[DiogenesLamp]

The Civil war screwed the country up badly. We are still dealing with the consequences of that war, Chiefest among them is the federal leviathan.

[Eastbound]

Absolutely right, DL. But how else could they have solved the black problem when the word, " Citizen" was already defined in the Constitution without re-writing the Constitution? My guess is they decided to name the freed slaves as 'citizens,' lower case. Of course, the word, citizen, henceforth became applied to both black and white and all colors in between and allowed free Citizens to change their Citizenship from a free Sovereign of a state to a federal citizen. All we had to do was to sign up for federal welfare or any number of federally funded programs for when we started applying for the benefits of federal programs it automatically changed our status from freeman to slave.

Surprisingly, the 14th Amendment only applies to those to whom the feds have jurisdiction over. They never did and still don't have jurisdiction over free Sovereigns.

It's practically impossible to live in America without using some of the benefits of federal funding, but it's possible to escape paying the penalty of losing your Sovereignty and free status by claiming exemption outlined in the U.C.C. ('nuff said about that.)