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Johnny Reb and Gus Yank Berryvillin’: Usurpation Day 2021

4/9/2021

Johnny Reb and Gus Yank Berryvillin': Grace

Part V of XIII

“… Here we are Yank.”
“Reb, you never said how you knew the other day was The Day for George Washington’s thirty Thousand.”
“Knowbody said, ‘It is time.’”
“Right.”
“The 'time' Knowbody meant was this Congress taking the oath of office.”
“Since they now took the oath, they must now defend that oath.”
“As individuals, this group of legislators must choose.”
“Choose?”
“Do you support the US Constitution or the Usurpation?”
“Constitutionalist or Usurper?”
“You got it Yank.”
“What did the Speaker say Johnny?”
“Gave us a suggestion that’s being pursued.”
“What about the thirty Thousand?”
“We should look at what the Speaker didn’t say Gus.”
“The Speaker didn’t refute the thirty Thousand.”
“Correct.”
“Bob said something about giving that might help us.”
“What did Marley say?”
“’How could you ever give your more to receive your less?’”
“Misty Morning.”
“No, just a bit smoky.”
“Bob was talking about the sun, and, in speaking to you, might have meant you too.”
“The sun just keeps giving.”
“It does.”
“I was thinking of George Washington’s thirty Thousand, and how it also gives more than it receives.”
“True.”
“Why did you think of me?”
“I imagine Bob enjoyed meeting you, someone like Augustus Kotka, KIA 11 August 1864.”
“I hear ya.”
“You did something that changed lives.”
“Moving on Reb.”
“Gus, you gave more than you received.”
“Is that Grace I hear calling Johnny?”
“After you friend.”
“With Grace …”

Next Up: 31 May and part VI of the series Johnny Reb and Gus Yank Berryvillin’: Memorials.

Posted by Bryan W. Brickner

Johnny Reb and Gus Yank Berryvillin’: Inaugurations

1/20/2021

Johnny Reb and Gus Yank Berryvillin': Inaugurations

Part IV of XIII

“… I’ll wait.”
“Wait’s over Yank.”
“You mean today’s the day?”
“Yes.”
“Did Tell-Lie-Vision show it Johnny?”
“Tell-Lie-Vision showed the consequences of the representation usurpation.”
“But no George Washington’s thirty Thousand?”
“Correct.”
“Then what happened?”
“The Speaker of the House has been contacted.”
“About the thirty Thousand?”
“Yes.”
“And?”
“Let’s give it a bit.”
“So you’re saying let’s wait to see what the Speaker says?”
“Yes.”
“What should we do in the meantime?”
“Grace.”
“Let’s go ~ touching elbows Reb.”
“Touching elbows Yank …”

Speaker of the US House of Representatives,

Peace to the United States of America. The US Constitution, in Article 1 Section 2 Clause 3, guarantees We the People representation in the House of Representatives at the ratio of one for every thirty Thousand: this is not what happens. This representation usurpation is unconstitutional, against the expressed wish of George Washington, and undermines We the People. Please address this issue with the power of the Speaker’s office and your spirit of perseverance.

A citizen,
Bryan W. Brickner

Next Up: Usurpation Day 2021 and part V of the series Johnny Reb and Gus Yank Berryvillin’: Grace.
Posted by Bryan W. Brickner

