American Spy-Master and Election Hacker Revealed May 31, 2017
Posted by Dr. Robert Owens in Politics, Politiocal Philosophy.Tags: Dr. Robert Owens, Hacked election, Resist 45 Movement, Russian interference in election, Trump collusion
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For months we’ve heard endless reports concerning the supposed ties between the Trump campaign and the Darth Vader of the progressive’s nightmares, Putin’s Russia. The thin gruel of this plot has swirled from the swamp in DC through the megaphone of the ABCCBSNBCPBSCNNMSNBC Cartel until one would think every day Americans out here in fly-over country were actually thinking about it.
Finally after months of exhaustive research the spy-master of the most extensive surveillance campaign aimed at Americans can be revealed. The one man who used every avenue possible to invade the privacy of American citizens in History has had the mask of denial ripped away. Besides Hillary and the DNC rigging the primaries to stop Bernie who actually tried to use illegally obtained information to influence the presidential election in 2016?
The Obama Administration routinely spied on Americans. According to John Solomon and Sara Carter of CIRCA:
The National Security Agency under former President Barack Obama routinely violated American privacy protections while scouring through overseas intercepts and failed to disclose the extent of the problems until the final days before Donald Trump was elected president last fall, according to once top-secret documents that chronicle some of the most serious constitutional abuses to date by the U.S. intelligence community.
More than 5 percent, or one out of every 20 searches seeking upstream Internet data on Americans inside the NSA’s so-called Section 702 database violated the safeguards Obama and his intelligence chiefs vowed to follow in 2011, according to one classified internal report reviewed by Circa.
The Obama administration self-disclosed the problems at a closed-door hearing Oct. 26 before the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court that set off alarm. Trump was elected less than two weeks later.
The normally supportive court censured administration officials, saying the failure to disclose the extent of the violations earlier amounted to an “institutional lack of candor” and that the improper searches constituted a “very serious Fourth Amendment issue,” according to a recently unsealed court document dated April 26, 2017.
The admitted violations undercut one of the primary defenses that the intelligence community and Obama officials have used in recent weeks to justify their snooping into incidental NSA intercepts about Americans.
According to Paul Sperry of the New York Post the Obama Admiration used its control of America’s vast intelligence gathering apparatus in an attempt to hack the election. While the show trials in Congress continue to build a paint-by-numbers PR case about Russians acting in collusion with the Trump campaign those who really tried to subvert the electoral process are being protected by the same political hacks running the phony investigations.
As Sperry reveals and relates:
New revelations have surfaced that the Obama administration abused intelligence during the election by launching a massive domestic spy campaign that included snooping on Trump officials.
The irony is mind-boggling: Targeting political opposition is long a technique of police states like Russia, which Team Obama has loudly condemned for allegedly using its own intelligence agencies to hack into our election.
The revelations, as well as testimony this week from former Obama intel officials, show the extent to which the Obama administration politicized and weaponized intelligence against Americans.
We now know the National Security Agency under President Barack Obama routinely violated privacy protections while snooping through foreign intercepts involving US citizens — and failed to disclose the breaches, prompting the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court a month before the election to rebuke.
…
The FISA court called it a “very serious Fourth Amendment issue” that NSA analysts — in violation of a 2011 rule change prohibiting officials from searching Americans’ information without a warrant — “had been conducting such queries in violation of that prohibition, with much greater frequency than had been previously disclosed to the Court.”
A number of those searches were made from the White House, and included private citizens working for the Trump campaign, some of whose identities were leaked to the media. The revelations earned a stern rebuke from the ACLU and from civil liberties champion Sen. Rand Paul.
We also learned this week that Obama intelligence officials really had no good reason attaching a summary of a dossier on Trump to a highly classified Russia briefing they gave to Obama just weeks before Trump took office.
Under congressional questioning Tuesday, Obama’s CIA chief John Brennan said the dossier did not “in any way” factor into the agency’s assessment that Russia interfered in the election. Why not? Because as Obama intel czar James Clapper earlier testified, “We could not corroborate the sourcing.”
But that didn’t stop Brennan in January from attaching its contents to the official report for the president. He also included the unverified allegations in the briefing he gave Hill Democrats.
In so doing, Brennan virtually guaranteed that it would be leaked, which it promptly was.
In short, Brennan politicized raw intelligence. In fact, he politicized the entire CIA.
