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Praetorium Honoris

Sunday, September 15, 2019

In a Bit of a Black Mood

Storm on the Sea
Johannes Christiaan Schotel
All the news of political maneuvers by divers and idiot wannabe statesmen (and at least two women) have left me in no fit state for polite company. I've written of the "coming storm" before, at least twice, maybe more. Searching through my old political posts gets depressing fast.

So here we go, one from 2013, one from 2016. What, I ask you in all sincerity, has changed?

Gathering Storm
Georges Michel
And ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. (Matthew 24:6)
What is going on in this country? The Constitution is either the law of the land, or it is not. If it is not, then we are no longer living in the United States of America. If that be the case, then the current civilian leadership in Washington D.C. and the military leadership of the Armed Forces have decided to set aside their oaths of office and govern by fiat. Can the use of armed force to enforce the will of the current political regime be far behind?

A while back I was doing some research regarding the oaths sworn by both officers and enlisted upon entry into the Armed Forces of the United States. Well, I have been doing some further research on this topic and found something interesting, to wit:
One notable difference between the officer and enlisted oaths is that the oath taken by officers does not include any provision to obey orders; while enlisted personnel are bound by the Uniform Code of Military Justice to obey lawful orders, officers in the service of the United States are bound by this oath to disobey any order that violates the Constitution of the United States.
Before going any further, let's take a look at the oaths. Here is the officer oath:
I, [name], do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.
And the enlisted oath:
I, [name], do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God.
Note that in both instances, the "So help me God" portion of the oath may be omitted for persons who desire to affirm rather than to swear to the oath. Yes, I have a bit of heartburn with that bit but Article Six of the United States Constitution states:
This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding.
The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.
The underlined bit being that which relates to the phrase "So help me God".

So those are the oaths sworn by the members of the Armed Forces of the United States. The President, Vice President, members of Congress and federal judges also swear oaths. All of which make reference to the Constitution.

The President:

I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.
The others:
I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. [So help me God.]
Now as regards the current President, he may actually not be in violation of his sworn oath. I say this because the oath does state "to the best of my Ability". It's quite possible that he is doing the best he can. It's possible that he's just not that capable and the office of the President is beyond his competence. If so, then the electorate is at fault for electing an incompetent to the office.

Now the oath as taken by members of Congress, the judiciary and the Vice President doesn't cut them any slack as regards "ability". Their oath states "
I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office". My guess would be that if they are unable to do that, then they should step down.

Now all of that aside, there seems to be a hue and cry in this country for a "conversation" regarding firearms. Exactly which part of the 2nd Amendment don't these clowns understand? It's right up there in my header, "the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed". No "conversation" is necessary, we have the right to keep and bear arms. The government is specifically prohibited from infringing upon that right.

The 2nd Amendment does not specify the type of arms. Various legislative acts and court decisions down through the years which have prohibited citizens from bearing certain types of arms are unconstitutional. The Supreme Court does make mistakes and has since the country was founded. I need only refer to the Dred Scott Decision.

From Wikipedia:

Dred Scott (1795 – September 17, 1858), was an African-American slave in the United States who unsuccessfully sued for his freedom and that of his wife and their two daughters in the Dred Scott v. Sandford case of 1857, popularly known as "the Dred Scott Decision." The case was based on the fact that although he and his wife Harriet Scott were slaves, they had lived with his master Dr. John Emerson in states and territories where slavery was illegal according to both state laws and the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, including Illinois and Minnesota (which was then part of the Wisconsin Territory). The United States Supreme Court decided 7–2 against Scott, finding that neither he nor any other person of African ancestry could claim citizenship in the United States, and therefore Scott could not bring suit in federal court under diversity of citizenship rules. Moreover, Scott's temporary residence outside Missouri did not bring about his emancipation under the Missouri Compromise, which the court ruled unconstitutional as it would improperly deprive Scott's owner of his legal property.
While Chief Justice Roger B. Taney had hoped to settle issues related to slavery and Congressional authority by this decision, it aroused public outrage and deepened sectional tensions between the northern and southern U.S. states. President Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, and the post-Civil war Thirteenth, Fourteenth and Fifteenth amendments nullified the decision.
So the Supreme Court made a mistake, they are, after all, human. Any decision made by the Court which infringes at all upon our 2nd Amendment rights is unconstitutional, period, full stop. One does not need a law degree to figure out the Bill of Rights. One just needs to be able to read and comprehend English.

