Texas Governor Calls For Constitutional Convention To "Wrest Power" From Obama
When it comes to Texas' relationship with the Federal government, the word "rocky" comes to mind. And nobody embodies said rockiness better than Texas governor Greg Abbott, who recently made headlines after announcing that irrelevant of D.C.'s demands, Texas would refuse to accept any Syrian refugees.
This followed his announcement earlier this summer 2015 when fears over nebulous Federal intentions with operation "Jade Helm" were running high, that "to address concerns that Texas citizens and to ensure that Texas communities remain safe, secure, and informed about military procedures occurring in their vicinity, I am directing the state guard to monitor Operation Jade Helm 15."
Prior to this, Abbott was again in the news back in June when he signed a bill into law that would allow Texas to build a gold and silver bullion depository, which would allow Texas to repatriate $1 billion worth of bullion from the New York Fed to the new facility once completed.
In short: the Federal government and the state of Texas have been on collision course of many months, one which culminated on Friday when Abbott called for a Constitutional Convention of states, spearheaded by Texas, and which would amend the U.S. Constitution to wrest power from a federal government "run amok."
To achieve that, Abbott proposed nine amendments to "restore the Rule of Law and return the Constitution to its intended purpose."
“If we are going to fight for, protect and hand on to the next generation, the freedom that [President] Reagan spoke of … then we have to take the lead to restore the rule of law in America,” Abbott said, cited by the Dallas News, during a speech at the Texas Public Policy Foundation’s Policy Orientation that drew raucous applause from the conservative audience. He said he will ask lawmakers to pass a bill authorizing Texas to join other states calling for a Convention of States.
According to the Hill, Abbott said that "the increasingly frequent departures from Constitutional principles are destroying the Rule of Law foundation on which this country was built,” said Abbott in a statement. We are succumbing to the caprice of man that our Founders fought to escape. The cure to these problems will not come from Washington D.C. Instead, the states must lead the way.”
Along with the speech, Abbott released a nearly 70-page plan – part American civics lesson, part anti-Obama diatribe – detailing nine proposed constitutional amendments that he said "would unravel the federal government’s decades-long power grab and restore authority over economic regulation and other matters to the states."
"The irony for our generation is that the threat to our Republic doesn’t come just from foreign enemies, it comes, in part, from our very own leaders," Abbott said in a speech that took aim at President Obama, Congress and the judicial branch.
Abbott's nine proposed amendments are:
- Prohibit congress from regulating activity that occurs wholly within one state.
- Require Congress to balance its budget.
- Prohibit administrative agencies from creating federal law.
- Prohibit administrative agencies from pre-empting state law.
- Allow a two-thirds majority of the states to override a U.S. Supreme Court decision.
- Require a seven-justice super-majority vote for U.S. Supreme Court decisions that invalidate a democratically enacted law
- Restore the balance of power between the federal and state governments by limiting the former to the powers expressly delegated to it in the Constitution.
- Give state officials the power to sue in federal court when federal officials overstep their bounds.
- Allow a two-thirds majority of the states to override a federal law or regulation.
For those unfamiliar, a Constitutional Convention is one of two ways that the U.S. Constitution can be amended, and it’s described in Article V. One way is that Congress can propose amendments approved by two-thirds of the members of both chambers. The other method allows two-thirds of the state legislatures to call for a convention to propose amendments. Republicans backing the idea are confident that because they control state government in a majority of states, their ideas would prevail.
In both cases, the amendments become effective only if ratified by three-fourths of the states. Indicatively, of the 27 times the Constitution has been amended, none was generated by a constitutional convention.
Abbott is not the first to propose a convention: the idea has been gaining traction among some among conservative Republicans, comes just as the GOP presidential candidates begin to make forays into Texas ahead of the March primary election. The state, with 155 delegates up for grabs, will certainly be a key player in the party’s nominating process.
Earlier this week presidential contender Marco Rubio published a piece in USA Today endorsing the idea of a convention to amend the Constitution and restore limited government. In April, 27 active petitions had been filed with Congress seeking a convention to amend the constitution to require that Congress adopt a balanced budget.
