The Shot Heard ‘Round The World – April 19, 1775

As the harsh storms of winter subside we approach the 238^thanniversary of an event in American history which provides insight and direction badly needed today. On April 19, 1775 a musket was discharged, beginning a clash of arms over a small bridge standing astride the stream at Concord, Massachusetts. We have all seen the statues and, perhaps, remember the poems.

To this day no one knows who fired the shot. But the unfolding clash shocked the British Crown and set the stage for the first nation on Earth who proclaimed the principle of universal freedom in July of the next year.

This was not a government operation. These were a people who recognized the power was within them.

Perhaps the best lesson to be drawn from those events, which we have allowed to be obscured through the misted lens of time, is that this marked a moment when the people did it themselves. By so doing, they confounded the greatest power then existing on Earth.

The people had come together to determine their course thorough the Committees of Correspondence. In most towns across the colonies small groups met and discussed all of the reasons for action and their options. Today, the parallel method would be the Internet.

The British had been emboldened by their success in seizing the colonist’s powder, read this ‘ammunition,’ held in Portsmouth, New Hampshire the year before. With their supply of munitions cut off from capture of the Fort William And Mary, the colonists were determined to be prepared. Town folk armed themselves and turned out to practice.

The British Empire had 8,000 men under arms across the globe. A far smaller number were serving the Crown in New England. That, the Crown felt, was entirely sufficient.

At the close of day, April 19, 1775, 10,000 Americans were marching towards Lexington and Concord, muskets, knives, and hammers in hand, prepared to die to win their freedom.

Women who helped their husbands, fathers, grandfathers and sons ready themselves, packing their pouches with food, filling containers with water, understood the danger they, too, faced. This was not a war fought far away, but one which would shatter families, homes and destroy their businesses and the food they relied on for winter.

They were a people who understood the value of freedom to each, as part of their nature granted, not by a king, but by God.

More Austerity Cuts Coming To The States

The Great Recession has quietly devastated public services on a state-by-state basis, with Republican and Democratic governors taking turns leading the charge. Public education has been decimated, as well as health care, welfare, and the wages and benefits of public sector workers. The public sector itself is being smashed. Since the recession began, states have made combined austerity cuts of at least $337 billion, according to the Center of Budget and Policy Priorities

The 2012-2013 budget deficits for 34 states resulted in $55 billion in cuts, according to the Center of Budget and Policy Priorities. The coming budgets for 2013-2014 that begins on July 1st is becoming clear as well, and the deficits are rolling in by the billions: Connecticut, Minnesota, Maryland, New York, Oregon, Washington, and many others have large deficits projected.

You’d expect after years of austerity cuts to public services, state politicians would think of new ways to raise revenue from those who can afford it — the wealthy and corporations. Not so. The cuts that began as a consequence of the 2008 recession are set to continue; raising revenue from the wealthy is “off the table” for Republicans and Democrats alike.

The pattern of budget cuts has revealed that the age-old distinction between Republican and Democrat has evaporated on the state level. The state budget trends — what’s getting funded and what’s not — are similarly aligned across the country. Both parties have merged their state-level agendas into a singular focus on “economic growth,” a bi-partisan euphemism meaning “corporate profits.”

Below is the bi-partisan funding trends for the states that began with the 2008 recession and continue to this day:

1)  The Attack on Public Employees and Pension “Reform”

It wasn’t long ago that everyone understood that the states’ budget crises was caused in part by the recession, itself caused by the big banks and greedy corporations, and in part by the politicians continuing willingness to lower taxes on the rich. Now the corporate media and politicians have re-written history: suddenly it’s “greedy” public workers and their “lavish” pensions that are bankrupting the states. Two years ago it was the health care of public employees that was bankrupting the states, which resulted in large cuts to workers in many states.

The pre-recession pension system was working fine, but it, too, suffered under the bank-caused financial crisis; pension returns sank and right-wing economists projected ruin for the states in the future (they conveniently assumed that recession era rates would continue forever, thus under-funding the system).

Democratic governors are now as eager as their Republican counterparts to destroy the pensions of public employees. Democratic politicians in Oregon, Washington, California, New Jersey, Illinois, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Maryland, Massachusetts, and several other states are leading the charge to erode the last bastion of retirement security for working people, while continuing to lay off public employees by the thousands. This national shrinkage of state governments is a long-standing right-wing dream: the smaller the state, the greater the “growth opportunities” for corporations that take over privatized public services and the lower their taxes since a smaller state requires less revenue for operating expenses.

2) Education Reform

The National Governors Association (NGA) spoke for both political parties when announcing a renewed focus on education funding for the states during the annual “state of the states” address. The funding is necessary because schools across the country are expecting an influx of students, while school districts everywhere have been starved funds by the ongoing austerity cuts; the system has been literally crumbling. But the new funding is to be used for the undermining and destruction of public education, since it is based on Obama’s pro-corporate Race to the Top education “reform” where charter schools replace public schools.

Democrats and Republicans are in complete agreement over Obama’s education policy, which closes “failing schools,” (those in poor neighborhoods), opens privately run, non-union charter schools, and fires “bad teachers,” (typically those who teach poor students). The whole system is based on standardized testing, which poorer students will spend most of their education preparing for, (those who don’t drop out from sheer boredom). Bi-partisan education reform targets teacher unions while privatizing education — the Democrats have adopted the ideas from the right-wing think tanks of the 1990′s.

3) Raising Revenue – But Not From the Wealthy or Corporations

Many states have implemented — or are planning to implement — a variety of taxes that disproportionally affect working and poor people, including increased sales taxes, alcohol, tobacco and other “sin” taxes, not to mention increases in different fees, from state parks to driver registration.

At the same time that these taxes have been upped, a consistent clamor has been raised by the media and politicians to lower the taxes for corporations, give them new subsidies or “freeze” their already-low taxes so that future tax increases will be impossible. In Oregon the Democratic governor declared a “special session” emergency in order to ensure that NIKE’s super low tax status would be frozen in place for decades, outside the reach of the public, which might want to raise corporate taxes to fund public services.

Democrat and Republican controlled states are equally competing for the adoration of corporations by lavishing a never-ending flow of taxpayer money on them, while “guaranteeing” them “investment security,” i.e., promising low taxes and an open spigot of taxpayer money. This is the basis for several states implementing “right to work” laws that target unions for destruction, while also attempting to “revamp the tax code,” which is a euphemism for lowering corporate taxes.

4) Welfare Reform: Attacking the Safety Net

Waging war against the safety net is like picking a fight with road kill — the states’ safety net is already disfigured beyond recognition, but the bi-partisan assault nevertheless continues. Bill Clinton started welfare “reform” as president, and the 2008 Great Recession accelerated the attack on those in poverty. The year 2011 was a devastating one for welfare, now called Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF).

According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities:

In 2011, states implemented some of the harshest cuts in recent history for many of the nation’s most vulnerable families with children who are receiving assistance through [TANF] … The cuts affect 700,000 low-income families that include 1.3 million children; these families represent over one-third of all low-income families receiving TANF nationwide.

But these TANF “reforms” continue, to the detriment of the neediest. Newly released budgets in several states — including California and Oregon — further tighten the program, a relentless boa-like constriction that’s already suffocated millions of the country’s poorest citizens. Typically TANF reform either lowers the monthly payment, shortens the time one can receive benefits, or raises the standards for staying in the program.

Before the giant TANF cuts in 2011, the program was already shrunken such that TANF only assisted 28 families for every 100 in poverty — the ludicrous definition of “poverty” being a family of four that makes only $22,000 or less.

There is a direct link between the assault on TANF and the rising poverty levels in the United States. Cutting TANF in a time of mass unemployment means consciously consigning millions of families to grinding poverty, hunger, homelessness, and the many other barbarisms associated with extreme poverty.

Conclusion:

It wasn’t long ago that the Democrats understood that the government can and should create jobs, especially during a recession. But now the Democratic Party has fully adopted the economics of Reaganism. As a result, the only “job creators” now recognized are the corporations. This bi-partisan agreement not to tax the rich and use the revenue for public spending to create jobs — hiring more teachers, firefighters, roads and parks workers, etc. — is unnecessarily prolonging the job crisis, ensuring more years of deficits and a deeper gouging of the public sector.

These cuts are having a devastating effect on public sector unions, the last bastion of union strength in the country. These unions are being weakened to such an extent that stripping them of their right to collectively bargain — the nail in the coffin — becomes a real possibility. No state is safe from this threat.

If unions don’t unite with community groups to demand that public services be fully funded by taxing the wealthy and corporations, the cuts will continue, communities will feel helpless, inequality will continue to spiral out of control, and working people will be further subjected to the policies of the 1%, now implemented in chorus by Republicans and Democrats alike. But, of course, this means that the unions will have to break with the suicidal strategy of relying on the Democrats for handouts. Time and again the Democrats have demonstrated their willingness to sacrifice the needs of working people in order to curry favor with the rich and corporations, their greatest benefactors when it comes to election campaign contributions.

http://www.cbpp.org/cms/index.cfm?fa=view&id=711

http://www.nga.org/cms/stateofthestates

http://www.cbpp.org/cms/index.cfm?fa=view&id=3498

37 Statistics Which Show How Four Years Of Obama Have Wrecked The U.S. Economy

The mainstream media covered the inauguration of Barack Obama with breathless anticipation on Monday, but should we really be celebrating another four years of Obama?  The truth is that the first four years of Obama were an absolute train wreck for the U.S. economy.  Over the past four years, the percentage of working age Americans with a job has fallen, median household income has declined by more than $4000, poverty in the U.S. has absolutely exploded and our national debt has ballooned to ridiculous proportions.  Of course all of the blame for the nightmarish performance of the economy should not go to Obama alone.  Certainly much of what we are experiencing today is the direct result of decades of very foolish decisions by Congress and previous presidential administrations.  And of course the Federal Reserve has more influence over the economy than anyone else does.  But Barack Obama steadfastly refuses to criticize anything that the Federal Reserve has done and he even nominated Ben Bernanke for another term as Fed Chairman despite his horrific track record of failure, so at a minimum Barack Obama must be considered to be complicit in the Fed’s very foolish policies.  Despite what the Obama administration tells us, the U.S. economy has been in decline for a very long time, and that decline has accelerated in many ways over the past four years.  Just consider the statistics that I have compiled below.  The following are 37 statistics which show how four years of Obama have wrecked the U.S. economy…

1. During Obama’s first term, the number of Americans on food stamps increased by an average of about 11,000 per day.

2. At the beginning of the Obama era, 32 million Americans were on food stamps.  Today, more than 47 million Americans are on food stamps.

3. According to one calculation, the number of Americans on food stamps now exceeds the combined populations of “Alaska, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Utah, Vermont, West Virginia, and Wyoming.”

4. The number of Americans receiving money directly from the federal government each month has grown from 94 million in the year 2000 tomore than 128 million today.

5. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, more than 146 million Americans are either “poor” or “low income” at this point.

6. The unemployment rate in the United States is exactly where it was (7.8 percent) when Barack Obama first entered the White House in January 2009.

7. When Barack Obama first entered the White House, 60.6 percent of all working age Americans had a job.  Today, only 58.6 percent of all working age Americans have a job.

8. During the first four years of Obama, the number of Americans “not in the labor force” soared by an astounding 8,332,000.  That far exceeds any previous four year total.

9. During Obama’s first term, the number of Americans collecting federal disability insurance rose by more than 18 percent.

10. The Obama years have been absolutely devastating for small businesses in America.  According to economist Tim Kane, the following is how the number of startup jobs per 1000 Americans breaks down by presidential administration…

Bush Sr.: 11.3

Clinton: 11.2

Bush Jr.: 10.8

Obama: 7.8

11. Median household income in America has fallen for four consecutive years.  Overall, it has declined by over $4000 during that time span.

12. The economy is not producing nearly enough jobs for the hordes of young people now entering the workforce.  Approximately 53 percentof all U.S. college graduates under the age of 25 were either unemployed or underemployed in 2011.

13. According to a report from the National Employment Law Project, 58 percent of the jobs that have been created since the end of the recession have been low paying jobs.

14. Back in 2007, about 28 percent of all working families were considered to be among “the working poor”.  Today, that number is up to 32 percent even though our politicians tell us that the economy is supposedly recovering.

15. According to the Center for Economic and Policy Research, only 24.6 percent of all of the jobs in the United States are “good jobs” at this point.

16. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the middle class is taking home a smaller share of the overall income pie than has ever been recorded before.

17. According to the Economic Policy Institute, the United States is losinghalf a million jobs to China every single year.

18. The United States has fallen in the global economic competitiveness rankings compiled by the World Economic Forum for four years in a row.

