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Jane Fonda; Enemy of our Vietnam Military and a Traitor

8/20/2016

Jane Fonda; Enemy of our Vietnam Military and a Traitor

By Susan Steffen-Kraft

Did I support the war in Vietnam? No, I did not. Would I ever have done what Jane Fonda did to our military men. No, I would not.
This was a war fought on many fronts and one of those fronts was the opinions of the American people. Hanoi Jane" Fonda was called this after she aided, abetted, and sided with the enemy -- North Vietnam! In the above picture she is with the N. Vietnamese and posing with one of their anti-aircraft guns.
Bui Tin, a communist contemporary of Giap and Ho Chi Minh, served as an NVA colonel assigned to the general staff at the time Saigon fell. He had this to say about the media who were serving the left-wing and Soviet puppets the likes of "Hanoi" Jane Fonda and former Presidential candidate John Kerry and now Sec. of State : "[They were] essential to our strategy.

Support of the war from our rear was completely secure while the American rear was vulnerable. Every day our leadership would listen to world news over the radio to follow the growth of the American antiwar movement." He went on to further state that "visits from people like Jane Fonda and former Attorney General Ramsey Clark and ministers gave us confidence we should hold on in the face of battlefield reverses. These people represented the conscience of America." Well, not mine my friends; not mine!

Many of the people and especially younger generation back then couldn't make the connection to the draft and the fact that it meant that the soldiers had no choice in the matter. I mean if your number was drawn you had to be in the military in some capacity. Of course you could call going in the military or going to prison a choice. Hanoi Jane Fonda had no clue apparently or sympathy about this choice given to these young men who were drafted.

It was a war or police action that we never should have gotten into, and in the end was totally botched. The command structure and not the troops botched things which again Fonda failed to take into consideration. They did one hell of a job and what was their reward; diddly squat! Death, torture as prisoners, laughed and taunted when they came home and exposed to Agent Orange. Yep, that is really a reward for being drafted into a police action.

"One thing I have learned beyond a shadow of a doubt since I've been in this country is that Nixon will never be able to break the spirit of these people; he'll never be able to turn Vietnam, north and south, into a neo- colony of the United States by bombing, by invading, by attacking in any way. One has only to go into the countryside and listen to the peasants describe the lives they led before the revolution to understand why every bomb that is dropped only strengthens their determination to resist. I've spoken to many peasants who talked about the days when their parents had to sell themselves to landlords as virtually slaves, when there were very few schools and much illiteracy, inadequate medical care, when they were not masters of their own lives.

But now, despite the bombs, despite the crimes being created-being committed against them by Richard Nixon, these people own their own land, build their own schools- the children learning, literacy- illiteracy is being wiped out, there is no more prostitution as there was during the time when this was a French colony. In other words, the people have taken power into their own hands, and they are controlling their own lives."
This was submitted in the U.S. Congress House Committee on Internal Security, Travel to Hostile Areas. [HR16742, 19-25 September 1972, page 761]

Jane Fonda forgets to tell how Lyndon Johnson escalated this war after Kennedy was trying to shut it down. So she blames Nixon but not Johnson. How very forgetful of you Janie! But you were a liberal type progressive and all of her political finanical donations went to Democrats and that included Obama and Hillary Clinton or special interest groups on the far-left. Of course that included the George Soros-fundere moveon.org.

This does not mean that I supported or agreed with Nixon; far from it. However, to blame it all on him and not mention Johnson in this farce of a police action was totally wrong of her.

When the prisoners of war started coming home and told the stories of how they had been tortured and treated she told the people of this country "Not to hail the POWs as heroes, because they are hypocrites and liars!" She pretty much accused them of lying by claiming that "these were not men who had been tortured!" She forgot obviously, that some had been held captive for up to nine years. She also claimed that they had not been starved or brainwashed. She led everyone to believe that those that said they had been treated this way were "exaggerating, for self interest."

She laid for the claim that "Never in the history of the United States have prisoners of war come home looking like football players. These football players are no more heroes than Custer was. They are military careerists and professional killers who are trying to make themselves look self-righteous, but are war criminals according to law!" What a total lying piece of scum she was and still is.

In 1988 she apologized to Vietnam vets and that was after waiting 16 years. Since then not one word and most still despise her as do I. While I and others realize she gave up no military secrets and gave no assistance that we know of, nor did she interfere with our military forces; she did reinforce the propaganda mill that was going on and that of course was not good for our men who were prisoners and those who were not captured and were fighting.

I have no issue with her for not supporting the war but with her tactics and antics that were anti-our boys in the military. She hurt many and the hostility generated because of her words and actions caused many returning military men to feel considerable anguish. She is not the only person who was despicable in this as Walter Cronkite the newscaster did some dastardly reporting on this war also. But this article is not about him, it is about a young, stupid, and opinionated female who spoke falsehoods and manipulated others. I will never excuse her!

https://patriotpost.us/pages/80,
http://www.talkleft.com/story/2008/5/12/1592/76497/elections2008/Obama-Disses-Boomers-Who-Opposed-Vietnam-War,
http://www.1stcavmedic.com/jane_fonda.htm,
http://hollowverse.com/jane-fonda/,
http://www.26thmarines.org/janefonda.html,
https://whatyouthoughtiwentaway.wordpress.com/2016/07/17/while-those-who-remember-vietnam-loath-hanoi-jain-why-was-cbs-walter-cronkite-given-a-complete-pass/#more-21336

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The United Nations--Something Wicked Came and Stayed!

7/11/2016

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The United Nations--Something Wicked Came and Stayed!

By Susan Steffen-Kraft

WWI came to an end and it was then, that a very powerful group, a cabal of one world internationalists offered the human race a solution to the horror of a war ravaging the world again. Their solution; a one world government! It was called the League of Nations but wisely, the U.S. Senate refused to ratify the covenant!

The UN was created in 1945 as a result of World War II. Anytime there is global conflict, something is created out of that conflict which provides you with the illusion that whatever comes from that conflict will be the solution to that conflict. Has it ever occurred to you that those who created the conflict, are actually doing this to propose the solution? What a scam and a trick to delude you and control and use your will. Handing our will over to those who look to take advantage of us, to those that are not in service to others, but to themselves.

The League of Nations was created by the Rockefeller Family, who funded the entire operation. It is clear that the Rockefeller (who donated 18 acres for the UN to sit on) and Rothschild families both created the United Nations and without them the development of this organization would not have been possible.

Without our membership the League of Nations failed but then came WWII. After that nations including the U.S. were sucked into the United Nations to supposedly prevent future wars and provide a place for countries to have a platform for dialogue between themselves. Ever since the One World Order advocates have worked behind the scenes to provide the UN with unprecedented military power.

Dr. Bloomfield (a member of the Council on Foreign Relations) authored a study in 1962 Memorandum No. 7, A World Effectively Controlled by the United Nations. In this is the statement "In Stage III progressive controlled disarmament would proceed to a point where no state would have the military power to challenge the progressively strengthened U.N. Peace Force!" Please ponder this! No state means no country would be able to challenge the UN's power. Wow! And this also includes the United States of America!

This is treason! Our Constitution plainly states that "Treason against the United States shall consist only in levying war against them or adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort." So in rendering We the People subject to the UN which is controlled by One World Internationalists who care naught for this country and to terrorists, tyrants, and thugs everywhere treason is being committed against the United States.

Taxpayers will once again be responsible for more than one-fifth of the United Nations’ regular budget next year according to cnsnews,com and reported on by Patrick Goodenough in Dec. 2015. We are also responsible for more than one-quarter of the much-bigger peacekeeping budget – with a total of approximately $2,957,000,000.

The U.N. General Assembly, just before Christmas time, decided to approve a "regular operating budget of $5.4 billion for the 2016-17 period". This budget is calculated biannually and of the the $2.7 billion earmarked for 2016, our country will account for 22 percent, or $594 million.
Of the separate peacekeeping budget the U.S. is liable for 28.5783 percent, or $2.363 billion. 8.27 billion was the total for the year which ended June 30. Combined, the two U.S. contributions amount to just under $3 billion. I would like a chunk of that.

The UN budget has three budgets which are the regular, peacekeeping, and voluntary contributions. These cover humanitarian and development programs. The total cost comes to about $10,500,000,000 a year which is a lot of money. I guess they figure there is more bang for the buck, especially which it is not their buck.
All this money outlaid and we get nothing in return!

At first the United States enjoyed the support of a majority in the 51- member General Assembly but that margin vanished in the mid-1950's. It so happened that the momentary thaw in U.S.-Soviet relations that happened in the aftermath of the death of Stalin allowed the admission of 20 new members.

Of course five years later the General Assembly had 82 members and they were nearly all former colonies of the European powers. The number then jumped yet again to 108 by 1970 then by 1980 it was 136. When they got to 185 members by 1995 the General Assembly had really grown and of course each member-state also had one vote. As of 2012 there were 193 countries.

Of course being as the General Assembly was dominated by non-Western states and they rarely had the same political culture outlook of the democratic West or any belief in market economics. This new group who held the majority exercised their power by passing resolutions favorable to the Third World! That also included their various pet projects. Although the Third World was hardly uniform in many things or identical they soon started a mutual exchange of favors.

Let us give an example; "Arab states would vote for black African resolutions against South African apartheid, provided that the black African countries in turn voted against Israel when called upon to do so". All of these factions frequently voted against the United States which of course means they all joined hands or had the agreement of "I scratch your back if you scratch mine" provided we all get together and screw the U. S. of A. This is a good reason among many why we should not be part of this evil!

New Age brings to mind the Globalists who are all for that kind of thinking. They would love to have an age of unity, enlightenment, spiritual conscientious because it would mean a one world of political, economic and religious oneness which will never be in the here and now. Their thoughts are that a Global Oneness can save the world. This is an Age of Evil not of World Peace and the UN is 100% behind this agenda.

Dante, Bernard Shaw, and Alice Bailey all believed that the only way to world peace was through a One World Government. Globalists believe that knowledge is freedom and that wisdom will blossom and importance will be in self-development, self-realization, self-actualization and self- transformation. Note please, that everything is about self.

"Many people are becoming aware that something serious is going on and a World Plan to unite global currencies, trade boundaries & Nation States are in the offing. The principle of Global Economic Interdependence will unite all the economies of the world. There exists a benign Secret Power behind the scenes whose aim is to control all the governments of the world.

The innovative World Order is made up many elements of control - Mind control, gun control, IMF, The World Bank, FEMA, UN, Secret Societies, weather control and so on and on and on. Nothing but absolute control over everything; trade, banking, stock markets, oil, energy, technology, cyber world, nuclear capability, etc, is the New World Order".
This quote is from redicecreations a special report on the aquarianage.

The mighty UN that is here in our country is busy fomenting wars and revolutions that topple free governments all the while aiding ruthless Communist dictators and a variety of 3rd World thugs for lack of a better word. We have paid 22 percent of the total budget since 2000 according to a statement by Joseph Torsella in the year 2012. This unfortunately continued until 2015. Those that contribute less still have the same voting rights as America does. Something is rotten in Denmark as the old saying goes, since those paying less then 1.3 percent of the total can pass the budget over the objections of those who contribute the other 98 percent.

This fact was from Heritage Foundation's Brett Schaefer. And by the way this is only the regular budget. The peacekeeping budget is separate and the U.S. pays 25 percent of that.

To top if off the former UN Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali has admitted that “perhaps half of the UN workforce does nothing useful” I think the idea of giving that kind of astronomical money demands that at the very least, the whole of the UN workforce should be doing something, don't you?

