The Illegal and/or Unconstitutional Actions of President Barack Obama, Part 2

The brothers Biden

Part One is here and Part Three will be available on Wednesday.

The task set before me until Wednesday: adding links -- where I can -- to both  all of the published posts.

Thank you for all the links and your hits on my Tip Jar are very much appreciated.

And of utmost importance ... please keep me covered with your prayers.

*****

51. The Obama White House illegally ordered the General Services Administration to instruct the Federal Protective Service to not arrest Occupy Portland protesters who trespassed on federal property.

52. The Obama Health and Human Services (HHS) illegally waived the work requirements put in place by welfare-reform legislation.

53. Despite creating a “transparency” Website to track the stimulus spending of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the Obama administration did not provide accurate figures, funding agency names, fiscal years, recipient names, or recipient zip codes.

54. The Obama Federal Communications Commission (FCC) awarded a lucrative free-phone contract to TracFone, whose Android phones did not meet the requirements of the program and whose CEO F. J. Pollack was an Obama donor and frequent White House visitor.

55. The Obama Federal Elections Commission (FEC) illegally allowed foreign contributions to Obama’s two presidential campaigns.

56. Joe Biden personally approved of stimulus funds that were provided to companies that had donated to Obama.

57. James Biden—younger brother of vice president Joe Biden—was a partner in HillStone International, which the Obama administration awarded a $1.5 billion contract for residential construction in Iraq, despite the company having no experience in the field.

58. The Obama Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and Labor Department illegally promised defense contractors during sequestration that if the contractors did not issue Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act notices, the government would pay the costs of court-determined liability, plant closures, and mass layoffs; the WARN Act clearly states that such notices must be given.

59. The Obama Administration ignored the Regulatory Flexibility Act, which requires that the government create a summary for all proposed regulations likely to have a significant economic impact.

60. The Obama Justice Department filed baseless lawsuits against banks, allowing them to settle if they donated to leftist activist groups such as La Raza.

Obama’s Federal Communications Commission (FCC) imposed net neutrality despite lacking any legal authority to do so.

61. The Obama EPA illegally imposed cap-and-trade after Congress defeated the legislation.

62. Obama Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius rewrote the Supreme Court's ruling in NFIB v. Sebelius to allow HHS to continue coercing states into implementing parts of ObamaCare's Medicaid expansion.

63. The Obama Federal Housing Administration went bankrupt because it illegally ignored the congressionally mandated minimum capital reserve fund of 2% of all Insurance-in-Force.

64. The Obama Departments of Justice and Education illegally and unconstitutionally used Title IX to equate “gender identity” with biological sex; this allowed the Obama administration to punish schools for having separate showers, locker rooms, and bathrooms for men and women.

65. The Obama Department of Homeland Security ordered Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to not arrest Senator Bob Menendez’s illegal-alien intern until after Election Day.

66. The Obama IRS illegally imposed licensing fees on tax preparers.

67. The Obama Department of Energy (DOE) gave 80 percent of its “green energy” loans to companies owned or run by Obama financial backers; the Government Accountability Office (GAO) was highly critical of the way the DOE doled out guaranteed loans and grants, complaining that the process appeared “arbitrary” and lacked transparency.

68. The Obama Department of Justice illegally sued to block mergers of foreign-owned companies in the US.

69. Standard & Poor's was the only ratings agency to downgrade the U.S. credit rating; S&P then became the only ratings agency that the Obama Department of Justice sued for fraud in regard to ratings of bonds backed by subprime mortgages.

70. The Obama National Cancer Institute of the National Institute of Health falsely claimed in a study that the Tea Party was astroturf created by the tobacco industry and the Koch brothers.

71. Obama Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa P. Jackson illegally used an e-mail account under the name of Richard Windsor and tried to force the Smithsonian to lend her artwork for her office.

72. The Obama Department of Homeland Security seized Silicon Valley investor and TechCrunch blogger Michael Arrington’s new yacht—imported from Canada—because Arrington refused to sign a government document that contained a price error made by the DHS itself.

73. The Obama EPA conducted illegal medical experiments at UCLA and USC, in which children as young as 10 had diesel exhaust sprayed directly into their noses; the parental consent forms omitted the health risks, and the EPA deleted all documentation from its Website.

74. Obama Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius called health industry executives, community organizations and church groups and asked that they contribute to nonprofits working to enroll uninsured Americans and increase awareness of the law; such fundraising is absolutely illegal.

75. Obama tried to outlaw family owned farms by illegally prohibiting children under the age of 18 from working in farm-related activities.

76. The Obama Department of Justice and FBI claimed that two private jets were to be used for counterterrorism, but they were actually used primarily for Eric Holder and Robert Mueller's business and personal travel.

77. The Obama Department of the Interior Department illegally encouraged environmental groups to sue the agency over specific issues; the department would then settle, thus providing such groups with funds.

78. The Obama IRS illegally seized assets from small-business owners who made multiple bank deposits slightly under $10,000; no laws were broken, no federal prosecutors were involved, and no forfeitures were authorized by judges, but small-business owners were required to go to court and spend hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees.

79. The Obama National Transportation and Safety Board used falsified data to shut down curbside bus lines—carriers that don’t use traditional bus stations.

80. The Obama IRS illegally refused tax-exempt status to political groups, based on name or ideology.

81. The Obama IRS illegally leaked confidential information on conservative groups to ProPublica, a nonprofit news organization.

