Archiv: (endless) state of emergency / curfews / mass house arrests / lockdowns (quarantines) / zones / production ban / art ban / sports ban / assembly ban / etc


15.11.2024 - 16:10 [ CNN ]

Trump picks Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to be his Department of Health and Human Services secretary

President-elect Donald Trump has picked Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to be his next secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, a choice that would add to Trump’s list of provocative picks whose confirmation processes will test the loyalty of Senate Republicans.

Trump on Thursday announced the selection, confirming CNN’s earlier reporting, saying he was thrilled to share the pick.

14.01.2024 - 02:12 [ ABC.net.au ]

Thousands of Palestinian supporters rally across Australia, as Sydney‘s Jewish community gathers in separate event

„No more deaths, no more bombs …free Gaza,“ state Greens MP Gabrielle de Vietri told the crowd.

„A temporary ceasefire is just the bare minimum of what must happen, and the Greens have been unequivocal in their calls not only for a ceasefire but for a lasting and just peace for Palestine.“

One of the speakers, Independent senator Lidia Thorpe, spoke of how she had been in police protection in recent weeks and had been trapped in her home for five months.

11.11.2023 - 12:00 [ Naomi Wolf / Amazon ]

Facing the Beast: Courage, Faith, and Resistance in a New Dark Age

In this uncompromising investigation into today’s most urgent issues, Naomi Wolf uses her own wildly politicized pilgrimage—from New York Times bestselling author and high-level Democratic consultant to a journalist cast out from the elite political and social circles she once moved through—as a stunning narrative framework that is both chilling and incisive.

Wolf’s sin? Doing the job that good journalists once prided themselves on: asking questions, challenging authority, and, during one of the most politically divisive moments in modern history, exposing the many failures of the public health response during the COVID-19 pandemic by chronicling the dangerous descent of our democracy into tyranny, censorship, and totalitarianism.

Unable to remain silent in the shadows and unwilling to collude with the mainstream, Wolf bravely covers topics that few other writers dare to address critically for fear of being deplatformed. Facing the Beast explores reproductive rights, medical freedom, the uncurious thought-policing of the “progressive” left, the Second Amendment, the criminal relationship between the FDA and Pfizer—Wolf’s clear writing repeatedly shines light in the dark corners of our fractured society.

A decades-long champion of free speech, freedom of the press, and the Constitution, Wolf found herself not only in the midst of a political rebirth but a spiritual transformation as well—one in which the events of the day could only be described in terms of good, evil, and a metaphysical quest on the nature of reality.

03.10.2023 - 11:00 [ World Economic Forum / Weltwirtschaftsforum ]

World Economic Forum Launches Coalition to Tackle Harmful Online Content

(29 Jun 2021)

· Leaders in Australia, the UK, Indonesia, Ukraine, Bangladesh, Singapore and other public and private sector members have come together to collaborate and share best practices to reduce the spread of child sexual exploitation and abuse online, violent extremist and terrorist content, and health misinformation

16.09.2023 - 02:10 [ Newsweek ]

Courts Strike a Blow Against White House‘s Social Media Censorship | Opinion

The plaintiffs in the case, led by the states of Missouri and Louisiana, eminent doctors, and others alleged that under guise of combating „mis-, dis-, and mal-information,“ the Biden White House and nearly a dozen federal agencies have, alongside private-sector cutouts, cajoled and colluded with Big Tech platforms to silence millions of Americans. The topics social media platforms have censored at the government‘s direction, measuring likely hundreds of millions of posts, range from the Hunter Biden laptop story, to matters of election integrity, to virtually every aspect of the coronavirus pandemic.

22.08.2023 - 17:35 [ US Supreme Court ]

SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES: NATIONAL FEDERATION OF INDEPENDENT BUSINESS, ET AL., APPLICANTS 21A244 v. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR, OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND HEALTH ADMINISTRATION, ET AL

(13.01.2022)

Administrative agencies are creatures of statute. They accordingly possess only the authority that Congress has provided. The Secretary has ordered 84 million Americans to either obtain a COVID–19 vaccine or undergo weekly medical testing at their own expense. This is no “everyday exercise of federal power.” In re MCP No. 165, 20 F. 4th, at 272 (Sutton, C. J., dissenting). It is instead a significant encroachment into the lives—and health—of a vast number of employees. “We expect Congress to speak clearly when authorizing an agency to exercise powers of vast economic and political significance.” Alabama Assn. of Realtors v. Department of Health and Human Servs., 594
U. S. ___, ___ (2021) (per curiam) (slip op., at 6) (internal quotation marks omitted). There can be little doubt that OSHA’s mandate qualifies as an exercise of such authority. The question, then, is whether the Act plainly authorizes the Secretary’s mandate. It does not. The Act empowers the Secretary to set workplace safety standards, not broad public health measures.

