About Prohibition…

Short answer: Decriminalizing pot isn’t about pot; it’s about governing our government.

If you’d like to start discussing and finding the best ways to suppress bad behaviors and promote good behaviors, fantastic!  Let’s do it!

But that’d be pretty much the opposite of what we’re doing now.  The War On Drugs is not only counterproductive, it’s also unconstitutional, illegal and immoral.

The Tenth Amendment to the Constitution for the United States of America couldn’t be more clear.  It’s just one sentence; and it was exhaustively explained at the time it was written and made a part of this nation’s fundamental law:

“The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”

So… powers not specifically granted, are specifically denied.  If the Constitution doesn’t clearly say our federal government can do something, it can’t do it.

Simple. No “penumbras” or “emanations.” No “expansive interpretations,” no cheating. What’s not clearly granted politicians is absolutely denied.

Of course, politicians hate that.  It’s a leash on their power.  It’s a limitation.  It’s a big NO to their inevitable desire to oppress their fellow humans.  It’s a restraint that makes them public servants instead of rulers. …And if actually enforced by citizens against our foolishly reelected incumbents by electing constitutionally restrained new political representatives, it would invalidate and nullify at least 90% of what we call “government” today.

And so, they’ve been fighting the 10^th Amendment since the ink was wet.

But even with our first Prohibition, 126 years after the Tenth Amendment, our politicians were still restrained enough (and/or We The People were still wise and watchful enough, more likely), that they understood that in order to ban the sale of alcohol…or anything else, for that matter…they’d have to amend the constitution.

So they wrote, passed and ratified an amendment respectful of these fundamental principles and laws.

If you want to do something breathtakingly stupid, that is the correct way to do it.

But let’s be clear about this.  The 18^th Amendment, while composed of three sentences instead of just one, was also written clearly enough that confusion would be inexcusable:

1. The federal amendment would be null and void without concomitant and timely action from the states. “This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by the legislatures of the several States, as provided in the Constitution, within seven years from the date of the submission hereof to the States by the Congress.”
2. Enforcement was also understood to be a shared responsibility. “The Congress and the several States shall have concurrent power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.”
3. Most importantly, this amendment was very specifically limited to only the manufacture and distribution of “intoxicating liquors.”  It did not grant any level of government any authority or power to limit the manufacture/distribution of anything else…and it did NOT take away anybody’s right to consume whatever they wanted! “After one year from the ratification of this article the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors within, the importation thereof into, or the exportation thereof from the United States and all territory subject to the jurisdiction thereof for beverage purposes is hereby prohibited.”

The 18^th Amendment never granted any level of government any power or authority to tell you what you can, can’t or must consume.  It never granted any level of government any power or authority to even limit the manufacture, sale, or transportation of anything but “intoxicating liquors.”

One of my favorite Presidents, Calvin Coolidge, was deadly wrong to call for the aggressive enforcement of the 18th Amendment, and invoke the agency that became the ATF to poison alcohol supplies and kill at least 10000 Americans. He actually violated the limitations of this amendment!

So let’s clear up one more thing…and it’s The Biggy:

When the 18^th was repealed by the 21^st Amendment, it was replaced by …nothing!  There is no longer any amendment, there is no authority (see the 10^th Amendment), no legal, just power to prohibit the manufacture, sale, or transportation of ANYTHING!

And there never was, and still isn’t, any constitutional authority or just power to prohibit people from consuming whatever the heck they want!

In other words, all the no-knock raids, the expanded policing powers, the incarcerations, the lives ruined by a conviction record, and of course the insane loss of life with enforcement, and the politically corrupt nature of black market trade …is all unconstitutional, illegal, immoral, and otherwise totally wrong.

It’s frustrating we even use the word “decriminalize” since what we’re calling criminal was never legally made a crime.

Legally, constitutionally, none of this should be happening. And it’s really our politicians and their enforcers who are the real criminals.

Whether people should be consuming high-fructose corn syrup or 3,4-methylenedioxy-methamphetamine is a separate topic.  How to make people stop doing bad things is a separate topic.  And I would never argue that THC and the new strains of marijuana are harmless.  They are not. 

The War On Drugs is not just an inconvenience.  A violently corrupt, deceitful, off-the-rails and ungoverned government is a civilization-destroying monster.  And a government that has the power to prevent you from putting things into your body voluntarily, is certainly powerful enough to put things into your body against your will. That’s been a Sci-Fi nightmare scenario for decades. So…

Let’s fix that.  Pronto.

