Category: Constitution

The Turn of We the People: Not Yet Named

8/25/2026

Riley Kingen and John Brown

5/13

Was I the only casualty on 11 August?
Book says Rebs killed Augustus Kotka.
We saw that.
And two others wounded during a night of skirmishing.
Names?
Riley Kingen and John Brown.
John Brown?
Imagine that.
Quite the name after 1859.
You Yanks had a Jefferson C. Davis.
From Indiana.
Infamous too.
Shot and killed a fellow officer Johnny.
Did.
Because of an insult.
A lot like our Jeff.
Unless you deferred.
Jeff was always quick to fight.
Go figure.

A Higher Power

It was an issue.
For all of us Johnny.
During our times people spoke of a higher power.
Got caned in the Senate for it.
And murdered in Kansas for it.
That's why it was bleeding.
We didn't turn our problems over to the constitutional higher power.
The thirty Thousand.
Our not yet named Gus.
And already is.
The not yet named is the answer.
To every political question.
Taxes.
War.
Debt.
Justice.
Homelessness.
Immigration.
Not In the name of the Usurped States of America.

Windows

Rather Reb.
Rather in the name of We the People.
Represented as the founders taught.
Which would then be the United States of America.
Teach.
United and not Usurped States.
Like looking out an old window.
And seeing things new.
Name the thirty Thousand Johnny.
Say it.
And begin to solve problems.
Like who are We?
And what are We gonna do?
Doesn't matter who wins an election if it is a usurpation election.
One usurper replacing a usurper.
Is still a usurper.
We the People, represented as the Constitution dictates, that is our is.
First order Yank.
Our not yet named.

*Next Up: 1 September part 6/13 The Turn of We the People: Forward.

Posted by Bryan W Brickner / Support the US Constitution

The Return of We the People: Righteousness

7/1/2026

Acquiescence

13/13

How’s your stomach Reb?
Almost there.
We had a madness flip.
And a sadness flip.
Most pancakes take at least three flips Johnny.
Righteousness.
Teach.
It is wrong.
The 435?
I mean how no one speaks publicly Yank.
Silence is acquiescence.
And it is wrong.
We have the right to petition.
We can read.
We can ask.
We can do.
The Constitution was written for a simple audience Johnny.
It was read before fireplaces and around tables.

Self-evident

In fancy rooms and log cabins.
Wherever Americans gathered.
No one needed a lawyer.
Righteous.
No one needed a Supreme Court.
Righteous.
Because constitutional representation was self-evident.
Is.
We don't need a court to tell us it says two Senators per state.
Manifest Yank.
The Constitution is wisdom to the mighty.
And succour to the brave.
Elbridge being back is a sign needed Reb.
He represents someone who denied the thirty Thousand on Usurpation Day.
An original Usurpecan.
And someone who comes back to the Republic.

For the duration

Like Lee.
Longstreet and Mosby too Yank.
Seems Lincolnesque.
The returning.
Righteousness is more than being right.
Rooted in justice.
It is a commitment.
For the duration.
Victory.
Madness, sadness, and righteousness Gus.
Feelings Johnny.
Nice to feel again.
If your stomach flipping is a sign, what would it mean?
Some kind of turn.
For?
We the People.

*Next up: 31 July 2026 (part 1/13) The Turn of We the People.

Posted by Bryan W. Brickner / Support the US Constitution

The Return of We the People: Madness

6/29/2026

Contemnation

11/13

Aloha!
Madness Yank.
Let it out Reb.
Jeff and the rebellion and George.
You and I give George a negative for being a slaver.
Jeff hailed it.
We hail 1776 Independence George.
Jeff too.
We hail thirty Thousand George.
Jeff showed contemnation.
Which turned into treason.
Correct Gus.
That makes George a plus one for us and Jeff.
Just a different plus one.
Part of the madness Reb?
Well, I mean old-fashioned smoke coming-out-my-ears madness Yank.
Not insane madness?

Hubbard v. Lowe (1915)

Mad like George the Mason would be.
Just count We the People.
And divide by thirty Thousand.
Or less Johnny.
Or less Gus, as the Constitution says shall not exceed.
How simple.
Make a machine do it Yank.
Very 21st century.
The thirty Thousand has the same meaning in all parts of the United States.
Sacred Johnny.
It cannot give way to the spirit of contemnation in the Supreme Court any more than it can yield to the sin of usurpation and treason in the Legislative and Executive.
We the People.
And the rule of law.
A law made outside the law is never a law at all.
According to America's founders and the Supreme Court.
Can you name a legal precedent Johnny?
Hubbard v. Lowe (1915).

