Politicians

Guest Column

Forward by,

       M. Richard Maxson

      Charley Reese (January 29, 1937 – May 21, 2013) was an American syndicated columnist. Reese was a conservative with many libertarian views. He was unhappy with both major parties and switched multiple times. His displeasure with politicians can be summed up in one of his quotes, “...most politicians today are not human beings. You want to pry open their mouths and shout into the darkness, 'Hello! Is there a human being in there?' Buried under all that lust for office, all that fear of offending a contributor? I know there must be.” His common sense columns were praised by all and in 1999, when C-SPAN viewers were asked to vote for their favorite columnist, Reese finished in first place. Here, over 30 years later, is one of his best that still stands the test of time.

545 vs. 300,000,000 People

       By Charlie Reese

Politicians are the only people in the world who create problems and then campaign against them.

Have you ever wondered, if both the Democrats and the Republicans are against deficits, WHY do we have deficits?

Have you ever wondered, if all the politicians are against inflation and high taxes, WHY do we have inflation and high taxes?

You and I don't propose a federal budget. The President does.

You and I don't have the Constitutional authority to vote on appropriations. The House of Representatives does.

You and I don't write the tax code, Congress does.

You and I don't set fiscal policy, Congress does.

You and I don't control monetary policy, the Federal Reserve Bank does.

One hundred senators, 435 congressmen, one President, and nine Supreme Court justices equates to 545 human beings out of the 300 million are directly, legally, morally, and individually responsible for the domestic problems that plague this country.

I excluded the members of the Federal Reserve Board because that problem was created by the Congress. In 1913, Congress delegated its Constitutional duty to provide a sound currency to a federally chartered, but private, central bank.

I excluded all the special interests and lobbyists for a sound reason. They have no legal authority. They have no ability to coerce a senator, a congressman, or a President to do one cotton-picking thing. I don't care if they offer a politician $1 million dollars in cash. The politician has the power to accept or reject it. No matter what the lobbyist promises, it is the legislator's responsibility to determine how he votes.

Those 545 human beings spend much of their energy convincing you that what they did is not their fault. They cooperate in this common con regardless of party.

What separates a politician from a normal human being is an excessive amount of gall. No normal human being would have the gall of a Speaker, who stood up and criticized the President for creating deficits.. ( The President can only propose a budget. He cannot force the Congress to accept it.)

The Constitution, which is the supreme law of the land, gives sole responsibility to the House of Representatives for originating and approving appropriations and taxes. The leader of the majority party and fellow House members, not the President, can approve any budget they want.  If the President vetoes it, they can pass it over his veto if they agree to.

It seems inconceivable to me that a nation of 300 million cannot replace 545 people who stand convicted -- by present facts -- of incompetence and irresponsibility. I can't think of a single domestic problem that is not traceable directly to those 545 people. When you fully grasp the plain truth that 545 people exercise the power of the federal government, then it must follow that what exists is what they want to exist.

If the tax code is unfair, it's because they want it unfair.

If the budget is in the red, it's because they want it in the red.

If the Army & Marines are in Iraq and Afghanistan it's because they want them in Iraq and Afghanistan ..

If they do not receive social security but are on an elite retirement plan not available to the people, it's because they want it that way.

There are no insoluble government problems.

Do not let these 545 people shift the blame to bureaucrats, whom they hire and whose jobs they can abolish; to lobbyists, whose gifts and advice they can reject; to regulators, to whom they give the power to regulate and from whom they can take this power.
Above all, do not let them con you into the belief that there exists disembodied mystical forces like "the economy," "inflation," or "politics" that prevent them from doing what they take an oath to do.

Those 545 people, and they alone, are responsible. They, and they alone, have the power.

They, and they alone, should be held accountable by the people who are their bosses. Provided the voters have the gumption to manage their own employees... We should vote all of them out of office and clean up their mess!

Charlie Reese is a former columnist of the Orlando Sentinel Newspaper.

What you do with this article now that you have read it... is up to you. This might be funny if it weren't so true.
Be sure to read all the way to the end:

Tax his land,
Tax his bed,
Tax the table,
At which he's fed.

Tax his tractor,
Tax his mule,
Teach him taxes
Are the rule.

Tax his work,
Tax his pay,
He works for
peanuts anyway!

Tax his cow,
Tax his goat,
Tax his pants,
Tax his coat.

Tax his ties,
Tax his shirt,
Tax his work,
Tax his dirt.

