Seventy-four-year-old Ralph Gilbertsen is not a felon or domestic abuser, and has never been ruled dangerous to others, despite being ‘mildly bipolar,’ but Richfield Police in Minnesota confiscated his firearms anyway. He also has a concealed carry permit holder, which means he passed the in-depth background check required to get such a permit.

The retired Marine believes in Bigfoot, UFOs and thinks the government is spying on him.

“A lot of people believe these things, but they don’t want to talk about it,” he said. “I could see people being skeptical if I was saying something really outlandish, like space aliens with big heads were visiting me every night. But nobody can believe the CIA is squeaky clean. The people who think these things can’t happen, I think they’re the ones living in Alice-in-Wonderland world.”

It’s a fact that the National Security Agency is collecting electronically transmitted data on the American people and storing it in Utah.

His belief’s came to the attention of authorities in 2015 after his apartment manager expressed concern to the Hennepin Community Outreach for Psychiatric Emergencies (COPE). Following a complaint, COPE called police to escort them to Gilbertsen’s apartment, where they confiscated a .40-caliber pistol, a .357 magnum and a .22 revolver.

His attorney Paul Baertschi says the police took away a citizen’s guns simply because of his beliefs.

“He’s what some people would say is a conspiracy theorist. It is an unusual situation,” Baertschi said. “But really, the police acted unilaterally in deciding that a person who has these beliefs can’t be trusted with a gun. And so they just took them, without a warrant.”

“Officers are often forced to make snap judgments about an individual’s mental health,” Richfield Police Department spokesman Lt. Mike Flaherty said, “The street cops nowadays have to be a psychologist. People don’t wear nameplates saying ‘paranoid schizophrenic.’ So the police have to go in there and make judgment calls.”

There is a huge difference between bipolar disorder and paranoid schizophrenia.

Minnesota law allows the seizure of firearms on mental health grounds only if an individual has been committed to a mental institution or has been ruled by a judge to be a public danger. That requires a legal finding that the person has tried to harm others or that there’s “a substantial likelihood” of harmful behavior.

Justice Antonin Scalia died February 13, 2016 and Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts acted swiftly, waiting less than a day after the EPA’s response brief to side with the Obama administration dismissing an earlier 5-4 ruling SCOTUS ruling that President Obama’s global warming regulations are illegal. Worse yet, he acted unilaterally, electing to reject the request himself, and not take it to the full court, which may have led to a 4-4 split.

Roberts rejected the request of 20 states to stay the Mercury and Air Toxic Standards rule, adopted by the Environmental Protection Agency three years ago. This means the regulation remains in effect while a legal battle continues over whether the EPA properly weighed costs and benefits in drafting the controversial regulation.

The administration’s initiative, which is still in the planning stages, requires states to develop plans for shifting away from fossil-fuel power plants in favor of alternative forms of energy. It also aims at reducing emissions of carbon dioxide at existing plants by about a third by 2030.

The Clean Power Plan is an essential part of Obama’s pledge to cut the country’s contribution to global warming, because the electric-power sector of the economy supposedly emits 30 to 40 percent of all U.S. greenhouse gases. Under the EPA plan, states can draw up their own plans or choose the agency’s plan.

Such action on the part of Roberts is exactly how you and I have lost control over our liberty. Rather than side with the States in this case, he sided with an unconstitutional agency of the federal government; the EPA in this situation.

The Tenth Amendment makes it very clear that the powers not given to the United States, belongs to the states or to the people. That means you and I are to be the final arbiters over our sovereignty, not the EPA, the SCOTUS or the state.

As Thomas Jefferson wrote in a letter to C. Hammond, July 1821: “When all government, domestic and foreign, in little as in great things, shall be drawn to Washington as the centre of all power, it will render powerless the checks provided of one government on another, and will become as venal and oppressive as the government from which we separated …“

In this case, Jefferson was talking about King George III and the arbitrary rules he forced upon the Colonies before the War for Independence. Sadly, the SCOTUS, and Roberts in particular, are operating under another set of ‘arbitrary rules’ aptly named “Rules of the Supreme Court of the United States.”

And while not unconstitutional, they do deny the plaintiffs in this case their constitutional right “to petition the Government for a redress of grievances,” as stated in the First Amendment. because should the states file again, the SCOTUS won’t hear the argument because Roberts has already ruled on it.