See Something, Say Something

This room is bigger than most cabins we grew up in.
It's one of many on the tour.
Reb, the thirty Thousand falls under the timeless rule of See Something, Say Something.
The thirty Thousand precedes the Bill of Rights.
So it made things like the Second Amendment.
Celebrate.
See that door stain.
Do.
Betsey and James would have been See Something, Say Something on that.
Efficient like a soldier.
The door too.
Say more Gus.
The way we become who we think we should be passing from one room to another.
We hail ourselves.
Betsey and James would be thinking something.
Then pause before opening this door.
Who am I?
Inside, free thoughts Yank.
Outside, Jeff's servant slave thoughts.
Madness.

*Next up: 30 June (part 12/13) The Return of We the People: Sadness.

Posted by Bryan W. Brickner / Support the US Constitution

The Return of We the People: thirty Thousand

6/15/2026

Deja vu

9/13

Deja vu Reb.
Over and over Yank.
We skipped by George earlier.
Jeff and the rebels didn't.
George the slaver.
The South liked that and George of Independence.
Not so much George and the thirty Thousand.
Nor the three fifths.
That surprises Reb.
Shows our (the South) Anti-republic side.
Contemnation.
Exactly.
Why?
The thirty Thousand helps the locals.
Jeff didn't want to help the locals?
Jeff wanted slavery to expand Yank.
Control the seats.
More representation means more types of people.
People like us.
We the People Gus.

Three fifths

When did the thirty Thousand enter the constitutional debate?
When discussing the right to suffrage.
How early Reb?
It was the second week, 11 June 1787.
And the three fifths clause?
Same day.
What did the founders vote to do?
To move to an equitable ratio of representation.
Instead of equal representation?
Yes.
No more one vote per state Reb.
The three fifths clause was part of who counted.
Who counted?
White and Black people.
What did it say exactly Johnny?

Ever higher

‘That the right to suffrage in the first branch be according to the whole number of white and three fifths of the other inhabitants.’
No untaxed Indians yet?
Nor the language of free and all other Persons Gus.
The three fifths is what set Elbridge off.
The three fifths had been used to tax slaveholders for their property.
Meaning a two fifths tax reduction for said property, a Black person?
Correct Yank.
When?
Four years earlier, in 1783.
Familiar to the founders.
And not a single founder would've accepted the stunting logic of 435.
Shall we proceed Johnny?
Let's.
Goddess yes?
Plural.
Ever higher …

*Next up: 22 June (part 10/13) The Return of We the People: Comedy and Tragedy.

Posted by Bryan W. Brickner / Support the US Constitution

The Return of We the People: Bob and Elbridge

4/20/2026

Jeff and Varina

2 of 13

Jeffy Johnny.
And Varina.
Sounds like Marina.
Correct.
Grapes of wrath.
Say more Gus.
“Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.”
“He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored.”
Grapes of wrath.
The oppressed.
The enslaved.
We the People.
The hymn is about freeing the oppressed, about ending slavery.
Davis thought God was on his side.
Don't we all?
What's on your mind Yank?
Bob and Elbridge.
Go on.
Why them two?

Bob

We met them both along the way.
Bob in Berryville.
Elbridge in DC.
Yet why them two Johnny?
Bob was singing Misty Morning.
We only heard him.
In a cemetery with Johnny Rebs.
Shepherdstown, West Virginia.
Then again in Berryville Gus.
Bob told us about rights in the 1960s.
And you represented Yanks in the 1860s.
Til ‘64.
The Wretched of the Earth, Marley taught us that too.
More like taught you Reb.
You get it: it's about the oppressed.
Grapes again.
We are war signs Gus.
Soldiers.
Bob soldiers too.
For peace.
In our way, so did we.

Elbridge

And Elbridge?
Gerry found us Gus.
We were in DC.
Viewing the original Constitution.
And this colonial dude walks up.
Asking what we know about the smudge.
Kind of a Knowbody.
Kind of.
I thought Elbridge was a prop Johnny, like part of the show.
Tour guide even.
Then he starts in on you: “I can't believe you killed him over something I did.”
That was the beginning.
And now Elbridge supports the thirty Thousand.
‘Merican.
Gerry wants his due Reb.
Gerry wants to be known.
For more than ‘mandering.
What a hoot.
Elbridge.
Step to the left Gus.
Sure.

