We are losing our souls by failing to recognize that individual liberty does not come from a government, nor from being categorized. It is an evil that needs to be fought back against as it has grown out of hand.

A 6-year-old girl was removed from the California home of the foster family she has lived with for four years because she has a tiny sliver of Native American blood in her. Lexi was then she was sent to live with extended family in Utah after her relatives invoked the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICDA,) asking for her to be removed from the home.

The Page family fought efforts under ICDA to place Lexi with relatives of her father, who is a Native American, arguing that Lexi had lived with them since the age of 17-months and knew no other life. However, a California court found that the Page family “had not proven by clear and convincing evidence that it was a certainty the child would suffer emotional harm by the transfer.”

She will live with a Utah couple who are not Native Americans but related by marriage to her father, through an unrelated Uncle.

(I know that had this happened to my child, I’d be dead today, shot and killed, because I’d have come out of the house blasting away at those I would have considered kidnapping my son.)

For me it was a return to my teenage years when the ICDA of 1978 was passed. I was against it back then because of the legal warning at the bottom of papers issued the government that read “federal law prohibits discriminating against employees on the basis of sex, race, color, national origin, and religion.”

Nearly 40-years later, I believe the same law applies to this situation — yet the government continues obfuscate the law. And it’s only gotten worse as we now have at least 40 groupings of people recognized by the feds – including age, ancestry, color, religious creed, denial of family and medical care leave, disability (mental and physical) including HIV and AIDS, marital status, medical condition (cancer and genetic characteristics,) genetic information, military and veteran status, national origin (including language use restrictions,) race, sex (which includes pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding and medical conditions related to pregnancy, childbirth or breastfeeding,) gender, gender identity, gender expression and sexual orientation.

Worse yet is the fact that the national compliant media remained largely silent as this event unfolded. Had this been a gay couple losing this child to a straight family they would have been all over it like ‘white on rice.’

Sad.

Aren’t you and I the same when all is said and done? After all, I bleed red when cut like you do and yet we have an out-of-control federal government that’s bent on dividing you and me, making it easier for them to control when push comes to shove.

(This is also one of the many steps the Nazi’s used in the subjugation of the Jews and other so-called ‘undesirables.’)

We must ask ourselves: Do we follow government rule for the sake of government rule – or do we temper those rules with moral law? And I think, “Do unto others as you wish to be done unto,” is a damned good place to start.

A recently created national monument designed to ‘safeguard’ a huge piece of central Nevada is about to get a new oil well. The Bureau of Land Management says Nevada’s biggest oil producer can drill in the Basin and Range National Monument designated by President Obama in July 2015.

Makoil plans to sink a well 7,500 feet deep in search of oil in a dry lake bed in Lincoln County. The BLM issued the company a 10-year oil lease after it applied for a permit to drill in July 2014, a year before Obama designated the monument using his executive authority under the Antiquities Act.

That means the agency’s bureaucrats knew in advance that oil drilling was to occur within the monuments boundaries. It is hard not to chuckle — at least a little after all the crowing environmentalist did after Obama signed the order.

“Permanent protection allows current outdoor recreation and current valid land use such as grazing, to continue,” Friends of Nevada Wilderness proclaimed after the designation, adding, “In addition, the Bureau of Land Management will be prevented from selling any land or granting permits for oil or mineral prospecting in order to preserve wildlife habitat, archaeological sites and other natural and cultural resources in the region.”

It’s actually kind of fun to watch environmental wackos get screwed by the Obama Administration. Now, if only Nevada would screw over the BLM, kicking them out of the state using Article I, Sec. 8, Clause 17 of the U.S. Constitution.

“Be careful what you wish for lest it come true…” –old Chinese proverb

Last week, the Treasury Department granted Starwood Hotels permission to sign a multi-million-dollar deal with the Castro regime in Cuba, all the while knowing that the Anbang Insurance Group, which has very close ties to the Communist party, had bought the chain.  The company’s Chairman’s married to the granddaughter of China’s former leader and one of its directors is the son of a Communist Revolution-era top general.

Starwood Hotels is the parent company of such hotels as Sheraton, Westin and the St. Regis. And Anbang has been on a buying spree, purchasing the Waldorf Astoria in New York and Guaranty Life Insurance in Des Moines, Iowa.