Tax his tobacco,
Tax his drink,
Tax him if he
Tries to think.

Tax his cigars,
Tax his beers,
If he cries
Tax his tears.

Tax his car,
Tax his gas,
Find other ways
To tax his ass.

Tax all he has
Then let him know
That you won't be done
Till he has no dough.

When he screams and hollers;
Then tax him some more,
Tax him till
He's good and sore.

Then tax his coffin,
Tax his grave,
Tax the sod in
Which he's laid...

Put these words
Upon his tomb,
'Taxes drove me
to my doom...'

When he's gone,
Do not relax,
Its time to apply
The inheritance tax.
Accounts Receivable Tax
Building Permit Tax
CDL license Tax
Cigarette Tax
Corporate Income Tax
Dog License Tax
Excise Taxes
Federal Income Tax
Federal Unemployment Tax (FUTA)
Fishing License Tax
Food License Tax
Fuel Permit Tax
Gasoline Tax (currently 44.75 cents per gallon)
Gross Receipts Tax
Hunting License Tax
Inheritance Tax
Inventory Tax
IRS Interest Charges IRS Penalties (tax on top of tax)
Liquor Tax
Luxury Taxes
Marriage License Tax
Medicare Tax
Personal Property Tax
Property Tax
Real Estate Tax
Service Charge Tax
Social Security Tax
Road Usage Tax
Recreational Vehicle Tax
Sales Tax
School Tax
State Income Tax
State Unemployment Tax (SUTA)
Telephone Federal Excise Tax
Telephone Federal Universal Service Fee Tax
Telephone Federal, State and Local Surcharge Taxes
Telephone Minimum Usage Surcharge Tax
Telephone Recurring and Nonrecurring Charges Tax
Telephone State and Local Tax
Telephone Usage Charge Tax
Utility Taxes
Vehicle License Registration Tax
Vehicle Sales Tax
Watercraft Registration Tax
Well Permit Tax
Workers Compensation Tax

STILL THINK THIS IS FUNNY?
Not one of these taxes existed 100 years ago, & our nation was the most prosperous in the world. We had absolutely no national debt, had the largest middle class in the world, and Mom stayed home to raise the kids.

What in the heck happened? Can you spell 'politicians?'
I hope this goes around THE USA at least 545 times!!! YOU can help it get there!!!

GO AHEAD. . . BE AN AMERICAN!!!

The Progressives Democratic Socialism - A Disaster

By

       Zeno Potas

      Socialism is something many Americans never thought they would ever see in this country. Just the thought of that anti-Constituional ideology was abhorrent to most. For the last one hundred years, in the west, the dogma was cloaked with the title “progressivism” to be more palatable. Now, the slightly different factions live in the Democratic party and are right out there for all to see. Progressives, Socialists, Democratic Socialists, and more.

      According to Karl Marx, Socialism, is the transition stage to Communism. Communist subversion holds that society must first be destabilized (by polarization) and brought to a state of crisis before it can be “normalized” under the new system. Communism is created step-by-step through the gradual destruction of traditional culture (the Constitution) and moral values (religion) through its various social movements. Communist systems attack a handful of traditional beliefs or moral concepts at a time, and through manufactured chaos and social instability, it aims to destroy the institutions that once existed so that it can re-create society according to what it wants.The differences between Progressives and Conservative Americans could not be starker: 

 

• Conservative Americans believe in self-rule by the people, in freedom, and equal justice under the law.
• Progressives believe in rule by the few - social justice that favors certain political factions over others.
  
  
• Conservative Americans believe in the Rule of Law
• Progressives believe in the Rule of Will.

• Conservative Americans believe that all men are created equal before God and the Law.
• Progressives believe that some men are more equal than others.

• Conservative Americans believe that taxes are only intended to pay for those services that every citizen requires to secure their safety and liberty from threats to both, like courthouses and armies.
• Progressives believe that taxes should be used to share success and “redistribute wealth” to provide for dole programs and subsidies for those who don't contribute. 
   
• Conservative Americans revere the principles outlined in the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, and the Federalist Papers. The Constitution as the greatest set of principals ever assembled by humanity.
• Progressives see such principles as antiquated and obsolete made up by rich white, slave owners and therefore they and it are tarnished and irrelevant which need to change.