The way I see it, the President, the Vice President and a large number of congress-critters are in violation of their oath of office and should either correct that behavior or resign their office. Any officer in the US Armed Forces who supports the infringement of the 2nd Amendment needs to reconsider that stance or resign their commissions. They are morally and legally bound to do so.

Enlisted soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines and coast guardsmen need to understand that any order or orders which may cause them to infringe upon the rights conveyed by the 2nd Amendment are illegal orders and should not be obeyed.

Why are Progressive Elements in this country so intent upon dismantling the Constitution, or at least the parts they don't agree with? Because they think they know what's best for the rest of us.

Beware America. Once your 2nd Amendment rights are taken away, the rest won't be far behind.

Say goodbye to freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of worship, freedom to petition the government for redress of grievances, freedom to peaceably assemble, in short, say goodbye to the United States. You might as well learn how to speak Chinese. You'll need it when the new rulers take over.




(Source)
You know the feeling. It's a pleasant summer day, the sun is shining, the birds are singing, but there's something in the air. Something causes the hair on the back of your neck to tingle. Though we are far from our primitive roots, there are still things which cause our hackles to rise.

If we live in a place where the horizon is far away, where the vistas are sprawling and vast, you might eventually notice the clouds on the far horizon are gathering. If you are out where the noise pollution of civilization is minimal, you might hear, at some level of your consciousness, the deep rumble of thunder.


Something is out there. Will it come this way?


Soon the sky darkens further, wisps of the storm are cast ahead of it, like cavalry scouts probing ahead. Lightning can be seen, sharp bolts against the black, what once was blue sky short moments before.

There are days when the wind shifts, the storm dissipates, or carried by the wind it moves away, to trouble some other land. But then there are the days where the wind rises, you can smell the wetness of the precipitation not yet reaching the ground. You can smell, almost taste, the ozone as the clouds discharge the lightning.

Then, almost before you can react, the storm is upon you. If shelter is close, you rush for it, if not, you cast about for some safe place. You know you are going to get wet, then a blinding flash and a near simultaneous crack. You seek the low ground, trying to maintain a low profile. Atavistic instinct takes over, you are now more animal than human. All your rational thought flees, you are unprepared, you are caught in the open.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The storm has already broken out over Europe, floods of "immigrants" make their way into the citadels of learning and culture, changing all they touch. They clamor for their "rights," they demand change, they demand adherence to their archaic, medieval doctrines. There is no escaping them, the guardians of the West have dropped their guard, they have unmanned the watchtowers. Though told this would happen, they did not listen.

For they are the great elite. They know better, they went to the right schools, they have the right friends, they believe the right things. They say to themselves, if only we understood them better, if only we try harder to accommodate their desires, their demands.

My friend the Cap'n has written of this concern. As he has many times. I'm not sure if I have lost my faith in the West yet, though as the elections loom, that faith in civilization is wavering.

I feel like a sergeant in the rear ranks, trying to get the troops to maintain their alignment, their order. Yet somewhere over my shoulder, I hear a rumbling, a dull thumping in the air. Is that a storm, is that artillery? To whom to those cannon belong? Are they ours, or do they signal the approach of some foe?

I know not. 

Yeats seems appropriate. Something is definitely coming. I can feel it in my bones...


THE SECOND COMING
William Butler Yeats

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: a waste of desert sand;
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Wind shadows of the indignant desert birds.

The darkness drops again but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born? 



* With apologies to Ray Bradbury.


As the French are wont to say, "Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose."

Or as Yogi Berra would say, it's déjà-vu, all over again...

Sigh...




36 comments:

  1. Thanks.

    Write one good post 3 years ago and people..... :)

    Watching Sharpe.

    It probably goes without saying that perhaps both of us were there with the South Essex.

    You and I and a handful of others used to think of ourselves as "the centre."

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sharpe is my kinda guy, up from the ranks, has some rough edges, and yeah, we're the type to have been with the South Essex.

      You've written more than one good one, but I suspect you're just being modest. Yes, I can picture you, hand on chest, surprised look, saying , "Moi?"

      Yeah, when did we become the fringe?

      Delete
  2. I have two maxims I always fall back upon: "It's always darkest before it goes totally black." and, 2: "They said 'cheer up, things could be worse' and so I did, and sure enough they got worse."

    Take your pick..

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Two Maxims? I should be so lucky. What are they chambered in?