82. The Obama IRS illegally demanded that a Tea Party group provide lists of material that its members read.

83. After KMOV Channel 4 St. Louis anchor Larry Conners interviewed Obama and questioned him about his travel expenses, the IRS cancelled Conners’s payment plan and put a lien on his house; Connors was fired from KMOV after he wrote a Facebook post about the IRS.

84. The Obama Department of Justice illegally and secretly obtained months of telephone records of AP reporters and editors.

85. The Obama Environmental Protection Agency illegally waived fees for environmental groups seeking information from the agency, while the press and watchdog groups were required to pay the fees.

86. In the spring of 2010, Anne Hendershott—a sociology professor at King’s College in New York City—wrote several articles critical of Obama, George Soros, and the “fake Catholic groups who were supporting Obamacare”; two months after her last piece, Hendershott was audited in person by two IRS agents who accused her of being paid to write hit pieces.

87. The Obama IRS illegally seized 60 million medical records from 10 million private citizens; no search warrant was issued, no subpoena authorized the seizure, none of the citizens were under any kind of criminal or civil investigation, and the IRS gave no explanation.

88. The Obama IRS illegally demanded that a pro-life group report the content of their prayers.

89. Obama Attorney General Eric Holder illegally obtained a search warrant for Fox News reporter James Rosen’s e-mails, telling Google to not inform Rosen that his e-mails were being monitored.

90. Obama Attorney General Eric Holder stated in his congressional testimony that he had never once been involved in investigating a member of the press, despite the fact that he illegally obtained a search warrant for Fox News reporter James Rosen’s e-mails [Ed note: item #89].

91. The Obama IRS illegally targeted pro-Israel organizations at the request of Palestinian activists.

92. The Obama IRS audited conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status but did not audit liberal groups seeking tax-exempt status [Ed note: item #80]..

93. The Obama EPA pushed vehicle shutdown equipment designed to reduce diesel emissions, but the devices did not function as designed; in Washington DC, the four-level warning system failed, causing an ambulance came to a stop, which resulted in the death of the 34-year-old patient.

94. The Obama IRS illegally spent $4.1 million on a single conference that included luxury accommodations and gifts for all in attendance.

95. Agencies in the Obama Administration created secret email addresses to conduct government business, concealing the e-mails by turning down Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests or illegally demanding up to $1 million for access.

96. Cincinnati IRS staffer Elizabeth Hofacre testified to Congress that IRS lawyer Carter Hull—based in Washington DC—directed the targeting of conservative groups and slowed the process of granting tax-exempt status; the Obama administration claimed that the targeting was the work of one local “rogue” office.

97. The Obama EPA illegally leaked the personal data of farmers to Earth Justice, the Natural Resources Defense Council, and the Pew Charitable Trust; this information was illegally collected from other federal agencies.

98. The Obama EPA gave an ethics award to Richard Windsor, a nonexistent person whose name was the alias that EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson used for the private e-mail account she created to avoid federal record-keeping laws.

99. While under investigation and on leave, IRS Director of the Exempt Organizations Unit Lois Lerner was allowed access to IRS computers, which she continued to use.

100. The Obama Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) collected and stored consumer data on credit cards and mortgages through disclosure rules, a consumer complaint database, and enforcement actions; this collection violated privacy laws and put consumers at risk of data breaches.

NEXT: The Illegal and/or Unconstitutional Actions of President Barack Obama, Part 3

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The Illegal and/or Unconstitutional Actions of President Barack Obama, Part 1

TIP JAR

Comprehensive

This will be a four-part series consisting of fifty items each and I may write an epilogue.

We hear and read accusations of tyranny against President Trump and the reasonable among us – from entire political spectrum -- will ask for examples. These examples will often fall short of the tyranny mark and there are two reason for this:

1) the hollowing out of meaning and definitions, which leads to
2) the inability of many to recognize objective tyranny when it stared us in the face for eight years.

There are many other reasons, but these are the main headings. There are also spiritual reasons.

I am not the author or researcher of these examples.

The author doesn’t want to take credit and told me to say that a “little bird” dropped it in my email box – more like a large and lethal bird of prey. And this 200-item list isn't a complete one; the author just got tired.

For the initial publishing of these, there will be no links. However, I will add links to some of the items later, especially when requested.

Also, your fingers aren't broken -- at least not yet.

Part 2 will be published on Monday.

*****

1. The Obama Department of Labor abolished its rules requiring transparency in regard to spending by unions after it became apparent that the rules were too effective in exposing fraud.

2. In the government bailout of the auto industry, Obama illegally put union members ahead of secured creditors with absolute priority; doing so violated bankruptcy law and the Constitution’s Takings and Due Process Clauses.
.
3. In firing Inspector General (IG) of the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) Gerald Walpin after Walpin found misuse of federal grants by Kevin Johnson and the St. HOPE Academy, Obama broke a law that he as a senator sponsored; the law requires that the president inform Congress of specific reasons why an IG is removed.

4. The Obama Car Czars illegally shut down 2200 car dealerships as part of the government restructuring of Chrysler and GM; as a result, over 120,000 Americans lost their jobs.

5. Obama tried to unilaterally repeal the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA), the law that ensures a minimum standard for voluntary employee retirement and health plans.

