Showing posts with label 5th Amendment. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 5th Amendment. Show all posts

Tuesday, December 8, 2015

Guns, Terrorism, and Immigration: Reaction to the News of December 8th, 2015

Written on December 8th, 2015
Edited on December 12th, 2015



To those who say that a law from the 1950s rightfully bans Muslims from entering the country because Muslims’ loyalty to their religion trumps their loyalty to America: Christians’ loyalty to their religion does the same thing. In 2014, Oregon Republican congressional candidate James Buchal told an audience “we have no king but Jesus.” Also, only one of the two San Bernardino shooters was born outside of the United States, and there have been reports that there were three white male shooters, instead of the two people we’re being told committed the mass shooting.
To those who say we should stop people on the no-fly list and/or the terror watch list from getting guns: seventy-two Department o Homeland Security employees were on the terror watch list as of August 2015, and the no-fly list has included a two-year-old, an eight-year-old with a name similar to a suspected terrorist, now deceased Senator Ted Kennedy, former judge Andrew Napolitano, and current U.S. Representative Don Young. Also, the Fifth Amendment says nobody may be deprived of property (including guns, and the right to get them) without due process of law. Also, the San Bernardino shooters did not fly from their home to the site of the shooting, nor were they on the no-fly list.
To those who say the Second Amendment only gives us the right to own muskets, and that it was written before machine guns, and only gives the right to bear arms to well-regulated militias: the Second Amendment does not give rights, it preserves already existing rights; every male between 18 and 45 were legally defined as “the militia” under the U.S. Code, also the National Guard (today’s official “regulated” “militia”) didn’t exist until the early 1900s; and the first machine guns existed at least 70 years before the Second Amendment was written, so the framers knew about such advanced weapons.
To those who criticize Donald Trump for his statements commending FDR’s proclamations bringing about the detention of 110,000 Japanese Americans during World War II: I’m glad you’ve finally decided to admit that FDR wasn’t all he’s cracked up to be. Maybe now, you’d like to criticize him for cheating the American public out of 28% of the value of the gold that his government stole from them, as well as for confiscating and destroying food produced on private property simply because it would have been unfair if the producers had decided to sell it. And maybe those FDR supporters with German and Italian ancestry should admit that if FDR had been consistent about interning people who supposedly had ancestral or genetic loyalty to the Axis Powers, your grandparents would have been born in internment camps.

Wednesday, December 2, 2015

On Prison Labor and the Fifth and Thirteenth Amendments

Written on December 2nd, 2015
Edited on December 6th, 2015



The 13th Amendment didn't "outlaw slavery", it merely legalized "involuntary servitude" except as punishment for a crime. So the prison system is modern-day legalized slavery. Incarcerated inmates in prisons work for slave-level wages, and in fact, Georgia and Texas have laws providing for a maximum wage of $0.00 per hour for such prison laborers.
But the rest of us living outside of brick-and-mortar jails and prisons still have to serve others, by paying taxes on our income, and, in some jurisdictions, serving whomever comes into our businesses.
If we do not do so voluntarily, then we are serving others involuntarily. And since that's only legal as punishment for a crime, we have to ask, if we are being punished, what crime did we commit?
How are refusing to pay taxes, and refusing to serve would-be customers on private property, "crimes", in the real sense of corpus delicti (“body of the crime”, i.e., evidence, i.e., a corpse) meaning that a real harm or taking must result from one person's action, depriving another of legitimate property, or harming them?
They're not. One person's labor, and the product thereof, are not the property of anybody else.

On another note, the 5th Amendment says that no property shall be taken for public use, except with compensation. The federal government took the slaves owned by their masters, but did not compensate the masters.
My point is not that it's too bad they weren't compensated, my point is that the slaves were taken for public use. We, the public, are all being compensated for the slave masters' losses, with the funds gained through slaves' descendants' free-of-cost prison labor and involuntary labor in the "free" economy.
The only difference between 1865 and now is that today, people of all races can be commanded to serve people they don't want as customers, and put in prison and forced to labor for the benefit of others (actually, that's a distortion of fact, because many Irish, Scots, and other whites were held as slaves prior to the end of the Civil War).

So we are now faced with the puzzling condition that we, along with our “duly-elected representatives” who wield partial power of attorney over us, are part-owners of ourselves as involuntary servants.
Ah, breathe that free, free air. Isn't it great?

Thursday, May 8, 2014

Wiretaps, Searches, and the P.A.T.R.I.O.T. Act

The following was written in April 2014, as part of a response to the Campaign for Liberty's 2012 survey questionnaire for candidates running for federal office.



15. Will you oppose federal power grabs like roving wiretaps and warrantless searches, and oppose PATRIOT Act renewal that includes such items?

     Yes, I will oppose roving wiretaps and warrantless searches by the federal government; and vote to repeal the PATRIOT Act, to oppose its renewal and similar legislation.
     I will criticize the PATRIOT Act on the basis of its lacking both constitutionality and transparency. Given the short duration of time which members of Congress were given to read and consider the bill, the stipulation that only those members who voted for the bill would be permitted to participate in its subsequent amendment, and the fragmented manner in which the bill was constructed – as well as the content of the bill itself - I see no reason to support the act or its renewal.
     I believe that unless danger is imminent and reasonable suspicion of violent crime is present, a wiretap or search is not permissible unless and until a judge has signed a warrant issuing authorization for such an action. Federal agents must not write their own search warrants and enter and occupy people's homes without either permission of the homeowner or a warrant signed by a judge, as did the agents of King George III during the American Revolutionary War.
     Contrary to the attitudes of supporters of the PATRIOT Act, the need to protect our 5th Amendment liberties should never be superseded by the need of law enforcement agencies to gather information quickly and efficiently, nor by the need of judges who sign such warrants to get a full eight hours of sleep at night.
     I will sponsor legislation to augment the protection of the civil liberties enumerated in the 4th, 5th, and 6th Amendments, strictly prohibiting government surveillance without cause, as well as all illegal activities of the National Security Agency's programs, in particular the PRISM data collection program.
     I will also urge states and local governments to legalize the filming of police officers and all elected and appointed public officials, and I will support increased congressional oversight of the Continuity of Operations Plan, in order to prevent the suspension of the Constitution and basic civil liberties in the event of a State of National Emergency. Additionally, I will support review and revision of which agencies the U.S. considers terrorist groups hostile to our country, in order to ensure sufficient domestic homeland security absent the politicizing effects of our military and trade policies towards other nations.




For more entries on homeland security and terrorism, please visit:
http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2011/03/911-heres-what-i-think-happened.html
http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2014/05/identification-and-travel-documents.html

For more entries on high-profile corruption and conspiracy theories, please visit:

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