Here’s one of the many social media trolls I put up with on a daily basis. This guy recieves my postings on Facebook only because he’s a friend of a friend from high school — otherwise I don’t know him from Cain.

Abel Morris: Tom Darby yesterday your post mocked Trump before his rally! Now your (sic) knocking a moron who rushed at Trump while giving a speech. How about you make your mind up (sic.)

Me: How about you stop worrying about what I do or don’t do!

Abel Morris: Your stupid shit comes across my news feed! If you don’t want criticism don’t preach stupid shit!

Me: You can block my stuff if you don’t want it on your feed. Once again — worry about your shit — not mine.

Abel Morris: I’m not worried about it! I was pointing out how hypocritical you are! LOL have a nice day (sic.)

I ended up helping him avoid my ‘stupid shit’ on his ‘news feed; I blocked his ass.

It’s interesting that people find it easy to name call and be critical of others whom they don’t know, especially through social media. I doubt that even two-percent of those who are rude to me would do so in person.

Tyrone Williams and Chauntyll Allen entered a Joe’s Crab Shack restaurant in Roseville, Minnesota to have dinner in celebration of Allen’s birthday. In addition to its food, the seafood chain is known for the eclectic decor at its eateries.

But when Williams and Allen sat down at their table, they noticed this old photo that was laid under the glass tabletop titled “Hanging at Groesbeck, Texas on April 12th, 1895.” A text bubble above the man being hanged reads, “All I said was, ‘I didn’t like the gumbo!’”

My first thoughts were jokes as poor in taste as the text bubble: “Come in for the hoods and robes, stay for the crab legs,” or “Hang around for the seafood gumbo,” and “Get a healthy bowl of racism with every Southern Style Catfish served.” But then, even though it was 121-year’s ago, joking over the death of a man, whether a convicted murderer or not isn’t in very good taste.

Instead of moving to another table or going else where for their lunch Allen and Williams had to make a mountain out of a molehill.

“We will no longer be eating at any Joe’s Crab Shack that supports White Supremacy and racism,” said Williams.

“They are trying to make a joke out of our black bodies being lynched and I had a real problem with that,” said Allen of the picture.

Her opinion was shared by Austin, Texas’ Black Lives Matter affiliate in a Facebook posting, “They actually used a real lynching photo.”

Unfortunately, because ignorance (or perhaps stupidity abounds) it has to be pointed out this wasn’t a lynching. It was an execution.

On May 3, 1894, a pioneer resident of Groesbeck, James Garrett McKinnon, was beaten to death with a stone and robbed. Richard Burleson was arrested for murder, tried and convicted and on April 12, 1895 the 21-year old man was legally hanged.

A great-grandson McKinnon’s researched the case and said Burleson was a freed slave who robbed his grandfather of a $20 gold piece. The two had been seen together earlier in the day.

“James offered Burleson a ride in his wagon, Burleson accepted, then clubbed James over the head with a rock,” Tom McKinnon of Arizona wrote of his research.

Prior to his execution, the Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas even took up his case, upholding his conviction in the end.

Ignite, the Houston-based corporate parent of the Crab Shack chain, issued a written apology and the table removed: “We take this matter very seriously, and the photo in question was immediately removed. We sincerely apologize to our guests who were disturbed by the image.”

However, the apology is “not enough,” Minneapolis NAACP President Nekima Levy-Pounds said. She’s now pressuring the chain to make a donation to an organization focused on African-American youth.

So maybe a hefty cash infusion will wash away the ‘White guilt’ and the sins of the ‘White fathers,’ since James Garrett McKinnon life was only worth a $20 gold piece when Burleson caved his head in.

Secretive legislation ‘designed’ to help local law enforcement fight terrorism with the aid of the federal government has been introduced. H.R. 4401, the Amplifying Local Efforts to Root out Terrorism (ALERT) Act of 2016, allows “federal law enforcement to train and work closely with state and local law enforcement in using the most effective tactics and methods to counter terrorism.”

This legislation was passed by the House Homeland Security Committee on a voice vote, and has the support of 11 bipartisan cosponsors — including five Democrats and six Republicans.

But there’s more to this including terms within this bill that must be highlighted. For instance, the term “violent extremism” means “ideologically motivated international terrorism or domestic terrorism,” as defined in section 2331 of title 18, United States Code.

