Crisis at the Border, or in DC?

For Immediate Release

Contact: Andrew Horning
Horning for US Senate

March 6, 2024

Freedom, Indiana – Author Andrew Horning is the Libertarian Party of Indiana’s candidate for Indiana’s US Senate seat in 2024.

Ours is a nation of immigrants, of course.  While the influx of cultures and ideas has stimulated progress, citizens and politicians of the US of A have always been at odds over it anyway.  Many of today’s issues are identical to those of the 1800’s through early 1900’s, when alternating, disrupting waves of Chinese, Irish, western versus eastern Europeans surged onto our shores, with complaints of “stealing jobs,” degrading our culture, increased crime, etc., etc., et cetera.  Racism and deportation fever partly fueled both the creation of Liberia, and the Zionist movement.  During WWII, we locked up citizens of Japanese, German and Italian descent.  There were politicians, as today, quite eager to proselytize new voters in their ongoing lust for political dominance.  But there are some problems that are new, and catastrophic.

We should have orderly immigration across borders secured by uniform laws and processes, as already prescribed by both state and federal constitutions, and a growing body of laws.  The ongoing invasion is not from any fault of the relevant and constitutional laws, or even with immigrants, spies, foreign militants and others surging across our border.

1. Our government is intentionally, and at taxpayer expense, luring and transporting and paying unvetted foreigners to come here.  There is no constitutional, legal authority, and certainly no money, to give them free healthcare, education, travel including airplanes, phones, housing, legal exemptions, privileges and immunities unavailable to legal citizens.  There are lots of reasons politicians have been doing this to us for many years before Biden.  But it’s all unconstitutional (and therefore illegal), corrupt, and obviously destructive.  It’s vitally important we stop this.
2. Social Security and Medicare require pyramid funding with a growing working-age population.  And USA birth rates, as with other “western” cultures, have been declining.  So some argue we need more young immigrants to make the math work.  But all of our “safety net” and welfare programs are buckling from other causes as well, so I propose we find better ways to fund services for our elderly and needy citizens.
3. We’ve made “legal” labor so expensive, complicated, legalistic and impractical that “illegal” labor is sometimes the only workable option; especially where minimum wage laws push out our own citizens, particularly young people, from the workforce.  I propose we fix this. 
4. Our ever-changing, unpredictable and absurdly unfair immigration laws and policies force illegal aliens to lay low, force employers to keep secrets and break laws, and generally force the realities of illegal aliens under the rug.  If it were easier/faster to get visas, then the sort of people we want here – the ones who’re desperately wanting to build a better life for themselves and their loved ones – could go through controlled checkpoints with drug sniffing dogs and people wearing blue gloves, and become legitimate citizens.  I propose we settle on laws and policies that are fair, consistent, and focused on our domestic security, health and employment interests…and then just enforce them!  …As is already law. 
5. We’ve been tormenting and destroying half the globe with our “War On Drugs,” murderous CIA plots and coups, oppressive policies/embargoes and direct attacks, such that We The People have, both directly and indirectly, made angry refugees all over the globe.  In other words, we’ve made other people’s countries practically uninhabitable, driving them here for survival…and for retributive, military and criminal purposes.  We’ve already suffered such violence many times, such as the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.  There are “terror cells,” spies, “Reconquistas,” foreign police and other foreign agents operating here under our noses.  I propose we stop all this self-destructive, unconstitutional, whack-a-mole foreign policy that’s obviously directed by the military-industrial complex that Eisenhower, and our founders, warned against. 
6. States with high alien populations get more federal House reps and Electoral College electors, since we now count non-citizens in the census.  And it’s no longer secret, or even “illegal” in some cities, that non-citizens vote.  That the Democratic Party, as well as the UN, many corporations, NGOs and INGOs have openly stated they want to demographically and culturally change the USA.  And there is a lot of world history to illustrate how this works…ask a Native American.  Estimates of the number of aliens here in violation of our processes and laws vary wildly – but as information leaks out, it appears that since Biden took office, there are likely around 30 million people here illegally – easily enough to change the direction of our civilization.  This is an insidious and dangerous game, and I propose we secure our elections at once.  Most citizens want this, and we should be very suspicious of politicians who don’t.
7. There is, since the 14th Amendment, a constitutional stipulation that anyone born in the USA is a USA citizen.  So there’s a constitutional incentive for pregnant women to dive over the national goal posts to deliver a baby in the citizen end-zone.  It’s not their fault, and God Bless them if they succeed.  These babies are the very least of our problems, and maybe a hope for our future.  Many new immigrants love our nation and its constitutional rule of law more than too many of our politicians.  This is good, and I propose we do NOT amend the constitution to stop this.

Most of the problems would be solved if only we’d affirm and enforce the Constitution for The United States of America against those who’ve corrupted our government.  

In other words, if we’d just quit making “legal” labor so costly, quit making illegal entry the only door, quit giving tax-paid freebies to illegal aliens, serve the needs of our own citizens, stop messing up other countries, and stop pulling non-citizens across our borders on purpose, we’d not likely even talk about a wall.  We might even happily welcome foreigners looking for a better life as our friends, coworkers and neighbors.

