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In an effort to create some new materials to assist with Independence Activism in South Carolina, I have created a new one page flyer that anyone can download and print, and I’m working on creating a color postcard. I’ve been kicking around a few ideas, and here’s my favorite. Check it out and let me know what you think in the comments section!
(click picture for larger version)
Front:
Back:
Alan Caruba has an excellent article over at Warning Signs on the subject of nullifcation and its necessity. Here is an excerpt:
The great issue of our times is the same great issue of the 1830s. The question is whether Congress can pass legislation or the President issue executive orders that are not authorized by or consistent with the Constitution?
The federal government is a republic composed of separate and sovereign republics.
What recourse do the States have individually and in combination when the central government acts in a fashion that is contrary to the limits and enumerated powers of the Constitution?
The answer, other than an appeal to the courts, is nullification. This term is defined as the assertion that States can and should refuse to enforce unconstitutional federal laws.
This Sunday, January 2nd at 6PM EST we will be hosting another chapter meeting at the Village Tavern in Mount Pleasant. Come on out and join some fellow patriots in discussing the remedy to our problems with the federal government. We will talk about Independence, Nullification, Secession, and Activism.
Specifically, the agenda for this meeting is:
1) Update on the Organization – News, Funds, Assets, etc
2) Review of New Materials
3) Review of Activism Guidelines
4) Planning upcoming events
5) Open Discussion
Come on out and enjoy some good food, good drinks, and good company. Make sure to RSVP on our Meetup page if you haven’t already. See you there!
Here is the latest Flyer that can be used to hand out at public events or distribute among friends. Download it in PDF format, or click on the image below for full size!
The backlash against Federal tyranny is spreading. SC’s Senator Bright is proposing what amounts to nullification of Federal gun regulations (which obviously violate the spirit and letter of the Second Amendment of the Constitution).
State Sen. Lee Bright, R-Roebuck, has prefiled legislation that would make a firearm, firearm accessory or ammunition that is commercially or privately manufactured in South Carolina and does not leave this state exempt from federal regulation, including registration.
The “South Carolina Firearms Freedom Act” cites the 10th Amendment, which gives states rights not granted to the federal government in the Constitution. The bill stipulates that the federal government doesn’t have the right to regulate such items that do not leave the state under the Commerce Clause in the U.S. Constitution.
Here is part of the problem we face. Many people believe that the Constitution gives them rights. The 10th Amendment doesn’t give the States rights – it reserves their rights. The powers of the Federal Government in the Constitution are delegated from the States, which derive their authority from their people. This is what has been largely lost in the Constitutional debate since 1865.
The bill is modeled after an effort in Montana that became law there in October, but has since been overturned by a federal judge. That decision is under appeal.
Ah! Imagine you had a dispute with your neighbour and the dispute went to court – a court where the judge was a member of your neighbour’s family. Why would you ever submit yourself before such a court? This is precisely the situation the States and people face today. We can expect to consistently lose appeals against Federal power in Federal courts. Until we are willing to defy Federal courts we might as well just quit complaining.
“If the gun is made here and used here, I don’t know how the Commerce Clause can regulate it … The Constitution gives us the right to bear arms, but it doesn’t limit rights,” Bright said. “There’s a lot of bills challenging federal authority, not just from me, but from other legislators around the country.”
Senator Bright is right about the growing resistance to Washington, DC. The problem is that Federal courts (which have an incentive for maintaining Federal authority considering that they are part of the Federal Government) will ultimately decide whether SC can take such an action or not – just as they did in the case of the similar law in Montana. How long until the States, localities or even individuals begin ignoring Federal court decisions and Federal mandates? Those who are willing to do this have to understand the likely consequences (which will almost certainly initially involve a denial of Federal money) and stand their ground regardless. How much do we value our liberty?
The very first target of any nullification effort should be the federal reserve: a private corporation that is granted the exclusive power by the United States government to issue legal tender, and acts as the base to an inverted pyramid of currency creation known as fractional reserve banking. In short, we are forced to use Federal Reserve Notes in all transactions, while the private banks that make up the Federal Reserve enjoy the luxury of creating new money out of thin air, continually robbing us of the value of each dollar. The fact of the matter is that we do not and cannot have any independence so long as such a system exists.
