Category: - Bryan William Brickner

In Honor of the Seventh Amendment: A Usurper’s Preamble

7/20/2018

Amendment VII.

7/20

Usurped States! Today we honor the Seventh Amendment to the US Constitution (and its “twenty dollars” right) with a Usurper’s Preamble:

We the People of the Usurped States,
in Order to form a more perfect disUnion,
establish inJustice,
insure domestic unTranquility,
provide for the common offence,
promote the general nonWelfare,
and insecure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity,
do ordain and establish this Constitution for the Usurped States of America.

Next Up: Part 10 on 1 August of the summer series Gus Kotka and Johnny Reb Somewhere On Our Way: Equals.

Posted by Bryan W. Brickner

2020: In High Spirits, a Seven-Twenty Preamble

7/19/2017

The twenty dollar right in the US Constitution, Amendment VII

One gathers what another spills /
We the People /
Show some spirit /
For constitutionalism /
For the law that makes We the People We the People /
Every ten years

If you care to, ask yourself what you are doing for We the People? What part are you playing?

If the answer is nothing (no part) and that’s okay with you, then okay.

If the answer is nothing and that’s not okay, then do something to support the Constitution, our supreme law and the thing that makes us We the People, constitutionally reborn every ten years (enumeration / census).

Article 1, Section 2, Clause 3 and the 7th Amendment are numerical avenues of approach for those of constitutional spirit ~ a spirit for constitutionalism. One could start by asking representatives (at all levels) if they support the US Constitution; they’ll say yes, of course, so then ask them the next question, the one about representing We the People by the “thirty Thousand” ratio or the one about the twenty dollars in the 7th Amendment: that will begin a conversation. If they support constitutionalism they are obliged (by citizenship and law) to help; if they don’t help, then they aren’t supporting the Constitution. If you don’t support the US Constitution, are you even still American? If so, how?

The representation usurpation ends when We the People want it to: if not now, what more do We need to see?

The Preamble, where our ideals are shown in high spirits and fulfillment waiting, is a We the People rally point; it reads like a dream, perhaps a dream we need to dream again …

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, 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.

Tomorrow is 7/20; perhaps make a moment for Amendment VII, establishing Justice and insuring domestic Tranquility; read something, share something, or discuss with someone the implications of such a right hiding in plain sight (in the US Bill of Rights) and nearly 100 percent ignored.

For ourselves and our Posterity.

*Next Up: Friday 11 August and some receptor science ~ The Neurotransmitter Acetylcholine: Tobacco (Nicotine) Soldiers Soldiering.

Posted by Bryan W. Brickner

Whiskey222: American Power and Hannah Arendt

10/29/2016

Hannah Arendt, American

The Human Condition
Action, section 28: Power and the Space of Appearance
Pages 199-200

“That civilizations can rise and fall, that mighty empires and great cultures can decline and pass away without external catastrophes – and more often than not such external ‘causes’ are preceded by a less visible internal decay that invites disaster – is due to this peculiarity of the public realm, which, because it ultimately resides on action and speech, never altogether loses its potential character. What first undermines and then kills political communities is loss of power and final impotence; and power cannot be stored up and kept in reserve for emergencies, like the instruments of violence, but exists only in its actualization. Where power is not actualized, it passes away, and history is full of examples that the greatest material riches cannot compensate for this loss. Power is actualized only where word and deed have not parted company, where words are not empty and deeds not brutal, where words are not used to veil intentions but to disclose realities, and deeds are not used to violate and destroy but to establish relations and create new realities.”

*Next Up: A phenomena pamphlet, What if Vietnam Never Happened? Foresight and Hindsight in Graham Greene’s The Quiet American, on Friday 11 November.

Posted by Bryan W. Brickner

2020: Update for Clinton, Trump and Constitutional Enumeration (Census)

10/8/2016

US Constitution, Article I

An Update

The Donald Trump campaign response to my email query:

Re: Thank you for your submission
Thank you for your email. We appreciate your support! A member of our team will be contacting you soon to discuss your inquiry.

Sincerely,
Team Trump

No one from Team Trump has called yet.

The Hillary Clinton campaign response to my email query:

Re: Your message about Hillary’s platform
Dear Bryan:

Thank you for your message about Hillary’s policy agenda.

Since announcing her campaign for president, Hillary has laid out a comprehensive policy agenda for the future we want to build together. To read more about her plans, visit www.hillaryclinton.com/issues—and sign up for The Briefing to stay up to date on the latest news and announcements, and get the facts on Hillary’s record.

Thank you, again, for taking the time to reach out. This campaign is fueled by the energy and ideas of the American people, and we hope you will continue engaging in the issues that matter most to you.

All the best,
Hillary for America

The Issues page lists lots of issues, though there’s no mention of ending the usurpation and representing We the People according to our numbers.

Inauguration Day is 20 January 2017, the day the new president takes the oath to support the US Constitution; two numbers must be addressed to fulfill that oath, the thirty Thousand for representation (which is George Washington’s number) and the twenty dollars for justice (which is part of the Bill of Rights).

*Next Up: Fire-Water Ignites Black Hawk War of 1832 (and other things), a pamphlet announcement on Saturday, 15 October.

Posted by Bryan W. Brickner

2020: Defining a Conservative-Liberal Via John Kass and Eric Zorn of the Chicago Tribune

8/4/2016

To see the political space of our times, one must breach the conservative and liberal bipolarity, as there is only one US Constitution and there is no conservative or liberal interpretation of the numbers in it.

