4 Reasons Why Democrats Shouldn’t Be Celebrating Doug Jones’ Win in Alabama

(ANTIMEDIA) Birmingham, Alabama — The people of Alabama have spoken. Doug Jones will become the first Democrat to represent the Heart of Dixie in the United States Senate in over 20 years.

Tuesday night’s election signaled a change in American politics, in our nation’s ideals, and the hope for our future. The blue team won and sent a message bellowing across the political stratosphere that if Alabama can go Democrat, the rest of the country could soon succumb to the youthful and progressive values of the party. Roy Moore and the Grand Old Party were rejected by one the reddest states in the union. Surely, the left’s time has come. Or has it?

Sorry for the bubble bursting reality check, but once the emotions of Moore’s defeat fade into history, Jones’ victory won’t mean a whole lot for the Democrats. Sure, Moore won’t become one of two voices in the U.S. Senate for almost 5 million Alabamians. If that was your ultimate and only goal, congratulations. Many Republicans, including Mitt Romney, also wanted Jones to win, but bipartisan high-fives are certainly not a victory for Democrats in the divisive world of politics. For those who believe Jones’ win marks the beginning stages of a progressive revolution, all you really achieved was a single night of cheers alongside other naive voters.

For Doug Jones’ election triumph to mean anything moving forward, he has to win reelection in 2020. That’s right, he doesn’t get six years in office, as is the normal term for a U.S. senator. He gets less than two due to Jeff Sessions appointment as Attorney General, which led to Alabama holding a special election. There’s good news, though Democrats. Doug Jones did win once, and he can replicate those results and procure victory in 2020. Here’s how:

Doug Jones will need to behave more like a moderate Republican than a progressive democrat. Doug Jones will be free to cast his votes in the Senate as he chooses, and he’ll possibly vote along Democratic lines to be a wrench in Trump’s agenda. But if he has any political aptitude and ambition to win in 2020, he will have to bend to and placate conservative voters who sat out Tuesday’s election. This is probably not what Democrats were voting for. Jones even actually campaigned on expanding an already bloated military budget and for increasing the size of the military-industrial complex without any resistance from his supposed war-weary electoral base.

Doug Jones will need Republican money. Surprise! A large portion of money that went towards negative advertisements against Jones’ opponent were paid for with Republican dollars. The Senate Leadership Fund is a political PAC that put over $2 million into the coffers of Moore’s primary opponent and current (although temporary) U.S. Senator Luther Strange. The SLF also spent $4.3 million in negative ads against fellow Republican Roy Moore during the election. In total, $7.1 million was spent in negative ads against Moore via PAC donations over the course of his campaign.

Doug Jones will need de facto endorsements from Republicans, as well as celebrities in his corner.  Not only did Alabama’s other sitting U.S. Senator, Richard Shelby, not endorse his fellow Republican in the race, but he also publicly stated he could not even vote for Moore. Instead, he chose to write-in a candidate on his ballot sheet. University of Alabama graduate and former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice also publicly decried Moore and urged members of the GOP to withhold their support on election day. Many other Republican figures around the country also spoke out against Moore, including Paul Ryan, Mike Lee, and John McCain.

Celebrities from around the nation joined the pile-on and expressed their disgust with Roy Moore, offering their support to Doug Jones. Actress Alyssa Milano even traveled to Alabama to canvass for Jones. When the soon-to-be senator seeks reelection in 2020, all eyes won’t be on Alabama as was the case with the special election. It will take place on the same day as a presidential election, which will more than likely include Donald Trump. That election will by far overshadow any vote taking place for a Senate seat in Alabama. Other than local names, there will not be any celebrities going out of their way herald Doug Jones. He won’t be running against an accused pedophile (I can only assume that, who really knows at this point in world events), and no one outside state lines will care. Jones will be forgotten by the masses who just praised his election.

An accused murderer or pedophile will more than likely need to be the Republican nominee. I mean, the GOP just nominated an accused pedophile, and Jones, by the narrowest of margins, was able to beat him. Roy Moore was one the worst political candidates to ever run for office in the modern political era. He had multiple major scandals, he was twice-ousted from office as Chief Justice of Alabama, he had sexual assault accusations made by minors against him, and he made various inflammatory statements. Roy Moore should not have been nominated for dog catcher much less a U.S. senator, and Doug Jones was only narrowly barely able to secure a win.

Ultimately, Doug Jones didn’t truly win anything Tuesday night, nor did the Democratic party. In actuality, different factions simply banded together to ensure Roy Moore would not be the victor, and Doug Jones just happened to be his opponent. Doug Jones isn’t a political savior or a progressive hero. He’s lucky. He’s lucky the GOP didn’t run an actual dogcatcher instead of Moore.

As long as he wasn’t running around Chuck E. Cheese trying to pick up dates, we’d have Senator Dogcatcher soon to be sworn into office.

Creative Commons / Anti-Media / Report a typo

“We Came From Different Parts Of The Country”: Possible Voter Fraud In Alabama Senate Race Exposed

The possibility that there was widespread voter fraud during the recent Alabama senate election between Doug Jones and Roy Moore has become very real after a Jones voter was caught on camera discussing how his supporters came from different parts of the country to vote for the Democrat.

The clip, which has gone viral on Facebook, was captured by the local Fox affiliate shortly after the media had confirmed that Jones had pulled off the stunning upset.

After being asked by a local reporter why he was excited to see Jones victory, the man responded with a comment that could easily be interpreted as proof that voter fraud did indeed happen.

“Because we came here all the way from different parts of the country as part of our fellowship and all of us pitched in to vote and canvas together and we got our boy elected!” the Jones supporter stunningly revealed.

Alabama Vote Fraud? Doug Jones Supporter Says “We Came From Different Parts of the Country” – https://t.co/vU4w3YNWb5 pic.twitter.com/r899spwrWo

— Paul Joseph Watson (@PrisonPlanet) December 14, 2017

While it remains unclear what the man specifically meant with his comments, one can imagine that he either meant that people were transported into the state to campaign for Jones or that out of state liberals actually voted for the anti-gun former prosecutor.

Or perhaps both?

Interestingly, Moore has so far refused to concede the election with the claim that military and provisional ballots had not yet been counted.

“Roy Moore is continuing to refuse to concede the election, commenting, “In this race, we have not received the final count to include military and provisional ballots. This has been a very close race and we are awaiting certification by the secretary of state,” reported Paul Joseph Watson.

“If Moore reduces Jones’ 1.5 percentage advantage to within 0.5% after the military ballots have been counted, this will trigger an automatic recount which will will be paid for by the state government.”

The possibility that voter fraud did indeed happen during the senate race is very real, especially when you consider the fact that the entire establishment cheered Jones victory shortly after it was announced that he had won the Senate seat vacated by Republican Jeff Sessions.

“Predictably, the same forces who have fought Donald Trump since the beginning are all cheering Jones stunning upset – From Hollywood to the deep state, all the way to Rhino Republicans, the establishment is clearly happy,” The Daily Sheeple reported.

“All across the establishment, anti-Trump media, Jones victory is being hailed as a direct attack on the president when in reality he won an election by an extremely close margin against a candidate that the media spent a month calling a pedophile.”

What do you think? Was there voter fraud in the Alabama Senate election or was Moore simply defeated due to the widespread sexual assault allegations, published by the mainstream media, against him?

