Category: - Bryan William Brickner

We the People and Usurpation Day 2019

4/9/2019

George Washington's Textbook

Today is Usurpation Day, which first happened on 9 April 1792, when the US House of Representatives broke their word and usurped a power not granted by law.

What created that usurpation moment was President Washington’s first veto, which was also the first veto ever under our Constitution.

President Washington, being a surveyor and Freemason, knew numbers; he also knew the Constitution, which he helped write, and which clearly states: “shall not exceed one for every thirty Thousand” (Article 1, Section 2, Clause 3).

What shall not exceed thirty Thousand? That would be the number of Representatives due a state for its enumeration.

In the first attempt to use the enumeration, Congress sent President Washington a bill that dropped the fraction; if a state had thirty Thousand and one, they were due, according to the phrase “shall not exceed,” another Representative. Instead, Congress dropped the fraction and did not give certain states another Representative.

Washington vetoed the bill.

The House of Representatives, unable to override President Washington’s veto, passed a new bill for representation on 9 April 1792, the first usurpation law, and used a divisor of “thirty-three” Thousand for representation instead.

President Washington also knew of the Bill of Rights and its Article the first, the one about moving said representation ratio to forty and then fifty Thousand. Washington either let the new representation bill become law without signing it, or signed it knowing he had made his point and believing this issue would be resolved with the passage of Article the first: this has yet to happen.

Washington was a creator of We the People and the idea of representing ourselves according to numbers. Twenty-twenty is the next enumeration. Why not now ‘Merica? Why not you? Time we did it, time to count the people, divide by thirty Thousand like George taught, and see what We the People really look like … according to numbers.

*Next Up: 9 May and a 2020 We the People update.

Posted by Bryan W. Brickner
~.~
“Those who toy with life never attain mastery. Self-discipline and courageous contemplation are necessary steps to understanding. However, do not become overzealous and drill yourself into the ground.”

From Brian Browne Walker’s The I Ching or Book of Changes: A Guide to Life’s Turning Points (1992)

Usurpation Day 2018: Ex Falso Quodlibet / From a Falsehood, Anything (Follows)

4/9/2018

We the People

Willis and Millie

The phrase ex falso quodlibet / from a falsehood, anything (follows), is known as the “principle of explosion” because it blows-up (makes trivial) how true and false work.

The book Farm Boy by Archie Lieberman (1974) depicts my maternal grandparents, Willis and Mildred (Evans) Hammer, as they farmed and raised a family. I’m pretty sure Willis and Millie didn’t know any Latin other than what they learned in Bible study; they would have understood “from a falsehood, anything (follows)” though, and even taught a similar lesson: two wrongs don’t make a right.

There are two great wrongs involving We the People and the usurpation of representation according to numbers. The first involves the usurpation that happened 9 April 1792, when, in response to President Washington’s veto of the first bill sent from Congress regarding the enumeration (census of 1790) and representation, the House of Representatives usurped a shall; the House ignored Washington’s veto and the constitutional ratio of "one for every thirty Thousand" and passed a number more likeable to the usurpers: one for every 33,000.

Veritas

The original constitutional ex falso quodlibet may appear small and perhaps harmless, but consider this: it created the conditions for the second great usurpation, the one that began in 1920. With women getting the vote and other social disruptions within the WW1 era, the House of 1920 did something extraordinary for the second great wrong: nothing. Since the first usurpation, Congress had at least kept using a number, they just kept increasing the ratio in favor of the usurpers; instead of using the census as intended, the counting of We the People for representation, the 1920 House openly ignored Article 1, Section 2, Clause 3 of our Constitution. It wasn’t until 1929, with the next decennial enumeration looming, that a law was passed setting House representation at 435, regardless of number, thus counteracting the definition of We the People.

Things tend to end as they began. The original usurpation of 9 April 1792 was a fill-in-the-blank moment; the bill was prepared with a blank left for a number and then the usurpers wrote in 33,000. We the People might follow a similar plan, one of mimicry; the 1792 usurpers read the Constitution and acted with pen and paper: nowadays, it feels like We the People are beginning to do the same thing.

Veritas.

*Next Up: Gus Kotka and Johnny Reb begin a summer series on Juneteenth 2018, Somewhere On Our Way.

