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Commentary | Tenth Amendment Center
Stop Coddling Politicians
Fri, 02 Sep 2022 19:18:53 +0000
the real absurdity is depending on politicians to protect your liberty.
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People don’t like it when you criticize their favorite politicians. That’s a problem. Because people in power need more criticism, not less. You need to stop coddling politicians.
South Dakota Gov. Krist Noem was one of the best governors in the nation in resisting pandemic lockdowns. But she is abysmal on the drug war. Noem spearheaded a lawsuit to overturn a voter referendum that legalized marijuana in the state.
I called Noem out on her bad drug war policy and angered a supporter in the process. I was told, “Nobody on earth did better than Noem in 2020. To claim that standing up for the basic human rights which define our republic in such a crucial moment is offset by her support of marijuana laws that all of America supported and enforced until about five minutes ago is absurd.”
In fact, the real absurdity is depending on politicians to protect your liberty.
Bad strategy.
And it’s why I don’t bother much with electoral politics – especially at the federal level. I much prefer to spend my time hacking away at government power through non-compliance, resistance, and using power centers against each other. I can work that strategy no matter who is in office and I don’t have to worry about trying to get some “good guy” in office.
I believe strongly that with a few exceptions, everybody who seeks political power is dangerous. George Mason summed it up nicely during as speech at the Virginia ratifying convention.
“Those who have power in their hands will not give it up while they can retain it. On the contrary, we know they will always, when they can, rather increase it.”
This idea that I am supposed to turn my head and ignore Z just because some politician is good on X and Y is how we ended up living under the biggest, most powerful government in the history of the world.
Instead of giving politicians and people in power a pass when they do something antithetical to the Constitution or liberty, why not hold them accountable? Why not say, “Hey, Noem was good on pandemic lockdowns, but she sucks on these other things?”
Maybe if more people who were into electoral politics held their people accountable for their garbage instead of shrugging it off or making excuses, there would be less garbage.
But no. People seem compelled to act like politicians are heroes above reproach. Sorry, that’s weird and creepy. I’m going to call out anybody who acts contrary to my liberty.
John Dickinson (the “Penman of the Revolution”) summed it up really well.
“All artful rulers, who strive to extend their power beyond its just limits, endeavor to give to their attempts as much semblance of legality as possible. Those who succeed them may venture to go a little further; for each new encroachment will be strengthened by a former. ‘That which is now supported by examples, growing old, will become an example itself,’ and thus support fresh usurpations.”
That’s why, as Dickinson put it we must “Oppose a disease at its beginning.”
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The Biggest Most Powerful Government in the History of the World?
/2020/10/the-biggest-most-powerful-government-in-the-history-of-the-world/
Thu, 29 Oct 2020 11:10:28 +0000
You’ll often hear Michael Boldin or me say we are facing the “biggest, most powerful government in the history of the world.” Is this just hyperbole? I don’t think it is. Consider the power the U.S. government wields globally. I’m not just talking about military power – although that is unmatched. Perhaps more significant is […]
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You’ll often hear Michael Boldin or me say we are facing the “biggest, most powerful government in the history of the world.”
Is this just hyperbole?
I don’t think it is.
Consider the power the U.S. government wields globally. I’m not just talking about military power – although that is unmatched. Perhaps more significant is the economic power the United States wields. The world literally runs on dollars.
The SWIFT system enables financial institutions to send and receive information about financial transactions in a secure, standardized environment. Since the dollar serves as the world reserve currency, SWIFT facilitates the international dollar system. That gives the U.S. the ability to effectively cut other countries off from the global economy. The U.S. has used this power to bend countries such as China, Russia and Iran to its foreign policy will.
You could argue that the British Empire or the Roman Empire wielded similar power. But neither of those mega-governments had nuclear weapons and the ability to literally destroy the world. The power of the United States government is arguably unmatched in human history.
And even if the relative power of the U.S. government compared to past regimes is debatable, the size of the U.S. government isn’t.
One metric we can use to compare the relative size of governments is expenditures. Based on IMF data, the U.S. government spent $7.66 trillion in 2019. The next closest country was China with outlays of $4.14 trillion.
