LINO – Libertarian In Name Only

ORLANDO, Florida – Barely twenty-four hours in and already the Libertarian party of two thousand and sixteen is starting to experience dissention in the ranks.

Over Memorial day weekend Libertarians came together from across the country and around the world to nominate their president and vice presidential candidates at their annual national party convention. And for many the top of the ticket for the fall and the general election season is troubling, deeply troubling.

Many Libertarians say that with the assention of former Massachusetts Governor William Weld to the vice presidency that it will just give the North American Union types and Wall Street Big Money Donors a paper tiger in a Gary Johnson administration, should he win the presidency in the fall.

Because from sun-drenched Florida and the grave of the late great Economist Harry Browne, the 1996 and 2000 Libertarian party nominee for President of the United States of America, you can hear the battle cry of LINO – Libertarian In Name Only!

No doubt the Johnson-Weld ticket will tell Libertarians and you fellow voter nothing could be further from the truth. No paper tigers here, no LINO’s allowed! And so it will go, no?

But lets look at it from this perspective for just a minute, shall we? My prediction is that the Johnson-Weld ticket will be Libertarian-lite in that they’ll run under the Libertarian party banner but will, instead, draw from the well of the Never Trump Never Hillary movements in a kind of “A Coalition of the Willing.” Or as Bill Clinton and Dick Morris did so infamously in the 1990’s, “Triangulation.”

Seeking out those disgruntled and disavowed  Democrats and Republicans who just can’t stand the idea, much less stomach it, of another Clinton or that for matter a Donald J. Trump in The White House.

Or, maybe not? Maybe just maybe it’s what they all really want, and it’s just going to be made to look like it’s not? Just so the media, talking-heads, politicos and party bosses can have something to talk about on the nightly news.

In either case I like Bill Weld and have enormous respect for Gary Johnson, ever since 2011 when he first ran for the presidency. Then as now Johnson stands for some of the same things that I do, but with Charles and David Koch, through Bill Weld, pulling on Johnson like he’s a puppet and they’re the masters even I can’t stomach that!

I hate Charles and David Koch with every fiber of my being for what they have done to this great country of ours and this beautiful world in which we all live. They are evil incarnate, in my opinion, and hell itself would be a far worse place with them in it.

I call LINO – Libertarian in Name Only! And for those disgruntled and disaffected Libertarians I offer this as your Battle Cry:

Hold fast, and as Jesse Ventura says, “Stay Vigilant…”

–Rhett.

#Blog: “An open message to President Obama (The Bowe #Bergdahl Affair)…” By Rhett E. Column, #SWN

Good morning,

This is an open message of complaint to the President of the United States of America, Barack H. Obama, II., and the Obama Administration, in particular the United States Department of Defense, the United States Department of Justice and the U.S. Department of State. It is regarding the Bowe Bergdahl Affair.

Two things. First, Doubly glad Sgt. 1st Class Bergdahl is finally coming home after 5yrs. in captivity abroad. Second, You people, in the Executive Branch and in fact the above and titled in the Executive Branch of Governance, BROKE THE LAW. Period. Full Stop. I am listening and have been listening to Sec. of Defense Hagel testify, openly, before the House Armed Services Committee, and his testimony, respectfully, is for crap! It will be for crap today, crap tomorrow, crap next week, crap next month, crap next year and the year after that. Bottom line.

You have a fiduciary duty and responsibility to the Law and to the Prophets of this Sovereign Republic to supply, advise, inform and consent at all times and without fail or exception. And you have to do that in real-time all the time. Failure is not an option it is a breaking of the law when you don’t. Period. Full Stop. Sec. Hagel informed the House Armed Services Committee today that this Administration informed the Congress in 2011 and 2012 of their plans to get Bergdahl back.

Such would be fine if in 2011 and 2012 you had done exactly that right then and right there BUT, and alas you did not! Instead you waited. You kept your political, social and ecumenical powder dry and let Bergdahl wither on the vine and only
until now decided to go and get him back.

Respectfully, this effort on your parts on behalf of the American people is an obligatory failure and an exercise in futility. It is a good thing, again, that Bergdahl is back with US and is in the process of coming stateside. But the law was broken here.

