“We don’t meet people by accident. They’re meant to cross our paths for a reason,” goes the old saw.

C.J. Shotwell wasn’t here for very long, six or seven days, maybe. And to be honest, I didn’t really know him all that well as we only chit-chatted while out in Gary’s garage.

A hard-rock miner by trade, he’d arrived one late night after Gary drove to Winnemucca to pick him. He wanted to come to the Reno/Sparks area to quit drinking and drugging.

Every time I saw C.J., he was smiling and joking. But I could also tell that something was off – there was deep sadness and a hidden anger that he desperately tried to suppress.

After a few days, both C.J. and Gary knew it wasn’t working. And instead of checking into a rehab program offered through the Salvation Army, C.J. chose to return home and to his girlfriend.

Gary didn’t have the car that day, so he asked if I’d take C.J. down to the train station so he could catch the east bound Amtrak home. Since I was looking for something to do out of the ordinary, I said yes.

If C.J. happened to be disappointed in himself, I couldn’t tell. I shook his hand and wished him well as he climbed out my truck and grabbed the two bags from my pickups’ bed.

That was about three weeks ago — the last time I saw him. And it will be the last time too.

Sometime during the night of Thursday, March 3, when the Devil had him in his grip, C.J. found a secluded spot behind a motel and hanged his self. The following morning as the sun broke over Sonoma Peak, someone discovered his body.

His death has hit Gary and his wife Autumn pretty hard as they struggle to reach out to C.J.’s family to let them know what has happened. As for me, I’m thinking, reflecting and waiting to realize why we crossed paths.

Tonight, I say yet another prayer for C.J. – this time asking for God’s tender mercies.

The Bureau of Land Management is claiming that a number of Texas ranches don’t actually belong to the ranchers, but rather to the federal government. This is in despite of each rancher having a deed for their property and having paid property taxes on the land each year.

The BLM’s claim — the land shouldn’t have been sold in the first place. However, at least one rancher, Ken Aderholt, isn’t giving up his property without a fight.

Aderholt’s family has lived and raised cattle on the land for the past 70 years. Yet in 2014, the rancher received a phone call from the BLM representative who claimed that 625 acres of his property actually belonged to the federal government.

 

The representative said the discovery was made when the government began “redefining” boundary lines along the Red River, which runs along the border between Oklahoma and Texas. So by redefining the boundary to half-a-mile inland, the change affects the size of Aderholt’s property.

Despite pointing out he has a deed showing he’s the owner the BLM’s still claiming they own the 625 acres adding that the Texas should never have produced that deed as it never belongs to the state. Now, the BLM says it plans to take his property from him ‘legally.’

The BLM hasn’t said what it’ll do with the land, but if history has shown us anything, it could be converted into public bird watching, horseback riding, or even be condemned. Furthermore, the BLM could lease the land back to Aderholt, or worse it could lease it to someone else entirely.

Remember, the federal government doe not have the right to act independent of the U.S. Constitution.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) harassed a dairy farmer and made several warrantless searches of his property all because he produced raw milk. It started after the farmer provided the raw milk to an organic food co-op, where participants paid money into the co-op and, in return, received the raw milk.

 

Elkhart County, Indiana Sheriff Brad Rogers became involved in the case in 2011 when the farmer complained to him. He emailed the Department of Justice (DOJ), writing:

“I understand that you have made recent requests to (the farmer) for documents and to appear before a grand jury, and he has had a number of inspections and attempted inspections on his farm within Elkhart County. This is notice that any further attempts to inspect this farm without a warrant signed by a judge, based on probable cause, will result in federal inspectors’ removal or arrest for trespassing by my officers or I.

In addition, if any further action is taken by the federal government on (the farmer), while he is in Elkhart County, I will expect that you or federal authorities contact my office prior to such action. I will expect you to forward this information to your federal associates, including the FDA.”

Shortly after sending the email, the farmer received a certified letter from the DOJ cancelling his grand jury subpoena. And no federal inspectors have visited the farm since 2011.

Rogers is a member of the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association.and been with the Elkhart County Sheriff’s Department for 27 years. He also practices what he preaches.

