Most Threatening Internal American Issue Since Slavery

In the past week, since the Supreme Court upheld a key component of Arizona’s anti-illegal immigration law S.B. 1070, millions of illegal alien migrants spoke defiantly against the law and grew more vociferous in their collective voice to break the law.

Over eight million of them work full time jobs in our communities across the nation.  Over 20 million of them reside in our country in violation of our laws.  They siphon our medical, educational, welfare and prison systems out of multiple billions of dollars.

They benefit only rich corporations that hire those illegals, yet the average American taxpayer subsidizes illegals’ presence in this country.  The rich benefit while citizens pay their bills.  The U.S. Chamber of Commerce supports illegals and presses for an endless stream of them.  Notice that stream continues year in and year out for the past 30 years.

Nothing has stopped it.  Not our 14 million unemployed nor our seven million underemployed! Not our devastated educational systems faltering beyond repair in California and everywhere illegal alien children collect.

The U.S. Congress continues to kick the can down the road.  Speaker of the House John Boehner nullifies, at every juncture, any attempt to pass E-Verify to force employers to check immigration status.  The House and Senate continue to pump no less than 100,000 legal green card holding foreign workers into this country every 30 days, 12 months of the year.  Corporations force additional H-2B Silicon Valley visas to insource jobs away from millions of Americans.  Farmers and ranchers cheat the H-2A visas that would give them unlimited legal farm labor in favor of illegal alien labor—but cheaper and off the books.  Finally, the past five presidents failed to enforce our immigration employment laws at every intersection.

It’s as if, our presidents and Congress want to take this country down to its knees.  No amount of logic, no amount of suffering by our middle class, no amount of poverty will make our leaders stop this massive illegality thriving within our country.

Result: we are losing our national identity.  Last week, Muslims in Detroit stoned peaceful marching Christians and the police arrested the Christians rather than go after the Muslims who were clearly breaking the law.  Mexicans continue their takeover of  Los Angeles, Chicago and other major cities by displacing our language and customs in our own country. Arabic grows in its majority language status in Detroit and even in Washington DC from influx of Middle Eastern immigrants that refuse to meld into the American mosaic.

Legal and illegal immigration constitute the greatest internal issue of our country since slavery at the signing of the U.S. Constitution.

I talked with Bromwell Ault, director of the www.centerforpublicconscience.org  in West Palm Springs, Florida.  He writes and publishes the “Matters of Conscience” quarterly.

He addressed Florida’s rampant illegal immigration problem with his local paper.

“Your recent coverage of this topic, like most others, fails to adequately inform the reader of the importance of this issue,” Ault said.  “Which could well turn out to be the most threatening internal issue we have faced since slavery.
“Although there are multiple similarities between them, far too many Americans view immigration as a question that should and will be solved by Congress. They are dead right about “should” and tragically wrong about “will”, as every congress and president since the Reagan amnesty of 1986 has “kicked the can down the road” by refusing to enforce existing law. This is a deeply flawed choice that destroys the balance between our three branches of government that is spelled out and required by our Constitution.
“Immigration, like slavery, is not just one issue. Both raise serious constitutional, economic, political and social questions which, of course, our political representatives are unwilling to address because it is impossible to discuss immigration sensibly and openly without causing offense or creating opposition to one or more constituencies. As votes are easily lost by having firm opinions, the tactic of choice is to speak as generally as possible and to defer any real action.
“This is not new. Our founding fathers and their successors dodged the slavery bullet for seventy years during which time the money and power that surrounded the issue grew ever larger until it was no longer possible to be contained. We are engaged in the same process today with immigration with the exception that the numbers today (i.e., population, money, votes, taxpayer funding, etc.) are exponentially larger than they were 150 years ago.
“The American voter deserves a better presentation of our growing immigration crisis than has so far been made available from government, the main stream media, both major political parties and our educational and religious institutions.”

Ironically, Obama enhances and supports illegal migration.  Congress does everything to continue it.  No matter how bad it gets for Americans, their own leaders will continue import 100,000 legal immigrants every 30 days until our national identity, language, educational systems cannot and will not remain American.

Worse, the American people sit, stand, grow fat and lethargic year after year as their national identity morphs into multiple countries and languages.

Time For The Second American Revolution

For well over the last decade BATR has argued that the Republic is dead. Now that the Supreme Court has rendered their decision on Obamacare, there can be no doubt that the funeral for a nation, born out of a revolution for liberty, is over. The country, buried in the ashes of totalitarian despotism, is now history.

The plurality of citizens naively accepts that the national government has legitimacy. Such a claim is erroneous. What more proof does one need that slavery is the official status for the American public. The implication of affirming the health insurance mandate sets the precedent for and escalates an unlimited federal tyranny.

The twisted interpretation that a forced and binding purchase of medical coverage is justified because the government can tax its citizens is demonic in its inception. Coercion as a mean for compliance is like whipping your indentured servant for the privilege of serving the master.

By opening the flood-gate of unlimited federal taxation authority to compel behavior, guarantees punitive submission for a limitless concoction of social engineering. It is a short leap to require ID chip implants and compulsory designated conduct.

The hijacking of health care by a mandatory federal oppression pushes citizens to renounce their fidelity to a constitutional framework, already abandoned by the political power elite. Constrains and separation of the “Federalism” system of shared authority, is now eliminated. The central government is all-supreme in the gulag version of benevolent dependency.

The Supreme Court is a pitiful tool of the executive autocrat that wheels administrative regulation like a crazed beast. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. is a disgrace. Whether his decision reflects intimidation or legacy hubris, the net effect is that he shoveled dirt on the tombstone of the constitution.

The seemingly limit on the commerce clause is circumvented by validating that taxing obligated conduct is legal. This extreme viewpoint condones any dictate by government fiat that Congress conspires to force people to obey. Such a conclusion abdicates the essence of constitutional protections.

Natural law is not arbitrary and subject to the whims of radical statists. Ignoring fundamental human rights is the definitive abuse against humanity. The federal government is making the nanny state into a chamber of horror.

Immutable principles that protect individuals from compulsory demands that violate free choice always are reprehensible. However, the latest rebuke to the sovereign dignity of citizens – poisons the water for any thirsty seeker of liberty and justice.

The consequences of the added financial costs from the Obamacare administration are frightening. The devil is in the details, never was more appropriate. Driving the economy off a cliff is a designed strategy of the collectivist criminals. The unholy alliance of big pharma, health insurance corporatists and dedicated Marxists want the public to be docile serfs in a land of slaves.

Add this dire result of the horrendous increase in taxes from the “Taxmageddon” catastrophe come the end of this year and you have a meltdown formula for a second depression. The Tea Party advocates are correct, “Taxed Enough Already” gains new meaning with the legalization of Obamacare.

Conversely, how can the legislation be legal when a Supreme Court that is determined to worship at the altar of an absolute tyranny violates the rule of law itself?

Incrementalism is the gradual assimilation of society into a different matrix of acceptability. This judicial tragedy is a rapid surge to the system. The body politic is under assault by a deadly virus of biblical dimensions. The core reasons for the War of American Independence seem trite when compared to the level of perdition experienced under the succession of recent presidents.

The bipartisan despotism of both Bush presidents, Clinton and now Obama only accelerate acquiescence to a virtual dictatorship. In order to understand the nature of the dilemma, appreciate the message in The Meaning of Independence Day.

The justification for a Second American Revolution should be self-evident. However, there are few real Americans left, who comprehend the unique heritage of this nation. A spontaneous uprising to overthrow the political outlaws is unlikely. With that admission, the moral imperative still requires a personal commitment to oppose the corrupt regime that proceeds in enslaving society.

The tipping point is upon us. The chains you wear are shackles you lock each day; you observe, obey or consent to unlawful government. You have the power to refuse compliance. Confront the consequences or suffer the indignation of a life of servitude.

Celebrate this July 4th with a renewed dedication that the future of American lies in the moral authority of civil disobedience.

13 Reasons Why The Revolution Might Start With Obamacare.

Has any of the Supreme Court Justices read the Constitution lately? I can say five of the justices will have to be held accountable for how they ruled. There is no reason why Obama care should be ruled Constitutional. Many Americans read the Constitution and know with no doubt what is said in simple terms. The Constitution was meant to be understood by the common person. It is not complicated to understand. It does not take a Harvard Law Degree to understand with clarity what the Constitution says about Obamacare. Only lawyers can screw it up with their own twisted thinking and word manipulation to stretch the meaning beyond the intent..Does anyone think the American people will let the US Supreme Court be the final word on a flawed ruling? Let the public backlash begin, the American people by an overwhelming majority will rule Obamacare unconstitutional by non compliance in mass.

I will tell you why Obamacare is unconstitutional, I do not have a law degree, I did not attend collage. I am just a high school graduate. Even a 5 year old child being home schooled can say why the Affordable Heath care act is unconstitutional. Here is why it is unconstitutional applying my knowledge of history, reading the Constitution:

1. The Obamacare individual Mandate is a direct Tax which is unconstitutional under Article 1 section 9:

No Capitation, or other direct, Tax shall be laid, unless in Proportion to the Census or Enumeration herein before directed to be taken.

2. It violates State’s right since the Federal Government does not have the Constitutional Authority to take over Healthcare as stated in the 10th Amendment outlined in the Bill of Rights.

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

3. This mandate is involuntary servitude or slavery to the big banks and the insurance industries. The 13 amendment states:

Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

4. It benefits certain industries in a crony capitalist or a monopoly system is illegal in the Constitution under Article 1 section 8:

No Preference shall be given by any Regulation of Commerce or Revenue to the Ports of one State over those of another; nor shall Vessels bound to, or from, one State, be obliged to enter, clear, or pay Duties in another.

5. Justice Kagan is not supposed to hear this case because of conflict of interest. The reason is; she was part of drafting and passing the Affordable Healthcare Act. I would recommend many state Attorney Generals invalidate the ruling from the High Court on the bases Justice Kagan did not recuse herself as the law prescribed.

6. The American people overwhelmingly reject the Government taking over the Healthcare industry.

7. This July 4. We celebrate Independence Day breaking all political ties with the King of England because of taxes and government oppressing the colonist as written in the Declaration of Independence stating:

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

Get ready for IRS agents to come and collect unjust taxes trying to force us to pay for something we do not want.

8. The Individual Mandate is a tax imposed on us, just as the early colonist said in their grievance against the King Stated again in the Declaration of Independence.

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent.

We went from no taxation without representation to TAXATION WITHOUT HESITATION 235 years later

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Obamacare was rammed down our throats without our consent.

9. Remember the Whiskey and Shays rebellions. The people will resist and revolt than pay for a tax they never consented to nor are not legally bound under the Constitution. The people back in our early history were the final check on government power.

10. the American people will be the final check on government power as stated again in the famous document signed by 56 people on July 4, 1776:

That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

11. States can ignore the supreme court ruling under this landmark decision Prinz Mack vs. Brady Bill victory for the 10th Amendment with Justice Scalia giving the majority opinion writing saying the several states “are not subject to federal direction” reinforcing the Federalist papers quote:

” The great innovation of this design was that-our citizens would have two political capacities, one state and one federal, each protected from incursion by the other”

With another Federalist quote:

” Just as the separation and independence of the coordinate branches of the Federal Government serve to prevent the accumulation of excessive power in any one branch, a healthy balance of power between the States and the Federal Government will reduce the risk of tyranny and abuse from either front”

12. States will reject implementing Obamacare for the reason, it cost too much. It will wreck the economies already on the brink in many states hit hard by the economic depression. It will increase the number of people out of work. Many states will balk,

13. This ruling will also give fuel to people running for state legislators. The people will demand the states to nullify Obamacare with other draconian illegal Federal incursions like the TSA with more intensity.

This ruling might be the spark America needs to find within themselves to take their country back from socialist control freaks. Firearms sales are rising to record levels. The reason is the people see the government as a threat to their safety and security. They do not see the phony enemy of radical Islam as a threat it was years ago. Al Quada is not groping people at the airport and forcing us to pay for health insurance. It is our own government.

This ruling might be a blessing in disguise that could be the best thing to happen for America. This is a good reason more then ever to push back government inside the confines of the Constitution. Are you motivated to take back America? Just face facts, we can no longer sit on the sidelines being a spectator. We have no choice but to push back or we will be slaves. I am no slave, are you?

