Constitutional Crisis…and Opportunity

The Biden Administration’s “Fourteenth Amendment Argument” for an apparently infinite debt ceiling is quite the monkey trap for Republicans who’re just as bad as Democrats in stomping all over constitutional rule of law for ever more power, money, and, of course, corruption.

Here’s the relevant sentence in Amendment 14:4: “𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘷𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘥𝘪𝘵𝘺 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘶𝘣𝘭𝘪𝘤 𝘥𝘦𝘣𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘜𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘚𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘴, 𝙖𝙪𝙩𝙝𝙤𝙧𝙞𝙯𝙚𝙙 𝙗𝙮 𝙡𝙖𝙬, 𝘪𝘯𝘤𝘭𝘶𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘥𝘦𝘣𝘵𝘴 𝘪𝘯𝘤𝘶𝘳𝘳𝘦𝘥 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘱𝘢𝘺𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘱𝘦𝘯𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘴𝘦𝘳𝘷𝘪𝘤𝘦𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝘴𝘶𝘱𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘯𝘴𝘶𝘳𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘰𝘳 𝘳𝘦𝘣𝘦𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘰𝘯, 𝘴𝘩𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘣𝘦 𝘲𝘶𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘥.”

Why add the phrase, “authorized by law?” Why not make the validity of the public debt unquestionable without that proviso?
Come to think of it, what did the words, “authorized by law” even mean to people who still had some respect for those who not only wrote extensively on nullification, beat the global superpower twice without a formal central government to nullify their own government, and, not coincidentally, wrote Amendment 10? What did it mean to the people who wanted to repudiate confederate debts and further chastise the South for its rebellion?

Remember: constitutions are the literal authority/authorization of government.  Laws written without authority are null and void, as repetitiously affirmed by people like Jefferson and Madison. (see my book…nullification still happens all the time…just in the wrong direction)  This is what the 10th Amendment is all about, right?

So, “authorized by law” in context as well as clear words on paper, means that not only are some “laws” illegal and unauthorized, but also that fraudulent debts are themselves illegitimate, illegal, null and void.

How many of us have been saying this throughout the past eleven score and sixteen years?  It was a big deal in 1776, and thereafter. Until Pres. Andrew Jackson used the threat of force against South Carolina, the states held some reign against federal abuse of power and trampling of authority..by nullification.

But Republicans, who’ve held all three legitimate branches of government many times for many years, have never nullified the unconstitutional powers, programs, agencies, actions and spending of government.  Never.  There’ve been precious few libertarians like Robert Taft, Ron Paul or Thomas Massie in the GOP…and fewer all the time. 

So, in FINALLY invoking the constitution for SOMETHING, Biden’s got the GOP over a barrel.  This is the definition of a constitutional crisis: do we start nullifying unconstitutional stuff at long last?  Or do the Republicans cooperate in nullifying the last shreds of the constitution?  It looks like the latter is happening right now.

We actually do need a “Great Reset,” you know.

The failure of the budget in 1995 (and every budget thereafter), along with the constitutional crises of 1903, 1912/13, the New Deal, LBJ’s nullifying the “gold cover” in 1968 and Nixon nullifying the Bretton Woods Agreement in ’71, unconstitutionally creating “the Two Party System” after WWII and partisan primary elections in the ’70’s, with unbridled, accelerating growth of government power, size, cost and corruption ever since means that:

1. Either we drive a stake into the constitutions, state and federal for a more honestly authoritarian rule, or establish constitutional rule of law at last.  (see my book)

2. Repudiate pricey promises like Social Security and Medicare and/or radically reduce the elderly population/ lower life expectancy, which would require…

3. Societal behavior hacking (like CBDCs and “social credit”) to protect the people who got us into this mess, and reduce the rest of us into a relatively sustainable form of self-enslavement and poverty.

4. Or we wake up and fix this ourselves for peace, prosperity, security, justice and freedom.  (see my book…please!)

How any of this works, and to whose advantage, is still, as ever, up to both voters, and the non-voters who let others make all the choices.