Global crises demand Global solutions in their mind. World peace through world government and a world law are the main goals. Although this may sound worthy it is not because below the surface of what they want is world control which would necessitate world force. This would give unprecedented power globally. This is their goal and dream. This in their mind would be be the beginning of a new age according to a Robert Muller who has had a 35 year career at the UN.

New Age brings to mind the Globalists who are all for that idea. They would love to have an age of unity, enlightenment, spiritual conscientious. This because it would mean a one world of political, economic and religious oneness which will never be in the here and now. Their thoughts are that a Global Oneness can save the world. This is an Age of Evil not of World Peace and the UN is 100% behind this agenda.

"Many people are becoming aware that something serious is going on and a World Plan to unite global currencies, trade boundaries & Nation States are in the offing. The principle of Global Economic Interdependence will unite all the economies of the world. There exists a Secret Power behind the scenes whose aim is to control all the governments of the world.

"The Age of Nations must End" according to the UN and by having their own community within a community they owe no allegiance to any nation but themselves By having their own flags, stamps, and post office and yes, even their own army they have established their own cozy little world in the United States of America in New York City. They certainly mince no words about what they want. If must look past the hyperbole that it was formed to bring about peace and development and in addition the people of different countries being given dignity and justice.
Also included in this is the well being of all people all over the world. Well, imagine those wonderful thoughts. But who defines what is dignity, justice, well being, and development? It seems the UN does if they are the ones determining the definitions!

As to some of the things the United Nations has exposed their hand on, well, consider that they have called for a global tax and world currency and would like global gun control. If you think they do not want that One World Government across the entire world then you are deluding yourself.

Their goal is to undermine U.S. sovereignty and erode this country by creating international organizations whose laws would over rule this countries laws. Lets start by listing a few of these organizations. International Criminal Court (ICC), North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), and WTO!

Our own government is trying to sell us out to UN control because they think of themselves as global citizens or citizens of the world. I have no problem thinking of other people in other lands as children of God and caring for them and or having friends in other lands. However, I am still a citizen of the United States of America and not a global citizen.

There is a global war on poverty, gender discrimination, global criminal court, global norms, rules and governance, global tax and environment police. The word global seems to mean all inclusive. No longer boundaries and countries but one in thought and unison. There is a strong desire by the United Nations to control the Internet, the Natural Resources of the World, Transit Routes and Sea Lanes and last but not least the pipeline routes for those resources!

And of course the evil of Agenda 21 which is to control all water, land, minerals, plants, animals, energy, education and so on. They have policies that they want in every city, county, state, and country. They want in a nutshell for every government to take control of all land use and to leave nothing for the owner of said property to decide as to what to do because giving way to the rights of the community is the most important thing. UN Agenda 21 is a global plan they want implemented locally. Here is a source of the new Agenda 21 goals:
http://www.thenewamerican.com/reviews/opinion/item/21579-its-1992-all-over-again-a-new-agenda-21-threatens-our-way-of-life

"A collapsed economy in a developed nation furthers the goals of UN Agenda 21 to create dependence on government subsidies and mega-corporations. Private property ownership was turned upside down. Small businesses were destroyed. Pensions were lost. Jobs were lost. Homes were lost. Families were lost. THIS IS THE PLAN".

The UN charter is based on a thin para-phrasing of the Soviet Union's model and the author it was Alger Hiss. Thus the UN is based on a framework after the Marxist Socialist ideals and therefore is the mold for the UN! Remember that this is in the United States of America which is a republic, and the evil that came and stayed is Marxist Socialist.

http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/sociopolitica/un_exposed/un_exposed02.htm
http://www.collective-evolution.com/2013/02/26/the-united-nations-exposed-who-is-in-control/
https://archive.org/stream/pdfy-otNEWO2XlekAMAQ2/NWO%20Quotes%20BILDERBERG%20ILLUMINATI_djvu.txt'
http://rendevouswithdestiny.blogspot.com/2015/07/stop-funding-un.html
http://www.aquaac.org/un/nwo.html
http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/patrick-goodenough/three-billion-and-counting-us-taxpayers-will-fund-lions-share-un,
http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa-253.html,
http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa061.html,
http://www.thefreelibrary.com/The+United+Nations'+second+half-century%3A+time+for+an+overhaul.-a018742346,
http://unic-ir.org/EngaboutUn.pdf
http://object.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/serials/files/cato-handbook-policymakers/1997/9/105-51.pdf
http://www.thenewamerican.com/reviews/opinion/item/21579-its-1992-all-over-again-a-new-agenda-21-threatens-our-way-of-life,
http://www.redicecreations.com/specialreports/aquarianage.htm
https://danieljmitchell.wordpress.com/2012/09/28/another-push-for-global-taxation-from-the-united-nations/
http://www.nationallibertyalliance.org/files/quotes/NWO%20Quotes.pdf,
http://www.democratsagainstunagenda21.com/the-way-we-see-itour-blog/the-economic-collapse-fed-regulators-purposely-failed

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The Declaration of Independence....Our Legacy

7/9/2016

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The Declaration of Independence....Our Legacy

By Susan Steffen-Kraft

You and I have a free and independent America today because of the Declaration of Independence. History books today do not tell students a lot of what happened leading up to and during the revolutionary war. We fought the British and we were actually British subjects. Because a state of siege and repression of rights and liberties had been in existence for many years and a state of war had been around for two years prior to the signing of the Declaration we actually fought our own, I repeat, our own government for independence.

So many take their liberties for granted which is a grave error. When one takes liberty for granted, one tends to lose it and sadly today, we have lost many of our liberties. Congress went on to frame a continental "Association," in order to insure that words would be backed by actual deeds. The delegates bound themselves and as much as possible in so far as they could so those whom they represented to not import or use any British "goods, wares, or merchandise whatsoever."

This move was revolutionary because without any constitutional authority the Congress had to all intents and purposes passed a law and provided the means for its enforcement by turning the enforcement over to popularly elected local committees. They in turn were to make it their business to publish violations of the agreement and seize goods imported in defiance of its terms. In addition they were to maintain a united front against the British. Unity is always important as evidenced by the words of Benjamin Franklin who is pictured below.

We must indeed, all hang together or, most assuredly, we shall all hang separately."

The bottom line is that our rights came from God. This is what is stated in the Declaration of Independence. By the giving of ruling power to the governed and not to the government, tyrants everywhere fear her and people admire and want those principles for themselves if they have one wit of wisdom in their brains. This is what make America so different. Since many now claim that nobody knows what “Creator” the Founding Fathers were referring to so let us look at a couple facts.

Henry M. Morris, Ph.D., studied this question:“We hold these truths to be self-evident” – They are obvious, unmistakable, and undeniable. No one can take them away from you.

“That all men are created equal” – No matter race, creed or color, every person is CREATED equal. This does not guarantee equal pay, equal housing or even equal wealth. It acknowledges we are all creations, not accidents of nature. Considering one inferior because of race, religion, nationality, or social status is an evolutionistic “survival of the fittest” mentality, not one for God’s children. This pronouncement alone was central to the abolitionists’ argument that our Founding Fathers declared Africans to be white man’s equal. Likewise, equal creation does not assure humans will be void of conflict or war as evil lives and breaths here on earth.

“That they are endowed by their Creator” – Yes, our Founding Fathers DID believe in God, and that he was our Creator. Progressive liberals are tirelessly working to re-write history, removing references to God from our Founding Fathers’ mouths and pens. They claim we don’t actually know what “Creator” the Founding Fathers were referring to."

Henry M. Morris, Ph.D., studied this question and discovered this:

“In fact, all the signers of the Declaration and the delegates to the Constitutional Convention, as well as the delegates to the various sessions of the Continental Congress—at least so far as known—were men who believed in God and the special creation of the world and mankind. Nearly all were members of Christian churches and believed the Bible to be the inspired Word of God.”

“and the pursuit of Happiness” – The original phrase considered here was “Property”. This was a concept Jefferson borrowed from John Locke. Since slave owners considered slaves property, the Founders replaced the term so slavery could not be misinterpreted as a constitutional right. “Pursuit of Happiness” grants you the right to actively strive for personal fulfillment. Is achievement guaranteed? Absolutely not, but you have the privilege to forge ahead with any past-time, faith, career, or invention you desire. Take heed to not get deceived into believing you are assured success."

“That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.” – An unprecedented design where the government’s power rests in the hands of the governed. With this power comes extreme responsibility. Americans are charged to hold their elected officials accountable for their actions. We must watch them diligently, speaking out at any attempt to restrict the God given rights just described. This is why Constitutionals are so feared by both the Left and the Right in Washington. They are educating Americans about their rights, defending the Constitution, and exposing Washington as the pit of corruption it is".

The signers of the Declaration of Independence were intelligent, religious and a ethically-minded group. Four of the signers of the Declaration were current or former full-time preachers, and many were the sons of clergymen. Some of the other professions held by the signers include "lawyers, merchants, doctors and educators". These individuals, too, were for the most part active churchgoers and many contributed significantly to their churches both with contributions as well as their service as lay leaders. The signers were members of religious denominations at a rate that was significantly higher than average for the American Colonies during the late 1700s.To believe that they meant anyone other than God as the Creator would be crazy. The Pilgrims came here for Freedom OF Religion, not Freedom FROM Religion; there is a big difference.

They spoke about Christ and God both in government and their lives. This did not just get spoken about in church. In fact that is why Moses is etched into the Supreme Court building holding the 10 Commandments. But some will continue to reject God as part of their lives and as the Creator. But there is no doubt who and what the Founders believed in.

James Madison who was our fourth president, known as "The Father of Our Constitution" made the following statement "We have staked the whole of all our political institutions upon the capacity of mankind for self-government, upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves, to control ourselves, to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God."

A "revolution" is "a forcible overthrow of an established government or political system by the people governed" according to the dictionary. When the colonists had appealed to other citizens of Britain about their sense of justice and their shared heritage and culture. They even appealed to their economic connection. Appealing to Parliament was fruitless also. All was ignored and there was no reasonable response.

July of 1775 was the year that the Second Continental Congress sent the King a petition for redress and reconciliation that John Dickinson a farmer from Pennsylvania drafted in very respectful language but despite the respectful language the king did not formally answer the petition. Instead by proclamation of August 23, 1775, he stood by his thoughts that the colonists were engaged in an "open and avowed rebellion." Note that he believed they were in "open and avowed rebellion!"

On Jan. 10 of 1776, Thomas Paine published a booklet with the title Common Sense. Paine had a vision of the type of government he believed we should have here in this country in which people would have supreme power through their elected representatives. Sadly his dream seems to be null and void anymore. He was also the first to openly suggest independence from Britain and his book Common Sense was read by many including George Washington. His work was to have a huge influence on Thomas Jefferson when he was drafting the Declaration of Independence.

On July 2, 1776, our Continental Congress voted for Independence. On July 4, just two days later, Thomas Jefferson wrote a declaration which listed the reasons for independence and it was adopted. George Washington received official notification from John Hancock, who was the President of the Continental Congress. The letter was dated July 6 and arrived with a copy of the declaration.

Hancock explained that the Congress had been struggling with the issue of American independence for some time. But even after making this huge decision many of the members were worried about its consequences, and of course, I don't blame them being as they had a good idea how King George would react. Hancock came to the conclusion that Americans would have to rely on the "Being who controls both Causes and Events to bring about his own determination," Of course George Washington shared this conclusion.

