Michael Connely Archives

Taking A Knee by Michael Connely

TAKING A KNEE

For the spoiled overpaid professional athletes in the NFL and NBA who hate America and want to make a political statement against the police who risk their lives to protect us every day taking a knee during out national anthem is an acceptable form of protest. To me and other American veterans and active members of the active military it is totally unacceptable. In fact, it is the ultimate insult.

For us taking a knee is what we do to honor our fallen comrades. There is the iconic image, now immortalized in a statue of a grieving soldier taking a knee in front of a pair of military boots and an inverted rifle with a helmet on its butt. Originally, the inverted rifle and helmet was used by American soldiers to alert the teams that retrieved dead soldiers of their locations. The rifle with a bayonet was stuck in the ground with the helmet of the dead soldier and his dog tags so they could be identified.

Preferably it was at the head of the shallow grave the soldier was buried in, but often in the heat of combat there was no time for burial so it was to mark the site of the unburied body. So for us, taking a knee is a way of expressing our grief for a dead comrade, and our respect for the reasons that they died. Most of the elitist players of the NFL have never seen or heard of this act of respect in the military, or if they have don’t understand its meaning, or don’t care.

In the case of Colin Kaepernick who started this, he is kneeling because he hates our country and wants to pay homage to his real heroes, Fidel Castro who brutalized and oppressed the people of Cuba for decades, and Che Guevara. Guevara was an especially brutal terrorist, whose specialty was leading his men into unarmed towns, executing all of the men and boys, and then raping the women and girls before murdering them. This has made him a hero of ignorant members of the left like Kaepernick.

I am not a sports star, millionaire, or Hollywood elitist although I have been many things in my life. I have been a lawyer, a teacher, a public speaker, a published author, a freelance writer, and a radio talk show host. None of that sets me above any other hard working American who believes in God and out country. However, those things are what I have done, not who I am. Who I was, still am, and always will be is an American soldier. This means that I will always stand at attention and salute when the National Anthem is played, and I will kneel and pray when I attend the funeral of one of my fellow soldiers.

However, unless there is a drastic change I will never watch another NFL game or ever buy any products or services pushed by its sponsors.

Michael Connelly

mrobertc@hotmail.com

Michael Connelly blog

The Nuclear Option by Michael Connely

THE NUCLEAR OPTION

There has been a lot of discussion about Republicans in the U.S. Senate using what is called the “nuclear option” to get an outstanding nominee Neil Gorsuch appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court. This was needed to overcome the “cloture” rule that requires 60 Senators to vote to allow a Supreme Court nominee to even be voted on by the Senate. Unfortunately, the same rule also applies to most of all regular legislation brought before the Senate including those laws passed by the House of Representatives.

The U.S. Constitution provides for bills to be adopted, and nominees to be onfirmed by a majority vote in the Senate with the Vice President casting the deciding vote if the Senate is evenly split. The Senate is also allowed to set its own rules but there is nothing indicating that they can override the majority vote requirement, yet that is what the Senate did that in 1917 when it adopted a two thirds vote cloture rule. That proved to be a disaster since the overwhelming majority was virtually never reached, despite the fact that in those days members of the Senate were patriots and would vote for legislation that was good for the country not just their political party.

Yet, there was still gridlock in many cases so in 1975 the Senate changed its rules to set the current 60 vote threshold. Both parties used it to their advantage when the other party controlled the Senate. Then the Democrats under Harry Reid decided in 2013 to get rid of the cloture rule when it came to Obama nominated federal judges at the district and appellate level that were being blocked by Republicans because of many of the nominees far left leanings. The Senate democrats were all on board with this change and Chuck Schumer was particularly enthusiastic.

However, now that the Republicans have taken a page from the Democrat playbook and invoked the nuclear option to get Neil Gorsuch confirmed to the Supreme Court, Schumer and many other Democrats are absolutely hysterical. It seems that the cloture rule should only apply to Republicans, not to the Democrat elitists who consider themselves above the law. They are adamantly opposed to Judge Gorsuch because he believes in the Constitution that Democrats generally view as an archaic document that is getting in the way of their game plan to destroy our constitutional republic and create a “socialist paradise” in its place.