      Why now is free market capitalism disfavored and threatened by many on the left? It is not because of its failure, but because of its success. Free market capitalism in America has been so successful in eliminating the traditional problems of mankind – such as disease, pestilence, hunger, and gross poverty -- that all other human problems appear both unbearable and inexcusable. The desire by many privileged Americans to eliminate these so-called unbearable and inexcusable problems has led to the call for Socialism. But as Dr. Thomas Sowell has said, "Socialism sounds great. It has always sounded great. And it will probably always continue to sound great. It is only when you go beyond rhetoric, and start looking at hard facts, that Socialism turns out to be a big disappointment, if not a disaster."

Voter Fraud is Real and It's Bad.

By

       George Sontag

      The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of voter ID in a 6-3 decision in 2008. Since that time, 34 states have adopted some form of ID laws, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Other states, mostly controlled by the Democratic party have fought the decision. This movement is funded, in part, by the Center for Voting and Democracy, a George Soros-funded election group.

      The Democratic party constantly insists that voter fraud is almost non-existent. So why, in 2012, did Pew researchers reported that more than 24 million voter registrations were inaccurate, outdated or duplicates, that nearly 2 million dead people were on the rolls, and that nearly three million people were registered in more than one state?

Time to stop the lies and look at the facts – the real facts.

• There have been more than 1,000 convictions for voter fraud since 2000.
• 8,400 instances of double voting in the 2016 election in 20 states.
• In Los Angeles County, there are 144 registered voters for every 100 citizens of voting age, according to a Judicial Watch report from 2017.
• State elections officials in North Carolina are investigating hundreds of cases of potential voter fraud after identifying thousands of registered voters with personal information matching those of voters who voted in other states in 2012.
  
• Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch said by his calculation, around 1.1 million non-citizens voted illegally in the 2016 presidential election.
  “And of course every one of those illegal votes is a stolen vote of an honest American,” he said. “They vote in substantially large numbers, and anyone that tells you otherwise is blowing smoke in your ear.
  

Here are some stories that were buried in the US media.

Scores Of Registered Voters Over 116 Years Old Found In Ohio’s 12th District That Just Had Tight Special Election

      Eric Eggers, the research director at the Government Accountability Institute (GAI), reports that GAI accessed voter rolls in Ohio’s 12th Congressional District last August and found "170 registered voters listed as being over 116 years old [that] still existed on the [voter] rolls." Eggers notes that leftist billionaire and Democratic mega-donor George Soros pledged millions of dollars to fight against voter ID laws in Ohio before the 2016 elections.

Twice As Many Ballots Cast As There Are Voters In Georgia Precinct

     Democratic voters came back to life. Questions of electronic malfunction, outside tampering, and voter fraud — particularly in light of a pending investigation into alleged voter fraud during the Atlanta mayoral election runoff last December — linger over the state.

23,000+ Voters Incorrectly Registered by California DMV

      Officials are rushing to correct mistakes as the California DMV incorrectly registers more than 23,000 voters. The errors reveal serious flaws in California’s voting system.

Illinois Democrat Party Leader Tells Voters: “Vote Early, Vote Often. Whatever You Can Get Away With”

https://youtu.be/MUncFEbvbkQ

California's DMV finds 1,500 more people possibly wrongly registered to vote: report

      “California statewide is a mess,” said Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch. “Generally speaking, California doesn’t remove you from their voter rolls, despite you never voting, despite you dying—it looks like—they just don’t do it. What a recipe for fraud.”

THEY EVEN TRY TO CHEAT EACH OTHER

Texas Democrat Runoff Election Results Invalidated for ‘Voter Fraud’

     No Republican candidate ran on the other side of this race. The winner of the Democrat do-over primary election will run unopposed for the Precinct 4 in November.

AND: JUST YESTERDAY

Four Democrats Arrested For Running ‘Voter Fraud Ring’ - Targeted Seniors In Fort Worth 10/14/2018

       Members of an organized voter fraud ring have been arrested and indicted on charges they targeted and, in one case stole, the votes of elderly voters.
Four people (Democrats) were arrested — Leticia Sanchez, Leticia Sanchez Tepichin, Maria Solis and Laura Parra — after being indicted on 30 felony counts of voter fraud, according to a statement from the Texas Attorney General’s Office.
These people allegedly were paid to target older voters on the north side “in a scheme to generate a large number of mail ballots and then harvest those ballots for specific candidates in 2016. The harvesters sit around and fill these out by the hundreds, often by the thousands,” the statement read.

FINALLY DOING SOMETHING?

