Democracy’s Greatest Threat Wrapped in Black

 

A black robed figure often represents the Angel of Death or can represent a corrupted soul. As such a figure, it could be used to represent a select group of people who have powers greater than the Congress, the Administration or even the “Deep State,” and one who is unafraid to use its powers. Such a figure could even oppose a President and nullify any action he tried to take. They could completely alter the definitions and intentions of any legislation after it has been passed and signed into law. They could have people taken and held incommunicado for as long as they deemed necessary. In their own opinions and rulings, their powers would be unlimited and could not be denied, opposed, weakened or otherwise moderated by anyone in the government and they would not answer except to others of their own kind. Such are the Federal Judiciary of the Justice Department, the police, law enforcement and special officers who can have arrest, detain or otherwise serve writs as instructed by the Judiciary. Their powers can be enforced by the Attorney General, the BATFE (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives), FBI, ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement), IRS and the remainder of the various law enforcement agencies under the DHS (Department of Homeland Security). The actual individuals we are referencing are the Judges themselves, specifically the Federal Judges.

 

Relatively recently there were two Federal Judges, one in Hawaii and one in Maryland (no surprise) who annulled a directive to the Immigration Department to restrict immigrants from the same six nations which had been named for special considerations by both President George W. Bush and President Obama. The order was to last approximately ninety days or until sufficient methods were put in place for vetting immigrants from these nations. All of the nations have no actual effective governance and no method for identification of their people and are nesting homes for terrorist groups. Both of these judges, United States District Judge Theodore Chuang and United States District Judge Derrick Watson, were both surprisingly, or not, appointed by President Barack Obama. Judges have found rights in the Constitution which have baffled Constitutional scholars as well as us. Who knew that James Madison intended that bakers must bake a cake as fast as they can for anybody no matter how much of an offense to the baker the cake’s intended celebration may be. You are a devout Christian and a baker and a same sex couple would like a specially designed wedding cake and you must bake it or be sued and lose your business. Why wouldn’t a judge not simply order the couple to go and use another baker, who is not so undisposed to desire their business, instead of seeking out a baker who has Bibles on the shelves of his shop and then try and force them to make their cake. We are willing to bet that had one of the pair requested a wedding cake and stated they would add the couple atop the cake later, as they had a special family heirloom they would use and would bring it out at the ceremony, that they would have their cake already as long as they had not eaten it. But common sense, in many ways, has appeared to have left the building in disgust never to return. And this problem goes beyond court decisions and appears to have spread to the general population across the planet.

 

Judges out of control is not merely a problem in the United States. This is also a big problem in Israel. The originating source of the problem comes from the words of Israeli Supreme Court former Chief Justice Israeli Aharon Barak’s in his statement that “everything is justiciable” which has led to serious threats to the Israeli governance. Fortunately, Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked is challenging the broad application (pictured below) which had become a major disruption as the Supreme Court has utilized this to dangerously overstep their powers believing they wield unchallengeable powers. This one statement was made, as a justification for the Supreme Court in particular, and judges generally, to take the extra step to right those things they see as wrong. They are to be the final arbiters of everything in Israeli society, life, governing and even military decisions. The Israeli Supreme Court has nullified laws which were passed by the Knesset and approved by the Prime Minister, in some cases more than once. The Israeli Supreme Court altered the route of the Security Barrier which placed some additional Israelis in direct threat of added terror threats. The Israeli Supreme Court has ordered homes in the disputed territories destroyed without ever demanding proof of Arab ownership and even without questioning or meeting the Arab presumed to have owned the land and simply as a response to charges raised by anti-Zionist NGO’s. The Israeli Supreme Courts countermanded orders during the Gaza and Second Lebanon Wars and also in peace times. The Israeli Supreme Court has enacted laws they believed were necessary without any action by the Knesset or Prime Minister and in all of these cases, the Supreme Court refused to admit that these powers were beyond their delineated powers quoting former Chief Justice Aharon Barak’s “everything is justiciable” statement. Rounding up the Israeli Supreme Court expanded powers which were self-declared is something vital for the survival of the Israeli democratic governance. The Supreme Court cannot claim and actually wield such that their power is unopposable and spans placing them over all other branches of government and even over the generals and officers of the military. The Legislative Branch, the Knesset, and the Prime Minister’s Office and Cabinet cannot function to implement the will of the people if the Supreme Court, which we will explain why it does not represent the people and is getting further from the people every day, can overrule every vote, rescind every law, veto every decision and even enact whatever laws they see fit thus making the Knesset and Prime Minister all but irrelevant. Everything stated about the Knesset and Prime Minister goes double for the military which cannot have a court, even a Supreme Court, second guessing officers and their orders during a war as that gets people’s children killed. The Israeli Supreme Court has overruled Ministers in the Cabinet’s funding decisions when they displease the sensitivities of one of the Justices. What a way to run a country.

