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  Arthur Bundy published “A House Divided Against Itself Cannot Stand.” in Amendment Ideas 2021-09-07 06:35:48 -0700
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  Arthur Bundy commented on Contact 2021-09-08 08:11:53 -0700

  This is not pretty. But it does express my thinking & the consequences of my research over the course of the last 20 years of my life. Some things are repeated and some of it is disjointed. What I have realized is that it serves no useful purpose to reinvent the wheel. So, I offer this up as a way to create a dialogue.
  
  First, a story about where I stand and why.
  
  My cousin is from Texas. She and her best friend caught the coronavirus. My cousin lived. Her friend died. My cousin still refuses to get the vaccine and still believes in Trump. I don’t understand it, but I accept that what she believes is real to her.
  
  What I see happening in 21st century America and the world is what I call World Economic Apartheid. 2700 world billionaires and a ridiculous number of millionaires focused on maintaining an economic status quo. I see the divisions in America as a house divided by design.
  
  My research has covered a lot of ground to include:
  The McCormack-Dickstein Committee, 1933.
  
  
  “The Business Plot or The Plot Against FDR was an alleged conspiracy brought to light by a retired General, involving moneyed interests who intended to overthrow President Franklin D. Roosevelt during the early years of the Great Depression. The allegations of the plot came to light when Marine Corps Major General Smedley Darlington Butler notified the McCormack-Dickstein Committee in 1933 and testified to the existence of the plot. The McCormack-Dickstein Committee was the first House Committee On Un-American Activities (HUAC). In his testimony, Butler stated that a group of several men, representing mainly Wall-Street Banking interests had approached him to help lead a plot to overthrow Roosevelt in a fascist military coup. In their final report, the Congressional committee supported General Butler’s claims on the existence of the plot, but no prosecutions or further investigations followed, and the matter was mostly forgotten.”
  
  
  General Butler was an aggressive critic about the use of military force that allegedly went beyond National Security to indulge private economic interests that would eventually include the 1953 coup in Iran by the CIA. Among others.
  
  This research would lead me to study the Dulles Brothers and their political upbringing in the form of a law firm Sullivan & Cromwell.
  
  The effort you are looking to deal with has many branches. The issue, as I see it is how to find the means to get Americans back to a point where they are willing to see eye to eye with each other. Without that there will be no Democracy and with it the death of human existence on Earth.
  “A More Perfect Union”
  
  
  An Addendum to the Declaration of Independence with Recommendations for Legislation at the Federal, State, and Local Levels to Include Suggested Amendments to the Constitution of the United States of America
  
  
  Introduction
  
  
  Tom Brokaw, The Greatest Generation
  
  
  “A common lament of the World War II generation is the absence today of personal responsibility.”
  I am a direct descendent of what Tom Brokaw describes as America’s “Greatest Generation”. My uncle and my parents are members of that generation. My uncle fought in World War II. He was one of the most intelligent and engaging people I have ever met.
  In 1968 we were camping out in one of the pastures on the farm. We saw a light cross the sky very slowly. It appeared to be moving slower than a jet was capable of. Years later in the last years of his life, he explained to me that we were watching Sputnik that night.
  My uncle was the kind of man who told great stories, but he never felt the need to be more than he was. Everybody who knew him knew his word was his bond. My uncle was better father to me than my father ever was, because my father was focused on being a “legend in his own mind”.
  Mr. Brokaw describing the World War II generation as the “greatest” is not wrong. It was a generation who was willing to meet the challenges of the day. It was a generation that helped save the world from fascist extremism.
  The best description of how the world saw America in those days comes from Japanese Admiral Yamamoto in the days just after the attack on Pearl Harbor.
  
  
  Japanese Admiral Yamamoto
  
  
  “I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve.”
  When Mr. Brokaw uses the phrase “personal responsibility” to describe subsequent generations of Americans. It stands out to me as part of a long series of distorted and dishonest catch phrases associated with what Richard Nixon described as his “Silent Majority”. Consistent with irresponsible and irrational rhetoric associated with anti-communist and anti-socialist propaganda.
  It is associated with alleged beliefs being shouted from the roof tops by conservative corporate and evangelical extremists since the end of World War II. I believe the purpose is to find talking points designed to pit Americans against each other.
  It also sounds as if this experiment in Democracy has already seen its best days. I resent and resist that idea. Yet based on where things are today, I admit I fear it is possible.
  I think it is important to consider that each generation of Americans has faced moments that have challenged and threaten the survival of American Democracy.
  The Civil War stands out as the most dangerous. Because it was an internal struggle where passions and divisions were almost out of control. Where the concept that “All Men are Created Equal” was being put to the ultimate test. The divisions associated with 21st century America have demonstrated that the issues associated with slavery and equality are still very much up for debate.
  The Vietnam War Era was the most controversial. Where divisions before and during the Civil War were passionate to extremes. The divisions associated with the Vietnam War were manufactured. It is how I believe the concept of “personal responsibility” came to light. It is consistent with Nixon and his manipulation of public opinion in the form of his “silent majority”.
  Before World War II America was confident that the two giant oceans on her east and west coasts could protect her from enemies abroad. It was the birth of the Nuclear Age that changed all that. The power to destroy an entire city with one bomb that changed all that.
  There were people associated with developing nuclear technology who feared that an atomic bomb was not going to be safe in the hands of just one country. When Russia set off its first nuclear weapon in 1949 the divisiveness of the McCarthy Era was set in motion. A consequence that made science a political talking point. A disinformation campaign that reached back to Creationism v. Evolution, or God v. Science. Designed to justify making science potential fodder for conspiracy theory extremists and outright manipulation and denial of scientific based theories and conclusions.
  A divisiveness that I believe still exists today thanks to conservative corporate and evangelical extremists whom I believe think they have the right to dictate to the general population how they think Americans should be allowed to think. Instead of providing them with the information needed to allow them to think for themselves and vote accordingly.
  Alleged paranoia about potential enemies of the state within the confines of the federal government and the rise of what Eisenhower called the Military-Industrial Complex. The willingness to allow disinformation in the form of conspiracy theories to deliberately manipulate and divide the American People.
  The Vietnam War was used by McCarthy Era extremists to begin the process of pitting Americans against each other for economic, legislative, political, and social personal gain.
  So far American Democracy has survived even though it has proven to be flawed at best. But it is the concept of what “A More Perfect Union” promises to be, that has given America life like no country in the history of the world.
  Yet it is this moment that stands out like no other in our history. This moment threatens American Democracy at home and threatens American Diplomacy around the world. It promises to be the greatest test America has ever faced. We are living in a time where America’s enemies primarily operate from within.
  I believe the divisions in America today are being perpetrated by people from within the country with the support of people outside the country. I call this effort World Economic Apartheid. I define World Economic Apartheid as an authoritarianism being advanced all over the world as a form of economic, racial, sexual, social, and religious misogyny.
  I believe my history contributes to this dissertation because I believe we are witness to the death throes of a male dominated narcissistic and misogynistic world social order.
  
  
  “A House Divided Against Itself Cannot Stand.”
  I have a hard time believing that “All Men Are Created Equal” and that the “Consent of the Governed” as described in the Declaration of Independence are in evidence in 21st century America. Nor do I believe that Americans fully appreciate how a consensus of opinions can shape legislation and amendments that can come about pursuant to the concept of self-government as it applies to the formation of “A More Perfect Union”. Described in the Preamble of the Constitution of the United States of America. Are we really a “Government of the People, by the People, and for the People” as Abraham Lincoln believed of Americans in his Gettysburg Address, or not?
  
  
  Declaration of Independence, 1776
  
  
  “When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bonds which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
  
  We hold these truths to be self-evident, that All Men are Created Equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness—That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just power from the Consent of the Governed, that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of those Ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying it’s Foundation on such Principles, and organizing its Powers in such Form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”
  
  
  Preamble US Constitution
  
  
  “We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”
  
  
  Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, 1863
  
  
  “Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth, on this continent, a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal…that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”
  We are living through a time where divisions in our country are as stark and dangerous as they were before the Civil War. Where Americans are being divided along ideological, political, social, and religious lines that have Americans at each other’s throat. And, just as it was before the Civil War, family members are caught up unwilling and unable to seek common ground.
  When Abraham Lincoln spoke about the consequences of a “house divided” he was responding to the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) decision in Dred Scott v. Sanford. He was expressing his concern about the brewing crisis facing America pursuant to the issues evolving around slavery. As a student of history, he understood how fragile this experiment in Democracy was proving to be. He had a clear understanding of the forces arrayed against it.
  
  
  Dred Scott v Sanford (1857)
  
  
  “Can a negro, whose ancestors were imported into this country, and sold as slaves, become a member of the political community formed and brought into existence by the Constitution of the United States, and as such become entitled to all the rights, and privileges, and immunities, guaranteed by that instrument to the citizen? One of which rights is the privilege of suing in a court of the United States in the cases specified in the Constitution.”
  
  [No} State, since the adoption of the Constitution, can by naturalizing an alien invest him with the rights and privileges secured to a citizen of the State under the Federal Government…It cannot make him a member of this community by making him a member of its own. And for the same reason it cannot introduce any person, or description of persons, who were not intended to be embraced in this new political family, which the Constitution brought into existence, but were intended to be excluded from it…the language used in the Declaration of Independence, show, that neither the class of persons who had been imported as slaves, nor their descendants, whether they had become free or not, were then acknowledged as a part of the people, nor intended to be included in the general words used in that memorable instrument.”
  
