Zika is the fault of the Republican Party, says Senator Harry Reid in a statement claiming the spread of the virus “will only get worse if Republicans continue their refusal to work with Democrats on a bipartisan response.”

“Democrats have been waiting for months for Republicans to get serious. The American people cannot afford to wait any longer,” Reid claimed.

The legislation is but a step away from President Obama’s desk — if only Democrats would simply stop playing around. After all, it’s Senate Democrats who blocked an additional $1.1 billion in funding to fight the disease because it took money away from Obamacare and Planned Parenthood clinics in Puerto Rico.

So, of course, Reid blames Republicans — it’s what he does best. And he does it every time he gets caught with his money-grubbing-paw in the ‘cookie jar.’ In 2013, Reid steered the state legislature to pass an energy bill that got NV Energy to close three coal plants and replace them with new, expensive gas and green energy plants.

On August 16, Reid openly admitted that he personally threatened NV Energy company executives who were planning on building new coal-fired power plants in Nevada nearly a decade ago, saying that “he would “do everything to hurt investments in your company.”

Reid also opposed NV Energy’s proposed Ely Energy Center — a $5 billion project planned in the rural town of Ely – which never got built. The Progressive rag — the Las Vegas Sun — described the move at the time as “a legislative power play reaching from D.C. to Nevada that illustrates how consummate insiders can dictate energy cost and policy for every Nevadan for the next decade.”

While speaking to the Lambda Business Association at The Gay and Lesbian Community Center of Southern Nevada, Reid stated : “I called two of the companies that built plants there and I told them go ahead and do it, but I am going to do everything to hurt investments in your company. So they decided perhaps — decided to get rid of the coal plants.”

So, Reid’s comment’s, blaming the spread of disease on Republicans is yet another one of his classic and well-orchestrated ruses, designed to keep his ass out of hot water for misusing his federal office once again.

Woodrow Wilson was extremely ill, before and while President of the U.S. It’s believed that his wife operated a ‘shadow government,’ managing the nation’s business while the media kept the seriousness of Wilson’s condition out of the public spotlight, even claiming one time that Wilson was only ‘suffering from a cold.’

It’s widely known today that Franklin Delano Roosevelt was wheelchair bound, before and throughout his presidency. While historical documents show that FDR maintained the office from the time he was elected to the time of his death, the media did as it was asked, complying to keep his ‘handicap’ and all that surrounded his condition out of the public-eye.

Recently there have been questions about Hillary Clinton’s health, suggesting that she may be ‘more ill than the campaign is letting on.’ It is widely believed that she suffered at least two blood clots, a stroke and is still dealing with post-concussive syndrome, which caused her to have to wear special prism glasses to counter her double vision.

And whether it is true or not, the media has a history of remaining silent on presidential candidate’s and their illnesses. In the end, and for the immediate future – which is to say the next eight-years or so – her poor health could lead, if not to her death, an incapacity that would enable her husband and former president himself, Bill Clinton to operated a ‘shadow government.’

So, don’t be surprised that when in 70-years time, the files are unsealed and it’s learned Hillary Clinton really did have a ‘life-threatening’ condition that the media refused to report on and Bill managed to find away around the U.S. Constitution and become the nation’s second, albeit former, President to sit on the throne three-times.

There’s no doubt that the Department of Homeland Security is now a domestic intelligence and surveillance agency. It’s no longer interested in simply gathering your biometric data – you know – your fingerprints, DNA, face, eye and hair color, height, weight, age, race and sex.

Such low-tech collections are generally used for identification purposes. However, DHS is going high-tech, spending $40 million of our federal tax dollars to fund a quantitative analysis (QA) program.

This QA program will collect data from open sources like social media, cell phones, smart-meters, etc., storing it in databases, then using algorithms, scan, organize, find patterns, and direct analysts to so-called ‘high priority data points.’ Simply put, this means DHS will be able to learn anything it wants about anyone at anytime.

Welcome to our brave new world.

The Federal Communications Commission has acquired the power to make forfeitures it’s calling a ‘Notices of Apparent Liability.’ Note that word, “apparent,” as opposed to actual or real.

These are not jus’ accusations that a law has allegedly been violated; they are assertions by the FCC that a law’s been violated without any due process. And like that — you’re presumed guilty.

There are no rules of evidence; no courtroom proceeding, no burden of proof placed on the FCC to prove guilt. The agency has merely to assert guilt and that’s it.

The “violator” is then told what his punishment will be. Of course, the FCC gives its victims the “opportunity” to “file a response” after the fact — which it can ignore in whole or part.