6. Obama Acting Assistant Attorney General Loretta King wrote to Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson, informing him that Oklahoma’s proposed state constitutional amendment making English Oklahoma’s official language violated the civil rights of limited English proficient (LEP) persons; King illegally threatened to cut off federal funds to Oklahoma if the wording of the amendment were not changed.

7. Obama administration officials illegally met with lobbyists at coffee houses near the White House in order to avoid the disclosure requirements for White House visitors.

8. The Obama Department of Justice stopped a probe into political ally Bill Richardson, who was being investigated by a federal grand jury for pay-to-play allegations; “It was killed in Washington,” an anonymous source told the Associated Press.

9. Obama unconstitutionally appointed three members to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), bypassing the Senate.

10. Obama used an unconstitutional recess appointment to make Richard Cordray director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) while the Senate was still in session.

11. Obama illegally ordered the EPA to impose the Clean Power Plan after the Senate rejected it; the plan required states to reduce their carbon dioxide emissions, even though neither Obama nor the EPA had the authority to make such sweeping changes.

12. Obama crafted an illegal clandestine deal with the pharmaceutical industry in order to get ObamaCare passed.

13. The Obama IRS illegally provided tax credits and subsidies through federal health exchanges set up by the Department of Health and Human Services; because the law made no provision for IRS involvement, the IRS illegally granted itself the authority to spend $800 billion over 10 years on benefits not authorized by Congress.

14. The Obama IRS illegally granted retroactive tax-exempt status to the Barack H. Obama Foundation, an ostensible charity run by Obama’s half-brother Malik; IRS Director of the Exempt Organizations Unit Lois Lerner signed the paperwork in one month, which legalized the foundation’s previous three years of illegal fundraising.

15. The Obama Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) allowed straw buyers to illegally import rifles into Mexico in Operation Fast and Furious; several hundred murders—including those of two Americans—resulted.

16. Obama illegally offered positions in the Executive Branch to Democratic senatorial candidate Joe Sestak to keep him from running against Arlen Specter.

17. The Obama administration thwarted Inspector General (IG) investigations into Amtrak, the EPA, the Troubled Asset Relief Program, and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB); Obama Attorneys General Eric Holder and Loretta Lynch ignored the findings of dozens of IGs.

18. Obama Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) Kathleen Sebelius threatened to put out of business insurance companies that informed their clients of the impact of ObamaCare.

19. The Obama National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) imposed illegal and unconstitutional new rules requiring nonunion businesses to encourage their workers to unionize.

20. The Obama Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) illegally granted exemptions from new emissions laws to companies owned by Obama donors.

21. The Obama Department of Justice illegally stopped enforcing the Defense of Marriage Act.

22. ObamaCare illegally forced taxpayer-funded abortion on the entire country and mandated that health insurance cover abortifacient drugs.

23. The Obama administration worked with investor Steve Eisman to write new for-profit college regulations that allowed Eisman to make a massive windfall in short-selling.

24. The Obama Department of the Interior routinely ignored court orders and was found in contempt multiple times.

25. The Obama Treasury Department saved the pensions of unionized GM workers while allowing non-unionized workers’ pensions to default; the same was done in regard to the pension plans of parts manufacturer Delphi.

26. The Obama White House hid a program that paid union workers taxpayer money to lobby the government for more unions.

27. The Obama Department of Homeland Security ordered Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to enforce the DREAM Act even though the bill was defeated in Congress multiple times.

28. The Obama Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) illegally granted ObamaCare waivers to political allies; nearly 20 percent of the waivers went to Nancy Pelosi’s San Francisco’s district, while Harry Reid’s state of Nevada got a blanket waiver.

29. The Obama National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) illegally imposed the Employee Free Choice Act—which allowed unions to enter negotiations in non-unionized companies—after Congress voted it down.

30. ObamaCare illegally immunized the Independent Payment Advisory Board from lawsuits resulting from the way its decisions impacted patients.

31. The Obama Department of Justice raided musical-instrument manufacturers that had donated to Republicans but avoided Democrat-run manufacturers that used the same exotic wood obtained in the same way.

32. The Obama administration subsidized “green” companies run by donors and campaign supporters; when the companies went bankrupt, their executives collected hundreds of millions of dollars in golden parachutes.

33. The Obama administration threatened private companies whose CEOs criticized Obama’s economic policies.

34. Obama bypassed Congress and illegally ordered new regulations on student loans, government contracts, pharmaceutical drugs, and mortgages.

35. The Obama Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) designed its illegal gun-walking Operation Fast and Furious to bolster a push for tighter gun control in the US [Ed. Note: item #15].

36. The Obama Department of Justice illegally sued Arizona and Alabama for enforcing federal immigration law.

37. The Obama Federal Communications Commission (FCC) ignored Congress and a court order to illegally impose new regulations on the Internet.

38. The U.S. Office of Special Counsel determined that Obama Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius violated the Hatch Act by campaigning for Obama while traveling on official business; federal employees are required to be terminated for this violation, but Obama ignored the law.

39. Obama illegally offered waivers to provisions of the national education law No Child Left Behind.

40. The Obama National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) illegally sued aircraft manufacturer Boeing for trying to open a plant in the right-to-work state of South Carolina.

41. ObamaCare broke existing federal law by conferring benefits on same-sex couples.

42. The Obama EPA illegally and unconstitutionally declared that its decisions would be based on "environmental justice,” which resulted in certain types of pollution being labeled racist.