Liberty or Bust!
Andy Horning

###

“‘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..”

Fearing our own shadow

The Land of The Free has been surrendering freedom hand-over-fist because the Home of The Brave is scared of its own shadow.  Almost literally, its own shadow.

We’ve for generations been the arms dealer and political destabilizer to the world.  Our CIA and armed forces have interfered with elections and even violently taken down one dictator to prop up another for over seventy years.

Our government has lied about its wars, warmongering, entangling alliances and foreign interventions for much longer than that.  Our CIA and NSA have been spying on the whole world, including every person within our own borders, as well as prying into foreign elections (and our own) for long enough that it’s disingenuous to complain about foreign spies and foreign interference in elections…unless we claim we’re the only ones who’re supposed to do all that.

To everybody.

All the time.

Though China is certainly a strong contender – even with its fingers in our sock puppets – We The People are still the most heavily-armed, most globally nannying and bullying, domestically intrusive, imprisoning and militarized nation of all time.

It is our own shadows that both terrify and genuinely threaten us now, and, surprisingly, in the past, too.

You think our soldiers are fighting for freedom?   Which freedom?   How many freedoms must we lose to get that elusive freedom we’re fighting for?   At what financial/future security cost?   At what moral/social spiritual cost?

We have literally reordered and molded our society’s defense/military, monetary and legal and political structure to our collective trembling nerves.   Why?

While nobody ever says it exactly like this, the predominating justification for the USA’s violent, costly Fear-Aggression Syndrome is:

Our past screw-ups necessitate today’s screw-ups.

Rational people can look at the USA’s past mistakes reasonably.  Our government made horrible, murderous, costly mistakes when it was far smaller, less powerful, less secretive, less snooping, and vastly less heavily-armed and militarized both globally, and domestically, than today.  But ironically, the closer we get to the present, the more wrong we call right, and the more we justify today’s wrong by yesterday’s wrong.

We all know that slavery and native genocide was bad.  Only the more educated among us know that the wars against Mexico and Spain were motivated by greed and desire for empire, and had nothing whatsoever to do with protecting American liberties and land.  But very few consider how Teddy Roosevelt stimulated the Empire of Japan and the USA helped create the Soviet Union, however, so we tend to think of WWII as a wholly Good War, where the USA wore white and saved the world for liberty and justice for all.

The point is that, the closer we get to the present, the more our views of USA government become disconnected from reality.
Even after we learned that the Vietnam War was justified on, at best, a screwup, we tend to think of USA government as a benevolent god of peace and love, incapable of wrongdoing (though we keep seeing new wrongdoing every day).

This is a freakishly weird phenomenon.  But it’s also the nature of tribalism and idolatry.  We love our team, and we hate the other guys.  We can’t see the wrong in our idols, teams, champions and leaders, but we know that the other peoples’ idols, teams, champions and leaders are pure evil.

And it’s also just human: People of the past were THEM.  People of today are US.  We can easily admit that our ancestors did horrible, stupid things; but we sure don’t want to admit that, today, right now, WE are screwing up.  We’re blind to our own errors.

In other words, we see the past more clearly than the present.   And we see other sinners more clearly than we see ourselves.

So, as a result, we exemplify, even if unintentionally, the exact opposite of The Golden Rule.

This is self-immolation.   We have so many impending disasters of fiscal, social, monetary and military nature (will it be WWIII when China takes Taiwan and Russia takes Ukraine on the same day?), that we desperately need an epiphany and revolution of heart and mind.

You can’t be the Land of The Free if you’re not the Home of The Brave.   But no nation can survive at all with this kind of stupid.

The Truth about $#!+holes, and the people thereof

We’ve got “immigration” all wrong

I’m not an “open borders” libertarian.  And borderless anarchy isn’t possible with humans (see I Samuel 8:6-20).  So at least for some degree of control over communicable disease (we’ve been lucky so far), human trafficking, etc., we need to have some border security.  If you allow that you’ve got a political government, and other states/nations have theirs as well, there have to be borders and jurisdictional limits to politicians’ rules.  And I’m more about actual law and order than 99.999873% of the planet. 

So don’t get me wrong.

But our current problems aren’t with illegal aliens, immigrants, or any of the relevant and constitutional laws.

