ESSAY: Failed State & The New Reformation--#MAGA #SHUTDOWN POLITICS, 2019

CH203.1002 UNIVERSITY OF NEVADA, RENO, DR S PASQUALINA, SPRING 2019



THE NEW REFORMATION

     (The Scullery)--Beyond the rhetoric, the insinuations and the failed state syndrome, the view from higher ground is one of renewed confidence in the process of democracy. There is something greater going on above the dysfunction and low-brow clamor on a daily basis from furloughed congressmen and women, disgruntled news media pundits attempting to relate everything to Watergate, and pollsters squeezing out impeachment statistics wherever they can.
     By definition, "reformation," according to Collins, means "the act or an instance of reforming or the state of being reformed."

Along with a definition, Collins offers a usage graph illustrating the most common reference of the word to the Protestant Reformation, capitalized, of the 16th century. Clearly, the word has lost its meaning since then and appears to have very little meaning today. However, on the horizon is a new movement that has yet to be properly evaluated as it isn't related to religion, but to politics and in particular, politics in the United States. If we were to define the roots of this new movement, which for the sake of clarity we define as "#MAGA," it has as its origin not in America, but in Iraq.
     To be more accurate, mainstream media is just now beginning to understand the nature of the cold-blooded killer caliphate known by its acronym, ISIS, and the mistake made by the previous administration in removing all American soldiers from the Middle East, paving the way for the march of ISIS. The result was yet another entry into the muddled quagmire that is Middle East politics; from the self-interest of Israel, to the dark regime of Syria, the "other" caliphate of Iran and the on-again, off-again NATO partner Turkey.  On the sidelines but with just as much influence in the neighborhood is the Western ally, oil-based Saudi Arabia. All of these players are what Rand Paul (R-KY) referred to in CBS' Face the Nation recently as "can they not do anything?" But the caliphate was only a small fraction of the issues facing the Commander-in-Chief when he assumed office, Afghanistan was the other foreign policy quagmire. At the time it was on the back burner as the main course was cooking on the front of the stove, the fight for the wall along the border between Mexico and the United States. In time, the Middle East would indeed surface to become part of the New Reformation.
     New Year's Eve, 2018 and a resolution for border wall funding has become the cornerstone of The New Reformation with the US government deadlocked and in a shutdown mode over the issue. The President has promised delivery of the wall to the nation but opposition in Congress has fought him every inch of the way on the hundreds of miles of wall slated for construction. Even though Iraq may have been a more difficult agenda to complete, specifically, withdrawal from it and Afghanistan as well, it was the border wall that created the climate for the New Reformation. The political revolution in American politics was long overdue and postponed by the previous administration as it just didn't have enough resolve, for that matter, political savvy and philosophy, to address the issues. It was all about affordable health care, an agenda that was recently dismantled by a Texas judge as non-enforceable, part of the previous "failed state" syndrome.
     No revolutionary movement is complete without a set of grievances and demands, as witnessed from the religious Reformation to the Declaration of Independence. Can we assume the combined action of the border wall shutdown along with the recent orders to withdraw from foreign wars of occupation represents at least a beginning in long overdue "reforms" in the way politics function in Washington, DC? According to the media, impeachment isn't good enough for the President. In fact, add the hostility of the press toward the administration as another product of The New Reformation. Daily, the media attacks with everything it has; polls, opinions, condemnations, harassment at press briefings, attempting to topple the regime. None of it works, the President isn't queer for the media, unlike his predecessor.
     Impasse looms into the New Year, the view from the high ground is that something bigger is going on, rooted in frustration from decades of mismanaged government policies that are legislated only to be dismantled. Finally, Congress will have to decide on the course of action for the nation, with firm resolve or with impotence. The President has been a one-man show ever since he took the oath of office; his loyalty to #MAGA is remarkable, not just campaign demagoguery, but conviction. If he succeeds, there will be a New Reformation, politics will not be as-usual, and he will reaffirm the belief that one man can make a difference.