  
  Abraham Lincoln’s “House Divided” Speech, 1858
  
  
  “If we could first know where we are and whither we are tending, we could better judge what to do and how to do it. We are now far into the fifth year since a policy was initiated with the avowed object and confident promise of putting an end to slavery agitation. Under the operation of that policy, that agitation has not only not ceased but has constantly augmented. In my opinion, it will not cease until a crisis shall have been reached and passed. “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” I believe this government cannot endure, permanently, half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved; I do not expect the house to fall; but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing, or all the other. Either the opponents of slavery will arrest the further spread of it and place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in the course of ultimate extinction, or its advocates will push it forward till it shall become alike lawful in all the states, old as well as new, North as well as South”.
  These divisions are the result of decades of outright lies, disinformation and propaganda being spread by allegedly credible, as well as manufactured sources. In 21st century America Fox News stands out as one of the most aggressive platforms for all these lies, disinformation, and propaganda. This from Roger Ailes to the Nixon Administration in 1970, speaks for itself.
  A Plan for Putting the GOP on TV News
  
  
  “For 200 years the newspaper front page dominated public thinking. In that last 20 years that picture has changed. Today television news is watched more than people read newspaper. Than people listen to radio. Than people read or gather any other form of communication. The reason: People are lazy. With television you just sit—watch—listen. The thinking is done for you.”
  This From the Book 1984 Speaks to Intent
  “Power is in tearing human minds to pieces and putting them together again in new shapes of your own choosing.”
  It is not just Russian interference that existed in 2016 and 2020 that is at issue here. It has been with the cooperation and support of conservative corporate and evangelical extremists from inside the country who are a party to these events.
  They are fostering divisions among Americans in the United States to attack Democratic societies around the world. To support the efforts of the Russians to undermine and destroy the European Union and with it, NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Our Democracy is being destroyed to facilitate greed and power on an un-precedented scale.
  This is the consequence of 40 years of Reaganomics. These are Reagan’s words.
  
  
  Reagan’s Economic Bill of Rights, 1987
  
  
  The Founding Fathers of our country knew that without economic freedom there can be no political freedom. Their rallying cry of ``No taxation without representation’’ reflects that fundamental precept. They knew that the right to earn your own keep and keep what you earn is central to America’s understanding of what it means to be free. This country was built by people seeking to support themselves and their families by their own labor, people who treasured the right to work and dispose of their earnings as they saw fit, people who were willing to take economic risks.
  
  Over the past 40 years, however, the growth of government has left our citizens with less control over their economic lives. What America needs now is an Economic Bill of Rights that guarantees four fundamental freedoms:
  
  The freedom to work.
  
  The freedom to enjoy the fruits of one’s labor.
  
  The freedom to own and control one’s property.
  
  The freedom to participate in a free market.
  
  To secure these freedoms, I propose the following initiatives:
  
  The Freedom to Work: You have the right to pursue your livelihood in your own way, free from excessive government regulation and subsidized government competition.
  
  1. To reduce subsidized government competition with private citizens, I will establish a bipartisan Presidential Commission on Privatization to identify government programs and activities that can be accomplished more effectively in the private sector. I will also instruct the executive branch to find additional ways for contracting outside the government to perform those tasks that belong in the private sector. As to those activities that should properly remain in the government, I have asked the President’s Council on Management Improvement to accelerate its productivity improvement program by 1 year and to adopt private sector practices where they would promote efficiency.
  
  2. To reduce the burden of government regulation, I have reconstituted the Task Force on Regulatory Relief, chaired by the Vice President, to root out unnecessary restrictions on the individual’s pursuit of a livelihood.
  
  The Freedom to Enjoy the Fruits of Your Labor: You have the right to keep what you earn, free from excessive government taxing, spending, and borrowing.
  
  3. To protect you from overborrowing by the government, I will ask the Congress to adopt a balanced budget amendment, a line item veto, and legislative changes that will restore integrity to the congressional budget process.
  
  4. To protect you from overtaxing by the Government, I will propose as part of the balanced budget amendment submitted to Congress, a requirement for a supermajority vote by Congress before your taxes can be raised. This reform will help make permanent our recent progress in lowering your tax rates, broadening the tax base to ensure fairness, and indexing rates so that inflation cannot push taxes back up.
  
  5. To protect you from excess spending by the Federal Government, I will propose Truth in Federal Spending legislation that will:
  
  A. Require that every new program established by legislation increasing Federal spending be deficit-neutral by including equal amounts of offsets.
  
  B. Require that every piece of legislation mandating an increase in private sector costs or imposing new regulations include a financial impact statement detailing:
  
  - The impact on private costs;
  
  - The impact on prices for the consumer;
  
  - The effect on employment;
  
  - The impact on the ability of U.S. industries to compete internationally.
  
  C. Require that every piece of legislation forcing increased expenditures by State and local governments include an assessment of the spending impact, the likely source of funding, and the ability of these governments to fulfill the mandates of the legislation.
  
  The Freedom to Own and Control Your Property: You have the right to keep and use your property, free from government control through coercive or confiscatory regulation.
  
  6. To protect your right to own and use your property, my administration will pursue our successful efforts in the courts to restore your constitutional rights when the government at any level attempts to take your property through regulation or other means.
  
  7. To protect intellectual property and to encourage creativity, I will urge that the Congress act on my proposals to provide adequate domestic and international protection to Americans who create new ideas and invent new goods and services.
  
  Freedom to Participate in a Free Market: You have the right to contract freely for goods and services and to achieve your full potential without government limits on opportunity, economic independence, and growth.
  
  8. To reform the present welfare system that promotes dependency and destroys families and communities, I have proposed a welfare reform initiative that will lift the least fortunate among us up from dependency by creating incentives for recipients to become independent of welfare as full participants in the American economy.
  
  9. To prepare our youth for participation in today’s economy, I will ask the Congress and the States to enact proposals that will protect the rights of parents to guide their children and select from a broad array of educational options that emphasize excellence, character, and values. I will also promote programs to assist problem students to complete their education and to encourage dropouts to return to school.
  
  10. To arm American workers and businessmen for full participation in an increasingly complex world economy, I will press for the Congress to act on my trade, employment, and productivity proposals to:
  
  - Increase job retraining and other initiatives which improve opportunity for the American worker.
  
  - Encourage science and technology by increasing support for basic research and development.
  
  - Enact antitrust, product liability, foreign corrupt practices, and other regulatory reforms that place American enterprise on a level playing field with foreign competitors.
  
  - Improve America’s ability to secure free and fair trade without resorting to protectionist measures that destroy jobs and harm the consumer.
  
  
  Reagan’s Announcing America’s Economic Bill of Rights, 1987
  If you would excuse me for a moment, I see that the uniform of the day has already been decided on. [At this point, the President removed his jacket.] Well, the Vice President and distinguished guests, members of the administration and members of the team, before starting, I would like to thank Ollie delChamps, chairman of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and the rest of you from the chamber for all your help on this event and all the help you’ve been over the years.
  In 1776 John Adams predicted in a letter to his wife that every year the people of the United States would joyously celebrate their nation’s independence with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of the continent, he said, to the other. Well, tomorrow on the Fourth, it is easy to predict that the festivities and merriment that Adams foresaw, will be apparent throughout the width and breadth of our country. Many of you may look back, as I do, on the fond memory of last year when together we rededicated our beautiful lady, standing there with torch held high in New York Harbor. One of the opportunities this job affords me, and one for which I am most grateful, is representing you, my fellow countrymen, at such ceremonial events as the rededication of the Statute of Liberty, the marking of the D-day landings in Normandy, and now, this year, the commemoration of the 200th anniversary of the Constitution of the United States — remembrances that have a special place in the hearts of all who love liberty.
  It is this love of liberty, at the heart of our national identity, that celebrates our separation [separates our celebration] of independence from those of most other nations. It’s what made the struggle of our forefathers, a little over 200 years ago, different from any conflict that has ever happened before. Down through history, there have been many revolutions, but virtually all of them only exchanged one set of rulers for another set of rulers. Ours was the only truly philosophical revolution. It declared that government would have only those powers granted to it by the people.
  It was a 33-year-old Thomas Jefferson who penned the words and constructed the phrases that captured the essence of it all. He wrote: ``We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it. . . . ’’ These inspired ideals are written on the walls of this memorial.
  It was this revolutionary concept of representative government and individual rights, as well as the cause of national independence, to which the Declaration’s signers pledged their lives, fortunes, and sacred honor. Each generation has done the same, and tomorrow we’ll make that pledge again. Let no one charge, however, that ours is blind nationalism. We do not hide our shortcomings. Yes, we have our imperfections, but there are no people on this planet who have more reason to hold their heads high than do the citizens of the United States of America.
  Our countrymen have the courage of conviction and an uncommon commitment to truth and justice; we as a people will not bow before dictator or king, but we kneel in prayer and gratefully acknowledge, as Jefferson so eloquently stated, that the God who gave us life also gave us liberty. Our society reflects decent and humane values that were passed to us by the settlers of a new land; Americans can be counted on to be generous — it’s our way. We know these things, and we also know the United States of America remains the greatest force for human freedom on this planet, and we’re darn proud of it.
  
  
  We’re still Jefferson’s children, still believers that freedom is the unalienable right of all of God’s children. It’s so precious, yet freedom is not something that can be touched, heard, seen, or smelled. It surrounds us, and if it were not present, as accustomed to it as we are, we would be alarmed, overwhelmed by outrage, or perhaps struck by a sense of being smothered. The air we breathe is also invisible and taken for granted, yet if it is denied even for a few seconds, we realize instantly how much it means to us. Well, so, too, with freedom.
  
  Freedom is not created by government, nor is it a gift from those in political power. It is, in fact, secured, more than anything else, by those limitations I mentioned that are placed on those in government. It is absence of the government censor in our newspapers and broadcast stations and universities. It is the lack of fear by those who gather in religious services. It is the absence of official abuse of those who speak up against the policies of their government.
  