This army was untrained and going into battle with Great Britain to defend New York City and beyond to a new nation. Now they would know that they were not fighting just for the defense of their colonies or even their leader, but for the birth of this new nation and their independence. That would be quite inspiring to hear. So George Washington welcomed this news, and as his soldiers stood ready they heard the words written by their commander from their brigadiers and colonels.

Washington wrote that Congress had "dissolved the connection" between "this country" and Great Britain. He declared the "United Colonies of North America" to be "free and independent states."
Great news indeed for the people living then and for us today. No longer were we going to be under Great Britain's thumb and we should be grateful for to those leaders and the men who fought for our freedoms and independence.

http://constitution.com/legacy-declaration-rights-come-god-not-government/,
http://www.barefootsworld.net/doi1776.html,
http://www.sparknotes.com/history/american/declaration/section3.rhtml,
http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Declaration_of_Independence.aspx,
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2051805/Declaration-Independence-illegal-claim-British-lawyers.html,
http://www.mountvernon.org/digital-encyclopedia/article/declaration-of-independence/

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Civil Forfeiture-Illegal Theft

7/9/2016

6 Comments

Civil Forfeiture-Illegal Theft

By Susan Steffen-Kraft

Civil forfeiture is a process by which the government can take and sell your property without ever convicting, or even charging, you with a crime and that leads to one of the greatest threats to property rights in the nation today. Civil forfeiture is a legal bunch of fiction that tries inanimate objects for their involvement with criminal activity; in other words it is a pretend thing. Civil forfeiture actions are in Latin terminology "in rem proceedings", which means “power about or against 'the thing”
Silly in my opinion but quite frightening.

In most jurisdictions law enforcement can keep some or all of the proceeds from civil forfeiture thus they have incentive to seize and to keep as much property as they can get away with. The U.S. Constitution requires law enforcement official which means both police and the prosecutor to administer the law fairly and impartially but many times this is a joke. The danger of Civil forfeiture transforms law enforcement priorities away from this goal and instead focuses on the pursuit of profit instead.

The $1.7 billion which was collected by local governments became part of a $2.5 billion total which came from “61,998 cash seizures made on highways and elsewhere since 9/11 without search warrants or indictments.” The remaining balance of the $800 million was divided among the departments of Justice, Homeland Security plus other federal agencies; none of which turned that money down I am sure.

Here are four ways that civil forfeiture stacks the deck against property owners:

1. "Burden of Proof: For the government to keep a person’s property using civil forfeiture, it must prove that the property is connected to criminal activity. But where criminal forfeiture requires the government to prove someone is guilty “beyond a reasonable doubt,” the government can prevail under much less rigorous standards in civil forfeiture cases.

2. Guilty Until Proven Innocent: Although many jurisdictions provide an “innocent-owner” defense that allows owners to get their property back if they had no idea that it was involved in a crime, most jurisdictions presume that owners are guilty and force them to prove their innocence.

3.Legal Representation: Anyone who has watched a crime drama knows that the government must provide criminal defendants with an attorney if they cannot afford one. But civil forfeiture victims must either pay for a lawyer—which in many cases can cost more than the seized property is worth—or go it alone.

4. “Equitable” Sharing: Federal law provides a loophole called “equitable sharing” to law enforcement in states with good civil forfeiture laws. This program allows state law enforcement to turn seized assets over to the federal government, which forfeits the property under federal law. In turn, the federal government gives up to 80 percent of the forfeited property back to the state agency for its own use, even if state law would have required those proceeds to go into a general fund."

Not surprisingly most law enforcement agencies ignore their legal duties because no one holds them accountable. Thus they attempt to keep their ill gotten booty in hopes no one knows, understands or will fight for their rights to get their property back.

This controversial law enforcement practice known as civil asset forfeiture has let the police seize and keep cash and property from people who are never convicted and in many cases are never even charged with a crime.
I will cite four cases for you to ponder and understand what this is and does.

In Case Number One a drug task force is involved.
The Institute for Justice is representing a college student. The drug task force seized $11,000 from a college student at an airport and all because his luggage smelled like pot. Of course they lacked evidence to charge him with any but decided to make the decision to keep the money and divvy it up between 13 different law enforcement agencies. Of course most had nothing to do with the actual seizure of cash but that did not matter. Hey, could we seize most politicians salary with the using civil forfeiture? We have lots of evidence against most of them and they have a lot more money then $11,000.

In Case Number Two the IRS is involved.
The IRS emptied the whole bank account of a convenience store owner and all because they suspected he was depositing cash in such a manner to avoid reporting requirements for those large deposits. He eventually won his money back after a long court fight. Could we use civil forfeiture against the IRS? You bet! There is much criminal activity in that institution and I along with many taxpayers could use their ill gotten gains!

In Case Number Three the IRS struck again.
Alireza Yarahmadi who is a neurologist at Mercy Medical Center in Mason City, Iowa, has helped patients with epilepsy, sleep disorders and strokes. Now he is more than a neurologist because he has a new addition to his list of experiences. He is a civil forfeiture victim. Not something one would wish to brag about however last June the IRS took $344,405 from his account. Their accusation was that frequently had withdrawn cash in amounts under $10,000 to stash in safety deposit boxes. Oh my, such a naughty boy! Since banks have to report cash transactions of $10,000 or more and because it's against federal law to "structure" deposits in amounts under that $10,000 for the purpose of supposedly evading that reporting requirement they would have reported it. The "Institute for Justice began representing innocent entrepreneurs from abusive seizures in two cases, the IRS announced a new policy, claiming it would “no longer pursue the seizure and forfeiture of funds associated solely with ‘legal source’ structuring cases,” i.e. money that was lawfully obtained. During a congressional hearing last week, the IRS Commissioner even apologized to “anyone who got caught up in this.” Obviously since he denied structuring and this new policy is now in effect his smart attorney urged the case be dropped which we are all happy that on Feb. 3, 2015, a federal judge dismissed the civil forfeiture case against Mr. Yarahmadi's cash.

In Case number Four we have a personal story.
A sheriff was involved as was my son who was coming from N. Dakota where he worked in the oil field during the boom. Montana has always allowed you to travel at a high rate of speed. My son entered Idaho and forgot to take his foot off the pedal and slow down. Of course the police officer caught that and since my son had seen the sheriff he pulled over and waited for the nice officer to catch up to him. The sheriff of course asked for the usual demands of insurence, registration, license and all that. My son complied and then the officer asked, "Do you have any cash"? My son said, "Yes but it is in my bank account! I probably make more money than you do as I work in the oil fields." The sheriff explained to him they were looking for money and drugs because although drugs are always something they look for if they are suspicious, the oil field run to N. Dakota was causing people to take drugs there and sometimes back. My son told him, "Go ahead and search my car!" The sheriff did not do so nor did he give him a speeding ticket; luckily for my son. I guess the officer wanted him to move along so they could look for bigger fish to fry as there was nothing for him to gain but a ticket handed out. I wonder if the sheriff even cared about the ticket being as he had him on his radar for going over the speed limit. Seems cash was the ultimate goal.

Turn about is fair play or as my Mother use to say, " What is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander".
This phrase means, "what's good for one person or thing (of any or no gender) is good for another." I think anyone reading this knows what this means in the application to politicians, IRS, and the police.

But, I digress as "Once property is seized," the co-authored Carpenter report explains, "owners must navigate a confusing, complex and often expensive legal process to try to win it back." In Illinois, as an example in order to challenge a seizure the poor property owners must pay a bond of up to 10 percent of the property's value. If they lose this challenge the full legal cost of the proceedings rests on them. "Even if they win, they lose 10 percent of the bond on top of whatever attorney costs they accrued," the report found. Disgusting! According to Dick Carpenter in a report, "years 2008 to 2014 were some lean economic years," "Forfeiture is an attractive way to keep revenue streams flowing when budgets are tight." Law enforcement officers have generally said that this is true according a Washington Post investigation last year: "All of our home towns are sitting on a tax-liberating gold mine,” Deputy Ron Hain of Kane County, Ill.

“Those laws were meant to take a guy out for selling $1 million in cocaine or who was trying to launder large amounts of money,” said Mark Overton, the police chief in Bal Harbour, Fla., who once oversaw a federal drug task force in South Florida. “It was never meant for a street cop to take a few thousand dollars from a driver by the side of the road.”

Our police departments have used civil forfeiture to benefit their bottom lines. This makes for seizures that are motivated by profit rather than true crime-fighting. For the people whose property has been seized through civil asset forfeiture the process of legally regaining such property is notoriously difficult and expensive. Sometimes the cost exceeds the value of the property so the true motivation at that point is to make a point and not allow them to get away with stealing from you.

The below video is true but presented very funny in it's own way!

From renting Cadillac, Zamboni's, Parties, Margarita Machines, to Kegs with liquor and Casinos they spend that money on things they do not need. Here is the link to that article....https://www.buzzfeed.com/nicks29/the-14-most-ridiculous-things-police-bought-with-a-4y3w.

The value of property seized under civil forfeiture laws, includes cars, homes, boats, electronics, jewelry, and other property. This increased nearly tenfold from $407 million nationwide in 2001 to $4.3 billion in 2012. We have to stop this theft which is made worse by knowing that many times it is used for frivolous stuff. Over that time period, police have seized $2.5 billion in cash alone from almost 62,000 people without warrants or indictments. This is according to a investigation by the Washington Post.

http://endforfeiture.com/,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_forfeiture_in_the_United_States,
http://ij.org/action-post/irs-drops-civil-forfeiture-case-will-return-344000-it-seized-from-iowa-doctor/,
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/05/15/how-the-irs-seized-a-north-carolina-businessmans-life-savings-without-ever-charging-him-with-a-crime/,
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/11/10/report-in-lean-times-police-start-taking-a-lot-more-stuff-from-people/,
http://www.allgov.com/news/top-stories/local-governments-increase-revenue-by-seizing-property-belonging-to-those-not-charged-with-crimes-140909?news=854203,
https://www.buzzfeed.com/nicks29/the-14-most-ridiculous-things-police-bought-with-a-4y3w,
https://www.aclu.org/issues/criminal-law-reform/reforming-police-practices/asset-forfeiture-abuse,
http://www.allgov.com/news/top-stories/local-governments-increase-revenue-by-seizing-property-belonging-to-those-not-charged-with-crimes-140909?news=854203,
http://townhall.com/columnists/jaredmeyer/2014/12/19/civil-forfeiture-article-n1933786

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The Lowdown on Smart Meters

6/21/2016

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The Lowdown on Smart Meters

By Susan Steffen-Kraft

Smart Meters are digital meters the utilities (electric, gas, water) are now using to replace our current mechanical meters. These two meters look almost identical but the difference is that with a mechanical meter a rotating wheel which calculates energy usage! But a smart meter uses a digital read out which is now being touted as the way to be efficient way to make efficient use of the nation's grid. Unfortunately, they have turned out to be an invasion of our privacy. Intended to keep track of which appliances used more electricity and which were used more often; the problem was that the data had to go somewhere.

Of course the electric company received data but so did the government because the data is sent to a neighborhood smart meter and then on to municipal network and then to a national network which is the Smart Grid. This could easily lead in the future to usage fees which would be in the form of taxes, new rules, and regulations. The government is not known for its "I will not tax you" attitude. Instead, they tax and tax for everything, so why not this? You might say this is crazy, but ask yourself why the company and the government need to know which, why and how often you are using your appliances. Why can't they just bill you which if the rates are high enough would be punishment enough for excess usage.

