How Do I Despise Tim Walz? Let Me Count The Ways

Destroying the American Family

Counting the ways Tim Walz has harmed women, children, and families:

During his stint as governor of Minnesota, Walz has:

1.  Signed a law enshrining abortion on demand, without limits, until birth, the Protect Reproduction Options Act of 2023.

Until BIRTH?  An unborn human is viable many, many weeks before term.  What we have here is MURDER.  The MURDER of another human.  Abortionists try to use euphemisms such as "products of conception" rather than "baby."  It's MURDER.  Have you heard the phone call to a Maryland (oh, how I despise Maryland) abortion clinic where the abortion of a 34-week-old unborn human is described.  First they numb the unborn human so it doesn't feel any pain.  Whoops, did they just admit the unborn human can feel pain?  Then, they inject the unborn human with a drug that stops its heart.  Hmmm, seems like that's what happens to death row inmates when they are executed, right?  What horrendous crime has that 34-week-old unborn human committed to deserve EXECUTION?

2.  Signed a bill repealing numerous longstanding and commonsense abortion policies, including informed consent for women and Minnesota’s Positive Alternatives program that had supported pregnant women and new mothers.

So, if he cannot kill the unborn human, he'll just remove any support the state has for the mother of the unborn human.  

3.    Stripped away the right of babies who SURVIVE abortion to receive lifesaving care.  As governor of Minnesota, Walz signed into law a bill that struck the requirement “that all responsible medical personnel” use “[a]ll reasonable measures consistent with good medical practice” to “preserve the life and health” of an infant born alive during an attempted abortion. 

If the baby survives a botched abortion, they are left to die.  A newborn baby LEFT TO DIE.  How inhuman can this man be?  Might as well be in Virginia under the governorship of Ralph Northram, who described how a newborn survivor of abortion would be murdered.  The word for this crime is INFANTICIDE.  Walz should be required to explain himself.

4.  On Walz's watch, Minnesota declared itself a sanctuary state for children whose parents refused to allow them to be mutilated and sterilized under the guise of "gender-affirming care."

A child who is confused regarding gender and whose parents refuse to provide mutilating surgery and sterilizing hormone therapy could go to a judge in Minnesota and that judge would remove the child from the custody of his/her parents so that the State of Minnesota could provide "gender-affirming care."  This "protection" extends to children who are not residents of Minnesota.  Can you see the possibility here?  The possibility of child trafficking to become trans and probably into the sex trade? 

How can any American vote to put this heartless monster into the Vice Presidency?  How can any American vote for the person who chose Walz to be #2?

I am aghast.

Stolen Valor: The Coward's MO

Reprehensible:  Politicians Lying about Military Service for Political Gain

In the interest of full disclosure, I am not an unbiased reporter when it comes to Stolen Valor.  My father was a tall, handsome, recruitment-poster-worthy career U.S. Marine officer who did not smoke, drink, or swear.  He was a hero of WWII, the Korean Conflict, and the Vietnam War.  In the latter, he earned -- EARNED -- the Bronze Star Medal with the Combat V for Valor.  He died entirely too early at the age of 67 thanks to the effects of his combat.  The good news is that he lived long enough to meet the oldest of his four grandchildren.  The bad news is that my mother lost her husband, I lost my father, and my children lost their grandfather, but this is the price families of heroes pay.  

My father was buried in Arlington National Cemetery with Full Military Honors and is interred in Section 60 with the heroes of Iraq and Afghanistan.

My favorite uncle was the crew chief of a B-24 bomber during WWII.  He was stationed with US troops in Italy and survived a plane crash.  His older brother flew a Corsair during WWII.  Another uncle served in the U.S. Air Force, and my first cousin was in the U.S. Navy, stationed on a ship off the coast of Vietnam during that conflict.  

My mother, while not in the armed forces, worked at a munitions factory in NC where she tested the explosive that went into 40mm shells that my father (before they met) probably shot in the Solomon Islands where he spent WWII.  She wasn't exactly Rosie the Riveter, but neither was her job insignificant.  If those shells did not explode, they were ineffective in bringing down attacking aircraft.

Not to be left out is my father-in-law, a career U.S. Army officer who retired as a full Colonel.  He served in Europe during WWII and was in the Battle of the Bulge, where he was wounded.  He earned -- that's right, EARNED -- the Bronze Star for his service there as well as a Purple Heart.

