Showing posts with label age of consent. Show all posts
Showing posts with label age of consent. Show all posts

Saturday, April 3, 2021

Don't Shoot the Messenger: Confirming Robby Soave's Observation That it's Legal to Traffic Sixteen- and Seventeen-Year-Olds

     As comedian -turned- political commentator and podcast host Jimmy Dore has been remarking more and more often lately, "our country is full of the adult children of alcoholics, and the adult children of alcoholics tend to blame the person making them aware of a problem, instead of blaming the person who's the actual cause of the problem".
     Dore's comment seems to very accurately describe social media's reaction to Robby Soave's Twitter comments about the Matt Gaetz teenager-trafficking scandal.

     On April 1st, 2021, the New York Times and other sources reported that Matt Gaetz, a Republican U.S. congressman from Florida, is being investigated by the Justice Department for possibly trafficking a 17-year-old girl across state lines for the purposes of sex.
     Within a day or two of the Gaetz controversy breaking, Robby Soave, a writer and senior editor at the libertarian-leaning Reason magazine, tweeted in response to the scandal. His tweet read, "I really don't think Matt Gaetz committed [']sex trafficking['] even if he is guilty of exactly what the NYT describes. And in fact, the age of consent is 16 or 17 in the vast majority of states." A subsequent tweet of Soave's read, "Yes I am in fact a libertarian thank you for pointing that out".




     Soave's Twitter comments on the Gaetz scandal may seem insensitive, and it might seem like an obvious defense of trafficking teens for sex (and maybe even of pedophilia in general). Or maybe Soave is just "playing Devil's Advocate".
     But on the other hand, when Soave says "I really don't think Matt Gaetz committed [']sex trafficking['] even if he is guilty of exactly what the NYT describes", he might just mean that he personally thinks there is no merit to the reports about Gaetz.

     Still, it may seem insensitive that Soave would say that he doesn't think Gaetz is guilty "even if he is guilty of exactly what the NYT describes". It almost sounds like he's saying Gaetz is guilty and not guilty at the same time, which doesn't make sense.
     But in fact, what Robby Soave is saying about the law is 100% correct. Unfortunately, in the United States, it is currently legal to traffic teenagers across state lines, provided that they are sixteen years of age or older. This was the outcome of the 2017 U.S. Supreme Court case Esquivel-Quintana v. Sessions.

     Thus, Robby Soave may appear to be defending pedophilia and child trafficking, but we cannot conclude, solely from these two tweets, whether he is doing so because of his own personal "ethics" (or lack thereof), or whether he is doing so in order to be on the correct side of the law.
     If it's the latter, then it is sad to consider what this means. In order to be on the correct side of the law, as it stands right now, we have to agree that trafficking sixteen- and seventeen-year-olds across state lines for the purposes of sex, is not a crime against anybody, in the eyes of federal law.
     The law is giving the American people (and especially the politicians and lawyers, and those who wish to become politically involved and taken seriously) no choice but to subjugate their own personal senses of morality regarding child protection, to that of the state. This will not do.



     I found Robby Soave's tweet in a Facebook group called "Communists v. Libertarians Debate Group". Soave's tweet was posted mockingly, by a member of that group.
     Shortly after the Matt Gaetz scandal broke, and Robby Soave made his comment on Twitter, I messaged the member who posted Soave's tweet, with the following message.


 

 



     Hey. Saw your post on Communists v. Libertarians about age of consent laws. Soave might have said what he said out of a desire to lower the age of consent, but he's factually correct.

     The case of Esquivel-Quintana v. Sessions was a federal case that effectively lowered the age of consent in about 20 states, including Florida. This federal case effectively nullified the age of consent laws in those states.

     All federal sex trafficking is under federal jurisdiction, and therefore the states can't prosecute a guy who rapes a 17-year-old as long as he takes her out of state in the process. It's a fucked up situation.

     Unfortunately for some people's narrative, the Huffington Post and Jeff Sessions were on the right side of the issue. HuffPo for reporting the case ("Supreme Court unanimously overturns age of consent laws in 20 states") and Jeff Sessions for trying to prosecute Esquivel-Quintana, who traveled across state lines with a 17-year-old girl.

     I believe the girl was from California, it was some state where there was a 17 or 18 year age of consent. The Supreme Court found in Esquivel-Quintana v. Sessions that the federal government's "generic federal age of consent" of 16, won out over the states' higher age of consent laws.

     I believe that we either need to let states prosecute traffickers who take minors from their states, or else we need a constitutional amendment setting the age of consent to 17 or 18 nationwide (because varying age of consent laws in each state will inevitably lead to movement of children for illicit purposes).

 



     Many critics of libertarians - and the critics of the Constitution - like to argue that the Constitution is a living document, and that therefore it should not be interpreted too rigidly or literally.
     But it's hard not to interpret the Constitution rigidly or literally, when the U.S. Code rigidly defines all of the legal terms used in constitutional and legal language.
     To say that we interpret the Constitution "too literally", is to admit that we are interpreting it accurately, without saying it out loud.
     The critics of those who interpret the Constitution accurately, and of those of us who read the law and accurately observe from it that teenagers may legally be trafficked across state lines in some circumstances, are thus in denial.


     I would advise that people on the left who want to protect children, should stop criticizing people for noticing the state of the law. Just like the first step of recovering from alcoholism is admitting that you have a problem - and just like Lao Tzu said you must understand your enemy in order to defeat him - it is impossible to change or improve the law, unless we first recognize and admit how bad it is.
     Libertarians do not consider it fun to have to point out hard truths about the sorry state of our government, like that trafficking teenagers is legal, and that it's legal to marry babies in ten states. But we still consider it our responsibility to inform the public about bad laws, despite the fact that, in payment for this, we have only been treated like the people who caused the problem, instead of being treated as the whistleblowers we are. [My video of Joe Biden pinching an 8-year-old girl's nipple live on C-SPAN, for instance, was removed from YouTube for "cyber-bullying and harassment".]
     To reiterate what C. Frederic Bastiat said about the critics of liberty: Our critics act as if our not wanting the state to raise grain, means that we don't want anyone to raise grain; that is hardly the case. What is good for the law is not always good for the people. Similarly, the set of behaviors that are criminally punishable don't always line up with what we morally believe should be the set of behaviors that are punishable. That is why we are having this conversation; because we want the law to line up with morality.


     So don't shoot the messenger. Blame the people who are actually responsible for twenty state age of consent laws going down in one fell swoop. Blame the attorneys who represented Mr. Esquivel-Quintana. If necessary, blame the political parties with whom those attorneys are associated. Hell, blame the people who wrote the federal age of consent law, and the definition of sex trafficking of a minor or ward.
     But don't blame Robby Soave; his comments were necessary.

     The acceptable legal defense for having sexual relations with a minor, is written into the law. Until we recognize that the age of consent is too low, and we raise it and make it uniform across the states, then the current federal law on trafficking minors will serve only as an instruction to traffickers about how to get away with their crimes.
     Until sex trafficking laws are reformed, the rights of children aged sixteen and seventeen, to be free from harm, will be at risk, and those who point out this problem will continue to be mocked into silence. And the federal law on trafficking a minor or ward will be right there, to make excuses for the situation.
     We have to make it illegal to traffic 17-year-olds across state lines, if we want sex traffickers - and people like Matt Gaetz (if he is guilty) - to be prosecuted. Expecting them to be prosecuted, when what they're doing is not yet illegal (and also no longer illegal, since 2017), is irrational.
     Noticing that sex-trafficking older teens is not illegal, is not necessarily a moral endorsement of the practice; it could also be a warning. Noticing that something is not illegal, is not necessarily the same thing as saying it's good that it's not illegal. You can't know for sure what a person means by something they said, unless you read their full statement, and understand the context in which it's being said.





Esquivel-Quintana v. Sessions:
http://www.huffpost.com/entry/supreme-court-unanimously-overrules-statutory-rape_b_592edaede4b017b267edff12

My most recent article about the need to reform laws on age of consent, statutory rape, and sex trafficking:
http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2021/03/before-fully-legalizing-sex-work-stop.html







Written on April 1st and April 3rd, 2021
Published on April 3rd, 2021
Expanded on April 6th, 2021

Wednesday, March 10, 2021

Before Fully Legalizing Sex Work, Stop Lowering the Age of Consent

     The following article was written as advice to the Libertarian Party regarding why its members should stop advocating for the lowering of the age of consent to sexual relations.




     In the mid-2010s, Americans began to notice that teenagers were increasingly being required to register as sex offenders for life; even for the supposed "crimes" of possessing nude photographs of themselves, and of having sex with someone below the age of consent but still very close in age.
     Since then, so-called "Romeo and Juliet" laws, have become more popular. These are exemptions to the statutory rape or age of consent laws, which allow minors close in age, to have sex, without it being considered a crime. The statute typically specifies the age range, and establishes a minimum age to protect young children.
     It's certainly a fair argument that if a 17-year-old and an 18-year-old are dating, then they should be able to have sex without anyone going to jail or registering as a sex offender. It's also a fair argument that teenagers do not belong on sex offender registries, unless they are repeat or violent offenders, or assaulted significantly younger children.
     However, the facts that these arguments hold water, does not mean that every argument criticizing the current state of age of consent laws, holds water. Statutory rape laws may be rigid, but there's a reason for that; especially young children need to be protected.


     In the article from The Appeal which is linked below, the children involved were only 12 and 14 years old. Yet, because the 14-year-old faced sex offender registration, people felt sorry for him. And that's understandable. But from that point, the excuse train just kept on rolling.
     http://theappeal.org/underage-teenager-faces-life-as-registered-sex-offender-for-having-sex-with-underage-girlfriend-55c377ea9729/
     The fact that these children don't belong on a sex offender list with adult criminals, doesn't mean that nobody should suffer any consequences for what they did. These children's parents are treating them as "boyfriend and girlfriend" who should be free to have sex; as such, it is the parents' fault that their children cannot keep their hands to themselves.
     Think about it: The older party was a fourteen-year-old boy, whose parents evidently did not teach him how to avoid having sex with younger children who are incapable of consenting. I will not address the possibility that the girl was, in any way, to blame; not because she's a girl, nor because boys are evil, but because she was the younger party and was therefore vulnerable. The boy's parents should be fined or jailed for failing to teach their son how to respect other children's boundaries.
     Twelve-year-old girls can get pregnant, as some girls begin puberty early. And there are typically other negative consequences associated with having sex at such a young age, including sexual dysfunction, sex addiction, drug addiction, dropping out of school, and difficulty staying employed.
     Minors under age 16 or 17 cannot fully understand these serious negative consequences, and thus cannot make a fully informed decision which takes them into account. Taking too libertine an attitude regarding the protection of children, can have serious effects.


     Romeo and Juliet exceptions and "close-in-age exemptions" have become a popular solution to the rigidity of statutory rape laws. Indiana an Connecticut passed laws like these in 2007. Texas's law passed in 2011.
     When sex offender registration for juveniles became a controversial issue, the Libertarian Party was on the correct side of that issue. For older teenagers, these exceptions helped fix the problem that Libertarians and other Americans had noticed. And that is admirable, on the part of the Libertarians.
     However - evidently unaware that they have already succeeded - the Libertarians have continued to advocate for the lowering of the age of consent to sex. The push to lower the age of consent has worked too well!
     A 2017 U.S. Supreme Court decision caused that change. But before explaining that, it's important to ask, "Is lowering the age of consent really a good idea right now?"


     Take Texas for example. If thirteen-year-olds can already legally have sex in that state, under some circumstances, then lowering the age of consent probably isn't the wisest thing to do.
     There are a number of reforms which could be made to age of consent laws and statutory rape laws, which would protect children, without either limiting adults' freedom, or lowering the age of consent any further.
     These include:
     1) Leaving the law the way it is, and focusing on enforcing it properly (which is probably the most libertarian option);
     2) Increasing the punishments for people who abuse children under 13, or 15 or 16, or both;
     3) Increasing the age of consent to 16 or 17 with no exceptions; and/or
     4) Increasing the age of consent while establishing a sex offender registry that's temporary and for minors only.
     I would recommend that Texas enact the latter three reforms.


     It's correct that we should stop treating minors like adults, when it comes to the legal consequences for their actions. That's because children don't really "choose" their actions, nor do they "decide" carefully in the same way that adults do. Children act on impulse.
     But it does not logically follow, from the fact that minors shouldn't be punished as if they were adults, that we should start treating minors like adults when it comes to sex.
     If you're opposed to putting minors on sex offender registries for life, then why overreact by saying "lower the age of consent"? Why not advocate for the continued registration of teens who commit sex crimes, but put them on a registry that is for minors only? Make it expire when they turn 17 or 18, or at some date that reflects the seriousness of their crime and the vulnerability of the other party involved.
     Why go overboard, when it's unnecessary?
    Lowering the age of consent is not something we should do hastily; not without first checking to see what it is. It is necessary to see what it is, because it keeps changing, based on time and location.


     "The age of consent" is not a fixed thing, and is in constant flux.
     The age of consent to sex changes every few years, in the states, because each state sets its own age, in its own statutes. The national government has an age of consent to sex as well.
     Also, there is so much overlap between "age of consent laws" and "statutory rape laws" that it is difficult to distinguish one category from the other. And both categories affect the laws against human trafficking, child trafficking, and kidnapping (because the victim being young enough means a crime has occurred, and a younger victim means a harsher sentence).
     But most importantly, "the age of consent" is not a single thing. The generic age of consent to sex, the minimum age for sex considering all statutory exemptions, the generic age of consent to marriage, and the minimum age for marriage considering all statutory exemptions, are four different things. Yet each of them could be described as either an "age of consent to sex" or an age of consent to sex within the context of a relationship legalized through a marriage license.