Of course, cities that force the usage of Smart Meters will defend their actions by saying that no big deal - they are safe, they are "smart," and will end up saving the residents money and at the same time improve the efficiency of the electrical grid. But again, at what price? Some places they come with an added cost per month and an installation fee. People who do not want Smart Meters can say no and the city and company will ignore your protests.

The former CIA director General Petraeus spoke in Mar. 2012 about the 'Internet of things'. He claimed that the 'Smart' TVs, refrigerators and dishwashers transmit a wireless signal to 'smart' meters - which, in turn, get transmitted to a centralized, data-collection center. How nice for them and this is a violation of our 4th Amendment rights. This is unprecedented access (and control) over our personal daily activities.

Below is what the 4th Amendment is about.
"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."

'Smart' meters will transmit data about when we are home; what we are doing inside the home and the nature of our conversations. In fact the CIA could use low-cost, high-powered cloud computing to track 'items of interest,' (and just what do they consider an item of interest?) which are "located, identified, monitored, and remotely controlled through technologies such as radio-frequency identification, sensor networks, tiny embedded servers, and energy harvesters." This according to General Petraeus.

There has been at least one try at the sinister agenda to forcibly convert every standard electric meter in the U.S. to the "smart" variety under the guise of promoting renewable energy interests. This was the H.R. 2685 (113th): Smart Grid Advancement Act of 2013 but was not enacted. We continue to hope no more of this comes our way.

There are major security weaknesses in Smart Meters and this was brought out during Black Hat Europe. This was held in Amsterdam in Oct. 2014 and they discussed among other issues, the emergence of new hacking threats. Researcher Vazquez Vidal said, without revealing which one it was, that "The device is not secured properly" and "Once you've got the [encryption] keys and know the hardware, you can have full control of the network in a really big area... to turn off and on the lights remotely, and you could know power consumption in a house [to determine] if someone is in the house" at that time".

A series of hacks carried out against so-called "smart meter" installations over several years have probably cost a single U.S. electric utility hundreds of millions of dollars on an annual basis. This information came from the FBI in a cyber intelligence bulletin obtained by KrebsOnSecurity. This law enforcement agency said that this is the first known report of criminals compromising the hi-tech meters, and that it expects this type of fraud to spread across the country as more utilities keep using and installing smart grid technology.

Smart meters are something Agenda 21 has made into a tool. Cap and Trade is part of that and being politically being pushed very hard. As I have already stated it is part of the tracking system they want and the grip they want to put on the citizens. If I had a world totalitarian agenda I would want a grip on people that keeps me informed about them and their usage. Carbon credits,” or energy use could be used to control people by doling out the vital energy everyone needs, based on their degree of compliance with a domination agenda.

Of course, to do that, I, as a totalitarian would need to be able to monitor energy use — right down to individual appliances. If you want control, then one way to get it is to monitor energy use — right down to individual appliances — so create a mandatory, all inclusive electronic grid that could not only keep track of but also keep control of each individual’s energy consumption. And this is only one area but it is an important area.

It will drastically raise the energy costs and taxes plus fees. It will put Americans in a box which has the effect of corralling them like a cow or horse with judgments over income, credit ratings and their habits. It’s a Marxist’s dream come true and a nightmare for we freedom-loving Americans.

Smart Meters are a surveillance device because they search without a warrant. They collect detailed energy usage, for instance no matter if you cook, watch TV, whether you are home or not and when you turn on a light, or even if you have guests. This data is valuable because it can reveal patterns about what you do and when. The California utility companies have admitted to providing smart meter data to the government and third parties and folks, California is a invasive state but it is happening everywhere. Find out more on Smart Grid Technology at the Electronic Privacy Information Center.

The corporate bottom line is this; “Smart” meters eliminate the need for human meter readers. They allow utilities to turn services on and off remotely. The meters identify consumption of a product and automatically send those data to headquarters for monitoring and billing.

Electricity is delivered most efficiently in an even, steady flow and the “smart grid enthusiasts are trying to "encourage residential customers to use less electricity during daytime working hours and more during evenings and the weekends". At some point customers may be charged by time-of-use. “Smart” grid promoters claim that by 2030, the system will reduce nationwide electricity usage by about four percent.

Agenda 21 and Smart Meters will be crammed right down America’s throat whether they are wanted or not. July 2011 in Marian, Calif. people are fighting it out with PG&E and the FCC, plus UCLA’s epidemiology department and the California Public Utilities Commission. But, before you think these were just conservatives objecting, think again. It has been primarily liberals and for the record I believe that we have found a meeting place in the middle, because both sides hate big, controlling government. The word Progressive needs to be defined as opposed to liberal because the very definition of Progressivenism is a love for big government. It is true enough that the liberal residents in California are concerned for their bodily health and conservatives are concerned for their Constitutional health, rights and freedoms but both, want their privacy and Agenda 21 and Smart Meters are bad for either of these causes.

Jerry Day, an electronics and media expert from Burbank California, recently detailed many of the ways that smart meters act as surveillance devices act as surveillance devices when they are installed in our homes….

They individually identify electrical devices inside the home and record when they are operated causing invasion of privacy.
They monitor household activity and occupancy in violation of rights and domestic security.
They transmit wireless signals which may be intercepted by unauthorized and unknown parties. Those signals can be used to monitor behavior and occupancy and they can be used by criminals to aid criminal activity against the occupants.
Data about occupant’s daily habits and activities are collected, recorded and stored in permanent databases which are accessed by parties not authorized or invited to know and share that private data.
Those with access to the smart meter databases can review a permanent history of household activities complete with calendar and time-of-day metrics to gain a highly invasive and detailed view of the lives of the occupants.
Those databases may be shared with, or fall into the hands of criminals, blackmailers, law enforcement, private hackers of wireless transmissions, power company employees, and other unidentified parties who may act against the interests of the occupants under metered surveillance.
“Smart Meters” are, by definition, surveillance devices which violate Federal and State wiretapping laws by recording and storing databases of private and personal activities and behaviors without the consent or knowledge of those people who are monitored.
It is possible for example, with analysis of certain “Smart Meter” data, for unauthorized and distant parties to determine medical conditions, sexual activities, physical locations of persons within the home, vacancy patterns and personal information and habits of the occupants.

Once they are installed, these meters will record a plethora of data about your personal lives and it will be stored in databases that you and I will never get access to. The data could be wrong or flawed but, you will have little recourse to correct it. Literally life and death decisions will be made by our overlords using that data. Count on it. And unless you want to live entirely off the grid (and many are moving in that direction), you will submit. The data will be used by law enforcement and the government to ‘protect’ you. Protect me? Oh please! Spy on me is more like it. Do you really think your Constitutional rights will even figure into the equation down the road?

As to your health: there are hundreds of thousands of cases against various utility companies because of the deleterious health effects of smart meters. We have no clue how it is affecting us if we are a healthier type but the symptoms and illnesses range from nausea and vomiting to tinnitus and heart arrhythmia and cancer due to the radio frequency waves and the electromagnetic frequency they emit. In fact studies done on the same kind of waves emitted by smart meters have shown them to be equal to a level two carcinogenic. Nice, right?

The World Health Organization has classified RF as a 2B carcinogen which is the same as DDT and lead. The military did studies which showed pulsed radiation can cause serious health problems, including tinnitus, memory loss and seizures. More money in the end for Big Pharma and the hospitals. Thee have been thousands of studies which have linked the biological effects to RF radiation exposure, including increased "cancer risk, damage to the nervous system, adverse reproductive effects, DNA damage, and more". Top public health officials in Santa Cruz County California prepared this report, confirming Smart Meters pose a health risk.

The American Academy of Environmental Medicine (AAEM) sent this letter to the CPUC calling for a halt to wireless smart meters. See also this letter from Dr. Carpenter, endorsed by 50+experts.

Folks what else do you need as proof of this piece of junk being installed on your house? Google up the information yourself and don't fall for the they are harmless lies.

http://www.chattanoogan.com/2012/2/6/218862/Smart-Meters-Are-Part-Of-Agenda-21--.aspx
http://gulagbound.com/17534/agenda-21-outsmarting-america/,
http://www.disclose.tv/news/the_internet_of_things_a_dystopian_nightmare_where_everyone_and_everything_will_be_monitored/114926,
http://www.thrivemovement.com/smart-meters-and-global-domination-agenda.blog,
http://www.westonaprice.org/health-topics/smart-meters-not-so-smart/
http://www.naturalnews.com/041446_smart_meters_national_mandate_surveillance.html,
http://emfsafetynetwork.org/smart-meters/
http://www.naturalnews.com/054336_hackers_smart_meters_cyber_attacks.html

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Government Gone Wild

5/22/2016

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Government Gone Wild

By Susan Steffen-Kraft

Big Nanny Government running wild? Surely not you say! But then why are lemonade stands across the country being shut down? Why are Girl Scout Cookie stands and Japanese Tea Stands being shut down? Young entrepreneurs are being told to pack it up and move along because various violations are being broken they are told and of course fines are being issued many times.

The Freedom Center of Missouri, a relatively new public policy group in the Show Me State, for documenting the following list of outrages. Please note that all of these occurred the year of 2011. Such crackdowns are becoming more and more common.

Aug. 6: Massachusetts State police shut down the stand of a 12-year-old refugee from Fukushima, Japan, who was selling green tea he brought with him when he and his family evacuated after the tsunami.
(The 12 year old had no permit to sell his tea even though the town police had swung by and wished him good luck. Later that same day the Massachusetts State Police were the ones, who a short time later shut the stand down. I guess they have nothing better to do with their time!)

Aug. 1: Police officers in Coralville, Iowa, ordered at least three sets of children to quit selling lemonade during the Register’s Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa unless they first got a vendor’s permit and a health inspection. This is the first known example of a coordinated set of shutdowns at a single time.
Poor children! Now they will be discouraged. I guess the bike riders did not get any lemonade to drink!)

July 19: In McAllen, Texas, authorities shut down a girl’s lemonade stand for failing to obtain a food permit and threatened a grandmother who protested with a $50 fine.
(Desperate for money are we?)

July 17: Police in Appleton, Wis., inform children that despite legally selling lemonade and cookies in their front yard during an annual city festival for the past several years, a new city ordinance bans these sales. The reason? To protect licensed vendors from competition. How’s that for a great example of how America works?
(The vendors must really be suffering because a few children are making money. Maybe they should make their product better!)

July 15: Cops in Midway, Ga., shut down a lemonade stand some children were running in their own front yard, saying the kids had to obtain a peddler’s license and a food license and pay $50 per day for a temporary business permit.
(Must be many who are prejudice against lemonade, so I guess try limeade next time!)

June 16: A county inspector in Maryland closed a kids lemonade stand and fines the parents $500 for violating county law.
(Oh brother!)

June 10: The Philadelphia Department of Health shuts down a lemonade stand operated by a cancer charity because it lacked a necessary permit and — get this — didn't install a hand-washing station.
(Gasp, uh as long as the hands of those selling the lemonade were clean! A cancer charity no less, shut down! Well, I hope they had to explain this to the cancer victims.)

March 7: Officials in Hazelwood, Mo., said a cookie stand in a family’s driveway violated local ordinances and ordered an end to the Girl Scouts cookie sale.
(No cookies in that neighborhood, perish the thought. Could it be that they thought the cookies were to fattening for everyone?)

Feb. 26: Georgia police demanded the closure of a Girl Scout cookie stand until the girls obtained a peddler’s permit.
(Peddlers use to go door to door so maybe the problem was the girls were not going door to door).

