THE CHURCH MILITANT
Ephesians 5:11-"And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them". This Christian News Blog maintains a one stop resource of current news and reports of its own related to church, moral, spiritual, and related political issues, plus articles, and postings from other online discernment ministries, and media which share the aims to obey the biblical commands to shed light on and refute error, heresy, apostasy, cults, and spiritual abuse.
BY TWILA BRASE of CITIZENS' COUNCIL FOR HEALTH FREEDOM: http://www.cchfreedom.org/; republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
Americans need to see “population health” for what it really is. Last week, a POLITICO panel discussed the term “population health,” which is key to Obamacare’s transformation away from the private practice of medicine -- and into the everyday lives of Americans – starting with Medicare.
It begins with the lump sum and bundled payments doctors will be paid by Medicare under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) to practice “population health” rather than individualized patient care.
Joshua Sharfstein, M.D., former Maryland Secretary of Health and now Associate Dean for Public Health Practice and Training at John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Healthexplained "population health" in two ways.Here’s the first:
I think of population health as the health of a community. That includes the people seeking care and the people not seeking care. … It’s their overall health. … If you go back to when the term “population health” was coined, it was coined to get at some of the non-clinical factors that underlie the health of communities, including access to safe food, access to safe communities, and prevention...
The Maryland health information exchange gave a lot of tools to doctors to know what was happening to their patients even if they weren’t seeing them.
This means tracking individuals. Dr. William Borden, M.D., a health policy professor, said algorithms can be used to look for patterns in the community from “patient-reported outcomes” shared through a clinic’s computerized medical record portal, FitBit data, home blood pressure monitors, and more.
But population health is so much more. After being asked to explain the difference between population health and public health, Dr. Sharfstein clarified:
I think population health is the way that health care systems are thinking about public health now. Generally speaking, when people use the term, public health, they’re thinking about public health departments. ... Public health is sometimes seen as for public health people, but when the clinical system gets into public health, they’re talking about population health. I think it’s a very similar concept. It’s the term that people in health care use when they’re doing some of the things that people in public health do.”
Translated: Doctors, clinics, hospitals and health plans are being deputized as government agents. To protect yourself from tracking and profiling, opt out of your state’s health information exchange, find a cash-based physician, and refuse to share FitBit data, answer clinic questionnaires, or use the clinic online portal into your medical record. Then demand state legislators enact informed patient consent requirements for all data-sharing.
In freedom, Twila Brase, RN, PHN President and Co-founder
P.S. Can you help? We need to raise $84,000 to meet our fundraising goal of at least $125,000 by December 31. There are just 29 days left for year-end giving. Help our CCHF team protect your personal freedom in 2016!! To donate today, please click here! _______________________________________________________
Doctors can report some mentally ill patients to FBI under new gun control rule
Delivering on its promise to deliver "common sense" gun control, the Obama administration on Monday finalized a rule that enables health care providers to report the names of mentally ill patients to an FBI firearms background check system.
The action was one of a series of steps that President Barack Obama had called for in January 2013 in the wake of the Newtown, Conn., shootings to curb gun violence, but the rule was not published until today.
Story Continued Below
While the 1993 Brady law prohibits gun ownership by individuals who have been involuntarily committed, found incompetent to stand trial or otherwise deemed by a court to be a danger to themselves or others, federal health care privacy rules prohibited doctors and other providers from sharing information without the consent of their patients.
Under the rule, which takes effect next month, for the first time health providers can disclose the information to the background check system without legal repercussions.
“The disclosure is restricted to limited demographic and certain other information needed for NICS purposes,” the rule states. Disclosure of diagnostic or clinical information is prohibited.
Paul Gionfriddo, chief executive of the mental health rights advocate Mental Health America, said he believes the White House strikes the right balance between the need to have this information shared with the FBI’s background check system and protecting individuals’ privacy.
Current law allows HIPAA exclusions for law enforcement purposes, but it's a broad exclusion.
“That could be a barn door opened quite wide if an administration really wanted to open it, and they didn’t,” Gionfriddo said. “The administration has taken great pain to try to clarify that there is very limited information that would be reported only within a very limited group.”
Since the Newtown shootings, the number of mental health records submitted to the FBI system has tripled to more than 3 million records, according to an analysis by Everytown for Gun Safety, a group promoting an end to gun violence. The FBI system resulted in more than 6,000 denials of firearm purchases because of mental health criteria. _______________________________________________________
The Obama administration has authorized a rule allowing doctors to turn in patients they deem mentally ill so the government can strip them of their Second Amendment right.
