"Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." John 8:32... and also chiseled into the marble entrance of the CIA Central Intellegience Agency... how's that for irony!
Most of what you believe about your government is a lie, an elaborate illusion to keep you ignorant of the truth. To the extent to which you buy their lies and the propaganda of the major media you are deluding yourself. "None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free." Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
So, citizen, are you going to take the blue pill or the red pill ? As Morpheus said, "all I offer is the truth and nothing more".
In great empires the people who live in the capital, and in the provinces remote from the scene of action, feel, many of them, scarce any inconveniency from the war; but enjoy, at their ease, the amusement of reading in the newspapers the exploits of their own fleets and armies.... They are commonly dissatisfied with the return of peace, which puts an end to their amusement, and to a thousand visionary hopes of conquest and national glory from a longer continuance of the war. Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations
The general rule is that an unconstitutional statute, though having the form and the name of law, is in reality no law, but is wholly void and ineffective for any purpose since unconstitutionality dates from the time of its enactment and not merely from the date of the decision so branding it; an unconstitutional law, in legal contemplation, is as inoperative as if it had never been passed... An unconstitutional law is void. (16 Am. Jur. 2d, Sec. 178)
“Nationalism does nothing but teach you to hate people you never met, and to take pride in accomplishments you had no part in.” Doug Stanhope
There's a fine line between the American dream and the American nightmare. Don Henley
You can avoid reality, but you cannot avoid the consequences of avoiding reality. - Ayn Rand
Most of the trouble in the world is caused by people wanting to be important. ~ T. S. Eliot
Patriotism is when love of your own people comes first; nationalism when hate for people other than your own comes first. Charles De Gaulle
The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out... without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos. Almost inevitably he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane, intolerable. - H. L. Mencken

FCC leadership refuses to let public see new internet regulation

There is a lot of attention being paid to the FCC rules that are currently being proposed regarding control of the Internet, and it is noted that such rules are not available to the public.  The Administrative Procedures Act requires all agency rules to be published in the Federal Register 30 days before they become effective.  There are lots of cases where agencies did not publish them 30 days in advance of their effective date and the courts held such rules not to be effective.

One such case is Natural Resources Defense Council v. Abraham, 355 F.3d 179, 206 (2nd Cir. 2004), which dealt with the effective date of certain regs, many being published, then altered, and the dates changed.  That court of appeals held, "Therefore, because the February 2 delay was promulgated without complying with the APA's notice-and-comment requirements, and because the final rule failed to meet any of the exceptions to those requirements, it was an invalid rule." This case may be read here.

Since these FCC rules have obviously not been published in the Federal Register, they cannot have any force and will be invalid.

Birth certificate argument

For a number of years, there have been floating around various arguments about birth certificates. About 5 years ago, I encountered this argument and watched for courts to address this baseless, numbskull argument. I attach one such case where a party raised this issue and the court addressed it.

The only value of birth certificates is to prove that we are citizens. They have no commercial value, such certificates are not sold as securities, and there certainly is no market where these financially valueless pieces of paper are sold.

I have concluded that those who promote this argument are either scammers or govt agents wishing to mislead people and get them into trouble.

Brief comments about the Common Law

Today, much of our current criminal law is derived from the common law, at least in relation to its broad features. Substantive and procedural criminal law under the common law was different from that practiced in continental Europe, where investigation and criminal law enforcement was conducted mostly in private (with use of the "rack"), having private trials and private punishments. Common law criminal procedure was different, with public trials and public imposition of punishment.

But, today's criminal procedures and punishments differ in many respects from that under the common law. Currently, a criminal defendant can appear in a modern American court and refuse to enter a plea to criminal charges, which results in the court entering a plea of not guilty. But at the common law, matters were different, the purpose being to force a plea. If a defendant refused to enter a plea under common law procedures, he was carried back to prison where he was forced onto the ground, and heavy metal objects were placed on his body in a process named "pressing". This was done in an effort to force a plea, but many unfortunate defendants were "pressed to death."

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