Davy Crockett, the Tennessee Mounted Volunteers, and the Texans Would Stand with President Trump Fighting for America -- Remember the Alamo When You Say MAGA

THE BATTLE OF THE ALAMO. The battle of the Alamo was fought over issues like federalism, slavery, immigration rights, the cotton industry and above all, money. General Santa Ana arrived at San Antonio with his Mexican army and with some justice regarded the Texans as barbarians -- surely he didn't mean Davy Crockett and the contingent of Tennessee Volunteers who were there. In "Gone to Texas, David Folds tells the story of Davy Crockett leaving Memphis to head for Texax, claim some land and try to serve as a representative at the upcoming Texas Constitutional Convention. However, to do so, he needed to travel across Texas to the town of San Antonio de Bexar, where the anti-Jacksonians had congregated. Folds says : "East Texas was full of Jacksonians, and Crockett was no longer on their good side due to his opposition to many of Andrew Jackson’s policies. While in Nacogdoches, two of Crockett’s companions decided that they didn’t want any part of the political turmoil, so they headed back to Tennessee, choosing not to give up their US citizenship. Meanwhile, Crockett and Patton joined up with a volunteer army group opposed to military commander and Jacksonian, Sam Houston. The group, lead by 25-year old William B. Harrison of Ohio, decided to take on the name, “The Tennessee Mounted Volunteers,” in honor of their newly joined celebrity, David Crockett. They headed west, arriving in San Antonio on February 8, 1836, two days after delegates to the Constitutional Convention had been elected and sent to Washington-on-the-Brazos. After celebrating George Washington’s birthday on February 22, 1836, the Texan garrison of San Antonio de Bexar was caught off guard by the leading troops of General Santa Anna’s military force approaching the town the following morning. The garrison rushed into the Alamo, an old adobe mission across the San Antonio River from the town, to use as their fortress. Although some improvements had been made to the wall for such an occasion, the mission fortress was too large for such a small occupying force. Despite internal strife over leadership between Colonel William Barrett Travis and Colonel James Bowie, brother of Resin Bowie, maker of the famous Bowie knife, the garrison managed to hold out for 13 days. Crockett actually declined an official leadership position in the fort, choosing instead to hold the post of 'a high private.' The Mounted Tennessee Volunteers were given the defense of the weakest position in the fort, the wooden palisade extending from the Alamo chapel across to the south wall. Though the weakest position in the fort, it was one of the last to fall during the final assault by the Mexican troops. Before dawn of March 6, 1836, the Mexicans launched their great assault. They retreated twice before successfully entering the fort through a breach in the north wall. The battle only lasted for 90 minutes with all Texan defenders killed, except for the possibility of a few taken captive and then tortured and killed. Some Mexican accounts claim Crockett was one of these few taken captive." The Tennessee Mounted Volunteers and Texans -- about 180 in all -- defended the Alamo, fighting for Texan independence from Mexico. The defeat at the Alamo in 1836 was significant for Texas because it gave the Texans a reason to fight for their independence. The small number of Texans who fought at the Alamo and were tortured and killed led to a greater stimulus for gaining independence from the rule of Mexico for the Texans. Remembering how badly the Texans had been defeated at the Alamo, on April 21, 1836, the Texas militia under Sam Houston launched a surprise attack against the forces of Mexican General Santa Anna at the Battle of San Jacinto, near present-day Houston, Texas, in what is called one of the most decisive and important battles in American history. This decisive battle is historically significant because a small Texan military force defeated a larger and more experienced Mexican army which resulted in the ultimate independence of Texas from Mexico. Lulled into overconfidence by his initial easy victories, Santa Anna was taken by surprise at San Jacinto, and his army was annihilated on April 21, 1836. The captured Santa Anna, fearing execution, willingly signed an order calling for all Mexican troops to withdraw. Texas became an independent republic. Soon after, Houston was elected president of the Republic of Texas. Having retreated from politics in 1855, Santa Anna remained disconnected until his death in 1876. Santa Anna died at his home in Mexico City on 21 June 1876 at age 82. Folds reminds us : "Whether he was or not [captured and tortured], Crockett, a 49-year old man who went to Texas out of despair in hopes of finding his fortune, died a hero fighting a small battle in a remote frontier. This stand changed the course of history, and