Congress would be forced to act once 34 states joined the effort. So far, Cruz hasn’t endorsed the idea.
A convention, Abbott wrote, would force the federal government to “take the Constitution seriously again... The only true downside comes from doing nothing and allowing the federal government to continue ignoring the very document that created it,” Abbott wrote.
To be sure many conservatives agree with Abbott's posture that the only way to limit the powers of the Federal government is to resuscitate state power .
Of course, whereas Republicans are seeking to limit the role and power of government, Democrats demand just the opposite, and were quick to denounce Abbott’s plan Friday, saying the governor has misplaced priorities.
“America added 292,000 new jobs in December. But under Abbott, Texas fell to sixth in job creation, remains the uninsured capitol of the nation, wages and incomes remain far too low for hardworking families, our neighborhood schools are still underfunded, and college education is slipping out of reach,” Texas Democratic Party Deputy Executive Director Manny Garcia said in a statement. “Texas families deserve serious solutions, not Tea Party nonsense.”
What Manny Garcia did not add is that while oil was above $100, Texas was the state that had generated the most jobs under the Obama administration, and if it hadn't been for the Kerry-Saudi Arabia secret meetings which put into play the collapse in the price of oil, meant to cripple Russia but crushing US shale instead, Texas would continue to create record numbers of jobs.
However, since this is high politics, facts be damned, and the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas issued a statement with similar sentiment. “Governor Abbott, as Texans, we prefer the Framers’ plan. Don’t mess with the Constitution,” said Terri Burke, executive director of the ACLU of Texas.
A small but vocal Republican minority has also opined against the idea of a constitutional convention: last year, House legislators filed measures calling for such a convention. Texas senator Craig Estes unleashed a screed against the proposal when it came before the Senate State Affairs Committee in May. He compared the idea to “a petulant teenager who’s lost a few basketball games and plans to burn down the gymnasium.”
“The constitution has served us well for over 200 years. The problem is not the constitution,” Estes said, adding that the solution is to elect more conservative lawmakers. “Slap a bumper sticker for Ted Cruz on your car and get after it and knock yourself out.”
Estes went on to promise a filibuster if the measure came to the Senate floor.
Whether Abbott's proposal will gain steam and ultimately succeed is unknown, but it is virtually certain that the more the Obama administration governs via executive orders and other means to bypass the Legislative and short circuit the US government, the more powerful the grass-roots response at the state level will be, until eventually there is enough anger at the dysfunctional U.S. government at the 34 required states to do precisely as the Texan wants... that, or Trump is voted into the Oval Office as a protest against everything that is broken with the current political status quo.
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So Jefferson, Washington and Madison were all psychopaths, like George III?
Birds of same feather; who believed in government?
YES THEY WERE.
-----
I understand this is difficult to accept. They all said things that "ring true", and we all appreciate anyone who does that.
But they had ZERO basis to claim that a few of them smearing ink on parchment could somehow obligate millions of people for thousands of miles... and for all eternity.
NOBODY can possibly have any valid basis to claim that.
But they did.
So they were tyrants. Quite possibly more benevolent tyrants, but tyrants nonetheless.
What is especially sick is that the "system" in the americas was already the one and only valid system that can possibly exist. I've discussed this before, so I'll only outline this in the briefest possible summary here.
#1: If you want to enter a tribal village to visit, trade or live, you follow the rules of that tribe. Note that a "tribal village" is just the native american term for "small town".
#2: You can leave the tribal village whenever you want, and as soon as you pass outside of the boundary, you are in "no mans land" and not subject to any rules (only basic civility, which means don't harm anyone you encounter or destroy/steal their property).
The moment any individual or pack of individuals claim others must obey their rules OUTSIDE the structures they created (which means, outside their property), they create a system in which they claim INHERENTLY NOBODY CAN BE FREE, because they are subject to rules no matter where they go.
