Jeff Kellick

Professional Technology Executive
Amateur Economist/Historian/Teacher
Lifelong Learner/Reader/Friend

[Jeff Kellick @jkellick]

🚨 20 BILLION vehicle scans every single month. Your data isn't staying local.

Automated license plate readers like Flock Safety are turning thousands of American communities into nodes in a national surveillance dragnet. The missing piece in all of this? No warrant is required.

We are already seeing documented cases of this system being abused by authorities to track ex-partners and private citizens. If you or I built a system to track the movements of every neighbor on demand, it would be illegal stalking. So how does the government get away with it without due process? ⚖️🇺🇸

Dive into the philosophical roots of our rights and liberties. "Self-Evident: The Road to 1776" is NOW STREAMING! Check the link in bio to listen to the latest from the Consequential Actions podcast. 🎙️📜

#PrivacyMatters #SurveillanceState #FlockSafety #CivilRights #Liberty #ConsequentialActions #SelfEvident #Podcast #History #DueProcess

[Jeff Kellick @jkellick]

Ever wonder who was the MOST libertarian of our Presidents? We have answered with our view of the top 5. Let me know if you agree or disagree?

[Mises Institute @mises]

In celebrating the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, we remember names like Jefferson and Washington. Unfortunately, the man probably most responsible for push this nation to independence is mostly forgotten. | George Ford Smith

https://t.co/roIhJSITyF

[Jeff Kellick @jkellick]

No charge. No hearing. No judgment by peers. Just an order and a missile. 💥

Since late 2025, the U.S. has killed 200+ people in secret military strikes without due process. It’s the 39th clause of the Magna Carta read backward and set on fire.

🎙️ Dive into the full story in Self-Evident: The Road to 1776 — Now Streaming!

#ConsequentialActions #DueProcess #Liberty #USHistory

[Jeff Kellick @jkellick]

Nice of @POTUS to plug our Empire of Liberty series last night (https://t.co/esV2E9OxFw). We can only hope he watches it in full, because there are several lessons from history within those articles and episodes.

[Jeff Kellick @jkellick]

@bennyjohnson I do not have TDS, far from it; but I do have an aversion to using other people's money to pay for it. Why is it praiseworthy to spend $1.7mm on temporary lights for the sky? This could have been funded privately as it is in most cities. #TaxationIsTheft

[Jeff Kellick @jkellick]

Was @RealSpikeCohen foreshadowing today's article release in the Self-Evident: The Road to 1776 series? Probably just a happy coincidence, but I'll take it. Spike's take is great as always, and as he said, there is more detail around this history. Here then is today's release (Article 5 in the series) and my take on the same subject: https://t.co/FoB9gUF1ji

[Spike Cohen @RealSpikeCohen]

Why You Should Thank Martin Luther For The 4th Of July, Even Though He'd Probably Hate It

(WARNING: this is both not nearly comprehensive enough, and already too long for social media, so apologies in advance for both of those things. Continue reading at your own risk.)

Prior to the Declaration of Independence, people had 3 ways of dealing with tyranny: revolt, submission, and the Lesser Magistrate.

Revolt is people with no power rising up and taking power by force. While its reasons are often justified, it typically ends in either chaos or a worse tyranny than it replaced. Or it fails.

Submission is just that. You just live with it. Sometimes it gets better. Usually it gets worse.

There has to be a better way!

The Lesser Magistrate doctrine was developed by Martin Luther and Protestant princes and theologians in 16th century Germany. Facing forced submission to the Pope from the Holy Roman Emperor, they had to figure out how to preserve and defend their Christian faith and practice.

Revolt was never an option to them. There is no Biblical account of mob-driven uprisings, and Romans 13 explicitly tells us to submit to the governing authorities. We are only authorized to disobey when forced to do what God forbids, and even then, the Bible shows God's people doing so as martyrs, willing to suffer the punishment for it.

But there ARE Biblical instances of lower officials resisting or overthrowing tyrants. Jehoiada the Priest overthrowing Queen Athaliah (2 Chronicles 23). Commander Jehu’s coup against King Joram (2 Kings 9). Jeroboam and the tribal leaders seceding from King Rehoboam's Israel (1 Kings 12).