 

Minister of Justice Ayelet Shaked

 

The Israeli Supreme Court chooses its new Justices when a vacancy is made in a way which is unique in the entire world. First is the method for determining the Chief Justice and Deputy Chief Justice which is done by simple seniority, the longest serving judges on the court are appointed to the Chief Justice and Deputy Chief Justice positions. Replacing a retiring Justice on the Supreme Court is performed by a nine-member commission. The selection of the members of the commission guarantees that the Israeli Supreme Court almost never varies from the positions taken by the founding justices in the early 1950’s. The Judicial Selection Committee is a nine-member committee with the members selected as follows:

Justice Minister – Chairman.
Cabinet Minister, chosen by the Cabinet.
Two Knesset Members, (one member from the coalition and one from the opposition).
Two members of the Bar Association (selected by the two largest factions).
The Chief Justice,
Two Judges of the Supreme Court

With the two Supreme Court Justices plus the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and two members from the Bar Association who will likely have to represent people or groups in trials before the Supreme Court there are five people who are obliged to curry favor with the existing Supreme Court or are members of said Supreme Court. That is five out of the nine-member committee and thus a majority. Simple math shows rather quickly, as to why the Israeli Supreme Court seldom has a Justice placed on the bench which is any different in their politics from the existing members on the Supreme Court. While the Israeli public and governance has changed significantly over the years as Israel has grown from being an agrarian economy with a GDP of $2.6 Billion in 1960 which became $6.3 Billion in 1970 climbing to $21.9 Billion in 1980 then taking off to $52.5 Billion in 1990 continuing to rise to $132.4 Billion in 2000 then jumping to $233.7 Billion in 2010 finally reaching $318.7 Billion last year in 2016 and an advanced economy leading the world in many computer, medical, agricultural and other scientific areas of excellence (see graph below). This change from an agrarian economy to one centered inside cities largely surrounding Tel Aviv with an active and admirable high tech core plus making advances in medicine, new drugs, treatments as well as an active energy economic segment which includes ecological imperatives for clean energy, Israel has changed remarkably. She has also changed politically becoming more Zionist and the religious core has broadened and continues to grow. Unfortunately, this has not been represented by the Supreme Court which has the same socialist leftist beliefs at its core as it did in 1960.

Israeli GDP from 1960 to 2016

 

Courts which overstep the presumed limits were a fear expressed by the Founding Fathers; so we will close with some quotes.

“ [N]othing in the Constitution has given [the judiciary] a right to decide for the Executive, more than to the executive to decide for them. Both magistracies are equally independent in the sphere of action assigned to them… the opinion which gives to the judges the right to decide what laws are constitutional, and what are not, not only for themselves in their own sphere of action, but for the Legislature & Executive also, in their spheres, would make the judiciary a despotic branch.” Thomas Jefferson

“The powers properly belonging to one of the departments ought not to be directly and completely administered by either of the other departments. It is equally evident, that none of them ought to possess, directly or indirectly, an overruling influence over the others, in the administration of their respective powers. It will not be denied, that power is of an encroaching nature, and that it ought to be effectually restrained from passing the limits assigned to it.” James Madison

“A question arises whether all the powers of government, legislative, executive, and judicial, shall be left in this body? I think a people cannot be long free, nor ever happy, whose government is in one Assembly.”
John Adams

“Our government is now taking so steady a course as to show by what road it will pass to destruction, to wit, by consolidation first, and then corruption…. The engine of consolidation will be the federal judiciary; the two other branches the corrupting and corrupted instruments.” Thomas Jefferson

