Venezuela's Marxist Dictator Would Likely Support an Article V Convention Here
This article was published by The McAlvany Intelligence Advisor on Wednesday, May 10, 2017:
Article V supporters of a constitutional convention to rewrite the United States Constitution should pay careful attention to what Venezuela's Marxist President Nicolas Maduro is proposing, and why. As his country descends from violence into chaos he is making his final move: proposing a rewrite of the country's constitution put in place in 1999 under the country's previous leader, Hugo Chavez. Chavez said it would last for "centuries." If Maduro is successful, it will have lasted less than 20 years.
Maduro has proposed a "special assembly" made up of his own supporters to craft the new constitution. It would ban political parties and free elections. It would legitimize all of his previous unconstitutional acts and essentially make him a dictator for life.
There is some political pushback
Practical Considerations Likely to Thwart Trump's plans to Deport Illegals or Build His Wall
This article was published by The McAlvany Intelligence Advisor on Monday, July 18, 2016:
As the November presidential election draws closer and Trump draws closer to Hillary in the polls, skeptics are beginning to ask some hard questions: If Trump wins, just how is he going to keep his promise to deport 11 million illegal aliens over the next two years? How is he going to build the Mexico – US wall to keep them from returning? How much will that cost? How long will that take?
The math is daunting:
Clinton Claims Democratic Nomination in Victory Speech, Attacks Trump
This article appeared online at TheNewAmerican.com on Wednesday, June 8, 2016:
Preceded by a video proclaiming "women's rights" victories from the past, and chants of "Madame President!" from her adoring crowd of supporters at her Brooklyn campaign headquarters Tuesday night, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton declared herself the victor of the Democrat primary eight years to the day from giving up the contest to Senator Barack Obama in 2008.
She proclaimed herself the victor while demurring to the ebullient crowd:
Trump Lines up Financial Backers, Gains NRA's Endorsement
This article appeared online at TheNewAmerican.com on Monday, May 23, 2016:
In a brazen but brilliant marketing move, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump made public his list of potential Supreme Court nominees, which were analyzed and pronounced "acceptable" by many of those not yet in Trump's corner. He managed to secure the blessings — including financial —of several wealthy supporters. He spent time calling on Republican Party insiders, including House Speaker Paul Ryan, in his attempts to enlist their support for his campaign. And then, to cap off the week, he secured the endorsement of the National Rifle Association (NRA) at its annual convention even before he had said a single word.
In preaching to the choir at the NRA's convention Friday evening, he took the opportunity to make clear — if clarity was necessary for that partisan audience — how much of a threat he thinks Hillary Clinton would be to gun ownership and the Second Amendment:
Trump's Momentum Continues to Build While Hillary Struggles with Bernie
This article was published by The McAlvany Intelligence Advisor on Monday, May 23, 2016:
This photo depicts Donald Trump's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Donald Trump had, simply put, an amazing week. With two billionaires already endorsing him (T. Boone Pickens and Sheldon Adelson), he added several more, including one with enormous credibility in Republican circles. To top it off he was endorsed by the NRA at its annual convention Friday night even before he got to the podium.
Hillary Clinton, on the other hand,
Could Trump Face Sanders in November?
This article appeared online at TheNewAmerican.com on Wednesday, May 4, 2016:
Texas Senator Ted Cruz exited the Republican presidential race humbly once he realized that Donald Trump was likely to take every one of Indiana's 57 delegates in Tuesday's primary contest, stating.
From the beginning, I've said I'd continue on as long as there is a viable path to victory. Tonight, I'm sorry to say, it appears the path has been foreclosed.
Together we left it all on the field in Indiana. We gave it everything we've got. But the voters chose another path. And so, with heavy heart but with boundless optimism for the long-term future of our nation, we are suspending our campaign.
Donald Trump was gracious in accepting Cruz's decision:
Cruz Tosses Second "Hail Mary" Pass, Names Carly Fiorina as His VP
Friday, 29 April 2016 04:50
This article appeared online at TheNewAmerican.com on Thursday, April 28, 2016:
When he announced Carly Fiorina (shown) as his running mate, Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz said on Tuesday, "It's unusual to make the announcement as early as we're doing so. But this race, if anything, is unusual."
Others viewed his decision to name former GOP candidate Carly Fiorina as his vice-presidential running mate in different terms.
Trump: I'm Now Running Against "Crooked Hillary"
This article appeared online at TheNewAmerican.com on Wednesday, April 27, 2016:
As a basketball player plants his pivot foot to the floor, allowing him to move away from danger and toward opportunity, Donald Trump has pivoted his campaign away from further dialogue with and attacks on Ted Cruz and John Kasich and toward his increasingly obvious opponent in the general election, Hillary Clinton.
Some are calling it a master stroke, basing his pivot on the assumption that
Trump Takes New York, Closer to Shutting the Door on Cruz
Wednesday, 20 April 2016 23:11
As expected, both leading candidates in the Republican and Democratic primaries in New York on Tuesday extended their leads over their rivals. Hillary Clinton took 135 delegates to Sanders' 104, all but cementing into place her nomination at the Democrat convention in July. Donald Trump extended his lead over his nearest rival, Ted Cruz, by running the board, taking 89 delegates to none for Cruz.