1. We are luring illegal aliens here with free stuff. Free healthcare. Free education. Special rights, travel, phones, housing, privileges and immunities unavailable to even legal citizens.  There are lots of reasons why we’re doing it – More federal reps and EC electors for Democrats, certainly (since we count illegals in the census now).  And Social Security and Medicare pyramid funding is collapsing, y’know…we need a growing population to make the math last a few more years…but I propose we stop doing this.
2. We’ve made “legal” labor so expensive, complicated, legalistic and impractical that “illegal” labor is a very attractive option, or sometimes the only workable option.  Some jobs just don’t get done with “legal” labor.  And especially where minimum wage laws push out others from the workforce – we need illegal aliens to pay payroll tax in low-wage jobs.  I propose we reverse this.
3. We’ve been tormenting and destroying other nations with our “War On Drugs”, CIA crime rings and coups, oppressive policies/embargoes and direct attacks, such that We The People have, both directly and indirectly, made some $#!+holes that don’t need to be $#!+holes.  In other words, we’ve made other people’s countries practically uninhabitable, driving them here for survival…or more insidious purposes.  We really have made lots of enemies all over the world, y’know…and we’d already found “terror cells” and foreign agents operating here under our noses.  I propose we stop doing all this.
4. Our ever-changing, unpredictable and absurdly unfair immigration laws and policies force illegal aliens to lay low, force employers to keep secrets and break laws, and generally force the realities of illegal aliens under the rug.  I propose we make our immigration laws and policies fair, consistent, and focused on our domestic security, health and interests…and then just enforce them!
5. Do you know how hard it is for potential immigrants to get visas?  Pretty much impossible in any short-term or desperation case.  So smugglers make a great business getting tens of thousands of dollars for every person they get to the border illegally.  But if it were easier/faster to get visas, then the sort of people we want here, the ones who’re desperately wanting to build a better life for themselves and their loved ones, could hop a plane for tens of thousands less, go through controlled checkpoints with drug sniffing dogs and people wearing blue gloves, and go legit with the only part of this that’s actually under federal jurisdiction: “To establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization…”  I propose we make it much easier and cheaper to come here the right way.  That’d welcome the good folks and put the squeeze on only the bad ones.
6. There actually is, since the 14th Amendment, a constitutional stipulation that anyone born in the USA is automatically a USA citizen.  “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”  So, really, there’s a powerful incentive for pregnant women to dive over the national goal posts to deliver a baby in the citizen end-zone.  It’s not their fault if they succeed.  However…  Think about how the rules of monitoring “documented” citizens and trans-border “security” would be enforced.  Given the sort of nazi/socialist/authoritarians we continuously re-elect, this could get really ugly.  “Your papers please” is already a problem.  Spying on us all is already a thing.
7. Besides…if you know you live in a $#!+hole, can’t make it better, and want a better life for you and your loved ones, you’d be a fool not to find a way here, where you’ll find life better than you’ve ever known. Right?  Wouldn’t you do the same?

The first five bullets above exist only in breach of the federal constitution.  In other words, those problems would be solved if all we did was affirm and enforce the Constitution for The United States of America against our government. 

In other words, if we’d just quit making “legal” labor so costly, quit making illegal entry the only door, quit giving away freebies to illegal aliens, and stop messing up other countries, we’d not likely even talk about a wall. 

In fact if we were to just DO the constitutions, state and federal, as written and amended, we’d not likely be constantly fiddling with our immigration laws, and we might even legally, legitimately welcome people looking for a better life as our friends, coworkers and neighbors.

While The US of A is no longer the freest, wealthiest or healthiest nation on earth, we are among the most accommodating to foreigners.  Though, if we don’t get our side of the equation fixed, this whole thing really could explode on us…exponentially.  The Malthusian eugenicists of the WEF sure won’t like that…  Maybe none of us will like what happens with our devolving healthcare and collapsing “social safety net” systems.  Those are serious concerns.

Of course, if you’re just one of those “‘Merica – Love it or Leave it!” people, and that’s why you’re mad about this issue…you’ve got a little ‘splaining to do…

Sure, there are the “Reconquistas,” the criminals, the terrorists.  But their numbers have so far been tiny compared to the home-grown murderers, rapists and thieves (even outside the DC beltway); and their numbers are tiny compared to the regular human beings trying to do better for themselves and their loved ones.  They didn’t love what became of their country, and they left it.

The discussion we’ve been having over illegal aliens in major media and political discussions is stupid. We play word games, divide ourselves against ourselves, and place blame and propose punishment for our screw-ups on people who’re doing the best they can to get by in a world gone mad.

Think of the people you know that annoy or plague you the most. Think of the worst people you can think of.  Are they immigrants?  Illegal aliens?

Probably not.  Illegal aliens actually comprise a much lower per-capita percentage of crimes and criminals than native-born citizens represent.  Most don’t want trouble.  Most just want a better life than they had, and they get it here.

And here’s what’s apparently a secret:  This is not only a federal issue.  All border state constitutions claim authority over their borders.  Some other states do, too.  Federal jurisdiction in this is limited to that aforementioned “…uniform Rule of Naturalization…”  And we don’t even HAVE a uniform rule (on anything!).

So, let’s try to think both in context of reality, but also think as if we’re all just humans trying to do our best. OK?

Liberty or Bust!

###

Just Say No to war with Iran

Freedom, IN – It’s a quote misattributed to pretty much everybody, that “the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.” The saying is more true and applicable to USA foreign policy than to anything else.

None of our foreign aggressions worked as promised, or even as we’ve been told. Yet we’ve had scarcely a year’s peace since the War to End All War.