  I’m a collector of stories that I can establish are told in the Soviet Union among their own people, showing something of their feeling about their situation. And one of these that I heard recently was an argument between an American and a Soviet citizen. And the American had said how he could stand down on a corner and shout right out to everybody his criticism of the Government. And the Soviet citizen said, ``I can do that, too.‘’ He said, ``The only difference between us is you will still be free after you’ve done it.‘’
  
  Jefferson so fervently believed that limited government was vital to the preservation of liberty that he used his influence to see to it that the Constitution included a Bill of Rights, 10 amendments that spelled out specific governmental limitations. ``Congress shall make no law,’’ the first amendment begins. And thus, the basic law of our land was meticulously constructed to limit government and, in doing so, secure the political rights of the freedom [people].
  
  Inextricably linked to these political freedoms are protections for the economic freedoms envisioned by those Americans who went before us. While the Constitution sets our political freedoms in greater detail, these economic freedoms are part and parcel of it. During this bicentennial year, we have the opportunity to recognize anew the economic freedoms of our people and, with the Founding Fathers, declare them as sacred and sacrosanct as the political freedoms of speech, press, religion, and assembly. There are four essential economic freedoms. They are what links life inseparably to liberty, what enables an individual to control his own destiny, what makes self-government and personal independence part of the American experience.
  
  First is the freedom to work — to pursue one’s livelihood in one’s own way, to choose where one will locate and what one will do to sustain individual and family needs and desires. I recently heard a statement by a eminent scholar in our land who visited the Soviet Union recently. He is fluent in the Russian language. But on his way to the airport here, he recognized the youth of the cabdriver and got into conversation, found out he was working his way through college, and he asked him what he intended to be. And the young man said, "I haven’t decided yet.‘’ Well, by coincidence, when he got to the Soviet Union and got in a cab, he had an equally young cabdriver. And speaking Russian, he got in conversation with him and asked the same question, finally, about the young man, what did he intend to be? And the young man said, ``They haven’t told me yet.‘’ [Laughter]
  
  Well, second of those freedoms is the freedom to enjoy the fruits of one’s labor — to keep for oneself and one’s family the profit or gain earned by honest effort.
  
  Third is the freedom to own and control one’s property — to trade or exchange it and not to have it taken through threat or coercion.
  
  Fourth is the freedom to participate in a free market — to contract freely for goods and services and to achieve one’s full potential without government limits on opportunity, economic independence, and growth.
  
  Just as Jefferson understood that our political freedoms needed protection by and from government, our economic freedoms need similar recognition and protection. Those who attain political power must know that there are limits beyond which they will not be permitted to go, because beyond that point their intrusion is destructive of the economic freedom of the people. We must insist, for example, that there be a limit to the level of taxation, not only because excessive taxation undermines the strength of the economy but because taxation beyond a certain level becomes servitude. And in America, it is the Government that works for the people and not the other way around.
  
  Now, in the same vein, regulation of an individual’s business or property can reach a degree when ownership is nullified and the value is taken. Our administration has argued in the courts that if the Government takes private property through regulation, the ``just compensation’’ clause of the Constitution requires that the owner must be duly paid. There’s nothing more encouraging to those who believe in economic freedom than last month’s Supreme Court decisions which reaffirm this fundamental guarantee. Property rights are central to liberty and should never be trampled upon.
  
  The working people need to know their jobs, take-home pay, homes, and pensions are not vulnerable to the threat of a grandiose, inefficient, and overbearing government — something Jefferson warned us about 200 years ago. It’s time to finish the job Jefferson began and to protect our people and their livelihoods with restrictions on government that will ensure the fundamental economic freedom of the people — the equivalent of an Economic Bill of Rights. I’m certain if Thomas Jefferson were here, he’d be one of the most articulate and aggressive champions of this cause. The reason I’m certain is that in 1798 he wrote: ``I wish it were possible to obtain a single amendment to our Constitution. I would be willing to depend on that alone for the reduction of the administration of our government to the genuine principles of its Constitution; I mean an additional article taking from the Federal Government the power of borrowing.‘’
  
  The centerpiece of the Economic Bill of Rights, the policy initiative we launch today, is a long-overdue constitutional amendment to require the Federal Government to do what every family in America must do, and that is live within its means and balance its budget. I will again ask Congress to submit a balanced budget amendment to the States. And if the Congress will not act, I’ll have no choice but to take my case directly to the States.
  
  The package of fundamental reforms we propose will go a long way to secure the blessings of liberty. Taxation, for example, is more than mathematical calculations. It is the harnessing of free people; it is forced labor; and if it goes beyond reasonable bounds, it is a yoke of oppression. Raising taxes, then, should be serious business. It should not be done without a broad national consensus. We propose that every American’s paycheck be protected — as part of a balanced budget amendment — by requiring that tax increases must be passed by both Houses of Congress by more than a mere majority of their Members.
  
  Our forefathers fought for personal and national independence, yet 200 years later, our own overly centralized government poses a threat to our liberty far beyond anything imagined by the patriots of old.
  
  We offer two approaches to turning the situation around, both encompassed in our proposals. One is to reduce the size and scope of the Federal Government. This is an ongoing battle. We will be relentless in steadily reducing spending until a balanced budget is achieved.
  
  But also, as part of our initiative, we propose to prune judiciously from the Government that which goes beyond the proper realm of the state. I will, by Executive order, establish a bipartisan Presidential commission on privatization to determine what Federal assets and activities can and should be returned to the citizenry. At the same time, I will order the executive branch to find additional ways for contracting outside of government to perform those tasks that belong in the private economy.
  
  We must also reexamine existing Federal policies to ensure that they help, not hinder, all Americans to participate fully in the opportunities of our free economy. We need to replace a welfare system that destroys economic independence and the family with one that creates incentives for recipients to move up and out of dependency.
  
  Now, the second thrust is structural and procedural reform. We propose changes that will ensure truth in spending by requiring every new program to meet this test: If congressional passage of a new program will require increased spending, it must be paid for at the same time, either with offsetting reductions in other programs or new revenues. Citizens of this country, as well as State and local governments, also have a right to be fully informed as to what Federal legislation will do to them, what costs will be required for fulfilling the will of Congress. Full disclosure of such costs up front may well temper the desire to overregulate and overlegislate.
  
  Reform must go to the heart of the problem. The integrity of the decisionmaking process as envisioned by our Founding Fathers has broken down and is in drastic need of repair. The veto power of the President, for example, is no longer the potent force for fiscal responsibility as set down in the Constitution. This was clear last year when all government appropriations were thrown into one gigantic, catchall resolution. And for me, it was a take-it-or-leave-it, all-or-nothing choice — doing damage to long-respected constitutional checks and balances. The first step in reestablishing these checks and balances is giving the President the authority to cut out the fat, yet leave the meat, of legislation that gets to his desk. And the President deserves the same tool for budgetary responsibility that is now in the hands of 43 Governors, a tool I used effectively as Governor of California — the line-item veto.
  
  Today we begin a drive to protect economic freedom in the United States. We commit ourselves to do our utmost to bring about fundamental reform, reform that will ensure the liberty we hold so dear. Standing here, with Jefferson looking over my shoulder, looking out at the Lincoln and the Washington Memorials and the White House straight ahead and, in the distance, the Capitol, one can’t but appreciate that all freedom is mutually reinforcing. Perhaps a more specific delineation of economic freedom was always needed, but today it’s imperative. Our citizens were always skeptical of government. Jefferson looked at Congress and noted that no one should have expected 150 lawyers to do business anyway. [Laughter] My apologies to lawyers present. But the Federal Government’s role was severely limited; the future was in the hands of the people, not the Government. And that’s the way our forebears wanted it.
  
  Jefferson, in his first inaugural, spoke for his countrymen when he said: ``A wise and frugal government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, which shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This,‘’ he said, ``is the sum of good government.’’ Well, that vision of America still guides our thinking, still represents our ideals.
  
  What we begin today is not a maneuver or an attempt to achieve short-term goals with lofty pronouncements. Our proposals are consistent with what we’ve been doing; in fact, they’ll help secure the progress that we’ve made. They’re basic to the philosophy that brought me into public life, and for the rest of my public life, I’ll pursue the goals we’ve set forth in this Economic Bill of Rights.
  
  Our specific proposals, 10 in all, will go a long way toward putting economic freedom under the protection of the law. And even if we achieve what we’ve set out to do in bits and pieces, rather than in one fell swoop — as happened with the Bill of Rights to the Constitution — each victory will make freedom more secure. Ours is a vision of limited government and unlimited opportunity, of growth and progress beyond what any can see today. A saying in colonial times suggested there are two ways to get to the top of an oak tree, where the view is much better. One is to climb; the other is to find an acorn and sit on it. [Laughter] Well, I didn’t come to Washington to sit on acorns. [Laughter] It’s time to roll up our sleeves and start climbing.
  
  I see many familiar faces here, and I want to thank you all for all you’ve done in these last 6 1/2 years. Together, we’ve climbed some mighty oaks. We’ve worked, sweated, and strained to carry our cause to new heights, helping each other along the way, ever faithful to our principles. I’ll always remember and be grateful to you.
  
  In the early days of the American Revolution, no two individuals worked more diligently together than did Thomas Jefferson and John Adams. Yet once our country attained its independence and once partisan politics set in — and it set in early — they drifted apart; in fact, they became bitter political enemies. Last Fourth of July, I related the story of how those two old gentlemen, heroes both, rekindled their friendship in their twilight years, corresponding regularly, writing affectionately of the many memories they shared, and, yes, discussing their beliefs and values. Both of these men, giants to us but mortal to be sure, died within hours of each other. It was July 4th, exactly 50 years from the date of the Declaration of Independence. It’s reported that John Adams’ last words were, "Thomas Jefferson survives.’’ History tells us, however, that Jefferson had died shortly before John Adams passed away.
  