Obviously, China has a lot more people than the U.S. The disparity in the scope of government becomes even more apparent when you compare the two country’s per capita spending. The U.S. spent $20,674 per capita in 2017. China spent a paltry $2,735 per capita. In other words, the United States’ “limited constitutional government” spends nearly 8-times per capita than China’s “socialist state under the people’s democratic dictatorship.”
So, when I talk about facing off against the biggest, most powerful government in the history of the world, I mean it literally. On a macro level, the federal government bullies the world into doing its will and on a micro-level, it interjects itself into virtually every corner of our life. It dictates what kind of plants we can grow in our backyard and how much water we can have in our toilets.
That leaves you with a question: why would you ever trust such an entity to look after your interests?
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Are You A Partisan Hack? Or a Presidential Fan-Boy?
/2020/10/are-you-a-partisan-hack-or-a-presidential-fan-boy/
Wed, 14 Oct 2020 10:25:15 +0000
Why do conservatives and people who claim to care about constitutionally limited government make excuses for Donald Trump? It happens all the time. The other day, I posted an article highlighting the fact that the Trump administration has increased the national debt by over $7 trillion. The very first comment I got when I posted […]
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Why do conservatives and people who claim to care about constitutionally limited government make excuses for Donald Trump?
It happens all the time. The other day, I posted an article highlighting the fact that the Trump administration has increased the national debt by over $7 trillion. The very first comment I got when I posted the article on my Facebook page was “what about Obama?”
OK. I’ll play.
The national debt grew by $8.59 trillion over Obama’s two terms. As of Oct. 8, the Trump administration has added $7.12 trillion. In other words, the Trump administration has nearly matched the amount of debt added by the Obama administration in less than half the time.
For a little additional perspective, the fiscal 2020 deficit will come in well over $3 trillion. The largest deficit during the Obama years came in at $1.41 trillion in 2009. So, the Trump administration has more than doubled the previous record budget shortfall.
But that won’t stop the excuses. Trump apologists will blame the spending on the coronavirus pandemic. “He had no choice! He had to deal with this crisis,” they will cry. Nevermind that Obama also had to “deal with” a major economic meltdown and conservatives criticized him for the spending anyway, Trump was in record deficit territory before the pandemic.
In fiscal 2019, the Trump administration ran the fifth-biggest deficit in history. Through the first two months of fiscal 2020, the deficit was already 12 percent over 2019’s huge Obama-like number and was on track to eclipse $1 trillion. Prior to 2020, the U.S. government had only run deficits over $1 trillion four times, all during the Great Recession. We were approaching that number prior to the pandemic, despite what Trump kept calling “the greatest economy in the history of America.”
Clearly, this isn’t a coronavirus problem. Unconstitutional spending has been the modus operandi of every modern presidential administration – the current regime not excepted.
Nevertheless, if you really want to play the comparison game, Obama was awful. Trump is objectively just as bad. And arguably worse.
But why play this dumb comparison game?
Claiming Obama was worse or that Trump is “better than Hillary” doesn’t really prove anything. Stop comparing your guy with other crappy politicians – and I’m saying this no matter who your guy or gal happens to be. You should measure him against constitutional principles. Every politician and government official, no matter what party they hail from, should be held up against standards and principles. If they don’t measure up, hold them accountable. Otherwise, you’re nothing but a partisan hack or a presidential fanboy.
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Centralized Government Is Like a Walmart Monopoly
/2020/10/centralized-government-is-like-a-walmart-monopoly/
Mon, 12 Oct 2020 20:00:25 +0000
Imagine if I was the all-powerful king and I declared that from now on, Walmart would be the sole supplier of groceries in the land. How many of you would go for that plan? Well, there isn’t any difference between a Walmart monopoly on groceries and a federal government monopoly on government. Monopolies are bad […]
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Imagine if I was the all-powerful king and I declared that from now on, Walmart would be the sole supplier of groceries in the land. How many of you would go for that plan?
Well, there isn’t any difference between a Walmart monopoly on groceries and a federal government monopoly on government.
Monopolies are bad – whether it's a big corporation or a big government. @mmaharrey10th pic.twitter.com/flhnqKEhFJ
— TenthAmendmentCenter (@TenthAmendment) October 9, 2020
For Further Reading
The Constitution: A Framework For Decentralizing Toward Liberty
This Country is too Big for D.C.
