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.

“My name is Paul Wellstone and I represent the Democratic wing of the Democratic party!” – Paul Wellston, #RIP

The Honorable Paul D. Wellstone, PD-MN. (July 21, 1944 – October 25, 2002)

Years ago PD – Progressive Democrat Paul David Wellstone very famously quipped: My name is Paul Wellstone and I represent the Democratic wing of the Democratic party! And ever since the Democratic party has been trying to figure out what such a human qualifier like that even means?

But with the advent of Progressive firebrands like Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren that human qualifier is being answered.

This weekend the Libertarian party or Libertarian National Committee held its national convention in Orlando, FL. C-Span covered the live event. I pretty much watched it all the way through, making a few exceptions for normally scheduled television and “honey-dos” for my lovely wife along the way. LOL.

I live in Kentucky and a few weeks prior to this event I sat down and made this video on Kentucky primary day for 2016. Take a look:

As most of you know I am throughly disgusted  with the 2016 Democratic primary process. In particular how it is that Hillary Clinton has come so far without real question or scrutiny? Essentially, being handed my Democratic party’s nomination for the presidency of the United States of America in two thousand and sixteen.

Over this Memorial day weekend I have been thinking a lot about Mr. Wellstone and his epic qualifier and in the video above I lamented that after this Democratic primary and in particular the general election cycle for 2016 I am through with the Democratic party. Resolving to go the way of Independent or Decline to Say in terms of my voter registration thereafter.

Seemingly I’m not alone in this as many in the Republican party have followed suit. Burning their voter registration cards in effigy, like the peace nicks of the 1960’s that burned their draft cards as opposed to being drafted for service in the Vietnam War or the Women of the Women’s Liberation Movement who burned their bras and kitchen aprons as well.

But after this weekend and the last Libertarian presidential debate on C-span for 2016, and the epic opening and closing statements of Dr. Marc Allan Feldman and Mr. Darryl W. Perry my faith in humanity and the Democratic party has been renewed! Because it was both these men that managed to stir the echoes and fan the flames of democratic progressivism anew for me personally. Watch.

Hearing these men’s words and the stir of echoes from the late great Paul Wellstone in 1990 when it was first running for the United States Senate from Minnesota has renewed and restored my faith in the Democratic part of the Democratic wing of the Democratic party. Renewed that there is hope. Promise. And people out there filled to overflowing with a heart for the People of America and the World.

We cannot now nor anytime in the future let up folks. Our foot must stay on the gas pedal of progress, BUT not the kind of progress we’re seeing today. Instead it should be the progress that people like Senator Wellstone and so many others have advocated for, some for years some for decades, from the very beginning.

That healthcare for all is a fundamental right and not a privilege. That people deserve and have earned the right to a livable wage and a standard of living with access to housing and public transportation that is commiserate with the times. The right to organize and unionize for representation at the table of free markets. That as Americans we have a right to expect that our government will keep its nose out of our bedrooms and off our bodies. The right to come and go as we please and do business or not do business; politically, socially or ecumenically with nation’s, Peoples and places of our choosing. And the right that when we retire medicare, Medicaid and social security will be their for us in the twilight of our ‘golden years’.

To many these ideals seem ‘high-minded’, ‘professorial’ and downright nice, BUT they are ideals ‘devoid of reality’, for now. But that through the advent of time, hard work, dedication and small ball politics we’ll get there, eventually. Afterall this is not Scandinavia or the Republic of Myanmar, we are told. “Hello. I’m earth. Have we met?” And so it goes, right?

I am all for third political parties because they keep the Republican and Democratic parties honest and accountable. They hold the two-party system in this country to a full accounting of the American people. Moving forward in 2016 third political parties can and should expect more mainstream viewership.

Not all that long ago I was reading a posting from former Independent Governor of Minnesota Jesse Ventura that said that there is the very real possibility that we could see the emergence of three or four [mainstream] political parties from this 2016 election cycle. Giving us, the Voters, all the more to choose from. And as a Progressive, never mind a Democrat, I’m all for that. More Voices. More Choices, and when I get elected to high office I will work to preserve, protect and defend voting and the free exercise thereof for any candidate or political party of your choice, regardless of names behind it or the money that it has in its coffers.