19. According to the World Bank, U.S. GDP accounted for 31.8 percentof all global economic activity in 2001.  That number declined steadily over the course of the next decade and was only at 21.6 percent in 2011.

20. The United States actually has plenty of oil and we should not have to import oil from the Middle East.  We need to drill for more oil, but Obama has been very hesitant to do that.  Under Bill Clinton, the number of drilling permits approved rose by 58 percent.  Under George W. Bush, the number of drilling permits approved rose by 116 percent.  Under Barack Obama, the number of drilling permits approved actuallydecreased by 36 percent.

21. When Barack Obama took office, the average price of a gallon of gasoline was $1.84.  Today, the average price of a gallon of gasoline is$3.26.

22. Under Barack Obama, the United States has lost more than 300,000 education jobs.

23. For the first time ever, more than a million public school students in the United States are homeless.  That number has risen by 57 percent since the 2006-2007 school year.

24. Families that have a head of household under the age of 30 now have a poverty rate of 37 percent.

25. More than three times as many new homes were sold in the United States in 2005 as were sold in 2012.

26. Electricity bills in the United States have risen faster than the overall rate of inflation for five years in a row.

27. Health insurance costs have risen by 29 percent since Barack Obama became president.

28. Today, 77 percent of all Americans live paycheck to paycheck at least part of the time.

29. It is being projected that Obamacare will add 16 million more Americans to the Medicaid rolls.

30. The total amount of money that the federal government gives directly to the American people has grown by 32 percent since Barack Obama became president.

31. The Obama administration has been spending money on some of the most insane things imaginable.  For example, in 2011 the Obama administration spent $592,527 on a study that sought to figure out once and for all why chimpanzees throw poop.

32. U.S. taxpayers spend more than 20 times as much on the Obamas as British taxpayers spend on the royal family.

33. The U.S. government has run a budget deficit of well over a trillion dollars every single year under Barack Obama.

34. When Barack Obama was first elected, the U.S. debt to GDP ratio was under 70 percent.  Today, it is up to 103 percent.

35. During Obama’s first term, the federal government accumulated more debt than it did under the first 42 U.S presidents combined.

36. As I wrote about yesterday, when you break it down the amount of new debt accumulated by the U.S. government during Obama’s first term comes to approximately $50,521 for every single household in the United States.  Are you ready to contribute your share?

37. If you started paying off just the new debt that the U.S. has accumulated during the Obama administration at the rate of one dollar per second, it would take more than 184,000 years to pay it off.

But despite all of these numbers, the mainstream media and the left just continue to shower Barack Obama with worship and praise.  Newsweek recently heralded Obama’s second term as “The Second Coming“, and at Obama’s pre-inauguration church service Reverand Ronald Braxton openly compared Obama to Moses…

At Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church, Braxton reportedly crafted his speech around Obama’s personal political slogan: “Forward!”

Obama, said Braxton, was just like Moses facing the Red Sea: “forward is the only option … The people couldn’t turn around. The only thing that they could do was to go forward.” Obama, said Braxton, would have to overcome all obstacles – like opposition from Republicans, presumably, or the bounds of the Constitution. Braxton continued, “Mr. President, stand on the rock,” citing to Moses standing on Mount Horeb as his people camped outside the land of Israel.

But it wasn’t enough to compare Obama with the founder of Judaism and the prophet of the Bible. Braxton added that Obama’s opponents were like the Biblical enemies of Moses, and that Obama would have to enter the battle because “sometimes enemies insist on doing it the hard way.”

So what do you think the next four years of Obama will bring?

Source: The Economic Collapse

The Irony of 47.7 Million Americans Subsisting On Food Stamps

As of November of 2012, a mind-numbing 47.7 million Americans subsist on taxpayer-funded food stamps.  One in seven Americans cannot feed himself or herself with a job or work of any kind.  What constitutes the irony to this national tragedy?  Answer: our U.S. Congress imports 100,000 legal immigrants into the USA with green cards every 30 days.

No matter how much poverty and unemployment blacks, whites and Hispanic Americans suffer– the leaders of this country continually pound more humans into the mix without pause.  At the same time, food banks go belly up with bare shelves. Over 13 million American children live in destitute poverty and cannot secure three square meals per day.

While Congress supports our enormous military spending into the trillions of dollars and two 10 year long wars that devour (ed) money—it fails to create jobs and feed our poorest.  It fails the fundamental rights of our own citizens to work and eat.

The gross statistics created by our U.S. Congress:  (Source:hubpages.com)

#1 According to one calculation, the number of Americans on food stamps now exceeds the combined populations of “Alaska, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Utah, Vermont, West Virginia, and Wyoming.”

#2 In October 2008, 30.8 million Americans were on food stamps. By August 2012 that number had risen to 47.1 million Americans.

#3 Right now, one out of every seven Americans is on food stamps and one out of every four American children is on food stamps.

#4 It is projected that half of all American children will be on food stamps at least once before they turn 18 years of age.

#5 According to new numbers that were just released by the U.S. Census Bureau, the number of Americans living in poverty increased to a new all-time record high of 49.7 million last year.

#6 The number of Americans living in poverty has increased by about 6 million over the past four years.

#7Today, about one out of every four workers in the United States brings home wages that are at or below the federal poverty level.

#8According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the poverty rate for children living in the United States is about 22 percent.

#9 Overall, approximately 57 percent of all children in the United States are living in homes that are either considered to be either “low income” or impoverished.

#10 In the United States today, close to 100 million Americans are considered to be either “poor” or “near poor”.

#11 One university study estimates that child poverty costs the U.S. economy 500 billion dollars each year.

#12 Households that are led by a single mother have a 31.6 percent poverty rate.

#13 In 2010, 42 percent of all single mothers in the United States were on food stamps.

Once you research the numbers, you cannot help but look to your own U.S. Senators and House reps and see failure, duplicity and corruption.  No excuses!  How could men and women who are supposed to represent American citizens continually leave American citizens in the grips of poverty, joblessness and homelessness?

Some kind of moral, ethical and spiritual wrong grows in the nation’s capitol all the way up to the president.  American citizens become its victims.

Do you think there is any chance of it changing and becoming better as that same U.S. Congress adds over 3.1 million immigrants every year on our way to adding 100 million immigrants within the next 38 years?

Do We Want Mr. Nice Guy As President?

Watching the debate on Wednesday, I truly can’t imagine Barack Obama having come off as the more likeable candidate. Continuously glancing downwards, perhaps looking for inspiration (I glance upwards, myself), and often displaying an angry countenance, he seemed stiff, detached and petulant; in contrast, Mitt Romney appeared energetic, nimble-minded, affable, engaged and engaging. It was the Mind vs. the Unkind.

Nonetheless, the left is still pushing the narrative of Mitt the Mean. CNN disseminated a poll showing that only 46 percent of debate viewers thought Romney was likeable (of course, we have to consider the source), and the Democrat National Committee just cooked up an ad—showing Romney interrupting moderator Jim Lehrer—whose thrust is that the governor was pushy and bullying. Let’s understand, however, that as it was Romney was given 4 fewer minutes to speak; if he’d been a “nicer” guy, it would have been 10. This brings me to my point.

Years ago a reader emailed me regarding a piece I wrote on Obama’s predecessor and called him “George the Nice.” It was not a compliment. The idea was that President Bush often seemed more interested in getting along than getting things right. And whether you agree with this assessment or not isn’t the issue. It is, rather, as I recently asked, what’s “like” got to do with it?

Oh, I understand that “likeability” influences voters. This and the fact that polls have shown it to be Obama’s strong suit with the electorate is, of course, why the left wants to perpetuate their Mean Mitt myth. And while I find Obama as likeable as poison ivy in private areas, let’s for argument’s sake assume that he truly is the more likeable candidate. Is this meaningful in a leader? Could it even be a warning sign?

This point can be illustrated with a tale of two men, both colleagues of mine at a former place of employment. One was a charming fellow who specialized in the schmooze; the other was a curmudgeonly, stone-faced and sometimes gruff WWII veteran. Now, it’s obvious who was more likeable, and I cottoned to the charmer myself. If you got to know them, however, you learned that Mr. Charm was a Machiavellian operator with a Clintonesque attitude toward truth, while the veteran was a trustworthy, upstanding straight-talker.

Knowing this, how could I like the charmer? Well, what we like is determined by emotion or taste, which generally has little acquaintance with reason. A person may like tobacco more than vegetables or chocolate more than exercise, but few would call them wiser choices. In the same vein, I never would have chosen the charmer if he had been running for office against the curmudgeon. For this is where we must lead with our heads, not our hearts, resist the urge to kowtow to our likes and not eat, smoke or vote ourselves to death.

In fact, it’s usually unwise to choose anyone based solely on likeability, as there’s little correlation between extreme likeability, and virtue and competence (and some virtue, such as conscientiousness, is necessary for competence). One reason for this is that since all three qualities are relatively rare, they aren’t often possessed by the same person. As an example, I know a soft-spoken, affable fellow who most anyone would call a nice guy, but he couldn’t figure out whether the kind of infanticide prohibited by BAIPA legislation was okay or not. As for competence, if you’d chosen a general based on likeability, would you have picked George Patton? And if you’d chosen a computer developer on likeability, Steve Jobs wouldn’t have been your man. So is it wise to choose a president based on likeability? If a man can’t even stand up to an ossified debate moderator, how will he fare locking horns with the Russians or Chinese? In fact, we could use a variation on a famous saying here and wonder if the road to Hell isn’t paved by nice guys.

More ominously, likeability can actually be a red flag. Why? Because projecting it is the specialty of the con man. He will tell you exactly what you want to hear; the good person tells you what you need to hear. The con man will peddle seductive little lies to appear charming—at least until he doesn’t need you anymore.

Of course, a good person’s likeability is also situational, but for a different reason. You may generally be likeable, but will you seem so violently wielding a sword on a battlefield? Similarly, fighting on the moral/cultural battlefield can be messy business; thus, if you’re ever and always likeable amidst this fray, you’re doing it wrong. Just consider Ronald Reagan, a man so affable he won even the hearts of many ‘80s Democrats. How likeable did he seem at the 1980 Nashua, New Hampshire, primary debate when he angrily shouted, “I’m paying for this microphone, Mr. Green”? He was playing hardball, not Mr. Nice Guy, but it was a defining moment that evoked cheers and helped pave his way to the presidency.

So what’s “like” got to do with it? It should be no more relevant to choosing a president than to choosing runners for the Olympic team. Unfortunately, though, man’s nature won’t change; just as we elevate intellectuals over wise men, many will continue to choose likeability over virtue. It’s why our government and culture become less likeable all the time.

13 States Now Considering Gold And Silver As Money

When the governor of Utah signed a bill that made gold bullion and silver bullion legal tender in the state last March, he had no idea of the groundswell he was going to start.

The Utah Sound Money Act outright flies in the face of the fiat money system, which is the printed money used today; backed by nothing but the promises of politicians. While U.S. states cannot create their own currency under the Constitution, they are allowed to use gold bullion and silver bullion as legal tender. More and more states are now exercising that right.

Lawmakers in Utah, when they studied history, found that every single instance of money printing and massive increases in a country’s debt always led to the destruction of the currency and a depression among the citizens that lived through it.

They were concerned about the Fed’s money printing and massive government debt accumulation and thus signed into law the Utah Sound Money Act, which recognized gold bullion and silver bullion as currency. They felt that the U.S. dollar would continue to lose its value, while gold bullion and silver bullion would continue to maintain their value, because they are sound currencies with no debts attached to them.

The Utah law states that the gold bullion and silver bullion coins issued by the U.S. Mint can be used as payment with any merchant in the State of Utah for the purchase of all goods and services.

It is not practical for people to carry around heavy gold bullion or silver bullion coins, so the Utah Gold & Silver Depository was created. People can deposit their gold bullion and silver bullion coins there and receive a debit card to make transactions with—just like depositing money at a bank. The prices of gold bullion and silver bullion are based on the closing prices of both precious metals in U.S. dollars in London on each business day, creating the exchange rate used on the debit card.

Missouri and South Carolina in 2012 are the closest to enacting very similar legislation and creating a gold bullion and silver bullion depository, just like Utah. (Source: CNN Money, February 3, 2012.) Both states echo the same sentiments as Utah and this is evident by the names chosen for the bills. For example, in Missouri, the legislation put forth is called the Missouri Sound Money Act of 2012.

Other states considering legislation to make gold bullion and silver bullion legal tender are Montana, Colorado, Idaho, Indiana, New Hampshire, Georgia, Washington, Minnesota, Tennessee, and Virginia.

This may seem strange, dear reader, but cultures in Asia would not be surprised, considering that gold bullion and silver bullion have been considered money for 5,000 years there. Also, people forget that, until 1971, the U.S. dollar was backed by gold bullion.