“There is even now something of ill omen amongst us. I mean that increasing disregard for law which pervades the country — the growing disposition to substitute the wild and furious passion in lieu of the sober judgment of courts, and the worse than savage mobs for the executive ministers of justice. The disposition is awfully fearful in any community; and that it now exists in ours … it would be a violation of truth to deny.” Abraham Lincoln

“The great object of my fear is the federal judiciary. That body, like gravity, ever acting with noiseless foot and unalarming advance, gaining ground step by step and holding what it gains, is engulfing insidiously the [state] governments into the jaws of that [federal government] which feeds them.” Thomas Jefferson

“You seem to consider the judges the ultimate arbiters of all constitutional questions; a very dangerous doctrine indeed, and one which would place us under the despotism of an oligarchy. Our judges … and their power [are] the more dangerous as they are in office for life, and are not responsible, as the other functionaries are, to the elective control. The Constitution has erected no such single tribunal, knowing that to whatever hands confided, with the corruptions of time and party, its members would become despots. It has more wisely made all the departments co-equal and co-sovereign within themselves … . When the legislative or executive functionaries act unconstitutionally, they are responsible to the people in their elective capacity. The exemption of the judges from that is quite dangerous enough. I know of no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society, but the people themselves.” Thomas Jefferson

“I fear, dear Sir, we are now in such another crisis, with this difference only, that the judiciary branch is alone and single-handed in the present assaults on the Constitution. But its assaults are more sure and deadly, as from an agent seemingly passive and unassuming.” Thomas Jefferson

We have concluded that Thomas Jefferson had as great a fear of the Judiciary as we have developed and for this reason, as well as others, we really love Thomas Jefferson.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

Things We Need Know for After Inauguration

 

The mainstream media does have some useful information if one can stand reading long enough to glean something useful. What one need remember is the mainstream media is also the playbook, play caller, coach, quarterback, message board, megaphone and the best comical future picture painter imaginable for the extreme left and Democrat Party, though we repeat ourselves. Despite great agony and struggling through as many typos and misspelled words, we would like to think even more than we miss here at BTC; these are a few of the items we found.

 

The most important item which has been made clear in so many ways is that the Presidency of Donald Trump will have been the greatest disaster in American history. Once in office, President Donald Trump will have wasted the talent, what little there may be, of his Cabinet and anybody who is worth a plug nickel will have quit within the first six months, if not weeks or days, because they will find they cannot work with such a megalomaniacal dunce whose brightest ideas will be which club to use when playing miniature golf as he will not even be capable of playing real golf as well a President Barack Obama had. The American people will find that they miss having President Obama in the White House with his steady hand guiding the nation through peril after peril while a President Trump will be have been causing peril after peril. The predictions of disasters continued with the statement that President Trump will have started a war with China, Mexico, most of Europe, Iran, North Korea, Cuba, much of South America, possibly Canada and will be in bed with the Russians serving the demands and at the beck and call of Putin and being led around through Russian hackers feeding him information through Twitter posts. These were some of the highlights but there was far more.

 

The Congress will revolt against President Trump as the legislation he sends them will appear to have been written by one of the beauty queens from his pageant days or one of the fired apprentices. Congress will be forced to be the adult in the government and the Democrats are prepared to prevent President Trump from causing any real or serious damage to the standing of the United States in the world. The Democrats will follow through magnificently in their promise to protect the high standards set by President Obama in his dealing in foreign policy. The Democrats will have found many the Republican allies who also understand the need to protect the United States from President Trump and are prepared to block everything sent to Congress by President Trump (this one almost has a ring of validity even we must admit). There will prove to be many Republican lawmakers who will be adult enough to admit their party sent a man-child to do the grown-up job of president and will work to message this childish egomaniac’s feelings of self-worth by stroking his self-image while rewriting any legislation making it work for the people and help those who require government to assist them in managing their lives rather than giving the rich more wealth taken from the backs of the most needy. The idea that the wealthy can be enriched by taking wealth from the most needy has always baffled us as the most needy do not have sufficient wealth to even make the average American wealthier by any actual measure, let alone the wealthy. Of course we realize they really mean giving largess from the government coffers to the wealthiest rather than giving it to the most needy, though the government does appear to do a great amount of both. This can be seen in the fact that many on welfare have a decent apartment with air-conditioning, at least one television, more often than not at least one computer or game console, a microwave, cable television feed, Internet access and most have at least one vehicle. This is about average for a middle class family back in the 1970’s had with obvious changes due to technological advancements. Let us return to what we found in the media, mostly online versions of print media.

