tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9791011190580633552024-03-04T21:22:44.360-08:00Barbarous RelicExposing the fraud of State ruleGeorgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16908823468747218192noreply@blogger.comBlogger479125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-979101119058063355.post-39895621120502334932023-02-04T12:10:00.000-08:002023-02-04T12:10:27.731-08:00 The State Unmasked<p><span style="background-color: white; color: #151515; font-family: Palatino;"><span style="font-size: medium;">“So things aren't quite adding up the way they used to, huh? Some of your myths are a little shaky these days.”</span></span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #151515; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">“My <i>myths</i>? They're not—“</span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #151515; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #151515; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">He held a hand up. “Don't take it personally. You wanted straight talk, so let me talk.” To me, 'Will' looked like any number of motorcycle mechanics I had known. Lanky, hair in a ponytail, jeans with knee ventilation, and a T-shirt with a lewd graphic or saying. <i>His</i> shirt, though, bore the inscription 'Publik Skul Graduwit.' Except for the Ray-Ban Aviators, there was little to suggest he was actually a government spook.</span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #151515; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #151515; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">“I feel like I'm describing the color of fresh snow,” he said, looking everywhere except at me, “but here it is. We do whatever you let us get away with. That's all there is to it. And each day you let us get away with more. Any questions so far?</span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #151515; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #151515; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">“We knew you'd be <span style="color: black;">lousy guardians</span>, and you didn't let us down. We've created and milked crises throughout our history so that we now have the imperial executive every State needs to go along with an overarching bureaucracy meddling in your affairs. But you call this political arrangement the fruits of democracy, as if you'd decided you needed more war and less freedom in your life, then voted to make it happen. What's better, we've still got you believing <a href="http://www.lewrockwell.com/paul/paul233.html"><span style="color: #3356c7;">democracy is a good idea</span></a>. Every Fourth of July, you wave your sparklers in our honor, as if we were intellectual descendants of the <a href="http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/"><span style="color: #3356c7;">revolutionaries of 1776</span></a>, rather than the <a href="http://barbarous-relic.blogspot.com/2019/09/how-we-lost-revolutions-final-battle.html"><span style="color: #3356c7;">counter-revolutionaries of 1787</span></a>. Who says public education is failing us? It may be failing you, but not us.”</span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #151515; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #151515; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">He grinned and shook his head. “We impose gun control to reduce the crime rate. The thugs cheer and the <a href="https://www.cato.org/commentary/less-guns-more-crime"><span style="color: #3356c7;">crime rate goes up</span></a>. And the rate excludes crimes committed by government thugs. Some of you try to stick the Bill of Rights in our face. The Bill of Rights is a tourist attraction. We should sweat a document sequestered in the National Archives? Elected stiffs from Woodrow Wilson onward, as well as a few appointed ones, have been telling you the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Living_constitution"><span style="color: #3356c7;">Constitution is alive</span></a>. In other words, your rights are dead. No guns for you, pal.</span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #151515; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #151515; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">“You know, it really scares me when people say government serves their interests. How many politicians have the demeanor of servants? Politicians respect money and votes. And both have to be in large amounts and concentrated to become a threat or an advantage to them. Since most voters aren't organized, it's the politicians' rich supporters who help pull the levers of power.</span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #151515; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #151515; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">“Sometime during your school years, you were told the State's basic function is to protect you from domestic and foreign aggression. Therefore, it was only logical that we needed complete control of the military, police, and courts. What saints do you know personally who could be trusted with such power? And how do you think the people who have this power are going to fund these policing functions? Through voluntary trade on the market? Why should they mess with production and exchange when all they have to do is nudge you with a gun? We're a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Jay_Nock"><span style="color: #3356c7;">monopoly of crime</span></a>."</span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #151515; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #151515; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">“Almost no one believes that,” I said.</span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #151515; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #151515; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">“Don't I know. If enough people did, we'd be in trouble.”</span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #151515; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #151515; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">“Look, maybe people will admit it isn't ethical, but we at least get some benefit from taxation.”</span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #151515; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #151515; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">“Only if you don’t look <a href="http://bastiat.org/en/twisatwins.html#SECTION_G007"><span style="color: #0c61ab;">at the alternatives</span></a>. Some of you make a killing from taxes, others are literally killed. Let me read you something <a href="http://antiwar.com/bourne.php"><span style="color: #3356c7;">Randolph Bourne</span></a> wrote in 1918:</span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #151515; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"></p><blockquote><span style="font-size: medium;">“The modern State is not the rational and intelligent product of modern men desiring to live harmoniously together with security of life, property, and opinion. It is not an organization which has been devised as pragmatic means to a desired social end. All the idealism with which we have been instructed to endow the State is the fruit of our retrospective imaginations. What it does for us in the way of security and benefit of life, it does incidentally as a by-product and development of its original functions.”</span></blockquote><p></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #151515; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">“What does that prove?” I said. “It's a series of assertions. You haven't proved a thing.”</span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #151515; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #151515; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">“Nor <i>can</i> I. You have to look for yourself. Have you noticed it's impossible to vote away the State? You might find a candidate now and then who speaks out boldly against government growth. But that's mere election rhetoric, <a href="http://www.ronpaul2008.com/"><span style="color: #3356c7;">in most cases</span></a>. So far, nothing has stopped us.</span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #151515; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #151515; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">“Did the <a href="http://www.lewrockwell.com/rothbard/rothbard60.html"><span style="color: #3356c7;">Gipper</span></a>, your sole purported savior in recent memory, get government off your backs, as he said he would? He pledged to abolish the departments of Energy and Education, but last I heard they were still around. Rather than ditch the <a href="http://www.mises.org/story/2586"><span style="color: #3356c7;">bankrupt Ponzi scheme</span></a> we call Social Security, he followed Alan Greenspan's advice and increased taxes to postpone the bankruptcy. During the Gipper's eight-year reign, the federal debt tripled and civil liberties diminished. How does your back feel?</span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #151515; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #151515; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">“Maybe you think the State's done a good job defending you against foreign aggression. Let's touch on a few low points of history.</span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #151515; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #151515; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">“No Union lives were lost during the Confederacy's 36-hour shelling of Fort Sumter, an incident provoked by Lincoln 's ordering the fort reprovisioned instead of abandoned. A month earlier, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Real-Lincoln-Abraham-Agenda-Unnecessary/dp/0761536418/ref=sr_oe_1_1/104-3964574-8031103?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1187822829&sr=1-1"><span style="color: #3356c7;">he had ignored a Confederate peace commission</span></a> that had traveled to Washington , D.C. to negotiate a peaceful secession. But Lincoln had his 'incident,' got his war, and 800,000 young men died, plus an estimated 50,000 civilians and a few thousand slaves.</span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #151515; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #151515; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">“The end of slavery was never Lincoln 's objective, as he repeatedly stated, but rather one of the byproducts Bourne refers to. By 1840, the British Empire had ended slavery peacefully through compensated emancipation. During the 19<span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>th</sup></span> Century, <a href="http://www.lewrockwell.com/dilorenzo/dilorenzo44.html"><span style="color: #3356c7;">dozens of other countries ended slavery without war</span></a>. If manumission was Lincoln 's goal, why did the master statesman need a long, bloody war to achieve it? Lincoln invaded the South to regain lost tariff revenue when the southern states seceded. Lincoln, in other words, murdered and imprisoned people to carry on his policy of predation.</span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #151515; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #151515; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">“By the way, since Lincoln invaded a sovereign country — the Confederate States of America — I consider the war of 1861-1865 a foreign war.</span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #151515; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #151515; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">“Moving ahead a half-century, why do you suppose Wilson <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sedition_Act_of_1918"><span style="color: #3356c7;">imposed a maximum 20-year prison sentence</span></a> for anyone criticizing the government during World War I? Why did he conscript a million men who were packed like sardines into ships and sent overseas to join a war that <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Illusion-Victory-America-World-War/dp/0465024696/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/104-3964574-8031103?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1187973818&sr=1-1"><span style="color: #3356c7;">had already killed five million men</span></a>? Was it because Americans were convinced the State was acting in their defense?</span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #151515; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #151515; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">“Okay, but what about the 'good war,’ you ask. World War II was different. The so-called 'good war' was the costliest conflict in human history. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II_casualties"><span style="color: #3356c7;">Civilian deaths outnumbered military deaths</span></a> by over 16 million and total deaths on both sides exceeded 72 million. The 'good war' saw the guys in white hats set the precedent for dropping nuclear weapons on mostly civilian populations. Who was being defended when we incinerated two hundred thousand people whose leaders <a href="http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig2/denson8.html"><span style="color: #3356c7;">had earlier asked to negotiate a conditional surrender</span></a>, a condition we ultimately agreed to? </span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #151515; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #151515; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">“Was the State defending its citizens during the build-up to war when we neglected to tell Pearl Harbor commanders Short and Kimmel an attack was imminent? Twenty-four hundred troops lost their lives in that attack to join a war <a href="http://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/fdr-churchill/"><span style="color: #3356c7;">the president promised we would never join</span></a>. The man who made the promise had an <a href="https://www.whatreallyhappened.com/WRHARTICLES/McCollum/index.html"><span style="color: #3356c7;">eight-point provocation plan</span></a> to get Japan to attack us.</span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #151515; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #151515; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">“Did the war in Vietnam stop communism in its tracks and keep other dominoes from falling? The only thing <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnam_War_casualties"><span style="color: #3356c7;">it stopped were the lives of 58,209 American soldiers</span></a> and several million Vietnamese civilians. And these figures don't include countless others who suffered and perished from <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agent_Orange"><span style="color: #3356c7;">Agent Orange exposure</span></a>.</span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #151515; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #151515; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">“Were your trillions of dollars in taxes at work on 9-11 defending Americans from terrorist hijackers? And did you get your money's worth later, when the president invaded a country posing no threat to our security and having no connection to the attacks?</span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #151515; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #151515; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">“I don't have time to talk about inflation and its role in the State's growth and wars, other than to say most people buy our claim that the Federal Reserve is our <a href="http://ezinearticles.com/?The-Federal-Reserve-and-its-Role-as-U.S.-Money-Cops&id=568810"><span style="color: #3356c7;">number one inflation fighter</span></a>. Ironically, it's true but only because the Fed is the <a href="http://www.mises.org/story/428"><span style="color: #3356c7;">sole source of inflation</span></a>. It's a little like saying Al Capone was Chicago 's number one crime fighter. To lower the incidence of crime, all Capone had to do was let up on it.</span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #151515; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #151515; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">“The State makes its most significant inroads on liberty during major crises — wars and depressions, and more recently pandemics. The State is primarily responsible for bringing about, intensifying, and prolonging these crises. You still think the State exists for your benefit?</span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #151515; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #151515; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">“Change won't be easy because so many people feed at the federal trough. Ask <i>them</i> if they think we're plunderers or parasites or warmongers. To them we're compassionate visionaries and 'partners' in their success. Some of them are opinion-molders, and one way or another we take care of them. Is it any surprise <a href="http://www.mises.org/story/2585"><span style="color: #3356c7;">they stand up for us?</span></a></span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #151515; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #151515; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">“So there you have it. The only way you can beat us is with ideology, but we've got the majority of ideologists, <a href="http://www.lewrockwell.com/rothbard/rothbard33.html"><span style="color: #3356c7;">both left and right</span></a>, eagerly defending us. You'll have to educate yourselves and enough others to pose a threat. You’ve been trying <a href="https://oll.libertyfund.org/page/etienne-de-la-boetie-discourse-of-voluntary-servitude-1576"><span style="color: #0c61ab;">since 1576</span></a> if not earlier. How’s that going?”</span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #151515; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #151515; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">“If you understand all this,” I said, “why do you work for the State? Why aren't you fighting it?”</span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #151515; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #151515; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">“Because my family and I have a nasty habit. We like to eat. See ya ‘round.”</span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #151515; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #151515; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">***</span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #151515; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #151515; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>George Ford Smith</b> is the author of eight books and welcomes speaking engagements. Contact: gfs543@iCloud.com</span></p>Georgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16908823468747218192noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-979101119058063355.post-4491992567397055742023-01-27T11:36:00.000-08:002023-01-27T11:36:47.364-08:00 The search for a level playing field<p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Palatino;">Bernie Sanders and other politicians have made socialism attractive to voters, especially young ones, because it promises to eliminate the injustices of capitalism. As to what these terms mean no one seems to care much, other than by socialism they mean a kinder, caring society without income extremes, whereas capitalism is the preferred system of ruthless exploiters who amass obscene fortunes while real workers struggle to survive. </span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Palatino;"> </span></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">In recent times the disparagement of capitalism has included its attack on Mother Earth and the <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/media/al-gore-goes-unhinged-rant-about-rain-bombs-boiled-oceans-other-climate-threats-davos"><span style="color: #0c61ac;">air Al Gore breathes</span></a>.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">This has to stop. Today’s socialists simply want to make <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/millennials-support-socialism-because-they-want-make-america-great-everyone-ncna1109191"><span style="color: #0c61ac;">America great -- but for everyone</span></a>. </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">And that starts with taxation. The <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/business-57383869"><span style="color: #0c61ac;">very, very rich pay almost no income taxes</span></a>, while many of the biggest corporations pay nothing. According to an <a href="https://itep.org/55-profitable-corporations-zero-corporate-tax/"><span style="color: #0c61ac;">organization</span></a> that researches this matter,</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 45.8px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The tax-avoiding companies represent various industries and collectively enjoyed almost $40.5 billion in U.S. pretax income in 2020, according to their annual financial reports. The statutory federal tax rate for corporate profits is 21 percent. The 55 corporations would have paid a collective total of $8.5 billion for the year had they paid that rate on their 2020 income. Instead, they received $3.5 billion in tax rebates.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Clearly, income taxation as it exists is grossly unfair even if it is legal. Something must be done if society has a future. If taxes are the <a href="https://quoteinvestigator.com/2012/04/13/taxes-civilize/"><span style="color: #0c61ac;">price we pay for civilization</span></a>, and society is <a href="https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2020/08/05/we-were-not-told-the-cost-to-us-of-multiculturalism/"><span style="color: #0c61ac;">demonstrably uncivilized</span></a>, there’s a bug in the system somewhere. But where? Today’s socialists think they know.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">It<span style="font-family: "Arial Unicode MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">’</span>s not necessarily a case of the super-rich wanting to exert their power over the poor. According to <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/cartercoudriet/2019/10/15/billionaires-more-taxes-gates-buffett-bloomberg/?sh=23541e27792c"><span style="color: #0c61ac;">Forbes</span></a>, “At least a dozen billionaires have made public statements that call for the super-rich to pay more in taxes.” Some mega-rich individuals such as Warren Buffet apparently feel guilty and want government to swipe more of their income. Surrendering to a mega-thief whose appetite is insatiable doesn’t balance the scales. </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">If people, regardless of income, had the choice of keeping what they earned, how many would instead turn it over to the government? In all likelihood they would avoid thieves of any kind since they have a way of wasting what they steal. Instead, they would direct more of their money into philanthropic activities, as <a href="https://givingcompass.org/article/the-history-of-the-charitable-tax-deduction"><span style="color: #0c61ac;">the super-rich did</span></a> before the 16th Amendment made income theft legal. </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">So what is the solution?</span></b></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b></b><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">We need to ask ourselves: Is thievery necessary for civilization? Does making it legal make it any less larcenous? Does stealing more from those who have it add a luster of righteousness to it?</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Most of us were raised with the notion that theft is theft, and theft is wrong. If a thief can be duped so much the better. </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The super-rich, well-aware of their vulnerability, have used the law to protect themselves, as Trump’s now-famous <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2016/09/26/politics/donald-trump-federal-income-taxes-smart-debate/index.html"><span style="color: #0c61ac;">remark</span></a> to Hillary reminds us. If you were super-rich you would do the same. It’s a matter of buying the right politicians and bureaucrats to <a href="https://taxfoundation.org/how-many-words-are-tax-code"><span style="color: #0c61ac;">complicate the tax code</span></a>. </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Clearly, the oddball organization in all this is the government. It has more guns than Trump, a lot more, plus it has the nearly unanimous support of the media. It could, if it also believed its rhetoric, bring any billionaire to his knees. Alas, we are dealing with a corrupt government, easily swayed by the prospect of obscene monetary gains.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">Corruption raised to a virtue</span></b></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Once upon a time governments discovered there are more ways to steal than through direct taxation. Kings and other tyrants noticed that their citizens trusted government coins and began diluting them of their precious metal content or falsifying the stamped content. The peasants caught on and hoarded the good ones, while using the king’s coins in trade. But the kings caught on and made the peasants pay their taxes in good coins. </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Much later when banks got into the act, they noticed their depositors began using their gold receipts in trade instead of the gold itself. They trusted the banks, but then the banks decided to issue receipts for gold they didn’t have. Unlike the days of coin debasement, a phony receipt looked the same as a good one. People were fooled but eventually the banks were caught and had to shut down at least temporarily. </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Since banks dealt with money and governments could never get enough of it, the two became close friends. Government passed laws declaring that the banks owned the gold in their vaults, not the hapless depositors. They also legalized central banks that could control all or most of the banks of the country, as well as the economy itself. </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Vera C. Smith addressed the topic of central banking in her 1936 book, <i>The Rationale of Central Banking and the Free Banking Alternative</i>. In the book’s <a href="https://www.econlib.org/library/LFBooks/SmithV/smvRCB.html?chapter_num=1%23book-reader"><span style="color: #0c61ac;">introduction</span></a>, economist Leland Yeager tells us “A central bank, as Smith notes, is not <b>a product of natural development. It originates through government favors and bears special privileges and responsibilities</b>.”</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 45.8px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Typically, it serves as banker for the government and for the ordinary banks and <b>monopolizes or dominates the issue of paper money</b>. From this privilege derive the secondary functions and characteristics of a modern central bank: it guards the bulk of its country<span style="font-family: "Arial Unicode MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">’</span>s gold reserve, and its notes and deposits form a large portion of the cash reserves of ordinary banks. It is constrained under a gold standard, though less tightly than competing banks would be, by the obligation to keep its notes redeemable. When unable to meet this obligation, it typically suspends payments and goes off the gold standard, <b>while its notes acquire forced currency</b>. . .</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 45.8px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 45.8px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>Control over the volume of its own note and deposit issue gives the central bank power over the size or scale of the country</b><span style="font-family: "Arial Unicode MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">’</span><b>s money and banking system and over the general credit situation. </b>{emphasis mine]</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 45.8px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b></b><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">In the US, the Fed and the federal government have had a cozy relationship for over a century. With gold redemption gone the only receipts the Fed issues are fake, yet they pass as money, by decree. And with the Fed serving as a buyer of government debt, it helps fund its welfare - warfare expenses. </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Since the Fed has <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/priceless-how-the-federal_n_278805"><span style="color: #0c61ac;">bought the economics profession</span></a>, its operations are protected from acceptable scrutiny. Inflation, for instance, is usually defined as a volatile rise in the general price level — see <a href="https://www.stlouisfed.org/education/feducation-video-series/episode-1-money-and-inflation"><span style="color: #0c61ac;">here</span></a>, <a href="https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/111314/what-causes-inflation-and-does-anyone-gain-it.asp"><span style="color: #0c61ac;">here</span></a>, and <a href="https://www.pgpf.org/budget-basics/what-is-inflation-and-why-does-it-matter"><span style="color: #0c61ac;">here</span></a> among many others — not an increase in the money supply as it was originally understood. The economists tell us a 2% price increase is not only acceptable but <a href="https://www.thebalancemoney.com/why-is-inflation-good-4065995"><span style="color: #0c61ac;">necessary for a healthy economy</span></a>. And with the Fed targeting 2%, it is seen as an inflation fighter rather than an inflation creator.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Inflation eats away at the purchasing power of the dollar. <a href="https://www.bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm"><span style="color: #0c61ac;">Check it out</span></a> for yourself. It’s effectively a hidden tax. Who is hurt the most, the few holding lots of dollars or the rest holding a few?</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">And if the few are big enough and can’t pay their bills, who do suppose <a href="https://www.federalreserve.gov/boardDocs/speeches/2002/20021121/default.htm"><span style="color: #0c61ac;">bails them out</span></a> with its power of the printing press?</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">With the big players protected and even encouraged through what was originally termed the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenspan_put"><span style="color: #0c61ac;">Greenspan put</span></a>, is it any wonder large discrepancies in income result?