Federal Support for Slavery and Foreign Oil

Reference: The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery, by Eric Foner document how Federal support for slavery was ended and is a case study in how to end Climate Change. Both are a Tyranny of the Majority:

• Slavery sacrifices a minority based on race. Corrected by:
  • War wit 600,000 dead soldiers.
  • 13th Amendment ending slavery in 1865.
  • 14th Amendment graning citizenship to all Americans 1868.
  • 15th Amendment granting voting righs to All Americans 1870.
• Climate Change, Foreign Oil Addiction, Highest Incarceration Rate in the World sacrifices a minority based on age and political influence. Kids' Declaration of Liberty. Recommended corrective actions:
  • Divided Sovereignty of the Preamble.
    • Repleal the 17th Amendment to increase to cost of political corruption, curtail Federal consolidation, and restore the compound republic as outlined in Federalists #9 and #10.
    • Clarify that the 16th Amendment did not change the Divided Sovereignty of the Constitution to allow Federal taxing to "provide welfare".
    • 10th Amendment Council. A standing committee to review actions by the Federal Governing that usurp State Sovereignty.
    • 9th Amendment Coucil. A network of citizen coucils and Internet channels that identify, sound the alarm, and fund juries to override government violation of natural, civil, and political rights.
    • Enforce Congress's duty to reguate the value of money: Inflation transfers wealth from the many to the few as those holding assets see them appreciate in value and the young and poor see the value of their labor debased by that inflation.
  • Jury:  Restore the Constitution's mandate that "Trial of all Crimes, except in Cases of Impeachment, shall be by Jury" so citizens are forced in our normal lives to judge what laws are being applied and whether they are just to apply to specific individuals.
  • Militia:  Pass a Constitutional Amendment requiring all citizens, except in the case of disability, to serve 3-5 months of basic infantry training. This is short enough the powerful cannot exempt their children. It is not long enough to train good infantryman, but is long enough to train bad sheep. Randomly mixing the young in this process may help break the class distinctions and provides each person with a basic understanding of how to defend their life and how to organize the survival of their community.

Illicit Energy is dependence on energy outside self-reliance, obtained at the expense of others.

In America, Federal support for Illicit Energy from:

1. Slave labor caused the Civil War.

Federalist #42 (Madison):

"criminal toleration of an illicit practice"

"It were doubtless to be wished, that the power of prohibiting the importation of slaves had not been postponed until the year 1808, or rather that it had been suffered to have immediate operation. But it is not difficult to account, either for this restriction on the general government, or for the manner in which the whole clause is expressed. It ought to be considered as a great point gained in favor of humanity, that a period of twenty years may terminate forever, within these States, a traffic which has so long and so loudly upbraided the barbarism of modern policy; that within that period, it will receive a considerable discouragement from the federal government, and may be totally abolished, by a concurrence of the few States which continue the unnatural traffic, in the prohibitory example which has been given by so great a majority of the Union. Happy would it be for the unfortunate Africans, if an equal prospect lay before them of being redeemed from the oppressions of their European brethren!"

2. Foreign oil resulted in Climate Change, perpetual oil-wars since 1991, oil-dollar funded terrorism, US Peak Oil in 1970, $21 trillion in Federal debt, and the coming Oil Famine.

Federalist #63: "So there are particular moments in public affairs when the people, stimulated by some irregular passion, or some illicit advantage, or misled by the artful misrepresentations of interested men, may call for measures which they themselves will afterwards be the most ready to lament and condemn."

The 16th (Income Tax), 17th (popular election of Senators) and 18th (Prohibition) Amendments were passed at a time when Americans wanted more democracy, less liberty, and more Federal powers to correct defects they saw in society. Federal consolidation policies followed quickly. In the mobilization to fight World War I, President Wilson monopolized communications and socialized power and transportation infrastructures as “natural monopolies.” At the steady pace of Federal taxing and building communications, power and transportation networks dependence Federal internal improvements grew. The unintended consequence was a new Tyranny of the Majority was formed; drivers wanting cheaper gasoline. To support this majority, the Federal governing depleted resources, polluted, waged oil-wars, and borrowed $18 trillion against the liberty and future labor of children, a non-voting minority.

Federalist #10: “the majority, having such coexistent passion or interest, must be rendered, by their number and local situation, unable to concert and carry into effect schemes of oppression. If the impulse and the opportunity be suffered to coincide, we well know that neither moral nor religious motives can be relied on as an adequate control. They are not found to be such on the injustice and violence of individuals, and lose their efficacy in proportion to the number combined together, that is, in proportion as their efficacy becomes needful.”

Correlation between Federal support for slave labor and mortgaging the labor of children is expanded on in another paper. In both cases the value of labor is confiscated without consent.