US House Approves Measure Against Non-Citizen Voting

      65 percent of House says only citizens should be allowed to vote in US elections.

BUT WILL IT MATTER?

Nation's Top Voting Machine Vendor Admits It Installed Remote-Access Software...

MOTHERBOARD reports:
      The nation's top voting machine maker has admitted in a letter to a federal lawmaker that the company installed remote-access software on election-management systems it sold over a period of six years, AND LIED ABOUT IT, raising questions about the security of those systems and the integrity of elections that were conducted with them.

      It’s not as if the Right Wing was engaged in voter fraud. in Philedelphia during the last election. . . Democrats won 100 percent of the vote in multiple districts. “That is outrageous. That is criminal. That is wrong, and it shouldn’t be allowed to go any further without substantial investigations from our local district attorneys who are the ones charged with enforcing these laws. We have the 'Walking Dead,' and now we've got the 'Voting Dead. "I guess the reason there's no proof of voter fraud is because we weren't looking for it," said Sen. Bob Rucho. That and we are constantly being told that it doesn't exist.

*For more, see the American Civil Rights Union’s paper, The Truth about Voter ID.

A Crucial Constitutional Appointment

By

       M. Richard Maxson

      Many modern-day Americans have been duped by the Progressives into accepting a European-style march toward Socialism and because of decades and decades of statist propaganda in our primary schools and universities, in media, and directly from the government, younger Americans fail to appreciate the rich legacy of personal liberty that is everyone’s birthright and is expressly articulated in the Declaration of Independence and guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution. The thing which defines what an American is – is an idea - liberty.

      We don't teach the basics of this great country anymore and by not doing that the foundation of our society is beginning to crumble. The fight over the nomination of a Supreme Court Justice is the latest battle between “originalists” - those who believe the Constitution is the greatest document ever produced by humanity and the “revisionists” who believe the Constitution is outdated and irrelevant and a hindrance to their goals of a liberal utopia which are, as Mr. Obama put it, “to fundamentally change America.”

     We have entered a new battlespace between left and right. This disgusting display put on by the Senate over the past few weeks is only the latest battle in this war. America had a Supreme Court made up of, to put it simply, of four “originalists” and four who believe in a “living Constitution,” one that, they believe, may be changed at the whim of the Judicial branch - which is in violation of that same Constitution. The late Justice Scalia argued that the Constitution means what it says; it says it is the supreme law of the land; and all American judges have taken a solemn oath to be subject to what it says. It is superior(not up to) to the jurists who interpret it. It is what it says, not as they might wish it say. Thus, all judges are bound by the text but some in power disagreed.

      We can trace the attack on the Constitution back to the time right after the Communist revolution. President Woodrow Wilson saw in their ideology, new possibilities to change the country. After the industrial revolution changed America and the world he thought that the Constitution and the rules of law in the United States should be amended for a new era. He saw Communist ideology as the partial path to the future but the term was abhorrent to the public at large, so a new term, one for America was coined - “Progressive.” These early Progressives did not seek to amend or to improve the Constitution — they sought to subvert it. Their main tool in this endeavor was the executive office itself.
President Woodrow Wilson and his Progressive allies in Congress understood the separation of powers built into the Constitution. They considered the separation of powers unnecessary in their own time—man had progressed beyond the founders’ fear of factions, and what he now needed was a strong, centralized symbol of authority. Wilson’s aim was to enlarge the power and scope of the national government by assigning to the president the power to supervise each branch. The Progressive philosophy of Wilson and other Democrats has become the standard of many on the Left in government today. They will do anything to achieve their means as we have seen over the past few weeks with the confirmation hearings of the Supreme Court Justice.

      It is no conspiratorial fantasy that enemies of the Constitution are seeking to replace it and Machiavellian bureaucrats and lawyers manipulate the law to achieve partisan ends? Law is used by those in power – often bureaucrats – to advance their ideological views through their power. The ideological view of Progressives is that the Constitution, as it was written, is a hindrance to their Liberal utopia. 
 
      Liberal justices who take a "living Constitution" approach to America's founding document, reading into the text "rights" that simply aren't there. Justice Gorsuch is critical of activist jurists. He wrote. “American liberals have become addicted to the courtroom, relying on judges and lawyers rather than elected leaders and the ballot box, as the primary means of effecting their social agenda on everything from gay marriage to assisted suicide to the use of vouchers for private-school education. This overweening addiction to the courtroom as the place to debate social policy is bad for the country and bad for the judiciary.”

