The irony cannot be escaped that a country that issued a document codifying independence for free citizens, should turn into one that declares outright war on all that signifies independent living and prosperity. It is not a king this time who is exerting ownership over the land and its people, but it is a similar top-down tyrannical system that employs police state enforcers in much the same manner.
In America, this tyranny has remained largely disguised behind pleasantries and a growing bureaucracy centered around Orwellian safety measures, but those days are over; the king (the tyranny) has returned to make its move from the shadows out into the open square for public view. Its kid gloves have transformed to an iron fist, which always seems to herald the final phase.
The Declaration of Independence has been inverted in 10 key ways:
1. The refusal to assent to law:
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
These are just a couple of excerpts from the beginning of the list of grievances that set the tone for a criticism of rule by federal force, rather than rule by local law. Currently, we have seen an official elimination of the 4th Amendment in Indiana, which is a clear precedent-setting ruling to say that the State now believes that it owns the property and person of its citizens. TSA groping and sexual harassment anywhere it deems fit, public school surveillance, and a plethora of other federal initiatives have created a top-down managed society promoted through federal grants. These agencies such as the TSA actually believe they rule supreme over the states and sovereign citizens. This is perhaps most pronounced in the federal intervention over the legalization of medical marijuana. We now have a textbook tyranny in America, which operates with two separate definitions of legality: impunity for those in control, and an ever-increasing rule book whereby average citizens are likely to be in violation of something at any given time, and are stripped of their right of representative self-governance.
2. Imposition of bureaucratic rule:
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.
Regulations and licenses coordinated between private companies and government have been handed down by political and corporate leadership, and have become de facto laws enforced by compromised judges. This has resulted in an almost impossible environment for entrepreneurial success.
Independence has been criminalized, most notably by food safety laws, which have stripped the rights of individual farmers and use of their private land. In fact, there is only one growth industry left: government.
3. Standing armies (military rule):
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
The militarization of local police has been going on since the advent of the War on Drugs. SWAT team raids are now common even on raw milk vendors and natural health practitioners. More than that, Army and Marines have been called to man checkpoints and have been called in for support in any situation deemed an "emergency." TSA has groped and abused air travelers, and are rolling out to other modes of transportation with their VIPR teams. These actions are anathema to the Constitution of the United States in which the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 expressly prohibits military operations to be conducted on American soil. Naturally, this is why the National Defense Authorization Act has declared America to be a war zone, thus eradicating that illegal activity and allowing for the military to operate independently.
4. Economic warfare:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world: For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent.
The policies of the American government have fully emboldened every other nation, except our own. The "trade" spoken of in the Declaration of Independence was based on concepts of free market trade, not free or fair trade. As a perfect example, one study by the Congressional Research Service identified 751 different types of barriers to American exports worldwide. Current policies have built-in exploitation and a lowered standard of living that is unrewarding to American innovation and excellence. It is no mystery, then, why the entire world is becoming poorer. Hidden taxes plague independent small businesses and reward only the governments and mega corporations which benefit from specially written tax loopholes and foreign account holdings to help them pay nothing, while enforcers of the IRS have been unleashed in greater numbers against everyday citizens -- soon they'll even do your taxes for you, or enforce compliance through pre-crime measures.
5. Removal of trial by jury:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury
This has been made complete by the passage of the National Defense Authorization Act, which contains provisions for American citizens to be detained in America indefinitely without formal charges or jury trial.
6. Permitting citizens to be detained outside America:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences: For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies.
America has indeed enlarged the boundaries of its sovereign law and jurisprudence by declaring the entire world a war zone in which American citizens under suspicion of loosely defined terrorism can be sent to any other country for interrogation, torture, and detention.
7. Fundamentally altering the role of binding laws of government:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments: For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
Government encroachment on civil liberties is now pervasive and obvious. The Constitution and the Bill of Rights is effectively dead; our laws are subject to the interpretation of a selected Super Congress, thus eliminating proper representation; and the office of the president has been given dictatorial power. The fundamental structure of government and its laws has been upended. Peaceful protest against such incursions are being violently oppressed, and our right to free speech has come under attack whether in the physical domain, or the virtual domain of the Internet.
8. Internal war on American citizens:
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us. He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
It should now be clear just how much the USA PATRIOT ACT, and its even worse brethren such as the National Defense Authorization Act have played in the incremental inversion of the Declaration of Independence. As someone recently lamented, "How can I have a Merry Christmas when my own government can kill me?" The U.S. Government has, and it will. The overseas killing of U.S. citizens by drones is something that is ready to come to American soil. The (il)legal framework is now in place, and the precedent has been set to use drones for domestic law enforcement. Meanwhile, other "free" military hardware is being handed out to local police nationwide to further militarize American neighborhoods. Furthermore, documents like the MIAC report of 2009, as well as many other leaked policy papers, are evidence that the federal government views its own citizens as the greatest threat of all.
9. Use of mercenary armies:
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
The behavior of mercenary groups like Blackwater used overseas, as well as paid security forces to protect large domestic corporations like BP during the Gulf Oil disaster are completing the works of "death, desolation, and tyranny" referenced above. They are held unaccountable for their war crimes and atrocities committed abroad, as well as on American soil, while employing foreigners as well. Additionally, public servants such as the NYPD have become more beholden to large banks that contribute to their retirement funds than they are to the people they swore to protect and serve.
10. Use of false flag terror
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us.
It has been admitted that the Gulf of Tonkin incident, as well as the latest Fast and Furious scandal, were both conducted expressly to bring America to war -- whether foreign, or now the domestic War on Drugs. This was done knowingly and premeditatedly to cause increasing strife and economic hardship to American citizens, and to enrich international banks and organizations. This is merely the latest in a long history of American false flag terror that has been used to drum up support for various political and corporate power grabs. This use of criminal acts to spread fear and contrived problems among civilian populations for political power and financial gain is the very definition of terrorism and warfare.
In conclusion, we find it difficult to improve upon, or add anything to the summary of a document created expressly to declare a proper evaluation of the conditions which require immediate action by free people to protect themselves against tyrants.
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