     We have to be clear about what we are talking about, when we say "age of consent". Not only because states sometimes pass exemptions which cause the general state age of consent to stop applying, in certain circumstances; but also because the age of marriage may actually be lower than the age of consent to sex.
     Ten states have even failed to establish any minimum age for consent to marriage. That means the age of consent for marriage, in those states, is effectively zero. Due to exemptions to the marriage laws, which allow judges and/or parents to assent to marriages involving minors, if you can find a couple and a judge who are crazy or stupid or perverted enough, you can marry a baby in those ten states.
     http://aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2020/09/child-marriage-is-legal-in-ten-states.html

     Maybe nobody is going to try to marry a baby, so this isn't a problem.
     But on the other hand, we know from recent events that some child molesters know people high-up in government. We can't be sure that nobody will ever try to get away with such a thing. If that happens, there should be a limitation in place, to say "this child is incapable of giving fully informed consent to this marriage contract".
     If our laws do not reflect our values, such as the need to protect vulnerable children who cannot protect themselves, then our civil society is worthless, because it cannot establish basic norms or standards.
     

     Lowering the age of consent was a great position to take... ten or twenty years ago. It would be a great position to take, if "the age of consent" were actually 18 years old, as most Americans assume it is. But it simply isn't true that there is an 18-year age of consent; not nationally anyway. The age of consent is 18, only in a few states.
     As of early 2021, the age of consent was 18 in 12 states, 17 in 7 states, and 16 in 31 states. As of one or two years ago, the most common age of consent was 17, but now it is 16.

     The fact that more states are reducing the age of consent, than increasing it, should not necessarily be taken as evidence that it is the right thing to do. Keep in mind that, in the figures provided above, state statutes regarding exceptions were not taken into account. Each state's laws regarding exceptions to statutory rape laws, vary widely.
     That is why it is difficult to even say "the age of consent in this particular state is this particular age"; there are so many exceptions that it is often hard to keep track of. Especially when state laws on the matter change so often.


     It was not due to the Libertarian Party's legislative efforts that Romeo and Juliet laws were passed. Nor should we blame the Libertarians for failing to notice that the advocates of reforming statutory rape laws, succeeded.
     But we cannot fail to hold those Libertarians accountable who continue to support lowering ages of consent. Some Libertarians - though not all - continue to remain ignorant about the current state of these laws.
     If Libertarians are so interested in the topic, then they should notice what has changed. They should distinguish what the advocates of lowering the age of consent, did right, from what they did wrong. Then Libertarians should start proposing solutions to the parts they got wrong.
     If the Libertarians do not propose any such solutions, then they should not expect to be part of a coalition that enforces those solutions.


     Curiously, what caused the big change in statutory rape laws, that the Libertarians missed, was not an avalanche of states rushing to pass Romeo and Juliet exceptions.
     Instead, it was the decision in the 2017 U.S. Supreme Court case Esquivel-Quintana v. Sessions. Additionally, the subsequent lowering of the age of consent in at least twenty states, to sixteen, which appears to have been done in order to accommodate and apply the Esquivel ruling.

     Attorney General Jeff Sessions lost the government's case against an undocumented immigrant from Mexico who had sex with a 17-year-old female, at a time when it was illegal for him to do so at age 21, according to a California statute. That California statute was ignored, and effectively invalidated, in the 2017 case.
     In June 2017, the Huffington Post reported that, as a result of that Supreme Court decision, twenty states would have to see their ages of consent reduced to sixteen. That's because the immigrant's attorneys appealed to the fact that the generic federal definition of sexual abuse of a minor (which is articulated in 18 U.S. Code Section 2243) specifically references an age of consent to sex, and not to the age of "legal competence". The age of consent to sex is the federal age of sixteen. The age of legal competence therein referred, is eighteen.
     http://www.huffpost.com/entry/supreme-court-unanimously-overrules-statutory-rape_b_592edaede4b017b267edff12
     This ought to teach us why it is important to distinguish age of consent to sex, from age of legal competence (or age of consent to contract) wherever necessary. If I may make a suggestion, for the sake of simplicity, these ought to be set at the same age. Doing that might help prevent a "race to the bottom", in case the federal age of consent gets any lower than it already is.

     The reason why twenty states' ages of consent became 16, rather than 18, as a result of that decision, is because there is no national or "federal" age of consent to sex which is set at 18 years old.
     There has never been such a law. The states currently set their ages of consent between 16 and 18. They do so because they can, and because the federal government hasn't ruled their age of consent statutes unconstitutional yet. There is no national law, currently on the books, which states that states must set their ages of consent between 16 and 18, nor between any other set of ages.
     States could lower their ages at any time, and they can and do pass exceptions. Those exemptions often legalize sex involving people well below 18, and that is why children below 16 are put at risk, whether or not a state were to claim "states' rights" and lower its general age of consent before exemptions to below 16.


     Huffington Post contributor James R. Marsh explains why 18 U.S. Code Section 2243 is at fault for the outcome of this decision: Esquivel-Quintana's attorneys cited this law to justify refraining from deeming the actions of thee accused as sexual abuse of a minor.
     http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esquivel-Quintana_v._Sessions
     In 18 U.S. Code Section 2243, titled "Sexual abuse of a minor or ward", the law provides that whomever is under U.S. jurisdiction, and "knowingly engages in a sexual act with another person who... has attained the age of 12 years but has not attained the age of 16 years", can be punished.

     This law is referred to as the "generic federal definition" of sexual abuse of a minor.
     It could be argued that this means there is a national age of consent of 16 years old. [However, taking such a stance, would probably require you to argue that state laws establishing a 17-year or 18-year age of consent, are unconstitutional or otherwise invalid.]
     It gets worse, though.

     According to the defenses listed in 18 U.S. Code Section 2243, whomever has sex with someone under 16, but over twelve, might not be guilty of a crime, if they are either married to that person, or they reasonably believed that the person was over 16.
     What does this mean, in effect? If a child aged twelve through fifteen, obtains a fake identification card (a "fake I.D."), and shows it to an adult, then that adult could rape them, and use the fact that they had an I.D. saying they were over 16, to argue that they "reasonably believed that the other person had attained 16 years of age".
     So the "national age of consent" is 16, not 18; and if you have a fake I.D., it's only twelve. Apparently, no criminal consequences can be visited upon someone who rapes a 12- to 15-year-old child who shows them a fake I.D., as long as the rapist is simply aware of the law and its acceptable legal defenses, and doesn't commit any additional crimes in the process.

     It is customary to have the defenses for breaking the law, listed right beneath the law itself. But it is disturbing to think that anyone who looks up this "national age of consent" law, can find what basically amount to instructions on how to use a loophole in the law, right below this very necessary law which is supposed to exist in order to protect children.
     Knowing all of this, it's hard to avoid feeling like the government is instructing child traffickers how to have sex with, an abduct children, legally.
     And in the wake of the Jeffrey Epstein / Alexander Acosta scandal, we should also think about what it means that attorneys, judges, and legislators see that piece of legislation a lot more often than the average American does (and especially more often than the average child who is put in danger by its flaws).
     Do you understand, now, why lowering the age of consent is such a bad idea?
     In case you don't, then yes, it still gets worse! Read on!


     The fact that this national 16-year age of consent law exists at the national level, means that anyone who traffics a child across state lines, is under federal jurisdiction. That means the state cannot prosecute the kidnapper (which is bad), but the federal government can (which is good).
     However, the federal government might not prosecute the kidnapper (which is bad)! It all depends on the age of the victim and the perpetrator.
     Suppose that you live in a state in which the age of consent is 17, and your child is 16 years old, and they've been abducted. If the kidnapper stays within state lines, then state courts can prosecute him, and they will prosecute him under your state's 17-year age of consent law. Naturally, you would prefer that your kidnapper stay close-by, and not leave state lines, because that would make recovering your child very difficult.
     But that's where the federal government comes in. If your child's kidnapper leaves the state with your child, now he's under federal jurisdiction, because he's using the national highway system. And, according to the federal law on "Sexual abuse of a minor", a person who transports a child across state lines, whom is between 12 and 15, and is less than four years younger than the other person involved, has not committed sexual abuse of a minor, and cannot be found guilty of that in federal courts.

     Read closely: "Whoever, in the special maritime and territorial jurisdiction of the United States or in a Federal prison, or in any prison, institution, or facility in which persons are held in custody by direction of or pursuant to a contract or agreement with the head of any Federal department or agency, knowingly engages in a sexual act with another person who- (1) has attained the age of 12 years but has not attained the age of 16 years; and (2) is at least four years younger than the person so engaging; or attempts to do so, shall be fined under this title, imprisoned not more than 15 years, or both."
     The appearance of the word "and", before "(2)", means that both (1) and (2) must be fulfilled, rather than just one or the other. This means that, for a crime to have been committed - simply due to the victim's age, rather than other criminal factors - the victim must be both: 1) at least 12, but not yet 16; and at least four years younger than the kidnapper or rapist.
     In effect, this means that a kidnapper can abduct a child, and take them across state lines for purposes of sex, as long as the child is over 12, and the kidnapper is no more than four years older than the victim. A 16-year-old can kidnap children over 12 and take them across state lines, a 17-year-old can kidnap children over 13, an 18-year-old can kidnap children over 14, and a 19-year-old can kidnap children aged 15. And 16-year-olds can be taken across state lines by anybody, and it's not kidnapping. Unless, that is, other crimes are committed in the process, which obviously indicate that the younger party never consented in the first place (such as evidence of assault).

     Not many Americans, and probably few potential kidnappers, know about these facts. But whether a lot of people know about it, does not change the fact of what we have done, by allowing the Supreme Court to ignore and invalidate the age of consent laws of twenty states.
     We have created a federal incentive program, for kidnappers, to take our children outside state borders.
     We have effectively created this incentive to take kids out of the state, by eliminating the disincentive to stay in the state after abducting the child. That disincentive, which previously existed, was the threat of punishment, by the states, according to their own age of consent and statutory rape laws. In 2017, those laws were invalidated in 20 states, including several of the most populous states in the nation.
     This should demonstrate why it's important to read the law, and to know how to read the law. It could mean the difference between having your child in your arms and never seeing the child again. It could mean the difference between being certain that your child's rape is prosecutable, and having no clue on the matter.


     Age of consent to sex, statutory rape, and intrastate kidnapping, certainly belong under the jurisdiction of the states or the people. Just as interstate kidnapping is rightfully a national or federal issue. But that doesn't mean that the states and the federal government should not coordinate when deciding what those laws should be.
     The wide variation in states' ages of consent - coupled with the many exceptions to those laws - are a complete mess. We would probably see less interstate child trafficking, if kidnappers couldn't simply relocate to a new state, where the age of consent is lower, in order to get away with more legal sex with minors.

     That is why I support a constitutional amendment which would establish a minimum age of consent to sex, marriage, contract, and work, which would be uniform across all states. In my opinion, the age of consent should be set at 17, with a two-year "close-in-age exception" that allows minors aged 15 or older to have sex, without being labeled sex offenders, as long as the other party is below 17.
     A constitutional amendment would avoid objections associated with "states' rights", by making sure to get at least three-fourths of the states' approval, before making such a permanent change to the U.S. Constitution. There may not be constitutional precedent supporting the authority for a national age of consent, but the existence of interstate child trafficking necessitates such laws, and an amendment would delegate that authority properly.

     To include a provision regarding age of contract, or age of legal competence, would also be an important achievement. Without such a law, children could work and marry and have sex and vote in one state, while being able to do none of these things the next state over (which is sometimes as close as just over a bridge). Perhaps some minors could even be legally transported to other states for the purposes of legal prostitution (just as they can legally be transported now, by their parents, to get piercings and tattoos which are illegal for them to get in their home states).
     States' rights have their place, but to continue to have zero consistency whatsoever - concerning whom is allowed to vote, and start a family, and file lawsuits - would constitute a failure to set up the most basic standards necessary for a civil society.

     Emotional maturity, intellectual maturity, reproductive maturity, and economic independence, are not sufficient grounds for either legal sex, marriage, or voting. Maturity matters, but a child who is subjected to sex, must always be presumed to be the vulnerable party, unless and until the other person involved, proves otherwise.
     If economic independence - and emotional, intellectual, and reproductive maturity - were considered to be all a child needs to work, marry, have sex, and enter into contracts, then an adult could pay any child who has begun puberty, for sex, treat them as a legal prostitute, and use that to cite their economic independence. An adult could single-out a child, tell them that they're mature for their age, and use that to justify trying to date them, and starting a sexual relationship with them.
     I wrote about this topic previously, in direct rebuttal of an article written by former Libertarian Party presidential candidate Arvin Vohra, in my January 2018 article "Remove Arvin Vohra from the Libertarian Party". That article can be read at the following link:
     http://aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2018/01/remove-arvin-vohra-from-libertarian.html

     Some Americans have heard rumors about there being a 16-year or a 12-year national age of consent (and I hope that this article has helped clarify that question). But few Americans know that ten states currently have no legal barrier to baby marriage.
     Some people do know some of these facts, though; for example, everyone who read the Huffington Post article about Esquivel-Quintana v. Sessions and 18 U.S. Code Section 2243.

