'Enforcing the law'

One glaring omission is the exclusion of discretionary spending impacts.

When a Republican primary candidate for a local ownship post in Michigan made posts on social media, she didn’t anticipate what she characterized as a “Shut up, lady” letter from the state attorney general’s office threatening to prosecute her.  The GOP candidate, Kerry Lynn Elieff, described new polling locations in a June 12 post on the Facebook page for her campaign for Ross Township supervisor, as well as on other social media accounts. “I wanted to get ahead of this. I wasn’t sure if voters realized that the voting location where some voted for decades had changed,” Elieff told The Daily Signal.  “Late last week, I was shocked,” she said, describing how she got a cease-and-desist letter from the Michigan Attorney General’s Office. The letter from Robbin N. Liddell, chief of that office’s Criminal Trials Division, arrived just weeks after Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, a Democrat, announced an effort to “combat any election-related misinformation targeting Michigan voters.”  It’s not clear whether the two developments are related since neither Benson’s office nor the office of Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, also a Democrat, has commented on Elieff’s concern.   “They sent the letter without reaching out, or even saying, if you feel there is an error contact us,” Elieff, who lost her primary challenge on Tuesday to an incumbent supervisor, told The Daily Signal on Thursday. “There was no investigation. It was a beatdown. It was a ‘Shut up, lady’ message.” On Tuesday, the day of the primary election, Nessel posted on X that her office was taking election infractions seriously. In that case,  the state attorney general was referring to political signs near polling locations. Nessel called on voters to report infractions to 866-OUR-VOTE. It's election day, Michigan! ???? Did you know? The wearing of campaign paraphernalia or carrying signs or pamphlets within 100 feet of a polling place to influence voters is illegal. Voters can report it to an election worker or call 866-OUR-VOTE.@MichSoS pic.twitter.com/6U0JX0VTlm— Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel (@MIAttyGen) August 6, 2024 Liddell’s July 24 letter to GOP candidate Elieff read, in part: “It has come to the attention of our office that you have spread misleading or false election information regarding polling locations in Ross Township through on-line sites. Specifically, MCL 168.932(a) prohibits and criminalizes this conduct.” Her letter says Elieff must “CEASE AND DESIST the use of online platforms to continue spreading false or misleading information regarding the Ross Township polling locations.” Elieff said she doesn’t know what was “misleading” about what she posted and isn’t aware of anyone else challenging the accuracy of her posts.  The Michigan statute specified by Liddell reads: “A person shall not attempt, by means of bribery, menace, or other corrupt means or device, either directly or indirectly, to influence an elector in giving his or her vote, or to deter the elector from, or interrupt the elector in giving his or her vote at any election held in this state.” In this case, “elector” means voter. Patrice Johnson, chairwoman of Michigan Fair Elections, said her organization’s lawyer reviewed the situation and determined that the election statute doesn’t apply to Elieff’s social media posts.  In a Friday post on X, Nessel praised Liddell, who was recognized at a conference of national prosecutors earlier in the week.  Criminal Division Chief Robyn Liddell was recognized for 20 years of service as a prosecutor at the 41st Annual National Black Prosecutors Association Conference in Boston this week. AAGs Oronde Patterson and Jasmine Davis joined DC Liddell in representing the DAG. pic.twitter.com/8Bj6Q3DrlF— Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel (@MIAttyGen) August 9, 2024 Elieff told The Daily Signal that her social media posts certainly shouldn’t have discouraged anyone from voting. “I even said in one of the videos, don’t let this keep you from voting, vote absentee,” she said.  After hearing that radio host Justin Barclay had talked about the government’s targeting of Michigan residents with allegations of election misinformation, Elieff shared Liddell’s letter with him. The Midwesterner and The Federalist reported additional details.  Radical Michigan AG Dana Nessel’s office threatens “criminal prosecution” in letter to one of my listeners. It comes just days after SOS Jocelyn Benson’s election “misinformation” announcement. @Th_Midwesterner has the details pic.twitter.com/j3k6SsO1Ui— Justin Barclay (@MrJustinBarclay) August 6, 2024 “I know everything I posted is true. But I thought this isn’t worth going to jail for, so I modified or deleted some posts,” Elieff said.  Ross Township officials didn’t respond to The Daily Signal’s phone and email inquiries Friday.  Elieff lost the Republican primary Tuesday to incumbent Supervisor Christina Hutchings, but stressed she has no qualms about the election results.  “I didn’t win and I’m fine with that,” she said.  Elieff said she is concerned instead that others who are politically active could be silenced.  “I’m not aware of others, but if they are going after someone in little Ross Township, they might be emboldened to go after others,” she said.  Ross Township near Kalamazoo, Michigan, has a population of fewer than 5,000 residents, according to the 2020 census.  A spokesperson for the Michigan Attorney General’s Office didn’t respond to The Daily Signal’s inquiries.  The office’s action came just weeks after Benson, Michigan’s secretary of state, announced a “Democracy Ambassador” program. A press release said one goal was to “combat any election-related misinformation targeting Michigan voters.” Separately, a one-page “Election Misinformation” document posted as a PDF on the Michigan Department of State’s website says: “If you see misleading or inaccurate information regarding voting or elections in Michigan, please report it—and include an image if possible—to Misinformation@Michigan.gov.”  Elieff said she isn’t aware of any connection with what happened to her.  The Michigan Department of State didn’t respond to The Daily Signal’s inquiries about whether it was aware of the incident or whether anyone there referred the matter to the state’s attorney general. The post ‘Beatdown’ for GOP Candidate: How Michigan Combats Election ‘Misinformation’ appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Hungry for the Lord: Sunday Reflection