The objective of this paper is to issue a call to action for No Foreign Oil by 2020. Defund terrorism, defund Iran’s nuclear ambitions, defund Climate Change. A 45% decrease in America’s use of oil, restoring American energy self-reliance, has broad benefits.

It will be hard to cut oil use by 45% in 4 years. Ending Federal support for slavery provides a case study that it can be accomplished. At the beginning of the Civil War the property value of slaves exceeded the value of all farms and factories in America. Yet, in 4 years Americans rallied to the defense of the Declaration of Independence and Amended the Constitution to end Federal support of slavery. Ending Federal support for foreign oil in 4 years only requires Americans to enforce the written Constitution, defend their children from Federal debt, and become energy self-reliant.

This paper is segmented into the current path to war, the false choice of gradual solutions, infrastructure liberty, and summary.

The Current Path to War

In 2010 the Joint Forces Command clearly warned all US military commands that dependence on foreign oil will be the path to wider war:

"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

Life requires energy. Oil is finite. Americans must fight for foreign oil or be energy self-reliant. The last eight US Presidents declared foreign oil as an enemy of the nation. Yet in the same period Federal policies expanded oil-powered infrastructure, mandating increased foreign oil from 20% to 45% of needs. Federal taxing to expand dependence on foreign oil seems to be the unintended treason, Article 3, Section 3 of the Constitution, “in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort.”

The following graphics illustrate the risks to Posterity. The left graph illustrates consequences of Federal highway policies. As the Federal government built oil-powered infrastructure, nearly half the railroads in America went bankrupt, cities sprawled, family farms were collectivized, and American were forced to buy cars and oil to be economically competitive. As US oil fields depleted (Light Blue Line), Federal policies subsidized the importing of foreign oil (Dark Blue Line) and oil-wars, by borrowing $18 trillion against the future labor of children (Red Line). The images on the right show the multi-year loss of Arctic sea-ice as Federal policies socialized pollutions risks.

False Choice of Gradual Solutions

American energy self-reliance requires a 45% reduction in oil use by 2020. American soldiers have been buying time for America to restore energy self-reliance for 25 years; it is past time for Americans to honor that sacrifice.

The US military and Federal government need to lead in the effort starting immediately in 2012. The best way to defeat terrorism is to defund it. The plan is rigorous and simple:

• Implement the Memorial Day tax on foreign oil. Pass a $30 a barrel tax on foreign oil immediately and increase that tax $30 a barrel every Memorial Day until the sacrifice of soldiers have been honored by restoring American energy self-reliance.
• The US military cuts it use of oil to within domestic resources in 2015, a 45% cut in oil use.
• The Federal government cut its use of oil to within domestic resources by 2017.
• State governments cut their 45% by 2018.

Restoring American energy self-reliance will be hard and provides the first correlation between the path to the Civil War and Oil Famine. As the path to the Civil War unfolded schemes were promoted for gradual emancipation, for exiling Black Americans through the Colonization Society, and Federal support for the gradual spreading of slavery through the Kansas-Nebraska Act and the Dred Scott Decision.

The Civil War proved the fallacy of gradual solutions. The real choice facing Americans was:

• Immediate emancipation of slaves. Enforce America’s founding principle that “all men are created equal” ...
• or, a long bloody war followed by immediate emancipation of slaves and establishing citizenship through the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments.

The failure of gradual solutions to counter the Federal subordination of America’s survival to foreign oil is evidenced by the unanswered calls for action by eight Presidents, and failure to honor the sacrifice of soldiers buying time, by Americans becoming energy self-reliant. The real choice facing Americans is:

• Achieve energy-self reliance by 2020. Enforce America’s founding law that the Federal government must “provide” for the defense of liberty for Posterity and limit infrastructure involvement to no more than “post Roads”.
• or, a long bloody war, as energy self-reliance is forced by the collapse of debt’s ability to buy access to foreign oil. This collapse nearly occurred in Sept 2008.

Correcting the Constitution's accommodation to slavery required Amendments to Article 5. To end dependence on foreign oil requires only that Americans enforce the written Constitution.

The Constitution prohibits Federal consolidation of powers not enumerated in it. More specifically, Divided Sovereignty is specified by “We the People” in the Federal mission statement, the Preamble. The mission mandates the Federal government to “provide” for the defense of liberty for ourselves and our Posterity while restricting it to only “promote” welfare. Providing welfare in the form of roads is limited to defending free speech by assuring letters could be delivered if no other means existed via “post Roads.” This “post Roads” restriction was voted into the Constitution on Sept 14, 1787 to prevent a Federal transportation monopoly from repeating the defects of the King’s monopoly (East India Company, Boston Tea Party). Amendments 9 and 10 of the Bill of Rights restate the Divided Sovereignty of the Preamble and enumerated nature of the Constitution.