And speaking of, “money in politics” or the epic Citizens United Supreme Court case I have to, as a Progressive Democrat, draw a line in the sand. And push back against the idea that somehow people like Charles and David Koch, Foster Friess and Sheldon Adelson, just to name a few BIG MONEY donors, will get to dictate to Us, We the American Voters that is, how our political process or Our Future should be.

BIG MONEY politics is not a march towards progress at all, instead its a means to an end.

And if true BIG MONEY donors, like the ones I just mentioned, will, through these Never Trump and Never Hillary movements, co-opt folks, good folks at that, like former Governor of New Mexico and 2016 Libertarian presidential nominee Gary E. Johnson and former Commonwealth of Massachusetts Governor  and 2016 Libertarian vice presidential nominee William F. Weld or the Johnson-Weld Campaign for 2016, all for the sake of ballot access in all fifty states and an inside tract towards the interworkings of American democracy.

That is WHY I am renewed, restored and resolved to making the Democratic party Democratic again. Progressive again. Giving people a viable alternative(s) that will speak to and do far more than  just be this candidate or a part of that political movement because its popular or politically expedient.

Because it’s not about a person or a slogan, a campaign or a dream, instead its about us, all of us together. We are, after all, all in this thing called life together and we are only as good as the person next to us. No better and no worse.

My name is Rhett E. Column (aka David Davidson) and I represent the Democratic wing of the Democratic party! Care to join me in the march towards progressive ideals?

–Rhett.

“Southern Strategy” Much? – How both Republicans and Democrats shot themselves in the foot in terms of the Vote!

(Atop photo) Former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton testifies before the Select Committee on Foreign Intelligence for the United States Senate in 2013 over the Benghazi, Libya scandal… (Bottom photo) Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders (Independent turned Democrat) kicks off his 2016 presidential campaign outside of Burlington, VT. USA…

BROOKLYN, New York – Thursday night Democratic candidates for 2016, Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton, “got it on,” as they say, under all the hot lights and scrutiny of the day before a capacity crowd in Brooklyn, NY. USA. And to say that it was a heated debate between the two larger-than-life Democratic candidates would be an understatement.

It was doggy dog all night with both candidates experiencing scrutiny from the audience in attendance (in the make-shift style debate hall in a semi-abandoned warehouse in the New York City borough) to the journalists/hosts that moderate the debate for CNN & New York 1 to the candidates themselves as they traded barbs and jabs back and forth throughout the night.

And while some say that their was no clear winner or looser to emerge in Thursday night’s debate, the fallout from the debate or the narrative out of the ‘city so nice that they named it twice’ was that “Bernie Sanders denigrated the South and Hillary Clinton’s wins there in primaries and caucuses and when he was asked a specific question about the primary process and how it was really going in his opinion, he dodged the question”.

Lets be clear here for a minute: There is no question but that Hillary Clinton has done well in the South, all throughout this Democratic primary process for 2016 in fact, BUT lets look to the context and perhaps the method used for all those so-called “Solid South,” wins for Mrs. Clinton.

“[A Map of] The Southern United States as defined by the United States Census Bureau,” for the Wikipedia page titled: Southern strategy…

According to reports from the United States [Bureau of the Census] the “Southern United States of America or the Southern most United States of America is defined ,geographically, as states in the Union below what is known as the Mason-Dixon Line. These are states in the union that receive the most warm-air climate in a given year per the dictates of the seasons and or climates here in the Continental United States of America that receive the best warm-air climate for nine or more period months out of a given calendar year…And these are States that have a race or class of people who are or who  feel that they are divided; politically, socially and ecumenically through no-fault of their own, BUT that their ancestry who participated in the so-called “War between the States” or the Civil War is to blame for all their troubles or social ills within this race or class of people living within the Continental United States of America…”

These states (highlighted in deep red on the map just above) are the States in the Union that make up the Southern most part of the Continental United States of America [excluding Alaska and Hawaii – highlighted on the map by squares on the bottom left hand side just above].

These are the Southern states, since the 1800’s and on here in America, that experienced and lived through, albeit survived, the Civil War’s Reconstruction period having undergone a political period known as the “Southern strategy” or the political as well as emotional  appeal to Southern White Democrats to vote for Republicans in primaries, caucuses and general national election cycles (visa versa).