   
     HAVE A VERY HAPPY & PRODUCTIVE NEW YEAR,         JAMES C L'ANGELLE

Contributing Sources:
Reformation definition, https://www.collinsdictionary.com/us/dictionary/english/reformation
Rand Paul, Face the Nation, CBS, Dec 23, 2018, https://www.cbsnews.com/news/full-transcript-face-the-nation-on-december-23-2018/
#MAGA Hats & Soldiers,  Newsweek,  https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-signing-maga-hats-troops-during-iraq-trip-truly-disgusting-says-1272147

WALL ALONE AM I --Prez Sings the Blues on Christmas---LIVE FROM #SHUTDOWN STUDIOS

Trump says border wall will be built with "shutdown money"

President Trump, who is spending the holidays in the White House after cancelling a trip to his Mar-a-Lago resort, said on Christmas Eve that a "complete" wall on the southern border will be built with "Shutdown money plus funds already in hand."

Government shutdown enters 3rd day; where does Congress stand Christmas Eve

WASHINGTON - Both sides in the long-running fight over funding President Donald Trump's U.S.-Mexico border wall appear to have moved toward each other, but a shutdown of one-fourth of the federal government entered Christmas without a clear resolution in sight. In fact, a top White House official warned the shutdown could stretch into January.

Trump tweets he's alone at White House waiting for Dems deal

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Donald Trump was meeting with his Homeland Security secretary and other officials on Monday to discuss border security issues as a partial government shutdown over his U.S.-Mexico border wall entered Christmas without a clear resolution in sight. Though both sides have traded offers over the dollars, they remain far apart on the wall.

President Trump Trashes 'Crazy' Democrats for His 'Home Alone' Christmas: 'I Am All Alone (Poor Me)'

President Trump, instead of channeling his inner Kevin McAllister and enjoying being "all alone" in the White House on Christmas Eve, is blasting Democrats for refusing to give him the one gift he really wants: a $5-billion border wall.

US Lawmakers Home for Christmas, Govt Workers Unpaid on Shutdown Day Three

Washington: US lawmakers headed home for Christmas leaving the government partially shut for a third day Monday in an impasse over President Donald Trump's demand for border wall funding, a standoff which the White House budget director said might continue until a new Congress takes over in January.

NATIONAL LAMPOON'S "CHRISTMAS VACATION 2018--Starring POTUS & The Senators-- #WALL-Y WORLD IS #SHUTDOWN..!!

Christmas shutdown: Why Washington let the government close

In many Republican leaders' eyes, Friday was the GOP's last chance to take the lead on budget negotiations before the start of the new session under a Democratic House. And by midweek, a deal seemed imminent.

Sides in fight over funding border wall move closer to each other, but no resolution in sight

WASHINGTON - Both sides in the long-running fight over funding President Donald Trump's U.S.-Mexico border wall appear to have moved toward each other, but a shutdown of one-fourth of the federal government entered Christmas without a clear resolution in sight. In fact, a top White House official warned the shutdown could stretch into January.

'All alone' Trump prods Dems to deal on border wall, as partial shutdown drags on

With no compromise in sight to end the partial government shutdown, President Trump on Monday urged Democratic leaders to "make a deal" on border security -- while those lawmakers countered that mixed messages from the White House are "making it impossible to know where they stand."

Government shutdown, day 3: White House awaits Democratic reply to 'counteroffer' to $5B for border wall

CLOSE WASHINGTON - As the partial government shutdown continues, the White House and congressional Republicans awaited a Democratic response to their "counteroffer" in negotiations over President Donald Trump's demand for $5 billion for a southern border wall.

Trump accuses Democrats of border wall hypocrisy

Amid a government shutdown centered on President Donald Trump's demands for border wall funding, the president again slammed Democrats on Monday for refusing to give him the funding levels he wants. "Virtually every Democrat we are dealing with today strongly supported a Border Wall or Fence," Trump tweeted.