Having laid out my family credentials and acknowledging my bias, the subject now turns to politicians who lie about their service for POLITICAL GAIN.  

The current governor of Maryland, Democrat Wes Moore, LIED about earning the Bronze Star.  He didn't.  As the daughter and daughter-in-law of Bronze Star recipients, that totally burns my grits.  I never liked him anyway, what with his atrocious spending habits (that's for another blog), but now I truly despise him for claiming what he did not earn.

The current Democratic vice-presidential nominee, Tim Walz, takes the cake for gutless, spineless, shameless LYING about his military service.  Sure, he served twenty-some years in the National Guard.  That's nice.  However, he re-upped but, when his unit was scheduled to be sent into combat, he un-re-upped and retired (before his term was completed) so he could focus on running for Congress.  Political gain.  Adding insult to every combat veteran, he claimed to have carried a weapon in war . . . during Iraq . . .while he was stationed in Italy.  He might have carried pasta and pizza, maybe, but any carrying of a weapon was done during transport, not while in combat.  And, claiming a rank he did not earn just adds more insult to those who have served.

As far as I am concerned, any vote cast for the Democratic Harris/Walz ticket disrespects any and all veterans who served their country honorably.  His actions are nothing short of reprehensible.  PERIOD.

Illegal Immigration Backlash: There are Reasons

 

Decrying Anti-Immigration:  Why the Left is blatantly ignorant

A friend of mine wrote quite passionately about immigration, how we’re all (except for the Native Americans) descended from immigrants.  We are, and I’m even married to a naturalized citizen immigrant.  My sons are first-generation Americans on their dad’s side and, on my side, eligible to join the Sons of the American Revolution.  Immigration is a good thing.

That is, legal immigration.  The anti-immigrant sentiment that you see is, I think, not rooted in general anti-immigration per se, but anti-illegal-immigration.  The influx of illegal immigrants over the past several years is unprecedented in history.  The damage it has done to our citizens, our cities, and our country as a whole is immeasurable.  Note that I am using “illegal immigrant” as a reference to their legal status here in the United States, not as a derogatory comment on their very existence.

 These illegal immigrants are not “your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,” as Emma Lazarus described in her poem on the Statue of Liberty.  Well, maybe some of them are, but many are gang members, criminals, drug and human traffickers, and weapon smugglers. 

 The sheer numbers of immigrants have overwhelmed the services – housing, medical, educational – of the sanctuary cities.  Big cities like NY, El Paso, San Diego are overwhelmed.  Smaller cities like Springfield, OH, which has been in the news of late, have seen population growth as large as 20% in the past four years.  These new populations depend on the current citizenry to fund everything they need, overwhelming the infrastructure and funding of those localities.  Some of these people came from crime-ridden, violent countries and, frankly, they continue to act accordingly. 

 Along with the illegal immigrants come an array of diseases, some of which we had almost eliminated within our borders.  The following diseases have had a sharp uptick in occurrence:  polio, TB, HIV, mumps, chicken pox, Hep A and B, measles, and – according to one health worker – every known STD.  These germs endanger everyone, even those who have been vaccinated because vaccines have “holes” in them.  Also, the recent trend of parents not immunizing their children open those children up to disastrous results from these germs. 

 These illegal immigrants are not coming only from Central and South American.  DHS identified more than 400 people smuggled over the border by an ISIS-affiliated group.  This past February, the largest number of illegal immigrants came from China.  Natives of Asia and Africa know how to play the international game of flying to visa-lax countries of Central and South America and then heading north to the gaping hole that is our southern border with Mexico.  There are reports of groups of fit, military-age men, dressed in military camouflage and carrying matching backpacks, indicating a well-funded supply network that ensures everyone is outfitted the same.  Southern ranching areas are suffering from violence and crime fueled by Mexican cartels; their land littered with trash, drug paraphernalia, and dead bodies.  Third- and fourth-generation cattle farmers are not safe on their own properties and they are getting no help from overwhelmed Homeland Security.

 Add to all that is the violence perpetrated on American citizens by illegal immigrants.  Here are just a few.

             Laken Riley, 22, attempted rape and successful murder by an illegal immigrant from Venezuela.