Midterm Elections & A Paradigm Shift (Return) to the Left

After the President was elected and inaugurated, I wrote several articles specifically stating that if he didn’t accomplish significant changes by the Midterm Congressional elections, he would not be reelected. We are seeing this on its way to fruition with the Alabama race to fill the seat of Jeff Sessions. The Democrat Doug Jones has won it, and the Republican-held majority in the Senate now shrinks by one seat.

Not that it really matters. Susan Collins was one of the three Republicans quashing the attempt to remove the provision making Obamacare mandatory. Olympia Snow was the Republican Senator from Maine that allowed Obamacare to come up on the Senate Floor in the first place. Roberts (the “conservative”) the Supreme Court justice enabled Obamacare to be kept as a law.

The parties are merely an illusion of a two-party system. All of them are Statists, elitists, and Marxist-Progressives determined to completely rend the Constitution and enslave all of the citizen-serfs while they assume the positions of “uncrowned” nobility. Will they remove the mandatory clause from Obamacare, or repeal the entire law? No.

In a pig’s eye will any of these imperial statists remove a law that has every American citizen by the throat…a law the lawmakers exempted themselves from, “stamped” with “King” Obama’s approval with the Supreme Court solidifying it.

In reality, the establishment obtained exactly what it wanted, as I reported before the election, and shortly thereafter: A President who is derailed at every effort and made to appear as a “loser.” Such will make Congress Democrat-controlled again and the President a one-termer. This is happening, before our very eyes.

The United States is one step above being a third-world country, almost ready to take the plunge into the pool of totalitarianism. Go ahead: try to leave the country without a passport if you owe any money…more than you make in a year. Go ahead: try and maintain any semblance of privacy when everything you do on the computer, every purchase you make, and every place you travel is monitored, recorded, and saved for…. for what?

Saved for the inevitable day when the country morphs into full-blown tyranny and every citizen is monitored and tracked 24 hours a day by the State. 

No need for a “mark of the beast!” Such would be counterproductive: it would be recognized and fought against. No need for that! No need: Almost everyone carries around their little chittering cell phones – personal tracking devices – all tied into the computer…and the CCTV cameras…and the fusion centers and police departments. Do you want to provide Google/Yahoo/Bing with your password, in case you forget? Can’t give your mobile cell phone number now? We’ll hit you with the term “Thanks, I’ll secure my account later.”

That is the option you have…a “choice” that forces you to indemnify…to make a pledge to do it later, and thanking them for doing it to boot!

CDs and DVDs are on their way out the door, and you’ll subscribe to music, subscribe to the movies the way you subscribe to Word and Windows, not owning the disc anymore. The way you subscribe to phone time. The manner in which you subscribe to e-newspapers and Kindle.

Hooked into everything and owning nothing…and all your habits, purchases, and proclivities continuously monitored: the perfect consumer, with all your paycheck accounted for via direct deposit…and always one paycheck away from disaster and ruin.

The “joke” of an election that changes the identity of the person in office, and nothing more. The Paradigm shift back toward the right was permitted because they knew they couldn’t get away with stealing the election for Hillary Clinton…there would have been a revolution.

The establishment gave conservatives their “champion” for now, and everyone on the conservative side of the house is taking a breather…when only the round ended, not the fight. Yes, it is just a pause as the left sets up for the next presidential election. You can bet it will be a shift back to the left this time…with the same demographics for the supporters as the two Obama elections.

The deliberate collapse of the country is being orchestrated from within. After 8 years of Obama weakening the defenses, we are goading nations into war and still pursuing a policy of imperial expansion. Van Jones: Top down, bottom up, domestically while we back North Korea, China, and Russia economically, diplomatically, and militarily.

Ben Franklin was once asked by a woman what form of government the founding fathers had created. “A Republic, madam, if you can keep it,” was his response. We lost it. We lost that Republic a long time ago, and the Alabama Senate victory for the Democrats is just the beginning. With a disapproval rating of more than 60%, it would stand to reason the President can rely on one tool to pull his ratings up and give him another term. That trump card (no pun intended) is war, and we are just a hair’s breadth away from it. The primary objective is not the welfare of the American people. The primary objective of an incumbent is reelection, at any and all costs…especially when those costs can be placed on us.

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Jeremiah Johnson is the Nom de plume of a retired Green Beret of the United States Army Special Forces (Airborne).  Mr. Johnson is also a Gunsmith, a Certified Master Herbalist, a Montana Master Food Preserver, and a graduate of the U.S. Army’s SERE school (Survival Evasion Resistance Escape).  He lives in a cabin in the mountains of Western Montana with his wife and three cats. You can follow Jeremiah’s regular writings at SHTFplan.com or contact him here.

This article may be republished or excerpted with proper attribution to the author and a link to www.SHTFplan.com.

Liberals Use Social Media To Disgustingly Attack All White People In The Aftermath Of Doug Jones Stunning Senate Victory

Immediately following the stunning victory by Democrat Doug Jones in the Alabama Senate race, liberals, including many “prominent” leftists, took to social media to attack white people as a whole over the fact that some whites voted against the pro gun-control former prosecutor.

That’s right, in the new America, the hard-left openly mocks and insults all white people simply because a certain percentage of them do not vote for liberal candidates.

Keep in mind that BOTH candidates were white yet that did not stop the race baiting left from conducting a vile series of attacks on the white race while pretending that they are the civil rights heroes.

As I’ve been prone to say lately, you truly cannot make this stuff up.

Filmmaker and noted anti-Trump propagandist Michael Moore got into the action early, tweeting out an image that attacked white people over the fact that 63% of white women and 72% of white men had voted for Roy Moore in Alabama.

Dear White People… pic.twitter.com/Y5eWxD0FX1

— Michael Moore (@MMFlint) December 13, 2017

As Paul Joseph Watson noted,  MSNBC, CNN and Huffington Post contributor Kevin Allred continued the attacks on white people during an unhinged rant that literally cursed at white people over and over again.

Imagine owning a brain that produces this. pic.twitter.com/w4RUa45LTs

— Paul Joseph Watson (@PrisonPlanet) December 13, 2017

A communications director for a Democrat in the House specifically took aim at white men who committed the horrific crime of voting for their preferred candidate.

so…I wanna re-emphasize something. White people strongly supported Roy Moore. Let’s take that, internalize it, and not let ourselves pretend that we don’t have a problem. White men especially.

— Dante Atkins (@DanteAtkins) December 13, 2017

Another prominent liberal flat out rallied against the fact that there are a large amount of white people in America itself.

black people are turning out in higher numbers than 2014. white turnout it down. the problem here, as everywhere in america, is that there still may be too many white people.

— Noah Berlatsky (@nberlat) December 13, 2017

Independent journalist Chris Menahan, writing for Information Liberation, also took screenshots of at least a dozen liberal voters attacking the very existence of the white race. Remember, this is being cheered on by liberals in this country who hold actual power.

From calling all white people stupid, to claiming that only minorities should be allowed to vote, the tweets compiled by Menahan paint a clear picture of what at least part of the hard-left truly believes.

Make no mistake, this is a direct attempt at forcing white people across the country to vote liberal over the fear that they might be labeled racist. This is obviously an absolutely disgusting political move by the left that the American people will hopefully see right through.

With that being said, it does not change the fact that the Democratic Party is now openly attacking any white person who does not vote for them.