although Crockett wasn’t one of the commanders, wasn’t wealthy, wasn’t a great success during his lifetime, he gained the legendary and beloved status we know him by today." • • • IF WE FEEL LIKE SHOUTING "REMEMBER THE ALAMO," THERE MAY BE A REASON. And, the reason has to do with more than the border crisis or any one issue confronting us who wear the MAGA hat today. "Remember the Alamo" has been a battle cry for 183 years, calling Americans to do their duty by performing near-impossible tasks. Today, we have leader who stands in front of us. President Trump will not surrender or compromise away our freedom as Americans. But, his task is every bit as dangerous and daunting as that of the Tennessee Mounted Volunteers and Texans at the Alamo. His battle list is so long that we would be excused for forgetting some items occasionally. And, every day new items crop up on the list. Here are some of the most recent ones. • CLAPPER SAYS OBAMA ORDERED THE INTEL ASSESSMENT OF TRUMP. The Gateway Pundit's Jim Hoft reported last week that : "...former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper went on with CNN’s Anderson Cooper to discuss the Mueller Report after its release....After two years of investigation Special Counsel Robert Mueller and his team of angry Democrats did not find any collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. Mueller also did not find any evidence of conspiracy after President Trump fired crooked leaker FBI Director James Comey. Clapper defended the Obama administration’s spying on their political opposition during the election. And then Clapper appeared to put blame on Barack Obama for spying on his opponent during the 2016 presidential election. Via Red Right Videos : "ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: The 2017 assessment....how can we reconcile the President attacking you, but apparently after a very long time finally, allegedly saying -- or saying he allegedly agrees with the product of the intelligence community that you, yourself oversaw? JAMES CLAPPER: One point I’d like to make, Anderson, that I don’t think has come up very much before, and I’m alluding now to the President’s criticism of President Obama for all that he did or didn’t do before he left office with respect to the Russian meddling. If it weren’t for President Obama, we might not have done the intelligence community assessment that we did that set off a whole sequence of events which are still unfolding today, notably, special counsel Mueller’s investigation. President Obama is responsible for that, and it was he who tasked us to do that intelligence community assessment in the first place. I think it’s an important point when it comes to critiquing President Obama." The CNN video is available on You Tube at : < https://youtu.be/XnKK5NnPJcQ >. • How much closer to the truth does the DOJ need to be before it opens a special counsel investigation into the Obama-led cabal against his political opponent, Donald Trump? • • • HOUSE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE SUBPOENAS MUELLER REPORT. Fox News's Brooke Singman reported on Wednesday that the House Judiciary Committee has voted to approve subpoenas for the full, unredacted Mueller report. The authorization of subpoenas gives Democrats on the committee the option to issue them....The House Judiciary Committee voted along party lines Wednesday to authorize subpoenas for Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s full report after the Justice Department missed a Democrat-imposed deadline, in a major escalation of the battle between Congress and the Trump administration over access to underlying documents and evidence from the Russia probe. The vote was 24-17, with all Democrats supporting and all Republicans opposed. The authorization of subpoenas does not mean the Committee will issue them but gives Democrats on the panel the option to do so. Republicans fumed over the move, accusing their counterparts of 'political theater' since the DOJ has already pledged to cooperate." • Attorney General Bill Barr says his team must first redact sensitive information, but Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., said Democrats want access to the totality of the documents : "The Trump administration has an idea. They want to redact the Mueller report before they provide it to Congress. The Department of Justice says the proposal is a means to protect sensitive information that would not ordinarily be made part of the record. But we have reason to suspect this administration’s motives....And, in any event, this committee has a job to do. The Constitution charges Congress with holding the President accountable for alleged official misconduct. That job requires us to evaluate the evidence for ourselves -- not the Attorney General’s summary, not a substantially redacted synopsis, but the full report and the underlying evidence." Ranking Judiciary Committee Member Doug Collins, R-Ga., fired back at Nadler, noting that authorizing