43. The Obama Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement instructed companies to lie about job losses caused by new regulations on coal.

44. The Obama administration illegally gave filmmakers classified information on the bin Laden raid.

45. The Obama Treasury Department illegally created new rules that made it harder for companies to set up in countries with low tax rates.

46. After Congress banned funding of ACORN, Obama gave $445.6 million to the Illinois Housing Development Authority, run by Joe McGavin, who was at the time still Chicago Operations Manager of the renamed ACORN Housing.

47. In order to enact new climate-change rules, the EPA illegally declared that carbon dioxide is a pollutant.

48. Romney donor Frank L. VanderSloot was publicly named by the Obama campaign Website, and he was audited by the IRS and the Department of Labor for the only time in his life, costing him $80,000 in legal fees.

49. The Obama Consumer Product Safety Commission illegally banned a toy called Buckyballs in a “recall prior to injury,” requiring ZenMagnets to fight a six-year court battle to regain the right to manufacture its product again.

50. Obama political appointees at the Department of Justice vacated a case against the Black Panthers after the department had won.

NEXT: The Illegal and/or Unconstitutional Actions of President Barack Obama, Part 2

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How to Defend Yourself

Enterprise = you. Shield = Psalm 91.

Sell your cloak. Buy a sword.

Last night, I wrote a Twitter thread about how the Democrats and the mainstream media are stoking fear and hopelessness during this season of rest.

1. The Democrats and Big Media (BIRM) want the public to be without hope in the face of the Wuhan virus.

— baldilocks: praise the Lord & keep your powder dry (@JulietteAkinyi) March 24, 2020

I don’t think I conveyed how much it infuriated me, but instead of simmering in anger, I’d like to provide a counterpoint.

While everyone else talks about the China Virus/Wuhan Flu/coronavirus/COVID-19 and its effects on the world, I’ve been trying to keep my mind focused on Jesus the Christ, as has been so for the last 20+ years and specifically so since about 2008. Looking back to that year, I’d say that God has been drawing me closer to Him through personal tribulation.

I began calling myself a Christian in the mid-1990s but during the time period mentioned, God has been using tough times and tears to shape me and mold me; to change me into something that I was not prior to that (borrowing a concept from my pastor).

And that’s what He always does for those who He draws to Himself. Jesus the Christ said that no one is drawn to Christ unless the Father flips the drawing switch. However, I submit that this drawing business isn’t a one-time good deal, but something that happens continually throughout the life of the believer.

Trouble is a primary tool for the drawing, especially trouble of the seemingly insurmountable variety. But the thing is that God provides solutions to all problems. Sometimes the solution consists of only one thing, the assurance that He is God. That’s always the starting point, and, ultimately, the end point. But, more often than not, there is a lot of action between the beginning and the end.

I’ve faced permanent loss – of persons and things. I’ve felt like a trapped animal before. I’ve had radically reduced circumstances before. And then I remembered that God was with me and that He kept me. Each situation was a drawing to Him.

And now …

The fear of pestilence and the shadow of death – that’s what we all are facing.

God is drawing this world to Himself.

Several years ago, my pastor preached a series of sermons on Psalm 91. Simply, it is a prayer composed by David requesting protection from God. At the time of the composition, David was on the run from King Saul. I made it my business to memorize the psalm and after I did that, I personalized it.

Here’s the King James version.

1 He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.
2 I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust.
3 Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence.
4 He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust: his truth shall be thy shield and buckler.
5 Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day;
6 Nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday.
7 A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee.
8 Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold and see the reward of the wicked.
9 Because thou hast made the Lord, which is my refuge, even the most High, thy habitation;
10 There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling.
11 For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways.
12 They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone.
13 Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder: the young lion and the dragon shalt thou trample under feet.
14 Because he hath set his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him: I will set him on high, because he hath known my name.
15 He shall call upon me, and I will answer him: I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honour him.
16 With long life will I satisfy him, and shew him my salvation

And here’s my personalized version.

When I dwell in the secret place of you, Most High
I will abide under the shadow of you, Almighty.
I will say of you, Lord, you are my refuge and my fortress. My God.
In you will I trust.
Surely, you will deliver me from the snare of the fowler and from the noisome pestilence.
You will cover me with your feathers and under your wing will I trust.
Your truth is my shield and my buckler.
I will not be afraid for the terror by night,
Nor for the arrow that flies by day,
Nor for the pestilence that walks in darkness,
Nor for the destruction that wastes at noon day.
A thousand shall fall at my side and 10,000 at my right hand, but it shall not come nigh me.
Only with my eyes will I behold and see the reward of the wicked.
Because I have made you, Lord, you who is my refuge, even you, Most High, my habitation.
There shall no evil befall me, nor shall any plague come near my dwelling.
For you have given your angels charge over me to keep me in all my ways.
They shall bear me up in their hands, lest I dash my foot against the stone.
I will tread on the lion and adder; the young lion and the dragon will I trample under feet.
Because I have set my love upon you, therefore you will deliver me.
You have set me on high because I have known your name.
I will call upon you and you will answer me.
You will be with me in trouble. You will deliver me and honor me.
With long life will you satisfy me and show me your salvation.

I’ve been praying this to God almost every day since I memorized it. While doing so, I try to keep in mind that I’m talking to a person and when I find myself merely reciting the psalm, I stop and begin again.

