Showing posts with label U.S. House of Representatives. Show all posts
Showing posts with label U.S. House of Representatives. Show all posts

Sunday, June 7, 2020

Joe Kopsick for Congress Campaign 2020: E-Mail Update #1


JOE KOPSICK FOR CONGRESS CAMPAIGN 2020: E-MAIL UPDATE #1

June 8th, 2020
_________________________________________________________________________________

Dear 10th District voter,

     We are e-mailing you because you signed up to receive e-mails about Joe Kopsick's campaign for U.S. Representative from Illinois's 10th District. Thank you for your support!

     Please e-mail jwkopsick@gmail.com with the subject line “Unsubscribe” if you wish to be removed from our e-mail list.

     If you signed the petition, then thank you for your signature! Your signature will:



     1. Help Joe Kopsick get on the ballot for U.S. Representatives (IL-10) on November 3rd

and

     2. Help establish a Mutualist Party in the State of Illinois

     (as long as 1,210 or more valid signatures are collected and turned in by August 7th).


     Your signature is not a binding obligation to support the candidate in any way.


     To make sure that your signature will be counted, please be sure to register to vote by August 7th, 2020, the day that petition signatures are due to be turned in to the state Board of Elections.


     If you need to find out which congressional district you live in, check the following links:
     Enter your address and see the number to the right of “Congressional (Federal)”. If it says “10”, then you are eligible to vote and sign for Joe Kopsick. This page will also tell you whether you have registered to vote.



     Even if Joe Kopsick does not receive the necessary signatures to get his name on the ballot, you will be able to write his name in the write-in space on November 3rd.
     If you get to the ballot and Joe Kopsick's name does not appear beneath Brad Schneider's, then a write-in vote for Joe Kopsick will still be counted! Your signature just helps get him on the ballot by name, which will save the voter the trouble of having to remember how to spell K-O-P-S-I-C-K.

     Joe Kopsick's opponents for the 10th District U.S. House seat are:
  
        - Brad Schneider (Democrat, incumbent)
          - Valerie Mukherjee (Republican)
          - David Rych (Libertarian)
          - Bradley Sigmund Heinz (independent)
_________________________________________________________________________________

ABOUT THE CANDIDATE:

     Joe Kopsick was born on February 24th, 1987 at Lake Forest Hospital in Lake Forest, Illinois. The son of an attorney, and a homemaker and a disabilities teaching assistant, Kopsick attended District 65 and 67 schools, and majored in political science at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, graduating in 2009.
     In 2010, Kopsick founded the Aquarian Agrarian, a blog on Blogspot.com. Since then, Mr. Kopsick has run for Congress four times, and he has published more than five hundred articles on various topics (such as federal law, the Constitution, electoral politics, labor economics, and political theory).
     Kopsick's writing can be found at
http://aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/.


     Kopsick currently works as a private security guard. He is faced every day with the absurdity that private security guards are trained to protect the public, while the supposedly public police have no obligation to protect and serve the general public, only to protect those with whom they have made private contracts.
     The law needs to make sense again.
     See Joe Kopsick's article and infographic about how government can legalize resistance of unlawful arrest and police brutality:     http://aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2020/06/resisting-unlawful-arrest-by-police-in.html
_________________________________________________________________________________

ABOUT THE PLATFORM:

     Kopsick's top 3 issues are:
     1. Pay Off the U.S. National Debt by 2047 (P.O.U.N.D.) by paying off $1 trillion per year
     2. Eliminate Medical Patents by Advancing Technologies for Human Immortality Cheaply (E.M.P.A.T.H.I.C.), a plan to reduce the costs of medicine,
     and
     3. the Safe Kids Act (S.K.A.), a plan to reform public education and child trafficking laws in an integrated fashion.

     Links to full articles on these topics, written by the candidate, will be included in future campaign updates.
     (P.S.: Future campaign updates will be
much, much, shorter!)

