Category: Anti Civil Rights ideas & “Friends”

Contact Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham TODAY!

The State of New Mexico will no longer allow gun shows at state-run facilities.  The New Mexico Gun Collectors Association, which had been holding shows at EXPO New Mexico at the State Fairgrounds in Albuquerque for more than 40 years, was given verbal notice that their October show has been cancelled for that reason.  Rocky Mountain Gun Shows has been told that their November show at the same facility is a no-go as well.  After months of cancellations ostensibly due to COVID-related issues, the gun control boom was finally lowered on promoters of these legal events where honest citizens have lawfully exercised their Second Amendment right to purchase and own firearms for decades.  Gun shows are no longer welcome on state property, nor are their customers, their rights and the boost they provide to the state and local economy.

EXPO New Mexico is a state agency that, according to its website, works closely with the State Fair Commission to carry out day-to-day operations and host and produce events at the facility.  Governor Lujan Grisham appointed all seven members of the State Fair Commission back in September of 2019.  From the Commission’s website, it appears that the last time the Commission gave notice about a meeting, when it actually met, and the last meeting for which minutes are available, was January of 2020.  Nothing in those minutes mentions EXPO staff or the Commission taking action to end gun shows at the State Fairgrounds.  Further, the New Mexico Legislature has not adopted legislation prohibiting such events on state property.  So where does this sudden misguided policy change come from?

All signs point to Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham.  Not to be outdone by her Left Coast recall colleague Gavin Newsom and anti-gun extremist lawmakers in the California Legislature who are considering a similar ban, she appears to have wildly wielded her executive power to use a state agency to target gun owners and throw a pre-election year bone to radical gun control activists.  This is in spite of the fact that just two years ago, she signed into law NRA-opposed Senate Bill 8, the so-called “universal background check” bill, which supposedly closed the non-existent “gun show loophole” and required criminal records checks on private firearms sales at such events.

Senate Bill 8 has been a colossal failure, as proven by the lack of any prosecutions for violations of the law and the skyrocketing murder rate in Albuquerque.  So, either the governor’s new policy is a tragic admission of that gun control failure or an action that reveals the true motive of the gun control movement: to end gun shows altogether.

Contact Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham TODAY by phone at (505) 476-2200 and by email here.  Tell her to reverse this policy and allow gun shows back at EXPO New Mexico and state fairgrounds.  Urge your fellow gun-owning New Mexicans to do so as well!

A half century ago one of the most disastrous monetary decisions in U.S. history was committed by Richard Nixon.  In a television address, the president declared that the nation would no longer redeem internationally dollars for gold.  Since the dollar was the world’s reserve currency, Nixon’s closing of the “Gold Window” put the world on an irredeemable paper monetary standard.

The ramifications of the act continue to this very day.  America’s current financial mess, budget deficits, the reoccurring booms and busts, the decline of living standards (particularly the middle class), all have their genesis with Nixon’s infamous decision in August, 1971.

Abandoning the last vestiges of the gold standard was the culmination of a long-term goal of the banksters, politicians, financial elites, and deceitful economists.  The first step was the establishment of the Federal Reserve in 1913 whose primary purpose was to allow its member banks to inflate the money supply without fearing the consequences – bank failures/panics, bank runs, recessions/depressions.  The Fed could, and still does, through the control of the money supply enrich itself, the government, and its aligned financial elites at the expense of the public at large.

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The next step on the road to monetary debasement was Franklin Roosevelt’s  draconian measure of outlawing the private ownership of gold.  This was not only an unprecedented and outrageous attack on private property, but it also eliminated gold redemption of dollars domestically, which gave the Fed unlimited power to print money without fear of its notes being redeemed.

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The specious justification for the law, enacted shortly after the start of FDR’s first tyrannical term in office, was to fight the Great Depression.  Of course, the measure did nothing to mitigate the Depression which, in fact, was not caused by Americans’ ownership of gold, but rather the Fed itself and its wild inflationary policies throughout the “Roaring 20s.”

FDR’s action, like Nixon’s, demonstrated how much the power of the presidency had expanded.  It shows again the flawed and frankly naïve argument put forth by Constitutionalists and conservatives of every ideological persuasion that the celebrated “separation of powers” theory that supposedly checks the aggrandizement of federal power could not prevent the audacious acts of FDR and Nixon.   Despite what is taught in social sciences courses, a true gold standard is a greater protector of individuals’ economic well being and, ultimately, their political liberty than any legislation, bills of rights, or constitution ever penned.  Hard money limits state power!

The primary reason why President Nixon closed the Gold Window was to fund the nation’s “guns & butter” economic and social policies which had begun under his predecessor Lyndon Johnson.  Johnson’s “War on Poverty” and his escalation of the war in Vietnam caused the Fed to print vast amounts of money which began to drain the Treasury of gold.

While U.S. citizens and financial institutions could not redeem dollars for gold, foreign central banks could.  The U.S.’s inflationary policy to fund its domestic and foreign objectives was why the Gold Window was closed.  In effect, the U.S. was reneging on its commitment which had been in place since Bretton Woods.  It was not as President Nixon announced as part of his new economic policy initiative entitled “The Challenge of Peace,” “to take action necessary to defend the dollar against the speculators.”* Instead, it was the type of monetary chicanery that banana republic’s often pursue.