What was unexpected was the
Trump, Clinton Extend Leads; Cruz Takes Utah; Kasich Hopes to Be Spoiler
This article appeared online at TheNewAmerican.com on Wednesday, March 23, 2016:
Tuesday's primaries and caucuses extended Donald Trump's lead over Ted Cruz for the GOP nomination, leaving John Kasich far behind. Hillary Clinton rolled over Bernie Sanders despite his taking the Utah and Idaho caucuses.
Capturing 58 delegates to Cruz's 40 puts Trump ever closer to securing the nomination for president by the Republican Party, providing one considers only the math. Trump's 739 delegates already in hand, along with another 323 he is expected to obtain from New York (estimated 80), Pennsylvania (estimated 71), and California (estimated 172) would put him at 1,062, 175 delegates short of the 1,237 needed to win on the first ballot in Cleveland in July.
To secure a win, Trump needs only to secure
Mexico Now Joining Anti-Trump Forces
This article appeared online at TheNewAmerican.com on Monday, March 21, 2016:
Official Seal of the Government of the United Mexican States (Mexico) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Officially Mexico says it honors the sovereignty of the United States and has no intention of interfering with the presidential elections in November. Privately, however, Mexican diplomats are gearing up to help Mexican immigrants obtain U.S. citizenship, and then urging them to vote in November. Adrian Sosa, a spokesman for the Mexican consulate in Chicago, exposed the official posturing as a lie, speaking at an event last week:
Morton Blackwell Reveals How GOP Insiders Could Manipulate the Convention Rules – Again
Saturday, 19 March 2016 04:42
This article was published by The McAlvany Intelligence Advisor on Friday, March 18, 2016:
Morton Blackwell caught the fever at a very young age, attending the Republican National Convention in 1964 as Barry Goldwater's youngest elected delegate. Active in Republican politics ever since, Blackwell is the Virginia Republican National Committeeman and a member of the RNC's Standing Committee on Rules.
He told the story of how he tried to change the rule that sank Ron Paul's campaign back in 2012 – Rule 40b – without success:
GOP Convention Rulebook May Be Tossed in Favor of Robert's Rules
This article appeared online at TheNewAmerican.com on Thursday, March 17, 2016:
Solomon Yue, one of the 168 members of the Republican National Committee (RNC) from Oregon, has promised to present a startling proposal to the RNC Standing Rules Committee when it meets in April: toss the archaic, contentious, 1,500-page RNC rule book in favor of Robert's Rules of Order: "To make the convention more transparent, I will advocate … adoption of Robert's Rules of Order to replace the 1,500-page U.S. House rules to govern the convention."
Yue is already picking up support for the idea, including that of
Trump Extends Delegate Lead; Clinton Bashes Bernie; Rubio Bows Out
After the dust settled Tuesday night, Donald Trump had won four of the five Republican primaries, Hillary Clinton had won all five of the Democrat Party's primaries, Bernie Sanders vowed to stay the course regardless, and Marco Rubio bowed out as gracefully as he could.
This put Clinton in the driver's seat, heading for the Democrat convention in late July in Philadelphia. Counting her "earned" delegates (1,112) and her unearned "superdelegates" (467), she now holds a commanding lead over the Vermont senator, 1,599 to 844. With 28 primaries to go — and 2,320 delegates — Clinton only has to worry about her health and her risk of being indicted over her e-mail scandal to keep her from being crowned queen in Philadelphia.
Donald Trump's less-than-complete victory on Tuesday, on the other hand,
Tuesday Will Seal the Deal for Trump
Next Tuesday, 367 delegates are up for grabs. According to the brightest people in the room, The Donald is likely to take most, if not all, of them. On top of his present 458, that would bring him to over 800. All he needs is 1,237 to win on the first ballot. This would leave his closest challenger, Ted Cruz, in the dust, with perhaps 500 by the time the champagne is gone Tuesday night. And there are still 1,000 more delegates to be awarded.
Professional prognosticators and statistical wonks have been working overtime and Trump keeps coming out on top. Reuters picked Trump to win
Chances for a Brokered GOP Convention Are Rising, Along With Risks
This article appeared online at TheNewAmerican.com on Monday, February 29, 2016:
Seal of the RNC (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Heading into Super Tuesday, Donald Trump has 164 delegates, while in distant second and third places Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio have just 34 and 32 delegates respectively. With Trump leading in polls in 12 of the 13 states holding either primaries or caucuses on Tuesday, the majority of the 664 delegates there could be added to Trump's total, making him nearly unbeatable in his run for the GOP presidential nomination.
The problem is that Trump could win a majority of the delegates from here on out but
The Fix Is In: Hillary Will Be the Democratic Party's Nominee in November
This article was published by The McAlvany Intelligence Advisor on Monday, February 22, 2106:
When Democratic National Committee Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz (see above) was asked to explain how the "superdelegates" work in Democratic politics, this was the best she could do:
Saudi Arabia Capitulates, Cuts Oil Prices
This article first appeared at The McAlvany Intelligence Advisor on Monday, October 65, 2014:
Saudi Arabia's announcement last week that it was cutting prices to its Asian, European, and US customers by between $.40 and $1.00 a barrel represents a major capitulation and recognition of reality. It also represents a major departure in its role as the leading member of the OPEC cartel, proving once again that every cartel eventually blows up as its members seek their own interests over those of the cartel.
