Molon Labe!
Page 55
"If there be any among us who wish to dissolve the Union or to change its republican form, let them stand undisturbed, as monuments of the safety with which error of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat it."
President Melvin Connor refolds the heavy bond paper and pockets the furry edged note. He looks again at his desktop calender. January 20th is just six weeks away. This job is way overrated!, he concludes.
No president ever more anxiously awaited his retirement.
___________
1 CONtinental US
2 Direct Action, a Special Forces mission involving a short, intense raid to seize, capture, recover, or destroy specific hostile personnel, equipment, or facilities.
3 Operation Security
4 Forward Operating Base
5 Operational Detachment Alphas (previously called "A Teams") are highly trained and versatile 12 man SF teams led by a captain.
6 Operational Detachment Bravo, an SF Company HQ unit controlling multiple ODAs in the field.
7 Army National Guards
8 Maneuverable Re entry Vehicles, which can be, unlike mere MIRVs, steered to penetrate ABM defenses during a second strike retaliatory role.
2021
Wyoming life
2021
The discomfort of regulatory pressure, like back pain, is never fully realized until it is relieved. With nearly all federal restrictions deactivated, the subcurrent of government-induced stress evaporates, causing business and social life to burst with vitality. People are free to live their lives without fear, and it is a heady experience — one not felt for over a hundred years.
Montana, Idaho, and South Dakota begin to institute Prestonesque reforms. They have to, or else lose their best people to Wyoming. Colorado, Utah, and Arizona are also feeling similar pressure. The libertarian ripples from the Wyoming stone are affecting the entire American West. Time will tell if a Western stone will send ripples across the American pond.
Sheridan, Wyoming
Summer 2021
Inside, the café is jammed with people so Kristi Ryan steps outdoors to the wood-decked patio. Being a sunny day, it is crowded also, but she searches for an empty chair. Having lived in Europe for many years, Kristi likes the continental fashion of sitting with strangers when space is tight.
She spots a two-top table with a man sitting alone sipping coffee and casually reading the paper. There's no place setting opposite him. He's well-dressed in a tan blazer and navy blue Oxford shirt. No wedding ring, but he doesn't appear to be sizing up skirts as a womanizer would do.
She walks up and says, "Excuse me, but would you mind if I shared your table? It's awfully crowded this time of day."
He looks up pleasantly, smiles and kindly waves his hand at the empty chair. "Not at all, Miss. Please do."
He actually rises from his chair as she sits down.
"I hope I'm not interrupting your reading," she ventures.
"No, of course not. I'm glad for the company."
She smiles, relaxing. After she orders they make small talk for a while. He is an engineering consultant; she manages a retail clothing store. As they chat she finds herself liking him. He hasn't made a move on her, and he doesn't stare down her blouse. Seems to have some class. Matthew Walling has an easy way about him, and she really likes his deep chuckle.
Her espresso arrives and she takes a luxuriously long sip.
"Mmmmm. They don't make it this good in Montana."
"Montana?"
"Yeah, I just drove back from visiting my sister in Billings."
"Oh, she lives there?"
A dark mood shadows her lovely face. "Well, sort of."
Seeing his questioning look of concern, the dam breaks. "Lisa was arrested three months ago on federal charges of money laundering because she only accepted cash at her home business. She just got convicted last week. Her trial was a sham! Five years for refusing to have a bank account and give up her privacy! And she's the widowed mom of a two-year old."
Walling frowns. "What a raw deal! And how was it the government's business if she took cash instead of checks? The feds are so paranoid."
Kristi smiles. It's always refreshing to meet a stranger who understands, though this is becoming quite common. "Paranoid is right! You should have seen the federal judge. You'd have thought he was working for the prosecutor! I heard later that defense attorneys call him 'The Aussie.' None of my sister's motions or objections were allowed."
"'The Aussie?'"
"Yeah, for his kangaroo court. The DEA and FBI and ATF love him."
He nods his head, but his eyes begin to glaze over.
Oh, damn, now I've gone and bored him!
Just when she is about to really berate herself, he says, "This was in Federal District Court in Billings?"
"That's right," she says, relieved.
"What was the judge's name?"
"Mott. Judge Clarence P. Mott."
She catches the faintest of smirks on his face. "Why, do you know him? Are you from Billings?"
"Nope, never heard of him. And I'm not from Billings, either. Actually, I just moved to Wyoming. I'm still getting used to no license plates on cars out here, and how everybody wears a pistol. What a marvelous state!"
"Oh, you just moved here? From where?" she asks, genuinely interested. Such a nice man, and so handsome, too. He has a calm authority about him. He makes her feel safe. She would like to know him better.
"From the east coast. A place called Durants Neck. North Carolina."
"Then welcome to Wyoming, Matthew. I hope you like it here."