  But Adams was right. All of us stand in tribute to the truth of those words. We proclaim it again and again with our dedication to keeping this a land of liberty and justice for all, and through our deeds and actions, to ensure that this country remains a bastion of freedom, the last best hope for mankind. As long as a love of liberty is emblazoned on our hearts, Jefferson lives.
  
  Thank you all. God bless you all.
  This is what Reaganomics did. Reagan cut taxes on wealthy individuals and major corporations. Then went on a spending spree to undermine what he called big government from having too much power over the lives of individuals. These are Reagan’s true sentiments.
  
  
  Nixon And Reagan October 1971
  Reagan: (Speaking about African delegates to the United Nations) Well, I was putting in pitches along the way. And last night, I tell you, to watch that thing on television as I did…
  Nixon: Yeah.
  Reagan: to see those…those monkeys from those African countries…damn them, they’re still uncomfortable wearing shoes.
  Nixon: Well, and then they…the tail wags the dog there, doesn’t it?
  Reagan: Yeah.
  
  
  What Reagan really did was set the stage to justify going after what conservative corporate and evangelical extremists called entitlement programs such as Social Security. Labeling them as Socialism.
  
  Reagan’s policies helped push the National Debt to unnecessary extremes so that the GOP could justify cutting federal spending, except where they preferred to have it spent.
  
  According to Forbes , there were 13 US billionaires in 1980 and a National Debt just under a trillion dollars. Now there are over 700 US billionaires with at least 56 US billionaires created over the course of this pandemic and a National Debt soon to be 30 trillion dollars.
  
  In 1987 there were some 147 world billionaires and now there are over 2700 world billionaires with many millions of millionaires willing to sacrifice Democracy to protect their profits. It is the failure to understand that Reaganomics was designed to undermine the effectiveness of the New Deal, that is at issue here.
  
  It is important to remember that there is a fundamental difference between Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal and Reagan’s trickledown economics.
  
  Roosevelt taxed to spend to save the country and with it the entire world. Reagan cut taxes on the wealthy and went on a spending spree to weaken the ability of the federal government to hold the same people who trashed the economy that led to the Great Depression accountable.
  
  Example: The Glass-Steagell Act of 1933 was designed to avoid another depression associated with financial greed. It was repealed in 1999. It would be as catalyst that in 2008 established issues associated with the concept of “Too Big to Fail”. Alleged corporations that were now too big risk letting them go under.
  
  Roosevelt taxed aggressively to pay for bringing the country out of the Great Depression and eventually fight World War II. He also created policies that effectively leveled the playing field between rich and poor. Making it possible for all Americans to prosper. He taxed to make it possible and practical to justify federal spending to meet these needs. He created the largest and most powerful middle class in the history of the world.
  
  Given the opportunity this is what he had in mind for our future.
  
  
  FDR’s Second Bill of Rights January 11, 1944
  It is our duty now to begin to lay the plans and determine the strategy for the winning of a lasting peace and the establishment of an American standard of living higher than ever before known. We cannot be content, no matter how high that general standard of living may be, if some fraction of our people—whether it be one-third or one-fifth or one-tenth—is ill-fed, ill-clothed, ill-housed, and insecure.
  
  
  This Republic had its beginning, and grew to its present strength, under the protection of certain inalienable political rights—among them the right of free speech, free press, free worship, trial by jury, freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures. They were our rights to life and liberty.
  
  As our nation has grown in size and stature, however—as our industrial economy expanded—these political rights proved inadequate to assure us equality in the pursuit of happiness.
  
  We have come to a clear realization of the fact that true individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence. “Necessitous men are not free men.” People who are hungry and out of a job are the stuff of which dictatorships are made.
  
  In our day these economic truths have become accepted as self-evident. We have accepted, so to speak, a second Bill of Rights under which a new basis of security and prosperity can be established for all—regardless of station, race, or creed.
  
  Among these are:
  
  The right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries or shops or farms or mines of the nation;
  
  The right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation;
  
  The right of every farmer to raise and sell his products at a return which will give him and his family a decent living;
  
  The right of every businessman, large and small, to trade in an atmosphere of freedom from unfair competition and domination by monopolies at home or abroad;
  
  The right of every family to a decent home;
  
  The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health;
  
  The right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old age, sickness, accident, and unemployment;
  
  The right to a good education.
  
  All of these rights spell security. And after this war is won we must be prepared to move forward, in the implementation of these rights, to new goals of human happiness and well-being.
  
  America’s own rightful place in the world depends in large part upon how fully these and similar rights have been carried into practice for our citizens. For unless there is security here at home there cannot be lasting peace in the world….
  This is what made him very unpopular with the financial ruling class in America because his policies were popular with the American People. So much so, that he was reelected 4 times.
  The issue about term limits for the Presidency had been brought up many times in the past for many different reasons. The 22nd Amendment was finally brought up, adopted in 1947, and ratified in 1951.
  
  
  22nd Amendment to US Constitution
  
  
  Section 1: No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice, and no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of the President more than once. But this Article shall not apply to any person holding the office of President when this Article was proposed by the Congress, and shall not prevent any person who may be holding the office of President, or acting as President, during the term within which this Article becomes operative from holding the office of President or acting as President during the remainder of such term. Section 2: This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several States within seven years from the date of its submission to the States by the Congress.
  I believe that it is possible to argue that the 22nd Amendment of the US Constitution was established because the financial ruling class had major issues with Franklin Roosevelt and his policies.
  This is how Dwight Eisenhower saw what was happening to our country in the wake of conservative corporate and evangelical extremists who focused on how to tell Americans how they believed Americans should be allowed to think.
  
  
  Eisenhower’s Farewell Address, 1961
  This evening I come to you with a message of leave-taking and farewell, and to share a few final thoughts with you, my countrymen.
  Like every other citizen, I wish the new President, and all who will labor with him, Godspeed. I pray that the coming years will be blessed with peace and prosperity for all.
  
  
  We now stand ten years past the midpoint of a century that has witnessed four major wars among great nations. Three of these involved our own country. Despite these holocausts America is today the strongest, the most influential and most productive nation in the world. Understandably proud of this pre-eminence, we yet realize that America’s leadership and prestige depend, not merely upon our unmatched material progress, riches and military strength, but on how we use our power in the interests of world peace and human betterment.
  
  Progress toward these noble goals is persistently threatened by the conflict now engulfing the world. It commands our whole attention, absorbs our very beings. We face a hostile ideology global in scope, atheistic in character, ruthless in purpose, and insidious in method. Unhappily the danger it poses promises to be of indefinite duration. To meet it successfully, there is called for, not so much the emotional and transitory sacrifices of crisis, but rather those which enable us to carry forward steadily, surely, and without complaint the burdens of a prolonged and complex struggle—with liberty the stake. Only thus shall we remain, despite every provocation, on our charted course toward permanent peace and human betterment.
  
  A vital element in keeping the peace is our military establishment. Our arms must be mighty, ready for instant action, so that no potential aggressor may be tempted to risk his own destruction.
  
  Our military organization today bears little relation to that known by any of my predecessors in peacetime, or indeed by the fighting men of World War II or Korea.
  
  Until the latest of our world conflicts, the United States had no armaments industry. American makers of plowshares could, with time and as required, make swords as well. But now we can no longer risk emergency improvisation of national defense; we have been compelled to create a permanent armaments industry of vast proportions. Added to this, three and a half million men and women are directly engaged in the defense establishment. We annually spend on military security more than the net income of all United States corporations.
  
  This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence—economic, political, even spiritual—-is felt in every city, every State house, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society.
  
  In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.
  
  We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.
  
  Akin to, and largely responsible for the sweeping changes in our industrial-military posture, has been the technological revolution during recent decades.
  
  In this revolution, research has become central, it also becomes more formalized complex, and costly. A steadily increasing share is conducted for, by, or at the direction of, the Federal government.
  
  Today, the solitary inventor, tinkering in his shop, has been overshadowed by task forces of scientists in laboratories and testing fields. In the same fashion, the free university, historically the fountainhead of free ideas and scientific discovery, has experienced a revolution in the conduct of research. Partly because of the huge costs involved, a government contract becomes virtually a substitute for intellectual curiosity. For every old blackboard there are now hundreds of new electronic computers.
  
  The prospect of domination of the nation’s scholars by Federal employment, project allocations, and the power of money is ever present—and is gravely to be regarded.
  
  Yet, in holding scientific research and discovery in respect, as we should, we must also be alert to the equal and opposite danger that public policy could itself become the captive of a scientific-technological elite.
  
  It is the task of statesmanship to mold, to balance, and to integrate these and other forces, new and old, within the principles of our democratic system-ever aiming toward the supreme goals of our free society.
  
  Another factor in maintaining balance involves the element of time. As we peer into society’s future, we—you and I, and our government—must avoid the impulse to live only for today, plundering for, for our own ease and convenience, the precious resources of tomorrow. We cannot mortgage the material assets of our grandchildren without asking the loss also of their political and spiritual heritage. We want democracy to survive for all generations to come, not to become the insolvent phantom of tomorrow.
  
  Down the long lane of the history yet to be written America knows that this world of ours, ever growing smaller, must avoid becoming a community of dreadful fear and hate, and be, instead, a proud confederation of mutual trust and respect.
  Regardless of the mistakes that can be attributed to the Eisenhower Administration and potential abuses of power, among conservative extremists Dwight Eisenhower is now regarded as a socialist.
  