It’s always difficult to lose a friend to death. My friend Pam Sadler died following an asthma attack and I can’t help but feel her loss.

We worked at the same radio company and only ever saw enough of each other long enough to say a simple hello, a nod or a smile as we passed each other. I was a part of the air staff, working nights and graveyard, while she worked in sales during the day.

So it is easy to see that we really had no chance of meeting — that is until chance intervened. It was the early morning hours of November 14, 2010 – I was working in the news room when I heard a noise coming from the sales office area.

Quietly, I walked into the maze of cubicles while listening to the sound of a woman softly crying. Near the farthest wall I found Pam, sitting at her desk with a tissue covering her eyes.

“Are you okay?” I asked as quietly as possible.

She jumped in her seat and let out an expletive adding, “You scared me!”

“I’m sorry,” I replied, asking again, “Are you alright?”

“Yes,” she said at first, quickly changing her answer, “No, I’m really frustrated.”

And that’s how I officially met Pam. We spent the next 15-20 minutes talking about life, work, children, hopes and dreams.

It was one of the best conversations I can ever recall having such a short time-span. I had to return to do the news at the top of the hour and she left for home, hoping to get a couple of hours of sleep before returning to work.

When I got home that morning, I switched on my computer to check my Facebook page. There I found this message waiting for me:

“Thank you again for talking with me this morning. It made me evaluate what I need to take care of and to take care of me for a change. I’m just going to focus on what I love to do and do my best at it. Thank you to my newest friend. This will be a conversation only held between you and me. By the way — sorry for making you nervous this morning. Have a good day and week. – Pam”

I’m so glad I saved that message – almost as happy about that as I’m sad that she’s gone from this earth.

Nevada Attorney General Adam Laxalt has filed a brief endorsing a multi-state legal fight against President Obama’s plan to curtail greenhouse gas emissions. The brief says only the states have the right to decide pollution emission standards.

“We are repeatedly seeing more federal regulation that is less tied to the actual text of the laws that federal agencies claim is the basis for their rules,” Laxalt said in a statement.

Environmentalists immediately criticized the filing. In fact , the group ‘Climate Parents’ claims Laxalt is choosing the interests of out-of-state coal corporations over the health of children, communities and the climate.

Called the Clean Power Plan, the rules limit carbon dioxide production starting in 2022 with the final goal in Nevada in 2030 of 855 pounds per megawatt-hour. Nevada’s expected to meet the target without difficulty, achieving a level of 578 pounds of carbon dioxide by that year by one estimate.

More than two dozen states are appealing the rules in a case before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. The U.S. Supreme Court put enforcement of the rules on hold pending the appeals process.

Meanwhile, Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval is downplaying the AG’s filing, claiming that “the attorney general is simply offering his legal opinion.”

As I sat reading Genesis 25 and 26 — the story of Esau and Jacob — a tiny thought crept its way into my brain and lodge itself there so it could fester. I went to bed thinking of the two brothers and their life-long struggle over birthrights and blessings and I awoke to the same come the next day.

There was a lesson in the story, but I had to find it before I could share it. I had to understand it before I could find the lesson and why the story had become so overwhelming to me.

It took me a week to winnow things out. In the end it came down to Esau, who also in the end lost both his birthright, first through stupidity and then secondly, his father’s blessing through trickery.

I’ve boiled it down to this: Have we lost our birthright because of our stupidity and are we about to lose our blessings from our Father due to trickery?

Since childhood, I’ve watched as the American people have given up their God-given rights without so much as a fuss or a whimper. In that same time I’ve witnessed our Constitutional Republic slip closer and closer to a democracy – which in the end is the greatest wish of the Anarchists.

(Democracy with a lower case ‘d’ is a social condition of classlessness and equality; Anarchy is a state of disorder due to the absence or non-recognition of authority. Thus democracy eventually falls away into anarchy due to the human condition.)

And every four years I’ve watched as candidates come and go, many providing pledges and services that they cannot hope to provide. Yet, the people fall for the trickery because of their stupidity.

As I see the juggernaut that is the Donald Trump campaign, I can’t help but see the pattern Esau fell for twice. First is the taking of our birthright, and then comes the taking of all our blessings.