     The fact that some people are aware of this problem, is at least part of the reason why Americans are looking at Libertarians like they're crazy - and, as Mark Whitney put it, "the party of pedophilia" - for continuing to advocate for lowering "the" age of consent.
     We already did it!






     Now that we're done celebrating this pyrrhic victory, it's time to rein things back in. It might even be time to raise the age of consent (or at least raise it to 17 everywhere, and get rid of the exceptions that pertain to minors under 15 or 16).



     If we, as Americans, neglect to establish nationwide minimum ages for contract, work, marriage, and sex, then it will be very difficult for many people to accept the full legalization of sex work. Not considering the way state age of consent laws have been weakened over the past five years.

     I believe that the Libertarian Party – and the broader libertarian movement, and the movement to legalize sex work for consenting adults – will never succeed, as long as their proponents neglect to check whether states are establishing adequate and consistent minimum ages for participation in sex work.
     If they do succeed, then it will be because their proponents failed to update themselves on the changing sex laws.
     Libertarians are teaching children who come to their conventions that there is a safe way to do everything. That is not true; there is not a safe way for a child to have sex, nor to use dangerous drugs.
     Many people in the party think it is funny to boo laws against five-year-olds buying heroin. They usually argue that "that doesn't mean the kid is going to use it", or "it's probably for someone else", or even simply "no victim, no crime". But this is simply going into denial; it is letting our guards down through trying to rationalize-away real threats to our children. This will only end in desensitization to pedophile grooming, and tragedy.
     It's not OK to allow drug dealers around our children, and it's not OK to allow children to drink alcohol at a young age. We cannot allow adults to get children hooked on drugs, simply because there's nothing sexual about it, or whatever other bizarre rationalization we might have for turning a blind eye. If you don't put your foot down at some point, some child molester is going to be able to get away with putting his finger up your child's asshole in front of you, and then saying "There's nothing sexual about this, because the anus is for digestion, not sex, according to nature." And you can probably predict which political parties are going to vouch for the people who will make that argument.


     The Libertarian Party must establish itself as "the party of consent", and understand that children are not supposed to be completely free, because they cannot make certain decisions on their own. If the L.P. cannot do that, American society will end up prioritizing children's freedom over children's safety.

     The party needs to distance itself from Nathan Larson, Arvin Vohra, and Walter Block; and defend Mary Ruwart and Roderick Long from accusations of defending pedophilia.
     I wrote about this topic previously, in my March 2020 pamphlet “Understanding Libertarian Pedophilia Scandals”, which can be viewed and downloaded at the following link:
     http://aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2021/01/understanding-libertarian-pedophilia.html

     

     The age of consent to contract is one of the cornerstones of civil society. From that principle, proceed the notions that minors under a certain age shouldn't be free to work, marry, or have sex, without the guidance of adults and also the guidance of the law.
     That is why failing to establish consistent standards regarding the ages of consent to sex, marriage, work, and other things, would be a serious misstep.
     I would like to help the members of the Libertarian Party, and other people who oppose punishing minors with serious adult consequences, avoid making that misstep.

     This problem may seem complicated, but it is simpler than it looks. All it takes it having some basic standards, a little bit of political coordination, and the sustained determination it will take to pass a constitutional amendment (which typically takes between six months and seven years).
     That time will be worth it, no matter how long it takes. Our children deserve it.
     To fail to protect children, will also endanger the freedom of adults. Because until children are adequately protected, the sexual freedoms of adults will be sacrificed in the name of protecting children, and children will be treated like adults in the name of freedom and order.
     Look around you; at the law, at parents, at the schools, and in our culture and in the media. It has already begun.



Originally Written on March 8th, 2021

Edited and Expanded, and Originally Published,
on March 10th, 2021

Sunday, January 31, 2021

Alan Dershowitz Cited Ethnicity to Defend His Opposition to Statutory Rape Laws

 


This opinion-editorial was written by Alan M. Dershowitz,
and published by the Los Angeles Times, in 1997.



     Dershowitz served as convicted child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein's attorney at least twice before Epstein's reported death in 2019. Epstein's main accuser, Virginia Roberts Giuffre, claims that Alan Dershowitz flew on Epstein's plane "The Lolita Express" and had sex with minors.
     Dershowitz, who is married, maintains that he never took his pants off, and merely got a massage from an old Russian woman. Dershowitz maintains that he never had sex with any children, despite the fact that he has publicly gone on record as being against statutory rape laws.
     In the op-ed, Dershowitz says that he supports prohibitions on sex with very young children. After the op-ed was published, Dershowitz explained that he was making a constitutional argument, not a moral argument.

     However, that does not mean he is morally opposed to having sex with teenagers. In the article, he focuses on teenagers having sex with each other; probably to distract the reader from the fact that eliminating statutory rape laws, or lowering the legal age of consent, would result in adults having sex with teenagers.

     The one thing that Dershowitz and I agree on is that morality certainly doesn't enter into his argument. There are certainly arguments which can be made about statutory rape laws, which are both moral and constitutional. Dershowitz's argument is not one of them. It is odd for Dershowitz to claim that his argument is a constitutional one, when he doesn't even mention the Constitution a single time in the article.

     In my opinion, Dershowitz's goal, with this op-ed, is to use the "constitutional" (or legal) argument which could be made in favor of loosening or eliminating statutory rape laws, as a sort of Trojan Horse. His goal is to cloak the defense of teenagers having sex before they are old enough to consent, in a legal argument, and frame it as a constitutional argument.
     It is important to notice that the very title of the article is "Statutory Rape Is an Outdated Concept". If he were questioning the concept of statutory rape only in a legal sense but not in an ethical sense, then he would have titled the article "Statutory Rape Laws Are Flawed" or something to that effect. He is clearly questioning both the legal and ethical bases for statutory rape laws.
     Dershowitz writes that "It is obvious that there must be criminal sanctions against sex with very young children, but it is doubtful whether such sanctions should apply to teenagers above the age of puberty, since voluntary sex is so common in their age group." Dershowitz shows with this sentence that he is either unaware of the idea that teenagers are not old enough nor mature enough to consent to sex, or else he is simply opposed to the idea and wishes to give it no recognition in his article.

     Nothing in this op-ed suggests that Dershowitz is opposed to adults having sex with teenagers. He doesn't even mention it. It's as if he thinks he has no responsibility to, or that adults having sex with teenagers has nothing to do with the topic being discussed. It absolutely does.

     Even more shameful in all of this, is the fact that Dershowitz cited the fact that "puberty is apparently arriving earlier, particularly among certain ethnic groups". I do not know what Dershowitz is referring to, but an article published by WebMD in 2002 confirmed that African-American girls begin puberty before white girls. However, they only begin puberty an average of six months earlier. That is not even a full year, and thus is hardly a justification for lowering the age of consent.
     Considering this small difference, consider what it could mean that Dershowitz is citing ethnicity to justify eliminating statutory rape laws. The argument that "some ethnicities, like African-Americans, 'mature' earlier", is not very different from, and aligns perfectly with the way of thinking that informs the "black girls like wild sex" stereotype. Some African-American women have been exposed to violent sex, and heard their aggressors make the excuse that they had heard that black women liked wild sex. This stereotype is fed by the old idea that Africans are "wild", which is based on the idea that they're sub-human, and basically animals, and need to be controlled. The idea that black girls "mature earlier" is thus a medical fact, but not a noteworthy one considering the probability that the fact is only cited to justify raping African-American teenagers. It also potentially implies that black people immature, an idea which could be used to justify controlling them. And rape is a form of control.

     "If there's fluff on the muff, she's old enough" is not a medical saying. Nor is it a legal saying.
     If getting your period makes you a woman, and that makes it OK to have sex, then by that logic it's OK to have sex with young girls if they experience precocious puberty. Twelve and thirteen years old are not the youngest ages at which a female has experienced menarche (first menstruation). That age is four.
     There should not be a purely biological standard regarding when losing one's virginity is appropriate. Nor should that standard be dictated by "maturity", nor ability to earn money and have a career. There are plenty of talented children, child stars, and children capable of performing labor or investing in stocks. That does not make it OK for adults, or other children or teenagers, to have sex with them. That does not make it OK to marry children. Child molesters will tell teenagers and children that they are mature all day; they do this in order to justify treating them like adults.
     Age must be the standard; not biology, nor race, nor puberty, nor maturity, nor financial independence, nor work capability. If being at a "lowered capacity to consent" makes it OK for two drunk adults to have sex, then the same logic could be used to justify a retarded old man having sex with a little girl. Or getting drunk in order to be "on the same level as" a sober teenager.
     Age must be the standard. We must maintain the purpose of statutory rape laws, which is to place the obligation to prove the younger person's age, upon the older person, if and when there is any question about whether it was legal for the people in question to have sex, given their possible ages.

     We must maintain statutory rape laws and age of consent laws, and improve upon them, to prevent the federal government from unnecessarily and unconstitutionally intervening in child trafficking laws in a manner which causes the lower federal age of consent to trump the state's higher age of consent. (Note: You can learn more about this topic by researching the case of Esquivel-Quintana v. Sessions.)
     Laws against trafficking children out of state for sex, are useless, as long as the federal government has an age of consent of twelve, with a defense written into the law that basically instructs child molesters to argue that they reasonably thought that the victim was at least 16 years old.
     This country's child sexual abuse laws are a complete mess, and Dershowitz's arguments only help the types of attorneys and other people in the legal professions who would be in the position to read this article. Dershowitz's "op-ed" thus amounts to little more than advice to child molesters and wannabe child rapists - especially those in or connected to the legal professions - who want to use these twisted arguments, and the "black girls mature earlier" argument, to justify having sex with minors which is both illegal and wrong.
     I appreciate the fact that Alan Dershowitz defended Julian Assange on rape charges. I also appreciate that Assange's victim was represented and was able to file charges. Everyone has the right to a defense. But we should be concerned that Dershowitz is leveraging his reputation as the nation's best defender of the "duty of adequate representation" (the duty to adequately represent your client) in order to justify his continued defense of accused child rapists and Israeli spies.
     When you see a Jewish lawyer defend Israeli spy, after Israeli spy, accused of child sex trafficking after Israeli spy after rapist, and see him defend eliminating statutory rape laws in an article in the paper, maybe it's time to wonder whether he's a pedophile. The fact that Epstein's main accuser, Virginia Giuffre, alleges he's a pedophile, ought to suggest that anyone connected to Dershowitz, or anyone who's been following him since 1997, might have been watching him for advice on how to abuse children and get away with it.
     They can certainly go to the U.S. Code section on child sex crimes for similar advice.





Written and published on January 31st, 2021

Edited and Expanded on February 6th, 2021

Friday, August 28, 2020

Joe Kopsick for Congress Advertisement: Investigate Maxwell and Epstein, and Pass the Safe Kids Amendment



Click on image, and/or open in new tab or window, to enlarge and see in full detail





Original image created on August 28th, 2020

Published on August 28th, 2020
Edited on August 31st, 2020

Edited and Expanded on September 11th, 2020

Friday, August 23, 2019

Expanded Platform for U.S. House of Representatives in 2020

Table of Contents

1. Strictly Limit Government
2. Shrink the Federal Government
3. Stop Policing the World
4. End "Big Brother" Programs
5. Limit Congressmen's Power, and Cut Office Costs
6. Reform Elections and Ballot Access
7. Protect the 2nd and 3rd Amendments by Building a Bridge Between Them
8. Balance the Budget, and Pay Off the National Debt in 25 Years
9. Reform the Federal Tax Code
10. Tax and Break Up Monopolies (Or Stop Creating Them)
11. Reform Business and Banking
12. Reduce and Abolish Income Taxes
13. Enact Land Value Taxation
14. Get the Feds Out of Local Environmental Issues
15. Achieve Real Free Enterprise / Free the Markets
16. Enact Mutualist Reforms to the Economy
17. Enact Mutualist Reforms to Land and Housing
18. Enact Mutualist Reforms to Money and Credit
19. Reform or Abolish Intellectual Property
20. Keep the Internet Open and Free
21. Achieve Fair Trade Through Real Free Trade
22. Reform Immigration and Abolish Citizenship
23. Abolish or Reform the Census, and Make Tax Burdens Equal
24. Devolve Entitlements to the States
25. Achieve Free Health Care Through Free Markets
26. Honor the Rights to Work, Unionize, Strike, and Boycott
27. Reform or Abolish Public Schools
28. Reform Laws on Rape, Kidnapping, Ages of Consent, and the Protection of Children
29. Keep Abortion Legal, But Don't Subsidize It
30. Reform Marriage Licensing, Divorce, and Custody Laws
31. End the War on Drugs and Abolish the F.D.A.
32. Infrastructure, Roads, Driver Licensing, Transportation, and the Post Office




Content


1. Strictly Limit Government
     1a. Abolish all agencies of government as soon as possible, unless significant, meaningful reform can be made swiftly, which would strictly limit, shrink, and decentralize decentralize government; establish equal protection under the law for all people; and make the government fully voluntary. 
     1b. Depoliticize the lawmaking process by allowing independent panels of scientists and scholars replace elected officials to make policy (concerning issues such as elections, environmental justice, the judiciary, economics, and others).
     1c. Help to shrink the expense of government and the total number of government workers; by encouraging all units of government – in Illinois and nationwide – to eliminate redundant and duplicative governmental agencies.
     1d. Make government programs optional through augmenting them with opt-out systems.
     1e. Allow people to choose to be outlaws (and receive no protection from the state), or to opt to be physically exiled, in the event they are charged with a serious crime.
     1f. De-territorialize government; by respecting the need for mutual aid across borders, and by encouraging all units of government to begin offering services to people in neighboring jurisdictions wherever it is logistically possible to do so.
     1g. Prohibit all public services - especially libraries, food pantries, and beaches and park districts - from discriminating against people based on the town or state of their residence.