Gaslighting with gas stoves

Most of what we call problems and “issues” are only symptoms of much more serious disease.  Take, for example, the proposed, then denied, then proposed again as a possibility, gas stove ban.

Our federal constitution’s 18^th amendment properly, though foolishly, granted the federal government authority to ban ONLY the “…manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors…”  The federal government has never been granted any other authority to ban anything from citizens except counterfeiting, piracy, high seas felony, offense against “the Law of Nations,” and treason.  The 18^th amendment did NOT grant any authority to ban the consumption of intoxicating liquors…or anything else.  But even this limited authority was transgressed when the habitually rogue agency now called the ATF killed more than 10,000 people by intentionally poisoning alcohol supplies.  We should’ve learned something from this.

Even so, every bit of the 18^th amendment’s authority was repealed by the 21^st amendment.  And there has still never been any amendment to authorize the ban of anything else.

As clarified by the 9^th amendment, citizens own all rights and powers not specifically taken away by the federal constitution.  At least as importantly, the 10^th amendment clarifies that politicians have no authority or powers not specifically granted by the federal constitution.  In short, what’s not specifically authorized for politicians to do, is specifically and absolutely banned.

And the very first words of actionable law in that constitution, Article I, Section 1, specify that only congress can make federal law.  Not judges, not executives, and certainly not unelected bureaucrats.

So, CPSC bureaucrat Rich Trumka Jr. has no authority to make any rule that any of us have to obey.  No people in our federal government, not even legislators, have any authority to ban anything except counterfeiting, piracy, high seas felony, offense against “the Law of Nations,” and treason.

Summary: MOST of what our government does at all levels is unconstitutional, parasitic and destructive. 

With at least some of the lies involving Big Pharma, our elections, our spy agencies and our information sources coming to light, it’s obvious to all but the most bleatingly submissive among us that our general system of government, education, entertainment, information, corporatism and culture is a globally corrupt, lying, genuinely evil and deadly-destructive puppet show.

Of course we’d been warned for generations.  Cassandric predictions from journalists, political wonks and even Presidents like Cleveland, Coolidge, Eisenhower, Kennedy and Reagan, as well as innumerable scandals, and revelations of government crimes, should’ve changed our ignorantly trusting attitudes and slavishly tribal votes long ago. 

Who doesn’t know that both incumbent crony parties have sold us out?  Yet we have been reelecting these inherently divisive dysfunctions anyway, so we have nobody to blame but ourselves.  Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.  But fool us every Election Day for generations? 
We have the power of peaceful revolution.  We could fix it all in a single day, such is the power of our numbers and the nature of government.  But first, my fellow human mortals, we have to make better choices, which means we must fix ourselves.

Relighting the Torch

For Immediate Release
Contact: Andrew Horning
Libertarian candidate for IN08

16 October, 2022

Horning publishes “Relighting the Torch”

Freedom, IN – From the description on Amazon.com: “We The People and our government avatar, are a hot mess. But we can fix it whenever we set our minds to it.

‘Relighting the Torch’ presents a historical and moral picture of our founders’ better ideas, where we failed those ideas, and some proposals for setting things right…for the first time.

In this book are Horning’s almost-famous and now updated annotated Declaration of Independence and USA Constitution, along with numerous (and sourced) authoritative quotations by key historical figures.

We can, at long last and in the midst of all today’s troubles, realize our ancestors’ dreams of peace, prosperity, security, liberty and justice, for all.

…But the unconstitutional and contemptuously divisive Two Party System our founders warned us about really has to go.”

The paperback is available now, and the Kindle edition will be coming soon.

https://horning4congress.com/
Liberty or Bust!
Andy Horning
Freedom, Indiana

*See my previous press releases at: https://horning4congress.com/news-media-2/
And please see, “Eight Steps to Success” at https://wedeclare.wordpress.com/2017/12/15/eight-steps-to-success/

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BAD FED! Bad, bad Fed!