The rule was first proposed in January 2013 following the shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, but was not published until today.
According to Paul Gionfriddo, chief executive of the mental health rights advocate Mental Health America, the rule “strikes the right balance” between the need to have this information shared with the FBI’s background check system and protecting individuals’ privacy, Politico reports.
“That could be a barn door opened quite wide if an administration really wanted to open it, and they didn’t,” Gionfriddo said. “The administration has taken great pain to try to clarify that there is very limited information that would be reported only within a very limited group.”
WISCONSIN PLANS TO SHUT DOWN CASH FOR MEDICAL CARE
BY TWILA BRASE
SEE: http://www.cchfreedom.org/; republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
The Wisconsin “Assembly Substitute Amendment to Assembly Bill 366,” recommended for passage on October 22 by the Wisconsin Assembly Committee on Health, would prohibit cash payments at any “pain clinics,” a term with an overly broad definition that could clinics that never prescribe controlled substances.
The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons notes: “There is always a noble pretext” for these kinds of limits on freedom (“pill mills” in this case) and adds: “It denies patients the right to pay for their own legitimate medical care. Insured patients may only pay deductibles and coinsurance – care is restricted to what the third-party allows. Uninsured patients may pay for services, but not with cash. Patients who have no credit and no checking account cannot pay – everyone has to use a financial institution.”(more details) Specifically,the amended bill states:
(3) Cash transactions. A pain clinic may not solicit or accept payment for services in cash from an individual seeking treatment at the pain clinic, except that an individual seeking treatment may pay an insurance copayment, coinsurance, or deductible with cash. A pain clinic may accept credit, a credit card, a check, or a draft from an individual who seeks treatment from a pain clinic but who does not have insurance.
What would be the next type of care for which you could not pay cash? For which you could not pay for in privacy? This ban on cash also seems to be a violation of legal tender laws. To find and contact your Wisconsin legislators, click on the map: http://legis.wisconsin.gov/
Heidi Mund, a Christian activist, has been accused of agitation of the people towards violence. She did no such thing. Heidi Mund spoke out against Muslim prayer in a Christian church (see video below). If this woman is imprisoned, it marks a turning point for Germany.
What she says here is true. Criminalization of truth.
This marks a true turning point if this woman is arrested. During the Nazi regime there were three stages that took place:
1) it became dangerous to speak out the truth 2) people started losing their jobs, faced fines and prison for their views 3) people with opposing views were killed…I think we are beginning to see stage 2 in Germany and to a slightly lesser degree here in the US.
Mund is now being charged with Volksverhetzung – agitation of the people towards violence. She could be fined perhaps or imprisoned but the intention is to silence criticism of Islam. Sharia for Germany.
Instigation/Agitation of the masses according to paragraph 130 of the criminal law book: A “Volksverhetzer” – One who is able to disturb the public peace and carries a sentence of 3 months to 5 years.
If Germany is serious in prosecuting hate speech (there’s a ban on Mein Kampf), then Merkel better start closing down mosques and banning the Quran.