Watch Live: Alabama Voters Head To The Polls To Fill Crucial Senate Seat

Shortly after 8pm EST this evening, the voting results of one of the most controversial special elections in modern history, which pits Republican Roy Moore against Democrat Doug Jones for Jeff Sessions" vacant Senate seat, will start to flow in to news desks all around the country.

While this election would have been a complete blowout just a few months ago, allegations of sexual assault which surfaced against Moore in November and which reportedly occurred in the late "70s, have made it a complete toss up.  As we noted earlier this morning, even pollsters have no clue how to predict voter turnout tonight with Fox News predicting a 10-point win for Jones and Emerson predicting a 9-point win for Moore.

For those looking to get an early read on how the night might turn out, we would suggest keeping a close eye on Mobile which is the second largest county in Alabama and is home to a disproportionate share of the state"s affluent republicans who are the most likely to abandon Moore.  Otherwise, while voter turnout will undoubtedly be down from the 2016 presidential contest, shifts in support in Jefferson and Montgomery counties, both with high concentrations of African-American voters, could provide an early signal on whether Jones has been successful in turning out his base.

With that intro, tune in below for the live results:

* * *

For those who missed it, below is the preview we shared earlier this morning.

After a last weekend of campaigning with celebrities, Doug Jones (D) with Alabama native Charles Barkley and Roy Moore (R) with Breitbart News chairman Steve Bannon and controversial former Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke, election day for one of the most controversial special elections in modern U.S. history has finally arrived. 

As The Hill points out, Moore"s chances to become the first Democrat to win an Alabama Senate seat since 1992 rely on his ability to turnout African-American voters in cities like Birmingham and Montgomery.  Moore"s fate, on the other hand, depends on voters in the more affluent city of Mobile and rural white voters from around the state.

Jones spent the weekend on stops with prominent black Democratic lawmakers such as Alabama Rep. Terri Sewell and New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, while Congressional Black Caucus members Rep. Sanford Bishop (D-Ga.) and Rep. Cedric Richmond (D-La.) held get-out-the-vote events down state.

 

While African-Americans make up roughly a quarter of Alabama’s population, years of dismal Democratic returns have left his party without much of a ground game.

 

“I wish that the [Democratic National Committee] had focused more on states and making certain they had infrastructure here,” he said.

 

While Moore’s time on the trail has been limited recently — there were rumors he attended the Army-Navy football game in Philadelphia on Saturday — he did sit down for an interview on “The Voice of Alabama Politics” at the state Republican Party headquarters, which aired Sunday.

Of course, as we pointed out yesterday, the polls headed into election day are almost completely useless as pollsters admit they have no idea how to handicap voter turnout today.  While voter turnout in mid-cycle elections is always difficult to predict, this one is especially complicated in light of the sexual assault allegations against Roy Moore. 

Which is precisely why the latest Fox News Poll of likely voters showed a commanding 10-point lead for Democrat Doug Jones....

Even though a poll released the day before by Emerson showed the exact opposite with a 9-point lead for Moore.  Per Real Clear Politics:

As CNN notes, the key to victory in Alabama could come down to Mobile, a region that is home to scores of more affluent, moderate, business-type Republicans who are most likely to abandon Moore for Jones or simply elect to sit this election out.

There"s a reason Trump"s event was in Pensacola, and Moore closed his campaign with big rallies in Fairhope a week from election day and Midland City on Monday night: They"re all in the Mobile media market.

 

If Jones is going to win, he can"t rely purely on turning out his base and hoping Republicans stay home. He"ll need some white, conservative supporters, and the Mobile region is his best chance to win some.

 

Those are the voters Moore"s supporters have targeted with a message that the election is a referendum on Trump"s agenda.

 

"It"s an up-or-down vote tomorrow between the Trump miracle and the nullification project," Bannon said Monday night in Midland City.

As a quick reminder, here is how Alabama voted in the 2016 Presidential election.  Hillary performed well in the heavily African-American cities of Birmingham (+7.6%) and Montgomery (+26.8%) while Trump carried Mobile (+13.7%) and most of the rural areas of the state.

All of which ultimately resulted in a massive 27.7 point blowout victory for Trump.

So, after weeks of intense media focus on an election that should have been a foregone conclusion, we are now just a few hours away from finding out whether Republicans made their first a serious special election blunder by choosing to support a highly controversial candidate who was potentially doomed from the moment sexual assault allegations against him first surfaced last month.

Donald Trump Fully Endorses Accused Child Molester Roy Moore

“Trump endorses the lawless bigot and alleged teen-targeting sexual predator because he’ll cut taxes bigly on the rich and corporations while telling you undocumented immigrants are your real problem.”

(COMMONDREAMS) — With less than two weeks left until the special election for Alabama’s vacant Senate seat, President Donald Trump took to Twitter Monday morning to offer a full-throated endorsement of GOP nominee and accused child molester Roy Moore, dismissing out of hand numerous accusations of sexual misconduct because Republicans “need his vote” to deliver massive tax cuts to the rich.

Democrats refusal to give even one vote for massive Tax Cuts is why we need Republican Roy Moore to win in Alabama. We need his vote on stopping crime, illegal immigration, Border Wall, Military, Pro Life, V.A., Judges 2nd Amendment and more. No to Jones, a Pelosi/Schumer Puppet!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 4, 2017

Putting Pelosi/Schumer Liberal Puppet Jones into office in Alabama would hurt our great Republican Agenda of low on taxes, tough on crime, strong on military and borders…& so much more. Look at your 401-k’s since Election. Highest Stock Market EVER! Jobs are roaring back!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 4, 2017

Trump’s endorsement of Moore comes just days after GOP senators rammed through a “monstrosity” of a tax bill that was immediately characterized by progressive lawmakers and activists as open class warfare waged by congressional Republicans on behalf of corporate lobbyists and the ultra-wealthy.

“Trump endorses the lawless bigot and alleged teen-targeting sexual predator because he’ll cut taxes bigly on the rich and corporations while telling you undocumented immigrants are your real problem. Sounds like the perfect expression of Trump populism,” concluded the Washington Post‘s Greg Sargent in response to the president’s tweets.

Riding the high of his dead-of-night tax victory on Saturday, Sen. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) appeared to soften his stance on Moore, perhaps a sign that he is coming around to the president’s insistence that Republicans need all the votes they can get—even if one of them is coming from a man who has been accused of sexually assaulting a woman when she was 14.

“The people of Alabama are going to decide a week from Tuesday who they want to send to the Senate,” McConnell, who has previously called for Moore to step aside, said Sunday in an interview on CBS. “It’s really up to them.”

As Common Dreams reported last month, Trump appeared to signal that he supports Moore’s senate bid during a question-and-answer session with reporters, insisting repeatedly that Moore “totally denies” the numerous accusations against him. But Monday represented the first time the president has stated unequivocally that Alabama voters should elect a man credibly accused of sexual assault and harassment.

Recent polls indicate that Moore remains slightly ahead of his Democratic opponent Doug Jones. A CBS poll released Sunday found that 71 percent of Alabama Republicans believe that the accusations against Moore are false.

By Jake Johnson / Creative Commons / Common Dreams / Report a typo

This article was chosen for republication based on the interest of our readers. Anti-Media republishes stories from a number of other independent news sources. The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not reflect Anti-Media editorial policy.

"Jones Would Be A Disaster" - Trump Tweets "The Last Thing We Need In Alabama" Is A Democrat

President Trump has been active on Twitter this morning, taking aim at the Alabama Senate race...