Feb. 26: Savannah, Ga., officials determined that city ordinances require an end to a 40-year tradition of Girl Scouts.
(Somebody hates cookies!)

I daresay that should I dig into 2012 - 2013 I would find more incidents. However this was good enough for me! I think that the government has run amok and it is Government gone wild!

THEY WANT YOUR COOKIES and LEMONADE AND THEY ARE COMING FOR YOU!

Let's not stop there as there is also a war on gardens. From Oklahoma in the USA to Drummondville, Quebec in Canada it is happening. As an example a couple who was growing a beautiful and well maintained garden in their front yard because their back yard does not get enough natural light. They checked with the Environmental Services Inspector of their town. He gave a verbal okay. Now, I will tell you that was a mistake. Get them to write that on paper so you have proof!

The town came back and ordered them to remove their garden in 7 days; this after the couple had invested 2,700 dollars in their garden which has helped Mr. Beauchamp lose weight and he was trying to help his high blood pressure, which is important to do according to doctors and health articles. So now, the town besides only giving them seven days said that after those seven days they would fine them 300 dollars a day!

To top it off the town of Drummondville is moving forward with a new ordinance to remove and make sure no one can have front yard gardens. Thus, people because most of the backyards do not have enough light or enough room, will no longer have their home grown vegetables or have to move away to a home that will have a bigger, better backyard. Talk about control. I wonder how many grocery stores have paid off the town officials. It was not as if these gardens are not better then a bunch of junk cars or weeds. But there is more folks.

(Similar cases of home-grown food destruction have taken place in Georgia, Michigan, and New Jersey

As an example of this is Denise Morrison who resides in Tulsa, Oklahoma. She had over 100 species of herbal healing plants in her front yard but then the city government came in and illegally destroyed this garden. They were sued and she won. She did not want to rely on handouts from the government and that is very admirable. She was feeding herself and also treating a variety of medical issues. Well, now, we can't have that can we? The lady was following the various codes. By the time the city government was done she could no longer feed or medicate herself. Really nice, right? I am being sarcastic of course.

According to a Mr. Halvington "the government telling us what we can do with our own property — that should never happen – In any economic downturn in the past history of the United States, the government has always encouraged the people to grow their own food, and so we want to continue with that movement." That movement is the Victory Gardens. Mr. Halvington is fighting back because he too was ordered to destroy his garden; this occurred in Florida.

The FDA also attacked an Amish farmer. His sin was selling raw milk. Raw milk sellers could go to prison for 10 years. This is such Bull pucky! They say it is dangerous, I say it is not. I drink it and thank God that the state of Idaho allows us to have raw milk so far. Touch my Raw Milk and you will hear my opinion and I will not be happy. I have the right to choose what I drink. One cannot go out and drive drunk on raw milk. I am hurting no one by doing this.

Raw milk has many health benefits as in protecting against diarrhea, infection, rickets, tooth decay, and even tuberculosis. And the downside of this....well there is not any as long as their dairy is clean and the cows are healthy. The organic raw milk dairies are well monitored here in Idaho.

The FDA even runs an intimidation program against dairy farmers who produce raw milk. They dress up in FBI uniforms or other agency uniforms and show up at the farmers dairy to try and persuade them to stop producing raw dairy products. There are no warrants and it is done unlawfully. Their goal is to destroy all who produce these products from the raw dairy industry. One dairy farmer was told that if he went public about their visit they would make sure his herd was destroyed by claiming his dairy had "mad cow disease!"

Here is another sad tale of a raw milk farmer:
http://www.naturalnews.com/035208_James_Stewart_torture_county_jail.html Please read this article because if
they do this to him you could be next for something else.

The FDA is helping our government head into the total tyranny of We the People. I can have a choice to have an abortion but not drink raw milk. Isn't that peachy? I could go on and on about the war on raw milk and in defense of raw milk, but what it comes down to is this. My choice is to drink it! My choice, and they have no right to tell me otherwise.

And folks it gets even better, because according an article written in Aug of 2012, an ABC affilate ABC-15 which is out of Phoenix reported that a woman was told that she violated a city ordinance by handing out water on a 112F day without a permit. She was doing a nice neighborly thing which was based on her own religious convictions. What kind of out of control government do we have when simple human kindness requires a permit?

Nov. 13, 2014 a WWII veteran by the name of Arnold Abbott got in trouble for feeding the homeless which he has done for two decades. While serving a public meal on November 2, 2014 Mr. Abbott told the Sun Sentinel that "a policeman pulled my arm and said, 'Drop that plate right now,' like it was a gun." Way to go Phoenix and the cops that did this to a veteran no less who is 90 years old; shame on them. More and more cities are starting to make it illegal to feed the homeless; in fact 71 cities across the country have passed or tried to pass ordinances that criminalize feeding the homeless. This is according to Mr. Michael Stoops who is the director of community organizing at the National Coalition for the Homeless. Again, helping others is starting to require a permit.

Wyldewood Cellars is a Kansas-based producer and distributor of elderberry juice. They received an unexpected and unwelcome visit from the FDA. They were at the time the latest raid target of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which sent US marshals to the company's winery in Mulvane to confiscate the "unapproved drug." Now I don't know about you, but wine being considered a drug is well, lets just say that any wine, elderberry or otherwise being a drug would no doubt turn every drinker into a wino with that excuse and every druggie who pops pills to elderberry wine.

According to the FDA they sent a warning letter to Wyldewood in 2006 to remove or modify certain health claims that it said were in violation of federal law. However Mr. John Brewer, co-founder of Wyldewood, says that after receiving the initial FDA warning letter, his company hired a consultant familiar with FDA regulations to help his company reworded their product descriptions. They made the appropriate changes, and clarified that the elderberry products in question were supplements so Mr. Brewer said his company had done what it needed to in order to be in compliance. Ah ha! Not so fast. He noted that following the changes up until the raid, the FDA had ceased communicating with Wyldewood.

He said "They've been in our facility multiple times. It's like, 'C'mon guys, we changed our label, we changed everything we thought we were supposed to do.' And then they show up and do this. (Supplements) seems to be one of their hot buttons these days." This tactic has become all too common in recent years. A company receives a warning letter from the FDA and they make the changes required and never hears anything further from the FDA. But then out of nowhere they get raided. The FDA and their actions are unwarranted and illegal and they should be sued.

And so the war against lemonade, raw milk, elderberry wine and giving water and food away continues. GOVERNMENT GONE WILD!

,
https://no-consent.org/2012/08/22/its-illegal-to-hand-out-free-water/,
http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2011/08/25/massachusetts-state-police-shutdown-twelve-year-olds-green-tea-stand/#5414d45887c5.
http://www.lemonadefreedom.com/2011/07/27/the-government-war-on-kid-run-concession-stands/
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/11/90-year-old-florida-veteran-arrested-feeding-homeless-bans,
http://www.naturalnews.com/032631_elderberry_juice_FDA_raid.html,
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=a77_1432256617,
http://offgridsurvival.com/survivalgardenseizedanddestroyed/,
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2010/08/14/the-war-over-raw-milk-heats-up.aspx
http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2011/08/03/swat-team-raids-raw-milk-farm-rawesome-arrests-owner/#47c945666d6d,
http://www.naturalnews.com/028757_raw_milk_FDA.html,
http://www.offthegridnews.com/how-to-2/fda-declares-war-against-raw-milk/
http://www.pccnaturalmarkets.com/sc/0109/sc0109-organic.html,
http://www.anh-usa.org/court-to-farmers-you-dont-have-the-right-to-fight-the-usda/

7 Comments

Pork Barrel, and Other Wasted Tax Dollars

5/14/2016

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Pork Barrel, and Other Wasted Tax Dollars

By Susan Steffen-Kraft

Here Piggy Piggy! Pork Barrel spending is when a representative makes use of government money on local projects that are primarily used to bring more cash to his district. Of course the politician is trying to help out his constituents in order to maintain support from them in the hope they will re-elect him. A legislative bill is brought before Congress and in order to get the bill passed, your vote is needed. Problem is, you are facing a tough re-election next year, and the voters want to know that you are delivering success for your district. In order to be re-elected, you leverage your position and demand that a certain project be funded of course, in exchange for your support of a bill.

The demand you put forth may have nothing to do with the bill, but it will make people in your district happy and they will want to vote for you again. The writers of the bill who are desperate to get their bill passed will give in and add it on to the bill. How thoughtful of Americans to be so selfish as to demand that the rest of the U.S. pay for their wants and needs. I am being sarcastic because indeed, there is nothing thoughtful about it. This can and should be done differently and not be burdening the rest of the country. Supposedly, there is now a ban on earmarks but it is still being pushed from beneath the surface even though the ban is still there.

Citizens Against Government Waste has outlined seven criteria by which spending can be classified as "pork." To meet the requirements as an earmark, a project must meet at least one of the following, but most satisfy at least two:

Requested by only one chamber of Congress

Not specifically authorized

Not competitively awarded

Not requested by the President

Greatly exceeds the President's budget request or the previous year's funding

Not the subject of Congressional hearings

Serves only a local or special interest.

Our federal government wastes most of our taxpayer dollars because they make poor and or fraudulent spending decisions.

So, here are some structural reasons for federal waste. One is the government being so huge. The spending is too much for auditors and committees that oversee to keep track of. Thus there is susceptibility to waste, fraud, and a host of other inefficiencies. Another reason is there is no incentive to make a profit because most government agencies are monopolies and thus they are not motivated to try and run efficiently. There are also no losses as once the government undertakes something it pretty well stays and stays and stays.

The government agencies are not open to outside feedback and thus learn nothing which makes them open to failure. Bad workers are not fired and are rewarded the same as good workers thus, many good workers leave and the bad ones stay on and on. So there is little firing of the bad workers because of union protection and strong civil service.

Federal programs are loaded with rules and regulations. This reduces operational efficiency and one reason for all these rules is to prevent corruption and fraud. These are a concern because the government hands out so many contracts and subsidies. Perhaps the government should cut down on all these contracts and subsidies.

Another factor for federal waste is the number of layers, or ranks by title. This has caused a typical chain reaction that has pushed the typical federal agency to jump from 7 to 18 since the 1960's. It stands to reason that today’s “over-layered chain of command” in the government is a major cause of failure because it makes information flow harder to deal with anyone who is failing at their job.

These are just a few reasons why our government is wasting money or our taxpayer dollars to be exact.
Federal debt is piling up and spending is expected to soar in coming years. We will have rivers of red ink unless policymakers demand and put reforms into place. The main problem is rapid growth in the major entitlement programs and federal policymakers should tackle waste in every department which would help solve our fiscal challenges.

Other examples of wasted taxpayer dollars are all over the place. The powerful congressional delegation from Alaska which included the top House Republican on the Transportation Committee and the top Senate Republican on the Appropriations Committee, managed to get their hands on more than $300 million in federal money through earmarks which were the equivalents of line-item orders which told the federal bureaucrats where to send the money.
Now the earmark opponents, who had been fighting a losing battle for years felt that the bridge was a gift from heaven because it started a crusade and the bridge got a title....The Bridge to Nowhere; I should like to send our politicians to Nowhereville!

This was an example of the worst of Washington waste. The sad part is that Alaska got to keep all of the more money which amounted to $300 million secured by Senators Young and Ted Stevens. Most of the money earmarked for the bridge has been spent on other state projects, but some $87.8 million remains in a fund, unused. They need to give it back.