Notice that the request has conditions; notice that pestilence and deliverance are mentioned twice and plague once. And be advised that dwelling has many connotations. Your body, your house/apartment and your country are all dwellings.

And note the exhortations about fear.

The psalm can be dissected much more, but that's not my purpose here.

This is: to go on spiritual offense against the forces of fear and darkness and the human agents thereof.

I've used these weapons and God's other weapons before; they work. But only if you pick them up.

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Going Nowhere

Fresh Air

Downtown Los Angeles. Gavin Heffernan. Undated.

Of course, I’m at home and I plan to mostly stay inside. I wanted to step outside for a bit when it gets dark just to see the effect of a nearly smog-free LA sky. But it looks like there will be cloud cover for the next week at least.

Recently, I was worried about getting evicted and/or having my electricity service shut off, but that danger has passed for two reasons: God has provided through private donors, one of which is Code of Vets.

The other reason is obvious.

There is a lot of fear out there, like unto my own. But I wonder …

Is God giving this nation --this world -- a season of rest and an opportunity to refocus on Him? He did that with me a few years back. Stripped me of almost every material thing and it seemed that He turned me into a beggar.

Let me rephrase that. He showed me that I and all the rest of us are beggars, whether we ask Him for things or not.

Many American Christians have been begging Him to cleanse our country and I submit that this is what’s happening. I know from experience, however, that, sometimes, when God answers our prayers in the affirmative, the answer will often come in a very unexpected manner. God likes radical solutions.

Is that not what this is? If it is, I think He's being merciful.

I plan on driving to church on Sunday, so if you want to get me some gasoline, that’d be great. But don’t feel obligated. God will provide one way or another.

And it will be to His glory.

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Halfrican Keeps it Real About Why 3rd World Immigrants Come to America

Tom Mboya

Originally posted on January 13, 2018 at DaTechGuy Blog. Edited.

When the students of the Mboya Airlift were hand-picked to come to America, it was for a specific purpose: to educate demonstrably gifted Kenyan and Tanzanian students in the Western tradition and to send them home to be the leaders and information venders of their countries in preparation for independence from the European colonial powers. One of these students was my biological father, journalist Philip Ochieng.

That was in the late fifties to early sixties and most of the students did return home. The Airlift was a privately funded endeavor by the likes of the Ford Foundation, the Kennedy Foundation, Jackie Robinson, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Harry Belafonte. I’m sure that there have been other experiments like it.

The 2018 tempest regarding President Trump’s alleged description of Haiti and African countries as shitholes got me thinking again about this vehicle for my presence on earth and incarnation as an American -- born and raised -- and the concept of it. If the intent was to lift these countries up close to the economic and social level of the freer Western nations, I’d say that it failed, predictably, since nation cannot be transformed through its leaders alone. But it can be manipulated by indoctrinating leaders and planting them.

And this was the intent of the two foundations involved — though Mr. Belafonte, Mr. Robinson, and Dr. King, undoubtedly had nothing but the best of intentions. I believe that the project was an attempt to create an elite in the two countries – a rulership.

And since tribal societies are used to the headman concept, not much changed for the average citizen/subject of these countries.

In 1965, the US Congress passed a new immigration law and LBJ signed it. Suddenly, there was a flood of immigrants from Africa, the Caribbean and other non-European nations. Here came the Third World’s go-getters and risk-takers: i.e. the rest of the gifted students. And they’re still coming.

And what is their shared gift? The ability to get up and move.

Meanwhile, back home, their friends and relatives remained mostly resigned to the old ways: kleptocracies, tribal wars, criminal cartels, monstrous pollution, deadly disease, etc.

I’ve seen a lot of outrage from Haiti immigrants and immigrants from African countries about the alleged remarks. Some African leaders called for President Trump to apologize. Typical floor-showing.

But I’ve seen only one immigrant  — a Nigerian — talk about going back home and making a difference there. Good luck, bro.

Most of the immigrants from the Third World thrive here in the USA and do not return to their countries of origin because it’s a lot easier and more profitable to stay here, have their children born as Americans, and raise them in relative safety and prosperity. And who can blame them? I certainly don’t.

But let’s stop pretending that they left some idyllic Trump-less places of beauty and peace. They left places that were dirty, stinky, dangerous and which have leaders who are blatantly corrupt.

A.K.A. shitholes.

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The Real Purpose of the 1619 Project

Originally posted on August 24, 2019 at DaTechGuy Blog.

Like always.

Title of the Project is wrong, not to mention the Premise 

From Lyman Stone at the Federalist on New York Times 1619 Project.

1619 is commonly cited as the date slavery first arrived in “America.” No matter that historians mostly consider the 1619 date a red herring. Enslaved people were working in English Bermuda in 1616. Spanish colonies and forts in today’s Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina had enslaved Africans throughout the mid-to-late 1500s: in fact, a slave rebellion in 1526 helped end the Spanish attempt at settling South Carolina.

The presence of Spanish power continued to inhibit English settlement of the deep south basically until the Revolutionary War. In some sense, the 1526 San Miguel de Guadeloupe rebellion cleared the way for English settlement of South Carolina.

(...)

But before 1526, slavery was already ongoing in the eventual United States. The earliest slave society in our present country, and our most recent slavery society, was in Puerto Rico. The island’s Spanish overlords were enslaving the Taino natives by 1500. By 1513, the Taino population had shrunk dramatically due to brutal violence and disease. Thus, Spain brought the first African slaves to Puerto Rico.

