OREGON FARMERS, LOGGERS, TRUCKERS AND GOP SENATORS REBEL AGAINST DEMS
By A. Dru Kristenev —— Bio and Archives--June 26, 2019
National media has been quick to cover Oregon Governor Kate Brown’s militaristic response to republican legislators who have cut senate sessions and left town.
In an effort to save Oregon agriculture, transportation and natural resource industries from bearing the burden of a boundless cap and trade bill (Oregon HB 2020), 11 republican senators ditched the state capital to prevent a quorum in the chamber. It was a stand made to force the far-reaching plan into a referendum vote rather than allow a super-majority legislature, packed with politicians lacking business experience, to set policy.
Brown’s reaction was to condemn the senators for dereliction of duty and charge the state police with the task of rounding up the truants and compelling them to return to Salem. Despite the Oregon State Police’s statement that they are following their constitutional obligation, it has been suggested that the forced return of legislators to a special session Brown has called July 2 might fall under Oregon Statute 163.255 of second degree kidnap. Whether the senators have committed a crime warranting arrest goes unanswered.
As well, Brown’s hysteria is being called hypocritical as her history was revealed, dredging up the fact that she had led a similar exodus in 2001 over redistricting.
What has made few inroads into the national news cycle is the rebellion of truckers, loggers and, according to a source, upcoming protest by farmers. Climate change promoting media that refuses theory challengers access to speak, claimed the absent senators had teamed-up with patriot groups supposedly vowing violence against the State. Citing tweets from unaffiliated individuals inferring violence haven’t traced back to any official statements from grassroots groups. Stories claiming a threat from militia against democrat lawmakers are admittedly unsubstantiated, in this instance by the Associated Press.
Statements by Senate Republican Leader Herman Baertschiger, jr., who the governor has threatened to arrest and the democrat majority is now fining each day for non-attendance, have been construed as hostile in nature. “We will not stand by and be bullied by the majority party any longer. Oregonians deserve better. It’s time for the majority party to consider all Oregonians‚Äìnot just the ones in Portland.”
Democrat-run legislature has levied a $500 fine against the republican senators for each day absent
Representative Tim Knopp updated Fox News that the Republicans are still at large, having crossed state lines and staying out-of-reach of the Oregon State Police.
June 19, 2019, a convoy of truckers and loggers descended on Salem to circle the state capitol building in a show of defiance of the Democrat overlords and support for the Republican legislators. Oregon farmers have been encouraged to bring their tractors to the capital this week where another rally is scheduled June 27 to denounce the bill the Democrats want passed.
Because the Democrat-run legislature has levied a $500 fine against the republican senators for each day absent until mandatory shutdown June 30, funding pages have been established to pay the accumulating fees. At last count, more than $43,000 had been raised by individual Oregonians who back the senators’ action.
What hasn’t appeared in news coverage is how the 55-page bill, meant to regulate “greenhouse gas emissions,” will impose impossible standards on public agencies that will require replacement of fire trucks, and other necessary vehicles and equipment, none of which are listed under exemptions or exclusions. Counties, municipalities, utilities, school districts, etc. will be on the hook to replace equipment at an unaffordable cost to Oregon’s rural counties that already teeter on the edge of bankruptcy.
The absent Republicans insist that it is incumbent on the legislature to shelve the bill and place the measure on the ballot for all Oregonians to weigh in on legislation that would effectively cripple agriculture and natural resource industries and place civic services at risk. To what end? As verified studies prove volcanic eruptions spew more noxious gases into the atmosphere than humanity, and that CO2 isn’t killing the planet but needs more to maintain health, Oregonians are concluding the purpose is to fill coffers of power hungry politicians, not cut carbon emissions. (It took digging through pages of non-scientific pro-global warming chatter to find real studies. Google is indeed stacking the deck.)
Under the Oregon constitution, Article II, §2 “(2) Provision may be made by law to require that persons who vote upon questions of levying special taxes or issuing public bonds shall be taxpayers.” As this cap and trade appears to be a special tax, wouldn’t a referendum vote be necessary to implement the plan rather than legislative action?
Perhaps the democrats believe that by levying a tax without calling it a tax, terming them “allowances” that can be auctioned and awarded as “credits” against greenhouse gases emitted, they are sidestepping the constitutional directive stated in Article IX §3: “Tax Imposed Only by Law; Statement of Purpose - No tax shall be levied except in accordance with law. Every law imposing a tax shall state distinctly the purpose to which the revenue shall be applied.”
The various funds and grant programs outlined in the bill are vacuous, indefinite and ambivalent
The various funds and grant programs outlined in the bill are vacuous, indefinite and ambivalent in explanations of how and where revenues will be applied, leaving the barn door open for fortunes to disappear into unsupervised “action plans” (i.e. bureaucrat pockets).
Either the democrat supermajority in the Oregon statehouse has trouble reading the 95-page constitution and overlooked these sections or they have invented the most convoluted scheme in history to steal citizens’ livelihoods.
Measuring an unseen, naturally exhaled substance (that gained classification as poisonous via the Massachusetts v. EPA SCOTUS opinion of 2006) against an ambiguous standard set by dozens of backbiting administrators is the progressives’ way of implementing the world’s most expensive and expansive snipe hunt. Trouble is, this sport has no rules and is spreading from state to state.
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