The Consent of the Governed

The Consent of the Governed

Last week, when former FBI Director James Comey gave his long-awaited public testimony about his apparently rough-and-tumble relationship with President Donald Trump, he painted a bleak picture. The essence of Comey’s testimony was that the president asked him to drop an investigation of retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn — Trump’s former national security adviser — and then asked him to do so in return for keeping his job as FBI director and then fired him for not obeying his order.

On the other hand, Comey confirmed that the president personally, as of the time of Comey’s firing, was not the target of any FBI criminal investigation. It was not clear from the Comey testimony whether this exoneration was referring to salacious allegations made by a former British intelligence agent of highly inappropriate and fiercely denied personal behavior a few years ago in a Moscow hotel room or whether the exoneration was with respect to widely reported allegations that the 2016 Trump campaign may have helped Russian intelligence agents in their efforts to manipulate the outcome of the presidential election.

Nevertheless, there is no doubt the president is now a target of a federal investigation with respect to his dealings with the then-FBI director. So, how could the tables have turned so quickly on the president, and who turned them? Here is the back story.

Prior to the Watergate era of the mid-1970s, the generally accepted theory of management of the executive branch of government was known as the unitary executive. This theory informs that the president is the chief executive officer of the federal government and is the sole head of the executive branch. He is also the only person in the executive branch who is accountable to the voters, as he, and he alone (along with the vice president, who is largely a figurehead), has been elected by the voters.

As such, this unitary executive theory informs, everyone in the executive branch of the federal government works at the pleasure of the president. Were this not the case, then vast areas of governance could occur and vast governmental resources could be spent by people who are unaccountable to the voters. And when the government is unaccountable to the voters, it lacks their consent. The consent of the governed is the linchpin and bedrock of popular government in America.

There are, of course, today vast areas of government that are not responsive to the people and that lack the consent of the governed. The administrative agencies that write, interpret and enforce their own regulations and the deep state — the secret parts of the financial, intelligence and law enforcement entities of the government that never change, operate below the radar screen and have budgets that never see the light of day — defy the notion that the consent of the governed is the sole legitimate basis for government in America.

Yet the FBI is not in the administrative state or the deep state. It is front and center as the premier law enforcement agency of the United States government. It is far from perfect, and its leaders are as fallible as the rest of us, but we have hired the folks who work there to enforce the federal laws that implicate our freedoms and our safety. And we have hired the president to exercise his discretion as to which laws shall be enforced and against whom.

Thus, under this theory, the president is constitutionally, legally, morally and ethically free to direct any person in the executive branch as to how he wants that person to perform his or her job. And the recipient of such direction is free to resign if the direction appears unlawful. That is at least the theory of the unitary executive.

After the Watergate era, Congress altered the public policy of the country to reflect the independence of the Department of Justice, including the FBI. It did so in reaction to Nixonian abuses. Thus, the post-Watergate theory of the DOJ’s role articulates that federal law enforcement is independent from the president.

The Comey testimony revealed serious efforts to reject the public policy of independence and return to the unitary executive. Comey revealed a DOJ under former Attorney General Loretta Lynch in lockstep with the Obama White House and determined to exonerate Hillary Clinton in the espionage investigation concerning her emails, no matter the evidence. He also revealed his own view that President Trump’s orders and quid pro quo offer with respect to Flynn were unlawful.

Where does this leave us today?

Today we have a White House under siege. The new DOJ criminal investigation that the president is no doubt the subject of will attempt to discover whether he corruptly attempted to interfere with the work of an independent FBI and whether he attempted to bribe its then-director. The White House is also the subject of five congressional investigations involving the Russians and the 2016 election, the firing of Director Comey, and the recusal of Attorney General Jeff Sessions from much of this. And the investigation of Clinton is back from the grave for a third time to determine whether she was exonerated because of a lack of evidence, a lack of will or an Obama political imperative.