      Judges must do more than merely consider the Constitution, Gorsuch has written. “They take an oath to uphold it. So any theory of judging must be measured against that foundational duty. Yet it seems to me those who would have judges behave like legislators, imposing their moral convictions and utility calculi on others, face an uphill battle when it comes to reconciling their judicial philosophy with our founding document.” That was from an essay in the Case Western Law Review, which Gorsuch wrote to acknowledge his great debt to Justice Scalia.

      Today, enemies of the Constitution are now hiding in plain sight. No longer do we have gentle disagreements about public policy. Instead, the Left has sought to criminalize many disagreements through the courts and has weaponized the law to attack their foes – both personally and substantively – and is pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into a multi-front war to transform the remaining institutions that they have not already transformed. That is why this weeks vote was so crucial for the good of our country, for the good of our society, for the prosperity of our children.

Another Attempt to "Bork" a Supreme Court Nominee

By

       Zeno Potas

      It was in 1987 that the Democratic party, led by Edward Kennedy in the Senate and Dick Durban in the House first initiated the “smear campaign tactic” that we have seen used again this week. The Democrats have used this tactic every time a Supreme Court nominee that they do not philosophically agree with comes up for consideration. That year they used the political stunt and successfully blocked Judge Robert Bork from confirmation. They were so pleased with the results they coined the phrase “ to be borked.” Today, borked is in our national vocabulary and it means literally to get stuck or screwed.

      Since they were initially successful they have attempted to use this tactic ever since. This is something the Honorable Clarence Thomas and others can attest to. The silent mantra is “damn the truth, stop the traditional Constitutionalist” as they cannot move America towards a more Socialist agenda with traditionalists on the highest court in the land. So, with the debate over, the confirmation a given, and the vote about to take place, suddenly, new allegations from, surprise, a Democrat, Christine Ford. Allegations that apparently six FBI investigations missed! Here we go again!

      I won't go over everything that was testified to because the falsehoods are too numerous but I will go over the most obvious. In her initial letter to Sen. Dianne Feinstein(D), Ford claimed that four people besides her were at the party. That number seems to change by the day, but let’s go with her original claim. Those four people were Brett Kavanaugh and his friend Mark Judge, who she says were both in the room along with PJ Smyth and her friend Leland Ingham Keyser. All of them have denied her story under the penalty of felony perjury. It’s even more damning that her friend Leland Ingham Keyser says she has never even met Brett Kavanaugh. Keyser has never met Kavanaugh at all, but she was at the party where Kavanaugh did this? In the letter sent to the Judiciary Committee, Keyser’s attorney said her client is willing to cooperate fully with the FBI’s supplemental investigation into Kavanaugh. “However, as my client has already made clear, she does not know Judge Kavanaugh and has no recollection of ever being at a party or gathering where he was present, with, or without, Dr. Ford,” Keyser’s attorney said. “The simple and unchangeable truth is that she is unable to corroborate it because she has no recollection of the incident in question.” The female witness, Leland Ingham Keyser, who is a Democrat and a lifelong friend of Ford’s, not only doesn’t remember the house party in question, she says she has never met Kavanaugh!

      A friend, Christina King, who has been critical of Trump administration policy on social media and attended the same all-girls prep school stated, “To all media, I will not be doing anymore interviews. No more circus for me. To clarify my post: I do not have first hand knowledge of the incident that Dr. Christine Blasey Ford mentions, and I stand by my support for Christine. That’s it. I don’t have more to say on the subject. Please don’t contact me further.” Every single witness named by Ford says they have no memory of any of this. The same is true of Kavanaugh’s second accuser, Deborah Garcia, also a Democrat, who told her admittedly flimsy story to the New Yorker, but has refused to go under oath. She has been told, by her attorney, that perjury is a criminal offense.

      So, is this another Democratic set-up? Then riddle me this, why was Christine Ford’s Stanford bio page altered — updated 10 days before the hearing? In addition why was Christine Ford’s Stanford bio page was revised seven times this month before her testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee? A little tweaking to get the right slant? What happened was that she mis-represented herself. During testimony Thursday in front of Senate Judiciary Committee Christine Ford identified herself as a “Research Psychologist” at the Stanford School of Medicine. Under California law, as with almost every other state, in order for a person to identify publicly as a psychologist they must be licensed by the California Board of Psychology, a process that includes 3,000 hours of post-doctoral professional experience and passing two rigorous exams. To call oneself a psychologist without being licensed by a state board is the equivalent of a law school graduate calling herself a lawyer without ever taking the bar exam. According to records, Ford is not licensed in the state of California. There are no state records that show Ford is a licensed psychologist. This is another direct hit on Ford’s credibility.