An editorial cartoon called “Mr. Solid South,” from Harper’s Weekly (1879) criticizing literacy tests in the South (photo taken from Wikipedia page titled: Southern strategy)…

Originally intended to benefit rich Southern white Democrats during the period of Reconstruction in the South after the Civil War it has instead proven a useful strategy, politically, for both parties since Richard Nixon’s presidential campaign perfected it in 1968.

Disaffected and disgruntled whites after the Civil War felt that they had no place to turn, no opportunities would ever be presented to them, no chance for advancement or a better life.

In view of the Civil War these Americans had betrayed their country, went against the Union of the United States of America, when they went to war against their fellow (Northern) Americans. And even though the South, as we know it today, lost that war they were still thrown a bone, politically, by the  “Party of [Abraham] Lincoln”.

Republicans strategized with Democrats in the Congress ‘that we’ll give you the South, politically, if you leave us alone in the North, Midwest and Western United States’.

Southern Democrats, in amazement, believed that they had been given a great gift. As a national as well as a Southern States and local political party got together and devised ways to punish not only the black man, but the poor white man as well, through poll taxes, Jim Crow Laws and literacy tests when it came to the people’s expressed desires to vote, hold and own land, etc…

“From 1890 to 1908, the white Democratic legislatures in every Southern state enacted new constitutions or amendments with provisions to disenfranchise most blacks and tens of thousands of poor whites. Provisions required payment of poll taxes, and complicated residency,literacy tests, and other requirements, which were subjectively applied against blacks. As blacks lost their vote, the Republican Party lost its ability to effectively compete in the South. There was a dramatic drop in voter turnout as these measures took effect, a decline in African-American participation that was enforced for decades in all southern states….[All over the North]Editorial cartoons [such as this one featured above] from the January 18, 1879, issue of Harper’s Weekly [were seen] criticizing the use of literacy tests. It shows “Mr. Solid South” writing on the wall, “Eddikashun qualifukashun. The Blak man orter be eddikated afore he kin vote with us Wites.” – Taken from the Southern strategy Wikipedia page

In an unwritten deal in 1877 Republicans removed all federal troops from the South in exchange for the White House in the form of Rutherford B. Hayes v. Samuel J. Tilden. As a result Southern Democrats had a political stranglehold on the South until the Civil rights era of 1954 to 1968. And they expected to maintain power for a long time, that was until men like Vernon Johns and Martin Luther King, Jr. came along and forever changed the dynamics of protests for civil and human rights.

Rev. Dr. Vernon L. Johns, M.E. & PhD (pictured on the left) and Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. M.E. & PhD. (pictured on the right)…”The father and the son of the modern-day civil rights movement here in the United States of America…”

The undertakings of Johns and King (countless others) lead to the dismantling of decades of authoritarian rule, politically, through the subjugation of poor whites and blacks throughout the South. “Finally!” Many decried. “Someone that we can rely on to see us through to full freedom, justice and equality…[Voices for the voiceless.]”

“[Count] How many Jelly Beans are in [this] jar,” an Illustration for this posting…

It would take nearly fifty years after the murder of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., but all men are and should be created equally, right?

Wrong!

Fast-forward to today, and some would argue that the Southern strategy is in full effect as many believe that this is what Hillary Clinton used to propel herself to a “comfortable lead” against her opponent Bernie Sanders via the African-American vote in the South.

We may not make the ‘Negro’ of today ‘stand on one foot and count to 100 backward’ or ‘spell soap backward’ or ‘read the star-spangled banner on a piece of paper upside down’, BUT that through things like “voter id laws,” “real id laws,” (Willie Horton political campaign ads) etc. (An as yet alleged kinder and gentler tone and tenor has emerged to the once usual hue and cry of old, “Nigger, nigger, nigger [the Klan is getting bigger]!” – Lee Atwater)

That the past is just prolonged that it is a matter now of semantics, of political correctness and so-called “political establishment” that rules are days now. And we should just excuse this dementedly sad history all away now because a black man has been elected president in this country.

And soon enough a woman will get the honor and privilege to be called the same, right? So. Case. Closed. Right?

Wrong!