Source: The Lone Star Watchdog

The Allegory of the Optimist and the Realist: A Cautionary Tale

Imagine entering a room in which the electrical wiring is defective. You turn the switch on. Nothing happens. Someone replaces the bulb but the room remains dark. The circuit breaker is deemed operational. Most people, after a few attempts at flipping the switch, come to the realization that the circuit is broken. They accurately conclude that the light is not going to come on. This is a rational and intelligent response to the reality of the situation; one that weds cause and effect to results.

A few of the people in the room, however, have resolute faith in the defective circuit. They are confident that the light will eventually come on. Among them, the belief persists that if one continues to flip the switch enough times, eventually it will start working. Convinced that the problem is a defective bulb, they replace one light bulb with another every few minutes. As with political elections, one dim bulb follows another into the socket. Case after case of new bulbs is exhausted. And yet, despite the best of intentions of the optimists, the room remains as dark as a sarcophagus.

Suffering from cognitive dissonance, the eternal optimist, like Joe Hill’s fictitious character Mr. Block, ignores the fact that the wiring is broken and the circuit can never be operational without a major overhaul, regardless of how many times the switch is turned on. They contend that changing the bulb is easier and safer than rewiring the circuit. The optimists insist that when the right bulb is found light will dispel darkness and everything will become clear. This is what they have always done. It has never worked.

Nevertheless, despite decades of contrary results, the positivity and faith of the optimists cannot be blunted. In darkness, they busy themselves trying the switch again and again. Ignoring the enduring darkness, some outsiders admire the optimist’s diligence and determination. Light, they insist, like change one can believe in, is a matter of faith.

Others, seeing the absurdity of these actions, scoff at the optimist’s foolishness. Having forged a Faustian alliance with the building’s landlords, the corporate media lauds the optimist’s determination as a civic duty that is bound to bring enlightenment, if only they will persist indefinitely in their endeavor. Both the realists and the optimists want to shine light into the darkness; however, there is fierce disagreement about their methodology. Like the reformer and the revolutionary, their differences are irreconcilable.

Eventually an exulted priest, Reverend Friedman, is consulted, who advises everyone to ignore the darkness and to obey the proprietors of the building. “There will be light for everyone in the afterlife,” he advises the crowd. “One must have faith in the system and the people it attracts to serve. Do not be deceived by the lack of results in the present. God will see that we are not wanting when we are dead. The free market, the divine oracle of capitalism, will provide a solution to all of our problems.” The good Reverend admonishes the realists for their lack of faith and departs for the Big Top, where barkers are attracting a crowd and organ grinders ply their trade.

The darkened house sits on the corner of Egalitarian Avenue and Democracy Boulevard in a town called Plutocratville. Thievery Corporation and Fascism Incorporated, now headquartered in Capitalist China, were once the primary businesses.

The landlords of the house, The Big “O” and Capito, propose to keep the occupants in the dark, where they conspire to do their work, each deflecting criticism from the other. The landlords cynically use the optimist’s faith and their naiveté to keep them from making the circuit function as intended by its designers. Among historians, there is intense debate about what their real intentions were.

Darkness prevents some of the tenants from seeing the dilapidated condition of the house as it falls down around them. This permits the unscrupulous landlords to continue collecting rent while covertly looting the building of its contents, including its copper wiring. The optimist’s preoccupation with the switch and their unstinting faith prevents them from noticing the pilferage.

Meanwhile, the optimists have become contemptuous of the realists, who have abandoned the switch and propose to bring in an electrician to replace the defective wiring with a functioning circuit. They label the realists as doomsayers, pessimists, negativists, and conspiracy theorists. Invoking the language of fear, the most optimistic believers refer to the realists as socialists, communists, or Marxists. From the optimist’s perspective, the problem is not the broken circuit; it is lack of faith in the system on the part of the realists.

Beset with delusion, the most extreme optimists have convinced themselves that the light is actually shining by refusing to acknowledge the darkness around them. They create inspirational euphemisms that substitutes light for dark and dark for light. Thus, hate becomes love and war, peace. The euphoric optimists are delighted by the system; however, they falsely perceive themselves as enlightened. Reality and powerlessness terrifies them, so they retreat into catacombs of fantasy. Their time-worn strategies are predicated upon false premises.

Equipped with only vestigial eyes and terrified about the implications of existing in utter darkness, the optimists refuse to adopt the more revolutionary strategy of the realists as too radical and too dangerous. They contend that the people are not ready for directly confronting the underlying causes of the failed circuitry.

Much like reformers during America’s era of chattel slavery, the optimists reason that directly confronting cause and effect must be postponed until after the November elections and the mid-terms thereafter. The reformers hypothesize that The Big “O” and Capito must be reelected to a second term as landlords of the tenement, when they will reveal their humanitarian intentions and make things right.

To accept the darkness as the absence of light would be so psychologically disorienting that it would cause the optimist’s mental circuits to shut down, much like the events of 9-11 has suspended critical thinking and scientific analysis in the USA. Karl Marx called this state of mind false consciousness.

Although fictionalized, the Allegory of the Optimist and the Realist raises important questions about human nature, irrational faith in dysfunctional systems of power, and reality. For instance, if one continually confounds false consciousness for true consciousness and illusion for reality, how can one make progress?

One must begin by acknowledging reality and accepting it for what it is, regardless of how painful or undesirable its truth. Faith does not always serve human need; it often undermines progress and promotes oppression of the working class, despite its occasional good intentions. Broken systems of power do not promote justice.

Ultimately, we can only begin our respective journeys to true consciousness and thus revolution from wherever are. But we must have the courage to acknowledge where that is. False hope and wishful thinking can prevent us from doing what must be done. It can perpetuate the very inequality we are trying to eradicate. Reality, no matter how disturbing, provides a solid base from which to move forward. Take it for what it is.

14 Signposts To Slavery

In 1972 a wonderful little book was published. It arrived with little fanfare yet somehow it has managed to survive for 25 years. Most people have never read it. These are the same people who today are asking questions about what went wrong with America. These are the same people who today find that their plans for the future, no matter how hard they have worked to make those plans a reality, have vanished into thin air. These are the same people who are working 3 jobs to keep what one job secured for them 20 years ago…….These people are you and I, the working middle class, the “We the People.”

The book is titled None Dare Call It Conspiracy, and was authored by Gary Allen with Larry Abraham. It was considered very controversial 23 years ago. In retrospect it appears to have been a blueprint for the future of America. That America is perhaps where we are all living today.

If you doubt the possibility of a conspiracy to bring America to it’s knees and perhaps install a totalitarian dictatorship through the conversion of our republic into a democracy you need only look to the changes in our laws. Gary Allen provided his readers with fourteen signposts on the road to totalitarianism. They were compiled by Dr. Warren Carroll, and Mike Djordjevich, a refugee from Yugoslavian communism. The list is in no particular order. However, nothing on the list existed in American law at the time the list was compiled.

Read it now, experience it for yourself. Any one of the listed items would be a clear warning that the totalitarian state is very near, and a significant number of perhaps five or more could possibly suggest that the freedom we have once enjoyed and the preservation of our Great Republic has been lost.

14 SIGNPOSTS TO SLAVERY

1. Restrictions on taking money out of the country and on the establishment or retention of a foreign bank account by an American citizen.

2. Abolition of private ownership of hand guns.

3. Detention of individuals without judicial process.

4. Requirements that private financial transactions be keyed to social security numbers or other government identification so that government records of these transactions can be fed into a computer.

5. Use of compulsory education laws to forbid attendance at presently existing private schools.

6. Compulsory non-military service.

7. Compulsory psychological treatment for non-government workers or public school children.

8. An official declaration that anti-communist (Patriot) organizations are subversive and subsequent legal action taken to suppress them.

9. Laws limiting the number of people allowed to meet in a private home.

10. Any significant change in passport regulations to make passports more difficult to obtain.

11. Wage and price controls, especially in a non-wartime situation.

12. Any kind of compulsory registration with the government of where individuals work.

13. Any attempt to restrict freedom of movement within the United States.

14. Any attempt to make a new major law by executive decree (that is, actually put into effect, not merely authorized as by existing executive orders.)

President Nixon invoked numbers 1, 11 and 14. As of January 1,1972, banks must report to the government any deposit or withdrawal over $5,000. That number has since been reduced to $3,000. Any purchase over $10,000 made in cash must also be reported to the federal government. Clinton has done the same via Executive Orders.

Courts have in some instances ordered individuals without bank accounts to open one under threat of incarceration through charges of Civil contempt.

Source: Lew Rockwell

Economic Alert: If You’re Not Worried Yet…You Should Be

For the past four years I have been covering the progression of the global economic crisis with an emphasis on the debilitating effects it has had on the American financial system.  Only once before have I ever issued an economic alert, and this was at the onset of the very first credit downgrade in U.S. history by S&P.  I do not take the word “alert” lightly.  Since 2008 we have seen a cycle of events that have severely weakened our country’s foundation, but each event has then been followed by a lull, sometimes 4 to 6 months at a stretch, which seems to disarm the public, drawing them back into apathy and complacency.  The calm moments before each passing storm give Americans a false sense of hope that our capsized fiscal vessel will somehow right itself if we just hold on a little longer…

I don’t have to tell most people within the Liberty Movement that this is not going to happen.  Unfortunately, there are many out there who do not share our awareness of the situation.   Debt implosions and currency devaluation NEVER simply “fade away”; they are always followed by extreme social and political strife that tends to sully the doorsteps of almost every individual and family.  The notion that we can coast through such a tempest unscathed is an insane idea, filled with a dangerous potential for sour regrets.

There are some people who also believe that the private Federal Reserve with the Treasury in tow has the ability to prolong the worst symptoms of the collapse indefinitely, or at least, until they have long since kicked the bucket and don’t have to worry about it anymore (the ‘pay-it forward to our grandkids’ crowd) .  I can say with 100% certainty that most of us will live to see the climax of the breakdown, and that this breakdown is about to enter a more precarious state before the end of this year.  You can only stretch a sun-boiled rubber band so far before it snaps completely, and America’s financial elasticity has long been melted away.

A pummeling hailstorm of news items and international developments have made the first half of 2012 almost impossible to track and analyze.  The frequency at which negative information has surfaced is almost dizzying.  However, a pattern and a recognizable motion are beginning to take shape, and, I believe, a loose timeline is beginning to form.

At the end of January, I covered the incredible nosedive of the Baltic Dry Index (a measure of global shipping rates that signals a fall in global demand) to historic lows.  I pointed out the tendency of stocks and the general economy to crash around 8 months (sometimes a little longer) after the BDI makes such a dramatic downturn.  Mainstream analysts, of course, attributed the fall to an “overproduction of ships”, which is the same exact excuse they used when the BDI collapsed back in 2008 just before the derivatives bubble burst.  It would seem that the cable TV talking heads were wrong yet again, as the international market facade quickly evaporates right in line with the BDI’s almost prophetic knack for calling an economic derailment in advance.

Here are some of the most important reasons why every American should be prepared for much harder days, especially before the end of 2012:

The European Union Is Officially Dead In The Water

Stick a fork in er’, the EU is done!  We are talking about full scale dismantlement, likely followed by a reformation of core nations and multiple collapse scenarios of peripheral countries.  The writing is all over the wall in the wake of the latest election results in Greece and France, where, as alternative researchers have been predicting for some time, the battle between the government spending crowd and proponents of austerity has reached a fever pitch.

The Greeks and the French are royally pissed over draconian cuts in public programs and the destruction of pensions which have been a mainstay of their economies for quite some time.  They are also furious over being sold off like collateral to the IMF and World Bank.  Rightly so.  Like the American taxpayer, the taxpayers of floundering EU nations are wrongly being held responsible for the financial mismanagement and fraud of their governments and global banks which have remained untouched and unpunished for their trespasses.  The problem is, the voters of both countries are signing on to the socialist/quasi-communist bandwagon in response.  In Greece, the Left Coalition Party, a splinter group of the traditional communist party, has now taken a primary position of power:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/05/07/us-greece-idUSBRE8440DG20120507

In France, voters have elected socialist Francois Hollande (a Bilderberg attendee), whose latest promise is to spend France into recovery through his “pro-growth agenda”:

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/french-president-elect-hollande-won-t-difficult-obama-195617064.html

I have no doubt that the elections of the EU are as manipulated by elitists as they are here in the U.S., and I’m sure false paradigms abound.  Have Europeans forgotten that it was overt government spending that set them on the path to calamity in the first place?  Or, are they like Americans; just desperate for any change in the ranks of leadership?  One would think that they would take note of the problems here in our country and realize that electing a socialist to replace another socialist is no way out of economic hardship.