THAT is the fundamental claim that IS tyranny.
And so, any human or group of humans who claims any such thing, who claims their rules apply in "no mans land"... which is the same as saying "there is no such thing as no mans land"... is a tyrant, is a human predator, and should be immediately exterminated like any highly dangerous predator regardless of species.
Reductio ad Absurdum : for the eyes of Honest ANN.
I use your example to make a calculation.
Assuming we are all like you.
If we all lived a 100 miles from each other; our vital circle diameter 100 miles space area would be : piD2/4 = 7 500 sq Miles/ homo sapien.
The Earths surface is = 510 million sq miles.
So maximum no. Of Honest Ann type clones = 70 000 approx. people theoretically.
Assuming 80% of the earth is uninhabitable (sea/desert/tundra etc.) , that leaves 20% for Honest Ann's tribe.
Which means the world's population living according to Ann's RULE would be = 14 000 HUMANS on Earth.
Now if that was the case I GRANT YOU goVERNMENT would be a PIE in the SKY issue; not a true problem.
And as for copulation to MAINTAIN slimfast population or to make whoopee...it would be some awesome trek there and back; and God's knows if we wouldn't be phucking lizards to get some feeling of human warmth.
I don't guaranty you the outcome of a human and lizard combination !
Anarchy would be about counting the stars!
Over and Out.
"Require Congress to balance its budget."
Couldn't help think this guy is wasting his talents and should apply for a job with the Onion.
Surely everyone knows the billionaires across the Western hemisphere are just aching for balanced budgets and an end to Corporate Welfare.
THE DANGEROUS PATH
Big Money’s Plan to Shred the Constitution
There is a threat to our democracy so severe it is shocking it has gone unnoticed this long, or been dismissed as impossible by the few who know about it and should be sounding the alarm. Given the current hyper-partisan environment of U.S. politics, the power of special and corporate interests in the post-Citizens United era, the call for a convention poses a huge threat to the nation.
Table of Contents
Executive Summary
Acknowledgments
Introduction: The Threat
The Balanced Budget Amendment
Other Convention Proposals
Opposition From Across the Aisle and Across the Spectrum
Conclusion: An Article V Convention Would Invite Constitutional Chaos
Yes, indeed. The Powers That Be are scared shitless of a Constitutional Convention; one should be called for that reason alone.
It's time to seriously update a system that was hacked together when black men were legally 3/5 of a person, and women of any race weren't people at all. The U.S. has one of the OLDEST democratic constitutions currently in practice, and it creaks audibly under any strain. Oh, and it's become totally dysfunctional? That's usually a good sign that it's time for a rehab.
An Article V Convention would invite consideration of issues that no longer bear any resemblence to conditions in 1776. Things like electronic voting (and vote counting), massive imbalances of wealth and population, instantaneous communication and the issuance of the "full faith and credit of the United States" by a cabal of private bankers. These things NEED to be discussed and reconsidered by today's citizenry, stripped of the accumulation of power in the hands of the obscenely wealthy and hereditarily well-connected. The past is in failure mode. It's time to reconstruct our future.
I've been involved with common cause for many years. You should spend some time reading the documents I referenced above, read them very, very carefully; and take everything into consideration.
If you do the research regarding this push for a "balanced budget", I think you may soon come to the same conclusion an accountant might, using the simplest basic accounting equation:
Assets = Liabilities + Capital
Where:
1. All current and future Assets and Capital will belong to big money
2. All current and future Liabilities will belong to YOU and ME, fellow citizens.
Liked your post, but make one correction: The United States has THE oldest democratic constitution in the history of the world.
Problem with that is that any such convention would be controlled by the squid and there would be fuckall we could do about that.
Besides, who the fuck wants to reform government? Let's abolish it instead...
Today's citizenry is packed full of dolts and integrity-challenged, spineless socialists.
I will not allow myself to be subject to ANY RESULT that such rabble may produce.
