Is There a Republican, Conservative, Constitutionalist, American Coalition Sufficiently Strong and Sophisticated to Defeat Those Who Want to Destroy America

THE REAL NEWS TODAY IS THAT AMERICA IS BEING PULLED APART BY THOSE WHO WOULD DESTROY HER. Shakesepare said it first. He usualy did. In the first act of Hamlet, a palace guard, Marcellus, sees the Ghost of Hamlet's father, the dead king, appear and walk on the palace walls. Marcellus utters one of the most famous lines in all of Shakespeare : “Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.” This line has become the phrase used to describe corruption, or a situation in which something is very wrong. • What was happening in Hamlet was that shortly before midnight, Hamlet meets Horatio on the battlements of the castle. They wait together in the darkness, and from below they hear the sound of the men in the castle laughing and dancing riotously, the King draining his "draughts of Rhenish down." Hamlet tells Horatio he dislikes such riotous behavior. To Hamlet, drinking to excess has ruined the whole nation, which is known abroad as a land full of drunken swine. Horatio spots the Ghost of Hamlet's father approaching. Hamlet calls out to the Ghost and it motions for him to follow it. Despite the fearful pleadings of Horatio and Marcellus -- they think the apparition might be an evil spirit in disguise -- Hamlet follows the Ghost into the dark. Marcellus, shaken by the many recent disturbing events and no doubt angered (as is Hamlet) by new King Claudius's mismanagement of the body politic, astutely notes that Denmark is festering with moral and political corruption. Horatio replies that heaven will guide the state of Denmark to health and stability. • The Ghost then tells Hamlet he is his father's Ghost, doomed for a certain time to walk the earth at night, while during the day he is trapped purgatory doing penance for his past sins. The Ghost tells Hamlet that while everyone was told that a poisonous snake bit and killed him when he was sleeping in the orchard, in fact, that is a lie that’s fooled everyone in Denmark. The Ghost says that Hamlet, his noble son and Prince, should know that the real snake that stung him -- Claudius -- is now wearing his crown. And worse, Claudius used clever words and fancy gifts to seduce Hamlet's mother, whom the Ghost calls a "seemingly virtuous queen." The evil words and gifts made her fall from grace to become a corrupt Queen who feeds on "garbage." The Ghost explains that Hamlet's Uncle Claudius snuck up on him when he was taking his daily nap in the orchard, and poured a vial of poison into his ear. The poison moved like quicksilver through his veins and curdled his blood, and he broke out in a scaly rash that covered his smooth body with a revolting crust. And, says the Ghost, that is how my brother robbed me of my life, my crown, and my queen all at once. • Hamlet goes back to tell Marcellus and Horatio what he heard, but will not give them the details of Claudius' treachery, delivering another famous Shakespeare line, "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than thou hast dreamed of." Hamlet has already hatched his plot to seem crazy in the hope of trapping Claudius into confessing his crimes. He swears Horatio and Marcellus to secrecy, warning them that no matter how strangely he acts, they must never, ever let on that they know anything about what happened on that fateful night when the Ghost appeared. He makes them swear upon his sword, and the Ghost, listening from below, is satisfied and leaves. Then Hamlet utters the famous words : "The time is out of joint. O cursèd spite,That ever I was born to set it right!" • The plot to save Denmark is about to begin. (Hamlet, Act I, scenes 4 and 5.) • • • CORRUPTION IN THE UNITED STATES. Any thoughtful American who reads Shakespeare's description of the state of corruption in Denmark must think about his or her own country, the United States, where corruption and mismanagement of the body politic are rife, and only Hamlet -- in the form of Donald Trump -- seems to understand and fight against the rot. Trump is not playing the crazy prince, but he is being called a fool and unbalanced, and unfit to be President. The similarities between Hamlet's Denmark and Trump's America are frighteningly obvious. American corruption and signs of the collapse of its political system are everwhere. • • • SANCTUARY CITIES. Yet another federal judge has intervened in the legislative prerogatives, ruling that the Attorney General cannot stop payments to sanctuary cities that refuse to cooperate with federal officials. US District Judge Harry Leinenweber made the ruling last Friday, granting Chicago's request for a temporary "nationwide" injunction, by ruling specifically that Attorney General