             Rachel Morin, 37, mother of five.  Raped and murdered by an illegal immigrant from El   Salvador.

             Kayla Hamilton, 20.  Killed by an illegal immigrant affiliated with MS-13 gang, was already a suspect in rape/murder of another woman before Kayla’s murder.

             Maria Gonzales, 11.  Beaten, raped, and strangled to death by an illegal immigrant from Guatemala.  He put her body in a plastic bag, put the bag in a laundry hamper, and stuffed the hamper under her bed.

Laken, Rachel, Kayla, Maria, and others would be alive today if our border was secure and our immigration laws enforced. 

Enough said.  Enforce our laws, secure our borders.  Refuse to bow to liberal bleeding hearts who live in their white palaces above normal society.  Arrest and permanently deport illegal immigrants who break the law.  Detain and deport illegal immigrants and make them come in the front door, not sneak in the back.

The Decline of the US Judicial System: How Can We Ensure Juries Are Unbiased and Intelligent?

 I love the law.  I love the Constitution and its protections.

I hate how prosecutors twist scenarios and introduce irrelevant information into trials -- and how judges allow such abuse of our system of jurisprudence.  Whatever happened to "innocent until proven guilty"?  Whatever happened to "guilty beyond a reasonable doubt"?  How can juries make such terrible decisions?

Yesterday's (January 6, 2023) conviction of a mother for the actions of her son is just beyond the pale.  Jennifer Crumbly, mother of convicted school shooter Ethan Crumbly, was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the four deaths of the people Ethan killed during his rampage.  

The case hinged on the definition of grossly negligent -- when a person either (1) commits an act that, as a result, a rational, reasonable person can foresee a negative consequence or (2) fails to carry out a duty that, as a result, a rational, reasonable person can foresee a negative consequence of failing to perform that duty.

Jennifer Crumbly was not a gold-star mother; neither was she grossly negligent.  There was no possible way that she could have foreseen her son taking a gun from the house and committing murder at the high school.  In fact, one teacher who locked eyes with Ethan during the shooting testified that she could not believe Ethan was shooting people.  During the trial, both the judge and the prosecution made inappropriate comments within earshot of the jury.

Jennifer Crumbly was not convicted on the facts of the case.  She was convicted in the Court of Public Opinion.  Certainly the community was traumatized by the shooting.  Despite the shooter being sent to prison for life without parole, the community -- aka the DA -- looked for another person or persons to blame.  Ethan's mother was convicted; Ethan's father will be on trial next month for the same charge.

This is a miscarriage of justice by prosecutorial abuse as well as bias in the jury.  The jury foreperson could not give a rational reason for the conviction.  The charges never should have been brought; Jennifer Crumbly never should have been convicted of involuntary manslaughter.  Jennifer Crumbly was convicted by the court of public opinion.  In this case, jurors might have been afraid to send a "not guilty" verdict for fear of community condemnation for not exacting the desired revenge for the school shooting.  Never mind that the actual shooter in 

The Crumbly case can be added to other recent cases where justice was not served.  The Alec Murdaugh murder case in South Carolina is another miscarriage of justice.  Murdaugh was by admission a liar and a thief, but he did not murder his wife and son.  There was no murder weapon, no DNA, and the phone data as well as a witness place him somewhere other than where the murders happened.  The ballistics of the shooting of the two victims belies there being only one shooter.  Plus, the chief SLED investigator admitted under oath that he lied to the grand jury.  The judge allowed in evidence of Murdaugh's financial crimes which he did not deny but had no relevance to the case.  Despite all of that, Alec Murdaugh was convicted of murder.  The Murdaugh case was publicized, and a network made a documentary about it -- before the trial.  The Murdaugh family's notoriety in the area, added to the publicity of the murders, produced another conviction in court by a biased jury.  Later evidence would point to jury tampering by the Clerk of Court.  This is a case of conviction without evidence -- certainly without evidence pointing to guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

The third case of juries that failed in their task is the Zachariah Anderson case.  Anderson was convicted of murdering his ex's boyfriend.  There was no body (the decedent could be enjoying life on a beach somewhere).  There was no murder weapon.  There was no DNA evidence.  There were no witnesses.  The prosecution's story had Anderson murdering the decedent and carrying his body, wrapped in a rug, to Anderson's work van and disposing of the body somewhere.  However, the decedent was taller and much heavier than Anderson and Anderson had a medically documented bad back.  Anderson could not have done what the prosecution said he did.  How could a jury of competent people convict a person for murder without evidence?  Obviously, competence was not a criterion when the jury was chosen.