subpoenas, and threatening to use them, "is confusing since the Attorney General is doing exactly what he said he would be doing -- making as much of the report public as possible under federal law and department policy....Why are we here doing preemptive subpoenas?" Last week, AG Barr announced that the Justice Department and the special counsel were “well along in the process of identifying and redacting” sensitive material in the more than 300-page report and would likely have it to Congress by mid-April, “if not sooner.” But Democrats set a deadline of April 2 for the full report to be released to Congress and to the public. That deadline was missed. • We know what Nadler's real job is -- take over the Mueller probe, re-label it congressional "oversight," and try to find any concoction of words and innuendo that will permit the House to impeach President Trump. • • • FIRMS TIED TO FUSION GPS, CHRISTOPHER STEELE WERE PAID $3.8 MILLION BY SOROS-BACKED GROUP. That is what Daily Caller reporter Chuck Ross published on Monday. Ross reported : "The Democracy Integrity Project [TDIP], a nonprofit that receives funding from George Soros, paid firms tied to Fusion GPS and Christopher Steele more than $3.8 million in 2017. Tax filings show that The Democracy Integrity Project provided its research to 'government entities.' The group’s founder [Daniel J. Jones], a former staffer for Dianne Feinstein, has described it as a 'shadow media organization' that helps the government....The payments made by The Democracy Integrity Project are more than three times what the DNC and the Clinton campaign paid Fusion GPS and Steele during the 2016 presidential campaign to investigate Donald Trump’s possible ties to Russia. Perkins Coie, the law firm that represented the DNC and Clinton campaign, paid $1 million to Fusion GPS in 2016 to investigate Trump. Fusion GPS in turn paid Steele, a former MI6 officer, nearly $170,000 for a project that resulted in the infamous Steele Dossier. Steele’s report, which alleged a 'well-coordinated conspiracy' between the Trump campaign and the Russian government, has come under intense scrutiny in the wake of the special counsel’s findings in the 22-month Russia probe....Jones, a former staffer to California Democrat Sen. Dianne Feinstein, founded TDIP on Jan. 31, 2017, seemingly to resume Democrats’ investigation of Trump’s possible links to Russia....The group paid $3.3 million to Bean LLC., the holding company that controls Fusion GPS. Another $250,000 was paid to Walsingham Partners Ltd., a London-based firm owned by Steele and his partner, Christopher Burrows. TDIP paid another London-based intelligence firm called Istok Associates Ltd. nearly $150,000, also for 'research consulting.'....Nearly $130,000 was paid to Edward Austin Ltd., a London-based intelligence consultancy operated by Edward Baumgartner, a Fusion GPS contractor. Another $148,000 was paid to the law firm Zuckerman Spaeder, which has represented Fusion GPS in a variety of Dossier-related legal matters....Adam Waldman, an attorney with links to Christopher Steele, revealed text messages showing that Jones took credit for a Reuters news article that raised questions about Russian purchases of Trump properties in Florida. 'Our team helped with this,' Jones wrote Waldman on March 17, 2017, in a text message provided to the Daily Caller News Foundation. Waldman testified to the Senate Intelligence Committee in November 2017 that Jones told him that SOROS, the progressive billionaire financier, was one of TDIP’s backers. That was confirmed in October, when the New York Times reported that SOROS donated at least $1 million to TDIP." • The Daily Caller has since found that a California-based nonprofit called the Fund for a Better Future (FBF) contributed nearly $2.1 million to TDIP in 2017. It is not clear who provided the donation to FBF as the group does not disclose its donors....The company’s founder is Neil Barnett, a former journalist who has recently investigated possible Russian influence in the Brexit campaign. Barnett co-authored a report released on Oct. 17, 2018, for The Atlantic Council, a Washington, DC, think tank, which focused on British businessman Arron Banks’ contributions to the Brexit campaign. Barnett also suggested in the report that the Trump campaign received millions of dollars in illicit donations, possibly from foreign adversaries. Barnett’s argument hinged on a large amount donations under $200, which is the cutoff point where donors are required to disclose their names and addresses. Politicians typically hype small-dollar donations, which are seen as one gauge of grassroots support for political campaigns. But Barnett seemingly saw something more nefarious in the outsize ratio of small-dollar contributions flowing to the Trump campaign." • What is INTERESTING about Barnett is his connection to Atlantic Council. Back in the 2016-2017 period, when the Democratic National Committee hack was hot news, I posted a blog about Atlantic