(…)

The Solicitor General does not dispute that OSHA is limited to regulating “work-related dangers.” Response Brief for OSHA in No. 21A244 etc., p. 45 (OSHA Response). She instead argues that the risk of contracting COVID–19 qualifies as such a danger. We cannot agree. Although COVID–19 is a risk that occurs in many workplaces, it is not an occupational hazard in most. COVID–19 can and does spread at home, in schools, during sporting events, and everywhere else that people gather. That kind of universal risk is no different from the day-to-day dangers that all face from crime, air pollution, or any number of communicable diseases. Permitting OSHA to regulate the hazards of daily life—simply because most Americans have jobs and face those same risks while on the clock—would significantly expand OSHA’s regulatory authority without clear congressional authorization.

22.08.2023 - 17:32 [ Justin Amash / Twitter ]

The Supreme Court blocked President Biden‘s OSHA mandate, which was blatantly and egregiously unconstitutional. The principle is simple: The president is not a king with the power to do whatever he wants regardless of the law and the facts.

(Jan 13, 2022)

10.08.2023 - 12:38 [ CNN ]

Ecuador presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio assassinated at campaign event

Opinion polls had put him in the middle of the pack of the eight candidates, far behind the frontrunner Luisa González.

(…)

As he gets into the back seat of the vehicle, at least 12 gunshots can be heard. A policeman quickly closes the door behind Villavicencio and many people are seen taking cover from the gunfire, including his security detail.

CNN has asked authorities for more details.

21.07.2023 - 03:10 [ the-Star.co.ke ]

Kenya Kwanza defends police on alleged brutality in demos

„We want to ask ICC to be alert because what is happening are acts of criminality,“ he said.

Kiambu Senator Karungo Wathangwa asked the President to lock the country and deal with the opposition if that is what it will take to restore peace and order in the country.

„If it takes three, four or five days to lock down this country and deal with these people, let it be,“ he said.

09.07.2023 - 11:50 [ New York Times ]

To Foreign Policy Veteran, the Real Danger Is at Home

Mr. Haass recently published a book called “The Bill of Obligations: The Ten Habits of Good Citizens,” outlining ways Americans can help heal their own society, like “Be Informed,” “Remain Civil,” “Put Country First” — all admittedly bromides and yet somehow often elusive these days. (…)

Putting his foreign policy hat aside for now, he said he wants to expand the message from his book and help refocus the country on the core values embodied in the Declaration of Independence as the 250th anniversary of the document approaches three years from now.

05.07.2023 - 12:04 [ Fox News ]

Biden likely violated First Amendment during COVID-19 pandemic, federal judge says

A U.S. District Court judge is temporarily preventing White House officials from meeting with tech companies about social media censorship, arguing that such actions in the past were likely First Amendment violations.

The Tuesday injunction by Louisiana Judge Terry A. Doughty was in response to recent lawsuits from Louisiana and Missouri attorneys general. The suits allege that the White House coerced or „significantly encourage[d]“ tech companies to suppress free speech during the COVID-19 pandemic.

05.07.2023 - 12:00 [ APnews.com ]

Judge limits Biden administration in working with social media companies

U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty of Louisiana granted the injunction in response to a 2022 lawsuit brought by attorneys general in Louisiana and Missouri. Their lawsuit alleged that the federal government overstepped in its efforts to convince social media companies to address postings that could result in vaccine hesitancy during the COVID-19 pandemic or affect elections.

30.06.2023 - 19:50 [ France 24 ]

Live: French PM says gendarmes to use armoured vehicles against riots

French Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne said Friday that the government was considering „all options“ to restore order, including declaring a state of emergency, after a third night of unrest across the country.