Former officials like Nicolas Sarkozy may have claimed to be distanced from the socialist ideal, but, as with all globalist puppets, their actions did not match their rhetoric, and they have always supported policies of centralization and big government.  The French and the Greeks have essentially replaced closet collectivists with outspoken collectivists, and will see NO relief from the crisis in the Euro-zone as a result of the political reordering.  In fact, the stage has now been set for a volatile chain of dominos.  Germany, which is the only economy left holding the EU together, has been unyielding on austerity cuts.  A conflict between France and Germany is now inevitable.  Neither will compromise their position, and I can see no other eventual result than a reexamination and perhaps abandonment of the EU charter.

How does this affect America?  Being that international banks and corporations have forced our countries into interdependency through the engineered chicanery of globalization, any collapse in Europe is going to strike hard around the world, but the worst will hit the U.S. and China.  Which is probably why China is disengaging trade away from the U.S. and the EU and focusing on other developing nations:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/05/08/us-china-economy-trade-idUSBRE84702N20120508

If you thought the Greek rollercoaster was a pain in the neck for investment markets, just wait until the whole of the EU is in a shambles!

Spain is next in line, with a 25% official unemployment rate and a massive black market economy forming.  As I have been saying for years now, when governments disrupt the financial survival of the people, they WILL form their own alternatives, including black markets and barter markets.  It is about survival.  The Spanish government does not care much for these alternatives, though, and has now banned cash transaction over 2500 euros in a futile attempt to squeeze taxes out of the populace through digitally tracked payment methods:

http://thedailybell.com/3814/Spain-Bans-Cash

Another major concern for Americans is the fact that Europeans are inching towards an abandonment of the dollar.  Francois Hollande has openly called for an end to the dollar’s world reserve status, and with a majority backing of the French people, he could easily make this happen, at least where France is concerned.  All it takes is for a few key countries to publically and completely drop the Greenback and the dollar’s reputation as a safe haven investment will be quashed.  This could very well happen before 2012 is over.

QE3 Is The End

Here is the bottom line; U.S. growth is a theater of shadows.  There has been no progress, no recovery, only the misrepresentation of statistics.  Millions of Americans have fallen off unemployment rolls because they have been jobless for too long, which lowers the unemployment rate, but does not change the fact that they are still without work.  Durable goods orders are dropping like an avalanche.  U.S. credit has been lowered yet again by rating agency Egan-Jones.  With China making bilateral trade deals in numerous countries on the condition that the dollar be dropped as the primary purchasing mechanism, and with the EU turning to economic mulch, the currency’s safety is nonexistent.  Traditional investors who cling to the idea that a falling Euro spells dollar strength will be sorely disappointed when the currency is suddenly being rejected in international currency markets.

The Federal Reserve has already stated that any signs of “relapse” into recession (the recession that we never left) will be met with all options on the table, including QE3:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/04/12/us-usa-fed-idUSBRE83B1KD20120412

I believe that QE3 will probably be announced this year (due in large part to trauma from Europe), and, that this will trigger a mass movement by foreign nations to drop the dollar as the world reserve.  QE3 will be the straw that broke the camel.  How exactly this will play out socially and politically, I do not know (I could take a good guess though).  But, the technical results are predictable.  The Fed will respond to the lack of treasury purchases by ramping up fiat printing in order to cover the ever increasing costs of the government machine.  The Greenback will immediately lose a large portion of its value, at least in terms of imported goods, causing inflation in prices.  Oil and energy prices will skyrocket if OPEC follows suit (which they will, though the Saudis may still honor dollars for a time).  Doing any traditional business will become nearly impossible, and price inflation will dominate the lives and the minds of average unprepared citizens.

The amount of time that it will take for these difficulties to unfold is also not clear.  We are operating in uncharted territory, and dealing with a collapse scenario on a truly planetary scale.  My best advice is to assume that the avalanche will move fast.

While markets in our country have seen only mild disruptions so far this year, their solidity is predicated on a host of props and costume pieces, any one of which could pull the rug out from under America’s suspension of disbelief if it strays but a little from the illusion.  As long as the dollar holds, stocks can be infused with bailout juice through major banks.  So can major companies and even desperate state governments on the verge of bankruptcy.  The Dow will remain relatively friendly, and day traders and the public will remain happy.  As soon as the dollar comes into question, all bets are off…

Does This Mean Doom, Or Just Another Bad Day?

The real beginning of today’s collapse is tied to the events of 2008.  The pace of it has been deceptive, but also, in a way, it is a gift.  Over the past four years, I have personally seen the awakening of thousands of people that may have never had the chance if the system had gone into full spectrum breakdown right away.  The question now is, how much longer can the U.S. wobble along on one wheel?  In my view, and from the evidence I see in markets at the moment, not much longer.

It is hard to set aside any expectations that the next leg down will be easy to digest for the populace.  The reality of our predicament is starting to hit home.  All the tax return checks have been spent.  The credit cards have been maxed.  The new cars have been sold off and traded in for ghetto-mobiles.  The good jobs have been replaced with Taco Bell slavery.  A trip to see The Avengers is now the family vacation.  And, the distractions of reality TV just aren’t buttering our bread anymore.  It’s the little things at first that really signal the financial mood of a society, as well as reveal the more vital and looming issues just over the horizon.

All indicators suggest that this year will be unlike any other before.  In 2008, we saw the first trigger events for the collapse.  In 2008/2009, we saw the creation of the bailout culture, setting the stage for inflation and dollar disintegration.  In 2010, we saw the first bilateral trade deal cutting out the dollar between China and Russia, which is now the template for trade deals all over the globe.  In 2011, we saw the first downgrade of the U.S. credit rating and the crisis in the EU become epidemic.  In 2012, I see not just another difficulty to add to the mountain, but a culmination of all these detriments to produce something entirely new; a vast and subversive realignment forcing many of us to take a more aggressive stance in the fight for an economically and socially free America.

Financial disasters have always been a convenient catalyst for a host of even more frightening obstacles, including civil unrest, and blatant totalitarianism.  This is the cusp.  It is one of those moments that people of later generations read about in awe, and sometimes horror.  The “doom” is not in the event, but in the response.  What we make of the days approaching determines the darkness that they cast upon the future.  It is a test.  It is not something to be dreaded.  It is something to be seized upon, and dealt with, as great men and women before us have done.  At the very least, we know that it is coming.  That, in itself, could well seal our success…

Source: Brandon Smith | Alt-Market

5 New Lies That The Federal Reserve Is Telling The American People

The Federal Reserve says that everything is going to be okay.  The Fed says that unemployment is going to go down, inflation is going to remain low and economic growth is going to steadily increase.  Do you believe them this time?  As you will see later in this article, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke has been dead wrong about the economy over and over again.  But the mainstream media and many Americans still seem to have a lot of faith in the Federal Reserve.  It doesn’t seem to matter that Bernanke and other Fed officials have been telling the American people lies for years.  As I always say, most people believe what they want to believe, and many people seem to want to have blind faith in the Federal Reserve even when logic and reason would dictate otherwise.  The truth is that things are not going to be getting much better than they are right now.  When the next wave of the financial crisis hits, the U.S. economy is going to fall back into recession, financial markets are going to crash and unemployment is going to absolutely skyrocket.  But you will never hear any of that from the Federal Reserve.

The following are 5 new lies that the Federal Reserve is telling the American people.  After each lie I have posted what The Economic Collapse Blog thinks is actually going to happen….

#1 The Federal Reserve says that the labor market has improved and that unemployment is going to decline significantly over the next few years.

The following is a quote from the FOMC press release that was released on Wednesday….

Labor market conditions have improved in recent months; the unemployment rate has declined but remains elevated.

The Federal Reserve is projecting that the unemployment rate will fall within the range of 7.8 percent and 8.0 percent by the end of 2012.

The Federal Reserve is also projecting that the unemployment rate will fall within the range of 6.7 percent and 7.4 percent by the end of 2014.

The Economic Collapse Blog says that the labor market has not improved.  In March 2010, 58.5 percent of all working age Americans had a job.  Exactly two years later in March 2012, 58.5 percent of all working age Americans had a job.  If the labor market was improving, the percentage of working age Americans with a job should have gone up.

The Economic Collapse Blog also says that while there is a chance the official unemployment rate may go down slightly in the short-term, the truth is that it is going to go up into double digits once the next wave of the financial crisis hits us.

#2 The Federal Reserve says that that U.S. economy is going to experience solid GDP growth over the next couple of years.

In fact, the Federal Reserve is projecting that U.S. GDP will be rising at an annual rate that falls between 3.1 percent and 3.6 percent by the end of 2014.

The Economic Collapse Blog says that a great economic cataclysm is coming….

“When the European banking system crashes (and it will) it is going to reverberate around the globe.  The epicenter of the next great financial crisis is going to be in Europe, and it is getting closer with each passing day.”

#3 The Federal Reserve says that we can expect low inflation for an extended period of time.

The Federal Reserve is officially projecting that the annual rate of inflation will not be higher than 2.0 percent by the end of 2012.  Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke reinforced this projection during his press conference on Wednesday….

“But we expect that to pass through the system, and assuming no new shocks in the oil sector, inflation ought to moderate to about 2 percent later this year.”

The Economic Collapse Blog says that the Fed is being tremendously dishonest and that if inflation was measured the exact same way that it was measured back in 1980, the annual rate of inflation would be more than 10 percent right now.

The truth is that most middle class families know that we do not have low inflation right now.  This is hammered home millions of times a day when average Americans visit the gas station or the grocery store.

At the beginning of the next recession inflation will likely subside, but that will only be because economic activity will be slowing down dramatically.

#4 The Federal Reserve says that it has built up a 30 year reputation for keeping inflation low.

Ben Bernanke actually had the gall to make the following claim during his press conference on Wednesday….

“We, the Federal Reserve, have spent 30 years building up credibility for low and stable inflation, which has proved extremely valuable in that we’ve been able to take strong accommodative actions in the last four, five years to support the economy.”

Oh really?

The Economic Collapse Blog says that the Federal Reserve has nearly a 100 year reputation for destroying the value of the U.S. dollar.  Even using the Fed’s doctored numbers, the value of the U.S. dollar has declined by more than 95 percent since 1913.

To get a really good idea of just how much the dollar has been destroyed by the Fed over the years, just check out this chart.

#5 Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke says that we should trust him because the Federal Reserve stands ready to do whatever is necessary to support the U.S. economy.

“If appropriate… we remain entirely prepared to take additional action”

The Economic Collapse Blog says that Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke is doing a great disservice by not warning the American people about the tremendous crisis that is coming.  In a recent article I stated that this next crisis will blindside most Americans just like the last one did….

“Sadly, just like back in 2008, most people will never even see this next crisis coming.”

So who should you trust – the Federal Reserve or all of the half-crazed bloggers out there that are warning about the “serious doom” that is coming.

Well, come back to this article in a year or two and compare how accurate the predictions were.

In the end, time will tell who is telling lies and who is not.

If we do not learn from history, we are doomed to repeat it.

For example, let’s take a quick look at Ben Bernanke’s track record over the past several years.

The following are statements that Bernanke actually made to the public….

#1 (July, 2005) “We’ve never had a decline in house prices on a nationwide basis. So, what I think what is more likely is that house prices will slow, maybe stabilize, might slow consumption spending a bit. I don’t think it’s gonna drive the economy too far from its full employment path, though.”

#2 (October 20, 2005) “House prices have risen by nearly 25 percent over the past two years. Although speculative activity has increased in some areas, at a national level these price increases largely reflect strong economic fundamentals.”

#3 (November 15, 2005) “With respect to their safety, derivatives, for the most part, are traded among very sophisticated financial institutions and individuals who have considerable incentive to understand them and to use them properly.”

#4 (February 15, 2006) “Housing markets are cooling a bit. Our expectation is that the decline in activity or the slowing in activity will be moderate, that house prices will probably continue to rise.”

#5 (February 15, 2007) “Despite the ongoing adjustments in the housing sector, overall economic prospects for households remain good. Household finances appear generally solid, and delinquency rates on most types of consumer loans and residential mortgages remain low.”

