Priorities and noise

With the political Left in power and the political Right pleading for compromise and counting on the sanctity of the Senate filibuster, the West’s nosedive into oblivion proceeds along a well-traveled path.   In voting it’s who counts the votes that matter, so it is with tax laws: it’s who writes them that dictates whose ox will be gored. 

Political theft in the form of higher taxes on the Haves will help satisfy the envy of the Have-Nots, at least as far as they can figure out.  The Haves at the top of the wealth pyramid have always assisted in the drafting of the stealth laws that supposedly transfer money from their accounts to the pockets of the hapless unfortunates, who consume it greedily with thinning additives from the economic scientists at the Eccles Building.  And this is why, as Gary North has frequently pointed out, the 20/80 Pareto rule never varies by much: “About 20% of the population in every European nation [Vilfredo Paredo studied in 1897] owned 80% of the wealth.  This is a power law. The same pyramid of wealth continues up the pyramid. About 4% (.2 x 20%) own 64% (.8 x 80%) of the wealth. About .8% (.2 x 4%) own 51% (.8 x 64%) of the wealth.”  It was true then, it is true today.  It will still be true after any tax reform legislation.

If Pat Buchanan’s assessment is correct — that Biden’s spending plans represent “a claim on the nation’s wealth equal to 30% of GDP — a figure comparable to FDR’s New Deal and LBJ’s Great Society,” then we can expect another FDR or LBJ war in the near future, likely with Russia, to distract from the build-back-better that’s throttling the economy.  Of course, if one or both superpowers begins throwing nuclear haymakers, one hypothesis of the Fermi Paradox will have proven itself convincingly — that when “intelligent” life reaches a certain stage it will self-destruct, leaving no one to receive radio signals from Little Green Men.  More precisely, when not-so-intelligent life grabs power, as it has done, it will wipe out everything.  All life, everywhere, on the planet it inhabits.

I have written about a solution to the State-as-necessary viewpoint, calling for a free market without the State, but have yet to make a significant dent in the blinkered conviction that as bad as the State might get, having no State is worse.  

Really?  A kidnapper, thief, counterfeiter, mass murderer, and liar is necessary?  Do you associate voluntarily with such people?  How many market entrepreneurs are hoping for a nuclear showdown with their competitors?

In The Fall of Tyranny, the Rise of Liberty I argued that the technological exponential that began with life itself and which Ray Kurzweil masterfully presents favors freedom and free markets.  While the State and its allies are doing everything in their power to turn technology against us, they will eventually fail.  They will fail because of the unsound economic system they’ve created, especially the fiat money contaminating its base.   

Someday, our lives will be in our hands, without overlords.  Don’t tell me you’re old and won’t see it. I’m probably older, and I’m counting on it. 

The year 2020 is notable for unprecedented growth in power over our lives.  From governments, to the medical profession, to your local stores, they all demanded obedience to their mandates of face coverings and distance from others, with exceptions for Leftist rioters.  The hope that a vaccine will set us free has not happened.  We have to set ourselves free by taking care of our health.  

You think the vaccine is the holy grail?  This writer spells it out in well-documented detail: Why I Won't Be Getting the Vaccine.  In his case, he argues that since he’s already had Covid, he’s immune and doesn’t need to be a subject in a shaky vaccine experiment.  

I argue, as do many others, that there many low-risk alternatives to achieving immunity or to restore one’s health in case of infection.  Vitamins, clean food, and daily exercise are my “vaccine.”  Vitamins, especially vitamin D3, vitamin C, vitamin B1 (Thiamine), vitamin K, zinc, zinc ionophores such as hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) and quercetin, selenium, and the mineral magnesium are essential aids in maintaining or restoring good health.  

The foregoing links all originate from Mercola.com.  

If you’ve been paying attention you know about the hostility to demonstrably-effective Covid treatments such as HCQ and ivermectin.  With the exception of vitamin D, the hostility is equally intense against vitamin/mineral therapies, so it is difficult to find articles endorsing their use.  Mercola.com is one of the few sources of researched information about vitamins, health, and Covid.  

Or it has been.  The level of hostility against Mercola is such that coming Monday May 3, he will be removing all articles related to vitamin D, C, zinc, and Covid.  Download them while you can.

In this world we need to set priorities.  Can you think of any reason not to make good health your top priority?  I can’t.  Don’t let the State’s perpetual political noise keep you from jogging or working out, or eating right.  You can’t control your life without first taking control of your health.  