</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">People say they want a level playing field. Rather than giving them more power as today’s socialists and progressives want, the known thieves should be ousted to achieve this goal.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">***</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>George Ford Smith</b> is the author of eight books and welcomes speaking engagements. Contact: gfs543@iCloud.com</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></p>Georgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16908823468747218192noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-979101119058063355.post-68862774312064856832023-01-20T10:54:00.001-08:002023-01-20T10:56:13.710-08:00 Fighting inflation means fighting the Fed<p><i style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Palatino;"><span style="font-size: medium;">“There are surely other worlds than this—other thoughts than the thoughts of the multitude—other speculations than the speculations of the sophist.”</span></i></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Palatino; text-align: right;"><span style="font-size: medium;">— Edgar Allan Poe, “The Assignation”</span></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Nothing brings out misleading or false narratives like the subject of money. </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Prices over the last — what? — 25 months have shot up, and this development is roundly called inflation. Why? Because prices have shot up. The criminals running the government even passed an inflationary <a href="https://www.foxbusiness.com/media/larry-kudlow-omnibus-bill-monstrosity-full-spending-tax-hikes"><span style="color: #0c61ac;">omnibus spending bill</span></a> under the pretext of fighting inflation, the logic being they can do whatever they want because we can’t stop them.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">In today’s fiat world of make-believe, inflation is an increase in the money supply and is synonymous with counterfeiting — an exchange of nothing for something. As Ryan McMaken <a href="https://mises.org/wire/money-supply-growth-turns-negative-first-time-28-years"><span style="color: #0c61ac;">reports</span></a>, “During the thirteen months between April 2020 and April 2021, money supply growth in the United States often climbed above 35 percent year over year, well above even the ‘high’ levels experienced from 2009 to 2013.”</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Money supply metrics are not front-page news. Most accounts give us the hand-wringing figure of higher prices or CPI inflation. It seems everyone uses “inflation” and “CPI inflation” interchangeably, as if the difference is only linguistic.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">It isn’t. CPI inflation is an effect, inflation is one of the causes.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Among other things, prices are influenced by changes in the money supply. More money puts upward pressure on prices. Improvements in production/distribution efficiency does the opposite. The two work simultaneously. Sometimes prices remain constant while the Fed inflates the money supply, as happened prior to the Crash of 1929. Given that the bureaucrats who control the money supply, the FOMC of the Federal Reserve, want an <a href="https://www.federalreserve.gov/faqs/economy_14400.htm"><span style="color: #0c61ac;">annual CPI inflation rate of 2%</span></a>, they have to figure out how to assess the infinite complexity of the market to adjust the money supply accordingly. No wonder one Fed official thinks <a href="https://www.alephblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/Economics%2520is%2520Hard%2520-%2520Dont%2520Let%2520Bloggers%2520Tell%2520You%2520Otherwise.pdf"><span style="color: #0c61ac;">economics is real hard</span></a>.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">But wait — Biden wants the Fed to ensure the <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-woke-mandate-for-the-federal-reserve-racial-equity-congress-house-joe-biden-11655659047"><span style="color: #0c61ac;">woke goal of racial equity</span></a> along with its dual mandate of “maximum employment and price stability.” Is this a call for <a href="https://nypost.com/2022/04/30/reparations-arent-about-justice-theyre-an-act-of-revenge/"><span style="color: #0c61ac;">reparations</span></a>? Who better to provide the necessary billions than a government agency that can create money at will?</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">What would happen to price inflation if that happened?</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Reparations aside, the Fed had it going for awhile. Using an <a href="https://www.in2013dollars.com/us/inflation/2020?amount=100"><span style="color: #0c61ac;">inflation calculator</span></a>, I found that from 2017 to 2019, prices increased annually at a rate of 2.13%. The FOMC would cheer that figure. Beginning in the year of covid hysteria — 2020 —prices since have gone up 4.67% annually. Oops.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">How did we get into this mess?</span></b></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">One of the most prosperous eras in our history, in all of history, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_history_of_the_United_States%23Late_19th_century"><span style="color: #0c61ac;">came after the Civil War</span></a>. It was a period without a central bank or income tax. No entity was tasked with maintaining macroeconomic or racial goals. No entity served as a lender of last resort. Monetary policy was left mostly in the hands of the market rather than a gathering of bureaucrats. Gold and to some extent silver coin was money, and paper currency a convenient substitute. </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">What about price inflation during this period? From 1870 to 1900 there was none. The purchasing power of the dollar increased. According to calculations based on the <a href="https://www.in2013dollars.com"><span style="color: #0c61ac;">Bureau of Labor Statistics consumer price index</span></a> the country had a <b>deflation</b> rate of -1.47% per year. By1900 prices were 35.88% <b>lower</b> than the average prices of 1870. Saving was rewarded, and the economy thrived.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Unlike the myth that a committee has to inflate the money supply to avoid deflation and therefore a downturn, the American economy did its best <i>by far</i> without any committee or any CPI inflation. </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">During the late 1800s banks ignored the requirements of demand deposits and engaged in fractional reserve banking, as banks have always done <a href="https://wiki.mises.org/wiki/Full_reserve_banking"><span style="color: #0c61ac;">almost without exception</span></a>, including today under the Fed. They held only a fraction of deposits in reserve and loaned the rest, but this created problems called Panics when many banks were caught short. </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Instead of acknowledging the pitfalls of fractional reserves (see <a href="https://mises.org/library/faults-fractional-reserve-banking"><span style="color: #0c61ac;">here</span></a> and especially <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Ethics-Money-Production-Guido-Hulsmann/dp/1610166817"><span style="color: #0c61ac;">here</span></a>), they condemned the commodity money for its lack of “elasticity.”</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">A few of the biggest bankers — along with key politicians — decided to address this problem. In late 1910 they met secretly on Jekyll Island, Georgia and worked out the structure for a <a href="https://wiki.mises.org/wiki/Cartel%23Examples_of_cartels"><span style="color: #0c61ac;">banking cartel</span></a> that in its essentials became the Federal Reserve Act of 1913. </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Senator Nelson Aldrich of Rhode Island was one of those present at Jekyll, and the plan that emerged bore his name. Unfortunately for the bankers, Aldrich was a Republican and getting a Democrat-controlled congress to embrace it proved futile. When Democrat Woodrow Wilson became president in 1912 the Aldrich plan emerged under the auspices of Democratic Congressman Carter Glass of Virginia, who like other politicians lacked technical knowledge of banking and relied upon hired hands for assistance.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">If truth were to dominate the banking bill should have born the name of banker <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Warburg"><span style="color: #0c61ac;">Paul Warburg</span></a> of Kuhn - Loeb & Company, who was the chief architect of the Jekyll proposal. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Warburg"><span style="color: #0c61ac;">One writer</span></a> referred to Warburg as "the mildest-mannered man that ever personally conducted a revolution.”</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">For nearly a century government officials denied the authenticity of the Fed’s furtive foundation, but in <a href="https://www.atlantafed.org/news/conferences-and-events/conferences/2010/1105-return-to-jekyll-island/history"><span style="color: #0c61ac;">2010 Bernanke and team</span></a> held a celebration of its founding on Jekyll Island.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: #0c61ac;"><a href="https://mises.org/library/case-against-fed-0">Murray Rothbard</a></span> describes the bankers’ victory this way:</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 45.8px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Following the crucial plank of post-Peel Act Central Banking, <b>the Fed was given a monopoly of the issue of all bank notes</b>; national banks, as well as state banks, could now only issue deposits, and the deposits had to be redeemable in Federal Reserve Notes as well as, at least nominally, in gold. . . </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 45.8px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 45.8px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The Fed was now in place as lender of last resort; and with the prestige, power, and resources of the U. S. Treasury solidly behind it, it could inflate more consistently than the Wall Street banks under the [previous] <a href="https://www.clevelandfed.org/publications/working-paper/2011/wp-0723r2-the-national-banking-system-a-brief-history">National Banking System</a>, and above all, it could and did, inflate even during recessions, in order to bail out the banks. <b>The Fed could now try to keep the economy from recessions that liquidated the unsound investments of the inflationary boom, and it could try to keep the inflation going indefinitely</b>. [My emphasis]</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 45.8px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">And beginning with <a href="https://mises.org/library/inflation-inferno-i"><span style="color: #0c61ac;">WWI</span></a> the Fed has proved indispensable for conducting war.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 45.8px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Moral: When you talk about inflation, always include the government’s central bank, the Federal Reserve, the entity solely responsible for inflating the money supply and thereby creating social and economic havoc.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 45.8px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>George Ford Smith</b> is the author of eight books and welcomes speaking engagements. Contact: gfs543@iCloud.com</span></p>Georgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16908823468747218192noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-979101119058063355.post-61709982545698964182022-11-30T11:59:00.000-08:002022-11-30T11:59:23.580-08:00 Tucker misleadingly attacks Apple for hobbling AirDrop<p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: Palatino;">Tucker Carlson slammed Apple on his </span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHJ_tzgTZn0" style="font-family: Palatino;"><span style="color: #0c61ab;">11-29-22 nightly broadcast</span></a><span style="font-family: Palatino;"> for restricting the use of the Airdrop feature on its iPhone — in China only.</span><span style="font-family: Palatino;"> </span><span style="font-family: Palatino;">With widespread protests over China’s “zero-covid” policy that indirectly led to the deaths of </span><a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/26/asia/xinjiang-urumqi-china-lockdown-protests-intl-hnk/index.html" style="font-family: Palatino;"><span style="color: #0c61ab;">10 people in an apartment fire</span></a><span style="font-family: Palatino;">, Tucker views the limitation of a communications app as a clear sign that Apple is an instrument of the Chinese Communist Party.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">After rightfully blasting US mainstream media for failing to report on tanks being rolled into action to intimidate protestors, Tucker said:</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"></p><blockquote><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">We can say, we know for a fact, that Apple is covering for the government of China. . . . [In spite of it being located in the US and run by an American], Apple is in no sense American. Apple’s loyalty is to the government of China. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">If you think that’s an overstatement consider this: Earlier this month [November, 2022] Apple did the bidding of the Chinese government to crush domestic protests against the Communist Party there. Apple did this by disabling it’s permanent Airdrop feature in China — and so far only in China, the only country in which it’s disabled. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">So why did Apple disable that feature in China?</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Well, because that feature — permanent AirDrop — allows iPhone users to communicate directly with one another — without using the internet or cellular networks, both of which in a totalitarian state like China are controlled by the government.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">And that means without permanent Airdrop it’s effectively impossible for freedom-minded citizens to organize with one another — they’re powerless. Apple, of course, knows this, and that’s why when iPhone users in China began using permanent AirDrop to complain about the Communist Party Apple just shut it down. </span></p></blockquote>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Apple didn’t shut it down. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Let’s look at some details. Here is what the AirDrop control page looks like on an iPhone in the US — presumably the same as it would look anywhere else, including China. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6imovHpccWso9YHPW-ZWU7RvrbJDLJWMfAlO2YvBGsGK0MmVcIE_C7iFn35z_sqchomQIf1jJnfxl6bbw9OjTWLRBqJahNFd1hB9d_Od1NjsP_IEVQVkCQ_FeRe7M5LqjklsSXt0wgCViqb8hHeiN11QWS2rUviNUZfMCkfBff3vWafBqsNhysUFmNQ/s888/AirDrop.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><img border="0" data-original-height="888" data-original-width="828" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6imovHpccWso9YHPW-ZWU7RvrbJDLJWMfAlO2YvBGsGK0MmVcIE_C7iFn35z_sqchomQIf1jJnfxl6bbw9OjTWLRBqJahNFd1hB9d_Od1NjsP_IEVQVkCQ_FeRe7M5LqjklsSXt0wgCViqb8hHeiN11QWS2rUviNUZfMCkfBff3vWafBqsNhysUFmNQ/s320/AirDrop.jpeg" width="298" /></span></a></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> “Contacts” are people who are included in their Phone app and is the default setting. If they want to transmit or receive information using AirDrop with people not in their contacts, such as in a mass protest, they can change the setting to “Everyone.”</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Even today protestors in China can do it. But <a href="https://dailycaller.com/2022/11/29/apple-airdrop-china-covid-protests-restriction/">according to reports</a> they can only do it 10 minutes at a time. After 10 minutes they have to reset it from Receiving Off to one of the other options.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Yes, it’s a hassle, but it works.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Apple is a big company that tries to market its products around the world. It is subject to market forces of competition as well as state forces of coercion. Monopoly power lies with the state, not the company, no matter how big it is. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Every state, including the US, has “pay to play” rules. If Apple wants to sell iPhones in China, it has to satisfy state bureaucrats as well as customers. This is one of many prices we pay in a world run by states. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Blogger Don Surber <a href="https://donsurber.blogspot.com/2022/11/musk-beware-twitter-made-enemies.html"><span style="color: #0c61ab;">reports</span></a> on what happened to wealthy Chinese entrepreneur <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Ma">Jack Ma</a>, co-founder and CEO of Alibaba, when <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fjv5RurWtyE"><span style="color: #0c61ab;">he gave a speech in October 2020</span></a>: </span></p>
<blockquote><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">He criticized the Communist Party, in the foolish belief that being the richest man in Red China protected him. It did not. Chairman Xi had him seized and sent off some place to be re-educated. He had money, not freedom. Now he is gone. Criticized by the pope, Stalin asked how many divisions does the pope have? Xi knew Ma also had no divisions. As George R.R. Martin wrote, power is power.</span></p></blockquote>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Neither does Apple have any divisions. Apple could’ve removed its AirDrop feature altogether for China. Maybe Xi will order it removed. But for now it’s at least available in hobbled form.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><br /></p>Georgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16908823468747218192noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-979101119058063355.post-23960782862367674182022-10-30T12:29:00.000-07:002022-10-30T12:29:49.501-07:00Does voting move us closer to a permanent jailbreak?<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">People today are voting for more of the same or voting for complete destruction of the same. It’s not a vote for a particular candidate necessarily, although some of them sound refreshing in their campaign speeches. Most importantly it’s a vote against the Democrats. </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The Democrats have usurped power to install an anti-life agenda. They are not the loyal opposition. They are destroying everything America is — freedom of dissent, freedom of opportunity, freedom from government intrusion, along with peace and prosperity. They are using everything they can get away with to keep their grip on our lives. </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Democrats are not some crazed religious sect. They’re a gang with control of the State’s omnipotent powers who have fraudulently acquired the label of legitimate. It doesn’t matter that Biden is a cognitively impaired, ice cream-licking fool and that Kamala giggles and waves her hands to win affection. They are number one and number two, with all the power the law assigns those positions plus the power they take on their own. And they’re directing that power against us, the people who put them in office through a rigged election.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">It’s long been said that power itself corrupts those who have it. Will it corrupt people like Mehmet Oz, Kari Lake, or Joe Kent? Or Donald Trump? Looking at history we see few officeholders who have been significantly untouched, notably former congressman Dr. Ron Paul and <a href="https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/jeannette-rankin-casts-sole-vote-against-wwii">anti-war suffragist Jeannette Rankin</a>, the first woman to hold public office and the only representative to vote against US involvement in both WW I and WW II, and who in 1968 at age 87 mobilized an anti-war protest against the Vietnam War. Most officeholders, elected or appointed, see the power of the State as the only way to govern society, helping itself to our wealth in the process. </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">“If elections changed anything they’d make them illegal,” we often hear. The state, no matter how dedicated to our welfare it pretends to be, forbids the public from tampering with certain control centers or pillars of society. Two of those pillars are education and money, both of which it controls virtually without challenge. Part of the educational failing is an understanding of money, and that’s one reason we’re headed for what Gary North has called <a href="https://www.garynorth.com/public/22068.cfm">the Great Default</a>.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Most of you know about Ron Paul and his homeschooling course and opposition to the Fed. Of the current crop of candidates how many even question government schooling or Fed-controlled fiat money? </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Voting might accomplish a temporary change for the better but if the State’s pillars remain untouched, how long would it last? We do need government but not the ones we’ve been subjected to: The one we vote for and the other that controls them, the Deep State.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The elected government is a fake, the deep state is a monster, but no one talks about the governing power of the free market. The first two governments live off of the third. Without its support the other two would not exist. How did it happen that the most powerful government is also the slave the other two kick around?</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> What organizations extract their funding by force? Walmart, Amazon, Apple, Home Depot? The little girls and their mothers selling girl scout cookies? If there was such an outfit it would be considered criminal. Why does government get a pass? A double-standard is indefensible.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Government today is presumably run by experts — experts such as Anthony Fauci, Deborah Birx, the Council on Foreign Relations, and Jerome Powell. What do we, who are busy with our lives, know about viruses or foreign policy or monetary issues? So we listen to experts as they sell us down the river. We might trash them, but usually fail to criticize the system that makes them possible. Its absence would mean anarchy, a word made evil by the State, but it is only another term for a society not subjugated by the threat of legalized violence, otherwise known as the free market. </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Does voting move us closer to a permanent jailbreak? No, because it never gets rid of the jail. Freedom from today’s government is never on the ballot. </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Let’s challenge it. Let’s embrace the free market without the meddling of a monopoly State. Let’s shrug off our oppressor. For starters see <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=df_l24SY-hA">here</a> and <a href="https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B089QS6RHT?pf_rd_r=7K4N70QDZXC4VD5NNQB9&pf_rd_p=edaba0ee-c2fe-4124-9f5d-b31d6b1bfbee">here</a>.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></p>Georgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16908823468747218192noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-979101119058063355.post-69945625033963417072022-10-13T13:38:00.001-07:002022-10-13T13:40:56.358-07:00Honest Money in Dishonest Hands<p><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 18px;">For those who would find relief knowing the Bible sanctions a market-derived medium of exchange, Gary North’s </span><a href="https://cdn.mises.org/Honest%20Money%20second%20edition%202015.pdf" style="font-family: Times; font-size: 18px;" target="_blank"><i>Honest Money</i></a><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 18px;"> will come as a godsend (no pun intended).</span><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 18px;"> </span><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 18px;">Even for those reprobates who forswear a religious worldview, his book will provide a solid grounding in monetary theory and history. </span><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 18px;"> </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Times; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">North’s vast understanding of money and banking coupled with his lean, no-jargon writing style takes the labor out of reading. His narrative carries us on a journey from the development of money in its innocent youth, where it was used solely as a means of facilitating trade, to money in its corrupt maturity, where today it also serves to facilitate power and profit for a ruling elite. </p>
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<p style="font-family: Times; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Very importantly <i>Honest Money</i> also includes numerous bullet points at the end of each chapter covering the main ideas. More good news: The book can be read comfortably in one evening.</p>
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<p style="font-family: Times; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b>Crusoe’s Choices</b></p>
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<p style="font-family: Times; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">North begins with the familiar star of economic analysis, Robinson Crusoe. But rather than the usual pedestrian account of how Crusoe will budget his time, North dramatizes the situation somewhat, as would be appropriate for someone recently shipwrecked on an unknown island. </p>
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<p style="font-family: Times; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">While on board a ship slowly sinking, Crusoe makes decisions about what goods to take to shore on his crudely assembled raft. The various goods and conditions on the island are objective, but his evaluation of the value of each good is purely subjective. Any gold on board has no value to a man marooned indefinitely on a desert island. </p>
<p style="font-family: Times; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"></p><blockquote><span style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: medium;">Gold isn’t wealth. It’s heavy. It displaces tools. It sinks rafts. It’s not only useless; it’s a liability.</span></blockquote><p></p>
<p style="font-family: Times; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">This is how North introduces the reader to the distinctions between objective reality and subjective preferences, and to the fact that money arises only in a social context. With no one to trade with, poor Crusoe had no need of it.</p>
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<p style="font-family: Times; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b>What is money and where did it come from?</b></p>
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<p style="font-family: Times; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">In subsequent chapters he builds on these ideas. Money is a universally-accepted medium of exchange. Originally, it was not imposed from above but evolved from competition with all other goods on the market, as the good most acceptable in trade. Over the centuries, gold and silver became the most commonly used monies.</p>
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<p style="font-family: Times; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">What about the supply of money? Who determines that?</p>
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<p style="font-family: Times; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">If we have honest money, the market controls its supply. In today’s world it’s a committee. Just as we wouldn’t want a committee to set prices for us, North says, “why should it be allowed to control the supply of money in which all prices are quoted?”</p>
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<p style="font-family: Times; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b>A complacent public</b></p>
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<p style="font-family: Times; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">But what about the hapless public under this monetary regime? Will they ever revolt?</p>
<p style="font-family: Times; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"></p><blockquote><p style="font-family: Times; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Not very often. The public decides that paper money is money, not pieces of shiny metal. If paper is acceptable by the store down the street, then who cares? Who cares if prices go up, year after year? What’s “a little” price inflation? We’re all doing better, aren’t we? . . . .</p>
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<p style="font-family: Times; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">“Inflation can’t hurt anyone too badly” is a delusion of fully employed younger workers. It can hurt everyone who isn’t staying ahead of it with pay increases, and I mean after-tax pay increases.</p></blockquote>
<p style="font-family: Times; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Inflation acts as a turbocharger for the progressive income tax. The latter was passed in 1913 with rates so low and applied to incomes so high that almost no one worried, just as no one worries about a little inflation. The average family made $1,000 a year, but the tax didn’t kick in until the $20,000 level, and even there it was only 1%. Those few who made $500,000 or more were “soaked” at only 7%.</p>
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<p style="font-family: Times; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">But once the law was in place the politicians changed the rules. Imagine that. In 1916, while Woodrow Wilson was bragging to voters about keeping us out of war, the top rate was bumped to 15%. The following year, while Wilson was shipping American men “over there,” the bottom bracket plunged from $20,000 to $2,000 while the top rate reached 67%, then 77% a year later. </p>