How can you be so informed and yet so stupid? The same people that gave us the Constitution gave the states the power to amen it. As good as it is, there are a couple of areas that are being abused and need to be made clear....in writing....before the ass whoopin' starts.
The framers never imagined that the pricks we have running things would ever be so devoid of character or integrity or that the people would tolerate it to the extent we have. If they had, they would have nailed down certain areas that the king prick, Mr. Lincoln, made assumptions about. Like just who has the final say in the matter of states rights. They would have made it clear that no BS agency appointed by the President could make laws that the states had to follow. I could go on, but if you can't see the obviousness of the situation, you are a waste of time.
Catalonia makes deal for separatist government:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-01-09/catalonia-s-mas-stands...
All sounds real good, barring presidential ambition/grandstanding lip service.
I have one question...Were they successful in repatriating their gold?
Some logical fallacies:
And what does it mean to amend a constitution of an occupied country ... witness WTC7 falling down proving without doubt that 9/11 was an inside job perpetrated by those who occupy our government?
Your right. There is no way in hell any states can be trusted to carve on our constitution right now. We already have a constitution and none of it being adhered to.
This is probably more controlled opposition unfortunately.
RIGHT!?
There is no such thing as a right. All people are inherently free.
The idea of right was created by men who sought to free people from some of the burdens of government, but who still believed that governments were supreme over men.
The problem with rights, is that they offer certain delineated permissions, granted to men by government. After these, government can still dispose of you as it pleases. Even in
measures of restriction, this still teaches people that they have less value than law.
The truth is that you are free, and there is no authority that has any claim upon you, ever. You are, by your nature, already free.
This is the value of a human being.
The End of All Evil by Jeremy Locke
Repeat after me: There is no "political" solution to any of this, period.
It is the right thing to try, before we must resort to doing our duty, as spelled out in the Declaration.
Before you talk about our duty, I must ask this question: what are your intentions? If your intent is to depose the present ruling powers WITHOUT REPLACING THEM then I support your cause even though I think at this moment in history you ae doomed to fail. If it is your intention to install another tyrrany to replace the current one (all government is tyrrany) then I stand against you.
Texas ought to seceede from these criminal kommie pigs... who needs them anyway
If Texas seceeds, La Raza will swoop in and take over.
Any Constitutional Convention will be ruled by the thugs and savages we know as American politicians. And it will not go well.
You obviously don't know how the process works. It is called by the states and run by the states because the states do actually have all the power if they would just exercise it and quit being the whores of the federal government.
It is the only peaceful choice left us. Don't be stupid or afraid. Time to step up.
You think the state .govs cannot be bought, or haven't been already? Dream on.
The same god-damned hacks run the state branches of the party. What sort of naive, deluded, mental midget would think for one nano-second that a Con Con wouldn't be the playground of these despicable, back-stabbing manipulators?
You think HE doesn't understand how the process works?
YOU are the clueless one. The state party members are NOTHING more than federal level aspirants, and have TIME AND AGAIN demonstrated that they will stoop to slime-ball tactics to advance the establishment agenda.
HOW IS IT POSSIBLE THAT THERE ARE STILL PEOPLE WHO THINK THERE IS A DIFFERENCE (in the ultimate outcome) BETWEEN THE STATISM OF THE (D)s and (R)s?
There IS no "peacful choice" left...,don't you get that?
There is only time now.
“No man's life, liberty, or property are safe while the legislature is in session.”
And therein lies the problem. We are infested, we no longer have capitals they are nests.
Republicans and democrats are corrupt. Period. It is you who do not know how the process works. State politicians accept lobby money and are owned, just as much as federal politicians.
How many that you know of turned out the way you mention?
Better still, can you even name one time a Constitutional Convention occurred?
If more states would act in line with Texas, our country wouldn't be so fucked.
at least i'm not alone in understanding the pen needs to be chopped off at the tip...
No mess with TX.
Still playing by the Oppressor's Rules, are we? How about starting with the standard forms of Public Dissent, like...