Three cases.  The first case had a conviction without a legal basis.  The second and third were convictions based on no evidence.  In those cases, there are murderers still at large.  

Whatever happened to the standard of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt? Whatever happened to prosecuting someone based on the law, rather than based on the community's desire to exact revenge?  Whatever happened to judges maintaining a strict legal atmosphere in the courtrooms rather than allowing irrelevant information in front of juries?

My legal mentors say that anyone who goes to trial, even if they are pure as the driven snow innocent, has a 50/50 chance of being convicted because juries are unpredictable animals.  Juries should not be unpredictable.  They should be predicted to follow the law and decide according to the law, not according to public opinion or the desire to exact revenge.

What can we do to ensure justice is served when it comes to juries?  Perhaps a mandatory class on how to apply the law before a case starts?  Perhaps instruction before the case on what guilt beyond a reasonable doubt means?  

I worry about our system of jurisprudence.  When a truly innocent person can have a high probably of being convicted, our system is broken.

Police Power vs. Police Abuse: The Case of Virgilio Augilar-Mendez

 This is one sad tale.  Sad for our country, sad for the State of Florida, and especially sad for a very young immigrant from Guatemala.  In this case, a young man came illegally to the United States, was part of the "catch and release" immigration policy of the Biden Administration (an administration that fails in its duty to enforce the law, that's a story for another day), and made his way via family connections to Florida, where he was a day laborer picking crops in the fields while he waited for his turn in the immigration court system.  Through no fault of his own but through the fault of an overzealous LEO looking to add to his arrest body count through illegal means, this young Guatemalan is in custody, charged with aggravated manslaughter in the death of that same LEO.

Virgilio Aguilar- Mendez traveled from a tiny village in Guatemala to the United States.  Virgilio speaks very little English and very little Spanish.  His language is Mam, a dialect spoken by only a small population in Guatemala.  Virgilio shared a Motel 8 room with three other laborers who helped him by getting him food and transporting him to and from the vegetable and fruit fields.  Because he was in the immigration court system, Virgilio had every right to work and walk the sidewalks, just as an American citizen would have those rights. 

Let me digress a minute to explain Terry v. Ohio, 392 US 1 (1968).  Without going into details, this case establishes the parameters that define when police have the power to stop and search Americans without a search warrant.  Americans have a Fourth Amendment right to privacy, and police cannot randomly stop and search people on the street.  For police to make such a stop, the person must be suspected of (1) getting ready to commit a crime, (2) being in the progress of committing a crime, or (3) just finished committing a crime.  For these reasons to apply, a reasonable person must agree that one of those three conditions exists.  The person cannot be searched without a warrant; the Terry stop, also known as a stop-and-frisk, only allows a pat-down of the person to ensure there is no weapon that might endanger the LEO making the stop.  The LEO is not allowed to search the person or their belongings without a search warrant.

It was a balmy May evening.  Virgilio had taken a break from eating his take-out dinner on the stoop of his motel room to stand on the sidewalk and use his cell phone to talk with his mother in Guatemala.  The LEO in question, Sgt. Deputy Michael Kunovich, pulled up in his marked police car, called in a "suspicious Hispanic male" notification to his dispatch, asked for back-up, and exited the car.  Once he was out of the car, Kunovich immediately launched into a loud, accusitive demeanor, demanding to know what Virgilio was doing, why Virgilio walked away when he saw the police car, and why Virgilio was eating outside rather than inside his motel room.  Kunovich grabbed Virgilio, who was not resisting, and told him to stop pulling away.  Kunovich then proceeded to accost Virgilio physically and attempted to push his hand into Virgilio's pocket, where Virgilio had the cash from working that he was going to send to his family in Guatemala.  Virgilio had the natural reaction to safeguard his cash, placing his hand over Kunovich's hand.  Virgilio, speaking neither English nor Spanish, tried to explain to Kunovich that he had been eating and kept saying "sorry, sorry."  