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<p style="font-family: Times; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">As Rothbard has <span style="color: #0000e9; text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://mises.org/library/case-against-fed-0" target="_blank">noted</a></span>, </p>
<p style="font-family: Times; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"></p><blockquote>As luck would have it, the new Federal Reserve System coincided with the outbreak of World War I in Europe, and it is generally agreed that it was only the new system that permitted the U.S. to enter the war and to finance both its own war effort, and massive loans to the allies; roughly, the Fed doubled the money supply of the U.S. during the war and prices doubled in consequence. </blockquote><p></p>
<p style="font-family: Times; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Inflation is another name for counterfeiting. Counterfeiters create money from nothing then spend it. The private counterfeiter and the government counterfeiter have the same goal: to get something for nothing.</p>
<p style="font-family: Times; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"></p><blockquote><p style="font-family: Times; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The public doesn’t trust private counterfeit money. The public does trust government counterfeit money, at least for a long time, until people’s trust is totally betrayed (mass inflation).</p>
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<p style="font-family: Times; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">What is the difference in principle between private counterfeiting and government counterfeiting? None.</p></blockquote>
<p style="font-family: Times; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b>A Tale of Three Counterfeiters</b></p>
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<p style="font-family: Times; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">One of the most memorable parts of <i>Honest Money</i> is North’s tale of the counterfeiters. Although counterfeiting is a swindle it acquires a high moral luster if it’s practiced in plain sight by the right people. </p>
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<p style="font-family: Times; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">In North’s tale three men counterfeit and are discovered.</p>
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<p style="font-family: Times; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The first one is a businessman with an offset printing press who prints 500 $20 bills and spends them into circulation. </p>
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<p style="font-family: Times; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The second man is an employee of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing who prints a million $20 bills, and the government spends them into circulation.</p>
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<p style="font-family: Times; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The third is the chairman of a major New York bank that has loaned a billion dollars of fractional-reserve money to Pemex, the oil company owned by the Mexican government. Pemex cannot meet interest payments on the loan because the price of oil has collapsed. </p>
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<p style="font-family: Times; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">What happens to these three men?</p>
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<p style="font-family: Times; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The businessman is convicted of counterfeiting and sent to prison.</p>
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<p style="font-family: Times; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The government employee continues to print money until he reaches age 65, when he retires and collects a pension.</p>
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<p style="font-family: Times; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The bank chairman calls the Fed, who in turn calls the Mexican government to get them to issue a bond for $25 million. The Fed subsequently creates $25 million to buy the bond. The Mexican government sends the money to Pemex, which then sends it to the New York bank to meet its quarterly interest payment. “The chairman of the New York bank gets a round of applause from the bank’s board of directors, and perhaps even a $100,000 bonus for his brilliant delaying of the bank’s crisis for another three months.”</p>
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<p style="font-family: Times; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The $25 million then multiplies through the U.S. fractional reserve banking system, creating millions of new commercial dollars in a mini-wave of inflation.</p>
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<p style="font-family: Times; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b>The World’s Most Powerful Insurance Company</b></p>
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<p style="font-family: Times; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Counterfeiters need protection if they are to succeed. The biggest counterfeiters, the major banks, sought and established the protection they wanted in 1913, with the Federal Reserve System. </p>
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<p style="font-family: Times; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The Fed’s public purpose was to prevent banking panics, as recessions were once called. It was to create an elastic currency to meet the needs of business, through dispassionate and skillful management of the money supply. </p>
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<p style="font-family: Times; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Under its watch, the economy has experienced at least 11 recessions over the last century, including the longest one on record, 1929-1945.</p>
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<p style="font-family: Times; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">One of the greatest services the Fed does for government is monetize its debt. When the federal government can’t raise taxes without facing a tax revolt and borrowing from private sources would entail high interest rates, it calls on the Fed to buy its debt on the cheap. </p>
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<p style="font-family: Times; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b>Conclusion</b></p>
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<p style="font-family: Times; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Honest money is not necessarily a gold - silver standard, North says. “The only standard that matters is the no fractional reserves standard, coupled with the no false balances standard.” </p>
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<p style="font-family: Times; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">As long as the Fed is around, we will never have honest money. The purpose of the Fed is to inflate for the benefit of its friends: the big banks and government. In light of this situation we should never question the success of government schooling. </p>Georgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16908823468747218192noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-979101119058063355.post-60410820738165444292022-09-28T11:18:00.001-07:002022-09-28T11:38:42.299-07:00 Could the US pass a physical?<p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: Palatino;">"One of the differences between people and dogs,” </span><a href="https://www.bitchute.com/video/SlguQzsrBviW/" style="font-family: Palatino;">according</a><span style="font-family: Palatino;"> to Senator John Kennedy, “is that dogs would never allow the weakest or the dumbest to lead the pack.”</span></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">In the case of leader Joe Biden those qualities are exactly what his handlers want. </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">There are many Americans who see Biden and his party as simply the latest installment of a pro-American government, even if they don’t particularly like it. Nothing wrong here. America is just taking a few different turns. FDR did it with the New Deal, JFK had his New Frontier. The Woke program is much the same. Turn America upside down — for its own good. Ignore the yahoos who slam it.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">In medicine there are standards of good health. If all the measures check out, all’s well. Can we do the same with government? </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Let’s start at the top. Does the current resident of the White House inspire confidence? Answer: No, not even among his <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/top-democrats-try-distance-themselves-party-biden-voting-records-tell-different-story">own party</a>. The <a href="https://www.bitchute.com/video/OrYJZOQne7JV/">FJB chant </a>at college football games suggests younger people are not sold on the <a href="https://www.bitchute.com/video/Wo3BfTQvTomP/">“liberal new order,”</a> either.<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span> </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">How about the second in command should the <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/amendmentxxv">president die or have been declared unfit for the job</a>? Would she be a strong leader? Answer: No. Who among us, regardless of political persuasion, would cast a vote for her competence to lead a superpower? For reminders, see <a href="https://www.bitchute.com/video/8jLzheyfFX4Q/">here</a> and <a href="https://www.bitchute.com/video/46pIbTRiFBQ7/">here</a>. </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">How about the economy? Is it at least holding steady? Is the outlook encouraging? Are we producing products and services people want to buy and have the means to do the buying? Answer: No. We’re headed for the worst disaster in American history. See <a href="https://www.bitchute.com/video/OXddZ4UqwZSf/">here</a> and <a href="https://www.bitchute.com/video/ItZZsl4Mn2gh/">here</a>.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">In connection with the preceding, how does the US dollar look? Keep in mind the “dollar” is a fiat instrument exclusively produced by a government-supported cartel, the Federal Reserve. Do the best and the brightest at the Fed issue new dollars according to validated economic principles? Answer: Of course not. The Fed exists for two purposes — to buy government debt and ensure the solvency of the major banks. Its alleged purpose, on which it has failed spectacularly and could <i>only</i> fail spectacularly, is to ensure price stability and keep the economy from falling into depression. The Fed is even worse than the IRS because most people have no idea what it does. (See <a href="https://www.bitchute.com/video/43a3XrqOiHPt/">here</a>.)</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">And what it has done and continues doing is steal purchasing power from the holders of dollars, and by discouraging real savings turned the capital markets into a crapshoot. A warmongering government couldn’t get along without it.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Has the US worked to promote peace among nations and within its own borders? Answer: Hell no. The proxy war in Ukraine, like all wars, is murderous and costly, and threatens to become a nuclear apocalypse. US warmongers are calling for the Putin regime’s destruction even if it means launching nuclear-armed ICBMs. Do they know Russia has new ICBMs, the <a href="https://www.bitchute.com/video/kXlBg21ex9Mm/">R-28 SARMAT aka Satan II</a>, that can elude US missile defense systems and wipe out major cities in North America? Are they seeking to validate a popular hypothesis of the <a href="https://www.livescience.com/fermi-paradox">Fermi paradox</a>, that intelligent life tends to destroy itself through stupidity? Have their evil intentions evolved into <a href="https://www.bitchute.com/video/OHokwChcM1Wi/">full-blown insanity</a>? See Col. Doug MacGregor’s comments <a href="http://COL.%20DOUG%20MACGREGOR">here</a>. See Saagar’s Breaking Points <a href="https://www.bitchute.com/video/js0szETUx1zF/">here</a>.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">And with the recent <a href="https://www.bitchute.com/video/3w5ofCjJj1hG/">sabotage of the Nord Stream pipelines</a>, US leaders have moved us even closer to a nuclear nightmare.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Every country has military recruiting ads not only to get young people to sign up but to put on a show for the rest of the world to see. China and Russia run ads showing the strength of their fighting forces — who would want to mess with them? And the US? <a href="https://www.bitchute.com/video/7Fxan9rlrI5v/">View it and weep</a>.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The causes of street crime are many and in addition to a soft-on-selective-criminals approach (<a href="https://www.bitchute.com/video/FSwhYxdphOAT/">here</a>, <a href="https://www.bitchute.com/video/MetliKDpvxwe/">here</a>, and <a href="https://www.bitchute.com/video/e70wRM3zQcYW/">here</a>) likely include the influence of a government at war with its population. States are fundamentally exploiters of the people they rule. Inasmuch as a state acquires its revenue through threat of violence, it thereby defines itself as an exploiter. </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">But in the US there was once no income tax, no federal reserve, no wars, gently declining prices, and the greatest era of prosperity ever achieved: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_history_of_the_United_States#Late_19th_century">The latter part of the 19th century</a>. Judging by that standard what do we have today? </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Today, capping over a century of government meddling, we have Biden’s Orwellian <a href="https://www.fff.org/2022/08/30/87000-new-irs-agents-will-reduce-inflation/">Inflation Reduction Act</a> that flatly won’t reduce inflation while releasing an additional 75,000 armed and trained IRS agents on middle-income Americans. Just guessing at their logic: more tax revenue means less debt means less printing means less inflation. And as a bonus, <a href="https://www.bitchute.com/video/81USTKTiHoWb/">more agents means more jobs</a>.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">None of this comports with reality, of course, since inflation keeps the house of cards standing, and despite its recent rate hikes the Fed will print, print, print until the economy implodes, at which point those new IRS agents will join the National Guard trying to control the streets. The government gets what it wants with force, why are we surprised when everyday people do the same?</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Political fitness doesn’t include weaponizing government agencies, since in theory we are supposed to be a country of laws bound by the Constitution. But theory be damned: It’s Republican hunting season. As Senator Kennedy <a href="http://www.apple.com">quipped</a> about the raid at Mar-a-Lago, “The FBI and the Department of Justice are going to give Trump a fair and impartial firing squad.” See <a href="https://www.bitchute.com/video/wjcEQhfD5fwK/">here</a>, <a href="http://www.apple.com">here</a>, <a href="http://It's%20not%20just%20America's%20sovereignty%20that's%20on%20the%20chopping%20block,%20it's%20sovereignty%20all%20over%20the%20world%20.%20.%20.%20This%20is%20the%20country%20that%20has%20to%20fall%20first%20in%20order%20for%20the%20other%20countries%20to%20fall.">here</a>, and <a href="http://www.apple.com">here</a>.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">To be in good health means respecting the Bill of Rights, particularly the First and Second Amendments. Under the current regime First Amendment rights don’t include spreading misinformation, which on inspection turns out to be anything that <a href="https://www.bitchute.com/video/zrMCQUIS6Ww2/">conflicts with the regime’s pronouncements</a>, the most egregious of which is the vaccines are safe and effective (<a href="http://www.apple.com">here</a>, <a href="https://www.bitchute.com/video/LTDKZ6MKQOOw/">here</a>, <a href="http://www.apple.com">here</a>, <a href="https://www.bitchute.com/video/lkEYumKE6QBv/">here</a>, <a href="http://www.apple.com">here</a>, <a href="http://www.apple.com">here</a>, and <a href="https://www.bitchute.com/video/5ThaYW9RIZyy/">here</a>). </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Of course, the Second Amendment simply has to go. We can’t have civilized people pulling their guns on government agents raiding their homes or <a href="https://www.adn.com/nation-world/2022/09/14/mypillow-ceo-lindell-says-fbi-agents-seized-his-cellphone-at-fast-food-restaurant/">stopping them at fast food joints</a>. </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">All these political ailments and many more (<a href="https://www.bitchute.com/video/KnZ4vHKd0naW/">border disaster</a>, <a href="https://www.bitchute.com/video/mHc40Q3CGtbu/">war on unvaccinated</a>, <a href="https://www.bitchute.com/video/IxCJsb5HW9Ly/">climate change tyranny</a>; also see <a href="https://www.bitchute.com/video/Y9d93MifwWIT/">here</a> and <a href="https://www.bitchute.com/video/7XjfyD8HWd9C/">here</a>.) come together in one carefully crafted plan that features a one-world government and a population significantly reduced through <a href="https://www.bitchute.com/video/0oVlKH1pPvjr/">pandemic restrictions</a> and <a href="https://www.bitchute.com/video/SDDEEGNA1aPs/">treatments</a> (<a href="https://www.bitchute.com/video/3gjQE9cFSc1p/">including suppressed treatments</a>). </span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">This is clearly a conspiracy, and it’s <a href="https://www.bitchute.com/video/wiD2tIl0z1cJ/">all theirs</a> (and see <a href="https://www.bitchute.com/video/1XHTzS3rVRh7/">here</a>). </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">As <a href="https://www.bitchute.com/video/nchFUOmZTDZK/">Lara Logan explained</a>, “It's not just America's sovereignty that's on the chopping block, it's sovereignty all over the world . . . <i>This is the country that has to fall first in order for the other countries to fall</i>.” (My emphasis; also see <a href="https://www.bitchute.com/video/SwQAwo9fiR04/">this</a>.)</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Government is promoting every possible anti-life policy it can get away with. We are a long way from good health.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Yet, there are <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Fall-Tyranny-Rise-Liberty-ebook/dp/B01N9UKKHH/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1485286431&sr=1-1&keywords=The+Fall+of+Tyranny,+the+Rise+of+Liberty">good reasons for optimism</a>. Remember, “A man doesn’t lose when he gets knocked down but when he don’t get up.” (Mel Gibson, <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14439896/">Father Stu</a>). </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Here’s someone who never got knocked down, a brave young girl, Fiona LaShalls, <a href="https://www.bitchute.com/video/1in9Do6QLNad/">who looked them straight in the eye and told them straight where to go</a>. </span></p>
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<p style="background-color: white; color: #0b0b0b; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 13px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>George Ford Smith</b><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span>is a former mainframe and PC programmer and technology instructor, the author of eight books including a novel about a renegade Fed chairman (<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Flight-Barbarous-Relic-George-Smith-ebook/dp/B0013FNOOK/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1208388529&sr=8-1"><span style="color: #0c17ff;"><i>Flight of the Barbarous Relic</i></span></a>), a filmmaker (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=df_l24SY-hA"><span style="color: #0100f8;"><i>Do Not Consent</i></span></a>), and an advocate of stateless market government. He eagerly welcomes speaking engagements and can be reached at gfs543@icloud.com.<span style="color: #535353;"> </span></span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><br /></p>Georgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16908823468747218192noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-979101119058063355.post-29163737326875911882022-09-09T15:17:00.000-07:002022-09-09T15:17:17.762-07:00The Story of the Fed is the Story of a Crime<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">“The magnitude by which [the reality of the Federal Reserve] deviates from the accepted myth,” writes G. Edward Griffin, “is so great that, for most people, it simply is beyond credibility.” But as he makes abundantly clear in his landmark book, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Creature-Jekyll-Island-Federal-Reserve/dp/091298645X/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3JYU19OAWYMLZ&keywords=The+Creature+from+Jekyll+Island&qid=1662758690&s=books&sprefix=the+creature+from+jekyll+island,stripbooks,92&sr=1-1"><i>The Creature From Jekyll Island</i></a>, now in its fifth edition, the case against the Fed is overwhelming. </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>Creature</i>, as Griffin explains,<i> </i>is four books in one: a crash-course in money and banking; a history of central banking in America; a discussion of the Fed itself and its role in American and world affairs; and finally, a detailed look at how the Fed and other central banks become “catalysts for war.” </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Without central banking, much of the carnage of the past 108 years would not have been possible. </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">In November 1910 seven men representing roughly one-fourth of the world’s wealth took a clandestine train ride from New Jersey to a resort on Jekyll Island, Georgia, ostensibly to hunt ducks. But instead of shooting birds they drew up plans for a state-privileged cartel, which served as the blueprint for the Federal Reserve Act of 1913. </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">For years, most people left the Jekyll Island tale for the fringe that loves conspiracy theories. But gradually the story leaked out, beginning with an article by Bertie Charles Forbes, the future founder of Forbes Magazine, in <i>Leslie’s Weekly</i> in 1916 (excerpted <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/fed-jekyll-island-club-2010-11">here</a>). Following discussions with Paul Warburg, the Fed’s chief architect and one of the Jekyll attendees, Forbes confirmed the trip in his opening paragraphs. Later writers, including some of those in attendance at Jekyll Island, corroborated Forbes’ story. The secret trip of 1910, long considered the delusions of conspiracy theorists, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/fed-jekyll-island-club-2010-11">was openly celebrated</a> in 2010 by Bernanke & company.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Why did they want a cartel? So they could practice fractional reserve banking with impunity, while shifting the negative consequences to the public.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The American people, of course, have been handed a thoroughly scrubbed version of the Fed: it exists to stabilize the economy and protect the public. Never mind the crashes in ’21 and ’29, the Great Depression from ’29 to ’39; recessions in ’53, ’57, ’69, ’75, and ’81; another crash in ’87, a bear market in 2000 that wiped out $7 trillion in stock market wealth by 2003, the global meltdown of 2007-2008, and constant inflation eating away the buying power of the dollar. </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">As economist <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Wall-Street-FDR-Antony-Sutton/dp/1905570716">Antony Sutton noted</a>, “Warburg’s revolutionary plan to get American society to go to work for Wall Street was astonishingly simple . . . The Federal Reserve System is a legal private monopoly of the money supply operated for the benefit of the few under the guise of protecting and promoting the public interest.”</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Griffin is detailed and clear about how the Fed works. In the old days when governments wanted more money but were afraid to increase taxes, they printed it and forced citizens to accept it by making it legal tender. It was too crude a scheme to fool most people, but now, with modern central banking, the theft is virtually imperceptible.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">First, government doesn’t create money directly; its central bank does. Second, the bank rarely needs to turn to the printing presses. Instead, it often buys government debt, such as bonds, by writing a check. “There is no money to back up this check,” Griffin explains. “By calling those bonds ‘reserves,’ the Fed then uses them as the base for creating nine additional dollars for every dollar created for the bonds themselves. The money created for the bonds is spent by the government, whereas the money created on top of those bonds is the source of all the bank loans made to the nation’s businesses and individuals . . .</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">“The bottom line is that Congress and the banking cartel have entered into a partnership in which the cartel has the privilege of collecting interest on money which it creates out of nothing . . . Congress, on the other hand, has access to unlimited funding without having to tell the voters their taxes are being raised through the process of inflation.” </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">Government’s money tree</span></b></p>
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<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">What might government do with such “unlimited funding”?</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">As Murray Rothbard has <span style="color: #000006;">noted</span>, the country had been in recession during 1913 and 1914 – high unemployment, with many factories operating at only 60% capacity. The Morgan empire in particular had been losing money in railroads and had lost out to Kuhn-Loeb in the market for industrial finance.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The Morgans had always been closely connected to the Rothschild financial empire in Europe. When war in Europe broke out, the House of Morgan, in partnership with the Rothschilds, became the American sales agent for English and French war bonds. When the money came back to the States to acquire war-related materials, it was funneled through Morgan as the U.S. purchase agent. From 1915 to 1917, J. P. Morgan arranged for $3 billion in exports to France and England, earning a commission of $30 million. As historian Thomas Fleming has dryly noted,<a href="http://greatwarproject.org/2015/12/28/president-wilson-maintains-claim-of-american-neutrality/"> the U.S. became a branch of the British armament industry during the first 32 months of its neutrality</a>.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">But it was a precarious feast. If the Allies should lose, American investors would sustain huge losses and Morgan’s business would nosedive. Getting the U.S. into the war would extend the financial windfall, but the American public opposed involvement by ten to one, if Senator Robert La Follette, <a href="http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/turningpoints/search.asp?id=1378">who delivered a scathing speech</a> in the Senate opposing U.S. entry into the war, is to be believed.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">In May 1915 the British passenger ship <i>Lusitania</i> gave war hopefuls a much-needed boost. Nearly 1,200 passengers, including 128 Americans, lost their lives when a German U-boat torpedoed it off the coast of Ireland. With its hold stuffed with U.S. munitions contraband, the <i>Lusitania</i> exploded a second time and sank in less than 18 minutes. As Griffin documents meticulously, British and American officials had done severything in their power to make <i>Lusitania</i> a sitting duck.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">With Morgan-controlled newspapers beating the drums for American participation, Wilson finally got his war on April 6, 1917. Eight days later Congress extended $1 billion in credit to the Allies. The British took their initial advance of $200 million and paid it to Morgan. When they ran up an overdraft of $400 million three months later, Morgan turned to the U.S. Treasury for help. Treasury-Secretary William McAdoo stalled until Benjamin Strong, the Fed’s main man, came to his rescue and paid Morgan piecemeal during 1917 - 1918. Where did Strong get the money? He simply created it.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The income tax, also enacted in 1913, raised $1 billion during World War I. But seventy per cent of the cost of the war came from inflation, through a doubling of the money supply. <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Case-Against-Fed-Murray-Rothbard-dp-094546617X/dp/094546617X/ref=dp_ob_title_bk">As Rothbard understates</a>, “For those who believe that U.S. entry into World War I was one of the most disastrous events . . . in the twentieth century, the facilitating of U.S. entry into the war is scarcely a major point in favor of the Federal Reserve.” In addition to grabbing wealth through direct taxes, government, in collusion with the Fed, took roughly one-half of the people’s savings from 1915 – 1920. </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Griffin lifts the curtain on the Fed’s operations and exposes it for what it is: a counterfeiting cartel in partnership with government, soaking the blood and treasure of our country.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">***</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The preceding is adapted from my book, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Jolly-Roger-Dollar-Introduction-ebook/dp/B0067TU3QO/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1321643826&sr=1-1" target="_blank"><i>The Jolly Roger Dollar -- and the pirates who made it.</i></a></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #0b0b0b; font-family: Palatino;"><b>George Ford Smith</b></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #0c0c0c; font-family: Palatino;"> is a former mainframe and PC programmer and technology instructor, the author of eight books including a novel about a renegade Fed chairman (</span><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Flight-Barbarous-Relic-George-Smith-ebook/dp/B0013FNOOK/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1208388529&sr=8-1" style="background-color: white; font-family: Palatino;"><span style="color: #103cff;"><i>Flight of the Barbarous Relic</i></span></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #0c0c0c; font-family: Palatino;">), a filmmaker (</span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=df_l24SY-hA" style="background-color: white; font-family: Palatino;"><span style="color: #0800fa;"><i>Do Not Consent</i></span></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #0c0c0c; font-family: Palatino;">), and an advocate of stateless market government. He eagerly welcomes speaking engagements and can be reached at gfs543@icloud.com.</span> </span></p>Georgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16908823468747218192noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-979101119058063355.post-89697374464957342162022-09-06T11:25:00.001-07:002022-09-06T11:25:46.360-07:00Mass Murder has always been politically acceptable<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">“<a href="https://www.panarchy.org/bourne/state.1918.html">War is the Health of the State</a>” wrote Randolph Bourne in 1918. Ever wonder what it means? </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Gary North wrote extensively about what he called the Great Default, a time when government could no longer kick the can on financing its wealth-depleting welfare/warfare state. He cites a 1999 book by former CFR president Peter G. Peterson, <a href="https://smile.amazon.com/Gray-Dawn-Peter-G-Peterson/dp/0812931955/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8"><i>Gray Dawn: How the coming age will transform America—and the world</i></a>, in which Peterson writes:</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"></p><blockquote><span style="font-size: medium;">Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and federal civilian and military pensions -- will exceed total federal revenues by the year 2030. This would leave zero tax revenue for any other purpose -- not even for interest payments not for national defense nor for education nor for child health, nor for the federal payroll. Not a penny available for anything else.</span></blockquote><p></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Politicians have long ignored unavoidable doom because cutting benefits or raising taxes are politically toxic. Yet the problems won’t go away. What’s a scheming politician to do?</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">Cut the number of beneficiaries</span></b></p>