Recently, the FCC demanded $29.6 million in “voluntary contributions to the U.S. Treasury” from OneLink, TeleDias, TeleUno and Cytel, after they we implicated in ‘slamming and cramming’ activity. Mind you, they were only accused of switching long distance carriers without notice and adding extra charges to the customer’s phone bill, but never indicted.

Welcome to the Banana Republic of America.

“So, Dad, what did you do in the war?” my  son asked.

I answered, “I was never in a war.”

“But I thought you were in the Marine Corps,” he responded, “and I know I’ve heard you talk about being in combat.”

“Well, there’s difference,” I explained, “I was never in a war that was declared by Congress though I was involved in the so-called ‘War on Drugs,’ and that’s where I saw fighting.”

“Oh,” he returned, asking, “Did you ever get a medal for anything you did in the Marines?”

I smiled, “Nope, no medals.”

“That isn’t fair,” he declared.

“Why?” I found myself asking.

“You participated in battle and could have died,” he continued, “so you should get some sort of recognition.”

“First off, I didn’t do it to get medals, ribbons or certificates – though those things are nice,” it told him, “I did it because I’m a Marine and that’s what we do.”

The U.S Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) is transferring oversight of the Internet to a ‘private’ nonprofit group called the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) on October 1. This means the Internet will move from U.S. control to a ‘multistakeholder’ group that includes 160 foreign governments and nongovernmental organizations.

The term ‘multistakeholder’ is troubling as it is most often part of the language used in U.N. programs like Agenda 21. This means that the agency could be used by foreign governments or the U.N. itself to shut down the Web around the globe, either in whole or in part.

Since ICANN already manages the domain naming and IP address systems, the transfer would give it full regulatory control as well. Also worth noting is the fact that ICANN already charges fees to users and that as a ‘nonprofit,’ it earned $219 million last year.

Alarming is the knowledge that shifting ICANN’s legal status away from the U.S. was a top agenda item for an ICANN working-group meeting in Helsinki on June 26.

The internet is one of the few places where, with some notable exceptions, free speech still reigns supreme. So what will happen when ICANN has the freedom to raise fees with no oversight?

Furthermore the facilities could, without notice, be relocated to say — China — and could go in the same building as the Communist agency responsible for censoring that country’s Internet since some of the American companies involved with the transition process have already given into Chinese demands to aid with censorship.

Besides, President Obama’s plan to end U.S. oversight without congressional approval is unconstitutional. Congress must authorize transfers of U.S. property, which includes the ICANN domain system, worth billions of dollars.

If the courts later rule that Obama’s action violated the separation of powers, there will be no remedy as control over the system will be gone forever, thus handing authoritarian regimes the power they have long sought to censor the web globally, including in America.

Meanwhile, the “Protecting Internet Freedom Act” was introduced in Congress last month with the hope of reinforcing the separation of powers clause. But like most other constitutional side-steps, Obama plans to acted unilaterally and then by fiat you and I can kiss the last true realm of free speech goodbye.

Over the last two years, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has hosted a series of summits promoting the role of LGBTQ farmers as a part of its “Rural Pride” campaign. For those of us who don’t know what “rural pride” means, the agency is happy to explain.

“Contrary to widely held myths that the LGBT community is largely living in affluent metropolitan areas, studies show a very different and more realistic picture of the LGBT community,” the USDA claims. “For a number of reasons, many people in the LGBT community choose to live, work, and raise their families in the rural communities that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is proud to serve.”

What the agency really wants to do, along with the entire Obama administration, is purge what they believe the average U.S. farmer is – a “white, rich male.” At first, I thought there was some sort of mistake, because the USDA failed to mention ‘Christian,’ but I was mistaken.

White House liaison Ashlee Davis, who was special assistant to the assistant secretary for the USDA’s Office of Civil Rights (OCR), is the point person for these summits. Davis used to work on the ‘National Gay and Lesbian Task Force’ and for the ‘Equality Federation,’ where she “researched and analyzed religious-based bigotry and its influence on civil rights legislation.”

These all-day summits supposedly ‘teach’ LGBTQ persons how to get subsidies from the federal government — like food stamps and housing loans. It’s unclear how much the program’s costing you and me, although USDA’s OCR asked for $24.4 million in funding in its fiscal-year 2016 budget request.

So, maybe I can get in on this scam — after all I’ve always ascribed to stand-up comedian Kip Addotta’s line of thought: “I’m a lesbian in a man’s body.”

