Supreme Court Smacks Down Obama’s Globalist Agenda!

While the Supreme Court tends to lean Conservative, many of its most recent rulings have been split down party/ideological lines. Most contentious cases end up with a 5-4 split, with Justice Kennedy usually providing the swing vote. It isn’t very often that the Court has a unanimous ruling and it is even less likely for a Court to rule unanimously against a sitting-President’s administration.

Then again, the Department of Justice is run by Eric Holder, so I guess anything is possible.

Just this week, the Supreme Court ruled against Holder and Obama 9-0 in the case Bond v. United States. I have covered this case in the past, early on when it was still in the trial phase. The U.S. government charged Carol Anne Bond with violating the 1998 U.N. Chemical Weapons Treaty after she launched an amateurish plan to poison her husband’s mistress. Mrs. Bond covered door knobs with chemicals hoping to kill the woman, but when all was said and done, the attempt did nothing but create a mild burning and itching sensation on her target’s hands.

The Obama administration defended the lower court’s decision to have Mrs. Bond convicted under International Law. Holder and the DOJ argued that using chemicals against an individual violates the Convention on Chemical Weapons. Since Mrs. Bond was convicted in a lower court, this marked the first time that U.N. law was applied to U.S. civilian crimes.

This is exactly what the Obama administration wants. The President wants us to live under international law. Even just yesterday, when Obama faced a firestorm over his most recent illegal prisoner transfer, he justified the transfer using the Geneva Convention, not the Constitution!

For the Supreme Court to rule 9-0 against the Obama’s globalist agenda is excellent, but Congress must ensure that no U.S. citizen is EVER subject to international prosecution for petty domestic crimes!

This case is soap-opera worthy, so let me flesh it out for you… Carol Anne Bond is a Pennsylvania microbiologist who, unfortunately, is sterile and cannot have children. In 2006, Carol learned that her best friend, Myrlinda Haynes, was pregnant by her husband, Clifford.

So, Bond did what any brooding microbiologist would do: she ordered a bunch of chemicals online and tried to kill her husband’s mistress by leaving the chemicals on door knobs, mailboxes, anything she believed that the other woman would touch.

Myrlinda Haynes suffered nothing but a burn and some redness on her fingers. Local prosecutors refused to touch the case. They couldn’t find a charge that would stick. But the Feds charged Carol Ann Bond with violating the 1998 Chemical Weapons Convention.

Mrs. Bond pleaded guilty while simultaneously retaining her right to appeal. Now, all these years later, the Supreme Court has finally ruled in her favor, slapping down the ridiculous arguments made by the Obama administration!

Chief Justice John Roberts wrote that if the Obama administration’s arguments were allowed to stand, their definition of “Chemical Weapons” would “sweep in everything from the detergent under the kitchen sink to the stain remover in the laundry room.” These aren’t chemical weapons… they are cleaning supplies!

If the Obama administration had succeeded, owning household cleaning supplies would have put you in the same class as war criminals like Saddam Hussein and Syrian Leader Bashar al-Assad! Not only is Obama trying to lump legal gun owners in with mass shooters, but now the DOJ was LITERALLY arguing that owning cleaning supplies was equivalent to stockpiling mustard gas…

But the Supreme Court, luckily, did not side with the administration. Unfortunately, it took so long for Carol Anne Bond’s case to reach the highest court that she has since served her sentence and has been reunited with her husband. While this ruling has broad implications moving forward, it does nothing to give back the years of her life lost because aggressive Federal prosecutors decided that U.N. laws should trump our own!

While the Supreme Court ruled that the government’s use of a Chemical Weapons Treaty to prosecute a jealous wife was completely ridiculous, it left open the question of whether international law can, philosophically and legally, trump the Constitution. While the Court agreed unanimously that Bond’s crimes didn’t warrant prosecution under the 1998 Chemical Weapons Treaty, six of the nine justices refused to comment on the Constitutionality of international law trumping the Constitution and being used to prosecute domestic crimes.