Jeff Sessions can't withhold public grant money from so-called sanctuary cities for refusing to follow federal immigration policies. • The ruling means the Justice Department cannot deny grant money requests at least until Chicago's lawsuit against the DOJ is concluded and Leibenweber issues his decision. Leinenweber wrote that Chicago has shown a "likelihood of success" in its arguments that Sessions overstepped his authority with the requirements.The city of Chicago sued the Trump administration in August after it threatened to withhold funds from sanctuary cities. Chicago refused to comply with the Justice Department's demand that it allow immigration agents access to local jails and notify agents when someone in the US is about to be released from custody. At least seven cities and counties, including Seattle and San Francisco, as well as the state of California, have refused to cooperate with new federal sanctuary city rules. Judge Leinenweber, a Reagan appointee, explained that he halted the DOJ policy nationwide because there is "no reason to think that the legal issues present in this case are restricted to Chicago or that the statutory authority given to the Attorney General would differ in another jurisdiction." In July, the DOJ announced that a popular grant program that provides money to local law enforcement for training and supplies would only apply "to cities and states that comply with federal law, allow federal immigration access to detention facilities, and provide 48 hours notice before they release an illegal alien wanted by federal authorities." Sessions stated that sanctuary cities like Chicago that prohibit local law enforcement from aiding Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents make cities less safe : “So-called sanctuary policies make all of us less safe because they intentionally undermine our laws and protect illegal aliens who have committed crimes. These policies also encourage illegal immigration and even human trafficking by perpetuating the lie that in certain cities, illegal aliens can live outside the law." • AND, on Saturday, the California legislature passed “sanctuary state” legislation, even as President Trump and his administration have vowed to crack down on jurisdictions that do not cooperate with federal immigration agents. The California bill limits police cooperation with federal immigration authorities and is intended to bolster protections for illegal immigrants in the state. The acting director of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) warned on Saturday of “tragic consequences,” saying the policy “will make California communities less safe.” Thomas Homan, ICE acting director, said : “By passing this bill, California politicians have chosen to prioritize politics over public safety. Disturbingly, the legislation serves to codify a dangerous policy that deliberately obstructs our country’s immigration laws and shelters serious criminal alien offenders.” Homan said ICE wants to work with local law enforcement to prevent “dangerous criminal aliens” from being released back onto the streets. The California legislation will now be considered by Democrat Governor Jerry Brown, who announced support after the state Senate leader agreed to water down the bill and preserve authority for jail and prison officials to cooperate with immigration officers in many cases. But, the bill that passed Saturday still prohibits law enforcement officials from asking about a person's immigration status or participating in immigration enforcement efforts. It also prohibits law enforcement officials from being deputized as immigration agents or arresting people on civil immigration warrants. • The debate about sanctuary cities took off in July 2015 when Katie Steinle, 32, was killed as she strolled along the San Francisco waterfront with her father. Steinle was fatally shot by a man with a criminal record who had slipped into the US multiple times illegally. • Corruption? Mismanagement of the body politic? There are few examples more blatant than that of cities, and now an entire state, refusing to help federal ICE officials who are simply trying to prevent criminal illegal immigrants from harming Americans. • • • SPECIAL COUNSEL MUELLER'S LATEST ADDITION TO HIS LEGAL TEAM. The newest addition to the team of Special Counsel and former FBI Director Robert Mueller -- who is probing Russian interference in the 2016 election and digging deep into unrelated Trump family business and taxes and seemingly trying to intimidate friends and colleagues of President Trump to turn on him by investigating their actions unrelated to their connections to the Trump campaign team -- is a prime example of what lawyers are not supposed to be. Besides her work for Obama, Kyle Freeny has, according