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<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">In 2019 they came up with a plan, <a href="https://www.centerforhealthsecurity.org/our-work/exercises/event201/about">Event 201</a>. To this day most people either don’t know about it or consider it another conspiracy theory. What if a bug, a virus, wiped out a significant number of old people? Wouldn’t that ease the stress on the welfare state, at least delay its collapse? </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Further, what if this bug really wasn’t terribly lethal — let’s not kill the “wrong” people, for God’s sake — but could be promoted as <a href="https://www.deseret.com/u-s-world/2021/9/21/22685642/covid-19-vs-1918-1919-spanish-flu-pandemic-cases-numbers">on a par with the Spanish Flu</a>? Surely that would scare the devil out of those who trust government pronouncements. And to make it more lethal, what if the health care systems could be incentivized to deliver <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/jvchamary/2021/01/31/remdesivir-covid-coronavirus/?sh=615210da66c2">“solutions” that killed on their own</a>? (See <a href="https://time.com/5820556/ventilators-covid-19/">here</a>, too.). Let the treatments do the killing. </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">And what if authorities went further by <a href="https://townhall.com/columnists/johnandandyschlafly/2021/08/25/wanton-war-on-early-covid-treatment-n2594677">banning or discouraging early treatments that might have precluded the need</a> for a warp speed, poorly-tested vaccine? Such early treatments to include not just hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin, but supplements such as vitamins D, C, melatonin, and zinc? (See <a href="https://www.bitchute.com/video/D2ZqnBTSmfFL/">here</a> for D.) Further yet, what if major <a href="https://www.bitchute.com/video/1MRvHkiAqCcc/">social media companies</a> could be “persuaded” to censor distinguished medical researchers who tried to expose the fraud for what it was? </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">And what if the politicians got into the act by imposing restrictions on behavior as a means of fighting this terrible virus? What if the restrictions included not only lockdowns, masks, and social distancing, but the closing of “non-essential” businesses, the determination of which would be left to their corrupt judgment and which would include <a href="https://townhall.com/tipsheet/leahbarkoukis/2022/01/28/nj-gym-owner-who-refused-to-close-during-lockdown-has-finally-been-sentenced-n2602469">gyms</a> and <a href="https://www.gainesvilletimes.com/opinion/letter-editor/opinion-churches-shouldnt-close-because-covid-19/">churches</a>?</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">What if, as the deaths and injuries piled up, public health reps and the media <a href="https://www.biznews.com/health/2022/07/19/vaers-pfizer">ignored or downplayed</a> the incriminating statistics in public databases such as VAERS?</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">And what if, as the vaccines were rolled out prematurely, those <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/biden-calls-covid-19-testing-situation-frustrating-says-unvaccinated-should-be-alarmed-by-omicron" target="_blank">who refused the vaccine were demonized as threats to the established order</a>? What if only the vaccinated were allowed the freedom to board airplanes or cross borders, or hold government jobs? What if <a href="https://www.bitchute.com/video/TbrBXZuaOBqf/">unvaccinated people, including health care workers who were on the front lines fighting the virus</a> before vaccines were available, were condemned as “anti-vaxers” and fired from their jobs?</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">What if the vaccinated started to die suddenly, and the <a href="https://www.kusi.com/there-was-an-unexpected-40-increase-in-all-cause-deaths-in-2021/">deaths from all causes</a> far exceeded previous years? Would people continue to believe the vaccines were <a href="https://www.bitchute.com/video/SpNMp4FUxDh6/">“safe and effective”</a>? Would they continue to leave those beliefs unexamined and await further orders from the bureaucrats?</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Yes, because major institutions they trust and dare not contradict, such as government schools, the FDA, CDC, AMA, even the NFL, et al would still be demanding obedience to the narrative. Exercise due diligence? What’s that?</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">All this and more is unthinkable among people who still regard reason as their means of survival. But even irrationality sometimes has a decipherable logic, which in the case of the virus is: For each person who dies it is one less body off government’s back. If enough die government might be fiscally solvent, assuming the survivors continue to pay taxes. Biden’s new IRS army will help ensure they do. </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">War to the rescue</span></b></p>
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<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Weaponizing a virus might not kill enough people the globalists want, however. An old-fashion shooting war might be added to augment the population reduction.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The “greatest” US presidents are those in office during war — Lincoln, Wilson, FDR. Never mind the astronomical death tolls on both sides of the conflicts, and <a href="https://cdn.mises.org/Century%20of%20War,%20A_3.pdf">never mind they had a hand in starting the wars</a>. Biden is rightly blamed for pulling out of Afghanistan in such a way that 13 servicemen lost their lives. But Lincoln is regarded as a saint for causing the <a href="https://www.history.com/news/american-civil-war-deaths">deaths of as many as 850,000 Americans</a>. And for what purpose? <a href="https://www.battlefields.org/learn/primary-sources/lincolns-first-inaugural-address">Read Lincoln's first inaugural address.</a> And while we’re enraged over the 13 lives lost in Afghanistan, what about the rest of the 2,000-plus Americans who died there? And the Afghans who died? </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The US deep state <a href="https://marketrealist.com/p/how-much-money-has-the-us-sent-to-ukrainie/">pours money and arms</a> into the conflict in Ukraine, while keeping a watchful eye on Taiwan, hoping for something bigger — perhaps much bigger (<a href="https://www.lewrockwell.com/2020/03/no_author/the-threat-of-a-nuclear-war-between-the-us-and-russia-is-now-at-its-greatest-since-1983/">here</a> and <a href="https://www.lewrockwell.com/2021/10/ron-paul/will-biden-start-nuclear-war-with-china-over-taiwan/">here</a>) — to come out of it. If only government can find a way to get astronomical body counts, as happened in the two world wars!</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">If that happens Biden may someday be regarded by any surviving experts as the greatest US president because he presided over nuclear Armageddon. </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> ***</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #0e0e0e; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 13px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: #0c0c0c;"><b>George Ford Smith</b></span> is a former mainframe and PC programmer and technology instructor, the author of eight books including a novel about a renegade Fed chairman (<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Flight-Barbarous-Relic-George-Smith-ebook/dp/B0013FNOOK/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1208388529&sr=8-1"><span style="color: #135aff;"><i>Flight of the Barbarous Relic</i></span></a>), a filmmaker (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=df_l24SY-hA"><span style="color: #0d00fb;"><i>Do Not Consent</i></span></a>), and an advocate of stateless market government. He eagerly welcomes speaking engagements and can be reached at gfs543@icloud.com.<span style="color: #535353;"> s</span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: Palatino;"> </span> </span></p>Georgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16908823468747218192noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-979101119058063355.post-52486732482722204612022-08-16T11:59:00.000-07:002022-08-16T11:59:51.173-07:00Is justice possible without the State?<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: medium;">In <a href="https://cdn.mises.org/Chaos%20Theory_2.pdf"><i>Chaos Theory</i></a>, Robert P. Murphy sketches how market forces would operate to support the private production of justice and defense -- two areas that are traditionally conceded to be the sole province of the State. </span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: medium;">Murphy contends that not only would the market be able to provide these services, but would do so <i>much</i> more efficiently and equitably than the system we have now.</span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: medium;">Here, I’ll confine discussion to a few key points he makes about the production of “justice” on the free market.</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: medium;">As with the western pioneers and the world today, no single set of laws or rules is needed to bind everyone. People would enter into voluntary contracts that spell out the rules they agree to live by. “All aspects of social intercourse would be ‘regulated’ by voluntary contracts.” </span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: medium;">Who makes the rules? Private legal experts, who would draft laws under open competition with rivals. The market deals with “justice” as it does with other services. As Murphy notes, </span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"></p><blockquote><span style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: medium;">“the market” is just shorthand for the totality of economic interactions of freely acting individuals. To allow the market to set legal rules really means that no one uses violence to impose his own vision on everyone else.</span></blockquote><p></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: medium;">In an advanced AnCap society, insurance companies would play a major role. People would buy policies, for example, to indemnify their victims if they were ever found guilty of a crime. As they do now, insurance companies would employ experts to determine the risks of insuring a given individual. If a person were considered too great a risk he might be turned down, and this would be information others would use in deciding if and how they wished to interact with him.</span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: medium;">Critics say this might work for peaceful, rational people but what about incorrigible thieves and ax murderers? How would market anarchy deal with them?</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b><span style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: medium;">All Property is Privately Owned</span></b></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: medium;">Murphy reminds us that “wherever someone is standing in a purely libertarian society, he would be on somebody’s property.” This allows for force to be used against criminals without violating their natural rights. He cites the example of a person entering a movie theater, with an implicit contract such as the following: </span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: medium;"></span></p><blockquote><span style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: medium;">If I am judged guilty of a crime by a reputable arbitration agency [perhaps listed in an Appendix], I release the theater owner from any liability should armed men come to remove me from his property.</span></blockquote><p></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: medium;">In this way the use of force would have been authorized by the recipient himself beforehand.</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: medium;">But where do these armed men take the criminal? On a free market, a high-security analog to jails would evolve. These jails, though, would resemble hotels because they would be competing with each other for business, which in AnCap means both pleasing the criminal and guaranteeing his secure detention. </span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: medium;">Unlike government prisons there would be no undue cruelty and virtually no chance of escape. If a dangerous criminal escaped and killed again the insurance company would be held liable. And a prisoner who didn’t like the way he was treated would have the option of switching to a different jail, as long as his insurance company was in agreement.</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b><span style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: medium;">Would the Mafia Take Over?</span></b></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: medium;">People who support the State because they believe organized crime would take control of an AnCap society should consider that we’re already living under the “most ‘organized’ criminal association in human history.” Whatever crimes the Mafia has committed, they are nothing -- <i>nothing</i> -- compared to the wanton death and destruction states have perpetrated. </span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: medium;">We need to consider, too, that the mob gets its strength from the <i>government</i>, not the free market.</span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: medium;"></span></p><blockquote><span style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: medium;">All of the businesses traditionally associated with organized crime—gambling, prostitution, loan sharking, drug dealing—are prohibited or heavily regulated by the state. In market anarchy, true professionals would drive out such unscrupulous competitors.</span></blockquote><p></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b><span style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: medium;">Applying AnCap</span></b></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: medium;">Murphy discusses several applications of anarcho-capitalism in today’s world, one of which is medical licensing. Almost everyone believes that without government regulation we would all be at the mercy of quacks. “Ignorant consumers would go to whatever brain surgeon charged the lowest price, and would be butchered on the operating table.” Therefore, we need the iron fist of government to restrict entry into the medical profession.</span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: medium;">But this is pure fiction. Since the demand for safe and effective medicine is universal, the market would respond accordingly with voluntary organizations that would allow only qualified doctors into their ranks. Insurance companies, too, would only underwrite doctors who met their standards, since they would stand to lose millions in malpractice suits.</span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: medium;">Regarding the ongoing controversy of gun control, Murphy sees legitimate points to both sides of the debate:</span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: medium;"></span></p><blockquote><span style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: medium;">Certainly we cannot trust the government to protect us once it has disarmed us. But on the other hand, I feel a bit silly arguing that people should be able to stockpile atomic weapons in their basement.</span></blockquote><p></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Palatino;">How might AnCap resolve this? Let’s say Joe Smith wants an insurance company to agree to pay $10 million to the estate of anyone Smith happens to kill. “The company will be very interested to know whether Smith keeps sawed off shotguns—let alone atomic weapons—in his basement.” In this way truly dangerous weapons would be restricted to those willing to pay the high premiums for owning them.</span></span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: medium;">Though it’s hard to imagine any company willing to issue a policy to a holder of nuclear weapons, nevertheless, if someone wanted to, there would be no agency with the authority to prohibit owning them. But without a policy, a person would be unable to guarantee his contracts with others and would find it virtually impossible to function in society.</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b><span style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: medium;">Getting there from here</span></b></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: medium;">Establishing an AnCap society depends heavily on the history of the region. North Korean market anarchists, for example, might have to use violence to curtail that brutal regime, while in the United States, “a gradual and orderly erosion of the State is a wonderful possibility.”</span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: medium;">The one thing all such revolutions would share is a commitment by the overwhelming majority to a total respect of property rights.</span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: medium;">People already understand that rape and murder are crimes - even rapists and murderers. The hard part is convincing people “that murder is wrong even when duly elected ‘representatives’ order it.”</span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: medium;">We can build on intuitive notions of justice, just as newly arriving miners in California respected the claims of earlier settlers. </span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: medium;"></span></p><blockquote><span style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: medium;">To take a more modern example, even inner city toughs unthinkingly obey the “rules” in a pickup game of basketball, despite the lack of a referee.</span></blockquote><p></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Palatino;">As he explains in a footnote, the players in a pickup game still recognize the existence of a foul (and other rules), even if the offending player denies he committed one. </span></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"></p><blockquote><span style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: medium;">Now, the market solution to such ambiguity and bias, for games deemed important enough to warrant the extra cost and hassle, is to appoint official referees to apply the “law” (which they too unthinkingly respect). Notice that at no point is a violent monopoly needed to achieve this orderly outcome. </span></blockquote><p></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: medium;"> <b>Conclusion</b></span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: medium;">Those who defend the State as necessary to protect property rights should brush up on their history, from day one to the present. As Murphy wraps up,</span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"></p><blockquote><span style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: medium;">I ask that the reader resist the temptation to dismiss my ideas as “unworkable,” without first specifying in what sense the government legal system “works.”</span></blockquote><p></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Palatino;">Seeing how government “justice” has worked especially since the election of 2016, that would be a tall challenge.</span></span></p>
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<p><span style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #0e0e0e;"><b>George Ford Smith</b></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #111111;"> is a former mainframe and PC programmer and technology instructor, the author of eight books including a novel about a renegade Fed chairman (</span><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Flight-Barbarous-Relic-George-Smith-ebook/dp/B0013FNOOK/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1208388529&sr=8-1" style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #1475ff;"><i>Flight of the Barbarous Relic</i></span></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #111111;">), a filmmaker (</span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=df_l24SY-hA" style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #1400fc;"><i>Do Not Consent</i></span></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #111111;">), and an advocate of stateless market government. He eagerly welcomes speaking engagements and can be reached at gfs543@icloud.com.</span> </span></p>Georgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16908823468747218192noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-979101119058063355.post-57537507202523381072022-08-12T14:08:00.000-07:002022-08-12T14:08:47.030-07:00 As technology climbs the curve governments will become road kill <p><span style="font-family: Palatino;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Bad news: Government is getting bigger and more oppressive.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Good news: As it gets bigger it also gets weaker.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Better news: Technology is making us, as individuals, stronger.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">How do we know government is getting weaker? Because it is sustained by central bank counterfeiting and debt, and the lies of state sycophants. How long can massive fraud last? The whole apparatus of government — a bandit gang writ large, in Rothbard’s famous depiction — is an affront to civilization and human dignity. Yet it’s the absence of government — anarchy — that we’re supposed to avoid at all costs. We’re avoiding it, all right, and we’re paying dearly for it.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Meanwhile, a quiet revolution is ongoing that almost no one seems to understand, yet is talked about incessantly: The rising power of technology. Without asking our permission, technology is taking us down the path to anarchy. How is this so?</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Technology today is climbing up the curve of the exponential but if you look at any one point it appears linear. In our day-to-day lives we are looking at points, seeing incremental improvements but nothing that would suggest radical innovation. Yet it happens. We see magic but consider it mundane. We have smartphones that can transmit live video from around the world, and say “So what?” We read about a young programmer who<a href="https://www.thirdlawreaction.com/mythbusting-george-hotz/"> builds a self-driving car in his garage</a>, and say “Huh.” We need to step back and look at the trend to see where all this is going. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Ray Kurzweil explains (<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Singularity-Near-Humans-Transcend-Biology-dp-0670033847/dp/0670033847/ref=mt_other?_encoding=UTF8&me=&qid="><i>The Singularity is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology</i></a>, 2005):</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 27px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Early stages of technology – the wheel, fire, stone tools – took tens of thousands of years to evolve and be widely deployed. A thousand years ago, a paradigm shift such as the printing press, took on the order of a century to be widely deployed. Today, major paradigm shifts, such as cell phones and the world wide web were widely adopted in only a few years time.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">He adds:</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 27px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">A primary reason that evolution— of life-forms or of technology— speeds up is that it builds on its own increasing order, with ever more sophisticated means of recording and manipulating information. . . [p. 39]</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">For example,</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 27px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The first computers were designed on paper and assembled by hand. Today, they are designed on computer workstations, with the computers themselves working out many details of the next generation’s design, and are then produced in fully automated factories with only limited human intervention. [p. 40]</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">As the technology continues to build on itself, it will eventually take “full control of its own progression.” It will no longer need human intervention.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">But fear not, he says. In the future we will not see super-smart robots controlling or wiping out humans; rather, what will evolve is a merger of humans with their technology. Humans, as his book’s subtitle tells us, will “transcend biology.” Kurzweil:</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 27px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">It would mean that human performance is not necessarily dependent on the biological substrate that comprises our brains today. The biological information processing in our brains is, after all, much slower than information processing in conventional electronics today. Information in our brains is transmitted using chemical signals that travel a few hundred feet per second, which is a million times slower than electronics. [p. 122]</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">We will reach a point when “the pace of technological change will be so rapid, its impact so deep, that human life will be irreversibly transformed.”</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Or as Kevin Kelly, founder of Wired Magazine, <a href="https://quotefancy.com/kevin-kelly-quotes">puts it</a>: "all the change in the last million years will be superseded by the change in the next five minutes.”</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Before we can say “So what?” again we will have reached what Kurzweil and others call the Technological Singularity. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">Inexorable and universal</span></b></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Kurzweil refers to this progression as the law of accelerating returns. It is “inexorable,” and his books are packed with charts showing why this is so. According to his prediction the law will reach the Singularity by 2045. It sounds incredible but so have most of his other predictions that have played out to be true. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">He also considers the progression to be in terms of price-performance, meaning that “all of these technologies quickly become so inexpensive as to become almost free.” [p. 430] It’s not the case that only the rich will have access to them.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">But what about government? Won’t it feel threatened and impede innovation? As Kurzweil points out, “the nature of wealth and power in the age of intelligent machines will encourage the open society. Oppressive societies will find it hard to provide the economic incentives needed to pay for computers and their development.” [p. 128]</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">He brings up a crucial point: The law of accelerating returns has always operated under government-controlled conditions. Government wars, depressions, genocides, currency debauchery, regulations, etc. have not slowed it down, or at least not for long. To repeat, the law is inexorable.