For Immediate Release
Contact: Andrew Horning
Libertarian candidate for IN08

28 September, 2022

The Fed caused inflation and now wants more unemployment

Freedom, IN – Andrew Horning, the 2022 Libertarian Party candidate for Indiana’s 8^th district US House, is not the only one who has for decades warned of the dangers of ungoverned government in general, and specifically, a malignant, corrupt central bank that funds it all.

The original design of The Federal Reserve System, while unconstitutional, wasn’t so bad when it’s only purpose was to be the quasi-private “lender of last resort,” and when the US Congress, via the Treasury, was still solely responsible for monetary policy and the issuance of money as constitutionally required. But The Fed grew worse and worse as it became a para-political hybrid, and anti-constitutional scheme, of hidden taxation to monetize political debt, and thus over-mortgage our future. A future, which by the way, is just about now.

The Fed’s stated role is now to control inflation, interest and employment rates. The fact is that their market interventions cause malinvestment through artificial market signals originating with their now complete power over the issuance and value of the US Dollar. The fact is that the Fed admitted to causing and worsening the Great Depression¹, and is about to make that depression look like a minor kerfuffle.
Nobel-Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman said that “Inflation is always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon, in the sense that it is and can be produced only by a more rapid increase in the quantity of money than in output.” All serious economists have understood this for some time. So it’s understandable that Fed Chairs have, up to now, issued cryptic statements about their operations, since they’ve been lying.

Now Fed Chair Jerome Powell has made a clear statement. “There will very likely be some softening of labor market conditions,” and “We will keep at it until we are confident the job is done.” He said this understanding that it will cause a recession and pain with innumerable US citizens thrown into unemployment or early Social Security…which will cost all of us dearly.

This is not just bad economics. This is self-immolation at a time when our culture, our state of law and public trust is already on fire. Agriculture and energy infrastructure is being systematically and globally ruined. Big Pharma and politicians have destroyed public respect for science. We’re heading backwards into Follow-The-Alpha authoritarianism and domestic militarism that predates Hammurabi. This is a pivotal, dangerous, and, well…stupid situation.

For too long, there’s been no electoral advantage to being right, and no electoral disadvantage to being wrong. And for too long there have been too few willing to speak truth to power.

Well, here is some truth. Our government is now our biggest, most existential threat. It’s even worse than the Chinese Communist Party’s ongoing war with us…a war that they are winning, by the way.
We will soon be very sorry if We The People don’t make new choices in the voting booth this November.

https://horning4congress.com/
Liberty or Bust!
Andy Horning
Freedom, Indiana

*See my previous press releases at: https://horning4congress.com/news-media-2/
And please see, “Eight Steps to Success” at https://wedeclare.wordpress.com/2017/12/15/eight-steps-to-success/ and https://wedeclare.wordpress.com/2016/08/31/money-politics-and-central-banks/

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1 In 2002, Ben Bernanke admitted, “I would like to say to Milton and Anna: Regarding the Great Depression. You’re right, we did it. We’re very sorry. But thanks to you, we won’t do it again.”

Republicans’ hypocritical response to Biden’s Executive Order

For Immediate Release
Contact: Andrew Horning
Libertarian candidate for IN08

August 24, 2022

Republicans’ hypocritical response to Biden’s Executive Order

Freedom, IN – It is disappointing, but not surprising, that Republican workers, wonks and elected officials are self-righteously indignant over Biden’s student debt transfer decree. I don’t think they have moral authority to even blink twice.