The distrust of the money printing being enacted by the Federal Reserve and the unprecedented debts being accumulated by the U.S. government, which are increasing by at least $1.0 trillion per year, are being questioned.

States are fighting back with what they believe are sound money policies: gold bullion and silver bullion. We should heed their example as a warning of what’s to come. (Also see: Switzerland Debating Gold-backed Currency.)

 

Source: Profit Confindential

How The Republicans Stole The Nomination From Ron Paul

If you follow mainstream election coverage, you might think Mitt Romney has coasted to an honest, easy, well-deserved Republican nomination. Unfortunately for Republican voters, nothing could be further from the truth. The primary process has been an all-out slugfest and many of the delegates Romney has won may be the result of dirty tricks and even election fraud. The following narrative includes links to reports, first-hand testimonials, and video evidence highlighting actions taken by the GOP to ensure a Romney victory, at the expense of fracturing the party just prior to the general election. Party leaders at the county and state level have changed or violated party rules, cancelled caucuses, changed vote counts, thrown out entire counties of votes, counted public votes privately, called-in the SWAT team, and inexplicably replaced Paul delegates with Romney delegates to block Ron Paul from winning the nomination.

Iowa: Days before the caucuses, Paul held a commanding lead in the polls and all the momentum, with every other candidate having peaked from favorable media coverage and then collapsed under the ensuing scrutiny. Establishment Republicans, like Iowa’s Representative Steve King (R), attempted to sabotage Paul’s campaign by spreading rumors he would lose to Obama if nominated. Even though the Iowa GOP platform reads like a Ron Paul speech, shortly before the caucuses, Iowa Governor Terry Barnstad told Politico , “[If Paul wins] people are going to look at who comes in second and who comes in third. If Romney comes in a strong second, it definitely helps him going into New Hampshire”. The message from the Governor to voters of his state was: a vote for Ron Paul was a wasted vote.

Huffington Post reported that Paul was ahead by one point over Romney and Rick Santorum inentrance polls conducted by Edison Media Research for the AP before the caucuses. For the first time ever, the Iowa GOP changed the final vote count to a secret location . After the caucus, resultsfrom 8 precincts (including those with colleges, in a state where Paul won 48% of the youth vote) went missing. Interestingly, these were all precincts Romney lost in 2008. In addition, GOP officials discovered inaccuracies in 131 precincts. Though polling in a comfortable first place, Paul finished third in this non-binding straw poll, behind Romney and Santorum.

Iowa originally reported Romney in first, Santorum in a close second, and Paul third. After the recount, Santorum was named the winner with Romney in second. No mention was given to how the recount affected Paul’s vote count. Iowa GOP chairman, Matt Strawn, later resigned and wasreplaced by Paul supporter, A.J. Spiker and Paul went on to win the majority of delegates.

Florida: The Florida GOP broke party rules by switching to a winner-take-all state before the date allowed, which favors the candidate with the most money for advertising and attack ads.  Senior Advisor to the Ron Paul campaign, Doug Wead, claims this was done specifically to favor Romney.

Nevada: There is bad blood between Paul’s supporters and establishment Republicans in Nevada. This dates back to 2008, when Convention Chair, Sue Lowden and her enlisted delegates got up andwalked out of the convention when it became apparent Paul’s supporters would claim a majority of the delegates. She claimed she would reconvene at a later time, but instead approved the McCain slate of delegates. This year, Paul supporters expected shenanigans; so his State Chairman, Carl Bunce, planned to win by outworking Romney. Just before the caucuses, he claimed to have “more IDs than Romney had votes in ’08″. This means through canvassing door-to-door and phoning voters, he had identified about 25,000 voters committed to show up and vote for Paul.

On caucus day, the media was denied access to most caucus sites and the few that were permitted were not allowed to take photos. Others were even ejected from sites. This CNN clip shows GOP staff preventing a Paul supporter from entering the premises to vote at a special caucus that was set up at the last minute for Newt Gingrich backer, Sheldon Adelson. Here, participants were asked to sign an affidavit (under penalty of perjury) stating they were Jewish and couldn’t vote earlier in the day due to “religious reasons”. CNN showed live coverage of votes being counted at this event, with Paul amassing nearly 60% of the votes. In some precincts in Clark County, the largest in Nevada, the number of ballots did not match the number of voters signed in at the caucus. Though votes were to be counted publicly, they were largely counted in private. The vote count was also inexplicably dragged out for several days, leading to a victory for Romney. Nevada State GOP Chairwoman, Amy Tarkanian resigned the day after the caucuses.

Another interesting note is that Paul’s 2012 votes had doubled, tripled, and more than quadrupled his2008 votes in every state leading up to the Nevada caucuses, yet Paul received only 88 more votes there. Of all the places for this to occur, Nevada, the country’s most libertarian state; is the last in which anyone would expect this.

In spite of these irregularities , Paul won 22 of 25 state delegates and replaced state party officials with Paul supporters. Romney supporters then formed their own state party, called “Team Nevada”. The RNC then bypassed the official state party in order to organize for Romney and send all funds to Team Nevada.

Colorado: Romney supporters were caught passing out fake Ron Paul slates at the state convention. The RNC has not investigated or even commented on the matter.

Minnesota: Doug Wead, claims the state party instructed members not to vote for any delegates under age fifty because most young delegates support Paul.

Missouri: WXIX Cincinnati’s Ben Swann covered the fiasco in St. Charles County. Temporary Chairman, Eugene Dokes, started the meeting by banning video recording devices, a first for this event. Robert’s Rules of Order require the temporary chairman to accept nominations and elect a convention chairman to run the event. Instead, he appointed a chair of his choice. The crowd immediately erupted with booing. Shortly after, Dokes adjourned the meeting without the required two-thirds majority, called the police on attendees, and left. In adherence to state rules, Paul supporter, Brent Stafford, along with one of the top parliamentarians in the state, reconvened in the parking lot and attempted to resume the event. Shortly after, the SWAT team arrived and arrested Stafford, who was following state party rules. Dokes later admitted on talk radio that he and otherstate party officials deliberately broke the rules to prevent Paul from winning.

Maine: Ben Swann reported on shenanigans in Maine . Even though only 84% of votes had been counted; State GOP Chairman, Charlie Webster, declared Romney the winner over Paul by less than 200 votes. Hancock and Washington Counties hadn’t voted yet because Webster cancelled the caucuses due to an impending snowstorm, promising they could vote later and their votes would be counted. The snowstorm never occurred and he later reneged on his promise, telling voters in those counties their votes would not be counted after all. Washington County was Paul’s strongest in the state in 2008. Though other states with close outcomes held recounts, this was never a consideration for Maine.

At least one of the counties that did vote claims the state party recorded its tallies incorrectly. Matt McDonald, pastor of a small community church in Belfast, was nominated as the chairman of his caucus. He says the state instructed the caucus chairmen not to read any of the vote totals aloud, but rather to send the results straight to Augusta without a public reading. McDonald made a motion to change this rule, and it was approved unanimously. McDonald says 22 voters showed up, resulting in 8 votes for Paul, 7 for Santorum, 5 for Romney, and 2 undecided. When he called the votes into Augusta, he was told they already had the results and the totals read 9 for Romney, 5 or Santorum, and 2 for Paul. When McDonald told her the tally had been counted publicly, he says “her voice changed and she said…we’ll record this”. Doug Wead claims, “On every occasion, the votes that were lost were Ron Paul votes and the person responsible for reporting them were Mitt Romney supporters…in one case the votes were actually transferred from paper to…a computer and the lady doing the transfer was a Mitt Romney person”. To date, these tallies have not been corrected and Romney is still credited with the straw vote win while the media continues to report that Paul never won a state contest.

Arizona: The Examiner’s Kevin Kervick reports “ballot stuffing, rule violations, and improper vote counting that occurred behind closed doors” at the convention. In addition, Paul supporters allege threats of physical violence from Romney supporters.

Michigan: Doug Wead reports, ” Michigan, unlike any other state…had a special party rule forbidding any precinct delegate vacancies from being filled at county conventions until after the state delegates and alternates were chosen. In other words, countless Ron Paul supporters attending county convention were forcibly blocked…because they weren’t elected precinct delegates in 2010-long before the Ron Paul 2012 campaign began”. Wead also claims “documented instances in multiple counties where county party officials “edited” the state delegation lists after the county conventions adjourned”.

Wyoming: A commenter on Paul supporter website, DailyPaul.com, explains how members of the Republican Executive Committee (all Romney supporters) illegally cast votes in the delegate selection vote.

Washington: At the state convention , a Ron Paul delegate claimed bubble ballot sheets were withheld in King County’s district 36. He also claims the 37 ^th district caucus was forced to conduct the meeting outside because Chairwoman, Lori Sotelo, was irritated when a Ron Paul supporter was elected to run the caucus, instead of her choice.

Ben Swann interviewed a voter in Pierce County, Washington; who claims the local Republican leadership passed out what they called a “unity slate” to voters and said it represented an equal distribution of delegates committed to Romney, Santorum, and Gingrich. The plan was to organize to block Ron Paul supporters, who outnumbered the other candidates’ supporters, from receiving the lion’s share of the delegates. The Republican leadership prevailed.

Alaska: In spite of last-minute rule changes and violations of party rules, Paul supporters oustedlongtime state chairman, Randy Ruedrich, and voted-in Paul supporter, Russ Millette.  Ruedrich then tried to sabotage the state convention and transferred all of the state party’s $100,000 to the local Capital City Republicans in Juneau, effectively bankrupting the party now controlled by Paul supporters.

Georgia: This video shows GOP Chairwoman, Sue Everhart, at the Athens Clarke County GOP meeting admitting “shoddy treatment of the Ron Paul people at that [2008] convention” and publicly apologizing. She presents the rule book that she helped to write and claims it won’t happen again. The video then shows the actual convention and party leaders breaking those rules to force their pre-selected slate of delegates and prevent Paul’s supporters from electing their own. Party leaders then adjourned the meeting illegally and ran out of the meeting.

Massachusetts: Paul won 16 of the 27 delegates selected so far in Romney’s home state. In addition, he swept all 6 from Romney’s home county. As a result (for the first time ever in the state), delegates were asked to sign an affidavit stating ” I certify under the pain and penalty of perjury, that on the first ballot at the 2012 Republican National Convention, I will affirmatively Vote for Mitt Romney, the winner of the 2012 Massachusetts Presidential Primary.” The state GOP then covered up Romney’s embarrassing loss by invalidating ballots and ousting the Paul delegates.

North Dakota: Ben Swann reports the selection of delegates was unfair: the GOP handed out pre-printed ballots with a slate of delegates with 60% of them being Mitt Romney supporters in a state where he won only 26% of the vote.

Oklahoma: Kevin Kervick of The Examiner reports that the Oklahoma convention had to be moved to the parking lot because Robert’s Rules were ignored, delegate credentials were not verified, a convention chair was never appointed, motions made from the floor were ignored, the Chairman illegally elected a slate of Romney delegates, and the convention was closed without a two-thirds majority vote. Consistent with Robert’s Rules, Paul supporters reconvened in the parking lot to elect delegates. Paul supporters have now filed a law suit to ensure their delegates will be seated.

Virginia: Doug Wead claims “at a district convention, they coaxed the Ron Paul delegation outside and then locked the door. The pastor of the church that was hosting the event was, himself, locked out”.

U.S. Virgin Islands: Ron Paul won his first caucus, only to have the GOP take down the straw vote results from their website showing Paul the victor with 29% over Romney’s 26% and replaced with a note from the party claiming Romney won because he won more delegates. Paul’s Official Campaign Blogger, Jack Hunter, explains how every other contest determined the victor by the straw vote, except the one straw vote Paul won.

Alabama: An inexplicable gap exists between Paul’s popular vote count and his delegate vote count. This is odd because voters choose both on the same day and on the same ballot. Alabama Republican Party rules state that voters can only vote for one candidate and then must choose between his delegates. Statewide, Paul received only about one-third as many votes as his delegates. This means voters chose another candidate, but selected Paul’s delegates. No other candidate’s totals showed a similar pattern.

Louisiana: Ben Swann reports a clash between the old Louisiana State GOP leadership and newly-elected leaders who support Paul. Old Chairman, Roger Villere, angered attendees with last-minute rule changes the night before the convention. At the start of the convention, Villere attempted to recognize the former Chair of the Rules Committee, who had been voted out the night before. When new Chair, Alex Helwig, rose to address the delegation; Villere instructed security (comprised of off-duty Shreveport Police) to remove him . They arrested him for trespassing and broke several of his fingers. Next, an overwhelming majority elected a new Convention Chair, Paul supporter Alex Helwig. Members then turned their chairs to face Helwig, with their backs to Villere. In desperation, Villere instructed the police officers to remove the duly-elected Herford. They did so and dislocated his hipin the process, sending him to the emergency room.  The reconvened group followed state party rules and went on to elect a majority of Paul delegates, which the state party later replaced with its own slate of Romney delegates.  The Paul campaign has appealed to the RNC, but it is unlikely that the RNC will reinstate the Paul delegates.