to Federal Election Commission records, donated in each of the past three presidential elections to Democrat nominees, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. Freeny is one of nine attorneys on Mueller’s team who has donated to Democrats a total of nearly $65,000, according to The Daily Caller. • Much worse, Freeny and her colleagues came under judicial fire while defending a lawsuit in which Texas and 25 other states contested Obama’s executive order on immigration. The federal judge hearing the case, US District Judge Andrew Hanen, blasted Freeny and her colleagues for misleading him when the litigation began by indicating that none of the changes Obama had ordered had taken effect. In actuality, one major change, to issue longer work permits, had already begun. Hanen said the government lawyers had engaged in “misconduct” that was “intentional, serious and material.” Hanen added : “In fact, it is hard to imagine a more serious, more calculated plan of unethical conduct.” Judge Hanen eventually dropped plans to impose sanctions on the government lawyers. • Corruption? What about the Mueller campaign to find a crime that might mead to Trump's impeachment, no matter how far afield of their mandate they have to roam and no matter how intimidating they have to be wiht witnesses. Mismanagement of the body politic? What about sitting PResdident Obama defying a federal judge and then lying about it through his laywers who are sworn as "officers of the court" to uphold the Consstitution. • • • THE BLUE SLIP -- DEMOCRAT SENATORS ETERMINED TO STOP TRUMP JUDICIAL NOMINEES. After Senator Franken of Minnesota threatened to use the traditional 100-year-old "blue slip" to prevent a vote on Trump nominee David Stras to the federal 8th Circuit, even though Stras is now sitting on the Minnesota Supreme Court, momentum has been building in Republican Senate ranks to do away with an arcane rule that is now allowing Democrat Senators to block some of President Trump’s judicial nominees. The “blue-slip” rule -- a precedent upheld by Senate tradition -- allows a home-state Senator to stop a lower-court nominee by refusing to return a sheet of paper, known as a blue slip, to the Judiciary Committee. Conservatives have clamored for months to get rid of the rule, arguing Democrats are abusing the process to block qualified nominees. They recently gained a powerful ally when Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told the Nex York Times that at least when it comes to picks for the US courts of appeals : "My personal view is that the blue slip, with regard to circuit court appointments, ought to simply be a notification of how you’re going to vote, not the opportunity to blackball." He added that he supports keeping the blue slip rule for district court judges, whose decisions can get appealed to the circuit court. • With Trump and congressional Republicans struggling to find major legislative wins because of Democrat opposition to everything they propose, the courts offer perhaps the best path for the GOP to make lasting change in the majority. President Trump currently has 144 vacancies to fill in the federal court system, with nominees already named for 45 of those spots. The vacancies include 21 on the circuit court, which span multiple states and ranks only below the Supreme Court. Because the Senate's "blue slip" practice isn't a rule but a tradition enforced by the Judiciary Committee chairman, the decision on whether or not to move forward ultimately rests with GOP Senator Chuck Grassley. But, Democrats are prepared to test the blue-slip issue. Democrat Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley of Oregon are pledging they will not return their slips for Ryan Bounds, Trump’s 9th Circuit pick, or “any other nominee that has not been selected through our judicial process." They wrote to the White House : "As Senators charged with the task for advice and consent in the selection of candidates, we take our responsibility to identify and recommend candidates to fill Oregon judicial vacancies very seriously." In addition to Stras and Bounds, Democrat Senators. Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin, Bob Casey of Pennsylavania, and Michael Bennet of Colorado have a Trump judicial pick from their home states awaiting a hearing before the Judiciary Committee. And seven additional circuit court seats that Trump still needs to fill will come from states that have at least one Democrat Senator, including Minority Leader Charles Schumer of New York. • Blue slips are the best tool Democrats have to slow down or block a judicial nominee. They did away with the 60-vote filibuster for lower-court nominees when they held the majority in 2013 and Harry Reid was Majority Leader trying to get Obama judicial nominees past Republicans, who followed suit by ending the filibuster for Supreme Court nominees earlier this year to get consent for Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch. Now, a coalition of liberal groups is putting pressure on Democrat Senators to oppose any judicial nominee from Trump, who they call “a white supremacist who has no respect for the Constitution and the rule of law. CREDO Action wrote in a petition call to its supporters : "Even though they do not have the numbers to block Trump’s nominees, keeping Trump from being able to fill even a portion of the total vacancies could limit the damage he inflicts on our courts. Senior members of the Judiciary Committee like Senators Feinstein, Leahy and Klobuchar must commit to total resistance.” Ranking Judiciary Committee member Senator Dianne Feinstein of California is urging Republicans to keep the blue slip tradition, saying : “It’s the prerogative of home-state Senators to evaluate potential federal judicial nominees and determine whether or not they are mainstream and well-suited to hold these important positions of public trust, which have real-world consequences for their constituents.” • Democrat Senate Minority Leader Schumer and McConnell are expected to meet to discuss the issue, though a Senate aide said on Friday that the meeting hadn’t been scheduled yet. • Senator Grassley has, so far, not said what he will do when a home-state Senator opposes a nomination. But he’s hinted that the blue-slip rule could go by the wayside, at least in same cases. Grassley told C-SPAN : “It’s much more a White House decision on circuit judges than the district court judges. I mean, this is going to be an individual case-by-case decision, but it leads me to say that there’s going to have to be a less strict use or obligation to the blue-slip policy for circuit, because that’s the way it’s been.” Other GOP Senate leaders will support Grassley if he decides ot eliminate the blue slip for circuit court nominees. Orrin Hatch, a former Judiciary Committee chariman, says : “We’ve never really had an absolute blue-slip process on circuit court judges, so if the Democrats are trying to do that, that’s wrong.” And, Senator John Cornyn of Texas, the No. 2 Senate Republican, added : “There’s consultation, which is important, but we’re not going to let an individual Senator reverse the outcome of the last presidential election.” Cornyn, when asked if he was worried about the potential implications down the road, answered it is a reality Republicans could face : “Well the Democrats have shown they are willing to go to extreme measures anyways, so I wouldn’t be surprised.” • Mismanagement of the body politic? Yes, because what worked when the Senate, was a courteous institution that honored differences of opinion, in today's atmosphere of refusal to be either courteous or respectful of other Senators' opinions, McConnell must adapt so that the People's business can be conducted. • • • STEVE BANNON SPEAKS OUT ABOUT THE GOP. Former White House Chief Strategist and current Breitbart News Executive Chairman Steve Bannon gave an exclusive interview to CBS’ 60 Minutes in early September, speaking with Charlie Rose. For many, this was an extraordinarily rare peek into the mind of a man who some political-watchers have called “the most media-savvy figure in America.” Bannon was given free rein by Charlie Rose to talk about President Trump, trade with China, the ongoing crisis with North Korea, immigration issues, public relations in the White House and factions he said were at war with one another within the Republican Party. Bannon made some key points : • Bannon believes the Republican Party is at war with itself, split into those who have joined President Trump’s “populist revolution” and who support “economic nationalism” and are against globalism, and those who have not, and are not. Bannon said he believes both Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and, to a lesser degree, House Majority Leader Paul Ryan are blatantly trying to obstruct the President’s agenda, saying that he feels McConnell, Ryan and a number of other key Congressional leaders are in effect trying to “nullify the results of the 2016 election” when it comes to the President and many of his policies. As just one example, Bannon related the story of when Mitch McConnell first attended a meeting with the President and his team at Trump Tower. McConnell reportedly said to Bannon at the end of the meeting that the Trump team’s constant talk of “draining the Swamp” had to cease immediately. But, Bannon believes that this is healthy for the Republican Party and that President Trump will win this bitter battle in the end. Bannon also believes that the Democratic Party is also fractured internally, but its