The last thing we need in Alabama and the U.S. Senate is a Schumer/Pelosi puppet who is WEAK on Crime, WEAK on the Border, Bad for our Military and our great Vets, Bad for our 2nd Amendment, AND WANTS TO RAISES TAXES TO THE SKY. Jones would be a disaster!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 26, 2017

I endorsed Luther Strange in the Alabama Primary. He shot way up in the polls but it wasn’t enough. Can’t let Schumer/Pelosi win this race. Liberal Jones would be BAD!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 26, 2017

President Trump"s de facto endorsement of Roy Moore comes after his comments last week that "We don"t need a liberal Democrat in that seat ... [Moore] totally denies [the accusations]."

And as Duane Norman from the Free Market Shooter blog explains, it is the extreme platform of Roy Moore that has been lost amid the Roy Moore saga.

In spite of an endorsement by President Trump, Luther Strange was defeated by Roy Moore in the Republican primary on September 26th for Alabama’s special Senate election, to fill the seat vacated by now-Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

Doug Jones (left), Roy Moore (right)

On November 9th, allegations against Moore began to surface in The Washington Post, alleging that Moore engaged in sexual misconduct with minors in the 1970s:

Leigh Corfman says she was 14 years old when an older man approached her outside a courtroom in Etowah County, Ala. She was sitting on a wooden bench with her mother, they both recall, when the man introduced himself as Roy Moore.

 

It was early 1979 and Moore — now the Republican nominee in Alabama for a U.S. Senate seat — was a 32-year-old assistant district attorney. He struck up a conversation, Corfman and her mother say, and offered to watch the girl while her mother went inside for a child custody hearing.

The allegations quickly began to dominate national headlines; questions began to circulate regarding the conspicuous timing of the accusations, which surfaced with very similar timing to those against President Trump in his election.  After holding a substantial lead, Moore’s polling took a nosedive, as Fox News reported on November 18th…

Alabama hasn’t elected a Democrat to the Senate since 1992. But a Fox News poll taken in the wake of the Moore allegations and released Thursday shows Jones leading Moore 50 percent to 42 percent.

…and the betting odds for a Moore win mirrored Moore’s polling drop.  Though we would normally use Betfair’s exchange for betting odds on this election…

…Betfair’s exchange has extremely thin depth, with only $57,900 wagered on the election, likely due to Betfair’s European location, and this election being a US event.  Instead, we will turn to Predictit, a US-based prediction market “for politics”.  After trading around 90% prior to the allegations, Moore’s odds took a hit, reaching a low of 36%…

…but have subsequently recovered to over 60%. 

And while much of Moore’s recovery can be attributed to voters not trusting the timing of misconduct allegations that occurred in the 1970s, the mainstream media has overlooked another important reason that Jones hasn’t been able to poll higher:

Doug Jones holds absolutely zero moderate positions.

This might not seem like a problem, as “extreme” Senators from both sides of the aisle are commonly elected.  However, for a “blue” candidate to win in a “red” state like Alabama, there has to be at least some moderation on a few key issues to attract Republicans.

Some notable examples are:

• North Dakota’s Heidi Heitkamp: has an “A” rating from the NRA, supports the Keystone XL pipeline, and votes with President Trump’s positions 51% of the time


• Indiana’s Joe Donnelly: has an “A” rating from the NRA, considered “pro-life”, and is a staunch supporter of defense spending


• West Virginia’s Joe Manchin: “identifies” as “pro-life”, co-sponsored Republican balanced budged amendments, and was the only Democrat to support the Energy Tax Prevention Act

All three of the above face re-election this year, and only Heitkamp is expected to even have a chance of a winning re-election bid; Donnelly and Manchin are widely expected to lose.  In particular, Manchin’s re-election bid has been hindered due to his co-sponsoring the 2013 Manchin-Toomey amendment to implement universal background checks on gun sales.  Five years after the fact, West Virginia voters have not forgotten Manchin’s “betrayal” on gun rights.  As this author has stated in the past, gun control is not a winning political position, but it is a particularly difficult one to take in a “red” state.

It should be obvious by now; for a Democratic candidate to win a Senate seat in a “red” state, he/she must hold at least some “red” political positions.

With that in mind, if you look at the positions of Jones, you’ll see that he by and large toes the “blue” party line.  Jones has come out in support of increased restrictions on gun rights:

But Jones has said enough in small soundbites to make clear that he supports expanding background checks to cover gun shows. The Washington Post quoted him saying such an expansion “would be helpful.”

 

His support for gun show regulation is the logical outgrowth of his overarching belief that the Second Amendment has “limitations.”

 

In fact, Jones believes every natural right protected by the Bill of Rights is limited. The Alabama Political Reporter quoted Jones saying, “We’ve got limitations on all constitutional amendments in one form or another.”

…and on abortion…

The Jones campaign, last week, doubled-down on the candidate’s pro-choice platform: “I support a woman’s right and freedom to choose what to do with her body. This is a decision between a woman, her doctor and her Lord. Who am I to tell a woman what to do with her body?”

…and Jones also supports more federal spending, does not support tax cuts, supports climate change regulations, and does not support repealing Obamacare.  In fact, if you look closely through his platform, he is about as “blue” as the majority of Democratic Senators.

Not exactly a formula for success in “red” Alabama.

Even worse, as Free Market Shooter’s Jon Hall has pointed out, Jones has been “promoted” by Hillary Clinton, a state where President Trump nearly doubled Hillary’s vote total:

Look who supports Roy Moore"s opponent in #Alabama - none other than #CrookedHillary!

The effort take down Moore definitely isn"t orchestrated - no way! #Dems haven"t proven their party will stoop to corrupt new lows to get their way... wait - yes they have! #MondayMotivaton pic.twitter.com/N3sVNLhRhW

— Jon Hall ???? (@JonHallFMS) November 20, 2017

It has become obvious; no matter how much (hypocritical) Democrats point the finger of blame at Roy Moore…

…the Democrats have virtually no chance of winning a Senate seat in deep-red Alabama if the candidate doesn’t tailor their positions to attract “red” voters, something Doug Jones’s party-line platform completely fails to do. 

One Person Shot Outside Mall, Brawl Closes Alabama Shopping Center As Black Friday Gets Going

A day after giving thanks, it appears the gentle folk of Missouri and Alabama are more about taking this morning...

One person was shot outside a Missouri mall as swarms of shoppers looking for Black Friday deals saw chaos pop up throughout the country.

As ABC17 reports, a 19-year-old person sustained life-threatening injuries after the shooting in the parking lot of the mall.

Mall policy stipulates no firearms are allowed inside of the building, but it"s unclear if that applies to the parking lot as well.

Officers said they could not confirm whether the shooting was accidental or deliberate.

Additionally,NY Daily News reports another shopping center in Alabama saw an outbreak of violence Thursday, with brawls shutting down a late-night session early.

Police in Hoover, outside Birmingham, broke up fights at the Riverchase Galleria outside Birmingham, with Al.com reporting that one person was treated for injuries by paramedics.

Social media video that appeared to be from the scene showed officers restraining two women amid scattered clothes and displays, though no information about arrests was immediately available.

Both the malls were closed after these events, but are set to reopen at 6 a.m. on Friday.

