Drawing the line

All over America and around the world, people have fought for justice. If one is innocent of a crime, judges and juries must acquit. If one is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, a conviction must result. I am not in a position to weigh the facts of every case, and I can only hope jurors and judges reach the right verdict. This blog entry is not a commentary on the outcome of a particular case, regardless of how we may feel about it. There is another issue at play that poses a major threat to Americans' civil liberties, and I want to make sure everyone is warned of it, so they're not caught off guard.

If you can endure even one second of the media's coverage of major news events lately, you may have noticed a lot of media attention focused on whether a defendant crossed a state line. I don't think the media was desperately trying to convict the defendant. Rather, I think the media is more interested in the long game of preparing us for a looming "papers please" dystopia.

What is the significance of state lines? Some state lines aren't even based on visible features but were arbitrarily mapped out. Why would lines that are largely invisible determine a defendant's guilt or innocence? The media cares about state lines because it lays the groundwork for the day when crossing a state line will require all of us to submit papers or undergo a search.

There's pretty convincing evidence that this is their goal. It was happening already during the full lockdowns last year. There were orders prohibiting or limiting interstate travel even into this year. There were even checkpoints between states. I heard from family of a checkpoint between Ohio and Indiana. New Mexico decreed that state parks were closed to out-of-state residents. Albuquerque's bus system was open only to New Mexico residents, and it even checked passengers' ID's. Even federal orders on things like masks refer only to interstate travel.

The priority of our pundit class is a permanent police state. The state line obsession encourages the public to accept limits on interstate movement.

I'm kind of big on all this civil liberties business, you know.