Episode 243 S7-5
National Emergency Freedoms
Featuring:
Special Guest:
Hope on the Horizon Ch 5
~L Douglas Hogan~
The focus on safety during the Coronavirus outbreak threatens the constitutional rights of every American. The post-apocalyptic adventure story, Hope on the Horizon, illustrates life without the constitution instilling law on today’s podcast. Also, L. Douglas Hogan, author of Oath Takers, joins us to discuss the dangers our rights are facing in this challenging time.
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Coronavirus has presented us with a challenging circumstance in America. During this time of National Emergency, Americans must strictly monitor their constitutional rights. The first amendment on The Bill of Rights is the right to assemble. For safety reasons, this government instantly suspended this right. The second amendment listed on the Bill of Rights is the right to keep and bear arms. Some cities and towns have suspended this right over concern for rising sales and an increase in new gun ownership. Take a moment to glance through The Bill of Rights. It is not difficult to imagine the government suspending many more rights they technically are not in control over.
If people would be more disciplined and self-quarantine when appropriate, maybe these extreme measures would not be deemed necessary. However, there are always people that will heed the warning and those that won’t. Therefore, even more, extreme measures may be considered essential, but how many of those fundamental rights afforded by the Constitution of America would those measures violate? In the end, you will have to make your own choice.
Even though the death percentage of this disease is small, the panic buying went into full swing. It seems as if people are negating basic ethics for greed, self-preservation, or personal gain. It is possible that much of this “panic buying” may be overplayed to increase the panic level of the populous. On a good note, more and more people are learning the necessity for a preparedness lifestyle.
On a typical day in any given city before the Coronavirus, most people would go to the store and purchase what they needed for dinner or a couple of days. The system designed to keep food on the shelves is an on-demand system. When a product is purchased, the cashier scans the UPC barcode. A computer on the list unchecks it from the on the shelf list to the order list. The store itself generally held enough products to supply its general populous for three days (some cities were even down to one-day food supply).
When the president gave the order for everyone to go out and buy two weeks’ worth, the stores were overwhelmed. They didn’t have enough supply to supply that need, and their suppliers didn’t have enough trucks to get all the products that needed to go back to the stores there quick enough. This delay caused the supply chain to break down. Once you sprinkle in the percentage of greedy people that went out and bought products so they could sell it on e-bay, you can see how it exasperates the problem.
Society has turned away from self-reliant food supply to supplement that available on the market. A small population has maintained the art of canning and food preservation. Having canned goods, pasta, rice, and other items preserved in the home used to be very commonplace. The disposable society that eats out at restaurants every night moved in instead.
Individuals can garden anywhere. Support your local farmers by purchasing their products. You can get surplus supplies for canning. Growing your food, developing that skill now, is essential. The world may experience food shortages. Becoming prepared now will help build prepared communities no matter what challenges present themselves in the future.
Is Corona Virus a big enough excuse to circumvent the Constitutional Bill of Rights. Another election is coming the end of this year, and the right to assemble is currently suspended. How long will this be the case? Some mayors and town leaders are attempting to suspend firearm sales, and media censorship has gone wild. No one questioned these decisions because it was all done in the name of safety.
We need to be very careful as a society. We are giving away our rights quickly. Ben Franklin himself said they who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security deserve neither liberty or security.
I would argue that we can overcome as a country without abandoning our fundamental rights. However, there is a lot of gray areas here because an individual’s rights end when someone else’s begins. For example, if you are not wearing your seat belt, you are not going to hurt anyone else if you break that law. However, if you are speeding and lose control, crashing your car into someone else’s, your law-breaking puts them in danger. You may have no problem assembling no matter what the threat, but other people that interact with you also have the right not to get sick. That is the argument we are facing.
American society used to be self and community reliant. The American populous entrusted those essential support systems to the government. Now, everyone looks to the government and wonders what they are going to do to help. Americans need to take responsibility for their own actions and be kind to one another. When given a choice, use the wild foraging rule of only taking a third of what is available no matter how bad you need something. Honestly, I feel America is going to be facing much bigger problems than Corona soon. If we are acting like this now, what will happen when something worse comes down the pipeline?
The Corona Virus was first declared a Federal Emergency and then a State Emergency. It seems like it would have been a community problem first that grew into a Federal issue. However, the Federal Emergency was declared first to get funds moving quickly. If you ever want to know why things happen a certain way, nine times out of ten, all you have to do is follow the money.
Once a National Emergency is declared, the president can use emergency money for disaster relief. Executive order 13603, created by President Obama, was titled the National Defense Resources Preparedness Act. This order gives the government the right to control food water, travel, including air travel, construction materials, farms, fertilizers, fuel, human labor, land, and the list goes on. The president created the order as a provision to protect United States sovereignty and superiority in any emergency. On an individual level, it could demolish the rights of every American citizen.
John F. Kennedy was the first president to design these executive orders that could be instituted in case of an emergency to get access to essential resources instantly. When JFK wrote them, he wrote a bunch that took control of specific resources. Obama made them all into one giant executive order sandwich that encompassed them all.
When the president institutes this executive order, the leadership structure of the United States remains the same. If the government established martial law, the chance of its success is slim. This order would require every level of government to participate. However, law enforcement is often a county function, and they may choose not to participate. The government would also need the State Forces and National Guard, plus every member of all of the Armed Forces.
In the US, there are three million five hundred thirty-one thousand nine hundred and five square miles of US geography. There is a total of nineteen thousand three hundred and fifty-four incorporated areas, which include every city, town, and village in the US. The population of the United States is three hundred twenty-seven million. Two hundred sixty-seven million people are living in urban areas, and sixty million people in rural areas. That means there are ninety two people per square mile in the United States (four hundred and eighty-four football fields). The United States has one million two hundred and eighty-one thousand people in the armed forces. Plus, eight hundred and one thousand in reserve, totaling two million eight hundred and thirty thousand in total. Adding the troops together and dividing them into the square miles of the USA equals one point six nine soldiers per square mile or one soldier for every four hundred and eight-four football fields.
Everyone would have to be on board with the decision to equal those numbers. If the military did step up, the people still have the 2ndamendment. The sheer number of gun owners ensures the sovereignty of the people.
How could the government possibly succeed with martial law? If the people in the cities are conditioned enough to follow blindly, it would not be challenging to instill a military presence in the city. The city dwellers would only start noncompliance if the supplies ran out. Alternatively, the government could take control of the warehouses that supply the stores with product. If the government established control over electricity and transportation along with the food supply, dominance could easily be applied and maintained.
The power for Americans is in the people and the communities they make. Help your fellow community members and don’t act like a turd. Grow food together, and support your local farmers. United America will thrive, but divided, we will fall. The Federal Government can not respond to local needs. Keeping America thriving is the role of your community and the part you play in it.
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~L Douglas Hogan~
L. Douglas Hogan is a U.S.M.C. veteran with over twenty years in public service. Among these are three years as an anti-tank infantryman, one year as a Marine Corps Marksmanship Instructor, ten years as a part-time police officer, and seventeen years working in state government doing security work and supervision. He is the best-selling author of “Oath Takers”, has authored four books in a series titled Tyrant, and is working on the sixth a final book of the series. He has been married over twenty years, has two children, and is faithful to his church, where he resides in southern Illinois.