 

By the end of President Trump’s first year even the most stalwart Republicans will have fallen in line with bringing impeachment against the President simply out of abject fear he is on track to force the next world war, had proven dangerously reckless with threats of using nuclear weapons and the Joint Chiefs of Staff will have reportedly had to step into the breach and invalidate Presidential orders to launch nuclear missiles. The similarities of the accusation for President Trump once in office to start wars, infuriate adversaries and allies alike and threaten the future existence of the world through madly wild and careless use of nuclear weapons as a threat and actually attempting to launch nuclear missiles to be similar but even more over the top than the predictions made about Ronald Reagan after he won the election and both before and while he was in office. The madness the mainstream media is predicting can only be found in rare old movie plots where somebody goes off their rocker and orders nuclear weapons use such as in the movies “Failsafe” and “Dr. Strangelove or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb.” The ever more hyped predictions of doom are only exceeded by the forlorn lamentations over the fact that President Obama is not permitted to continue in office and remold the United States as had the nearly four terms of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. These discussions almost universally then diverge into discussions of how had President Obama run against Donald Trump how Barack Obama would have won in the largest and most humiliating landslide even beyond President Reagan. Some even add how had Bernie Sanders won the primaries, then he too would have cleaned Donald Trump’s clock easily gliding to victory. And then we get the Russians stole the election for Donald Trump and from there we find ourselves back in the Donald Trump will simply be the puppet of Vladimir Putin and he will be the Manchurian Candidate preprogrammed by Russian hackers to do Putin’s bidding. Those Russian hackers are good if they can reprogram people wirelessly, or is it Donald Trump is a Russian built android sent to run the United States for their needs? That is about the only stories not found in the mainstream media, yet.

 

Dr. Strangelove or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb

 

With all this, there will be wild speculation on how the world and the nation of the United States will be dependent upon Congress, the Joint Chiefs of Staff and just about every proper-thinking American working tirelessly to protect the nation from the inevitable debacles which will be coming from the White House and raining ruin everywhere if not checked. This presumed future is then compared with the glory which was President Obama who for eight long and challenging years arduously and tirelessly worked to prevent the economic collapse of the world (or was it universe) and prevent ever more wars and so gloriously earned that Nobel Peace Prize and was worthy of so many more honors. We are forewarned how we will be shell-shocked by the bald faced incompetence of the incoming President and how his Cabinet will resemble a three ring circus after the initial appointees realize that President Trump is merely using them as window dressing and targets on which to place the blame when President Trump’s harebrained ideas explode on contact with reality. I guess that hope that things would return to normal with the United States playing a steadying role in the world are simply pipe-dreams as the media has explained in gruesome details. The United States presumably is about to crash and burn under President Trump as compared to the glorious years under President Obama’s tutelage.

 

All this pessimism demands we give our idea as to what is coming after January 20, 2017. Unfortunately, the initial actions of a Trump Presidency are dependent upon what outgoing President Obama does in the next days leading up to noon of Inauguration Day. We really do mean up until noon on that day and perhaps past if the ceremony takes place minutes late as is usually the case. Should President Obama take a Paris conference accord proposal for the establishment and invention of an Arab state called Palestine carved from the lands legally belonging to Israel and without Israeli consent and signature on a treaty, then President Trump will have a difficult task facing him immediately after taking office. Should President Obama have his co-conspirators bring a Chapter Seven Resolution declaring Palestine a reality with full Statehood recognized by the UNSC with the Green Line (the 1949 Armistice Line between Jordan and Israel demarking the front lines and the Israeli lands illegally occupied by Jordan) then President Trump will need coordinate with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu a response and course of action to overturn the decision. This will be possible and an eventuality as such a resolution, Chapter Seven or any other manner of resolution, is illegal as it breaks the United Nations Charter Article 80 which recognized all the demarcations and wordings of the Mandate System and all other resolutions in effect from the League of Nations. This makes the Jordan River the eastern border of the Jewish State of Israel. That is the international law recognizing the Israeli eastern border and there is no mention whatsoever of any Arab entity or Nation west of the Jordan River. This was also the reason behind an Egyptian Justice who sat on the International Court of Justice when the UNGA requested a ruling on the Security Barrier Israel had erected to prevent further suicide bombers and other terrorism. The barrier accomplished much of what it was intended to accomplish and the ICJ did not demand it be removed. As noted yesterday, the Honorable Justice El Araby warned the UNGA and others that filing further ran some risks, as he stated,