Over the last 20 years, Starwood has given $12 million to lobbyists in Washington D.C. and $1.2 million to both Republicans and Democrats. In 2012, Starwood gave $14,000 directly to Obama’s re-election campaign, while only $1,500 to Mitt Romney’s.

During the 2014 campaign cycle, Starwood gave $440,000 to lobbyists and more than $71,000 to campaigns, with more than $50,000 going directly to Democrats. To adding the obvious crony capitalism — four of the six lobbyists working for Starwood Hotels previously held jobs with the federal government.

This means the Obama administration gave permission for a Communist Chinese hotel chain to do business as an American company in Communist Cuba.

President Obama speaks of the Castro brothers as if they were long-time friends, but there was no pomp and circumstance and Obama wasn’t greeted by either Castro brother like Raul did when Pope Francis visited. It leaves Obama looking like that proverbial school kid searching for acceptance anywhere he can find it.

But that isn’t the saddest of it — civil liberties, that we take for granted in the U.S, are taking a back seat to commercial interests in Cuba.

Shortly before Air Force One landed, the Policía Nacional Revolucionaria arrested 50 members of the Ladies in White movement, established more than a decade ago by wives and relatives of political prisoners, following the disruption of their march. They march each Sunday after Mass and usually get arrested and detained for hours or days.

But, some thought Cuban authorities would back off out of respect for Obama’s visit. But despite dozens of witnessing reporters, the group was quickly rounded up, loaded onto buses and into police cars and whisked away to Havana’s Combinado del Este.

Meanwhile, before his trip, the White House promised Obama would raise the issue of human rights in Cuba, even though the Castro’s insists that domestic politics are “off the table.”

“The difference here is that in the past, because of certain U.S. policies, the message that was delivered in that regard either overtly or implicitly suggested that the U.S. was seeking to pursue regime change; that the U.S. was seeking to essentially overturn the government in Cuba; or that the U.S. thought that we could dictate the political direction of Cuba,” U.S. deputy national security advisor Ben Rhodes said.

The Castro regime however is very sensitive to U.S. criticism of its human rights record – as seen most recently when its diplomats criticized Washington during a UN Human Rights Council session, advising Obama to improve human rights at home, declaring, “As President Castro said, we will not renounce our ideas or independence or social justice, nor will we set aside any of our principles.”

This isn’t surprising as this is the same regime that celebrates a murderous thug by the name of Che Guevara as a national hero. But then — he’s also celebrated by University students all over the U.S. — so go figure.

The United Nations is still making inroads around Lake Tahoe with its environmental programming. Agenda 21 is a form of radical environmentalism that states humanity is destroying the planet, and the goal should be to create a world where literally everything humans do is to be tightly monitored and controlled in the name of “sustainable development.”

In their vision, the human population will be greatly reduced and human activity to be limited to strictly regulated urban areas and travel corridors, while of the planet is be left to nature. And to prove how sneaky the planning and execution of these plans are, they’re often couched in banal terms like ‘economic development’ or ‘community revitalization.’

One such ‘community revitalization project’ involves creating a new road allowing drivers to bypass the downtown area in Stateline, Nevada.  This proposal “realigns the current four lanes of U.S. Highway 50 along Lake Parkway East behind Harrah’s, Montbleu, and the Village Shopping Center, converting the current road along the business and casino corridor into two lanes with turn pockets,” reconnecting at Pioneer Trail in California.

The Tahoe Transportation District’s own webpages boast:

• “No longer a federal highway, this area could be closed off and used as an outdoor mall for special events.”
• “For residents, Relocation Assistance could include completely remodeled and refurbished housing or placement in housing comparable in condition, size and market value.’”
• “Reducing conflicts between vehicles and pedestrians, created by congestion in the commercial core and use of the residential back street shortcut.”
• And of course the ever-present promise of, “Providing construction jobs and increasing materials sales locally with the renovations.”

What these ‘officials’ are not talking about is why this needs doing. The answer: “Lessening environmental impact with reduced vehicle emissions and better storm water treatment,” as the website states.

They don’t care about how this new roadway affects businesses. No — this is ‘all about nature before man.’

