Saturday, August 17, 2024

Amendments Convention a trap

(My Eastern New Mexico News column for July 14, 2024)




Roosevelt County has stepped into a trap. Convening a U.S. Amendments Convention would be a mistake.

The Bill of Rights already contains the most important Constitutional amendments and the federal government usually disobeys it. They interpret those amendments into nothingness any time one would stand in the way of government doing something it wants to do.

The fundamental human right to own and carry weapons? Government illegally decides what kind of weapons it will allow the people to keep and bear, which people it will allow to exercise their rights, where those rights will be allowed, what kind of government fees will be charged, and it regularly throws people in prison for exercising the right in a way government doesn't like.

It's also an amendment many people would repeal.

Any faction which doesn't like any of the amendments in the Bill of Rights will claim it can simply pass another amendment to change it. Of course, alter any part of the Bill of Rights and the whole deal is off; the federal government can pack up and leave the country.

The only justification for amending the Constitution is to close loopholes which allow tyranny to sneak in; to place more rights off-limits to legislation and more limits on government. New amendments would need to restrain government, not the people.

I don't trust politically motivated people to amend the Constitution responsibly, but to try to buy votes with tyrannical amendments their base wants.

What if they did stick to limiting government power? History suggests it won't work any better now than it has over the past two-and-a-half centuries. Government will not be limited.

How about adding an amendment to strengthen the rest? I'm talking about an enforcement amendment, spelling out exactly what the penalty would be for any government employee who violates any part of the Constitution; hot tar and feathers or a rope being historically appropriate fates. This is the only sort of amendment I would support. It won't work. As long as government gets to investigate itself, it will keep finding it did nothing wrong. Or someone would find a way to use it against the people.

The best use for the Constitution at this time in history is to illustrate how criminal the US federal government has become. Inviting more amendments won't turn out well for anyone other than those who won't let a document restrain their power.

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Thank you for reading.

Reminder: Keep prepping


This seems like a good time to remind you to keep prepping. 

Expect trouble during and after the s/election. If it doesn't happen, at least you were ready in case it did. The natural world can always throw a disaster your way, too. As can general human incompetence. Be ready- stay ready. It will never hurt to be more ready than is necessary.

If anyone makes fun of you for being ready for something that didn't happen, just know that smart people will never do that.

Lately, my prepping has come to a grinding halt, due to various circumstances. But there's nearly always something that can be done. This is a reminder to myself to find something and do it.

If you don't have money to stock up on things, practice your skills (they'll always matter more than the things anyway).

If you can't practice for some reason, read books or articles, or watch videos on prepping. Get ideas.

Make lists. What you have (check expiration dates), what you need, what you've realized you don't need, what might need to be replaced... whatever lends itself to a list. See what you might be missing that you didn't notice until you had things written out. 

Sort through your preps and make sure everything is in order. If nothing else, this will help keep you in the prepping state of mind, which is always useful.

Be ready out there.

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Thank you for reading.