#6 (March 28, 2007) “At this juncture, however, the impact on the broader economy and financial markets of the problems in the subprime market seems likely to be contained. In particular, mortgages to prime borrowers and fixed-rate mortgages to all classes of borrowers continue to perform well, with low rates of delinquency.”

#7 (May 17, 2007) “All that said, given the fundamental factors in place that should support the demand for housing, we believe the effect of the troubles in the subprime sector on the broader housing market will likely be limited, and we do not expect significant spillovers from the subprime market to the rest of the economy or to the financial system.  The vast majority of mortgages, including even subprime mortgages, continue to perform well.  Past gains in house prices have left most homeowners with significant amounts of home equity, and growth in jobs and incomes should help keep the financial obligations of most households manageable.”

#8 (January 10, 2008) “The Federal Reserve is not currently forecasting a recession.”

#9 (June 10, 2008) “The risk that the economy has entered a substantial downturn appears to have diminished over the past month or so.”

But don’t worry, Ben Bernanke insists that he knows exactly what is going on this time.

So do you believe him?

A lot of Americans don’t.  In fact, an “economic collapse” is the number one catastrophic event that Americans worry about according to one recent survey.

Perhaps that is one reason why so many Americans are preparing for doomsday these days.

The central planners over at the Federal Reserve are not going to solve our economic problems.

The truth is that the Fed is at the very heart of our economic problems.

We have been living in the greatest debt bubble in the history of the world and that debt bubble has been facilitated by the Fed.

Over the past three decades, the total amount of debt in America has increasedby about 50 trillion dollars.  By stealing from future generations, we have been able to live like kings and queens, but there is going to be a great price to pay for our foolishness.

Ben Bernanke and the other folks running the Federal Reserve are just going to keep insisting that everything is going to be okay for as long as they possibly can.  They are going to tell you that they know exactly how to fix things and that the economy will be back on track very soon.

Don’t be stupid and believe them this time.

Source: The Economic Collapse

Two And Counting? NDAA Nullification Passes In Arizona

PHOENIX (April 24, 2012) – Just a week after the Virginia legislature approved a law to refuse compliance with NDAA“indefinite detentions,” an Arizona law committing the Grand Canyon State to noncompliance with any attempted federal kidnapping under the NDAA now stands just a signature away from implementation.

After months of political wrangling, the Arizona Senate concurred with the House on an amended version of SB1182today, sending the legislation to Governor Jan Brewer’s desk for a signature.

The Senate passed the bill 20-8 with two senators not voting.

SB1182 asserts:

This state and any agency of this state shall not provide material support or participate in any way with the implementation of sections 1021 and 1022 of the national defense authorization act of 2012, Public Law 112‑81, against any citizen of the United States.

The law would also make it a criminal offense for any public officer, employee or agent of the state to make any attempt to assist in federal kidnapping.

The bill faced its share of high hurdles over the past two months, including an attempt to kill it in committee and numerous politically motivated delays in getting it to the full House for a vote. Each time, public pressure kept SB1182 alive.

But one major obstacle remains: Gov. Brewer’s veto pen. The governor recently shot down a sheriffs first bill, and sources in Arizona tell the Tenth Amendment Center she may well veto SB1182. While Brewer talks the talk when it comes to state sovereignty and forged a reputation as tough gal when she wagged her finger in Pres. Obama’s face, her actions don’t always measure up to her image. Brewer remains firmly entrenched in the Arizona Republican establishment, where Sen. John McCain wields tremendous influence in the state party. He will undoubtedly oppose any efforts in his home state to block his pet legislation. Keep in mind, McCain was a chief proponent of the NDAA.

During debate on the Senate floor, Sen. Rand Paul (R. Ky.) asked McCain, “Would it be possible that an American citizen can then be declared an enemy combatant and sent to Guantanamo Bay and detained indefinitely?”

McCain responded, “As long as that individual, no matter who they are, poses a threat to the security of the United States of America, should not be allowed to continue that threat.”

This bill certainly counts as the most important legislation to cross Gov. Brewer’s desk this year – perhaps ever. We cannot allow the federal government to possess the power to drag people off and hold them until the end of an endless war without basic due process. In the 1850s, northern states passed liberty laws protecting the rights of blacks accused of running away from slavery. These laws rendered the draconian and unconstitutional fugitive slave acts difficult, if not impossible, to enforce. Today, Arizona lawmakers stood shoulder to shoulder with those men and women who stood up for the liberty of black Americans more than 150 years ago.

We cannot leave the final step for this bill to chance. Without strong, vigorous, emphatic public pressure, Brewer will almost certainly veto this bill.

Don’t let that happen!

ACTION ITEM FOR ARIZONA

If you live in Arizona, contact Gov. Brewer now. Politely, but firmly, ask her to sign SB1182. Remind her that she has a duty to protect and defend the Constitution and an obligation to the people of Arizona. Tell her that the language in sections 1021 and 1022 of the NDAA is too vague and undefined to leave to chance. The federal government simply cannot be allowed to possess even a hint of such power.

You can find contact information for the governor’s office HERE.

ACTION ITEMS FOR THE REST OF THE COUNTRY

If you do not live in Arizona, you should still contact Brewer and tell her the rest of the country is watching. Arizona has the opportunity to step up as a leader in protecting the most basic freedom and liberties that we cherish as Americans.

If your state, county or city has not taken steps to stop kidnapping under the NDAA, you can find model Liberty Preservation Act legislation that you can propose to your local politicians HERE.

To track NDAA nullification legislation across the U.S., click HERE.

Michael Maharrey [send him email] is the Communications Director for the Tenth Amendment Center. He proudly resides in the original home of the Principles of ’98 – Kentucky. See his blog archive here and his article archive here. He also maintains the blog, Tenther Gleanings.

Source: Tenth Amendment Center

Has America Been Crippled By Intellectual Idiots?

As far back as I can remember, the overarching message of the American social atmosphere has been one of idolization.  Oh to one day join the ranks of the “professional class”; that 5% to 10% of our culture which enjoys unparalleled respect and an assumed position of knowledge, so much so that they are rarely even required to qualify themselves to anyone besides their own compatriots.  The goal of every person I knew during my formative years with a desire to succeed was to one day hold in their hands an official looking embossed document announcing their ascension to the ranks of the intellectually anointed.  I was never so keen on the idea…

The dangers of academic deification are numerous.  Those who dominate the educational language of the times determine the moral compass (or lack of compass) of the curriculum.  They control who is accepted and who is rejected, not by measure of intelligence or skill, but by their willingness to conform to the establishment ideal.  They construct a kind of automaton class, which has been taught not to learn independently, but to parrot propaganda without question.  Simultaneously, those of us who do not “make the grade” are relegated to the role of obliged worshippers; accepting the claims of the professional class as gospel regardless of how incorrect they happen to be.  To put it simply; the whole thing is disgustingly inbred.

Elitism has always lent itself to morbid forms of educational molestation.  This is nothing new, especially within their own limited circles.  However, to have such perversions of logic and reason gutting the minds of entire generations across endless stretches of our country without any counterbalance is a far more heinous state of affairs in the long run.  Ultimately, this highway can only lead to a deterioration of our future, and the death of reason itself.

Recently, I attended a discussion panel on Constitutionalism at a university in Helena, the capital of Montana, and admittedly, was not expecting much insight.  (At the moment of arrival I noticed the buildings had been plastered with Kony 2012 posters.  The campus seemed to be completely unaware that the YouTube film is a George Soros funded ‘Wag the Dog’ farce.)  Even in a fiercely independent region such as the Northern Rockies, the collectivist hardline reigns supreme on most college campuses.  Sadly, very few actual students attended the discussion, and the audience was predominantly made up of local political players, retired legislators, and faculty.  Surprisingly, Stewart Rhodes of Oath Keepers was invited to participate in the discussion, obviously to add at least some semblance of balance or “debate” to an otherwise one-sided affair.  The mix was like oil and water.

The overall tone was weighted with legal drudgery.  Many of the speakers were focused intently on secondary details and banal explorations into individual Constitutional cases without any regard for the bigger picture.  When confronted with questions on the indefinite detainment provisions of the NDAA, government surveillance, or executive ordered assassinations of U.S. citizens, the panelists responded with lukewarm apathy.  The solutions we discuss regularly within the Liberty Movement, such as state nullification based on the 10th Amendment, assertions of local political control through Constitutional Sheriffs, and even civil disobedience, were treated with indignant responses and general confusion.

A consistent theme arose from the academics present, trying to run damage control on Rhodes’ points on federal encroachment and ultimate tyranny.  Their position?  Defiance is unacceptable (or at least, not politically correct…).  Americans have NO recourse against a centralized government.  Not through their state and local representatives, and not through concerted confrontation.  In fact, to even suggest that states act on their own accord without permission is an outlandish idea.  In the end, the only outlet for the public is….to vote.

No one seemed to be able to address the fact that both major parties supported the exact same unconstitutional policies, thus making national level elections an act of pure futility. The point was brushed aside…

Sickly shades of socialism hung heavy in the room.  One speaker even suggested that the states could not possibly survive financially without centralized aid.  He was apparently too ignorant to understand that the federal government itself is bankrupt, incapable of producing true savings, and printing fiat Ad Nauseum just to stay afloat.  Every 30 seconds I heard a statement that made me cringe.

Universities are today’s centers of connection.  They are one of the last vestiges of American tribalism and community in an age of self isolation and artificial technological cultism.  Adults do not meet face to face much anymore to share knowledge, or discuss the troubles of the day.  The academic world provides such opportunity, but at a terrible price.  To connect with the world, students must comply.  To be taken seriously, they must adopt, consciously or unconsciously, the robes of the state.  They must abandon the passions of rebellion and become indifferent to the truth.  All actions and ideas must be embraced by the group, or cast aside.  They must live a life of dependency, breeding a culture of fear, for that which others keep for us, they can easily take away.

How could anyone possibly sustain themselves on a diet of congealing fantasy, and personal inadequacy?  The intellectual life bears other fruits as well.  Where it lacks in substance, it makes up for in ego, proving that being educated is not necessarily the same as being intelligent.  The following is a list of common character traits visible in the average intellectual idiot, a breed that poisons the American well, and is quickly eroding away any chance of Constitutional revival…

1)  An Obsession With The Appearance Of Objectivity 

I say “appearance” of objectivity because the intellectual idiot does indeed take sides on a regular basis, and the side he takes invariably benefits the establishment.  He would never admit to this, though, because he believes it gives him more credibility to at least be thought of as standing outside an issue looking in.  It is not uncommon to find Intellectual Idiots being contrary regardless of your view, even if they would normally agree.  They often try to approach debate with the façade of detachment, as if they do not care one way or the other.  The costume soon wears away, however, when they are faced with an opponent that is not impressed with their educational status.  I have seen lawyers, doctors, engineers, and even politicians devolve into sniveling toddlers when they are derailed by an argument beyond their ability to tap-dance around.  Their middle of the road persona evaporates, and the real person erupts like an ugly pustule…

2)  Clings To Labels And Status

Like anyone else, Intellectual Idiots cradle a philosophy they believe in, or are told to believe in.  But unlike most of us, they see themselves above the scrutiny of those who do not pursue a similar academic path (i.e. only a lawyer should be allowed to debate another lawyer).  The reality is, anyone is privy to the information a proponent of the professional class knows.  With the advent of the internet, it is easier than ever to educate one’s self on multiple subjects without aid if that person has the determination to do so.  Reputation is not earned by shelling out tens of thousands of dollars for university approval.  A Masters Degree or Ph.D is not a get out of logic free card.  In fact, because the Intellectual Idiot often uses his position to avoid true opposition, he tends to become lazy and even more incapable of defending his methodologies when the time comes.

3)  Predominantly Collectivist

The curriculum of the average college is partly to blame for this, and because the Intellectual Idiot is so desperate for acceptance and accolades, they can’t help but fall into the trap.  Collectivism is marked by a distinct attachment to the state as the source of life.  All social and all individual crises thus become a matter of government purview.  Individual self reliance is a terrifying notion to them.  In fact, many Intellectual Idiots have lived on the dole since they were born, moving from their family’s money, to state money through grants and loans.  It is not unheard of for these people to become career students, avoiding work for years, and then moving on to a bureaucratic job when the free money runs out.  They cannot fathom why anyone would rebel against the system, because they are a part of a select group which has always benefited from it.  How could the federal government be bad when it has paid their way for half of their existence?