The Emperor (the Greater Magistrate) had taken an oath to uphold the laws of the Empire, and the local princes were sworn to protect their specific territories.

Luther, who was very hesitant to support violent resistance of any kind, conceded that if the Emperor broke his own constitutional contract, the local princes (the Lesser Magistrates) had legal permission to resist him to protect their citizens. This paved the way for the formation of the Schmalkaldic League, a defensive military alliance of Lutheran princes.

And so the Lesser Magistrates doctrine was born.

This is a Christian doctrine, so repentance and reconciliation is the preferred resolution. But if the tyranny persists from the Greater Magistrate, then the Lesser Magistrate is Biblically permitted to defend the citizens.

Over time, this doctrine was further expanded upon by John Calvin, John Knox, Theodore Beza, Samuel Rutherford, John Locke, and many others.

Under their development, the law itself was the true ruling authority, and no ruler was above it. The Lesser Magistrate was not just permitted, but OBLIGATED, to defend the citizens against tyranny. Authority was conditional on treatment of the citizens.

Luther would have likely disagreed with much of this. He was hesitant to even resist active religious persecution by a tyrant. But ultimately, the Reformers were taking his Biblically-sound doctrine to its logical conclusion.

These ideas were revolutionary.

But the Declaration of Independence took it to its ultimate conclusion.

Prior to it, here was the hierarchy of authority according to the Lesser Magistrate Doctrine:

God
Greater Magistrate (King, emperor)
Lesser Magistrate (Princes, elected officials)
Citizens

All authority comes from God, and is granted to the King. The King delegates that authority further to the Lesser Magistrates, who govern the citizens. If the King is a tyrant, the Lesser Magistrate can and should rein him in.

In the case of the United States, after many years of trying to reconcile with the Crown, the Lesser Magistrates were declaring independence.

And their Declaration changed everything.

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights"

The Lesser Magistrates declared all of us equal. This is inherently Christian, as all people are equal bearers of God's image, and all Christians are equal heirs of God's Kingdom. But now, it was being applied to temporal political power.

"That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed"

The Lesser Magistrates declared that their power would be derived from the consent of CITIZENS, not divine right of rule.

"That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government"

The Lesser Magistrates even declared that the citizens not only granted authority through our consent, but that we had every right to CHANGE that government if necessary.

Under the Declaration of Independence, here is the hierarchy:

God
Citizens
Lesser Magistrate (elected officials)

The Declaration of Independence is a Declaration that We, the People, are the Greater Magistrate!

If only we would remember that, and treat our right and responsibility accordingly. But that's for another time.

AGAIN, Martin Luther was born in the end of the Middle Ages, and was highly averse to any form of resistance against temporal authority. He would probably be aghast at the thought of the commoners being in charge.

But the Biblically-based doctrine he helped develop led directly to a government ruled by the people.

So we'll get to tease him about that in Heaven.

Happy Independence Day, everyone!

God Bless you, and God Bless America.

[Jeff Kellick @jkellick]

For those confused by @JDVance this independence week. The founding fathers to follow are Jefferson and Madison, NOT Hamilton. #whiskeyrebellion #EndTheFed

[Jeff Kellick @jkellick]

This is beyond ridiculous, right? The Dems are tacking further left (communists and nazis), so Vance's big plan on economics is to encourage state investment and espouse Hamiltonian philosophy? The philosophy on General Welfare and the bank that led to the 20th century administrative state.

The window of the entire Uniparty is moving left in lock step. There is a HUGE deficit for representation of classic liberalism, free markets, and Jeffersonian/Madisonian ideas. Time for @LPNational to get it together with @mises @CatoInstitute @reason and "big-tent-it" on the right behind someone like @RepThomasMassie

[Jeff Kellick @jkellick]

I cannot even explain how disappointing this is. The side of the Jefferson-Hamilton or Madison-Hamilton debates to take, is not Hamilton. Hamiltonian philosophy, particularly on the General Welfare clause and the bank is what led to the Progressive policies of the 20th Century

[Robby Soave @robbysoave]

JD Vance is so frustrating. Here he takes gratuitous shots at Milton Friedman as a bad model for Republican economic thinking.