     See Joe Kopsick's platform for the 2020 race:

     To see how much you agree with Joe Kopsick on the issues, visit these links, download the survey images, print them, and fill them out:

     See a page containing links to Joe Kopsick's most important campaign documents: http://aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2020/02/links-to-most-important-documents-and.html

     Learn more about Mutualism:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mutualism_(economic_theory)

     Learn about Mutualist and Georgist principles:
http://aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2019/04/georgism-and-mutualism-poster.html
_________________________________________________________________________________

     JOE KOPSICK'S FIVE PROMISES TO 10TH DISTRICT VOTERS AND DONORS:

     1.
I will never accept money from a corporation (unless it operates on a non-profit or cooperative basis, and is reputable and trustworthy);

     2. I will never accept taxpayer money (that is, if the Mutualist Party's support surpasses 5% in Illinois and it becomes eligible for federal public matching funds, I will strongly discourage the Mutualist Party from accepting taxpayer funds, and I will refuse taxpayer funds as a candidate);

     3. My campaign will never make unsolicited requests for your donations;

     4. My campaign will never sell your information;

     5. The candidate, campaign volunteers, and the Illinois State Board of Elections, are the only people who will ever be given your name and address.
_________________________________________________________________________________

     THREE EASY WAYS YOU CAN HELP US FOR FREE

     We do not need your money; we care more about you being informed and empowered.

     The Joe Kopsick for Congress campaign wants to prove that it is possible to run a successful campaign for less than three dollars' postage.

     That is how you get money out of politics; by setting a good example.

     This is why Mr. Kopsick's campaign is (thus far) entirely self-funded.

     We want your help, and we will accept your donations, but we don't need your money.

     Here are three ways you can help us, for free:

     1. Email your friends about Joe Kopsick!
     Whether you'd like to be considered an official Joe Kopsick for Congress volunteer or not, remember that sending an e-mail is free, and that information is the most important tool we have.
Please e-mail this campaign update, and the links in it, to anyone you know who may be likely to vote on November 3rd.

     2. Invite the candidate and his volunteers to gatherings such as:
          - political protests, marches, rallies, etc.
          - small parties in private homes
          - neighborhood cookouts
     to help the campaign meet registered voters who can sign the petition to get Joe Kopsick onto the ballot.

     3. Call newspapers, or independent journalists and bloggers you know, and ask them to interview Joe Kopsick, cover his campaign, and/or include him in polls.

     These are the best ways to spread the word about independent candidates, without having to devote too much attention to fundraising.
     Joe Kopsick believes that a “donation” from anyone other than an ordinary voter (or a trustworthy non-profit non-state organization) should be considered a bribe.
     By making fundraising an extremely low priority in campaigning, Mr. Kopsick hopes to decrease the risk that candidates will fall capture to the legislative interests of wealthy donors, lobbyists, and the politicians who are committing insider trading through passing legislation that rigs the economy for the benefit of the super-rich.
_________________________________________________________________________________

     A MESSAGE FOR THOSE INTERESTED IN RUNNING FOR OFFICE

     We want you to help our campaign, but we will also send you information about Mr. Kopsick's opponents so that you are fully informed of your choices.

     We will also tell you how you can run for office yourself!

     Send us an e-mail with the subject line "Run for Office", and tell us your age, town, and which issue(s) you feel you are most knowledgeable about.
     We will suggest some offices for which you might be interested in running, and direct you to the appropriate page on the Illinois State Board of Elections website.
     You can see that information by visiting http://www.elections.il.gov/ and clicking on "Running for Office".
_________________________________________________________________________________
     FIX THE LAW, STOP DANCING AROUND THE ISSUES

     For too long, politicians have gotten away with giving half-answers to important questions, dancing around problems, and confusing and distracting the people into thinking they've answered their questions.
     It is time that we elect a candidate who will dive head-first into the issues that the public cares about, and figure out exactly what is wrong with the law, instead of wasting time arguing over how to market the legislation to the people.
     As an independent blogger and researcher, and a four-time congressional candidate, Kopsick has drafted a congressional platform three times before. He knows all too well what is wrong with our federal laws and how to fix them.

     Our campaign would love to know which issues are most important to you, and what your legislative priorities are. Mr. Kopsick might not agree with you on all the issues, but he is always open to compromise.
     Please e-mail jwkopsick@gmail.com! Let us know your top 3, top 5, or top 10 most important issues, and Mr. Kopsick will let you know where he stands on those issues, and direct you to relevant articles and planks in his platform.
     If you would like to reach Mr. Kopsick directly, he is available by phone at 608-417-9395. He is a private security guard and does not mind being called, or even woken up, at odd hours, so feel free to call him at any time of the day!