However, while I fully support use of the nuclear option to confirm Judge Gorsuch; as a constitutional lawyer I have a problem with the entire cloture rule. I believe it is unconstitutional and should be entirely abolished by the Senate. The fact is that the cloture rule dilutes my vote and those of all other Americans who vote for Senators. Instead of having my Senators effectively represent me by voting to pass or defeat legislation by a majority vote, as provided in the Constitution, their votes are often meaningless.

For example, I have been working for the last four years with veterans who are being arbitrarily denied their Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms. Eighteen months ago I also predicted that the same methods were going to be employed to disarm Social Security recipients, That has also come true and the House of Representatives has passed legislation to stop these abuses. However, initial indications are that Senate democrats will use the cloture rule to stop both of these bills from coming to the full Senate for a vote.

That will happen because under the cloture rule the two votes of the Senators in Texas that will represent me will be meaningless while the votes of the two Democrat senators from Massachusetts will count along with all other votes by Senate democrats. America’s heroes and our senior citizens will continue to be denied their constitutional rights. For this and other compelling reasons, it is imperative that we call on Republican senators to permanently abolish the 60 vote cloture rule and give us back our Constitution and the ability of Congress to act with majority votes of 51.

Michael Connelly

mrobertc@hotmail.com

^{Michael Connelly blog}

BREAKING THE LAW by Michael Connely

BREAKING THE LAW

I have been asked if I believe that in their unprecedented opposition to the Presidency of Donald Trump some Democrats and other so-called progressives are breaking the law. As a staunch supporter of the Constitution and the right of free speech, freedom of the press, and the right of the American people to peacefully assemble and petition the government for redress of grievances I would have to say no in most cases.

Unfortunately, a significant number of people are crossing the line and engaging in acts that are criminal in nature. For example, the right to exercise freedom of speech is not absolute and does not give anyone the right to keep others from exercising the same right. Yet, that is what is happening all over the country when progressives use the concept of political correctness to harass and shut down anyone who dares to disagree with them.

This is happening particularly on college campuses where students are being punished by left wing professors and administrators for saying something that they disagree with. Even supporting a political candidate they disagree with can lead to sanctions. It is also being carried to the extreme when students and faculty members attempt to keep someone they don’t like from making a speech on a college campus by violently demonstrating, and even physically attacking the speakers. There is no question that this is a violation of the rights of other individuals and therefore a criminal act.

The Constitution provides Americans with the right to peacefully assemble and the operative word is “peacefully”. Millions of Americans opposed the policies of President Obama and the Democrats in control of congress. They were appalled by the passage of Obamacare that was done in secret by the Democrat controlled Congress, and by numerous other actions by the President and his allies. This resulted in the formation of grassroots organizations like the Tea Parties and people took to the streets and held rallies to express their opposition.

They carried signs and American flags, and they made speeches. They did not physically attack those who disagreed with them; they did not set fires, break windows, or assault police officers. They simply exercised their Constitutional right to peaceful assembly. Let’s fast forward to the recent demonstrations by the progressives and their allies that are anything but peaceful. They often include violence against people and private property, and these activities are almost never condemned by anyone on the left, but tacitly encouraged, even by the liberal mainstream media.

The latest moves come from the ACLU, a bogus civil libertarian organization that actually seeks to destroy our Constitutional liberties instead of preserving them. They are pushing to organize efforts to create “freedom cities” where police and other local government officials will be coerced into violating federal immigration law by protecting illegal aliens, even those with criminal convictions or potential ties to terrorism from being arrested and/or deported.

I contend that all of this amounts to a criminal conspiracy particularly since there is overwhelming evidence that some of the protestors are paid and receive the encouragement of left wing politicians like former attorney general Loretta Lynch who has called on people to take to the streets, bleed and if necessary die to bring down the Trump administration. That certainly sounds like a call for violence and the comments were contained in a video gleefully released by Senate Democrats.