4)  Disconnection From Reality 

The Intellectual Idiot is not necessarily afraid to acknowledge that the system is troubled.  For them, the federal government is not infallible, even if their favorite party is in office, but, it IS unapproachable.  Academics revel in the disastrous nature of government.  They see political and social catastrophe as a sort of mental gameplay.  An exercise in theoretical structures.  For them, America is not a country built on an enduring set of principles, but a petri dish; an ongoing anthropological experiment that they can watch through a microscope at their leisure.  The idea that the disasters they view from the safety of their sub-cultural bubble might one day come to haunt them is a distant one.

5)  Abhors Those Who Step Out Of Bounds 

Have you ever entertained a view that went against the grain of the mainstream only to be met with accusations of extremism and sneers befitting a leper?  You were probably talking to an intellectual idiot.  The rules, no matter how distasteful or meaningless, hold special power for these people.  They make the system what it is, and when the system is your great provider, you might lean towards defending it, even in the wake of oligarchy and abuse.   This penchant for overt structure for the sake of centralization is especially damaging to our Constitutional rights, because alternative solutions are never treated as viable.  During the panel discussion in Helena, pro-collectivists consistently tried to redirect the conversation away from the 10th Amendment as a method to counter federal overreach.  They did this by bringing up abuses of the states, including slavery and segregation, as if that somehow negated the nightmare of the NDAA.

Ironically, they saw the use of violence by the federal government to push states to recognize civil liberties as perfectly practical.  But, the use of force by states to protect the same civil liberties from Washington D.C.?  That would be lunacy…

6)  Believes Academia To Be Free From Bias

The Intellectual Idiot assimilates every bit of information he is given at the university level without a second look.  He simply assumes it is all true, and if something appears mismatched, it is only because he does not yet fully grasp it.  Very rarely will he go beyond designated source materials to get a different opinion.  This habit is the root of his idiocy.  Being that most universities draw from the same exact materials, and peer reviewed papers are usually tested by those with the exact same underlying educational backgrounds, I can’t see how it is possible for much variety of thought to form.  Whether intentional or not, severe bias cannot be avoided in this kind of environment without considerable strength of heart.

The shock that these people express when faced with Liberty Movement philosophies is quite real.  They have spent the very focus of their future life within the confines of a miniscule spectrum of truth; like seeing technicolor for the first time after a long limited existence in black and white.

It’s hard to say when it all really began, but for decades, Americans have been progressively tuned like pliable radio antenna to the song of the elitist intellectual.  Many of us want to be him.  Others want to follow him, straight to oblivion if need be, as long as they don’t have to blaze their own trail.  This is not to say all professionals are a danger to the Republic.  Some are fantastic proponents of freedom.  But, without a drastic reversal in current educational trends, I see little hope of Constitutional guardians becoming a mainstay of U.S. campuses in the near term.

With mashed potato minds fresh from the psychological Cuisinart of public schools, the next generation in line to inherit the most fantastically schizophrenic nation in history will be like candy for social engineers; utterly unequipped for the mission.  Strangely, the drastic financial slide the elites have also triggered might hold the key to our salvation.  The next batch of would be statist citizens may find themselves so poor that higher educational brainwashing will be impossible to afford, giving them precious time to think for themselves, and come to their own conclusions.   As they say, in all things, there is a silver lining…

Source: Brandon Smith | Alt-Market

A Matter of Time for a VAT Tax

The insatiable thrust for federal spending continues. The will to correct our fiscal black hole is absent. Even the Tea Party Republicans lack the strength of determination and votes to reverse the ship of state. No matter which party wins the next election, the deficits facing the budget are huge. Until a total reformation of the way the central government functions, no solution is possible to balance the books. There is no way to escape this stark reality. Expect more gimmicks, additional devaluation of the currency and the inevitable imposition of new forms of taxes.

The Bear’s Lair by Martin Hutchinson offers an assessment on the addition of a VAT Tax.

“The introduction of a VAT, perhaps at a low initial rate of say 5%, will solve Obama’s problems. It is likely to be unpopular, but if it is passed under a cover of bipartisanship Obama and the Democrats should avoid most of the electoral blowback. Most important, once a VAT is in place, Obama’s healthcare plan will be funded and further Obama spending schemes will be possible without inflating budget deficits. Outlays, currently 23.8% of GDP and projected (unrealistically) by the Congressional Budget Office to decline to a low of 22% of GDP by 2015 before increasing thereafter, will with a VAT be able to increase further, to perhaps 27% of GDP by the end of Obama’s second term. Revenues will trail outlays, but instead of 20% of GDP in 2015 (including repeal of the 2001/2003 tax cuts) will rise to perhaps 24% of GDP, leaving the deficit at 3% of GDP, or about $500 billion in today’s money. Of course, were a further spending-prone President elected in 2016, outlays would rise further, as entitlement spending spiraled upwards, but that problem could be solved, at least in the short term, by increasing the VAT rate towards European levels.”

A simple and elegant method to steal more from the public is an attractive alternative for the corrupt political class. The political capital needed to approve a quasi-national sales tax would be ugly, but the intensity of a financial meltdown disaster would provide another excuse for extreme measures. As long as the Federal Reserve monetizes the debt by buying Treasury obligations, the purchasing value of the dollar sinks. Larger deficits could provide cover for “so called” fiscal conservatives to abandon principle and jump on the destructive revenue enhancement deception.

The Fiscal Times article, Can a VAT Tax Solve the Nation’s Fiscal Problems?, describes the way a VAT Tax works.

“While there have been no formal VAT proposals yet and it is by no means a certainty, “it is probable,” says Rudolf G. Penner, a fellow and economist at the Urban Institute. “It will be fought over vigorously, but a VAT is easy. It’s an efficient tax. And it could be implemented fairly quickly.”

Penner predicts that the next fiscal crisis could prompt lawmakers to adopt the VAT. “It could be a failed Treasury auction, it could be S&P and Moody’s downgrading out debt or passing some psychological barrier with the debt to GDP ratio,” he says. “In many other countries you have had to have a crisis that demanded a fiscal policy response to it.”

The straightforward implementation of a VAT is a prime reason why it is attractive to the central government. Abolishing the entire tax code and starting over would be a sound start, but that option is impossible within the political structure of the depraved federal system. More taxation and increased sources is the only way the political elite have to service the interest on the national debt.

 

At What Cost? Basic Economics of a Value Added Tax video is an overview lecture of the rudiments of adding a VAT to an already disserted economy. Yet, when did a defective tax plan ever stop Washington from enacting higher confiscation. When the big push comes to bail out the excessive spending entitlement apparatus and the printing money ATM falters, Middle America is targeted as the last resort. Never underestimate the creative legal exploitation to plunder the taxpayer.Pushing America into the socialist slavery that is European governance is the plan. Merging the economic burden into a global debtor obligation requires improvising our own people. If the passage of a VAT Tax requires voting out of office the last stalwart of domestic independence, the financial powers will double their efforts.

VAT Tax Ends the Consumer Economy makes the case for the consequences of adopting another source of federal revenue.

“In a rush for additional revenues, the Federal Government is poised to slam another stick up the derrière of the public. Don’t be fooled with the claims that a VAT Tax will replace the oppression of the income tax. When interest rates inevitably rise because government bonds will not sell without a higher return, the cries will become deafening that only additional revenue will forestall default. The Socialism of Europe becomes complete with the integration of America into the central controlled managed economy.”

Plainly, a VAT is no resolution to the deficit spending problem. All the same, the beltway culture has never been in the solution business. Thinking that a Republican victory in the 2012 election will remove the peril of a national tax is shortsighted. Politicians are spending addicts and any revenue increase that collects higher sums of money to feed the appetites of government careerists is wishful thinking.

Short of a total collapse of the world financial system, the domestic economy will continue to struggle, while losing ground in real terms. This fact cannot be said about the growth on the federal bureaucracy or unfunded programs. Because of this inevitability, new punitive and destructive taxation is in play. Balancing expenditures by growing taxes from strong economic performance is a pipedream. Budget cuts and elimination of entire programs is core to any public fiscal sanity.

Lebanon’s Oppressed: Domestic Workers, Women, Palestinians

Are They Forming an Alliance?

Beirut - University students surveyed last month in Lebanon on the subject of how to improve their society and move it in the direction of meeting international human and civil rights norms identified three groups most in urgent need of immediate Lebanese governmental action.

Not surprising perhaps, but nevertheless refreshing, were the students’ strongly expressed convictions, regardless of particular sect,  that those most victimized by Lebanon’s government and current laws are the roughly 200,000 migrant domestic workers, woman, who make up half of Lebanon’s population, and the estimated 250,000 Palestinian refugees waiting to return to their country, Palestine.

Last month’s suicide by domestic worker 33 years old Alem Dechasa-Desisa, following a beating in front of her Ethiopian Consulate by Ali Mahfouz and his colleague, whose recruitment agency arranged for Alem to work in Lebanon, was condemned across this country and angered those watching the video of the beating on LBCI TV.

This incident once more raised the near slavery plight of workers from Sri Lanka, Ethiopia, Sudan, the Philippines, and Nepal and elsewhere who are excluded from the Lebanon’s labor law. Among the triad of the most wretched in Lebanon, domestic workers suffer the most.

Once again, the Lebanese government issued a seemingly pro forma statement to say it would investigate the despicable abuse of domestic workers.  Few here have confidence that anything will come of the current “investigation” any more than usually results from police or ministry investigations of domestic workers abuse. “The Lebanese authorities only opened an investigation because they found themselves in the media spotlight,” Nadim Houry, the deputy Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch, told a news conference, adding that “The government urgently needs to address the root causes that are driving so many migrant domestic workers to despair.”   More than a dozen civil society groups also cited a culture of impunity when it comes to the abuse of domestic workers in Lebanon.

In a 2008 study, Human Rights Watch found that there had been an average of one death a week from unnatural causes among domestic workers in Lebanon, including suicides and unexplained falls from tall buildings. Domestic workers are subject to restrictive immigration rules based on employer-specific sponsorship that puts workers at risk of exploitation and makes it extremely difficult for them to leave abusive employers, The Philippines, Ethiopia and other countries have banned their citizens from working in Lebanon due to the lack of protection from Lebanon yet many still come here in order to work and send money back home to their families.

According to HRW, the most common complaints documented by the embassies of labor-sending countries and civil society groups include mistreatment by recruiters, non-payment or delayed payment of wages, forced confinement to the workplace, a refusal to provide any time off for the worker, forced labor, and verbal and physical abuse. HRW also cited information prepared by KAFA Violence & Exploitation, a Lebanese women’s rights group, concerning nine suspicious deaths in August 2010.

A number of factors mean that MDWs often do not file or pursue complaints against their employers, but rather settle on unfavorable terms. These include lack of judicial support, fear of counter charges and being held in detention, and restrictive visa policies that make it hard for MDWs to see through cases that can take months or years to wend through the protracted judicial process.  For many, the need to earn money to support their families, and the impulse of abused workers to return home quickly prompts them to withdraw their complaints rather than seek redress. A Human Rights Watch review of 13 criminal cases that MDWs brought against employers found they took an average of 24 months to be resolved, while MDW complaints for unpaid wages filed in civil courts lasted between 21 and 54 months. Complaints brought before labor courts, which are supposedly faster than regular civil courts because their procedures are simpler, lasted 32 months on average.

The wretched women of Lebanon– half of the population…

Lebanese law prevents women married to a non-Lebanese from passing citizenship on to her children. Much like the right to property, which women in Lebanon, like Palestinians also don’t enjoy fully, the value of citizenship and family rights for women and their children  is meaningless when the state restricts transferability. This means that many children born and raised in Lebanon are required to regularly reapply for permits to continue living in their birth country.

Since Lebanese law does not provide a clear judicial standard, children must deal with the administrative maze of Lebanon’s corrupt and notoriously inefficient bureaucracy. As the children grow into adults, they face restrictions on foreign labor, property ownership and a host of other implications much like Palestinian refugees. While diaspora Lebanese may have citizenship from other countries, they can also claim Lebanese citizenship via paternal consanguinity, but people born and raised in Lebanon depend on the arbitrary decisions of the security services.