Washington D.C. is Like a Broken Down Car
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The Misplaced American Obsession With Presidents
/2020/09/the-misplaced-american-obsession-with-presidents/
Fri, 04 Sep 2020 10:41:34 +0000
“I am terrified of the outcome in November.” “The fate of the nation hangs in the balance.” “This is the last chance to save America.” These are all actual quotes about the presidential election I’ve seen over the last few days. Two were from Trump supporters and one came from a Biden voter. They represent […]
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“I am terrified of the outcome in November.”
“The fate of the nation hangs in the balance.”
“This is the last chance to save America.”
These are all actual quotes about the presidential election I’ve seen over the last few days. Two were from Trump supporters and one came from a Biden voter. They represent just a sampling of angst already generated by this election.
We witnessed a similar level of hyperbole in 2016. Some Hillary Clinton supporters literally cried after it became clear she would lose, while Trump supporters fist-pumped and gloated with glee as if they’d just won the Super Bowl.
I’m certain the roles will reverse if Biden wins in November.
In a way, I kind of feel sorry for people who have so much emotional energy invested in a politician. I kind of feel sorry for people who fret because they believe the man or woman in the White House will have a drastic impact on their personal lives. I kind of feel sorry for people who believe a presidential election is a matter of life and death.
But on the other hand, I don’t feel sorry for them at all. Becuase the people on both the left and right so invested in who becomes president asked for the system that gave one individual so much power.
When a president they like sits in the White House, people beg for “strong leadership.” They cheer their president using his “pen and his phone” to issue executive orders and legislate from the Oval Office. They want their president to exercise whatever power necessary to “get stuff done.”
But they shake in fear at the prospect of the other party’s president holding all of that power.
News flash – at some point, somebody you don’t like will hold every iota of power you give them.
Here’s an idea — instead of working yourself into a frenzy every four years worried that somebody awful will become president (because I guarantee they will), spend time working to break down the system that empowers the president to wield so much influence on American life in the first place.
Because this was not what was intended.
If we simply stuck to the constitutional system, you would hardly notice the president. Presidents would have virtually no impact on your day-to-day life. They would drive the trajectory of U.S. foreign policy to be sure, but unless you were a policy wonk or in the military, you’d barely know there was a president.
But in their quest to impose their political agenda on the rest of the country, partisans on both the left and the right have turned the president into an elected king with virtually unlimited power and control. It’s no wonder people obsess over who holds the office.
The sad truth is this is exactly the system people on both sides of the political spectrum asked for. Now every four years, we have this silly wrestling match to determine which side will get it good and hard.
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Don’t Believe Politician Narratives
/2019/09/dont-believe-politician-narratives/
Thu, 05 Sep 2019 12:25:27 +0000
The truth is I'm going to criticize whoever is in the Oval Office. It's not about personalities. It's about fidelity to the Constitution
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Politicians love to weave narratives. You shouldn’t believe them.
In fact, most of them are utter B.S. And yet, supporters of these politicians eat these narratives up and repeat them ad nauseam, even without any evidence of their veracity.
One of Donald Trump’s favorite narratives is that he’s created the greatest economy in the history of America. He’s literally said this. And his supporters parrot the narrative. He’s just one example from my Facebook page.
You’re so full of sh*t , your breath stinks !!!!
Economy’s doing better than is has in 50 years .
You’re just another annoying Trump basher .
Go find something productive to do !
This is demonstrably untrue.
As I’ve pointed out before, Economic growth over the last two years, as measured by GDP, comes in at basically the same rate as it did during the best two years of the Obama administration. Trump is no better than Obama on economic growth.
More recently, we got manufacturing numbers that further shred this “greatest economy ever” narrative. U.S. manufacturing activity contracted in August, according to the latest Institute for Supply Management (ISM) data. It was the fifth straight monthly decline.
The number for August came in at 49.1. Any number under 50 signals a drop in manufacturing activity. This was the first contraction in three years and the first time the index has dropped below 50 since August 2016. Meanwhile, IHS Markit PMI hit 50.3, the lowest number since September 2009 – in the aftermath of the 2008 crash.