These are perilous times for men and women of goodwill and intellectual honesty who are charged with enforcing our laws and running the government. The government should not be terrifying. But it must be fair and transparent. And it must always enjoy the consent of the governed. For without that consent, it is illegitimate.

Reprinted with the author’s permission.



Andrew P. Napolitano



Libertas aut Mors Semper Vigilans Fortis
Paratus et Fidelis
Joseph F Barber

AS a Sovereign citizen and free man of the country known as the united states of america I stand by this truth 

Libertas aut Mors Semper Vigilans Fortis
Paratus et Fidelis
Joseph F Barber

we as a people must come to understand that   "Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear." -- Harry S. Truman - (1884-1972), 33rd US President

Never be afraid to raise your voice for honesty and truth and compassion against injustice and lying and greed. If people all over the world...would do this, it would change the earth.”

from the beginning of my journey to freedom I had come to understand this simple fact of life "" Each of us must learn to work not just for oneself, one's own family or nation, but for the benefit of all humankind. Universal responsibility is the key to human survival. It is the best foundation for world peace." And that I don't know how to save the world. I don't have the answers or The Answer. I hold no secret knowledge as to how to fix the mistakes of generations past and present. I only know that without compassion and respect for all Earth's inhabitants, none of us will survive - nor will we deserve to."

Many of you will have a heavy heart to what others may say of you

Don't worry about other people's opinions of you. God never told you to impress people; only to love them.as a patriot and a sovereign citizen of america I stand firm in the belief that A “Democracy? I want nothing to do with a system which operates on the premise that my rights don’t exist simply because I am outnumbered.”We are not accidental citizens of a world gone wrong, not merely faceless members of an age group or statistical, biological blips without inherent meaning. Humans are living stories, each imbued with an inherent message and a meaning trying to find its way into the world. Each soul a living thread in the tale being woven as we speak, being shaped as we dream, being made anew each time we step more fully into the story trying to live through us.”

Excepting your freedom is a costly deal some may say you make with the devil but I beg to differ,

 your Individual rights are not subject to a public vote; a majority has no right to vote away the rights of a minority; the political function of rights is precisely to protect minorities from oppression by majorities (and the smallest minority on earth is the individual).

The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself

Let no man posture as an advocate of peace if he proposes or supports any social system that initiates the use of force against individual men, in any form.

as true patriots “You can not be so blind with patriotism that you can't face reality. Wrong is wrong, no matter who does it or says it.” “I'm for truth, no matter who tells it. I'm for justice, no matter who it is for or against. I'm a human being, first and foremost, and as such I'm for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole.”

“Education is our passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to the people who prepare for it today.” THE POWER IS WITH YOU “To me, the thing that is worse than death is betrayal. You see, I could conceive death, but I could not conceive betrayal.” WE LIVE IN AND DEMENTED WORLD TODAY 
“Usually when people are sad, they don't do anything. They just cry over their condition. But when they get angry, they bring about a change.” IF WE CAN GET PAST THE LIES WE ARE TOLD IN THE MEDIA AND ITS INDOCTRINATION OF THE WORLDS PEOPLE “If you're not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed, and loving the people who are doing the oppressing.” “The media's the most powerful entity on earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent, and that's power. Because they control the minds of the masses.”“So early in my life, I had learned that if you want something, you had better make some noise.” LOVE AND PEACE PEOPLE STAND FREE AND 
YOUR GROUND FEED ANOTHER IF YOU CAN

Anyone is welcome to use their voice here at FREEDOM OR ANARCHY,Campaign of Conscience.if you seek real change and the truth the first best way is to use the power of the human voice and unite the world in a common cause our own survival I believe that to meet the challenges of our times, human beings will have to develop a greater sense of universal responsibility. Each of us must learn to work not just for oneself, ones own family or ones nation, but for the benefit of all humankind. Universal responsibility is the key to human survival

Let us the free call it LAWFUL REBELLION standing for what is right 

“There’s really no such thing as the ‘voiceless’. There are only the deliberately silenced, or the preferably unheard.”