In the post 9/11 world, bioterrorism is the stuff of nightmares. During the Cold War arms race, the United States and the Soviet Union developed vast stockpiles of biological and chemical agents. The fear is that terrorists might get a hold of an engineered strain of small pox, anthrax, or the plague and let it loose in a city. Such an outbreak could, at the very least, derail an entire region. At worst, it could end civilization as we know it. However, this fear is far from a modern preoccupation. Medieval armies would fling plague infected corpses over enemy walls to spread disease, and the scourge of small pox (in some cases intentionally spread) among Native Americans is well documented. One lesser known incident of bioterrorism occurred during the American Civil War, when a Southern sympathizer attempted to spread Yellow Fever among Northern cities. The virus that causes yellow fever. Symptoms include fever, chills, nausea, vomiting, back pain, and loss of appetite. Extreme cases result in the victim vomiting blood, which makes the vomit appear black. Dr. Blackburn: physician… and terrorist? Dr. Luke Blackburn was a Kentuckian, physician, and Southern sympathizer. He was famous for his treatment of yellow fever outbreaks in Louisiana and Mississippi, which made him more than qualified to help when the dread disease broke out in Bermuda. The year was 1864, and the South was hardpressed in its war against the Union. From the beginning, it lacked the industrial capacity and man power of its northern neighbor, a fact that was taking its toll three years into the conflict. The Confederacy was desperate for resources, and could ill afford the outbreak in Bermuda, a key partner in its trade network. Luke P. Blackburn (Portrait by Nicola Marschall, 1883) So, Dr. Blackburn, eager to help the Southern cause, was duly dispatched to Bermuda, where he offered his services free of charge. Little did his patients know that his expertise was not offered solely out of the goodness of his heart. Dr. Blackburn gathered their bedding, clothes, vomit crusted rags, and other such disgusting articles. He packed them into trunks, which he put under the care of a co-conspirator named Mr. Swan. The plan was to ship the trunks first to Halifax, Nova Scotia, and then to New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Norfolk, and Washington where the plague infested articles would be sold to clothing merchants, who would inadvertently spread yellow fever to their customers. A witness claimed that the good doctor had prepared a valise full of fine shirts for none other than Abraham Lincoln himself. Since there was no mass outbreak of yellow fever that derailed the entire war effort and handed the South victory, it should be obvious that the whole plot failed. Witnesses to Dr. Blackburn’s nefarious deeds came forward, and the Union consul in Bermuda got wind of the scheme. The operation was shut down and Dr. Blackburn fled back to Canada. A futile effort, and its aftermath When Dr. Blackburn returned to Canada, he was arrested and charged with violating Canada’s Neutrality Act. However, charges were dropped since there wasn’t any hard evidence showing that the plague trunks had ever entered Canada’s border. In an odd twist, especially in light of today’s attitude toward terrorism and terroristic threats, the US government never followed up on the matter, although newspapers had a field day. While a link to the Confederacy was suspected, any record was destroyed in the wake of the Southern defeat. As for Dr. Blackburn, he refused to talk about the plot. He continued his work with yellow fever, combating an outbreak in Louisiana in 1878. He was elected governor of his home state of Kentucky from 1879-1883, where he was held in high regard for his work on prison reform. The only time he spoke on the matter, Blackburn denied all involvement and said that the plot was too ridiculous for a gentleman to be involved with. It turned out that he was right, in that regard. The yellow fever plot failed from its conception, because yellow fever is can’t spread directly from person to person. Instead, it is spread by mosquitoes. But one shouldn’t be too hard on Dr. Blackburn for that technicality. First, the germ theory of disease hadn’t be discovered yet. Second, the vector for yellow fever wasn’t discovered until 1911, so there was no way Dr. Blackburn could have known that his little scheme was doomed from the beginning. The post Confederate Bio-warfare: Dr. Blackburn and the Yellow Fever Plot appeared first on Anomalien.com.