Then, if we’d like a legitimate Second Prohibition, we ought to do it in the proper way.

Until we follow the procedure for this, however, there is no legal, moral, or certainly any functional argument to keep doing what we’re doing to people, all over the world, with our illegal, immoral, costly and self-destructive “war on drugs.”

 

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/

Money, Politics, and Central Banks

Politicians have robbed us for generations

Freedom, IN – I have proposed a three-step plan to fix most of our worst problems by federal legislation.  In many previous releases I detailed plans for fixing the corruption we call “the Two Party System.” That was Step #1.

Step #2 is to fix our inherently inflationary twisted-hybrid political/private crony financial system.

Money itself, as a fiduciary currency/unit of trade, can be a wonderful thing.  When scrupulously maintained as trustworthy, it facilitates honest trade, and practically guarantees peace.

Unfortunately, we’ve not had such money since 1913, though it’s still required by our state and federal constitutions.

Why?  Because the most effective way to hide the true costs of war, tax the public without their knowledge, enrich elites, and covertly monetize the massive debts incurred by impossible political promises and a military empire and industry, is to replace naturally limited money with monopolized fiat currency*, and then devalue it by making gobs of it…

And making gobs of increasingly valueless “money” is literally what inflation is.  The price of everything goes up when the value of money goes down.  And we’re headed for catastrophic hockey-stick-graph inflation very soon.  I don’t know when.  But we’ve let this corrupt, expand and fester long enough that I’m afraid it is now inevitable.

There’s a long, repetitious history of this.  In every case, from ancient Egypt to today’s Venezuela, devaluing currency represents a slide to catastrophe.

In theory, fiat currency could work fine.  But every case involving humans, the short-term political gain of devaluation outweighs the catastrophic long term costs to the society.

There are no exceptions; “fiat currency” always fails.  And it’s always by the same stupid pattern.

Politicians spend money they expect future generations to pay, so they have to find a way to devalue/inflate the supply of currency, and then point fingers of blame everywhere but at themselves when it all collapses.

The United States of America has occupied the catbird seat of fiat currencies since WWII, when our lend/lease arms trading sucked up 2/3rds of the global reserve currency, and almost 3/4 of the monetary gold.  We immediately started spending down on that when we joined the war, and through subsequent never-ending consequences of the world wars.  We spent all that gold long ago, and between the end of the Breton-Woods Agreement in ’71 and the petrodollar scheme in ’72/’73, we found a new way to further devalue what had become truly fiat currency.

But that is ending shortly, as our dollar is based purely on trust, and violence.  The world is both losing trust in us, and sick of our endless Petrodollar Wars.  We have been deceived right up to the brink of collapse, and we’re past due for some radical action.

So:

1. Audit the Fed.*  We are past-broke, and it’s time to go through an orderly and just restructuring of debts, nullifications, and dismantlings.
2. Replace the current Federal Reserve System with a truly private banking system that is not only subject to audits, reporting and SOP as with other incorporated institutions, but also has NO power to monetize political debts or create currency.
3. All money/currency authority and accountability shall be in the US Congress as per Article I Section 8:5 of the Constitution for the United States of America, so that politicians will be held accountable for greed, shortsightedness, and trans-generational theft.
4. However, people must be free to use whatever form of money or currency suits their needs.  “Cryptocurrency” (which is really a form of market fiat currency that I’m seeing as an eventual problem in itself), foreign coins, even conch shells or knotted strings are not the government’s business.  Our government’s only legitimate role in interpersonal transactions is when there is force or fraud involved.

In other words, I propose we stop lying, stealing, making promises we can’t keep, and clean our accounts for the promotion of peace, prosperity, security …and freedom.

Liberty or Bust!

Andrew Horning

*One could debate the meaning of the words and concepts “money” and “currency” forever.  But for the purposes here, currency is an “official” (mandated or agreed upon) trade instrument that has no intrinsic value.  Money is a pretty abstract concept, since value is still applied by humans, but it’s generally a scarce/limited/difficult-to-reproduce thing that therefore has by itself been granted some relative value (gold, silver, rare shells, libertarians).