All this falls directly in line with ‘Agenda 21,’ as more of the lake shore becomes unavailable to motorized vehicles, pets and development and planning becomes more centered on ‘foot traffic’ and ‘bicycle lanes.’ This $75 billion bypass idea was first proposed back in 1980, but shot down because it posed an economic death-blow to Stateline.

Odd, how what is old is new yet again.

There are over 7,300 legislators, 3,100 counties and parishes, plus another 36,000 municipal governments and townships and their offices across this nation that we should be focusing on daily. Unfortunately, we spend the majority of our compliant media-driven time bickering about a person, who when elected to the Office of the Presidency, does not have the power to change anything.

We have somehow lost our perspective on exactly how important that particular office really is to our Constitutional Republic. The U.S. Constitution has the only official ‘job description’ for the President of the United States.

These are the highlights:

• The president is the commander-in-chief of the military.
• The president is responsible for insuring that the laws passed by Congress are executed and enforced as written.
• The president can grant pardons for crimes other than impeachment.
• The president can also make treaties, but only if two-thirds of the Senate agrees to the terms of those treaties.
• The president can nominate ambassadors, Supreme Court justices, and other officers — most commonly cabinet secretaries and federal judges.  But he can only nominate them.  Again, the Senate has final approval on any nominations.
• Must report to Congress from time to time about the state of the union and recommend whatever measures he thinks are necessary.

Furthermore, his position isn’t the ‘Leader of the Free World,’ and though he is Commander-in-Chief of the military, he is by no means the ‘U.S.’s top leader’ as a quick of Google check would have one believe. And contrary to Wikipedia’s claim, “The office of the president holds significant hard and soft power both in the United States and abroad,” it does not.

In the end, his so-called ‘hard and soft power’ remains within the purview of the U.S. Senate. And no where in the U.S. Constitution does it call the president our “leader.”

And as for the Senate and the House, we must stop calling them our “leaders,” as well, because we do not answer to them. They are our representatives and should be reminded of the fact that they answer to us.

A Republican National Committee’s Rules Committee member named Curly Haugland has let the proverbial ‘cat out of the bag.’ He says it’s the party who will decide who the GOP nominee will be, not the voters.

“The media have created the perception that the voters will decide the nomination,” said Haugland stated, “That’s the conflict here. The political parties choose their nominees, not the general public, contrary to popular belief.”

“The rules haven’t kept up,” Haugland said. “The rules are still designed to have a political party choose its nominee at a convention. That’s just the way it is. I can’t help it. Don’t hate me because I love the rules.”

“You have groups of people who are going to try to take over the rules committee,” he warned. “That could totally change everything, and mess things up with the delegates. And people across the country will be very frustrated.”

It’s important to note in all of this that the rules governing the convention itself are subject to change: A 112-member convention rules committee will meet at the start of the event and will be able to revise and set at least some of its own rules. Its members — one man and one woman from each state and territory — each elected by their peers.

Haugland has proposed a change in rules that would allow any candidate who earned at least one delegate to be submitted for nomination on the floor. That would sweep away requirements that, for the moment, precludes either Ted Cruz or John Kasich — or any of the candidates who collected delegates before dropping out of the race — from qualifying for the nomination under Rule 40, which requires a candidate to have the majority of delegates from at least eight states.

So far, the proportional allocation of delegates means front-runner Donald Trump is the only candidate to have met this mark. He has met the requirement in 11 states; Cruz has done so in just four, despite victories in 10 states.

Its time to get all political parties out of the electoral college and return it to its U.S. Constitutional standard as provided by Amendment 12 which reads in part:

“The Electors shall meet in their respective states, and vote by ballot for President and Vice-President, one of whom, at least, shall not be an inhabitant of the same state with themselves; they shall name in their ballots the person voted for as President, and in distinct ballots the person voted for as Vice-President, and they shall make distinct lists of all persons voted for as President, and of all persons voted for as Vice-President and of the number of votes for each, which lists they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the seat of the government of the United States, directed to the President of the Senate…”

While the name Spott is important when discussing Yurok tribal and Del Norte history in general, there is one story about the Spott name that remains folded in history. It’s the brief story of Seeley Lane Spott’s death at the age of 33.