Langley vets say Brennan was the most politicized director in the agency’s history. Former CIA field operations officer Gene Coyle said Brennan was “known as the greatest sycophant in the history of the CIA, and a supporter of Hillary Clinton before the election. I find it hard to put any real credence in anything that the man says.”
Coyle noted that Brennan broke with his predecessors who stayed out of elections. Several weeks before the vote, he made it very clear he was pulling for Hillary. His deputy Mike Morell even came out and publicly endorsed her in the New York Times, claiming Trump was an “unwitting agent” of Moscow.
Brennan isn’t just a Democrat. He’s a radical leftist who in 1980 — during the height of the Cold War — voted for a Communist Party candidate for president.
When Brennan rants about the dangers of strongman Vladimir Putin targeting our elections and subverting our democratic process, does he not catch at least a glimpse of his own reflection?
What he and the rest of the Obama gang did has inflicted more damage on the integrity of our electoral process than anything the Russians have done.
How does all this surveillance keep us safe? In Great Britain where there is more government surveillance than in any other western state it didn’t help stop the recent Manchester bomber. According to press reports, he was known to the British intelligence services, he had traveled and possibly trained in bomb-making in Libya and Syria, his family members warned the authorities that he was dangerous, and he even flew terrorist flags over his house. What more did he need to do to signal that he may be a problem?
Of course here in America our government’s watchers are going to do it better ……. of course they will… ;–)
My question is: As they are watching us who watches them besides secret courts that report only to the perpetually re-elected guardians of the dysfunctional democratic process in a well-functioning oligarchy?
Never mind the facts. Don’t pay any attention to who did what. Ignore an ex-president operating a deep state government in exile while orchestrating the Resist 45 Movement.
News Flash from
The ABCCBSNBCPBSCNNMSNBC Cartel:
THE RUSSIANS DID IT!!! THE RUSSIANS DID IT!!! THE RUSSIANS DID IT!!!
Dr. Owens teaches History, Political Science, and Religion. He is the Historian of the Future @ http://drrobertowens.com © 2017 Contact Dr. Owens drrobertowens@hotmail.com Follow Dr. Robert Owens on Facebook or Twitter @ Drrobertowens / Edited by Dr. Rosalie Owens
We Need More Special Counsels May 24, 2017
Posted by Dr. Robert Owens in Politics, Politiocal Philosophy.Tags: DNC wikileaks, Dr. Robert Owens, Obama’s birth certificate, Seth Rich, Special Counsel, Special Prosecutor
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The original accusation, the underlying premise for the entire hissy fit by the chronic sufferers of Trump Derangement Syndrome’s about Russian collusion was that the Russians hacked the DNC and gave the emails to Wikileaks.
Recently Internet entrepreneur and hacker, Kim DotCom, admitted that he was part of an operation along with Seth Rich, an employee of the DNC to get internal emails to Wikileaks.
Now we have proof that this underlying premise was a lie all along. We now know that the person who really did give the DNC emails to Wikileaks didn’t have to hack in, because he was an insider to begin with: Seth Rich.
We also know that Seth Rich was mysteriously killed in Washington DC on July 8, 2016, 27 and that the Metro Police are slow walking the investigation. The police say it was a botched robbery. The killer or killers took nothing from their victim, leaving behind his wallet, watch, and phone.
In August Wikileaks offered a $20,000 reward for information on the murder of DNC staffer Seth Rich. Julian Assange also suggested in August that Seth Rich was a Wikileaks informant. Kim Dotcom tweeted out that he has evidence Seth Rich, the murdered DNC operative, is the Wikileaks source. He’s ready to release the evidence to Congressional investigators. It doesn’t seem as if anyone in Washington is interested since this shines a light on the lie that started it all.
There is so much about this that is interesting. Such as, the fact that the DNC leaders, Hillary Clinton, and Podesta, never disputed what was said in the emails. They instead attacked how the information was leaked. The media of course misdirected as best they could to cover up the facts. Look at who made the accusations not at the accusations themselves.
If there was any fraud in the last election cycle it was the DNC fat cats stacking the deck against Bernie Sanders in the primaries.
I continue to ask if the Russians hacked the election and Hillary won the popular vote whose side were they on. Just ask yourself: who would the Russians rather have as president of the United States a corrupt politician that everyone in the world knows can be bribed or a billionaire who says, “Drill Baby drill” when their economy is based on oil?
Now we have a Special Counsel to investigate a non-crime that probably makes sense inside the beltway and through the looking glass.