For decades, the role of the OPEC cartel has been to protect the cash flow of its members by manipulating oil prices through changes in production levels. If prices got too high and demand started falling as a result, the cartel would increase the supply of crude to the world markets. If prices got too low, on the other hand, it would gladly restrict those supplies to bring prices back up to a level acceptable to the cartel.
Those days now appear to be over.
By bringing its prices down below prices charged by OPEC member Qatar and non-OPEC member Oman, Saudi Arabia is setting the stage for an international oil price war. Futures traders, who have gotten hammered as crude oil prices have dropped almost 20% since June, are holding their collective breath to see if Qatar and Oman jump ship and reduce their prices as well. Energy analysts like John Kilduff with Again Capital are estimating that crude oil prices will consequently drop to the low $80s, while Fadal Gheit at Oppenheimer is predicting prices dropping into the low $70s. Gheit explained:
It's both supply and demand. It's basically the perfect storm that brought all these prices down. You have plenty of supply, which you never thought possible, and all of a sudden demand is shrinking: China is slowing down [and] Europe never recovered.
Gheit is a realist. He stated what every observer already knows: the OPEC cartel "is held together by scotch tape. They hate each other." Now that the leader of the pack has decided to leave the pack, it's going to be much easier for other OPEC members to join the fray and drive prices down even further.
Part of that perfect storm is the shale oil fracking revolution that has driven crude oil production in the United States to levels not seen in 50 years. Part of it is Russia's increase in crude oil production to nearly post-Soviet era records as well. In addition, production from Kurdistan over the next 15 months is expected to more than provide China's increased demands for energy, thus assuring that world supply will continue, in the short run at least, to outpace world demand.
Saudi Arabia's admission of reality is already having welcome impacts. Gas prices in the United States have fallen to $3.32 a gallon on average, with more than half the states having at least one gas station selling gas for less than $3 a gallon. It's also pulling the legs out from under the foreign policy justification of adventurism abroad in order to protect the supply of energy which America is now almost capable of providing all by herself.
As prices decline, consumers are able to redirect spending into other areas, helping along the modest economic recovery from the Great Recession. It may also prove to skeptics that, once again, Warren Buffett is right. His much ballyhooed announcement of his purchase of Van Tuyl Group, the nation's largest US auto dealership chain, should help his company, Berkshire Hathaway, ride the wave of cheaper gas and the consequent willingness of customers to replace their aging fleet of vehicles with new ones.
It is possible, however, that prices may drop too far, causing capital that is currently flooding into the energy exploration business to go elsewhere where it will be treated better in the years to come. As Stephen Leeb, a writer at Forbes, put it: "It takes energy to get energy." In the early 1950s, it took the energy from one barrel of oil to harvest five barrels. Today, because of improvements in technology, it takes about one barrel to produce nine in conventional fields.
But in unconventional fields – i.e., shale oil fracking – it takes the energy of one barrel of oil to discover, develop, and lift just four barrels, which, according to State University of New York Professor Charles Hall, isn't enough to keep America's modern industrial society operating at peak efficiency. The proper ratio, according to Hall, is that one barrel of energy must generate at least five barrels of new production, preferably more.
If the Old Farmers Almanac's prognostications are correct, the US should enjoy another relatively mild winter, reducing chances of a spike in demand that would drive crude oil prices higher. For the time being then, Saudi Arabia's capitulation and potential blowing up of OPEC will be enjoyed by American drivers and consumers. In the longer run, however, capital may be redirected away from the oil patch to more profitable areas if the price of crude stays too low, too long. In the meantime, America will once again enjoy the view from the catbird seat.
Commerzbank: 'OPEC Appears to Be Gearing Up for Price War'
CNBC: Saudi signals price skirmish as oil heads to bear market
Bloomberg: Brent Oil Falls to Lowest Since June 2012 on Ample Supply
The Old Farmers Almanac: 2014–2015 Winter Weather Forecast Map (U.S.)
Forbes: Dangerous Times As Energy Sources Get Costlier To Extract
Auto Blog: Warren Buffet buys largest private US car dealership chain
Birch Society smeared for opposing the Article V convention push
Joe Wolverton is one of the leading lights among the gifted writers and investigative journalists regularly having his articles appear in The New American magazine and its companion website, TheNewAmerican.com.
A constitutionalist attorney who not only writes but speaks around the country for the John Birch Society (the publisher of The New American), Wolverton saw the dangers inherent in efforts by Mark Levin to promote a constitutional convention – a "con-con" – in order to rein in out-of-control government spending. Levin's book, The Liberty Amendments: Restoring the American Republic, has formed the basis for a movement to call a convention of the states that would be limited in scope to addressing just the issue of spending.
Wolverton disagreed and