And slay them wherever you come upon them, and expel them from where they expelled you; persecution is more grievous than slaying. But fight them not by the Holy Mosque until they should fight you there; then, if they fight you, slay them — such is the recompense of unbelievers, but if they give over, surely Allah is All-forgiving, All-compassionate. Fight them, till there is no persecution and the religion is Allah’s; then if they give over, there shall be no enmity save for evildoers. (Quran 2:191-193)
Men are the managers of the affairs of women for that Allah has preferred in bounty one of them over another, and for that they have expended of their property. Righteous women are therefore obedient, guarding the secret for Allah’s guarding. And those you fear may be rebellious admonish; banish them to their couches, and beat them. (Quran 4:34)
They wish that you should disbelieve as they disbelieve, and then you would be equal; therefore take not to yourselves friends of them, until they emigrate in the way of Allah; then, if they turn their backs, take them, and slay them wherever you find them; take not to yourselves any one of them as friend or helper. (Quran 4:89)
This is the recompense of those who fight against Allah and His Messenger, and hasten about the earth, to do corruption there: they shall be slaughtered, or crucified, or their hands and feet shall alternately be struck off; or they shall be banished from the land. That is a degradation for them in this world; and in the world to come awaits them a mighty chastisement. (Quran 5:33)
When thy Lord was revealing to the angels, ˜I am with you; so confirm the believers. I shall cast into the unbelievers’ hearts terror; so smite above the necks, and smite every finger of them! (Quran 8:12)
Make ready for them whatever force and strings of horses you can, to strike terror in the enemy of Allah and your enemy, and others besides them that you know not; Allah knows them. And whatsoever you expend in the way of Allah shall be repaid you in full; you will not be wronged. (Quran 8:60)
Then, when the sacred months are drawn away, slay the idolaters wherever you find them, and take them, and confine them, and lie in wait for them at every place of ambush. But if they repent, and perform the prayer, and pay the alms, then let them go their way; Allah is All-forgiving, All-compassionate. (Quran 9:5)
Fight those who believe not in Allah and the Last Day and do not forbid what Allah and His Messenger have forbidden — such men as practise not the religion of truth, being of those who have been given the Book — until they pay the tribute out of hand and have been humbled. (Quran 9:29)
Allah has bought from the believers their selves and their possessions against the gift of Paradise; they fight in the way of Allah; they kill, and are killed; that is a promise binding upon Allah in the Torah, and the Gospel, and the Koran; and who fulfils his covenant truer than Allah? So rejoice in the bargain you have made with Him; that is the mighty triumph. (Quran 9:111)
O believers, fight the unbelievers who are near to you; and let them find in you a harshness; and know that Allah is with the godfearing. (Quran 9:123)
When you meet the unbelievers, smite their necks, then, when you have made wide slaughter among them, tie fast the bonds; then set them free, either by grace or ransom, till the war lays down its loads. So it shall be; and if Allah had willed, He would have avenged Himself upon them; but that He may try some of you by means of others. And those who are slain in the way of Allah, He will not send their works astray. (Quran 47:4)
The State DA has become active against Heidi Mund – Accusing the radical Christian activist Heidi Mund of agitation against the people. She was accused after making “prayer suggestions” on Germany’s Day of Unity.
Since Heidi Mund moved her political agitation from the streets to the internet, hardly a day has gone by without a message for her followers. The former front woman for “Free Citizens” and “Pegida Rhein Main” has started another platform – “Save Europe” – which has the explicit goal of saving Europe from Islam.
On German Unity Day Mund called for a human chain around Germany to represent “a spiritual wall….(which) by God’s authority (would) withstand the powers of darkness.
“Hand in hand praying for our land” the radical Christian called for that act of rebellion/opposition which took place on October 3-4 – and which took place with a notable number of participants who had followed an advertisement by Heidi Mund. Her “prayer suggestions” fulfilled the requirements for the accusation of agitation of the people towards violence.
Her call to prayer included the following items:
“We pray for the real refugees, that they should again have hope for life, that our God will comfort them,…. (and) against the massive immigration of 90% young Muslim men, who should not be building their own homeland here and that they should not rape our girls and women; that they should be send with the word of God – the Bible – back into their own home countries, there where they belong,… (We pray) against sickness and disease which the immigrants have brought with them,…We ask God for angels to stand on Germany’s borders as well as on the borders of Europe.”
ARMED PROTESTERS TAKE OVER OREGON FEDERAL BUILDING
"Citizens for Constitutional Freedom."
Oregon militia in standoff with feds names themselves. The militia group at the center of a standoff on the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon said they are occupying federal land in protest in order to restore the constitution.
Ammon Bundy - the son of Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, who was involved in an armed standoff with the government over grazing rights - said his group will stay there as long as it takes to see justice served. On Monday, he told reporters that the collective of protesters had decided to name themselves "Citizens for Constitutional Freedom."
The case that brought self-described armed patriots from across the country to Oregon involves a pair of Oregon ranchers convicted of burning federal land. And while the milita group insists they are acting in support of the Hammonds, the Hammonds say they don't want the protesters at the refuge.
.A group of over 100 ranchers have holed up at the U.S. wildlife refuge in Princeton, Oregon to protest the jailing of two ranchers.
It began Saturday after a protest in Burns, Oregon. The group split with the rest of the crowd and began the occupation at Malheur National Wildlife Refuge to support Dwight Hammond, Jr. and his son Steven. The two were convicted of arson in 2012 for setting fires that spread to public land. On Saturday they turned themselves in to federal authorities after prosecutors won an appeal which resulted in their resentencing to longer terms, even though they both served their time. http://www.opb.org/news/article/orego...