"Thanks, Kristi," he says, smiling. "I think I already do."
The End
WYOMING
REPORT
November 2002
INTRODUCTION
This Wyoming Report is the result of a leisurely five year feasibility study beginning in August 1997. Its purpose was threefold:
1) To bring into sharper focus the concept before us.
2) To identify any states which could serve such a concept.
3) To recommend the most suitable state for implementation.
This we have done. First, some background material.
DIAGNOSIS
Where liberty dwells, there be my country.
— Benjamin Franklin
'Tis the same to him who wears a shoe, as if the whole earth were covered with leather.
— Ralph Waldo Emerson
The above two quotations hint sufficiently at the gist.
After authoring Hologram of Liberty — The Constitution's Shocking Alliance with Big Government, Kenneth W. Royce came to ten conclusions regarding the predicament of Liberty:
1) At least 50% of Americans do not want to live free and responsible lives, and will resist any political attempts to be made responsible.
2) Our political masters fully understand and encourage this, as it constitutes a powerful vested interest for both ruler and ruled.
3) Even if ⊇ and ⊄ were not true, America is experiencing an accelerated philosophical, political, religious, and racial polarization. This was amply evidenced by the 2000 Elections.
4) "There's small choice in rotten apples." — Shakespeare The two-party system was designed, and is maintained, to prevent the emergence of any victorious 3rd party. Only billionaire candidates (e.g., Perot, DuPont) have the horsepower to reach the general public.
5) America has become (at least) two de facto separate countries, and she is now much too populous and diverse to govern as one nation. Many Americans are beginning to publicly discuss the likely (though desperate and vaguely distasteful) solution of secession.
6) Translation of the above: Libertarians cannot possibly retake the entire USA through a political/philosophical renaissance. Even if the contrived 3rd party obstacles were removed, no majority of voters will slough off their socialist/fascist proclivities, even if all of them were required to read Atlas Shrugged.
7) Conclusion: While Libertari
ans cannot retake their country, it is possible that they can "liberate" several counties, or even an entire state if they will geographically concentrate themselves under the mutual goal of a political reconquista.
8) There are many examples of a certain class of people descending upon an area (usually a city) resulting in their substantial control of that area's moral tenor and social climate. Some examples:
Wealthy Liberals
Aspen, Boulder, Ketchum, Jackson
Homosexuals
San Francisco
White Separatists
Northern Idaho
Mormons
Utah, southern Idaho
Christians
Tulsa, Colorado Springs
New Agers
Crestone (CO), Cave Junction (OR)
9) Moral: Freedom is relative. If you are free where you live, then you are free, period. Wouldn't you rather live in a laissez-faire county or state with no undue interference in your life, than in a nation which is nothing more than a vast gilded cage?
10) Although there is currently no libertarian enclave, there could be if a sufficient number of determined folks relocated and made one. All that is necessary is a plan, place, and subsequent action.
This Report will suggest plan, place, and action. But first, let us review how we came to be oppressed in America.
A REVIEW OF FEDERAL TYRANNY
The economic, political, and regulatory tyranny of the USG over the States and the People was achieved over a period of time spanning 200 years, comprising several succinct and hierarchial stages. As we will see, it was as carefully ordered and completed as any complicated gourmet recipe, which rules out accidental (yet constant) accretions throughout history.
The first stage was to institute a new central government with ascendant powers (both immediate and nascent) over the original 13 States. The unchallengeable authority of the "United States" over the States was gradually, albeit inexorably, knitted together by a series of key Supreme Court rulings, such as Marbury v. Madison (1803: Supreme Court has sole authority to decide constitutionality of USG's actions), McCulloch v. Maryland (1819: Congress has "implied powers" ), Gibbons v. Ogden (1824: the term "commerce" stretched to mean that ultra-inclusive "intercourse" ), and many others. Judicial building blocks for our prison.
This judicial infrastructure constructed, the second tier was social conditioning (so that the public would accept the next stage). In a classic Hegelian tactic of thesis/antithesis/synthesis, dissatisfaction was created with private banking, gold and silver money, and the lack of an income tax on the "fat cats." This was done from 1890-1913 by a series of contrived events (e.g., artificial bank panics and recessions), which were fanned into roaring flames by key congressmen and media megaphones. By 1913, the public were ready, if not insistent, for sweeping changes in banking, currency, and tax law. As H.L. Mencken so keenly observed:
The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.
A concurrent and continuing form of social conditioning was/is the usurpation of local education by a "public school" system, wherein America traded McGuffey's Readers for John Dewey's "progressive education." The result has been the most harebrained, ignorant populace in Western history.
The third stage was economic and financial. As Mayer Auselm Rothschild so aptly remarked:
Permit me to issue and control the money of a nation, and I care not who makes its laws.