I don’t give six craps from the late great Charles Kuralt’s, “Sunday Morning” of feelings, intentions, good will, care, compassion or concern. The law is to be abided by, fully, completely and unequivocally at all times and without fail or delay. If it’s not or if it cannot be by this or any other Administration then said Administration needs to exit to the left, the same goes to the Legislative and the Judicial. Exit to the left, find a new line of work and keep your mouth shut! Period. Full Stop.

I resent strongly the FACT that Sgt. 1st Class Bowe R. Bergdahl, U.S. Army was returned to US illegally. You broke the law and you need to answer for it openly, honestly and forthrightly before the American people and their respective representatives.

In closing I want to thank this forum for the opportunity to express my opinion about this issue and I WELCOME AND ENCOURAGE GREATLY a response from the President and the afore-mentioned members of the Executive Branch.

Until then I wish this President, and his Cabinet the very best and Godspeed. Be well…

–Rhett.

#Blog: “Uniformed consent, consent of the governed and informed consent: The #Bergdahl Affair…”

 

 

On the morrow the PUBLIC CIVIL DISCOURSE on all things Bowe #Bergdahl will begin on Capitol Hill. Scuttle butt looms large that it will be a barn burner. All political hands on deck, so set your DVR sporting fans, pop some popcorn if you got it and watch the pride chests come out full-bore.

HOWEVER, that’s not what I’m here to talk to you about today its something rather more sinister, rather more complicated and rather more absent-minded against those in authority over us.

I’m speaking of course of representative government and the media. Several but not all concerned here have conveniently forgotten a little something called the Rule of Law. In the breaking down of that rule of law there are three distinct areas in which, at least, the Executive Branch is supposed to keep the Legislative Branch continually and constantly informed on what that it is doing in your and my good name.

1. A War(s).

2. A National or International Crisis.

3. A National or International Emergency (Disaster Relief, Aide, Comfort, and Dependency…)

To be sure I’m doubly glad Sgt. 1st Class Bowe R. Bergdahl, U.S. Army is back in U.S. hands and is coming home, stateside, soon enough. I don’t think that there is a person amongst us who is not. Rumors of desertion or dereliction of duty be damned, the young man is back in U.S. hands, on U.S. soil, more or less, and is in the process of coming home to family, friends and the loved ones that he holds dear. BRAVO! Job well done to all concerned in that respect and regard.

BUT …. BUT …. BUT ….

There is just this little pesky B-Sing thing called the Law. I wish it were not so but it is so and We as a nation Are Either Going to Abide BY It All OR None of It. Period. Full Stop.

President Barack H. Obama, II., as the Commander and Chief of the United States Armed Forces is supposed to, by law, keep Congress informed at all times and without fail when it comes to our nation’s best and finest. Regardless and irrespective of health, condition, physical and mental state Barack Obama had a Constitutional duty to inform, unitarily, the Congress of the United States of America of his intents, and contentions on all things Bowe Bergdahl. Failure is not an option. In fact failure, his failure rather, is against the law in that respect and regard. Period. Full Stop.

It matters not his intentions, feelings, care, concern, compassion, delusion or derision concerning Sgt. 1st Class Bowe #Bergdahl, U.S. Army the law trumps all. Hence the passage in our U.S. Constitution which states, “that all power vested in the authorities of the United States of America is derived from the consent of the governed…” In so far as I know their was no uniform consent or informed consent given or even issued via written letter, facsimile, email, snail mail, telegram or smoke signal via the fire lights of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. N.W. Washington, D.C. 20500. U.S.A. in the last three days, three weeks, three months or five years. Barack H. Obama, II DID NOT and HAS NOT PROPERLY informed the governed of his intentions in regards to this matter. As much as it pains me to say this our President, yours and mine, broke the law here. Signing statement be damned. Congress, both Houses now, agreed to and passed a law out of their bowels and recesses which stated that the President of the United States of America MUST inform the Congress of the United States of America thirty calendar days in advance of what he or she may or may not be doing in regards to our United States Military and its members. HE MUST. Such comes from the consent of the governed and the governed DID NOT get the #BergdahlMemo. #SadButTrue ….

