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The Roberts Trap is Sprung

By:  Bill Dunne
www.americanthinker.com
One of the most overlooked aspects of the year just ended is the vindication of Chief Justice John Roberts -- a vindication that showed up as the national catastrophe known as ObamaCare got rolling.  Roberts may have also doomed Hillary Clinton's chance to live in the White House again... click here to read whole editorial

 

The New Symbol of Slavery

 

By:  David Deschesne

Editor/Publisher, Fort Fairfield Journal

August 19, 2015

 

    Our National Anthem ends with, “land of the free, and home of the brave;” Lee Greenwood has practically been immortalized with his song, God Bless the U.S.A. wherein he croons, “the flag still stands for freedom and they can’t take that away.”  But does the U.S. flag really represent freedom?   Is the U.S. really a free country?  I submit we have been subjugated and brainwashed into believing the hi-tech form of hyper-slavery we are all suffering under today is freedom when it is not.  Whether you are working as hard as you can just to survive, or are sitting by while the government forcefully confiscates from others on your behalf doesn’t really matter.  Both classes of people are virtually enslaved, but in different ways.  Before I explain the slavery issue let’s first see if we are in fact “free.”

 

Is the U.S. a Free Country?

   The U.S. started out as a relatively free country.  That is, most people could live their lives and do their day-to-day tasks without much interference from government.  Today, however, the government has forcefully inserted itself into nearly every aspect of our lives.   They do this by requiring a “license” for what we were already free to do.  The legal definition of license is “permission to engage in an activity that is otherwise illegal.” So, how have licenses been used to subvert our freedom?

   A little over 100 years ago a man and woman got married by first making a public announcement on a local, public bulletin board or in a local newspaper.  They then had their ceremony with two witnesses and then went to their local town government to have the clerk certify that an announcement was made and ceremony performed.  The marriage was then entered into the public record.  That was how free people engaged in marriage.  There was no marriage license (except for interracial marriage, which was then illegal). Around the turn of the 20th century states began requiring the certification take place prior to the marriage, then it evolved into government requiring the issuance of a license (permission to engage in illegal activity) before a marriage could take place.  Many of you can see now that homosexual marriage under a State-sanctioned marriage license isn’t really true, Biblical marriage because it’s a creation of the government, not of God.  Before you heterosexual couples begin to smirk, remember your marriage license places your marriage under government’s authority, too—not God’s.

    So we used to be able to marry each other first, then go to government to let them know we’re married.  We now have to go to government first, for permission and a license to engage in that illegal activity (*note:  in Maine, Quakers and people of the Bahá'i faith are exempt from the state-issued marriage license and are allowed to keep their own records [see Maine Revised Statutes 19-a §658]—however Christians, Muslims, Jews and others are not exempt by law from that licensing scheme.)  It looks like when it comes to marriage most of us are not really free at all.

   What about the right to freely travel?  You would think a nation that was considered “free” would allow its inhabitants the ability to freely travel unencumbered upon the roads and highways they all paid to build.

   Let’s see what the courts have said on the right to freely travel:

 

“The constitutional right to travel from one State to another, and necessarily to use the highways and other instrumentalities of interstate commerce in doing so, occupies a position fundamental to the concept of our Federal Union.” -United States v. Guest, 383 US 475, 757, 86 S. Ct 1170 (1966)

“It is well established law that the highways of the state are public property; that their primary and preferred use is for private purposes, and that their use for purposes of gain (profit) is special and extraordinary, which, generally at least, the legislature may prohibit or condition as it sees fit.” - Stevenson v. Binford, 287 U.S. 251, 77 L.Ed. 288

“The right of interstate travel has repeatedly been recognized as a basic constitutional freedom.” - Memorial Hospital v. Maricopa County, 415 US 250, 254, 94 S. Ct. 1076, 1080 (1974)

“The right to travel is a part of the right to liberty.” - Worther v. Herter, 270 F.2d. 905, 908 (D.C. Cir 1959)

“There can be no sanction or penalty imposed upon one because of the exercise of constitutional rights.” - Sherar v. Cullen, 481 F. 948

“Every State law must conform in the first place to the Constitution of the United States, and then to the subordinate constitution of the particular state; if it infringes upon provisions of either, it is so far void.” - Houston v. Moore, 18 U.S. 1, 5 L.Ed. 19

“The right of interstate travel has repeatedly been recognized as a basic constitutional freedom.” Memorial Hospital v. Maricopa County, 415 U.S. 250, 254

   The courts have determined over and over again that using the roads for private, personal use without any intrusion by government is allowable and that government can only impose conditions on those who use the public’s roads for profit or gain—such as delivery vehicles, trucking companies, taxi cabs and busses.  But, can you drive down the road without a driver’s license? (There’s the word, “license” again.  Remember, it’s permission to engage in illegal activity).  No, you can’t.  Despite the founding principles of freedom and numerous court rulings to back up those freedoms, States have once again intruded into our lives and turned a freedom into an illegal, regulatable enterprise.  When it comes to the right to freely travel, it appears we are not free at all.

