Miscreants and Star Chamber expansion
The State of the Union
Constitutional gerrymandering
By Stephen L. Wilmeth
Ask any landowner
about the future of a property that assures security for his or her livelihood
and the answer will be, overwhelmingly, negative. No longer can assurances
implicit in private property rights be held inviolate.
A best case
example is the winner of the photo contest held by the New Mexico Magazine.
That photo, noted as taken by Wayne Suggs and extolled by the magazine, shows a
rock house in a night setting against the backdrop of a star lit sky.
It is impressive.
As I inspected
the picture, however, the hair stood up on the back of my neck. The structure
was none other than the historic rock house on our private land we refer to as
“homestead”. It was the home that Weldon Burris took his then bride, Elizabeth
Nunn Burris, to live in 1937.
The reason
the picture was not immediately identifiable was the fact the structure was
ablaze in lights. Since there is no electricity hence no lighting in the house,
the image was confounding.
Quickly
glancing through the narrative detail, shutterbug Suggs indicated he located
the structure on Google, found the descendents of the family, shared a print of
his work with them, and now they are great friends.
The problem
is Weldon and Elizabeth
had no offspring and thus there was no direct descendents. Suggs didn’t bother
to ask for permission for entry into the private land or the structure, and he
obviously spent an inordinate amount of time setting the lighting in place to
take his award winning picture. He trespassed, and all his unlawful
interference with the ranch’s private property rights is set out in grand
spectacle form in the highly publicized photographic prize.
Wow!
Can you only imagine how New Mexico
Magazine would have reacted if our ranch ownership had pulled into Mr. Suggs’
backyard, set up lights, hung around drinking beer on his patio until the light
was just right to take our own award winning picture of his house, and then dashed
off to find his descendents to share the print? New Mexico Magazine must have
no policy regarding proprietary integrity of its artistry.
The enigma,
however, is this nation’s underpinnings are being shredded. It isn’t just the
rapscallion manners of the noted magazine and its trespassing contributor.
It is manifested at the top … the
very top.
Article II, Section 3
The Constitution
calls for the President of our United States
to summarize the condition of our Union “from
time to time”. In execution, the practice has come to coincide with the
commencement of each new calendar year.
The demand is straight forward. The
President “shall from time to time give
to the Congress Information of the State of the Union,
and recommend to their Consideration such Measures as he shall judge necessary
and expedient;”
So, last
Tuesday night this president gave his version of the state of this nation. He
read the script in the fashion that has propelled him through the obstacle
course that has presented his entire presence on the basis of table of contents
and chapter headings rather than any confirmed detail.
His
eloquence of regurgitation set forth not the abiding principles of our
Constitutional form of government, but, rather, where his contrived and
manipulated agenda is going to push us. The truth is we no longer have a
constitutional republic form of government. We have a two party system, a
dishonest and inept press, a gutless and clueless elected legislative branch,
and a judicial counterpart that oversees a constitutional gerrymandering
process that is driven by faddism and Star Chamber administrative seizure.
This
president’s use of words reveals the underlying truth.
He avoids the word “Freedom”. In
fact, he uses it less than any president since Warren Harding. One of his
marker expressions is the use of Americans.
The inference should not be lost upon us. With his actions on refusing to
enforce the laws protecting our borders, we must realize the application of Americans equates to the dominion of the
real form of government we face … disconnected two party system.
Votes
count, and votes equate to the dominion of the agenda regardless of the
constitutionality of the outcome. The riptide of illegal disruptors swarming
across our borders benefits this president’s über progressive intentions. In no
way can those people be construed or likened to the roll of legal arrivals over
time. Those lines were largely dominated by individuals who paid their way both
with their pockets and their skill sets.
What is now
at stake is the future expansion of his agenda. The illegitimates this fellow
deems necessary for that end are prone to societal reliance, unilateral
consumerism, and … worse.
The quadrille
Like a pot
of chanticleers crowing at dawn, the Democrats stood and clapped on their
roosts when the mention of taxing the wealthy was brought up. They crowed and
exchanged juicy nuptial kisses again when the mention of more actions would be
taken with executive actions and threatened vetoes. They finally soiled themselves
and hoarsely cackled when the inevitable concluding crescendo arrived.
“It is the right thing to do for the American
People!
The problem
is there is no balance of wits. The Republicans are what they are. Majority
leader (Foghorn) McConnell has discovered what he must view as a secret arsenal
of tactics to curtail the administration’s agency assault through the
Congressional Review Act (CRA). The CRA gives lawmakers the power to formally
disapprove of major agency rules. That might be revolutionary, but the question
by us Americans must be asked.
Why must the
legislative branch rely on more legislation to give them authority to supercede
the president’s actions if they become extra-legal?
Utah’s Senator Mike Lee
also warns us that the president’s ability to go around Congress with the
implementation of more regulations crafted to harm entire segments of the
nation. He reflected on the fact that the president and even the elected
legislators can be voted out of office, but the federal bureaucrats cannot be
dislodged. That might be true under the stalemated federal government, but the
question by us Americans must be
asked.