Chattel slavery in Puerto Rico continued, despite many “Royal Graces” easing life for free blacks and sometimes promising eventual emancipation, until 1873. Even then, slaves had to buy their own liberty. It’s not clear when the last slave was free in Puerto Rico, but it would still have been a fresh memory in 1898 when the United States gained control from Spain.

Slavery in America did not begin in 1619. It began in 1513. Any argument for a 1619 date implicitly suggests that the American project is an inherently Anglo project: that other regions, like Texas, California, Louisiana, and Puerto Rico, have subordinate histories that aren’t really, truly, equal as American origin stories.

But even if the title were correct, what's the true propose of this project? Stone gives the answer earlier in the piece.

It isn’t mostly about helping Americans understand the role played by plantation agriculture in American history. It’s mostly about convincing Americans that “America” and “slavery” are essentially synonyms.

Previously, I've discussed the Civil War and whether (or not) present-day black Americans should be grateful to our country and to those who fought on the Union side. A lot of people didn't like my conclusion.

True freedom fighters have the clean conscience of God. May that be enough for them.

And at the same time, however, this country has no need to pay for its past sins. This very same Civil War was America's trial by fire, its conviction, and its sentence -- something that American leaders chose.

But, it seems as if all too many are intent on keeping everyone angry about hardships none of them had to bear. All the New York Times wants to do is make itself the drum major of the anger and vengeance parade.

And what if America and slavery are synonymous? What then? Oh, yes, reparations.

Reparations, just like every other government program, will become just another cistern for politicians to wet their beaks. How do you think they all get rich?

Because that's the true purpose of all this -- to create another means for our money to become theirs.

By the way, what about those Spaniards?

UPDATE: For some strange reason, people seem to think I'm unaware of the world history of slavery. I am not.

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About Blogging and Social Media

Originally posted on August 23, 2019 at DaTechGuy Blog.

Joe Frazier and Muhammad Ali

I prefer blogging to Social Media because, with blogging, ideas can be more easily expanded upon and have its foundations described. A downside, however, is that those who need to read these types of pieces won’t do so.

Something else about Social Media: if you put up a status, on, say, Facebook, it is always prone to the commenter who hasn’t read your previous statuses -- or your blog -- and who refuses to do so. He has made up his mind about whatever it is you are saying and about who you are.

And then there are your regular friends, those who regularly comment on your statuses and vice versa. Most of them are great—even the liberals. But, sometimes, you find out that your friends are harboring all manner of misconceptions about things you thought you had in common.

Example: when you find out that a friend who calls herself a conservative, thinks that when someone posts an opposing opinion on her page, that she is being forced into another opinion. And when you try to explain why this is not so, you get the post-modern version of how to define a word/concept.

This is a good, smart lady and I like her. But her thinking has been so post-modernly molded, that she thinks that anything which makes her intellectually uncomfortable is “force” and cannot see the lack of logic in it.

Call it the Safe Space mindset, where a person is free from the violence of your horrible opinions.

I have only blocked two people from my Facebook page; both were out-and-out straight-jacket lunatics. I’ve never blocked anyone on Twitter, which is, in my opinion, primarily a place to share links, brawl and to toy with trolls. But, occasionally, I'll put something substantial there.

At my old blog, I blocked a few trolls after many warnings and after tiring of changing their comments to something more entertaining.

On Facebook, I’ve trying to keep my page from being an echo chamber. It surprises many people when I argue with them; they assume I’m angry or that they are about to be blocked. One the contrary, argument is what keeps your thinking from becoming sluggish, from gazing at your navel for too long.

Additionally, if I argue with someone, it means that I respect their intellect.

I’d like to see more people become open to at least reading other points of view and having their minds changed. Yes, I know it won’t be many.

Have I had my mind changed recently? You bet I have. I thought that conservatives were better critical thinkers than liberals. It turns out that we are just as prone to error as liberals are. The culprits: pride and the refusal to be humbled by God.

You cannot improve your thinking process without at least reading what your ideological opponent says; exercise for your brain.
.
And this analogy can be taken further: everyday events continually show just who has been going to the intellectual gym -- the library is one example -- and who has been sitting on their duffs.

Excuse me while I go exercise.

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I’m Staying on the Battlefield

Originally posted on July 23, 2019 at DaTechGuy Blog.

Roger L. Simon:

I left Los Angeles for Nashville slightly over a year ago. When I call friends back in my former home (for 50 years), most of them tell me I got out just in time.

Actually, they’re wrong. I should have gotten out ten or even fifteen years before. The handwriting was on the wall. (…)

Now everybody knows about the 36,000 homeless on the streets of LA, over 60,000 in the county, replete with human feces and syringes littering the sidewalks, along with rats, typhus and even rumors of bubonic plague.

And those figures are what we’re told. No one, if you can trust the comments sections in the LA Times or the Next Door app for my old Hollywood neighborhood, remotely believes them. They could be three or four times the number. And how do you take a census of the homeless anyway? They are inherently nomadic. But everyone knows they are everywhere, along those sidewalks, under the freeway underpasses, even in the brush up by Mulholland Drive. Maybe they should add homeless encampments to the Disneyland Mulholland ride. (…)

Shelters, some of them well built, have been constructed all over the city but the homeless don’t want to stay in them. The reason is these shelters are drug-free zones and the homeless of LA (and San Francisco and Seattle) are anything but drug-free. Most are addicts. They prefer to live in tents where they can smoke what they want, shoot what they want, pop what they want.