Oregon:  This YouTube video shows establishment Republicans in Congressional District 4 attempting to steal the ballot box and leave the premises when it became apparent the Ron Paul supporters were in the majority.  A Paul supporter is chased away from the ballots and claims he was accosted by an establishment party member.

Wisconsin: MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell reports Romney violated state campaign laws by bribing voters with free subs.

In other states, Paul supporters claim vote-flipping occurred with electronic voting machines. Once about 40% of votes are reported, there is typically little variation in the final numbers. However on several occasions, at about 40% Romney’s trajectory “flipped” with the leader, which was often Paul.  Austin Election Judge, Anne Beckett, has come forth publicly to claim she witnessed this firsthand.

Baseless allegations or a few isolated incidents may not be cause for concern, but there is enough video evidence in this report to disturb anyone who cares about fair elections.  Rule changes, disregard for existing rules, cancelling elections, running off with ballots, secret vote counts, throwing out votes, threats, physical violence, and arbitrary replacement of delegates are activities unbecoming of a democratic society.  Whether you’re a Ron Paul supporter, or even a Republican, is irrelevant.  That the Republican Party will seemingly stop at nothing to ensure their selected candidate is the nominee should be deeply troubling for all Americans.

Source: Free Words

Small Business Assault From Obamacare

Hold on to your socks, the part time hiring of employees will become the new normal. The biggest prohibitive hit against job creation is in full motion. The consequences from Obamacare place a drag on the economy that is undeniable. This mugging of small business will guarantee that the primary engine of employment will sputter and knock, as the federal government forces higher and higher taxes on the last semblance of free enterprise.

Do not ignore the significance of this seminal moment. Forget about any economic recovery on Main Street. The unemployment stats will be stuck in a permanent loop, as the gross domestic product stagnates, at best. The more likelihood is that the characterized “double dip” recession will experience a full-blown depression. Government’s response will inflate prices in a feeble attempt to stave off deflation retractions.

Ponder the fallout of this escalated assault on the middle class. Larry Kudlow portrays in John Roberts Is a Super-Taxer the Supreme Court ruling as a dangerous precedent.

“The Roberts court has served up a “tax mandate” that is more powerful than the still-limited Commerce Clause regulatory mandate. Roberts has created a huge new loophole. Instead of new purchase mandates, we’ll have new purchase tax mandates.

Americans for Tax Reform estimates that Obamacare contains 20 new or higher taxes on American families and small businesses. Investor’s Business Daily says this comes to a $675 billion tax hike over the next decade.”

 

Watch the video of Stephen Moore, Senior Economics Writer with the Wall Street Journal, explaining that nearly 75% of Obamacare costs will fall on the backs of those Americans making less than $120,000 a year.

How Will The Supreme Court’s Decision To Uphold Obamacare Affect Small Businesses And Job Creation?, confronts the consequences of approving the tax mandate.

Beginning in 2014, the “Employer Responsibility” provision would require employers with 50 or more workers to provide health coverage.

Critics say it could hurt small businesses that have more than 50 workers and can’t afford to offer health care coverage. Moreover, it could curb hiring among companies that have fewer than 50 employees.

Also, “A lesser-known provision of Obamacare penalizes small businesses for hiring more than 25 employees, said Ben Piper, President of Ben Piper Consulting LLC. “Small businesses that have 25 or fewer employees and offer health care insurance will receive a 35 percent tax credit under the law.”

When the pro government mouthpiece CNBC reports of negative aftermaths, you know the prospects are awful. From Small Business on Obamacare: No Reason to Hire or Invest the warning follows:

Jim Amos, CEO and chairman of Tasti D-Lite, a frozen yogurt franchise that operates in 14 states as well as globally, is certain of one thing: The ruling will hinder growth in the franchise space. “It’s going to force franchisees to shift workers to part-time to avoid the 50-employee threshold,” he said. “It will keep new owners and new openings on the sideline.”

The Street exhibits an unsupported sentiment in, Small Business Reacts to Obamacare Ruling, “small businesses by and large are resigned to the law and preparing to move ahead with the required health care changes.” Maybe the more accurate assessment, in this same article is the operative response.

“Still, the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council, a nonprofit advocacy and research organization dedicated to protecting small business and promoting entrepreneurship, says the ruling is a “major blow” to entrepreneurship overall.

The SBE Council has a broad-based membership of 100,000 members comprised of self-employed and small to mid-size businesses across industries.

“Today’s ruling by the Supreme Court undercuts freedom, which is essential to economic growth and entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship is on the decline in the U.S., and we need policies that will encourage risk-taking and start-up activity. Intrusive government policies and punishing taxes, like the Affordable Care Act with its individual mandate, work against a vibrant entrepreneurial ecosystem, ” SBE Council President and CEO Karen Kerrigan says in a statement.”

Add to the intentional and punitive burden that especially targets the independent business, the long list of corporate exemptions to the Obamacare requirements. These waivers are pure crony favoritism. Can anyone have confidence that the Obama administration will apply the law equally when their willingness to reward campaign supporters is so well established?

Over a year ago, Human Events listed HOW TO GET AN OBAMACARE WAIVER.

1. Join a labor union: The waiver list reads like a “who’s who” of Big Labor organizations.

2. Work for a huge corporation: Jack-in-the-Box, Cracker Barrel, Ruby Tuesday’s, Waffle House… these are among the most recognizable names of corporate waiver winners.

3. Work for a health care company: Quite a few of these exemptions go to the health care industry and pharmaceutical companies.

4. Work for the government: State and local governments get plenty of ObamaCare waivers.

5. Open a luxurious boutique in Nancy Pelosi’s district: Fully 20% of the latest ObamaCare waivers go to luxury businesses that happen to be located in the district represented by House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi.

6. Live in Nevada, New Hampshire, or Maine: These three wonderful states have been granted special exemptions from many of ObamaCare’s provisions.

The law that “Big Phama” and the insurance carriers wrote has small business at such a disadvantage, that the actual survival of independent enterprises is at stake. When establishment business reporting sounds the danger siren, their corporate sponsors usually take note. The dancing in the corporate suites just goes to prove that the centralization of everyday commerce is behind the draconian burden placed on small business under Obamacare.

Most Americans know little of the risks and responsibilities of being in business. However, many more residents will experience the plight of unemployment and the curse of government dependence. The strength of economic viability must rest upon a sound foundation of small business. The bulk of jobs come from this sector. By inflicting financial costs, that bankrupt Main Street only leads to the destruction of prosperity.

Feeding The Homeless BANNED In Major Cities All Over America

What would you do if you came across someone on the street that had not had anything to eat for several days?  Would you give that person some food?  Well, the next time you get that impulse you might want to check if it is still legal to feed the homeless where you live.  Sadly, feeding the homeless has been banned in major cities all over America.  Other cities that have not banned it outright have put so many requirements on those that want to feed the homeless (acquiring expensive permits, taking food preparation courses, etc.) that feeding the homeless has become “out of reach” for most average people.  Some cities are doing these things because they are concerned about the “health risks” of the food being distributed by ordinary “do-gooders”.  Other cities are passing these laws because they do not want homeless people congregating in city centers where they know that they will be fed.  But at a time when poverty and government dependence are soaring to unprecedented levels, is it really a good idea to ban people from helping those that are hurting?

This is just another example that shows that our country is being taken over by control freaks.  There seems to be this idea out there that it is the job of the government to take care of everyone and that nobody else should even try.

But do we really want to have a nation where you have to get the permission of the government before you do good to your fellow man?

It isn’t as if the government has “rescued” these homeless people.  Homeless shelters all over the nation are turning people away each night because they have no more room.  There are many homeless people that are lucky just to make it through each night alive during the winter.

Sometimes a well-timed sandwich or a cup of warm soup can make a world of difference for a homeless person.  But many U.S. cities have decided that feeding the homeless is such a threat that they had better devote law enforcement resources to making sure that it doesn’t happen.

This is so twisted.  In America today, you need a “permit” to do almost anything.  We are supposed to be a land of liberty and freedom, but these days government bureaucrats have turned our rights into “privileges” that they can revoke at any time.

The following are some of the major U.S. cities that have attempted to ban feeding the homeless….

Philadelphia

Mayor Nutter recently banned feeding homeless people in many parts of Philadelphia where homeless people are known to congregate….

Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter has announced a ban on the feeding of large numbers of homeless and hungry people at sites on and near the Benjamin Franklin Parkway.

Mayor Nutter is imposing the ban on all outdoor feedings of large numbers of people on city parkland, including Love Park and the Ben Franklin Parkway, where it is not uncommon for outreach groups to offer free food.

Nutter says the feedings lack both sanitary conditions and dignity.

Orlando

Last June, a group of activists down in Orlando, Florida were arrested by police for feeding the homeless in defiance of a city ordinance….

Over the past week, twelve members of food activist group Food Not Bombs have been arrested in Orlando for giving free food to groups of homeless people in a downtown park. They were acting in defiance of a controversial city ordinance that mandates permits for groups distributing food to large groups in parks within two miles of City Hall. Each group is allowed only two permits per park per year; Food Not Bombs has already exceeded their limit. They set up their meatless buffet in Lake Eola knowing that they would likely be arrested as a result.

Houston

Down in Houston, a group of Christians was recently banned from distributing food to the homeless, and they were told that they probably would not be granted a permit to do so in the future even if they applied for one….

Bobby and Amanda Herring spent more than a year providing food to homeless people in downtown Houston every day. They fed them, left behind no trash and doled out warm meals peacefully without a single crime being committed, Bobby Herring said.

That ended two weeks ago when the city shut down their “Feed a Friend” effort for lack of a permit. And city officials say the couple most likely will not be able to obtain one.

“We don’t really know what they want, we just think that they don’t want us down there feeding people,” said Bobby Herring, a Christian rapper who goes by the stage name Tre9.

Dallas

Dallas has also adopted a law which greatly restricts the ability of individuals and ministries to feed the homeless….

A Dallas-area ministry is suing the city over a food ordinance that restricts the group from giving meals to the homeless.

Courts dismissed Dallas’ request for a summary judgment last week, saying the case, brought up by pastor Don Hart (in video above) may indeed be a violation of free exercise of religion, as protected by the Texas Religious Freedom Restoration Act, the blog Religion Clause reported.

In the court filing, the ministry leaders argue that their Christian faith requires them to share meals with the homeless (Jesus did!) and that the requirement that even churches and charities provide toilets, sinks, trained staff and consent of the city keeps them from doing so.

Las Vegas

A few years ago, Las Vegas became the first major U.S. city to specifically pass a law banning the feeding of homeless people….

Las Vegas, whose homeless population has doubled in the past decade to about 12,000 people in and around the city, joins several other cities across the country that have adopted or considered ordinances limiting the distribution of charitable meals in parks. Most have restricted the time and place of such handouts, hoping to discourage homeless people from congregating and, in the view of officials, ruining efforts to beautify downtowns and neighborhoods.

But the Las Vegas ordinance is believed to be the first to explicitly make it an offense to feed “the indigent.”

That law has since been blocked by a federal judge, and since then many U.S. cities have been very careful not to mention “the indigent” or “the homeless” by name in the laws they pass that are intended to ban feeding the homeless.

New York City

New York City has banned all food donations to government-run homeless shelters because the bureaucrats there are concerned that the donated food will not be “nutritious” enough.

Yes, this is really true.

The following is from a recent Fox News article….

The Bloomberg administration is now taking the term “food police” to new depths, blocking food donations to all government-run facilities that serve the city’s homeless.

In conjunction with a mayoral task force and the Health Department, the Department of Homeless Services recently started enforcing new nutritional rules for food served at city shelters. Since DHS can’t assess the nutritional content of donated food, shelters have to turn away good Samaritans.

Can you believe that?

The bureaucrats are officially out of control.

In America today, it seems like almost everything is illegal.

One church down in Louisiana was recently ordered to stop giving out waterbecause it did not have a government permit.

Well, I don’t know about you, but I sure am going to give a cup of cold water to someone if they need it whether I have a permit or not.

It is as if common sense has totally gone out the window in this nation.

Over in New Hampshire, a woman is being sued for planting flowers in her own front yard.

This is the kind of thing that makes me glad that I have moved to a much more rural location.  People in the country tend to be much more relaxed.