John Kass and Eric Zorn write/work for Bruce Dold and the Chicago Tribune: Kass writes as a conservative and Zorn as a liberal. Both writers support the usurpation, the anti-republic, and use the notions of conservative and liberal as political markers (distinctions) without any founding reference; they write within the confines of usurpation and not the numbers of the Constitution.

Perhaps new language is needed for 2020. A conservative-liberal (CL) would support the US Republic and not the laws of usurpation. A CL, for example, supports Article I, Section 2, Clause 3, Article the first of the Bill of Rights (which moves the “thirty Thousand” to “not more than one Representative for every fifty thousand persons), and the 7th Amendment and its twenty dollar justice clause.

CL, as an idea, resolves the conservative liberal bipolarity of our times and creates media space for constitutional representation and our sense of who we are: We the People.

*Next Up: The Union 2016 summer series continues on Sunday 7 August with part 7, Johnny Reb and Gus Kotka Nowhere Hey You.

Posted by Bryan W. Brickner

2020: 7/20 Bill of Rights Participation Day, Do Due Diligence

7/19/2016

20 minutes for $20

Do due diligence.
If not now, when?
If not when, why?

Amendment VII

Next Up: The Union 2016 summer series continues on Sunday 31 July with part 6, Johnny Reb and Gus Kotka Nowhere Moon Dark Side.

Posted by Bryan W. Brickner

2020: Part Two of the 7/20 Bill of Rights Participation Day Preparations, Jesus and Caesar

7/14/2016

Amendment VII

Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s,
And unto God the things that are God’s.

Give Caesar Caesar’s things, Jesus of Nazareth said.

The US Constitution is our modern metaphor for Caesar, temporal power.

When Caesar isn’t rendering (giving) what is the law, and instead diligently reigns via usurpation by ignoring the representation ratio, one Representative for every thirty Thousand people, and the 7th Amendment with its twenty dollar justice clause, then what are Caesar’s things?

Certainly, constitutional law, our Caesar and temporal power, is legitimated when followed (see John Locke); just as certainly, it is delegitimated when ignored (see current polity).

We the People matter.

Next Up: The Union 2016 summer series continues on Sunday 17 July with part 5, Johnny Reb and Gus Kotka Nowhere Feather Birds.

Posted by Bryan W. Brickner

2020: Part One of the 7/20 Bill of Rights Participation Day Preparations, 20 Minutes for Twenty Dollars

7/1/2016

US Constitution, Amendment VII

Working on some numbers showing We the People as a collective power. Basically, I got to wondering what could happen if we all did something for 20 minutes for the “twenty dollars” in Amendment VII; sort of a what if there was a Participation Day for the 7th Amendment and its twenty dollar clause? What would that equal as participation time?

Let’s view it as a story problem.

Estimating, we can use 300 million US citizens acting for 20 minutes, so that is 1/3 of an hour and equals 100 million hours.

Take 100 million hours divided by 25-hour days (easy math) and you get four million days.

Take four million days divided by 400-day years (more easy math) and the answer is 10,000 years.

So Americans spending 20 minutes writing a letter or sending an email or talking with a friend on July 20th (or any convenient time) in support of the US Constitution and the twenty dollar clause in the 7th Amendment of the Bill of Rights, would be equivalent to 10,000 years of participation in one effort.

We the People is definitely a collective power.

Part Two of the 7/20 Bill of Rights Participation Day Preparations, Jesus and Caesar, will be posted 15 July.

Next Up: The Union 2016 summer series continues on Sunday 3 July with Johnny Reb and Gus Kotka, Nowhere Know Sympathy.

Posted by Bryan W. Brickner

2020: Chief Justice John Roberts’ Numbers Quote, or Why Isn’t President Obama Running Again?

6/9/2016

thirty Thousand

Numbers

The role of numbers in accordance with the rule of law is to judicially discriminate politics. Numbers are used in our Constitution to avoid such things as the charge of impracticality, as they are, by design, a compromise, which makes them practical to the parties involved.

Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts said at his confirmation hearing on 15 September 2005: “If the phrase in the Constitution says two-thirds of the Senate – everybody’s a literalist when they interpret that.”

I use Roberts' quote in the introduction of Article the first of the Bill of Rights (2006) and it’s also in Adam Liptak’s article, “Chief Justice Nominee Speaks Volumes, While Saying Little,” New York Times, 16 September 2005.

Why isn’t President Obama running again, running for a third term?

The answer, through its clarity, points to the power of numbers while highlighting our national will to ignore the “thirty Thousand” in Article I and the “twenty” in the Seventh Amendment.

Constitutional numbers ignored is despotism.

*Next Up: Sunday, 12 June and a 2020: Putamen Cannabinoids and Opioids Control Our Brains (Even the brains of presidential candidates).

Posted by Bryan W. Brickner

2020: Nietzsche Daybreak (119/fifth)

4/16/2016

2020 Nietzsche Daybreak

2020 and “inventing” constitutional representation

As We the People have the collective experience known as the next 48 months, our constitutional story is somewhat inverted; we have the constitutional requirements (nothing has to be amended, for example), we only need people to experience our Constitution as it is.

Friedrich Nietzsche’s Daybreak: Thoughts on the prejudices of morality (1881) is divided into five books and 575 aphorisms. Aphorism 119 is presented today in part and inverted – the ending first – with the last sentences, 22 thru 25, acting as a beginning:

22.
– What then are our experiences?

23.
Much more that which we put into them than that which they already contain!

24.
Or must we go so far as to say: in themselves they contain nothing?

25.
To experience is to invent? –

*Next Up: Tomorrow, 17 April, and the fourth part of 2020 Nietzsche Daybreak aphorism 119.

Posted by Bryan W. Brickner