23.06.2023 - 10:55 [ Times of India ]

US President Biden and PM Modi‘s joint press conference: Full text

We shared our views to enhance coordination with all countries in this region, along with our Quad partners. India and America stand shoulder-to-shoulder in the fight against terrorism and fundamentalism. We’re in agreement that concrete actions are needed in order to end cross-border terrorism.
The COVID pandemic and the Ukraine conflict have afflicted the countries of the Global South in particular. We believe that in order to resolve these problems, it is absolutely imperative for all countries to unite.

23.06.2023 - 10:49 [ BBC ]

Joe Biden and Narendra Modi hail ‚defining‘ US-India partnership

This included marching bands, a lavish vegetarian dinner and a 21-gun salute on the South Lawn of the White House.

Mr Modi, who is on a state visit, also addressed the US Congress, where he received a standing ovation.

22.06.2023 - 18:35 [ iNews.co.uk ]

Covid inquiry: Chris Whitty admits lockdown was ‘radical’ and criticises UK ‘failures’ in pandemic planning

He told Lady Hallett’s inquiry: “Social measures, many of which are longstanding – quarantine, individual isolation, closing schools, many of these go back to the Middle Ages or beyond – these are not new ideas, however the very big new idea was the idea of a lockdown, I am talking here very very specifically about the state saying people have to go home and stay at home… It’s a very radical thing to do.”

22.06.2023 - 15:41 [ BBC ]

Lockdown was ‚very radical thing to do‘ – Whitty to Covid inquiry

. The chief medical adviser, Sir Chris Whitty, tells the UK Covid-19 Inquiry that lockdown was a „very radical thing to do“
– He calls the lockdown „extraordinarily major“ and a „big new idea“ that wasn‘t considered in advance
– He also says he saw the damage from the disease „first-hand“ as a working medic
– Earlier, Cobra chief Roger Hargreaves talked about the emergency regulations in the Civil Contingencies Act never being used
– The government‘s chief scientific adviser during the pandemic, Sir Patrick Vallance, is due to give evidence later
– zYou can watch the hearings by pressing play at the top of the page

21.06.2023 - 05:22 [ Telegraph.co.uk ]

Boris Johnson irrevocably corrupted the Tories – now, they’re rotten to the core

Not all politicians are the same, I know that, but enough of the current crop are to make many turn away from politics forever. The Johnson debacle, like Trump’s manoeuvrings, is a profoundly anti-democratic moment as both leaders seek to undermine any institution that stops their ambition. That ambition has nothing to do with improving the lives of anyone but themselves. “Power,” says O’Brien as he tortures Winston in George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four, “is not a means, it is an end.” Indeed.

21.06.2023 - 05:13 [ DailyMail.co.uk ]

Rishi Sunak declares Boris Johnson Partygate furore ‚closed‘ and ex-PM calls ceasefire in bitter Tory feuding – with ministers pleading for unity amid polls showing Labour lead hitting 20 POINTS ahead of crucial by-elections

Mr Sunak joined many Conservatives in swerving the debate, instead attending a Jewish Care event.

21.06.2023 - 05:04 [ Telegraph.co.uk ]

Boris Johnson latest: MPs back partygate report – as only seven vote in favour of ex-PM

(19.06.2023)

Only seven Tories voted against the report after a five-hour debate in Parliament, with 354 MPs across all parties in favour of the conclusion that Mr Johnson had deliberately misled the House.

The former prime minister quit as an MP after he learned of the recommendations of the cross-party group, which included a 90-day ban from the House of Commons for “repeated contempts” of Parliament.

21.06.2023 - 04:57 [ ManchesterEveningNews.co.uk ]

Boris Johnson banned from Parliament as MPs back damning report into partygate denials

(19.06.2023)

Branding him the first former prime minister to have lied to the Commons, the Privileges Committee found Mr Johnson committed ‚repeated contempts‘ of Parliament by deliberately misleading MPs with his partygate denials before being complicit in a campaign of abuse and intimidation.

The former prime minister had urged his allies not to oppose the report, arguing that the sanctions have no practical effect, although critics said it was a move designed to avoid revealing the low level of remaining support for him among Tory MPs.