This fits the classic definition of sedition that was included in the 1918 Sedition Act passed by congress that prohibited “disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive language” about the U.S. government, our flag, or military during time of war. This act was ultimately upheld by the United States Supreme Court, but has been modified over the years by the dissenting opinion of Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. who called for the law only to be enforced when someone created a “clear and present danger” of immediate criminal action.

I have always agreed with the position taken by Justice Holmes and later court decisions. Yet, I also believe that comments along the lines of those made by Loretta Lynch and some other progressives fall within the clear and present danger test because they encourage criminal activity. In addition, I believe that some of what is occurring today also falls within the constitutional definition of treason that includes providing “aid and comfort” to the enemies of the United States.

When someone in our government releases information that threatens our national security and provides aid and comfort to our enemies it is treason. It doesn’t matter if the information is given to ISIS, a foreign nation like Russia, China, North Korea, Iran etc. or to WikiLeaks or the New York Times, it is still treason because it endangers Americans. Further, when the New York Times, or any other news agencies publishes this leaked information, it is treason.

There is also something else to be considered. Everyone who works for our government takes the same oath of office that I took as a member of the U.S. Army, “to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States” and there are federal criminal penalties for violating that oath. These penalties include a $10,000 fine, and up to one year in prison for doing anything that denigrates our constitution or attempts to destroy our Constitutional Republic.

To sum this up, I believe we are looking at a wide spread criminal conspiracy on the part of left wing organizations, elected officials, government employees, and members of the main stream media to bring down not only the Trump administration, but also the United States as we know it.

Michael Connelly

mrobertc@hotmail.com

Michael Connelly blog

Constitutional Law Alliance

Judicial Dictatorship by Michael Connely

JUDICIAL DICTATORSHIP!

It is apparently official now. Three unelected leftist lawyers wearing black robes and sitting as justices on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals have confirmed a ruling by a lower court unelected leftist federal judge that stays the Executive Order on immigration issued by the elected President of the United States. As I pointed out in the previous article on the subject I posted on my blog the actions of the President were entirely reasonable, legal, and constitutional.

Neither of the courts has listened to any evidence or made a ruling on the constitutionality of the order, but instead have decided it is “probably” unconstitutional. However, in order to understand what these four judges have actually done it is necessary to read between the lines and determine the true implications of this ruling which are staggering.

Essentially the ruling says that elections no longer matter, the will of the American people no longer matters, and most importantly the Constitution of the United States no longer matters. So according to the men and women in black we are no longer a Constitutional Republic, but a judicial dictatorship where all decisions including those dealing the with the all-important matters of our national security, and the lives of American citizens will now be made not by Congress and the President of the United States, but by a hand full of elite federal judges. This effectively dissolves the Constitutional establishment of three separate, but equal branches of government.

Ironically the federal judiciary has for years being undermining the Constitutional rights of American citizens that are protected in the Bill of Rights. This includes central rights like freedom of speech, freedom of religion, the right to keep and bear arms, the right to due process of law and numerous others. Yet, as of today they decided to confer Constitutional rights on citizens of foreign countries that have never had these rights.

This includes a “right” of potential terrorists to enter the U.S. without being properly vetted and to possibly kill Americans. Americans should be outraged. This is clearly a political decision made to advance the leftist agenda and stifle the desire of Americans to protect their homes and families from the type chaos of that is occurring in Europe and other areas of the world.

Michael Connelly

mrobertc@hotmail.com

Michael Connelly blog

Constitutional Law Alliance

IMMIGRATION & THE CONSTITUTION

As someone who has studied and defended the U.S. Constitution for over 40 years I am appalled and angered by the misinformation being thrown at the American people by the leftist in Congress and the news media. I have watched the last several days of coverage over the Executive Order on immigration issued by President Donald Trump and what is generally being reported is just not true.

The order is a ban on issuing visas to people from seven nations listed by the Obama administration as hot beds of terrorist activity. The seven countries are Iran, Iraq, Yemen, Somalia, Libya, Sudan, and Syria. In 2011 Obama executed his executive authority to limit immigration from Iraq for six months and there was no outcry by either the Democrats or the liberal media. This was because what he did was completely legal.