Meet the “Southern Strategists,” from Reconstruction on. (Left to Right) Former Presidents of the United States of America Rutherford B. Hayes, Richard M. Nixon, Republican strategist, pollster, pundit and adviser to several Republican presidents Patrick J. Buchanan, Republican party ‘Hatchet Man’ Lee Atwater, ‘Dixiecrat’ and Segregationist Alabama Governor George C. Wallace, Jr. Former First Lady of Arkansas and the United States of America as well as former New York State Senator and Secretary of State (Democrat for President of the United States of America in 2008 & 2016) Hillary D. Rodham Clinton… (photos courtesy of Wikipedia, 2016 – photo editing done by Rhett E. Column, Say What News?!, 2016)…

Meet the unholy of political holiest that we have to thank for the Southern political strategy here in the United States of America.  These are the ones that we have to thank for things like Jim Crow laws, [racial] Segregation, poll taxes and  Literacy in the form of voter id laws that does noting but  test the will and resolve of blacks and poor Peoples throughout the South for centuries in terms of the vote.

Through legislation and taxation and with the help of organizations like the American Legislative Exchange Council or ALEC this faux fo pas trinity, since Reconstruction on, has managed to corner the market and pigeonhole the American democratic process in both the South and the whole of America.

The Electorial College Map for the 1920 presidential campaign between Democrat James M. Cox and Republican Warren G. Harding (photo courtesy of Wikipedia page titled: Southern strategy)…

Republicans and Democrats from 1920 on have bought, sold and traded the American people, the American voter, for both political gain and power, but also for wealth and interests through the Southern strategy. Deploying and developing means, method, motive and opportunity to keep the American people under a type of authoritarian rule. In a kind of modern-day poll taxing-jellybean counting-read the U.S. Constitution backwards style body politic.

Confusing and putting the American people, the American voter, in a state of panic and disarray.  And no two were better at deploying the Southern strategy (deploying chaos and disarray) than Richard Milhouse Nixon and George Cornelius Wallace, Jr..

(Left)’Dixiecrat’ and Segregationist Governor of Alabama George C. Wallace, Jr. and  (Right) former President of the United States of America Richard M. Nixon..(photos courtesy of Wikipedia, 2016 – photo editing by Rhett E. Column, Say What News?!, 2016)…

Like the Ancient Mongolians (Chinese) teaching the Ancient Romans how to Crucify, Wallace and Nixon perfected the crucifixion of the American people via the Southern strategy. Preying on the fears of the common white man towards the common black man. And in their wake of evil we are hung on the cross daily by things like mass incarceration, youth unemployment, police brutality, human and civil rights violations, deportation, debtors prisons, prolonged and enhanced interrogation techniques, spying, lying, drone warfare and perpetual or endless wars (by proxy) in far away places that we don’t even know nor have we ever heard of.

For what? Money. Power. Greed. The fevered dreams of an elite and ruling class of people fulfilled.

2016 Democratic candidates for President of the United States of America (Left) Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders (Right) former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton (photos courtesy of the Bernie Sanders Campaign and the Hillary Clinton Campaigns – photo editing by Rhett E. Column, Say What News?!, 2016)…

The other night Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton met in Brooklyn for a twelfth time out of fourteen, reportedly, scheduled debates between the two Democratic candidates that are left.

Argument has been made, since, that Bernie Sanders is somehow excusing away the fact that Hillary Clinton won the Southern United States or the Deep South by an “overwhelming majority of the black American voter (something that Bernie Sanders himself would never ever be able to do because Bernie Sanders doesn’t know how to connect “properly” with black people and Hillary Clinton does, BECAUSE she is married to the “first black president this country has ever had” – and so it goes in implication),” and that IF she gets the nomination of her political party she will win the South by an “overwhelming majority” in a general election.

Depicting, somehow, a repeat performance of her husband, Bill Clinton’s, 1992 presidential campaign and his own Southern strategy in the form of the “Man from Hope [Arkansas]” and “I still believe in a place called Hope” Campaign theme(s) coming out of the 1992 Democratic National Convention.

And so therefore Bernie Sanders shouldn’t somehow ‘excuse away the once Solid South‘ for Democrats. Its happened before, and it can happen again. In this kind of R. Lee Ermey “Mississippi Burning,” Mayor remarks “our nigra were happy until you FBI men came down here” tail that wags the dog we gonna whip y’all in ta shape come hell or high water moment. ‘The South will rise again!’ And so it goes…

Southern strategy , Solid south maps of the Southern most United States of America and former President William J. ‘Bill’ Clinton ‘tail wagging the dog’ finger pointing moment…

And Mrs. Clinton may well ‘Get Lucky in Kentucky’ and win the whole damn thing via the South, more power to her! But you must never ever forget that a Democrat running for the highest and best office in the land has not won in the Southern most United States of America since Bill Clinton, and that was without an overwhelming majority of the voting population there in a general election. – Not even the so-called ‘twice elected black man’ that’s in the White House now won the South with an overwhelming majority of the vote down there.