–Rhett.

#Blog: “An Inconveinent TRUTH: The #BergdahlAffair…” By Rhett E. Column, #SWN

Rahm Stein, GERMANY–As we wrap up the day here I wanted to take a minute, and continue weighing in on the #BergdahlAffair. Today’s round of Monday Morning Quarterbacking bordered near classic. YET, they conveniently forget one thing: The Rule of Law.

Such is an inconvenient truth to them. A surface nescience . A bad case of flees to a dog. Especially when its one of their own we are talking about here. I say that because Sgt. 1st Class Bowe Robert Bergdahl, U.S. Army, Halley, ID. U.S.A., has been hijacked as one of their own. He has been embraced, propped up, lamented, lambasted, and waxed near poetic by the chattering class of Washington and New York. A veritable cause celeb!

Never mind the fact that he volunteered for his service. Was debriefed on the risk v. reward of the whole Government Issue process. Signed all the necessary and proper wavers and paperwork with an U.S. Army Recruiter before he ever entered Basic Training. Etc. Etc. Etc. All that was thrown off the table the minute a Taliban operative spotted him wandering from the post in Afghanistan and said, “Hey guys, we got one!”

Those in the elite class would have us, have the taxpaying and hands off me viewing public to put that all aside, the TRUTH matters not. The TRUTH is we have, finally, something that we can talk about. Something that we really want to talk about/report on. Something besides the VA Healthcare Scandal, Fast and Furious, I.R.S., Benghazi. And so it goes…

What matters now is this finally, once, for good, and for all U.S. Soldier is finally getting to return home from George W. Bush’s, “War on Terror” after having endured five years of it himself. Where is George W. Bush at? Lets prosecute him for War Crimes. Oh! Wait a minute, wait-a-minute-now someone, somewhere named Barack H. Obama, II., and the Honorable and the 113th U.S. Congress got together not-to-long-ago and made that an impossibility. Snap! That’s out.

Oh, oh, oh!!! We know. Dick Cheney, where is he? Lets string him up. But President Obama and Trey Gowdy cooked the books there to. Damn! Now what? What’s left? What can we do? Oh well, we can always just complain. Nothing untoward their, right?

That’s it! We’ll complain. We’ll run out the clock and fill it to overflowing with our complaints, wrap ourselves up in the flag and wait outside a U.S. Army processing center door for one Bowe Robert Bergdahl so we can find out just how bad Bush & Cheney really made it for him. Sure he deserted. Who wouldn’t after having served in uniform under George W. Bush and Richard B. Cheney?! #SadButTrue. So there’s that then.

Complaining is about all we can do because the President of the United States and the Congress made anything else an impossibility.

WELCOME HOME Sgt. 1st Class Bowe Bergdahl, Godspeed and good luck with the charm offensive. Scott Prouty anyone? Anyone?

–Rhett.

#Blog: “WHY I thought about Terry Anderson (and Waite)…” By Rhett E. Column, #SWN

   TO DATE, he’s been just one of two U.S. Journalists ever held in captivity ,overseas, for any length of time greater than a year.

On the morning of 16-March-1985 Terry A. Anderson, a then reporter for the Associated Press, was taken off the streets of Beirut, Lebanon shortly after he had finished playing tennis with some friends. Captured by Shiite Muslims he remained a hostage for six years and nine months before he was returned home to the Buckeye State to the loving arms of family and friends.

Since that time Mr. Anderson has spoke and lectured at major and minor institutions of higher learning for years, and ran ,once, for higher office in Ohio, unsuccessfully, in 2004.

Link #1: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry_A._Anderson

Additionally Anderson is one of a handful of American Journalists that the United States has ever willingly and been desirous to negotiate for. So he is in an exclusive club.

As the fallout continues from the #BergdahlAffair I thought a lot about Terry Anderson and another Terry named Terry Waite.

Link #2: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry_Waite

  Mr. Terry Waite became a hostage himself while working to negotiate for the release of the 1979 U.S. Embassy contingent who had been held in captivity by Iranians and the Supreme Leader of Iran the Grand Ayatollah Khamenei for 444 days (1979 to 1981).