First, the federal constitution’s 10th Amendment makes it very plain that any authority not specifically granted in the constitution, is specifically and completely denied. The founders exhaustively debated and described the meaning of every word in the constitution through the first ten amendments, so there is no excusing any confusion in the matter of authority before law. The hierarchy of USA federal law is generally accepted as:

1. U.S Constitution
2. Laws (statutes) enacted by Congress
3. International treaties and jus gentium/ “law of nations”
4. Common Law/ Case Law
5. Rules (which are not laws) promulgated by federal agencies (such as IRS, FDA, DHS)
6. Procedures and codes of conduct

So laws written without constitutional authority are, according to founders like Madison and Jefferson, null and void. Delegating authority from one branch to another, or especially to unelected bureaucrats, is clearly forbidden. Only legislators can write laws and disburse funds. Executive Orders are valid only to execute constitutional legislation. So all the “federal” actions and laws detailed in the following, were and are, of course, unconstitutional, null and void:

The Higher Education Act of 1965 prompted only a moderate increase in the cost of college degrees. In fact, the cost of a bachelors degree was actually dropping slightly from 1969 until 1979, when the Federal Department of Education was made a Cabinet-level department. Since then, education costs started rapidly climbing, and have been accelerating ever since, as the carrot and stick of grant money and regulations started affecting all levels of education down to the local preschool level.

But the benefit of a college education, despite today’s rhetoric, has remained relatively flat, with a rapid divergence of the cost/benefit curves starting in …wait for it…1979.

Republicans have of course held a total lock on federal power many times and for many years since the 1980’s. Despite their rhetoric about entirely ending any federal involvement in, or department of, education, they’ve never done anything but increase funding and debt related all the above.

The Higher Education Relief Opportunities for Students Act of 2003 (HEROS) correlates to an only slight increase in the rate of increasing college costs, since it applied to only members and veterans of the armed forces, and those living or employed in a disaster area, or under hardship as the result of war or national emergency. And disasters weren’t so frequently and incessantly decreed even after 9/11 as today.

Significantly, HEROS passed with a Republican majority and unanimous Republican votes.

It’s the HEROS Act, and Biden’s recently extended State of Emergency, that Biden claims as authority for unilaterally forcing taxpayers to subsidize some of our society’s most advantaged people. For context, the median household income in Indiana’s 8th congressional district is just over $54,000 per year, with only about 22% college graduates. Biden’s upcoming EO #14080 forces everybody (including the poor and non-college educated, both in taxation and inflation) to pay college-educated people making up to $125K, and families making up to $250K, up to $20,000 in debt transfer.

As a reminder, Indiana’s Governor Holcomb unconstitutionally maintained a state of emergency to keep raking in federal taxpayer funds invoking the unconstitutional IC 10-14-3, the “Emergency Management and Disaster Law” passed and maintained by the Republican General Assembly.

Here is where the rubber meets the road. Even some Democrats, notably Nancy Pelosi, say that Biden’s EO is unconstitutional. Congress can of course deny funding for it, and thus kill it, as is their constitutional duty. I’ve not yet heard anybody calling for that from either side of the tribal aisle. I’ve also not heard anybody calling for constitutional rule of law to be established in this country at long last.

…Except for me, of course.

https://horning4congress.com/

Liberty or Bust!

Andy Horning

Freedom, Indiana

*See my previous press releases at: https://horning4congress.com/news-media-2/
And please see, “Eight Steps to Success” at https://wedeclare.wordpress.com/2017/12/15/eight-steps-to-success/ and https://wedeclare.wordpress.com/2016/08/31/money-politics-and-central-banks/

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Press Release: It’s a Red and Blue ping pong game – and we’re their ball.

For Immediate Release
Contact: Andrew Horning, Libertarian candidate for IN08
19 August, 2022

It’s a Red and Blue ping pong game – and we’re their ball.
(…Or maybe it’s Good Cop/Bad Cop. Whatever it is, is tearing us apart.)

A fine game…for them.

Freedom, IN – A little over half my friends and family are loyal Republicans, so I try my best to understand why they’re so faithful to a party that continuously stabs them in the back in lost rights, more violation of constitutional limitations, more authoritarianism, more bad science and corruption from Big Pharma and Big Ag, more spending, more debt, more spying, lying and militarization, both foreign, and domestic.