19.06.2023 - 10:12 [ Independent.co.uk ]

New Partygate video ‘shows Tories dancing, drinking and laughing at lockdown rules’

At least 24 guests were reportedly at the gathering which was held just a few days before Mr Johnson’s 19 December announcement that Tier 4 Covid curbs would be implemented. This put London and the southeast of England under severe restrictions which meant many could not see their families on Christmas Day.

“It is with a very heavy heart that I must tell you we cannot continue with Christmas as planned,” he said just five days after the party.

19.06.2023 - 10:06 [ Mirror.co.uk ]

Exclusive: First ever Partygate video revealed as Tories drink, dance and laugh at Covid rules

When one man sees he is being recorded, he says: “Oh Christ.” Then another asks: “Are you filming this?” Someone else responds: “It’s for party, erm, party use.”

A man then laughs after declaring: “As long as we are not streaming that we’re, like, bending the rules.”

It was just days after the party that Mr Johnson announced even tighter restrictions which meant people in the areas worst hit by Covid could not see their loved ones over Christmas.

16.06.2023 - 15:00 [ Telegraph.co.uk ]

Boris Johnson latest news: Stripping ex-PM of parliamentary pass would be ‚very harsh‘, says Liz Truss

The former prime minister also warned Mr Johnson’s critics they should “never, ever, ever” write him off amid questions over whether he could seek a return to the political frontline.

The committee recommended Mr Johnson “should not be entitled to a former Member’s pass” after it concluded he had deliberately misled MPs over partygate.

16.06.2023 - 14:54 [ Channel 4 News / Youtube ]

Boris Johnson ‘deliberately misled parliament’, Covid inquiry finds

Long-awaited, but much more hard hitting than anticipated, the Privileges Committee report condemned Boris Johnson for repeatedly misleading MPs and – despite his protestations to the contrary – undermining the committee itself.

15.06.2023 - 12:56 [ Kennedy24.com ]

Civil Liberties: Restore our Rights

Our administration will make it a top priority to protect and restore the fundamental civil liberties, enshrined in the Bill of Rights, that hold the essence of what America can be. These liberties have endured constant assault for over twenty years, starting with the Bush/Cheney War on Terror, and accelerating in the era of Covid lockdowns.

Freedom of speech is the capstone of all other rights and freedoms. Once a government has the power to silence its opponents, no other right is safe. We will therefore dismantle the censorship-industrial complex, in which Big Tech censors, deplatforms, shadowbans, and algorithmically suppresses any person or opinion the government asks them to. We will respect the right to privacy and freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures, by ending mass surveillance of American citizens and the abuse of civil asset forfeiture. We will make sure that the Covid-era suspension of the right to assembly, trial by jury, and freedom of worship will never happen again. The same for the right to property. During Covid, 3.4 million business were forced to close. Many of them, including 60% of Black-owned businesses, will never reopen.

A Kennedy administration will respect American citizens and stop treating them like suspects and schoolchildren. We will stop manipulating the public with propaganda and targeted leaks. We will never weaponize the law against political opponents, nor hold our own officials above the law. We will return the intelligence agencies to their proper role as protectors not violators of liberty.

07.06.2023 - 08:30 [ BalticWorlds.com ]

In Poland, COVID-19 exposes progressing societal militarization

(May 31, 2020)

As the lockdown unraveled, the disoriented Polish public swiftly learned from the media that the country is “at war with an invisible aggressor”, one that requires the Minister of Health to act like a “Commander in Chief” and puts the medical staff on the “front lines”. This military rhetoric was soon multiplied by media reports on the spike in Russian and Chinese “information warfare” against the European Union over COVID-19. Far from being purely discursive, this warlike response to the pandemic has also involved a wide deployment of close to ten thousand military personnel across the country. Already in March, the newly-founded Territorial Defense Forces (TDF) were mobilized for the first Polish comprehensive anti-crisis military operation after 1989.

02.06.2023 - 22:42 [ NationalCitizensInquiry.ca ]

A Citizen-Led Inquiry Into Canada’s COVID-19 Response

Canada’s federal and provincial governments’ COVID-19 policies were unprecedented. These interventions into Canadians’ lives, our families, businesses, and communities were, and to great extent remain, significant. In particular, these interventions impacted the physical and mental health, civil liberties and fundamental freedoms, jobs and livelihoods, and overall social and economic wellbeing of nearly all Canadians.