 

“The international legal status of the Palestinian Territory (paras. 70-71 of the Advisory Opinion), in my view, merits more comprehensive treatment. A historical survey is relevant to the question posed by the General Assembly, for it serves as the background to understanding the legal status of the Palestinian Territory on the one hand and underlines the special and continuing responsibility of the General Assembly on the other. This may appear as academic, without relevance to the present events. The present is however determined by the accumulation of past events and no reasonable and fair concern for the future can possibly disregard a firm grasp of past events. In particular, when on more than one occasion, the rule of law was consistently side-stepped. The point of departure, or one can say in legal jargon, the critical date, is the League of Nations Mandate which was entrusted to Great Britain.”

 

Beyond this, President Trump has already indicated he will work towards repeal of UNSC Resolution 2334 recently passed under Chapter Six due to the United States efforts behind the scenes and their blatant determination to injure Israel punishing her because she refused to roll over and die when demanded to do so by President Obama and his team during the Iran farce of negotiations on the Iranian nuclear program and their drive for nuclear weapons parity with the United States or, at the least, Israel as well as only complying with most but not every demand for concessions to the Palestinian Authority (PA) while the PA simply sent more requests for concessions for the President and State Department to draw out of Israel. This was payback for the lack of subservient compliance with edicts from upon high, or at least the second floor of the White House.

 

Then there are the promises made by candidate Trump which a President Trump will need to deliver. The first and biggest is tax reform. Trump made some bold statements for initiatives for tax reform. His plans realize that all taxes are actually paid by the people and that such taxes as sales tax and taxes on businesses and industry are simply folded into the price of products which serves two counterproductive results, first the increased price makes United States products priced from the world market where if the prices were more competitive with the other nations, especially those which subsidize their industries generously making United States products unaffordable by comparison and second the higher price hurts the middle and low income people the most as they are paying the taxes and fees. Removing taxes on industry and businesses will make for lower prices on products and slower rate of inflation as sales beyond the border will increase simply due to this one tax being eliminated thus allowing for increased production to meet the new demand which will provide more jobs and eventually rising wages as employment reaches higher percentages as there will be increasing demands for workers. Second the simplification of the income tax levels making them generally lower across all salary ranges and the reduction of claimable deductions will make taxes more fair as with fewer deductions the wealthy will have fewer shelters from income taxes and thus will be paying tax on greater percentages of their income though the lower rate will make this reality less painful for most. Finally, lowering Capital Gains taxes will result in more fluidity in the investment business which will allow the movement of investments to more promising industries and will subsidize innovations. The resetting of Capital Gains such that it does not penalize investors moving funds from one investment to another facilitates start-up companies as there will be more funds available from which to get seed monies invested. Hopefully the congress will resist any urges for recalcitrance and the Republican majorities can show spine and certitude of their convictions and enact the changes to the tax codes and systems.