*The Fed gets “audited” already, but only with many glaring exclusions and only by internal government and Fed processes.  You can look up the details.  But pretty much everything significant (like actions with foreign governments and international banking groups, internal communications and discount window operations, and monetary policy itself) is excluded from GAO audits, and all “independent” auditors are hired by…(wait for it)…the Fed’s Board of Governors.

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

Radically Reasonable

Besides the complaints about jobs, money and immigration that now seem ubiquitous on this planet, the Brexit supporters complained about the “unelected bureaucrats” in Brussels who write laws for all of Europe. This ruling cabal of commissioners was called things like, “…overpaid and arrogant, but opaque and unaccountable…”

USA wonks nodded their smug comprehension, apparently thinking that at least we elect our lawmakers on this side of the pond. At least our lawmakers can be fired.

But we don’t fire them. Nor can we; because most of our laws aren’t written by people authorized to write laws. And we didn’t elect them.

And, no, I’m not even talking about the lobbyists who write most of what Congress makes law.

You see, while the “lawmakers” in the US Congress are of course overpaid, arrogant, and almost completely corrupt, they’re practically irrelevant now.

Unelected bureaucrats in innumerable federal agencies (DOE, FDA, FCC, USDA, IRS…) and even private organizations with governing powers like “The Federal Reserve System,” make thirty times as many regulations as does the US Congress, though Article I Section I of the Constitution for the USA restricts all legislative powers to only congress. Even if counting only those regulations that affect USA citizens directly, bureaucrats wrote sixteen times as many laws as did the US Congress.

Some say the rapidly growing regulatory burden amounts to around $15K per year for every USA household. Whatever the actual cost, unregulated regulation is literally criminal, and very destructive to our prosperity, independence, opportunity and of course, freedom.

What’s worse is that these agencies are also, quite unlike our US Congress, heavily armed against us.

They have been granted legislative, judicial, and executive powers (armed with SWAT teams and military gear…the USDA has machine guns! Even the federal DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION is armed now!!!) without checks and balances, without an electoral accountability, and without any constitutional authority.

And this doesn’t even count the UN…

So,

I propose we limit lawmaking to only lawmakers, as the constitution demands.

I propose a sunset rule or constitutional amendment – a 10-year expiration date for all non-constitutionally specified agencies, laws, powers and programs to gracefully remove, or at least review for reinstatement, everything that’s not specifically written into the constitution.

I propose a Rule of Law reboot, to affirm that politicians must obey laws too…at last.

I propose we stand down our global military “whack-a-mole” machine, and concentrate on defending our homeland instead of browbeating and manipulating the world.

I propose that our government issue only sound money as constitutionally required, and allow free market trade and monetary alternatives as our constitution also demands (Amendments 9 and 10 in particular).

All this is what we’re supposed to be doing anyway. It’s what many of us think is what’s happening now.

It’s unfortunate that this sane, legal, proven sensibility would be nothing less than a revolution.

What’s fortunate is that it already belongs to us. We need only to choose it on Election Day.

You wanna talk inequality?

As defined by Ind. Code § 3-5-2-30, there are two extremely unequal classes of citizens in terms of political and electoral rights, powers, privileges and immunities in Indiana:

1. Those associated with the two private organizations called “Major Political Parties” (Democratic party partisans and Republican party partisans), and,
2. Everyone else.

This violates Article I, Section 23 of the Indiana Constitution – “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 the equal protections clause of the USA Constitution’s 14th amendment – “No State shall . . . deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”

So, today I mailed in my $400 check and complaint to the Terre Haute Division of Indiana’s US Southern District Court to seek remedy of this violation of both Indiana and federal constitutions.

Should I win the suit, the benefits would apply to all citizens of Indiana.  After all, the non-MPP-associated citizens now greatly outnumber those who get the special perks and immunities.  Many Hoosiers feel disenfranchised by a system they know to be corrupt and sold-out and bought-off long ago.  Many have stopped voting, and worse, stopped caring.  Most feel pretty helpless.  An increasing number are talking violence (which is pretty stupid talk if they won’t even change the way they vote!).

This is so unnecessary…

Attached is a public-distribution version of the complaint as sent to the US Southern District Court, Terre Haute Division.

Please start talking about the horrible, criminal, unsustainably bad political corruption we suffer.  Talk about this case, and everything that relates to the sellout of our nation by politicians and their owners who feel no pressure to change anything.