To start with: why does it matter at all? Who cares about the federal reserve, or how they control the currency? Why does it matter what we use for money in the first place? These are complex questions and for a more in-depth explanation please see “What has the government done to our money?” by Murray Rothbard.
Basically, currency matters because it represents money, or the store of value used in exchange. This means that when you invest your time into something and you are paid money for that investment, you are paid in currency, and you can then go and use that currency to purchase the things that you desire, such as food, shelter, electricity, movies, etc, or you can be wise and prudent and use that currency for savings. You could then go and use those savings to buy larger items like a car or a house, or you could use those savings to start a company or invest in an existing company.
However, since the creation of the Federal Reserve in 1913, along with the income tax, it has become increasingly difficult to generate savings. First, the federal government confiscates a large percentage of our profits (earnings after expenses) through the income tax, and second, the federal government has made it illegal to use anything other than federal reserve notes as currency, which means that they have handed over the control of your savings to the federal reserve.
Judge Napolitano talks about these issues all of the time on his show Freedom Watch, and here is one such clip:
This deadly combination of the income tax, the federal reserve system, and legal tender laws robs the people of South Carolina of the value of their savings, the value of their work, and impacts the poor and the elderly the most severely. In our state we don’t have a very high average income, so while the FED manipulates the value of our dollars our citizens find it harder and harder to pay the bills and put food on the table, and nearly impossible to start a new business and create new wealth. We find ourselves begging large multi-national corporations to build factories and offices here, and begging the federal government for much needed improvements, instead of standing on our own two feet and generating our own prosperity.
However, there is a solution to all of this. The FED’s achilles heel, so to speak, is the legal tender law (and other various laws dealing with currency) which compel us to use their reserve notes (dollars) and forbid us from using other forms of payment, such as gold, silver, platinum, copper, etc. Without said laws, the people of our state would be free to use dollars if they so choose, but they would not be forced to, as they are now. People could use precious metals, foreign coins and currency, commodities, etc as payment and businesses could refuse dollars if they decided to, and they probably would given the 95% depreciation of the dollar since the inception of the federal reserve.
The legal tender law reads as such:
Section 5103 of title 31, United States Code
§ 5103. Legal tender
United States coins and currency (including Federal reserve notes and circulating notes of Federal reserve banks and national banks) are legal tender for all debts, public charges, taxes, and dues. Foreign gold or silver coins are not legal tender for debts.
On the face of it, this law is clearly unconstitutional. The constitution says in Article 1 Section 10:
No State shall enter into any Treaty, Alliance, or Confederation; grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal; coin Money; emit Bills of Credit; make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts; pass any Bill of Attainder, ex post facto Law, or Law impairing the Obligation of Contracts, or grant any Title of Nobility.
So here the federal government has a law that forces states to accept federal reserve notes as tender in payment of debts even though the constitution clearly forbids said practice. Nullification of this law (and similar laws) is therefore easily justified, and demanded for the prosperity of our people.
The good news is that nullification of these laws has already been attempted in South Carolina, to some extent. State Representative Mike Pitts introduced H4501 last year, and plans to reintroduce this year, which states (in part):
TO AMEND THE CODE OF LAWS OF SOUTH CAROLINA, 1976, BY ADDING ARTICLE 18 TO CHAPTER 1, TITLE 1 SO AS TO PROVIDE THAT SILVER AND GOLD COIN SHALL BE LEGAL TENDER IN PAYMENT OF CERTAIN DEBTS.
This bill got a small amount of press but not much support and ultimately was tabled before it ever received a vote. We need to stand up and support this measure as it would be a step in the right direction, but additionally we need to push for stronger legislation that would allow the citizens of South Carolina to use gold and silver for payment of all debts, and to refuse payment in dollars if they so choose. Such legislation would need to ban the taxation of gold and silver (sales tax, capital gains tax, etc) and would need to specify that the value of the coins is determined by the weight value of the metal, not by the dollar value stamped into the coin (if any.)
Such a nullification effort would create a system of competing currencies where eventually the best currency, the best store of value, the best protector of purchasing power, would win out. Such a nullification would end the FED, at least for the people of our state.
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Today I changed the way the comment system on the site works so that we now are using the Disqus web application. This will allow for much more social integration of our discussions on our articles and hopefully will have less issues than the last system (RPX – Janrain.)
Long story short, find an article you’d like to comment on, login using the social network options, and post a comment! Let us know how it works, thanks!