Women also remain invisible in positions of formal power such as Parliament. No women serve in Lebanon’s cabinet, while only four women our of 128 MP’s – the usual group of wives, sisters and daughters of high ranking Lebanese officials – are Members of Parliament.

 Some have proposed a quota for women in Parliament. According to lawyer Anthony Elghossain “ in a political culture that derides women for being outspoken and active, a quota would amount to little more than a paper reform. Indeed, without changing other aspects of Lebanese electoral law, a quota system would probably add a bunch of “yes women” to the flock of male sheep that is Lebanon’s legislature.”

The question of “marital rape” also continues to make a mockery of current Lebanese laws.  Male rapists may rape at will since their crime is not defined as rape in the first place just so long as long as they are married to the woman they rape or if they subsequently propose marriage to their victims.

Nearly impossible as it is to believe, some in Lebanon’s Parliament such as Imad Hout told The Beirut Daily Star last month that  “[t]here’s nothing called rape between a husband and a wife,” but only the act of “forcing someone violently to have intercourse.”

Whenever Parliament finally agrees to consider changing domestic relations law, it always ends up postponing serious consideration or a vote on proposals with a press release saying in effect, “This subject requires more study. Legislative action deferred.”

Palestinians need for basic civil rights including the right to work and to own a home

Due to an educational effort on the subject of civil rights for Palestinian refugees in Lebanon over the past few years, this issue is perhaps better known than the situation of domestic workers and women. But the urgent need to change Lebanese to grant Palestinians elementary civil rights is currently no closer to being achieved than are the above cases.

However,  given the recent increase in activism among all three communities and their increasing inclination to collaborate, there is reason for some optimism for all three segments of Lebanese society which are organizing with international and increased domestic support

Currently the most dynamic action at organizing and working for change is coming from women in the Palestinian community. Long marginalized from key roles in the refugee camp “popular committees” Palestinian women in several of the 12 camps are challenging the male domination of the camps.  This is particularly true in Bedawwi and Nahr al Bared camps in north Lebanon where Palestinian NGO’s such as Najdeh (“help”) are training and supporting women’s empowerment and urging them get involved in camp management since women best know the needs of the families and how to relate to them.

This dynamism is encouraging domestic workers to organize as well as offering support for women’s groups to demand their rights.  The coming months may see more formal alliances among Lebanon’s most marginalized and wretched groups–domestic workers, women and Palestinian refugees. With growing civil society support for their efforts they may finally achieve the dismantling of archaic Lebanese laws and attitudes.

THE JEFFERSON BIBLE: A Rational Christianity And Earth Day 2012

The 2011, SMITHSONIAN EDITION of “THE JEFFERSON BIBLE: The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth Extracted Textually from the Gospels in Greek, Latin, French and English” also opens a window into the spirit of a revolutionary complex and contradictory man.

Jefferson understood himself to be a true Christian and he proved so by remaining mute to the brutal and unjust accusations against him of being a deist, an atheist, anti-religion and antichrist.

Reality is that Jefferson took Jesus so seriously, that he devoted twelve years of his life to literally cutting away all the miracle stories from the gospels in four different languages from the King James Bible and gluing all the passages of Jesus as a teacher and philosopher, onto pages that were bound between covers of straight-grain red morocco- a goat skin that is laboriously processed for over two months and tanned with sumac.

In 1902, Congressman John F. Lacey, a devout Christian, introduced a resolution for the printing of a facsimile of Jefferson’s private piety to be distributed to Congress and up until the 1950’s, every newly elected member of the Senate received a copy on the very day they swore their oath of office.

Lacey responded to the many critics who argued that stripping Jesus of his divinity was blasphemy:

“No one that examines this little volume, whether he be saint or sinner, will rise from his perusal without having a loftier idea of the teachings of our Savior.”

On his tombstone, Jefferson expressed that he wanted to be remembered as the Author of the Declaration of American Independence, the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom and the Father of the University of Virginia.

The ideas that were “self-evident” to America’s Founding Fathers were the ideals of the Age of Enlightenment which put forth the primacy of human reason, conscience and inherent human rights as it called for public education.

The inscription under the Dome of the Jefferson Memorial reads: ”I have sworn upon the altar of god eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.”

He wrote those words first to Dr. Benjamin Rush, in his search for a rational Christianity that could not be found in the corruptions, misconceptions, superstitions and “priest craft” that became self-evident in the days of Emperor Constantine with Augustine’s JUST WAR heresy: Read more…

Rush was raised in the evangelical “New Light” Presbyterian tradition of the 1730’s and his faith laid emphasis on the individual’s personal and emotional communion with God and believers who relied on the Bible and not the teachings of clergymen.

Rush was also a Philadelphia physician, scientist and an active force in humanitarian efforts to end African American slavery.

Rush wrote, “The truths of Christianity dwell alike in the mind of the Deity, and reason and religion are equally the offspring of his goodness.”

While watching Philly’s Grand Procession to celebrate the U.S. Constitution in 1788, Rush saw what was a then a profoundly “American parade…a rabbi walked with arms linked between a Catholic priest and Protestant clergy-man.”

Rush “always considered Christianity as the strong ground of Republicanism” -which is what we call democracy today.

In 1800, Rush wrote Jefferson, that this nation could only be steadied and the promise of the Revolution secured for future generations; if it is grounded in Christian morals and faith that are clarified by reason.

Jefferson’s friend and compatriot Thomas Paine ”saw the exceeding probability that a revolution in the system of government would be followed by a revolution in the system of religion” soon after publishing “Common Sense” which was the spark that united the scattered disparate groups of colonists to rise up against the British Occupation of this homeland.
Paine was later condemned as the “ungodly author of THE AGE OF REASON” for offering God as creator while rejecting the divinity of Jesus and denouncing clerical power. Paine also wrote:

A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong gives it a superficial appearance of being right.

It is not a God, just and good, but a devil, under the name of God, that the Bible describes.

Any system of religion that has anything in it that shocks the mind of a child, cannot be true.

Belief in a cruel God makes a cruel man.

Every religion is good that teaches man to be good; and I know of none that instructs him to be bad.

Is it not a species of blasphemy to call the New Testament revealed religion, when we see in it such contradictions and absurdities.

Reason obeys itself; and ignorance submits to whatever is dictated to it.

Reputation is what men and women think of us; character is what God and angels know of us.

I imagine God and the angels might agree with these Top Ten Teachings of Jesus as gleaned from THE JEFFERSON BIBLE:

1. Be just and justice comes from virtue, which comes from the heart.
2. Treat people the way you want to be treated.
3. Always work for PEACEFUL resolutions, even to the point of returning violence with COMPASSION.
4. Consider valuable the things that have no material value.
5. Do not judge others.
6. Do not bear grudges.
7. Be modest and unpretentious.
8. Give out of true generosity, not because one expects to be repaid or acknowledged.
9. Being true to one’s self in more important than being loyal to one’s family and following ones conscience is the only way to do it.

10. Those who think they know the most are the most ignorant.

Jefferson also wrote:

“Well aware that the opinions and belief of men depend not on their own will, but follow involuntarily the evidence proposed to their minds; that Almighty God hath created the mind free, and manifested his supreme will that free it shall remain by making it altogether insusceptible of restraint; that all attempts to influence it by temporal punishments, or burthens, or by civil incapacitations, tend only to beget habits of hypocrisy and meanness, and are a departure from the plan of the holy author of our religion…” - ”A Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom”

“God who gave us life gave us liberty. Can the liberties of a nation be secure when we have removed a conviction that these liberties are the gift of God? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, that his justice cannot sleep forever. Commerce between master and slave is despotism. Nothing is more certainly written in the book of fate than that these people are to be free. Establish a law for educating the common people. This it is the business of the state and on a general plan.”

“I am certainly not an advocate for frequent and untried changes in laws and constitutions. I think moderate imperfections had better be borne with; because, when once known, we accommodate ourselves to them, and find practical means of correcting their ill effects. But I know also, that laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. As that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, new truths disclosed, and manners and opinions change with the change of circumstances, institutions must advance also, and keep pace with the times. We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a boy, as civilized society to remain ever under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors.”

If we truly “hold these truths to be self-evident: That all [people] are created equal; that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights…that, to secure these rights, governments are instituted among [people] deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; and, whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the RIGHT of the people to ALTER or to ABOLISH it” may we also know that Governments have obligations, people have rights and among our rights is the obligation to hold our Government accountable.

I imagine this government and all who claim to be Christian would do well to read and think upon The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth by Thomas Jefferson but until you go there, I offer my spin on The Sermon on The Mount-which is the Christian Manifesto and tells the story of when Jesus of Nazareth was about 33 and hiked up a hill, sat down under an olive tree and began to teach the people:

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.”

In other words: it is those who know their own spiritual poverty, their own limitations and ‘sins’ honestly and trust God loves them in spite of themselves who already live in the Kingdom of God.

How comforted we will all be, when we see, we haven’t got a clue, as to the depth and breadth of pure love and mercy of The Divine Mystery of The Universe.

God’s name in ancient Aramaic is Abba which means Daddy as much as Mommy and He/She: The Lord has said, ”My ways are not your ways. My thoughts are not yours.” -Isaiah 55:8

Christ proclaimed more: ”Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.”

The essence of meek is to be patient with ignorance, slow to anger and never hold a grudge. In other words: how comforted you will be when you also know humility; when you know yourself, the good and the bad, for both cut through every human heart.

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, they will be filled.”

In other words: how comforted you will be when your greatest desire is to do what ”God requires, and he has already told you what that is; BE JUST, BE MERCIFUL and walk humbly with your Lord.”-Micah 6:8

“Blessed are the merciful, they will be shown mercy.”

In other words: how comforted you will all be when you choose to return only kindness to your ‘enemy.’

“For with the measure you measure against another, it will be measured back to you” Christ warns his disciples as he explains the law of karma in Luke 6:27-38.

“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they see God.”

In other words: how comforted you will be when you WAKE UP and see God is already within you, within every man, every woman and every child. The Supreme Being is everywhere, the Alpha and Omega, beginning and end. Beyond The Universe -and yet so small; within the heart of every atom.

“Blessed are The Peacemakers: THEY shall be called the children of God.”

And what a wonderful world it would be when we all seek peace by pursuing justice; for there can be none without the other.

“Blessed are those who are persecuted because they do what God requires, theirs is The Kingdom of Heaven.”

And one fine day the lion will lie down with The Lamb and man will make war no more; and that will create the Kingdom of God on planet earth. [1]

PS: The root of all ‘sin’ is selfishness.

I IMAGINE Jefferson and Paine would agree that the world is one country, all people are sisters and brothers, doing good is good religion and if there is to be any church; Let It Be The Earth:

22 April is Earth Day and this article is my Easter Offering.

When Bankers Rule The World

The tell-all defection of Greg Smith, a former Goldman Sachs executive, provided an insider’s view of the moral corruption of the Wall Street banks that control of much of America’s economy and politics. Smith confirms what insightful observers have known for years: the business purpose of Wall Street bankers is to maximize their personal financial take without regard to the consequences for others.

Wall Street’s World of Illusion

Why has the public for so long tolerated Wall Street’s reckless abuses of power and accepted the resulting devastation? The answer lies in a cultural trance induced by deceptive language and misleading indicators backed by flawed economic theory and accounting sleight-of-hand. To shatter the trance we need to recognize that the deception that Wall Street promotes through its well-funded PR machine rests on three false premises.

1. We best fulfill our individual moral obligation to society by maximizing our personal financial gain.
2. Money is wealth and making money increases the wealth of the society.
3. Making money is the proper purpose of the individual enterprise and is the proper measure of prosperity and economic performance.

Wall Street aggressively promotes these fallacies as guiding moral principles. Their embrace by Wall Street insiders helps to explain how they are able to reward themselves with obscene bonuses for their successful use of deception, fraud, speculation, and usury to steal wealth they have had no part in creating and yet still believe, as Goldman CEO Lloyd Blankfein famously proclaimed, that they are “doing God’s work.”