Why not have a Special Counsel to investigate Bill Clinton’s visit with Loretta Lynch on the tarmac in Arizona. How about one to investigate all the people illegally leaking confidential material in an attempt to thwart the Trump agenda? What about one to investigate how many people were illegally unmasked by Susan Rice and the rest of the Obama hit machine?
If we’re going to empanel Special Counsels to investigate rumors why stop until we’ve investigated them all?
Where are the over 30,000 emails deleted by Hillary Clinton?
If the massive donations to the Clinton Foundations weren’t thinly veiled bribes why did they dry up as soon as Hillary lost the election?
Special Counsels like Special Prosecutors take on a life of their own. Which is eventually close to the half-life of a radioactive material, it lives on and on and on. They need convictions to justify the bloated staffs and budgets that they acquire in years of so-called investigations.
Look at the case of who leaked the name of Valerie Plame. The whole thing started with an article on July 14, 2003, by Robert Novak, journalist for The Washington Post. This article named Plame as a CIA operative effectively ending her career. Before the Special Prosecutor was even named people in the government knew that the source of the leak was Richard Armitage. However he was an insider, a member of the establishment, so he couldn’t end up as the fall guy.
Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald pushed and prodded until he was able to catch someone in a discrepancy between multiple interviews over several years. Then he prosecuted Scooter Libby for that discrepancy and got a conviction. It was not for revealing Plame’s name but for impeding the investigation into something that was already known before the investigation began.
Back in 1980 when Ronald Reagan won shocking the Democrat establishment they demanded an investigation of his Presidential campaign saying they made a deal with Iran to delay the release of American hostages until after the election. How else could this has been actor beat a sitting president as successful as Jimmy Carter? That’s when Tom Foley the Democrat leader of the House said, “We have no conclusive evidence of wrongdoing, but the seriousness of the allegations, and the weight of circumstantial information, compel an effort to establish the facts.” As long as we are going to continue to follow the Democrat’s criteria for investigations let’s go for the Holy Grail.
Let’s investigate the report that Obama’s Kenyan (paternal) grandmother, as well as his half-brother and half-sister testified that Barack Hussein Obama was born in Kenya, and not in Hawaii as the president claims. And there is reported testimony from a Mombasa science teacher and the Mombasa Registrar of births that Obama’s birth certificate from Mombasa is genuine. This report shows a copy of President Obama’s birth certificate that Lucas Smith obtained through the help of a Kenyan Colonel who got it recently directly from the Coast General Hospital in Mombasa, Kenya.
So, if we’re going to have Special Counsels let’s have a bunch of them. Let’s look into every rumor and accusation in Washington. That should cause enough gridlock to hopefully protect us from all the help the perpetually re-elected continue to force upon us. Maybe then we could live our lives in peace as they all scurry into the shadows like roaches when you turn on the light.
Drain the swamp!
Dr. Owens teaches History, Political Science, and Religion. He is the Historian of the Future @ http://drrobertowens.com © 2017 Contact Dr. Owens drrobertowens@hotmail.com Follow Dr. Robert Owens on Facebook or Twitter @ Drrobertowens / Edited by Dr. Rosalie Owens
They Serve at the Pleasure of the President May 17, 2017
Posted by Dr. Robert Owens in Politics, Politiocal Philosophy.Tags: Andrew Johnson, classified information to Russians, Clinton Impeachment, Dr. Robert Owens, Firing Comey, Impeachment
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How does impeachment of a president work? The House of Representatives acting as a super grand jury votes an indictment or impeachment. The Senate acting as a jury decides whether or not the charges brought warrant conviction. If the president is convicted by the Senate he is removed from office. If two thirds of the Senate fails to vote to convict the charges are dropped. In that case the president was still impeached but not convicted.
In 1868 the House of Representatives voted to impeach President Andrew Johnson. This was the first time any president was impeached. Contrary to popular belief President Nixon was never impeached. He resigned while the Watergate debacle was still under investigation. President Clinton was impeached but like Johnson he was not convicted by the Senate so he remained in office until the end of his term.
Why is this history lesson appropriate for May 17, 2017? Because I believe President Trump is going to be impeached.