  
  Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1953
  Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.
  This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. The cost of one modern heavy bomber is this: a modern brick school in more than 30 cities. It is two electric power plants, each serving a town of 60,000 population. It is two fine, fully equipped hospitals. It is some fifty miles of concrete pavement. We pay for a single fighter with a half-million bushels of wheat. We pay for a single destroyer with new homes that could have housed more than 8,000 people. . . . This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron.
  
  
  Nixon & Reagan 1971
  
  
  Nixon: “Fifty-four to 59. I’m telling you, I just finished a meeting with Ted Agnew. He’s back from…and from Greece and Turkey, and both of whom we got, incidentally. We didn’t get Iran, though, damn it. You know, you figure there’s the Shah, we’ve done all the things for him, but”
  In my view, Eisenhower was the last President associated with the GOP who could still be regarded as a true representation of the Party of Lincoln.
  These entities seek to feed divisions and keep Americans from being focused on their right to operate this government through their informed consent. These are divisions that feed fear, paranoia, and distrust. Divisions that operate by pitting liberal against conservative.
  Ideologically its, about alleged Socialism and Communism v. Capitalism, Free Enterprise, and the Free Market.
  Politically its, about Liberals v. Conservatives in the form of Poverty v. Wealth.
  Religiously its, about Creationism v. Evolution or God v. Science.
  These forces at work need American Democracy to fail. They need Americans at odds with each other because it distracts from their abuses of power. People more than willing to turn our planet into a garbage heap to protect their profits. To protect how they use those profits to manipulate and control the legislative process to their advantage.
  Where Abraham Lincoln feared the consequences of a “house divided against itself”, 21st century conservative corporate and evangelical extremists are focused on using a divided America to set in motion the means to justify a 21st century Constitutional Convention controlled by conservative extremists who want to rewrite the US Constitution in favor of the corporate will over the will of the People.
  A constitutional convention pursuant to Article V of the US Constitution. The means by which these people hope to undermine individual liberties as promised in the Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution.
  
  
  Article V US Constitution
  
  
  The Congress, whenever two thirds of both Houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose Amendments to this Constitution, or on the Application of the Legislatures of two thirds of the several States, shall a Convention for proposing Amendments, which, in either case, shall be valid to all Intents and Purposes, as Part of this Constitution, when ratified by the Legislatures of three fourths of the several States, or by Conventions in three fourths thereof, as the one or the other Mode of Ratification may be proposed by the Congress; Provided that no Amendment which may be made prior to the year One thousand eight hundred and eight shall in any Manner affect the first and fourth Clauses in the ninth Section of the first article; and that no State, without its Consent, shall be deprived of its equal Suffrage in the Senate.
  What I believe is happening is that the US Constitution is being pushed to its’ limits to meet this goal.
  It is the willingness on the part of conservative corporate and evangelical extremists to deliberately undermine the separation of power between branches of the government to further isolate their control over that legislative and political process to undermine the will of the people.
  It needs to be understood how the alleged election of Donald Trump was and continues to be backlash to the election and reelection of Barack Obama. A backlash that I believe is also by design and consistent with how some people believe that there should be limits on how to interpret the concept that “All Men are Created Equal”.
  A backlash that relates directly to how slavery is both an economic and a moral issue. An issue that could not be settled when the US Constitution was ratified. An issue, that could not avoid or prevent the Civil War.
  Where there are people in America who did not have an issue with the idea that slaves were used to build the White House. They do have an issue with the idea that an individual they identify with slavery be elected to live in the White House. These same people are fearful of a woman being elected to live in the White House, as well.
  We are witness an abuse of power on an unprecedented scale thanks to the efforts of Mitch McConnell. He has chosen to obstruct judicial appointees to include a SCOTUS nominee, because he did not want Barack Obama changing the conservative complexity of the federal courts.
  Then under Donald Trump, McConnell has been aggressively stacking the courts with likeminded judges and Justices to cement corporate control over the bench.
  A bench that conservative corporate and evangelical extremists has identified as too liberal.
  Recently, after deliberately obstructing Obama appointees and a SCOTUS nominee and following that by pushing Trump appointees and SCOTUS nominee’s he is again threatening to obstruct a potential Biden nominee consistent with what he did in 2015 and 2016.
  
  
  Article II Section 2 Clause 2 of the US Constitution
  
  
  He shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur; and he shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, Judges of the supreme Court, and all other Officers of the United States, whose Appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by Law: but the Congress may by Law vest the Appointment of such inferior Officers, as they think proper, in the President alone, in the Courts of Law, or in the Heads of Departments.
  It is necessary to understand how the alleged election of Donald Trump fits into this effort to destroy American Democracy. That his abuses of power and indifference to the rule of law are consistent with the efforts focused on the need to justify rewriting the US Constitution.
  Efforts that include undermining the separation of power between branches of government.
  
  Up until now, corporations have been using the courts to secure their rights over the will of the people by suggesting that a corporation is a person who should be allowed to have the same rights and privileges as an individual under the Constitution. That is the focus of a primary example of how the 14th Amendment under Section 1 is being manipulated to secure those rights.
  
  
  14th Amendment to the US Constitution
  
  SECTION 1: All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State where they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty or property, without due process of law; nor to deny any person within its jurisdiction the equal protect of the laws. SECTION 2: Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice-President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the Executive and Judicial Officers of a State, or members of a Legislature thereof, is denied to any male inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in a rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such State. SECTION 3: No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability. SECTION 4: The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or obligation in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations and claims shall be held illegal and void. SECTION 5: The Congress shall have the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.
  It is striking how many courts at the local, state, and federal levels agree.
  It makes it important to discuss the various ways the Constitution is being interpreted. What those vehicles of interpretation mean. When, if ever, the people were included in a process of deciding what method of interpretation would be used and how that interpretation would ultimately affect the people and their lives.
  With this thought process focused on the courts in mind, it is also important to discuss the most aggressive tactic to date to manipulate and control the legislative and political process.
  
  
  The issues of both campaign finance reforms and the right to vote have been aggressively undermined pursuant to decisions of the US Supreme Court in Citizens United v. FEC, 2010 and Shelby County. AL v. Holder, 2013.
  
  
  Citizens United v. FEC, 2010, Summary
  The Court held that the free speech clause of the 1st Amendment prohibits the government from restricting independent expenditures for political campaigns by corporations, wealthy billionaires, and committees established for the purpose of fundraising PACs (Political Action Committees)
  
  
  1st Amendment US Constitution
  
  
  Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
  
  
  Shelby County. AL v. Holder, 2013, Summary
  The Court decision challenged the constitutionality of two provisions of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Section 5, which requires certain states and local governments to obtain federal preclearance before implementing any changes to their voting laws or practices; and Section 4(b), which contains the coverage formula that determines which jurisdictions are subject to preclearance based on their histories of discrimination in voting.
  The Right to Vote
  15th Amendment to the US Constitution
  
  
  SECTION 1: The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color or previous condition of servitude. SECTION 2: The Congress shall have the power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
  It begins by going back 100 years where Evangelical Extremists began to focus their efforts on a need to control and undermine education in America. In Tennessee v. Scopes 1925, it was illegal to teach Evolution in public schools. It became Creationism v. Evolution. It was one of the first major political showdowns in the broadcast era. It was a national debate that took place on the airwaves and continues over the course of the last century. It has been an aggressive challenge against the separation of church and state.
  I cannot tell when corporate America jointed hands with evangelical extremes, but I know that Scopes v Tennessee in 1925 was a major catalyst. The attack on the American education system was under assault because Creationism was effectively challenged by Evolution. Science as education has been under attack ever since. But it was likely the fact that this trial was heard on the radio across the country that brought the 2 sides together. Add the New Deal & FDR’s Fireside Chats & extremists have been manipulating public opinion since!
  It has become God v Science. Evangelical extremists have used this case as a catalyst to undermine how we educate our children and ourselves.
  What it comes down too, are hot button issues. How to interpret the 2nd Amendment such that Americans should have the right to bear arms v. issues of public safety.
  
  
  2nd Amendment US Constitution
  
  
  A well regulated Militia, being necessary to security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed
  
  
  Education in the form of God v. Science. Race in the form of eugenics, the right to vote.
  
  It is necessary to understand that those in a position of power both economically and legislatively have no respect for the will of the people, or more likely they fear the will of the people enough to work at keeping them from being able to see eye to eye on anything.
  
  Conservative corporate and evangelical extremists are taking shape in the form of a minority rule. A corporate minority rule that resembles the Colonial American outrage and concern over the arbitrary and oppressive rule associated with the King of England, George III.
  
  We are up against issues that brought about the Declaration of Independence in the first place. We are up against aggressive efforts to use religion as a focal point to exacerbate and feed the division that keep Americans from working together as a whole country to govern as one.
  
  Or more to the point, the consent of the governed. In other words, undermining the intent of the Declaration of Independence to reestablishing monarchial rule in the form of corporate rule!
  
  Watergate abuses demonstrated going back to McCarthyism that manipulating public opinion was everything. When Nixon used the South Vietnamese government to undermine peace talks to control the outcome of the election in 1968, cheat to win was created.
  
  Cheat to win became the formula by which Nixon faced the opponent he wanted to face in 1972. Every single subsequent GOP administration used rebellion against the New Deal & cheat to win to further their success to include all of the most dirty players.
  
  The Fascist Movement around the world becomes a battle cry simply as a result of the election of Barack Obama. The need to undermine both NATO & the EU for their support of POTUS Obama becomes key. That is how Putin enters into the picture.
  
  Conservative corporate & evangelical extremists as supporters of the McCarthyism & Watergate cheat to win mentality would engineer the election of a Donald Trump with the help of a government like Russia to make it work. A “divided house” makes it even easier!
  