Posted by Bryan W. Brickner

Thereat: Gus Kotka and Johnny Reb, On Our Way Representational Solutions

10/1/2017

Johnny Reb and Gus Kotka Thereat Cat

III of XIII

“Look, a Cat.”
“Reb?”
“What?”
“Why you cattin’ Johnny?”
“Maybe Cat’s a sign?”
“Maybe you don’t want to camp talk about Virginia.”
“Could be a sign like Snake and Turkey were.”
“Yet there’s no Morgan.”
“Maybe he’s Cat?”
“Stop with the cat Reb.”
“Cat is looking at something.”
“Yes.”
“Curious?”
“Now I am.”
“Shall we?”
“Sure.”

Johnny Reb and Gus Kotka Thereat Representational

“Paths Gus.”
“I see.”
“Appears to be three.”
“Indeed.”
“Constitutional paths.”
“The Ways of We the People.”
“Our paths to 2020 Yank and representing We the People according to our numbers, like the Constitution has been saying for 230 years.”
“How old is the representation usurpation Johnny?”
“That began on 9 April 1792, so that would be a 225 year-old usurpation.”
“So we’ve had five years of an un-usurped representation of We the People.”
“Infancy Gus.”
“Not so fancy Reb.”
“It’s Tory Crown fancy.”
“Sounds bad.”
“Tory Crown is the American anti-republic energy that didn’t want the US to be a republic.”
“Still don’t.”
“True.”
“The Confederacy wasn’t a republic, was it Johnny?”

Johnny Reb and Gus Kotka Thereat Solutions

“No, we had a Tory Crown influence.”
“The states, like Virginia, were independent states in confederation.”
“Right Gus, so the highest power was the state and not the states united.”
“Like our first government?”
“Like that.”
“What was it called again?”
“The first US government, the one before this one, was based on The Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union.”
“Right.”
“It had no We the People framework Gus.”
“And it failed.”
“States had one vote regardless of how many people they had.”
“Not good.”
“Connecticut and Virginia were voting equals.”
“Odd.”
“Yet they had great differences in population.”
“Clearly a problem.”
“So the Constitutional Convention solved this problem by guaranteeing a new right: the right to one Representative for every thirty Thousand people in a state, which created the House of Representatives.”
“We the People seen as a solution.”
“And not a problem.”
“So what’s the problem now Johnny?”
“Uh …”

*Next Up: Sunday 8 October and Thereat part IV, Gus Kotka and Johnny Reb On Our Way Problems.

Posted by Bryan W. Brickner

Thereat: Gus Kotka and Johnny Reb, On Our Way Happy Constitution Day

9/17/2017

Johnny Reb and Gus Kotka Thereat Happy

I of XIII

“Here Gus.”
“This is On Our Way Reb.”
“Thereat.”
“Where’s Virginia?”
“There.”
“Ahead of us.”
“Directly.”
“So this is a threshold moment?”
“For We the People.”
“Good for us.”
“Might be what Morgan meant.”
“Our Teamster’s ‘What are you two doing?’ moment?”
“That one.”
“Asking two citizens what the hell they be fighting about.”
“Right.”
“We ‘Mericans.”
“We are.”
“We’re not … what are the people called who take rights not granted in the Constitution?”

Johnny Reb and Gus Kotka Thereat Constitution

“Usurpers.”
“We’re not Usurpecans.”
“Usurpecan: an American citizen who supports the usurpation.”
“That.”
“It’s Constitution Day Gus.”
“Nice: must be about 230 years ‘eh?”
“Yes.”
“We can also call it Smudge Day.”
“That’s right, thanks to George.”
“Did he just tell’em to make the change Johnny, and they made it – changing the ‘forty’ in forty Thousand to ‘thirty’ in thirty Thousand?”
“It was a request.”
“And the vote?”
“Unanimous.”
“Then they made the change and left the smudge.”

Johnny Reb and Gus Kotka Thereat Day

“Yes.”
“Nice of George to do that.”
“Strengthened We the People.”
“That and leaving us some physical evidence.”
“The smudge is in Washington DC Gus.”
“Okay.”
“Maybe that’s where we go after Berryville?”
“Us in DC: I like your thinking Reb.”
“First though we have to get back to Virginia.”
“Threshold you said.”
“Yes I did.”
“Happy Constitution Day Johnny.”
“Happy Constitution Day Gus.”

*Next Up: Sunday 24 September and Thereat part II, Gus Kotka and Johnny Reb On Our Way ‘Mericans.

Posted by Bryan W. Brickner

Usurpation Day 2017: Augustine, Freedom and Arendt Footnotes #8

4/9/2017

Usurpation Day 2017: Arendt Footnotes #8

Two hundred and twenty-five years ago, on 9 April 1792, Congress initiated the representation usurpation we still live under, the one against We the People and our birthright, constitutional representation according to numbers.