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 22.5px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Innovation has a way of working around the limits imposed by institutions. The advent of decentralized technology empowers the individual to bypass all kinds of restrictions, and does represent a primary means for social change to accelerate. [p. 472]</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Technology in the hands of the government can be a nightmare. But as it disperses into the lives of individuals it becomes empowering. Over time it quietly undermines government power, <a href="https://www.garynorth.com/members/14269.cfm">as Gary North tells us</a>: </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 22.5px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Technological innovation is not going to be stopped by any local government, state government, national government, or the World Trade Organization. Technological innovation is about as close to an autonomous process as anything in history. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 22.5px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Technological innovation is decentralized on a scale never before seen. Because of the Internet, because of 3-D printing, and because of innovation of all kinds, technological innovation is a tsunami that is headed for all government welfare programs, all government central planning, all government regulatory agencies, every labor union, and every good old boy network. Technological innovation is simply sweeping everything before it. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 22.5px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 22.5px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">This is going to change the whole shape of civilization, and it isn't going to take three generations. It is fairly far advanced now, and another 40 years of this is going to change the political landscape entirely.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">I say 20 years, but either way government is doomed, liberty is enhanced.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">That, I submit, is a comforting thought.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">***</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The preceding is taken from Chapter 5 of my book, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Fall-Tyranny-Rise-Liberty-ebook/dp/B01N9UKKHH/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1485286431&sr=1-1&keywords=The+Fall+of+Tyranny,+the+Rise+of+Liberty"><i>The Fall of Tyranny, the Rise of Liberty</i></a>.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #151515; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 13px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: #111111;"><b>George Ford Smith</b></span> is a former mainframe and PC programmer and technology instructor, the author of eight books including a novel about a renegade Fed chairman (<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Flight-Barbarous-Relic-George-Smith-ebook/dp/B0013FNOOK/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1208388529&sr=8-1"><span style="color: #118dff;"><i>Flight of the Barbarous Relic</i></span></a>), a filmmaker (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=df_l24SY-hA"><span style="color: #1e00fd;"><i>Do Not Consent</i></span></a>), and an advocate of stateless market government. He eagerly welcomes speaking engagements and can be reached at gfs543@icloud.com.</span></p><div><br /></div>Georgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16908823468747218192noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-979101119058063355.post-15684400866571329152022-08-09T09:32:00.000-07:002022-08-09T09:32:48.155-07:00Take stock of our assets<p><span style="caret-color: rgb(27, 27, 27); color: #1b1b1b; font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">No one knows what the future will bring because the future doesn’t bring anything. People do. You and I and the rest of the world make the future, some more so than others — some a lot more so. The leading future-makers of the past century — at least those who entered national politics — have left a long trail of blood and misery, and today’s political leaders are staying the course. </span></p><p data-reader-unique-id="9" style="caret-color: rgb(27, 27, 27); color: #1b1b1b; max-width: 100%;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><span data-reader-unique-id="10" style="max-width: 100%;"></span></span></p><p data-reader-unique-id="12" style="max-width: 100%;"><span data-reader-unique-id="13" style="max-width: 100%;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><span style="color: #1b1b1b;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(27, 27, 27);">There’s an old saying: “Man proposes, but God disposes.” In other words: "If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans."</span></span></span></span></p><p data-reader-unique-id="12" style="max-width: 100%;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(27, 27, 27); color: #1b1b1b; font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">If the U.S. government is today’s god, what chance do a relative handful of freedom-loving people have against such an institutional behemoth? We’re only a false flag away from martial law. The internment camps are built and ready for occupancy. The police are militarized and ready to carry out orders. The voters remain insouciant. This is no time for optimism. It’s time to run for our lives.</span></p><p data-reader-unique-id="14" style="caret-color: rgb(27, 27, 27); color: #1b1b1b; max-width: 100%;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><span data-reader-unique-id="15" style="max-width: 100%;"></span></span></p><p data-reader-unique-id="17" style="caret-color: rgb(27, 27, 27); color: #1b1b1b; max-width: 100%;"><span data-reader-unique-id="18" style="max-width: 100%;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">But before we take off, we would do well to take stock of our assets.</span></span></p><p data-reader-unique-id="19" style="caret-color: rgb(27, 27, 27); color: #1b1b1b; max-width: 100%;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><span data-reader-unique-id="20" style="max-width: 100%;"></span></span></p><p data-reader-unique-id="22" style="caret-color: rgb(27, 27, 27); color: #1b1b1b; max-width: 100%;"><span data-reader-unique-id="23" style="max-width: 100%;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">There’s a scene in the Clint Eastwood movie “Absolute Power” that illustrates the point I wish to make. Eastwood, as legendary jewel thief Luther Whitney, witnesses the murder of a young woman during one of his heists. The president (Gene Hackman) and his SS agents are the murderers. The victim is the wife of the president’s biggest supporter, an octogenarian billionaire (E. G. Marshall) whose mansion Luther was robbing. Whitney was hiding behind a one-way mirror at the time but later learns he’s a suspect, because of the missing jewels. Luther knows the president’s henchmen will try to kill him before he can expose them and rather than fight such a powerful foe makes arrangements to leave the country.</span></span></p><p data-reader-unique-id="24" style="caret-color: rgb(27, 27, 27); color: #1b1b1b; max-width: 100%;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><span data-reader-unique-id="25" style="max-width: 100%;"></span></span></p><p data-reader-unique-id="27" style="caret-color: rgb(27, 27, 27); color: #1b1b1b; max-width: 100%;"><span data-reader-unique-id="28" style="max-width: 100%;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">While at the airport ready to depart he sees a staged press conference on TV. It’s an appalling political spectacle. A mournful president is offering sympathy to the bereaved husband, who’s standing beside him. “This man has been like a father to me,” he announces, then turns to his friend. “I would give the world to lessen your pain.” He blots his eyes, apparently too choked up to continue.</span></span></p><p data-reader-unique-id="29" style="caret-color: rgb(27, 27, 27); color: #1b1b1b; max-width: 100%;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><span data-reader-unique-id="30" style="max-width: 100%;"></span></span></p><p data-reader-unique-id="32" style="caret-color: rgb(27, 27, 27); color: #1b1b1b; max-width: 100%;"><span data-reader-unique-id="33" style="max-width: 100%;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Luther simmers with fury. “You heartless whore,” he says aloud to the TV. “I’m not about to run from you.” </span></span></p><p data-reader-unique-id="34" style="caret-color: rgb(27, 27, 27); color: #1b1b1b; max-width: 100%;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><span data-reader-unique-id="35" style="max-width: 100%;"></span></span></p><p data-reader-unique-id="37" style="caret-color: rgb(27, 27, 27); color: #1b1b1b; max-width: 100%;"><span data-reader-unique-id="38" style="max-width: 100%;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Luther rediscovered his true grit. </span></span></p><p data-reader-unique-id="37" style="caret-color: rgb(27, 27, 27); color: #1b1b1b; max-width: 100%;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">He also had conclusive evidence in his possession, as well as a daughter he cared about. What about you? If optimism still seems like a stretch, ask yourself what it would take for you, an informed libertarian, to be pessimistic.</span></p><p data-reader-unique-id="37" style="caret-color: rgb(27, 27, 27); color: #1b1b1b; max-width: 100%;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><b>A libertarian's assets</b></span></p><p data-reader-unique-id="39" style="caret-color: rgb(27, 27, 27); color: #1b1b1b; max-width: 100%;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><span data-reader-unique-id="40" style="max-width: 100%;"></span></span></p><p data-reader-unique-id="42" style="caret-color: rgb(27, 27, 27); color: #1b1b1b; max-width: 100%;"><span data-reader-unique-id="43" style="max-width: 100%;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">First and foremost, you would have to view your “informed libertarianism” as thoroughly grounded in blind faith, not to mention wrong.</span></span></p><p data-reader-unique-id="44" style="caret-color: rgb(27, 27, 27); color: #1b1b1b; max-width: 100%;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><span data-reader-unique-id="45" style="max-width: 100%;"></span></span></p><div data-reader-unique-id="47" style="caret-color: rgb(27, 27, 27); color: #1b1b1b; max-width: 100%;"><span data-reader-unique-id="48" style="max-width: 100%;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">More precisely, to be pessimistic you would have to believe that the Keynesians are right, that Fed-inflated recoveries are indeed real and not a bubble; that free markets are inherently flawed and in need of regulation, debt-financed stimulus, bail-outs of the big boys, and an instantly-inflatable money stock to shore up emergencies. You might long to be free, but the economic truth is, notwithstanding such longings, freedom in a social context is a return to the <a data-reader-unique-id="49" href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Myth-Robber-Barons-Business/dp/0963020315" style="color: #416ed2; max-width: 100%; text-decoration: none;">robber baron days of the 19th century</a>. </span></span></div><p data-reader-unique-id="50" style="caret-color: rgb(27, 27, 27); color: #1b1b1b; max-width: 100%;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><span data-reader-unique-id="51" style="max-width: 100%;"></span></span></p><p data-reader-unique-id="53" style="caret-color: rgb(27, 27, 27); color: #1b1b1b; max-width: 100%;"><span data-reader-unique-id="54" style="max-width: 100%;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Along with this, you, an informed libertarian, would have to believe that Mises, Rothbard, Hazlitt, Salerno, Hulsmann, DiLorenzo, Paul, Rockwell, de Soto, Shostak, Woods, North, Murphy, and many other Austrian authors were either grossly ignorant or lying when they championed unhampered free markets and sound money as the necessary precondition of peace, freedom, and prosperity.</span></span></p><p data-reader-unique-id="55" style="caret-color: rgb(27, 27, 27); color: #1b1b1b; max-width: 100%;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><span data-reader-unique-id="56" style="max-width: 100%;"></span></span></p><div data-reader-unique-id="58" style="caret-color: rgb(27, 27, 27); color: #1b1b1b; max-width: 100%;"><span data-reader-unique-id="59" style="max-width: 100%;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Along with this, you would have to ignore the overwhelming data showing that market economies improve living standards and concede that what we need is <a data-reader-unique-id="60" href="http://object.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/serials/files/cato-journal/1991/5/cj11n1-2.pdf" style="color: #416ed2; max-width: 100%; text-decoration: none;"><span data-reader-unique-id="61" style="max-width: 100%;">more government in our lives</span></a>.</span></span></div><p data-reader-unique-id="62" style="caret-color: rgb(27, 27, 27); color: #1b1b1b; max-width: 100%;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><span data-reader-unique-id="63" style="max-width: 100%;"></span></span></p><p data-reader-unique-id="65" style="caret-color: rgb(27, 27, 27); color: #1b1b1b; max-width: 100%;"><span data-reader-unique-id="66" style="max-width: 100%;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">For a libertarian to be pessimistic, you would have to believe that bureaucrats and other time-servers inoculated against market forces will outwit entrepreneurs in the long run. You would have to believe that politicians who steal your money to start wars and bail out their friends contribute more to our welfare than Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web, or Jeff Bezos and countless other entrepreneurs. </span></span></p><p data-reader-unique-id="67" style="caret-color: rgb(27, 27, 27); color: #1b1b1b; max-width: 100%;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><span data-reader-unique-id="68" style="max-width: 100%;"></span></span></p><div data-reader-unique-id="70" style="caret-color: rgb(27, 27, 27); color: #1b1b1b; max-width: 100%;"><span data-reader-unique-id="71" style="max-width: 100%;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">As a pessimistic libertarian, you would have to believe that central bank counterfeiting produces a sound monetary system, that a market-selected money inevitably goes astray, that money under control of a politicized committee produces the best results for everyone, and that a managed monetary system will last indefinitely. You would have to believe gold is truly a barbarous relic, of <a data-reader-unique-id="72" href="http://blogs.wsj.com/moneybeat/2015/07/17/lets-be-honest-about-gold-its-a-pet-rock/" style="color: #416ed2; max-width: 100%; text-decoration: none;">no more value than a pet rock</a> (when in fact it's more like a door stop, where "door" refers to government).</span></span></div><p data-reader-unique-id="73" style="caret-color: rgb(27, 27, 27); color: #1b1b1b; max-width: 100%;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><span data-reader-unique-id="74" style="max-width: 100%;"></span></span></p><div data-reader-unique-id="76" style="caret-color: rgb(27, 27, 27); color: #1b1b1b; max-width: 100%;"><span data-reader-unique-id="77" style="font-size: medium; max-width: 100%;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Along with this, you would have to believe that in this age of Wikipedia, web browsers, Khan Academy, Mises Institute, YouTube, the Ron Paul Curriculum, Facebook, Twitter, Skype, texting, email, TED, the proliferation of web-accessible computing devices, and </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">the high web traffic ratings of libertarian web sites</span><span style="font-family: georgia;">, the government will maintain its grip on education, keeping the vast majority of people clothed in tax-funded wool, inculcating the population with the court view of history, with the state/Keynesian view of crisis management, and getting them to swallow whole the pronouncements that pass for news and rational commentary on banker-controlled media. </span></span></div><p data-reader-unique-id="79" style="caret-color: rgb(27, 27, 27); color: #1b1b1b; max-width: 100%;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><span data-reader-unique-id="80" style="max-width: 100%;"></span></span></p><div data-reader-unique-id="82" style="caret-color: rgb(27, 27, 27); color: #1b1b1b; max-width: 100%;"><span data-reader-unique-id="83" style="max-width: 100%;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Along with this, you would have to believe <a data-reader-unique-id="84" href="http://www.amazon.com/Gulf-Tonkin-Events-Fifty-Years-Later-ebook/dp/B00I7BCPY8/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1407097128&sr=8-1" style="color: #416ed2; max-width: 100%; text-decoration: none;"><span data-reader-unique-id="85" style="max-width: 100%;">John White</span></a>, Daniel Ellsberg, Frank Serpico, <a data-reader-unique-id="86" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perry_Fellwock" style="color: #416ed2; max-width: 100%; text-decoration: none;"><span data-reader-unique-id="87" style="max-width: 100%;">Perry Fellwock</span></a>, <a data-reader-unique-id="88" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Felt" style="color: #416ed2; max-width: 100%; text-decoration: none;"><span data-reader-unique-id="89" style="max-width: 100%;">Mark Felt</span></a>, <a data-reader-unique-id="90" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Ruppert" style="color: #416ed2; max-width: 100%; text-decoration: none;"><span data-reader-unique-id="91" style="max-width: 100%;">Michael Ruppert</span></a>, <a data-reader-unique-id="92" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederic_Whitehurst" style="color: #416ed2; max-width: 100%; text-decoration: none;"><span data-reader-unique-id="93" style="max-width: 100%;">Frederic Whitehurst</span></a>, <a data-reader-unique-id="94" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karen_Kwiatkowski" style="color: #416ed2; max-width: 100%; text-decoration: none;"><span data-reader-unique-id="95" style="max-width: 100%;">Karen Kwiatkowski</span></a>, <a data-reader-unique-id="96" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesselyn_Radack" style="color: #416ed2; max-width: 100%; text-decoration: none;"><span data-reader-unique-id="97" style="max-width: 100%;">Jesselyn Radack</span></a>, <a data-reader-unique-id="98" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sibel_Edmonds" style="color: #416ed2; max-width: 100%; text-decoration: none;"><span data-reader-unique-id="99" style="max-width: 100%;">Sibel Edmonds</span></a>, <a data-reader-unique-id="100" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/06/opinion/what-i-didn-t-find-in-africa.html" style="color: #416ed2; max-width: 100%; text-decoration: none;"><span data-reader-unique-id="101" style="max-width: 100%;">Joseph Wilson</span></a>, <a data-reader-unique-id="102" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Provance" style="color: #416ed2; max-width: 100%; text-decoration: none;"><span data-reader-unique-id="103" style="max-width: 100%;">Samuel Provance</span></a>, <a data-reader-unique-id="104" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russ_Tice" style="color: #416ed2; max-width: 100%; text-decoration: none;"><span data-reader-unique-id="105" style="max-width: 100%;">Russ Tice</span></a>, <a data-reader-unique-id="106" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Andrews_Drake" style="color: #416ed2; max-width: 100%; text-decoration: none;"><span data-reader-unique-id="107" style="max-width: 100%;">Thomas Andrews Drake, </span></a>Edward Snowden, <a data-reader-unique-id="108" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chelsea_Manning" style="color: #416ed2; max-width: 100%; text-decoration: none;"><span data-reader-unique-id="109" style="max-width: 100%;">Chelsea Manning</span></a>, and numerous other whistleblowers are cowardly traitors and are universally regarded as such. You would have to believe that these people were determined to subvert the lawful undertakings of government rather than exposing the government’s heinous wrongdoings.</span></span></div><p data-reader-unique-id="110" style="caret-color: rgb(27, 27, 27); color: #1b1b1b; max-width: 100%;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><span data-reader-unique-id="111" style="max-width: 100%;"></span></span></p><div data-reader-unique-id="113" style="caret-color: rgb(27, 27, 27); color: #1b1b1b; max-width: 100%;"><span data-reader-unique-id="114" style="max-width: 100%;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Along with this, you would have to believe that the decentralizing, deflationary, and individual-empowering character of information-based technologies, which has been <a href="https://www.kurzweilai.net/the-law-of-accelerating-returns" target="_blank">advancing at an exponential pace</a> at least since 1890 and which is powering research in other fields such as medicine (where <a data-reader-unique-id="115" href="http://www.cnn.com/2014/04/17/tech/innovation/artificial-eyes-3d-printing-body/index.html" style="color: #416ed2; max-width: 100%; text-decoration: none;">3-D printing is producing surrogate body parts</a>) — and which has put in your pocket a device with <a data-reader-unique-id="116" href="https://www.phonearena.com/news/A-modern-smartphone-or-a-vintage-supercomputer-which-is-more-powerful_id57149" style="color: #416ed2; max-width: 100%; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><span data-reader-unique-id="117" style="max-width: 100%;">more computational power than an early 1990s supercomputer</span></a> — will slow significantly because engineers and researchers are at a loss to move us beyond the current computing paradigm, <a href="https://www.investopedia.com/terms/m/mooreslaw.asp" target="_blank">Moore’s Law</a>. </span></span></div><p data-reader-unique-id="121" style="caret-color: rgb(27, 27, 27); color: #1b1b1b; max-width: 100%;"><span data-reader-unique-id="122" style="max-width: 100%;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><b>Conclusion</b></span></span></p><p data-reader-unique-id="121" style="caret-color: rgb(27, 27, 27); color: #1b1b1b; max-width: 100%;"><span data-reader-unique-id="122" style="max-width: 100%;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">It’s challenging to be a pessimistic libertarian. Luther was nearly assassinated and his daughter almost killed in “Absolute Power,” but in the end everything worked out. </span></span></p><p data-reader-unique-id="121" style="caret-color: rgb(27, 27, 27); color: #1b1b1b; max-width: 100%;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Don’t let the fact that the movie is fictional discourage you. Use fiction as a guideline and make your own movie real. If you feel your optimism fading turn up the grit and move ahead. </span></p><p data-reader-unique-id="121" style="caret-color: rgb(27, 27, 27); color: #1b1b1b; max-width: 100%;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">***</span></p><p data-reader-unique-id="121" style="caret-color: rgb(27, 27, 27); color: #1b1b1b; max-width: 100%;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">The foregoing was extracted from my book, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Fall-Tyranny-Rise-Liberty-ebook/dp/B01N9UKKHH/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1485286431&sr=1-1&keywords=The+Fall+of+Tyranny%2C+the+Rise+of+Liberty" target="_blank"><i>The Fall of Tyranny, the Rise of Liberty</i></a>.</span></p><p data-reader-unique-id="121" style="caret-color: rgb(27, 27, 27); color: #1b1b1b; max-width: 100%;"><b style="caret-color: rgb(22, 22, 22); color: #161616; font-family: georgia;">George Ford Smith</b><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(22, 22, 22); font-family: georgia;"> is a former mainframe and PC programmer and technology instructor, the author of eight books including a novel about a renegade Fed chairman (</span><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: georgia;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Flight-Barbarous-Relic-George-Smith-ebook/dp/B0013FNOOK/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1208388529&sr=8-1" target="_blank"><i>Flight of the Barbarous Relic</i></a></span><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(22, 22, 22); font-family: georgia;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Flight-Barbarous-Relic-George-Smith-ebook/dp/B0013FNOOK/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1208388529&sr=8-1" target="_blank">)</a>, a filmmaker (</span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=df_l24SY-hA" style="font-family: georgia; text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><i>Do Not Consent</i></span></a><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(22, 22, 22); font-family: georgia;">), and an advocate of stateless market government. He eagerly welcomes speaking engagements and can be reached at gfs543@icloud.com.</span></p>Georgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16908823468747218192noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-979101119058063355.post-64006321444364071762022-08-05T14:58:00.000-07:002022-08-05T14:58:08.512-07:00 Political Litmus Tests Made Easy<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><i>"We have what it takes to take what you have.” </i><a href="https://www.forbes.com/pictures/fjkj45eldi/suggested-irs-motto/?sh=c4f0fe1ae6d0"><i>-- Proposed IRS motto</i></a></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"> </span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">One can easily spot a libertarian by their position on taxes.</span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">One can easily spot a Democrat or a Republican by their position on abortion.</span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Fascists, communists, socialists and others dependent on force have their particular litmus tests but share a common premise: The necessity of the state. The state — the legal monopoly on violence — whether total or minimal, is a necessary component of their political position.</span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">This brings up the subject of anarchy, the name given to those who reject the state altogether.</span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Have we have named all possible political positions? Almost.</span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">What do we call people who favor government by the voluntary relationships of the market and its natural incentives toward peace, prosperity, and harmony? </span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">They too could rightfully describe themselves as anarchists, <a href="https://www.lexico.com/en/definition/anarchism">according to this definition</a>: </span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"></p><blockquote><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">A political theory advocating the abolition of hierarchical government and the organization of society on a voluntary, cooperative basis without recourse to force or compulsion.</span></blockquote><p></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">But this gives us conflicting definitions of anarchy. One that rejects the state as a means of rejecting government. The other that rejects the state as a way of <i>implementing</i> government.</span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">The pro-government anarchists believe the path to civilization is not based on a mixture of compulsion and freedom; it is based on freedom alone.</span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">For these people <a href="https://smile.amazon.com/Market-Liberty-Morris-Tannehill-ebook/dp/B007N7JDLA/ref=sr_1_2?crid=TP4G01OLWXOH&keywords=The+Market+for+liberty&qid=1659735658&sprefix=the+market+for+liberty,aps,92&sr=8-2">the free market, properly understood</a>, is the path to peace and prosperity — the path to civilization. The state prevents this from happening.</span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Political elections, fraud, taxes, inflation, fiat money, war, intel operations, government debt, Liz Cheney, AOC, Hillary, Biden, The Great Reset — and much more — are enemies of the free market because they are positives for the state.</span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Civilization is more than possible, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=df_l24SY-hA&t=3s">it is well within our reach</a>. </span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #161616; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><b>George Ford Smith</b> is a former mainframe and PC programmer and technology instructor, the author of eight books including a novel about a renegade Fed chairman (<a href="https://smile.amazon.com/Flight-Barbarous-Relic-George-Smith/dp/1438202547/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1654700157&sr=8-1"><span style="color: #47160c;">Flight of the Barbarous Relic</span></a>), a filmmaker (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=df_l24SY-hA"><span style="color: #47160c;">Do Not Consent</span></a>), and an advocate of stateless market government. He eagerly welcomes speaking engagements and can be reached at gfs543@icloud.com.</span></p>Georgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16908823468747218192noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-979101119058063355.post-48885810777521802672022-08-03T12:00:00.001-07:002022-08-03T12:13:50.074-07:00If free markets work, why do we have a state?<p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><span>Libertarians call for a free society but few bother to define what this means or explain how to achieve it.</span><span> </span><span>For most a free society is one with a limited government.</span><span> </span><span>But how do we keep it limited?</span><span> </span><span>Who gets to define the limitations?</span><span> </span><span>How many people today even want a limited government?</span><span> </span><span>Not many, or libertarianism would be more popular.</span></span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">The path to this limited government ideal is cleared by unlearning the fallacies government schools have taught us. But if the unlearning is consistent, the result will be to wipe government as we know it out of the picture altogether. <a href="https://www.fff.org/2021/06/29/lets-reject-foreign-interventionism-entirely/">Not even libertarians want that</a>. Why else would there be a Libertarian Party? Someone has to oversee a limited government to make sure it doesn’t meddle unnecessarily in our lives, and libertarians of the Libertarian Party are presumably most fit for the job. </span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">You don't have a free society when a monopoly of violence exists at its core. It's the seed of everything that goes wrong. Libertarians thus are stuck with an inconsistent premise. The sacred nonaggression principle seemingly must coexist with an agency of aggression, allowing some people powers that are legally forbidden to others.