LINDSEY GRAHAM--The "Duke" of Dysfunctional Congress--=-DEMANDS IRAQ-AFGHAN WITHDRAWAL HEARING

ATTN CD@TACNET   VIA JC@AMBUSH//PATROL    SUBJ   FAILED STATE


SWIVELHEAD SENATOR TO BLAME FOR FAILED CONGRESSIONAL SESSION

 (The Scullery)--- Senator Graham (R-SC) has called for immediate hearings regarding CINC sudden call to pull out of Iraq and Afghanistan, decisions hailed by allies and enemies alike. Turkey will have a free throw to toss the Kurds out, Russia thinks it's getting an automatic first down and ISIS and the Taliban are dancing together in the streets of Baghdad and Kabul. But wait, there's more--

Senator Graham calls for hearings on troops in Syria, Afghanistan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican Senator Lindsey Graham on Friday called for immediate U.S. Senate hearings on President Donald Trump's decision to withdraw all American troops from Syria, which prompted the resignation of Defense Secretary Jim Mattis. Graham, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, told reporters he wanted to hear directly from Mattis at any hearing.

     It wasn't too long ago, before Obama bailed out of Iraq bringing on the "surge" mentality in Congress pressed by Graham and that war hero Arizona Hanoi Hilton survivor, the South Carolina senator had doubts about the role of America in Iraq, expressed at a hearing featuring General David Petraeus as the star witness, reporting in the Sioux City Journal by David Broder,

Graham's question to Ambassador Ryan Crocker "What's the difference between a dysfunctional government and a failed state?" The Senator ought to know the answer to that today amid a government shutdown. How does he expect to have a hearing with the government at impasse over border wall funding, much less call the Secretary of Defense, who handed in his resignation over protest over the withdrawal orders, into a hearing.    Again, the Senator from South Carolina exhibits his ability to stand for and against everything at the same time. Senator Graham urged the president to veto the short term stopgap that would have allowed the government to continue to operate:

Sen. Lindsey Graham Encourages Trump To Veto Short-Term Funding Bill

Amber Athey | Media and Breaking News Editor Republican South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham is encouraging President Donald Trump not to sign a short-term government funding bill unless it includes funding for the border wall.

Supporting Documents
Graham call for hearings, https://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-syria-graham/senator-graham-calls-for-hearings-on-troops-in-syria-afghanistan-idUSKCN1OK22L
"Reality based Iraq Policy", David Broder, Sioux City Journal, 16 Sept 2007, Page A9
Short term veto, https://dailycaller.com/2018/12/20/lindsey-graham-trump-veto-funding-bill-border-wall/

FWD ASAP MERTZ, GI DETAIL, 28TH RLT, CAMP SAN MATEO--

HEADHUNTING FOR #SECDEF--- Pentagon Candidate Diversity---E STANTON & THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR

ATTN CD@TACNET VIA JC@COC/PATROL SUBJ THE 13TH BUNKER

     (Scullery, Grease Trap Ops)--Again, as in the previous post, consideration for the new candidate may well hinge on ability to adjust to a number of unexpected crises. In the case of HL Stimson, during the FDR war years, the Secretary of War had to make a decision on internment of Japanese American citizens, due to the fact that their loyalty might well have been "impossible" to determine. Removal from the West Coast Exclusion Zone, though unpopular as it was even for the officials involved, became a political and security reality that Americans have come to accept, with regret. Yet another example when considering the right candidate for the job, as in the previous consideration, is the necessity of a military background. That may be the last important qualification on the resume, and if anything, as was just the case for Marine General Mattis, a drawback, the general weighed down by all his medals.
   

     During the American Civil War, President Lincoln retained Edwin Stanton, by no means a military man and at the time, a Washington insider, a lawyer, as Secretary of War. Naturally a military outsider, Stanton would receive criticism from the field commanders for managing, and micromanaging, the Union war effort, but the outcome speaks for itself when General Lee of the Army of Virginia handed his sword to general Grant at Appomattox in April, 1865. Again, as in the previous post referring to Secretary Stimson, Stanton had extra duty, this time in the case of postwar Reconstruction. That required occupation of the states that had seceded from the Union and would create further friction from Southerners already suffering a humiliating defeat and forced to accept the new amendment signed by President Lincoln, the 13th, requiring emancipation of the slaves. As is universally known, Lincoln was assassinated and VP Johnson became president during this critical period of readjustment for all Americans; North, South, East and West.  Eventually, the Secretary of War fell into disfavor from the new president and following an unsuccessful impeachment attempt, Johnson remained in power. Stanton was forced to resign.
     However, we are again reminded that the duty of the Secretary of Defense falls beyond the category of just sending troops into harm's way to assure the outcome of a political agenda. We must consider whatever else lay on the horizon that a man of military career background may not have the qualifications to meet the task. In the past few presidencies, the Secretary of Defense office has had a revolving door installed due to the constant changing of the guard at the top in the Pentagon.

