Cliff Notes on Arbitrary Law Enforcement (Addended)

George Rebane

[This is the transcript of my regular KVMR commentary broadcast on 3 August 2012.]

One way morally malfunctioning politicians play both sides of the street and bamboozle the voters is by passing a law, ordnance, or regulation that satisfies one faction of their supporters, and then tell the other faction punished by such legislation that, wink-wink, it will not be enforced.

A prime example of this is the patchwork of marijuana laws now in effect across the country.  The federal government says growing and smoking the weed is illegal, but various state, county, and city laws are also in place that give all kinds of contradictory interpretations of what you can and can’t do.  The people are then mollified by the local jurisdictions telling them, off the record of course, what will and will not be enforced.  Thereby everyone is supposed to go home, satisfied that their cause is vindicated.

What most people don’t consider is that such seemingly benign and informal policies are actually frameworks for promoting bureaucratic fiefdoms of power and corruption.  The people who continue to practice what is now criminalized, with the understanding of the non-enforcement proviso, actually put themselves at the mercy of arbitrary enforcement by the state.  You may then later be arrested or otherwise penalized in order to fulfill some agency’s performance quota, or for not conforming to some totally unrelated and extra-legal mandate issued by a bureaucrat.

Another example of this is the recent case of marine biologist Nancy Black being indicted by the Environmental Crimes Division of the Justice Department in a series of obviously trumped up charges in connection with her filming the feeding habits of killer whales (more here).  Her prosecution is driven by the government’s ability to apply its ample and little known supply of over-criminalizing laws.  Harvey Silvergate’s book Three Felonies a Day: How the Feds Target the Innocent details how these ideologically driven travesties work.  In it we learn that the staggering stack of laws makes it so that today “our normal daily activities expose us to potential prosecution at the whim of a government official.”

Then there is the politically motivated option to delay enforcement of what later is found to be an inconvenient piece of legislation.  By this time we are all familiar with the upcoming tax and regulatory cliff that the country will jump off of next January.  A major part of that cliff is the sequestration provisions of the Budget Control Act of 2011, the law that will cause the layoffs of more than a million workers when it kicks in next year.  The existing Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification or WARN law requires that major planned cutbacks must be announced to affected workers at least 60 days in advance of the layoffs.

Hundreds of thousands of defense industry and related government workers will be sequestered into the ranks of the unemployed when we go over the cliff.  WARN mandates that big companies like Lockheed, and other affected businesses and agencies, give the 60 days advanced notice so that people can plan their futures.  But here comes the problem with that for Team Obama and all liberal Democrats in Washington.  The 60 day notice limit falls on November 2nd, four days before the election – not a good time to send out hundreds of thousands of pink slips.

So here is what the administration dirtbags directed their Department of Labor to do – send out a directive telling industry that they don’t have to comply with the WARN act in the event that sequestration will occur.  Never mind that the DOL has no power to abrogate a standing piece of legislation.  Never mind that companies will still be subject to employee lawsuits if they follow the DOL directive.  Screw the workers and bend the law as long as it helps Obama’s re-election.  Now tell me that you don’t expect to hear an outcry from Big Labor, or the usual leftwing civil libertarians about all this.  No, of course not.  (more here)

This is how progressive big governments at all levels deal with their citizens.  Their criminalizing laws, arbitrary enforcement policies, and well armed enforcement agencies are all put in place for the convenience of the political elites and bureaucrats, whose powers derive from a confounded and cowed electorate.

My name is Rebane, and I expand on this and related themes in my Union columns and on georgerebane.com where the transcript of this commentary with related links is posted.  These views are not necessarily shared by KVMR.  Thank you for listening.

[Addendum]  Heritage Foundation has illustrated the relative sizes of the sequestration budget cuts and their inordinate impact on defense and therefore defense related jobs.

Comments

[Michael Anderson]

Well, the best way out of this conundrum is for the two major political parties in America to put on their big boy pants and actually earn their salaries. Since that ain't gonna happen, these are the consequences. Not sure why you are against this tough love solution for a failed 18th century political system, George.

[Earl Crabb]

Republicans in Congress know all this and would never agree to any kind of deal that would let the Dems off the hook. More proof that neither party is interested in solving problems, only securing their own power.

[George Rebane]

Messrs Anderson and Crabb - I have concluded in these pages over the last years that there is no workable middle ground between the collectivist and capitalist ideologies that now dominate the national narrative. Unless one or the other of the sides concludes that it has come to an unworkable position (e.g. like the USSR did sometime in the 1980s and consumated its awakening in 1991), reason offers little hope for maintaining such a large and diverse union.

It seems that a democratic republic with such a schism in its beliefs has no profitable way forward. I don't know that our Founders ever contemplated that their legacy would be expected to survive such a trial. We recall that the republic was handed to us with the admonition "... if you can keep it."

[Brad Peceimer]

I saw a email that was received by Patti Smith with the local Americans for Safe Access that we written by Congressman McClintlock and found it interesting, especially when you look at State verse Federal rights.