  The consequences of this moment will not only shape the future of our American Democracy, but it is shaping the future of the entire world.
  
  This by itself calls for the need to debate the concept that “All Men are Created Equal”. What does that mean and how far reaching should it be allowed to develop? Is it time to accept that “All People are Created Equal”? Should that include homosexual and transgender people? Does the concept of a “legal person” defined in this context as something other than a natural person hold equal status under the law, with an individual?
  
  It also calls into question what “consent of the governed” really means. Who has the right to consent to what? Who has the right to control and manipulate that consent? Should corporations be allowed to have better access to the legislative process over and above the needs and rights of the People.
  
  It also calls into question how to go about becoming “a more perfect union”. Whether we are a “government of the people, by the people, and for the people”, or not.
  
  The election in 2008 of Barack Obama becoming the 44th President of the United States was an extraordinary event. I saw this event in the context of a great work in progress. How the concept that ”All Men are Created Equal” is a work in progress. A work that was taking a giant leap forward.
  
  
  “All Men Are Created Equal”
  
  
  13th Amendment to the US Constitution
  
  
  SECTION 1: Neither slavery or involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction. SECTION 2: The Congress shall have the power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
  
  
  Is it time to accept that “All People are Created Equal”? Should that include homosexual and transgender people? Does the concept of a “legal person” defined in this context as something other than a natural person hold equal status under the law, with an individual?
  
  We live in a world where any real form of equality is in short supply. I am offering up this addendum to the Declaration of Independence as it is my perception that American Democracy it under attack from within her borders and from around the world.
  
  The Declaration of Independence outlined the grievances and concerns being raised by Colonial Americans pursuant to their belief that the had established over Colonial America. That Americans had the right to establish equal station among the Nations of the World because their grievances were being ignored. That the right to create a new government came with the belief in the idea that “All Men are Created Equal”. That along with that understanding the government was accountable to the “Consent of the Governed”.
  
  It also put into place a mechanism in the form of the Constitution of the United States of America that should this new government become equally arbitrary and oppressive the People had the right to do what was necessary to alter it or abolish it as needed to preserve the integrity of its’ promise to respect the “Consent of the Governed” and the ideal that “All Men were Created Equal”. A government that would insure, their Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness as it also affected their Safety and Happiness.
  
  In the 19th and 20th centuries America would lead the world in the most transitional period in the history of the world. From the onset of the Industrial Revolution some 300 years ago to landing a man on the moon America established the potential for a standard of living that made the outlook that “All Men were Created Equal” believable to all people across the globe. That saw the potential for equal justice under the rule of law within reach. That there was finally social justice for all people from all walks of life. Where many people believe that “All Men are Created Equal” could and would be be applied to all of them.
  
  To the point where the election of Barack Obama as the 44th President of the United States in 2008 took that concept that “All Men are Created Equal” to its’ farthest plateau to date.
  
  But the subsequent election of Donald Trump in 2016 established a backlash that continues to make that reality less workable. As it continues to be beyond reach. It makes it necessary to assess what is happening that continues to make the concept that “All Men are Created equal” beyond reach.
  
  In the 21st century it is the narrative that has become all important when comes to American political and legislative discourse. The opportunity to take a given subject or a given concern raised by individuals and attempt to reach a consensus of opinions from which to legislate from is all but lost. My latest thinking is about challenging how we as a country have devolved into a series of political narratives that demand that people come along for the ride instead of operating from an exchange of ideas.
  
  I believe it is about keeping the people from coming to any consensus of opinions. It is about utilizing hot button issues like communism, socialism, racism, the 2nd Amendment, immigration, abortion, climate change and Creationism verses Evolution to breed contempt for the alleged overreach of big government. While at the same time, focusing on establishing a lack of faith and respect for each other. With the goal of avoiding a reasoned debate that could lead to any common ground with which to legislate from. By deliberately undermining and avoiding the power the Constitution invested in “the will of the people”.
  
  The question becomes who wants Americans at each other’s throat. The answer begins by taking President Eisenhower at his word when he spoke about the threat posed by the emergence of the Military-Industrial Complex, in 1961. How Conservative Corporate and Evangelical Extremists have used the privatization of government functions to establish an inside track on controlling the legislative process. How these people continue to resent, resist and undo the provisions of the New Deal. Because the New Deal by design, was intended to level the playing field for average Americans against corporate abuses and greed that lead to the Great Depression.
  
  It starts by understanding that it is the fear of losing control over the process that makes American Democracy such a threat. The fear that “We the People” will utilize the power authorized by the Constitution to exercise rational and responsible control over the process. It starts with learning to understand that these people think they are better able to conduct the affairs of our government than the people are. That they are willing to go to extraordinary lengths and extremes to keep it that way. It starts with how the concept of “All Men are Created Equal” is to be understood & perceived. That the issue of slavery could not be settled prior to establishing our constitutional form of government. Such that “All Men are Created Equal” is tied to the issue of slavery just as it is the “Consent of the Governed”.
  
  A case on point is Dred Scott v Sanford, where the Supreme Court established that certain people could be regarded as property. An issue that did not change after adoption of the 13th Amendment. That could not be resolved 100 years later with the adoption of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. A backlash perpetrated by Conservative Corporate and Evangelical Extremists who have purchased control over the legislative and political process by manipulating the intent of the 14th Amendment. As they have also purchased to consolidate media outlets of all forms to manipulate and control content rather than being informative and accountable to the people.
  
  What took place in between these events would set the stage for Evangelical Extremists to believe there was a need to shape and control political discourse in America. Because it was ultimately the American People with the election of Franklin Roosevelt who would overrule Evangelicals and force the 18th Amendment of the Constitution to be repealed. It would start with the events surrounding the Scopes Trial in 1925 Tennessee. Where the national debate was over the issue of Creationism verses Evolution. An issue that attracted a national audience with the first of its’ kind, national radio broadcast. A debate that lingers to this day. As it struck at the heart of Evangelical Extremists who still can’t imagine or acknowledge the possibility that Evolution could be an important fundamental part of how life in all forms developed on this planet. Because it goes against everything they believe about the exceptional nature of certain humans and their existence.
  
  It would start a process that would include obstruction and rebellion against court decisions that would be used to accuse liberal judges and justices of legislating from the bench. Including Epperson v. Arkansas, 1968, Evolution v Creationism, Edwards v. Aguillard, 1987, Evolution v. Creationism, and Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District, 2005, Evolution v Creationism as intelligent design. Also, such cases as West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette, 1943 involving the “Pledge of Allegiance”. Brown v Board of Education, 1954, mandatory desegregation of public schools.
  
  It has become a process of obstruction that would end up with Senator Mitch McConnell obstructing judicial appointees to include a Supreme Court of the United States nominee of President Barack Obama simply because he was the first African American elected President of the United States. An effort that didn’t start with obstructing President Obama appointees & his Supreme Court nominee but demonstrates how Conservative Corporate & Evangelical Extremes are willing to stack the courts with conservative extremist judges and justices willing to do the very legislating from the bench that support the will of the corporation over the will of the people.
  
  First, as a rebellion against Americans who chose to elect President Obama. Second, to protect the focus of Conservative Corporate and Evangelical Extremists who have bonded together to protect a very insecure and controlling wealthy white minority willing to exploit the fears of a white majority fearful of becoming a minority themselves. Fearful of losing their ability to be represented as part of, or more likely in control of the concept of the “Consent of the Governed”. It is that bond between Conservative Corporate & Evangelical Extremists which I believe drives the debates and the divisions of 21st century America.
  
  
  The Power to Pardon US Constitution
  
  
  ARTICLE II: SECTION 2: Claus I: The President shall be Commander in chief of the Army And Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States, when called to actual Service of the United States; he may require the Opinion, in writing, of the principal Officer in each of the executive Departments, upon any subject relating to the Duties of their respective Offices, and he shall have the Power to grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offences against the United States, except in Cases of Impeachment.
  The power of the Presidential Pardon shall not be used to avoid self-incrimination or for any political purpose. It shall not be used as a vehicle to avoid accountability within the confines of one’s own administration. Nobody, not even the POTUS is above the law.
  Election finance reform must include keeping corporate & private donors who are from out of state from influencing state & local politics & elections. A fundamental state’s rights issue.
  An amendment pursuant to whistleblowers
  The right to clean fresh air & clean fresh water.
  NDAs should be unconstitutional!
  A damn good start! We need one that takes national & international corporate capital out of all elections. Federal elections belong to the people not corporations. State & local elections as well. Koch & ilk have no right to buy control of the legislative & political process!
  Nondisclosure Agreements should be unconstitutional such that they are used to avoid accountability. To pursue with impunity illegal activity. To avoid public exposure for wrong doing.
  Safe clean water & air must become a constitutional imperative.
  To avoid fake news it is important that the Fairness Doctrine also become constitutional. Americans have the right to expect to be informed factually. Politicians & pundits need to be held to a higher accountability. Political Correctness was a way of speaking your mind about your prejudices without having to identify what those prejudices were.
  
  
  Repeal of the Fairness Doctrine was about being able to lie with impunity. To manipulate public opinion & divided the American People by adopting hot button issues like abortion, the 2nd Amendment & Creationism v Science to feed & divide the American People against each other.
  
  The Social Safety Net must also be constitutional. There were 13 US billionaires in 1980. In 40 years it has increase to over 700. Education, healthcare, infrastructure, the environment, wages & the National Debt has all come at the expense of greed & indifference.
  
  Finally, an amendment to the Constitution that formally separates church & state. An amendment that separates corporate & state. Greed & theology should not be used to undermine the integrity of science. Science is both our salvation & our survival.
  