     Thank you so much for your support!
_________________________________________________________________________________

- Joseph W. “Joe” Kopsick

Candidate, Chairman, and Treasurer
of the
Committee to Elect Joe Kopsick


608-417-9395

_________________________________________________________________________________

Written and Published on June 8th, 2020

Tuesday, June 2, 2020

Press Release: Local U.S. House Candidate Attempts to Form a Mutualist Party in Illinois (Extended Version)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:                                                            Contact: JOSEPH W. KOPSICK
June 3rd, 2020                                                                      608-417-9395 / jwkopsick@gmail.com



Local U.S. House Candidate Attempts to Form a Mutualist Party in Illinois



     A new challenger has emerged in the race for U.S. House of Representatives in Illinois's 10th district. Lake Bluff native Joseph W. Kopsick, 33, has decided to challenge Democratic incumbent congressman Brad Schneider.
     Kopsick, a political science graduate of the University of Wisconsin, is running an independent campaign. He is also attempting to form a Mutualist Party in Illlinois. Kopsick tells voters that mutualist economics will help make markets both free and fair at the same time, and reduce the harmful influence of monopolies, and help resolve the debate between capitalism and socialism.
     According to Kopsick, “The federal government should manage only money, mail, and military, until we know that it is capable of doing other things competently.” Kopsick wants health, environment, and land issues to be dealt with as locally as possible. Kopsick sees voter education as the most important part of increasing civic engagement, telling voters that “We cannot go on teaching students how the government works, if it is so overextended that it doesn't work the way it was intended to.”
     For Kopsick, the most important issues we face as a nation are the national debt, high medical prices, and child trafficking. Kopsick hopes to pay off the debt through serious budgetary, monetary, and taxation reform, and considers paying off a trillion dollars a year until 2047 to be a realistic goal. Kopsick also sees the importance of making medical goods more affordable; he sees long patent lifespans and unnecessary taxes as some of the chief causes of high medical prices.
     Mr. Kopsick plans to bring his campaign to public libraries and other locations throughout Illinois's 10th congressional district, which encompasses most of Lake County and portions of northern Cook County. Kopsick's challengers in the 10th district, in addition to the incumbent, include Republican nominee Valerie Mukherjee, Libertarian nominee David Rych, and independent candidate Bradley Heinz.
     Kopsick must collect 1,210 signatures by August 7th in order to get on the ballot as a Mutualist candidate. If he does not reach that threshold, voters will still be able to write his name in the write-in space in the general election on November 3rd.
     Since 2010, Kopsick has managed a political science weblog on Blogspot, called the Aquarian Agrarian, which features his congressional platform as well as commentary on political issues. Kopsick is also active on YouTube, Twitter, and Instagram. Members of the press wishing to contact Kopsick's campaign can reach out to the candidate via email at jwkopsick@gmail.com or via phone at 608-417-9395.





Written on June 1st and 3rd 2020
Published to this blog on June 3rd, 2020

Press Release: Local U.S. House Candidate Attempts to Form a Mutualist Party in Illinois (Abbreviated Version)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:                                                            Contact: JOSEPH W. KOPSICK
June 3rd, 2020                                                                      608-417-9395 / jwkopsick@gmail.com



Local U.S. House Candidate Attempts to Form a Mutualist Party in Illinois




     A new challenger has emerged in the race for U.S. House of Representatives in Illinois's 10th district. Lake Bluff native Joseph W. Kopsick, 33, has decided to challenge Democratic incumbent congressman Brad Schneider.
     Kopsick, a political science graduate of the University of Wisconsin, is running an independent campaign. He is also attempting to form a Mutualist Party in Illlinois. Kopsick tells voters that mutualist economics will help make markets both free and fair at the same time, and reduce the harmful influence of monopolies.
     According to Kopsick, “The federal government should manage only money, mail, and military, until we know that it is capable of doing other things competently.” Kopsick wants health, environment, and land issues to be dealt with as locally as possible.
     Mr. Kopsick plans to bring his campaign to public libraries and other locations throughout Illinois's 10th congressional district, which encompasses most of Lake County and parts of Cook County.
     Kopsick must collect 1,210 signatures by August 7th in order to get on the ballot as a Mutualist candidate. If he does not reach that threshold, voters will still be able to write his name in the write-in space in the general election on November 3rd.
     Members of the press wishing to contact Kopsick's campaign can reach out to the candidate via email at jwkopsick@gmail.com or via phone at 608-417-9395.