Usurpation of representation is illegal, immoderate and unconstitutional.

Usurpation of representation is a stolen American birthright.

Usurpation of representation is an act of war against We the People.

Speak your birthright America: for those who believe in the US Constitution, let 2020 begin today.

Hannah Arendt
The Human Condition
Section 24: The Disclosure Of The Agent In Speech And Action
(177, bold added)

To act, in its most general sense, means to take an initiative, to begin (as the Greek word archein, “to begin,” “to lead,” and eventually “to rule,” indicates), to set something into motion (which is the original meaning of the Latin agere). Because they are initium, newcomers and beginners by virtue of birth, men take initiative, are prompted into action. [Initium] ergo ut esset, creatus est homo, ante quem nullus fuit (“that there be a beginning, man was created before whom there was nobody”), said Augustine in his political philosophy. (footnote 2) This beginning is not the same as the beginning of the world; (footnote 3) it is not the beginning of something but of somebody, who is a beginner himself. With the creation of man, the principle of beginning came into the world itself, which, of course, is only another way of saying the principle of freedom was created when man was created but not before.

2. De civitate Dei xii. 20.

3. According to Augustine, the two were so different that he used a different word to indicate the beginning which is man (initium), designating the beginning of the world by principium, which is the standard translation for the first Bible verse. As can be seen from De civitate Dei xi. 32, the word principium carried for Augustine a much less radical meaning; the beginning of the world “does not mean that nothing was made before (for the angels were),” whereas he adds explicitly in the phrase quoted above with reference to man that nobody was before him.

Next Up: Saturday April 15th and a 2020: Tax Day Disses Our Revolution and Abraham Lincoln.

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

Union 2016 Winter Finale: Gus Kotka and Johnny Reb Nowhere Evermore

3/19/2016

Gus Kotka and Johnny Reb Nowhere Ever

Winter series part 13 of 13

The pain of war cannot exceed
The woe of aftermath,
The drums will shake the castle wall,
The ring wraiths ride in black, ride on.

“- What about the Union Johnny?”
“It’s not well Gus.”
“How so?”
“No balance.”
“So we bring the balance back.”
“There’s an issue with that Yank.”
“We’ve handled things before Reb – what’s the deal?”
“I’m not the only composite spirit involved in this story.”
“You don’t say.”
“Right.”

Gus Kotka and Johnny Reb Nowhere More

“Well maybe it’s time to say.”
“You won’t like him Gus.”
“I didn’t like you at first Johnny.”
“True.”
“Is this composite spirit more than you?”
“No, just older – and still active.”
“Active?”
“Actively affecting the Union in a negative way.”
“That’s war.”
“Correct.”
“Waging war on the US Republic?”
“Yes.”
“Who Johnny?”
“He goes by the name Tory Crown.”

Gus Kotka and Johnny Reb Nowhere Continues

“Tory Crown?!”
“Yes.”
“Never heard of him.”
“No one has Gus.”
“He’s a composite spirit like you Johnny?”
“Yes.”
“Composite of what?”
“Those who support the Anti-Republic.”
“That’s how you know him.”
“We teamed up for a bit.”
“Four years.”
“A few more than that.”
“Before the war Johnny?”
“You’ve heard of the three-fifths clause.”
“Yes: it’s how slaves were counted in representation.”
“And …”
“And what?”
“Free people Gus: how were they to be represented?”

~.~ The Union 2016 series continues this summer, resuming on 19 June.

*Next Up: A trip-oriented pamphlet announcement on Tuesday 22 March.

Posted by Bryan W. Brickner

Whiskey220: Rebellion, Representation and Washington

10/10/2014

Star Spangled Banner Flag (15 Stars and Stripes)

Whiskey 220 ~ Part 1 of 3
The Whiskey Rebellion 1791-94: Western Pennsylvania

Transitions

Fifteen Stars and Stripes tell of a nation in transition. The new Republic’s first president, former general George Washington, signed a new flag law in January 1794. Basically, with the addition of Kentucky and Vermont into the Union, a new flag was needed. The Star Spangled Banner we all know, created by Congress in 1818, kept the 13 Stripes to honor the founding and added Stars for new States.

The flag wasn’t the only thing in transition, it’s just a good symbol for what was happening; the Revolutionary War won, the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union were over in eight years (1781-88), and the new US Constitution made the former colonies the world’s leading Republic ~ oh yeah, the French.