The federal government already has millions of acres of land in Nevada. Now they want an embattled segment of land in northeast Clark County known as Gold Butte.

Twice now, President Obama has acted to preserve land in Nevada. In December 2014, he signed into law a bill passed by Congress creating the Tule Springs Fossil Beds National Monument on 22,650 acres at the northern edge of the Las Vegas Valley, and then July 2015, he invoked the 1906 Antiquities Act to designate the Basin and Range National Monument on 704,000 acres in Lincoln and Nye counties.

Cattle belonging to federally-held political prisoner Cliven Bundy still roam the Gold Butte area in defiance of three federal court orders and two failed attempts by the Bureau of Land Management to round-up the animals. And of course, Senator Harry Reid backs monument protection for the area.

“We’ll see if President Obama will protect this area. He has the authority, as any president does, to stop this sort of destruction and stop it now,” Reid said during Senate speech in April. “Congress created the Antiquities Act to empower the president to protect our cultural, historic and natural resources when and where Congress cannot — or will not. Many of our current national parks were created using this authority.”

When a national monument’s named, the federal government assumes all control of that land and can make decisions to control the land without the need for congressional approval. So Reid and his syndicate may very well end up getting their wish of a few thousand acres of solar panels after all.

Senator Harry Reid claims that Donald Trump couldn’t pass the required test it takes to become U.S. citizens. Reid also called Trump “nothing more than a spoiled, unpatriotic drain on society who has earned nothing and helped no one.”

“Since Donald Trump wants to impose new tests on immigrants, he should take the one test every immigrant has to pass to become a United States citizen,” Reid commented. “He would almost certainly fail, given his general ignorance and weak grasp of basic facts about American history, principles and functioning of our government.”

Reid’s statement is laughable since he violated the U.S. Constitution by helping navigate legislation mandating all American citizens have healthcare.

While in Youngstown, Ohio, during a campaign stump speech, Trump proposed giving ideological tests to newly arrived immigrants. The test, he said, would help keep the nation safe and keep our American way of life.

Reid criticized the idea: “Unlike immigrants, Donald Trump represents none of the qualities that make America great. Immigrants work hard to get here and become Americans, while Trump inherited everything from his father and works hardest at tweeting insults and ripping off hard-working people with two-bit scams.”

Reid’s comments come as his Democrat pal Hillary Clinton begins recruiting illegal aliens for her new national voter registration drive. It’s called “Mi Sueno, Tu Voto” which translates to “My Dream, Your Vote.”

Meanwhile Trump will appear Augusts 26 at the Nevada Battle Ground Dinner for the Nevada GOP at Lake Tahoe.

Recently, the Pyramid Fire burned near 300 acres north of Reno, Nevada and was said to have been started by target shooters who fled the area without reporting the blaze. The BLM notes on it’s website that campfires cause only three-percent of the fires, whereas shooting over 34-percent as it points to target shooting causing other fires in Nevada, Utah, Idaho, New Mexico, Arizona and Washington.

Following a July wildfire on BLM managed lands in Lemmon Valley, also north of Reno, a BLM fire investigator stated, “Steel core, lead core or copper core has the potential to start fires,” adding, “every time a high velocity round would hit a rock like this, it would fragment into hot pieces.”

The investigator may have been talking about a USDA study on whether or not outdoor target shooting was the source of many wild land fires. In that 2013 report, researchers claim they found once certain bullets fragmented, they would ignite the peat moss in the collector box.

According to this study, pieces of the steel core can be 1,200 degrees. Furthermore, the study claims it only takes 600 degrees to ignite cheatgrass, yet the study’s author USDA’s Mark Finney told an ABC affiliate in Denver:

“We designed an apparatus that consisted of a steel deflector plate and a box at the bottom called a ‘collector box’ that we could fill with various materials that could be tested for ignition.”

“The bullet by itself isn’t very hot until it strikes something very solid,” Finney added. “The process of deforming it…is what heats it up.”

In fact the study reads in part, “Bullets were fired at a steel plate that deflected fragments downward into a collection box containing oven-dried peat moss. We found that bullets could reliably cause ignitions, specifically those containing steel components (core or jacket) and those made of solid copper.”

As any scout, from Cub to Eagle, can tell you this is the same method used to start a campfire; striking a piece of metal like the edge of a knife against a fire-starter, which is a piece of high carbon or alloyed steel. The knife (bullet) hits the fire-starter (steel plate) causing sparks to fall on the tinder (peat moss)and like that a fire begins.

So needless to say, research like this appears to be yet another way for our federal tyrants to further restrict our Second Amendment rights.