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The Path to War

The Path to War

Really violent wars, like really violent earthquakes require time for the stresses to build. Our current path to war began in 1913 with the ratification of the 17th Amendment:

  • Popular election of Senators shifted who set national choices from the State governments as “laboratories of democracy” to Big Money.

  • Big Money (unions, corporations, military-industrial, and other special interests) wants the Federal Governing to tax to build infrastructure to help sell their products (bank loans, cars, oil, coal, weapons, etc…).

  • Politicians want money to win elections by giving everyone a “chicken in every pot, a car in every garage”.  

  • A majority of voters want more for less. The Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956 united voters into a “needful” majority willing to mortgage their children and trade the blood of soldiers for foreign oil.

The 17th Amendment, like the 16th (income tax) and 18th (outlawing beer sales) was passed at a time when people thought the Federal government could tax and apply police powers to make people better people. They thought the corruption they saw in their politics could be solved by popular election of Senators. But politics, like sex, has a nature. You cannot get corruption out of politics any more than you can get the mess out of sex. Instead of reducing corruption, the 17th Amendment reduced the price of corruption. Before the 17th Amendment buying a Senator required buying a significant part of a state legislature. After the 17th Amendment buying a Senator required only contributing to a campaign.

Those interested in selling bank loans, cars, oil and coal funded Federal campaigns of Senators willing to violate the Constitution’s Divided Sovereignty to fund oil and coal burning infrastructure. The “post Road” restriction was “interpreted” as archaic with unintended consequences building the path to war:

  • Oil-wars in the Middle East. The most obvious indicators of the building path to war are the perpetual oil-wars since 1990 and the funding of sponsors of terrorism and terrorists with oil-dollars. Admiral Rickover warned of these perpetual oil-wars in 1957. Oil-funded terrorists killed thousands of civilians killed on 9/11. To buy the nation time to end our dependence of foreign oil, thousands of American soldiers traded their lives and tens of thousands their injuries. The contemptible nature of Tyranny of the Majority and soullessness of governments are illustrated by 25 years of soldiers sacrificing without any significant action by governments to end dependence on foreign oil.

  • Treason. Since the 1973 Oil Embargo all eight Presidents have declared foreign oil a threat to national security. But during this same period, Federal politicians taxed to expand oil-powered infrastructure causing the need for foreign oil to increase from 20% to 50% of needs. Since 1991 thousands of American soldiers have died, and tens of thousands have been wounded, buying time for the Federal government to end foreign oil dependency. With total disregard for the sacrifice of soldiers, politicians have denied liberty to displace oil-powered highways with solar-powered mobility networks. Sacrificing the lives of soldiers while funding those killing soldiers with oil-dollars seems to meet the Constitution’s definition of treason, “adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort.”

  • Resource Depletion. Oil is finite. US Peak Oil occurred in 1970. To avoid the political consequences of rising gasoline prices, Federal authorities used National Debt and foreign oil to socialize the cost of resource depletion. In the following graph the light blue line is US crude oil production, the dark blue line is oil imports, and the red line is national debt. There is a high correlation between increasing oil imports and national debt. Federal highways created a dependence on energy outside of self-reliance, coming to be Illicit Energy. This repeats the path to the Civil War of dependence on illicit energy of slave labor.

  • Debt. In the graph above there is a high correlation between oil imports (dark blue) and debt (red). Debt is the tax on future labor. We as adults voted to support this debt. We have not been repaying the $53,000 that we each owe as our portion of this debt.

Jefferson wrote “The Earth Belongs to the Living” Letter to James Madison as he watched debt collapse the French kingdom in Sept 1789. The word “usufruct” means to use for profit without harm.

“Then no man can by _natural right_ oblige the lands he occupied, or the persons who succeed him in that occupation, to the paiment of debts contracted by him. For if he could, he might during his own life, eat up the usufruct of the lands for several generations to come, and then the lands would belong to the dead, and not to the living, which would be reverse of our principle.”

“…nor the nation itself can validly contract more debt, than they may pay within their own age, or within the term of 19 years.

Federal highway/oil policies “eat up the usufruct of the land for several generations to come… which would be the reverse of our principle.” Voters borrowing against the future labor of children to fund our consumption of foreign oil repeats the Revolution’s path to war of Taxation without Representation. My guess is war will not be one of armies, but of mobs such as the French Revolution.