Remember; while our so-called approval ratings of politicians have dropped to an all-time low, incumbent reelection rates have risen to all-time highs.  It’s stupid to say we hate this mess with our mouths; then say we love it with our votes!

There is only one poll politicians and their operators care about, after all; and that’s the one on Election Day, when We The People foolishly keep reelecting and reelecting the same !@#$ crony system, same incumbent politicians and parties, over and over without any electoral clue that we’re upset about anything.

And courts are much more swayed by public mood than by law.  We need to change our sheepish, fuzzy-headed, misinformed and yet divided-against-ourselves mood.

Get mad…at the right people!

Write letters to the editor, break taboos, talk about it with acquaintances, express it in interpretive dance and music…we must get the message out that we have bigger problems than deflated footballs and absurd POTUS candidates…and that we can fix this one.

https://wedeclare.files.wordpress.com/2015/09/public-post-complaint.pdf
https://wedeclare.wordpress.com/2015/05/18/your-government-is-corrupt-very-very-corrupt/
https://wedeclare.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/two-party-system.pdf 

A Plea to End The Corruption

I’d sent this press release out last week, and it was picked up at least here.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

The “Two Party System” is illegal, and our government is a crime ring

Freedom, IN – August 14, 2015

A dozen US Presidents have warned us, so we have no excuse.  We all know, at the very least, that our government is corrupt to the point that it is essentially owned and operated by a fairly small number of unelected, but very wealthy people.  Many people and organizations from a broad political spectrum have demonstrated a direct correlation, if not causation, between campaign donations and legislation, and campaign money and economic inefficiency.  Most of us understand that our government is at least to some degree and at some levels, immoral and dysfunctional.  But it’s apparent that most people don’t know that not only did our founders warn us against political parties, they also wrote laws in both state and federal constitutions to prevent their entrenchment; and that the self-appointed “Two Party System” is literally and practically therefore, a crime ring.

Only two private clubs, operating under their own rules, yet as a quasi-governing cartel to suppress competition and grant themselves special powers, in violation of both the federal 14^th Amendment and the Indiana Constitution’s Article I Section 23, have illegally taken over three estates of civil government – legislative, executive and judicial, at nearly every level of USA government.

I’ve preliminarily documented this here, here, here, here and here (these links copied below in case you receive this as plain text.  Other supporting information available upon request).

Only six corporations also now own most of the fourth estate as well.  And yet as a former journalist myself, I place more hope in this final branch of civil power than in the courts.

It’s on this hope that I ask you examine my case, and come to your own conclusions.

I’ve been advised that, while my case is rock solid on fact, merit and law, no court in Indiana, federal or state, would hear my case.  It would almost surely be immediately dismissed “with prejudice” as are so many other complaints against our rogue leaders.  So I take my case to you.

Please consider the gravity of my charges; and consider that you and your loved ones are also affected by our society’s worst, and potentially fatal problem.

Contact:

Andrew Horning

###

https://wedeclare.wordpress.com/2015/05/18/your-government-is-corrupt-very-very-corrupt/

https://wedeclare.wordpress.com/2015/07/25/wanted-a-lawyer-to-save-the-law/

https://wedeclare.files.wordpress.com/2015/09/public-post-complaint.pdf

https://wedeclare.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/two-party-system.pdf

https://wedeclare.wordpress.com/2015/06/03/lets-clean-up-our-mess/

Let’s chase the fox out of the henhouse

Please do me a favor and write letters to the editor, to your local radio and print broadcast, regarding a terrible, destructive, unconstitutional and criminal scam that’s been worsening for the past one hundred years.

The private clubs we call the Demoratic and Republican parties have, as you know, granted themselves special status, powers and advantages.  Taxpayers are forced to pay for political primaries that involve only Ds and Rs, and which give them a year’s head start in public attention, fundraising, and organization.  Only Ds and Rs can have Precinct Committeemen, people with many quasi-governmental powers, yet none of the restraints.  Only Ds and Rs can be on election-related committees – only they count the votes, make appointments and fill public office vacancies.  Only Ds and Rs can have electors, who really choose the President of the United States of America.

All that is immoral, unconstitutional, corrupt and destructive.