Napoleon Bonaparte

The French Republic (1792-1804) foretold itself in 1789 with the Storming of the Bastille; a young Napoleon Bonaparte watched in horror (he disliked the masses). There’s also the French Republic’s Reign of Terror, running its guillotine through September 1793 to July 1794. The terror stopped for a bit, then in 1799 Napoleon took over ~ and that ended in 1815 at the Battle of Waterloo.

The US Republic had a much milder situation involving citizens in 1794: the trouble was a federal whiskey tax on hooch. The citizens (many former revolutionaries) in the hills of four western Pennsylvania counties resisted; first with not paying the tax, then they accosted a Federal tax collector, then they took up arms …

That was enough for President Washington; as commander-in-chief he called on the State Militias to quell the rebellion. Four states, Pennsylvania, Maryland, New Jersey and Virginia began calling up their militias in support of the government.

US President George Washington

President Washington takes a ride west from Philadelphia to review the political and military developments; he wanted to see firsthand how things were going ~ and to participate as needed. On his journey, he kept notes.

It’s not all politics in President Washington’s Diaries; here we read of our president driving his carriage, feeding and tending horses, and socializing quite often. You also see a different side of Washington: his 18th century Rick Steves fellow traveller side. An example – Washington’s 13 October 1794 commentary on the Pennsylvania landscape:

“From Carlisle along the left Road, which I pursued, to be out of the March of the Army, and to avoid the inconvenience of passing the Waggons belonging to it; the Lands are but indifferent until we came within a few miles of Shippensburgh – The first part of a thin and dry Soil, succeeded by piney flats (not far from the South Mountain). For a few miles before we arrived in Shippensbg. the Lands were good, but uncultivated.”

Our president was also political in his diaries; on the 2nd of October President Washington met with two citizens, US Representative William Findley and lawyer David Reddick, who provided current word on the state of the insurrection. Representative Findley spoke for the sentiments of the rebellion; Reddick supported Findley and added a comment Washington made note of ~ one on citizen communication:

“He [Reddick] added, that for a long time after the riots commenced, and until lately, the distrust of one another was such, that even friends were afraid to communicate their sentiments to each other; That by whispers this was brought about; and growing bolder as they became more communicative they found their strength, and that there was a general disposition not only to acquiesce under, but to support the Laws – and he gave some instances also of Magistrates enforcing them.”

Yes ~ citizens communicating (first by whisper) in order to find their strength ~ let’s pickup there next time, and we’ll have President Washington sharing a coach with Virginia’s Governor Henry Lee III.

Next: Whiskey220 ~ Sunday 19 October.
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Video: The Whiskey Rebellion
~
Posted by Bryan W. Brickner

Aesop, Slavery and Usurpation ~ Juneteenth 2014

6/18/2014

Aesop ~ from Wikipedia user Shakko

War Cry Heal Union: The series (1 of 10)

Aesop ~ of Aesop’s Fables fame ~ was a slave.

Like the last slaves freed in the United States on 19 June 1865, Juneteenth, Aesop too had his freedom day. In his life he passed from owner to owner as a slave until his intellect won his freedom. Plutarch, a priest at Delphi, reports that after gaining his freedom Aesop was employed by King Croesus of Lydia. The king sent Aesop to Delphi to negotiate terms regarding Apollo’s oracle. The people of Delphi didn’t like Aesop’s talk ~ his logic ~ and took matters into their own hands. Plutarch reports the people of Delphi killed the famed-fabalist by forcing him over a cliff … more on Aesop in a moment.

A fable is a story with animals talking; civilization is a story with the animal human talking. The civilization story always begins with the same premise: things were once bad and then changed and people (tribes, clans, and nations) called it good; and always within the story of civilization, providing a seemingly visceral and vital role, is the slave. Essentially, civilization was designed by many and built by slaves.

Slavery is usurpation and usurpation is slavery. A citizen without rights is a slave; similar to a subject, they lack agency power to appeal to a higher law than the current sovereign. A (rightful) citizen, however, has agency to appeal to power in the form of written constitutions.

Freedom

On April 9th, Usurpation Day 2014, it was noted that slavery is the shadow of usurpation (rights taken without right) and couldn’t be dismissed from Greek or American history. Simply, slavery cannot be edited out of the fable known as the United States of America: as part of our heritage it is part of us. To wit: in telling America’s story of slavery, let’s tell it through symbols. There is a version of the Greek Athena atop our acropolis, the US Capitol; her name is Freedom and she was designed with America in mind. That being so, it’s not ironic she was born in 1863 in the middle of our Civil War and great citizenship debacle. It’s also not ironic the foreman (wage-earner) went on strike while building Freedom and would not complete the bronze statue: slaves completed Freedom.