2. Shrink the Federal Government
     2a. The federal government has no rightful authority to regulate public education, energy, nor housing; nor does it have the rightful authority to own as much land as it does, nor the right to promote commerce instead of regulating it responsibly. The authority to solve problems related to those issues, lies with the state and local governments and with the people, not with the federal government. The only reason the federal government has been allowed to do these things, is because presidents have absorbed entire sectors of the economy into-under their control under the guise of "re-organizing the cabinet", and supreme courts have unwisely allowed these sweeping measures to stand despite their unconstitutionality. The high cost of government, the overreach of the federal government,  and the inability of local communities to solve problems, stem directly from this problem: that of the federal government being too large and unwieldy, and having many cabinet positions and cabinet-level departments which lack any proper constitutional authorization. We must "destroy the ring" before a federal administration can get hold of it and use it for evil.
     2b. Abolish between five and seven federal cabinet and cabinet-level departments; including the Departments of Commerce, Education, Energy, Housing and Urban Development, and the Interior. 
     2c. Abolish the Department of Education, and advocate for the abolition of public schools. 
     2d. Abolish the Department of Homeland Security while re-organizing all remaining constitutional authorities exercised under it into-under the Department of Justice and/or the Department of State. 
     2e. Abolish all unconstitutional "czar" positions in the federal government.
     2f. Enact constitutional amendments strengthening the rights of the states to try suits at common law, and to legislate on most matters besides military, and treasury.
     2g. Save the taxpayers money, and reduce the costs of government; by having the federal government do less and less until it eventually does nothing. The American people will stand up as the federal government stands down.

3. Stop Policing the World
     3a. Return to pre-9/11-level military spending, in order to make it possible to achieve the kinds of budget surpluses the federal government passed in the four years prior to 9/11. We can decrease our military budget significantly without sacrificing our safety or military readiness; as the U.S. spends as much on military as the next 18 countries combined, while the spending of the #2 country (China) doesn't even amount to one-quarter of America's.
     3b. Dismantle between 800 and 1000 overseas military bases; bring all troops and private contractors home; especially from Iraq, Afghanistan, South Korea, Japan, Germany, Turkey, Djibouti, and Yemen).
     3c. Pass legislation limiting the distance U.S. troops can stray from U.S. shores during peacetime to between 12 nautical miles and 90 or 100 statute miles.
     3d. Continue talks with Russia and other nations to reduce the size of our nuclear arsenal. Ensure that veterans have a wide range of choices when it comes to their health coverage and pensions.'
     3e. Prohibit the Pentagon from purchasing armaments from any company wielding more than 5% of the market share of arms sales in the country.

4. End "Big Brother" Programs
     4a. Repeal the U.S.A. P.A.T.R.I.O.T. Act of 2001, and the 2001 A.U.M.F. (Authorization for the Use of Military Force Against Terrorists).
     4b. Repeal all unconstitutional laws which have been permitted under National Defense Authorization Acts (N.D.A.A.s) enacted since 9/11, especially those pertaining to the use of drones, surveillance, and torture).
     4c. Curb the power of the Transportation Security Agency (T.S.A.) and V.I.P.R. squads to illegally impede people's freedom of movement.
     4d. Remove the criminal penalty for physically resisting or assaulting T.S.A. agents for groping or taking nude images of children, whether in the course of normal job duties or not, by classifying such actions as necessary to prevent greater harm to those incapable of adequately defending themselves. 
     4e. Urge governments across the country to enact sweeping reforms limiting the power of police to subject people to invasive internal searches, except in cases in which the police have obtained a specific warrant from a judge, and there is cause to believe that what is being concealed internally is not just drugs but some actually deadly form of contraband such as an explosive device.
     4f. Repeal the legislation which permitted “continuity of government” programs such as REX1984.
     4g. Urge the president to consider rescinding some of the dozens upon dozens of overlapping, simultaneous, official national states of emergency in which the government has declared itself to be over the years.
     4h. Propose a constitutional amendment which would formally remove the power to suppress insurrections from the official set of U.S. congressional duties.

5. 
Limit Congressmen's Power, and Cut Office Costs
     5a. Use the U.S. House of Representative's office as a bully pulpit to make recommendations as to how state and local officials could regulate issues which the Constitution obligates the federal government to leave to the states and the people; while restraining from overstepping those same constitutional boundaries by refraining from advocating for federal intervention in issues which rightfully belong to the state and the people according to the Enumerated Powers.
     5b. Operate my office as a home-style politician, acting as a vessel while deferring to majorities of constituents in all cases in which it is constitutionally appropriate to do so (with deference to the Enumerated Powers, and other powers properly delegated to the federal government by the states through the amendment process).
     5c. Offer amendments to limit the number of consecutive terms of members of the House of Representatives to four, the number of terms of members of the Senate to two, and the duration of Supreme Court justice terms to twenty years.
     5d. Offer amendments to make all elected positions instantly recallable through a popular and democratic recall election.
     5e. Aim to cut a total of 80% from my own $176,000 personal salary as a U.S. Representative, and aim to cut a total of 90% from the approximately $4 million office of the Illinois's 10th district U.S. Rep – returning all of those funds to the Treasury Department – and propose amendments requiring other congressmen to do the same.

6. 
Reform Elections and Ballot Access
     6a. Advocate for the modification of the Electoral College, alongside the modification of the federal government; eliminate the U.S. Senate, and/or add a third legislative body whose apportionment would be based on land area (and modify the Electoral College so as to reflect that arrangement).
     6b. Urge more states to refrain from punishing protest votes in the Electoral College, and urge more states to either establish proportional representation in the Electoral College or promise electoral votes to the majority vote-getter in that state.
     6c. Support the people's rights to sue the Commission on Presidential Debates, and urge the League of Women Voters (or some independent nongovernmental non-corporate entity) to take over debate hosting duties from that (unelected) “commission”.
     6d. To ensure widespread access to polls, prohibit governments from charging fees for identification documents deemed necessary to vote.
     6e. To prevent election fraud, urge states to require verification of election results through both paper and electronic methods, or else through three different methods or more (in order to provide sufficient checks against one another).
     6f. Urge states to consider publishing voter rolls in a manner which can be independently verified by any and all residents.
     6g. Urge all units of government to adopt Ranked Choice Voting.
     6h. Urge political parties to hold “jungle primaries”.
     6i. Urge more states to allow 17-year-olds to vote in primaries if they will turn 18 before the day of the election (whose candidates that primary will affect).
     6j. The right to vote is a natural human right, and, as such, citizens and non-citizens alike should have the right to vote in elections which determine the policy that will affect them in their own neighborhoods. Allow undocumented immigrants to vote in all elections in which their residence would normally allow any citizen in the same jurisdictions to vote, unless the immigrant in question is both legally and logistically able to vote in some foreign election.

7. 
Protect the 2nd and 3rd Amendments by Building a Bridge Between Them
     7a. Repeal all federal gun control laws, and oppose all efforts to pass new federal gun control legislation.
     7b. Urge states to repeal all gun control measures which cannot be enacted voluntarily (such as gun buyback programs).
    7c. Do not restrict people's freedom to sue gun manufacturers, but do not encourage these lawsuits either.
     7d. We should stop debating about whether to require all genders to register for the draft; and start figuring out how to ban the draft forever. An equal obligation without sufficient reward is not true equality, it is a forced sacrifice.
     7e. Too many illegal wars of aggression (which only make us less safe) have been sold to the American people. The draft is not necessary; people will join up if the cause is just, and only a fool would refuse to take up arms if at least to defend himself. Augment the Second Amendment by including the language which was omitted from it several months before it was finalized. Amend the Second Amendment in a manner which recognizes that its original intent to protect our freedom to resist being forced to serve in a military draft (by any army) in person.
     7f. Formally abolish both the military draft and Selective Service registration, either by augmenting the Second Amendment, or by offering new amendments.
     7g. Expand the Third Amendment so as to prohibit the non-consensual quartering of troops in households even during wartime, and so as to make it clear that a prohibition on quartering troops in each household should logically preclude the legality of drafting one person from each household.

8. Balance the Budget, and Pay Off the National Debt in 25 Years
     8a. Decrease spending; by drastically reducing military spending, transitioning administration of the entitlements to the states, shrinking the federal workforce, and reducing the scope of federal government duties.
     8b. Enact serious budget balancing measures; such as lockboxes, Cut Cap and Balance and P.A.Y.G.O. (Pay As You Go) -type legislation, and a Balanced Budget Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
     8c. Aim to reduce federal spending by a total of 50% as soon as possible; resulting in a $2 trillion budget. Meanwhile, continue taking in $3 trillion a year into the Treasury, and do so more responsibly, through enacting meaningful tax reform which reduces the burden on working families and the poor, and increases the burden on enterprises making money off the backs of taxpayers. After successfully enacting the first budget yielding $3T in revenue and $2T in spending, enact long-term policies which legally commit the federal government to continue taking in $1 trillion more than it spends (whether or not the overall budget grows in the process). Take $1 trillion more into the Treasury than the amount which is spent, and repeat this process for 25 years - handing all surplus over to our creditors and increasing our annual national debt service from $600 billion a year to $1 trillion a year - until the national debt is fully paid off.

9. 
Reform the Federal Tax Code
     9a. Aim to derive any and all federal revenue from: 1) voluntarily donated contributions; 2) user fees and fee-for-service models; or else through 3) the taxation of corporate income, capital gains, and/or the sale of luxury items.
     9b. Among those corporations, and traders of capital and luxury items, tax rates should weigh most heavily on those economic exchanges in which profit is reaped with the assistance of government (such as through government grants of business privileges and monopoly statuses like patents, and taxpayer-funded subsidies and other forms of assistance.
     9c. The lowest taxes on enterprise should be incurred by those firms which receive nothing from taxpayers, profit the least, occupy the smallest area of land, and refrain from damaging the environment.

10. 
Tax and Break Up Monopolies (Or Stop Creating Them)
     10a. Businesses which reap extraordinary profits, and/or which wield monopolies, could only do so with the assistance of, and with insurance by, government and taxpayers. All business which receive taxpayer funds and taxpayer assistance should be considered public entities, and subject to the regulations and taxation rates which the public deems necessary.
     10b. It may not be wise to trust the federal government to break-up a business monopoly; because the federal government and the Bureau of Competition are monopolies. We should either use the government's antitrust power to break-up monopolies (and use its taxation powers to tax them) or else take away the government's power to give companies those problematic monopoly privileges in the first place.
     10c. Revoke all legal privileges for businesses, stopping the problems of monopoly and obscene profits before they start.
     10d. Abolish the federal Department of Commerce, and urge states to abolish their departments of commerce.
     10e. End the chartering and incorporation of businesses by government, urging states to rescind state secretary of states' offices' authority to extend Limited Liability Company statuses to businesses.

11. Reform Business and Banking
     11a. Tax all corporations receiving public subsidies and taxpayer-funded privileges, at whatever rate the public demands (potentially as high as 100%).
     11b. Businesses lacking taxpayer-funded privileges and supports may be taxed as low as 0%, provided they do not operate for profit nor make vast swaths of land unuseable.
     11c. Attempt to tax the profits of “big tech” companies, and whether they evade those taxes or not, revoke all taxpayer-funded privileges which they currently receive.
    11d. Prohibit government from bailing out corporations, and prohibit government from assisting in their restructuring
     11e. Restoring Glass-Steagall would only get us halfway towards separating investment banking from commercial banking; so fully separate the banking industry from the taxpaying public, by either abolishing the F.D.I.C. (Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation) or else drastically reducing the amount of funds which may be insured under it.
     11f. Author and propose bills calling for full and frequent audits of the Federal Reserve, and for its abolition (and the return of its powers to the Congress).

     11g. Offer amendments to federal anti-usury laws which fully prohibit usury on money and loans, by prohibiting fractional reserve banking, other types of less-than-full-reserve banking, and the continued coinage and issuance of fiat currency.
     11h. Aim to significantly reduce the federal government's role in business and banking, until the only authorities which remain are 1) making treasury policy, 2) regulating bankruptcies, and 3) keeping the American free trade zone free from obstructions and from laws which unfairly favor domestic goods and services.

12. Reduce and Abolish Income Taxes
     12a. Nine U.S. states and thirteen foreign countries operate entirely without taxing income. Propose a constitutional amendment which would repeal the Sixteenth Amendment, thus formally ending the taxation of income by the federal government. You might ask how we will fund the government without the income tax; however, income taxes don't pay for all costs of government, but only half. There are plenty of other types of taxes that we can use instead; we could easily replace income taxes by phasing them out while doubling revenues from all other forms of taxes now in effect (however, that is not my proposal).
     12b. Do not replace income taxes with all taxes which now exist; rather, decrease and abolish sales taxes and tariffs instead of increasing them.
     12c. Replace federal income tax revenues with revenues derived from the taxation of corporate income, capital gains, and/or luxury items.
     12d. We don't have to risk discouraging productivity and the earning of income by taxing that income away. Working people earned that income; moreover, it is legally classified as “earned income”, so if the government acknowledges that it is earned, then it shouldn't take any of it away. Support all bills which reduce federal income taxes responsibly; avoiding increasing taxes on households earning less than $30,000 per year. 