is your soul for sale ?? how much would you take for it your children's future or that of the future generations to come tell me people for that is exactly what we are doing by our own silence

“And when I speak, I don't speak as a Democrat. Or a Republican. Nor an American. I speak as a victim of America's so-called democracy. You and I have never seen democracy - all we've seen is hypocrisy. When we open our eyes today and look around America, we see America not through the eyes of someone who has enjoyed the fruits of Americanism. We see America through the eyes of someone who has been the victim of Americanism. We don't see any American dream. We've experienced only the American nightmare.”AWAKEN YOURASELVES 

“This is my doctrine: Give every other human being every right you claim for yourself.”

“The most important kind of freedom is to be what you really are. You trade in your reality for a role. You trade in your sense for an act. You give up your ability to feel, and in exchange, put on a mask. There can't be any large-scale revolution until there's a personal revolution, on an individual level. It's got to happen inside first.”

“I'm for truth, no matter who tells it. I'm for justice, no matter who it is for or against. I'm a human being, first and foremost, and as such I'm for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole.”

“Governments want efficient technicians, not human beings, because human beings become dangerous to governments – and to organized religions as well. That is why governments and religious organizations seek to control education.”

The government of the United States murders more innocent people than any other organization on the planet. If that would stop, so would so-called terrorism. The US has cheated and murdered peoples of foreign lands for generations now claiming that the country those people live in have resources or something else that the US deems critical to our national security. What that means is, because we want what doesn't belong to us, we're going to get all we want for a price we want to pay whether we have to cheat, steal, or murder to get it and if anyone resist, they must be terrorists... people we will destroy if we have to. We generally don't cut off people's heads, but what we do, ends or destroys their lives just as effectively, if not as dramatically. How about telling the truth about what's going on, for if we can't find a way to do that, things will never get any better. What is required here is a little more truth, honor, dignity, compassion, courage, and love.

An in this life I am living I have seen wars and fought along side my countrymen and women and yet  

it is my deep belief that the idea that people can solve their differences through war is a hideous concept. History going back to the earliest writings and hieroglyphics, has clearly shown that violence begets violence, that hatred breeds hatred and that war is not an answer nor a solution. We are an intelligent people and have the ability to do so much better and to try so much harder to solve our problems without resorting to war. War is never an answer. I believe, that until we as members of the Human Race, acknowledge that we can only solve the problems between people and nations through education and with honest and open dialogue and peaceful means, that we will continue to witness the sad and destructive events of war, and the growth of hatred, racism, religious fanaticism and the sadness in the eyes and hearts of so many who are caught up in the midst of the violence and misery caused by wars and conflicts around the globe. I believe that we need to educate each other to discover the truth behind each side's point of view and find a peaceful path that can allow people to exist next to each other without the anguish of war, racism and hatred. We are all brothers and sisters. Please know that within this belief system I still send out my love and support for the safety and health and for the speedy return of all of our brave men women and children of the military that are having to live in the midst of the horrors of war. I pray for them each day and pray as well that those who have sent them into these conflicts will change their hearts and end the insanity.“Never think that war, no matter how necessary, nor how justified, is not a crime.”

“Listen up - there's no war that will end all wars.” 

I tell you when I right out my minds thoughts and cares it is done so in a true freethinkers fashion and for me 

The idea is to write it so that people hear it and it slides through the brain and goes straight to the heart.

Many will question themselves but 

“If we listened to our intellect we'd never have a love affair. We'd never have a friendship. We'd never go in business because we'd be cynical: "It's gonna go wrong." Or "She's going to hurt me." Or,"I've had a couple of bad love affairs, so therefore . . ." Well, that's nonsense. You're going to miss life. You've got to jump off the cliff all the time and build your wings on the way down.”question everything “Why do they always teach us that it's easy and evil to do what we want and that we need discipline to restrain ourselves? It's the hardest thing in the world--to do what we want. And it takes the greatest kind of courage. I mean, what we really want.”