      These series of events go back to the sessions with the professional who was attempting to help save Christina Ford's marriage. Desperation at one's life unraveling can cause a person to “make-up” an event in order to gain sympathy and help stabilize a troubled personal relationship. There are also may in the Democratic party that will go to any means to “save the country” from those on the right. It is also no secret that Dr. Blasey is a registered Democrat who has given money to progressive organizations and campaigns — these facts were reported by the The Washington Post

      Justice Kavanaugh has undergone six FBI background investigations from 1993 to 2018 and none of those investigations unearthed any similar claims. Nor has anyone reported similar allegations to the Republican judiciary members or staff. It is implausible to believe that a man subjected to as much scrutiny as Kavanaugh has been, and whom has received unanimous praise as a man of the highest character, could have assaulted Ford. Conversely, it is entirely consistent with scientific research about memory processes for Ford to suffer from a false memory—something more likely when traumatic events are involved, making her memory malleable and prone to distortion that could be used by others to accomplish an end, their end, by any means.

Assault on the Constitution Ignored

 

By

M. Richard Maxson

     The separation of powers is a model for the governance of a state. The Founders made sure that no one entity could take control of their new country. Under this model, a state's government is divided into branches, each with separate and independent powers and areas of responsibility so that the powers of one branch are not in conflict with the powers associated with the other branches. The Constitution calls for three branches: a legislature, an executive, and a judiciary, which is the trias politica model. 
 
      Separation of powers, therefore, refers to the division of responsibilities into distinct branches to limit any one branch from exercising the core functions of another. The intent of separation of powers is to prevent the concentration of unchecked power and to provide for checks and balances to avoid autocracy. The Democratic party seems to have forgotten this or just has so much disdain for our form of government, they just don't care. Their latest attempt to illegally regain power should send a shiver down the spine of every American.

      Before proceeding further, a few points of clarification. The legislative branch has a hierarchy. High ranking senators and representatives meet in a committee known as the 'gang of eight.” Currently these members are:

• The Chairperson of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence – Devin Nunes (R)

• The Minority leader of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence – Adam Schiff (D)
• The Chairperson of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence – Richard Burr (R)
• The minority leader of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence – Mark Warner (D)
• The Majority Leader of the Senate – Mitch McConnell (R)
• The Minority Leader of the Senate – Chuck Schumer (D)
• The Speaker of the House – Paul Ryan (R)
• The Minority Leader of the House – Nancy Pelosi (D)
  
  

     The laws of our nation, as laid out in the Constitution are:

• The Executive and Legislative Branches are co-equal branches of government. One is not subordinate to the other.
  

• The Department of Justice (and the FBI) are part of the Executive Branch—under the authority of President Trump.

• The Department of Justice (and the FBI) are subordinate to the President.

      The issue is that on Monday, President Trump ordered the DOJ to publicly release all text messages relating to the Russia investigation from James Comey, Andrew McCabe, Bruce Ohr, Lisa Page and Peter Strzok.

• President Trump has issued a Presidential Order—not a request.

• The President has the Constitutional Power to declassify documents.

• President Trump has plenary (absolute) authority in this matter.

     In a shocking letter intended to undermine the President, and his authority over the Executive Branch, multiple high ranking Democrats, and ONLY Democrats, sent a letter ordering intelligence agencies to ignore Trump’s order to declassify numerous documents involving the Russia investigation until consulting with Congress.

      Democratic Legislative branch members: Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, Adam Schiff and Mark Warner write a letter today to Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, and FBI Director Christopher Wray, demanding the executive branch cabinet members withhold information from the White House. “Your agencies’ review, and any communication with the White House on the substance of the material, should not proceed further until you have briefed the Gang of Eight in person.”

      There’s a lot in this letter but let’s start with the closing sentence, “should not proceed further.” The Legislative branch cannot circumvent a Presidential Order that has been issued to Executive Branch officials—officials who are subordinate to the President. "When the president issues such an order, it triggers a declassification review process that is conducted by various agencies within the intelligence community, in conjunction with the White House counsel, to seek to ensure the safety of America’s national security interests," a Justice Department spokesman said in a statement. 
 