More LEOs arrived and four or five of them, all burly LEOs, subdued the small 5'4", 115-pound Virgilio by shoving him to the ground and deploying tasers on him multiple times, even on his spine.  Despite Virgilio repeating that he did not speak English, the LEOs kept shouting and threatening Virgilio in English.  Once Virgilio had been handcuffed, he still managed to pull a small pocketknife out of his pocket to show the LEOs, saying "watermelon" in Spanish as he tried to explain that the tiny one-inch blade was what he used in the fields to harvest watermelons.  The pocketknife never was opened; no LEO was in danger from a closed pocketknife.

Once Virgilio was cuffed and in the squad car, Kunovich turned off his bodycam and went over to the paramedics, who suggested he sit on the ground.  Kunovich collapsed and died despite attempts at resuscitation both on the scene and at the hospital.

The police report is interesting, to say the least, when compared to the body cam footage.  The report said Virgilio resisted at first; this is not true.  The report said Virgilio attempted to wrest the taser form the LEO; in fact, Virgilio was trying to keep the taser away from him, not take the taser away.  Lastly, the report indicated that Virgilio assaulted the LEOs when in fact it was the opposite; the LEOs were assaulting Virgilio, rather brutally when one considers that Virgilio was tased on his spine.  The Sheriff of St. John's County held a press conference where he promoted the lies that (1) Virgilio was trespassing and (2) Virgilio had threatened the LEO with a knife.

The medical examiner said that Kunovich died of multiple natural causes:  high blood pressure, hardening of the arteries, and cardiac dysrhythmia that caused a fatal heart attack.  Despite the question of why a big LEO could not subdue a small man, never mind the illegality of that action, there is no action whatsoever taken by Virgilio that caused the Kunovich's heart attack.  Yet, the St. John's prosecutor has Virgilio jailed on aggravated manslaughter in the death of Kunovich.

A competency hearing was held to determine whether Virgilio was competent to stand trial.  The prosecution neglected to consider Virgilio's command of any language or his cultural behavior.  The defense provided evidence that Virgilio's culture made him think the prosecutor was his friend, that the prosecution was there to help him, and that Virgilio should agree with anything a person in authority would say, despite not understanding what was said.  The defense also presented evidence that Virgilio himself has intellectual challenges.  The judge ruled that Virgilio was not competent and needed competency training before the trial could occur.  

The public defenders recently submitted two motions to the court.  The first being that the bail requirement should be eliminated, and Virgilio should be released on his own recognizance.  The elimination of bail only means that Virgilio will go from the custody of the jail to the custody of the immigration court.  Virgilio would not be free, per se.  The second motion was to dismiss the charges completely, given the video evidence that the LEO died of natural causes and that the charges against Virgilio should be dismissed.  Again, Virgilio would not be free to do; he still would be remanded into the custody of immigration officials.

The court has not ruled on the motions by the defense.  One would hope, in the name of true justice, that the charges would be dismissed, and Virgilio would be allowed to continue to the immigration court system.  One wonders if, after the mistreatment by the aggressive St. John's County LEOs and the conviction-hungry district attorney, Virgilio would even want to stay in the United States.

Stay tuned.

Rule of Law vs. Rule of Man

The Declaration of Independence established the reasons for the colonies to separate from England.  Thomas Jefferson was eloquent as he wove the philosophies of John Locke into the explanation for the purpose of government.  To put it simply, the purpose of government is to protect the rights of its people.  Period.  For that purpose, the people give the government power to govern -- but only by the consent of the governed.  When that compact is broken, when the government oversteps its reach and encroaches on the rights of the governed, it is not only the right but the duty of the people to throw off an abusive government and establish a new one that better protects its citizens.  The Rule of Law needed to replace the Rule of Man (otherwise know as the King of England).

The first government of the United States as a confederacy (little "c" folks, stay with me here).  A confederacy is a loose association, not a tight organization.  As I explained to my students, it's like having a casual friend -- okay to hang out with occasionally but they are not your ride-or-die.  The states under the Articles of Confederation were like little independent countries.  They could make treaties with other countries, have their own military, coin their own money, and the national government really didn't have any power over the states.  A couple of states almost came to violence over a border dispute.  States enacted protective tariffs so that their own citizens would buy goods made in the state rather than in the neighboring states.  To put it simply, the United States was a hot mess.