Now, when Trump does essentially the same thing, we are being told it is a Constitutional crisis denying Constitutional rights to people attempting to immigrate to the United States, and using an “unconstitutional religious test” on immigrants. So let’s look at immigration and the Constitution.

There is only one article in the Constitution that deals with immigration and that is Article 1, Section 8 that empowers the Congress to make laws “To establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization…”. The laws passed by Congress shall then be enforced by the President. On the other hand, the only prohibition of a religious test in the Constitution has nothing to do with immigration. The prohibition is in Article VI of the Constitution that states: “The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the members of the several state Legislatures, and all executive and judicial officers, both of the United States and the several States, shall be bound by Oath of Affirmation, to support this Constitution, but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any office or public Trust under the United States.”

In other words, there is no Constitutional prohibition against a religious test for immigration to the United States although it has rarely been done and was not the situation in this case. While, the seven countries targeted are predominantly Muslim there are forty other countries in the same category that were not on the list. This was not a Muslim ban, but an attempt to limit immigration from countries where Islamic terrorism is actively promoted.

For the left in this country, the priority must not be protecting Americans from Islamic terrorism, but protecting the non-existent Constitutional rights of immigrants who may not even have entered the country yet. It must also be noted that of the 325, 000 foreigners that entered the country on the day the Executive Order went into effect, only 109 people were actually detained, and most of them were released within a few hours. Compare this to the over 250,000 American veterans who in the last few years who have been deprived of their Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms without any due process.

The main stream news media has ignored these Constitutional violations because it furthers their gun control agenda. For them, the so called constitutional rights of potential terrorists take precedence over the rights of America’s heroes. In other word, it is all about the leftist political agenda, which has been and continues to be the ultimate destruction of our Constitutional Republic.

The bottom line for all of the leftists’ purveyors of “fake news”, the Hollywood elitists with the combined intelligence of a box of rocks, the wimpy snowflake millennials who can’t accept that the American people rejected the career criminal that the left wanted to be our President, and the squalling Dems in Congress is that:

There is no U.S. Constitutional right to immigrate to the United States or to get a VISA to visit our country.
If you are here illegally you have no Constitutional right to stay.
The U.S. Constitution gives Congress the sole right to impose any requirements it wants on people who want to come to our country.
There is no authority given to any Federal Judge to amend the Constitution to alter these truths.