13. Enact Land Value Taxation
     13a. At the local level, shift the taxation burden off of income and sales, onto land value, while reforming the way property is taxed.
     13b. Phase-in Land Value Taxation in order to 1) lessen the burden of taxation on ordinary income earners, 2) diminish the need for other types of taxation, and 3) diminish the need for higher and more central levels of government.
     13c. Urge all local and county governments in America to allow local mutual aid organizations and voluntary associations to build Community Land Trusts (C.L.T.s) and community water and air trusts.
     13d. Leave C.L.T.s untaxed, while allowing them to tax the unimproved value of land, decreasing the level of taxation of improvements upon the land (like homes and office buildings), while increasing the level of taxation upon the actual owner(s) of the land and the ground underneath it (and not the renters).
     13e. Allow C.L.T.s to charge fees, and create dividends, as insurance against the harm which could result from extracting natural resources from the ground.
     13f. Fully taxing all kept and unimproved economic rents will yield $7 trillion in revenue, equal to and supplying the entire cost necessary for all levels of government in America combined.
     13g. Make Land Value Taxation the only tax, by replacing all other forms of taxation with use-based fees, voluntary forms of funding, and/or the charging of fees by C.L.T.s to cover the cost which it would take to restore the land to its original condition in case it is damaged in the course of its use.
     13h. Urge all units of local government, and local banks and land management organizations, to either cede their powers to C.L.T.s, or else become members of them and operate according to their rules.

14. Get the Feds Out of Local Environmental Issues
     14a. The federal government never had the authority to regulate environmental issues duly delegated to it by the states and the people. The last three administrations have proven that just because the government is supposed to regulate the environment and keep our air and water clean, it can just as easily refuse to do so, because there's nobody to hold them accountable if they don't. A wise president might be able to get into office every once in a while, and use the E.P.A. (Environmental Protection Agency) for good, but as long as the E.P.A. and unwise presidents continues to exist, then that agency is just sitting around waiting to fall into the wrong hands.
     14b. We should immediately abolish the E.P.A., and urge communities and counties nationwide to establish Community Land Trusts (and air and water trusts) which will have the ability to make environmental policy at the local level, in a manner which ties the economic future of the government and the people to the development of industry in a manner which is ecologically sustainable.
     14c. Support Green New Deal -type legislation, but oppose federal action towards those ends, supporting state and local solutions instead.
     14d. Support international environmental agreements such as the Paris Climate Accords, and U.N. programs such as the Kyoto Protocol, but only as long as they remain voluntarily, and support allowing U.S. states to independently participate in those accords if they so desire.

15. Achieve Real Free Enterprise / Free the Markets
     15a. Abolish all subsidies, all forms of taxpayer-funded privilege for business enterprises, and all bailouts - including tax credits and tax loopholes – in order to establish a real free market system in which government can neither subsidize companies nor bail them out, nor in any way choose winners and losers in the market.
     15b. Allow real price competition, so that the free market can result in free stuff, like it is supposed to.
     15c. Dismantle anti-competitive barriers to the natural reduction in prices over time, such as intellectual property protection, the Federal Reserve's policies of currency and inflation manipulation, the legality of anti-competitive labor contracts, and professional regulations and Limited Liability Company (L.L.C.) status designations (which stifle competition by insulating businesses from legal and financial responsibility for crimes, frauds, and perjuries).
     15d. Repeal the 1947 Taft-Hartley Act in order to end the criminalization of engaging in coordinated boycotts across multiple industries, so that businesses have no protection from the people's freedom to boycott, and will actually have to compete for customers by offering better products and/or better prices.

16. Enact Mutualist Reforms to the Economy
     16a. Promote mutual aid and direct action.
     16b. Support mutually beneficial voluntary exchange; all economic exchanges should be not only voluntary and consensual, but also beneficial to all parties affected.
     16c. Limit price to cost; that is, the price of a good or service should be no higher than the cost required to produce it.
     16d. Foster an economic environment which capable of resulting in the widespread giving of land - and issuance of money, currency, and credit - for free.


17. Enact Mutualist Reforms to Land and Housing
     17a. Enact occupancy and use norms instead of having the government protect property rights, ending the registration of property by local Register of Deeds' offices.
     17b. End the protection of abandoned, unoccupied, and absentee property.
     17c. Make housing affordable for all, by creating a free market in housing by ending housing subsidies (and abolishing H.U.D.), thus causing the housing market to clear, resulting in a significant drop in housing prices (if any such price remains at all).
     17d. Make landlordism unaffordable by taxing all rents which landlords attempt to keep without doing a commensurate amount of work to justify doing so.
     17e. Legalize “tiny houses”, legalize camping and sleeping in public, and legalize homesteading and adverse possession (“squatting”).
     17f. Continue to allow residents to camp for free on federal land; and leave them free to hunt, forage, build, and trade as well.
     17g. Either urge local governments to consider multiple forms of multi-use zoning, or else abolish zoning altogether.
     17h. Help make housing affordable by making the land underneath it more affordable to begin with; by abolishing the Department of the Interior, requiring the federal government to relinquish all lands in its possession outside of the District of Columbia and overseas island territories.


18. Enact Mutualist Reforms to Money and Credit
     18a. Encourage the creation of consumer-cooperative enterprises and membership in credit unions. 
     18b. Foster a federal regulatory environment which allows for the free issuance of interest-free money, credit, and loans (and zero-collateral loans).
     18c. Encourage states to create state public banks, as North Dakota has done.
     18d. Implement a federal U.B.I. (Universal Basic Income program), and/or abolish physical currency and fiat currency, and/or implementing a universal social credit system for all non-incarcerated residents.
     18d. Establish competing currencies; and advocate for the creation of currencies backed by labor, resources, exports, or ecological sustainability.
     18e. Advocate for the abolition of physical money, or at least the creation of a basic income -type program alongside reforming the processes of minting and coining such that toxic processing chemicals (such as Bisphenol-A / B.P.A., used in printing bills) are not used to create literally "toxic assets" that the American people have to handle every day. We will never be able to afford enough health care, if the money we afford it with, is covered in chemicals that make us sick.
     18f. Unless the people are educated about how human beings have lived without money and currency in societies over the centuries, we will be stuck in a rat race where the only objective is to acquire as many U.S. Dollars as possible, and people are encouraged to disregard other people's needs in order to "get ahead". That will not do; we should not try to attach a numeric value to human beings, their labor, nor the things that are necessary to keep people alive. Educate the American people about alternative forms of exchange (such as mutuum cheques, giving/gifting, going Dutch, bartering, trading and trading-out, paying it forward, freely giving and freely receiving, the potlatch, and the free performance of favors without expecting or ensuring something in return).

19. Reform or Abolish Intellectual Property
     19a. The enforcement of laws protecting intellectual property rights, is currently carried out through the threat of force, and through the legally sanctioned use of violence. Putting people in jail for sharing an idea is wrong; even if they are profiting off of it, or claiming it's their own invention, it's certainly not always appropriate to use physical violence to solve the problem.
     19b. Either revoke the federal government's power to protect intellectual property (including patents, trademarks, etc.), or drastically reduce patent lifespans across the board.
     19c. Abolish intellectual property through abolishing the monopoly powers, license and permit systems, and property registration systems, which allow intellectual property to exist in the first place.
     19d. If the duration of patent terms cannot be drastically shortened, then abolish the U.S. Patent Office and/or revoke its power to issue new patents.
     19e. Urge U.S. states to abolish their state departments of state which have the power to create corporations, or else to revoke their power to create new corporations and L.L.C. status extensions. 
     19f. Stop blaming China for violating American intellectual property rights. Enact in America a trade policy modeled after China's Company Law, which requires foreign businesses setting up shop in China to share their technology with a domestic company in the same industry. The desire to describe the Chinese Company Law as allowing some form of legalized intellectual property theft, is motivated by American businessmen's desire to evade that law.

20. Keep the Internet Open and Free
     20a. Piracy is not theft; because piracy does not remove the original copy, while theft does. Information wants to be free.
     20b. Remove all criminal penalties prescribed for pirating shared files over the internet (provided that those files are shared voluntarily, and that the original was fully paid for).
     20c. Support the decentralized "peer-to-peer", "creative commons", "open-source collaboration" nature of the internet, by making the internet a public commons, rather than a public utility. 
     20d. Support 'TRUE Fees' Act' -type legislation requiring I.S.P.s (Internet Service Providers) to disclose all prices and fees openly, but oppose legislation designating I.S.P.s as "common carriers". 
     20e. Government's only roles in regulating the internet should be to ensure that free competition is possible and that consumers can know prices.

21. 
Achieve Fair Trade Through Real Free Trade
     21a. Tariffs do not punish foreign countries, nor do they pressure countries to ensure that their workers are treated better. Tariffs impose costs upon domestic importers; that is, American workers, not foreign workers. We must stop increasing our tariffs on other countries without cause, because everyone knows that all countries affected bear costs of the tariffs (including because domestic importers can find ways to transfer the costs of those tariffs onto their consumers and exporters). 
     21b. The federal government should consider all bilateral and multilateral trade negotiations which reduce tariffs for all countries involved. Still, though, we should seek to make future trade negotiation by governments unnecessary, by reducing tariffs to zero and abolishing them.
     21c. Establish real free trade, and zero tariffs, without trying to bully other countries into lowering their tariffs first.
     21d. Free trade occurs through international business partnerships, operating with or without government assistance. We can achieve free trade without creating a treaty between multiple governments.
     21e. Establish fair trade – both within the country and without - through achieving freedom of movement for labor and capital.
     21f. Stop unnecessarily discouraging trade – and stop unnecessarily politicizing trade, risking trade wars – by imposing obstructive, unnecessary taxes on the importation and exportation of goods. Depoliticize trade by reducing - and eventually eliminating - both tariffs and sales taxes.
     21g. Reduce all tariffs to zero immediately, and offer a constitutional amendment which would formally abolish the imposition of all tariffs, imposts, duties, and excises not necessary to cover inspection costs (i.e., including sales taxes, but not including inspection fees).
     21h. Reduce and abolish foreign aid, in order to prevent foreign countries from spending it to subsidize their own domestic enterprises.
     21i. Abolish EXIM (the Export-Import Bank of the United States).

22. Reform Immigration and Abolish Citizenship
     22a. The chief delineation in our society, regarding with whom we should associate, should be on the basis of violence vs. non-violence, nor citizen vs. non-citizen, nor whether someone has followed all the laws (and especially not if many of them don't make sense).
     22b. Coming to America without permission is a misdemeanor the first two times you do it, and it can be done without trespassing and without committing acts of violence.
     22c. Either make illegal immigration a civil offense, or cease criminalizing illegal entry by non-violent people.
     22d. Stop trapping seasonal migrant farmers in America by making it easy to come but illegal to leave.
     22e. Don't allow police officers to detain undocumented immigrants for petty crimes in order to justify deporting them.
     22f. Abolish I.C.E. but continue to deport violent immigrants; deport violent immigrants through the State Department and/or the Justice Department, not through the unconstitutional Department of Homeland Security and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (I.C.E.) which operates under it.
     22g. Urge state governors to use Jeffersonian nullification and the Tenth Amendment to prevent the federal government from exercising authority to enforce any policy aside from the bare minimum of what it takes to “establish a uniform rule of naturalization” (establish a rule, not enforce it). Urge governors to enjoin federal troops from deporting non-violent immigrants, and arrest I.C.E. officers if they attempt to enforce unduly authorized federal immigration legislation which oversteps the bounds of the immigration authorities articulated in the Enumerated Powers.
     22h. In order to prevent unwarranted deportations of non-violent undocumented immigrants, propose legislation which either formally revokes the Census Bureau's authority to include a citizenship question, or allow census respondents to answer “no” in such a way that leaves them free to be an outlaw and receive no protection from the federal government if they so desire. Urge state governors to enjoin census takers from operating within state lines if the census includes a citizenship question which does not allow people to dissociate from the federal government.
     22i. Support open borders – with minimal vetting (a non-intrusive assessment of threat, and no medical examinations unless requested) – as a way to establish freedom of movement and travel for workers, as part of achieving the greater goal of establishing a free trade zone within and without America, in which all labor and capital may flow freely across the land.
     22j. Nowadays, the main purpose for citizenship status to exist (besides to ensure equal protection under the law) is to confer access to benefits (most of which the federal government has no authority to provide) and to conferring special privileges onto citizens which non-citizens may not enjoy. This allows non-citizens to be deprived of rights and freedoms, while citizens enjoy first-class status (or something approaching that, if they aren't rich). This is a caste system, a caste system is not compatible with human rights; and there is no reason to justify discrimination on the basis of national origin.
     22k. Repeal and oppose all legislation providing for discrimination on the basis of national origin, and majority religion of nation of origin, in immigration vetting. Oppose all proposals to create registry systems which gather information on the basis of national origin or religion.
     22l. Don't build the wall; instead, abolish the welfare state. We cannot expect immigrants to come to America for freedom, if we don't have any freedoms anymore. Immigrants come here because of the limited economic opportunity we have left, the limited civil liberties we have left, and the acceptable material quality of life. They don't come for the welfare state; some may receive benefits but applying for them is dangerous because it risks deportation. If we cease building the wall, and abolish the welfare state instead, then the only people trying to immigrate into our country will be those immigrants who still believe in freedom. 
     22m. Not only do undocumented immigrants fear being identified if they apply for government assistance; they can also be outed simply by being carded for trying to enjoy a beer or a cigarette. In order to reduce this burden on undocumented immigrants (who more than refund the cost of welfare by contributing so much underpaid labor effort to our economy), cease requiring driver's licenses in order to render the issue of licensing undocumented immigrants moot, and urge tobacco and alcohol sellers to cease carding people who are obviously over 18 or 21.
     22n. Undocumented immigrants may impose a welfare cost, but those costs should not be enjoyed by citizens either because they are unconstitutional. All immigrants – documented and undocumented – and all citizens alike, should be eligible to receive aid from mutual aid organizations and international charity and relief organizations, but nobody should receive unconstitutional benefits from the federal government (but allow state and local governments to provide social safety nets). 
     22o. Leave undocumented immigrants free to access health services at hospitals, without being required to participate in any federal program in order to do so.
     22p. Diminish the need for the federal government (or any government) to provide undocumented immigrants with taxpayer-supported health care; by providing detained and incarcerated migrants with adequate water, food, and hygiene items, as well as the necessities for restful sleep; and by allowing international aid organizations provide those services instead of the government.
     22q. If the current administration wants to “promote legal immigration”, then it should give amnesty to all non-violent undocumented immigrant currently in the country, and open as many ports of entry as possible, so that as many people as possible can come in and declare asylum, instead of being funneled through dangerous parts of the desert where they could be killed by gangs, wild animals, or die from heat, starvation, thirst, or sickness.
     22r. Support the continuation of “sanctuary states” and “sanctuary cities”, but not in their current form; these areas should be established through nullifying unauthorized federal immigration policies, not through securing funds from the federal government in order to operate them.
     22s. Urge state governments, and the people, to supply assistance to immigrants as they see fit; in regard to housing, education, and other needs.
     22t. Cease requiring immigrants to have a Social Security Number (SSN) in order to work; this increases the likelihood that welfare and identity fraud will be committed, it doesn't decrease it.
     22u. The right to vote is a natural human right, and, as such, citizens and non-citizens alike should have the right to vote in elections which determine the policy that will affect them in their own neighborhoods. Allow undocumented immigrants to vote in all elections in which their residence would normally allow any citizen in the same jurisdictions to vote, unless the immigrant in question is both legally and logistically able to vote in some foreign election.