Johnny Reb and Gus Yank Berryvillin’: Constitution Day 2020

9/17/2020

Johnny Reb and Gus Yank Berryvillin': Constitution Day 2020

Part I of XIII

“Yank?”
“Here Johnny.”
“Happy Constitution Day.”
“Again already?”
“Yup.”
“Happy Constitution Day Johnny.”
“Where’ve you been?”
“Remember that gentleman singing ‘Get Up, Stand Up’?”
“Stand up for your rights.”
“I’ve been with him.”
“You’ve been hanging with Bob Marley?”
“Bob, yeah.”
“What’d you two do?”
“He had smoke.”
“You smoked with Marley?”
“Quite a bit actually.”
“How was the smoke?”
“Sweet.”
“Sweet?”
“He said it was Jamaican.”
“Sweet indeed.”
“I thought so too.”
“How much did you smoke?”
“He had a bag.”
“Gus … it’s been nearly a year.”
“Amazingly Johnny, the bag never went empty.”
“Eternally full?”
“Overflowing even.”
“Did you and Marley talk?”
“Lots – Bob was generous in conversation too.”
“About?”
“I talked about our times, up ‘til August of ’64 … and I explained you and me and what we’re up to, the thirty Thousand and all.”
“What did Marley talk of?”
“The 1960s mostly, and Jah.”
“What’d ya think?”
“I made mention that it sounded like the 1960s could have used George Washington and the thirty Thousand.”
“They didn’t know about that spirit.”
“That’s what Bob said.”
“People now know.”
“That’s what I said.”
“What else?”
“Bob said he lived into his thirties like me.”
“True.”
“You go Johnny: what’ve you been up to?”
“Thinking about what Knowbody said.”
“Do tell Reb …”

*Next Up: 24 October and part II of the series Johnny Reb and Gus Yank Berryvillin’: Knowbody.
Posted by Bryan W. Brickner

Usurpation Day 2020: Jesus, George and Tyranny

4/9/2020

Grace is an attribute of Jesus.

The I Ching describes grace as: inside, the strength of simplicity and self-knowledge, outside, the beauty of acceptance and gentleness.

On 9 April 1792, the US House of Representatives couldn’t override President Washington’s veto, so they usurped a right of We the People.

On 9 April 2020, the usurped right to representation according to numbers effects all We the People.

If one uses sex, females are the most underrepresented in the House, composing 51 percent of We the People and only 23 percent representation.

If one uses economics, the middle and lower classes are the most underrepresented.

If one uses constitutionalism, representatives of We the People supporting President Washington and the thirty Thousand are the most underrepresented.

We are no longer a republic: this is tyranny.

End the representation usurpation to become a republic again.

*Next Up: Constitution Day 2020 with Johnny Reb and Gus Yank Berryvillin’.

Posted by Bryan W. Brickner

2020: Jesus of Nazareth was a liberal, and so was George Washington

1/3/2020

Jesus of Nazareth, son of Marium, was a liberal.

Noah (Nuh) was a conservative, someone who said thou has strayed and chastisement will follow.

George Washington was a liberal.

So here We the People are: Jesus and George, our guiding liberal spirits for a blessed and constitutional 2020.

*Next Up: Usurpation Day.

Posted by Bryan W. Brickner

2020: Jefferson Davis Knew, So Why Don’t You?

11/3/2019

Jefferson Davis knew, so Lincoln knew.

Since Lincoln knew, Grant knew.

Since Grant knew, Wilson knew.

Since Wilson knew, Roosevelt knew.

Since Roosevelt knew, Kennedy knew.

Since Kennedy knew, …

So ask yourself: Since Jefferson Davis knew how to represent We the People like George Washington and the founders, why don’t you?

*Next Up: 3 January 2020 and a 2020.

Posted by Bryan W. Brickner

Johnny Reb and Gus Yank Revisit Mount Horeb: Thomas Sumpter (also Sumter)

10/3/2019

Johnny Reb and Gus Yank RMH: Thomas Sumpter (also Sumter)