“Southern Strategy” Much?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

–Rhett.

 

Top Illuminati Grand Wizard: “We Control Islam and We’ll Use It to Destroy the West.” (WW3) — Socio-Economics History Blog

Published on Mar 24, 2016 In this documentary short we discuss Albert Pike’s Three World War Predictions. There are websites with this information, however I believe the most important aspect of the predictions is that the Illuminati is using Islam to accomplish its goals. Albert Pike openly stated that Islam will be the central component […]

via Top Illuminati Grand Wizard: “We Control Islam and We’ll Use It to Destroy the West.” (WW3) — Socio-Economics History Blog

“Cannabis works … So! What’s the problem?” By Rhett. E. Column; #SayWhatNews, #AXJ, #FreePress

RIPLEY, Ohio – I’m so proud of my friend Mr. Robert C. Carr of Ripley, OH. (Brown County, OH.) who ,along with so many others across the Buckeye State, IS WORKING to get Cannabis, Medical Marijuana and Industrial Hemp SAFE & LEGAL throughout the State. (Through a purposed ballot measure for either this November’s Election Day or Election Day 2016. – #FYI)

Mr. Robert C. Carr, speaking before the town council of Ripley, OH. about a purposed ‘marijuana event coming to Ripley’ (photo courtesy of Mr. Robert C. Carr, 2015) …

To give every man, woman and child who needs; the healthy, happy, healing powers of God’s Little Emerald Green Plant.

So! What’s the problem. Well. A lot of things, not just one thing, is playing an effective loyal opposition role in the forfeiture of access. Fear, mostly.

Fear? Fear of the unknown. And since we’re talking about all things Cannabis Green in the Buckeye State lets start under the Capital rotunda and at the Offices of the Governor as well as the Attorney’s General.

Without doubt two of the most fearful of the unknown in the State of Ohio is The Honorable John R. Kasich, and The Honorable Richard M. ‘Mike’ DeWine.

The Honorable John R. Kasich, Republican Governor of Ohio – A Hypocrite on Cannabis?

Both men, have been drug, literally, kicking and screaming into this process, despite, despite now, one of them known to have used the, “gateway drug” at least once in their life.

Then. There’s the control factor.

Control? Taxation and regulation. As we know Government, at every level, is in the business of making money. Gone are the days of government. Such has been replaced with.. well.

And less we forget…

So then there’s that…

Then finally, there are those folks who just straight up don’t like the idea of cannabis being made safe and legal in their state. No matter whether the government is involved or not. They have been taught that usage of God’s Little Green Plant is inviting the devil, Satan himself, in to your life.

This kind of statement is truly reflective of the so-called ‘47%’ of the population that no matter what you say or do. How much evidence to their contrary that you present, they will never ever be convinced that pot is anything but the handmaiden of Satan.

So, in a way, Mitt Romney’s argument would hold water in regards to these folks. God help us!

I just. For the life of me. I do not understand the loyal opposition, and quite frankly downright [rigidity or] stupidity towards pot.

The science, technologies, and advances made in research and development towards the marijuana plant are astoundingly astronomical.

While marijuana is illegal for general use in Israel, the Jewish state is considered to be one of the world’s most forward-thinking countries when it comes to medical marijuana, with scientists and researchers flocking there to learn more about the benefits of the drug.

And despite my personal disagreements with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He has cleared the way in the Knesset for the full on funding and study of this so-called Gateway Drug. 

Well said Lady Gaga, well said indeed.

But the good times don’t end there. Our old friends the Dutch are leading the way in adult marijuana uses – be they medical or recreational.

Juvenile diabetes. Neuropathy. Glaucoma. All types and forms of CANCER, for God sake, are CURED. All cured! By cannabis. My God. My God.