Written on June 1st, 2020
Published to this blog on June 3rd, 2020

Submitted to the Daily Herald on June 1st, 2020, but not published

Tuesday, May 12, 2020

Monday, May 11, 2020

Political Questionnaire: Are You a Joe Kopsick Voter? #1


Click on the above image in order to view it in greater detail




Designed and Published on May 11th, 2020
Edited on May 13th, 2020

Based on Notes from a March 7th, 2020 post titled
"Trump vs. Biden vs. Bernie Sanders vs. Joe Kopsick on the Issues"

which can be viewed at the following link:

Saturday, February 29, 2020

Links to the Most Important Documents and Videos for My 2020 Campaign for U.S. House

1 & 2. 2020 platform for U.S. House of Representatives:

6. Article about how to abolish the federal government in as orderly a fashion as possible:
http://aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2019/10/abolishing-federal-government-and.html

7. Article criticizing urging citizens to participate in the census:
http://aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2019/11/why-im-opposed-to-2020-census.html

8. Infographic showing things I predicted or knew about before they were reported in mainstream press:
http://aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2020/02/events-i-predicted-or-knew-about-before.html

9. Pamphlet criticizing incumbent Rep. Brad Schneider's donation sources:
http://aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2020/02/where-does-congressman-brad-schneider.html

10. Video criticizing Rep. Schneider on Ukrainegate and showing that I knew about Ukraine-related corruption 2 years before it broke in the news:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fq1l0FVHu6c

11. Speech to the Libertarian Party of Chicago about my platform:
http://aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2020/03/speech-to-libertarian-party-of-chicago.html

12. Comparison of my platform with those of Bernie Sanders, and Joe Biden and Donald Trump:
http://aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2020/03/trump-and-biden-vs-bernie-sanders-vs.html

13. Questionnaires which allow readers to score themselves according to how much they agree with the candidate:
http://aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2020/05/political-questionnaire-are-you-joe.html
http://aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2020/05/political-questionnaire-are-you-joe_12.html

14. Video of my first meet and greet for U.S. House in March 2020:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qx7Rb19vHXs

15 & 16. Press releases from June 2020:
http://aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2020/06/press-release-local-house-candidate.html
http://aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2020/06/local-us-house-candidate-seeks-to-form.html

17. E-mail updates from the campaign:
http://aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2020/06/joe-kopsick-for-congress-campaign-2020.html

18. Response to the Green Party's candidate questionnaire:
http://aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2020/06/responses-to-illinois-green-partys-2020.html

19. Description of the Joe Kopsick for Congress / Mutualist Party of Illinois Facebook group:
http://aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2020/07/description-of-facebook-group-joe.html

20. Post announcing the foundation of the Mutualist Party of Illinois:
http://aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2020/07/announcing-formation-of-mutualist-party.html

21. QR codes leading to important links about the campaign:
http://aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2020/07/set-of-qr-codes-for-joe-kopsicks-2020.html

22. Campaign ad featuring QR codes:
http://aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2020/07/joe-kopsick-for-congress-campaign.html

23. Guide for volunteers collecting signatures to put Joe Kopsick on the ballot:
http://aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2020/07/guide-for-volunteers-collecting.html

24 & 25. Write-in Joe Kopsick campaign ads
http://aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2020/07/advertisement-write-in-joe-kopsick-for.html
http://aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2020/08/advertisement-write-in-joe-kopsick-for.html

26 & 27. Joe Kopsick for Congress door hangers
http://aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2020/07/door-hanger-advertisement-write-in-joe.html
http://aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2020/08/door-hanger-advertisement-write-in-joe.html

28. Joe Kopsick for Congress yard signs
http://aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2020/08/joe-kopsick-for-congress-yard-sign.html

29. Response to a Green Party survey
http://aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2020/08/response-to-green-party-youth-caucuss.html











Originally Published on February 29th, 2020

Edited and Expanded on March 24th; June 3rd and 8th;
July 3rd, 2020, and August 27th, 2020