In order to make war (foreign and domestic) it was paramount that the USG enjoyed funding independent of popular control. Such is the sine qua non of modern oppressive governments. To accomplish this requires three separate mechanisms: a central bank to monetize public debt, legal tender legislation, and a personal (not merely corporate or business) income tax based on payroll withholding. Two great monetary pumps work in tandem: one to inject intrinsically worthless "currency" into the economy, and the other to pump out "excess" liquidity by wage withholding. Naturally, the Supreme Court has done its duty in defending the so-called "Federal Reserve System," its "Federal Reserve Notes," and the "Internal Revenue Service."
The fourth stage was a dramatic increase in military personnel, technology, and equipment. WWII was clearly the watershed event here. Incredible advances in weaponry, aviation, communications, computer technology, encryption, and logistics were made during and after that global conflagration — followed by the "military/industrial complex" and the complete federalization of the state guards.
The fifth stage was intensive regulation to deproperty and disarm the citizenry. With almost total judicial sanction, Congress and the President have spewed forth laws, regulations, and executive orders encompassing nearly every activity and purchase. Such are, according to de Tocqueville, a form of social conditioning which "compresses" the people. Accompanying this was the militarization of state and local police (used to great effectiveness by the Nazis).
The sixth stage was, and is, active confiscation of people and property. The USG has the money and muscle, supported by the courts, to begin to really throw its weight around. And what can the people effectively do in response? Cut off federal funding? Challenge the FBI or IRS in court? Engage in combat with the US Army? All of these would be futile acts. We have been slyly led to a comfortably padded corner, from which there is little easy escape.
What we need is a wall to push from.
A UNIQUE PLAN FOR LIBERTY
The exit can usually be found at the entrance.
If you become lost, retrace your steps and leave where you came in. If you have become enslaved (however comfortably and agreeably), simply retrace tyranny's steps. You may indeed find that you can leave via the same door through which oppression entered.
This is far too simple for most would-be revolutionaries, who prefer to blow a hole in the wall to escape. While the situation may one day require this kind of a dramatic solution, most Americans probably would not sympathize with such violence. Since we have determined that at least bland national support is critical to our success, we must very slowly and carefully slough off our restraints in nearly identical order to their imposition (i.e., education, health, money). Hence, our exit will be found at the entrance.
Just as our oppression did not occur overnight, neither will our Liberty. We must win back our freedom through the same mechanism by which we originally lost it — by "gradualism." To steal a man's bread, one doesn't dare grab the entire loaf. It's done one slice at a time. We lost our lives one slice at a time because we did not go to war over slices, even though they have eventually totalled nearly the entire loaf.
It is proper to take alarm at the first experiment of our liberties. We hold this prudent jealousy to be the first duty of citizens, and one of the noblest characteristics of the late Revolution. The freemen...did not wait til usurped power had strengthened itself by exercise, and entangled the question in [legalistic] precedents. They saw all the consequences in the principle, and avoided the consequences by denying the principle.
— James Madison
Similarly, we will steal back our lives one slice at a time, as the USG also will not declare martial law over slices. By the time the USG realizes just how much of the loaf we've retaken, it will have lost too much of this previous advantage as we become emboldened with our success and newly protective of our recently won freedoms.
The platform for this retaking of our liberties will be one of the states, of which we have gained executive, legislative, and judicial control through a bloodless coup of election.
How is it possible to sweep a state's election? By choosing a sparsely populated state of staunch conservatives, and then convincing sufficient numbers of liberty-loving folks to move there. It's a simple matter of mathematics. After several years of a quiet mass relocation, we could swing an election our way. Remember, libertarians always will be far outnumbered in national elections — so why should w
e keep trying to win presidential and congressional elections?
With a libertarian governor and state legislators, we could at last begin to bring home our stolen freedoms from Washington, D.C. We could at last implement a true free-market economy and become the model for other states. We could finally create a society based on individual rights of property and conscience.
We could enjoy, finally, an oasis of reason and responsibility where honor, integrity, and intelligence are at the helm.
We could have — at long last — a home.
OUR STATE'S CRITERIA
Given the unprecedented nature of our plan's virtual coup d'état, combined with the geographical, political, and economic requirements of our target state, we initially doubted that even one state would offer anything remotely favorable to our needs.
We were quite surprised, however, that six states made it to the "semifinals" and three to the "finals." The hands-down winner was the same state which the concept's author had chosen as the likely best choice. Below are our criteria for the target state, and the progressive elimination of all contenders but one. (Figures are from the 1990 Census, the latest available in 1997 when this Report began. 2000 Census figures reflecting a 9% population increase do not alter in any way our conclusions.)
Total Population (must be ≤ 1,000,000)
Given that our plan absolutely requires a sparse population, this is the most important criterion for choosing our state.
Also included are the next five least populated states, even though they number over 1M people.