Part 10 of 13

“… Cannon without carriage.”
“Battle’s over.”
“There’s another thing about 9 April 1792 Gus.”
“What Johnny?”
“Fort Sumter.”
“What about Fort Sumter?”
“The fort was named after Thomas Sumpter.”
“With a P?”
“Yes.”
“Who’s he?”
“American revolutionary.”
“Knew Morgan?”
“Definitely, as Sumpter was from Virginia and, like Morgan, fought the British in South Carolina.”
“What’s Sumpter got to do with Usurpation Day?”
“Sumpter was in the House with Gerry.”
“Representing Virginia?”
“South Carolina.”
“Go on.”
“The British general Morgan defeated at Cowpens gave Sumpter a nickname.”
“What?”
“Carolina Gamecock.”
“Fighter.”
“Thomas Sumpter voted Against the usurpation on 9 April.”
“Supported Washington’s veto.”
“And the Constitution.”
“Unlike Gerry.”
“Fact.”
“And then you rebels, ordered by Jefferson Davis, fire on Sumpter’s namesake, Fort Sumter.”
“April 1861.”
“What’s the Latin mean?”
“This is about Cowpens.”
“Duci Ex- I can’t make it out Reb.”
“Duci Exercitis … Translates as leader of armies (or army leader).”
“Who’s the native?”
“Uh … let’s step over here.”
“Why Reb? …”

*Next Up: 6 October and part 11 of Johnny Reb and Gus Yank Revisit Mount Horeb: Hellenistic.

Posted by Bryan W. Brickner

Johnny Reb and Gus Yank Revisit Mount Horeb: Truths

9/26/2019

Johnny Reb and Gus Yank RMH: Tell

Part 6 of 13

“… Here we are Reb.”
“Perfect.”
“Almost.”
“What Yank?”
“No goddess.”
“Like before.”
“Slab’s still there.”
“And Thunderbolt’s in the shadows.”
“Reb – what were you gonna say about Tell-Lie-Vision and the thirty Thousand?”
“That Tell-Lie-Vision is now our ally.”
“It wasn’t?”
“No.”
“Why now Reb?”
“It needs the truth.”
“It tells lies with visions.”
“Yet lies need truths.”
“An example.”

Johnny Reb and Gus Yank: Lie

“Camp life Gus.”
“Rife with rumors.”
“Twenty-four seven.”
“Things that disturb.”
“And entertain.”
“With nonsense.”
“Those are Tells Gus.”
“The camp takes on the Tells.”
“Everyone gets all Telled-up.”
“And then?”
“The Tell becomes real.”
“The Lie becomes real Reb.”
“Correct.”
“Camp gets mutinous.”
“Sound familiar?”
“Does Johnny.”

Johnny Reb and Gus Yank RMH: Vision

“Then the Vision.”
“Like fire you said.”
“Spreads like that Gus.”
“And?”
“The whole camp gets to believing the Lie.”
“A correction coming.”
“That’s how Tell-Lie-Vision will help us in the future.”
“Sounds like a fulcrum.”
“Nice.”
“And the Lies have the Truths stuck in the air.”
“And all constitutional questions begin and end with the thirty Thousand.”
“It’s We the People Reb.”
“It’s the Electoral College Yank.”
“The Seventh Amendment.”
“Article the first of the Bill of Rights.”
“The first veto and Usurpation Day.”
“And 17 September.”
“Good thinking Reb.”
“Thanks Yank.”
“Where’d our sign go?”
“The goddess?”
“Yeah …”

*Next Up: 27 September and part 7 of Johnny Reb and Gus Yank Revisit Mount Horeb: Daniel Morgan.

Posted by Bryan W. Brickner

United We Stand 2020: Part 2 of Hannah Arendt, American Greatness and Constitutio Libertatis

7/20/2019

George Hammer and Ida Schiekoff's Wedding Day

Celebrate the Seventh Amendment on 7/20

Whatever great means, it includes the idea of something worth passing on.

George Hammer, my maternal great-grandfather, was born American from German immigrants.

George’s mother was born in Massbach, Bavaria, Germany and immigrated to the United States and Illinois’ Jo Daviess County with her family as a teenager in 1865.

George’s father came here as a five-year old from Zeitfeld Province, Germany (which is hard to find on a map) in the early 1850s as part of an immigrant family of five; they stayed with fellow Mennonites in New York for three years before homesteading in Jo Daviess County.