Wednesday, November 13, 2019

Why I Support a Boycott of the 2020 U.S. Census

     Local government is urging the American people to cooperate with the 2020 U.S. Census survey.
     A court recently ruled that the Trump Administration could not include the citizenship question on it. But what will local government do to protect us, if the administration insists on including it anyway (whether they figure out how to do it legally or not)?
     The Constitution authorizes the federal government and its census takers to collect no information other than the number of people. Therefore,all questions about ethnicity, race, religion, country of origin or birth, and citizenship, are thus illegal, and laws providing for those questions to be asked are unconstitutional. We cannot legally be obligated to answer any of those questions, and I urge residents not to answer them (especially given that there is no enforced punishment for evading the census).
     Another reason why our local governments are urging us to cooperate with the census, is that our elected officials use the census to make money off of us. Making sure that everyone participates in the census is, after all, how government makes sure that congressional districts have equal numbers of people. And that is what they use to justify taking the census in the first place; they say apportionment and drawing districts are impossible without a census.
     However, the number of people in the district also secures that district federal funding, as part of its “equal share” of federal funding. That is how our representatives are using us – taking advantage of the fact that we are in their districts – for their own monetary benefit (i.e., the idea that we need to be represented is what allows them to hold positions and profit).
     Of course, it matters to almost nobody that spending and the tax burden are not shared anywhere near equally by the districts and states (shown in the maps below). 



But the fact that equality is not furthered in determining where these districts lie, should show that the census's main purpose is to secure whatever funding the district can manage to get. That is why urging people to participate in the census, and offering people well-paid positions to be census takers, is nothing more than a scam to continue the redistribution of wealth across the country.
     The census is nothing more than a scam to defraud us, the voters and taxpayers and residents, of our financial power (through our right to those funds), and our legal power (through allowing our elected officials to take away some of our power of attorney, and in so doing, to appropriate more of those federal funds towards themselves and their own offices than towards We the People).

     Aside from the census being a money-making scheme for our legislators, it is also a plot to track us, and harvest our private personal information. Government-regulated credit rating agencies and banks routinely lose millions upon millions of people's personal information; do you really trust government to handle your personal information wisely?
     Moreover, the census could potentially be used as a way to round-up non-citizens and other “undesirables” or “enemies of the state”. What do our state and local governments plan to do, if the Trump Administration goes forward with its plan to include a citizenship question on the 2020 Census (whether legally or illegally)? Do they intend to protect us?
     Unfortunately, I predict that they're going to continue to urge cooperation at all times, because to do otherwise would be against the law, and the opposite of what they're supposed to do as elected officials (which is to urge faith in all public institutions at all times, and participation in as many government programs as possible).
     You might think that elected officials and police have an obligation to do their jobs, and do as ordered. But if your job is to threaten force against people who entered this country illegally but without threatening force themselves, then your job is immoral, and you doing your job conflicts with the public's moral obligation to peacefully resist unjust laws. The police, for the most part, have no obligation to do “their jobs” (if by that we mean “protect and serve the general public”; that's out because of Warren v. D.C.) because they can only do as ordered. “I was only following orders” didn't fly at the Nuremberg Trials, and “I was just doing my job” is the new “I was only following orders”.
     Local governments throughout Illinois should urge Governor J.B. Pritzker to instruct the Illinois National Guard, and all public police in Illinois, to refrain from cooperating with federal authorities. And that goes for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (I.C.E.), and agents of the 2020 census, alike; and the same goes for other states urging their governors to interpose the same federal authorities. That's because the vast majority of these agencies' activities (and the census takers' questions) were not properly constitutionally authorized.
     Under no circumstances should the public be urged to cooperate with federal authorities in pursuit of these unconstitutional aims. All fifty state governors should immediately issue orders nullifying the federal law which authorized I.C.E.; effectively removing the authority of I.C.E. to operate legally within the boundaries of each particular state.
     If necessary, state National Guard troops should be mobilized to arrest federal troops or agents, and/or prevent more of them from entering the given state, if they insist on enforcing unconstitutional federal laws. If local government doesn't intend to do anything to stop the continued operation of an illegal federal department that didn't even exist just 17 years ago, then it cannot rightfully claim that what it does, promotes either freedom or public safety.