Sadly, those that love to micro-manage others continue to get the upper hand in America.  Back in January, 40,000 new laws went into effect all over America.  The politicians continue to hit us with wave after wave of regulations and laws with no end in sight.

All of this is making America a very unpleasant place in which to live.

Source: The Economic Collapse

Mitt Romney Desperate To Hide Truth

ROME, Ohio - Two speeches made to different groups of supporters last Tuesday evening may change the world. The remarks were given by the winning and second place candidates vying to be the GOP nominee for president at two locations in New Hampshire minutes after the polls closed. Between these two, enunciated in word, delivery and the reaction of supporters, the watcher could see, in sharp relief, demarcation lines revealing ideas and values which define an America reaching for the future. If you have not watched the links below you should do so.

The two men themselves are both registered Republicans but live in, by and for, very different values. The winner of the GOP primary in New Hampshire was Mitt Romney, a monied and manicured contender whose campaign funds come fromcorporate sources. Leading the list provided through Open Sources is Goldman Sachs, donating $367,200, followed by Credit Suisse Group.

The second man is Dr. Ron Paul, whose campaign funds originate from the efforts of grass roots people, hungry for the truths Paul has lived all of his life. Paul’s top donor – Beefcarver Restaurants contributed $1,000. It takes a lot of donors to raise over $12,000,000, the amount reported for Paul for money raised. U. S. military serving now contribute more to Paul than to all other candidates combined.

The words of Romney and Paul spoke the shattering truths which are today changing the face of the Republican Party, repopulating its ranks from the grass-roots.

Ron Paul, whose supporters are responsible for those changes, is the People’s candidate, his supporters including a strong flow of Democrats and Independents who otherwise have no one to vote for.

The Tea Party, captured in its infancy, by money supplied by Charles and David Koch, have done all in their power to stave off the assault of the simple, direct words supplied by Dr. Ron Paul but they have, again, failed.

Both text and audio of the speeches are linked here. Dr. Ron Paul Mitt Romney

Commentators feverishly attempt to explain away the showing of a campaign entirely originating in the grass roots efforts of ordinary Americans with analysis. These graphs and exit polls caught on the question of ‘electability.’ The unspoken subtext, present but unstated being, “well, you can’t have what you want so which corporate candidate is the least offensive?” These analyzes originated with the driving need to get people to forget Paul is in the race, necessary to the powers that be. Unlike the other candidates Paul’s loyalty is not to the GOP, a corporately-controlled tool for political organizing, but to the people of our nation and to the Constitution.

Speaking straight off the cuff, as is his way, Dr. Paul thanked his supporters humbly, delight and gratitude for what they, not he, had done, clear in his face. As he said during the 2007 race, “thank you for inviting me to the Revolution.” Paul went on to enumerate, the wrongs done to Americans and the changes he would enact, if elected. It was a lengthy list, detailed and specific, leaving no doubt as to what voters will get the day he is inaugurated. Over and over again his supporters interrupted the speech with cries of “President Paul, President Paul,” and tumultuous applause.

Dr. Paul noted a first in election history, as did Romney on a very different subject. Ron Paul proudly noted he is the first to mention the Federal Reserve as a dominant issue and call for its end. He promised the ‘token’ of his intentions by pledging to cut one trillion from the budget in his first year in office. Our monetary system said Paul, is “sneaky, deceitful.”

Paul left no doubt as to his views on war, individual rights, the impact imposed by the regulatory role undertaken by the federal government ,or the hunger of people for the America, which once held so much hope to people around the world.

In 2007 Paul was also the first candidate to mention, “blow-back,” a term coined by the CIA to explain the growing hostility to America by countries where their operations are taking place. Paul called for the orderly withdrawal of troops and an end to the role of ‘policeman to the world,’ for America.

Paul’s vision for America evokes a very different vision for the future than continuous wars, which profit no one but the corporations who donate to the campaigns of his opponents. Paul calls for a world at peace. His supporters chanted, “bring them home, bring them home.” Paul is a real conservative who showed visible concern for people attempting to subsist on Social Security today and the continued reduction of spending power which is causing real suffering for older Americans.

On the subject of the Constitution Paul said, “the Constitution was written for a very precise manner. It was not designed to restrain the individual — not to restrain you — it was to protect your liberties and to restrain the federal government.”

The Paul vision is clear, unambiguous, straight from the heart, and consistent. His delivery was unstudied, warm, sincere.

And then you have Mitt Romney. On a positive note Mitt’s supporters were far more polite. They rarely interrupted with cheers or applause.

As Mitt’s speech went on he had no problem blaming Obama for the disappearance of the Middle Class, the huge bail-outs, and the myriad of other problems plaguing Americans today. Unfortunately, though he, having a firm background in economics and the financial realities of recent years, was less than candid when he blamed Obama for the US loss of the AAA credit rating, now gone. The AAA was already going before Obama was elected due to financial decisions and legislation originating in the Bush presidency, indications of which were present in 2007.

Sometimes it is small things which are most telling.

In October of that year W. Leon Smith, publisher and editor of the Lone Star Iconoclast, wrote a check to Alltel, his phone company, to pay his monthly bill. The check was run through, debiting his bank account twice, causing him to bounce checks. Smith investigated how this could have happened, resulting in an article titled, “Paper or Pretense,” which ran in the Lone Star Iconoclast January 30, 2008.

Smith’s article closes with the illuminating statement by the FBI, who Smith contacted to file a complaint, that they work for the banks. Now that is a real ‘Ah Hah!’ moment, the FBI takes orders from banks, such as JP Morgan, a leading donor to the Romney campaign.

The ‘bank error,’ ignored by most analysts, had, in this once instance, impacted 27,000 customers, each having their check run twice. As time passed Smith began to hear of other instances with other companies. The result had been to allow JP Morgan Bank, then attempting to maintain a AAA rating, to gain millions of dollars in interest on the combined small amounts held which staved off the loss of their rating until recently.

Today Mitt is not running against Obama. He, and all other GOP candidates, are running against each other. Therefore comments on the positions expressed by Paul, the second most popular candidate, would be most useful – if Mitt actually wanted to provide the public with a comparison of what they will do, if nominated and then elected.

Romney offered “I stand ready to lead us down a different path, where we are lifted up by our desire to succeed, not dragged down by a resentment of success. In these difficult times, we cannot abandon the core values that define us as unique — We are One Nation, Under God. Make no mistake, in this campaign, I will offer the American ideals of economic freedom a clear and unapologetic defense.”

Can you tell what this means?

I’m sure the line causes shivers of happiness to ripple through the faces of Dave and Charles Koch as they cash government checks issued for cost plus contracts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Evidently, Mitt thinks what we have today is free enterprise, which is economic freedom and nothing could be farther from the truth. What we have today is corporate fascism, control by corporations through government.

Otherwise, the Romney speech was stilted, filled with platitudes and meaningless rhetoric, such as, “We still believe in the America that is a land of opportunity and a beacon of freedom. We believe in the America that challenges each of us to be better and bigger than ourselves. This election, let’s fight for the America we love. We believe in America.”

Here is the translation.

The strategy underlying the highly repetitive Romney speech is entirely understandable if you realize this. If Mitt had been clear or specific it would be impossible for people to fool themselves into believing him. The only way to lie to large groups is to allow them to deceive themselves by using emotionally charged images with little real meaning. Words like, “America” “One Nation” and “God” allow the listener to substitute an image, idea, or words from their own minds. The listener persuades themselves to ‘believe.’ You would not hire a plumber like this, you should not hire a CEO in this fashion, either.

But Romney’s haircut was perfect, his teeth shiny white. He was craggy and attractive.

But a real debate on the issues needs to happen and, fortuitously, one will be taking place.

Along with being a columnist for the Iconoclast I was drafted to run, as a Democrat, for president, much to my surprise. The campaign is registered with the Federal Election Commission. W. Leon Smith is my Campaign Chairman. Leon’s draft letter is here. While Obama might not want to debate me you will be able to view a debate between the First Dog, Bo, and my son’s animal companion, Meow-Meow in a matter of days. There will be specifics, substance, and dollops of humor.

The debate will really dig in to all the things, as Mitt so ably demonstrated, candidates are desperate to evade. And although I’m running as a Democrat for the nomination of the Democratic Meow-Meow is ready for action

Party, no corporate candidate will be left behind to languish any longer in the present rhetoric of the absurd.

Even Meow-Meow knows about reality.

Short Platform

• Ratify the ERA

• Fully fund Social Security
• Hold the Bankers accountable
• Give our veterans what they need to heal
• Give the world peace, withdraw the troops
• Abolish the FED
• And force restitution from the corporations for all those victimized

The Iowa Caucus: A Ron Paul Win or a GOP Heist?

A caucus selection process is a much fairer method than party controlled primaries. That is why the GOP establishment fears the voice of the public. A caucus that could actually influence or determine a nomination must be stopped. Party operated election commissions are a central cause for illegitimate elections. If your anointed candidate wins, the process reflects the will of the people, but if a true reformer wins, like Ron Paul; the caucus does not really matter. Just how stupid are these Republican stooges?

The GOP cretins, who long ago, sold out the Republic are willing to foster any lie and sling whatever slime they can make up to prevent Ron Paul from winning the nomination. Front and center is the nitwit Newt. The National Journal reports in, Gingrich Unloads on Paul: Worse Than Obama: “I think Barack Obama is very destructive to the future of the United States. I think Ron Paul’s views are totally outside the mainstream of virtually every decent American,” Gingrich said Tuesday in a CNN interview with Wolf Blitzer. Could he vote for Paul? “No.

“In Iowa push, ABC News reports, Bachmann Targets Paul.

 

In order to understand the nature of the Gingrich, Bachmann, Santorum, Perry and Romney attacks on Ron Paul, you must face the reality that their Israel First loyalty trumps their oath to protect the true interests of America.

The bold viewpoint of Brother Nathanael will never gain mainstream attention. However, in his YouTube, Jewry’s Push To Stop Ron Paul a born Jew witnesses what other Americans would be condemned for saying.

In Smear Job, Michael Collins Piper provides another example of attempts to destroy Ron Paul.

What Some Black People Think	The Compassion of Dr. Ron Paul

 

Steve Watson on InfoWars offers us this summary:

 

Watch The Vote – Iowa Caucus 2012	Ron Paul: Iowa Vote Fraud

 

It is clear that the foreign affairs establishment of the bipartisan War Party will make every effort to prevent Ron Paul from becoming President. The rush for perfecting voter fraud is on. The announcement that the Iowa GOP is moving vote-count to ‘undisclosed location’ is outrageous.

Ron Paul Has Already Won

What happens if Ron Paul wins Iowa? … Paul seems to have a natural ceiling among GOP voters: A recent Washington Post/ABC News poll found that nearly half of Republican voters feel Paul’s foreign policy views are a major reason not to vote for him. Indeed, the primary reason Paul has an opening to win in Iowa is that no consensus candidate has emerged among social conservatives, which dominate the GOP electorate here – a situation that allows Paul to potentially win with less than 30 percent of the vote. Still, a Paul win in Iowa would have significant ramifications. It would go a long way toward pushing his Libertarian views, long dismissed as outside of Republican mainstream, to the center of the conversation. The resultant media coverage would allow Paul to further spread his message – and potentially win a host of new supporters. And if Paul can do well in New Hampshire on January 10, where he is currently tied for second place with Gingrich, Paul could even move to shared front-runner status with Romney, who is now ahead by more than 20 points in New Hampshire. – CBSNews

Dominant Social Theme: Paul is a crank and will never light up the sky.

Free-Market Analysis: The Internet Reformation is a process not an episode. US GOP Presidential candidate Ron Paul shows us the accuracy of this statement. Ron Paul and his libertarian allies are winning the battle for the hearts and minds of Americans by the millions. In fact, they have already won. More on this below.

It is not too much of an exaggeration to say that a substantial minority, if not a majority, of Republicans and Democrats are really libertarians of some sort. This gives Ron Paul a natural constituency that is far larger than themainstream media admits.

There is apparently only one struggle in the world – and in the US. That is the seeming struggle between a handful of ancient, elite families who control hundreds of trillions via central banks around the world and want to move to world government (dominated by them) and the rest of us.

This Anglosphere power elite has used its unimaginable money base to seemingly pervert the workings of the entire world. It apparently uses dominant social themes – fear-based promotions disseminated by its bought-and-paid-for media, think tanks, universities and governments – to frighten middle classes into giving up wealth and power to cleverly crafted globalist institutions. This is the internationalist government-in-waiting.

But a funny thing happened on the way to world government. The Internet. About a decade ago, we began to focus on the idea that the Internet was a modern-day Gutenberg Press and would have a similar impact.