Here is why I see it the way I do: Trump is not a part of the ‘establishment,’ an outsider to the Republican electoral processes and thus hated for his current success. However the people love him for his brash-outspokenness and ability to channel their anger from what they see as an injustice done to the nation they love.

Yet they are blind in my opinion to the back room deals being made to keep the king from the throne. Yes, I’m claiming that the Progressive Democratic Party and the Progressive Republican Party are working hand in hand with one another to prevent Trump from winning the presidency, because he’ll upset the ‘things as they are’ way of Washington D.C. politics and not in a good way.

Many people have mistaken Trump’s tough-talking rhetoric for strong American leadership, when in fact it is far from that of a leader. Plainly stated, Trump is an angry, narcissistic, bully of a man as shown by these selected comments:

• “I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose voters,” Trump told Iowa supporters.

• “I mean I had a rating – 68-percent would not leave under any circumstance. I think that means murder, I think it means anything, OK?” Trump said of his supporters during a rally in Sparks, Nevada.

• “I’d like to punch him in the face,” Trump said, about a man disrupting his rally the eve before the Nevada caucuses.

I cannot help think that anyone, big or small, who has ever crossed him in the slightest – especially during this campaign season — will be a target for his wrath should he be elected.

It isn’t hard to look back into the recent past of the 20th century to find a similar situation and to learn how it unfolded. Lutheran Preacher Dietrich Bonhoeffer comes to mind was a Lutheran Pastor who was an influential critic of Adolf Hitler and Nazism.

He publicly spoke against the Nazi policy of euthanasia and the murder of Jews. The day Hitler became the Fuehrer, he had Bonhoeffer arrested and imprisoned and eventually executed in May 1945.

And before you accuse me of claiming Trump is the next Hitler, let me go on record to say that I do not believe for a second. I am simply using this historical reference to make my point that we are going down a road that can have no good outcome for America or her people.

Lastly, I’m not advocating voting for Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders. On the contrary as they are the antithesis of what America’s values are about: on the one hand you have a woman whose plagued by her own egotistical dishonesty while on the other you have a man who is an avowed Socialist, a believer in a system of governance that has led to the death of millions around the world.

Neither is a Constitutional candidate. But then again neither is Trump.

So how does the story of Esau turn out? Esau’s attitude is too common today as far too many cry out, “Give me what I want. I want it now. I want it regardless of its cost. Give me my indulgences — I do not care about the consequences!”

We are Esau and we’re about to suffer a horrible trick.

Former Republican presidential candidate Jim Gilmore is criticizing the compliant media for giving free air time to Donald Trump. Gilmore also accused the Republican National Committee of outsourcing the debates to the networks, resulting in “a food fight that looks like the Jerry Springer show.”

“He also by the way said he didn’t have to spend any money because he gets all free broadcasting. And that’s what we’re doing right now. We’re giving him free time right now. And that’s an issue that has to be addressed in the future, as the FCC needs to address this problem of the free advertising they’re giving to selected candidates like Donald Trump,” Gilmore said.

As of February 20, the network evening shows of ABC, CBS and NBC have devoted 51 percent of all their coverage of Republican candidates to Trump. Comparatively, the next two most covered candidates, Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, received 25 and 10 percent of the coverage, respectively.

He also said he would support the eventual Republican nominee to avoid another Democrat in the White House.

“I intend to endorse and support the Republican candidate for president because the alternative is either Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders,” she said, adding, “They’re both talking about giving away everything and not doing anything to grow the economy.”

Gilmore, a former governor of Virginia, ended his presidential campaign on February 12 after poor showings in Iowa and New Hampshire, which is a good thing, seeing how he wants to restrict the First Amendment. It’s amazing how Progressive eventually show their true colors, isn’t it?

The Arizona House approved a measure on February 16 prohibiting the state from using resources, including people and funds, to enforce federal gun control laws. House Bill 2300 forbids state and local agencies from carrying out of any federal regulation restricting the right to own a personal firearm, a firearm accessory, or ammunition.

