Category: Usurpation - Bryan William 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

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

2020: Tax Day Disses Our Revolution and Abraham Lincoln

4/15/2017

"No Taxation Without Representation"

Someone who disrespects is showing respect for another value.

For instance, the phrase “No Taxation Without Representation” animated the American Revolution. Taxation without representation is what monarchs and other toughies do and value; representation with taxation is a republican value.

So when We the People are disrespected, that is taxed without constitutional representation according to numbers, a usurper is actually showing respect to a monarchic mentality that we can call anti-republican and anti-USA.

President Abraham Lincoln February 1865

The same dis is observable in having Tax Day and the day Abraham Lincoln died coincide: usurpers did that, not republicans.

One can say Lincoln saved our Republic from killing itself; having Tax Day on his death day shows a lack of humility on the part of the usurpers. Simply put, it is arrogance.

April 15th is a double Republic dis: taxation without representation and it mocks the accomplishments and sacrifice of Abraham Lincoln. We are, by the logic of this day, the Usurped States of America and not the united ones.

*Next Up: This Wednesday April 19th and some serotonin receptor science.

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

Republican Values: Gus Kotka and Johnny Reb On Our Way Constitutional Solutions

3/19/2017

Gus Kotka and Johnny Reb OOW One

Part 13 of 13

“What happens next Reb?”
“Forward.”
“I mean for We the People?”
“Forward.”
“Specifically.”
“There are constitutional solutions Gus.”
“Amendment.”
“For sure.”
“Amend what though?”
“The representation ratio in Article 1, Section 2, Clause 3.”
“It’s 2017.”
“Yes.”
“So 2020 is the next Enumeration.”
“Correct.”
“If Congress is going to make amends, they have to get started.”
“True: Article 1 certainly does not say Congress can set its own number of representatives for We the People.”
“That’s our birthright.”
“And that’s the usurpation.”

Gus Kotka and Johnny Reb OOW Two

“How many constitutional solutions are there Johnny?”
“Three.”
“So amend the representation ratio from thirty Thousand to a new number is one way.”
“Yes.”
“What else?”
“Completing the original Bill of Rights.”
“That sounds appealing.”
“Of course.”
“What does completing the Bill of Rights mean?”
“States voting for Article the first.”
“Okay.”
“Article the first would raise the ratio from thirty Thousand to fifty Thousand.”
“What’s its status?”
“Available.”
“Meaning?”
“Something like 27 states would have to pass it to become law.”
“Sounds easier than a new representation ratio.”
“It would be, and it would complete part of our founding.”
“The Bill of Rights.”
“Yes.”

Gus Kotka and Johnny Reb OOW Three

“What’s the third constitutional solution Reb?”
“Honor our founding and the founders’ creation, We the People.”
“By using the thirty Thousand in 2020.”
“That’s it.”
“And it got this way because of George?”
“He put the thirty Thousand in the Constitution.”
“Washington did?”
“It was forty Thousand until the last day of the Convention.”
“Then George ordered the change?”
“No, he requested it.”
“Okay.”
“They made the change on the spot.”
“Left their mark ‘eh?”
“Left a smudge on the Constitution.”
“Metaphor.”
“Appears so.”
“What day did George smudge our Constitution?”
“Seventeen September 1787.”
“Constitution Day.”
“Forward is as easy as one, two three Gus.”
“Johnny, we should shine some light on representation.”
“Indeed.”

*Next Up: 4 April and some spring and summer thoughts. Gus Kotka and Johnny Reb will begin again 17 September 2017 in Part II of Republican Values: On Our Way.

Posted by Bryan W. Brickner

Republican Values: Gus Kotka and Johnny Reb On Our Way Birthright

3/5/2017

Gus Kotka and Johnny Reb OOW Divided

Part 11 of 13

“We was born into usurpation, weren’t we Johnny?”
“We were.”
“That’s like being born into slavery.”
“Same power.”
“How’s that?”
“Same power that Plato was up against.”
“Might makes right.”
“Yes Yank.”
“So it’s always been something about the people.”
“Divide and conquer usually.”
“Ouch.”
“The people was sort of a derogatory phrase Gus.”
“Bad.”
“Slaveholders would even refer to their slaves as ‘the people.’”
“Like who?”
“Lee.”
“Robert E.?”
“It was common Gus.”
“A house divided against itself cannot stand.”
“Correct.”