What’s more? Forms of Alzheimer’s disease and the effects dementia – be it ‘early on set’ or otherwise – has either been slowed, reduced in great effect or, and in some cases, CURED entirely. New advances and studies are being made in this area of research and development more and more every day according to this report from S.F. Gate’s Blog, “Smell the Truth”.

Brain function under treatment of cannabis/medical marijuana, an M.R.I. photo (courtesy of S.F. Gate Blog “Smell the Truth,” 2015) …

It’s cannabis folks! It’s all cannabis, and it WORKS. Cannabis works. It cures, heals, creates and makes things so much better, in all our lives. So! What’s the problem?

Like. Follow. Friend Mr. Robert C. Carr HERE.

Check out and Follow his blog here.

HELP. Please.To fund the Movement to Legalize Marijuana, Cannabis, and Industrial Hemp in the Buckeye State. Thank you!

— Rhett.

P.S.

A one day event is scheduled for 06/20/15 in Ripley, OH. (Brown County, OH.) at 12 p.m. e.s.t. to raise awareness to the general public of the need, want, and desire for; Medical Marijuana, Cannabis, and Industrial Hemp across the Buckeye State. See you there! – Food. Fun. Games. Entertainment. Education. And Social Networking will be the day, to get this thing done in this Great State.

“Where Is The Due Process?” By Rhett E. Column; #SayWhatNews, #AXJ, #FreePress

BOSTON, Massachusetts – As the trial of one of the ‘Boston Marathon Bombers’ gets underway. I can’t help but wonder,  “Where Is The Due Process?”

Not long ago this article from The Daily Beast titled, “Is the Boston Bomb-Maker on the Loose?” By Susan Zalkind intimated at my question.

But it stopped short of asking the all-out question because the author wanted to center the article around the fact that the Boston Marathon Bombers had help. Or so they would like for us all to think. And while I’m inclined to agree I want to take the article where it should have gone in regards to due process. (Such was in briefly intimated.)

#quotesbyfamouspeople

As the question loomed large, where is the due process, John Adam’s famed quotation of “[We are] A Government of Laws, and not of Men.” hit me like a ton of declarative bricks!

Because it was, in the days after the 2013 Boston Marathon Bombings, that the F.B.I. would question, without presence of council, openly, Johor Tsarnaev in his Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital room in Boston (despite Mr. Tsarnaev’s repeated attempts to retain counsel before-while being-question-ed-ing.) I thought long and hard about that question, and about that famed quote. 

Mr. Johor Tsarnaev, Artist rendition of a courtroom moment for 2015…

Regrettably, We the People failed to ask it when the F.B.I. murdered Mr. Ibragim Todashev, personal friend of the Tsarnaev Brothers, in the months after the 2013 Boston Marathon Bombings, only to find out later that they (the F.B.I.) face a $30 million dollar law suit according to this Daily Beast Article also by Susan Zalkind.

Autopsy photo of Mr. Ibragim Todashev, held by his father during a press conference…

The government forgets, oft-times conveniently, that we are in fact and indeed a government of laws and not of men. That due process is in fact suppose to be the very first thing afforded us right along with equal protection, and “innocent until proven guilty,” these are the most basic and fundamental rights of trial by jury. The most basic of guaranteed precepts under the laws of our land, especially IF you are an American as the Tsarnaev Brothers are and Mr. Todashev was.

These young men deserve and have been deserving of the presumption of innocence without fail or exception.

I don’t care if they murdered a million people or one. In this country, in my country of the United States of America, you are in fact and indeed innocent until otherwise proven guilty by a judge and jury of your peers.

Due process. Cross examination. Chain of Evidence. On and on and on. Etc. Etc. Etc.

WTC, Tuesday, 11-September-2001…

But this is, no doubt, the ‘post 9-11 world’ in which we live.

Where the rule of law matters not.

Get a confession under dehrest, only to have it thrown out or ‘taken off the table’ at the ‘eleventh hour’. No big deal.

Illegally search and seize the home of one of the alleged bombers without a warrant, only to get that taken off the table at the eleventh hour as well. No big deal either, right?

But this is the kind of thing that goes on in this country for men and women of all ages, races, colors and stripes.

Miss Chelsea E. Manning…

From the Una bomber Ted Kaczynski to Chelsea Manning.

Over and over and over again. Due process is ignored, the laws are ignored, the court system/court process IS IGNORED. WHY?