</span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">For many, being without a state would feel like open season on their lives. </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">And as we've witnessed here in the U.S., a minimalist state tends not to stay minimal.</span><span style="font-family: georgia;"> </span></span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Suppose, though, that anarchy isn’t the ultimate political horror? What if “anarchy” serves as cover for a free market and a free society generally? What is it about the free market that it can provide almost all, but not quite all, of society’s needs? Is it possible <a href="https://mises.org/library/market-failure-myth">that’s a myth</a>—or worse, a hoax? </span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><b>Free markets work</b></span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">It's believed that if people are free they are incapable of establishing certain services such as courts and law, and national defense. Here is where the free market would shine. Under state dominance, justice is expensive, slow and often denied, while national defense has become its opposite and a source of wealth- and life-draining corruption. </span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Why can’t free men (and women) decide on their own to <a href="https://cdn.mises.org/Chaos%20Theory_2.pdf" target="_blank">institute courts and advertise their benefits to the public</a>? Why can’t others do the same and attempt to persuade the public their courts are better? And wouldn’t it be possible that some people would prefer the courts of A while others subscribe to the courts of B? And couldn’t they agree on a binding method of conflict resolution? </span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Who among us would feel safe without a <a href="https://smile.amazon.com/Private-Production-Defense-Hans-Hermann-Hoppe-ebook/dp/B00571JGXY/ref=sr_1_1?crid=33EH80G1UX913&keywords=private+production+of+defense&qid=1659545287&sprefix=private+production+of+defense%2Caps%2C84&sr=8-1" target="_blank">means of protecting ourselves from foreign invaders</a>? Given the likelihood that insurance companies would undertake defense services and have an incentive to minimize claims, wouldn’t they tend to promote peace while having the requisite means of defending their clients from attacks? </span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">What would happen to the needy under a free market? Would they be left to perish in <a href="https://mises.org/library/dog-eat-dog-delusion">a so-called dog-eat-dog world</a>? Other people, acutely aware of their own vulnerabilit<a href="https://www.fordfoundation.org/media/1721/2002-philanthropic_response.pdf">y, have proven to be charitable</a> even in an age when government has grabbed the welfare reins. In days before the welfare state, <a href="https://mises.org/library/welfare-welfare-state">charity was the pride of the semi-free society</a> we once had. </span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Would income disparity exist under a free market government? Absolutely, just as disparities exist among people in all areas of life. But the fortunes made by some would depend largely on their ability to satisfy customers, not on their nonexistent political connections. Under coercive government <a href="https://smile.amazon.com/Myth-Robber-Barons-Business-America/dp/0963020315/ref=sr_1_1?crid=33NMXJJP4LYCV&dchild=1&keywords=the+myth+of+the+robber+barons&qid=1626279917&sprefix=The+Myth+of+the+Robber+,aps,152&sr=8-1">Burton Folsom’s political entrepreneurs (the real Robber Barons) thrive at the public’s expense.</a> </span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><b>Conclusion</b></span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">When you hear “anarchy,” think “free market” and remember all the blessings it has brought us — and when you hear “government” consider this observation from <a href="https://www.theburningplatform.com/tag/robert-higgs/" target="_blank">Robert Higgs</a>:</span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"></span></p><blockquote><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(24, 24, 24); color: #181818;">Anarchists did not try to carry out genocide against the Armenians in Turkey; they did not deliberately starve</span><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(24, 24, 24); color: #181818;"> millions of Ukrainians; they did not create a system of death camps to kill Jews, gypsies, and Slavs in Europe; they did not fire-bomb scores of large German and Japanese cities and drop nuclear bombs on two of them; they did not carry out a ‘Great Leap Forward’ that killed scores of millions of Chinese; they did not attempt to kill everybody with any appreciable education in Cambodia; they did not launch one aggressive war after another; they did not implement trade sanctions that killed perhaps 500,000 Iraqi children.</span><br style="caret-color: rgb(24, 24, 24); color: #181818;" /><br style="caret-color: rgb(24, 24, 24); color: #181818;" /><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(24, 24, 24); color: #181818;">In debates between anarchists and statists, the burden of proof clearly should rest on those who place their trust in the </span><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(24, 24, 24); color: #181818;">state. Anarchy’s mayhem is wholly conjectural; the state’s mayhem is undeniably, factually horrendous.</span></span></blockquote><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(24, 24, 24); color: #181818;"> </span><br /></span><p></p><ul></ul><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><b style="caret-color: rgb(29, 29, 29); color: #1d1d1d;">George Ford Smith</b><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(29, 29, 29); color: #1d1d1d;"> is a former mainframe and PC programmer and technology instructor, the author of eight books including a novel about a renegade Fed chairman (</span><a href="https://smile.amazon.com/Flight-Barbarous-Relic-George-Smith/dp/1438202547/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1654700157&sr=8-1"><span style="color: #5a1f0c;">Flight of the Barbarous Relic</span></a><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(29, 29, 29); color: #1d1d1d;">), a filmmaker (</span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=df_l24SY-hA"><span style="color: #5a1f0c;">Do Not Consent</span></a><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(29, 29, 29); color: #1d1d1d;">), and an advocate of stateless market government. He eagerly welcomes speaking engagements and can be reached at gfs543@icloud.com.</span></span></p>Georgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16908823468747218192noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-979101119058063355.post-24576283974789082392022-07-29T12:21:00.000-07:002022-07-29T12:21:06.306-07:00The criminal science goes after our youth<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Since the 1950s the New York Fed has become known as a producer of <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/03/yes-the-fed-makes-comic-books/284200/">comic books</a> for young readers, presumably to ease the pain of learning something about "<a href="https://www.investopedia.com/terms/d/dismalscience.asp">the dismal science</a>" — a derogatory term for economics. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Truly, the way economics is taught on any level it is closer to criminal than dismal. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">To succeed in a society that still retains some respect for truth criminal theories need to be presented as respectable, ideally with the backing of “the best and the brightest” who are either not so bright or corrupt to the core. The NY Fed’s comic book <a href="https://www.newyorkfed.org/medialibrary/media/outreach-and-education/comic-books/NewYorkFed-StoryoftheFederalReserveSystem-WebBW.pdf"><i>The Story of the Federal Reserve System</i></a> illustrates this cover-up approach. </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">While reading the 21-page booklet I was reminded of the expression, “Ask me no questions and I’ll tell you no lies.” The high school and undergraduate audience for which this is intended will not be dutifully unquestioning. If nothing else the last few years have raised suspicions among people who were paying attention. Bright young people with phones and computers pay attention.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Here is how the comic book opens:</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"></span></p><blockquote><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">“Way, way out, at the edge of the universe…. The planet Novus is experiencing its first economic crisis.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">“After an unforeseen ice cream setback, a local business was unable to repay its loan…</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">“…which put stress on the bank that made the loan…</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">“…which led to a panic! Everyone on Novus ran to the bank to take their money out of the bank at the same time.”</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Enter President Tilli, who says,</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">“If we take all the cash from our banks, the whole system will collapse.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">“People will lose everything they have worked so hard for!”</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Later, in a conference room:</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">“Instead, the citizens of Novus decided to come together and create a central bank to loan money to other banks—to act as a lender of last resort.”</span></p></blockquote><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: large;">As the story progresses representatives from Novus visit planet earth to study how the Fed works.</span><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-size: large;">They are told: that the Fed is actually decentralized across regions of the US; that it helps keep the economy running smoothly, and prices stable, by affecting the amount of money and credit that flows through the economy.</span><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-size: large;">Too much lending spurs higher prices, too little leads to falling prices.</span><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>The mysterious gold vault</b></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Curiously, the comic book also mentions the gold vault buried deep under the New York Fed. It exists, no explanation as to why it exists.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Let’s hope it prompts young people reading this to frown. What’s up with that? </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Why bury anything? Why gold?</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Maybe the young reader will ask other questions.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The comic book says the Fed was created by Congress in 1913 and signed into law by President Wilson. By Congress? Why did Congress get involved? Why not set up a central bank the way other businesses are set up, without the aid of a special law? </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The Fed was supposed to prevent all those “Panics” that happened in the 19th century. But have they? Financial problems are still around, possibly worse than ever.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Where does the Fed get the money to shore up banks that ran out of money? For that matter, what is money? Is it something the Fed creates?</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">It says too much lending will cause “overspending and rising prices” and cause inflation and possibly a crisis if the boom goes bust. Why are people at the Fed making this decision instead of the people doing the lending and borrowing?</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">And what exactly is inflation? Rising prices? Is inflation better understood as inflation of the money supply?</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">And why did the banks run out of money? If a bank is a safekeeping institution it would keep all its deposits for a service fee. How could it run out of money, unless it did something illegal, in which case it should be penalized? </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">If it’s an investment institution running out of money it’s the risk the investor (and the bank) takes. So why the big panic when this happens? The bank fails. So what? Other businesses fail all the time.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Perhaps the deeply buried gold vault will continue to haunt the young reader and prompt him to do other reading. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: medium;">He will read that gold (and silver) coins were once money. What happened to change money from coins to paper bills issued by the Fed? And only the Fed? Gold is </span><span style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: medium;">sometimes called a "barbarous relic." If it's a relic why bother to secure it?</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">He reads further that bankers complained about the lack of an “elastic currency” before the Fed came along. An elastic currency he learns is one that can be created at will — but not by anybody. If regular people try it they get arrested for counterfeiting. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">What’s it called when the Fed does it? Oh, yes, it’s called monetary policy.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">And if he stumbles across <a href="https://smile.amazon.com/Money-Sound-Unsound-Joseph-Salerno-ebook/dp/B0052G2VHC/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3NDDH8DD5K7QV&keywords=Money+Sound+and+unsound&qid=1659122365&sprefix=money+sound+and+unsound%2Caps%2C91&sr=8-1" target="_blank">this quote</a>: </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"></span></p><blockquote><span style="font-size: medium;">If a domestic money consists of a commodity, a pure gold standard or cowrie bead standard, the principles of monetary policy are very simple. There aren’t any. The commodity money takes care of itself. — Milton Friedman</span></blockquote><p></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: large;">He might then wonder about the need for a central bank at all.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">***</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #1d1d1d; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>George Ford Smith</b> is a former mainframe and PC programmer and technology instructor, the author of eight books including a novel about a renegade Fed chairman (<a href="https://smile.amazon.com/Flight-Barbarous-Relic-George-Smith/dp/1438202547/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1654700157&sr=8-1"><span style="color: #5a1f0c;">Flight of the Barbarous Relic</span></a>), a filmmaker (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=df_l24SY-hA"><span style="color: #5a1f0c;">Do Not Consent</span></a>), and an advocate of stateless market government. He eagerly welcomes speaking engagements and can be reached at gfs543@icloud.com.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></p>Georgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16908823468747218192noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-979101119058063355.post-68625497927445556462022-07-18T14:31:00.003-07:002022-07-19T07:10:04.468-07:00The Exponential vs. the State<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Futurist and inventor Ray Kurzweil wrote an essay in 2001, <a href="https://www.kurzweilai.net/the-law-of-accelerating-returns">The Law of Accelerating Returns</a>, that describes an exponential path to what for many is an unimaginable future. </span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">How certain is the exponential he describes? “We would have to repeal capitalism and every visage of economic competition to stop this progression,” he says. </span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">In today’s world of collapsing currencies and anticapitalist agendas that repeal is well underway. Will the exponential be allowed to benefit mankind or will we regress to stagnation and slavery under globalist rule?</span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">The exponential explained</span></b></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">According to Kurzweil,</span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"></span></p><blockquote><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Exponential growth is a feature of any evolutionary process, of which technology is a primary example. One can examine the data in different ways, on different time scales, and for a wide variety of technologies ranging from electronic to biological, and the acceleration of progress and growth applies. Indeed, we find not just simple exponential growth, but “double” exponential growth, meaning that the rate of exponential growth is itself growing exponentially.</span></blockquote><p></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><span>Moore’s Law — the exponential shrinking of transistor sizes on an integrated circuit — is thought to be nearly synonymous with this observation but in fact it is only one example of what Kurzweil calls “a rich model of technological processes.” This has been ongoing “since the advent of evolution on Earth.” </span><span> </span></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">His analysis shows that although “exponential trends did exist a thousand years ago, they were at that very early stage where an exponential trend is so flat that it looks like no trend at all.” </span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Humans live in a linear world, he reminds us, and often believe progress will continue at the present rate. This is not surprising since any sufficiently short period on an exponential scale will be experienced as linear. “Even sophisticated commentators, when considering the future, extrapolate the current pace of change over the next 10 years or 100 years to determine their expectations.”</span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><span>The full impact of exponential growth can be seen </span><span>in the tale of the inventor of chess and his patron, the emperor of China.</span><span> </span></span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"></span></p><blockquote><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">In response to the emperor’s offer of a reward for his new beloved game, the inventor asked for a single grain of rice on the first square, two on the second square, four on the third, and so on. The Emperor quickly granted this seemingly benign and humble request.</span></blockquote><p></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"></span></p><blockquote><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">One version of the story has the emperor going bankrupt as the 63 doublings ultimately totaled 18 million trillion grains of rice. At ten grains of rice per square inch, this requires rice fields covering twice the surface area of the Earth, oceans included. Another version of the story has the inventor losing his head.</span></blockquote><p></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Where does exponential growth take us?</span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"></span></p><blockquote><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">It will appear to explode into infinity, at least from the limited and linear perspective of contemporary humans. <b>The progress will ultimately become so fast that it will rupture our ability to follow it. It will literally get out of our control. </b>The illusion that we have our hand “on the plug,” will be dispelled. [My emphasis]</span></blockquote><p></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><span>He calls the point of explosion the Singularity. </span><span> </span></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"></span></p><blockquote><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">It represents the nearly vertical phase of exponential growth where the rate of growth is so extreme that technology appears to be growing at infinite speed. Of course, from a mathematical perspective, there is no discontinuity, no rupture, and the growth rates remain finite, albeit extraordinarily large. But from our currently limited perspective, this imminent event appears to be an acute and abrupt break in the continuity of progress. </span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><span>However, I emphasize the word “currently,” because<b> one of the salient implications of the Singularity will be a change in the nature of our ability to understand. In other words, we will become vastly smarter as we merge with our technology. </b></span><span>[My emphasis]</span></span></p></blockquote>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><span>How imminent is the Singularity?</span><span> </span><span>In his magnum opus </span><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Singularity-Near-Humans-Transcend-Biology-ebook/dp/B000QCSA7C/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2MQBWA586S7DR&keywords=the+singularity+is+near&qid=1658175702&s=books&sprefix=The+Singularity+is+Near,stripbooks,143&sr=1-1"><i>The Singularity is Near</i></a><span> Kurzweil sets the year 2045 for its arrival.</span><span> </span><span>“The nonbiological intelligence created in that year will be one billion times more powerful than all human intelligence today. . . .</span><span> </span><span>Despite the clear predominance of nonbiological intelligence by the mid-2040s, ours will still be a human civilization. We will transcend biology, but not our humanity.”</span></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Advancements in nanotechnology will bring tools to “rebuild the physical world—our bodies and brains included—molecular fragment by molecular fragment, potentially atom by atom.”</span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">By creating universal abundance nanotech will diminish the reasons for “breaking the peace.”</span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><b>Kurzweil's batting average</b></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">For those wishing to assign Kurzweil the status of crackpot, check out his PDF, "<a href="https://www.kurzweilai.net/images/How-My-Predictions-Are-Faring.pdf">How My Predictions Are Faring</a>,” which he published in 2010. </span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"></span></p><blockquote><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Of the 147 predictions, Kurzweil claimed that 115 were "entirely correct", 12 were "essentially correct", 17 were "partially correct", and only 3 were "wrong". Combining the "entirely" and "essentially" correct, Kurzweil's claimed accuracy rate comes to 86%. (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Kurzweil#Predictions">Wikipedia</a>) </span></blockquote><p></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Read it and judge for yourself. There are good reasons why he’s received 20 honorary doctorates. He became a successful</span><span style="font-size: medium;"> entrepeneur by applying his knowledge of exponential trends.</span></span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">The implosion of the current world order</span></b></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"> </span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Students of revisionist history and free-market economics understand what’s at stake in today’s world. The actions of governments in accordance with Event 201, which inflicted a globally totalitarian response to a virus; the stated aims of the WEF where by 2030 what’s left of humanity will become happy slaves of an elite; the extinction of fiat monetary systems brought to ruin by central bank counterfeiting; governments defaulting on their debt and unable to pay its employees — all of this and more will create a world of opportunity perhaps never before seen. </span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Freedom and free markets will emerge by default if not by intention. </span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Market-chosen money (<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Ethics-Money-Production-LvMI-ebook/dp/B003NX6Z3W/ref=sr_1_1?crid=DEHY4CBO3M9T&keywords=The+Ethics+of+money+production&qid=1658175074&s=digital-text&sprefix=the+ethics+of+money+production,digital-text,71&sr=1-1">or monies</a>) will help rescue the world economy. </span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">With the need for defense of private property the market will provide solutions in accordance with treatises such as Hoppe’s <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Private-Production-Defense-Hans-Hermann-Hoppe-ebook/dp/B00571JGXY/ref=sr_1_1?crid=5OE5NCVGJ48&keywords=the+private+production+of+defense&qid=1658175112&sprefix=The+Private+Production+of,aps,68&sr=8-1"><i>The Private Production of Defense</i></a> and others.</span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">I need to mention that these are my views, not Ray Kurzweil's.</span></span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Conclusion</span></b></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">The future will not be Man versus government Terminators, but rather technologically enhanced humans prospering together.</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">The State, which will still exist only if we fail ourselves, will be relegated to the dark chambers of history.</span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
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<p style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><b>George Ford Smith</b> is a former mainframe and PC programmer and technology instructor, the author of eight books including a novel about a renegade Fed chairman (<a href="https://smile.amazon.com/Flight-Barbarous-Relic-George-Smith/dp/1438202547/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1654700157&sr=8-1"><span style="color: #6e2b0d;">Flight of the Barbarous Relic</span></a>), a filmmaker (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=df_l24SY-hA"><span style="color: #6e2b0d;">Do Not Consent</span></a>), and an advocate of stateless market government. He eagerly welcomes speaking engagements and can be reached at gfs543@icloud.com.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"> </span></p>Georgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16908823468747218192noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-979101119058063355.post-54773655895511624932022-07-12T13:37:00.000-07:002022-07-12T13:37:48.569-07:00Stand firm against the gaslighting liberal world order<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i style="font-size: 14px;"></i></p><blockquote><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i><span style="font-size: medium;">Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves are its only safe depositories.</span></i></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">— Thomas Jefferson</span></p></blockquote><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: Palatino;">Recently one of Joe Biden’s lieutenants, Brian Deese, </span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ub9QY6tfRDs" style="font-family: Palatino;">told an interviewer</a><span style="font-family: Palatino;"> if high gas prices are needed to attain the liberal world order we need to stand firm.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">What do they mean by “liberal world order”? They’ve given us hints — have you noticed?</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Unlike other despotic regimes, the West’s dissent enforcers are usually employed outside government directly, at least for now. Make private forces do the dirty work of gagging troublemakers with threats, gaslighting, harassment, deplatforming, fining or firing. Gives the impression of “the people” outraged rather than a cold-blooded bureaucrat. But when necessary the regime swings into action with election treachery, sustained with a mockery of the rule of law. And for a Hollywood touch it might send a twentyfold SWAT team to a <a href="https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/frontline-doctor-fbi-broke-down-my-door-in-swat-team-raid-of-20-men-guns-blazing/">recalcitrant’s home</a> and haul her in cuffed. Or for low comedy send a plump <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9FEr4k0T3A">covid cop to chase a runner off a closed beach</a>.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The liberal world order means no one should even think about dissent. It means nothing less than the permanent suppression of all challengers to the approved narrative, perhaps achieved with the <a href="https://townhall.com/columnists/patbuchanan/2013/10/22/hail-to-the-redskins-n1729124">Final Solution</a> (extermination of all undesirables), precedent for which is part of American history. </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">The Covid War</span></b></p>
