Native American Biography: Ben Nighthorse Campbell, Jewelry Maker, Congressman, Senator

 Ben Nighthorse Campbell was born in 1933.  He was of Cheyenne heritage through his father, and European heritage through his mother.  His grandfather fought in the Battle of Little Big Horn.  He was born in California, in the Sacramento area.  Both of Ben's parents had issues, his father with alcohol and his mother with tuberculosis.  He and his sister spent considerable time in Catholic orphanages.  He left high school before graduating to join the Air Force.  He served in the Korean War.  Aftr his service he used his G.I. bill to attend San Jose State.  While there he was a member of the Judo team.  While training for the Olympics he attended Meiji University in Japan.  They had a very disciplined Judo program and this helped him take the U.S. championship in 1961, 62 and 63.  He participated in the 1964 Olympics.  However he broke his ankle and did not win a medal.

His given name was Ben Campbell at birth.  He acquired his Nighthorse name at his Cheyenne naming ceremony.  His father was of the Blackhorse family.

He began a successful career as a jeweler and jewelry maker.  He used techniques from Japanese sword making.  They bought a ranch on the Southern Ute Reservation in Colorado.  He had an art booth in Santa Fe.

He started in politics sort of as an accident.  He would run for state legislature as noone else wanted to.  However he put his all into it and won.  He eventually became a congressman and then a senator from Colorado.  He switched from the Democrat to the Republican party and still won as a Senator.  He retired from politics in 2005.  He continued as a lobbyist.  He has also continued his jewelry business.

With his daughter in Santa Fe 2015 at the jewelry market.

Flyover Nation: You Can’t Run a Country You’ve Never Been To by Dana Loesch, Sentinel, New York, 2016.

This is a few from a Conservative woman from Missouri (She was very liberal when young but slowly converted to conservatism after giving birth to a son).  Many of the topics are those which worry people from the heartland of the country.  Things for which the heartland traditionally takes heat form elitists, as they are thought to be uneducated.  Some of these include: abortion, Black Lives Matter vs Lives Matter, gun control, having a network of family to support you, media bias, and just the attitude of many politicians towards the heartland of the country.  I enjoyed this read, and she expressed many things in a good way.  

American Biography: David Crockett

David Crocket (he only became known as Davy late in life) was a frontiersman born in Kentucky.  He hunted bear and birds, trapped forest animals, planted crops and fathered two boys by Polly Finley who he married before he turned 20.  In 1813 he served with Andrew Jackson against the Red Sticks of the Creek.  Crocket performed well in battle, but he had a conflict with Jackson's ruthless tendencies.  Crockett's anger with Jackson would follow him into politics.
Crockett's political career began when his former commanding officer, Captain Matthews was a candidate for lieutenant colonel and asked Crocket to run for major.  However Crockett realized Matthews had picked Crockett to run against his son, hoping he was and easy candidate to beat.  He decided to run against Matthews instead, and became the commander of the militia.
Crockett's wife passed away, but he remarried, and now through his wife had some money.  Crocket would run for state legislature.  He wasn't a natural politician, and admitted this readily and made fun of himself, but would offer whiskey after his short words, and nobody would be left to listen to his opponent.  Crockett won.  When Crockett ran for Congress, he again ran a populist campaign.  He ran against Dr. William Butler, nephew of Andrew Jackson.  Crocket wore his buckskin clothes, while saying in the doctor's fancy house he the doctor walked on carpets better than most women's clothes.  Crockett again won.
The same year Andrew Jackson had run for president, and although he won the popular vote, he lost the electoral collage vote.  However Jackson's political hopes were looking up.  Crockett stood up for the rights of the poor and the down trodden.  Crocket supported Jackson in his next run for the presidency, which he won, but did not support his policies.  Crockett wrote a couple autobiographies, "The Life and Adventures of Colonel David Crockett of West Tennessee" and "A Narrative of the Life of David Crockett, written by Himself."  A big bone of contention between Crockett and Jackson was the Indian Relocation Act.  Crockett opposed, while this was Jackson's goal to repay those who had supported him.  Gerrymandering had made Crockett's reelection less sure.  He won one campaign but lost the next.  He had said if he lost, he would move to Texas, and he did.  However Crockett was not just leaving, he was also going to be part of something bigger than himself.  He joined the Texans in the Alamo.  There were more than 1800 Mexican soldiers under Santa Anna, the Mexican dictator, who laid siege to 175 Texans inside the Alamo in San Antonio.  It is known that Crockett entertained the men with his storytelling and his violin.  He also put a cannon out of action that moved too close with his sharp shooting.  When the North Wall of the fort was breached, many of the Texans escaped to the barracks and chapel.  Crocket and his men fought in the open, exhausting their ammunition, and then using their weapons as clubs.  Most historians believe Crockett died with a pile of Mexican bodies around him, being stabbed by a bayonet.  A diary found many years later said Crockett had been executed.  Of the Texans there were three survivors, a woman and her son and a black slave.
Excerpts from Bill O'Reilly's Kegebds & Lies: The Real West, by David Fisher, Fox News.