Or we give consent to be Governed and  

“To be GOVERNED is to be watched, inspected, spied upon, directed, law-driven, numbered, regulated, enrolled, indoctrinated, preached at, controlled, checked, estimated, valued, censured, commanded, by creatures who have neither the right nor the wisdom nor the virtue to do so. To be GOVERNED is to be at every operation, at every transaction noted, registered, counted, taxed, stamped, measured, numbered, assessed, licensed, authorized, admonished, prevented, forbidden, reformed, corrected, punished. It is, under pretext of public utility, and in the name of the general interest, to be place under contribution, drilled, fleeced, exploited, monopolized, extorted from, squeezed, hoaxed, robbed; then, at the slightest resistance, the first word of complaint, to be repressed, fined, vilified, harassed, hunted down, abused, clubbed, disarmed, bound, choked, imprisoned, judged, condemned, shot, deported, sacrificed, sold, betrayed; and to crown all, mocked, ridiculed, derided, outraged, dishonored. That is government; that is its justice; that is its morality."

I deal with people everyday and in many situations and on many issue in my line or work and activism I have had some ask me why I call Americans sheep just take a look at the social net and it will explain itself to everyone all you see is talk and that may be good but without action to what anyone speaks that's all it is cheap words “Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience. Our problem is that people all over the world have obeyed the dictates of leaders…and millions have been killed because of this obedience…Our problem is that people are obedient allover the world in the face of poverty and starvation and stupidity, and war, and cruelty. Our problem is that people are obedient while the jails are full of petty thieves… (and) the grand thieves are running the country. That’s our problem.”I have never been a spectator.

Everywhere we look there are signs of moral decay, political corruption and fascistic tendencies. However, activists have not been passive. For decades, since the end of democracy in America first became undeniable, we have tried every tactic to avert catastrophe. We have voted, written letters, donated money, held signs, protested in marches, clicked links, signed petitions, tweeted websites, written books, taught classes, knitted sweaters, learned how to farm, turned off the television, programmed apps, engaged in direct action, committed petty vandalism … All this has been for naught. Popular revolution remains the only reasonably viable tactic remaining.

The police have shown they will always collude against the people with the powerful and will smash the people for the benefit of those who sign their police paychecks. All police need is to be given $60,000 per year salary and a preferred status in a higher caste system and they will lie, torture, and murder for the state. Since when hasn’t a government existed that didn’t nurture and reward these qualities in its minions or lacked for dupes displaying authoritarian traits? The police are the essence of the state and as such are enemies of the people. The people have the ability to protect themselves from petty criminals. But, the police seek to keep people dependant on them and act as if the surrender of all the peoples’ rights and liberties is a needed and worthy exchange for security or the illusion thereof. The people are increasingly conditioned to believe that the loss of justice and basic human rights to the onslaught of state power is a good bargain never realizing that governments are responsible for killing 260 million people in wars and another 300 million in non-combat democide.

Every politician in office today, Democrat and Republican alike, accepts corporate bribes and is therefore corrupt. Their election is perverse evidence that they groveled before corporate lords and do not serve the will of the people. We know this because on January 21, 2010, the US Supreme Court told us who runs the nation by granting corporations the freedom to donate unlimited amounts of money to political candidates. As it is already an established statistical fact that the candidate who spends the most money wins in 9 out of 10 races, it is undeniable that we live in an era where anyone genuinely opposed to the corporate takeover of America, and unwilling to compromise, will never be elected. That makes the government a dangerous enterprise that is a hazard to individual freedom.