REF TO MERTZ, POT SHACK, 13TH BUNKER DETAIL & AL...

Supporting Documents:
Stanton photograph, and capsule,  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edwin_Stanton
Lee surrender, https://www.history.com/topics/american-civil-war/appomattox-court-house
   

PENTAGON--The Search for SecDef---PROFILING THE CANDIDATE

ATTN CD TACNET VIA JC PATROL SUBJ  ELIGIBILITY

(The Scullery)--Currently, there is a job opening at the Pentagon, at the top. In view of recent developments, it may well be necessary to review what happened.
     Concurrently, President Trump announced complete withdrawal of American forces from Iraq, claiming the war against the terrorist organization ISIS had been won. Although evid3ence may exist to the contrary, nonetheless, the order by the CINC to bring our boys home was given. About the same time, the current Secretary of Defense, James Mattis, a Marine Corps General, proffered his resignation, effective ion the new year. In addition, days later, CINC then announced a radical troop reduction in Afghanistan, which also met with harsh criticism, from allies, TV talk show pundits and Twitter trollers alike; (all of whom have about the same influence on the decision.) Aside from the news impact of the above, it contributes little to the choice of a new candidate, who will have to be confirmed by Congress. Considering the government is in impasse mode, it does provide time for a meaningful assessment of the search for a new Pentagon honcho.
     Naturally, the tendency to select someone with military experience seems the primary choice, but that may not serve a practical purpose considering new roles the military plays on the modern front, both domestic and international. We have seen the deployment recently of US regular Army and Marine forces deployed to the southern border of the United States in Operation Faithful Patriot, in direct response to several immigrant caravans moving north from Central America, with the intention of entering America, either by legal means, asylum or just plain border hopping. It brings on a new era in military policy even though it was used during the Obama administration, setting a recent precedent. It simply means the new candidate will need an understanding not just of direct military matters, but one concerning immigration policy and whatever else the President might seem fit for the honcho to do with the troops. The choice for a regular military officer, then, may not be the best and a civilian may be preferred for the assignment. General Mattis, although a fine example of a field commander, may have been weighed down by all his medals when it came to following civilian orders in relation to remature troop withdrawals and border control.

     Historically, there have been civilians tasked to the Pentagon chief assignment, but a good example of having a dual role to play may well be Henry L Stimson, Secretary of War for many presidents, including FDR during World War Two. What separates Stimson from the others, even though he was an artillery officer in combat, is that he had to make a decision and enforce it on the West Coast Exclusion Zone for Japanese Americans in World War Two. It led to the infamous internment camps where the Japanese citizens of the United States were confined as, in their mindset of the day, it was "impossible" to determine their allegiance, with widespread fear of sabotage as the motive.

     Thus, before selecting candidates, consider the background the individual has in dealing with peripheral situations that may arise, such as the one Secretary faced with Japanese internment camps that became a downside of the war effort, with an afterlife that is still discussed in Core Humanities classes on university agendas even today.

     SUMMARY: The candidate need not have a military background. The candidate needs to have a thorough understanding of the role of the job that might require additional assignments such as immigration mitigation. The candidate needs to have flexibility when it comes to spot decisions by the CINC for troop removal and deployment. The candidate may have to be resilient to criticism from career military field grade officers and admirals.