You can follow the campaign dollars and see why. As long as they get reelected no matter what, they’ll happily take the money and run…all over us.

But I was asked to listen to Donald Trump’s speech at CPAC, since, especially after the FBI raid, he’s once again idolized as the savior of our nation. So I listened. Since I agree that the current leaders of the Democratic Party are barking-at-the-moon nuts, I too am hoping for miracles…other a Libertarian Sweep of our federal government, of course.

Here are my observations (excluding any mention of extreme narcissism and self-aggrandizement):

1. Much of what Trump said of his accomplishments is not true. For example, the spending and debt by his signature ($4.2 trillion spending is worst-ever), as well as the Fed “stimulus” he supported, is more than half the cause of our current inflationary spike. And “the economy” was not even close to our best-ever; even excluding the COVID-19 madness over which he presided. Also, the supposed drop in unemployment was well under way with Obama before Trump took the helm.

1. While he was only partly wrong about the elimination of drug problems in Singapore, his insinuation that we should add death penalties and harsher enforcement of our already unconstitutional “War On Drugs” is tragically wrong-headed.
2. He spoke of “draining the Swamp” as if he hadn’t already had the reason, authority, power and duty to do that already. All Executive Agencies, for example operate and indeed exist under his direct constitutional authority; he should have stopped their anti-constitutional powers and operations, or eliminated the corrupt agencies completely, with one of the few correct uses of Executive Orders.
3. My faithful Republicans believe that ex-POTUS Trump has learned from his past errors, will drain the swamp at last, repair foreign policy, and turn domestic policy and action over to VPOTUS DeSantis… which of course can’t happen.
4. Yet another “red wave” can’t possibly fix anything. If Republican voters once again vote red, the kingmakers, puppet masters, unelected bureaucrats, permanent partisan staffers, National Security State, Mainstream and New Media that comprise “the Deep State” will still be in charge. In fact that crony network would be even more empowered, since Trump said he’d have to ask Congress to do his job of governing the executive agencies. Too few in the GOP have ever read the constitution to which they pledge their support; even fewer understand what it says.
5. Voters can of course clean up this mess, but only by tearing down the Two Party System that is, like it or not, as wholly and irredeemably corrupt as Trump admitted, it is. That swamp is quite able to suppress any attempts to clean house from inside the system that the swamp owns and controls anyway. Only voters can tear away the partisan firewall, expose the puppet masters, and clean up this destructive madness.

I am not unsympathetic. I understand the need to turn from national self-immolation. But the partisan seesaw we’ve played with two parties who’ve acquired increasingly unfair, corrupt and anti-constitutional power since before we got D/R-only Primary Elections in the 1970’s has been increasingly divisive, increasingly corrupt, and increasingly destructive.

“When you see that your horse is dead, dismount” is a fine saying, but it doesn’t go far enough. “Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me” also fails to capture the absurdity of the mess that we keep reelecting. This mess is the direct reflection of We The People. Our government is our avatar. Nothing gets better until we do.

We need a cultural epiphany and reconsideration of who we are, and what the abstraction we call “The United States of America” is all about. We need a revolution that starts in our collective hearts and minds. And we need it fast.

Fortunately, that’s what elections are for. Our vote is not a poker chip. This is no game. We have in our voting arm the power of peaceful revolution. And we certainly need that. Right now.

Each of us also has a voice, people to talk to, and at least a little money to offer to those who really are trying to fight this two-headed monstrosity on our behalf.

We are not powerless. But the historical clock of societal collapse is ticking…

*See my past press releases at https://horning4congress.com/news-media-2/

Liberty or Bust!
Andy Horning
Freedom, Indiana

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Tuì Dǎng – Right here, right now.