  
  The Fairness Doctrine
  The right of the people to be duly responsibly & accountably informed. The issue is reinstatement of some form of the Fairness Doctrine! Speaking your mind is one thing. Speaking lies & knowing you are going to get away with it is another! The Federal Government and high-profile personalities need to be held to a higher standard of accountability.
  The American people have the right to believe their government is telling them fact based information with which to make their decisions. High profile personalities should be made to represent all sides of an issue. To verify that what they say is fact based & credible!
  The American People have the right to be treated like a jury in a court of law. The right to be educated such that they can distinguish between scientific based facts & BS! Higher profile personalities whether they be politicians or TV pundits have a responsibility to be ethical. Investigations into government entities should follow the same measure of accountability. It is not just the people’s right to know & be informed, but their right to make qualified decisions about their lives and our leaders as a result.
  The issue is reinstatement of some form of the Fairness Doctrine! Speaking your mind is one thing. Speaking lies & knowing you are going to get away with it is another! The Federal Government & high-profile personalities need to be held to a higher standard of accountability!
  The American people have the right to believe their government is telling them fact based information with which to make their decisions. High profile personalities should be made to represent all sides of an issue. To verify that what they say is fact based & credible!
  The American People have the right to be treated like a jury in a court of law. The right to be educated such that they can distinguish between scientific based facts & BS! Higher profile personalities whether they be politicians or TV pundits have a responsibility to be ethical.
  Investigations into government entities should follow the same measure of accountability. It is not just the people’s right to know & be informed, but their right to make qualified decisions about their lives and our leaders as a result.
  
  
  The separation of corporate and state starts with understanding how that relationship here in America is consistent with the colonial relationship we had with Great Britain before the Revolutionary War. The corporate will has effectively undermined the will of the people. If anything describes what conservative corporate & evangelical extremists are up to it is this.
  Time to call it what it is! The GOP works for conservative corporate & evangelical extremists. If you replace the word king or any reference to him in the Declaration of Independence with the word corporation it is remarkable how similar the abuses of power are that made us rebel!
  The key to election finance reform is understanding the need to keep corporate entities out of all elections across the country, and especially as it pertains to state & local elections. Nowhere has the voice of the people been so effectively undermined than in state & local elections.
  
  
  National Debt
  
  National Security
  
  Infrastructure
  
  Climate Change
  
  Arbitration
  
  Non-Disclosure Agreements
  
  NDA’s Non-Disclosure Agreements should be unconstitutional!
  
  Taxing
  
  Lawyers
  
  Lawyers need to be held to a higher standard of accountability as they go to school to learn to understand and implement the laws of the land with regard to their responsibility to uphold the Constitution.
  
  
  Campaign Finance Reform
  
  Buying & Selling of Personal Information & Debt
  
  Buying & Selling Mortgages
  
  Evolution of the Industrial Revolution
  
  
  The Stock Market Lobbying NCAA Olympics
  
  Herb Brooks Coach of the USA Hockey Team 1980 From the movie Miracle:
  
  “Two days later the miracle was made complete. My boys defeated Finland to win the gold medal, coming from behind once again. As I watched them out there, celebrating on the ice, I realized that Patti had been right. It was a lot more than a hockey game, not only for those who watched it, but for those who played in it. I’ve often been asked in the years since Lake Placid what was the best moment for me. Well, it was here – the sight of 20 young men of such differing backgrounds now standing as one. Young men willing to sacrifice so much of themselves all for an unknown. A few years later, the U.S. began using professional athletes at the Games – Dream Teams. I always found that term ironic because now that we have Dream Teams, we seldom ever get to dream. But on one weekend, as America and the world watched, a group of remarkable young men gave the nation what it needed most – a chance, for one night, not only to dream, but a chance, once again, to believe.”
  
  
  The separation of church and state.
  
  Creationism v Evolution
  
  Healthcare
  
  Pursuant to the question of a woman’s right to seek an abortion it is important to look at how eighteen year old’s, earned the right to vote. In 1971 the 26th Amendment was added to the US Constitution pursuant to the idea that if a man can be compelled to die for his countr, that earns for him the right to vote.
  
  In wars of times past women & children have died. What is different now is that women have finally earned the right to accept combat roles in the military placing them directly under their own will to do so in harm’s way. As a result women have not only the right to expect to be treated as an equal, but the sacred right to maintain control over medical decisions that affect their own bodies.
  
  
  Federal Judiciary & the Supreme Court of the United States
  
  Prison & Police Reform
  
  Bodycams
  
  Education
  
  Immigration
  
  Whistleblowers Gerrymandering
  
  
  Secrecy
  
  
  Lee Atwater
  
  
  As civil rights grew more accepted throughout the nation, basing a general election strategy on appeals to “states’ rights”, which some would have believed opposed civil rights laws, would have resulted in a national backlash. The concept of “states’ rights” was considered by some to be subsumed within a broader meaning than simply a reference to civil rights laws.²³ States rights became seen as encompassing a type of New Federalism that would return local control of race relations.⁵⁶ Republican strategist Lee Atwater discussed the Southern Strategy in a 1981 interview later published in Southern Politics in the 1990s by Alexander P. Lamis.^57585960
  
  Atwater: As to the whole Southern strategy that Harry Dent and others put together in 1968, opposition to the Voting Rights Act would have been a central part of keeping the South. Now [Reagan] doesn’t have to do that. All you have to do to keep the South is for Reagan to run in place on the issues he’s campaigned on since 1964 […] and that’s fiscal conservatism, balancing the budget, cut taxes, you know, the whole cluster…
  
  Questioner: But the fact is, isn’t it, that Reagan does get to the Wallace voter and to the racist side of the Wallace voter by doing away with legal services, by cutting down on food stamps?
  
  Atwater: Y’all don’t quote me on this. You start out in 1954 by saying, “Nigger, nigger, nigger.” By 1968 you can’t say "nigger"—that hurts you. Backfires. So you say stuff like forced busing, states’ rights and all that stuff. You’re getting so abstract now [that] you’re talking about cutting taxes, and all these things you’re talking about are totally economic things and a byproduct of them is [that] blacks get hurt worse than whites. And subconsciously maybe that is part of it. I’m not saying that. But I’m saying that if it is getting that abstract, and that coded, that we are doing away with the racial problem one way or the other. You follow me—because obviously sitting around saying, “We want to cut this,” is much more abstract than even the busing thing, and a hell of a lot more abstract than “Nigger, nigger.”
  I believe it is important to look at our history in an objective way to establish what brought us to this moment. To look at what is positive about what has been achieved and be honest about where we have fallen short. To look at how we Americans measure up to the concept of “the Consent of the Governed”. Do we operate as a country that can realistically and honestly adhere to the ideal that “All Men are Created Equal”.
  
  
  Karl Rove New Federalism
  
  
  Roger Stone is an enthusiastic participant in what made the Nixon Administration, subsequent GOP Administrations & now Trump, despicable! They focus their efforts under their responsibility to the Constitution to protect a President, when their duty is to answer to the People.
  
  Conservative Corporate Extremists & Evangelicals have aggressively supported these efforts in the name of economic freedom. The reality being that economic freedom without accountability now poses a major threat to the planet & the 7.5 billion people who live here.
  
  American Democracy is the last best hope for a world where wealth unaccounted for & unregulated continues to exploit the planet’s resources for strictly personal gain. The most pressing need is to recognize that the climate is the most important infrastructure on the planet.
  
  The cost of doing nothing is death to us all. If Stephen Hawking is right it may already be too late. The Roger Stone’s of the world & there are many, don’t care about any life but their own. Self-aggrandizement without consequence is a death sentence to life on Earth, period!
  
  The mentality that gives rise to the Roger Stones of the world is a direct result of the Pardon of Richard Nixon. The Mueller Investigation is a direct result of a pardon that allowed Roger Stone & company to continue to operate without consequence.
  
  The result of that has been for corporations to establish monopolies within the media establishment in an effort to control content & therefore control public perception. To undermine & manipulate public perception has destroyed any effort to establish consensus among opinions.
  
  Repeal of the Fairness Doctrine has opened the public to rhetoric that does not involve the need to establish facts to support such rhetoric. That rhetoric becomes feasible through aggressive repetition & being allowed to exist by avoiding equal time to opposing views or ideas.
  
  
  After WWII privatization has become the vehicle by which government functions have been turned into profit machines. Conservative Corporate & Evangelical Extremists have used privatization to get around complying with legislation & court decisions they don’t like. https://
  
  Example: Privatizing military function has allowed corporations to avoid being held accountable under the UCMJ, Uniform Code of Military Justice. Hence the reference to Erik Prince. Why is the military budget kept secret & not openly itemized?
  
  School vouchers & charter academies across the country are about getting around desegregation. There is also resentment over how public education teaches Evolution at the expense of Creationism. I remember reciting the Pledge of Allegiance & then we didn’t do it anymore.
  
  Why are civics & American History not dominating our class rooms along with skills, science, math & the arts? Remember that a tuition based college education began in California under Reagan to punish UC at Berkeley for being a national center of Vietnam War protests!
  
  No where is privatization more aggressively used to abuse than in the prison system. Laws geared to focus on bed space & not accountability? Courts decisions have demanded accountability from the system. The right to counsel Gideon v Wainwright
  
  Santobello v. New York plea bargains, Miranda v. Arizona criminal rights & cases that focus on humane treatment of prisoners. Private prisons are designed to cut costs & avoid as much of these accountability issues as possible. Detention center issues at the border as an example
  
  Since Reaganomics became law the tax burden has shifted away from the rich paying their fair share to the people slowly but surely being buried by debt. Student loans, destruction of unions, infrastructure vulnerable, healthcare, Social Security, Medicare & Medicaid under attack.
  