Ever since I announced that Oklahoma’s public schools would incorporate the Bible into academic curricula for the upcoming school year, my plan has been met with criticism, hysteria, and vitriol from all the usual suspects — leftist union bosses, anti-religious activists, and woke politicians. Now those forces are massing around a lawsuit to try to stop the Bible from being taught in classrooms. To fully understand the history of the United States and to grasp the meaning of our founding is an impossible task without a baseline understanding of the Judeo-Christian Bible. Whether or not one accepts it as the inspired word of God, the Bible nonetheless is a passport to an intellectual world of goodness, beauty, and historical impact. And this is the last thing that the radical left wants. There is nothing unconstitutional about teaching the Bible. Its presence in government schools has been under assault by the Supreme Court for over 60 years. And it has been under the most vicious forms of political attack for the last 10 years. Two years ago, the Supreme Court overturned what was known as the “Lemon test” for religious instruction in the classroom, a legal development that was long overdue. Whereas the court previously imposed a nonsensical, ahistorical three-part test on biblical instruction, we have now returned to a proper understanding of the First Amendment and the role of religion in public institutions. Thoughtful educators and parents have in front of us the opportunity to start undoing the last several decades of judicial activism and return to well-rounded educational curricula. Naturally, there are still some who disagree. The Bible, like so many other foundational pieces of literature that American students have been deprived of, is a primary source like any other. Its scores of primary sources and documents are assembled into a single anthology, to put it in academic terms. But the books contained within the Bible pervade so much of the historical and literary world that preceded the creation of this republic and the formation of the American people. To fully understand the history of the United States and to grasp the meaning of our founding is an impossible task without a baseline understanding of the Judeo-Christian Bible. In the first two sentences of the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson lays out a summary of the American ideal — the bedrock principles of our entire existence as a country. In those sentences he makes it explicitly clear that our rights are derived from God and that the laws that supersede those of tyrants like King George III are given to us from the same transcendent source. Twentieth-century figures ranging from Martin Luther King Jr. to Ronald Reagan invoked scripture as a driving inspiration for their work in public life. Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream'' speech marked a pivotal moment in the history of the Civil Rights movement and of the 20th century as a whole. That speech contains references to the books of Amos, Isaiah, Psalms, and Galatians. His “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” likewise contains several direct references to scripture to make its arguments against the injustices of the system. It’s not because King just chose to use scripture as a rhetorical device. It’s because his efforts were motivated by the biblical belief that we are all made equally in the image of God and are therefore deserving of equal protection of the law and protection of society. The leftists of the education cartel are violently opposed to allowing the Bible into the classroom; they are engaged in a form of intellectual tyranny. Reagan often pointed to the principles of Christianity and biblical truth as a source of America’s greatness. He often said, “Within the covers of the Bible are the answers for all the problems men face.” Reagan easily referred to and used both the Old and the New Testaments in his personal and public life. His long-standing use of the Bible as a source for describing the country is found in his declaration that the U.S. is “a shining city on a hill” for all the world to see. To a student who has been denied an academic education about the Bible, those arguments will, at best, sound like a poorly translated foreign language. With the few exceptions of those who merely oppose teaching the Bible on their principle of the so-called “separation of church and state” — a phrase that appears nowhere in either the Declaration or Constitution — the loudest and most virulent opponents of teaching the Bible academically are afraid of what happens if these texts are legitimized and given public sanction. Those same anti-civilizational voices will claim that the Bible has no academic value. Yet at the same time, leftist politicians and union bosses are fighting more for pornographic books like "Gender Queer" and "Flamer," which have nothing to do with education and are used solely to propagandize children into political and social conformity with the radical left. So naturally, the leftists of the education cartel are violently opposed to allowing the Bible into the classroom; they are engaged in a form of intellectual tyranny. This way, the radical, progressive, anti-Western worldview is kept safe from anything that might give weight, meaning, and substance to the things it wishes to belittle and destroy. This is precisely why I look forward to this fight to defend scholarly education on the Bible in Oklahoma. Our students deserve a real education, one that puts them in direct contact with the greatness of the civilization that we have inherited and provides them with actual tools to confront challenges to it. Just as important, our republic and our society deserve citizens who have been properly educated in this regard. Americans deserve no less.

BIG Mistake! Dana Bash So OWNED Questioning JD Vance About Tim Walz She Tries Changing Subject (Watch)