Next up: 27 April (part 3/13) The Return of We the People: Steps and Doorways

Posted by Bryan W. Brickner

Usurpation Day 2024: Nine Truths

4/9/2024

The thirty Thousand and Article the first of the Bill of Rights

Nine truths in honor of the truth that is Usurpation Day, 9 April 1792.

Four about the 435:
1. Constitutional Convention: No.
2. The Federalist Papers: No.
3. Ratified: No.
4. Constitutional: No.

Four about the thirty Thousand:
1. Constitutional Convention: Yes (Article I).
2. The Federalist Papers: Yes (55-58).
3. Ratified: Yes (all 50 states).
4. Constitutional: Yes.

And the ninth truth: Surrender to the Constitution.

Welcome home,
Bryan

Posted by Bryan W. Brickner

Usurpation Day 2023: The Raving, 5 NOV 44, and Nevermore

4/9/2023

The Raving Poe Rowe

1
Usurpation Day was born 9 April 1792 in Philadelphia Pennsylvania.

Clifford “Tippy” E. Rowe was born 22 April 1923 in Shullsburg Wisconsin.

The Raving
By A. E. Poe or C. E. Rowe

Once upon a mission dreary,
When of combat I’ve grown weary,
I had flown a thousand hours
And was sure to fly some more.
When suddenly there came a knocking,
Sounded like some ack-ack popping –
Popping like the very devil
Just beneath my bomb-bay doors.

T’is some Jerry quickly tho’t I
Wishing to improve his score.
I will use evasive tactics
Even if he does get sore.
Turning then I saw before me
Blacker now than ere before
Ack ack bursting close and heavy
Guess I’d better turn some more.

Opening wide I swung the bomb-bay doors
And to my surprise and horror
Flashing fast and bright beneath me
Were some hundred guns or more.
And above the shrapnel shrieking
When they told us with much speech
That there were only three or four.

Shullsburg Missing Rowe

2
At the end of WWI, US President Woodrow Wilson presented defeated Germany with a constitution, one unlike ours; it did not represent people according to numbers, like George Washington and the founders intended: Wilson's plan was an epic failure and catalyst for Hitler and the Nazis.

Clifford Rowe graduates from Shullsburg High School in May 1940 with valedictorian honors, the same month Hitler invades Belgium, the Netherlands and France. Tippy joins the Army Air Corps in ‘42 and becomes a navigator for the B-17 bomber; he trains in Texas and leaves for Europe in June 1944.

Leveling then I made a bomb run
Which was not a very long one
For the Varsity was on duty
And I’d seen their work before.
Then an engine coughed and clattered
And the glass around me splattered
Then I knew they had my number
Just my number, nothing more.

Then at last the bombs were toggled
And alone away I hobbled
With some fifty-seven inches
And a feathered number four.
While outside like ducks migrating
Was a drove of ME’s waiting –
Waiting all with itching fingers
Just to finish up my score.

I had lost my upper turret
And now alone, defenseless, worried
I was the saddest creature
Mortal woman ever bore.
And now each bright and beaming traces
Coming nearer, ever nearer,
Made my spirit sink within me
Just my spirit, nothing more.

Clifford "Tippy" E. Rowe 1923-44

3
Usurpation Day is a day of remembrance for those who serve for the duration even when they are torn and tattered, nerves completely shattered.

Tippy Rowe didn’t want to be a bomber anymore and yet kept being a bomber. That’s a spirit of perseverance in the face of death: just my number, nothing more, just my spirit, nothing more.

Lt. Rowe was killed on 5 Nov 1944 while on a bombing raid over Mannheim Germany; the B-17 he was in was hit by anti-aircraft fire, went out of control, into a spin, and was nevermore.

Then at last to my elation
I caught up to my formation
And the ME’s turned and left me
By the tens and by the score.
But my wings were torn and tattered
And my nerves completely shattered
And as far as I’m concerned
The war is over, forevermore.

Now I’ve found the joy of living
And my secret I am giving
To the rest of those among you
Who might care to live some more.
For my sinus starts to seeping
Everytime they mention briefing
No more flying, no more combat
No more missions, Nevermore???????

Posted by Bryan W. Brickner

Usurpation: America’s We the People Represented According to Numbers Law is a Tool for Conviviality

3/6/2023

Tools for Conviviality by Ivan Illich

A 1973 book, Tools for Conviviality by Ivan Illich, argues our dream was to build machines to replace slaves, and instead we have become enslaved to machines.