- Mass Protests (Million Man march),
- Strikes,
- Work-to-rule,
- Traffic Jams (Trucks & Tractors),
- Creating super-PACs (like ADL or AIPAC, but on steroids)?
If they can't even do that, then why should we give ANY credence to the Weekend-Warrrior games and 'Statements'? Oooh, I'll bet that TPTB are just quacking in the Sachs Filth Avenue custom-shoes, seeing another Proclamation.
I live in Texas. Gov. Abbott is a dolt. Yawn.
Thanks Greg.
Now, how about you other 49???
Good job Elbert. Greg is becoming a parrot. Repeating sound bites to keep the peasants at bay. It won't work in his favor. I admire you Elbert. Keep up the good work. Fuck this highjacked political system in Washington DC. Time to restore America. Still Report #505 - Elbert Guillory - American - YouTube
Tell Obama to go fuck himself, put any federal agent in jail that bothers any of the people, and tell any bank within the state that freezes any account because of IRS liens they will be shut down. Fixed
Don't need a cc when you have a weapon.
I'm glad that a state governor is trying to kick his legislature in the ass to get the Convention of States proposal thru at least 34 legislatures to get it going. I spoke with our Ohio Senate Speaker today at a local meeting and he recognizes the need to get our HJR3 thru the Ohio legislature. My House Representative is also on-board with the need for the states to fix, or terminate, their agent in D.C. with an Article V Convention.
Ohio HJR3 uses the language proposed by the Convention of States organization (ConventionofStates.com) to provide standardized language in a call for a Convention, language which has been lacking previously. When adopted, Ohio will be the 5th state to adopt this language for an Article V Convention. If 34 states adopt the same language, Congress will be legally mandated to call the Convention. After that, the entire process will be controlled by the state legislatures with no involvement from any branch of the Federal government. Any Constitutional amendments proposed and ratified by 38 states will become law. Article V does not create any restrictions on the states so in the most extreme case they could amend the 3 branches of Federal government out of the Constituion. In other words, Washington, D.C. would become just another American backwater city.
It appears that Governor Abbott is doing typical political grandstanding because state governors would have absolutely no role in the Convention process. However, if he can use his political power to kick the Texas legislature in the ass and get them to adopt the call for Convention, my hat is off to him. It is my understanding that the Texas legislature tried to adopt this Convention call previously but was blocked by one, believe it or not, a Democratic legislator. Hopefully, that legislator has had a heart attack or other mis-fortune by now and will not prevent future progress.
It would take a long time to consider the ramifications of all of that. If the people ever get control of our country again we will have to re-elect an entirely new Supreme Court, they have been our worst enemy. The SC should have protected us from all that has happened but they went turncoat treason instead.
There are still good judges and lawyers out there struggling to keep our rights alive and we would have to locate them and appoint them ourselves. Maybe then we could think about what to do with everything else. Jefferson realized that the SC should have term limits as an afterthought. If we had a real SC we would have states rights. Our jury system is a joke also as they weed people like us out if they can and that's just the beginning of the problems there.
It's all a disaster. A couple of the things we could do is inact extreme penalties for politicians that commit treason against the constitution and the people and take away the presidents right to pardon. Public campaign funding might work, it shouldn't cost much, you may even be able to use public television networks for platform. Its hard to know where to even start, it's all such a mess. Bringing Thomas Jefferson back from the dead would help.
During the Convention of States, my proposal is to amend the Federal Supreme Court out of the Constitution and replace it with a state staffed Supreme Court with all the same powers. However, the Justices should come from the states (perhaps from regions consisting of 3-4 states) and have limited terms with the state legislatures having the power to recall them if they abuse their positions as have the current Supreme Court justices.
The ultimate result of a Convention of States should be to strip the Federal government of all powers that do not benefit the states and to provide state oversight that can over-rule any Federal laws that usurp state powers.
That all sounds great but it will have to come after a financial collapse or revolution I'm afraid. The oligarchs are dug in deep. We are in a far worse situation than the South was back in the day unfortunately.