I’ve been advised that, while my case is rock solid on fact, merit and law, no court in Indiana, federal or state, would hear my case; at least not until there’s some public attention on this ongoing crime.  Without at least a little public attention, my suit would almost surely be immediately dismissed “with prejudice” as are so many other complaints against our rogue leaders.  So I take my case to you.

Please consider the gravity of my charges; and consider that you and your loved ones are also affected by our society’s worst, and potentially fatal problem.

If you’d like some supporting information to mull over, besides the links above, these might help:

https://wedeclare.wordpress.com/2015/05/18/your-government-is-corrupt-very-very-corrupt/

https://wedeclare.wordpress.com/2015/07/25/wanted-a-lawyer-to-save-the-law/

Click to access andys-complaint.pdf

https://wedeclare.wordpress.com/2015/06/03/lets-clean-up-our-mess/

I sincerely thank you in advance.

Liberty or Bust!

Andy Horning

Freedom, Indiana

Immigration or invasion?

I wrote this many years ago now; maybe a little after 2000 for Indiana Policy Review.  Immigration isn’t the issue du jour at present that it was at the time, but just wait…we ain’t seen nothin’ yet…

Laws are words; let’s get them straight. “Immigration” is when somebody lawfully moves from one place to another.  “Illegal aliens” are those who cross borders in violation of laws. Tens of millions of illegal aliens are, what; is “invasion” too strong a word?  Whatever it’s called; when it goes on for decades while we wait for federal action – or worse, when it’s caused by federal action, it’s stupid.

This July 4, let us remember that a truly federal government is allowed only a few powers.  Each state is otherwise just as sovereign as other states around the world such as France or China. Article 4, Section 16 of the Indiana Constitution reserves for the Indiana legislature all necessary powers of “a free and independent state.” Article 5, Section 12 says, “The Governor shall be commander-in-chief of the armed forces, and may call out such forces, to execute the laws, or to suppress insurrection, or to repel invasion.” Most people have no idea that states legally have so much might.

The U.S. Constitution’s Article I, Section 8 grants the U.S. Congress power, “To establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization.” The 14th Amendment to that contract says, “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,” because through the War Between the States it was assumed that each state had the right to determine who had rights of citizenship and who didn’t.  Of course, the proviso, “ . . . and subject to the jurisdiction thereof” means that some are not subject to the jurisdiction of the United States; but the U.S. Constitution says nothing else about aliens, other than they can’t hold federal office.

Article I, Section 10 details the powers prohibited from the states, yet nothing limits any state’s authority over illegal aliens within its borders.  In fact, this section’s prohibition against states declaring war is restrained by, “ . . . unless actually invaded, or in such imminent Danger as will not admit of delay.”

Arizona’s S.B. 1070 has made news, but in fact Article II, Section 35 of the Arizona Constitution already specifically denies illegal aliens citizen rights. Article XVIII, Section 10 actually denies illegal aliens any employment rights.

So, by the existing laws (paying special attention to the federal 10th Amendment), states already have both the authority and power to maintain constitutional rights and order within their borders.  No new laws, no new powers are needed.

That said, our illegal alien problems aren’t about illegal aliens, their crimes or even the “Reconquista” nationalism of many.

Our problems, both with immigration and otherwise, are more fundamentally with socialism.

Even without its inevitable corruption and political oppression, socialism makes each citizen pay for others’ lifestyles, accidents, schooling and healthcare.  The collectivist hooks we stick into each other, even with the best of intentions, will tend to make us want our fellows to stay out of our wallets, cough up money from theirs, and die quickly, before Social Security checks start going to them at our expense.

The hooks make us care about what others eat, drink or smoke.  Hooks make us care about who others date, how others live and what others can and cannot own.  Socialism is inherently, demonstrably, nosy, jealous, covetous and antisocial.

The whole point of our constitutions is to prohibit this cold, starving, jealous existence, thank God.

But what most people gripe most about illegal aliens is that we have to pay for them!  That’s not their fault, that’s ours.  It’s also not a particularly valid fear, because aliens, illegal and otherwise, both contribute more to the economy than they take out, but are also necessary to make our Pyramid-Scheme social “safety net” programs work for even the short term.

They’re also willing labor that helps employers get around the laws that make “legal” labor impractical or impossible.  And they do pay payroll taxes.

We need more people paying payroll tax per retiree.  Our domestic-born population is shrinking, you know.  That’s bad math for both Social Security and Medicare.