Justices Scalia, Alito, and Thomas wanted the Court to go further. They wanted the court to decide the constitutionality of Federal prosecutors charging individuals with international crimes. In their opinion, this is clearly ludicrous. But Chief Justice Roberts, known for skirting larger constitutional issues, refused to comment on that aspect of the case.

And with that, a common sense Supreme Court ruling has actually left the door open for U.S. citizens to still be charged with violating international law!

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again… This loophole in the Court’s decision poses the most dangerous threat to our Republic that we have seen in years. The idea that a zealous prosecutor could charge a U.S. citizen with violating an international treaty is beyond ridiculous.

This isn’t a hypothetical… Eric Holder’s Justice Department actually argued before the Supreme Court that international law can trump the Constitution! Now you’re starting to get an idea why Obama signed the U.N. Arms Treaty, even though he knew it wouldn’t pass through Congress…

We have enough laws to adequately prosecute criminals. There is absolutely no need to bring international law into the equation. Mass shooters don’t need to be charged with genocide, gun owners shouldn’t be charged with violating the U.N. Arms Trade Treaty, and jealous wives definitely shouldn’t be charged with Chemical Weapons Treaty violations!

This is such common sense, that it shouldn’t even be up for debate. But it is!

We live in a country that is bound by the Constitution, not some international treaty. For a President to have his administration defend such an action is unconscionable. But that just goes to show that as far as Obama is concerned, international law trumps the Constitution!

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Obama Sprinting to Finish Line to 'Transform' America

It obviously doesn't bother President Obama a whit to usurp congressional power to impose more draconian environmental regulations — and probably not much more to do so in an election year, even when his action will hurt Democrats.

What's he going to do now, you ask?

Well, his Environmental Protection Agency, in deference to and collusion with Obama's war on domestic energy producers, has unveiled a proposed rule to mandate power plants to cut U.S. carbon dioxide emissions 30 percent by 2030 from levels 25 years earlier.

According to The Wall Street Journal, the rule would affect hundreds of fossil-fuel power plants and hit America's 600 coal-fired power plants the hardest. The rule, says the Journal, "is a major element of (Obama's) attempt to secure a second-term legacy."

Someone please deliver Obama the memo: He has already secured his second-term, first-term and entire-term legacy by doing more harm to this nation across the board than not only any former president but any other human being in our history. Why can't he just be satisfied with the damage he's already caused?

One of the most insidious techniques Obama has employed to wreak havoc on America and its institutions has been the imposition of laws and rules with delayed effective dates so that the public will not immediately realize the enormity of the hardships and destruction being caused.

Look at the delays he built in to Obamacare, including the thousands of preferential exemptions from the law he extended to buy off opposition and ward off political challenges during the various election years. Look at the trillions of dollars he is spending now to create the illusion that the economy is stronger than it is, with willful disregard for its bankrupting effect on future generations of Americans.

The same is true with his refusal to reform entitlement programs, whose $100 trillion in unfunded liabilities is a ticking time bomb for America's financial stability. The Dodd-Frank financial reform bill was sold as a measure to prevent further consolidation of banking power, and we are already seeing that it is doing just the opposite. But why should Obama care? He got his law passed, and it's having his desired — as opposed to promised — effect.

The same is true of this new EPA emissions rule. The rule would give states and companies as much as 15 years to comply and thus presumably reduce both their opposition and the public's.

Not surprisingly, the White House is deceitfully promising — as it did with Obamacare when no one could prove otherwise in advance — that this rule would lower costs and create jobs. Are you kidding me? No intellectually honest person could believe that. Obama doesn't even want the rule to lower costs and create jobs. This is all part of his pre-announced plan to bankrupt conventional energy producers.

Obama will doubtlessly line up the usual corporate suspects to announce their support for his bill — those he will have bought off through crony capitalism by ensuring the rule somehow would benefit them. Just as he lined up the white-coated physicians and insurance executives to stand with him in passing Obamacare, he'll hail this support as proof that it's in the best interests of American businesses and America itself.