Militia groups and the Bundy family assemble to protect an Oregon ranching family
ARMED PATRIOTS TAKE A STAND AGAINST FEDERAL TYRANNY
The occupation is in response to prosecution of two Harney County ranchers, Dwight Hammond Jr. and Steven Hammond, who were convicted of arson under a provision of a wide-ranging federal anti-terrorism law, according to the newspaper.
The feds decided to prosecute the Hammonds, who own about 12,000 acres in the Diamond-Frenchglen area of Oregon, after they used fire as a tool to combat invasive plant species on their ranch. The government accused the ranchers of allowing the fire to spread to federally owned land.
The Hammonds were indicted in 2010 on federal arson charges and faced sentencing as terrorists under the federal Anti-terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996.
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes
The Bundys are back. After prevailing in a grazing-rights standoff with Bureau of Land Management (BLM) agents last year, the Nevada ranching clan is again locking horns with the feds. This time Ammon Bundy (shown) is leading an armed group of protesters, which includes his two brothers, who have occupied a federal building at Malheur National Wildlife Refuge near Burns, Oregon; the men are taking up the cudgels for a pair of ranchers they claim have been unjustly imprisoned by the central government.
The ranchers, Dwight Hammond, 73, and his son Steven Hammond, 46, have been in conflict with the feds for decades and recently were sentenced to five years in prison. Reports the Washington Post:
Prosecutors accused the Hammonds of committing arson on federal land in 2001 and 2006. The men and their attorneys argued that the fires had been set on their own property — once to prevent the spread of an invasive species of plant and once in attempt to prevent the spread of a wildfire — and had inadvertently burned onto public lands. But prosecutors said the fires were set in attempt to destroy evidence that the Hammonds had been illegally hunting deer on the federal lands.
The two men have previously served prison time for the crimes, but earlier this year a federal appeals court concluded that their initial sentences had been too short — arson on federal property carries a mandatory minimum sentence of five years — and ordered the men back to prison.
The armed protesters were part of a larger rally for the Hammonds on Saturday. Afterwards, writes CNN, the armed group “broke into the refuge's unoccupied building and refused to leave.” CNN continued:
"We will be here as long as it takes," said Ammon Bundy, a spokesman for the group. "We have no intentions of using force upon anyone, [but] if force is used against us, we would defend ourselves."
Ammon Bundy said the group in Oregon was armed, but said he would not describe it as a militia. Bundy declined to say how many people were occupying the building.
"We are not terrorists," he said. "We are concerned citizens and realize we have to act if we want to pass along anything to our children."
… A U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service spokesperson said the agency and the Bureau of Land Management are aware of the armed protesters … [and] will continue to monitor the situation."
Whatever the facts of the Hammond case and whatever the outcome of this protest, critics such as American Thinker’s Rick Moran point out that “the larger point being made by Bundy et al needs airing.” To wit, writes Moran, “The federal government owns too much land — especially in the western US. Even more to the point, the government manages that land stupidly. Wildlife refuges are a fine idea — within reason. But reason, logic, and intelligence is sorely lacking as the government gives into the demands of greens who weep when a tree is cut down, and thinks saving every insect, varmint, and weed should override the needs of human [sic] beings.”
And the amount of land the feds own is staggering. As the Congressional Research Service reports, “The federal government owns roughly 635-640 million acres, 28% of the 2.27 billion acres of land in the United States.” And with the vast majority of Uncle Sam real estate lying in the West, it’s not surprising fed-citizen range wars arise there. The central government owns only 0.4 percent of Connecticut and Rhode Island, 0.8 percent of Iowa and New York, and only three states east of Colorado are above the 10-percent mark. Yet the lowest figure among states west of Kansas is just under 30 percent (Montana). In Oregon, where the current controversy rages, the feds own more than half the state. And the Bundys’ Nevada holds the record, with the central government laying claim to a whopping 84.5 percent of the land.
Perhaps this suits some state governments, as they receive federal payments for the acreage to compensate them for lost real-estate taxes. Yet it certainly doesn’t suit all their residents. As CNN also reported, Bundy stated that “the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge has taken over the space of 100 ranches since the early 1900s. ‘They are continuing to expand the refuge at the expense of the ranchers and miners,’ Bundy said. He also said Harney County, in southeastern Oregon, went from one of the state's wealthiest counties to one of the poorest.”