And this is the stark reality. I know because I lived in homeless housing — different from a shelter — for nine months in 2015. No illegal drugs and no alcohol; you are drug tested before being allowed to live there. And violations of the rules result in eviction.

For myself, I like red wine, but I went without during my stay there. And I saw many people get booted for smuggling in their numbing agent of choice and being discovered.

Given a choice between getting high and sleeping indoors, all too many will choose the former.

The overarching factor for the exploding numbers of homeless persons here, of course, is that involuntary commitment into mental hospitals and insane asylums is illegal. “Civil rights,” you know.

And then there’s the great weather.

Roger picked a very nice state for relocation. Last year, I visited Tennessee – first time ever — and it’s high on the list for my own future move.

But I’m staying for now. Yes, it’s tough to live here, but as I’ve mentioned several times, I stay because of my church and it’s the lone reason.

California is the battlefield — not just a political one, but a spiritual one; the rising numbers of addicts is one of dozens of indications.

I have no plans on going out to “save” anyone, but I do sense that this state is on the edge of something good and I want to be here to see it and, maybe, be a part of it.

We will have to hit bottom, though, like all addicts.

And I think we’re almost there. At least I hope so.

2020 will be a very illuminating year.

ADDITIONAL (1/1/2020): California Law AB5, which effectively bans freelancers of almost any stripe -- like me -- became active today.

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Aftereffects of the Obama Presidency

Originally posted on June 1, 2019 at DaTechGuy Blog.

Like a Very Long Hangover

Some people think that we should leave Former President Obama alone, since he’s not president anymore. Problem is he and his minions won’t leave us alone.

First, there he is in Brazil — the former POTUS — lying about American gun laws.

President Barack Obama said the United States’ gun laws “don’t make much sense” and claimed anybody “can buy machine guns” while speaking at VTEX Day 2019 in Brazil.

“Some of you may be aware our gun laws in the United States don’t make much sense. Anybody can buy any weapon any time. Without much, if any, regulation, they can buy it over the Internet, they can buy machine guns,” Obama told the audience.

It’s hard, however, to get too worked up about BHO’s whoppers. After all, his lips are moving. And, in fairness George W. Bush set the precedent for former POTUSes lying about/criticizing his country on foreign soil.

But, then there’s this.

President Donald Trump said on Thursday [May 30, 2019] that John Kerry “should be prosecuted” for allegedly violating the Logan Act through his conversations with Iran, escalating a feud between his administration and the former [Obama-appointed] secretary of State.

“John Kerry violated the Logan Act,” Trump said during a White House press availability. “He’s talking to Iran and has has many meetings and many phone calls and he’s telling them what to do. That is total violation of the Logan Act.”

The response from Kerry's spokesperson amounted to “we will do what we want since we are the professionals and we know how to do this better than you do, Philistine.”

And it seem that other former Obama officials are intent on interfering in relations between the US and Iran.

This is what you get when you elect a person — BHO — who feels entitled to his elevation and, ironically, feels contempt for those he leads. You get all of his “elite” cohorts, flunkies, and puppeteers who can “see the bigger picture,” the picture that we rabble who would elect some real estate mogul-reality TV star to office cannot see.

And their bigger picture always involves more power for them and elites in other countries — Iran’s mullahs, for example — and less for you.

These “elites” won’t let go without some … incentive. They will have to become convinced that letting go is in their best interest.

And I am convinced that there is a lot of “best interest” located in the declassified files of the Russian Collusion Investigation.

We spent eight years being afraid of what Obama had in store for us next. I want to see what’s in store for him.

Alternative: they could all HAVE A SEAT.

No, I don’t think it will happen either.

ADDITIONAL (1/1/2020): Interesting, in light of the Iran news from the last two days.

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Heartbeat

Originally posted on May 11, 2019 at DaTechGuy Blog.

Everyone must participate in the sacrifice!

On Thursday [May 2, 2019], fanatic feminist Lauren Duca, who has hitherto had a rather hostile perspective toward men, suddenly issued a highly-unlikely plea, begging men to get more involved in fighting against the state of Georgia adopting the “heartbeat bill” which outlaws abortion once the baby shows it has a heartbeat. Duca pleaded, “Hey, all men? We need you to show up for this fight.”

On Tuesday [April 30, 2019], Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, ignoring threats from the Hollywood community that they would boycott his state if he signed the so-called “heartbeat bill” which would ban abortions if a fetal heartbeat can be detected, signed the bill.

Many years ago, I had a miscarriage very early on. Before that, the doctor had ordered an ultrasound. During the procedure, the technicians pointed out my child’s heartbeat. I was seven weeks along.

Fast forward almost two decades, I was arguing with a man who was pro-abortion. He claimed that the fetus’ heart wasn’t even beating before the three-month point. When I told him that I had seen my baby’s heart beating at seven weeks, he claimed that I had imagined it!

After I told him that the technicians were the ones who pointed it out, he still wouldn’t believe it.

This sort of thing shows that the fanatical pro-abortionist will refuse to hear anything which will prove the idea that fetus is a human being. It’s a “thing” or a “clump of cells” unless the mother wants it. Only then does the “thing” become a human being.