The devastation created by Wall Street’s failure affirms three truths that are the foundation on which millions of people are at work building a New Economy:

1. Our individual and collective well-being depends on acting with concern for the well-being of others. We all do better when we look out for one another.
2. Money is not wealth. It is just numbers. Sacrificing the health and happiness of billions of people to grow numbers on computer hard drives to improve one’s score on the Forbes Magazine list of the world’s richest people is immoral. Managing a society’s economy to facilitate this immoral competition at the expense of people and nature is an act of collective insanity.
3. The proper purpose of the economy and the enterprises that comprise it is to provide good jobs and quality goods and services beneficial to the health and happiness of people, community and nature. A modest financial profit is essential to a firm’s viability, but is not its proper purpose.

The critical distinction between making money and creating wealth is the key to seeing through Wall Street’sillusions.

Ends/Means Confusion

Real wealth includes healthful food; fertile land; pure water; clean air; caring relationships; healthy, happy children; quality education and health care; fulfilling opportunities for service; peace; and time for meditation and spiritual reflection. These are among the many forms of real wealth to which we properly expect a sound economy to contribute.

Wall Street has so corrupted our language, however, that it is difficult even to express the crucial distinction between money (a facilitator of economic activity), and real wealth (the purpose of economic activity).

Financial commentators routinely use terms like wealth, capital, resources, and assets when referring to phantom wealth financial assets, which makes them sound like something real and substantial—whether or not they are backed by anything of real value. Similarly, they identify folks engaged in market speculation and manipulation as investors, thus glossing over the distinction between those who game the system to expropriate wealth and those who contribute to its creation.

The same confusion plays out in the use of financial indicators, particularly stock price indices, to evaluate economic performance. The daily rise and fall of stock prices tells us only how fast the current stock bubble is inflating or deflating and thus how Wall Street speculators are doing relative to the rest of us.

Once we are conditioned to embrace measures of Wall Street success as measures of our own well-being, we are easily recruited as foot soldiers in Wall Street’s relentless campaign to advance policies that support its control of money and thus its hold on nearly every aspect of our lives.

Modern Enslavement

In a modern society in which our access to most essential of life from food and water to shelter and health care depends on money, control of money is the ultimate instrument of social control.

Fortunately, with the help of Occupy Wall Street, Americans are waking up to an important truth. It is a very, very bad idea to yield control of the issuance and allocation of credit (money) to Wall Street banks run by con artists who operate beyond the reach of public accountability and who Greg Smith tells us in his New York Times op-ed view the rest of us as simple-minded marks ripe for the exploiting.

By going along with its deceptions, we the people empowered Wall Street to convert America from a middle class society of entrepreneurs, investors, and skilled workers into a nation of debt slaves. Buying into Wall Street lies and illusions, Americans have been lured into accepting,  even aggressively promoting, “tax relief” for the very rich and the “regulatory relief” and “free trade” agreements for corporations that allowed Wall Street to suppress wages and benefits for working people through union busting, automation, and outsourcing jobs to foreign sweatshops.

Once working people were unable to make ends meet with current income, Wall Street lured them into making up the difference by taking on credit card and mortgage debt they had no means to repay. They were soon borrowing to pay not only for current consumption, but as well to pay the interest on prior unpaid debt.

This is the classic downward spiral of debt slavery that assures an ever-growing divide between the power and luxury of a creditor class and the powerless desperation of a debtor class.

Bust the Trusts, Liberate America

Before Wall Street dismantled it, America had a system of transparent, well-regulated, community-based, locally owned, Main Street financial institutions empowered to put local savings to work investing in building real community wealth through the creation and allocation of credit to finance local home buyers and entrepreneurs.

Although dismissed by Wall Street players as small, quaint, provincial, and inefficient, this locally rooted financial system created the credit that financed our victory in World War II, the Main Street economies that unleashed America’s entrepreneurial talents, the investments that made us the world leader in manufacturing and technology, and the family-wage jobs that built the American middle class. It is a proven model with important lessons relevant for current efforts to restore financial integrity and build an economy that serves all Americans.

Two recent reports from the New Economy Working Group—How to Liberate America from Wall Street Rule and Jobs: A Main Street Fix for Wall Street’s Failure—draw on these lessons to outline a practical program to shift power from Wall Street to Main Street, focus economic policy on real wealth creation, create a true ownership society, unleash Main Street’s entrepreneurial potential, bring ourselves into balance with the biosphere, meet the needs of all, and strengthen democracy in the process.

For far too long, we have allowed Wall Street to play us as marks in a confidence scam of audacious proportion. Then we wonder at our seeming powerlessness to deal with job loss, depressed wages, mortgage foreclosures, political corruption and the plight of our children as they graduate into debt bondage.

Let us be clear. We will no longer play the sucker for Wall Street con artists and we will no longer tolerate public bailouts to save failed Wall Street banks.

Henceforth, when a Wall Street financial institution fails to maintain adequate equity reserves to withstand a major financial shock or is found guilty of systematic violation of the law and/or defrauding the public, we must demand that federal authorities take it over and break it up into strictly regulated, community-accountable, cooperative member-owned financial services institutions.

Occupy Wall Street has focused national and global attention on the source of the problem. Now it’s time for action to bust the Wall Street banking trusts, replace the current Wall Street banking system with a Main Street banking system, and take back America from rule by Wall Street bankers.

Source: Yes Magazine

Explaining Central Banking To The Publicly Educated

Don’t understand economics?  And the thought of even trying makes your eyes cross?

That’s what they want.  Government, which is an artificial, unnecessary construct has made a concerted effort to make economics sound as difficult as possible for decades.  The reason?  They can use your programmed ignorance as the publicly “educated” to confuse you about how they manipulate the economy for their benefit.

Economics is simple.  Nearly the full extent of it can be taught in a near pamphlet, as has been done in Henry Hazlitt’s “Economics in One Lesson“.  That is the full extent that any individual needs and should know about economics.

Those four to eight years in college to get a bachelor or PhD in Economics?  Pure mental masturbation – at best.

ECONOMICS ON AN ISLAND

Most everything can be broken down to its most basic components in order to simplify things.  When faced with a large question always try to break it down.  Let’s do that with economics to show how simple it is and why central banking is a central tenet of communism and is an abomination that makes no sense in a free market.

Let’s say that you and four other people live on an island.  As far as you can tell there are no other humans on Earth.  Each of the people on the island do things which help the collective although they have selfish reasons for doing so (ie. they want something in return).

Perhaps you fish.  Another gathers coconuts.  And another is good at building and repairing thatch huts and collecting rainwater for drinking.  Amongst yourselves you trade.  You offer some fish for coconuts, water and a nice maintained hut.  The others offer their services in trade for your fish.

In comes the fourth person – a bearded man with no particular skills who thinks he is better than everyone else.  He produces nothing but tells you that he has come up with a better system using “money” where you don’t have to wait until the man who gets coconuts wants fish before you can get coconuts.  Instead you can trade money… perhaps a piece of paper that the fourth person has inscribed with pictures and denominations on it.

So far it doesn’t sound too bad.  But here is where he becomes a “central banker”.  First, he pulls out a spear and tells you that you must, under all circumstances use his money and no other money.  Then, during times when the fishing is poor or there is a drought he tells you that he can help everyone out by “stimulating” the economy of the island by drawing up more money.

If things got really tough he could double or triple the amount of money on the island.  At first, everyone thinks they are richer, so they buy more fish or water or housing than they otherwise could afford.  This ends up using up more resources than would otherwise be prudent.  Soon the money has circulated and now coconuts just cost twice or three times more than before in currency units.  The same for fish… the same for water and housing.

How has this central banking scheme “helped”?  It hasn’t.  It actually ended up destroying scarce resources as it fooled the participants in the economy for a period of time into thinking they were more wealthy than they really were.

That is all there is to central banking.  Of course, what then happens is the entire island gets corrupted and people begin to look to get favors from the central banker to get the newly created money first.  And, then, if the printing of money begins to get out of control and the central banker stops printing money in order to salvage the “value” of the money before hyperinflating it into worthlessness, because of the fact he uses violence to enforce its use, all of a sudden there will not be enough money in the system to transact basic transactions and people will not be able to survive.  There will be either war (over the resources) or starvation as the denizens of the island find themselves unable to acquire the currency they are forced to use to survive.  Either that or the banker will take control of your future productivity in exchange for some easily printed cash today effectively putting you into slavery just to survive.

The only thing missing on the island at this point is someone to start a fascist media conglomerate who, in cahoots with the central bank, put out the following magazine cover showing the one non-productive member of the island as being the hero:

The Brotherhood of The Free

One of my all-time favorite pieces of literature is this section from Friedrich Schiller’s William Tell:

“By this fair light which greeteth us, before
Those other nations, that, beneath us far,
In noisome cities pent, draw painful breath,
Swear we the oath of our confederacy!
A band of brothers true we swear to be,
Never to part in danger or in death!

“We swear we will be free as were our sires,
And sooner die than live in slavery!

“We swear, to put our trust in God Most High,
And not to quail before the might of man!”

Another personal favorite is the St. Crispin’s Day speech from Shakespeare’s Henry V:

“This story shall the good man teach his son;
And Crispin Crispian shall ne’er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remembered.

“We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he today that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother, be he ne’er so vile.
This day shall gentle his condition.

“And gentlemen in England now-a-bed
Shall think themselves accurs’d they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin’s day.”

Schiller and Shakespeare called it “Band of Brothers.” The Apostle Peter called it “Brotherhood.” (I Peter 2:17) Call it what you will: without it, no cause will prevail. And that is one of the biggest problems we face in America today: there is very little brotherhood among brothers.

No, not all brothers are part of the brotherhood. The Scripture acknowledges this in Proverbs 18:24, “There is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother.” And again in Proverbs 27:10, “Better is a neighbor that is near than a brother afar off.” A brother that doesn’t “stick close” is certainly not part of the brotherhood. Neither is a brother that is “afar off.”

The sad truth is, even in the vast majority of churches, brotherhood is virtually unknown. Sitting in a church congregation is no more indicative of brotherhood than sitting in a crowded football stadium. In fact, there might even be MORE brotherhood at a football game than there is in the average church today.

Churches today are literally eaten up with malice, jealousy, gossip, slander, backbiting, faultfinding, ad infinitum. (But the same is true with other establishment organizations as well.) For all intents and purposes, today’s churches make a mockery of all that Jesus taught regarding Christian love and brotherhood. On the whole, it simply does not exist today.

This past Sunday, I delivered a message simply entitled, “Brotherhood.” I encourage readers to watch or download this message at:

http://chuckbaldwinlive.com/redirection2/go2/?WPNTHJ

For the sake of this column, and for the freedom movement especially, let me issue a clarion call for all of us who call ourselves Patriots. It is absolutely critical that we recognize The Brotherhood of the Free.

After signing the Declaration of Independence, Benjamin Franklin said, “We must hang together, or we most assuredly will hang separately.” How right he was!

Our patriot-forebears, this “Band of Brothers,” were as diverse a group of men as would ever be found. They represented virtually every Christian denomination that existed in Colonial America. They also included men who identified with no Christian church or denomination. While most of our Founding Fathers were Christians, not all of them were. But they all joined shoulder-to-shoulder in the fight for liberty and independence. Christians were fighting for the freedom to worship God as they pleased, and non-Christians were fighting for the freedom to not worship God if they pleased. But both fought side-by-side for freedom. Why do Christians today have such a blind spot in this regard?

It doesn’t matter that Mitt Romney is a Mormon, or that Newt Gingrich is a Catholic, or that Rick Santorum is a Catholic. What matters is that not one of them is part of The Brotherhood of the Free. Not one of them has a clue as to what the real principles of liberty and constitutional government are all about. Not one of them recognizes the New World Order, the emerging police state, or the foolhardiness of perpetual war–whatever church they attend notwithstanding!

And that’s the problem with most of our Christian “brothers”: They just don’t get it! And when push comes to shove, most of them will join with the forces of darkness in persecuting real Patriots and freedom lovers. Don’t believe it? Look at how they are treating Ron Paul.

Say what you want about Ron Paul, he is an elder statesman in The Brotherhood of the Free. Ron Paul is in the Brotherhood. He knows what’s going on. He sees the danger. He cares about liberty. He understands the Constitution. He is my brother in the fight!

Do I agree with Dr. Paul about every issue? No! We will never agree with our fellow Patriots about every single issue–neither should we have to. We agree on the basics. We each love liberty and independence. We believe in constitutional government. We despise globalism, corporatism, socialism, and fascism. We recognize a police state when we see it. We recognize the right of free moral beings to make their own personal moral choices. As Christians, we know that only Christ can change the hearts (and thereby, the conduct) of men–NOT GOVERNMENT!