fissures have not yet surfaced, and he believes that the Democrats won’t be able to regain majority political power until this occurs and is resolved to a degree. • Bannon believes that Obamacare may not be able to be discarded by Congress. In what was almost an admission that “the Swamp” is winning the Obamacare battle, Bannon said he thinks Obamacare likely will not be able to be repealed and that instead, it probably will only be reformed, to the extent that Congressional lawmakers are pushed -- many against their will -- to make changes to the controversial program. Despite great popular support for replacing Obamacare, Bannon says it ill take until the 2020 elections to shake up Congress -- when he sees Republicans taking additional seats in the Senate. • Bannon believes the “Deep State” may take decades to be eradicated : “The permanent political class, as represented by both parties...you’re not going to drain that in eight months. You’re not going to drain it in two terms. This is going to take 10, 15, 20 years of relentlessly going after it.” Bannon explained that nine of America’s wealthiest counties encircle Washington, DC, telling Rose : “The Swamp is a business model." • Bannon believes Trump’s biggest mistake was firing James Comey, saying he believes in federal departments and agencies as Washington institutions, and therefore, the FBI as an entity and as a culture is larger than any single person -- including Comey -- and so it simply can’t be eliminated or changed by dismissing just one person; there’s a philosophy and a modus operandi that’s in place at the FBI that’s part and parcel of its identity. Bannon also said he believes that had Trump not fired Comey, the President would likely not have Special Counsel Robert Mueller doing an independent investigation into potential Russian collusion and/or influence on the 2016 election. • Bannon believes that immigration could be a way the Democrats could take on Republicans in 2018. Regarding the Deferred Action for Childhood Admissions (DACA) status that the President has indicated he wants to get rid of in six months, Rose accused Bannon of callousness, saying, “There’s no path to citizenship, no path to a green card and -- no amnesty. Amnesty is non-negotiable...It’s what people respect America for; it’s that people have been able to come here, find a place, contribute to the eonomy. That’s what immigration has been in America. And you seem to want to turn it around and stop it.” But Bannon refused that line of argument : “You couldn’t be more dead-wrong. America was built on her citizens...Look at the 19th century. What built America is called the American system, from Hamilton to Polk to Henry Clay to Lincoln to the Roosevelts. A system of protection of our manufacturing, a financial system that lends to manufacturers, and the control of our borders. Economic nationalism is what this country was built on. The American system. Right? We go back to that. We look after our own. We look after our citizens, we look after our manufacturing base, and guess what? This country’s going to be greater, more united and more powerful than it’s ever been.” • If Republicans, who control the House and White House, and a slim majority in the Senate, are having so much trouble agfreeing, as Steve Bannon sees it, then what is ahead for the United States? Bannon says that deep division in the GOP over immigrant amnesty could cost Republicans at the ballot box in 2018 midterm elections. "If this goes all the way down to its logical conclusion, in February and March, it will be a civil war inside the Republican Party that will be every bit as vitriolic as 2013. And to me, doing that in the springboard of primary season for 2018 is extremely unwise.” • • • DEAR READERS, the corruption and mismanagement of the body politic seems to thrive now because of the inability of Republicans in Congress and President Trump to unite to overcome the objections of Democrats who are tied to those seeking amnesty after illegally entering the US -- it is a voter bloc for Democrats that will make a bigger and bigger difference in voting results if allowed to continue. Controlling the borders and protecting legal immigrants and Americans from an influx of illegals who are cast-in-stone voters for Democrats, sometimes through voter fraud, should be a slam dunk. That it is not, that Americans and legal residents are in danger form criminal illegals who are protected by sanctuary cities and Democrat resistance in Congress, speaks volumes about the current state of the American Republic. It is every bit as divided as the "house divided against itself" that President Lincoln described during the Civil War. • And, we should nor forget that the broader, philosophical arguments about the Constitution and the