I believe in having a Plan B. I always keep one foot planted with the various militias in Ohio. That is the backup if the state legislatures sell out during a Convention. I hate to think of how ugly that might get but it might have to be the final solution.
As I see it, Constitutional Convention = formal destruction of Bill of Rights. Anyone who thinks this process will not be run amok with cloak and dagger deals is oblivious. The US Federal Government and it's Petrodollar are the most powerful coersive forces this world has yet suffered. That will not be surrendered to something as naive and childish as voting.
The only positive about successfully enacting a constitutional convention, will be that any changes that come out of it will likely lead to dissolution and balkanization of the USA anyway.
"Bringing Thomas Jefferson back from the dead would help."
If the kingdom of heaven is at hand and the 12 apostles at work who knows that may happen since part of their instructions were to raise the dead. But they were instructed not to accept payment. After all that could prove dangerous. Asclepius accepted payment for raising the dead and Hades complained to Zeus who killed Asclepius with a lightning bolt as punishment.
Someone should have pointed out to Abbott that at least more than HALF of his proposed amendments are redundant, and that were his language were to be advanced and adopted, it would create more legal disputes than it solved.
I only point that out for the deluded among us, who think that if there was a Con-Con, it would go the way Abbott describes...but it won't.
I'm from Texas, and one of the reasons I like Texas is because there's no one in control.
Willie Nelson
The following needs to be done first...
1: Repeal the 17th which would give states power in the national congress as before.
2: Re Vitalize the Constitutional Homeland security... the regulated militia of the several states, not to be confused with the US Military or National Guard.
Else the 10th amendment or the Texas Governors suggested amendments are meaningless.
None of this will happen so it's really all academic...
Has the "United States" a "Federal Corporation" and all its sub corporations been dissolved and somehow returned to the Republic with the original Constitution and Bill of Rights reinstated into effect for everyone?
If not then I'm very sorry to tell everyone that this story means absolutely nothing other than they are acting out a play inside the land of corporate fiction. And they are proposing on perpetrating another fraud as a means of diffusing the growing anger and knowledge from people that are starting to figure out the bigger fraud that is going on.
Anything anyone in the hierarchy ever presents to you as a means of solution is almost always going to be 100% path of wasted effort.
Everything is a lie and a fraud until independently proven completely outside of their fraudulent system. Since the "Governor" is allegedly a servant of the people of the alleged State of Texas (actually Corporations) demand he sign a notarized affidavit under penalty of perjury, fraud and forfeiture of all his assets. It should at a minimum include that everything he puts into writing is full, true and complete and nothing he puts in writing is knowingly or purposely misleading or deceptive regarding everything he is proposing to do. He'll never do it because he knows its a lie. Plus he's a politician. When has a politician ever told the full and complete truth. Plus I'm pretty sure he's an Bar attorney. If you don't know what being a Bar attorney means a small part of it is quoted below. Feel free to research it more.
And to all the U.S. Bar Attorney's Dick the Butcher and the Admiralty have sent their love. As for me, I am far more merciful and my moral obligation to each of you informed you in a prior comment what that Admiralty has in store for you in the near future.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-01-09/angry-bond-insurers-sue-puerto-...
"This allowed the members of the Bar Associations to impose admiralty law on the people and to avoid the guarantees of The Constitution. The use of “Special Admiralty” in a courtroom is signified by the heavy gold fringe on the flag.
A word here about the Bar Associations and some facts about the ABA that deserve to be far more widely known, also some information about the current Court System that you probably don’t know:
The American Bar Association is an offshoot of the London Lawyer’s Guild, an avowed Communist organization. The American Bar Association and the IRS are both owned and operated by Northern Trust, Inc. They are private, foreign debt collection agencies, not units of government, not “professional associations”, and certainly not “non-profit organizations”. As an organization representing a foreign (British) government, the Bar Associations are only allowed to function here via a Treaty (the last one in 1947) that they have abundantly violated. Their members are required to present Foreign Agent Statements as part of their credentials in open court, which they hardly ever do." - A.M.R.