? This should have been explained or otherwise dealt with in the film.

The other plot hole in the film is slightly more arcane. While Tony is fighting one of the the mutated super bad guys, he uses his large chest repulsar at maximum blast to blow a very large hole in one of them, later when his army of Iron Men (as seen in the trailer) comes to help fight, why does Tony not have them use the same tactic against similarly nasty bad guys? Marvel fans are like Star Trek fans. They are intelligent and they will find mistakes such as this and be irritated by them as I was.

Iron Man 3 is great fun and a worthy film on it’s own. It tells a story and tells it well. It is not for little kids. Marvel films are mature in that they show that violence has consequences both good, bad, sad and horrific. Good people are killed in plain view in the film. The good guys are not saints and not every bad guy ends up being a true villain. The violence is realistic, but it is not gratuitous as it has meaning and context.

“If you are not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed and loving the people who are doing the oppressing.” – Malcolm X