In other words, the manufacturing economy is at its weakest point in a decade. Manufacturing right now is as weak as it was during the tail-end of the Great Recession.
So much for the greatest economy ever narrative.
Here’s the lesson: never trust politician narratives.
Sometimes people ask me: why do I “pick on” Trump?
Because he does a lot of things that suck.
But this is not just about Trump. I “pick on” him for the same reasons I picked on Obama for years.
The truth is I’m going to criticize whoever is in the Oval Office. It’s not about personalities. It’s about fidelity to the Constitution. I am going to rip anybody who takes or supports unconstitutional actions. And more generally, anybody who does things that threaten my liberty.
If you ask me, too many people are wrapped up in Donald’s cult of personality and have abandoned their conservative principles. If anybody should be calling out unconstitutional and anti-liberty actions by Republicans, it’s Republicans. Clean your own house, you know?
The common refrain is, “Well, Trump is better than Hillary.” Yes. Yes, he probably is. But is that really your standard? Seriously?
Look, if you wanted me to criticized Hillary, you should have voted for her.
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Lysander Spooner and Parchment Barriers
/2017/09/lysander-spooner-and-parchment-barriers/
Tue, 05 Sep 2017 16:13:58 +0000
Many people argue that the Constitution has failed. However, the problem is not the Constitution itself, but a failure of the people to enforce it. The Constitution formed a union and authorized the formation of a general government with very limited powers. The purpose of the Constitution was to create a more perfect union where […]
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Many people argue that the Constitution has failed. However, the problem is not the Constitution itself, but a failure of the people to enforce it.
The Constitution formed a union and authorized the formation of a general government with very limited powers. The purpose of the Constitution was to create a more perfect union where the life, liberty and property of the people and the sovereignty of the states would remain forever secure.
The Constitution was written to govern the general government, not to govern or control the states and the people. The national government was delegated a short list of specific powers, mostly relating to war, peace and foreign relations. All powers not granted to the central government were reserved to the states and the people.
Many critics of the ratification feared that the Constitution gave the government too much power, and it would eventually enslave the people it was meant to protect. One of these critics was Lysander Spooner, who once opined, “The Constitution has either authorized such a government as we have had, or has been powerless to prevent it.”
But the operation of the federal government today bears little resemblance to the system established by the Constitution. The founding fathers intended to have a limited government that would be controlled by the states and the people. Not today’s monstrosity with nearly unlimited power.
The government was to be the servant of the states and the people, not their master. Spooner correctly identified the problem, but he missed the true cause. The Constitution has not failed us, we have just failed to defend it. As James Madison said, we can’t simply depend on “parchment barriers.
In his seminal commentaries on the Constitution, St. George Tucker, the most prominent legal mind of his time, reiterated this truth:
“All governments have a natural tendency towards an increase, and assumption of power; and the administration of the federal government, has too frequently demonstrated, that the people of America are not exempt from this vice in their constitution. We have seen that parchment chains are not sufficient to correct this unhappy propensity; they are, nevertheless, capable of producing the most salutary effects; for, when broken, they warn the people to change those perfidious agents, who dare to violate them.”
Constitutions are useless unless enforced. It’s up to we the people to ensure that they are.
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The Federal School Yard Bullies
/2016/05/the-federal-school-yard-bullies/
Sat, 21 May 2016 17:23:39 +0000
Under the guise of taking care of us, they steal our money and our freedom.
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When the school yard bully offers to protect his classmates in exchange for a portion of their lunch money, they are running a protection racket. The bully is “protecting” their classmates from wrath that shall be perpetrated upon them unless they pay the fee.
This is precisely what the federal government is doing to us, only on a grand scale.
Under the guise of taking care of us, they steal our money and our freedom. Similar to the school yard bully, the government is the primary threat to our safety. In order to steal our money and our freedom, they must first make us afraid. When we are sufficiently scared, we will gladly pay the government to protect us from real or imaginary threats.
Sadly, the government that was originally created to protect our lives, liberty and property has become the greatest threat to our security. Those who refuse to follow Caesar’s rules and pay him tribute will end up in a cage or a cemetery. This is a far cry from the designs of the Founding Fathers.