Gus Kotka and Johnny Reb OOW House

“Lincoln.”
“1858.”
“Fifty-eight Reb?”
“When Lincoln was running for the Senate.”
“He lost.”
“And then won the presidency in 1860.”
“Did Lincoln coin the Divided House phrase?”
“No, Sam Houston used it.”
“Heard of him.”
“Texas Governor who wouldn’t rebel in 1860.”
“Who else?”
“Thomas Paine.”
“Common Sense.”
“Thomas Hobbes.”
“Never heard of him.”
“Saint Augustine.”
“Sounds vaguely familiar.”
“The Gospels.”
“Heard of them.”
“Mathew and Mark.”
“Oh my.”
“Lincoln was quoting Jesus Gus.”
“Smart man Johnny.”

Gus Kotka and Johnny Reb OOW United

“It mostly worked.”
“’Cept for the war.”
“Blame the usurpation.”
“Usurpation divides We the People.”
“That is its purpose Gus.”
“And today in 2017?”
“Worse.”
“Worse?”
“Worse as measured by the constitutional definition of We the People.”
“So our Republic prefers usurpation to constitutional representation?”
“Our Republic is stuck in usurpation.”
“Sounds like Tory Crown.”
“Correct Gus.”
“So to get America unstuck?”
“Use our exceptionalism.”
“Our exceptionalism?”

*Next Up: 12 March and part 12 of Republican Values: Gus Kotka and Johnny Reb On Our Way Census.

Posted by Bryan W. Brickner

Republican Values: Gus Kotka and Johnny Reb On Our Way Fork

2/26/2017

Gus Kotka and Johnny Reb OOW Paths

Part 10 of 13

“What do you make of this fork Reb?”
“Not much.”
“Which way is our way?”
“Both Gus.”
“Both?”
“Right.”
“Are we splitting up?”
“No.”
“Well two paths and two of us?”
“We’re staying together Gus.”
“Good.”
“Either path leads to where we’re going.”
“Virginia?”
“Constitutional representation.”
“Of We the People.”
“According to our numbers.”
“Thirty Thousand.”
“You got it Gus.”
“Which way though, you know, to Berryville?”
“Let’s move up and take a closer look.”
“Alright Reb.”

Gus Kotka and Johnny Reb OOW Nuances

“Better.”
“Still a fork and a question.”
“Both work Yank.”
“How?”
“Nuance.”
“New what.”
“Nuance – it means subtle difference.”
“So both ways lead to the same place.”
“Yes.”
“What is the nuance then?”
“Who is going to talk first?”
“About the usurpation?”
“Correct.”
“So the fork isn’t about you and me Reb.”
“No Gus.”
“Well let’s move forward and look.”
“Sure.”

Gus Kotka and Johnny Reb OOW Birthright

“Who is the fork for Johnny?”
“Usurpers.”
“President?”
“Yes.”
“Senators?”
“Yes.”
“Representatives?”
“Yes.”
“Governors?”
“You got it Yank.”
“Usurpers took our birthright, didn’t they Johnny.”
“They did.”
“Our very American birthright to constitutional representation.”
“Uniquely American Gus.”
“According to our numbers.”
“The birthright of We the People.”

*Next Up: 5 March and part 11 of Republican Values: Gus Kotka and Johnny Reb On Our Way Birthright.

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: Usurpation Day and Bruce Dold of the Chicago Tribune

4/9/2016

2020 Constitutional Representation

Pick a noise

Usurpation Day is a day of celebration: celebrate the gift of founders and not the take of usurpers.

Yield constitutional noise and usurpers become republicans.

Oh yeah, and “tribune” means a champion of the people.

*Next Up: 16-20 April, a 2020 Nietzsche Daybreak Walk.

Posted by Bryan W. Brickner

2020: Constitutional Representation is 1, 2, 3 and Seven-twenty

4/2/2016

2020 Constitutional Representation

Briefly, 2020 is about 1, 2, 3 and seven-twenty; unbriefly, meaning for the next 48 months, 2020 is about constitutional representation of We the People.

The “1, 2, 3” is our US Constitution, Article 1, Section 2, Clause 3; the “seven-twenty” is from the 7th Amendment and its twenty dollars.

Next Up: Usurpation Day 2016, Saturday 9 April, 2020 and Bruce Dold of the Chicago Tribune.

Posted by Bryan W. Brickner