23. Abolish or Reform the Census, and Make Tax Burdens Equal
     23a. Census takers should not ask whether someone is a citizen, unless replying “no” can make them an outlaw, and thus subject to neither the federal government's legal protections nor its immigration and citizenship laws.
     23b. Abolish the census, and empower state governors to enjoin census takers from administering the census, until such time as it can be made to exclude all questions which the Constitution does not permit it to include.
     23c. Remove all questions from the census aside from the number of persons in each household, and/or their name(s).
     23d. Prevent presidential administrations from proposing policy regarding what questions the census should include; policy-making regarding the contents of the census should be determined by Congress, while the executive branch's authority in regard to the census should be limited to carrying it out.
     23e. Propose legislation requiring the set of census questions to be approved two or three times in the five years prior to the turn of each decade.
     23f. Consider abolishing the census if it cannot be drastically reformed and simplified so as to protect the identity, personal information, and safety of non-violent people (whether they are here with permission or not).
     23g. Urge residents to refrain from participating in the 2020 census whether it includes unconstitutional questions or not. Urge citizens to use non-violent resistance against census takers, and to either vacate their premises when a census taker arrives; or else to politely report the number of people living there, while insisting that they do not legally have to provide any more answers, and insisting that the census taker cease trespassing on their property.
     23h. Oppose participation in the census on the grounds that the collection of census information does not promote one of its main original purposes – that is, to ensure that all people across the country both: 1) bear an equal burden of taxation; and 2) equally enjoy the benefits of government spending – and those burdens and benefits are nowhere near equal among the states.
     23i. Ensure that tax burdens and receipts are equal across the country by: 1) either equalizing regional subsidies, or else eliminating them entirely; and by 2) allowing states receiving less from the federal government than they pay in taxes, to become sovereign independent nations if they wish to do so.

24. Devolve Entitlements to the States
     24a. The authority to make policy regarding medical issues and retirement was never duly delegated to the federal government by the states. Until such time as a constitutional amendment can be passed which formally authorizes the federal government to do that, support legislation which would devolve the responsibility to address those issues (that is, the “entitlements”; Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security) back to the states, or to the people, where they belong. To do so, support “New Federalism” -type policies, block grants, and other ways of devolving responsibilities to the states.
     24b. Bypass the issues of immigrant Social Security numbers, and what the retirement age should be, by ceasing to require S.S. participation in order to work, and by phasing-out the Social Security system as soon as possible (and transferring its authorities to the states). Do this by either: 1) making participation in the system either fully optional; 2) allowing people under a certain age to opt-out; 3) allowing people to receive already-accrued funds at any age; and/or 4) allowing young people to choose whether to opt-into the system as they enter the workforce for the first time.
     24c. As long as the Social Security system continues to exist, oppose increasing the retirement age, and enact meaningful taxation and budgetary reform in order to avoid means-testing Social Security for income.
     24d. Either abolish and phase-out the Social Security system, or make it fully optional for everyone except federal employees.

25. Achieve Free Health Care Through Free Markets
     25a. Create a sufficiently regulated (but not centrally regulated) free interstate market in health care goods and services, and in health insurance; using price competition to cause health prices to naturally lower over time, resulting in increased affordability of health care and insurance.
     25b. Repeal the Affordable Care Act and the individual health insurance purchase mandate, replacing them with either: 1) a “Medicare for All Who Want It” or “Medicare For All, But Opt-In” -type program which allows states, cooperatives, and people alike to participate on a voluntary basis; or 2) an end to federal involvement in issues pertaining to the health of people besides federal workers.
     25c. Establish a truly optional public option, not a mandatory requirement to purchase insurance. In order to make a public option truly optional – and in order to allow transition periods to exist without cost to the taxpayer - leave people free to refrain from purchasing health insurance, and do not tax them for refraining from purchasing health insurance. 
     25d. In order to address the costs which would be incurred from treating people who lack the ability to pay – and in order to help make health insurance unnecessary - encourage nurses and doctors (and health care and insurance providers of all kinds) to sign employment contracts and/or insurance forms guaranteeing that they will not deny treatment to people based on their inability to pay (as per the Hippocratic Oath).
    25e. Leave all charity organizations, mutual aid societies, and voluntary associations totally free to provide medical assistance to people regardless of citizenship status; but constitutionally, states - not the federal government - should be in the business of administering public services pertaining to medicine.
     25f. The only authority the federal government should exercise to regulate health insurance, should be to prevent states from passing laws that favor their own domestic production of health goods and services (for example, laws which unfairly prohibit buying health insurance policies from out of state).
     25g. Help make health insurance portable, and equally affordable for unemployed and employed people alike, by: 1) either significantly decreasing, or abolishing, the federal tax credit to employers for providing health insurance; and 2) encouraging 46 states to legalize the interstate sale and purchase of health insurance (as long as those insurance policies do not violate state law), which will entice more health insurance companies to move into new states, providing more options (and more affordable plans) to consumers.
     25h. Do not authorize the federal government to negotiate drug prices; instead, stop encouraging a high-price environment by giving drug developers monopolistic patents in the first place (or else drastically reduce the 14-year patent term for pharmaceuticals, and do the same for medical devices).
     25i. Tax the profits from sales of medical devices and medications, but do not impose sales taxes on ordinary medications. Consider imposing luxury taxes on medical device sales and other expensive medical items, but only if significant taxation reform (i.e., taxation of monopolies and unimproved land value) is not enacted. Making medications and medical devices more affordable, will make them more widespread, and this will have the effect of reducing malpractice lawsuits, because more hospitals and health care providers having more access to treatment options, will result in more options for patients, and a lower chance that a patient can rightfully claim his doctors didn't use all the tools available to them to help him get better.
     25j. Decrease the rate at which health providers are taxed, by: 1) allowing nurses and doctors to deduct expenses from their taxes which they incur in providing uncompensated treatment; and 2) making non-profit health providers totally untaxed (thus providing a welcoming environment for non-profit health alternatives to proliferate, reducing the need to eliminate for-profit health insurance through legislation).
     25k. Prohibit for-profit health insurance, but only for companies receiving public funds (and/or privileges or protections) and refuse to abide by the taxation and regulation levels which the public requires of them in exchange for public support.
     25l. Consider supporting any and all legislative efforts to increase access to H.S.A.s (Health Savings Accounts).
     25m. Urge the public to educate themselves on vaccines and antibiotics; because: 1) viruses are not alive but bacteria are, and antibiotics therefore do not treat viral infections; and 2) vaccines are preventative measures rather than cures, so they are useless at best and dangerous at worst if they are administered to someone who may already have the ailment against which he is being vaccinated. Patients should be told not to get a vaccine unless and until they have been tested for the ailment they're considering getting vaccinated for, and have been found to be free of that ailment; otherwise, a vaccination will not do any good for that particular person if they have that ailment (and could actually make them worse).

26. Honor the Rights to Work, Unionize, Strike, and Boycott
     26a. Laws like the Card Check bill and Right-to-Work laws may appeal to Democrats and Republicans, but they aren't necessary, nor are they helpful. These laws only seem necessary because outdated 80-year-old federal laws (which shouldn't exist) make them seem necessary.
     26b. Protect the right of concerted activity within the workplace; and protect the rights to unionize, and to engage in strikes and boycotts without asking the government for permission. 
     26c. Amend the 1935 Wagner act, and repeal the 1947 Taft-Hartley Act, in a manner which: 1) leaves unions free to prompt negotiation with management even if they do not receive a majority of votes in a union election; and 2) leaves unions free to begin or join any strike or boycott, without getting permission from the National Labor Relations Board.
     26d. Allow individual unions to choose whether to make the results of union votes public (or “public” to workers) instead of secret.
     26e. Neither employers and unions should be free to subject workers to propaganda (whether pro-union or anti-union), nor free to convince workers to sign documents they don't understand. That is why Card Check -type legislation should be opposed; unions should not be free to convince workers to sign a document without informing them that that document authorizes a union to represent them if it gets majority support.
     26f. Only support Right-to-Work -type legislation if states refuse to require employers to inform prospective employees that they will be expected to join a union as a condition of continued employment.
     26g. Make union membership fully voluntary in both the private and public sectors, encourage the existence of multiple unions in each workplace, and oppose any legal restrictions which would prevent a worker from belonging to more than one union at a time.
     26h. Urge states to consider passing corporate laws requiring at least half of the board members of publicly assisted corporations to be composed of workers and/or consumers/clients.
     26i. Propose legislation which would tax the income of employees of publicly assisted companies according to the difference between C.E.O. pay and average worker pay.
     26j. Oppose efforts to increase the federal minimum wage, as this wage law chiefly applies to federal workers, not all workers, and is routinely overridden by state minimum wage laws. Make it unnecessary to increase the minimum wage, by making currently received wages more valuable in the first place; by increasing the purchasing power of the dollar through meaningful taxation and budgetary reform.
     26k. Use a different metric for unemployment; U6 should be used instead of U3 because it reflects a larger and more diverse set of unemployed, non-employed, and underemployed people (aside from solely those who have enrolled in government unemployment benefits).
     26l. Do not allow public sector unions to spend money on political campaigns nor causes, unless and until taxpayers – and workers not consenting to their union representation – no longer fund unions with which they don't wish to associate.

27. Reform or Abolish Public Schools
     27a. Given that public school students risk being shot to death or molested when they go to school - and that many college graduates are dissatisfied with the claims their universities made about their ability to become gainfully and consistently employed after graduating - advocate for either the total abolition of federal and public involvement in education, or else drastic reform in a manner which protects children physically, protects them from education fraud, and also prepares them with the skills and education necessary to sustain themselves financially as adults.
     27b. The federal government never had the authority to regulate education formally delegated to it by the states. Propose bills which would immediately abolish the U.S. Department of Education, and permanently prohibit the federal government from regulating or running schools. Abolish the federal Department of Education, devolving all education affairs (school lunch programs included) to the states and the people.
     27c. Get the federal government out of student loans, and end all government student loan programs (F.A.F.S.A., etc.); while abolishing Sallie Mae. 
     27d. While ending F.A.F.S.A. and Sallie Mae, forgive all debt accrued by students of federally supported public universities (but not private universities).
     27e. Devolve the issues of student aid and student debt back to the states and the people where they belong.
     27f. Urge states to: 1) forgive debt accrued by students of their public state-supported universities; 2) to begin to offer tuition-free education (or at least a more direct form of negotiation on tuition between students and faculty); 3) to expand access to community colleges; and 4) to explore whether any legal obstacles need to be removed in order for students to make full use of voucher programs, distance learning, and online education.
     27g. If necessary, support a nationwide boycott of public colleges and universities for at least one year, in order to drastically reduce the cost of tuition for future students.