In 1822, President James Monroe argued that federal money should be limited “to great national works only, since if it were unlimited it would be liable to abuse and might be productive of evil.” Looking at this article I wrote and other articles I have googled, I can say that he was absolutely correct.

Above is a picture of a luxury gym and spa that gives free memberships to federal bureaucrats. This is in downtown Wash. D. C. The members are employees of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). "The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced earlier this year that budget cuts “require[ed] difficult choices to align resources to address the greatest needs of the Department.” How sweet it must be to work for these folks.

Speaking of which the Pentagon and Central Intelligence Agency channeled some $11 million to psychics who they thought might provide special insights about various foreign threats. This was the called the “Stargate” program and turned out to be quite disappointing. If you think that is bad here are two more wasteful programs.

250,000 children qualify for SSI checks because they can’t participate in “age appropriate activities.” Excuse me!! I don't think that playing tag, dodge ball, baseball, jump rope should be that expensive. Those are activities for certain ages and if it comes to baseball, etc. you know there are many people that will help or donate to sports. If it is for children with disabilities then again, there are volunteers and private programs for children with special needs. I believe they should be helped but not through SSI.

Worse yet, thousands of prisoners get SSI checks relating to their alleged disabilities—costing taxpayers about $20 million a year. I am sure with all the sympathizers for those in prisons there would be donations of crutches, wheelchairs and things along that line. If there is not, then there are a lot of hypocrites in the bleeding heart world. If they want those things for the prisoners then it is time to put your money where your mouth is.

Below is a video that shows the shrimp treadmill research which cost the taxpayer more than $3 million over the course of a decade. The National Science Foundation who were behind this study is a federal agency created by our Congress in 1950 "to promote the progress of science; to advance the national health, prosperity, and welfare; to secure the national defense…" Ah, and here I thought it was about those poor over exercised shrimp; silly me. Personally, I call it arthropod abuse, and if you look at the poor thing trying, it appears to me to escape, you would feel sympathy for it; "Just a Shrimp and His Will to Survive!"

But least I forget the NSF has also funded the How Do Rumors Get Started? To answer the question, NSF has spent nearly $1 million to study "rumor propagation." I would lay odds the Shrimp did it in retaliation for being forced to run on the treadmill. I am being sarcastic of course, but I always thought rumors came from someone telling someone else about what they knew or were privy to about a third party.

For their budget of about $6.9 billion in the fiscal year of 2010, this agency generously funded approximately a fifth of all federally supported basic research that was conducted by our colleges and universities. Considering the few examples I give and all that can be googled, we are slowly being spent into oblivion. They take our tax dollars and spend it on unproductive things and programs. This is not the way to fix the economy; not many bright bulbs in D.C.

The National Institute of Health funded a study to see if mothers love dogs as much as they love kids. They could have done a poll. Why spend $371,026 dollars of our hard earned dollars. Another waste of our dollars is that The Department of Interior spent $10,000 to monitor the growth rate of salt marsh grass. I would like the job of being paid to watch grass grow. There is always a ray of sunshine in those dark clouds because they have not started paying people to watch paint dry. Shhhh, don't suggest it.

One shining example of mismangement is that the U.S. Marshals Service "wasted $2 million on “swag” gifts, like golf balls, mini-footballs, police-car-shaped stress toys, golf towels, and poker chips in order to build cooperation and camaraderie within the office". I want gifts; how come I don't get any. Oh yes, I am not part of the U.S. Marshals Service.

As for corporate welfare, I will give a couple examples...
One coffee plantation in Hawaii received a $25,000 grant from the Department of Agriculture to use solar power to dry coffee beans. Of course coffee bean farmers have been using the sun, in different ways to dry their beans for centuries!

In an attempt to create more jobs in butterfly farming (and I had no clue we were trying to create more jobs in this area) the Department of Agriculture granted $500,000 to the Euchee Butterfly Farm whose job it is to train Native American members of the Thlopthlocco Tribal Town in butterfly farming. Butterfly farming?
Just quit spraying butterflies with toxic sprays and poisons, the places they go and their food such as Milkweed that monarch's eat. Nature will do it's job thank-you very much!

I question many of the governments research ideas in general. Apparently, in order to understand whether gay men in Peru test positive for syphilis after treatment due to treatment failure or re-infection, the National Institutes of Health spent $330,000. This money was to study the lifestyle and health of men who have sex with men and transgender persons in Peru; wonderful, we have enough transgender issues here without worrying about Peru. Do I give two hoots about Peru and their problems with syphilis or their sex lives. No, I don't! Let their own government take care of it's own problems.

Next is this gem about urine. The Department of Agriculture’s Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education program has awarded a $15,000 grant to the Rich Earth Institute in Vermont. This Rich Earth Institute specializes in using human urine as fertilizer. This specific grant was to study if human urine could be a fertilizer for hay fields. There is of course, plenty of cow urine, sheep urine and misc. other animals. But hey, if any of you want to pee in Farmer John's field in order to help him out, feel free to drive out to the farm, pull your pants down and pee. When you get arrested for indecent exposure just explain that you are fertilizing his farm for free!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pork_barrel,
http://www.businessinsider.com/the-worst-pork-of-2010-2010-4?op=1,
http://study.com/academy/lesson/what-is-pork-barrel-spending-definition-examples.html,
http://thefederalist.com/2014/10/22/wastebook-2014-eight-absurd-government-projects-funded-with-your-money/,
https://fee.org/articles/most-outrageous-government-waste/
http://www.cato.org/publications/testimony/reducing-wasteful-federal-spending-0
http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/pork-barrel-spending.html,
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x3018044,
http://posey.house.gov/wasteful-spending/,
http://usgovinfo.about.com/od/federalbudgetprocess/a/How-Much-Shrimp-Treadmill-Study-Cost-Taxpayers.htm,
http://dailysignal.com/2014/10/22/top-6-examples-wasteful-government-spending-wastebook-2014/,
http://liberty247.net/examples-of-government-waste/

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The Unconstitutional Patriot Act

5/3/2016

4 Comments

The Unconstitutional Patriot Act

By Susan Steffen-Kraft

Whether you believe it or not, the Patriot Act infringes on some of our liberties. These liberties were guaranteed by the Constitution; by permitting the Patriot Act to exist we are trading off these liberties. Laws on paper have always been susceptible to the power mongers. President Obama is only building on what President Bush put into play and Bush built on what President Clinton put into play; a massive surveillance program.
If the supporters of Clinton, Bush and Obama get mad at me I really do not care. It will only mean that you are not lovers of liberty but are champions of big government. Our rights according the the 4th Amendment are "the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers and effects against unreasonable search and seizure.

Did you know that books, computers, documents may be taken? This could not just be at your home but at public libraries, medical facilities, churches, bookstores, Internet providers, political groups, universities, and other types of institutions and businesses.
Indeed my friends, the phrase Patriot Act has nothing to do with being Patriotic because there is nothing Patriotic about this act. The people who are served cannot even tell anyone that the Feds have searched their records. So free speech is gone by the roadside to boot.

To top it off, the FBI can make Internet Services turn over a log of the websites that you have visited and all the e-mails coming to and from that computer. Now isn't that nice? So if they do not like you or what you stand for then you are out of luck should they choose to classify you as a terrorist.
That means that as a rule, officers have to get a warrant! I believe in my rights and stand by the 4th Amendment! If the FBI believes you are a terrorist they can get authorization by search orders to investigate you. The Patriot Act authorizes this investigation of activities that could involve a non violent protest. Note the words non violent.

The First Amendment protects for example the rights to have these non violent protests. And how many Senators voted against this atrocity! Gee, only one had the guts and common sense to do so. My oh my, it was a Democrat by the name of Russ Feingold of Wisconsin in 2001.
In 2006 these 10 Senators voted against the Patriotic Act. In 2001 all but one of the 10 voted for it. Strange the change of mind but, even a blind squirrel finds an acorn now and then.

Nays---10
Alaska (D-Hi)
Bingaman (D-NM)
Byrd (D-WV)
Feingold (D-WI)
Harkin(D-IA)
Jeffords (I-VT)
Leahy (D-VT)
Levin (D-MI)
Murray (D-WA)
Wyden (D-Or)

All the Democrats supported President Bush in this endeavor, but at least 10 did not in 2006. I can see why the Republicans did. I mean, after all, President Bush was a Republican and many or most Republicans feel they must support their party whether it is wrong or right! So what was the Democrats excuse? Well, obviously Russ Feingold in 2001 and 2006 did not need an excuse did he? He seemed to be the only one with any brains. I excuse neither party for their stupidity!

Yes, the three men pictured above and below contributed to taking away our freedoms. Live with it because that's the truth. Of course Obama has taken it many steps beyond but both of these other two men were, and are part and parcel of the New World Order just like Obama. God, why cannot the sheeple see this for what it is. Why ask? After all the sheeple follow blindly after their leaders and would jump off a cliff if ordered too.

Of course the FBI loves the Patriot Act. They can ignore the rules because they can ignore probable cause and conduct searches from their own warrants. But again, Bush did not care nor has Obama. But wait there is more! Clinton signed into law many bills that led to the Patriot Act. So lets see now, from Clinton to Bush to Obama.
Let them all join hands and sing;
Kumbaya My Lord, Kumbaya! We fooled the People Lord, Oh Yes We Did, We Fooled the People Lord, Kumbaya! Oh Lord, Kumbaya!

Now the new Patriot Act redone by President Obama well, compare it to the Constitution, Bill of Rights and Declaration of Independence. A good Ninety percent of the act has nothing to do with terrorism and is instead a giant Federal power-grab. Its tentacles reaching into every part of our society stripping American citizens of all of their rights. It also grants the government and its private agents total immunity from anything they do in the process of stripping you of your rights.

When Bill Clinton was President he signed into law the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act, which the New York Times calls “broad legislation that provides new tools and penalties for federal law-enforcement officials to use in fighting terrorism.” The Clinton administration proposed the bill in the aftermath of the Oklahoma City terrorist bombing (see 8:35 a.m. - 9:02 a.m. April 19, 1995). In many ways, the original bill would be mirrored by the USA Patriot Act six years later (Oct. 26, 2001).
Civil libertarians on both the left and right opposed the legislation. Michael Freeman, who is a political analyst, stated that the proposal was one of the “worst assaults on civil liberties in decades.” The Houston Chronicle called it a “frightening” and “grievous” assault on domestic freedoms which is the truth.
Congressman Ron Paul (R-Tex) told the Washington Times that not one member of Congress was allowed to read the first Patriot Act. It was passed by the House on October 27, 2001 and had the civil libertarians and Constitutional scholars across the political board upset and speaking against it. A Mr. William Safire who was writing for the New York Times stated and described the first Patriot Act's powers as the President seizing dictatorial control. Indeed it was.

Republicans opposed the bill that Clinton put forth and forced a compromise that removed increased wiretap authority and lower standards for lawsuits against sellers of guns used in crimes. And yet the Republicans passed the Patriot Act that George Bush brought forth.

But remember: it was the same bill! So what made the difference? Of course it was which party was occupying the White House when each bill was brought forth. Yet, even the chief sponsor of the Patriot Act, Jim Sensenbrenner, said he "always worried about potential abuses." Of course by now we should all realize that his worries were justified.

It would be so nice if the members of Congress (from both parties) would choose the side of Liberty and the Constitution. But no, indubitably they pick tyranny and Big-Government! Many still believe that there is a lot of difference in the party lines. There are some but who do not but I fear they are in the minority. Some in both parties have supported the Patriot Act. A few on both sides have not!