The Gutenberg Press basically spawned the Renaissance, Reformation and contributed to counter-Reformation trends such as the Age of Enlightenment that was spawned by the elites themselves in an effort to counteract the power of the Gutenberg Press. The Age of Enlightenment postulated that man was perfectible and the agency of perfection was government.

Government is an absolute necessity for power elites. With the advent of the Gutenberg Press, however, something changed. The great families of Europe found it advisable to promote the fallacious idea of “democracy.” This idea, that people would “have a say” in their governments, allowed the power elite then and now to withdraw from the public scene and dominate from behind the scenes. This domination is called “mercantilism.”

Just as it is imperative these days for the power elite not to reveal itself, so it is imperative that the elites continue to have access to all levels of government in order to pass the laws necessary to its survival. Without the faux-system of civil society that the elites have erected in the past 150 years, there would be no prospect of a one-world order.

No one wakes up in the morning and decides to spend one’s life building global government. It is an entirely false paradigm that this happens. People are coerced into believing that global government is inevitable and that their self-interest is better fulfilled by working with the powers-that-be than against them. This sense of INEVITABILITY is part of what drives the push toward the New World Order.

But it has long been our contention that those who predict the inevitability of the coming one-world order may not be entirely correct. It continues to be our contention – as we follow modern events – that the elites seeking global governance have been considerably set back by the Internet, as we have long predicted.

We know this to be true by the amount of violence the elite central banking families are turning to. Violence, insane legislative initiatives like SOPA, the erection of prison camps and the fomentation of wars around the world are all signs of the fear that has overtaken these elites. They do not want to be found out.

One needs only to study a little history to begin to understand the relevance of the paradigm we are suggesting. After the Gutenberg Press began to expose the power elite of the day and its manipulations, the first copyright laws were passed, the “isms” were suddenly developed, the Hegelian Dialectic was brought into play significantly and wars broke out throughout the West and lasted for decades.

There IS likely a playbook. There are surely manipulations that the elites pursue over and over in their loony quest for world government. One sees them put into play after the advent of the Gutenberg Press just as they are being put into play today. This is not an easy idea to accept, however, even for the alternative Internet Press. It is much easier and more psychologically satisfying to speak of ancient cabals, such as Jewish/Zionist penetration via vast Illuminati-Masonic plots.

But the truth TODAY is simpler than that, in our view. The world is being run by an intergenerational mafia of familial elites that USE religion and symbolism to affright people and impress on everyone the inevitability of what it is to come.

This is the reason, for instance, that Muammar Gaddafi‘s execution was shown over and over for weeks. This was the reason his purported buggery was made available throughout the world though ordinarily the Western mainstream media is averse even to showing so much as a kiss to a general audience that includes children.

Gaddafi’s death was a warning. Just as the wars in Africa and the Middle East are cautionary ones. They have little or nothing to do with oil or the “great game” or other resources. When the Pentagon wanted to make a case for staying in Afghanistan it suddenly discovered a trillion-dollars’-worth of rare-earth minerals and other commodities. It is all so transparent.

The powers-that-be seek control. The stiff-necked Pashtuns and tricky Punjabis that are now 300 million strong and have dominated the navel of the earth for millennia must be conquered and pacified. This is the struggle taking place today.

And yet, we have predicted the Anglosphere may already have lost this war for global domination. The hidden influence of Money Power in our view peaked in the 20th century. The 21st century has offered them one disaster after another.

9/11 itself is still a questionable event. Attempts to impose the phony meme of global warming are also not going well. The war on terror is increasingly met by disbelief. Scarcity memes of all types have less power to upset, and are increasingly exposed on the Internet.

And then there is Ron Paul. Four years ago, libertarian politician Ron Paul was regarded by the mainstream media as a harmless, crazy crank. Today, according to a CBS article (see excerpt above), the only thing standing between Ron Paul and a sociopolitical consensus around his libertarian points of view is the view by many that he will “undermine” national security. Or so we are told.

But this meme, too, shall have its day – and be gone. That’s because the Internet is a process not an episode. The damage control that the elites practices in the 20th century doesn’t work anymore. They have turned to a more ancient playbook, in our view, but history shows THAT is not so effective, either.

People naturally lose perspective. But back in the 1990s a trio helped change the world. Dr. Ron Paul and economistMurray Rothbard were close friends. Lew Rockwell was the organizer and raised the money. Rothbard wrote prodigiously and Ron Paul kept delivering babies and running for office. Ron Paul is the most famous and successful libertarian politician of the past 100 years.

This trio built on what is good in what we today call civil society and eventually, as the Internet era began, were joined by popularizers like Matt Drudge, Alex Jones … and then more. And so once again the ideas of freedom and individual HUMAN action (versus Adam Smith‘s Wealth of NATIONS) were propagated as they had been before. No one is perfect, but this aspiration is larger than personal agendas, and grounded in the logic of civil society built up over centuries by the greatest and most courageous of minds.

This is the story of civilization, in fact. It is a language and a conversation. It reoccurs. It cannot be extinguished because it may blaze anew in the hearts of the next generation. Sure, it may take a village, but it is one made up of INDIVIDUALS. And everyone is welcome. All who subscribe to the individual greatness of the human species are conveyances for what is worth carrying forward in human society. God damn those who do not.

History seems to us a series of cycles, struggles between historical elites and the rest. Such a struggle has been joined today. This is REAL history. We are lucky enough to live at a time when the old order is passing. Maybe what we are seeing is its death struggles.

The Internet is making it impossible for it to thrive in its current form. Central banks printing monopoly money-from-nothing, wars of aggression, the incarceration of millions … these are indefensible paradigms when one does not fully control the media anymore.

The Internet Reformation is like a wildfire, perhaps. It seems to be burning away the manifestations of the American Empire by incinerating the disingenuous moral buttresses that hold together this phony construct of the modern power elite. By the time the Internet Reformation has run its course, today’s authoritarian verities may have perished entirely. (They will of course emerge in another form.)

Right now, according to this CBS article, only the lie that the military-industrial complex ”keeps America safe” stands between the fullness of Leviathan and its subsidence. But what happens, as will be inevitable, when Americans in larger numbers find out that this “safety” is non-existent?

What happens when Americans finally realize that the string of wars that have “defended” them were perhaps phony? What happens when the seeming manipulations that caused the phony Cold War fully penetrate popular consciousness? What happens when the truth about 9/11 – whatever it is – is finally revealed?

The last memes of the power elite that will tumble (as we have long predicted) are the fundaments of the state itself: the insanity of the current model of state justice (where the state itself and its controllers make the laws and then pay for the legislatures, courts and military and civilian police and penitentiary guards that enforce this phony “justice.”)

The corollary is the military-industrial complex itself and its myriad millions of intel operatives in London, Washington, DC and Tel Aviv. These individuals are already worried; their privacy invasions, incarcerations and tortures weigh heavily on them. It is occurring to them that they may be on the wrong side of history – real history.

George W. Bush is afraid to travel outside of the United States. David Rockefeller is approaching the century mark and is not his old persuasive self. The Rothschilds are regularly making appearances on business television to show they are merely struggling businessmen and bankers. The US Congress attempts to pass evermore Draconian laws to stop the Internet Reformation. Wars are fomented to take over the world. And yet the navel of the world remains unconquered.

Conclusion: The Internet, which was never supposed to happen, continues to inform people every day about the despicable nature of the elite’s 20th century directed history. The old paradigms are crumbling. A thousand, ten thousand, a million prison camps may not capture the truths echoing around the world. The Internet is a process not an episode.

Source: The Daily Bell

A Tale of Two Squares and Two Movements

Cairo…

This observer spent a good part of Christmas Eve divided between two main Cairo Squares, Tahir and Abassiya, while waiting for a Visa from the Libyan Embassy.

A tale of two Squares and two Movements

Alexandria, 415 or 416

In the year 415 or 416, on the streets of Alexandria, Egypt, a band of Christian monks seized Hypatia, one of the last great thinkers of ancient Alexandria, beat her, and dragged her body to a church where they mutilated her flesh with sharp tiles and burned her remains. Read more.

Cairo in year 2011

It is evident here that the “blue bra girl” or “Tahrir Woman” whose assault by the Egyptian army has brought intense wrath upon the ruling Supreme Council of Armed Forces (SCAF) and similar attacks are much on the minds of protestors in both Squares. But in Abassiya Sq. the participants focus more on the provocative demonstrators in Tahrir Sq. many of whom they claim are baltagiy (hoods or thugs).  Tahrir Square demonstrators feel about the same way regarding the pro- SCAF (Supreme Council of Armed Forces) demonstrators over in Tahrir Square.

In Abbasiya Square close to Noor Mosque, the attitudes and trappings are in opposition to what has been happening in Tahrir Square. Same souvenirs, candy, caps with the Egyptian flag on them, T-shirts, face painting, but with a different political message.

At Tahrir Square, visitors are lectured about the current protests focusing on “Reclaiming Honor” and condemning the military for violence against protestors while chanting slogans such as “Egypt’s women are a red line.”  Referring to women who have been beaten by the military including the “blue bra lady” demonstrators encourage each other with chants like, “Raise you head high, you’re more honorable than the one who stomped you.”  Last week’s violence at Tahrir Sq. left 17 dead and more than 900 injured and justice is demanded.

The ruling Supreme Council of Armed Forces (SCAF) has since apologized to Egypt’s women for the infamous incident, but it has also stepped up a campaign to portray the demonstrators as vandals).

At Abassiya Sq. slogans about the dignity of women and the value of martyrs tend include the not very subtle message that those Egyptians demonstrating in Tahrir Sq. are paid to be there and most are unpatriotic and influenced by foreign elements.  Is there are country in this region that has experienced an uprising where we have not heard essentially these same messages?

What I found interesting as I arrived at the Cairo Airport was the huge bill board (s) proclaiming: “American young people need to grow up more like Egyptian youngsters.”  At the end of the quote is the signature Barack Obama. I have no idea if it’s an accurate quote from Obama’s June 2009 speech at Cairo University but some here seem to think it is and they ask about it.

But even more intriguing , and quite surprising, are the number of young and older demonstrating Egyptians who are very knowledgeable about current American politics and even quite arcane details of US Middle East policy.  And their keen interest to discuss this subject even with the maelstrom swirling around this city of 25 million increasingly stressed citizens.

Maybe in the spirit of the holidays the current crop of Republican candidates could be forgiven for trying out various stump speeches on their audiences.  But not according to Egyptians I spoke with at both Cairo main Squares now that the campaign for US president is up and running.

The near unanimous opinions I heard included the insistence that the messages of US candidates for President as they tour Iowa and New Hampshire need to be rejected by American voters for the good of the USA.

One student told me, “They are reaching new lows—and that is truly low–in American political discourse.”  Before I could explain that I found Egyptian politics these days much more interesting than American politics, one young lady blurted out, “But Michele Bachman, who rival Ron Paul tells us simply hates Muslims told one Iowa audience that that she is qualified to be President because of her grasp of foreign affairs and that being on the House Intelligence Committee, “I get the same intelligence briefings that President Obama does.”

Is that true?” She asked. Before I could utter a syllable, the same female student continued, “Not only is that not accurate what she claimed about getting the same intelligence briefings  as the US President but Michele then announced that as President she would close the American Embassy in Tehran, apparently unaware that President Carter did that 32 years ago. How can these candidate be so ignorant and still run for our Presidency?”

Then someone asked why Mitt Romney is assuring audiences in America and presumably Tel Aviv that his first trip as President will be to go to Israel.

Next I received a quick mini-lecture on the subject of, “and not to be outdone in groveling to Israel and ignoring American interests, former history teacher Newt Gingrich informs the world the Palestinians are an invented people while Rick Perry sees no difference between what Israel wants and what’s best for America. How is it possible they can say such things and run for President?”

Stunned, I am dazzled by how well informed these students are. In fact,  reports just in from Iowa and New Hampshire (12.24.11) suggest that this wannabe  Republican nominee quartet, among other candidates this year, believe the issue they have been pushing may be pure electoral gold: the fear which they believe American voters have of Islamic Terrorism.

Nervous about losing Israel-lobby cash, given their inclination to take the Bush and Obama administrations assault on civil liberties even further than attorney generals Ashcroft, Gonzales, and now Holder have done, the right wing Republicans are  touring the early primary states vilifying, by innuendo,  Arabs, Muslims and Islam itself—not to mention Hezbollah, Iran, Syria and Hamas.

Claiming that “the Democrats do not understand the full nature and scope of the terrorist war against us,” the quartet tells their two audiences (the one in front of them and much more importantly, the one at the AIPAC HQ in Washington, the latter supplying  virtually all the Presidential candidates with reams of position papers on Hezbollah, Iran, Hamas, terrorism etc. and busy raising what they claim will be the most money every distributed in the history of the United States by the Israel lobby for a presidential election) that, as candidate Bachman likes to assure her audiences, “This war of terror ends when they stop coming here to kill us! Never, ever again must we be caught with our guard down.”