  How about hunting for food or fishing to feed your family?  You’ll need a license for that, too.  How about going into business so you can provide a product or service to make a living?  No, you’ll need a business license and Tax ID number.

   What if you just wanted to build a house in the woods and live off grid, can you do that freely?  Nope.  You’ll need a building permit. 

   Own a dog?  No, you need a dog license.

   Raise livestock to sell for food?  No, you’ll need a license.  In fact, the State of North Carolina recently took the licensing scheme so far as to require people raising chickens to license and tag each of their birds individually, or else be in violation of a bureaucratic ruling.

   How about walking down the road, minding your own business?  No, if a local Border Patrol agent (or even police officer) desires, they can stop you, demand to see some form of State-issued identification and detain you at their pleasure until you can prove you are not a criminal, or not here illegally (except if you’re of Hispanic descent—they’ve been told to leave them ones alone).

   Do you have the right to defend yourself with a firearm?  In some states, yes, in others, no.  But anti-self-defense advocates are working tirelessly in the District of Columbia to either convince you to give up that freedom, or forcefully take it away from you altogether.

  No matter where you look in the U.S. freedom is crumbling.  It is being replaced with an authoritarian government system that considers all inhabitants its prisoners to control and manipulate at their pleasure.  This is not freedom, regardless of what your public school teacher or college professor told you.  Sorry.

 

Slavery, 21st Century Style

   When the government allowed private banks to take it over at the turn of the 20th century, under the guise of the “Federal Reserve” system (which isn’t Federal and has no reserves), politicians, and the bankers who control them, began looking at the U.S. inhabitants as a labor resource to be harnessed and exploited.  We see that attitude today in large companies referring to their employees as “Human Resources.”

   In order to catalog, track and harness the labor of these human energy units the Social Security System was formed.  It was sold as a retirement system but in reality doesn’t guarantee any retirement to anyone.  What it was really for was to issue a slave-ID number to everyone before they would be allowed to work.  Today, parents of newborn children have been convinced by ignorant hospital nurses and administrators that their newborn baby must have a Social Security number when in reality there is no law—and never has been—requiring any of us to apply for or receive that number.  It is all voluntary, but we have been duped into harnessing ourselves to the debt engine of the U.S. banking system by allowing the government to assign us each a number (with the exception of certain Amish sects, who refuse the number).

   Once you have the number, and work to earn private debt currency—the Federal Reserve Note—a portion of your wages are confiscated from you every time you collect a paycheck.  In fact, before you can even sign up for a job as a sub-contractor, or employee most businesses have been taught to force you into a government slave contract via the IRS form W-9 (for subcontractors) or W-4 (for employees).  You have to sign those forms admitting you are a “U.S. Person”  - which is not a U.S. Citizen, but rather a designation of slave that is owned by the banking corporation who owns and controls the U.S. government.  Once you accept that status you are their slave and will have 30 to 50 percent of your labor confiscated for their profit and gain (only if you choose to convert your labor into the Federal Reserve’s money, but that is another subject for another day).  If you choose to work overseas in another country, the IRS can still reach out and take your wages because you are still their slave over there.

  Okay, so it’s been established that if you work for Federal Reserve Notes you have to sign yourself up as a slave to the Federal Reserve—via government fiat—but what about if you collect benefits from government derived from money that has been forcefully confiscated from the workers?  Are you a slave as well?

  I’m not going to sit here and disparage those who receive welfare benefits.  There are some who do definitely need assistance.  The government wasn’t always in the business of taking care of the poor or elderly.  That task once fell to the church.  In private hands, with money that was voluntarily donated, only those who truly needed assistance got it and those who wanted to make receiving welfare a career choice were omitted.

   We all know there are those who are perfectly capable of work but have fallen into the trap and have no motivation, initiative or desire to get out.  In fact, government has made it very difficult to decide to move from welfare to work by making the welfare system pay more for staying home and doing nothing than going out and actually getting a job (Maine governor, Paul LePage is changing that, though, much to the chagrin of the slavery-supporting Democrats).  This is a disincentive to work for money and there’s a reason for it.  The reason is what makes a slave out of the welfare recipient.

  It is in government’s interest—especially Socialists in the Democrat and Republican parties—to culture and foster a class of society that is encouraged to stay home and collect welfare.  These people are enslaved by the requirement to stop working and producing in order to gain those funds and are thus stunted from developing skill-sets that will help them elevate from their current financial condition and excel at their life’s goals.    Welfare encourages its victims, who would otherwise be productive, contributing people in society, to be unproductive and not participate.

  These people will always vote to continue the pittance of a revenue stream they receive from government as they are discouraged from exceeding on their own initiative.  This keeps the government slave masters in power and ensures the continuance of the forced confiscation of wages from the producers in perpetuity. 

  We are really all just as much slaves as the former slave of the cotton field. Only now, we have big-screen TVs and beer in the fridge.

 

 

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