********

George Ford Smith is the author of nine books, including The Flight of the Barbarous Relic, Eyes of Fire: Thomas Paine and the American Revolution, and The Fall of Tyranny, the Rise of Liberty.  He is also a filmmaker whose works include Do Not Consent- Think OUTSIDE the voting booth, Breaking Free from 2020, Last Day, and Risky Pinch Hitter.

PROLOG to The Flight of the Barbarous Relic

We're told by experts that the Fed is our number one inflation fighter, our protector against economic meltdown. Certainly, any person who cares about our country would accord it only the highest respect. But Preston Mathews wants to destroy the Fed. And he's apparently surrendered everything -- including the woman he loves -- to do so. Who is this renegade who wishes to bring back the dark days of despair, as his critics charge? He's the Fed's top gun, the lord of interest rates . . . the chairman of the Federal Reserve. 

PROLOG

The man approaching him in the August twilight was tall and thick through the chest, though nothing in his movements suggested a threat.  He strolled with a hand slipped casually in his pants pocket, even stopping once to pick up a piece of litter and toss it in a nearby barrel.  He could almost pass for one of D.C.’s tourists taking a late walk through a public park. 

Yet, on seeing him Ricky Sawyer’s stomach churned.  This was no casual meeting taking place.  He had known this moment would come and had dreaded it, and Sawyer was not prone to unnecessary fears.  As he waited under one of the many security lights in the area, the man stopped abruptly in the shadows, kneeled down and retied a running shoe that was properly laced.  Sawyer took the hint and moved all 282 pounds of himself over to join him.

“What’s with the cloak and dagger?” Sawyer asked.

The man stood up.  “I need the favor returned.”

Sawyer chuckled nervously.  “What do you want me to do?  Hack the president’s PC?”

“Nothing that easy, my friend.  I need you to set up a website.  Over time, you’ll be supplied with content.  But I need the site established now, to make sure the name is available.”

“You could go to anyone for a website.”

“Not this one.”

Sawyer hesitated.  ”What’s going on?”

“How much do you remember from Professor Stefanelli’s class?”

“Everything.  Paper versus rock.  Paper won.  We lost.”

“Right.  I want to put an end to paper.  Permanently.”

Sawyer chuckled. “Sounds like you’re going to blow up your office.”

“More along the lines of a crash course in hoax awareness.  That’s why I need your help.”

“Where’s the danger come in?”

“The content.  The power holders won’t like it.”

“There are a lot of things they don’t like.  Why—“

“—I guarantee this will upset them beyond anything you can imagine.  You’ll have to keep a low profile.  Make that no profile.  You’ll have to disappear.”

“Tall order for a whale, chief.”

“Any taller than breaking into the Eccles Building network?”

“No, guess not.”

“I think you’ll be okay.  But listen, this won’t work unless you understand what’s at stake.  Do you?”

Sawyer thought for a moment. “Yeah.  Civilization.  Under paper, little guys like me lose their wealth, liberty, and sometimes their lives, while government grows more bloated, corrupt, and oppressive.”

“And the cause?”

“Paper.  Inflation.”

“What’s inflation done for us historically?”

“According to Professor Stefanelli, without inflation we have no World War I, no Great Depression, no World War II, no Cold War, no Viet Nam, no taxpayer-funded bailouts, no bubbles, no war on terrorism, no Iraq.  Without inflation Cindy Sheehan is just another mom with a son.  Without inflation, instead of endless acres of white crosses marking the battlefield dead, men are left free to live.  Imagine that.  And when those men are geniuses like me or Google founders Page and Brin, the whole world profits.  Without inflation to build up militaries, we might’ve had nuclear power without nuclear bombs.  She also said something to the effect that if inflation were a disease, it would be considered the number one killer of human life.  There was more.  Give me time and I’ll remember it.”

“Do you agree with any of that?”

“Too simplistic.  But then, where would the computer age be without electricity?  Pull the plug and the computers go away.  So it was hard to argue with her.”

“But you did.”

“Of course.  But the truth is, without massive amounts of money the First World War doesn’t go far – four months, according to a writer who was around at the time.  And nothing beats the printing press for producing large amounts of money in a hurry – paper money.  And if World War I is aborted, the rest of the century looks a little brighter.  I would say she’s not far from the truth, at least.”

“Not bad for a hacker.  You talked about inflation but didn’t define it.  Can you?”

“Paper.”

“More precisely . . .”

“I didn’t expect a quiz.  The going definition is a rise in the general price level.”