Why was Andrew Johnson impeached? Although there were eleven articles of impeachment the main reason and primary cause was that he fired Edwin M. Stanton from the office of Secretary of the Department of War. Congress had passed a law: the Tenure of Office Act. This became law in 1867, over the veto of President Andrew Johnson. It denied the president the power to remove any executive officer who had been appointed by the president with the advice and consent of the Senate, unless the Senate approved the removal during the next full session of Congress. The act was significantly amended on April 5, 1869. Congress repealed the act in its entirety in 1887. In 1926, the Supreme Court ruled that it was unconstitutional even though it had been repealed almost forty years before.
All appointees of the executive office serve at the pleasure of the president. He hires them, and even though the major ones must be confirmed by the Senate, he can fire them.
Andrew Johnson missed being convicted by the Senate by one vote.
Why was Bill Clinton impeached? In this case there were only two articles of impeachment: lying under oath to a federal grand jury and obstructing justice. President Clinton was acquitted on both articles of impeachment. Needing a two-thirds majority to convict the prosecution failed to achieve even a majority. On the first charge of perjury, 45 Democrats and 10 Republicans voted “not guilty,” and on the second charge of obstruction of justice the Senate was split 50-50. However, others who were not as politically attuned were not so lenient.
In April 1999, U.S. District Judge Susan Webber Wright found Clinton in contempt of court for giving false testimony in the Paula Jones sexual harassment trial and fined him more than $90,000. Once he lost his presidential immunity he was disbarred from practicing law in Arkansas and was also disbarred from practicing law in front of the Supreme Court. Additionally he was fined $25,000 for his testimony in the Lewinsky incident.
Now the impeachment drums are beating again. Democrats determined since November 8th to declare the Trump victory illicit by any means necessary are planning a coup. The RESIST! Movement with its Antifa bully boys dressed in black hiding behind masks has no legs. The American people will tire of their over-the-top antics and eventually they will spawn their own backlash in a call for law and order.
However, the political hacks, the perpetually re-elected in Congress are a horse of different color. They’re biding their time waiting for enough blood to stain the water. They’re waiting for their stenographers in the ABCCBSNBCPBSCNNMSNBC Cartel to give them enough political cover. Then they’ll pounce.
Andrew Johnson was a Democrat impeached by a Republican Congress after the Civil War when the Democrat Party was completely discredited. The Republicans had a super majority and still they couldn’t convict.
In Bill Clinton’s case Republicans voted with Democrats not to convict even though some on both sides of the aisle gave speeches saying they knew he was guilty and repudiating his actions.
In the case of President Trump his political enemies have been field testing charges since day one. They say Russians hacked the election, and even though Hillary won the popular vote these hypothetical Russians were trying to elect Trump. They say President Trump colluded with the Russians to steal the election. Even though months of hearings and armies of investigative reporters have been chasing this mirage there is still no evidence.
Now he fired the Director of the FBI, and he supposedly gave classified information to the Russians. Everyone admits he has every right to fire any of the political appointees in the executive branch, and President Putin is offering to give the official transcripts of the meeting between Mr. Trump and the Russian ambassador which prove no classified information was shared. However innocence may not be enough to avoid impeachment just as it might not be enough to avoid conviction.
Why? Because the Ryan Rhinos control the house and the McCain/McConnell Never Trumpers control the Senate.
Donald Trump is the one thing none of the elites of the Washington Swamp can abide: a non-politician who beat them all at their own game. They cannot afford to let anyone see behind the curtain and find out how the sausage is made. They are dedicated to the proposition that government is too complicated for an average Joe to understand. While Mr. Trump is far from an average Joe he is not one of them. He didn’t go to the right schools, he didn’t pay his dues on the hustings, and he shines the light on the fact that they aren’t as special as they want us to think they are.
As I have said many times, I think the first 535 names out of any phone book would yield a Congress at least as good as what we have. What we have now is the best Congress money can buy. Under the Telephone Book Party we would at least have a few regular people in there.
Watch the news. Try to discern the fake from the real. Tempests in teapots and phony scandals will continue to ruffle the waters until the Government Party is ready to overthrow the Country Party. I believe impeachment will come. What will be the reaction of those riding the Trump train?
Will it be despair and withdrawal or rage and confrontation?
Over the years I have offered one piece of advice repeatedly. Keep the faith. Keep the peace. We shall overcome.
Dr. Owens teaches History, Political Science, and Religion. He is the Historian of the Future @ http://drrobertowens.com © 2017 Contact Dr. Owens drrobertowens@hotmail.com Follow Dr. Robert Owens on Facebook or Twitter @ Drrobertowens / Edited by Dr. Rosalie Owens
Torpedoes Sink Ships May 10, 2017
Posted by Dr. Robert Owens in Politics, Politiocal Philosophy.Tags: Afghanistan, American intervention, Dr. Robert Owens, Iraq, Korea, Syria
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Ships of State that is.