Federalist #9 and #10 explain the importance of Divided Sovereignty, how diversity of state economy was to be the defense against Tyranny of the Majority; “Should abuses creep into one part, they are reformed by those that remain sound.”

It was diversity between free-labor and slave-labor state economies in the western expansion that finally broke the Tyranny of the Majority of Federally supported slavery.

Federal consolidation of highway policies in direct violation of the written Constitution subordinate the survival of America to the power of foreign oil. Federalist #45 and vetoes of Presidents Madison, Jackson, and Polk underscore the clearly written Constitution:

Federalist #45:  "The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State governments are numerous and indefinite. The former will be exercised principally on external objects, as war, peace, negotiation, and foreign commerce; with which last the power of taxation will, for the most part, be connected. The powers reserved to the several States will extend to all the objects which, in the ordinary course of affairs, concern the lives, liberties, and properties of the people, and the internal order, improvement, and prosperity of the State."

President Madison Bonus Bill veto of March 3, 1817:  "Having considered the bill this day presented to me entitled 'An act to set apart and pledge certain funds for internal improvements,' and which sets apart and pledges funds 'for constructing roads and canals, and improving the navigation of water courses' . . . I am constrained by the insuperable difficulty I feel in reconciling the bill with the Constitution of the United States to return it with that objection to the House of Representatives. The legislative powers vested in Congress are specified and enumerated in the eighth section of the first article of the Constitution, and it does not appear that the power proposed to be exercised by the bill is among the enumerated powers."

Infrastructure Liberty

In 1982 liberty to choose communications networks was restored to the people by the court breakup of the Federal monopoly under AT&T. Long-dormant innovations such as the Internet (1969) and radio telephones (1946) were commercialized. A century of centrally planned rotary telephones was displaced as millions of jobs were created deploying vast innovations, with better service at lower costs.

The success of restoring liberty in communications can be repeated in transportation as illustrated by non-highway transportation networks:

• Freight railroads average 480 ton-miles per gallon, at over 100 times greater efficiency than highways move people. Yet Federal policies caused the bankruptcy of nearly half the freight railroads since The Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956.

• The Personal Rapid Transit (PRT) network built in Morgantown, WV as a solution to the 1973 Oil Embargo has delivered 110 million oil-free, injury-free passenger-miles. In the same period that PRT has been injury-free, 1.7 million Americans have died on the highway monopoly.  

The barrier to deployment was noted in Congressional Office of Technology Assessment study PB-244854 published in 1975 on how PRT can make America cities independent of foreign oil. US DOT “neglected near-term ... simpler approaches to correct transit problems. Finally, institutional failures may have hindered implementation.”

When the Constitution is enforced, with liberty to choose power and transportation infrastructure restored to the people, it will be possible to achieve what Thomas Edison observed in 1910:

Sunshine is spread out thin and so is electricity. Perhaps they are the same, Sunshine is a form of energy, and the winds and the tides are manifestations of energy.

Do we use them? Oh, no! We burn up wood and coal, as renters burn up the front fence for fuel. We live like squatters, not as if we owned the property.

There must surely come a time when heat and power will be stored in unlimited quantities in every community, all gathered by natural forces. Electricity ought to be as cheap as oxygen....

Thomas Edison, 1910

I'd put my money on the sun and solar energy. What a source of power! I hope we don't have to wait  'til oil and coal run out before we tackle that.

Thomas Edison, 1931

Summary

Life requires energy. Oil is finite. Life and nations powered by oil are terminal. The Federal mandate of a 45% dependence on debt to buy foreign oil is the path to war.

“Secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity” is the objective of the Federal government. Federal highway policies fail this mission by mandating Illicit Energy, subordinating the survival of America to the power of foreign oil, tilting the balance of nature with pollution, oil-wars since 1991, debt of $18 trillion, and funding terrorists with oil-dollars.

Federal highway policies violate the written Constitution’s enumerated nature, restriction in the Preamble, “post Road” restriction, and Amendments 9 and 10 of the Bill of Rights.

The US military needs to lead the nation by defending the Constitution against our lack of self-discipline to be energy self-reliant. Terrorist threats to America can be defunded by powering America’s defenses within domestic resources; immediately cut oil use 45% in 2015. The nation must honor those who bought us time to become energy self-reliant by doing so by 2020. Impose $30 a barrel tax on foreign oil and increase it $30 a barrel every Memorial Day.

Federal support for slavery ended in 4 years with a long and bloody domestic war. By 2020, terrorist can be defunded and America can exit the current path to war by cutting oil use by 45% to become energy self-reliant.