     27h. Ban hazing and branding in fraternities, sports clubs, and other clubs, by all persons attending publicly supported college and university campuses.
     27i. On primary education: Children under 18 cannot be expected to learn and focus in school, when there is a major shooting every 7 or 8 days in America (163 casualties in 2018, averaging nearly one student shot or killed per school day), as well as 24 reported molestations in school every school day (either by a teacher or another student). Federal funding should be withheld from all K-12 public schools, unless and until all seventeen of the following goals are achieved: 1) All states refrain from requiring public school attendance, and resolve to keep home-schooling legal and free; 2) Taxpayers cease paying for the legal defense of unionized public school teachers charged with molesting students; 3) All public schools procure adequate, trustworthy, transparent, accountable, and independent security protection; 4) Any measures funding public schools must be passed only on the condition that sufficient resources are spent to combat bullying, and also to monitor all places where students may be present so as to prevent physical and sexual abuse; 5) All states pass reforms prohibiting school faculty and security guards from hassling minors for supposedly dressing provocatively  (except in extreme and obvious circumstances), and from conducting invasive searches of students to check for potentially provocative clothing and movement; 6) All states prohibit the arrest or detention of students without parental notification (except in extreme circumstances in which a child's behavior constitutes a clear, present, and immediate - or else unpredictable - threat to others; 7) All states prohibit schools from punishing students - especially physically - for refraining from standing, saluting the flag, or saying the Pledge of Allegiance; 8) All states prohibit visiting police officers from tasing or pepper spraying students on campus, even for career preparation; 9) All states allow prayer in public schools but do not require it (that is, allow student-initiated prayer and spontaneous prayer in schools; but do not allow teacher-directed, nor principal-directed, prayer; and prohibit schools from requiring students to pray, and from requiring them to do anything except observe moments of silence while others pray); 10) Public schools "teach the controversy" in regards to the debate between evolution and intelligent design and creationism; 11) States are urged to reject Common Core, and to implement national education standards on a purely voluntary state-by-state basis, and to develop their own education standards; 12) All school guidelines, and insurance regulations, be revised, so as to prevent school nurses' offices from unjustly retaining custody of children's medications when a student might develop a need to access that medication more rapidly than the school can promise; 13) Middle schools and/or junior high schools expand their civics, economics, and life skills curricula, so as to teach students how to balance checkbooks, pay taxes, start businesses, invest, vote, and understand how health insurance and car insurance work; 14) Schools across the country take steps towards phasing-out multiple-choice test formats, while phasing-in tests which require the student to actually know and understand the answer (rather than simply memorizing it); 15) all public schools establish an admission birthdate of May 15th rather than late August; 16) all public high schools split into two campuses; and 17) the last two years of high school (and its campus) must include auto shop, wood shop, agriculture, and gun training courses, as well as courses in other trades and artisan crafts, with students and their parents being asked to sign waivers to protect the school from the potential of personal injury lawsuits. Point 15 will assign class-years to students for late August classes based on whether their birthday occurred on or after their previous grade's graduation day in the spring of the same year. Point 16 will facilitate the devotion of more resources to courses that teach potentially dangerous trade skills which freshmen and sophomores should not be exposed to, while juniors and seniors are more likely to drive than younger students and will need more parking at their campus. Points 15 and 16 - taken together - will help ensure that (unless a student is pushed forward a year) students won't turn 16 and become eligible to drive until they've finished sophomore year, and students won't turn 18 and become voting-age adults until they've finished senior year. These two points will also help prevent the risks associated with students under and over the age of 16 interacting too much socially; while bypassing the risk that this policy could limit the ability of children over 16 to provide rides to school to children under 16, by separating under-16 campuses from over-16 campuses. Point 17 - together with points 15 and 16 - will help ensure that students under 16 will not be exposed to potentially dangerous equipment in auto shop, wood shop, agriculture, or gun training courses.
     27j. Require all public schools to include discussion of current newspapers in civics and social studies classes, and discussion of contemporary newspapers in history classes.
     27k. Teach the history of World War II, and teach the debate between socialism and fascism, by using history memes from the internet (in order to make students excited about history, learn about political ideologies, and channel any extremist ideas which they may hold into something that is more productive and academic).

28. Reform Laws on Rape, Kidnapping, Ages of Consent, and the Protection of Children
     28a. Less than one out of four rapes are reported, and less than one out of 200 rapists serves prison time. Support the #MeToo movement by enacting sweeping reforms at multiple levels of government to ensure the full right to hold rapists, kidnappers, workplace sexual harassers, and other facilitators of sexual abuse and harassment, responsible and accountable for their crimes.
     28b. Urge all units of government to (if necessary) amend the legal definition of rape so as to avoid including the word “assent”; because consent and assent are not the same thing, and lowering the standard to assent (which, unlike consent, carries the connotation of acquiescence) could risk legalizing the act of continuing sex after a person has tried to resist or communicate lack of consent but has given up trying to do so.
     28c. Urge state legislatures to pass laws ensuring that persons making accusations of rape have no legal obligation to prove that they attempted to physically resist or verbally object; a traumatized person will not always be able to remember these details - such as how hard they tried to verbally object or physically resist - nor be able to prove them with physical evidence.
     28d. Oppose any proposals which would require explicit verbal consent to sex, or physical paper contracts or waiver forms; but allow consenting adults to make such contracts if they please (unless the sexual acts permitted by such contracts authorize irreversible traumas likely to lead to torture, enslavement, or death).
     28e. Encourage more state legislatures to shorten and repeal their statutes of limitations against reporting sexual assaults, rape, and sexual harassment.
     28f. In order to reduce the risk that state prosecutors will fail accusers of rape, sexual abuse, and kidnapping, allow private attorneys to write-off the expenses of representing such accusers on their taxes if those accusers are unable to hire them for normal rates.
     28g. Offer private attorneys incentives to represent rape and domestic abuse accusers, instead of supporting Violence Against Women Act (V.A.W.A.) -type legislation; and propose bills which would repeal either the remainder of the 1994 Clinton omnibus crime bill besides V.A.W.A., or else the entire Violent Crime Control and Enforcement Act of 1994 (i.e., the Clinton crime bill).
     28h. Support repealing the “Clinton crime bill” (which could just as easily be called the Biden crime bill) on the grounds that it regards boot camps as not only a less-abusive alternative to prisons (which is questionable), but also as a panacea cure for all problems, even teenage delinquency.
     28i. Allow juveniles to be in solitary confinement, but strictly limit this to juveniles who routinely or unpredictably present risks of life and limb to themselves and/or to others.
     28j. Acknowledge that rape of men by men in our prisons is a serious problem, and consider several possible solutions to this including: 1) better protection; 2) increased inmate access to the legal means to file charges against attackers (whether those attackers are inmates, prison guards, or someone else); 3) increased use of solitary confinement for adult inmates; or 4) relocation of prisons to pristine rural locations from which it would be not only difficult to escape but also pointless (modeling our prison systems after that of Norway).
     28k. Fight child trafficking; by ending the culture of sending troubled teens to boot camps on trash T.V. shows, including by filing criminal charges against all operators of abusive teen boot camps (such as W.W.A.S.P.S., the World Wide Association of Specialty Programs and Schools).
     28l. End the physical, sexual, and emotional abuse and torture of children. End such abuse of children, whether in juvenile detention facilities, in teen boot camps, in I.C.E. custody, in public schools (whether by teachers, fellow students, or school security guards), in the court systems (whether by judges in "for-profit private prison" schemes, or through family law courts unnecessarily taking children into state custody), in the custody of C.P.S. (Child Protective Services) and C.P.S.-like agencies, the police, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, or living in countries where American troops and military contractors are stationed.
     28m. To the fullest extent of the law, investigate and prosecute any and all politicians, government employees, military officers, and defense contractor employees, suspected of involvement in sex trafficking rings (whether international or domestic); or of raping, kidnapping, torturing children, or murdering children who are either not armed or not classified as military belligerents.
     28n. Diminish the risk that families could be separated, diminish the risk that children could be deprived or abused or become sick in I.C.E. custody, and avoid subjecting migrants to invasive and unconstitutional searches and seizures. Do this by establishing a "minimal vetting" system within an otherwise open-borders environment (open to free flow of people, labor, and capital alike) in which border patrol officers visually assess the likelihood that individuals crossing without permission are threats or are kidnapping the children they are with.
     28o. In order to help decrease the risk that juveniles will be sexually or physically abused while in the custody the justice system, end the school-to-prison pipeline while imposing severe punishments on judges and law enforcement officers who participate in schemes to put juveniles (as well as adults) in prison for profit.
     28p. Propose constitutional amendments which would formally authorize the federal government to restrict states' authorities to set ages of consent which lie outside of a predetermined set of ranges, such that:
     I) the purchase age for all tobacco products stay at 18 nationwide;
     II) the alcohol purchase age may not be set any higher than 21 nor any lower than 18;
     III) the minimum ages to work and drive may not be set any higher than 16 nor any lower than 14 (without strict and transparent guarantees of supervision, a ban on working in venues normally reserved for adults, and a limitation on the number of days which a child may work per year);
     IV) all states must prohibit and penalize parents, tattoo artists, piercing artists, and all persons who encourage and/or facilitate children under 16 to get tattoos or intimate piercings (modeling such legislation off of similar laws passed by Minnesota and Wales) - in addition to nose piercings, tongue piercings, tongue splitting, nipple piercings, dermal piercings anywhere on the body, facial tattoos, implants, and other body modifications - and also prohibit children under 16 from becoming apprentice piercers and tattoo artists, even with parental permission;
     V) no state may set a minimum age for marriage any higher than 18, nor any lower than 16; and
     VI) no state may set the voting age - nor the age to participate in a legal contract aside from employment – any higher than 18, nor any lower than 16.
     and either VII and VIII, or VIII and IX (which together will close what I call the "interstate kidnapping incentive program", the federal age of consent law which allows people age 16-20 to avoid penalty for transporting younger children, provided that the younger children are no more than four years younger, and they cross state lines in the process).
     VII) the federal age of sexual consent (with the defense included for "reasonably believing" the minor was over 16) increase from 12 to either 15, 16, or 17.
     VIII) state “Romeo and Juliet laws” be restricted so as to prohibit sex between minors age 12-17 whose age difference is greater than two years
     IX) the "generic age of consent" set by the federal government increase from 16 to either 17 or 18, and the passage and ratification of an amendment codifying this into the Constitution be pursued.

     28q. Recommend that the entire nation come together to set standards regarding accountability for public officials who fail to provide justice to the victims of rape and kidnapping; and evaluate whether the police, the prison system, G.A.L.s (Guardians Ad Litem), Child Protective Services, or the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, can be trusted while retaining custody of our children; and then, either abolish or strictly limit the powers of any and all agencies failing to pass national standards.
     28r. Urge courts to stop being lenient on people who sexually abuse children on account of the abusers being the biological parents or relatives of they children they abused, and under no circumstances allow convicted abusers to retain custody of children.
     28s. Recommend a thorough investigation of Ghislaine Maxwell and everyone whose name appears in Jeffrey Epstein's black book and/or his Lolita Express flight log, as well as Jeffrey Epstein's former employees, including Ghislane Maxwell. Additionally, Donald Trump, several members of the Trump and Clinton families, Alexander Acosta, Robert Mueller, James Comey, Alberto Gonzales, George W. Bush, and all persons of interest named in Epstein's black book and/or logs of flights on which Epstein flew (including but not limited to Alan Dershowitz, Michael Bloomberg, Michael Mukasey, Ehud Barak, Steven Pinker, Kevin Hart, Kevin Spacey, Naomi Campbell, Prince Andrew, and more).
     28t. Recommend a thorough investigation of Jeffrey Epstein's main business partner Leslie H. Wexner (the C.E.O. of Victoria's Secret) for its possible investments in Epstein's child trafficking ring, as well as an investigation of the company itself to determine whether it is still using prison labor to manufacture women's garments.
     28u. Recommend a thorough investigation of all those suspected of child trafficking as part of the "Pizzagate" conspiracy; including James Alefantis, as well as Sasha Lord and Alefantis's other employees, David Brock, John and Tony Podesta, Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, Anthony Weiner, Laura Silsby-Gayler, Tamera Stanton Luzzatto and David J. Leiter, Jim Steyer, Herb Sandler, and all persons of interest in the Pizzagate case.
     28v. Recommend an investigation into the "Bacha Bazi" (dancing boys) scandal which occurred in Afghanistan at the hands of the military contractor Blackwater (later renamed Xe Services, and again renamed Academi), to determine whether any Americans are involved in child trafficking in Afghanistan. Additionally, investigate Erik Prince (C.E.O. of Academi) and his sister Betsy DeVos (Secretary of Education under Trump) in order to determine whether any of their personal or family business ties or investments lead to child trafficking (aside from the Bacha Bazi scandal); especially their relationships with the Bush family and the family of Joseph E. Schmitz.
     28w. Criminalize the microchipping of children, whether or not for medical purposes, and whether or not the microchip tracks the child. Urge parents to simply watch and hold their children instead of microchipping them or outfitting them with harnesses attached to the parent via dehumanizing leashes. Advocate for the institutionalization of parents who have their children on leashes and their dogs in strollers at the same time in public.
     28x. Ban child beauty pageants, as France has done. Prohibit minors under 16 from participating in beauty pageants.
     28y. Prohibit children under 15 or 16 from studying urban dancing and other forms of provocative dance. Recommend child sexual abuse investigations into youth gymnastics, rhythmic dancing, urban dancing, and other youth sports and activities showing suspicious signs of repeated abuses.
     28z. Require Child Protective Services (C.P.S.) and C.P.S.-type agencies to adopt standards of child physical abuse which are higher than "Parents can hit their children as long as they don't leave bruises or marks on them." 
     28aa. Require all states to raise the age at which a child may be left home alone to between 12 and 16. Many states have no laws on this subject.
     28ab. Urge states to ban the smoking of cigarettes, cigars, marijuana, etc. in cars and other confined spaces where children are present.
     28ac. Advocate for the prohibition of medically unnecessary genital mutilation and circumcision, regardless of gender.
     28ad. Ensure that all jurisdictions are prohibiting female genital mutilation.
     28ae. Urge states to prohibit the circumcision of males; whenever the patient is under 16 years of age, except when medical evidence suggests that it is justifiable as medically necessary (such as in order to prevent abnormal growth of the penis). Urge states to pass laws which allow patients to elect to have procedures performed on them beginning at either age 16, 17, or 18.
     28af. We cannot say we are protecting children if we allow the open celebration of holidays that celebrate, glorify, satirize, and commodify the tricking, taunting, manipulation, and molestation of children. As such, advocate prohibiting the celebration of the holidays of Krampusnacht, Saturnalia, and all holidays on which the Satanic Church recommends either an adult or child human sacrifice. If that reform cannot be passed, then support banning the celebration of Halloween, Allhallow's Eve, and Samhain by children, and support either the prohibition of celebrating Christmas or a change of its date so as to be farther from Saturnalia on the calendar.