These circumstances demand a comprehensive, transparent, and objective national inquiry into the appropriateness and efficacy of these interventions, and to determine what lessons can be learned for the future. Such an inquiry cannot be commissioned or conducted impartially by our governments as it is their responses and actions to the COVID-19 which would be under investigation.

02.06.2023 - 22:10 [ Robert F. Kennedy Jr / Twitter ]

Everyone needs to watch this devastating dissection by one of Canada’s leading journalists of how global media icons were transformed into slavish government propagandists during Covid crisis. This testimony should be mandatory in every journalism school.

(31.05.2023)

The process of government-media propaganda coordination is not limited to Canada, nor to Covid issues. #Kennedy24

02.06.2023 - 22:04 [ librti.com ]

Testimony- CBC Journalist Exposes The Massive Lies & Propaganda Of CBC At National Citizens Inquiry

(21.04.2023)

The regular CBC „experts“ bribed hundreds of thousands of dollars. Watch until the end. Rodney Palmer‘s testimony at the National Citizens Inquiry shows CBC planted a fake sign at the convoy and knowingly lied throughout the past 3.5 years at the cost of all good Canadians. The exposure of the CBC has finally come. Find out how CTV and other mainstream news channels also signed on to be part of a new fake news group with an actual name, so they would all tout the same lies at the same time in unison. Support the nationalcitizensinquiry.ca and consider donating to their extensive costs and/or share the inquiry dates WIDELY on all of your platforms.

28.05.2023 - 00:10 [ theHill.com ]

Why I believe RFK Jr. will be the 2024 Democratic nominee

Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch recently used a statement in a lawsuit over the Title 42 public health order to give a scathing overview of how civil liberties were trampled during the COVID era.

The U.S., he wrote, may “have experienced the greatest intrusions on civil liberties in the peacetime history of this country….Executive officials across the country issued emergency decrees on a breathtaking scale. Governors and local leaders imposed lockdown orders forcing people to remain in their homes. They shuttered businesses and schools, public and private. They closed churches even as they allowed casinos and other favored businesses to carry on. They threatened violators not just with civil penalties but with criminal sanctions too.”

Many on the left now condemning Kennedy as an “anti-vaxxer” might have no problem with these draconian actions. But guess what? Tens of millions of Americans did and still do.

20.05.2023 - 00:01 [ NationalReview.com ]

The Real Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Among his many provocations: Kennedy claims that pandemic lockdowns were calamitous for working people and for children; that citizens should choose for themselves whether to receive vaccines; that corporate influences on government are pervasive and corrupting; and that censorship contrived by the state is intolerable. Worse even than these outrages, during the pandemic this man called into question the conduct and veracity of Anthony Fauci. And this offense — challenging Doctor Fauci! — is still regarded as the most shameful assault on science since the persecution of Galileo.

05.05.2023 - 20:30 [ theLastAmericanVagabond.com ]

All Roads Lead to Dark Winter

(April 1, 2020)

The leaders of two controversial pandemic simulations that took place just months before the Coronavirus crisis – Event 201 and Crimson Contagion – share a common history, the 2001 biowarfare simulation Dark Winter. Dark Winter not only predicted the 2001 anthrax attacks, but some of its participants had clear foreknowledge of those attacks.

05.05.2023 - 17:39 [ US Supreme Court ]

SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES: NATIONAL FEDERATION OF INDEPENDENT BUSINESS, ET AL., APPLICANTS 21A244 v. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR, OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND HEALTH ADMINISTRATION, ET AL

(13.01.2022)

Administrative agencies are creatures of statute. They accordingly possess only the authority that Congress has provided. The Secretary has ordered 84 million Americans to either obtain a COVID–19 vaccine or undergo weekly medical testing at their own expense. This is no “everyday exercise of federal power.” In re MCP No. 165, 20 F. 4th, at 272 (Sutton, C. J., dissenting). It is instead a significant encroachment into the lives—and health—of a vast number of employees. “We expect Congress to speak clearly when authorizing an agency to exercise powers of vast economic and political significance.” Alabama Assn. of Realtors v. Department of Health and Human Servs., 594
U. S. ___, ___ (2021) (per curiam) (slip op., at 6) (internal quotation marks omitted). There can be little doubt that OSHA’s mandate qualifies as an exercise of such authority. The question, then, is whether the Act plainly authorizes the Secretary’s mandate. It does not. The Act empowers the Secretary to set workplace safety standards, not broad public health measures.