Why can’t
those federal bureaucrats be dislodged?
And, then,
there is the House where the purse strings are held. The reign of terror
imposed on the citizenry by the federal land agencies could be quickly and effectively
checked with a 15% across the board budget cut. From that point forward, only
the mention of further action would have bureaucrats saluting and dancing on
their camp stools.
The complicit constitutional gerrymandering
Then, there is Judicial.
The matter
of Chief Justice Roberts’ repeated suggestions that constitutional matters do
reflect the current will of the citizenry is horrifying. It illuminates the
fear so many have that the interpretation of the Constitution is no longer a
matter of determining an individual ruling by holding the matter in
juxtaposition alongside the founding document. Rather, decisions are more
likely to be predicated on case law and the outgrowth of prerogative powers
rulings.
That can
only mean one thing. The Constitution is no longer a finite document that
exists in hard copy form on the basis of sacrosanct determination. It has been
altered into some nebulous virtual form and unrecognizable without following
the prescribed method set forth for its legal modification.
By his
actions, Roberts is taking it upon himself to punish us for electing
congressional representation incapable of crafting good laws. As such, he leads
the triumvirate power structure toward ever increasing dysfunctionality. That
sets the stage for unceasing gyrations that buffet our society through agency
fads and special interest demands.
The state of our Union
Most of the
people I associate with took John Stossel’s advice. Stossel noted that he would
watch the speech and report back to us so we wouldn’t have to sit through the
tragedy. As it played out, the spectacle was couched around the now familiar
emphasis of first person. Me, me, I, me, and the American People were the prevalent dreary, standard features. Glance
left … glance right.
We are
strangers on this grand stage aren’t we?
Our presence is a matter of fuel
and fodder. Never have we felt so alienated from our government, and it isn’t
just me. Just like the explanation of the miscreant snapshotter in his
commandeering of our rock house as if it was his and everybody’s, this
president and this American government are fettering away the underpinnings of
not just our nation, but our lives. Their meaningless words are the false
harbingers of the actual impact to our union.
The state
of our Union is precarious. Words can continue
to describe the problem, but … no longer can words alone define the solution.
Stephen L. Wilmeth is a rancher from southern New Mexico.
2 comments:
Mr. Wilmeth, First off, I apologize and want to try to explain what actually happened. I'm going to start from the beginning, which will take quite a few words and more room than New Mexico would print in their article. Yes, I did find the house on Google Earth. I did research what I thought was the owner of the ranch. Apparently I did not go far enough. I found out that it was historically called the Burris Ranch and found some taped transcripts of Genevieve "Ginny" Burris talking about ranch life and the Lazy E Ranch. I then found out that there was a person by the name of David Stephenson who lived in Dona Ana and was a descendant of Genevieve. I contacted David and I found out that his grandfather, Frank Burris was the original owner and possibly, builder of the home and later turned it over to Weldon and Elizabeth Burris. Dave's mother is Nancy and she is still alive. She spent her childhood on that ranch. She is now in her 70s. I assumed that she or her family still owned it. I made a print and had it framed and I made an appointment with David Stephenson to meet at his home. I went there to give him the photograph and I wanted to find out more about the rock house but in all honesty, he was so excited to talk to me about photography because he is a photographer himself, we never finished discussing the ranch. We spent two hours looking at his photographs and him telling me how much he loved the photograph I gave him and that he couldn't wait to show it to his mother who spent so much time on the ranch. Since that time we have gone out and actually photographed together on different outings. To be honest, we never have talked much about the ranch house since. After friends and other people have called and emailed me to tell me about this blog, I immediately called Dave to ask him if his family still owned the ranch. He said they didn't and apologized profusely for not making it clear that they didn't still have ownership of the property, it just never came up in our initial conversations. I believe this to be true because he was so excited to talk about the photography. He said he would gladly give the photo that I gave him to the owner of the ranch and I told him that was not necessary. I'm really happy that it made his mother feel so good and I'm glad that they have it. He offered to make a phone call to explain if necessary. With that being said, I had no intention of misleading New Mexico Magazine or it's readers on this subject. I also especially want to apologize to Mr. Wilmeth about all of this.I completely understand his reaction upon seeing the photograph and not knowing anything about it. I hope he will accept my apology and I would love to give him a framed print as well. Thank you, Wayne Suggs
After speaking with Dave Stephenson last night, there are a couple of inaccuracies that I need to correct. Dave's Great grandfather Lemeul Burris was the original owner in his family. He had many children. Frank Wells Burris was his Mother's father. He had a brother, Weldon Burris, and a sister, Genevieve Burris, who both held that ranch later in the timeline. Dave is a descendent of Frank Wells Burris via his mother Nancy Burris. When Dave's mom went to that ranch, her Grandfather Lemeul still owned it. I apologize for the original inaccuracies in my comment and again, want to set the record straight. Wayne Suggs
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