  National Debt out of control & the blame is placed specifically on social programs, when the issue is Reaganomics v New Deal. Point: 13 US billionaires in 1980 up to over 540+ US billionaires now! 147 world billionaires 1987 up to over 2100+ world billionaires now.
  
  Aggressive efforts to obstruct judicial appointees & a SCOTUS nominee under POTUS Obama to cultivate judges who will focus on corporations over people. Lincoln’s concerns over the danger of a house divided against itself as the vehicle of New Federalism to keep the house divided.
  
  As long as Conservative Corporate & Evangelical Extremists through the Tea Party & the Freedom Caucus can gum up the works by stripping the federal government further than has already been achieved American Democracy here at home & around the world is dead in the water.
  
  As long as the people can be manipulated through propaganda that avoids education & fact finding as central to their duty under the Constitution of the United State of America as decision makers, consent of the governed & consensus of opinion will be nowhere to be found.
  
  As long as the people can be manipulated through propaganda that avoids education & fact finding as central to their duty under the Constitution of the United State of America as decision makers, consent of the governed & consensus of opinion will be nowhere to be found.
  
  
  Rendering the nuclear option to make appointment unconstitutional
  
  He shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur; and he shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, Judges of the Supreme Court, and all other Officers of the United States, whose Appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by Law:
  
  
  The Senate shall have the sole Power to try all Impeachments. When sitting for that Purpose, they shall be on Oath or Affirmation. When the President of the United States is tried the Chief Justice shall preside: And no Person shall be convicted without the Concurrence of two thirds of the Members present. Judgment in Cases of Impeachment shall not extend further than to removal from Office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any Office of honor, Trust or Profit under the United States: but the Party convicted shall nevertheless be liable and subject to Indictment, Trial, Judgment and Punishment, according to Law.
  
  Yesterday I was focused on reading. I went from the Founding Fathers to Justice Scalia to Justice Breyer & now Clarence Darrow. I was reading last night about the Pullman Strike in 1894. The parallels associated with what we are seeing today is staggering. As once again there is talk of that nasty concept of those businesses that are regarded as “too big to fail”! Sometime back I spoke of putting together a 21st century version of the Declaration of Independence. I saw language yesterday that I believe effectively helps me understand what such a document should look like & speak too. Then , of course, I listened to Jesse Watters speak on the threat posed by a nation wide effort to establish mail in ballots across the country. How it invites fraud & abuse. And, of course, no mention of how it works here in Colorado. I am very pleased that the Pope agrees with me with regard to how it is likely that this pandemic & the climate in crisis are connected. I am amazed that as with what I spoke of about Clarence Darrow, the effort then by evangelical extremists were focused on preaching against unions as was the national press. A focus over all on the importance of property rights over human rights. Lastly, I will say that property even now is still more important than humans are. My belief has long since been that as Dred Scott verses Sanford was about justifying treating people as property, corporations have used the 14th Amendment to maintain that property is still more important than people. This will be a push come to shove moment. It’s an opportunity to redefine what life, liberty & the pursuit of happiness really looks like. To reestablish the will of the people over the will of the corporation. Or, Democracy will be no more. So far the rhetoric would suggest the latter!
  
  
  Amendment to separate corporate & state.
  
  SECTION 1: Corporations are not human beings and shall not have the same equal protection rights under the law as individuals. All People (human beings) are created equal and shall not be discriminated against based on sex, sexual preference, sexual orientation, race, color, creed, or religious beliefs. All people shall have the right to bodily autonomy. All people have the right to a warm full belly. All people have the right to a warm, dry, and safe place to sleep at night.
  
  SECTION 2: The people shall have the right to informed consent. Corporations shall operate pursuant to the will and the welfare of the People before profits. The US Government shall take steps to make education a right of citizenship. Corporations shall not be entitled to the same freedom of speech protections as people. Media corporations shall adhere to the right of the people to expect information that is credible, reliable, factual, and ethical. The US Government shall not allow religion and religious beliefs to cloud perceptions of scientifically established facts. Civics education shall be the standard of the people’s right to informed consent. The people have the right to decide how the Constitution is to be interpreted. The Constitution was designed to be amended to meet the needs of the future as the need to meet the needs of the people changed. The concepts of originalism, textualism, and strict constructionism undermines that intent and shall not be allowed to justify abusing the needs of the people.
  
  SECTION 3: Corporations shall be taxed fairly to meet the needs of the People before profits. Corporations shall not be allowed to structure dummy corporations to create illegal tax havens. Corporations shall not be allowed to set up dummy corporations to avoid accountability for corporate abuses. Corporations shall not put water resources at risk for personal gain or profits. Corporations shall not pollute the environment such that it puts the People at risk. Corporations shall be held responsible and liable for all damages that put the People at risk. Issues associated with a healthy and sustainable infrastructure shall come before profits.
  
  SECTION: 4: Public Debt (the National Debt) shall not be used to undermine the federal and state government responsibilities to meet the needs of the People. It shall be the responsibility of corporations to pay down the National Debt while being allowed to maintain legislated appropriate profits. Corporations shall include in their tax burden to help maintain a stable and sustainable National Surplus.
  
  SECTION 5: Corporations shall not be allowed to establish financial control over the legislative and political process. All financial support of national, state, and local elections will be strictly provided for through taxes through appropriate legislation. Corporations shall not be allowed to interfere, influence, participate, or control any aspect of the election process on local, state, and federal levels. Corporations shall not use their financial resources to buy, prop-up, or control potential candidates.
  
  SECTION 6: Corporations shall not use Non-Disclosure Agreements to protect them from breaking the law or to avoid public scrutiny and accountability. Corporations shall not be allowed to use arbitration to dictate control over issues where the proper objective venue is a court of law. Independent fact finding shall be in the jurisdiction of the courts.
  
  SECTION 7: Corporations shall not be allowed to use or sell personal information and data for personal gain. Corporations shall be held financially responsible for all personal information and data breaches.
  
  SECTION 8: Corporations shall not be allowed to dictate issues of National Security. The military is here to protect America, Americans & their allies. Corporations shall not be allowed to look at war as a for profit venture. War is not a business.
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  Arthur Bundy commented on Related Media 2021-09-07 05:51:26 -0700

  Amendment to separate corporate & state.
  SECTION 1: Corporations are not human beings and shall not have the same equal protection rights under the law as individuals. All People (human beings) are created equal and shall not be discriminated against based on sex, sexual preference, sexual orientation, race, color, creed, or religious beliefs. All people shall have the right to bodily autonomy. All people have the right to a warm full belly. All people have the right to a warm, dry, and safe place to sleep at night.
  SECTION 2: The people shall have the right to informed consent. Corporations shall operate pursuant to the will and the welfare of the People before profits. The US Government shall take steps to make education a right of citizenship. Corporations shall not be entitled to the same freedom of speech protections as people. Media corporations shall adhere to the right of the people to expect information that is credible, reliable, factual, and ethical. The US Government shall not allow religion and religious beliefs to cloud perceptions of scientifically established facts. Civics education shall be the standard of the people’s right to informed consent. The people have the right to decide how the Constitution is to be interpreted. The Constitution was designed to be amended to meet the needs of the future as the need to meet the needs of the people changed. The concepts of originalism, textualism, and strict constructionism undermines that intent and shall not be allowed to justify abusing the needs of the people.
  SECTION 3: Corporations shall be taxed fairly to meet the needs of the People before profits. Corporations shall not be allowed to structure dummy corporations to create illegal tax havens. Corporations shall not be allowed to set up dummy corporations to avoid accountability for corporate abuses. Corporations shall not put water resources at risk for personal gain or profits. Corporations shall not pollute the environment such that it puts the People at risk. Corporations shall be held responsible and liable for all damages that put the People at risk. Issues associated with a healthy and sustainable infrastructure shall come before profits.
  SECTION: 4: Public Debt (the National Debt) shall not be used to undermine the federal and state government responsibilities to meet the needs of the People. It shall be the responsibility of corporations to pay down the National Debt while being allowed to maintain legislated appropriate profits. Corporations shall include in their tax burden to help maintain a stable and sustainable National Surplus.
  SECTION 5: Corporations shall not be allowed to establish financial control over the legislative and political process. All financial support of national, state, and local elections will be strictly provided for through taxes through appropriate legislation. Corporations shall not be allowed to interfere, influence, participate, or control any aspect of the election process on local, state, and federal levels. Corporations shall not use their financial resources to buy, prop-up, or control potential candidates.
  SECTION 6: Corporations shall not use Non-Disclosure Agreements to protect them from breaking the law or to avoid public scrutiny and accountability. Corporations shall not be allowed to use arbitration to dictate control over issues where the proper objective venue is a court of law. Independent fact finding shall be in the jurisdiction of the courts.
  SECTION 7: Corporations shall not be allowed to use or sell personal information and data for personal gain. Corporations shall be held financially responsible for all personal information and data breaches.
  SECTION 8: Corporations shall not be allowed to dictate issues of National Security. The military is here to protect America, Americans & their allies. Corporations shall not be allowed to look at war as a for profit venture. War is not a business.
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  Arthur Bundy signed up on Create Account 2021-09-07 04:20:30 -0700
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  Arthur Bundy signed Sign Up 2021-09-08 05:49:47 -0700

  Thank you for inviting me into this forum. I feel honored that you liked my amendment focused on the separation of corporate & state enough to give me a chance to deal with potentially like-minded individuals.
  
  Yesterday I jumped the gun a little bit & throw some of my thinking out there without thinking in terms of your approach to this process. I have since spent the morning looking more deeply into what you offer here & I like it.