And the overwhelming majority of the people pouring across our borders are doing so to find a better life.  They’re escaping war-torn, corrupt, drug-war-disrupted nations in hopes of raising their kids in peace and prosperity.  Wouldn’t you do the same?

Heck; we’re the ones who’ve messed up their country in most cases.  Our drug prohibitions, our “nation building,” our propping-up of dictators who’d otherwise fall…  This is the least harmful blowback we suffer from our international nannying, meddling and bullying.

And…isn’t immigration how this country, and its experiment in liberty started?

Your government is corrupt. Very, very corrupt.

We all know it to at least some degree.

I suppose we don’t react to it in any useful way because it has happened gradually, over several generations, in a sort of frog-in-the-cook-pot scenario.  And maybe we just can’t picture anything better than what we’ve suffered all our lives.

But I don’t know why we even talk about ideology or “issues” until we deal with this:  The two private clubs called the Democratic and Republican Parties are:

1. Corrupt organizations operating illegally, as I’ll substantiate below.  They are crime rings enabling and fronting worse crime rings.
2. Owned by pretty much the same people. The small variation in owner pools (a few seemingly opposing corporations, unions, and “special interest groups”) don’t make any difference in political reality, because the major shareholder of both parties are the same bankers, military industrialists and energy, transportation, insurance, agri/pharma and debt services companies.
3. They do pretty much the same thing in rising spending, debt, militarization (both global and domestic), spying, lying and selling out.  They’re both authoritarian, corrupt and think we’re their servants.

Let’s end the charade.  The thieving, deadly game of false dichotomies we call “The Two Party System” should be revealed for what it is …a sock-puppet show that distracts us from the real behind-the-scenes truth that our government is a crony crime network.   Their modus operandi and stock in trade is division and conflict; categorizing people and then setting us against each other; both here and everywhere on earth.

And this isn’t petty crime.  No other gangs on earth steal so much or kill so many either directly or by their violent black markets, puppet dictators and covert collusion.  This isn’t tin-foil-hat hyperbole.  It’s fact.  Let’s stop acting like it’s not.

Realistically, there are no other issues worth discussing until we deal with this one.  All other serious problems are just symptoms of a government gone very bad…and very well-armed against us.

A dozen Presidents warned us about the people who have made the world their ATM and battle ground.  But over generations, the factions controlling our government have become ever-bolder in their violations of written, practical and moral laws.

To banish any possibility of doubt about the “stacked deck” of our elections:

Special privileges and powers granted to a class of citizens called a “major political party,” as defined and implemented in Indiana, are of course illegal by the Indiana Constitution’s Article I, Section 23:

“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.”

Here is a small sampling of special privileges and immunities just here in Indiana:

By creating arbitrary thresholds (Ind. Code § 3-10-1-2) that suppress all other candidates and political organizations, they have granted themselves taxpayer funded primary elections, which implicitly provide more money, public attention, free advertising and media promotion to only Democrats and Republicans at the actual expense of all alternatives.

Ind. Code § 6-4.1-4 specifies that members of the Indiana Election Commission “must be a member of a major political party.”  And Ind. Code § 6-4.1-4 grants that only “the state chairman of the major political party” has powers of nomination and appointments for succeeding terms.  Only designees “of the state chairman of each of the major political parties” shall “serve as members of the state recount commission.” (Ind. Code § 3-12-10-2.1)

Ind. Code § 3-10-1-4 grants only major political parties privileges of organization (precinct committeeman are a special class of citizen who have special powers [example, Ind. Code § 3-13-1-4, 5, 6], yet aren’t subject to the limitations placed on other political officeholders [Ind. Code § 3-6-1-15]) and process for nomination to public office and filling vacancies (e.g., Ind. Code § 3-13-5, 6).

Ind. Code § 3-10-1-15 sets apart a separate ticket for “each political party holding a primary election” making all alternative candidates inconspicuous to voters.

And to be clear…the Democratic and Republican Parties have, with the power they won during WWII (when most other parties, like the once-powerful socialist parties became discredited by their association with the USSR and Nazi/socialist Germany, and the opposite ideologies were overwhelmed by the USA’s new imperialism and nationalism), wrote themselves power over everybody else.  Only they are “major political parties.”  Only they get all the freebies, special powers and exemptions, and the ability to ignore laws anyway.