Does anyone find it more than interesting that men such as John Adams, Sam Adams, and George Washington joined with Benjamin Franklin in signing the Declaration of Independence? The Adams boys and Mr. Washington were well known far and wide as men of intense piety and personal morality, while Mr. Franklin was known by everyone to be an incurable ladies man–even in his old age. If John and Sam and George would have behaved as so-called Christians do today, they would have said, “If Ben is signing this document, count me out!” But there they were, side-by-side, shoulder-to-shoulder, fighting for liberty and independence.

I, too, will gladly stand with my fellows in The Brotherhood of the Free. It doesn’t mean that I approve of all that they do. It doesn’t mean that I believe all that they believe. But it does mean as long as they are part of the Brotherhood and are willing to fight for the principles of liberty, I will stand with them!

Joining Ron Paul are thousands of men and women who should be recognized as part of this noble Brotherhood. As did our Founding Fathers, we come from varied walks of life, varied religious persuasions, varied belief systems, etc., but we all share a love of liberty and independence that burns deeply in our breasts.

Accordingly, I am glad to stand with (and to have stood with) Patriots such as Montana State Legislator Rick Jore, John McManus, Dr. Stan Montieth, Howard Phillips, Larry Pratt, Paul Walter, Herb Titus, Bill Olson, Ed Vieira, Judge Darrell White, Judge Andrew Napolitano, Pat Buchanan, Chelene Nightingale, Charley Reese, Scott Bradley, Joel Skousen, Tom DeWeese, Ezola Foster, Sheriff Richard Mack, Alex Jones, Governor Jesse Ventura, Sam Bushman, the late Congresswoman Helen Chenoweth-Hage, the late William Shearer, the late Joseph Sobran, the late George Putnam, and thousands like them.

My dear fellow Patriots, we are part of a Brotherhood. As Franklin said, “We must hang together.” If we do, the cause of liberty will prevail. If we do not, the cause of liberty will most assuredly perish.

How To Become An American Extremist In Style!

For most of us in America today, childhood was a time of vast and unassailable dreams.  What we could become, what the world could become, was limited only by the strength of spirit setting aloft our ideas, and this strength, as all young people instinctively know, is infinite.  While the possibilities of the future seemed boundless, few of us, including myself, ever considered “political extremism” as a viable lifestyle decision.  Astronaut?  Maybe.  Filmmaker?  Sure.  Enemy Belligerent?  Not so much…

While each of us is ultimately a product of our own decisions and internal choices, even beyond the influences of our environment, the cultural atmosphere of our age certainly determines the manner in which we are able to express our individual character.  The brilliant and talented are sometimes cast into roles of poverty and obscurity.  The obscene and devious often ascend to positions of righteous reverence.  Good men are often painted as villains for centuries, while evil men are regarded as saints for just as long.  The point is, the times in which we live rarely express in an honest way who we really are, unless, of course, we take hold of them tight, and cut out a new path for history to travel…

Those men and women who drive forward without fear or doubt to assert control over their destinies, and force their era to reflect their principles, rather than their principles becoming a side-note to their era, whether honorable or dishonorable, are invariably considered “extreme”.  Most human beings waft about with the tides of time as passengers; spectators watching events unfold from the sidelines.  Those who swim against the currents, or who attempt to change their flow altogether, are usually rare and confounding to the masses.  Therefore, that which the masses consider extremism is often merely that which they consider far outside what they have grown accustomed.

Frankly, history has proven over and over again that the majority is usually wrong about most things.  Groups and collectives do not create, or discover, or advance humanity.  Only individuals are capable of this.  All great concepts begin as seeds within independent people, and then spread like wildfire as they educate others.  A society that strives for artificial normality and collectivist harmonization is a society on the verge of chaos and death.  Only free hearts and minds give man hope of survival.

In my view, that which is extreme is NOT that which violates the boundaries of “normal” society, but which violates the boundaries of inherent truth, and conscience.  In an honest society, an extremist is someone who denies the universal foundations of existence, and tries to play demigod in a fantasy world of moral relativism and rationalized criminality.  A disjointed freak of nature that seeks to impose his twisted will upon others.  Unfortunately, the honest definition of extremism is not the most popular amongst the frothing elitists that reside over the functions of our political structure today.

Life is a bummer like that…

So instead, why not embrace the label that the establishment is so keen to pigeonhole us with, and make it our own?  I have found that the less I care about the critical eye of others, the more free I am to change things for the better.  Certainly, by any standard of our current national leadership and by the throngs that support it, I am an extremist.  Luckily, this does not concern me.  It is not important to be accepted by the mainstream, it is only important to remain objectively correct in one’s position.  In the grand scheme of the world, to be a thorn in the side of so-called “proper society” is a sure fire path to a life without regret.  America was founded by undesirables, and built by non-conformists.  We are a nation whose blood is thick with defiance and outright knock-out revolutionary badass anti-authoritarian hostility.  We cut kings down to size.

At least, we used to…

In modern America, it’s not nice or pleasant or practical to approach political problems with the attitude of a radical.  That puts people off.  And there’s nothing worse than having people not like you, right?  Better to play the game and hope that a better world will simply materialize out of the ether.  Don’t rock the boat, especially when you’re in it…

For those of us in the Liberty Movement, this passive approach just doesn’t satiate our ravenous hunger for the bizarre.  And by “bizarre”, I mean honest.  Our time here is short, and usually ugly, and filled with people and circumstances and disasters and biases and abhorrences and painful moments and sometimes smells that we would much rather not deal with.  The least we can ask for is a little truth.  If I have to be confronted with crusted wheezing gas-bloated nightmare figures like John McCain or Joseph Lieberman, men who would label me a terrorist if they could, then I should be allowed the satisfaction of a concrete fact or two before I am shipped of to the nearest Halliburton run military sanctioned prison facility for re-education and naked dog-piling (which these men seem to particularly enjoy).

The truth is the first and greatest sin in the dark pestilent pit of any active tyranny.  I recommend it highly.  Seek the truth, and ye shall be fined…or jailed.  This is the first step towards a glorious career as an American extremist, and living such a lifestyle can be fun and exciting, if one follows these simple guidelines:

1)  Make A Ruckus 

Identify the imperative issues of the day that most people don’t want to be confronted with……..and then talk about them constantly.  But don’t just talk about them; talk about them intelligently and with an informative stance.  That really drives the willfully ignorant crazy.  Make your position and the facts behind it visible in the mainstream, through writing, videos, protest, graffiti, bumper stickers, tatts, whatever…

The establishment’s first line of defense is not necessarily to suppress the truth, but to keep it on the fringe of society, out of sight of the average citizen.  Your job is to shove the truth in people’s faces, so that they are forced to at least acknowledge that it exists, even if they don’t want to accept it.

2)  Laugh At Petty Authority

Most authority in our modern world is, really, only petty authority.  True authority is fostered by a sense of respect that is earned through leadership by example.  The greatest authorities are those who teach, not those who command, and political governance is null and void if that governance was attained through subversion and lies.

Of course, this view is a proven fast track to the nearest solitary confinement cell, but hey, living such a rock ‘n roll flavored “extreme” existence is not without risks…

Extremists recognize that a dishonest politician is only a conman in a nice suit, and nothing more.  They recognize that a law enforcement official that has no regard for Constitutional liberties, or for human decency, is just a gun toting goon in a badge and costume, and is not due any more respect than a common criminal.  They see alphabet agencies as extensions of a system that no longer holds any principles beyond sustaining its own wretched existence, and rightly look down upon those who would sell out to such cancerous bureaucracies for a paycheck and some undeserved prestige.  They laugh at such people, because in the grand scheme of things, these “great pillars” of our nation are, in fact, tragically ridiculous.

3)  Refuse To Be Pegged With Arbitrary Labels

I once entered into a debate with a long time Democrat over the painfully farcical presidency of Barack Obama.  After discovering that I held the same exact views on George W. Bush, he became frustrated and nearly infuriated, because he could not place me into a preconceived political box.  He complained that my stance could not be readily categorized, and this interfered with his ability to argue with me.

I replied…. “Good!  That’s exactly the way it should be!”

Extremism itself is an arbitrary label, whose definition is shifted by those in power to fit any person or group that happens to get in their way at any particular time.  However, to take this label and make it ours, we definitely can’t allow ourselves to be affiliated with hollow and meaningless political parties like the Democrats or the GOP, not to mention all the prefabricated and shallow philosophical platforms they engender.  Every problem and situation should be approached as new, and should be dealt with using social and legal methods that WORK, as opposed to those that happen to follow a particular party line.  There should be, at bottom, as many political viewpoints as there are individuals, not only two homogenized standards that we are forced to choose from in the hopes that one will be “less destructive” than the other.

4)  Prepare For Life Without Window Shopping

A surefire way to become an extremist today is to suggest preparation for any kind of disaster.  For the average American, there is no such thing as a tomorrow without Happy Meals and Nikes.  To suggest the possibility is akin to dancing naked on the freeway with a Gadsden Flag.  Despite the fact that in countries across the planet setting aside goods for survival is as common as mowing the lawn here in the U.S., many in America can’t fathom adopting such habits.  This is because many still believe that the system will protect them from harm no matter what happens.  The “extremist” thinks differently.

He realizes that there have been too many instances in the past when government was not helpful to those in the midst of catastrophe, and in some cases, was even the cause of greater harm.  He seeks to remove his dependence on this system, and procure the insurance necessary to help himself if the need ever arises.

The Federal Government has seen fit to identify the mere act of prepping as a sign of possible extremism, so, let’s get “extreme”, shall we?  I would rather be extreme and alive, than a non-threatening and law abiding corpse.

5)  Build A Terrifying Gun Collection 

If the contents of your house doesn’t scare the living hell out of your yuppie next door neighbor, then you aren’t an extremist yet.  Time to pay off the layaway on that 50. Cal!

Firearms ownership is a widespread American pastime, and is growing by the month.  However, there seems to be a misconception that this pastime is about our “sportsman’s heritage”, or self defense against local crime.  Nope.  That’s not why the extremist stockpiles an arsenal (an arsenal is defined as however many guns you happen to have when the ATF shows up at your doorstep).  He owns scary guns to defend against rogue governments and the rise of the totalitarian dynamic.  Freaky, I know…

Forget all this sportsman nonsense!  We own weapons to dissuade oligarchy from getting comfortable on our couches!  Our concern is not the wildlife…

6)  Question The Accepted Reality Of Everything

You can’t be an extremist if you believe everything you hear from the TV.  Actually, you can’t be an extremist if you believe ANYTHING you hear on the TV.  An extremist takes absolutely no stock in what the mainstream media says without further investigation, and would rather be caught dead than caught parroting talking points from cable news broadcasts.

Is a certain philosophical or political position suddenly considered “common knowledge”?  Be suspicious.  Is a particular methodology or debate point appearing in every journalistic outlet at the same exact time with the same exact one sided narrative?  Time to pull out the B.S. detector.  Is a politician opening his mouth and talking?  Have a shovel handy…

The extremist’s job is not necessarily to be contradictory just for the sake of contrariness.  It is, though, his job to be critical, discerning, and discriminating against that which doesn’t hold up to the light of candid examination.  While there is always room for a certain amount of “interpretation”, ultimately, if a circumstance rings false, it must be exposed.  Period.

Even if that exposure is harmful to the state of our country or our culture in the short term, deceit left unchecked in the long term is the single greatest destroyer of entire civilizations, and is absolutely unacceptable, especially to the extremist…

I think it is clear that extremists in an environment of despotism are in most cases people who refuse to abandon that which makes humanity whole.  We are, indeed, dangerous, but only to those who would do liberty harm.  A life of conformity is a life wasted, and a life of slavery is no life at all.  Whatever we may be called today, what we leave behind is ultimately what defines us.  Labels are irrelevant.  If I am an “extremist” because I refuse to participate in the delusion that is America in the new millennium, then so be it.  I am more than happy to join the long list of insurrectionaries who inhabit this nation today and who have been the legitimate makers of the world for generations.  Everything in history revolves not around governments, but rule-breakers.  They alone decide whether humanity will live tight in the fist of the authoritarian machine, or live free in the wilds of unbridled independence.

One man with courage is a majority.

Thomas Jefferson

Source: Brandon Smith | Alt-Market

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