Alabama: 5 Years In Prison For Voting The Wrong Way

Image source: Pixabay.com

Voting the wrong way might lead to a five-year prison term in Alabama.

Secretary of State John Merrill, a Republican, wants the 674 people who crossed parties to vote in a recent runoff election prosecuted.

“If these people knowingly and willfully voted because they didn’t like the law, they thought the law was wrong, they thought the law was stupid, they didn’t think the law should be enforced, our intentions are to identify those people, fully investigate them, if it’s warranted to have them indicted, to have them prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” said Merrill, according to Think Progress. “I want every one of them that meets that criteria to be sentenced to five years in the penitentiary and to pay a $15,000 fine for restitution. That’s what I want.”

Put God Back Into History And Teach Your Kids What They Won’t Learn Anywhere Else!

A new law prohibits crossover voting – that is, voting in a Republican primary when someone is registered as a Democrat, and vice versa. Upwards of 674 voted in both the August Democratic primary and then a September GOP runoff. Although that previously was legal, the legislature passed a vote in the previous session banning it. Crossover voting still is allowed in a handful of other states.

Roy Moore defeated U.S. Sen. Luther Strange in the September GOP runoff.

Randall Marshall of the ACLU of Alabama said he was “stunned” by Merrill’s threat.

“This is a brand new law,” he told Think Progress. “People have been allowed in Alabama to crossover vote prior to this special election.”

Further, Marshall said, anyone who tried to vote in both primaries – accident or no accidentally — should have been stopped from doing so by poll officials.

“Crossover voting should not have been permitted to even occur,” Marshall told the website. “Instead of putting it on the backs of voters and effectively chilling the right to vote going forward for fear of doing something that gets you put in prison for five years, this is a strong message from the state that we don’t care about your right to vote.”

The state asserted that there were signs notifying people of the new law.

Said Marshall, “When I got to the polls, I don’t read the stuff that’s on the wall. The notion that, there is signage here and that takes care of the state’s obligation I think is pretty small-minded.”

What do you think? Should voters who violated the law be prosecuted? Share your thoughts in the section below:

"The Police Just F**ked My Life" - Alabamians Outraged As Civil Asset Forfeitures Soar

The morning of June 29, 2010, began much like any other day for Frank Ranelli, the owner of FAR Computers in Ensley, Alabama. Ranelli, who had owned his computer repair business just outside of Birmingham for more than two decades, was doing some paperwork in his windowless office when he heard loud banging on the front door.  Within a matter of moments Ranelli was placed under arrest and all of the computer equipment in his store, much of which belonged to customers, had been confiscated by Alabama police never to be returned.  Per AL.com:

Within moments, a Homewood police sergeant had declared a room full of customers" computers, merchandise and other items "stolen goods," Ranelli recalled. He ordered his officers to "arrest them all," according to Ranelli, who was cuffed and taken to the Homewood jail along with two of his shop employees.

 

The police proceeded to confiscate more than 130 computers - most of which were customers" units waiting to be repaired, though some were for sale - as well as the company"s business servers and workstations and even receipts and checkbooks.

 

"Here I was, a man, owned this business, been coming to work every day like a good old guy for 23 years, and I show up at work that morning - I was in here doing my books from the day before - and the police just f***ed my life," he said.

Nothing ever came of the case. The single charge levied against Renelli of receiving stolen goods was dismissed after he demonstrated that he had followed proper protocol in purchasing the sole laptop computer he was accused of receiving illegally. That said, despite no official charges and no jury trial, Ranelli has been trying, to no avail, for nearly 7 years now to recover the items the officers took from his business.

Rick Hightower had a similar experience with Alabama police when he was a student at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.  After being arrested for "lewd behavior" at a college party in 2008, Hightower says police raided his apartment and confiscated as much as $200,000 worth of musical instruments and other property.  Despite never being charged with stealing the property, Hightower says police have refused to return any of the confiscated items. 

On April 13, 2008, he was arrested and initially charged with lewd behavior after police said he was caught exposing himself at Samford University in Birmingham, according to court filings. Hightower, who has a fairly extensive rap sheet, was ultimately convicted of indecent exposure and resisting arrest in connection with that incident.

 

Five days after his arrest, officers with the Homewood and UAB police departments raided Hightower"s apartment, executing a warrant to search for files, cameras and any other evidence related to the incident at Samford.

 

They also decided to seize "a large amount of property believed to be stolen," including "musical instruments, electronics and other items," according to a UAB Police Department report on the search.

 

As such, Hightower was charged with receiving stolen property. He was never charged with stealing any of the other items that were seized from his apartment, and was not convicted of stealing the English horn, as he provided a receipt that showed that he had purchased the item from a thrift store.

 

And yet the Homewood Police Department - which stored and ostensibly continues to store the items seized in the raid - did not return the horn or any other items to Hightower. More than nine years later, he has yet to even lay eyes on any of the possessions that were taken from him.

Unfortunately, the raids on Ranelli"s business and Hightower"s apartment are not isolated incidents. They are just a couple of many similar cases that have taken place in Alabama and across the U.S. in recent years, according to Joseph Tully, a California criminal lawyer with expertise in civil asset forfeitures.

Long used in major criminal busts as a means to confiscate money and possessions obtained by illegal means, civil asset forfeiture impacts thousands of Americans each year and has become the subject of intense national and local scrutiny over the past decade.

 

The ability of law enforcement agencies to use such tactics to take people"s assets and property almost at will "lends itself to abuse," Tully, who describes cases like Ranelli"s as "theft," said.

 

"It"s really hard to fight the system. If it was a private citizen who stole your things, you could go get your things, or in the olden days you could get your shotgun and pay the thief a visit and say, "give me my stuff back." But you can"t do that in this case because it"s the police."

 

In fiscal year 2016, law enforcement agencies in Alabama seized more than $2.2 million worth of "assets that represent the proceeds of, or were used to facilitate federal crimes," according to its annual report to Congress. In fiscal 2014, the total value of such assets seized by law enforcement in the state was more than $4.9 million.

That recent drop is the local manifestation of a nationwide reduction in the use of civil asset forfeiture as public awareness and outcry over its widespread use has grown in recent years, according to experts. The tactic is still regularly deployed, impacting dozens of Alabamians each year. But the tide is turning. Fourteen states, from New Mexico to Connecticut, have passed laws in recent years to stop police from seizing property absent a criminal conviction.

"The pendulum is starting to swing but I wouldn"t say that it has been swinging back the other way for too long," Tully said. "State and local governments are starting to act ... Law enforcement officers are coming around a bit and there"s a little bit of a curb in police doing whatever they want."

 

And on Tuesday, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions issued a memo directing a deputy to establish a unit aimed at ensuring there are no abuses of a federal policy reinstated by Sessions in July to help state and local law enforcement agencies seize accused criminals" property.

 

Alabama"s laws, however, still provide the state"s citizens with few protections from the practices, earning the state a "D- for its civil asset forfeiture laws" in a November 2015 report by the Institute for Justice, a Virginia nonprofit advocacy law firm.

 

Alabama laws stack the deck against victims of asset forfeiture by establishing a "low bar to forfeit" and not requiring a conviction to do so; offering "limited protections for innocent third-party property owners"; and letting "100% of forfeiture proceeds go to law enforcement," the report stated.

The irony here, of course, is that we live in a country where the police can show up to any "Regular Joe"s" apartment on any given day and legally confiscate all of his stuff but James Comey couldn"t even manage to interview a material witness in the Hillary email investigation without first granting them an immunity deal.  Seems fair...