When a school yard bully begins to take your lunch money, it is just a matter of time until they demand a larger share. Eventually, they will force you to borrow money in order to pay for his services. That is apparently where the federal debt comes in.
When will we finally wake up to this madness, and resist it through measures such as state nullification?
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A Tale of Two Farms: Tennessee and Indiana Serve as Case Studies for Nullification of Hemp Prohibition
/2015/09/a-tale-of-two-farms-tennessee-and-indiana-serve-as-case-studies-for-nullification-of-hemp-prohibition/
Tue, 22 Sep 2015 20:49:48 +0000
Nullification occurs successfully when a state ignores or defies federal edicts, reclaims its own sovereignty, and takes policy-making into its own hands. But it can go horribly wrong when a state tries to comply with federal restrictions and guidelines while attempting to nullify a broader action. Efforts to develop a the hemp industry in Indiana […]
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Nullification occurs successfully when a state ignores or defies federal edicts, reclaims its own sovereignty, and takes policy-making into its own hands. But it can go horribly wrong when a state tries to comply with federal restrictions and guidelines while attempting to nullify a broader action.
Efforts to develop a the hemp industry in Indiana and Tennessee despite what is essentially federal prohibition illustrates this key difference, and the huge impact it can have on the respective states.
Last year, the state of Tennessee effectively nullified the federal ban on industrial hemp. Legislators passed a bill establishing a quick, orderly, efficient, farmer-friendly process to license industrial hemp growers, and permit them to distribute the crop in the marketplace. A WATE report illustrates the success of Tennessee’s policy.
Thousands of hemp plants on Rasmussen’s farm will be harvested this October, mainly by hand. That means they’ll take each plant, dry it out and sell it as seed…
Rasmussen’s 2.5 acre industrial hemp farm is a pilot project and one of 50 in our state.
Workers with the Tennessee Department of Agriculture stopped by Wednesday for a yearly review. They took samples to make sure hemp plants are within Tennessee’s legal 0.3 percent limit of THC.
Meanwhile in Indiana, state lawmakers were more concerned about complying with federal regulations than they were with fostering economic growth and prosperity through a legal hemp industry. The state legislature approved the cultivation of industrial hemp only for research purposes conducted by Universities, keeping in line with recently revised federal law on hemp. Producers will only be able to buy and sell hemp as an industrial product if the feds decide to remove their ban. This effectively crushes the prospects of any industrial hemp market developing in the Hoosier State. A Lebanon Reporter article details the Indiana hemp market, or lack thereof.
The 2014 federal farm bill reconsidered industrial hemp’s potential as a cash crop. Its growth is limited to agricultural research, though, and only after the grower obtains a waiver from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
Purdue, the state’s leading agricultural research university, got the waiver along with a 50-pound bag of hemp seed imported from Canada…
Purdue’s permit came with a DEA mandate: All the plants and any seeds produced have to be destroyed by year’s end.
While the operation at the University of Purdue may be a positive development in the sense that it raises awareness, it does nothing to actually develop a hemp industry, something that would certainly boost agricultural sector in Indiana and put money into the pockets of struggling farmers. But in truth, the research provisions in the 2014 federal farm bill were little more than a stalling tactic to avoid actually lifting the ban. The viability of industrial hemp is known, and has been known for hundreds of years. Research isn’t really necessary at this point.
Tennessee rejected the federal ban, bypassed its regulations entirely, and it is already paying dividends.
In the Volunteer State, everyday farmers are growing acres of industrial hemp throughout the state. Although it’s supposedly being done under the supervision of university researchers, the product is expected to hit the open market and will be sold like any other industrial crop in the near future. The economic impact will be felt immediately in the form of jobs and paychecks.This success story was possible because Tennessee acted outside of the prescribed federal boundaries and took matters into its own hands.
On the other hand, Indiana submitted to the federal will and basically got – nothing.
Due to its strict and unnecessary compliance with federal guidelines, the Hoosier State does not have a viable industrial hemp industry in the works. Instead, it’s got limited production under the auspices of the DEA by University employees at enclosed, fenced-in areas for research purposes only. While farmers, consumers and the general public could reap the economic gains from this burgeoning cash crop, senseless federal rules and the state’s unwillingness to reject them has made that an impossibility.