 

Repeal of Obamacare will be another big challenge as there are some vested interests and too many of those sit in congress. Obamacare grants power over healthcare and its being provided to the people and despite the refusal of Democrats to admit there are established committees which will decide when a person is no longer a viable contribution to society and thus will receive only the most marginal of healthcare and will not receive any life prolonging treatments which are expensive as such high priced care is out of the question. These health panels are not referred to as death panels but that is one of the functions they provide. Still, there are some provisions of the Affordable Care and Patient Protection Act (ACPPA) such as the provision which makes denial of insurance due to preexisting conditions is liked by most as the provision for retaining children under their parents’ insurance through age twenty-six appeals to young adults as well as parent with children in college or graduate school seeking advanced degrees. On the other hand, insurance companies are finding the ACPPA to be a disaster and many are pulling from providing insurance under the law. What need be is return much of the pricing of insurance and the setting of levels of coverage by different plans instead of a one size out of three or four is all you get. The ACPPA also demands certain items be provided coverage and everyone must include such items in their plans. Prenatal care is no more universally necessary as people over sixty have little use for prenatal care just as people who will be having children usually do not need assisted living coverage. Allowing for the tailoring of insurance plans to fit the individual would allow for greater coverage at reasonable prices. All that is actually required for near universal coverage would be a few simple requirements. First and of great importance is all plans covering hospital care past two or three days of being hospitalized with full coverage costing additionally, what used to be called major medical care while leaving routine care payments the responsibility of the patient, prescription drug minimal plan which would cover the price of medications after a minimum is cleared or a set percentage and priced accordingly, and there have to be other such items which would represent minimal coverage or the base plan. Then insurance companies can offer different plans or even a cafeteria style insuring where you choose exactly the parts you desire with price breaks for say every five items granting a percentage in savings. The final item is portability, the ability to take your health insurance across state lines, from one job to the next and other similar challenges. By having employers provide a healthcare bonus if they desire rather than their providing their idea of a great plan for their employees, this too would bring down the general cost of health insurance and could also slow the increases in healthcare costs.

 

This should be sufficient start of ideas to chew upon. Our final item is about how the atmosphere and entire mood of the media has changed since the election. First we have the panicking over the rise in “fake news stories” which have appeared of late. What is most amazing about the “fake news stories” is that many are carried by the mainstream media and not alternative media as much. Another anomaly is that much of the “fake news stories” come from leftist sources and are amplified as they spread across platforms and blogs take these “fake news stories” as being real news and thus making themselves less credible for using what they thought was actual vetted news as they found it in the New York Times, Salon or other such news sources. The uproar over “fake news stories” coming from the media was confusing until we found that there have been a number of nations, the United States and Germany, which have set in place a Department of Information which is designated the ultimate source for real news and for debunking “fake news stories” printed and placed before the public. We gave this deeper coverage in a recent article titled, “The Emergence of Departments of Official Government Truths”. There has also been a resurgence, a rediscovery even, in the fact that there are homeless people and greater care for our mentally challenged citizens who all too many are left out on the streets. Crime rates have become an issue as has any even hint of hate crimes. The greatest fake news and hate crime combination has been the Great Hijab Crime Wave we discussed where a series of Trump supporters attacking, taunting or otherwise belittling and intimidating young college women on university campuses who were wearing a hijab which apparently caused these white males to turn into vicious and demanding monsters. All of the stories proved to be unsubstantiated and were retracted by the very women who brought them forward. Then there are all manner of societal ills which we have not seen coverage of for the past eight years which are creeping back into the new and we can expect the floodgates to fly open on January 20, 2017 in such ferocity that these reports will seem to be as manufactured as the “fake news stories” have struck. Hold on, it is going to be a wild ride going forward, but let us hope we actually do go forward and not flying off into some dark hidden side track which leads to someplace nobody knows for sure.

 

Beyond the Cusp 

 

If Only Americans Would Remember

 

It is a sad fact that the public schools and too many private schools place little if any importance on teaching history, both American and World Histories. The students do not learn about the start of democracy in Athens, one of the numerous Grecian city states before their unification by Alexander the Great. Plato lived amongst the denizens of the Athenian democracy and he saw the tyranny of the majority which he equated with mob rule and thus placed democracy just above tyranny as the worst forms of governance. The deficiencies he saw in the Athenian democratic government led to probably his greatest work on governance, “The Republic” where he devised representative government which would safeguard the minorities protecting their interests from being trampled by the majority while still empowering the majority to hold their proper place of importance in governing. It was partly this work from Plato written before the birth of Jesus that was part and parcel of the governing bodies the United States was fashioned by. There were other political philosophers who were mostly English and some French and the minds of some of the best educated persons in the United States in their day and even then they initially got the balance slightly skewed towards the states in a excessively loose federation and the Constitution was their second attempt and the solution which was decided though imperfect, as anything fashioned by man will be, they felt it was as close as they could get and the amendment process would provide the needful, and only the needful, adjustments to their work.