Culturally, the eradication of hard money was part of the transformation of a mature, frugal, hardworking, and future-oriented people into an infantile, self-absorbed, dysfunctional, and hedonistic collection of individuals.  While many consequences of this change could be cited, one of the most telling is that America has gone from a creditor nation (in 1971) to a debtor nation within a couple of generations.  Not only has the national debt exploded (which now exceeds $30 trillion!), but personal and corporate debt are at dizzying heights.

At this point, a reversal of President Nixon’s decision would do little to confront the immense problems which the U.S. economy faces.  A “Great Reset” of the economic system is in order, but not the kind envisioned by the world’s financial elites.

An honest-to-goodness reset would begin with a return to a metallic monetary standard where all national currencies would be redeemable in gold/silver.  Such a move would put a real check on banks’ ability to create money “out of thin air.”

The return of prosperity will only come about when gold is again a part of the monetary order and reasserts its critical role in the limitation of central bank power.

*Richard M. Nixon, “Address to the Nation Outlining a New Economic Policy: ‘The Challenge of Peace.’”  The American Presidency Project.  15 August 1971.

Things just keep getting worse for Rochester, N.Y. mayor and member of Michael Bloomberg front group Mayors Against Illegal Guns (MAIG) Lovely Warren. On July 16, the gun control proponent was charged with criminal possession of a firearm, endangering the welfare of a child, and failure to lock/secure firearms in a dwelling.

Back in October 2020, the mayor was indicted on scheme to defraud in the first degree charges stemming from alleged campaign finance violations committed during her 2017 election campaign. The indictment alleged that between November 6, 2013 and Nov. 7, 2017 Warren worked to circumvent campaign contribution limits. Detailing the alleged scheme, local news outlet 13WHAM reported,

The [2017 campaign] was paid for with donations from her campaign fund called “Friends of Lovely Warren.” The law caps contributions to that fund at $8,557.

Warren also created a PAC called “Warren for a Stronger Rochester.” PACs are allowed to raise unlimited amounts of money – yet can only donate that same capped amount to an individual campaign. The PAC cannot operate as an unlimited slush fund for her campaign and must also be operated separately.

A 13WHAM analysis of campaign and PAC filings… took a look at the top 20 donors over four years. The donors moved back and forth – donating to alternate funds – allowing them to give almost $124,973 more than finance limits would allow.

Scheme to defraud in the first degree is a class E felony punishable by up to four years imprisonment.

Things got more serious for the mayor in May, when Warren’s husband, Timothy Granison, was charged for his alleged role in a “cocaine trafficking ring.” State Police raided Warren’s home on May 19. Law enforcement recovered drugs from Granison’s vehicle and two firearms, including an unregistered handgun, from the couple’s home.

The first count of the five-count July 16 indictment alleges that Warren was in criminal possession of a Kel-Tec P-40 semiautomatic pistol. In New York, pistols must be registered with the government and possession of an unregistered pistol is criminal possession of a firearm. A violation of this statute is a class E felony punishable by up to four years imprisonment.

The second and third counts of the indictment accuse Warren of endangering the welfare of a child. The document alleges the defendant “knowingly acted in a manner likely to be injurious to the physical, mental, or moral welfare of a child less than seventeen (17) years old.” Endangering the welfare of a child is a class A misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in prison.

The fourth and fifth counts of the indictment relate to the alleged incorrect storage of the firearms the state police found in Warren’s home. The Rochester City Code provides,

No person shall store a firearm, rifle, shotgun or air gun in a dwelling in the City unless said firearm, rifle, shotgun or air gun is completely enclosed or contained in a nontransparent locked carrying case or in a locked gun rack, cabinet, closet or safe, or a locking device is attached to the weapon and locked in a manner so as to prevent the weapon from being fired.

A violation of the city’s storage ordinance is punishable by up to 180 days imprisonment.

Warren and Granison have plead not guilty to the charges.

As NRA-ILA noted in June, every mayor who joins MAIG is asked to sign a “Statement of Principles” that includes (besides the standard demands for things like more background checks, red flag and storage laws), a commitment “to promote the enforcement of existing gun laws that have swift and certain consequences,” and “encourage police to trace all suspected crime guns to identify the sources of firearms, to develop leads, and to identify potential traffickers.”

However, in addition to lending her name to Bloomberg’s anti-gun campaign, Warren was active in gun control politics.

In 2015, the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle reported that “Warren sat down with representatives of Moms Demand Action.” The paper went on to report, “Afterward, Warren said she welcomed the group’s support…” Moms Demand Action founder Shannon Watts even posed for a picture with the embattled mayor.

In 2017, Warren was set to participate in a panel discussion at John Jay College titled, “Mayors Against Illegal Guns: How are Mayors Taking Responsibility for Addressing Gun Violence in Their Cities?” As one might gather from the name, the panel was co-sponsored by Bloomberg’s Everytown for Gun Safety (MAIG’s parent organization).

Warren was also a participant in the U.S. Conference of Mayors (USCM). At various points USCM has encouraged frivolous lawsuits aimed at bankrupting the gun industry, taken the District of Columbia’s position in District of Columbia v. Heller, and called for federal legislation “against the manufacture, importation, sale, and private possession of handguns, except for use by law enforcement personnel, military and sportsmen clubs.”

On June 22, Rochester City Councilmember Malik Evans defeated Warren in the city’s Democratic primary for mayor. Therefore, Rochester residents are likely nearing the end of this sordid tale of alleged official malfeasance. As for the notorious misdeeds of Bloomberg’s mayors, history all but guarantees there will be more.