As for some Tea Party candidates; some like Representative Michelle Bachmann and Senators Rubio and Jeff Flake seem not to understand the 4th amendment of the Constitution and voted to extend certain provisions in the Act in the early fall of 2011. On the other hand, Idaho's Representative Raul Labrador explained the basis of his voting "no" on the Patriot Act by saying it gives too much latitude to the FBI and other law enforcement agencies to check on Americans without their knowledge.

Senator Rand Paul understood what was really happening. He not only filibustered the Patriot Act being renewed for hours in May 2015 with the support of Republican Sen. Mike Lee and Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden. He also got some help from 10 fellow senators -- three Republicans and seven Democrats. Senators Bernie Sanders, a Socialist and Democrat Presidential contender has been against the Patriot Act also. Good for all of them!

Rand took on Chris Christie in the Presidential debates over this same issue. When Christie was asked about his past attacks on Senator Rand Paul over this issue because these two men disagree vehemently about an NSA program that spied on tens of millions of innocent Americans. It logged all the phone calls they dialed and received. Rand who is a leading critic of the phone dragnet, argued that it flagrantly violates the Fourth Amendment. The Fourth Amendment is about the right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures.

Christie, because he is an idiot and does not believe in personal freedom or the Fourth Amendment, has said that if America is hit by another terrorist attack then Rand Paul should be called before Congress to answer for his efforts to constrain the NSA’s domestic spying. Christie can go jump in a lake for all I care and I will never support him in any capacity.

“The Fourth Amendment was what we fought the Revolution over! John Adams said it was the spark that led to our war for independence. I'm proud of standing for the Bill of Rights. I will continue to stand for the Bill of Rights, stated Rand Paul. Of course Christie pretty much laughed at that and continued his errant way of supporting violating our rights which is typical of someone like that who knows nothing apparently about the Fourth Amendment.

My God, they should all have to study and take a test on the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. So should the Presidents.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2007/mar/09/usa,
http://dayontheday.com/2014/05/29/foundation-for-enabling-patriot-act-started-with-clinton-and-democrats-not-bush-43/,
https://www.rutherford.org/constitutional_corner/amendment_iv_searches_seizures_and_warrants,
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/02/politics/02cnd-patriot.html?_r=0,
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/george-w-bush-signs-the-patriot-act,
http://www.historycommons.org/context.jsp?item=a102601patriotact,
http://www.rense.com/general34/takeover.htm.
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/08/rand-paul-and-chris-christie-clash-on-nsa-spying/400718/,
http://www.cnn.com/2015/05/20/politics/rand-paul-filibuster-patriot-act-nsa-surveillance/
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Elections/Tea-Party-Tally/2011/0209/Patriot-Act-upset-vote-Can-tea-party-lawmakers-liberals-be-friends,
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2015/12/15/rand-paul-rallies-before-debate-hits-cruz-on-patriot-act/

4 Comments

Choking American Businesses

4/18/2016

3 Comments

Choking American Businesses

By Susan Steffen-Kraft

I was surprised how many have not heard of Operation Chokepoint or understand it's effects, so I decided to write a blog about it.
The investigation that Justice Department officials have dubbed "Operation Choke Point" came to light in March 2013. The Justice Department claims to have instituted the program in 2012 to “attack Internet, telemarketing, mail, and other mass market fraud against consumers, by choking fraudsters’ access to the banking system." This probe was to stop the fraudsters from accessing consumer bank accounts by as they termed it, choking off their access to the payments system. The effects have been felt by banks, payment processors and companies that tend to make short-term consumer loans over the Internet. Industry officials argued that at least some of the affected online lenders are legitimate businesses and this causes problems of course. Operation Chokepoint is sending out a flood of subpoenas, civil investigative demands and burdensome and costly legal demands to companies that supply processing services. They have also threatened bank officials with increased scrutiny and administrative subpoenas unless they completely sever banking relationships with the companies in these industries.

This operation believes if you increase the legal and compliance costs of serving certain disfavored merchant categories, and payments companies there will be a stoppage to providing service to those kind of merchants. And it’s working. Because of this the payments companies across the country are cutting off service to certain types of merchants that in all actuality are legal and providing legal services. It seems that payday lenders have been the most frequent target, and although there are merits to payday lending plus valid arguments on both sides; it is legal in 36 states. It is not as if the payment industry is not trying to investigate fraud itself.

The Electronics Transactions Association or ETA has seen the opportunity to educate all participants in the payments ecosystem about how to identify and remove fraudulent merchants from our networks. The ETA’s newly published Guidelines which is a 100 page document and educational curriculum developed by a task force of forty payments companies, is being sent out for benefit of all "ecosystem participants" and in particular to smaller companies many of whom do not have significant in-house resources. This begs the question that if payday lenders are today’s target– what category will be next and who makes that decision?

In answer to the above question they are going after people who sell guns. The owner of TomKat Ammunition is a gal by the name of Kat O'Conner. Her business is in Maryland and her bank’s payment processing service cut her off and then her third-party payment processor dumped her because she sold ammunition. Take not that this was even though she and her business partner are licensed to sell ammunition by the state. Wisconsin resident Mike Schuetz who is the owner of Hawkins Guns was told by Heritage Credit Union that they do not service businesses that sell guns. Schuetz got mad and proceeded to take a recorder down to Heritage Credit Union in Hawkins. He then began asking questions and recording the answers he got. The regional manager confirmed that the NCUA forced him to close Shuetz’s account:
"The examiners from NCUA — that’s who governs us, it’s a federal government agency — came in and did an exam on everything. There [were] about a dozen [examiners] crawling around the building. They were just hammering us. They came in, looked at our books, looked at everything and said: “Here are some accounts that we feel that we’re going to regulate you on.” So they kind of put the screws to us as far as what we could and couldn’t do….We’re not really anti-gun as a company, but our hands are tied."

Brennan Appel of North Carolina-based Global Hookah Distributors lost his bank and payment processor. When asked why Choke Point would target the tobacco industry he said "They don't like us!" His business legally operates in 19 states so he is above board and should have no problems. Under the government’s Operation Choke Point, some payday lending businesses lost their access to their long-term bank accounts and because of this they were forced to downsize or close.

Allison Deguisne, owner of Westshore Cash and Loan in Calif. happened to be one of them. She stated last week before a congressional hearing on Operation Choke Point that, “My retirement is gone. It’s taken my life savings. I am out of business in the next couple weeks.” “If we continue to shut down these industries, they won’t have anywhere to go to get loans themselves,” she said. She also told reporters that after Wells Fargo choked off her line of credit, she was not able to find a bank that would accept her business.
http://dailysignal.com/2014/08/12/meet-four-business-owners-squeezed-by-operation-choke-point/
Bank officials are being threatened with increased scrutiny and administrative subpoenas if they do not completely sever banking relationships with companies in these industries.

Mr. Sprandel, an 18-year police veteran had to retire in 2011 after being hit by a drunk driver while on duty in his patrol car. Sprandel, who is married and has two children, opened an online firearms and tactical business. Since his retirement pension is not 100 % of his pay he decided to take the step of opening a business which was a tactical and firearms endeavor; of course he was hoping to supplement his retirement.
Unfotunately it came back denied and the bank by voicemail informed him as to why. The message said, “They said they no longer lend to firearms dealers, so that’s a new thing for us.” This is the second time he has been denied financial services because of selling firearms. Now the retired police officer has called on supporters of gun rights to boycott People’s United Bank. I don't blame him one bit.
http://dailysignal.com/2016/04/02/in-voicemail-bank-says-it-no-longer-lends-to-firearms-dealers/?utm_source=TDS_Email&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign

In 2011, FDIC released an internal of 30 “high-risk” industries that it later advised financial institutions to avoid. Among these businesses were those who sold " surveillance equipment, dating services, payday loans, firearms and ammunition, and tobacco!" This list was intended to influence the banks decisions. Later the FDIC issued a statement that this was to be a case by case decision and they only did this due to mounting rage by the public and by congress. A slight problem happens however due to this list because it means “doubling-down” on the program according to Brian Wise, a U.S. Consumer Coalition senior adviser. Now financial services do not know who they can and cannot do business with without incurring the government’s wrath.

The conservatives on Capitol Hill are awakening to Choke Point’s larger role and they are not just picking winners and losers in the marketplace, but also attacking competitors to the Center for Responsible Lending, which is very similar to an ACORN type financial organization. "The CRL builds its relationships in economically-distressed communities, collecting favors and distributing favors, and this includes collecting federal grants and distributing grants and loans as well as political contributions and hefty lobbying fees". This is government chicanery at it's finest.

The FDIC’s list of 30 high-risk merchant categories that are currently being pursued by the DOJ.

Ammunition Sales
Cable Box De-scramblers
Coin Dealers
Credit Card Schemes
Credit Repair Services
Dating Services
Debt Consolidation Scams
Drug Paraphernalia
Escort Services
Firearms Sales
Fireworks Sales
Get Rich Products
Government Grants
Home-Based Charities
Life-Time Guarantees
Life-Time Memberships
Lottery Sales
Mailing Lists/Personal Info
Money Transfer Networks
On-line Gambling
PayDay Loans
Pharmaceutical Sales
Ponzi Schemes
Pornography
Pyramid-Type Sales
Racist Materials
Surveillance Equipment
Telemarketing
Tobacco Sales
Travel Clubs

Reports that even porn stars have had their bank accounts terminated for “moral” reasons are related to the “reputation risk” of banking individuals in the porn industry. The IRS is probably salivating about ways to apply Operation Choke Point to conservative and tea party groups thus the logic of Operation Choke Point could be extended to groups not currently targeted. Notably absent from the FDIC’s hit list are abortion clinics, radical environmental groups, or, well, marijuana shops, for that matter. Well, it seems they appear to be picking and choosing according to what they feel is right or wrong in their own minds.

The Daily Signal on Mar. 18, 2015 exclusively learned that Sen. Mike Crapo will offer an amendment Thursday to the Senate’s budget proposal that would defund the Justice Department’s controversial program known as Operation Choke Point. Thank you Senator Crapo from the state of Idaho.

“The Department of Justice must not politicize its enforcement policies, and we must not let Operation Choke Point become an end run around the Second Amendment by threatening the financial security of gun and ammunition manufacturers,” said Crapo, R-Idaho, in a statement to The Daily Signal.
The introduction of Sen. Crapo’s measure before the Senate Budget Committee will mark the first time since the start of Operation Choke Point that committee members will be forced to go on the record regarding their stance on the program.

The Washington Examiner on Feb. 2016 reported that the House voted Thursday to end Operation Choke Point, the Department of Justice initiative involving banks to crack down on fraud and money laundering. Republicans, who have described Operation Choke Point as a violation of due process, voted in favor of the bill, as did 10 Democrats.
House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, said on the House floor before the vote that it was an "outrage" for "legally constituted businesses to have to fear that in the dark of night they're going to be shut down by the awesome power of the Obama administration."