With Friedman as the guiding light, Ronald Reagan won 49 states and ushered in a decade of unrivaled prosperity.

[Jeff Kellick @jkellick]

Jefferson wrote, "the laws of Nature and of Nature's God". This was coming thru a few hands, and stretched back to Thomas Aquinas who described on Natural Law, what constitutes an unjust law and when you are obligated to disobey such a law.

[Jeff Kellick @jkellick]

"That these united colonies are and of right ought to be free and independent states" — The Lee Resolution passed in the Second Continental Congress without any dissenting votes on July 2nd, 1776. Cheers and Happy Birthday America!

[Jeff Kellick @jkellick]

We conclude are first arc of the Self-Evident series just in time for Independence Day 250, summarizing how the founders learned from the minds of the past, from Athens to Rome, with Jerusalem and the House of Wisdom in Baghdad to the medieval forge, the canon lawyers and the Magna Carta, and of course Thomas Aquinas. These thinkers were ingrained in the minds of our founders and when Jefferson and Madison wrote they called upon the cumulative wisdom therein. — For more follow the full series on the Consequential Actions Podcast.

[Nick Sortor @nicksortor]

🚨 BREAKING: The House has PASSED @RepThomasMassie’s resolution to FORCE the release of names of Congressmen who used the Congressional slush fund to pay out for sexuaI misconduct settlements, 420-0

These are TAXPAYER DOLLARS being used to PAY OFF accusers.

And it’s all about to be public.

The Committee on Ethics must now preserve and public release all relevant records.

[Jeff Kellick @jkellick]

The role of the prophet as a whistleblower has a painful history. In the full episode we call back to biblical times, but it is just as relevant today when people risk everything to tell truth to power.

[Jeff Kellick @jkellick]

"if you can keep it" is the warning Franklin issued. Any self-governing society needs to ensure it is vigilant about its checks and balances. It needs bulwarks against corruption, it needs those to stand up to power and point out the shortcomings.

[Jeff Kellick @jkellick]

I hope I am wrong, I do not think I am. The only way to affect regime change in Iran is either a nuclear strike or a ground war.

* A nuclear strike would kill millions if not tens of millions of innocents and possibly have a 50/50 chance of in-kind retaliation from N. Korea, Pakistan, or Russia.

* A ground war against an army of their size in a mountainous geography of this sort would cost trillions of dollars, and worse it could not be waged with our existing troop count. This is why neocons have been subtly re-entering the idea of the draft into the current political lexicon. It is Vietnam on steroids.

How anyone from my generation, having lived through the end of the cold war, the entire GWOT, and understanding the devastation of the draft during the Vietnam era, and with children who are of draft eligible age, could even consider proceeding further is hard for me to comprehend. Actions have consequences, our job is to study the past and not repeat mistakes or step into clear quagmires that can jeopardize our future generations.

And for what precisely could we possibly gain from any of this? Re-assert dominance in the Gulf? How is a protracted ground war, further depletion of our armaments, or the loss of hundreds of thousands of our soldiers (and soon to be drafted soldiers) lives, as well as millions of innocents, accomplish that?

That is the worst part of the logic. We were perceived stronger before this war (obviously), we have damaged our credibility and deflated the mythos of our super power capability. Any further action only risks further damage, and moreover exposes us to any other enemy that wants to take advantage of a weakened state.

[Jeff Kellick @jkellick]

The classical wisdom of the ancients was kept alive in some of history's forgotten great cities. The House of Wisdom in Baghdad ensured that Aristotle's works would be available for future generations. Such a fascinating time in history and a significant chapter in bringing knowledge forward for our founders' use in both our Declaration and Constitution. #history #Houseofwisdom

[Jeff Kellick @jkellick]

@TuckerCarlson @RepThomasMassie @LPNational: A word from the great Harry Browne

[Jeff Kellick @jkellick]

Here is the full explanation of why and how we ended up with 435 members based upon a census delivered in 1911: https://t.co/IsciL7hcRQ

[Jeff Kellick @jkellick]

The People's House was designed to the be part of the mixed government most responsive to the people. It was specifically designed for that function. When the representation has been expanded to 25x's the original intention, the voice of the person is diluted. This is what Aristotle warned about. This is what our founders knew and aimed to prevent.