      Delete
    2. ...and a third one: "things always look the blackest just before the bottom falls out"...

      Delete
    3. When it looks as if nothing else can go wrong, wait a minute...

      Delete
  3. I can hardly post anymore...cute/funny/fun stuff...my heart's not in it.

    ReplyDelete
  4. One hopes their mouths have finally overloaded their .......s

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Wouldn't that be special? (Not to mention fitting.)

      Delete
  5. At least Trump was elected, and seems sincere about his oath of office for the most part, which is better than you can say for the last 6 of 7 democrat presidents.

    And now that the table is turning on the rats, they seem to be squirming and shouting for more and more stupidity every day.

    It was weird, but a meme pointed it out, yet again. At the third DemocRat debate, just a day after the 9-11 anniversary, yet again there were NO AMERICAN FLAGS visible anywhere in the debate hall. None. Nada. Nyet. Zip. Zero. Zero Flags, Zero Candidates... It's almost like they are acknowledging that the United States isn't their country...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Trump keeps me in the game. It's fun to watch heads explode every time he tweets.

      The Dem candidates? Traitors, the lot of 'em.

      Delete
  6. "Enlisted soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines and coast guardsmen need to understand that any order or orders which may cause them to infringe upon the rights conveyed by the 2nd Amendment are illegal orders and should not be obeyed."

    Same goes for LEO's. Any who do attempt to enforce unconstitutional laws, orders, whatever, are acting Under Color of Authority. At that point, it's not a uniform, it's a costume.

    "What is going on in this country?"

    I call it the big lie. Well, two lies actually.

    1. "There is a free lunch". No, there isn't. Maybe you didn't pay for it, but somebody somewhere, did. Or if they used a credit card, will.

    2. "It's not your fault". You were spanked as a kid. You come from a single parent home. Yada, yada. Thank you, Dr. Spock. Everyone gets a trophy. No winners and hence, no losers. Safe spaces. Right---NOT! Without winners, EVERYBODY is a loser. Why do we fall?---

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIcGuFnl7ZU

    LawDog makes a very good point--

    http://thelawdogfiles.blogspot.com/2019/09/about-time.html




    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Any order in violation of the Constitution is an illegal order, not just the 2nd A.

      Delete
    2. Problem is, many in the military and in LEO are being taught that violating the Constitution is okay and acceptable, in little increments, so when the ball drops, if it ever does, the hordes of badged orcs and militant zombies will be there.

      Like in Portland, where the Mayor and the Police Chief have given orders to ignore Laws towards one group, but enforce them against the other group to the point of making up stuff.

      Chartlottesville.

      Ruby Ridge.

      Waco.

      The 4 old men at the Coffee Shop.

      The LA riots (thanks to roof-Koreans, it wasn't as bad as it could have been...)

      Ferguson riots.

      Atlanta riots - happens all the time, just isn't reported, especially when the morlocks climb up onto the interstate and attack people.

      All the punch-games and slam-games and targetting of a specific racial group by another racial group that never ever ever gets even charged as more than 'youths being youths' even when deaths occur.

      The whole 'protect illegal aliens and sanctuary city' bull-scat.

      The refusal to follow the law regarding disciplining and banning students that have lead to all the student goes wild cases.

      The abject failure of the military to report disqualified individuals into NCIS. Or to handle internally issues regarding either sexes or religions that result in serious incidents (like Major Hassan, or 1/3 of women coming up pregnant right before deployment, or the West Point Female Cadet Scandal, or or or...)

      So who exactly is teaching the young and stupid about protecting and defending the Constitution?

      Maybe when you and juvat and Tuna were in, maybe early on when your kids were in, but now? After talking to some young servicemembers, I wonder. I really wonder. I hope they'll rise up to the occassion, but... Same goes for many police agencies, the old good guys are being shoved out of the way, while the spoiled cream rises to the top and the young are indoctrinated by those who shouldn't be serving.

      I worry.

      Delete
    3. Damn, must be bad down your way.

      Delete
    4. Just look at your local cops. Closely. Are they following the letter of the law when they do things? The letter of Constitutional Law?

      No-Knock Warrants...

      Red Flag laws...

      Someone must be detained during a domestic dispute...

      False claims of domestic dispute or sexual assault aren't charged for false claims and damage they've done by falsely claiming something didn't happen.

      It's bad in Gainesville because our mayor and city commission rule us, not do our bidding. But look closely at your local department. Are they as good as you think? What's the turnover rate? How many old-school beat cops are in command, vs weird special team leaders? And how many of the old-school cops are being forced out or have retired?