Oh yeah ~ back to Aesop the slave. There are lots of thoughts on where he came from; some say a northern Dorian settlement on the Black Sea, some Phrygia in modern-day Turkey, and even others Ethiopia; most likely it looks like he hailed from the Samos and Miletus area on the Mediterranean coast of Turkey. This eternal debate is easily solved by genetic fiat: according to DNA, we’re all out of Africa.

Ah, there we are ~ Aesop the human.

Bonus Video
Aesop’s The Lion & The Mouse

Next up in the series War Cry Heal Union:
27 June 2014: War Cry ~ Cheatham’s Hill, 27 June 1864.

Posted by Bryan W. Brickner

War Cry Heal Union and Civil War Unknowns ~ Memorial Day 2014

5/25/2014

That’s Augustus Kotka from Indiana – his headstone I mean – acting as flag-bearer in the background. The foreground is the headstone for 9163, Unknown U.S. Soldier, Marietta National Cemetery.

This final resting place for northern citizen-soldiers caught-up in the War Between the States ~ the US Civil War 1861-65, might be considered a long way from home. Not necessarily though, as the flag they carried into battle had the Georgia star (and all other states in rebellion) still on it.

Not far away from Kotka and 9163, maybe a mile or so, is Marietta Confederate Cemetery. Here unknown citizen-soldiers dominate. The Union cemetery feels as if ten percent of the burials are unknown; this one feels like ninety percent.

The above headstone is for five unknown citizen-soldiers caught-up in the same debacle, our uncivil war. Two unknown citizens from Missouri and three fellows from Maryland interned far from what they might have considered home.

The war itself isn’t over if the wounds haven’t healed. We still have some healing to do in order to make a more perfect Union ~ one for all the people of We the People.

War Cry Heal Union
The Series
EwPublishing Summer 2014

Landings
Augustus Kotka gave a war cry on 11 August 1864; he was killed during the siege of Atlanta. It wasn’t a battle day. His death is noted in a diary from his unit, the 99th Indiana Regiment: it parenthetically states, “Augustus Kotka, Company C, killed.”

I found Kotka’s federal marker headstone in Pulaski County, IN; I then went to visit his burial headstone in Marietta National Cemetery.

This series began with the question, “Who killed Kotka?”

To get to that answer we’ll take a look at citizenship and representation; here I mean all citizens, future slaves to be citizens and also the southern citizens. In the series War Cry Heal Union, all the people of We the People are grouped together ~ northern and southern, for example, in the term “The Unrepresented.”

The series is outlined below and runs from 19 June to Constitution Day on 17 September. The ten postings vary in topics (ranging from war to peace to free speech) and build on James Madison’s idea that representing We the People according to our numbers is not only the American way ~ it’s our constitutional way.

This August is the 150th anniversary of Kotka’s final day in Georgia. Here is the opening to the August posting, “Johnny Reb and Gus Kotka Have a Talk” ~ and the full schedule for the series follows:

Johnny Reb: Whatcha’ wanna know Yank?

Augustus Kotka: Who killed me?

Johnny: That’s the same question for 150 years ~ with the same answer ~ you did.

Augustus: No, really, who got me shot?

Johnny: I did then.

Augustus: You always say that ~ this year things are different though …

~
War Cry Heal Union ~ The Series
JUNE
19 June 2014
Slavery is usurpation: usurpation is slavery.

27 June 2014
150th: War cry ~ 27 June 1864.

28 June 2014
100th: Empires crumble and Others build.

JULY
19 July 2014
Willy-Nicky and willy-nilly Emperors.

20 July 2014
150th: A Private, an Officer and a battle flag in Georgia, 20 July 1864.

27 July 2014
Factions heard not silenced: Henry Lee III, the Unrepresented and the First Amendment.

AUGUST
11 August 2014
150th: Johnny Reb and Gus Kotka ~ Georgia, 11 August 1864.

26 August 2014
Silent words: Napoleon, Johann Philipp Palm and 26 August 1806.

SEPTEMBER
16 September 2014
Virginian slavers at Harlem Heights NY: sacrifice and 16 September 1776.

17 September 2014
Constitution Day, Antietam and Heal Union ~ Sharpsburg MD: 17 September 1787, 1862 and 2014.

Happy Memorial Day All!
Bryan W. Brickner