“Do you accept that definition?”

“No, because you can have inflation without price increases.  Productivity improvements work against rising prices.”

“Any other reason not to accept the definition of inflation as rising prices?”

“Yeah, it obscures the cause.”

“Which is?”

“More paper.  More money.  An increase in the money supply.”

“How is the money supply increased?”

“Through treachery.  First the snap,” Sawyer said, snapping his fingers, “in which the Fed creates money from nothing.  Then the crank,” he continued, rotating his right arm in a cranking motion, “as the banks multiply that amount through credit expansion.  Then the pop” – He slapped his hands – “when the bubble bursts and everyone gets fired.  Sawyer’s theory of the business cycle in three words: snap, crankle, and pop.”

“But isn’t that how prosperity is funded?  By increasing the money supply?”

“No.  That’s how the inflationary boom is started or prolonged.”

“Is that a good thing?”

“It is if you’re one of the insiders.  Without it, the military/industrial/ congressional/welfare racket takes a big hit.  Governments would have to rely mostly on taxes to pay their bills.”

“What would that do for war if governments had to pay for it with taxes?”

“Make it an endangered species.”

“So if you’re a government bent on war—“

“Inflation is a sacred cow.”

“And who causes inflation?”

“Who?”

“Yes.”

“I’m looking at him.”

“I think you understand what we’re fighting.”

“I do.”

They shook hands.

“I’ll be in touch,” the man said.

Later that night Sawyer received an email containing a web address only.  After confirming the site didn’t exist he set about to create it, as agreed.

In the weeks that followed, Sawyer would find it difficult to believe their conversation was at all serious.  Nothing had been added to the website, and other than the terse email there had been no contact between them.  The topic they had discussed seemed weird at the time and even more so as time passed.  Perhaps their meeting was a brutal prank, a form of payback for the hack he had pulled.  It seemed like it was.  He began to feel like a fool for trusting him.

But Sawyer was wrong.  The day finally arrived when all doubts were forever removed.

————-

George Ford Smith is a former mainframe and PC programmer and technology instructor, the author of eight books including a novel about a renegade Fed chairman (Flight of the Barbarous Relic), a filmmaker (Do Not Consent), and an advocate of stateless market government.  He eagerly welcomes speaking engagements and can be reached at gfs543@icloud.com.

An interview I would like to give

When your books don’t sell what can you do?  

You might try writing better books.

You might get serious about a marketing plan.

You might change careers and toss it off to experience.

Or . . .

You could do what the big boys do:  Give interviews to popular journalists.  

The problem is what big name journalist would consider interviewing a no-name book author?   None, of course.

These days the big boys don’t have to give many interviews.  Their publishers announce the upcoming release of a new book, toss in a little spice, and it’s an instant bestseller.  The author has established his or her trust with a large trove of devoted fans.

But people have always had a soft spot for underdogs.  Likable underdogs.

How can an invisible author, assuming he’s a decent fellow, exploit this fact?

Here’s what I recommend: Interview himself.

For example, I’ve written a novel that exposes the fraud of the federal reserve.  Okay, but why should anyone read it if they (1) already know about the fraud of the federal reserve, or (2) couldn’t care less about the federal reserve or its alleged fraudulent nature?  

Here’s where I, the author, could add some spice.

I would say:  Look, if you want a straight accounting of the FED, its history, why it exists, why it’s politically untouchable, there are scores of readable, insightful, truthful books available.  My personal introductory favorite is Rothbard’s What Has Government Done to Our Money?  Gary North has written a spirited but grossly neglected What is Money?  I also love G. Edward Griffin’s The Creature from Jekyll Island — couldn’t put it down.  Ron Paul’s End the Fed is a must-read if there ever was one.  

As thorough as they are in most respects, none of these books suggests a way to butcher the beast, other than to educate the voting public about the FED’s diabolical character.  An angry public sometimes gets things changed on a local level.  But on a national level, in matters where there is not much immediate pain, it hasn’t happened.  The money people are forced to use may be counterfeit in some theoretical sense but it still buys things.  Don’t rock the boat.  Let it be.  Besides, the political class is too dependent on the FED to ever consider getting rid of it.  The FED’s counterfeit money pays for their wars and boondoggles, and keeps them elected.  The FED long ago bought the economics profession, so there’s plenty of opaque “theory” supporting its existence. 