Poor George Washington.  He had led a rag-tag army of volunteers, poorly fed and poorly equipped, to defeat the preeminent European power of England.  After seven years of war, he went home to Mount Vernon, only to watch his new country fall apart with squabbling between the states.  He and a few other prominent men met in Annapolis and decided to convene another convention in Philadelphia, this time to craft another government, one that was strong enough to hold the country together yet constrained enough not to step on the rights of its citizens or of the states.

Enter the diminutive James Madison.  Mr. Madison arrived at the Constitutional Convention with a PLAN.  This plan called for a strong national government but the powers of that national government would be enumerated.  Powers not given to the national government would belong to the states and to the people.  To avoid the rule of man -- the rule by whim or fancy or self-interest -- there would be checks and balances to the power of the national government.  The U.S. Constitution laid out a plan for a Constitutional federal republic and, with some bumps and bruises along the way, seemed to be working fairly well.  The United States would be a country where the law ruled.

The twenty-first century arrived along with big money buying big political clout.  The executive branch had worked over the decades at seizing more and more power.  Presidents were bought and paid for by political machines with shadow mega donors.  Presidents sent crates of money to foreign countries that historically were not allies of the United States.  Members of the executive branch were not held to account for actions (or lack of actions) that resulted in the deaths of Americans.  Taxes increased, and increased, and increased.  

Such problems filtered down to the state level, with state prosecutor offices being filled with people who operated not according to the rule of law, but the rule of man, specifically the political agendas of the left.  Criminals went unprosecuted if their skin color was dark; white people not only were prosecuted but persecuted and accused of racism without cause.  Rioters and looters faced no repercussions for their actions.  People and stores fled the cities because the police had no power to enforce laws; the poorest sections of cities became food and medicine deserts when groceries and pharmacies were forced to leave by the rampant crime.  

The United States, now in 2024, has become a country where the rule of law takes a back seat to the rule of man.  Politics rules.  The Southern border with Mexico, thanks to Joseph R. Biden, the current executive in the White House, has become an open gateway to criminals, drug cartels, baby selling, and sex trafficking.  Biden ordered the border to be open; Biden ordered the border patrol to stand down, and the past three years of the Biden Administration have allowed over eight million people to stream in from the southern border.  These are not people referenced in the poem on the Statue of Liberty, the tired and poor yearning to be free.  These are Asians, Africans, military age men from the Middle East, and terrorists flooding into our country.  There are many men from Syria, striding into the U.S. wearing matching boots and backpacks.  We are being invaded.  Hotels, airports, and other public places have become camping sites for homeless illegal immigrants.  Students in NYC were told they had to take classes online because their school was being turned into a shelter for these illegal aliens.  A school for special needs students in North Carolina is being closed for the same reason.  American children who need education and special services are being turned out of their schools thanks to the lawlessness of the Biden Administration.

Because the Biden Administration has failed to enforce immigration laws and has allowed millions of illegal aliens to stream across the southern border, Texas had to work to secure its border.  The Biden Administration filed suit to stop Texas.  The circuit courts approved a temporary injunction to protect Texas but the Biden Administration appealed to the Supreme Court.  The Biden Administration issued a deadline to Texas.  In response, 25 governors pledged their support for Texas in its efforts to protect itself against invasion since the Biden Administration has abrogated its responsibility as assigned in Article IV of the Constitution.

The Biden Administration has turned the United States from a country where the Rule of Law protected its citizens to a country where the Rule of Man (and politics) infringes on the rights and safety of its people.

The Rule of Law needs to be upheld.  The Rule of Man needs to stop.

Sand, Shells, and Sweet Tea

Sand, Shells, and Sweet Tea.

My roots are in the sand of the Sea Islands.  My heart smiles at the sight of Spanish-moss-laden live oaks.  When I return to my hometown, I greedily inhale the scent of the pluff mud from the marsh flats, hoping to imprint the salty perfume in my olfactory system.  I have jars of sand and seashells around my house, reminding me of my home.  I cling to these reminders because I'm not in the Sea Islands anymore.

I'm an American historian who specializes in the Founding, the Constitution, and the law.  Right now, I am focusing on the law as it is applied currently.  

Welcome!