All the current Presidential candidates insist that American support for Israel with endless special arms programs and evermore cash and green lighting crimes against Palestine has nothing to do with the fact that the US is being driven out of the Middle East and that the American government has never been held in lower repute.

Mitt Romney claimed to speak for all the current White House aspirants when he said Arabs and Muslims have no hard feelings from the nearly one million deaths the Bush-Obama administrations have needlessly caused with their wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and support for Israel’s fifth aggression against Lebanon, while urging a sixth. At the same time the Obama administrations violates international law weekly by impliedly threatening Iran with a nuclear attack in violation of Article 2 (4) of the UN Charter with its “all options are on the table! hysteria.

Egyptian students ask: “Do these same candidates expect American voters not to be concerned about the projected two trillion dollars of US taxpayer money wasted — money that every one of your countries 435 congressional districts needs for education, medical care, repairs to your deteriorating infrastructure, and myriad other urgent needs?

Egyptians in Tahriri and Abasssiya Squares have a better grasp of American politics and many of us have.

The precise authenticity of Barack Obama’s quote on the huge billboards at Cairo International airport is not sure.  But the insights and wisdom of the Egyptians protecting at both Tahrir and Abbassiya Squares  this season are most impressive and worth heeding as American go to the polls to vote in the coming months.

The Fed And America’s Financial Reckoning Day

In a letter to President Thomas Jefferson in 1805, John Adams wrote, “All the perplexities, confusion and distress in America arise not from defects in the Constitution or Confederation, nor from want of honor or virtue, as much as downright ignorance of the nature of coin, credit, and circulation.” Thomas Jefferson would later write, “I sincerely believe that banking institutions are more dangerous than standing armies; and that the principle of spending money to be paid by posterity is but swindling futurity on a large scale.” Jefferson would also warn, “We must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. We must make our election between economy and liberty, or profusion and servitude.”

Today, our nation is sinking into bankruptcy, insolvency, and a serious financial reckoning day because our political class in Washington DC continues to load our posterity with perpetual debt and servitude. Most Americans are distressed, perplexed, and confused because of their “downright ignorance” of sound money principles enshrined in our US Constitution and the evils of central banking. In 1910, a secretive cabal of Wall Street and international bankers conspired to create the Federal Reserve System, which became our nation’s central bank in 1913. Our Founding Fathers were well acquainted with the evils of central banking (beginning with the Bank of England in 1694), and they diligently sought to enshrine hard money principles into our Constitution. In 1913, our national debt was $2.9 billion dollars and today it is $14.5 trillion dollars–an incomprehensible 400,000% increase! According to our US debt clock below, our unfunded liabilities now exceed $115 trillion and each taxpayer is on the hook for over $1 million dollars!

www.usdebtclock.org

Our present banking system was conceived in fraud and deceit by our modern money changers and corrupt politicians. Over 200 years ago James Madison wrote, “History shows that the money changers have used every form of abuse, intrigue, deceit and violent means possible to maintain control over governments by controlling the money and issuance of it.” The Bible affirms that “the love of money is the root of all evil” (I Timothy 6:10), and we also read that when our Lord saw the “money changers” in the Temple, He drove them off with violence (John 2:13-15). Jesus knew how they were exploiting the people and He knew what He had to do about it.

Today, the only Republican presidential candidate who consistently speaks out against the money changers is Congressman Ron Paul who declares that we need to end the Fed! Yet, evangelical Christians, pastors and many in the Tea Party movement consistently support the puppet candidates who are beholden to the money changers and their control of our government. They may express concern about our national debts but they are not calling for the Fed to be abolished!

Currently, the Fed and US Treasury are facing an August 2nd deadline for the continued funding of our national debt and the need to raise our debt ceiling. Republicans have vowed to vote against this authorization (don’t count on it), which will cause a default of $23 billion in Social Security checks on August 3rd and $15 billion in bond interest payments on August 15th. Will the US default on its payments? Will the US become un-creditworthy?

The fact is we are already un-creditworthy and our creditors (foreigners like China) know it! Because of our reckless spending and printing money (called QE), rating agencies like Moody’s Investor Services and Fitch Ratings are threatening to downgrade US bonds to AA. In April of this year Standard & Poor’s (founded in 1860) downgraded all US debt to “negative” and both Germany and China have downgraded US bonds to AA from AAA with a “negative” outlook.

America is facing a dangerous tipping point unless we enact some serious fiscal and monetary reform. Already 46 out of 50 states have failed to meet their balanced budget deadlines for June of this year, and many like Illinois, Minnesota, Florida, California, Wisconsin, and Arizona are laying off workers and suspending essential services. As Margaret Thatcher famously said, “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people’s money.” The states are broke! And, unlike the federal government, they cannot print money over at the Fed. Now we also learn that the federal government has drawn up plans for “a large-scale economic breakdown” in 2011 called “Unified Quest 2011.” This year-long Army exercise is studying the implication of a collapse of the US dollar and bond market, maintaining “domestic order amid civil unrest” and “ways to deal with fragmented global power and drastically lowered budgets.” If the US government and military is currently making contingency plans shouldn’t you be making plans? Shouldn’t your financial advisor also be helping you to be informed and prepared? You can learn more about this at the link below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nt9CnXhLZRA

In response to these developments several states are asserting their state sovereignty by adopting sound money legislation to declare gold and silver as legal tender. The US Constitution says that no state “shall coin money; emit bills of credit; [or] make anything but gold and silver coin a tender in payment of debts” (Art. 1, Sec. 10). The wording here is clear. As George Washington said, “Paper money has had the effect in your state that it will ever have, to ruin commerce, oppress the honest, and open the door to every species of fraud and injustice.” Utah has become the first state to fully adopt sound money legislation in May, and others that are in the process of adopting this legislation include Minnesota, Iowa, Colorado, Georgia, Virginia, Tennessee, South Carolina, Montana, Missouri, Indiana, Idaho, New Hampshire, and Washington. In addition to supporting these bills, we also need to support The Free Competition in Currency Act (HR1098) introduced by Ron Paul to repeal US legal tender laws and remove taxation on gold and silver. A similar bill has been introduced in the Senate (SB500) by Senators Rand Paul, James DeMint, and Mike Lee.

Sir Thomas Gresham’s Law says that bad money drives out good money. Because we have allowed the Federal Reserve System to illegally and unconstitutionally act as the fiscal agent for the US government we are experiencing Gresham’s Law. Concerned investors and foreign nations are literally dumping US currency and assets and favoring gold and silver as a historic store of wealth and safety in uncertain times. If you are like me, you, too, are looking for a reliable and honest source for acquiring gold and silver, and maybe even a place to fund your retirement accounts into precious metals.

I am, therefore, proud to partner with my friends at IDP Consulting Group and Mass Metal (through their Silver Saver monthly program) and recommend them to my readers. I know these fellows personally. They are fine Christian patriots who truly understand what’s going on and have a heart to help their fellow patriots affordably obtain precious metals. Please use the following link:

http://tinyurl.com/3v5ouq2

Thomas Jefferson has warned us that banking institutions are more dangerous to our freedom and liberty than standing armies. This truth holds true to this day and probably even more so. America is facing a reckoning day and to “reckon” means to “settle” and we cannot settle our assets against our liabilities. This cannot go on forever. For a thorough and detailed look at our current economic situation, I highly recommend that you obtain a copy of the brilliant book, “America’s Financial Reckoning Day” written by my friend Chuck Coppes. This book has been on my recommending reading list for two years and has recently been revised with my endorsement. This is a must read. To order, click here:

www.chuckcoppes.com

Finally, Thomas Jefferson has challenged us that we must make our election between liberty or servitude. Our monetary system today is an abomination unto the Lord (Proverbs 11:1). It is time to end the Fed and drive out the money changers! Remember, anyone running for public office who does not understand this economic raping of our people’s wealth and prosperity–and who is not willing to publicly stand and fight against this evil–is not worthy of our support, be they Republican or Democrat.

Why We Chose The Flathead Valley Of Montana

Last weekend, we had people visit us here in the Flathead Valley of Montana from at least eight states: Oregon, Washington, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Texas, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. And since my family and I moved here last October, people have moved here from at least a dozen states. And many more are in the process of moving or trying to move.

As I was speaking with an out-of-State guest last Sunday, he asked me, what was it that made you decide to move to Montana’s Flathead Valley, as opposed to Idaho or some other State? Of course, that is a very fair question. I will attempt to answer that question in today’s column. As a Christian, I believe that “the steps of a trusting man are ordered by the Lord.” So, ultimately, I believe that the superintending hand of God guides and directs those who put their trust in Him. Accordingly, I believe that our move from Florida to Montana was directed by divine providence. What follows are the reasons, factors, and philosophies that guided us to this wonderful valley.

Cities

During the 18 months between the summer of 2008 and the end of 2009, I traveled more than 60,000 miles to virtually every area of this vast country. I traveled from coast to coast and border to border. I visited huge cities and small villages. There were only a handful of states that I did not visit during that span of time.

As I traveled the country, it became very obvious to me that not every place shares the same love for and understanding of freedom. I quickly discovered that Thomas Jefferson was right when he said that big cities were the “bane” of freedom. And there are almost no exceptions to the fact that the bigger the city is, the less freedom there is. Furthermore, it is also an accurate observation that those states that are dominated by big cities (which most states are) the more difficult it is for freedom-loving people in those states to be able to actually resist the juggernaut of oppression and socialism.

Chicago is why the people in Illinois are losing their liberties; Baltimore is why the people in Maryland are losing their liberties; Atlanta is why the people in Georgia are losing their liberties; St. Louis and Kansas City are why the people in Missouri are losing their liberties; Dallas and Houston are why the people in Texas are losing their liberties; Los Angeles and San Francisco are why the people of California are losing their liberties; Portland is why the people of Oregon are losing their liberties; Seattle is why the people of Washington State are losing their liberties; Miami, Ft. Lauderdale, and Orlando are why the people of Florida are losing their liberties; Birmingham is why the people of Alabama are losing their liberties, etc., etc.

In order for freedom to be defended, it will require a State, or group of states, to draw a line in the sand against this assault against our liberties, which, for the most part, is being orchestrated by Washington, D.C., and its allies in the big cities. We deduced that freedom-loving people in any State dominated by one (or a handful) of major metropolitan areas are almost helpless to defend this globalist, socialist juggernaut that is steamrolling the country.

This was a major reason that we selected Montana over Idaho (our second choice). California liberals are leaving the land of fruits and nuts like rats off a sinking ship. The economic conditions in California are driving people to surrounding states in record numbers. And many of them are flocking to the beautiful city of Boise. It’s very possible that Boise will fast become another Portland or Seattle. If this happens, the great freedom-loving State of Idaho will quickly go the way of Oregon and Washington State.

The beauty of Montana is it has no major cities that dominate the State. Missoula (home of the University of Montana) is the most liberal city in the State. The population there is a little over 90,000. Billings is the largest city in the State, and it is largely a Republican area. The population there is just over 100,000. To give readers an idea of Montana geographics: Montana is the fourth largest State in total land area (behind Alaska, Texas, and California), but the total population of the State is UNDER one million. Here’s another statistic to help readers understand what I’m saying: we live just outside the town of Kalispell. The population of Kalispell is around 20,000. And Kalispell is the seventh LARGEST city in the State! Montana’s lack of large metropolitan areas is a huge asset to the defense of liberty, in our opinion.

People

As I traveled those 60,000-plus miles, I met a huge variety of people. And there is no doubt that there are freedom-loving people scattered all over “the fruited plain.” But, that’s the problem: they are SCATTERED. I found some wonderful freedom lovers in South Carolina, New Hampshire, Eastern Tennessee (especially in the Johnson City area), Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas, Arizona, Eastern Washington State, Utah, and the Dakotas. That is not to say that there are not thousands of freedom lovers in other states. There most certainly are!

But I also observed that people who are dependent upon the federal government are much more tolerant of the machinations of the federal government. And if you live in an area that has a large population of welfare-dependents or federal government-dependants, you are going to find yourself pretty much alone when you attempt to “rally the troops” against federal usurpation of power. (And, yes, we have some of that problem here in Montana, too.)

But during my extensive travels, I had the opportunity to come speak in Western Montana on several occasions. I spoke in the rural town of Hamilton to a crowd of around 800 enthusiastic patriots. I spoke in Missoula to several hundred. I spoke in Kalispell to a crowd of over 500 on a below-zero weeknight. When I first visited the Kalispell area, a local State legislator put out one email to some friends and supporters telling them I would be speaking to a small gathering outside of town. His email was sent less than 24 hours from the time that I would be speaking. In that short time, with only one email as publicity, there were some 100 people in attendance to hear me speak–including several pastors, businessmen, physicians, and State legislators and senators. I spoke for an hour and we had Q & A for an hour. It was amazing!