But as Guido Hulsmann argues in The Ethics of Money Production, monetary inflation has an insidious affect on one’s soul. The acquisition of something for nothing tends to separate in one’s mind the idea of production as a necessary pre-condition of consumption.  Counterfeiting the FED way is absorbed in the national debt and seems totally harmless to people alive today.  With state-incited Armageddon constantly on the horizon why concern ourselves with our progeny?  Does anyone other than Austrian School economists and a handful of gold bugs worry about legal counterfeiting and growing government debt?

The war against the FED therefore is fought with a minuscule army.  And who leads this army?  At one point congressman and presidential candidate Ron Paul was commander-in-chief, and his effort to end the FED was picking up support to the point where in 2012 then-FED chair Ben Bernanke gave a series of lectures to counter the free market arguments of Paul and others.

The FED has proven to be politically indestructible — almost.

The fight against the FED needs a great leader.  I decided to portray one in my novel, The Flight of the Barbarous Relic.  What made him especially effective was his job at the time of the revolt. He was the perfect inside man, none other than the FED’s top gun, the lord of interest rates — the FED chairman.  

It matters little whether he was an apostate or an imposter.  What matters was his position in the world of money and how he dramatically brought the world’s attention to the noxious character of the US central bank.

It’s fiction but it’s a presentation of what might be and ought to be.  

—————

George Ford Smith is the author of nine books, including Do Not Consent: Think OUTSIDE the voting booth, The Flight of the Barbarous Relic, Eyes of Fire: Thomas Paine and the American Revolution, and The Fall of Tyranny, the Rise of Liberty.  He is also a filmmaker whose latest work bears the same title as his most recent book, Do Not Consent. PLEASE WATCH IT AND VOTE!

Madness 2020 has a solution

Do any solutions exist for the accelerating breakdown of Western society, and in particular the United States?

Everything that comes to pass that is alien to the woke, state-controlled push for complete state control will be ignored, punished, or twisted to represent the dying remnants of our shameful history.

Defenders of the free market and its cultural underpinnings have no play in academia or the controlled media.  To the extent it is even mentioned, the free market -- often interchanged with "capitalism" -- was an invention of racist whites who saw a clever way of amassing obscene profits by subjugating the poor.  Fortunately for civilization, as Marxists believe, the capitalist system contains within itself the seeds of its own destruction.  

Capitalism has always raised the living standards of countries whose governments permitted it to operate and has eliminated many evils but not the one that counts the most: The State.  As Mises tells us, capitalism delivers the goods.  But apparently it can't deliver goods such as justice and national defense.  It is thus that the legitimacy of the state is seen as axiomatic among free market defenders; we need it and the only question is how much.  Though constitutions limit state expansion to some extent -- war notwithstanding -- it's been the US voting public and its craven wish for safety and free lunches that have raised the state to the status of God.  

It was the state acting as God that shut down the economies in response to a virus with a 99% survival rate for those 70 or under, and nearly 95% for the rest.  It was the state acting as God that issued mandates about masks and lockdowns.  Those defying the mandates were few, as expected, because most people believe this state-deity really is looking out for their well-being.  Besides, they don't know a thing about viruses, vaccines, immunity, or vitamin D.   They have to trust experts, and the ones they see on TV have assured them the evil virus won't get them if they snap to state orders.  And besides, they're mostly spineless and given to inertia.

But the clincher has been the helicopter drops. Only an all-powerful deity could vanquish economic law and provide money out of nowhere that actually buys things for the millions of drop-ees that have been prohibited from going to work.  Their trust in the state's good intentions has been cauterized for all time and will only slightly be shaken when the roof finally collapses.  (See Dr. Robert Murphy's essay on Modern Monetary Theory for those who think deficit spending has no limits.)  

Even if the 2020 presidential election had been honest, direct political action would be futile.  Elections are a state exercise.  We cannot vote to disband the state.  As Gary North has written, "Forget About the White House. Only One House Matters: Pratt House." (membership required)  Pratt House has been the headquarters of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) since 1921.  "The voters get a choice every four years: CFR Team A or CFR Team B. Team B is whichever party is not occupying the White House."

Yet eliminating the state -- not to be confused with government -- desperately needs to be done to allow the free market to work.  (For details see my movie Do Not Consent.) We are wretched slaves under any other system.  Worse, our progeny will be slaves, and they will forever hate us for our failure to take action.

No matter how invulnerable a regime is to a legal frontal assault, as the US leviathan is today, they are all subject to radical change from within. A renegade in the right position could bring it down -- for the better.   I speculated on this in 2008.

Please see my most recent movie Madness 2020 for details.