  • Climate Change. “We the People” mandate in the Constitution the Federal government defend the liberty of Posterity, children. Like Federal debt, pollution from Federally mandated infrastructure sacrifices the liberty of children.

For those of you who want proof that Climate Change is real, you exercise “the reverse of our principle.” The burden of proof does not fall on children, a defenseless minority. The burden of proof that pollution is benign falls on the polluters. Polluters must fully capitalize the cost of their pollution until they prove it is benign.

  • Life requires energy. Less affordable energy, less life. Gasoline prices ratchet. In Aug 2015 we are experiencing one of the downward spikes in gasoline prices. Our guess is this low price will continue for 36 months if there is no major outbreak of war. By that point the current fracking boom will bust and gasoline prices will experience an upward spike maintaining the average since US Peak Oil in 1970 of 7.3% per year (14.1% since China and India began competing for oil in 1998).

 

In the 2010 Joint Forces Command recognized these elements in the path to war with the following warning to all US military commands:

“By 2012, surplus oil production capacity could entirely disappear, and as early as 2015, the shortfall in output could reach nearly 10 million barrels per day.

A severe energy crunch is inevitable without a massive expansion of production and refining capacity. While it is difficult to predict precisely what economic, political, and strategic effects such a shortfall might produce, it surely would reduce the prospects for growth in both the developing and developed worlds. Such an economic slowdown would exacerbate other unresolved tensions, push fragile and failing states further down the path toward collapse, and perhaps have serious economic impact on both China and India. At best, it would lead to periods of harsh economic adjustment. To what extent conservation measures, investments in alternative energy production, and efforts to expand petroleum production from tar sands and shale would mitigate such a period of adjustment is difficult to predict. One should not forget that the Great Depression spawned a number of totalitarian regimes that sought economic prosperity for their nations by ruthless conquest.

Energy production and distribution infrastructure must see significant new investment if energy demand is to be satisfied at a cost compatible with economic growth and prosperity.

The discovery rate for new petroleum and gas fields over the past two decades (with the possible exception of Brazil) provides little reason for optimism that future efforts will find major new fields.”

Forward by General James N Mattis

Summary

Supported by Big Money and Tyranny of the Majority, politicians seeking political power violated the Constitution’s principle of Divided Sovereignty to tax and build oil-powered Federal highways. Federal highways recreated the two proven paths for Americans to go to war with Americans:

  • Taxation without Representation. The liberty and labor of children has been mortgaged without their consent.

  • Illicit Energy. Oil-wars in the Middle East will continue and grow in scope so long as Federal policies subordinate America’s survival to depend on energy outside self-reliance.

Life requires energy. Life will fight for energy. We have a choice, war or energy self-reliance. The choice is fading as time passes.

Action

Actions can get mitigate the path to war:

  • Repeal the 17th Amendment to increase the cost of corruption from contributing to a Senate campaign to buying the majority of a State Legislature. Repealing the 17th Amendment restores the Framer’s original intent that corruption should be expensive, that Tyranny of the Majority should be restrained, and that minorities should have a path to representation through State legislatures.

  • Enforce Divided Sovereignty. Have States take over collecting all taxing to provide highways. With the Internet providing free speech more extensive than “post Roads” there are zero reasons for Federal highway taxes.

  • Use Jury Nullification to enforce the Constitution. State Nullification to confront Federal sovereignty violations creates a power struggle between a soulless State government and the soulless Federal government. Such power struggles have the tendency to cascade into war. In contrast, Jury Nullification pits soulless government institutions against the jury, the only government institution subordinated to the will of souls. Juries finding citizens “not guilty” for refusing to pay Federal highway taxes where there is no Federal sovereignty is a slow and arduous process. It is very hard on those courageous individuals that lead by civil disobedience. State governments should aid their citizens by providing a means to collect equivalent taxes, maintain highways, and defend their citizens in courts from Federal taxes where there is no Federal sovereignty.

  • The military should immediately cut oil use by 45%, to within US domestic production.

  • All Federal agencies should cut oil use by 45% by 2018, to within US domestic production.

  • It is recommended to the States to govern by Performance Standards similar to those stated in Secaucus, NJ Town Ordinance 2014-23 and Massachusetts Senate Bill #1837.

  • Plant Victory Gardens. Energy self-reliance starts with the self. The ability of debt to buy foreign oil could collapse at any moment; this almost happened in Sept 2008. Victory Gardens are the only defense against Oil Famine when debt can no longer buy foreign oil.

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