Rape Victim Commits Suicide After Being Bullied by Cops Protecting Her Wealthy Attacker

Over one year after 21-year-old Megan Rondini committed suicide, a new report is giving insight into the abuse she experienced at the hands of the wealthy man who allegedly raped her and the police who covered it up.

When Rondini was found dead on Feb. 26, 2016, the only note she was accompanied by was an intake form for SMU’s mental health center, in which she revealed that she thought she was “better off dead” more than half of the time, and she listed her major life crises as “Raped, bullied by police, changed university,” according to a report from Buzzfeed.

Just one year before she ended her life, Rondini was attending the University of Alabama on an honors scholarship. She had a 3.8 GPA, she was part of a coveted MBA program, and she was working after class at a lab studying Alzheimer’s disease.

However, all of that changed in July 2015, when Rondini accepted a ride home from one of the wealthiest men in Tuscaloosa. T.J. Bunn Jr. or “Sweet T” is a member of the ST Bunn Construction family. His father and the owner of the company, Terry Bunn, is listed as one of the most influential men in Alabama, in addition to being “an influential University of Alabama donor and supporter.”

When Rondini reported her encounter with “Sweet T” to the police, she did so after escaping from his mansion, going to the hospital for a forensic exam, and then arriving at the police station in the middle of the night, according to the report from Buzzfeed.

“The 34-year-old later told authorities he offered 20-year-old Megan a ride home because he and a friend saw her leaving downtown Tuscaloosa alone. Megan couldn’t remember how she ended up in Sweet T’s white Mercedes on the way to his ornate mansion … But, Megan later told police, she was sober enough by the time he pointed her toward his bedroom to know she didn’t want to have sex with him—and, she said, Sweet T should’ve known it, too.”

Alabama’s rape law states that the victim must be an individual who “engages in sexual intercourse with a member of the opposite sex by forcible compulsion,” or who is “incapable of consent by reason of being physically helpless or mentally incapacitated.”

Buzzfeed reported that because the investigator who interviewed Rondini “quickly decided she hadn’t fought back against Bunn—she hadn’t ‘kicked him or hit him,’” the investigation concluded that “no rape occurred,” and the investigator then began “building a case against Megan, questioning her for multiple crimes she wasn’t even aware she had committed.”

“She did everything that she could to protect herself and to get help,” Megan’s father, Mike Rondini, told Buzzfeed. “She should have gotten that help, and she didn’t. That is a failure on everybody’s part.”

The report also noted that in Tuscaloosa, all sexual offense cases are handled by a multi-agency homicide department, and it is up to a grand jury to decide if the cases move forward.

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However, according to the captain of Tuscaloosa’s homicide department, up to 50 percent of all reported sexual assaults are labeled “special inquiry,” which means that “the victim does not know what or if anything happened” and the investigators don’t think the accusations will result in criminal charges.

“As of February, only 10 cases out of 98 sexual assault reports in 2016 were heard by a grand jury, and 12 out of 124 from 2015. (Those numbers don’t include a few dozen cases that are still pending.) The county district attorney’s office couldn’t say how many sexual assault cases in Tuscaloosa led to formal charges, because it did not begin using a computerized tracking program until late last year.”

Instead of taking her allegations seriously, investigators picked apart Rondini’s story. She claimed that after Bunn forced her to have sex with him, he passed out, and she couldn’t get out of his room. She said she tried to escape from the second-story window, but then couldn’t find her keys, and went on a frantic search that included taking a gun she found in Bunn’s car because she was leaving the house in the middle of the night, alone. The part about Rondini taking the gun was the part investigator Adam Jones seemed intent to focus on.

“Before I ask you any questions, you got any reasoning behind why you did what you did?” Jones said.

“What do you mean?” Rondini said.

“I just need you to tell me, once we get into the questioning, what your reasoning was about why you did these things,” he said.

“I was never going to hurt anybody with it,” Rondini said, crying. “I got it just to protect myself but I don’t eat meat, I could never kill anything, even if it came to that point I wouldn’t have been able to use it on a person.”

Eventually, Jones returned to Rondini’s rape allegations. “Based on your statements to me, you said that you never resisted him,” he said.

“I did resist him,” Rondini said, listing the ways she did, from repeatedly telling Bunn she wanted to leave to turning away when he kissed her. “I wanted to go home,” she said. “He didn’t take me home.”

“Look at it from my side,” Jones replied calmly. “You never kicked him or hit him or tried to resist him.”

Ultimately, with help from the Tuscaloosa police, Rondini never filed charges, and Bunn was never held accountable. Rondini left Tuscaloosa and transferred to SMU at the end of the fall 2015 semester, before taking her own life in early 2016.

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Following the release of Buzzfeed’s report, the Bunn family was quick to release a statement, claiming that the report “distorted or disregarded matters of fact.”

“While a police investigation found no evidence of sexual assault, the young woman admitted to acts that subjected her to possible criminal prosecution,” the statement from the Bunn family said. “At one point, the young woman’s family took steps to bring civil action against various parties who are the targets of these unfounded accusations. Such action would undoubtedly include demands for financial compensation.”

The University of Alabama also released a statement, insisting that the recent news accounts “do not tell the full story.”

“Information published by news outlets this week has unfortunately ignored some significant facts,” the statement from UA said. “When Megan went to the hospital, a University advocate met her at the hospital to provide support and stayed with her throughout the examination process.”

The Rondini family’s lawyer, Leroy Maxwell Jr., told AL.com that the family is planning to file a federal Title IX complaint against the University of Alabama by the end of June.

“Megan was loved by everyone who came in contact with her.  Her loss is everyone’s loss,” Maxwell said. “Title IX, the University of Alabama, the Tuscaloosa Sheriff’s department and the overall judicial system in Tuscaloosa let her down on every level. Through litigation our firm is committed to doing everything in our power to shine a light on Tuscaloosa’s systemic problem with sexual assault.”

Did The USA Finally Lose Its Collective Mind?

Authored by Howard Kunstler via Kunstler.com,

Historians of the future, huddled around their goose-fat lamps in muddy woolen cloaks, may cite this as the month that the Kardashian Dreamland formerly known as “The USA” finally lost its collective mind.

Submitted for your approval, as the late, great Rod Serling (senator from The Twilight Zone) used to say: this week’s Russia-Russia-Russia hearing on Capital Hill. I caught the final hour of this circus when freshman senator Kamala Harris (D – Cal) was hectoring Attorney General Jeff Sessions about his “contact with Russian Officials” and had to be reprimanded by the chair for her rude behavior.

Note: it’s now deemed illicit for US government officials to talk to Russian diplomats. I wonder what would happen if government officials in other lands decided that it was improper to talk with US diplomats. The Democratic Party seems to be building a case that the world would be better off without diplomats cluttering up each other’s capital cities. Hey hey, ho ho, Di-plo-macy has got to go! Now that’s a most progressive idea! Apparently, AG Sessions riled Senator Harris by pointing out that the Soviet Union collapsed nearly thirty years ago — a typical white privilege thing to say, right?

Next up was Senator Mark Warner (D – Va), Vice-Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, who grilled Sessions about Russia’s electronic warfare capability. Say what?

First of all, wouldn’t Senator Warner find more enlightenment on the subject by calling the Secretary of Defense, or the top military brass, or the NSA Director to the witness table? Does he know where the duties of the US Attorney General begin and end?