But The Washington Examiner's Timothy Carney notes that corporate lobbyists are divided on Obama's current climate measure because it would benefit some companies and hurt others. He will garner the vocal support of those businesses that would profit from the regulations, a technique used by politicians to advance previous environmental regulations.

It is disturbing to contemplate the sheer power of this federal government, especially its unchecked and constitutionally unauthorized administrative branch, to whimsically issue such far-reaching decrees that negatively impact so many businesses and industries and so many lives — all in the name of helping them. The Competitive Enterprise Institute calculates that the federal regulatory leviathan currently costs the U.S. economy some $1.86 trillion annually, which amounts to a hidden tax of nearly $15,000 per household.

Obama is proceeding apace to consummate his wholesale destruction, er, fundamental transformation of America, and adding insult to injury, he's doing it outside the scope of his constitutional authority. He will not be denied. But he's making sure America will be.

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Surprise! Leftist minimum wage policy backfires in Seattle suburb

The Emerald City may witness the economic dangers of hiking the minimum wage to $15/hour sooner rather than later. SeaTac, a suburb of Seattle, hiked the minimum wage for certain service industry employees to $15 at the beginning of the year, and there are already signs that the sudden increase is having a negative impact.

Earlier this month, Seattle voted to raise its minimum wage gradually to $15 by the year 2020. Unlike the SeaTac wage hike, Seattle’s hike will apply to all businesses.

But 15 minutes south near the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, employees are already seeing the negative effects of such a hike. A February report from the Seattle Times revealed:

At the Clarion Hotel off International Boulevard, a sit-down restaurant has been shuttered, though it might soon be replaced by a less-labor-intensive cafe…

Other businesses have adjusted in ways that run the gamut from putting more work in the hands of managers, to instituting a small “living-wage surcharge” for a daily parking space near the airport.

That’s not all. According to Assunta Ng, publisher of the Northwest Asian Weekly, some employees are feeling the pinch as employers cut benefits. She recalls a conversation she had with two hotel employees who have been affected by the wage hike:

“Are you happy with the $15 wage?” I asked the full-time cleaning lady.

“It sounds good, but it’s not good,” the woman said.

“Why?” I asked.

“I lost my 401k, health insurance, paid holiday, and vacation,” she responded. “No more free food,” she added.

The hotel used to feed her. Now, she has to bring her own food. Also, no overtime, she said. She used to work extra hours and received overtime pay.

What else? I asked.

“I have to pay for parking,” she said.

I then asked the part-time waitress, who was part of the catering staff.

“Yes, I’ve got $15 an hour, but all my tips are now much less,” she said. Before the new wage law was implemented, her hourly wage was $7. But her tips added to more than $15 an hour. Yes, she used to receive free food and parking. Now, she has to bring her own food and pay for parking.

The Washington Policy Center, a free market think tank, said the passed-but-not-yet-implemented wage hike is already affecting small businesses in Seattle:

After decades in Seattle, Northwest Caster and Equipment recently made the difficult decision to move the business to unincorporated Lynnwood, according to a report by KOMO news.  The owner of the family business blames Seattle’s increasingly difficult business climate for the move:  “It just seems like increasingly the city’s become a more difficult place to do business.”

The city’s proposed $15 minimum wage was tops on the list of complaints.  “If I’m going to bring someone in on an entry level, I’d prefer to start them out where I’d like to start them out, rather than having that dictated to me.”

A commercial property landlord echoes those concerns about the $15 minimum wage, noting several tenants have signaled they may not renew their leases if it becomes law: “It’s just too expensive to operate in the city.”

And in a story today, KUOW reports that small businesses throughout the city are panicking over the super high minimum wage.  Multiple small business owners told KUOW they are holding off on opening new business or expanding their current business in Seattle, while others said they are delaying plans to hire new workers.

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