Supporting Documents:
HL Stimson & internment camp photos from Wikipedia.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_L._Stimson
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internment_of_Japanese_Americans


REF TO MERTZ, PVT, GI CAN DETAIL, POT SHACK ..28TH RLT, CAMP SAN MATEO--

CH203.1002--Final Exam Review: Noteworthy Entries & Definitions--UNR FALL 2018

CH203.1002  (Core Humanities)
Dr S Pasqualina
Univ Nevada, Reno  Fall 18
James L’Angelle

EXAM OVERVIEW:
Define “American Exceptionalism”
     Although it might be convenient to use existing primary sources for a direct reply, it would obfuscate the reality of the term as translated into its newest form, “Make America Great Again.”  With the skill of any experienced demagogue, the phrase has been twisted as it has been in US history to place citizens of America above the rest of the world through the usual abstract qualities of moral convictions and being unique and universal. Note for instance the rally to the cause when the South seceded from the Union in 1861 and patriotic fervor swept the North like a tsunami. Lincoln called for 75,000 troops, the newspapers convinced the public war, if any, would be over in 3 months, and those who did not display a flag on their property were subject to harassment, humiliation and arrest.
     Following the battle of Manassas-Bull Run, the bluebellies were in full retreat and if it hadn’t been for the overconfidence of the South, the capital might have fallen into the hands of the Confederate army. If the American way had been so unique as proclaimed from Winthrop to Reagan, from Obama with his Affordable Care Act to Trump with his incessant grumbling over the border wall, Europe would have immediately rallied to the side of the North. As it was, it remained neutral and the Civil War became one of the most bitterly contested conflicts in the nation’s history.  Some of the “unique” and “universal” scars from it proved to be Jim Crow and the afterlife of slavery.

Define "Jim Crow"

     Post-reconstruction was the rise of animosity in the South between the races, or at least many of the Northerners were led to believe it. There was a great deal of talk about the “afterlife” of slavery but little about the afterlife of abolition. In Louisiana, for instance, Homer Plessy, a Negro,  in the late 1890’s bought a ticket and sat in a whites only intrastate railroad car where he was promptly arrested. It was setup to test segregation. The result was a test of the 14th amendment and the Supreme Court in 1896 handed down a “separate but equal” ruling that set the stage for justification of Jim Crow and segregation. It is curious that “separate and equal” is a phrase found in the opening sentences of the Declaration of Independence. The Separate Car Law was the result of the ruling but in New Orleans, for that matter, blacks were only allowed to ride in “Star cars” so it wasn’t anything new.

The 14th Amendment:
     “Abridge the privileges of citizens..” and “equal protection of the laws.” Clearly the amendment can be read in several ways. It was the privilege of whites in Louisiana to have their own railroad cars and blacks riding in those cars abridged that freedom. The blacks would be given equal protection by having cars on the railroad of equal quality as the whites. This brings up the lead-in exam question prompt:

Our course has been focused on the principles and practices  of “freedom” in US history, literature, and culture. What makes this term worthy of study is that it is so frequently invoked by politicians and talking heads, yet it remains so abstract; it is difficult, maybe impossible, to define this abstract term without fixing it to concrete examples. (1) Compare and contrast how 3 of our course readings define “freedom.” (2) According to you, which of these three definitions is the most convincing? Why?

There is nothing abstract about freedom as defined by the 14th amendment.  States cannot make laws that abridge the freedom of its citizens. This can have two meanings. First, it might mean that, as with the separate railroads for whites and blacks, the state cannot force the railroad to make whites and blacks sit in the same coach, if the whites don’t want it. The state has infringed on their freedom. All the state can do is assure that the railroad offers both whites and blacks the same quality of coach in which to ride, the “separate but equal” ruling. The amendment was subverted to force (a ruling on) segregation by the Homer Plessy setup and it backfired, causing the Separate Cars Law to be enacted in many states, used as an example of the so-called oppressive Jim Crow laws. Second, it simply means the blacks were to be afforded the same freedom as everybody else, as the whites, chinese and hispanics.
     Using course readings to describe freedom is inadequate as it will be jaded within the context of the reading biased by a myopic vision from the author depending on race, political position and morality.