“International terrorism” reads the section, is “activities that involve violent acts or acts dangerous to human life that are a violation of the criminal laws of the United States or of any State, or that would be a criminal violation if committed within the jurisdiction of the United States or of any State.” Furthermore, the term “domestic terrorism” means “activities that involve acts dangerous to human life that are a violation of the criminal laws of the United States or of any State.

Both involve an act to “appear to be intended” (which means to give the impression of being in a certain way) to “intimidate or coerce a civilian population; to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination, or kidnapping.”  But then the federal government’s view of “ideology” as shown in the U.S. Air Force’s July 2011 ‘0910 Equal Opportunity and Treatment Incidents’ lesson plan remains questionable:

“As noted, an ideology is a set of political beliefs about the nature of people and society. People who are committed to an ideology seek not only to persuade but to recruit others to their belief. In U.S. history, there are many examples of extremist ideologies and movements. The colonists who sought to free themselves from British rule and the Confederate states who sought to secede from the Northern states are just two examples.”

Finally, there’s the 2012 document, “Profiles of Perpetrators of Terrorism,” produced by the ‘National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism,’ in which the following characteristics are used to identify (domestic) terrorists:

“Americans who believe their “way of life” is under attack; Americans who are “fiercely nationalistic (as opposed to universal and international in orientation)”; People who consider themselves “anti-global” (presumably those who are wary of the loss of American sovereignty); Americans who are “suspicious of centralized federal authority”; Americans who are “reverent of individual liberty”; People who “believe in conspiracy theories that involve grave threat to national sovereignty and/or personal liberty.”

The report also lists people opposed to abortion and “groups that seek to smite the purported enemies of God and other evildoers,” Ron Paul supporters, libertarians, people who display bumper stickers, or own gold and even people who fly a U.S. flag as terrorists. Oh, and don’t forget the FBI says using cash to pay for a cup of coffee is suspicious.

A case challenging ‘net neutrality’ is making its way through the courts, and it’s revealing some interesting information. For example documents show that while the Federal Communications Commission was creating the regulation — it was working with the Obama administration, keeping it abreast with where it was in the process.

As this continues, Senator and Chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Ron Johnson released a report titled, “Regulating the Internet: How the White House Bowled over FCC Independence.”  In it, he highlights problems in the process by which the agency arrived at its net neutrality order, being litigated in federal court.

In 2014, after being overruled in court, the FCC had an open hearing to again consider how to carry out net neutrality.   However, shortly after the 2014 elections, President Obama urged the FCC to “implement the strongest possible rules to protect net neutrality.”

In particular, he wanted the FCC to unilaterally assert authority over Internet service providers (ISP) under Title II of the Communications Act, which allows for the regulation of “common carriers” as public utilities. The report points to evidence of a “pause” and a change in the FCC’s course after the President’s comments.

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler and staff were finishing work on a different approach in November 2014 before Obama’s comments. However, shortly afterwards, Wheeler instructed his staff to draft an order following the President’s proposal of a Title II reclassification.

This rule prohibits ISP’s from charging for legal content flow through their networks. To enforce this, the FCC reclassified broadband as a more highly regulated telecommunications service.

Obama appointed Wheeler, a Democrat, as FCC chairman. The agency’s Democratic majority pushed through the regulations by a 3-2 vote in February 2015.

Details of the report also include the fact that before the White House’s announcement in support of Title II reclassification, the staff worked over the weekend to provide Wheeler with a draft Open Internet Order, adopting a “hybrid approach,” to be considered on the FCC’s December 2014 Open Meeting, but after Obama’s statement there was confusion and the rapid timetable for completing the draft Open Internet Order was “paused.”

The FCC employees also raised concerns about following proper notice-and-comment rules, as required under the Administrative Procedure Act. They advised that the record to support Title II reclassification was lacking and needed more public comments, but despite this, the agency chose not to seek additional public comment, and proceeded with the president’s preferred policy outcome.

Finally, over the course of the committee’s investigation, the FCC refused to provide key responsive documents. Moreover, in the e-mails provided to the committee show there was an attempt by some to thwart transparency and avoid ex-parte filings.

In the end, net neutrality isn’t neutral at all. Instead it is a ‘play on words,’ meant to abridge free Internet commerce and a violation of the 10^th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which reads, “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”

About a week before the Disney Store permanently closed its doors at Meadowood Mall, I went to see what they had for sale. That’s where I found a very unique looking Mickey Mouse coffee mug.