      Congressional members are responsible for various oversight issues, but they cannot issue an “order” to officials within the Executive Branch—especially one that attempts to circumvent a Presidential Order. The Gang of Eight does not represent a “fourth branch” of government. The intelligence agencies serve at the pleasure of the president — and this clearly crosses the line separating the branches of government. Perhaps more stunningly, and extra-constitutionally (meaning outside the framework of constitutional separation of power), within the jaw-dropping letter the four Democrats outline previous verbal conversations and current agreements with Coats, Rosenstein and Wray where the Cabinet officers agreed to keep information away from the White House Chief Executive, the President. What is even more shocking than this deliberate attempt to skirt the rule of law and the US Constitution is the admission by Democrat leaders that Democrats are cutting deals with top Trump intelligence officials behind the president’s back and illegally negotiating with foreign governments without the approval or knowledge of the President.

      DC-based lawyer Will Chamberlain called the letter a constitutional crisis and urged the GOP to consider taking action against the lawmakers who signed. Chamberlain continued on to say that, “President Trump has issued an order to his subordinates to declassify certain information related to the Russia investigation. He has plenary declassification authority as the President of the United States. The FBI and DOJ are subordinate to him. Congress does not get to order Executive Branch officials to defy a president — that is actually a constitutional crisis.” The demand by the Congressional Democrats is a written attempt to assume power not rightly granted by our Constitution. Such an attempt should not be tolerated. Unfortunately, at this juncture, there has been no such outrage.

How Can We Not Teach the Constitution?

By

       M. Richard Maxson

      When I was in public school, civics was a required subject. That it is rarely taught today. A recent poll conducted by the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg Public Policy Center discovered that young Americans are extremely ignorant about the Constitution and the rights it protects. The poll found that 37 percent of those interviewed could not name any of the five rights protected by the First Amendment. Only forty-eight percent got freedom of speech right. Thirty-three percent could not name one of the three branches of government, and only 26 percent correctly named all three. Only 19 percent of those polled knew the First Amendment guarantees freedom of religion.

       These results emphasize the need for high-quality civics education in the schools and for press reporting that underscores the existence of constitutional principles. How can young citizens make sense of our history without a proper understanding of the Constitution? How can we know, for example, why President Lincoln was willing to endure a bloody civil war to preserve the union if we don’t know how that union works and how it was formed? How can one making sense out of the cases heard by the U.S. Supreme Court and various appellate courts every year without an understanding of the Constitution. If you don’t know what it permits and what it doesn’t, an informed opinion about the decisions they reach is impossible. Many government agencies make decisions every day that affect our lives. How can we know if they are acting within the law -- or if they are pushing the limits, as those who are entrusted with power so often do -- if the Constitution is unfamiliar to us?

      Higher education's failure to educate our young citizens on constitutional law allows alternative interpretation to be regarded as truth. The result is that propaganda or “fake news” is accepted as accurate and true. Graduates believe they are fully knowledgeable about the Constitution yet most of what they know has been gleaned from the media. How can anyone reach a accurate conclusion on any issue when their basis in incomplete or skewed?

      Higher education, instead of teaching the principals that have been the foundation of American society since it's birth, instead provide a smattering of classes on hot-button topics in higher education such as multiculturalism, inequality, gender, and immigration that will do nothing to improve the country. This is also the reason that modern-day American youth are being duped into accepting a European-style march toward Socialism because they fail to appreciate or fully understand the rich legacy of personal liberty that is everyone’s birthright in this country. This incomplete education produces graduates who find it difficult to find jobs and must return home to live with parents burdened with crushing student loan debt, which according to the Department of Education, is at an all-time high of $1.33 trillion.

      According to Thomas Ginsburg, Zachary Elkins, and James Melton, authors of “The Lifespan of Written Constitutions,” the average lifespan of a constitution since 1789 is only 17 years! For a constitution to last more than two centuries -- through wars small and big, through periods of great transformation and upheaval -- is a remarkable achievement. No wonder William Gladstone, the legendary British prime minister, called the U.S. Constitution "the most wonderful work ever struck off at a given time by the brain and purpose of man.” 

 

      If you’ve never read it -- or if the last time you did is years ago, I’d like to encourage you to do so. It’s not nearly as daunting a task as some people may assume. It’s about 4,500 words or so, and it takes roughly half an hour to read it. It’s more accessible than you may think. There’s a reason our Constitution has endured for so long. To ignore it is true ignorance.