And we’ve been getting worse, not better, at finagling foreigners into serving us and our Saudi allies. Does anyone doubt that our interventions in Libya and Syria have been disastrous?  Have we really fixed anything in Somalia, Yemen or Pakistan? When will we be done with Iraq?  Afghanistan is the USA’s longest war, ever…and we’re losing.  What’s the plan? What’s the goal?

We’re sure not fighting for freedom.  Not anybody’s freedom.  And we’re sure not making friends when we blow up their children.

A leaked May 17 memo reveals that the USA government once again intends to replay the same failed script; this time against Iran (again).

The key directive sent to Rex Tillerson is “…that the U.S. should use human rights as a club against its adversaries, like Iran, China and North Korea, while giving a pass to repressive allies like the Philippines, Egypt and Saudi Arabia.”

Let’s think like a human, and not a politician, for a moment.

What actual human beings on the planet would not hate us for our arrogant, armed and deadly games and manipulations?  Why wouldn’t we be creating more enemies than friends with such obvious duplicity?  Does anybody on this planet think they’re the ones who’re wrong, and deserve death?

Is the Golden Rule really so bad?

I’m no pacifist.  I believe in security through strength.  And I understand the theory of “Humanitarian Intervention” (though that’s been irrelevant lately, and it certainly doesn’t work in practice!).

But we’re acting like stupid teenage “swatting” and “knockout game” thugs; not at all like rational adult humans.  We’re acting as though we can use killing force against others with impunity, when in fact, we’ve been hurting ourselves as much as anybody else.

This is insanity.  We’ve got seven “whack-a-mole” wars going on now, and we’re losing our wealth, security, and of course, freedom as a very direct result.

Our armies are protecting military industrialists, bankers/ the petrodollar, and drug trade, not anything We The People should value.  Not freedom; not for anybody.

And we’ve for some time been lobbing missiles and troops and drones at people and nations who, really, are no threat to us.  What will we do when China decides to take Taiwan?  That’s been slowly brewing since 1949, and heating up fast since 2012, when the dictatorship of Xi Jinping made plain that China was already waging war against us and buying up half the world with our consumer’s money, and our governments’ cooperation.  What will we do when Russia decides to take Ukraine?  That’s been Russia’s obvious next move since our broken promises to stop expanding NATO onto Russia’s doorstep in 1994 …then accelerating since at least 2013 …and certainly since 2014, when Ukraine, spurred on by the USA, pushed for NATO membership, pushing Russia to annex Crimea and start campaigns of hacking, subversion and propaganda.
(sorry about the run-on sentence…but isn’t that how our foreign interventions have been working…run-on and on and…)

How long can we be party to the corruption that’s kept Ukraine out of NATO up to now, without some response from Putin, who we know wants the old USSR back?  Not very long, I suspect.  He must know what evil the USA has been working in Ukraine…

We’re headed toward world war, you know.  Don’t know when, but the trumpets, drums and war paint are already on stage.  Will we fight people who can fight back?  Could we afford to?

I propose we just say stop the madness, and give Peace, Prosperity, Security and Freedom a chance.

Liberty or Bust!

Andy Horning

###

Please note! I will soon be using an automated list service to better manage privacy and flow of information. If you wish to subscribe to my list, please do so through the subscription link on my website, or send me the contact information you wish to share, and I’ll put you on the list!
Thanks!

It’s time to talk about our spies

Freedom, IN – ♬♪ They see you when you’re sleeping, they know when you’re awake; they know when you’ve been bad or good, so be good for goodness sake! ♩♫

Our US Congress is trying to give its cronies a Christmas present – re-authorization and more funding for the unconstitutional mass surveillance programs we were once told didn’t exist.

I say it’s time for what some might call a “courtesy flush.”  I say it’s time to repeal, nullify, destroy and stomp on National Security Act of 1947 so decisively that it can never take root again.  The corruption and destruction and stench of our lawless, secretive societal saboteurs has grown too great.

Thomas Jefferson wrote “…that knolege is power, and that ignorance is weakness.”

So let’s stop being ignorant about who’s got the real power here, and what they’re doing with it.

The FBI was, from its start in 1935, corrupt, snooping, deceitful, and deadly.  It took some brave thieves to reveal some of the agency’s crimes.  Truman regretted creating the CIA, and Kennedy said he would “splinter the CIA into a thousand pieces and scatter it to the winds.”  The CIA and NSA have been anti-constitutionally spying on all of us, and have repeatedly lied about it…even as they paid journalists, entertainers and clerics to lie on their behalf.

Now, just think about the power of unlimited, unregulated spying, lying, and political immunity, mixed with armed force and the ability to make opposing voices go silent.  Imagine you had the power to find out everything about people, convincingly make up what you don’t find, or make even powerful people, maybe even in our own country, die…without facing any consequences.  

What government on the planet wouldn’t abuse that power? We have good reason to believe that a government that performed medical experiments on school kids, doesn’t even resist abusing it.

Could such knowledge and power actually control our elected politicians?  How about elections themselves?  They have the power to lie, to deceive, to control public opinion, to, in essence, hack our brains and control us.  