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<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">We’ve seen the early stages of this liberal world order in the Covid campaign. Normally, in battle, you hate the enemy and make no pretensions about it. Not so with the Covid War. The purpose was to kill as many of us as possible while feigning concern for our welfare. Evidence: The <a href="https://www.wispolitics.com/2022/u-s-sen-johnson-36th-oversight-letter-to-federal-health-agencies-highlights-lack-of-transparency-and-agencies-arrogance-towards-the-american-people/">astronomical number of adverse events on VAERS</a> that are being ignored. (For more evidence peruse the videos on <a href="https://www.bitchute.com/channel/iHzPGdlKhqYe/">my BitChute channel</a>.) Given that the enemy (human sheep) doesn’t see them as attackers, it worked wonderfully. And as we’ve seen it’s still ongoing. </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">How could our American leaders act this way? And how could so many others be self-righteously obedient?</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The spirit of free men has always been distrustful of authority, at minimum. <i>What happened, guys? You consider yourself free but roll over to anyone anointed with the title of expert while standing in front of an American flag? The information is out there, Google can’t hide everything, all it takes is some effort on your part. Get off social media and do some real research. </i></span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Most of us have heard about doctors promoting early treatment of Covid. Are they charlatans or conscientious medical professionals? You’re aware of what the CDC, FDA, Fauci, social media, Wikipedia, and the rest of the gang think of them. I have no medical training, but I can read and make judgments. So can you.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">They were saving lives with HCQ and ivermectin and keeping people out of hospitals. Dr. George Fareed, Dr. Vladimir Zelenko, Dr. Brian Tyson, Dr. Robert Malone, Dr. Harvey Risch, Dr. Peter McCullough, Dr. Simone Gold and others tried to convince authorities of the necessity of early treatment and the availability of drugs that were inexpensive, safe and efficacious. </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">For instance, Dr. Harvey Risch, professor of epidemiology at Yale, <a href="https://www.c-span.org/video/?478159-1/senate-hearing-covid-19-outpatient-treatment">testifying before the Senate Hearing on Outpatient Treatment on November 19, 2020 </a>, told the panel:</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"></p><blockquote><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">So what did I find when I investigated hydroxychloroquine in early use among outpatients? The first thing is that this drug is extremely safe — exceedingly safe. We know this from common sense. This is a medication that has been used for sixty-five years by hundreds of millions of people, in tens of billions of doses worldwide, prescribed without routine electrocardiogram screening. It’s given to adults and children, pregnant women, nursing mothers. Such a drug must be safe, and it must be safe in the initial viral replication phase of this illness, which is in fact in outpatients initially similar to a cold or flu. </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">In spite of its safety, surprisingly, in July the FDA posted a warning against outpatient hydroxychloroquine use on its website. And they did this while at the same time the FDA had no systematic evidence of adverse events in outpatients, and the website itself says it justifies the warning based on evidence that it had on hospital patients, which [as] I said before is invalid [because hospital patients are not outpatients].</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">There are now seven studies [involving thousands of test subjects around the world] of early use of hydroxychloroquine in high-risk outpatients. And every one of these studies has found significant benefit. . . . All of these studies showed a 50 percent or greater reduction in risk of hospitalization or death. . . . .</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">This body of evidence for hydroxychloroquine dramatically outweighs the risk-benefit ratio for Remdesivir, monoclonal antibodies, and for the difficult-to-use Bebtelovimab [?] that FDA has approved for Emergency Use Authorization </span></p>
</blockquote><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: Palatino;">Do you think a Yale professor of epidemiology is a paid liar or the studies he cites are all flawed or bogus?</span><span style="font-family: Palatino;"> </span><span style="font-family: Palatino;">If so, what’s in it for him besides the axing of his reputation?</span><span style="font-family: Palatino;"> </span><span style="font-family: Palatino;">Money?</span><span style="font-family: Palatino;"> </span><span style="font-family: Palatino;">Who’s writing the checks?</span><span style="font-family: Palatino;"> </span><span style="font-family: Palatino;">Certainly not Big Pharma.</span><span style="font-family: Palatino;"> </span><span style="font-family: Palatino;">Remdesivir (brand name Veklury) is the child of Gilead Sciences, a pharmaceutical firm.</span><span style="font-family: Palatino;"> </span><span style="font-family: Palatino;">And what do you know, </span><a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/remdesivir-shouldn-t-be-used-hospitalized-covid-19-patients-who-n1248320" style="font-family: Palatino;">NBCNews, no less, had this to say about remdesivir on November 19, 2020</a><span style="font-family: Palatino;">, ironically the same day Risch and others were testifying in DC:</span><br />
</span><p style="background-color: white; color: #1f1f1f; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 24px;"></p><blockquote><span style="font-size: medium;">The antiviral remdesivir should not be used as treatment for hospitalized <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/health/coronavirus"><span style="color: #2443ff;">Covid-19</span></a> patients, the World Health Organization said Thursday, only a month after the Food and Drug Administration approved the drug to treat patients over age 12 who are <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/fda-approves-first-drug-covid-19-remdesivir-n1244351"><span style="color: #2443ff;">hospitalized with Covid-19</span></a>.</span></blockquote><p></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #1f1f1f; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 24px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Earlier this year (2022) I tested positive for Covid and spent a day in the hospital but for other reasons. They wanted to hit me with remdesivir, but I said no. </span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #1f1f1f; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 24px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Later, I saw a printed summary of my treatments with the word “disinformation” as the reason for declining remdesivir.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #1f1f1f; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 24px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">******</span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #323232; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>George Ford Smith</b> is a former mainframe and PC programmer and technology instructor, the author of eight books including a novel about a renegade Fed chairman (<a href="https://smile.amazon.com/Flight-Barbarous-Relic-George-Smith/dp/1438202547/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1654700157&sr=8-1"><span style="color: #823a0d;">Flight of the Barbarous Relic</span></a>), a filmmaker (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=df_l24SY-hA"><span style="color: #823a0d;">Do Not Consent</span></a>), and an advocate of stateless market government. He eagerly welcomes speaking engagements and can be reached at gfs543@icloud.com.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><br /></p><p> </p>Georgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16908823468747218192noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-979101119058063355.post-47670178846202268412022-06-30T14:16:00.002-07:002022-06-30T14:24:46.250-07:00It's the root that's killing us<p><span style="font-size: medium;"> <i style="font-family: Palatino;"></i></span></p><blockquote><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><i style="font-family: Palatino;">“If we look beneath the surface of our public affairs, we can discern one fundamental fact, namely: a great redistribution of power between society and the State. This is the fact that interests the student of civilization. He has only a secondary or derived interest in matters like price-fixing, wage-fixing, inflation, political banking, “agricultural adjustment,” and similar items of State policy that fill the pages of newspapers and the mouths of publicists and politicians. All these can be run up under one head. They have an immediate and temporary importance, and for this reason they monopolize public attention, but they all come to the same thing; which is, an increase of State power and a corresponding decrease of social power.</i><span style="font-family: Palatino;">”</span></span></p><blockquote><blockquote><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">— Albert Jay Nock, <i>Our Enemy, The State</i></span></p></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><p><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span>Those who write about current events typically expose some problem that is egregious and needs to be fixed. And where do these problems come from? Depending on what mental resources they bring to the problem, and the problem itself, they might lay the blame on the CDC, Russia, the Federal Reserve, gun-free government schools, the Democrats, Trump, Biden, </span><span>Fauci, Gates,</span><span> </span><span>the Court, Big Tech, Big Pharma, etc..</span></span><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">For instance, <a href="https://mises.org/wire/powell-new-arthur-burns-not-new-paul-volcker">a recent article</a> about the federal reserve and its effort to tame price inflation criticizes the Fed for tinkering with a problem that requires a Paul Volcker approach. The article is on-target as far as it goes, but makes no mention of the Fed’s character as a legal counterfeiter, as a creator of money out of nothing to benefit the well-connected, yet it is beyond doubt the author is well-aware of this fact. </span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Instead of pushing for a <a href="https://smile.amazon.com/Keeping-at-It-audiobook/dp/B07JQSF5TT/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2EJYJO1LT0D17&keywords=Paul+Volcker&qid=1656618238&s=books&sprefix=paul+volcker,stripbooks,84&sr=1-1">Paul Volcker approach</a> why not at least call for a <a href="https://smile.amazon.com/End-Fed-Ron-Paul-2009-09-16/dp/B01FKSBP0K/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=end+the+fed&qid=1656618171&s=books&sprefix=End+the+,stripbooks,87&sr=1-2">Ron Paul solution</a>? Too radical? Not practical?</span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">One surmises that repeating the nature of central banking is unnecessary for the Misesian audience he addresses. But is this his only audience? Perhaps the majority of readers are well-versed in the Fed’s corrupt nature and history, but preaching to the choir will not win many new converts. And certainly no choir has a slip-proof memory. </span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">When I ask people what they know about the federal reserve the answer is invariably: “What the devil are you talking about?” They’ve never heard of it. If I say it’s an agency in charge of the country’s money supply, a few of them will equate it with the Treasury but most will lose all interest in the subject. If I add that it funds a significant share of the government’s wars, the responses I get, if any, are something like, “Well, someone has to pay for them.”</span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The idea that we could have peace and prosperity without the Fed never occurs to them. </span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">There are a few — very few — who recall their government schooling and reply, “Wait a minute — wasn’t the Fed created to put an end to the Panics of long ago?” When I ask them if they think that was a good idea, they wander in no-man’s land. “Well, the government had to do <i>something, </i>right? It might not be perfect but the economy was at risk. I guess we’re learning by experience.”</span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Banking and money doesn’t interest the general public, even if I tell them they’re getting shafted. Even if I make a case that we would have had a far better world if the Fed had never been imposed on us.</span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">And take note: It <i>had</i> to be imposed. <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Rationale-Central-Banking-Free-Alternative/dp/0865970874">No central bank is ever a free market entity</a>.</span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The brilliant David Stockman in his bestselling <a href="https://smile.amazon.com/Great-Deformation-Corruption-Capitalism-America/dp/1586489127/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1656618779&sr=1-1"><i>The Great Deformation</i></a> justifiably lambastes the Fed for all kinds of sins but has a soft spot for its original charter. In other words, he apparently believes it was once a good idea but has since become an instrument of exploitation and destruction.</span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Many limited-government libertarians reason the same way. We once had a government we could live with, that respected our rights, but has since grown into a monster. Their goal is to trim it down but keep the very part of it that allowed it to grow without restraint.</span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">As with ordinary weeds, without getting rid of the root the problems will only grow back again. </span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The root is the State with its citizen-approved monopoly of violence. Eliminate that, and we have arrived not at anarchy but at <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08B324YRZ">free market government</a>.</span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">In our country we occasionally have had people in positions of power who were to a large degree honorable. <a href="https://cdn.mises.org/Reassessing%20the%20Presidency_0.pdf">Grover Cleveland</a> comes to mind. But such is the nature of the State that, as <a href="https://mises.org/library/criminality-state">Nock writes</a>,“the machine they are running will run on rails which are laid only one way, which is from crime to crime.” </span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">This is what the public doesn’t understand and this is what they must learn.</span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #414141; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>George Ford Smith</b> is a former mainframe and PC programmer and technology instructor, the author of eight books including a novel about a renegade Fed chairman (<a href="https://smile.amazon.com/Flight-Barbarous-Relic-George-Smith/dp/1438202547/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1654700157&sr=8-1"><span style="color: #964c0d;">Flight of the Barbarous Relic</span></a>), a filmmaker (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=df_l24SY-hA"><span style="color: #964c0d;">Do Not Consent</span></a>), and an advocate of stateless market government. He eagerly welcomes speaking engagements and can be reached at gfs543@icloud.com.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #535353; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></p><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div>Georgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16908823468747218192noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-979101119058063355.post-6533153605786977162022-06-27T15:51:00.000-07:002022-06-27T15:51:23.478-07:00Let’s save civilization!<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">On June 28, 1914 two assassinations in Sarajevo triggered the beginning of the Great War in Europe a month later. Libertarian writers, <a href="https://mises.org/library/inflation-inferno-i">including me</a>, have pointed out that the incredible slaughter of that war, and the disastrous events that followed it such as WW II, could not have happened if the belligerent nations hadn’t suspended gold convertibility. Writing in <a href="https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=umn.31951d001510207&view=1up&seq=446">The Quarterly review in 1915</a>, author J. S. Nicholson tells us: </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"></p><blockquote><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The two principal forms assumed by the abandonment were the Moratorium and Inconvertibility. The two forms are in essence the same. Inconvertibility is generally applied to bank notes; it means that the bankers are authorised to refuse to meet their promises to pay in gold on demand. . . A moratorium means that all debtors (not specially excluded) are authorised to postpone the fulfillment of their monetary obligations. </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Germany adopted at once the method of inconvertibility, and prided itself on not being obliged to adopt the moratorium; but inconvertible notes were issued on such terms and to such an extent that a moratorium was not needed. France adopted both methods. The United Kingdom adopted openly the method of moratorium, and in a disguised manner the method of inconvertibility. </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">English people will long remember the beginnings of the Great War, when some of the London banks refused to give gold for Bank of England notes and people were forced (or delighted) to receive postal orders as legal tender. They will long remember also the advent of the new sin of hoarding gold and the new virtue of turning it out of their pockets into the banks. </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">With the war the whole duty of the private man as regards gold was declared to be total abstinence; the proper place for gold (so it was preached) was a bank; and the proper business of the bank was to hoard it. </span></p></blockquote><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">With paper replacing gold, governments would not be restrained from continuing the war for lack of funds, and the killing and destruction thus continued unabated reaching astronomical levels.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The “neutral” US was already deeply into the war unofficially with the House of Morgan arranging the sale of British and French IOUs here in the states, as well as serving as a purchasing agent for allied war materials. It was a lucrative racket but contingent on Britain and France winning the war against Germany. </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">And that became a real problem. Victory seemed increasingly unlikely as German submarine attacks were destroying Allied shipping at the rate of 300,000 tons per week, threatening to force a negotiated treaty and bringing the roof down on Morgan’s empire. Previously-sold bonds would go into default, and the cash flow for war materials would dry up. Woodrow Wilson, who in 1916 had been re-elected on the grounds that “he kept us out of war,” called on Congress for a declaration of war against Germany on April 6, 1917. </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Among young men enthusiasm for dying in the trenches didn’t match the government’s enthusiasm for sending them there. <a href="https://smile.amazon.com/Jolly-Roger-Dollar-pirates-that-ebook/dp/B0067TU3QO/ref=sr_1_2?crid=1FPL4MRVR759Z&keywords=The+Jolly+Roger+DOllar&qid=1656365071&s=books&sprefix=the+jolly+roger+dollar,stripbooks,78&sr=1-2">But this was no problem</a> for our beloved monopoly of violence:</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"></p><blockquote><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">With the country’s youth showing no interest in dying or killing for corrupt politicians, Wilson decided to bring out the bayonets. On May 18, 1917 he signed the Selective Service Act to register over ten million men, from which over 2.8 million were drafted. In an apparent bid to make himself and his administration the inspiration for Big Brother, Wilson added that the draft was “in no sense a conscription of the unwilling; it is, rather, selection from a nation which has volunteered in mass.” “Volunteers” who didn’t register got a year in prison, and anyone found obstructing the conscripting process was subject to a $10,000 fine and 20 years in prison. [Ch. 14]</span></blockquote><p></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The US was already prepared to fund the war with the enactment of the Income Tax and the passage of Federal Reserve Act of 1913, both under Wilson’s watch. Americans have no trouble seeing the connection between higher taxes and war, but the role of the Fed has always been obscure, and deliberately so. The war helped clarify the Fed’s nature as a lender of money it didn’t have. <a href="https://www.federalreservehistory.org/essays/feds-role-during-wwi">According to Phil Davies</a>, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"></p><blockquote><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Congress created the Fed as an independent central bank to isolate it from political pressure, but during the war monetary policy was beholden to the needs of the Treasury. “Independence was sacrificed to maintain interest rates that lowered the Treasury’s cost of debt finance,” [Alan] Meltzer (2003) writes [in his <i>A History of the Federal Reserve</i>.]</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Although the Fed focused on war finance at the expense of inflation during World War I, it emerged as a major player on the world stage after the war as it developed into a full-fledged central bank.</span></p></blockquote>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Ask almost any economist and he will tell you that inflation is a general rise in prices. Ask an Austrian economist and he will tell you inflation is an increase in the money supply that often results in higher prices. How does the Fed increase the money supply without digging gold out of the ground? By having the government prohibit convertibility or outlaw gold altogether and printing irredeemable paper “dollars” instead, then forcing us to use them (legal tender laws). Government has taken a serious crime, counterfeiting, and made it legal only when the Fed engages in it.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">What exactly did the Fed and its buddy the government accomplish with their policies? The US war dead is estimated at 117,000 with another 204,000 wounded. Too bad we can’t meet them one at a time. We can toss in a few thousand other results, such as the rise of Hitler, Stalin, the Great Depression, WW II, the National Security State with its penchant for assassinations, coups, and torture, the progressive destruction of the currency, etc., etc., etc. leading to the point where today the reality of nuclear war is once again hovering over us and the dollar is approaching worthlessness as Americans struggle to survive. </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">When Ron Paul and a few others call for ending the Fed, they’re calling for putting a stop to a major destroyer of civilization. But let’s not forget that it took an act of government to give the Fed the power it has. How can we remove government’s violent power? See <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=df_l24SY-hA&t=46s">this</a> and <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08B324YRZ">this</a> for more information. </span></p>
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<p style="background-color: white; color: #535353; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>George Ford Smith</b> is a former mainframe and PC programmer and technology instructor, the author of eight books including a novel about a renegade Fed chairman (<a href="https://smile.amazon.com/Flight-Barbarous-Relic-George-Smith/dp/1438202547/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1654700157&sr=8-1"><span style="color: #a85f0c;">Flight of the Barbarous Relic</span></a>), a filmmaker (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=df_l24SY-hA"><span style="color: #a85f0c;">Do Not Consent</span></a>), and an advocate of stateless market government. He welcomes speaking engagements and can be reached at gfs543@icloud.com.</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: Palatino;"> </span> </span></p>Georgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16908823468747218192noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-979101119058063355.post-89685763676323503122022-06-23T16:03:00.001-07:002022-06-23T17:44:09.043-07:00 Murray Rothbard on the Free Market<p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">For the average genius Murray Rothbard's body of work could consume most of one's lifetime just to read, let alone comprehend, even as he makes it easy for the reader with wit, exactitude, and clarity of style. For me, reading Rothbard's <a href="https://mises.org/library/what-has-government-done-our-money" target="_blank">What Has Government Done to Our Money? </a>was like discovering gold in my backyard. I followed that with <a href="https://mises.org/library/case-against-fed-0" target="_blank">The Case Against the Fed</a>, which along with other Fed critiques, especially those by <a href="https://www.amazon.com/End-Fed-Ron-Paul/dp/0446549193" target="_blank">Ron Paul</a>, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/What-Money-Gary-North-ebook/dp/B009KBLCZC/ref=sr_1_1?crid=11FLSLAASLN1S&keywords=What+is+Money%3F+North&qid=1656030915&s=books&sprefix=what+is+money+north%2Cstripbooks%2C83&sr=1-1" target="_blank">Gary North</a>, and <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Creature-Jekyll-Island-Federal-Reserve/dp/091298645X/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3VDB07KXDZPAF&keywords=the+creature+from+jekyll+island+book&qid=1656031001&s=books&sprefix=The+Creature+from%2Cstripbooks%2C81&sr=1-1" target="_blank">G. Edward Griffin</a>, led me to write a <a href="https://smile.amazon.com/Flight-Barbarous-Relic-George-Smith/dp/1438202547/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1654700157&sr=8-1" target="_blank">novel</a> about a renegade Fed chairman. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">It wasn't easy reading Rothbard's claim that the Fed and other central banks were <i>counterfeiters</i> with a grant of monopoly from government. Counterfeiters? Counterfeiters are crooks. Surely the public would catch on . . . </span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">But when I read "helicopter" Ben Bernanke's <a href="https://www.federalreserve.gov/boardDocs/speeches/2002/20021121/default.htm" target="_blank">2002 speech</a> in which he boasted that "the U.S. government has a technology, called a printing press (or today, its electronic equivalent), that allows it to produce as many U.S. dollars as it wishes at no cost," he became a self-confessed counterfeiter while rubbing it in our faces. Yet I doubt that Bernanke then or now thought of himself as engaged in a criminal operation, thanks to the Keynesian corruption of the economics profession and the world at large.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Having a counterfeiter determine our fate while hailing it as a savior shows how far we've distanced ourselves from the free market. How about <a href="https://reason.com/2008/12/16/ive-abandoned-free-market-prin/" target="_blank">W's claim</a> in 2008 that "I've abandoned free-market principles to save the free-market system"? What did that do to the public's understanding of the free market?</span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Fortunately, Rothbard has made it clear what constitutes a genuinely free market. I present his lucid summary as a tribute to his wisdom (everything in bold is mine): </span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">(From <a href="https://cdn.mises.org/Power%20and%20Market%20Government%20and%20the%20Economy_2.pdf"><i>Power and Market</i></a>, Chapter 7 “Conclusion: Economics and Public Policy,” Economics and Social Ethics)</span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">On the free market, every man gains; <b>one man’s gain, in fact, is precisely the <i>consequence</i> of his bringing about the gain of others</b>. </span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">When an exchange is coerced, on the other hand—when criminals or governments intervene—one group gains <i>at the expense of others</i>. </span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">On the free market, everyone earns according to his productive value in satisfying consumer desires. Under statist distribution, everyone earns in proportion to the amount he can plunder from the producers. </span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">The market is an interpersonal relation of peace and harmony; statism is a relation of war and caste conflict. </span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Not only do earnings on the free market correspond to productivity, but freedom also permits a continually enlarged market, with a wider division of labor, investment to satisfy future wants, and increased living standards. </span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Moreover, the market permits the ingenious device of <i>capitalist calculation</i>, a calculation necessary to the efficient and productive allocation of the factors of production. <b>Socialism cannot calculate and hence must either shift to a market economy or revert to a barbaric standard of living after its plunder of the preexisting capital structure has been exhausted. </b></span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">And every intermixture of government ownership or interference in the market distorts the allocation of resources and introduces islands of calculational chaos into the economy. </span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Government taxation and grants of monopolistic privilege (which take many subtle forms) all hamper market adjustments and lower general living standards. </span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><b>Government inflation not only must injure half the population for the benefit of the other half, but may also lead to a business-cycle depression or collapse of the currency</b>.</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Suffice it to say that <i>in addition</i> to the praxeological** truth that (1) under a regime of freedom, everyone gains, whereas (2) under statism, some gain (X) at the expense of others (Y), we can say something else. For, in all these cases, X is <i>not</i> a pure gainer. </span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">The indirect long-run consequences of his statist privilege will redound to what he would generally consider his <i>disadvantage</i>—the lowering of living standards, capital consumption, etc. <b>X’s exploitation gain, in short, is clear and obvious to everyone. His <i>future loss</i>, however, can be comprehended only by praxeological reasoning.</b></span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><b>A prime function of the economist is to make this clear to all the potential X’s of the world.