What is the fear? What is the reason?

Is the Government of, by and for the People of the United States of America afraid that they just might lose their man?

Afraid that the system, despite it, will work against them instead of for them?

Why? When you most assuredly have your man right? You’ve got him or her dead to rights, right?

“Public Enemy #1,” John Dillinger…

History tells us that even “Public Enemy #1” John Dillinger didn’t get due process much less equal protection under the law. Why?

Fear that maybe even good ole Public Enemy #1 just might have gotten off? What with the stock market crashes, dust bowl days, cops and labor camps festooned over most of the Midwestern United States in those days.

See, in those days, even the Robin Hood adage of “robbing from the rich to give to the poor,” made sense.

John Dillinger made it make sense, perfect sense. Did he rob? Yes. Did he kill? Yes. Did he destroy? Yes. But he did it in such a way that even the most ardent of resisters admired him for it.

John Dillinger should have been captured alive, brought before a judge and jury of his peers, and with the availability afforded him of counsel, been tried and found either guilty or innocent of the crimes the State say, to this day, he committed.

Due process folks! A government of laws and not of men. What John Adams and the Founders intended.

Without due process, without equal protection under the law we may as well be living in a police state. Moving heaven and earth for it.

#quotesbyfamouspeople

To resign and resolve ourselves to, “them”.

It’s what, “they” want you and I to do anyways.

Because they only want, as George Carlin so famously said, in part, “obedient workers”. “People just smart enough to run all the machines, the computers…” Obedient workers. People that are and will be broken, broken in mind, body, soul and spirit. Devoid of the will to fight. Devoid of the wherewithal to say, “Enough!”

Johor Tsarnaev has every right to an attorney. Every right to a fair and speedy trial. And more importantly, every right to the presumption of innocence until otherwise proven guilty.

If their was a judge, a federal judge, worth their salt they would throw this case out on its ears, with the government’s apologies along with a permission to sue letter.

The State has not only trampled, time and memorial, all over the Constitution of the United States they have trampled over every bit of human decency afforded a civilized society.

Where is the due process in all this and more?

–Rhett.

“Why I Won’t Take Your Seat At The BIG KID’S Table” By Rhett E. Column; #SayWhatNews, #AXJ, #FreePress

Mr.. Alex White Plume, Grower of Industrial Hemp from 1968 until 2000 when the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), St. Louis Division ILLEGALLY raided his Home & Farm on the Oglala Sioux Indian Reservation Pine Ridge, S.D. U.S.A.

PINE RIDGE, South Dakota – A week ago Friday night I was told to make a telephone call to a once social media friend about my inquiries as to the welfare, well-being, state of mind, and whether or not Mr. Alex White Plume would even be interested in connecting with me on social media?

For the record I did not even know Mr. White Plume was on social media. (As I was merely R & D’ing his name and came across a Facebook Account for him.)

Much to my chagrin my inquiries were met with fear and loathing, and I was read the riot act on the why’s and why not’s for my having asked. Lesson learned.

But more importantly comes an all-important opportunity to express my opinion here, freely, openly, and honestly without naming names, SAVE ONE  Mr. Alex White Plume, and sharing with you the readership a constructive effort to see that he is given, “special permission”, that he doesn’t even need by the way, by both the Government of the United States of America and the Tribal Council for the Oglala Sioux Nation, The Honorable John ‘Yellowbird’ Steele, President of the Nation, to grow, once again, what he has been growing on his farmland on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation since 1968, Industrial Hemp (and or Marijuana and or Cannabis).

BTW: He is the only man ever — In the History of the American Social Construct to do so, LEGALLY.

Under the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1851 between the Government of the United States of America and the Oglala Sioux Nation, as well as Other Indian Nations in the Mid and Southwestern United States of America (the Lower 48 States) the American Government would no longer trouble the American Indian for his lands, homes, properties or families. Furthermore he, in this case the “Great White Father,” at the time, along with Representatives from the Nations of the Mid and Southwestern United States solemnly agreed to the Treaty, even though, years later, during the so-called, “Pikes Peak Gold Rush” the United States broke the Treaty between themselves and the Nations despite the American Indian’s steadfast obedience and loyalty with which to abide.