Council and its relationship with CrowdStrike, the private company that investigated the hacked DNC servers, after the DNC refused to allow the FBI to do the job. • Daily Caller published a similar article by Justin Caruso on June 24, 2017. Caruso wrote : "The Democratic Party and mainstream media have become increasingly consumed with the narrative that Donald Trump’s election win is largely influenced by Russian hacking. The narrative is centered around two hacks -- the hack of a DNC server that led to the release of embarrassing emails during the Democratic National Convention, and the hack of John Podesta’s email which led to several embarrassing moments for the Clinton campaign in October 2016. Both are supposedly the result of the Russians....The analysis that alleged that Russia was behind the DNC server breach was carried out not by the US government, but by the private security group CrowdStrike. CrowdStrike is the sole source of this claim, with their June 2016 report, “Bears in the Midst : Intrusion into the Democratic National Committee” being the basis of the DNC’s Russian hacking allegations. Here are five key points about CrowdStrike that the mainstream media is ignoring : (1). Obama Appoints CrowdStrike Officer To Admin Post Two Months Before June 2016 Report On Russia Hacking DNC. In April 2016, two months before the June report that alleged a Russian conspiracy, former President Barack Obama appointed Steven Chabinsky, the general counsel and chief risk officer for CrowdStrike, to the Commission on Enhancing National Cybersecurity....(2). The FBI Never Looked At The DNC’s Servers -- Only CrowdStrike Did....There has been no corroboration or second opinion on who may have hacked the server. The only source for this claim is CrowdStrike, who began monitoring the DNC system on May 5th, 2016, according to DailyMail.com. The DNC also reportedly paid $168,000 to CrowdStrike. (3). Comey Contradicted The DNC’s Story On The FBI Asking To See The Server. The DNC claimed in January that the reason the FBI never examined their hacked server was simple -- the FBI never requested to do so....However, this claim was contradicted by then-FBI Director James Comey, who said in a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing in January that there were 'multiple requests at different levels' to look at the DNC’s servers. Instead, Comey said a 'highly respected private company' got access to the servers–meaning CrowdStrike....As Josephine Wolff of Slate pointed out, “...whether because they were denied access or simply never asked for it, the FBI instead used the analysis of the DNC breach conducted by security firm CrowdStrike as the basis for its investigation. Regardless of who is telling the truth about what really happened, perhaps the most astonishing thing about this probe is that a private firm’s investigation and attribution was deemed sufficient by both the DNC and the FBI.”....(4). CrowdStrike Co-Founder Is Fellow On Russia Hawk Group, Has Connections To George SOROS, Ukrainian Billionaire. Co-Founder and CTO of CrowdStrike Dmitri Alperovitch is a nonresident senior fellow on the Atlantic Council. The Atlantic Council is hawkish on Russia, previously publishing reports about topics like how the West can 'get tougher' on Russia....Further, the Atlantic Council is funded by NATO, enhancing the hawkish view on Russia. The Atlantic Council is also funded by the “OPEN SOCIETY Initiative for Europe,” a program of leftist billionaire George SOROS’ Open Society Foundation. The Open Society Initiative for Europe has written that they support, 'initiatives that strengthen the protection of migrants and the politics of inclusion, giving the leading role and voice in advocating policies and social change to migrants and refugees, their descendants, and their allies in civil society.' The Atlantic Council is also funded by the Victor Pinchuk Foundation. Pinchuk is a Ukrainian billionaire who reportedly gave $25 million to the Clinton Foundation, and was invited to Clinton’s home for a dinner in 2012 while she was Secretary of State, despite an earlier denial from a Clinton spokesperson that the dinner 'never on her schedule' during her time as Secretary. (5.) CrowdStrike Is Funded By Clinton-Loving Google $$. Finally, it’s worth pointing out that CrowdStrike received $100 million in investments led by Google Capital (since re-branded as CapitalG) in 2015. CapitalG is owned by Alphabet, and Eric Schmidt, Alphabet’s chairman, was a supporter of Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election. More than just supporting Clinton, leaked emails from Wikileaks in November 2016 showed that in 2014 he wanted to have an active role in the campaign. According to the Wall Street Journal, Schmidt 'sent a Clinton campaign official a lengthy memo with advice on running the campaign. He told campaign officials he was ‘ready to fund, advise recruit talent,’ and ‘clearly wants to be head outside advisor,’ according to a 2014 email from