Founders 'vision' are always fought out in concrete, practical terms. It is easy to say that the sanctuary city phenomenon will pass when the larger immigration issues are resolved. But, that argument was used in the 1840s and 1850s when all sorts of compromises were enacted to try to patch together a country half free and half slave. It failed then. And, patching together a thousand compromises will not resolve the basic issue today -- is the United States a country with borders and laws, and who enacts and enforces those laws. No compromise by Republicans wanting to eliminate slavery -- note that they almost always ceded ground to the slavery proponents -- worked to prevent slavery-supporting states from seceding in 1861. Today, any and all compromises -- whether about DACA young illegals or border walls or acquiescing to the very questionable idea that a city or county or state can simply choose to disobey federal laws on an issue placed by the Constitution in the office of the President -- will keep the Democrat Golbalists at bay for long. They will be back for the next bite of the apple for as long as the GOP Congress and President Trump hold the apple out to them. • I have grave doubts about the future of the United States as a constitutional Republic. Respect for law, tradition, courtesy and common sense are rapidly vanishing from American politics. I often feel that we supporters of the Consitution and the Republic it created are standing on JFK's wall trying to hold back the hordes who are coming fast upon us and growing in number every day. They don't understand -- or cynically pretend not to understand -- what we are talking about, so how can they possibly agree with us about maintaining the Constitution's framework? These Know-Nothings could win by sheer numbers. They are crude, vulgar, and proud of it. They are becoming aggressively anti-America, anti-religion, anti-Christianity, anti-Semitic and anti-white. And, they have the money and foot soldier fodder to take what they want with violence. What I fear most is that day when they suddenly form and charge. Will law enforccement and the military try to stop them -- can they stop them without killing so many Americans that the victory would be pyhrric. • Israel's General Yair Golan, who recently completed his service as deputy chief of staff of the IDF with 37 years in uniform, serving in all manner of military tasks and responsibilities, including service on Israel’s Northern Command, and as commander of Northern Command, before becoming deputy chief of staff, recently gave a speech at the The Washington Institute for Near East Policy. His words keep turning in my brain. He is so right that Israel cannot survive an attack from Iran alone -- what he did not say is that there is a growing likelihood that the US cannot survive as it was founded, especially when the attack is from within. General Golan told his audience : "The bad news is that I believe that we end an era, the most promising of Israel. Now, you would say, how can you say something like that? You fight all the time. No, it’s not like that. The wars of the last thirty to forty years were quite simple. This is my, you know, own personal biography, and I have to admit it -- you know, I am very proud, for example, of my role in Operation Defensive Shield, 2002. I fought in every major Palestinian city except Jericho. Very proud. But at the same time, I have to admit that it was against a very, very poor enemy. The enemy is not so poor anymore, so this is the bad news." General Golan went on to say : "The good news is that while looking at the Middle East, with all the changes and the turmoil and the unexpected issues, I would say that if you’re looking from a wider angle, well, we should be quite optimistic. With all the faults, with all the problems, I believe that we are on a path of being stronger, more capable, more sophisticated, and more fitted for future challenges." • In a real and practical sense, America has allowed its "Enemy Within" to grow into a behemoth that is challenging the hand that fed and strengthened it. The enemy, to quote General Golan, is "not so poor anymore." Is it too late to pull together a "more capable, more sophisticated" coalition led by a Republican Party united behind the Constitution and America's elected leader, President Donald Trump, that will undo the destruction caused by almost a century of acquiescing, of compromise that has weakened all the precepts we believe in as Americans. I hope so. Because the alternative -- as President Lincoln finally had to admit -- was civil war. The only other future was partition into two nations, and Lincoln refused to accept that. Are we Republicans, we conservatives, we constitutionalists, we Americans ready to stand up and be counted?