Armando Posse: Procession (1955)

Artist Biography: Armando Posse was a self-taught Cuban artist born in Havana on December 4, 1917, who specialized in engraving, screen printing, and drawing. He co-founded the Taller Experimental de Gráfica in Havana in 1962 and joined the Asociación de Grabadores de Cuba in 1964, where he won an engraving prize. He was known for his graphic production work.

"We, the people, regained the upper hand."

By the mid-2020s, Federal overreach had become intolerable to states and citizens. Routine violations of Constitutional Rights by executive branch-directed agents threatened Decency and civility in targeted municipalities. Among the many particulars:

°The Writ of Habeas Corpus was routinely suspended,

°Masked and armed Federal pseudo police routinely descended upon vulnerable communities

°randomly deploying tear gas in peaceful crowds

°detaining and even arresting and disappearing citizens on mere suspicions or less

°Refusing to identify themselves or their association

°Terrorizing the populace.

To respond, municipalities, counties, and states began passing what became known as PosseCognito Laws. The title was an abstraction of a Latin phrase meaning “recognizable people.” These ordinances outlawed law enforcement from masking while in the performance of their duties. They further typically required that any enforcing individual be separably licensed and certified by the locality. They required that each agent clearly display a picture ID and share that information if requested by anyone. The agents also had to swear to uphold not only the Constitution but also the local laws and ordinances. Violations of these laws were treated as felonies, with penalties ranging from severe fines and a few months to years at hard labor, typically serving as farm or other heavy labor under the municipality’s direction.

PosseCognito laws were meant to blunt the effects of essentially lawless Federals terrorizing citizens. They further defined the behaviors considered illegal and punishable under the Domestic Enemies clause of the standard oath of office. Previously, the promise to defend against all enemies, foreign and domestic, had been rather indistinct, with specifics left to considerable personal interpretation. Under these laws, specific actions were strictly forbidden regardless of directions given by superiors. Whole classes of orders were thereby rendered locally intolerable and therefore illegal. Federal jurisdiction could agree to defend those detained under these laws, but they could not legally order subordinates to violate without exposing them to severe personal consequences.

The Supreme Court, long a champion of States’ Rights, refused to hear the administration’s complaints about these laws. PosseCognito began the long process of citizens uniting against the corrupting effects of Citizens United and other unjust laws passed over decades by increasingly corrupted Republican Congresses. Congress itself finally began negating its own constitutional authority, a situation many states refused to acknowledge. As a direct result of PosseCognito laws, ICE’s presence in places formerly defamed as Sanctuary Cities essentially disappeared. The Secretary of Homeland Security was jailed and sentenced to five years picking cherries on a Willamette Valley orchard, then deported as a domestic terrorist. Many former ICE employees abandoned their jobs and simply disappeared.

States slowly consolidated their positions vis-à-vis PosseCognito, with Florida and Texas the last to join the by then overwhelmingly national movement. By then, Congress had regained Democratic majorities in both houses, and courts had been purged of formerly crooked judges appointed over time by a corrupted executive and Congress. A period of peace and prosperity descended upon the nation, similar to that which defined our former finest hours. The Department of Defense, briefly, if illegally, relabeled Department of War, was formally renamed the Department of Reconciliation, and we began purging our society of the misbegotten notion that we were ever a Christian or anti-DEI nation. We started participating as global citizens again because we refused to submit to the overreach Repuglicans visited upon us.

Our history became a notch prouder for our efforts. Our crops were successfully harvested. Immigrants began improving our nation again. Even farmers, turned into welfare queens and terrorized by tariff mania, became a powerful force in progressive politics again. We declared peace with our neighbors and trading partners and learned that even with open borders, fewer people chose to move to this country than anybody ever expected. They’d been driven here by tyranny until we began exhibiting even greater tyranny against our own citizens and visitors. Those who promoted those policies became permanent political pariahs. The rest of us regained the self-esteem that only comes from standing tall on our hind legs. We, the people, regained our rightful upper hand.

©2025 by David A. Schmaltz - all rights reserved

Tags: #Decency, #PureSchmaltz