This is what people are talking about with the term, “deep state,” or probably more accurately, “shadow government.”

So-called “federal” agencies’ famous rivalries, withholding of data, rejection of congressional oversight, their anti-constitutional actions against citizens, media and foreign governments, and their trampling of local law enforcement really do make them more enemy than friend.

The greatly abused Title VII, Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) is set to expire December 31.  Of course Congress should let it die and tumble back into the sulphureous depths it came from.

But I further propose we abolish the FBI and CIA, and give their money back to the states and people.  I would reinforce the constitution’s already clear ban on domestic spying, deception and subterfuge, and leave all domestic law enforcement to more local, appropriate units of government, and already-constitutionally authorized courts.

I propose that the US Congress directly manage our foreign spy operations under specific congressional warrants and limitations, including the Geneva Conventions, just as with constitutional funding and declaration of war and national defense (which hasn’t been the case since WWII, BTW).  I propose we make the process and results of FOIA requests more open and complete.

And perhaps most importantly, I propose clarifying that it is a serious crime, eligible for criminal and civil punishment, for agencies and agents of government to withhold the immediate and full release of requested information to congress, and/or in most circumstances as specified by congress, to the public.

“… we want no Gestapo or secret police. The FBI is tending in that direction. They are dabbling in sex-life scandals and plain blackmail. J. Edgar Hoover would give his right eye to take over, and all congressmen and senators are afraid of him.” — Harry S. Truman

###

Liberty or Bust!
Andy Horning
Freedom, Indiana

Too stupid to know we’re being stupid?

I’m pretty sure that my wisest, most clear-headed moments have been when I fully, accountably realized that I was being an idiot.

And I think the wisest of those moments resulted from somebody else pointing out to me that I was being an idiot…and I listened.

There is that saying, “A wise man learns more from a fool than a fool learns from a wise man.”

OK, so I hope the preceding was a sufficiently humble preface, since I’m about to call hundreds of millions of people idiots.

You see, having been to innumerable political forums where politicians outnumber regular folk; having participated in scores of public debates; having authored hundreds of articles published in major media and reading the angry retorts; having stood at the center of hundreds of protesters with a megaphone in my hand; having been to hundreds of public meetings where policy is purchased; being fairly well-acquainted with the best political minds in at least Indiana; and having warned everybody I know about our current national predicament when there was still time to fix it; I feel unusually well-qualified to make the following statement:

We The People, that arbitrary, abstract and problematic mob called a “nation,” in the Year of Our Lord 2017, are at least acting like idiots.

I’ll support that statement in four ways:

Number 1. Our society’s deceptive use of language, and level of conversation, has plummeted to embarrassing depths.

Here is a small excerpt from the “Federalist Papers” number 10, written by James Madison and published November 29, 1787:

“A zeal for different opinions concerning religion, concerning government, and many other points, as well of speculation as of practice; an attachment to different leaders ambitiously contending for preeminence and power; or to persons of other descriptions whose fortunes have been interesting to the human passions, have, in turn, divided mankind into parties, inflamed them with mutual animosity, and rendered them much more disposed to vex and oppress each other than to co-operate for their common good. So strong is this propensity of mankind to fall into mutual animosities, that where no substantial occasion presents itself, the most frivolous and fanciful distinctions have been sufficient to kindle their unfriendly passions and excite their most violent conflicts. But the most common and durable source of factions has been the various and unequal distribution of property. Those who hold and those who are without property have ever formed distinct interests in society. Those who are creditors, and those who are debtors, fall under a like discrimination. A landed interest, a manufacturing interest, a mercantile interest, a moneyed interest, with many lesser interests, grow up of necessity in civilized nations, and divide them into different classes, actuated by different sentiments and views. The regulation of these various and interfering interests forms the principal task of modern legislation, and involves the spirit of party and faction in the necessary and ordinary operations of the government.  

…The inference to which we are brought is, that the CAUSES of faction cannot be removed, and that relief is only to be sought in the means of controlling its EFFECTS.”

Now, who in public life today thinks and talks like that?

Here, by way of comparison, is some of our current President’s writing (unedited and in full):

Written by Donald Trump on May 8 2013: “Sorry losers and haters, but my I.Q. is one of the highest -and you all know it! Please don’t feel so stupid or insecure,it’s not your fault”

And another, perhaps more famous writing by the same person 31 May, 2017 said, in its entirety and verbatim, “Despite the constant negative press covfefe”

Number 2. We know everything about stupid stuff, and nothing about important stuff.

How much do I need to elaborate here? How many men can quote baseball stats back to ‘ought-five, yet can’t name our Vice President? How many women read thousand-page romance novels hours on end, and say they “don’t have time” to read the US Constitution (it takes about an hour)? Our kids lack basic life skills even after spending a quarter of their lifespan in classrooms.

Number 3. We’d never hire anybody else the way we hire politicians.