While CNN wrote that it has not “independently corroborated Bundy’s claims,” federal land grabs truly are nothing new. As an example, The New American’s William F. Jasper wrote last year in “War on the West: Why More Bundy Standoffs Are Coming”:
Chief Judge Robert C. Jones of the Federal District Court of Nevada last year ruled [that the BLM] had been engaged in a decades-long criminal “conspiracy” against the Wayne Hage family, fellow ranchers and friends of the Bundys. Among other things, Judge Jones accused the federal bureaucrats of racketeering under the federal RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corruption Organizations) statute, and accused them as well of extortion, mail fraud, and fraud, in an effort “to kill the business of Mr. Hage.” In fact, the government’s actions were so malicious, said the judge, as to “shock the conscience of the Court.” Judge Jones granted an injunction against the agencies and referred area BLM and Forest Service managers to the Justice Department for prosecution.
And such trespasses will inspire opposition. As for the current protest, estimates of the number of people at the refuge range from 15 to 150. And while Bundy would not disclose how many are militia members, citing “operational security,” some of the protesters are merely local residents.
Yet not everyone in the Burns area supports the effort. The Hammonds have said they don’t want the protesters help and that the group doesn’t speak for them. Local resident Monica McCannon told KTVZ that she doesn’t “like the militia's methods.” “They had their rally," she continued. “Now it's time for them to go home. People are afraid of them." And the Washington Postquotes Harney County sheriff David Ward as stating, “These men [protesters] came to Harney County claiming to be part of militia groups supporting local ranchers. When in reality these men had alternative motives, to attempt to overthrow the county and federal government in hopes to spark a movement across the United States.”
Whatever the wisdom of the current protest, however, it itself merely reflects a wider, already vibrant movement to resist federal constitutional trespass and tyranny. This has manifested itself in state nullification efforts — in which states recognize federal actions as unconstitutional and thus null and void — targeting central government laws dealing with matters from gun control to ObamaCare. And with Washington trampling states underfoot as it aggregates ever more power, this push-back will only become more intense.
The Oregonian reports the Bundy family has joined “hard-core militiamen” in the occupation of the headquarters of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge 50 miles southeast of Burns, Oregon.
“The facility has been the tool to do all the tyranny that has been placed upon the Hammonds,” Ammon Bundy said. According to the Oregonian, Bundy has called patriots from across the country to join them at the remote refuge.
Among those joining Bundy in the occupation are Ryan Payne, U.S. Army veteran, and Blaine Cooper. Payne has claimed to have helped organize militia snipers to target federal agents in a standoff last year in Nevada. He told one news organization the federal agents would have been killed had they made the wrong move.
VIDEO:
The occupation is in response to prosecution of two Harney County ranchers, Dwight Hammond Jr. and Steven Hammond, who were convicted of arson under a provision of a wide-ranging federal anti-terrorism law, according to the newspaper.
The feds decided to prosecute the Hammonds, who own about 12,000 acres in the Diamond-Frenchglen area of Oregon, after they used fire as a tool to combat invasive plant species on their ranch. The government accused the ranchers of allowing the fire to spread to federally owned land.
The Hammonds were indicted in 2010 on federal arson charges and faced sentencing as terrorists under the federal Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996.
The occupation appears headed for a confrontation with the Harney County Sheriff’s Office and the FBI.
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ARMED MILITIA, INCL. BUNDY BROS, OCCUPY FOREST RESERVE HQ IN OREGON, CALL ‘US PATRIOTS’ TO ARMS
Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy’s three sons and “about 150” militiamen have occupied the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge HQ
Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy’s three sons and “about 150” militiamen have occupied the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge HQ to protest the pending imprisonment of two Oregon ranchers accused of arson, arguing the federal government has no authority in local cases.
Published on Jan 2, 2016
Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy's three sons and around 150 militia members occupied a federal building in eastern Oregon on Saturday, in an attempt to keep two local ranchers from going to prison. The group seized the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge headquarters, located around 50 miles (80km) from Burns, after two of its members were scheduled to go to prison on Monday for setting fire to federal land.
“We’re going to be freeing these lands up, and getting ranchers back to ranching, getting the loggers back to logging, getting the miners back to mining where they could do it under the protection of the people and not be afraid of this tyranny that’s been set upon them,” Ammon Bundy, who appears to be the leader of the group, said in a Facebook video posted by Sarah Dee Spurlock on Saturday.