Link #3: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran_hostage_crisis

Waite was  a special envoy for the Church of England who had traveled to Lebanon to negotiate for the release of the hostages, and although he managed to get some of the hostages released he found himself a reluctant guest of the Ayatollah. Mr. Waite along with the remaining hostages from that crisis were finally returned home after nearly 2,000 days in captivity in 1991.

Since that time Mr. Waite has spent his time for peaceful means to an ends of crisis’s and world affairs. A humanitarian and an author of many books he now spends a majority of his time working for the causes of Christ in the Quaker church orthodoxy.

 

The #BergdahlAffair ….

  A lot has been made concerning this trade off of Sgt., 1st class, Bowe Robert Bergdahl, U.S. Army of Hayden, ID. U.S.A.

Should the president or shouldn’t have the president, President Barack Obama, signed off on or okayed this trade? The key questions and the answers lie with those who negotiated this release. From Git-Mo Bay, #Cuba to Kultarr and from Washington, D.C. to the foothills of Afghanistan and the strongest of strongholds for the Taliban. Was the law abided by? Were the rules of engagement, negotiation, proof of life, and more importantly the Uniform Code of Military Justice adhered to and respected by those most important as well as influential throughout the command and control chain? Was it?

  Has the returning home of; for once, for good and for all of one Bowe Robert Bergdahl, been a success or a failure, by the book?

Clearly the returning home of any of our citizens is a good thing, PERIOD, FULL STOP. Of that their is no question BUT, was the Rule of Law and the Prophets adhered to? Can the key players involved here walk away from this with their heads held high with American pride knowing, KNOWING NOW, that the letter of the law has been abided by?

And an argument, I think at least, can be made concerning the Iranian Hostage Crisis and the Anderson Hostage Crisis along those very same lines. Was the letter of the law adhered to there? Sure we got our people back from foreign soils and the domestic state of play. BUT, many a good U.S. Soldier, Sailor, Airman and Marine died in the process there of. Has anyone factored that FACT in?

Link #4: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Eagle_Claw

The Rule of Law? The Rule of Military Justice? Basic human decency and regard?

Was that all important public private partnership adhered to throughout this process?

These are and should be the questions asked and answered?

For their parts Waite and Anderson have no doubts. Such an experience, in their humble opinions, would not be wished on their worst enemy or their best friends.

After all, it is written in the Good Book that, “none should perish but that all should have eternal life through #Jesus Christ our #Lord.” Amen and Amen.

Yet and again I keep going back to the fact was the Rule of Law adhered to? Never mind the newsroom water cooler portended talk of dissertation, dereliction of duty, unauthorized absence or absent without leave on Sgt. Bergdahl’s part and partial that will be adjudicated soon enough!

TRUST ME when I say,  it will be sooner rather than later IF Californian Congressman and Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee Buck McKeon and Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin have anything at all to say about it. And I for one hope and pray that they do!

But such right now and for the moment, is beside the point, the FACT IS we got one of our own back with little problem BUT STILL, a whole bunch of issues.

History however, as well as the Rule of Law, is not done writing this chapter in the life, times and presidency of one Barack H. Obama, II., and the Honorable.

WATCH, this space folks. WATCH it very, very closely…

–Rhett.

#Blog: “Congress NOTICED President Obama Acted: The Bergdahl Affair…” By Rhett E. Column, #SWN

Over the weekend the one and only Prisoner of War the United States had had from the decade and some change of War in Afghanistan was finally set free from the chains and bondages of five long years. Over the weekend Congress NOTICED that President Obama had acted. Bottom Line? They (the 113th Congress) are upset BECAUSE the President and his Administration, MORE SUCCINTLY: The Executive Branch didn’t notify the Legislative Branch (and I’m guessing the Judicial as well) far enough in advance, in this particular case 30 calendar days, for all to bi-laterally act.

On the whole and on the some the Congress is right to be upset and right to call foul. There foul comes on the heels of the War Powers Reauthorization Act of 2007, the Syria Freedom Support Act of 2011, Prisoners Rights Act of 2007, and the Prison Litigation Reform Act of 2009. All having been adjudicated and settled as the laws of the land. Additionally their is UN Issue 41 and  Geneva I, II, and III for the international appeal.