Let’s say you need to hire a janitor. But instead of reading applications, calling people in for interviews and checking references, you just sit back and see who puts up the best yard signs, billboards and TV ads. You’re not looking for qualifications in the conventional sense. No; you’re looking for the best odd$; you’re looking for who’$ got $upport.  You sure don’t want to hire somebody who “doesn’t have a chance,” right?  Ideology, principles, and certainly truth don’t matter, it’s the Show that counts.

“Give me the keys to your building and relax,” says one candidate, “I’m the Janitor You Can Trust!” Another candidate has run a great ground game, handing out literature and freebies to your other employees, with the slogan “Make Janitorial Services Great Again!”

There are lots of other candidates, of course; but all your interest goes to only the two Major Janitorial Candidates. The media tell you that you’d be a fool to waste your choice on other candidates, no matter their superior abilities and references, because the Major Janitorial Candidates are…well…they’re Major.

(oh, and they also contribute a large percentage of the media’s ad revenue)

When everything else these days can be “nonbinary,” only your choice of candidates must be from only the two given to you by …who exactly?

Interestingly, you never ask where all the money comes from for the expensive campaign materials and professional managers. If you exercised any curiosity at all, you’d realize that the people spending millions of dollars to get a job that pays a salary pittance have other reasons to get access to your building and all that’s inside.

We don’t think about anything else the way we think about politics.  I only wish I had as much faith in my “religion” as people have in their political idols.  I only wish I could be so lackadaisical in my daily life as we are with the power of money, police, prisons, spies and war.

Number 4. We have collectively and intentionally rejected that functional system of moral civil behaviors called “culture.”

No, what we call “multiculturalism” isn’t a culture – it’s divisiveness in the pretense of enlightenment. A functional culture doesn’t require an official, uniform religion, style of speech, dress, food or customs.  But it does require some basic commonality and uniformity in rules of behavior, consequences, methods of conflict resolution, and,  importantly, letting a stack-up of cars pass on the left instead of plugging your big fat black Cadillac Escalade with Hillary bumper stickers in the left lane matching speed with the blue Prius in the right lane going east on Hwy 46 toward Bloomington at 8mph BELOW THE SPEED LIMIT …for example.

Anyway…

I’ve for decades fought our corrupt political scheme; which is based entirely upon Special Deals for Special People.  But that corruption is just a reflection of our corrupt civilian culture.

Instead of looking for common ground, we’ve obsessively divided ourselves into opposing factions of LGBT versus straight, socialist versus fascist (as if either’s any !@#$ good at all), male versus female, poor versus middle class, and…more than at any time since I was just a kid…black versus white.

Why?

Do we not all want peace, prosperity, freedom and maybe a little love? Do we really LIKE the fearful, violent, hateful posture we’ve instead chosen?

Maybe we do prefer hate. I was recently told that because I’m a white Protestant male (a “WASP;” the West’s most reviled, and even self-loathing, minority), I should not even be allowed to speak.

Seriously.

So, you may think I’m about to propose a solution.

Sadly, no.  There is no solution to idiocy other than humility, and its beloved companion, accountability.  But that is a rare and precious thing.  It hardly ever happens in significant numbers.

America, as a culture, needs to realize that it’s being an idiot, and snap out of it.

But what are the odds of that actually happening?  Maybe not odds, actually, but conditions.  We’ve probably all read that “…all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.”  Maybe we’re still too comfortable.  That WILL change…and pretty soon, I suspect.  Probably within the next ten years.  Maybe sooner.

I of course hope We The People will have a collective epiphany, and back away from the self-obsessed, hateful, prideful, self-destructive madness we’ve chosen, and plot a new course that in some way incorporates at least a little peace, prosperity, and (is it too much to ask?) freedom.

My hopes have always exceeded my expectations.

Sigh…

Droning Muslims, and the Golden Rule

If all humans lived by the Golden Rule, there’d be nothing like what we call, “civil government.”

We have kings and bureaucrats and jails and armies for two main reasons:
1. Because some percentage of us behave badly.
2. Because we think that politics will somehow fix that.

Of course, there is not now, nor was there ever, a government that operated on the Golden Rule.  Governments are always, to some degree, corrupt. And that is because people (including politicians, of course) misbehave, all power is inherently for sale, and government is nothing but delegated violence.  

It’s force.  It’s the threat and use of violence, imprisonment, fines and death. That’s why a small corrupt government is much, much better than a big corrupt government.

You’d think that since human governments have a 100% failure rate, we’d have learned this by now. But we humans are a surprisingly dumb species. We tend to self-destruct in ways that make great movies, but bad reality.

So, let’s consider our current situation with the Islam that we long ago militarized for our own purposes, monetized for our own purposes, gave good cause to unite where before it kept itself divided against itself, and now consider our enemy.

Wait… Before that… let me interject one more line of thought:
The only people who ever threatened to kill me, personally, were USA Americans (no, not Mexicans, not even Canadians).  One was a black man who claimed I shouldn’t live in a black neighborhood.  But several were red-blooded Tea Party folk who said I should burn in hell for running against their Republican Savior.