For Immediate Release
Contact: Andrew Horning, Libertarian candidate for IN08
thefreedomfarm@gmail.com
11 August, 2022

Freedom, IN – There is a growing movement in China called 退党, or tuì dǎng, which means, “to withdraw from a political party,” or specifically today, to leave the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

There should be no need to say why tuì dǎng is a good thing in today’s dysfunctional, violently oppressive China. The Chinese people have suffered long enough. But there should also be no reason to detail why such a movement is needed here in the USA.

All of us know that the self-appointed, anti-constitutional, divisive and spiteful “Two Party System” that our founders warned against, is a hot mess. We should be done with the increasingly obvious lies, partisan attacks, militarization of unelected bureaucracies, and all the corruption we were warned about by George Washington, through Eisenhower, JFK, and all the wisest people since 1776.

Who isn’t sick of the embarrassing collusion and tribalism inherent in only two choices? In what other realm of natural or human choice would only two options be tolerated anyway? More to the point, actually, there have never been only two choices! Not legally, or even practically, since there are today hundreds of elected Libertarians in the USA, just for example. We’re only told that there are only two choices by the entrenched crony parties themselves, and their servant media. This has to stop!

There have already been many minor movements away from each of the two puppet parties, and the old media. “Blexit,” “Never Trumpers,” and innumerable fractious factions are already dividing the parties into more siloed factions. It’s time to finish the job, and tear down the whole Two Party System canard.

It’s destructive, no sane human likes it, and it’s going to end – either by rational choice, or in slackjaw surprise when red and blue waves finally sweep away all that was good of western culture.

https://horning4congress.com/

Liberty or Bust!
Andy Horning
Freedom, Indiana

*See “Eight Steps to Success” at https://wedeclare.wordpress.com/2017/12/15/eight-steps-to-success/

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A Modest Proposal to Fix our Elections

Before you say that resolutions are lame, there are three objectives to this proposal:
1. See just who would vote for fair play, and, not insignificantly, constitutional rule of law. Will they honor their oath of office and keep on their side of the constitutional fence, or are they tribalist hacks?
2. Publicly acknowledge divisive past mistakes, and set a better direction for the state.
3. Most importantly…raise awareness that our elections are unfair, unconstitutional, and unsustainably costly in every way. Most voters HAVE NO IDEA how corrupt and !@#$%?- up our laws really are.

We really can fix this. But first, we need to see a fundamental problem. Read on…

HOUSE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION No. __

Whereas, Article I, Section 23 of the Indiana Constitution specifies that “The General Assembly shall not grant to any citizen, or class of citizens, privileges or immunities, which, upon the same terms, shall not equally belong to all citizens,” and Amendment XIV of the Constitution for the United States of America clearly specifies that “No State shall …deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws;”

Whereas, Article I, Section 25 clarifies that “No law shall be passed, the taking effect of which shall be made to depend upon any authority, except as provided in this Constitution,” and Indiana Code clearly subsumes itself under both state and federal constitutions in IC § 1-1-2-1;

Whereas, Indiana Code § 3 has over time, created special classes of citizens, with a hierarchy of ballot access and political affiliation rules, varying privileges, limitations or immunities, which, upon the same terms, do not equally belong to all citizens;

Whereas, examples of special class of citizens, privileges or immunities, which, upon the same terms, shall not equally belong to all citizens are found in IC § 3-5-1-2, IC § 3-5-2-5.5, IC § 3-5-2-30, IC § 3-5-3-7, IC § 3-6-4.1-2, IC § 3-10-1-2;

Whereas, these special classes of citizen with hierarchical rights, privileges, limitations and immunities present under Indiana Code § 3 violate both state and federal constitutional rule of law, as well as fundamental principles of fairness and equality under law;

Be it resolved by the House of Representatives of the General Assembly of the State of Indiana, the Senate concurring:

SECTION 1. That the Indiana General Assembly recognizes both the errors made, and damages caused, by past legislation that inherently created corruption, division and opposing factions.

SECTION 2. That the Indiana General Assembly resolves to remedy violations of individual rights and transgressions of constitutional rule of law present under Indiana Code § 3 by appropriate legislation, to allow fair and equal campaign, ballot, party and election rules for all Hoosiers.