Once wars made presidents popular. Think of Washington and the Revolution, Lincoln and the Civil War, McKinley and the Spanish American War, FDR and WW II. Maybe that was because we used to win wars.
Korea ran Truman out of office. Vietnam made LBJ decide not to run. Before the Silent Coup, Nixon (who ended the war) was tarred with the Vietnam brush. With America winning once again, George the First got a bump from the 100 day Gulf One before we all read his lips. Then rounding out the results of quagmire wars George the Second after soaring in the aftermath of 9-11 ran aground on the sand bars of Iraq.
I am a non-interventionist. I believe in America First. I support the foreign policy of Thomas Jefferson, “Peace, commerce and honest friendship with all nations; entangling alliances with none.”
We don’t need to intervene in the wars of others. We don’t need to fight proxy wars in foreign lands. We don’t need to crusade our way into a religious war with over a billion people.
We have a war right here, the Culture War long ago defined by the prescient ideological father of the Trump Revolution, Pat Buchanan at the 1992 Republican Convention when he said, “There is a religious war going on in this country. It is a cultural war, as critical to the kind of nation we shall be as was the Cold War itself, for this war is for the soul of America.”
The Progressives of the Obamanation, their Clintonian allies in New York’s Sixth Crime Family, and the Sandersnista Antifa Black Shirts have been stalled in their Long March to a socialist America by the Trump phenomenon. Daily the ABCCBSNBCCNNMSNBCPBS Cartel hammers away in their effort to de-legitimize President Trump. The low information voters who get their personal opinions from the Democrat stenographers in the Cartel repeat the talking points released by Schumer, Pelosi, and the Deep State. The RINOs following McCain are yearning to stretch their hands across the aisles doing anything they can to embarrass or undermine President Trump.
The neo-con dream weavers are working day and night to lure Mr. Trump into a foreign adventure. If they can somehow get a war started that they can hang around his neck the miracle election may fizzle into the counter-revolution of a midterm election debacle and the inevitable impeachment hearings that would bring.
Instead of following the McCain/Krauthammer/Crystal wing to war somewhere for something lets quit subsidizing the economies of over a hundred countries with our bases. Bring our troops home let them build the wall and secure our own borders. Build the most sophisticated and powerful defenses imagined and defend America First.
An American hero once said, “Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!” The torpedoes of war often sink the ship of state. Even the victorious often fall victim to the terminal bleeding of a Pyrrhic victory. Look at Britain. They lost two generations to win two world wars and the empire they fought to save died from the wounds.
Mr. President I know the pressure to go to war is mounting. To take a battle cry from the dis-loyal opposition, “Resist!” Defend us if we are attacked. Build the Wall. Secure the border. Win the war at home don’t be sidetracked into the abyss that has swallowed other presidencies. We won the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and then the protracted nation-building melted the consensus of world support we received after 9-11. To many around the world and here at home we have become the aggressors. Look what it did to the approval rating for George the Second.
War always leads to destruction. It’s supposed to. Since Truman invented the idea of limited war even the victories have felt more like defeats. Look at Vietnam. Mr. President you were elected by people who want secure borders, a rebirth of American industry, and a return to the fundamentals of the American Experiment; limited government, personal liberty, and economic opportunity. Don’t fall into the trap of a foreign war. Win the war at home instead.
Dr. Owens teaches History, Political Science, and Religion. He is the Historian of the Future @ http://drrobertowens.com © 2017 Contact Dr. Owens drrobertowens@hotmail.com Follow Dr. Robert Owens on Facebook or Twitter @ Drrobertowens / Edited by Dr. Rosalie Owens
Republican Strategy: Retreat From Victory May 3, 2017
Posted by Dr. Robert Owens in Politics, Politiocal Philosophy.Tags: 2016 election, 2017 budget deal, budget compromise, Dr. Robert Owens, government shutdown, Trump administration, Trump executive orders
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Having won the white House, the House, and the Senate the victorious Republicans have handed the Democrats the budget process. In doing so they have surrendered everything they were supposedly fighting for: no wall, no end to Obamacare, no end to sanctuary cities, and no end to funding for Planned Parenthood. The Democrat leaders are celebrating their victory after losing election after election. Those of us who voted Republican, who voted to get our country back, are mourning a loss after winning election after election. This does not bode well for the Republican Party, the democratic process, or the social contract in America.