(…)

The Solicitor General does not dispute that OSHA is limited to regulating “work-related dangers.” Response Brief for OSHA in No. 21A244 etc., p. 45 (OSHA Response). She instead argues that the risk of contracting COVID–19 qualifies as such a danger. We cannot agree. Although COVID–19 is a risk that occurs in many workplaces, it is not an occupational hazard in most. COVID–19 can and does spread at home, in schools, during sporting events, and everywhere else that people gather. That kind of universal risk is no different from the day-to-day dangers that all face from crime, air pollution, or any number of communicable diseases. Permitting OSHA to regulate the hazards of daily life—simply because most Americans have jobs and face those same risks while on the clock—would significantly expand OSHA’s regulatory authority without clear congressional authorization.

05.05.2023 - 17:25 [ New York Times ]

W.H.O. Ends Global Health Emergency Designation for Covid

Dr. Dalcolmo said the lifting of the global emergency should be viewed not as a milestone, but as a warning. “Take this as an alert, a time to start being prepared for the next pandemic,” she said, “because we know respiratory viruses are going to increase.”

23.04.2023 - 07:05 [ Fox News ]

America has ‘systematically’ wiped out the middle class: Robert F Kennedy Jr.

2024 presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. joined ‘Cavuto Live’ to discuss his forthcoming campaign, detailing his major political points on challenging President Biden.

01.02.2023 - 02:55 [ US Supreme Court ]

SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES: NATIONAL FEDERATION OF INDEPENDENT BUSINESS, ET AL., APPLICANTS 21A244 v. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR, OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND HEALTH ADMINISTRATION, ET AL

(13.01.2022)

Administrative agencies are creatures of statute. They accordingly possess only the authority that Congress has provided. The Secretary has ordered 84 million Americans to either obtain a COVID–19 vaccine or undergo weekly medical testing at their own expense. This is no “everyday exercise of federal power.” In re MCP No. 165, 20 F. 4th, at 272 (Sutton, C. J., dissenting). It is instead a significant encroachment into the lives—and health—of a vast number of employees. “We expect Congress to speak clearly when authorizing an agency to exercise powers of vast economic and political significance.” Alabama Assn. of Realtors v. Department of Health and Human Servs., 594
U. S. ___, ___ (2021) (per curiam) (slip op., at 6) (internal quotation marks omitted). There can be little doubt that OSHA’s mandate qualifies as an exercise of such authority. The question, then, is whether the Act plainly authorizes the Secretary’s mandate. It does not. The Act empowers the Secretary to set workplace safety standards, not broad public health measures.

(…)

The Solicitor General does not dispute that OSHA is limited to regulating “work-related dangers.” Response Brief for OSHA in No. 21A244 etc., p. 45 (OSHA Response). She instead argues that the risk of contracting COVID–19 qualifies as such a danger. We cannot agree. Although COVID–19 is a risk that occurs in many workplaces, it is not an occupational hazard in most. COVID–19 can and does spread at home, in schools, during sporting events, and everywhere else that people gather. That kind of universal risk is no different from the day-to-day dangers that all face from crime, air pollution, or any number of communicable diseases. Permitting OSHA to regulate the hazards of daily life—simply because most Americans have jobs and face those same risks while on the clock—would significantly expand OSHA’s regulatory authority without clear congressional authorization.

01.02.2023 - 02:44 [ Fox News ]

Supreme Court saves Americans from Biden COVID vaccine mandate—but the fight is not over

(14.01.2022)

As we have stated for months, the federal government doesn’t get to be your nanny, and it shouldn’t get to be your doctor. It has used this COVID-19 emergency to commandeer too many liberties that are solely afforded to sovereign states and free Americans. History has taught us that once a government takes rights from its citizens, they are almost never recovered. States must be vigilant and always ready to challenge a federal government that is growing too fast and too powerful.