 

The impetus for the American Revolution is another point which would be very poignant and prescient for students entering the age for voting as the colonists demanded no taxation without representation and were revolting over a tax on tea of 3%, yes, 3% and only on tea. This would seem crazy with the total tax on the average American household reaching from a low end average of 12% to an upper end average of 35%, both many multiples of a 3% tax on one product, even if it was the one product every household purchased as they were still British. That tea tax was the straw that broke the camel’s back and brought on a revolutionary war and the shot heard round the world. It really was as soon after came the French Revolution and other British colonies protesting their taxes but they did so without leaving the realm, at least not at this period of time. Still, free people in elected governments everywhere owe a great deal of thanks to the British aristocracy as they started the entire idea that people had rights. Of course their claim was barons and land owners had rights which they would wrest from the crown with the drafting and signing by the king, after a hard fought war in which he realized he could not prevail as much of his army belonged to the nobles suing for rights, of the Magna Carta. From that document was derived that a King’s power was not absolute but dependent on the advisories and consents of the principled landowners which with the centuries became citizens in good standing and are resting on a precipice teetering towards the consent of all who can claim to be affected by said governance, as an example is the position of certain universalist leftists that everyone on planet earth (for starters we can only guess) be permitted a vote in elections held in the United States as all are affected by American hegemony from which they believe evil begins and a world influence would perfect the nation and its governance. The truth be told, the barons and landowners of 1215 England were prompted by the Bible, in particular the Old Testament limitations placed on kings should the nation of the Israelites ever decide to be as other nations and choose a monarch which they eventually did. These limitations were first set in Torah, the laws given at Mount Sinai in the book of Deuteronomy 17:14-17 which placed the very first laws limiting the powers and impositions of Kings where it read:

 

14When you have come into the land that the Lord your God is giving you, and have taken possession of it and settled in it, and you say, “I will set a king over me, like all the nations that are around me,”
15you may indeed set over you a king whom the Lord your God will choose. One of your own community you may set as king over you; you are not permitted to put a foreigner over you, who is not of your own community.
16Even so, he must not acquire many horses for himself, or return the people to Egypt in order to acquire more horses, since the Lord has said to you, “You must never return that way again.”
17And he must not acquire many wives for himself, or else his heart will turn away; also silver and gold he must not acquire in great quantity for himself.

 

The Prophets went further throughout the Old Testament adding other limitations and requirements for Kings with probably the most humbling and for providing lessons in humility, not that it always had that effect, each King was required to write his own Torah in his own hand and then read the applicable verses for each day at his morning prayers. Of course enforcing this was somewhat problematic as the Prophets power was in his wisdom and the desire of a King to receive wise council but should a King be all full of themselves then they would brook no advice or limitations and would inevitably stray from Torah and the people would suffer under their rule. Should you read the Magna Carta you will see much of it places moral as well as power limitations and demands of the King in exchange for the support of the barons and landowners who also provided the knights for defense of the realm.

 

What is most interesting in the limitations of the Magna Carta was that it was not very much different than the Brexit vote in Britain and the anti-establishment movements in both of the major parties, Republican and Democrat, in the United States. Donald Trump first is not a true right wing conservative which is often the presumed candidate despite their choices since Ronald Reagan have been centrists with the occasional right wing leanings, while the Democrat race was fixed from the start as the party establishment controls close to 40% of the electors so Hillary only needed to garner ten to twelve percent of the remaining electors to win which left Bernie Sanders out of contention almost from the start needing to garner 100% of the remaining electors going into the initial super primary day of March 1, 2016. Truth was nobody was going to disturb the coronation of Hillary Clinton as this was arranged after the 2008 loss to Barack Obama in order to pacify the Clintons and not have them pull their followers and big money donors from backing President Obama in both elections. Still, Bernie made a mess of the centrist game Hillary had hoped to run on and now she is stuck so far into the left wing bleachers that it is doubtful she can find center field by election day and even if she should she will find one Donald Trump already there and not out of breath from the long run from the bleachers.