A few weeks ago I asked the question: are Democrats smarter than Republicans. Just asking the question enraged many of the “Read the headline and ignore the article” crowd. If they had read the article they would have learned that my answer to that question was no, they aren’t smarter just dedicated to a larger purpose than feathering their own nests or maintaining power.
The Democrats of today present a unified front dedicated to transforming America into the Progressive dream / the American nightmare of a collectivized state.
The Republicans, after having been co-opted and led by Progressives calling themselves Republicans for the past twenty years, are struggling through the Trump Revolution. The same congressional leaders are still in place: Ryan, McConnell, McCain, etc. and they are as intent on obstructing the President as their colleagues Schumer and Pelosi.
Don’t be fooled by the label Republican. What President Trump is facing is a twin headed bird of prey; the Republicrat government party. This self-serving combination is the political expression of their philosophical mentors in academia. They receive their marching orders daily through the megaphone provided by the Corporations Once Known as the Mainstream Media. They apply social pressure in the streets through their bully-boys the Anti-Fa bandanna wearing thugs who use violence to shut down free speech.
Where is this headed?
I believe that at some point the House will begin impeachment hearings. The Media will of course continue their feeding frenzy of Anti-Trump hysteria. The Bully-boys will try to stifle anyone who disagrees. The usual suspects will follow their philosophical leader, Maxine Waters, into the streets and the fake news media will do their best to make it appear that the whole country wants their coup to succeed.
Washington has spent generations trying to make everyone believe that only the technicians of the political maze are qualified to steer the Ship of State. In reality the first 535 names in the phone book could probably do as well and at least we would have some regular people in there and maybe some common sense.
So far they’ve used the courts, the Congress, the bureaucracy, and the media to block and demean everything President Trump tries to do, everything we elected him to do. If they manage to overthrow the results of the election in another silent coup we may witness the final unraveling of the social contract in America.
For years the Republicans chased votes by saying, “Give us the power and we will right the Ship of State.” We gave them the House. They said they needed the Senate too before they could do anything. We gave them the Senate. Then they said they also needed the White House before they could do anything. We gave them the White House. And what do we get? A retreat from victory. Now they say, “Wait till September.” Personally I don’t think I’ll hold my breath.
This budget surrender is a betrayal. The legal contortions of the judiciary are shameful. The unhinged media assault is transparent. And any attempt to overthrow this president may well be suicidal.
Dr. Owens teaches History, Political Science, and Religion. He is the Historian of the Future @ http://drrobertowens.com © 2017 Contact Dr. Owens drrobertowens@hotmail.com Follow Dr. Robert Owens on Facebook or Twitter @ Drrobertowens / Edited by Dr. Rosalie Owens
The Second Amendment Makes All the Others Possible May 1, 2017
Posted by Dr. Robert Owens in Politics, Politiocal Philosophy.Tags: Concealed Carry, Dr. Robert Owens, gun laws, gun rights, Second Amendment
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Why do I need a permit to do what the Constitution says I have a right to do?
If States passed laws making the first amendment null and void do you think we might hear about it? If a permit was required to speak your mind do you think anyone would protest?
These are all good questions. What we need is some good answers.
The Second Amendment decrees: “A well-regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”
The Progressives have been telling us for a long time that this should only apply to the National Guard which they contend is the twenty-first century equivalent of a well-regulated militia. In the landmark Supreme Court decision McDonald v. Chicago the majority ruled that neither the Federal Government nor the States had a right to prevent lawful citizens from protecting their homes with firearms including pistols.
What did the Founders have to say:
“Firearms stand next in importance to the Constitution itself. They are the American people’s liberty teeth and keystone under independence.” George Washington
“A free people ought to be armed.” George Washington speech of January 7, 1790 in the Boston Independent Chronicle, January 14, 1790.
”A free people ought not only to be armed and disciplined, but they should have sufficient arms and ammunition to maintain a status of independence from any who might attempt to abuse them, which would include their own government.” George Washington
”From the hour the Pilgrims landed, to the present day, events, occurrences, and tendencies prove that to insure peace, security and happiness, the rifle and pistol are equally indispensable . . . the very atmosphere of firearms everywhere restrains evil interference – they deserve a place of honor with all that is good” George Washington.