And, should the mother change her mind about wanting the human being, that human being becomes a thing again.

It’s certain that I’m not the only person who thinks that the obsession which many leftists have with making abortion easier and allowing it later and later during pregnancy is a spiritual issue.

A form of human sacrifice? That would explain why many of its advocates seem to worship it.

... why they want as many entities – men, governments, taxpayers – as complicit as possible.

... why they would turn anti-abortion advocacy into racism.

Simply, abortion is demonic. It is the shedding of innocent blood and it’s how these lost souls appease their father.

It is a perversion of the sacrifice of Jesus the Christ — who voluntarily shed His innocent blood to atone for the sins of all so that no more atonement is necessary.

And if everyone is involved somehow in soaking our ground with blood, then we’re all guilty — or that’s how they and their father hope it will be.

And it accounts for the rabid, unhinged responses against public pro-lifers, especially against unashamed Christians like Vice President Mike Pence.

On a related note, my dad sent me five bags of coffee as a gift for Mother’s Day. I have given birth to no children, but Dad knows that my children are with God and that I look forward to the day when I will meet them and hear them call me Mom.

Thanks, Daddy. I love you.

RELATED: Donald Trump May Have Saved His Country

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A Little Bit About Those Refugee Camps in Kenya

Originally posted on April 30, 2019 at DaTechGuy Blog.

With two Somali-Americans – Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN-5) and Sports Illustrated “swimsuit” model Halima Aden — being in the news of late, I think it’s important to dispense some information about a singular part of their backgrounds.

Both spent their childhoods in Kenyan refugee camps.

If you recall, the last time a person whose lineage was from that part of the world became famous, a lot of made-up information (read: lies) was spread around and, over a decade later, I still see some of it. Therefore, I’d like to get out a little ahead of information on the refugee camps, or, at least run alongside of it.

I don’t intend for this to be any kind of expose on the camps — kind of difficult to do anything like that from my living room in Los Angeles — nor is this an opinion piece about the women. I’ve made my opinions about Omar plain, and, as for Aden’s SI hijab-burkini debut, I’m agnostic on the topic other than the fact that I think that swimming in full hijab might be dangerous. Also, she seems like a nice young lady.

My only purpose here is to provide accurate information available from open sources about the camps .

From World of Camps:

The Dadaab refugee camp complex is situated in northeastern Kenya, near the border with Somalia. Until early 2017, it consisted of five refugee camps. However, one of the camps, Kambioos, which was also the newest, was recently closed as refugees began returning to Somalia and the few remaining moved into the other camps.

Dadaab was established in the year 1991 following the beginning of the civil war in Somalia. Somalis were forced to flee as the war worsened, leaving to neighbouring countries including Kenya, Ethiopia and Sudan.

The Dadaab Complex consists of five smaller camps: Dagahaley, Hagadera, Ifo, Ifo II and Kambioos. The latter two camps were opened in 2011 when more Somalians fled their country to escape drought and subsequent famine.

Who manages and funds these camps? Why, the UN, of course. Its Twitter feed is here. And there are many more foreign agencies involved.

Kenya has been trying to shut down this complex and repatriate its inhabitants since 2013.

From Kenya’s Daily Nation:

[T]he camp situated in Garissa county has been the centre of protracted negotiations between the Kenya government, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and Somalia.

This will be the fourth attempt to close it.

In 2013, the three parties had signed a tripartite agreement to source funds, prepare the ground back in Somalia and facilitate the voluntary return of refugees. Those who accepted were to be given a stipend and other support.

But refugees seem to have shied away from this programme. Figures from UNHCR show that the number of refugees who left the camp on their own is more than those who went under the guided programme.

In 2014, there were about 350,000 refugees. Today, the camp hosts 210,556 refugees, of which 202,381 are from Somalia.

By their own law, the Kenyans are prohibited from simply throwing the refugees out, which is good because I suspect that they’ve had enough of the Somalis.

Back to our two subject personalities.

Omar, 37, was born in Mogadishu, Somalia. She and her family spent four of her childhood years in the Dadaab complex. She entered the United States in 1992 and became an American citizen in 2000.

Aden, 21, was born in a camp called Kakuma, which is not part of the Dadaab complex. It is located

Halima Aden. Cite.

on the opposite end of Kenya and, therefore much further away from the Kenya-Somalia border than is Dadaab. She and her family came to America when she was six. I can only find one article mentioning her citizenship; the writer assumes that she is an American citizen.

As we know, the largest concentration of Somali refugees and Somali-Americans in the USA is in Minnesota, which is where both women live.

And here’s a little more opining from me: regardless of what one thinks of either woman, it is for certain that they both hit the jackpot.

ADDENDUM:

Dadaab gains a new benefactor.

The King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center (KSRelief) [of Saudi Arabia] is set to open a regional relief office in Kenya that will aid refugees in the Dadaab Refugee Camp.

According to the General Supervisor of the Center Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al-Rabiah, the organization will also provide urgent food and medical assistance to Kenyans facing starvation.

He stated that last year, it distributed over 1,200 tonnes of relief food aid to the Dadaab refugees after the UN cut funding and food aid ratio for the 3 refugee camps of Ifo, Hagadera and Dagahaley. [Ed note: It appears that there are more camps in the complex than are named in some sources. JAO]

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