The only people who tell me what I can do, can’t do and must do are USA citizens.   It’s my fellows who take away my dwindling freedoms, take my money, tell me what I can do with what little I can keep, and make sure that I know that whatever it is I think I own (including my life), will be taken away if I don’t follow their rules.

It’s my fellow Americans who divide us into three classes for the purposes of rights, privileges, electoral access, and in courts:

1. Rich People,

2. Democrat/Republicans and their cronies,

3. All the rest of us poor suckers who believe their promises and keep reelecting the people of classes 1 and 2. 

And it’s been only my fellow Americans who’ve lied and lied and lied to me about why we’ve been at war forever. 

OK, so, back to Muslims, the North Koreans, Russians, or whoever our rabid Fear-Aggression Syndrome makes us see as the enemy du jour:
They think they’re right, too, you know. They’re convinced that their corrupt, self-destructing political scheme is right, and we’re the bad guys. And they’re not living by the Golden Rule any better than we are.
Are they our enemy?

Sure they are.
Who isn’t?
Just as hammer sees everything as a nail, a government, or by extension to the root…a human, sees everything outside its limits of power as a threat.

Even within our borders we make enemies of white men, Jews, gays, Democrats, Republicans…or people who aren’t gay Jewish white Democrats or Republicans. We’ve been dividing and subdividing against ourselves for so long that we feel we must tighten the cliques in order to defend them against all outsiders.
Right?

But this is why we suffer discord, fear, and violence.
We have politics because of our discord, fear and violence. 

And governments thrive and depend upon discord, fear and violence. Governments tend to stimulate and amplify that discord, fear and violence because that means more power and money for the individual politicians and cronies who comprise governments…

But hasn’t our own government, our own society, become a vastly greater threat to our personal freedom, health, security and prosperity? Shouldn’t we address this before we go picking fights with others?

Here’s what I recommend:
The Golden Rule.
Exemplify the peace, freedom, prosperity and security that’d flow from better behavior – both personally, and then reflected in our governance (our government is, after all, just our reflection, our avatar, our sins amplified).

To whatever degree we do The Golden Rule, our debts, intrusions, deceits and aggressions would diminish, and everything else would get…better.  Other people would see that what we’re doing is working, and maybe try to emulate that to some degree.

Would that be so bad?
I’m not saying that we don’t have to go blow up half the world. Maybe we do. Maybe we’ve been equipping, funding, training and motivating enemies so well and for so long that now we really do have to unleash all the hell we’ve been summoning before it eats us up first.

Maybe.

But how about we try to do at least a little of what we say we’re all about, first?

About our nation’s violence…

Reasonable people can disagree both strongly and with facts about our political laws, of course; or about economics; or even the proper role of political government in human societies.

But even among my list of friends, (Facebook and otherwise) there is a disturbingly broad, hostile, and in practice, dangerous range of perceptions and opinions regarding the appropriate use of deadly violence; both abroad, and domestically.

The range is roughly from Peace and Love toward All – No Matter What, to Nuke ‘Em All ‘cause …whatever.  And this is both at a global level, and at a very personal, within-your-home level.

Now I don’t intend to waste time and effort discussing relative merits/ demerits in the arguments, as the divisions are so hard and deep that people hear only what they want anyway.

I just wish more of us would consider a few things when voting, speaking and otherwise enacting or supporting political violence:

1. Are you being consistent?  Are guns really an answer when we’ve eliminated the militia system (killed completely in 1903), stopped free gun training in schools, and have jacked up so many kids on psychotropic drugs, and the rest of us on political lies/divisions, that it’s amazing that there aren’t more mass murders?  Are you sure guns are the problem when you’re proposing taking guns away by force with armed force you may claim is corrupt and globally malignant?  Do you trust the politicians and armed forces who’d take our guns?  Do you trust the politicians and armed forces you say are why we need guns?

2. Are you sure your beliefs aren’t based on fear, or hate?  Does your lip curl and your fingers tighten when hearing opposing views?  Have you tried to understand why others disagree with you as violently as you disagree with them?  Is, in other words, your view on guns and armies and drones and spies based upon fear-aggression-syndrome?  Would you, as some have suggested, shoot people who want to keep their guns?  If you support guns, do you support ownership for…everybody, or are there “certain people” who you don’t want to have guns?  Are there whole countries that need to be smacked down?  Really?

3. Have the political promises you believe, and vote for, ever been kept? Have the predictions and “facts” proven true? …Ever? When?

4. Have you looked skeptically at the forces and money behind the news stories?

5. Are you so sure your opinion isn’t what some very wealthy, powerful – even rogue clandestine agents, put into your head?

If more people actually thought long and hard about the above five things, I’m convinced that there’d be substantial changes in our global and domestic war machines, and military-industrial complex.

In any case, I’m also convinced that what we’re doing right now is madness.
And we had been warned many times by many people.

I think now’s a good time to picture a world that’s more peaceful, prosperous and secure, with liberty and justice for all…and find a way to work together with your neighbor (yeah; the one you think has crazy political notions) to make it so.