This equals why “I don't vote. Two reasons. First of all it's meaningless; this country was bought and sold a long time ago. The shit they shovel around every 4 years *pfff* doesn't mean a fucking thing. Secondly, I believe if you vote, you have no right to complain. People like to twist that around – they say, 'If you don't vote, you have no right to complain', but where's the logic in that? If you vote and you elect dishonest, incompetent people into office who screw everything up, you are responsible for what they have done. You caused the problem; you voted them in; you have no right to complain. I, on the other hand, who did not vote, who in fact did not even leave the house on election day, am in no way responsible for what these people have done and have every right to complain about the mess you created that I had nothing to do with.”
http://humansovereignty.org/pdf/declaration-of-HS-english-v6.0.pdf

The governments and corporations of our world “They’ve poisoned the air we breathe, contaminated the water we drink, and copyrighted the food we eat. We fight in their wars, die for their causes, and sacrifice our freedoms to protect them. They’ve liquidated our savings, destroyed our middle class, and used our tax dollars to bailout their unending greed. We are slaves to their corporations, zombies to their airwaves, servants to their decadence. They’ve stolen our elections, assassinated our leaders, and abolished our basic rights as human beings. They own our property, shipped away our jobs, and shredded our unions. They’ve profited off of disaster, destabilized our currencies, and raised our cost of living. They’ve monopolized our freedom, stripped away our education, and have almost extinguished our flame.

When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left, and could say, 'I used everything you gave me'. We must be willing to let go of the life we have planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us.

"When our grandchildren ask us where we were when the voiceless and vulnerable of our era needed a leader of compassion and purpose and hope - I hope we can say we showed up, and that we showed up on time."

“Here's to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They're not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can't do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.”

Whether we are engaging in acts of resistance or creating new, alternative institutions, we need to create sustainable, democratic organizations that empower its members while also protecting against disruption.

Along with direct action and other forms of resistance, a successful movement must also build new institutions based on solidarity, justice and cooperation. From small, worker-owned cooperatives to national advocacy groups, hundreds of thousands of people around the country are working to create democratic and sustainable systems that meet the basic needs of all people.The essence of humanity is freedom. Government – whether voted in peacefully or thrust upon us by force – is essentially the negation of freedom. Throughout the history of the world, people have achieved freedom when those in power have begrudgingly given it up. From the assassination of Julius Caesar to King John’s forced signing of the Magna Carta, from the English Civil War to the triumph of the allies at the end of World War II, from the fall of communism to the Arab Spring, governments have permitted so-called nobles and everyday folk to exercise more personal freedom as a result of their demands for it and their fighting for it. This constitutes power permitting liberty.

“Never be bullied into silence. Never allow yourself to be made a victim. Accept no one’s definition of your life; define yourself.”

One isn't necessarily born with courage, but one is born with potential. Without courage, we cannot practice any other virtue with consistency. We can't be kind, true, merciful, generous, or honest.“We cannot have peace if we are only concerned with peace. War is not an accident. It is the logical outcome of a certain way of life. If we want to attack war, we have to attack that way of life.” “The problem after a war is with the victor. He thinks he has just proved that war and violence pay. Who will now teach him a lesson?” “No Big Power in all history ever thought of itself as an aggressor. That is still true today.” There is no way to peace; peace is the way.

When the typical reformer or revolutionist proclaims the new order, he goes on to urge men to organize, agitate, get out the vote, fight. Jesus also proclaimed The Kingdom of God [i.e., the revolution] is at hand; but immediately added in true prophetic fashion, Repent. That is to say, if we are to have a new world, we must have new men; if you want a revolution, you must be revolutionized. A world of peace will not be achieved by men who in their own souls are torn with strife and eagerness to assert themselves. In the degree that the anti-war or pacifist movement is composed of individuals who have not themselves, to use Aldous Huxley's phrase, achieved detachment, who have not undergone an inner revolution, it too will experience the same failure to achieve self-discipline, integrity, true fellowship among its own members which has afflicted other movements for social change.

“It is the responsibility of intellectuals to speak the truth and expose lies.” and many do but at a price of being placed on a watch list or to be detained hounded and arrested held and with out due process they are the heroes those whom have chosen to speak out at any cost from veterans to soldiers to the citizen STAND AND BE COUNTED

Pro Deo et Constitutione – Libertas aut Mors

Semper Vigilans Fortis Paratus et Fidelis
Joseph F Barber