Any federal action would be considered unconstitutional if it “infringes the right to keep and bear arms guaranteed by the Second Amendment of the United States Constitution or that impairs that right in violation of Article 2, Section 26 of the Arizona constitution. It also bans the use of state assets or money in the enforcement of any forthcoming federal gun restrictions.

The bill has a provision designed to make sure local law enforcement doesn’t ignore it. It would bar state payments to cities and towns that don’t follow the enforcement ban and imposes civil and criminal penalties on violators.

Similarly, Senate Bill 1452, introduced on February 2, declares that “Any executive order or action that limits the rights guaranteed to a citizen of this state by the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution and that is not consistent with the constitutions of the United States and this state is an unlawful executive order or action and is not recognized in this state.”

Two other gun bills saw introduction,  including HB 2524 which allows Arizona to agree with other states not to put new restrictions on firearms transfers and HB 2338, which bars schools or universities from banning gun owners from carrying concealed weapons in their vehicles on public roads going through school property.

The legislation rests on the legal principle known as the anti-commandeering doctrine, based on four Supreme Court cases dating back to 1842 with Printz v. U.S. serving as the cornerstone. Simply put, the federal government cannot force states to help carry out or enforce any federal act or program.

The federal government relies heavily on state cooperation to carry out and enforce its regulations and by withdrawing the necessary cooperation, states can nullify many federal actions.

He died in a Box Elder County, Utah jail cell shortly after being taken into custody, but Rex Iverson, 45, wasn’t there for a criminal act. He was there on a civil judgment — not paying an ambulance bill.

On Christmas Eve 2013, Iverson had to be taken to the hospital via ambulance. Unfortunately, because he was unemployed he couldn’t pay and in September 2014 a justice court small claims judgment against Iverson said had to pay the $2,376.92 bill.

When he couldn’t pay, he was arrested and jailed. The next day he was found dead in a holding cell.

At 1:10 pm, January 22, 2016, a deputy spoke with Iverson to find out if he would be able to post bail on the offense. When the deputy returned half an hour later to begin the booking process, Iverson was found unresponsive in the cell.

Iverson’s death is under investigation by the Northern Utah Critical Incident Investigative Team. So far foul play is not suspected.

Imprisoning someone because he or she cannot afford to pay a court-imposed fine or fee violates the Fourteenth Amendment of due process and equal protection under the law.

Section 1 reads in part:

“No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”

And because Iverson and other people like him are unemployed or don’t have the money to hire an attorney, and since “justice court” isn’t considered a “criminal court,” defendants are often left to the ‘mercy’ of the system and with our proper legal representation. This is clearly a violation of the Sixth amendment, which clearly states:

“In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the state and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the assistance of counsel for his defense.”

Like the late musician Frank Zappa asked in a 1991 Spin Magazine interview, “If you don’t know what your rights are, how can you stand up for them?”

The 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is far different than the one originally proposed. The current amendment abolishes slavery and involuntary servitude.

It was passed by the Senate on April 8, 1864, and by the House on January 31, 1865 and ratified by the states on December 6, 1865 and reads as follows:

Section 1.
Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

Section 2.
Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

However, 36-years before the following note appeared on page 23, Vol. 1 of the ‘New York Revised Statutes:

“In the edition of the Laws of the U.S. before referred to, there is an amendment printed as article 13, prohibiting citizens from accepting titles of nobility or honor, or presents, offices, &c. from foreign nations. But, by a message of the president of the United States of the 4th of February, 1818, in answer to a resolution of the house of representatives, it appears that this amendment had been ratified only by 12 states, and therefore had not been adopted.

See Vol. IV of the printed papers of the 1st session of the 15th congress, No. 76.” In 1854, a similar note appeared in the Oregon Statutes. Both notes refer to the Laws of the United States, 1st vol. p. 73 (or 74).”

This so-called “missing” 13th Amendment reads as follows:

“If any citizen of the United States shall accept, claim, receive, or retain any title of nobility or honour, or shall without the consent of Congress, accept and retain any present, pension, office, or emolument of any kind whatever, from any emperor, king, prince, or foreign power, such person shall cease to be a citizen of the United States, and shall be incapable of holding any office of trust or profit under them, or either of them.”

What a different nation the U.S. might be had it been ratified.