But Sargent 1st Class Bowe R. Bergdahl, United States Army, is in process of returning home from War and that is a good thing. Given the stubborn facts of bad P.R. for the President and the Administration, last week alone, surely they are due some kudos?

Surely???

The way in which this issue can best be sorted out is that one, President Obama adhere to the sanctions of the Congress on prisoner exchange (international law on the subject as well might be good to abide by in the future) and that two, the Congress close Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Human decency and the rule of law demands it. The laws and the courts work when: TRUSTED, APPLIED and IMPLIMENTED. Zacarias  Moussaoui. Richard Reid. Omar Abdel-Rahman , aka “The Blind Sheik” are perfect examples of that fact BECAUSE,  ALL WHERE charged. Tried. Convicted. And sentenced in U.S. Federal Courts across the country and ALL ARE serving life sentences without the possibility of parole in federal penitentiaries/instillations on American soil. Game. Set. Match. OR, so we should think, right????

If both Congress and this President would TRUST while still verifying that the process of the laws and the courts work We The People would be the better served. YET, both this Congress and this President neither trusts nor do they verify INSTEAD, they just do. And its the doing that I have a problem with, moreover the law of the land has a VERY REAL and SERIOUS problem with.

Its a near pesky BSing thing the law. BUT and thanks be to God the law is what separates plants, animals and man ourselves from all ourselves. It is what affords us ,greatly, that all important human condition, MOREOVER that altogether right and proper quality of life.

HOWEVER, to hear it told and to have it said from Capitol Hill to the White House and from Main Street to Hometown, U.S.A., the law matters not. ‘They attacked us on 9/11!’ Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead! We only need use it when its both necessary and convenient. And even then, Power refrains, we’ll fix things so that we have creative license to make things up as we go along. U.S.A. Patriot Act anyone? Anyone?

At present I am reading a book titled, “With Liberty and Justice for Some: How the Law is Used to Destroy Equality and Protect the Powerful” By Glenn Greenwald (Available in All Major Bookstores and on Amazon) .

(I highly recommend it…)

   In with liberty and justice for some, Mr. Greenwald lays out a point by point case by case basis in which representative government and the law collide. Starting with Watergate and ending with the Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan: with the outing of Valarie Plame-Wilson at the C.I.A. (by the way done by former Secretary of State Collin Powell’s bag man and handler Richard Armitage and not by I. Lewis ‘Scooter’ Libby as the round the political water cooler portends BUT, and more on that at a later date.)  and W.M.D. in Iraq.

And so it goes…

A usurping of the power and the letter of the law. Especially by those who preside. However, their is plenty of power to be had in just simply abiding by the letter of the law folks. In FACT respect by the American people and a free people everywhere is well earned along with the idea that they all love you best when you abdicate to the law and the prophets. In that respect and regard I am reminded of the line Robert De Niro said in the ‘Untouchables’ as Al Capone, “..I’m gonna say you stole not talk to him for spitting on the sidewalk…”

But the huddled masses of representative governance pick and choose the winners and losers because We The People put them in Places of Power and Authority over us. File that under creative license by the way. More Succinctly: Do as We Say and not as We Do, BECAUSE We Know What is Best for you. NOW, shut up and go away!

And so it goes…

The rescuing of and the eventual returning home of one Bowe Robert Bergdahl to his family and friends in Idaho is a fine and great thing. As it is for all Americans under this or any other great direst. There’s something to be said for the terms, “Coming Home.” “Welcome Home.” But at what cost? Answer: The Letter of the Law. And we are either going to be a nation of laws or a nation of men here in the good ole U.S. of A., bottom line. We must adhere to and give all due deference to the law or regard none of it at all.

All three branches of American governance are to be working in strong bi-lateral/multi-lateral Ways and Means and they are to be doing it under the guise and the auspices of the law not when they’ve have a bad week in the press and need to catch a break with the American people OR because ‘we’ll be greeted as liberators’.

WELCOME HOME Sgt. Bergdahl, Godspeed to you and to your family. Be well…

–Rhett.