Supporting Documents:
1.)The Lost Cause, Edward E Pollard, JF Trow & Co., 1866
https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=cPN5DyXBjRcC&hl=en&pg=GBS.PA172
2.) Obama and America’s Place in the World, Visalia Times-Delta, 24 Dec 2010, Page 11
3.) The 14th Amendment, https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/amendmentxiv
4.) Plessy v Ferguson, https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/plessy-v-ferguson

OBAMACARE--Henry Thoreau Examines the Affordable Care Act.--THE MANDATE & THE TAX

CH203.1002//DR S PASQUALINA//UNIVERSITY OF NEVADA/RENO//FALL 2018


 Final Exam Response (Prompt 001)-- by James C. L'Angelle

      In FDR’s State of the Union delivered in 1944 during World War 2, he promised a second “Bill of Rights” which included the following provision:
     “The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health”
The question was, as it is today, at what cost?  What seemed like a lofty proposal in the middle of a major war in the last century had to wait until the first decade in the new millennium for a solution. But it would come at a cost and that cost would be a restriction on freedom itself, and came to be known as “Obamacare.”

     The law required all citizens to declare a health care provider under a tax penalty if the individual didn’t meet the deadline and the rules. However, there were so many deferrals, exemptions, credits and restrictions applied to the penalty that it came under the scrutiny of the judicial branch of government. Were it up to Henry David Thoreau, he would toss the tax out with the government. In Civil Disobedience, 1848, Thoreau argued friction on machinery and the oil to reduce friction was taxation. But if the machine was no good, it was time to dispose of it. Apparently, the Obama Affordable Care Act (ACA) has reached the point of the machine no longer able, after only a few years, to function, as what Thoreau would refer to “oppression and robbery.”
     Further, with Thoreau’s analogy of the parts of the machinery as compared to the whole, various components of the ACA came into focus when one did not run properly and the effect it had initially on the other and finally on the entire machine. Oiling did not help as it had already become obsolete due to the friction created by interaction of its parts. Those parts included the “Individual Mandate” and “Shared Responsibility Payment.” 
     When tax cuts were introduced in 2017 and the second of the two was reduced to zero, a major component of the machine was removed. Many times when a part no longer operates in a machine, certain controls can offset functionality, not so in the case of the payment. Because the Mandate could no longer be enforced by a triggered tax, and due to the fact it was an integral part of the machine, a “linchpin,” then the machine, the ACA, became obsolete.
     Consider that from the outset, disregarding the legalese in the recent Texas court ruling, that a form of coercion was the underlying structure of the ACA from the outset, bolstered by a tax that couldn’t be conceivably enforced due to , as many have, a number of exemptions and deferrals. Add to it political agendas based on tax reduction in order to maintain control of the government, then written into a reform such as the zero shared payment could only spell doom for the entire act. The provisions were so tightly connected, as was the intent of Congress when designing the machine, that, ultimately, it failed altogether.
    
“In every threat and every compliment there is a blunder.” Thoreau


Supporting Documents:
State of the Union, FDR, 1944: https://fdrlibrary.org/address-text
Civil Disobedience, Henry David Thoreau, 1847, Five Hundred Years, Casper, Davies & deJong, Pearson Solutions, 2016’
Texas v USA , CA et al; US District Court, Fort Worth; https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/5629711-Texas-v-US-Partial-Summary-Judgment.html

ESSAY: Two Men from the Confederacy and Union Bullion--CH203.1002//UNIV NEVADA, RENO FALL 2018

CH203.1002//Dr. S Pasqualina//University of Nevada, Reno Fall 2018
James L’Angelle 11 Dec 18