Michael Connelly

mrobertc@hotmail.com

Michael Connelly blog

Constitutional Law Alliance

THE BATTLE HAS JUST STARTED by Michael Connely

THE BATTLE HAS JUST STARTED
November 8, 2016 was a historic night for America. A political outsider named Donald J. Trump was elected President of the United States against overwhelmingly odds, The American people rose up and declared that were tired of a Washington D.C. establishment that looked on them not as free people who were in charge of the government, but instead subjects of an elitist government that wished to control every aspect of their lives.
The victory seems to be complete with Republicans maintaining control of the Senate and the House of Representatives, and in a position to gain control of the U.S. Supreme Court for decades. This is certainly a cause for celebration, but we must realize that the battle for the preservation of our Constitutional Republic is far from over; in fact it has just started. The leftists that control the Democrat party have no intention of responding to the will of the American people by revising their radical positions. Instead, they are doubling down by preparing to appoint Keith Ellison, a far left Muslim member of the House of Representatives to be the new chairman of the DNC.
The leftist controlled robots are taking to the streets not just to protest Trump’s election, but to riot, loot, attack police officers, set fires, break windows, and destroy privately owned businesses, and repeatedly call for the overturning of the election even by a revolution. However, I have yet to hear Hillary Clinton or any other leader of the Democrat party step forward and condemn these actions. That is because they fully condone them.
From the 1960s and even before, violence has always been a part of the left wing playbook, and they don’t care who gets hurt as long as they can further their ultimate goal of domination. We not only have to recognize this, but also understand that despite their loss in this election the leftists still control critical parts of American society. They control most of our universities and many school districts throughout our country. This gives them the opportunity to continue to indoctrinate our children to accept socialism or a form of communism as the preferred form of government. They will not be taught the history of our republic and will certainly not be taught about the Constitution.
The left also continues to control the mainstream media and it will not let up on its attacks on Donald Trump, the Republican Congress, or conservatives. The personal attacks, distortions, and outright lies will accelerate, as will the efforts to cause increased tensions along racial, economic, ethnic, and religious lines. In other words, the leftist agenda will remain the same; follow the socialist agenda of creating chaos, and again it does not matter to them who gets hurt in the process.
So the question for the rest of us is how do we fight and defeat this onslaught. First and foremost we have to make sure that Donald Trump and the Republican leadership in the House and Senate fulfill their obligations to the American people that elected them. They must be relentless in appointing conservative justices to the Supreme Court and other federal courts. If the Democrats in the Senate try to block these appointments then we must pressure Mitch McConnell to invoke the so-called “nuclear option” in order to set aside the current Senate rule that requires 60 Senators to vote to even allow the full Senate to vote on any bill brought before it.
When Harry Reid was in control of the Senate he did not hesitate to suspend this rule to help Obama appointees get confirmed. In my view, while the Senate is allowed to make its own rules, it is not allowed to ignore the Constitution which is what I believed this cloture rule does. The rule dilutes the voting power of the American people and is on its face, unconstitutional. The Constitution established two houses in Congress, the House of Representatives and the Senate. Both were set up to pass legislation by a simple majority vote. The cloture rule in the Senate is therefore a perversion of the Constitution and simply means that our votes for members of the U.S. Senate do not count.
I believe that Mitch McConnell should have the Republican majority in the Senate abolish this rule so that our votes count. Otherwise, the Democrats in the Senate will be in control and can block most of the Republican agenda from being passed in spite of the clear will of the American people. This will mean that it is likely that sanctuary cities will continue to protect illegal alien criminals, Obamacare will continue, and Congressional gridlock will not go away.
We must also take back our local school boards, and our city and county governments. Only then can we keep our families and our country truly safe.
Michael Connelly
mrobertc@hotmail.com
Michael Connelly blog
www.usjf.net
Constitutional Law Alliance

CENSORED BY AMAZON by Michael Connely

CENSORED BY AMAZON

As many of you know my latest patriotic novel “The Rag” has been selling very well, particularly as an e-book on Amazon Kindle and nook on Barnes & Noble. Sales have in fact, been soaring in spite of or perhaps because of the hysterical attacks by the left. I had also recently posted my popular booklet “Our Constitution” as a Kindle edition, and it was also selling well. However, just tonight I was informed by Amazon that they cancelled all sales of “Our Constitution” and closed the website for the booklet.

They did not inform me, but I learned that they had also cancelled the sales of all Kindle editions of “The Rag” my other patriotic novel, “Amayehli: A Story of America” and my nonfiction historical book about my father’s unit in WW II “The Mortarmen”. They claim the reason for this is because my name is the same as the mystery writer Michael Connelly. They are demanding that I change my name, something they know I cannot and will not do.

I have had books for sale on Amazon since 1999 and my photo and biography are clearly different from the mystery writer. Therefore, I suspect that the books have been censored by Amazon, because they are not “politically correct”. The CEO of Amazon, Jeff Bezos, is a champion of left wing causes and recently purchased the ultra-leftist Washington Post. He was also a big supporter of Hillary Clinton, and that makes the timing of Amazon’s censorship of me even more suspicious.

This unprecedented move against me and books will potentially cost me thousands of dollars and deprive many Americans of the right to read my books.

I am asking for your support here. I have written a strong letter to Amazon threatening litigation, and would appreciate it if my friends would contact Amazon and demand they reinstate my books. The books are still available in paperback, but I don’t expect that to last for long.

In the meantime, if you want to order a copy of “The Rag” or any other of my books don’t do it through Amazon, go to my website at Michael Connelly blogclick on the page of the book you want and follow the ordering instructions. Thank you for your support. If the liberals can get away with this we can be sure they will try to punish others who do not support their radical agenda.

Michael Connelly

mrobertc@hotmail.com

Michael Connelly blog