We could fix it in a Single Day

But voters, as always, must choose

Freedom, IN – Many feel that our “Major Party” choices on Election Day have been getting worse and worse, while the general condition of our society and individual lives seems to be devolving toward calamity.

That’s true, of course.

But we could fix it if only we’d acknowledge the problem, admit who freely chose this, and realize who’s got the power to turn this around. The fix itself is simple enough, and mostly written-down already.

The most important three steps are:

• Stand down our military-industrial complex and global imperialism.
• Monetary/banking reform.
• End the cronyism/corruption culture.

That’s in reverse order, unfortunately; because as congressmen I could address the first two listed only after voters take a stand against the recent (since the 1970’s), self-appointed and irretrievably corrupt, “Two Party System”…by electing me!

Only voters can topple the two-party-in-name-only, crony network, which has become little more than a front, distraction, protection and marketing group for the finance and militarism elites who run the world behind the Two Party Firewall.

So before we can nullify the unjust, profligate, unconstitutional judgments, agencies, laws and actions which produced the welfare cliff, the horrific cost of healthcare, oppressive lawless bureaucracy, and of course endless war and ever-more militarization, voters must first say something to the ruling elites that they’ve not heard in a hundred years:

…NO!

The other 8^th district candidates have no intention or ability to fix the mess they choose to represent. So, first, voters must vote against that corrupt monstrosity. Yes, it’s good to vote against what’s wrong. To say otherwise is a terrible misunderstanding of the whole point of elections; and that is for peaceful revolution. If they feel that they can vote for me, that’d be great. But first, voters must fire the Two Party System!

After voters fire that shot heard ‘round the world, we can talk about other reforms including:

• Term Limits
• Rule of Law
• End “earmarks” (pork)
• End special classes, special deals for special people – equality for all at long last
• Sunset provision/amendment to refine and reduce the number of laws so that our rules are:
  • Few enough to actually know
  • Simple enough to actually obey
  • Important enough to enforce without exceptions or special classes

None of the preceding is ideological, untested or even new. Most of it is already law.

It’s all in voters’ power to set things right. But first, in order to use their power, they must understand that they’ve always had it, and used it to get to where we are today. And for that to happen, they need to be better informed of their choices, and how elections have been working up to now.

Liberty or Bust!

Andrew Horning

Libertarian for 8^th District US House of Representatives

Facebook www.facebook.com/HorningForCongress/

STOP stealing our wealth, opportunity and security!

The Orwellian “Bank Secrecy Act” of 1970 forces banks to report large financial transactions to federal agents. As with all “federal” laws, since its passage, requirements have gotten tougher, more expansive, and secretive.  For example, the “Suspicious Activity Report” invokes a gag order, and nullifies the already-lowered dollar limit such that any financial activity at all may be secretly monitored by federal agents.
Some might think increasing secrecy, power and spying is good; that it keeps us safe.  

But voters make decisions on information that is increasingly missing or proven false.  It’s foolish to believe that politicians we claim we don’t trust are honest with us when it comes to programs that actually fund their cronyism; like “civil asset forfeiture” programs.

While few know it, police forces now take more money and property from USA citizens by “civil asset forfeiture” (as opposed to “criminal asset forfeiture,” which requires a conviction) than do all other criminals, combined.

This “forfeiture” at gunpoint doesn’t require charges of any crime, or any warrant.  Increasingly, this is done with foreknowledge of money movement, and taken with devices like the “Electronic Recovery and Access to Data” or ERAD (as in eradicate?) machine.

While all this was initially intended to fight drug trade and terrorism, it is in practice irrelevant to either, and is encouraged to fund police departments.

It is literally armed highway robbery. This “policing for profit” must be stopped, not expanded.

But just last week, US House Rep. Larry Bucshon touted his support of, among other anti-constitutional bills, H.R. 5607, the Enhancing Treasury’s Anti-Terror Tools Act.

ETATTA did not go through regular order, and was rushed to the floor under suspension of the rules. No amendments were considered, debate was limited, and, as usual, few representatives actually read the bill before voting on it.

This carelessness is apparent in the practical force of the law proposed – that in violation of the USA Constitution’s Article I Section I, Article II Section I, Article III Section I, and Amendment IV, bureaucrats in executive agencies are granted even more power to write rules, judge their efficacy and infractions, and at least recommend, and ultimately execute, new actions as already imposed upon Americans as by “civil asset forfeiture,” without warrant, probable cause, or conviction of any crime.  Furthermore, ETATTA expands the role of the Treasury’s power of spying and enforcement to non-monetary assets – essentially encompassing all property.

Politicians have blurred the lines between good-guy and bad-guy, dividing us by class and race, imprisoning a higher percentage of citizens than any other nation, and making us less secure and prosperous to boot.

In other words, our government has become what it’s supposed to protect us from.

I have a written plan to restore respect for the badge and restore faith in all our important institutions.  It’s an already well-respected plan to not only police the police and govern government, but also to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity.

Liberty or Bust!

Andrew Horning