“To formulate a theory about a future society both very modern and not dominated by industry, it will be necessary to recognize natural scales and limits. We must come to admit that only within limits can machines take the place of slaves; beyond these limits they lead to a new kind of serfdom. Only within limits can education fit people into a manmade environment: beyond these limits lies the universal schoolhouse, hospital ward, or prison.” (xii)

Fifty years on and Illich is still apt.

“The foreseeable catastrophe will be a true crisis – that is, the occasion for a choice – only if at the moment it strikes the necessary social demands can be effectively expressed. They must be represented by people who can demonstrate that the breakdown of the current industrial illusion is for them a condition for choosing an effective and convivial mode of production. The preparation of such groups is the key task of new politics at the present moment.” (114, bold added)

Illich argues the available convivial tool: “can only be the formal structure of politics and law.” (115)

Our foreseeable catastrophe is the true crisis of We the People not being represented according to numbers.

Our politics is the usurpation and its supporters.

Our law is Article 1, Section 2, Clause 3 of the US Constitution … and its supporters.

The choice is between usurpation, which is the law of rule, and the US Constitution, which is the rule of law.

Choose.

Posted by Bryan W. Brickner

Johnny Reb and Gus Yank Somewhere: Usurpation Day 2022

4/9/2022

Johnny Reb and Gus Yank Somewhere: Usurpation Day 2022

Part VIII of XIII

“… It’s Usurpation Day Johnny.”
“It is Gus.”
“Two hundred and thirty years ago …”
“Keep going.”
“George vetoed a bill.”
“The young nation’s first.”
“Because Congress used the thirty Thousand in Article 1 but dropped the remainder, the fraction.”
“The Constitution says ‘shall not exceed.’”
“And Washington said they did.”
“True.”
“Congress couldn’t override George’s veto?”
“Correct.”
“So then what Johnny?”
“On 9 April 1792, Elbridge Gerry and others voted a new representation bill, one that used thirty-three thousand instead of thirty.”
“A number not in Article 1.”
“Nor one ratified by the states.”
“Making today, 9 April, the usurpation’s date of birth.”
“An end date is needed.”
“Amen Johnny.”
“To the bridge Gus.”
“To the bridge …”

Next Up: 12 April and part IX of the series Johnny Reb and Gus Yank Somewhere: Bridge.

Posted by Bryan W. Brickner

Johnny Reb and Gus Yank Berryvillin’: Front

10/22/2021

Johnny Reb and Gus Yank Berryvillin': Telling

Part XIII of XIII

“… Here Yank?”
“Thanks Reb, I just …”
“Felt it too Gus.”
“I want to judge Benjamin Berry.”
“We must.”
“Then who judges us?”
“The present.”
“We didn’t treat women right Johnny.”
“We laughed when the idea of women voting was mentioned.”
“Derision.”
“Think of the flag here Gus, and how I once saw it.”
“Enemy.”
“And now?”
“Friend.”
“How’s that possible?”
“A higher value.”
“We the People.”
“We the People.”
“Represented according to numbers.”
“Our thirty Thousand.”
“Some southerners moved away, to places like Illinois and Indiana, to get away from slavery.”
“Burnside Johnny, his father, after the Revolution, moved from South Carolina to Liberty Indiana.”
“Telling.”
“Speaking of telling …”

Johnny Reb and Gus Yank Berryvillin': Somewhere

“… Arnold Burnside reminded me of our Somewhere unfinished business.”
“Ambrose.”
“Arnold to me.”
“Your laughing crow.”
“And Morgan said to start in Berryville.”
“We have started.”
“Now to finish.”
“Correct.”
“I think that means we go see the smudge.”
“I think so too Yank.”
“From here let’s poof over to Somewhere first, and then to DC.”
“I have a starting Somewhere place in mind.”
“Can we slow-poof it to Somewhere?”
“You want to walk through the Valley?”
“The Shenandoah Valley Reb.”
“Right on.”
“Walk-off some of this Berryvillin’.”
“I like it.”
“Let’s go to Harper’s Ferry.”
“And up to Shepherdstown from Halltown.”
“A.P. Hill’s march.”
“Then we’ll cross the Potomac Yank.”
“Garland?”
“On board seems.”
“Oh my Johnny ~ thanks for the Berryville time.”
“Berryvillin’ ~ thanks Gus.”

Next Up: 22 March 2022 and part one of the series Johnny Reb and Gus Yank Somewhere: Georgia Overlook.

Posted by Bryan W. Brickner