“The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves.”

Ever since FDR’s “switch in time that saved nine,” our legal system and law schools have spewed out innumerable “constitutional law experts” who often claim that whatever any government official, agency, bureaucrat or cop can do to people is OK.  They do this by ignoring our short and simple constitutions to unleash an interminable fusillade of judicial pronouncements and federal/state code sections that, by their number of words alone, do seem to overwhelm the few political powers constitutions authorize.

…Except, of course, to someone who’s actually read the laws.

Nobody claims that Governor Holcomb’s COVID-19 mandates were actually authorized by any constitutions, state or federal.  The constitutions absolutely forbid executives from making laws.  Executive Orders are constitutionally actionable only if they’re only the details of executing laws written by legislators.

Other than invoking armed force against insurrection or invasion (which would be as ineffective against a virus as was Caligula’s attack on Poseidon), the Governor’s only constitutionally authorized emergency power is to call an emergency session of the General Assembly.

To be clear, the constitutions say that what the Governor did, and is still doing, is unconstitutional in both word and intent.

The Governor cited not the Indiana Constitution, but Indiana Code as his authority, specifically the statute, IC 10-14-3, the “Emergency Management and Disaster Law.”

That particular ream of legal effluvium does indeed appear to authorize every possible decree, action or mayhem, if read by itself; and if ignoring all the key principles of separation and limitations of powers in a republic.

Ironically, it’s even less-limited than the federal 40 U.S. Code § 1315 that Trump’s folks invoked against Portland protesters.

But consider what the Indiana Code says about its own authority in the hierarchy of law. What follows is IC 1-1-2 § 1-1-2-1:

“Section 1: The law governing this state is declared to be:

First. The Constitution of the United States and of this state.

Second. All statutes of the general assembly of the state in force, and not inconsistent with such constitutions.

Third. All statutes of the United States in force, and relating to subjects over which congress has power to legislate for the states, and not inconsistent with the Constitution of the United States.

Fourth. The common law of England, and statutes of the British Parliament made in aid thereof prior to the fourth year of the reign of James the First (except the second section of the sixth chapter of forty-third Elizabeth, the eighth chapter of thirteenth Elizabeth, and the ninth chapter of thirty-seventh Henry the Eighth,) and which are of a general nature, not local to that kingdom, and not inconsistent with the first, second and third specifications of this section.”

Please note the order.  Last, or fourth, is case law.  This is what most USA citizens now think comes first.   Supreme Court does, in fact, sound supreme.  But it’s actually dead last in the legal hierarchy that determines what politicians can decree what we can do, can’t do, and must do for them.

Third is the federal code. Second, is the Indiana Code, as long as the code doesn’t contradict the constitutions, state or federal.

First on the list, of course, are the constitutions that say only legislators can legislate.

The Indiana Constitution’s Article I, Section 26 says very clearly says that only the General Assembly (our legislature) has any authority to suspend the laws protecting our rights from politicians under any circumstances.  Article I, Section 25 very clearly says that laws cannot create any authority not already granted.

And nowhere is the legislature granted authority to delegate away it’s power and more local accountability by the stroke of a pen.

The law is clear.  Why the Governor still refuses to call our legislators to work, is not. You’d think he wouldn’t want all the protests, disagreements from Sheriffs and Indiana’s Attorney General landing on him alone.
Unless, of course, he intentionally crossed this Rubicon and wants to be Caesar.

That’s history we really shouldn’t want to repeat.

Flag day on Sunday may be too much…

Flag Day, like Independence Day and Constitution Day, has become, for me, anyway, a predicament.

I want very much to enjoy the feelings of pride and mystic oneness with untarnished heroes of yesteryear.  I’d like to sing our anthem with joy.  I’d be delighted if I could feel that nationalism was about righteous unity and a shared experience of liberty and justice for all with my fellow citizens.  I wish I could hoist a flag and feel I’m expressing equality under constitutional rule of law, with truth, transparency, peace and prosperity now and forevermore.