It’s not too late for the state of Indiana to change course. By introducing legislation similar to the Tenth Amendment Center’s Hemp Freedom Act, Indiana (or any state for that matter) can reject federal ban. By disregarding the federal mandates, a proven cash crop can be unleashed in your state, creating jobs without draining the taxpayer. Make sure to call your legislator, and urge them to fully legalize industrial hemp today!
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You Don’t Know What You Don’t Know
/2014/12/you-dont-know-what-you-dont-know/
Wed, 03 Dec 2014 14:49:28 +0000
Three weeks ago today I underwent open heart surgery to replace a leaky artificial valve. Having gone through this same surgery a little more than 11 years ago, I had a pretty good idea what to expect. Based on my previous experience, I set what I thought were reasonable goals for returning to various activities. […]
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Three weeks ago today I underwent open heart surgery to replace a leaky artificial valve.
Having gone through this same surgery a little more than 11 years ago, I had a pretty good idea what to expect. Based on my previous experience, I set what I thought were reasonable goals for returning to various activities. At this point, I expected to resume some of my work at OffNow and the Tenth Amendment Center. I had some specific goals about how far I would be walking. I was going to be completely off pain medication.
Virtually nothing has gone according to my plan.
I’ve experienced several complications. My grandiose walking schedule has devolved to walking from the couch to the bathroom. Sometimes, just that gets me winded. As for resuming work at OffNow and TAC, simply writing this little blurb will pretty much tax the limits of my mental and even physical energy. And thank the Good Lord for Percocet.
In a nutshell, all of my planning was ridiculous. Even with the experience of a past open heart surgery, my preconceived notions about this particular surgery had exactly zero in common with reality.
My experience should serve as a lesson for all of you central planners out there.
No matter how smart you think you might be, no matter the extent of your experience and education, no matter how hard you sit back and try to think of every possible scenario, you simply cannot account for every variable, externality and unforeseen consequence. Your centralized planning of health care, foreign policy, education, or whatever policy area you think you can direct will fail for the exact same reason my post-surgery planning failed.
You don’t know what you don’t know.
I was very arrogant going into this surgery.
I’ve been humbled.
Supporters of centralized government suffer from the same type of arrogance, but on a grander scale. They not only believe that they can accurately determine what is best for more than 300 million people, they think they have the knowledge, experience and technical proficiency to bring it about.
In a nutshell, the centralizers think they are smarter than all of us put together.
They aren’t.
They don’t even know what they don’t know.
Maybe it’s time we stop putting our faith in them.
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How Well Do Americans Know the Founders’ Constitution?
/2014/12/how-well-do-americans-know-the-founders-constitution/
Wed, 03 Dec 2014 02:11:25 +0000
What % of people in the country do you think could get a passing grade on a test about the original meaning of the Constitution? And what score do you think you would get on an exam like this?
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What % of people in the country do you think could get a passing grade on a test about the original meaning of the Constitution?
And what score do you think you would get on an exam like this?
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An Unhappy Summer for Liberty
/2014/09/an-unhappy-summer-for-liberty/
Thu, 04 Sep 2014 07:51:18 +0000
At the root of the chaos in the Middle East and here at home are governments that respect no limits on their exercise of power. Public officials — who are supposed to be our public servants — routinely behave as if they are our masters. They reject the confines of the Constitution, they don’t believe […]
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At the root of the chaos in the Middle East and here at home are governments that respect no limits on their exercise of power. Public officials — who are supposed to be our public servants — routinely behave as if they are our masters. They reject the confines of the Constitution, they don’t believe that our rights are inalienable, and they fail to see the dangerous path down which they are leading us.
It is a path to an authoritarian America, predicted by the British writer George Orwell in his dark and terrifying novel “1984,” in which governmental power was fortified by fear at home and war abroad.
President Obama has dispatched 60,000 NSA spies to monitor the cellphone and landline calls, as well as the emails, texts, bank statements and utility bills, of nearly all Americans, in utter disregard for the constitutional standard required for doing so: probable cause of criminal acts by the persons spied upon. Yet his spies somehow missed the Boston marathon bombing, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and theft of Crimea, the downing of the Malaysian civilian airliner and the growth of ISIS in the Middle East.