29. Keep Abortion Legal, But Don't Subsidize It
     29a. Roe v. Wade is not “the law of the land” on abortion; Planned Parenthood v. Casey is. Roe v. Wade didn't “give us the right to abortion”; we were born with the right to abortion, as part of our rights to privacy, personal freedom, individual liberty, and personal bodily integrity. But having a right to abortion, does not necessarily mean you have the right to demand a free abortion paid for by taxpayer money. Keep abortion “legal”, but do not regulate nor require legal permission for abortions before the third trimester.
     29b. Consider abortion a natural human right, whether or not Roe v. Wade “is overturned”; it has already been overturned because its very nature sealed its fate and destroyed itself. Roe v. Wade actually allows states to pass restrictions on abortion, as long as those restrictions can be explained as necessary and appropriate. Roe v. Wade never guaranteed abortion as a right, and it is a harmful decision which gave states free rein to trod on the natural human right of abortion.
     29c. Protect abortion as a natural right by urging the public to educate themselves on the Ninth Amendment; its meaning and purpose (namely, to protect our rights to do things without asking or paying the government for permission, permits, and licenses).
     29d. Do not pay for abortion with taxpayer money; but allow taxation for abortion if the organization being taxed receive public funds, supports, or privileges.
     29e. Leave people and voluntary associations free to pool money together to pay for people's abortions, but prohibit the existence of public state funds for the purposes of providing abortions.
     29f. Repeal the Hyde Amendment, but advocate for its repeal on the grounds that it allows public funding of abortion in any cases, not on the grounds that it prohibits public funding of abortion in some cases.
     29g. Even medically necessary abortions (such as to save the life of the mother) can be paid for through fully voluntary means; and taxing pro-lifers and politicizing the affairs of such groups and funds, only risks that opponents of abortion will insist that their opinions must be included in public policy as compensation.
     29h. Keep abortion free and legal, by “un-legalizing it”; that is, de-politicizing it, and leaving people free to seek affordable alternatives to publicly funded abortion in the market, private sector, charity and non-for-profit sectors, etc..
     29i. Leave people totally free to seek abortions, unless they are in the third trimester of pregnancy; that is, set a late cutoff between the second and third trimesters instead of an early one, so that nobody is unjustly delayed to six months gestation by legal waiting periods for seeking abortions. 
     29k. Prohibit infanticide and third-trimester abortions, but leave first and second trimester abortions unrestricted.
     29l. A human fetus is both alive and human, but it should not be considered an independent person or a human being unless it has been born. If a fetus is not wanted by its mother, then the government has no right to interfere in the mother's decision to terminate the pregnancy, because in order to do something about it, the government would have to violate the mother's rights to bodily autonomy and physical integrity within the perimeters of her body.
     29m. Babies have been born and saved as early as four months gestation, but that should not be taken as a cutoff for being able to survive outside the womb because few babies born that early survive. Support a third-trimester cutoff; criminalize “aborting” fetuses in the third trimester, because this is infanticide and cannot be done without partially delivering the baby first (when fully delivering it would likely result in its birth).
     29n. Support pressing criminal charges against all nurses and doctors who kill babies born alive as the result of failed abortions; and who commit negligent manslaughter by allowing such babies to die on medical tables, in trash cans, or in medical waste disposal receptacles.
     29o. Keep abortion free, legal, and safe; but do not publicly encourage people to get abortions, and aim for fewer abortions, not more, by allowing people to purchase contraceptives without getting a doctor's permission, and by empowering people who could become pregnant to protect themselves from kidnapping, rape, unwanted sexual advances that could lead to rape, and abusive marriages.

30. Reform Marriage Licensing, Divorce, and Custody Laws
     30a. Marriage should be considered a freedom, and a natural human right; but not a positive legal right, nor a privilege.
     30b. The end of discrimination in marriage licensing on the basis of marriage partner's sexual orientation was a step in the right direction, but now same-sex couples have a legal relationship which can be regulated by the government, and that is a problem which has to be remedied.
     30c. Same-sex couples should have every right to marry as heterosexual couples do, but that should not mean that other people in society ought to be expected or required to pay taxes to government agencies that confer legal privileges upon legally married couples, which are not equally enjoyed by couples who have not sought government approval for the recognition of their relationship. marriage between consenting adults into a privilege.
     30d. Urge the approximately 40 states in our Union which do not recognize common-law marriage, to legalize common-law marriage, in a manner which either: 1) requires the state to either recognize the marriage and otherwise refrain from supporting it; or else 2) requires the state to refrain from requiring licenses and permits, and from charging fees therefor, for any consenting adults seeking to get married.
     30e. As much as possible, make marriage free for all consenting adults, regardless of sexual orientation, and provided that they are over 16, 17, or 18 (choosing one of those ages as the nation-wide minimum age for marriage).
     30f. Strictly limit, and in most cases prohibit, the marriage of minors under the age of 16. Urge Congress to consider passing a constitutional amendment which would choose either 16, 17, or 18, and make it the nationwide minimum marriage age on a permanent basis.
     30g. Oppose efforts to continue to allow states to set ages of consent to sex and marriage, based on their previous inability to establish a remotely uniform set of laws, and based on the fact that variation in state age limits will inevitably lead to the abduction and trafficking of some minors in order to have sex with them or marry them where it is legal.
     30h. Urge the governors of Texas, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, and other states plagued with legal or illegal child marriage, to take immediate action to take custody of children married against their will, and to invalidate all marriages which include or included participants under 16 (without regard to the supposed need to honor religious traditions; and without regard to the supposed need to honor all marriages which have resulted in the birth of children, unless both partners are over 14, and no more than two years apart in age, and both partners have permission from their parents to do so).
     30i. Allow states to require or prohibit venereal disease testing before marriage, but do not allow states to require religious, ethnic, nor racial tests nor prohibitions upon marriage.
     30j. Limit the ability of the federal government and state family law courts to intercede in divorce proceedings in a way that increases the likelihood that biological children could be legally abducted without any reasonable suspicion of child abuse.
     30k. Make 50/50 equal custody the default arrangement in child custody hearings (except in cases in which physical or sexual child abuse is suspected or alleged).
     30l. If the activities in which the federal government engages in pursuit of enforcing Social Security Title IV-D (child support) cannot become much more transparent and accountable to the public, and immediately, then propose bills which would either abolish S.S. Title IV-D, or else strictly limit or revoke its powers to take biological children into custody.
     30m. Reduce the size of the prison population and the cost of incarceration - and reduce the number of single mothers and fatherless homes, and the number of youths in gangs - by keeping youths out of jail for petty offenses, and by keeping non-violent fathers out of jail for the same. Do this by ceasing to prosecute the illegal ownership of guns and non-toxic drugs, and by ceasing to prosecute other petty offenses such as sagging one's pants. Take the first serious steps towards enacting this policy, by reforming Social Security Title IV-D (child support) and by amending or repealing the drug policies contained within the 1994 Violent Crime Control and Enforcement Act (the Clinton omnibus crime bill).

31. End the War on Drugs and Abolish the F.D.A.
     31a. It is not enough to say that we have “legalized marijuana” if the government is still taxing it and regulating it; that is not what true freedom looks like. Even if marijuana prices go down as a result of decriminalization efforts (and they have been going down), taxing dispensaries' marijuana sales will never result in outbidding black-market marijuana sellers, and that means that government sponsored dispensaries are bound to fail.
     31b. Make marijuana fully legal by fully decriminalizing all purchase, sale, and use of marijuana and cannabis products; and by fully decriminalizing, I mean stop requiring permission and payment from the government in order to do it, because if you do it without permission it's still illegal. Urge states to prohibit the taxation of marijuana sales, and to prohibit the regulation of the use of marijuana by adults (excepting minors who need it for medical purposes).
     31c. Support freeing all incarcerated people convicted of non-violent drug offenses, as part of legalizing marijuana.
     31d. Allow medical marijuana dispensaries to give money to political campaigns, but prohibit those dispensaries from receiving taxpayer assistance (unless they are prepared to submit to high taxes and strict regulation).
     31e. Remove all forms of cannabis – as well as alcohol, opioids, heroin, 18-MC, ibogaine, and others – from the list of Schedule I substances under the Controlled Substances Act (because they have known medical uses, while Schedule I is reserved for drugs that have no medical use).
     31f. Keep deadly drugs such as fetanyl and krokodil illegal, and hold pharmaceutical company C.E.O.s accountable for producing medications containing fetanyl.
     31g. The F.D.A. (Food and Drug Administration) will talk all about how it saves people by approving new medications, but it will never tell you how many people died waiting for a life-saving drug to be legally approved. We can never know how many medical options we have available to us, if the government will not allow sufficient testing on harmless drugs that alter our brain chemistry. People who are dying, and have been told multiple times that they have no options, should have “the right to try” experimental medications that could either kill them or save them, and “the right to die” if their last-ditch medication doesn't happen to work, or if they see no point in going on and want to be euthanized to prevent further suffering. Repeal all laws which impede medical testing on all psychedelic and hallucinogenic drugs not likely to result in severe harm or death. End the War on Drugs; by: 1) fully legalizing harmless psychedelic drugs that people take to facilitate empathy and social interaction; and 2) getting rid of the moral hazard that comes when we put too much trust in the F.D.A., falsely believing that if there is a product on the shelves, then it must be safe, because “how else could it have gotten there unless the F.D.A. approved it?” We should never trust the government to be more responsible than we are, when it comes to whether the products we use in our homes and feed to our children, are safe.

32. Infrastructure, Roads, Driver Licensing, Transportation, and the Post Office
     32a. Drastically reduce the budget of the U.S. Department of Transportation, and consider abolishing it. The existence of such a department (as with the energy and commerce departments) only risks distorting the market for alternative forms of transportation (and the fuel sources that power them) that stand to revolutionize the way we travel, even if outdated forms of travel are swept away in the process.
     32b. Recognize the freedom of locomotion (travel) as a natural human right which the Ninth Amendment implicitly recognizes, and recognize that governments do not have the right to impede our travel unless there is reasonable suspicion that we will harm someone unless immobilized. 
     32c. Revoke the federal government's authority to issue or deny international passports; recognize that the states are rightfully sovereign and independent; and allow states, the United Nations, and international relief agencies, offer solutions to the need for stateless people, undocumented people, and outlaws, to travel freely.
     32d. The federal government's authority to “Establish Post Offices and Post Roads” arguably doesn't expressly authorize the government to build those roads in the first place. The building of interstate roads is arguably the federal government's authority, as long as the burdens of taxation and the benefits of spending are shared equally across the land; however, this does not necessarily guarantee that the contractors which federal government hires will always be the best equipped, most responsible, or most affordable to do the job. The federal government should only “establish” post offices and post roads by recognizing them, not necessarily by building them or running them. State and local governments should enforce federal policies whenever those policies are constitutional and would more appropriately be administered by local rather than central authorities.
     32e. Protect the freedom of the American free trade zone, and promote the regulation of interstate commerce, by prohibiting states from passing laws which unfairly favor their own in-state road construction companies over out-of-state companies.
     32f. For people over the age of 16, prohibit states from charging fees for licenses to drive. Allow states to license minors to drive as young as 14, but recommend limitations, such as requiring adult supervision whenever realistically possible, and/or requiring that the minor only drive to work and school, and/or requiring that the driving education take place outside the context of public schooling.




Based on "Basic Platform for U.S. House of Representatives in 2020",
which was written on August 5th through 9th, 2019,
originally published on August 9th, 2019,
and edited and expanded on August 10th, 11th, and 24th, 2019

This article originally published on August 23rd, 2019
and edited and expanded on August 24th, 25th, and 29th, 2019,
and February 28th and March 5th, 2020

Contains fragments from previous campaign platforms
and other sets of proposals, all written between 2013 and 2019

Finalized on February 12th, 2021

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