In case you think that writing words into Indiana Code can make anything legit, Indiana Constitution’s Article I, Section 25 makes it clear that legislation cannot transgress the constitution:

“No law shall be passed, the taking effect of which shall be made to depend upon any authority, except as provided in this Constitution.”

The evidence of corruption is everywhere.  The correlation between campaign donations (business investments that pay multi-thousand-percent dividends) and legislation, the revolving door between regulators and the regulated, the hand-in-glove relationship between lobbyists and lawmaking, the insider trading that’s illegal everywhere but in the halls of power, the obvious payola, pork and conflicts of interest are so well documented by both “left” and “right” media as to be the most universally known and completely inexcusable part of this problem.

It’s not just academics, advocacy groups, bloggers, wonks and journalists who’ve told us about corruption.  Our own US Presidents, from the very first one, tried to clue us in.  President George Washington warned us against not just the existence of political parties, but also the entrenched corruption that invariably sprouts from such tribalism.  In 1834 Andrew Jackson called Central Banks, “… a den of vipers and thieves.  I have determined to rout you out, and by the Eternal, I will rout you out!”  In 1912, after decades of rising cronyism, President Woodrow Wilson wrote that, “… we have come to be one of the worst ruled, one of the most completely controlled and dominated, governments in the civilized world—no longer a government by free opinion, no longer a government by conviction and the vote of the majority, but a government by the opinion and the duress of small groups of dominant men.”  In 1961, President Eisenhower warned us against “…the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.”

What’s particularly of note today is what else Eisenhower said in that same speech: “Yet, in holding scientific research and discovery in respect, as we should, we must also be alert to the equal and opposite danger that public policy could itself become the captive of a scientific-technological elite.”

We should have heeded the warnings.  We should have noticed when the warnings stopped.

Personally, I don’t care what politicians do on their free time and with their own money.  They can have affairs with every sort of willing creature(s), and snort all the coke that Marion Barry missed, and I won’t care a whit.

But all the stealing and defrauding and needless, groundless war has got to stop.

And it won’t stop until we turn against the corruption that fuels all the worst of human actions.

Come on…we know this one.  Our government, from the Precinct Committeeman who gets special business contracts and a summer job for his son on the DOT, to the bankers who own and operate most of the world, is corrupt from stem to stern, from keel to crow’s nest.

So let’s fix it.

There are two parts to this:

1. Recognizing how we got here.

2. Choosing something else.  That means, of course, anything but the Two Party Puppet Show.

We got to where we are because authoritarian corruption is where people usually go.  It’s what happens when you stop fighting it, and it’s why all civilizations eventually fail.
And in the case of the USA and its democratic elections, we didn’t just fall into humanity’s default state of corrupt government, we voluntarily chose it, and kept choosing it with a >90% reelection rate.
And, if I can believe my ears and eyes, will likely choose it again in 2016.

Of course I hope I’m wrong about that last part.

So…

1. We have to change ourselves. Our choices must change.  Our actions must change.  We must do our homework before we vote, after we vote, and whenever we feel like caring about our lives, liberties and property.  We can stop voting for the same people and parties that we know are corrupt.  We can vote for alternatives that, up to now, have been getting only single-digit support.

2. And to do that, I think we need to imagine a better way to live. We need to stop putting so crazy-much trust in politicians, and show a little skepticism with their promises.  We need to see more ways to do things through the free market (look up what this really is if you think the Free Market is the bad guy…we have crony capitalism, not free markets).  If we can picture a better life, we can choose it.  If we choose it, we’ll get it.

This last part is critical.  Simply voting for alternative candidates won’t fix a thing because it’s fixing the wrong thing.

First, comes us.  Nothing gets better until We The People do.

We must change our own hearts and minds.  We must develop a picture of how we should live, and then, dammit, choose that life!

I shouldn’t have to prove that constitutional rule of law under our existing state and federal constitutions as written would be a great start.  I’ve been trying to prove it for decades now (to little effect).  But ultimately, nobody can make you read the constitutions or choose wisely.

That has to come from you.

I’m hoping that what I’m offering here is a first step in recognizing that we have a terrible, terrible problem.

And I’m hoping you know that it’s in your power to fix it.  If we could get more people to see only that, we could be on the path to a better future…as opposed to the more usual cataclysm…which, I hope you can see, is just around the corner.

Liberty or Bust!