Clinton campaign Chairman John Podesta to campaign manager Robby Mook.' And Politico reported in November 2016 that Schmidt 'served in a personal capacity as an advisor to the Clinton operation,' and wore a 'staff' badge at her election night party." • So, Neil Barnett -- who wrote for Atlantic Council, with ties to Soros and Hillary Clinton -- is now head of a privately and secret funded organization that has contributed to TDIP, a SOROS-backed private organization that is continuing the Fake anti-Trump news. What goes around comes around...right? • • • AMANPOUR WANTS TO GAG TRUMP SUPPORTERS. BizPac Review reported on Wednesday that : "CNN’s Christiane Amanpour remarkably asks Comey if FBI should have ‘shut down’ Trump supporters’ chants at rallies," suggesting that "the Trump supporters who playfully chanted 'lock her up' at President Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential election campaign rallies should have been apprehended and potentially thrown in the hole by the Justice Department." Christiane Amanpour issued the suggestion while speaking with disgraced former FBI Director James Comey about the President’s calls for the investigators who investigated him to be investigated. • BizPac Review states : "Because of a preponderance of evidence suggesting that the Russian collusion investigation was an illegal operation launched for political reasons, both the President and congressional Republicans have called for a second special counsel to investigate the Justice Department’s potential misconduct. As one of those suspected of corruption, Comey opposes this move. 'Investigative what?" he defiantly declared to Amanpour early Tuesday afternoon. "Investigate that investigations were conducted? And what would be the crime you’d be investigating? So, it’s a terrible cycle to start. He’s already started it with calling for the locking up of his political opponents, including people like me. And so, it would just be more of that dangerous step.'....'Of course, lock her up was a feature of the 2016 Trump campaign,' she said. 'Do you, in retrospect, wish that people like yourself, the head of the FBI, I mean, the people in charge of law and order had shut down that language, that it was dangerous potentially, that it could have created violence, that kind of hate speech? Should that have been allowed?' " • Even Comey balked at Amanpour's suggestion, saying : "That’s not a role for government to play. The beauty of this country is people can say what they want even if it’s misleading and its demagoguery'....But what’s far more disturbing than the former FBI director’s clear-cut sanctimony is the fervent willingness by Amanpour, a so-called objective 'journalist,' to call for the punishment of dissidents who chant phrases or sayings that she finds offensive. And to be clear, that’s what so-called 'hate speech' generally refers to : Content that some find offensive. Keep in mind that to the far-left, of which Amanpour seems to be a proud member, practically every conservative idea or thought counts as hate speech, including the right’s otherwise reasonable views on illegal immigration, affirmative action, political correctness and identity politics." • The Daily Caller on Thursday said of Amanpour's outburst : "As the liberal media continues to grapple with the results of the 2016 presidential election, one CNN host suggested that it might be time to do away with the First Amendment. In an interview with former FBI director James Comey, CNN’s Christiane Amanpour suggested that Comey’s FBI should have stepped in to stop Trump supporters from chanting 'lock her up' about former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Comey told Amanpour that the First Amendment would have prevented the FBI from stopping the chants." The CNN video is available at < https://youtu.be/bbZFysLfSDw>. • • • McCONNELL USES THE NUCLEAR OPTION. Finally, Senate Republicans have voted to use the "nuclear option" in order to confirm President Trump's appointees languishing under Senate Democrat obstruction. The Daily Caller summarized the GOP move on Wednesday : "The Senate voted Wednesday to shorten Democrats’ time obstructing President Donald Trump’s nominees on the floor in order to speed up the nomination process. The vote was set up by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell...with expectations that it would fail so that the so-called nuclear option could be used. McConnell introduced a procedural cloture vote Wednesday that was shut down 51-48. The cloture needed 60 'no' votes to fail, so McConnell entered a motion to reconsider the failed cloture vote, making it so Republicans only need a majority vote in order to use the nuclear option. Senators voted 51-48 in order to speed up Trump nominees’ confirmation processes, which Democrats have continued to stall. Republican Senators Mike Lee of Utah and Susan Collins of Maine voted against the rules change. The nuclear option will cut Democrats’ debate time from thirty hours