I talked to Ryan Bundy on the phone again. He said they're willing to kill and be killed if necessary.#OregonUnderAttack
Bundy appears to be standing at the scene of the takeover, surrounded by several men in military-style uniforms with rifles and hand-held radios.
The rancher points out that Harney County used to be the richest in state, and is now the poorest. His radical proposal to solve the situation is to have armed “patriots” come and live in a de-facto self-rule zone independent of the federal authorities.
The second speaker in the video, identified as Blane Cooper, equates the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to bullies at school that used to beat one up and who eventually had to be put in their place.
“Until that line is drawn and say ‘we’ve had enough of this tyranny, you are going to leave us alone’ it will not change,” the military-clad man says.
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Malheur National Wildlife Refuge Center
OREGON OCCUPATION ABOUT UNCONSTITUTIONAL FEDERAL LAND GRAB
Corporate media portrays incident as illegal act by crazed gun-toting militias
Corporate media coverage of the impending standoff at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon will downplay the underlying issue—the federal government’s claimed ownership in the name of the “people” of nearly 650 million acres of land, almost 30 percent of the area of the United States.
The federal government is not authorized to own land. The Constitution restricts the feds to establishing “Forts, Magazines, Arsenals, dock-Yards, and other Needful Buildings” and reserves for the States the right to own land.
“Our Founding Fathers specifically restricted what land the Federal government could own,” explains the Constitutional Concepts Foundation. “Even then, the Federal government had to purchase the land from the State, with the approval of the State Legislature. Further, the Constitution stipulates that all new States will become members of the Union on an equal footing with all other States. This is not true of the Western States where the vast majority of the land within the boundaries of the State was simply taken by the Federal government.”
Supporters of large, centralized government argue the massive theft of land is permitted under the Property Clause of the Constitution. “The Property Clause gives Congress the authority over federal property generally, and the Supreme Court has described Congress’s power to legislate under this clause as ‘without limitation,'” concludes the Congressional Research Service, a legislative branch agency within the Library of Congress.
The mention of the Supreme Court refers to a 1911 ruling permitting the federal government to grab large tracts of land as national forests held in the “public interest.”
“The current regime of federal land management is blatantly unconstitutional,” writes the Tenth Amendment Center. “The founding fathers never intended to create a Republic where the feds could impose draconian fees on peaceful individuals and force them from the land. As a matter of fact, that is exactly the arrangement that the Constitution was written to prevent, as it clearly violates the principles of fiduciary government, sympathy and independence.”
Omitted from the discussion playing out in the media is the fact the feds have gobbled up millions of acres of land in Pacman fashion not out of concern for the “public interest,” but for profit and concession to large corporations in control of the legislative, executive and judicial branches of government.
For instance, the states of Colorado, Utah and Wyoming have the largest deposits of shale oil in the world. In addition, the West has an abundance of bauxite, phosphate, trees, oil, gas, clay, fish and is cultivated for a wide variety of agricultural products.
Since 1982, the federal government has leased for oil and gas drilling 229 million acres of public and private land in 12 western states. One of the federal government’s largest sources of non-tax revenue comes from the land it leases to oil, gas and coal companies, The Washington Post notes. Corporations get a stupendous deal from the government, often leasing land at around $2 per acre, a price less than a cup of coffee.
The occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge center is about the federal government’s unconstitutional claimed ownership of land and the rules it imposes on ranchers (and its effort to drive the few remaining independent ranchers off the land).
The corporate media, however, will continue to minimize this and portray the occupation as an illegal act by gun-toting militias bent on armed confrontation with the federal government. This may sell newspapers and result in web page views, but it does a disservice to the overriding issue—the continued expansion of government and its zeal to abrogate property rights and implement Agenda 21.
On New Year’s Day, Texas Governor Greg Abbott had a strong message for President Obama regarding his upcoming plan to unilaterally enact gun control legislation: “Come and take it.”
“Obama wants to impose more gun control,” Abbott tweeted Friday. “My response? COME & TAKE IT.”
The Republican governor’s statement comes amid announcements the Obama administration will act later this month to impose stricter rules on the selling and purchase of firearms.
The president will meet with Attorney General Loretta Lynch Monday to discuss what actions can be taken to circumvent the Second Amendment without congressional authorization, the Washington Post reports.
The phrase “come and take it” was emblazoned on a flag flown by Texian forces during the Texas Revolution, chiefly at the battle of Gonzales, where Texian rebels revolted against the Mexican army and challenged them to retrieve a cannon loaned to them for protection.