Book Review: Plunder and Deceit by: Mark Levin

Plunder and Deceit: Big Government's Exploitation of Young People and the Future, by Mark R. Levin, Threshold Editions and imprint of Simon and Schuster, New York, 2015.
Mark Levin is a very eloquent author; however too much eloquence can be hard to read.  I don't have the vocabulary Levin has.
I found this book to be very scary, and if it wasn't true it would make a good Halloween story.  I especially found the chapter on the environment disturbing.  He identified a group of people called the "degrowthers."  This is a group of fanatics who will use any means to exploit people in the name of the environment.  This is most disturbing because many people, including President Obama, call people denies or flat earthers if they don't agree with this nonsense.  It could well be that the flat earthers are those who advocate these things.  What is scary is that the Bureau of the Interior and the Environmental Protection Agency have been given such great powers, and they continually find ways to usurp even more power, in our society.  It seems the Constitution is no longer valid, in that these powers are reserved to the states.  In this case they don't even follow the laws enacted by congress.  Other topics in this book include: the Constitution, the debt, student loans, minimum wage and national defense (talk about another scary topic.)
This book is well written and to the point.  Levin calls for young people, and old people to start a new civil rights movement--that we actually abide by the Constitution.  The Constitution is our only defense against tyranny and a bloated government.

Book Review: Obama’s America: Unmaking the American Dream by Dinesh D’Souza

There are some things with regards to Obama’s politics that are very puzzling.  This book tries to make sense of some of the puzzlements.  For one, why does Obama put up roadblocks for domestic energy production, coal, natural gas and oil; while at the same time using federal money to finance oil production in Brazil, Mexico and Colombia.  Those supplies are not guaranteed to benefit the U.S.  D’Souza explain this by contending that Obama is antic-colonialist rather than environmentalist.  He may use the environmental claim, but then he would be consistent.  This book is very similar to the movie “2016 Obama’s America,” and covers much of the same material.  Another paradox is Obama’s selection of who he tackles in the Middle East.  He takes out Mubarak in Egypt but withdrawing support, as he did Khadafy in Libya; however he leaves Abbas in Syria and Khomeini in Iran.  He had opportunities to topples those governments as well, but chose not to intervene.  We have all seen what a mess there is in Libya now, and what Egypt was becoming until the military stepped in.  D’Souza explains this again as consistent with anti-colonialism.  Another is his vitriol towards his grandfather, adoration of his father, and ignoring his brother who lives in a shack.  His is not one of being charitable, but of trying to force others to be charitable by taxing—all in the name of fairness.  Another paradox is why is he so interesting in disarming America, while really doing next to nothing form thwarting Iran obtaining a nuclear weapon.  D’Souza again blames this on the same attitude of anti-colonialism.  Finally the attitude of the Obama’s, of entitlement, taking multiple vacations in not one jet but two, is a manifestation of the anti-colonial dictator's attitude. 

I don’t know what to make of everything D'Souza says, however I can say that we have taken a big step backwards as a nation with Obama as president.  Net worth is down 40 percent so far (making us more equal to other nations) with likely more decline to come.  However the big step backwards is one of apparent corruption.  The author of this book is under indictment for campaign donation violations.  Could this be a “get him” tactic.  If it smells like a duck and looks like a duck and walks like a duck it likely is a duck.  This administration has polluted the IRS, using them to thwart the application for tax-exempt status of conservative groups.  It just seems like we are starting to look like Chavez’ Venezuela more and more.  Now they want FAA people embedded with the media to do what? 

This type of book is a bit depressing, but good to check out this stuff.  I am not sure if I agree totally, but D’Souza makes a good enough case to attract the attention of the Obama administration and the Attorney General’s office.  How many more of us have been targets?

This book is very similarto his documentary movie "2016 Obama's America."  http://bwardlehistory.blogspot.com/2012/08/movie-review-2016-obamas-america.html