Current updated news from the New American April 16, 2016 states that,
"Senators Ted Cruz of Texas and Mike Lee of Utah, both Republicans, have introduced a bill that is an attempt to curtail Operation Choke Point. Lee has a 91 percent cumulative score in The New American Freedom Index while Cruz has a score of 89 percent, making them the second- and third-ranked senators in the Index, which rates the fidelity of those in Congress to constitutional principles as measured by their voting records.
Cruz explained his purpose in attempting to shut down Choke Point:

Under President Obama’s reign, the DOJ has abandoned its longstanding tradition of staying out of politics and has instead become a partisan arm of the White House. The Obama Administration initiated Operation Choke Point to punish law-abiding small businesses that don’t align with the president’s political leanings. The DOJ should not be abusing its power by trying to bankrupt American citizens for exercising their constitutional rights.
Lee added,
"Our right to bear arms — a right granted by God and protected by the Constitution — is fundamental to the protection of all our other rights. An executive branch bent on taking away this right, through any administrative means necessary, is a danger to all Americans. That is why I am proud to co-sponsor the Financial Institution Customer Protection Act, which would end the federal government’s ability to abuse financial regulations to target firearm proprietors like they did during Operation Choke Point."

We must stop the choking of American businesses.

http://usconsumers.org/operationchokepoint/,
http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/economy-budget/204174-operation-choke-point-harmful-to-flow-of-commerce,
http://humanevents.com/2014/07/14/beyond-guns-operation-choke-point-targets-coin-dealers-tobacco-and-pay-day-lenders/,
http://www.electran.org/eta-advances-fraud-prevention-with-voluntary-industry-best-practices-2/,
http://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/politics/item/20002-small-victory-in-congressional-war-against-operation-chokepoint,
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2014/05/24/operation-choke-point/
http://thefederalist.com/2015/03/30/put-the-squeeze-on-operation-choke-point/,
http://dailysignal.com/2015/04/03/already-a-target-of-operation-choke-point-payday-lending-industry-faces-more-government-scrutiny/,
http://dailysignal.com/2015/03/18/exclusive-senator-aims-to-use-budget-process-to-end-operation-choke-point/,
=MorningBell&mkt_tok=eyJpIjoiTlRVMVlXVXdNR1F5WmpJNSIsInQiOiJWUzZ4UnVHNldYUWtvOWdqbHk3T2ZLQnJOdnVzRFdjUmUzdTNpd29FdTVYZnpwMzc0
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/house-votes-to-end-operation-choke-point/article/2582422,
http://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/constitution/item/22985-cruz-lee-bill-would-curtail-anti-gun-operation-choke-point

3 Comments

War Drums in the USA

4/5/2016

0 Comments

War Drums in the USA

By Susan Steffen-Kraft

War according to the Constitution is misunderstood by both the left and right. "The President has the power to initiate hostilities without consulting Congress!" Of course what many do not understand is once war is declared, the President has the power to direct the war. By definition he is the Commander in Chief. The President should have the power to repel sudden attacks but he cannot declare war.

John Adams made war on France according to many without Congressional authority. But Congress passed a series of acts that allowed for "an imperfect war!" So declared the Supreme Court. Presidential orders including those issued as Commander in Chief have to be subject to restrictions imposed by Congress.

But when one of his Captains, on the Presidents orders, seized a Dutch ship sailing from a French port the Captain was sued for damages. Chief Justice John Marshall upheld that the suit was legal. The captain did this because Adams had ordered that any ship be seized sailing into or out of the French ports. Unfortunately for him, President Adam's military actions were subject to Congressional restrictions so the suit was allowed.

Studying in Liberty Classroom on Presidential War Powers surely opened my eyes even more. The classes in school surely do not present this if anything at all on the Constitution. Most times the Constitution is presented in a wrong light or how they wish to interpret it according to their personal political beliefs and what they are spoon fed by the media or others of little knowledge.

George Washington in his farewell address advised us to avoid long term friendly relations and or rivalries with nations. He felt our government would become muddled and we would be drawn into wars which would not benefit our country and certainly would not be justified. We would surely be drawn into unnecessary wars with countries who are not our friends over minor things. In other words they might be blown out of proportion.

Washington predicted that foreign propaganda would operate inside and outside our Government. He warned that 'foreign influence' in our Government would even trick Americans about whom we can trust. He said in his Farewell Address:

"Real patriots who may resist the intrigues of the favorite are liable to become suspected and odious, while its tools and dupes usurp the applause and confidence of the people to surrender their interests."

"Washington knew that European nations had been constantly involved in one war after another. He knew that their political and economic interests were not the same as ours. He knew also that various foreign nations would try constantly to extend their influence over the American Government and people. Washington believed that the only way for the United States to grow strong and keep her hard-won independence was to remain free from European wars, problems, and influence.

He also warned that giving favors to other nations in the hope of receiving favors in return would lead to reproach from those nations we will be " for not giving them more" so in other words they would have no gratitude for what we did for them. We will have to "pay with a portion of our independence" for placing ourselves in such a position.

"There can be no greater error than to expect or calculate upon real favors from nation to nation. It is an illusion which experience must cure, which a just pride ought to discard."
The sad thing is that we constantly give favors all the time and get nothing in return!

Now all of this did not mean he was against free trade which involves other nations. It also means that when established naturally we would be protecting America's merchants by defending their rights. Seems little is done about that in this day and age. Our government should be insuring the conventional rules of trade. Anymore our government does nothing conventional!

To be sure policies whether foreign or domestic, were a learning experience for this new country and for the forefathers. Disagreements and discussions were not uncommon and it would be natural for this to happen as this was a new experience for all.

Thomas Jefferson said "Having seen the people of other nations bowed down to the earth under the wars and prodigalities of their rulers, I have cherished their opposites, peace, economy, and riddance of public debt, believing that these were the high road to public as well as private prosperity and happiness.”

Jefferson also said "I abhor war and view it as the greatest scourge of mankind! You can see that many who helped establish this nation were not warmongers. I say thank God for that! However many Presidents in bending to the New World Order seem to not care and will do whatever it takes!

The Monroe Doctrine warns the nations of Europe to stay out of Western Hemisphere business. It would be considered an act of aggression but at the same time noted that the United States would not interfere with European countries.

Please note that in 1962 the Monroe Doctrine was invoked symbolically when the Soviet Union began to build missile launching sites in Cuba. With the support of Organization of United States President John F. Kennedy threw a naval and air quarantine around the island.
After several tense days the Soviet Union agreed to withdraw the missiles and dismantle the sites. Subsequently the United States dismantled several of its obsolete air and missile bases in Turkey.

We need to bring our troops home and have them guard our borders and our country here. Should anyone attack we blow them out of the sea and skies. Oct. 11, 2007 in an interview with The Washington Post, Ron Paul said,
"There's nobody in this world that could attack us today, we could defend this country with a few good submarines. If anybody dared touch us we could wipe any country off the face of the earth within a few hours."
Paul further compared the United States to a
schoolyard bully and said the country has no reason to flex its muscles overseas".

Our administrations over the years knew we should defend our borders and they received warnings, but choose to ignore them. As an example President Roosevelt knew that Pearl Harbor was going to be attacked but choose to ignore it. He wanted to have an excuse to be in World War II.

I fear our country loves to be in and at war. Did I say war? More like Police Actions which are non formal declarations of war. What the heck are we doing in a war that is not an officially declared war. We are not the police of the world nor should we be.

Again from the lips of Thomas Jefferson:
"Reason and usage have established that when two nations go to war, those who choose to live in peace retain their natural right to pursue their agriculture, manufactures, and other ordinary vocations, to carry the produce of their industry for exchange to all nations, belligerent or neutral, as usual, to go and come freely without injury or molestation, and in short, that the war among others shall be, for them, as if it did not exist. One restriction on their natural rights has been submitted to by nations at peace, that is to say, that of not furnishing to either party implements merely of war for the annoyance of the other, nor anything whatever to a place blockaded by its enemy." --Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Pinckney, 1793. ME 9:221

"War between two nations cannot diminish the rights of the rest of the world remaining at peace. The doctrine that the rights of nations remaining quietly in the exercise of moral and social duties, are to give way to the convenience of those who prefer plundering and murdering one another, is a monstrous doctrine, and ought to yield to the more rational law, that "the wrong which two nations endeavor to inflict on each other must not infringe on the rights or conveniences of those remaining at peace." --Thomas Jefferson to Robert R. Livingston, 1801.

And why should we be. We should be a shining example of what Freedom is about.
"Man may die, and nations rise and fall, but an idea lives on". John F. Kennedy
Speaking of ideas, the pen is and has always been mightier then the sword. I believe ideas are also.

'The pen is mightier than the sword' was coined by Edward Bulwer-Lytton in for his play Richelieu; Or the Conspiracy, 1839:

True, This! -

Beneath the rule of men entirely great,
The pen is mightier than the sword. Behold
The arch-enchanters wand! - itself a nothing! -
But taking sorcery from the master-hand
To paralyse the Caesars, and to strike
The loud earth breathless! - Take away the sword -
States can be saved without it!

(From meanings of the pen is mightier then the sword)

In fact Thomas Jefferson said in a letter to Thomas Paine, "Go on doing with your pen what in other times was done with the sword!" "A world in arms and trampling on all those moral principles which have heretofore been deemed sacred in the intercourse between nations, could not suffer us to remain insensible of all agitation. During such a course of lawless violence, it was certainly wise to withdraw ourselves from all intercourse with the belligerent nations, to avoid its pernicious effects on manners and morals and the dangers it threatens to free governments, and to cultivate our own resources until our natural and progressive growth should leave us nothing to fear from foreign enterprise." --Thomas Jefferson to Messrs. Bloodgood and Hammond, 1809. ME 12:317

Thank you Thomas Jefferson for the wisdom you imparted to us and which apparently only a few politicians and people today know and understand. It is the truth. We need to sign petitions, call and vote. We show our true freedom in this way. War drums in America is not the way!
However, always, and I mean always, be prepared to defend tooth and nail this wonderful country should an attack come to our shore. And let us make sure to avoid all entanglements and alliances on a permanent basis to avoid many of these problems.

"You want to know why we are at war just listen to the video (that is below) which explains the reason we are at war. We were in WWI for that reason, WWII for that reason, the Korean war for that reason, the Vietnam war for that reason, the Afghanistan war for that reason, the Iraq war for that reason, and the Libyan war for that reason.
What happened during each of those wars? The state was greatly expanded under Wilson, Roosevelt, Truman, Johnson, Bush, and Obama".

Of course that is not the only reason as it is also profitable and helps to advance their agenda. But every time we are at war they greatly expand the size and scope of the state then declare those in opposition to their ideas are somehow un-American. We saw this happen under Bush; if you didn't support the Iraq war then you were sympathetic with the terrorists and thus un-American".

,,http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/t/thomasjeff169577.html,
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/11/AR2007101101555.html,
http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-20-02-0076-0014,
http://interestingliterature.com/2015/01/15/who-said-the-pen-is-mightier-than-the-sword/,
http://famguardian.org/subjects/politics/thomasjefferson/jeff1470.htm,
http://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=true&doc=23
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/11/AR2007101101555.html,
https://www.conservativeusa.org/issues/only-congress-can-make-decision-go-war,
https://www.libertyclassroom.com/warpowers/,
http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread693361/pg1,
http://www.eagleforum.org/educate/washington/advice.html

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Jane Fonda; Enemy of our Vietnam Military and a Traitor

The United Nations--Something Wicked Came and Stayed!

By Susan Steffen-Kraft

The Declaration of Independence....Our Legacy

By Susan Steffen-Kraft

Civil Forfeiture-Illegal Theft

The Lowdown on Smart Meters

By Susan Steffen-Kraft

Government Gone Wild

Pork Barrel, and Other Wasted Tax Dollars

The Unconstitutional Patriot Act

Choking American Businesses

War Drums in the USA

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