But, dang it…

The flag is a symbol that, to me, and very sadly, has become an emblem of corruption and self-deception.  Our Pledge to obey it (written by an apostate socialist, BTW) was considered idolatry by Christians a hundred years ago.  Adding “under God” to it in 1953 changed what, exactly?

Do we stand in church with our hands on our hearts and solemnly pledge to obey God?  I’ve not seen that happen.

Besides, how CAN we obey a flag?  Are there any rules?  Who decides what the flag is telling us what to do, and how far we’re to go in obedience?

Do we mean what we’re actually saying?

Our Anthem is a similar self-deception.  Do we still believe we’re “the land of the free and the home of the brave” when… aren’t we struggling against liberties lost to fear of everything from impoverished Arabs, to marijuana and viruses?

Our nation is a corporate abstraction not so different from other corporate identities, tribes, corporations, clubs or clans.  We should be acutely aware that the difference between crime rings and nations is often more matter of scale than culture or law.  When Mexico’s Sinaloa drug cartel beat the Mexican government in a straight-up military engagement, wasn’t there at least a little confusion about who’s really running the country?

Governing is always by force.  But very, very rarely, a government rules by some authority higher than just brute force.  The USA’s national government was created, authorized and very literally delimited by constitutions, state and federal…that, unfortunately today, nobody reads, and most dismiss as outdated.

Yet it’s to constitutions that soldiers, police, politicians and new citizens are to pledge their support and defense against all enemies both foreign…and domestic.

And it’s to those constitutions that we all turn at some point when we want at least the parts we like (maybe a few of the Bill of Rights) when we feel we need defense from…our own government.

Yes, our government.  You know…the people with the flags on their uniforms, “Under God” on their money, and big bald eagles topping flagpoles guarded by soldiers.

You know…the people a lot of us are protesting against today for their injustice, lawlessness, corruption and brutality.

I get that flags are powerful.  Anthems are powerful.  Slogans are powerful.

But carried through generations, they become a religion unto themselves.  Tribal/corporate membership identity is powerful right down to our DNA.  We crave the feeling of belonging to a pack…often most when opposed to some other clique, clan, club or country.  Historically, and today, that tribal fervor becomes violent at the whisper of a rumor.

We actually tend to WANT us versus them, with all the emotions, symbology and triumphant, martyr-making images that go with that scenario.

My dad was a decorated WWII pilot and POW.  He weighed just over 90lbs when freed, and I believe all of his kids were deeply affected by his unspoken trauma.  The triangle of flag presented after his death means a lot to me.  But that particular flag is about my dad and not about our imperiled nation.

A lot of people see the flying flag more like a disgraced celebrity than a proud aspiration.  Others have good reason to see it as a symbol of class struggle and injustice.  Those who see it as a physical embodiment of virtue are history-whitewashing romantics…which must be pleasant – but is ultimately a destructive self-delusion.

But it may also be a dangerous red-herring bait-and-switch.  “When Fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross.” *

I have a suggestion.

I believe we should drop the abstract, arbitrary symbols associated with our ungoverned, corrupt and dangerous government, and make this really, really simple.

We should make sure that what we espouse and pledge to support is written in black and white constitutions that we’ve read and actually do support, and not to feelings inferred from symbols no longer related to those words.

We need to be, in my opinion, razor-sharp in focus, and completely serious in our dedication to truth, justice, and …something better than what is now the American Way:

I propose we pledge our allegiance not to a bit of cloth made in China, but to constitutional rule of law under our existing state and federal constitutions as written and amended, full stop.

 

 

*Some say Sinclair Lewis said or wrote this.  But this has been pretty-well debunked.  Others ironically claim that Huey Long said it.  But that’s even less-likely.
But it doesn’t much matter who said it, because it’s turning out to be embarrassingly, damnably correct.