Two Men from the Confederacy and Union Bullion

    Valentine Houseworth, also known by the abbreviation “V.A. Houseworth,” was a name little known in circles surrounding the history of the gold rush in Virginia City, Nevada antebellum, but the name does appear infrequently in various documents.  Charles Howard Shinn references V.A. Houseworth’s name in his work titled The Story of the Mine (1):
    “The miners had long before provided, after a fashion, for a recorder of claims, and had elected an honest but illiterate blacksmith of Gold Hill, V.A. Houseworth by name, whose book of records and memoranda is now one of the official treasures of Storey County. It was Houseworth's guileless habit to keep pen, ink, and the old blank book on a shelf behind the bar of an adjacent saloon.”
    On page 123 of “The Story,” Shinn again alludes to the illiterate blacksmith and his tendency to go to the saloon with the miners, leaving his claim book on a shelf where anyone could modify it:
    “Never since the world began were conflicting interests, honest and dishonest, more wildly entangled than in that early Nevada.”
    First mention of the “Kentuck” mine is on page 37 of Shinn’s account of the Virginia City mines. The story of the Kentuck mine becomes central in the rise of John Mackay of the Comstock lode and it is here that the name of Houseworth again appears. In the Reports of Cases Decided in the (9th) Circuit and District Courts, filed by Counselor L.S.B. Sawyer, the following reference is made to the Comstock:
    “On June 10, 1859, Penrod & Co., since called Comstock & Co., of whom Comstock was one, while working on a claim made by them, discovered the Comstock lode. Before that time a number of claims had been taken up in the vicinity as square locations.”
    The very next day, a set of laws governing the Gold Hill claims was set and as a result, Houseman’s system became obsolete. He did have a hand in the enactment of the laws, however:
    "Art. 4. The duty of the recorder shall be to keep in a well-bound book, a record of all mining claims that may be presented for record, with the names of the parties locating or purchasing;”
    Houseworth’s name appears at the bottom of the laws as  both “Recorder” and “Secretary.”
The laws were published in the Territorial Enterprise.

    Jonas M. Walker is the next name that plays an integral part in the development of the Comstock lode.  According to Gregory Crouch’s book, The Bonanza King, (3)  The “Kentuck” mine was originally a claim of John Osborne, who spent most of his time celebrating and in the process, neglecting development of the mine. Houseworth also had a claim in the vicinity but it eventually passed into the hands of Osborne and Houseworth returned to his home in Virginia around the time the Civil War broke out. Walker, who had also migrated out west during the gold rush of ‘49, became indirectly involved in the Kentuck mine, The profligate Osborne died and left no direct ownership to the Kentuck about the time Walker and a rather newcomer on the scene, John Mackay, formed a partnership. It was in 1865, just a few months after Lee surrendered in Appomattox, that Walker tracked down Houseworth in Orange Court House, Virginia and secured a quitclaim for $500, transferring  ownership of the Kentuck to Walker and Mackay. In this first endeavour, the partners managed to secure finance, borrow money and create stock for the mine.
    As time went on, Walker eventually sold out to bankers who bought into the claim, including the Comstock, and eventually died penniless. But there are a couple of missing details to this rather convoluted and fascinating story. The Bloomington Daily Pantagraph reported in 1879, that while Mackay was digging and failing, he eventually “became associated with J.M. Walker, a brother of Governor Walker of Virginia.” (4) Another curious turn in the obscure pre-Virginia City history of Walker can be found in The Plumas Argus in 1859 regarding an insolvency case against “Jonas M. Walker” in Quincy. (5)
Apparently Walker had migrated west, gone broke, moved to Virginia City, taken on a job at the Kentuck, managed to fanagle the original Houseworth quitclaim that gave he and Mackay a grubstake to develop the Comstock, made a fortune, sold out, failed at a railroad business enterprise with his brother back east, and died a pauper in San Francisco.
    The ironic fact in the story is that two men from the Confederate States of America, from Virginia; Valentine A. Houseworth and Jonas M. Walker, were instrumental at a grass roots level in the development of the mines in Nevada that helped finance a Union victory against the South in the Civil War.

Supporting Documents:

(1) The Story of the Mine, Charles Howard Shinn, D. Appleton & Co., New York 1896, pages 71 & 123.
(2) Reports of Cases Decided in the (9th) Circuit and District Courts, Counselor L.S.B. Sawyer, A.L. Bancroft & Co., SF, 1878, pages 394-97
(3) The Bonanza King, Gregory Couch, Simon & Schuster, 2018,
(4) The Bloomington Pantagraph, Nov 25, 1879, Front Page.
(5) The Plumas Argus, 18 Aug 1859, Page 3.