Secondly, Is there anybody in this country with an IQ above room temperature who thinks that the USA is not similarly disposed to carry out electronic warfare? Or that all the advanced nations of the world are not toying with internet intrusions into each other’s cyber space? Perhaps this is a manifestation of the political neurosis called American Exceptionalism, the idea that we’re so unlike people in other lands that they might as well be space aliens. (A sweet idea for a new Twilight Zone episode.)

All this idiocy suggests that the Russia meme is losing its mojo and the forces dedicate to dump Trump might have to look elsewhere for some legal ground to stand on. For the moment, they’re veering into the darkling woods where obstruction of justice lives, a Blair Witch Project of politics, where any old assemblage of broken twigs is a sure sign of the lurking beast —  but perhaps that’s exactly where witch-hunting takes you.

Personally, I still believe they’ll run him over with the 25^th Amendment, which allows for simple removal of a batshit incompetent executive without the pain-in-the-ass rigmarole of due process. You just get a consensus of the highest officials in the land to agree that guy has to go, and they get him gone, and, in this case, you get yourself Mike Pence, a tranny-like Church-Lady with a hard-on for the Koch Brothers. That’ll get the country great fast, I’m sure.

Then, of course, there was the gunning down of House Majority Whip Steve Scalise and others on a Virginia ballfield by a disgruntled Bernie Sanders fan, of all things. Is it hyperbole to say that this incident had the tone of a first shot in a new civil war? Even the hysterical elements over at CNN rushed to put out the very brushfires they had been kindling by broadcasting the Thursday night news against the backdrop of the annual congressional charity baseball gamed held at the Washington Nationals ballpark — as if the sore-beset people of this dissolute land might be stirred from their anomie by the comforting sound of wood on horsehide. Summer’s not quite officially here yet, but who feels like dancing in the streets? It’s more like wanting to hide behind the nearest trash can.

“No, Stop! Please!”: Cop Empties Pistol into Car, Reloads as Teen Begs for Life, Opens Fire Again

Columbus, AL – A graphic video, released as part of a report issued by the Alabama State Bureau of Investigation, shows officer Allan Brown firing eleven shots into the vehicle, after engaging in a high speed chase, pausing only to reload and fire another ten shots into the vehicle as the teens can be heard begging for their lives.

Christian Redwine, 17, was killed in the shooting, and passengers Hunter Tillis and Hanna Wuenschel, both 19 at the time, suffered nonfatal gunshot wounds. It was the first volley, of the 21 total bullets, that struck Redwine in the head and heart that ended his young life, according to the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences.

Brown claimed that Redwine tried to use the car to run him over, which caused him fear for his life, and prompted the fatal shots. An attorney representing Wuenschel said Redwine was trying only to back out of a hole. The attorney said Redwine was shot seven times, Wuenschel two or three times, and Tillis at least twice, according to the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer.

Despite the clearly desperate pleas of mercy from the teens, as Brown unloaded two magazines into their vehicle, a Russell County grand jury found that Brown committed no criminal wrongdoing in the November 6 incident.

Brown can be seen on dashcam video trailing two other police cars also in pursuit of Christian Redwine after reports of a stolen vehicle in Columbus.

Brown can be heard telling the other officers to “let me come around you.”

He then narrates that speeds are approaching 100 miles per hour.

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“Dispatch speeds are 98 mph.”

Only two minutes later, Brown again can be heard narrating the speed to dispatch as the Pontiac G-6 he is pursuing appears headed for the highway.

“Advise speed 107 miles an hour.”

As the teens attempt to take an exit at high speeds, Redwine loses control of the vehicle.

“We’re gonna be on Riverchase Road dispatch. He has wrecked out. Wrecked out. He is spinning. Start uh rescue,” Brown reports to dispatch.

With the wheels of the vehicle now spinning in reverse, Brown, who is now on foot, fires his weapon 11 times.

The passengers can be heard pleading for the officer to stop firing.

“No, stop! Please! I got shot!

Please! Please! ”

Brown, instead, paused only to reload his weapon and fire 10 more times.

“Oh my God I‘m shot! My God. Please no. Please! Please!”

By the time Brown had unloaded two magazines, Christian Redwine, 17, was dead, and the two others had both suffered gunshot wounds. In fact, later investigation would reveal that all three teens had been shot in the initial barrage of gunfire.

According to the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer, the incident began when:

Columbus police said Redwine aroused suspicion when officers saw the Pontiac cruising around closed businesses around 4:30 a.m. near Columbus State University’s main campus on University Avenue.

Checking the tag, they learned the car had been reported stolen by Fred Levins, a friend of Redwine’s grandmother who considered himself to be like a grandfather to the teen. Around 3:30 a.m. on Nov. 6, Levins noticed it was missing along with his car keys.

When police tried to stop the car, Redwine sped away, initiating a chase that continued into downtown Columbus and crossed the 13th Street bridge into Alabama, where Phenix City police joined the pursuit.

A WLTZ First News investigation revealed Brown was fresh off a suspension for violating pursuit policy last year when this deadly incident took place.

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The Russell County Grand Jury cleared Brown of any criminal wrongdoing just two weeks ago, and only days ago he submitted his resignation effective immediately.

According to the Ledger-Enquirer:

Russell County District Attorney Ken Davis said Brown waived his rights and volunteered to testify before the 18-member grand jury, which spent two days reviewing the evidence. Prosecutors did not recommend charges, but asked the grand jurors to determine whether the shooting was justified, Davis said.

Among other witnesses testifying were two more Columbus officers experienced in the department’s training and procedures, and an Alabama Bureau of Investigation agent who probed the shooting, Davis said.

In other words, they brought in a bunch of police apologist “experts” to justify and propagandize the jury into believing that unloading an entire magazine into a car full of teens, then pausing to reload and drop another ten shots as they beg for their lives, was justified.

Perhaps had this officer taken the same training as the Salt Lake City Police Department, which emphasizes de-escalation, and has resulted in them not killing anyone since 2015, these type of incidents would not be accepted and protected as “just doing my job.”

Following AG Sessions' Threat, NYC No Longer A Sanctuary City

Authored by John Banzhaf via ValueWalk.com,

In the wake of an announcement by U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions that he would cut off funding if so-called sanctuary cities did not begin cooperating with the federal government regarding illegal aliens, it has been reported that the New York City Police Department [NYPD] alerts Immigration and Customs Enforcement [ICE] agents if immigrants facing deportation are due to appear in Criminal Court, thereby making it easier for them to be detained by the federal government.

Although many cities loudly proclaimed that they would not yield to these threats and yield even one inch on their sanctuary status, some observers, including public interest law professor John Banzhaf, predicted that Sessions’ threat, even if arguably unconstitutional, would successfully pressure at least some jurisdictions.

He noted that Florida’s largest county, Miami-Dade, long known for welcoming immigrants, has already ordered jails there to “fully cooperate” with Trump’s order regarding sanctuary cities, and others appear to be considering it.

Other states are also moving to pressure localities to begin cooperating with federal immigration enforcement.  These include, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia, and Wisconsin.

Banzhaf has publicly suggested that Trump’s order may unconstitutionally violate both states’ rights and Congress’ rights, and the sanctuary behavior about which he complained may not even violate the statute he cited.