So it was that Mr. White Plume, a man of limited means, but staunch and steadfast resolve and vision set out to grow, “Wahupta Ska Pejuta”–sweet white root medicine — for his family, friends and the Lakota Sioux Nation on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in 1968. And he grew that Hemp, unmolested and unrequited by this or any other government, for 32 years.

Mr. Alex White Plume, American Indian, Farmer, Family Man, and Friend to Mother Earth and His Fellow Man..

Sometime in 2000 the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA-St. Louis Division) ILLEGALLY came on the Reservation and Mr. White Plume’s personal property and with guns drawn and machetes and hatches at the ready proceeded to cut down and then confiscate, ILLEGALLY, his Hemp Crop.

They would return two more times thereafter, detain and illegally arrest Mr. White Plume and his family in the year 2001 as well as 2002. And although he didn’t attempt to grow or harvest the crop again, in 2003 the crop sprang up wild from its original place of planting, cementing the fact that this little green weed will not die, no matter what the United States Government says or does against it or against the good people like Mr. Alex White Plume who grow it!

Frankly, after hearing Mr. White Plume’s story and how the Government of the United States of America illegally invaded a Sovereign Nation’s Territory within another Sovereign Nation made me angry, quite frankly, livid, but being the legalese novice that I am I began to set down at my computer and type up a formal petition on this man’s behalf both to Lakota Sioux Nation Leadership, its Elders, Federal, State and Local Governmental Representation to say, more or less, “Hey! Let Alex White Plume Grow Hemp Again!”

Much to my surprise though many, but not all, in the Cannabis, Medical Marijuana, and the Industrial Hemp Communities went near spastic at such an endeavor. The summarization could be found in the phone call that I had to make a week ago on Friday night.

“You have a hidden agenda boy! You are a social climber, trying to make some kind of name for yourself off the backs of others … My brother and I been doing Hemp and working in the Cannabis Community for a whole lot longer than you been alive boy! Alex White Plume don’t know you from Adam. I don’t know you from Adam, yet you wanna somehow be friends with him to get your name out there like you’re doing something for somebody when you’re really not, all you’re trying to do is just make a name for yourself some kinda way, is what it sounds like to me. So why don’t you just do your own petition. Do your own educating, your own research and quit being some kind of coat tail rider, okay? You understand that?”

And so it went…

This person, by the way and for the record, was one of the first ones to sign the petition that I made up on Mr. White Plume’s behalf.

Additionally, had it not been for them I would have never ever known the story of Alex White Plume, much less the story of posse commutates, literally, come to life on this man’s farm on an Indian Reservation in Pine Ridge South Dakota.

Once more it was not, and it never ever will be my attempt to ride somebody else’s coattails, to make a name for myself or to never ever do my own research and development, because I do everyday, or to just simply make things look as something when they are not!

Quite frankly it is and it always will be my attempt to help someone to help themselves. I could care less. I do not, and I will not take your seat at the BIG KID’S Table here. You can have it! All I care about is seeing the full-fledged REPEAL of the Prohibition of Cannabis from the 1930’s.

And such will remain so until every State in the Union and the Sovereign Territories and Provinces of the United States of America (as well as Nations & Countries/Territories and Provinces from around the World)  Legalizes Cannabis, Industrial Hemp and Medical Marijuana use, Safely & Legally, by the People to Medicate, Recreate, and Make Whatever Use That They See Fit for God’s Little Green Plant for both themselves and their posterity’s.

We can, as I told a friend, over the phone, late yesterday afternoon,  “argue about who did what wrong, who stepped on whose toes later. Lets get hemp, cannabis safe and legal in all fifty states and then we can talk about what we did wrong to each other later.” To which he politely and totally agreed.

I would very much like to see Mr. Alex White Plume be able to grow hemp again, on his farm, on the reservation. Unmolested and unrequited by this or any other government, now or in the future. Bottom line.

To me he is a pioneer. A trailblazer. An icon. A living legend. One that should be celebrated, and told stories about, true ones at that, by our children, and our grand children, and maybe, just maybe, even by our great grand children, as the only human being to grow hemp, industrial hemp at that,  inside the United States of America, Safely & Legally, for 32 years.

Now! If anybody deserves a seat at the BIG KID’S Table it’s Alex White Plume. Here’s hoping that he gets to set at the table or any other table for that matter where the ‘brotherhood of man’ is always welcome.

–Rhett.