 

Donald Trump & Hillary Clinton

 

With taxes at record levels since the Carter Administration it is little wonder that the people are seething against the party elites. They have watched their taxes rise to support programs they did not desire and with record numbers of illegal immigrants and the back alley importation of tens if not hundreds of thousands of Middle Eastern “refugees” being hidden in small communities so as to attempt to secretly skirt the main cities and thus not upset the ignorant masses as they would never figure this out with the internet and all the other means for news to reach the people, even the most insulated voters. Their secreting the “refugees” into small communities and largely in states which vote traditionally Republican and that Hillary would not need in order to win in the Electoral College, they hope that nobody will know their little dirty secret until it is too late. Remember that Hillary is promising that the United States has not done enough and she plans on increasing the importation of “Syria refugees” by one-hundred-fold. That would mean she plans on bringing tens of millions of these so-called refugees and believe me she means to do exactly that. The Democrats want to make America failed through and through with no possibility of ever making a recovery. That is not to claim that The Donald would be any form of savior, but we are sure there are many who after researching the third party candidates who are seriously voting Donald Duck or Porky Pig, but may we suggest for amusement sake we all write in Daffy Duck as long as some of us are choosing a duck and avoiding a Donald?

 

Kidding aside, the coming elections for President of the United States and for the makeup of the Congress have never been as serious as they are this election. After eight years of “leading from behind,” the time is ripe for a resurgent America to return roaring onto the scene. Allowing Europe and the United Nations to lead the way on the world stage is tantamount to treason for endangerment of the nation and, with that, the world. Never has a nation left as large a vacuum at the top with the closest comparison being the fall of the Roman Empire which is what allowed the first Islamic Expansion and another is obviously imminent with Europe ripe for the taking if their collective trees can be shaken at their core. Eastern Europe is still emerging as they recover from their Communist Dark Ages while Western Europe teeters on the edge of liberal poised suicide as they stand frozen with fear as their nations prove as vulnerable as their flags pictured below. Their churches deserted and Mosques sprouting in every town, village and neighborhood and where the call to prayer five times each day have replaced the tolling of the church bells echoing in the countryside. Still, there is time for Europe to pull themselves together and defeat this rising hatred seething within their bellies and extinguish the fires currently spreading across Old Europe and soon to threaten New Europe.

 

 

If ever there was an election making the “None of the Above” vote we have previously suggested be adopted by Constitutional Amendment, this election is it. The way the system would work is to win the election or electors a candidate would be required to surpass 50% to gain those votes or gain office. People would have all the candidates listed plus a slot in each elected office for “None of the Above” which would count in the total to find the 50% figure. If “None of the Above” got 20% of the vote then a candidate would be required to garner at least 72% of the remaining votes to surpass the 50% threshold. Should “None of the Above” receive one-third of the vote then the needed would be a full 75% of the remaining votes. Obviously this would force the parties to come up with candidates the people truly would want to vote for as they would have an out should neither party and third party candidates really appeal and this would also make third party candidates more likely to get a second look if the main parties gave the public choices such as they have in the mind of many Americans with the Presidential race.

 

So, voter discontent ran overboard in both of the main parties. The party which valued the choice of their public ended up with a novice real estate developer and investment underwriter who often goes off the rails when unscripted and has an ego larger than Alaska and is an anathema to many of the elite in the party itself while the other party had absolutely no confidence in their public so they ensconced a near majority of their delegates under the tight-fisted control of the party elite requiring whomever the elite chose to get such a small number of delegates that Daffy Duck could have won with such support. Still, even with the elite support, their candidate came out bruised and damaged heading into their convention while the other party had few well known names support them and speak at the convention as they were likely still trying to figure out where they ran off the tracks. So we have two third party candidates either of which would be a comfortable fit with one or the other of the Democrat Party contestants for their spot on the ticket, one with Hillary and the other Bernie in our humble opinion, a Democrat who was promised her turn to try and be the first woman President, also her strongest running point, and the Republican a left of center ego whose id is probably just as attractive as that ego and perhaps if he promises to listen to his subconscious, he would appear a safer bet. That’s your choice America, have at it.

 

Beyond the Cusp