      Do you really trust anyone who is taught to be a cop by national standards finalized during the Greatest Presidential Mistake ever? (Saw the rules changing rapidly while at the pd, and not for the better.)

      People like LawDog? He's a good guy. Lots of good cops out there, but...

      And the military? Bowe Bergdahl got off when he should have faced a firing squad just for joining Al Queda as a fellow traveller. That Ripone cadet socialist guy? Why didn't he decorate a gibbet? Whole SEAL teams falsifying accounts so they can get rid of the one old-school good guy? The whole emphasis started during the Greatest Presidential Mistake Ever that made training more about feelings and social justice than shooting and breaking stuff.

      It goes on. I support good law enforcement. I saw good law enforcement. I saw civil asset forfeiture used properly to injure drug dealers. I also saw CAF used maliciously in support of certain political views... And I saw bad law enforcement like a female cop pulling over and seizing phones from out-of-state visitors to give to her boyfriend the drug-dealer so he could make calls without being bugged by the cops. They finally let her go, but without charging her for anything... Or the cop who was running security for an escort service that was also the biggest cocaine distribution net in the city, after a 6 month undercover operation, she was let go... not charged, let go...

      There are good servicemembers out there, good LEOs, good people everywhere. But I don't trust the good people to be able to protect us from the bad people who would and will follow illegal and unconstitutional orders.

      Agh, gloomy times, gloomy times... The Dem Candidates and stupidity by Florida's two senators who are not Republican even though they say they are is all getting to me. Must go run over some protestors or something to feel better.

      Delete
    5. Our local LEOs aren't bad, though I've heard rumors of misdeeds. State cops are very professional.

      The Great Divider did damage the military but not to the extent the Meejah wants you to believe. Remember, erode trust in public institutions is the first step.

      Delete
  7. Going to the right schools does not mean anything, if they did not learn anything, while they were there. Today, to get the degree, all that is required, is to part of back what the instructor fed you. Thinking is actively discouraged, as you may formulate the wrong ideas.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I didn't see this until the morning of the sixteenth.
    https://mooseintheyard.blogspot.com/2019/09/its-upon-us-now.html

    Key quote.
    " So what, then? Armed rebellion? Please, God, no; that time is not yet (and I hope it does NOT come) although I dare say it’s a darn sight closer than any of us thought it would ever be, in our times. In fact, I will predict right now that if gun confiscation begins in earnest, there WILL be a civil war. And the gun owners (civilians, not paid thugs) will win.

    Let me repeat that: we will win. But it will be messy, bloody, and too horrible to contemplate here."

    Much to think about.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Damn, I didn't see that until just now.

      Much to think about indeed.

      Delete
  9. Sportsfans/

    Google "Gun confiscation during Katrina" There are eleven articles on the first page ALONE!

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    Replies
    1. Virgil, I did just that. Not surprising as there was a leftist in charge of the city at the time. One of the articles mentioned that there were LEOs amd National Guardsmen from many different states and juridictions with differing gun laws.

      There should be only one arms law in this country, as stated in the Constitution. Every other "gun" law on the books is unconstitutional.

      When will we, the people, learn?

      Delete
    2. As to using Bing, it seems to yield much the same as Google, as does DuckDuckGo. I will note that Google's search arlgorithms have gotten terrible over the past year. My guess is they are restricting what we can find. That needs to end.

      Delete
  10. if you want to get a little optimism, read Neil Gorsuch's new book - "A Republic - if You can Keep It". He talks about the Founders' Constitution and his concerns for the mis-interpretation of it and the erosion of the separation of powers. I haven't read it yet but heard an interview with him on CSPAN that has encouraged me, so it's on my list to buy next time I'm out.

    I also liked Beta's rants, namely because they have revealed to all middle of the roaders that the left really IS for gun confiscation. His comments should help Republican campaign ads immensely. And as far as the applause and cheers his remarks gave, I can only think that the audience were a) from Dem controlled big cities; b) from Austin (refer to point a); c) not native Texans but transplants from blue areas or south of the border; d) products of the public school system in the big cities. I also liked the little Twitter spat he got into with Rep. Briscoe Cain, who told Beta that he had an AR-15 that was waiting for Beta.

    ReplyDelete

Just be polite... that's all I ask. (For Buck)
Can't be nice, go somewhere else...

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