“The Constitution of most of our states (and of the United States) assert that all power is inherent in the people; that they may exercise it by themselves; that it is their right and duty to be at all times armed and that they are entitled to freedom of person, freedom of religion, freedom of property, and freedom of press.”
– Thomas Jefferson, letter to to John Cartwright, 5 June 1824
“Besides the advantage of being armed, which the Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation … notwithstanding the military establishments in the several kingdoms of Europe, which are carried as far as the public resources will bear, the governments are afraid to trust the people with arms.” James Madison, author of the Bill of Rights, in Federalist Paper No. 46, at 243-244.
“Americans have the right and advantage of being armed, unlike the people of other countries, whose leaders are afraid to trust them with arms.” – James Madison.
“The best we can hope for concerning the people at large is that they be properly armed.” – Alexander Hamilton.
“That the said Constitution shall never be construed to authorize Congress to infringe the just liberty of the press or the rights of conscience; or to prevent the people of the United States who are peaceable citizens from keeping their own arms…” Samuel Adams, Debates and Proceedings in the Convention of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, at 86-87 (Peirce & Hale, eds., Boston, 1850. 2, col. 2.
“To disarm the people…[i]s the most effectual way to enslave them.”
George Mason referencing advice given to the British Parliament by Pennsylvania governor Sir William Keith, The Debates in the Several State Conventions on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution, June 14, 1788
“I ask who are the militia? They consist now of the whole people, except a few public officers.” George Mason, Address to the Virginia Ratifying Convention, June 4, 1788
“Before a standing army can rule, the people must be disarmed, as they are in almost every country in Europe. The supreme power in America cannot enforce unjust laws by the sword; because the whole body of the people are armed, and constitute a force superior to any band of regular troops.”
Noah Webster, “An Examination into the leading Principles of the Federal Constitution.” in Paul Ford, ed., Pamphlets on the Constitution of the United States , at 56 (New York, 1888).
“A militia when properly formed are in fact the people themselves…and include, according to the past and general usage of the states, all men capable of bearing arms… “To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them.”
– Richard Henry Lee, Federal Farmer No. 18, January 25, 1788
“Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect everyone who approaches that jewel. Unfortunately, nothing will preserve it but downright force. Whenever you give up that force, you are ruined…. The great object is that every man be armed. Everyone who is able might have a gun.”
Patrick Henry, Speech to the Virginia Ratifying Convention, June 5, 1778
Who is the “Militia” referred to in the Second Amendment? We are. Back in the day every community formed a local militia, trained and drilled preparing to defend liberty. It was against these militias that the British moved when the marched against Concord and Lexington. And it was these militias that fired the shot heard round the world. It was these militias that formed the backbone of American resistance during the Revolutionary War. And it was these Militias composed of a generally armed citizenry that were and are guaranteed by the Second Amendment.
Now after years of Progressive administrations attempting to disarm America we finally have a President who gets it. President Trump recently told the members of the National Rifle Association, “The eight-year assault on your Second Amendment freedoms has come to a crashing end.” The President also said, “I will never, ever infringe on the right of the people to keep and bear arms. Never ever.”
He recently released a paper outlining his position on gun ownership. It began, “The Second Amendment to our Constitution is clear. The right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed upon. Period.” The paper explains that the right to keep and bear arms is a right that preexisted both the government and the Constitution. It also notes that government didn’t create the right and therefore cannot take it away. In the paper he referred to the Second Amendment as “America’s first freedom.” He pointed out that it helps protect all of the other rights we hold dear.
In the paper the President proposed strengthening and expanding laws allowing law-abiding gun owners to defend themselves from criminals using their own guns, without fear of repercussion from the government. Specifically he said he wanted to do away with pointless and ineffective gun and magazine bans instead suggesting that we fix the current background check system already in place, rather than expanding a broken system.
We have been on the wrong path. Hopefully, we are now on the right path. No matter who leads or where they ask us to follow we must remember that the Second Amendment makes all the others possible. It might also be helpful to remember that Benjamin Franklin once said, “Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.”
Dr. Owens teaches History, Political Science, and Religion. He is the Historian of the Future @ http://drrobertowens.com © 2017 Contact Dr. Owens drrobertowens@hotmail.com Follow Dr. Robert Owens on Facebook or Twitter @ Drrobertowens / Edited by Dr. Rosalie Owens
Dr. Robert Owens Chronicles the History of the Future 