ISIS was fomented by the tragic, immoral and illegal American invasion of Iraq. That invasion was carried out under the false pretenses that the United States needed to find the weapons of mass destruction we had sold to Saddam Hussein. The Iraq war cost the lives of 650,000 Iraqis and 4,500 Americans. It displaced more than 2,000,000 Iraqis and, because it was paid for by borrowed funds, added $2 trillion to the U.S. government’s debt.
The consequence of American Middle Eastern imperialism has become the virulently anti-American and viciously efficient fighting force called ISIS. President Bush and his generals and Obama and his spies knew or ought to have known about it. This disciplined group of fanatics is the latest American bogeyman at whom the warmongers are aiming their cries for more American military action and thus more American blood.
Bush was reckless to have fought an unjust war, and Obama is reckless to have misguided our intelligence resources toward Americans and then feign surprise at the growth of this foreign disease right under his nose._ But this is a disease that he and the military-industrial complex will use to terrify us into another useless war. By their standards, any group or government — except for the U.S. and our allies — that uses violence to get its way should be eliminated by more violence. That will literally bring war without end.
Congress is a potted plant. It has permitted Obama — in defiance of the Constitution — to destroy Libya, bomb innocents in Pakistan and kill Americans in Yemen. There is a reason only Congress can declare war: to ensure debate about war, to discover whether there is a legal basis for it, to explore all options to it, and to prepare for its human, geopolitical and financial consequences.
The next domestic political battle will be a fight between the Senate and the CIA, as the Senate Intelligence Committee releases its report on CIA torture.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., the committee chair, has accused the CIA of spying on her and her staff, and just as Congress began its summer break, CIA Director John Brennan admitted the spying. That spying is a felony, and Brennan’s job and his personal freedom are at stake, even as he and Feinstein argue about how much of the report should be released.
Why is this report important? According to those who have seen it, it will demonstrate not only that the U.S. government tortured victims all over the world, but that its techniques were not those revealed and approved by congressional regulators, that the CIA repeatedly lied to its own congressional supporters and, most importantly, that the torture did not produce any material actionable intelligence, including the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden.
The report is also important because in a democracy, all persons have a fundamental right to know what the government is doing. Transparency is a disinfectant for political corruption, and a people cannot be free when the government gets away with law breaking and lying about it.
The other coming domestic issue is the militarization of the police. We learned this summer that in New York City, you can be choked to death by cops while selling untaxed cigarettes, and in Ferguson, Mo., you can be shot in the head by a cop while unarmed — and none of the killers has yet been arrested, charged or prosecuted. This is the result of recent Supreme Court opinions that give the police qualified immunity. That doctrine makes it nearly impossible to sue or prosecute cops who kill innocents so long as they can claim that a reasonable cop would have done as they did. That is no protection from thugs in uniform; it is a license to kill.
And speaking of killing, why do the police in America now have grenade throwers, a weapon that kills indiscriminately and is banned from use against the civilian population by international law? They have them because of a lack of transparency. The Department of Defense in secret gave or sold these weapons of mass destruction to American police departments in secret and thus without the consent of the public, whom the police are supposed to protect.
Locally and nationally, we live under governments that prefer to rule rather than to serve, that choose not to tell us the truth but to keep it from us, and that have enacted laws that purport to make their behavior legal.
In 1949, when he wrote “1984,” Orwell predicted all this, including the secret torture, the perpetual warfare, the continuous spying and the fear of the government. His predictions were right on the mark — he was only mistaken by 30 years.
The post An Unhappy Summer for Liberty appeared first on Tenth Amendment Center.
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Nullifying the War on Drugs Makes for a More Prosperous Republic
/2014/03/nullifying-the-war-on-drugs-makes-for-a-more-prosperous-republic/
Thu, 27 Mar 2014 13:12:27 +0000
There is a positive aspect of nullification that many overlook: the financial benefit of states taking control of their own policy. We see a fantastic example of this in Colorado. Last year, state that thumbed it nose at the feds and legalized marijuana. Today, Colorado is beginning to reap the benefits of its decision to […]
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There is a positive aspect of nullification that many overlook: the financial benefit of states taking control of their own policy.