     Local governments are doing their residents no service to recommend that they cooperate with the Trump Administration. Even if the administration doesn't use the census to carry out deportations, it's already deporting peaceful undocumented immigrants.
     I.C.E. is hassling Hispanic-Americans who were born in America now. Seasonal farm workers are being trapped in America at the end of harvest season, and mocked and driven into the shadows for being here illegally (through no fault of their own), now. Immigrants are being funneled away from points of entry where they could easily declare asylum, and instead are forced to trek through dangerous desert, now.
     Whether the Trump Administration's immigration, deportation, and census policies going forward, will be legal and constitutional or not, why should state and local governments urge us to cooperate with those “authorities”? Aren't they supposed to protect public safety? Governments are supposed to work for the people, not the other way around.
     If the police state national guards do not come to the aid of all non-violent residents (not just the citizens who pay them) during deportation raids, then neighbors will come together to protect vulnerable residents who are in the United States without proper permission.
     And if that happens, then it will be the members of local government whom will have urged resident and police cooperation with federal authorities, whom will be remembered as the people who urged cooperation with a blatantly authoritarian regime, and whom will have suckered us into becoming fascist collaborators (and potentially even turning-in our undocumented neighbors, especially if you consider the potential usurious ends for which the census taker could be used).

     I urge the people to arm themselves, and to resist the census. I also urge the people, and the police, to refuse to cooperate with federal authorities enforcing all immigration laws.
     The federal government has the authority to establish a uniform rule of naturalization, not to enforce it (which means it should fall to the states). The federal government, also, lacks authority to establish any other types of immigration policy; and moreover, the federal government has no obligation to collect census data in addition to the number of people.
     That is why I support boycotting the 2020 U.S. Census. It will be used – and, in my opinion, is already being used, by our legislators - as a way to convince citizens to shame one another into supporting the census, with the non-participating person being seen by the pro-census people as if they were withholding money from the district and their fellow citizens. We are being forced to compete against one another, and encouraged to spy on one another.

     In mid-July 2019, a federal court ruled against including a citizenship question in the 2020 Census. However, on July 29th, N.P.R. reported that the U.S. Census Bureau sent out census forms including the citizenship question to 240,000 households.
http://www.npr.org/2019/07/29/746158231/why-the-2020-census-citizenship-question-hasn-t-gone-away
     The Trump Administration says this was only a test. However, they've been criticized for not doing this test long enough before the 2020 census, before it can be approved in its final form. There are now, at the time of this writing, only six and a half weeks left until 2020. My local U.S. Representative recently reassured an audience that the census information will be secure, and will 
not be used to deport people (nor sold for profit to big data collection companies), but I remain unconvinced.
     It was completely predictable that the administration would keep pushing on this issue, because pushing and doubling-down is what this administration does. Lawsuits don't work against fascists; the Trump Administration will find a way to use this information for evil. After all, the Nazis might never have been able to murder as many Jewish people as they did, were it not for the assistance of I.B.M. computers, which collected census data that allowed the Nazis to track Jews down.
     We should not forget that something like that could happen again. Big data companies are real threats. Facebook, for example, has been about encouraging people to voluntarily surrender information about themselves (where they are, who they're with, what they like) from the start; in its early days, Facebook was funded by the C.I.A. through a startup called In-Q-Tel.

     We shouldn't wait for the Supreme Court to stop the Trump Administration doing something illegal; they will find ways to keep enforcing policies even when they know they are unconstitutional, improperly authorized, or could easily be enforced differently or not at all.
     Instead, we should endorse Jeffersonian nullification. The governors would be fully within their powers to nullify I.C.E., deportation orders, and additional census questions, and in so doing make the states “sanctuary states”. Although using a "states' rights" solution could be politically unpopular (or even offensive), the same power could also be used to justify keeping Illinois a "sanctuary state".
     However, I would not recommend that this “sanctuary state” designation be made in a way that secures federal funds to the given state, as the federal government should not be in the business of settling immigrants; its only duty is to establish a uniform rule of naturalization.
     I believe that this policy will help make assistance to undocumented immigrants legal, constitutional, and voluntary (i.e., neither prohibited nor mandatory).

     Until state and local governments can start offering more than words when criticizing the Trump Administration's desire to implement legislation they know damn well is unconstitutional – if the council could offer condemnation and plans for action – then it could show a generation of young Americans that their country's civic ethics are not only about promoting civic engagement, but also in recognizing our freedoms and our rights to resist tyranny.
     The American people stood up to fascism, and they will stand up to it again, whether it is at home or abroad.







Based on notes written in July and August 2019
Edited and expanded on November 13th, 2019

Originally published in final form on November 13th, 2019
(includes fragments of articles published in July and August 2019)

How to Fold Two Square Pieces of Card Stock into a Box

      This series of images shows how to take two square pieces of card stock (or thick paper), and cut and fold them into two halves of a b...