Since I consider this mug to be somewhat special, I don’t often use it. Beside, it’s so large that I generally have to heat the coffee in it a number of times because it goes cold too quick.

Anyway, recently I decided to use it and after filling it up I went out side to enjoy a little sunshine and to play fetch with the dogs. Half an hour later I came in the house and sat down at my computer to do some research and to write.

Two-hours later I stopped to reheat my cup of coffee, only to discover I couldn’t find it. I searched all through the house looking for, even checking in the microwave, the cupboards and the refrigerator-freeze, jus’ in case I had a brain-fart and set it down in one of those places.

But my search turned up nothing. While still vexed, I decided to grab another cup and pour myself some more coffee and return to my computer.

The following day I again took up the search for the missing mug; even digging through the kitchen trash can and the large green monster in the garage. Still I couldn’t find it.

By the second day I had pretty much put it’s disappearance out of my head, telling myself it would suddenly show up when I wasn’t looking for the damned thing.

Three days after I had last seen it, I went outside to see what the dogs were up too as sometimes their quietness makes me think they are up to no good. As I stepped out on the back porch, I noticed my Mickey Mouse cup sitting on the fence rail – right where I suddenly remembered placing it.

“Doh!” as Homer Simpson would say.

Happy that it really wasn’t lost, I walked over and picked it up. It was still half full of coffee as well as something else.

A little set of eyes peered up at me as I held the cup. A small mouse had fallen into the coffee cup and it was dog-paddling for all that it was worth.

Squatting on the cement pad and gently tipping the cup on its side, I dumped both the cold coffee and exhausted mouse out onto the concrete. At first I thought the strain of swimming to keep it’s head above the surface had proved to be too much; the mouse lay unmoving a my feet.

It was still breathing, but doing little else and I was sure that it was a goner. However after a few seconds it rolled over, stood up, shook itself (which looked more like a spasm than shaking) and scurried off into some dead leaved gathered at the base of our fence.

After taking the cup into the house and giving it a thorough washing, I couldn’t help smile at the fact that I had a real mouse swimming inside my Mickey Mouse coffee cup.

Minnesotans elected pro-wrestler Jesse Ventura as their governor in 1998. Ventura ran on the Reform Party platform, promising to cut the size and scope of government, class sizes and he supported public debate on legalized prostitution.

His governorship started out fine, but the economy took a downturn and the legislature turned its back on Ventura. Throwing a temper-tantrum, he started staying home, refusing to go to the capitol and badmouthing anyone who criticized him.

About two years later Ventura asked Donald Trump to run for president on the Reform Party ticket. Trump promised fair trade, universal health care and claimed Oprah Winfrey would be his ideal running mate.

Then in early February Ventura became angry with the Reform Party and withdrew from the faction. Shortly after, Trump ended his campaign as well.

The anger with Clinton Administration that brought Ventura to the governorship of Minnesota is identical to the anger American’s are feeling with the Obama Administration. They’re pissed at what’s happening and see nothing to lose by tossing out the old guard and embracing an untested one.

In the end, Ventura’s governorship didn’t work out because of the wish to seek some sort of retribution against those seen as having created the problem. It didn’t work then, it won’t work now and it will not work after January 2017.

As the saying goes, “A knight in shining armor is one whose metal has never been truly tested.”

Domestic terror groups seem to pose a greater threat to the U.S. than Daesh (ISIS,) al Qaeda or the Taliban joined, according to U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch, who was in Portland on Thursday, bragging about the arrest of 19 political prisoners by her Department of Justice (DOJ.)

“The Department of Justice is committed to protecting the American people and defending the rule of law,” said. Lynch. “Today’s actions make clear that we will not tolerate the use of threats or force against federal agents who are doing their jobs. We will continue to protect public land on behalf of the American people, uphold federal law, and ensure that those who employ violence to express their grievances with the government will be apprehended and held accountable for their crimes.”

Odd how she stated, “I condemn the senseless acts of violence by some individuals in Baltimore that have resulted in harm to law enforcement officers, destruction of property and a shattering of the peace in the city of Baltimore,” but never made a single arrest in the situation, though there was news footage showing the unlawful actions.