Nevertheless, in part because cities may have difficulty obtaining a prompt judicial ruling on the constitutionality of the threat or even of a proposed cutoff, and because of the huge risks and legal costs of challenging governmental action, many more – despite their defiant claims – are likely to cave in.

Indeed, if New York City begins cooperating even in a small way with ICE, this might help persuade many other jurisdictions – which lack NYC’s resources to fight the federal government in court – to likewise bend, suggests Banzhaf.

The entire program, beginning with President Trump’s executive order stating that funds should be cut off to so-called sanctuary cities – if it is interpreted as many suggest, and if a court is ever able to rule on the issue – may be an unconstitutional violation of both states’ rights and Congress’ rights.

If, as some fear, the order would threaten funding for cities which claim sanctuary status because they tell police not to question people about their immigration status, and don’t honor detainer requests to hold people in jail for immigration purposes, it may be unconstitutional on several grounds.

First, it arguably violates the long-standing principle that the federal government cannot, consistent with the Tenth Amendment, “commandeer” local officials to enforce federal law. This principle dates back at least to a 1842 Supreme Court decision striking down a requirement that states assist federal officials to capture runaway slaves.

It was also reinvigorated in a 2012 ruling that states could not be required to expand Medicaid programs under threat of a loss of federal funds – the same coercive method threatened by Sessions – except there the threat was one mandated by Congress and signed into law, not a mere presidential order.

Second, the Court has said that conditions may not be imposed on federal grants unless they are “unambiguously” stated in the statute’s text “so that the States can knowingly decide whether or not to accept those funds.”  Few if any existing grants have explicit conditions related to providing sanctuary.

Moreover, the conditions, if any, seemingly have to be passed by Congress.

Allowing a president to cut off funds based solely upon his own whim, without any congressional approval, could create a very dangerous precedent undercutting Congress’ authority (under separation of powers) as well as federalism (upholding state’s rights).

For example, it could permit a Democratic president to force states to do what a Republican dominated House and Senate might oppose.

Moreover, since the order provides for funds to be cut off only to “jurisdictions that willfully refuse to comply with 8 U.S.C. 1373,” it’s not clear if it would even apply to most “sanctuary cities.”

That statute says simply that “a Federal, State, or local government entity or official may not prohibit, or in any way restrict, any government entity or official from sending to, or receiving from the Immigration and Naturalization Service, information regarding the citizenship or immigration status, lawful or unlawful, of any individual.”

But since sanctuary cities usually simply have police not question people about their status, officials would have no citizenship and/or immigrant status information available to share which would be restricted.  Even more clearly, 1373 has nothing to do with refusing to honor detainers.

Many experts commenting on the possible unconstitutionality or uncertainty about the applicability of the order fail to also note that it may be difficult if not impossible for sanctuary cities to get a court to rule on these issues, especially in a timely manner, for a number of reasons.

The first is the administrative law principle known as ripeness, which says that courts should not address legal issues until they are ripe – sufficiently developed, with the facts clear enough, for a court to rule knowledgeably and authoritatively.  This applies most strictly when constitutional issues are raised.

Here, since the very meaning of the order, its applicability to different so-called sanctuary activities, and how federal officials will interpret and seek to enforce it are all unclear, courts may well decide that the issues – especially those related to constitutionality – are just not yet ripe enough for adjudication.

A second administrative law doctrine, exhaustion of administrative remedies, provides that courts should not decide legal issues if plaintiffs have failed to exhaust whatever administrative remedies they may have before and within the agency itself.

For example, if the agency provides for hearings, these hearing should occur, and the agency at the highest level should then render a final decision, before a court decides important legal issues.

Here, each threatened city almost certainly will be entitled to a hearing before funds are finally terminated, so cities may have to participate in such a hearing before they can get relief from a court.

However, despite their claims now to the contrary, many cities might be unwilling to have this Sword of Damocles hanging over their heads while they go though a lengthy expensive hearing process, often with their very survival hanging in the balance, simply to protect people illegally in the country.

That means, suggests Banzhaf, that Sessions’ threat is likely to be effective even if it is unconstitutional.   Entities faced with possible financial devastation from funds being cut off are rarely willing to take a risk, and often find that it is much easier to simply comply than to take a chance and fight.

Indeed, this effect is so well known that it goes by the name “regulation by raised eyebrow” – i.e., an agency need do nothing more than suggest possible adverse consequences, and those subject to a possible sanction all too often comply immediately.

Certainly this has proven to be true with regard to colleges which have spent hundreds of millions of dollars to set up programs to deal with rape, based solely upon mere suggestions by the Department of Education [DOE], with no more than an implied threat to their funding.

This DOE threat falls far short of the explicit threat of loss of funding coming directly from the president in the sanctuary cities executive order.  In short, even if the executive order is in fact unconstitutional, no court may ever be able to make that ruling, and many if not most cities may well comply anyhow.

Jeff Sessions’ War on Weed Is a War on You

(ANTIMEDIA) It seems Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ former comments claiming the enforcement of federal marijuana rules is a “strain on federal resources” have been completely forgotten. The former Alabama senator showed his true colors on this issue during a recent exchange with reporters, and we now know his office is “going to look” at cases in some states of people violating local marijuana rules. After all, he told journalists, “[s]tates they can pass the laws they choose … [but] it does remain a violation of federal law to distribute marijuana throughout any place in the United States, whether a state legalizes it or not.”

Worse than ignoring states’ rights by asserting the federal government might intervene in certain cases is Sessions’ claim that marijuana has been inviting more violence.

“We’re seeing real violence around that. … Experts are telling me there’s more violence around marijuana than one would think, and there’s big money involved.”

Unfortunately for the attorney general, this is nothing but a bogus claim.

In Colorado, crime has been dropping considerably ever since the state passed recreational marijuana laws, with homicides dropping 12.8 percent in the first year of legal pot. Other studies suggest that while Sessions believes marijuana legalization is associated with more crime, attempting to make this case is nearly impossible. According to a 2014 study, “findings run counter to arguments suggesting the legalization of marijuana for medical purposes poses a danger to public health in terms of exposure to violent crime and property crimes.”

But even if in an alternative universe the legalization of weed had, indeed, led to higher crime rates, what’s at stake in this case is not public safety — or even health for that matter. The essence of prohibitionist policies has nothing to do with safety. Instead, these policies are here to restrict personal freedoms.

Like similar prohibitionist rules, marijuana criminalization is about control of what one does with one’s body. Not about safety or health.

“The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar left and black people,” former Nixon domestic policy chief John Ehrlichman famously admitted years later, explaining the war on drugs was never meant to boost domestic security.

He continued:

“You understand what I’m saying? We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin. And then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities.”

Controlling groups of people who fail to go along with government policy has always been a political aim of people in power — whether Democrat or Republican. Tools put in place to criminalize certain behavior help any administration to keep groups of people from persuading others to follow along. And what better tool to accomplish that than to use the power of the law to crush dissent?

Winning the war on drugs doesn’t mean anything to those writing the legislation. In the end, the public safety rhetoric is nothing but hot air. But to those living under these immoral rules, reminding the wider public that the war on pot is a war on the sovereignty of the individual and his right to self-ownership is what is going to turn the public’s attention to what really matters.

What’s at stake is not people’s health or their right to choose what poison they use but what makes us human: our right to make our own decisions.

Watch Jeff Sessions address the National Association of Attorneys General below:

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