I can tell you that I could take out a full-page ad in the newspaper and spend thousands of dollars in advertising a similar event in the town where I had lived in Florida for over 35 years, and if two-dozen people showed up, it would be a miracle. That’s a difference in people!

My family and I believe that there are very traumatic, tumultuous days ahead for our country. We wanted to be with like-minded patriots who truly understand that there is a conspiracy at the highest levels of government, business, and religion to sell America to the forces of evil. We wanted to be around people who wouldn’t give us that “deer-in-the-headlights” stare if we dared to question the official story of 9/11, or act like they’re looking at a Martian when we talk about the sinister military-industrial complex, or the evilness of fighting perpetual foreign wars, or the unconstitutionality of the Patriot Act, or the evilness of sending trillions of dollars to foreign countries, or the ruination of our country via deficit spending, or the wickedness of the Federal Reserve, ad infinitum, ad nauseam. And while Montana has its share of liberals, socialists, and environmentalist wackos, we have found more freedom-minded people (on the whole) in the Flathead Valley of Montana than anywhere else we’ve been.

I’ve been sold out and betrayed by these “good Christians” who are more statists than they are Christians, who love the government more than they love God, and who will assist the PTB in putting principled freedomists in jail–or worse! I want to spend the rest of my life among people who love freedom (and understand what that means) and who are willing to fight and die to protect it! And I believe I’ve found such people in the Flathead Valley of Montana. Come visit Liberty Fellowship here in Kalispell one Sunday, and you will see what I mean!

Watch us as we livestream our Sunday messages each Sunday afternoon at 2:30pm (MDT). Go to:

http://chuckbaldwinlive.com/home/?page_id=17

Or to watch my archived video messages from Liberty Fellowship, go to:

http://chuckbaldwinlive.com/home/?cat=16

Mountains and Location

As I said, we were very attracted to Eastern Tennessee, New Hampshire, South Carolina, Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas, and Arizona. But at the end of the day, we believed these states lack some key ingredients necessary to defending liberty. Arizona and Texas are on the southern border, which presents huge problems all their own. Oklahoma might have the best State legislators in the country right now, but the State is landlocked. The same is true for Missouri. Who around them will come to their assistance against federal encroachment?

As we analyzed the states (well, to be honest, we did not even consider Massachusetts or California. Sorry. Any state that would deny us the right to keep and bear arms was a State that we dismissed out-of-hand), we quickly eliminated all states east of the Mississippi River for geopolitical reasons: too many military installations, or too close to the belly of the beast, or too flat, or too isolated from “friendlies,” or too inhospitable to freedom principles, etc. And it wasn’t long before we felt strongly attracted to the mountain states of America’s great northwest: Alaska, Idaho, Montana, the Dakotas, Wyoming, and Utah. Colorado was dismissed for the same reason other states were dismissed: one huge metropolitan area dominates the entire State.

During this time, I also did much searching of the scriptures relative to the subject of mountains, and I was very impressed with all the positive things God’s Word has to say about them. There is no question that this search was as much spiritual as it was geopolitical, or anything else! (I’ll let readers do their own research of the scriptures, if they are of a mind to do so.)

Weather

We determined that the cold weather climate of Montana was an asset, not a liability! Why? Because it keeps out undesirables: people who are comfort-oriented and not liberty-oriented! Let the “beautiful people” go to California or Hawaii or Florida. People who live in the mountains live here for reasons other than weather and personal comfort. And when what’s coming actually comes, we will need rugged people who mean business, not people who are looking for a sunroom!

Firearms

As I mentioned above, we refuse to live in any State that does not recognize and respect our right as free men and women to keep and bear arms. I am convinced that, humanly speaking, the only reason there is a modicum of liberty left in these States United is the presence of nearly 100 million firearms held in the private possession of the American people. As such, any State to which we would relocate had to be firearm friendly.

Montana just might be the most gun friendly State in the entire country. Consider: the average home in Montana has 27 firearms in it. 27! Compared to most places, the crime rate in this State is extremely low. And a major reason for the peace and tranquility of this State is the fact that the vast majority of Montanans are armed and prepared to use those arms in their own defense.

Even most Democrats in Montana stand steadfast in the right of the people to keep and bear arms. Example: it was the two Democrat US Senators from Montana that, in essence, killed newly elected President Barack Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder’s attempt to resurrect the Clinton “assault weapons” ban. During the US Supreme Court Heller case deliberations, it was a Democrat Montana State administration that wrote a letter to the court and to the Obama administration warning them that when Montana joined the Union in 1889, it did so under the agreement that the federal government recognized the right of individuals to keep and bear arms, and that if now the federal government was refusing to recognize the right of the people to keep and bear arms, the State of Montana would consider its contract with the federal government (i.e., its entrance into the Union) to be null and void!

In addition, open carry is lawful throughout the State of Montana. That’s how deeply the citizens of Montana regard the right to armed self-defense. Plus, Montana is in the middle of a region of states that regard the Second Amendment just as dearly.

When push comes to shove (and it will), to be among people who are willing to fight and die to preserve their right of self-defense was a major factor as our family deliberated relocation.

Conclusion

I don’t think I have to convince many readers that America cannot continue on the same path it’s on forever. There is a day of reckoning coming, and everybody who has half a brain knows it! And another thing, more and more of us are waking up to is the fact that neither major party in Washington, D.C., is going to fix it. At this point, I don’t think it can be fixed in Washington! The only hope for freedom’s survival is stalwart, independent, courageous people defending liberty one State at a time. And we (my family and I) believe that the mountain states are the last best hope for freedom in North America. And now you know a few of the reasons why we chose Montana.

I recommend that you read these two recent news items, as you contemplate your (and our country’s) future:

From the London Guardian:

http://tinyurl.com/3lmr4gh

From James Carville:

http://tinyurl.com/6gkozo2

I further recommend that readers who are contemplating relocation check out the information provided by Joel Skousen and James Wesley, Rawles. These gentlemen have some tremendous research material available on this subject.

Skousen’s web site:

http://www.joelskousen.com/

Rawles’ web site:

http://www.survivalblog.com/

Let me hasten to say that I completely understand that not every freedom-minded patriot would feel inclined to relocate to the mountain states, or anywhere else! Nor should they. God is bigger than any one State or region, and He will doubtless lead His children in different ways, to different areas, and to different works. Neither am I suggesting that those of us who relocate to the mountain states are any more spiritual or any more patriotic than those who do not. I do not believe that in any shape, form, or fashion! I am simply sharing with my readers how God led us.

But I will also add that there is no question in my mind that God is bringing a remnant to Montana. I see it up close and personal every day! The gathering of eagles has begun! What it all means is yet to be seen. From the bottom of my heart, I am as excited as a kid in a candy store just to be part of it–all the betrayals and trials associated with this move notwithstanding!

The Democrat’s Anti-Union Strategy

Major crimes are often committed with multiple accomplices. In a sophisticated bank robbery there stand, behind the vault busters, layers of criminals who act as lookouts, getaway drivers, planners, etc. So, too, in the colossal crime being committed against organized labor across the U.S., where the Republicans act as the vault busters while the Democrats have a less direct — but equally guilty — role in this historic attack against working people.

The Democrats are spared a lot of blame in this bi-partisan assault due to the Republican’s honesty: they are unabashedly anti-union. On the other hand the Democrats will say they are pro-union while constantly stabbing labor in the back.

For example, numerous governors that campaigned as “pro-labor” in the last mid-term elections are now attacking the same unions that supported them. In multiple states across the country unions are forced to hold giant rallies outside — and inside — state capitals where Democratic governors sit. In these examples the Democrats are playing an openly anti-union role.

A recent debate in The New York Times discussed the topic “whose best at cutting state budgets.” The article discusses the tactics of Republican and Democratic governors in their drive to cut — what turns out to be — the benefits of union workers. One debater, Matthew Mitchell, advocated “reforming” (slashing) state’s pension systems, long a target of the right wing in its assault against unions:

“… governors across the country from California’s Jerry Brown (a Democrat) to Florida’s Rick Scott (a Republican) are talking about pension reform. Several states are trying to reform pensions by raising the retirement age, increasing contributions, or changing benefit formulas.”

The debater goes on to advocate “reforming” (slashing) the state health care system for organized labor too, which Democratic governors across the country are actively pursuing.

Another debater, Elizabeth McNichol, advocates the always dishonest “shared sacrifice” approach: tiny tax increases for the wealthy or middle class combined with gigantic cuts for labor unions. McNichol’s favorite examples are Minnesota and Connecticut, where the latter’s Democratic governor is demanding $1.6 billion in cuts to public workers’ benefits every two years. Speaking of Minnesota’s Democratic Governor, McNichol says:

“His [Governor Dayton] cuts to health care and public employee benefits are deep, but they’d be even deeper without these revenue measures [tax increases].” (The New York Times, May 16, 2011).

Labor leaders are torn between rallying their members against these anti-union politicians,and using language that isn’t too harsh, since calling the Democrats by their rightful names would mean a divorce between these long-unhappily married groups. But some labor leaders are speaking more openly about the role of the Democrats, most recently Richard Trumka, President of the AFL-CIO. Trumka denounces not only the above directly anti-union Democrats, but the passively anti-union Democrats too:

“It doesn’t matter if candidates and parties are controlling the wrecking ball or simply standing aside — the outcome is the same either way. If [political] leaders aren’t blocking the wrecking ball and advancing working families’ interests, working people will not support them.” (The Huffington Post, May 20, 2011).

The head of the national Firefighters Union, Harold Schaitberger, also points the finger at the criminally complicit Democrats:

“Mr. Schaitberger complained that Congressional Democrats were doing far too little to combat ongoing efforts to weaken public-sector unions in Florida, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, Tennessee and elsewhere. In Oklahoma, the Republican-led State Senate sent the governor legislation last week that would prohibit the state’s 12 largest cities from bargaining with public-sector unions.” (The New York Times, April 27, 2011.)

This abusive relationship continues because of the enabling behavior of labor leaders. The cycle of violence will continue until the victim (labor) leaves for good, since future promises of “change” from the Democrats are never manifested. When unions make threats to their abusers while continuing to fund Democratic campaigns, mixed messages are sent, which the Democrats correctly interpret as labor leaders “blowing off steam.”

Unlike Trumka, who has only threatened to withhold some support for the Democrats, the Firefighters Union has already decided to withhold funding from the Democrats on the national level. This is a bold step forward that other unions must follow, since labor’s resources are badly needed in other areas.

Unlike the Republicans, the Democrat’s want labor unions to survive, albeit in a state of powerlessness. The Democrats want unions that cannot fight back against the corporate interests who control the Democratic Party, but want unions that exist as campaigning machines for Democratic politicians.

The Republicans, on the other hand, have rarely had the unions actively campaign for them, and thus have a one-sided hatred against labor for lowering corporate profits through higher union wages and benefits. The Democrats want the type of unions that exists in China and other countries, where the union officialdom is completely incorporated into the government apparatus, having no independent voice and thus little ability to improve the lives of working people.

Against the notion of labor unions being attached to the existing political parties, Richard Trumka said:

“We have listened hard, and what workers want is an independent labor movement that builds the power of working people — in the workplace and in political life.”

But talk is cheap. Words must be backed by action; threats of flexing labor’s muscle must be transformed into actually fighting back. Detaching labor from the Democrats would be a crucial step for unions, since the money could be invested in organizing new members and launching fight-back campaigns on the state and national level, which includes mobilizing union members and labor’s allies for massive nationwide demonstrations to demand: No Cuts! No Concessions! Defend and improve Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid! In addition, union money can be used to build up strike fund reserves for the inevitable contract battles that lie ahead. Ultimately, labor unions should use their funds to run politically independent labor candidates from within the ranks of the labor movement.

Unions must also demand that state pension systems be bailed out by hefty taxes on Wall Street, since many states invested their pension savings in Wall Street banks whose fraudulent behavior destroyed these savings: Wall Street was bailed out and many pension systems remain in ruins. Likewise the state budget crises are due to the recession caused by Wall Street’s criminality. The criminals must pay! In addition, a new federal stimulus must be demanded that bails out the states and cities, while increasing taxes on Wall Street and the richest 1 percent to pre-Reagan levels, creating enough funds to pay for a massive national jobs program that would put the millions of unemployed back to work.

http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2011/05/16/whos-best-at-cutting-state-spending-14

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/20/richard-trumka-democrats_n_864518.html?ref=fb&src=sp

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/27/us/politics/27firefighters.html

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