And then of Ferguson, she declared: “The residents of Ferguson have suffered the deprivation of their constitutional rights, the rights guaranteed to all Americans, for decades. They have waited decades for justice. They should not be forced to wait any longer,” as she announced plans to persecute the city’s police force.

Talk about turning things upside down and inside out. Yet it’s only getting worse as the DOJ, plans to combat the constitutionally abiding citizen by creating the ‘Domestic Terrorism Counsel.  Assistant Attorney General John Carlin, who oversees national security at the DOJ, announced the new position that will coordinate the investigation and prosecution of so-called ‘anti-government and hate groups.’

In making his proclamation, Carlin pointed to such high-profile attacks as the racially motivated Charleston church shooting in June 2015 or the murder of two Las Vegas police officers by a white supremacist couple in June 2014. Unfortunately he failed to point out the violent rioting, the burning and looting that happened in both Ferguson and Baltimore.

To top that off, FBI Director James Comey is showing his complete ignorance of the U.S. Constitution  claiming, “Our democracy provides lawful ways individuals can respond if they disagree with their government, but if you resort to violence or threats, you will be held accountable under the law.”

First, we are a constitutional republic and secondly the federal government has no legal claim to land in Nevada or any other state. Finally, he appears to not care about the first or second amendments, which say we have the right to assemble peaceably, redress the government, speak out against heat same government and to use arms to protect and defend the Constitution for tyranny.

Meanwhile, 19 political prisoners remain charged with conspiracy to commit an offense against the U.S. and conspiracy to impede or injure a federal officer. They also face charges of  using and carrying a firearm during a crime of violence; assault on a federal officer; threatening a federal law enforcement officer; obstruction of justice, interference with interstate commerce by extortion and interstate travel in aid of extortion.

So far not a single piece of evidence, like a picture or video has surfaced showing any of the people charged in this indictments acted in a threatening manner. On the other hand, there is a damning piece of video showing the murder of LaVoy Finicum, by unidentified agents of the federal government and the state of Oregon.

The government is creating a false narrative by changing what you and I know is right and true, parsing words and using the compliant media to spread it’s evil propaganda. The only way of putting a halt to such encroachment to our liberties is through the recognition of the state over the federal government and the people over the state as provided by Article 10 of the U.S. Constitution, which reads, “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”

Built in 2002, the complex of buildings include a large hangar with clam-shell doors at the southern end of an asphalt strip. The complex has no official name and not many people even know it’s there.

 

Known locally as ‘Area 6.’ the site has only fences and visitor checkpoints and seen from the Mercury highway at the northern end of Yucca Flat. But exactly what goes on at there remains top-secret.

In fact the National Nuclear Security Administration’s kept Area 6 at such a low profile that few defense industry experts are aware of its existence. The National Nuclear Security Administration is a semi-autonomous branch of the Energy Department with a Nevada field office, based in North Las Vegas.

A safety analysis of Yucca Mountain nuclear storage facilities, written by Bechtel SAIC, has a description of the airfield:

“The purpose of this facility is to construct, operate, and test a variety of unmanned aerial vehicles. Tests include, but are not limited to, air-frame modifications, sensor operation, and on board computer development. A small, manned chase plane is used to track the unmanned aerial vehicles…”

Area 6 activities include research and development of sensors for detecting explosive materials, deadly gases and chemicals, and radioactive sources that could be used in “dirty bombs.” The facility’s manned by at least 80 people, includes maintenance areas and is also used by the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security.

Two DoE environmental studies say the base operates four to six UAV flights and two to four manned flights per day, flying mainly over the dry lake bed at altitudes under 12,000 feet. Furthermore, several classified Lockheed UAVs have been tested at airfields along the range, though which haven’t been disclosed.

Funding for Area 6 comes through the ‘Strategic Partnership Program,’ (SPP) which was part of the $84 million budgeted for the entire security site for the fiscal year 2015. In March 2010, President Obama spoke of SPP during the Export-Import Bank Annual Conference: “We’ll create public-private partnerships to help firms break into new markets with the help of those who have been there — shipping and supply-chain companies, for example.”

However, much of that SPP money comes from Defense Department branches including the Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force, Defense Threat Reduction Agency and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. So it leaves one to wonder — what sort of ‘public-private partnerships,’ are being forged in Nevada’s vast and under-populated desert?