-----------------------------------------------------
From: Congressman Tom McClintock
To: grassrootssol@yahoo.com
Sent: Friday, July 27, 2012 12:44 PM
Subject: RE: Medical Marijuana

Dear Patricia:

Thank you for writing regarding California's medical marijuana laws.

I oppose federal involvement in this state issue, which was decided by the citizens of California through Proposition 215. The U.S. Constitution limits federal involvement in commerce to that which occurs across state lines (interstate commerce). The federal government oversteps its clear constitutional boundaries when it involves itself with commerce occurring within a single state (intrastate commerce). Rest assured that I will continue to advance policies that restore individual freedom and return the federal government to its limited, constitutional role.

Thank you once again for writing.

Sincerely,

Tom

[George Rebane]

BradP 1118pm - thank you for the copy of that email. In the many years I have known Tom McClintock, he has never shown himself to be one of the morally malfunctioning politicians.

[Michael Anderson]

No worries George, the Great Divide in America is a lot less than you think. If you would just please take me up on my constant offer to host you at Burning Man, I am sure you will see the light.

Remember, we have an airport (-;

[THEMIKEYMCD]

On que...

Q: "Should Obama and Congress be arrested under the NDAA law?"

A:Yes

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/guest-post-should-obama-and-congress-be-arrested-under-ndaa

[TomKenworth]

Seems obvious to me that the vast majority of the original colonial farmers have been unable to "keep it" from being devoured by the capitalistic banker one percenters. Straighten that out and maybe the dream of the Founders will live.

[George Rebane]

TomK 934am - Your class warfare is showing through again. There is no evidence through our history that any cohort of "one percenters" have "devoured" any part of the ninety-nine percenters wealth. And there is overwhelming evidence that the uneven concentration of wealth gave rise to a tide called capitalism that lifted all boats.

You socialists keep preaching the doctrine of the fixed pie - that if he has more, then that is why I have less, because he cheated me out of some of what would have been mine. It is a powerful message, especially on the unlearned, and no one can criticize your continued use of it as you labor for collectivism. I only criticize your ignorance of the world that this message has brought about, and promises to reprise to the extent that you and yours are successful.

[TomKenworth]

These days, George, it's not a fixed pie any more. It's a shrinking pie, from the viewpoint of the middle and lower classes.

Back on law enforcement, here's a chuckle:

"A DEA officer stopped at a ranch in Texas, and talked with an old rancher. He told the rancher, "I need to inspect your ranch for illegally grown drugs." The rancher said, "Okay , but don't go in that field over there.....", as he pointed out the location.

The DEA officer verbally exploded saying, "Mister, I have the authority of the Federal Government with me!" Reaching into his rear pants pocket, the arrogant officer removed his badge and proudly displayed it to the rancher. "See this fucking badge?! This badge means I am allowed to go wherever I wish.... On any land !! No questions asked or answers given!! Have I made myself clear?.... do you understand?!!"

The rancher nodded politely, apologized, and went about his chores. A short time later, the old rancher heard loud screams, looked up, and saw the DEA officer running for his life, being chased by the rancher's big Santa Gertrudis bull...... With every step the bull was gaining ground on the officer, and it seemed likely that he'd sure enough get gored before he reached safety.

The officer was clearly terrified. The rancher threw down his tools, ran to the fence and yelled at the top of his lungs...

"Your badge, show him your fucking BADGE!!""

[George Rebane]

TomK 403pm - Good chuckle.

To the extent the pie is shrinking for any subset of Americans, it is because they have not kept up with the skill sets for which jobs in America go wanting - e.g. a prime reason the Chinese are winning America's infrastructure contracts is that we cannot supply enough qualified welders to do the work; three thousand were needed for New York and Texas projects, and we didn't have them. Our overpaid idiots teaching and counseling kids in government schools don't even do the research needed to advise their charges as to what jobs are out there wanting, and what preparation is required for them.

Right now there are over 3 million jobs in the US for which Americans are not qualified. As a professional in education I would hang my head in shame. But the current generation of such dufuses can only point their finger at others - that too was probably Bush2's fault.

[TomKenworth]

And which groups of anti tax payers insisted on shutting down the voc ed (including of course, welding) programs as being "too expensive?"

[George Rebane]

TomK 626pm - not really. First, the admin overhead and pension expenses sucked the fiscal innards out of the schools; second, the little Johnnies and Joanies still needed more courses in how to read and write; third, the progressives padded the curriculum with crap like classes on 'The Joys of Gay Marriage'; fourth, none of the education professionals argued that voc ed was more important than college prep, since everyone had a right to a college education. You don't get into a good college by writing a readable essay on the advantages of welding, but you improved your chances if your essay was about the joys of homosexuality. A bit over simplified, but I think that the independent reader will get the point.

BTW, your "anti tax payers" are my kind of people, and we do know the relative value of welding vs trying to shove everyone into college through a politically correct funnel of secondary education.