Brief because only a few news articles mention either man. This includes one in which  Seeley pleaded guilty to driving on a suspended license and was placed on probation for one year, while a 10-day jail sentence was suspended as well as pleading guilty to a charge of disturbing the peace and being fined $125 for the offense in December 1969.

Seeley disappears from the public record until January 9, 1974, when he was killed sometime between 4-5 a.m., that Wednesday morning, having been stuck in the head with a small, long-handled chopping axe. His body was found, at 8 a.m., in the street near his home on Nickel Avenue in Crescent City, by a 10-year-old girl on her way to school.

Arrested the same day at his Roy Avenue home only four blocks away and held for murder was an unemployed logger, 22-year-old Antone ‘Tony’ F. Martin Jr.  Del Norte County Sheriff Tom Lowry said the department’s investigation revealed that a heated argument occurred at Spott’s home before the slaying.

Less than three months later and after a three-week trial, a Del Norte Superior Court jury acquitted Tony of the axe slaying on March 30. His defense attorney James McKittrick had contended the death of Seeley was an act of self-defense.

According to retired Del Norte County Sheriff’s detective Richard Williams, in his 2007 book, “Mass Murder, The Ship Ashore Killings,” McKittrick later shared after the trial an insight about Tony “as being cold inside without any real regrets or feelings about his ax murder of Sealey (sic) Spott.”

Tony died July 18, 2003, at the age of 53 in Hillsboro, Oregon following a bicycle accident. He was living in Grants Pass, Oregon at the time.

Born October 28, 1951, in Corvallis, Tony was a member of the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians. He also served in the U.S. Marine Corps, was a logger and construction worker, and labored for several years at the Portland shipyards.

Tucked between two letters Mom had written me years ago, I found her recipe jus’ in time for Easter. It is one of those pleasant surprises that seem to come from out of nowhere. This was one of my childhood favorites growing up in Klamath, where I’d smother a warm slice in butter and eat it with an icy-cold glass of milk.

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup milk
1 large egg
1-1/2 tsp margarine or unsalted butter
1-1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp anise seed
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

Directions:

Combine flour, sugar, milk, egg, butter, baking powder, anise and cinnamon.
Mix thoroughly.
Pour mixture into greased 9-inch by 5-inch loaf pan.
Preheat the oven to 375 F.
Bake about 45 to 55 minutes.
Bread will puff and top may crack.
Cool five minutes in pan, then transfer to wire rack to cool completely.

Makes one loaf

To paraphrase an old line from a Humphrey Bogart movie, “Constitution? We don’t need no stinkin’ Constitution!” — especially when every federal agency in our U.S. government has an extracurricular set of unconstitutional rules by which it operated.

During a Senate Foreign Relations Committee meeting on March 8, Senator Cory Gardner asked if Congress approved the U.S. State Department’s diversion of $500 million to the UN’s Green Climate Fund. Deputy Secretary Heather Higgenbottom bluntly addressed the GOP senators’ accusation.

“Did Congress authorize the Green Climate Fund? No,” she replied.

Higginbottom also insisted they were not required to let Congress know about the transfer from the Economic Support Fund (ESF) saying, “We have reviewed our authorities and made a determination that we can make this payment to the Green Climate Fund. We do not believe we are in violation of the Anti-Deficiency Act, and clearly our lawyers and others have looked at our authorities and our abilities to do this.”

The ESF is a part of the U.S. Foreign Assistance program and has ranged from $2.5 billion in 2001 to $4.7 billion in 2015.  Yet the State Department managed to find half-a billion dollars to hand over to the UN without any accounting as to the monies use.

Garner then asked Higginbottom how the administration was able to divert and reprogram funds to meet Obama’s pledge.

“We reviewed the authorities and opportunities available to us to do that, and believe we are fully compliant with that,” she said. “I’ll be happy to follow-up with you and your staff.”

It’s clear that departmental rules are replacing the constitutional requirement that only Congress can appropriate money as stated in the U.S. Constitution, Article I, section 7, clause 1 which reads, “All Bills for raising Revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives; but the Senate may propose or concur with amendments as on other Bills.”

Of course, this isn’t the first time ‘the rules’ superseded the U.S. Constitution and it isn’t going to be the last.