to two hours, making the confirmation process for Trump’s nominees faster. Republicans would only need 51 votes to confirm a Trump nominee after the change." • Majority Leader McConnell called the Democrats’ actions “systematic obstruction,” saying it is “not targeted, thoughtful opposition to a few marquee nominations or rare circumstances. But a grinding, across-the-board effort to delay and obstruct the people this President puts up. Even if they have unquestionable qualifications. Even if the job is relatively low-profile.” Iowa Republican Senator Chuck Grassley, former chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said on the Senate floor that Democrats will oppose any Trump nominee : “Over the past two years, some in this body have decided that they will oppose any nominee suggested by President Trump. There isn’t a Senator in this room who serves their state’s interest when qualified, noncontroversial nominees are prevented from being confirmed. However, some members continue to do just that by slow walking the President’s nominees for partisan purposes.” The President himself has often called out Democrats for “slow walking” his executive nominees. In a February tweet, President Trump said : "Democrats in the Senate are still slow walking hundreds of highly qualified people wanting to come into government. Never been such an abuse in our country’s history.” • In the United States House of Representatives, the filibuster (the right to unlimited debate) was used until 1842, when a permanent rule limiting the duration of debate was created. In 1917, at the urging of President Woodrow Wilson, the Senate adopted a procedure known as the cloture vote, which could end a filibuster. If a cloture vote was called for, a super-majority (2/3) of Senators could force an end to debate and bring the question under consideration to an up-or-down vote. In 1975, the Senate revised its cloture rule so that three-fifths of sworn senators (60 votes out of 100) could limit debate, except for changing Senate rules which still requires a two-thirds majority of those present and voting to invoke cloture. In November, 2013, Senate Democrats led by Majority Leader Harry Reid used the nuclear option to eliminate the 60-vote cloture rule on executive branch nominations and federal judicial appointments, but not for the Supreme Court. In 2017, GOP Senate Majority Leader McConnell made that rule apply to Supreme Court appointments before Justice was confirmed. • On Wednesday, when the latest change came, Senator Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) called it "Miguel Estrada's revenge." Senator Schumer and other Democrats blocked Miguel Estrada’s nomination to the DC Circuit Court of Appeals by using the 2/3 cloture rule, and then changed it to a 60-vote cloture rule. • Politico reported : "His [McConnell's] move is particularly consequential in divided government when much of the Senate’s time is now spent confirming executive nominees and lifetime judicial appointments. Under the change, debate time on District Court nominees and sub-Cabinet executive nominees is slashed from 30 hours to two hours, a shift that will allow Republicans to fill dozens more vacancies over the coming months." • Mitch McConnell said on Wednesday : “It is time for this sorry chapter to end. It’s time to return this body to a more normal and reasonable process for fulfilling its constitutional responsibilities no matter which party controls the White House. This is new. And it needs to stop.” GOP Senate Majority Whip John Thune (R-S.D.) called Democrat resistance to Trump’s nominees “offensive.” “ • As of February 2019, a three-fifths majority vote is still required to end debates on legislation. But, Senators in both parties fear that the legislative filibuster will be next. That’s particularly true if one party wins the White House, House and Senate in 2020 and finds its big ideas stymied by a Senate minority. McConnell said on Wednesday : "“The legislative filibuster is central to the nature of the Senate. It has always been, and must always be, the distinctive quality of this institution. We all know that both parties will possess future 51-vote majorities somewhere down the line. It will happen. The Senate’s long traditions on legislation, therefore, need to remain in place.” • • • DEAR READERS, in these fractious times, a bare majority seems to be the rule rather than the exception. It makes President Trump's task of getting his agenda enacted very difficult. Mitch McConnell has finally removed one of those obstacles that is particularly pernicious because it prevents President Trump from having a full senior staff to work on his agenda. So, the next time you put on your red MAGA cap and stand in support of the President, if you need a little extra oomph -- try saying "Remember the Alamo" and you can be sure that Davy Crockett and the rest of the Tennessee Mounted Volunteers and Texans will be right there with you in spirit, fighting for America.