We see a fantastic example of this in Colorado. Last year, state that thumbed it nose at the feds and legalized marijuana. Today, Colorado is beginning to reap the benefits of its decision to ignore federal law and open the door to marijuana.
The federal government prohibits marijuana, a gross violation of the Constitution. The federal government does not have the constitutional authority to regulate a plant within a state. If you doubt this, ask why it took a constitutional amendment for alcohol prohibition.
But despite the unconstitutional prohibition, Coloradoans voted to nullify the federal law and legalize marijuana.
Prohibitionists claimed the sky would fall. They predicted reefer madness would set in. They warned massive degeneracy would sweep Colorado. They were wrong. There’s been no societal collapse or uptick in crime.
But there has been an upside prohibitionists ignored, to the tune of $45 million in lawful marijuana commerce. That was in January alone. This resulted $2 million in additional revenue for the state of Colorado.
That means money for Colorado schools, roads and other programs.
But the feds would rather see Colorado robbed of those millions and instead waste state funds housing inmates for non-violent ‘crimes.’ The feds would prefer to maintain iron-fisted control and continue their multi-billion dollar War on Drugs, rather than see states prosper.
This is why nullification will ultimately succeed. State control over state policy benefits the people of the state. The genie is out of the bottle and the feds will never stuff her back in. They will try. But they will fail. Momentum has overwhelmed them. And the proof is in the proverbial pudding.
The Denver raids of Nov. 2013 were the dying gasp of a doomed policy. The feds huffed and puffed their way into Denver and raided a dozen medical marijuana dispensaries that were operating legally under state law. The DEA touted the raids as a major success. But consider, it disrupted less than 3 percent of the medical marijuana business in one city.
The feds spent a vast amount of money and expended tremendous resources to disrupt that paltry 3 percent of businesses at the time. Americans for Safe Access calculates that a direct raid on a medical marijuana dispensary costs around $300,000 and investigative costs run about $12 million per raid. That means the DEA just spent roughly $3.6 million on the raids themselves – plus investigative costs! Even if we play generous and assume that all 12 raids fell within the same investigative umbrella, that still means the DEA blew $15.6 million.
Despite this “show of force,” full legalization plunged ahead. Despite what was clearly a federal scare-tactic, just weeks later, stores selling marijuana for recreational use opened their doors. The feds didn’t slow the roll. Forty-five million dollars of marijuana revenue later, it’s clear they never will.
Nullification works.
It wasn’t an easy road. It’s been a long hard fight from those first California medical marijuana clinics in the 1990s to today. There were raids and setbacks and unfavorable court rulings. But the movement pressed on and today, Coloradoans are $45 million richer.
The American people like being free and prosperous, and that will become more evident as the nullification movement spreads. The feds and their sympathizers have exhausted all of their credibility, and the continued success of the marijuana legalization experiment in Colorado will toss them right where they belong – into the dustbin of history alongside other failed ideologies of the past.
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California’s Nullification: Another Healthy Sign of Resistance in the Republic
/2014/03/californias-nullification-another-healthy-sign-of-resistance-in-the-republic/
Tue, 18 Mar 2014 19:02:59 +0000
Although nullification is often characterized as a right-wing phenomenon by reporters and pundits in the mainstream media, it actually appeals to people from all political walks of life – depending on the issue. Proof that it isn’t just a “right wing” thing is a recent case of a Sacramento, Calif. sheriff who decided to ignore […]
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Although nullification is often characterized as a right-wing phenomenon by reporters and pundits in the mainstream media, it actually appeals to people from all political walks of life – depending on the issue.
Proof that it isn’t just a “right wing” thing is a recent case of a Sacramento, Calif. sheriff who decided to ignore federal edicts on immigration and abide by a recently passed state law ordering non-compliance with federal immigration detainers placed upon inmates in county jails.
Whether you agree with California’s decision or not, it is a prime example of state resistance at work. Because California disagrees with the immigration mandates set by the federal government, they have passed contradictory state laws that prevent state of