Dear KAG: 20200611 Open Thread

Agreed in general, although I don’t like the word ‘privileges’ at all, because in practice, a ‘privilege’ is something granted by the government in EXCHANGE for waiving some unalienable right (which is ‘unwaivable’ by definition).
We’re all familiar with the (100% bogus) expression ‘driving is a privilege’.
It’s a sleight of hand trick.
‘Driving’ is a legal term, so is ‘vehicle’, so technically, ‘driving a vehicle’ is a ‘privilege’, but operating a car is NOT. You have the Right to travel by whatever mode is common, and cars certainly qualify as common.
It only becomes a ‘privilege’ when you opt-in (consent, by contract) to their system of ‘benefits and privileges’, giving up your RIGHTS in the process.
People drove your YEARS, in some states for DECADES (well into the 1940s, maybe the 1950s) without driver’s licenses. They operated cars on the road with no license requirement at all, and it was 100% lawful under Common law.
And if it was lawful under Common Law, it is still lawful today, but nobody teaches people how to do it.
Our entire SYSTEM has been subverted with this kind of deception, trading our Rights for ‘privileges’.
It is all about CONTROL and MONEY. They make money from licensing, ‘moving violations’, ‘parking violations’, etc., and they exert control because they can ‘revoke’ your ‘privilege’ for ‘non-compliance’ with their control scheme.
When you are outside their system of ‘benefits and privileges’, they lose ALL of that revenue AND control.
About the original subject, an even better example is someone who was born in America but never became a U.S. citizen (e.g., American Indian, possibly), or someone who has renounced their U.S. citizenship and still lives here. Such a person might be called a ‘denizen’ instead of a ‘citizen’.
It used to be that NO ONE was a ‘citizen OF the United States’, there was no such thing. We had a Constitution, but Americans were citizens from (not ‘of’, which has a legal meaning of ‘belonging to’) a specific STATE.
So if you were born in Alabama (for example), you were an Alabama citizen (not a citizen “of” Alabama), with all of the Rights recognized and guaranteed by the Constitution for (not ‘of’) the united (small ‘u’) States of America. If I remember correctly, nobody was designated a “citizen OF the United States” until after the Civil War and the passage of the (extremely problematic) 14th Amendment.
There is a LOT going on just under the surface of our bogus legal system, and hardly anyone talks about it, because the People are kept in the dark and it is 100% contrary to the interests of those in power for the People to find out who they are and what power they have.
Considering what the administrative state / Deep State has revealed and shown us all that they are willing to do, can it surprise anyone that they would create bogus legal schemes to subvert our rights while extracting revenue and gaining control over us?
It’s what they DO.