The land both families homesteaded was available because of the end of “Indian” hostilities in Illinois after the Black Hawk War. I’ve published a pamphlet that excerpts an Illinois history book (1878) with some details on how that war started and ended: see Fire-Water Ignites Black Hawk War of 1832 (and other things).

George, Ida and family (around 1920)

George wrote a few letters to a German woman in Canada named Ida Schiekoff; Ida was born in Arnhausen, Germany (in 1945 the village became Lipie, Poland) and immigrated to Canada as an 18 year-old in 1891. The two met by reading the same German newspaper and became pen pals. George then went to meet Ida and her family in Canada a couple of times; they soon got engaged, married, and moved to the family farm in Illinois. They lived a simple farm life, nothing fancier than good shelter and plenty of food, as there wasn’t any extra coin. Money showed up later, in the next generation, when their son and my grandfather, Willis (the child in the picture without a jacket), told me they started making money off the farm by selling surplus milk.

Maybe right there is a glimpse of the constitutional right within the Seventh Amendment and why it is there; it isn’t written for the rich in coin, or they would have used it: it’s there for the poor. It’s also constitutionally connected to the thirty Thousand, as the usurpation has organized the judiciary and our American sense of justice; the time to review (and amend) the Seventh Amendment, thus bringing to life its constitutional social justice bearing, is when We the People are represented according to numbers (say in 2021 or ‘22).

The same commentator that noted Arendt’s Constitutio Libertatis and honoring of the founders, also pointed out that she only thought the founders were a partial success; that is because, according to the commentator, the founders didn’t create space for We the People to participate. I don’t agree and think the evidence, our Constitution, shows otherwise; the thirty Thousand, the Enumeration, and the Seventh Amendment do provide ways for citizens to participate in their government at a “local” federal level via small districts augmented every ten years. It’s the usurpers fault, not the founders, who are keeping We the People from our constitutional greatness: us too, the people, as we haven’t shown vigilance until now.

Great means that something is worthy of being passed on, of giving to others as a legacy. The former Germans Hannah Arendt and Ida Schiekoff, and the children of German immigrants, like George Hammer, left us an American legacy. American immigrants are greater than the usurpers, and the usurpation of our right to representation, according to numbers, keeps us from our constitutional legacy … and that ain’t great America.

*Next Up: 17 September, US Constitution Day 2019, and Johnny Reb and Gus Yank Revisit Mount Horeb.

Posted by Bryan W. Brickner

2020: Part 1 of Hannah Arendt, American Greatness and Constitutio Libertatis

6/9/2019

American Greatness

Hannah Arendt said she wasn’t German.

The Germans didn’t want her anymore, ‘cuz, you know, they went nuts.

Why’d they go nuts?

One reason for sure is that American greatness was ignored.

Ask yourself, “How did Hitler come to power?” And the answer has to include the constitution Woodrow Wilson offered to Germany at the end of World War I.

Why didn’t Wilson offer the Germans a constitution like ours, like the one George Washington and the founders made?

Where’s the thirty Thousand?

Where’s the Enumeration?

Not in Wilson’s constitutional offering, so how could it be great? This is no small matter, given what happened to Hannah Arendt and millions of others.

When Arendt got to America she wrote about revolution. One commentator noted something new about her thoughts: “The new paradigmatic political actors are the American Founders, whose debates and deliberations concerning the drafting and adoption of the Constitution are presented by Arendt as every bit as exemplary as anything in Homer or Thucydides.”

As exemplary as anything in Homer or Thucydides: in other words, American greatness is not found in the boom-boom of rebellion and the 4th of July; American greatness is found in the law of revolution, the US Constitution, and 17 September.

*Next Up: A celebration of the 7th Amendment on 7/20 with Part 2 of Hannah Arendt, American Greatness and Constitutio Libertatis.

Posted by Bryan W. Brickner