</b></span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">It is certainly conceivable that X’s high time preferences, or his love of power or plunder, will lead him to the path of statist exploitation even when he knows all the consequences. In short, the man who is about to plunder is already familiar with the direct, immediate consequences. When praxeology informs him of the longer-run consequences, this information may often count in the scales against the action. But it may also <i>not</i> be enough to tip the scales. </span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Furthermore, some may prefer these long-run consequences. Thus, the OPA director who finds that maximum price controls lead to shortages may (1) say that shortages are bad, and resign; (2) say that shortages are bad, but give more weight to other considerations, e.g., love of power or plunder, or his high time preference; or (3) believe that shortages are <i>good</i>, either out of hatred for others or from an ascetic ethic. And from the standpoint of praxeology, any of these positions may well be adopted without saying him nay.</span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><b>** Note</b>: Praxeology rests on the fundamental axiom that individual human beings act, that is, on the primordial fact that individuals engage in conscious actions toward chosen goals. This concept of action contrasts to purely reflexive, or knee-jerk, behavior, which is not directed toward goals. The praxeological method spins out by verbal deduction the logical implications of that primordial fact. </span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">See Rothbard, <a href="https://mises.org/library/praxeology-methodology-austrian-economics" target="_blank">Praxeology: The Methodology of Austrian Economics</a></span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><b>George Ford Smith</b> is a former mainframe and PC programmer and technology instructor, the author of eight books including a novel about a renegade Fed chairman (<a href="https://smile.amazon.com/Flight-Barbarous-Relic-George-Smith/dp/1438202547/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1654700157&sr=8-1" target="_blank">Flight of the Barbarous Relic</a>), a filmmaker (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=df_l24SY-hA" target="_blank">Do Not Consent</a>), and an advocate of stateless market government. He welcomes speaking engagements and can be reached at gfs543@icloud.com.</span></p><div><br /></div>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><br /></p>Georgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16908823468747218192noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-979101119058063355.post-32000459385964134832022-06-15T09:35:00.000-07:002022-06-15T09:35:16.859-07:00The Triumph of Monetary Fraud<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Money is never an object when you have a <a href="https://mises.org/library/taking-money-back">legal counterfeiting racket at the center of the economy</a>, yet counterfeiting, provided it has monopoly power and conducted by the “best and the brightest,” is virtually unchallenged as necessary for economic growth. </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">How did this come about? First, some basics:</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">1. We are all under State rule, meaning under the rule of a monopoly of force that most people cherish in principle as a necessary precondition for civilization, however that might be defined. Monopoly, meaning “single seller,” meaning no competition allowed, is regarded as wrong by most people. Yet it is saluted worldwide when it arrives in the form of a State.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">What is it that the State alleges to sell? Protection. Protection from assaults on us, its citizens. It kills terrorists overseas so we can sleep better. To further protect us it has created all manner of agencies that watch our every move, in case some of us turn rogue. </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">2. States extract their funding by force, called taxation. Since WWII the US has put personal income taxes on a monthly payment plan called <a href="https://fee.org/media/5218/1107higgs.pdf">withholding</a>. It’s easier, and less subject to revolt, to pay taxes when the money you earn never reaches your hands and instead goes directly into government coffers. </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">3. State rulers, being relatively small in number, need allies, and <a href="https://mises.org/library/who-captures-whom-case-regulation">it acquires these by dispensing favors or issuing often tacit threats</a>. Both kinds lock-in the recipient’s obedience, and the State in effect grows. <a href="https://chomsky.info/consent01/">Corporate media, the primary disseminator of State propaganda, finds the federal trough irresistible</a>. </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">4. As they expand, States need more funding than they dare collect with taxes, so they legalize a counterfeiting operation and call it a central bank. The American public was told a central bank was needed to eliminate those embarrassing <a href="https://cdn.mises.org/The%20Origins%20of%20the%20Federal%20Reserve_2.pdf">Panics of the 19th century and the one in 1907</a>. So we got a central bank under the name “Federal Reserve System,” aka the Fed, and the future looked rosy to some. </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Payoff was almost immediate as it helped finance US entry into Europe’s Great War, on the grounds that there was nothing like massive slaughter of all life forms to ensure lasting peace. Civilian and military casualties were driven to astronomical levels (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_I_casualties">around 40 million</a>) by central bank funding of governments. It takes lots of “money” to kill at that level, “money” no longer being gold but fiat bills that can be produced virtually without limit. </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">“Panic” was also abandoned as a word to make way for all the calamities the Fed has created since its inception, though only a small band of economists lay the blame on Fed counterfeiting. For the big one, the Great Depression, <a href="https://www.federalreserve.gov/boarddocs/Speeches/2002/20021108/default.htm">the Fed accepts blame for not counterfeiting enough</a>.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">State allies called court economists justify the counterfeiting as necessary for a growing economy. How the economy grew in the days before the counterfeiting is not a question they’re eager to address. Nor do they call it counterfeiting, of course; the preferred phrase is “monetary policy.”</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The counterfeiter is engaged in the exchange of nothing for something. But how did this come to be a highly-profitable policy for government and done so in a manner that not <a href="https://www.forbes.com/quotes/5351/#!" target="_blank">“one man in a million”</a> knows or even cares about? Murray Rothbard provides a compelling narrative in <a href="https://cdn.mises.org/What%20Has%20Government%20Done%20to%20Our%20Money_3.pdf"><i>What Has Government Done to Our Money?</i></a>:</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"></span></p><blockquote><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">For government to use counterfeiting to add to its revenue, many lengthy steps must be travelled down the road away from the free market. Government could not simply invade a functioning free market and print its own paper tickets. Done so abruptly, few people would accept the government's money. . . </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Until a few centuries ago, there were no banks, and therefore the government could not use the banking engine for massive inflation as it can today. What could it do when only gold and silver circulated?</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The first step, taken firmly by every sizable government, was to seize an absolute monopoly of the <i>minting</i> business. That was the indispensable means of getting control of the coinage supply. . . .</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Having acquired the mintage monopoly, governments fostered the use of the <i>name</i> of the monetary unit, doing their best to separate the name from its true base in the underlying weight of the coin. This, too, was a highly important step, for it liberated each government from the necessity of abiding by the common money of the world market. Instead of using grains or grams of gold or silver, <b>each State fostered its own national name in the supposed interests of monetary patriotism</b>: dollars, marks, francs, and the like. The shift made possible the preeminent means of governmental counterfeiting of coin: debasement. . . .</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Sometimes, the government committed simple fraud, secretly diluting gold with a base alloy, making shortweight coins. More characteristically, the mint melted and recoined all the coins of the realm, giving the subjects back the same number of “pounds” or “marks,” but of a lighter weight. The leftover ounces of gold or silver were pocketed by the King and used to pay his expenses. . . .</span></p></blockquote><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span>The switch from weights of gold to patriotic names drew monetary power away from owners of money.</span><span> </span><span>But since it was patriotic, few complained, and fewer still understood the implications.</span><span> </span></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"></span></p><blockquote><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Once such a label replaces the recognized world units of weight, it becomes much easier for governments to manipulate the money unit and give it an apparent life of its own. The fixed gold-silver ratio, known as <i>bimetallism</i>, accomplished this task very neatly. It did not, however, fulfill its other job of simplifying the nation's currency. . . . {As market ratios change] the fixed bimetallic ratio inevitably becomes obsolete. Change makes either gold or silver overvalued. . . .</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Finally, after weary centuries of bimetallic disruption, governments picked one metal as the standard, generally gold. Silver was relegated to “token coin” status, for small denominations, but not at full weight. . . . Bimetallism created an impossibly difficult situation, which the government could either meet by going back to full monetary freedom (parallel standards) or by picking one of the two metals as money (gold or silver standard). Full monetary freedom, after all this time, was considered absurd and quixotic; and so the gold standard was generally adopted. . . .</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">With the name of the country's currency now prominent in accounting instead of its actual weight, contracts began to pledge payment in certain amounts of “money.” <i>Legal tender laws</i> dictated what that “money” could be [e.g., dollars, francs] . . . .</span></p></blockquote>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">Money becomes money substitutes</span></b></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"></span></p><blockquote><span style="font-size: medium;">Governmental control of money could only become absolute, and its counterfeiting unchallenged, as money-substitutes came into prominence in recent centuries. The advent of paper money and bank deposits, an economic boon when backed fully by gold or silver, provided the open sesame for government's road to power over money, and thereby over the entire economic system.</span></blockquote><p></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span>Banks are required to redeem their sworn liabilities on demand.</span><span> </span><span>Yet with the practice of fractional-reserve banking, no bank can fulfill its liabilities. </span><span> </span></span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Panics arose when the public caught on and started pulling their money out of banks. If only we had a currency that could be stretched to satisfy demanding clients, bankers complained. Gold or silver were grossly deficient for this purpose. Thus, <a href="https://smile.amazon.com/Creature-Jekyll-Island-Federal-Reserve/dp/091298645X/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1VFMUTXIC0MCQ&keywords=The+Creature+from+Jekyll+Island&qid=1655307091&sprefix=the+creature+from+jekyll+island,aps,95&sr=8-1">in 1910 big bankers got together with a government official at Jekyll Island, Georgia</a> and concocted a scheme that could provide emergency credit to troubled banks. Not every bank, but at least the biggest ones. The scheme was a central bank, though it wasn’t called that, and all that was needed to perfect it was to get rid of actual money — the gold — and declare the money substitutes — the paper receipts known as dollars — as the new money. Gold couldn’t be created at will. Paper currency could. It was magical. It could absolve all sins. It would be available to fund government wars, handouts, and special favors. </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">The Triumph of Monetary Fraud</span></b></p>
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<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The new money would be under exclusive control of a closed society known as the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) that would, from time to time, decide how much of it to create or destroy. Their decision-making is called monetary policy. As you can imagine this thing called monetary policy is a very complex and challenging process. </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Yet, one of the most astute insights into monetary theory came from Milton Friedman, <a href="https://dailyreckoning.com/milton-friedmans-money-machine/">no friend of gold</a>, who wrote:</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"></span></p><blockquote><span style="font-size: medium;">If a domestic money consists of a commodity, a pure gold standard or cowrie bead standard, the principles of monetary policy are very simple. There aren’t any. The commodity money takes care of itself. (<a href="https://smile.amazon.com/Money-Sound-Unsound-Joseph-Salerno-ebook/dp/B0052G2VHC/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=Salerno+Money+Sound+and+Unsound&qid=1636573957&qsid=139-5255586-0726734&s=digital-text&sr=1-2&sres=B0052G2VHC">Quoted in Salerno</a>)</span></blockquote><p></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Imagine that. If we had a free market-determined money like gold we would be in charge of our economic lives and not the counterfeiters on the FOMC. </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Monetary economists outside the Austrian school believe that economic bliss is price stability. Small price rises they call inflation are okay, but a general price decline, called deflation, is something to be strictly avoided. <a href="https://www.americanheritage.com/cost-living-america-1800-1980#2">The price declines of the late 19th century, one of the most prosperous periods in human history</a>, is an enigma to these guys. <i>Yet <a href="https://www.lewrockwell.com/2013/04/murray-n-rothbard/the-free-market-in-a-nutshell/" target="_blank">lower prices are the natural outcome of a free market</a></i>. So are the price declines/high profits in high tech since the introduction of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integrated_circuit">integrated circuit</a> in the 1960s.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">Conclusion</span></b></p>
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<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Will we ever stop monetary fraud? The Fed has many powerful allies not least of which is the federal government. It also has most of the economics profession. But perhaps its biggest ally is the ignorance of the general public. They could care less about the Fed. As a presidential candidate Ron Paul educated the public in the destructiveness of the federal reserve but the public has gone back to sleep. Or to the extent that it hasn’t they’re concerned about how the Fed will do its duty and fight the inflation we’re now dealing with, where “inflation” is understood as runaway prices. </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The best way to stop the ravages we experience is to undo their source. A government with its legal monopoly power removed could never get way with <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Reserve_Act">creating</a> a monstrosity like the federal reserve. Call it anarchy if you like, but to me such a government is what we’ve known for a long time, an <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=df_l24SY-hA&t=52s">unrestrained free market</a>.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"></span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>George Ford Smith</b> is a former mainframe and PC programmer and technology instructor, the author of eight books including a novel about a renegade Fed chairman (<a href="https://smile.amazon.com/Flight-Barbarous-Relic-George-Smith/dp/1438202547/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1654700157&sr=8-1"><i>Flight of the Barbarous Relic</i></a>), a filmmaker (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=df_l24SY-hA"><i>Do Not Consent</i></a>), and an advocate of stateless market government. He welcomes speaking engagements and can be reached at gfs543@icloud.com.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></p>Georgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16908823468747218192noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-979101119058063355.post-48543751393526022482022-06-13T10:04:00.000-07:002022-06-13T10:04:56.714-07:00We love our contradictions to death!<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Most of us are taught at an early age to embrace contradictions, which is believing something is both true and not true at the same time. We know, for example, what life is in some sense, and that all living things eventually die. But we keep hearing from our elders that if we behave a certain way we really won’t die. Our bodies will turn to dust but our souls will carry on indefinitely. Exactly what they mean by “soul” they never tell us. The basis for their claims lies in the postulates of a certain book they embrace uncritically, at least with regard to fundamentals. Almost everyone accepts these postulates as true, even if they make no sense. This act of embracing is called faith.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">What are these postulates? There is a creator of all that exists, and that creator we call God. In Christianity God long ago mysteriously fathered a Son, and the Son, regarded as a messiah, promised heaven to those who believe in him and hell to those who don’t. Heaven and hell, as I heard a preacher explain once, have no spatial coordinates, so don’t bother trying to find them. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">For centuries people have embraced these beliefs. They have been conditioned to accept something for which no evidence has been adduced. To reject them implies you are disagreeing with billions of believers some of whom are very bright and accomplished, and who know a hell of a lot more than you.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">And yet, this only makes the situation more of a mystery. Why do some of the brightest endorse this metaphysical dualism? What’s wrong with assuming the universe has always existed and needs no creator? Positing an incomprehensible god as the creator only begs the question who created god?</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">But the believers have an edge. They promise eternal bliss for all who truly believe and eternal hell for those who don’t. The opposition says once you’re dead, you’re dead. No heaven, no hell, just dead. Not at all comforting. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">What has this meant for our life on earth?</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">The connection between religion and politics</span></b></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">It has, in my view, created a tendency to look for some overpowering force to solve our problems, rather than ourselves. This doesn’t necessarily mean a desire for a Napoleon or a Hitler. Any sufficiently corrupt State will do. </span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">This is what people mean when they cry for the government to "do something."</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">In the US the president along with the legislature and Court, and the virtually countless agencies that make up what we call the federal government, are of a different breed than the rest of American society. And this is no secret.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Though it’s rarely acknowledged we live under a violent monopoly. Consider: When the two Steves formed Apple Computer in the 1970s they grew their business through voluntary exchanges with the general public. If the public didn’t like their computers the company would fail.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">This is not true of the monopoly form of government. When the government fails, as it soon might, we the people suffer from being forced to trust it.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Unlike market enterprises the government doesn’t fund itself through voluntary exchanges. Its revenue flows from taxation directly and <a href="https://mises.org/library/case-against-fed-murray-rothbard">through counterfeiting the monetary unit</a>. Simply put, it legally has the guns to get away with it. If Apple or any other company tried to fund itself this way the owners would be facing prison sentences.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">While popular sentiment when expressed at the voting booth has had some positive effects on State policies, the snowball of State power keeps rolling out of control. The State took away your cocktails, but you complained loudly enough and got them back. Meanwhile, readers of Nicholson Baker’s <a href="https://smile.amazon.com/Human-Smoke-Beginnings-World-Civilization/dp/1416572465/ref=sr_1_1?crid=21I9VT5YTQ46O&keywords=Human+Smoke&qid=1655131559&sprefix=human+smoke,aps,108&sr=8-1"><i>Human Smoke</i></a> know that during the same period western states, including the US, were in training for another world war.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">In traditional logic when a contradiction is introduced into an argument, any statement can be proven — a result sometimes called <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principle_of_explosion">deductive explosion</a>.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Should it surprise us that the contradiction of the monopoly State results in the mess we see today? Peace and prosperity require that all adult relationships be voluntary. Our relationship with the State is not voluntary.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">Security without a state?</span></b></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The most common argument for tolerating a coercive government is the assumption that <i>only</i> such an organization can provide the security we need. Security, we’re told, is outside the purview of the market, even though private security has always existed and that all aspects of security are products of the market.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">It is here that I see the connection with religion. We need an omnipotent being to save our souls, however those are understood, and we need a omnipotent government to save us from the world’s bad people. In truth, neither God nor the State does a very good job. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Look around. Take note of the atrocities that flourish here and throughout the world among people who swear allegiance to God and the state under which they live. Thanks to a bought-and-paid-for media and educational system, the state has powerful propaganda machinery to protect it, as do the religions that indignantly ask <i>who are you, a mere mortal, to question God’s ways?</i> Neither is much help for people who have seen their families blown up or their children murdered while government police stood around and did nothing and prevented parents from rescuing their kids.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">Conclusion</span></b></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Religion by itself need not be harmful. To believe is a voluntary act. Many people are morally and psychologically uplifted by it, and that by itself is a good thing. It is only the message of religion, that a super being rules us, that can be detrimental to our thinking in political matters. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">It strikes me as odd that in such a crucial area as security people abandon the logic, power, <i>and peace</i> of the market for something originating in the Stone Age.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>George Ford Smith</b> is a former mainframe and PC programmer and technology instructor, the author of eight books including a novel about a renegade Fed chairman (<a href="https://smile.amazon.com/Flight-Barbarous-Relic-George-Smith/dp/1438202547/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1654700157&sr=8-1"><i>Flight of the Barbarous Relic</i></a>), a filmmaker (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=df_l24SY-hA"><i>Do Not Consent</i></a>), and an advocate of stateless market government. He welcomes speaking engagements and can be reached at gfs543@icloud.com.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: Palatino;"> </span> </span></p>Georgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16908823468747218192noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-979101119058063355.post-11209295050798859142022-06-08T08:27:00.000-07:002022-06-08T08:27:29.606-07:00 Who will protect us?<p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: Palatino;">Let’s take a </span><a href="https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/geoffrey-dickens/2012/03/26/flashback-pelosi-responds-are-you-serious-question-about" style="font-family: Palatino;">Nancy Pelosi approach</a><span style="font-family: Palatino;"> to the Constitution and assume for the sake of argument that every privately-owned firearm is confiscated by US government agents.</span><span style="font-family: Palatino;"> </span><span style="font-family: Palatino;">In other words we now have a public that is largely defenseless against attack from other armed individuals who don’t legally own their weapons but use them under authorization from the government (such as cops or soldiers) or as private individuals using them criminally.</span><span style="font-family: Palatino;"> </span></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Would this situation reduce the number of homicides or mass murders? </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">By itself it’s very unlikely. The Supreme Court has ruled that the public has no legal right to depend on the police for protection. If a cop stops a mass shooting it’s not because he’s required by law to do so. In Castle Rock v. Gonzales (2005) a 7-2 Court decision <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Town_of_Castle_Rock_v._Gonzales">ruled</a> “a town and its police department could not be sued under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 for failing to enforce a restraining order, which had led to the murder of a woman's three children by her estranged husband.”</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The massacre at Marjory Stoneman High School in Parkland, Florida on February 14, 2018 further illustrates the lack of any constitutional duty of the police to protect the public, unless they are “in custody.” Students attending compulsory state schools are not considered “in custody,” <a href="https://www.sun-sentinel.com/local/broward/parkland/florida-school-shooting/fl-ne-douglas-survivor-lawsuit-federal-judge-20181217-story.html">according to U.S. District Judge Beth Bloom</a>, who ruled in the case. </span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #393d42; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 12.5px;"></p><blockquote><span style="font-size: medium;">“As previously stated, for such a duty to exist on the part of defendants, plaintiffs would have to be considered to be in custody” — for example, as prisoners or patients of a mental hospital, she wrote. </span></blockquote><p></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #393d42; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 12.5px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">It’s tempting to argue that compulsory school attendance constitutes incarceration, and therefore students would be in custody without a protective custodian, but the Court obviously senses it would be very bad for government indoctrination if their schools were considered prisons. </span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #393d42; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 12.5px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Nevertheless, Parkland had taken the extra measure of <a href="https://www.sun-sentinel.com/local/broward/parkland/florida-school-shooting/fl-florida-school-shooting-fdle-officer-20180904-story.html">hiring</a> a deputy, Scot Peterson, to provide security, but “[a] surveillance video of Peterson's movements outside the school . . . showed he took cover and did nothing to confront the gunman” who in a four-minute attack murdered 17 and wounded 17 others. </span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #393d42; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 12.5px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">In Uvalde we once again saw cops not only failing to protect children but <a href="https://www.okayplayer.com/news/families-begged-uvalde-police-to-stop-texas-school-shooting.html">actively preventing parents from trying to do so</a>. If that doesn’t constitute an obscenity nothing does.</span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #393d42; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 12.5px;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">The impossibility of confiscating all civilian guns</span></b></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #393d42; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 12.5px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">According to the <a href="https://www.smallarmssurvey.org/sites/default/files/resources/SAS-BP-Civilian-Firearms-Numbers.pdf">Small Arms Survey</a><b> </b>that estimated the number of civilian-held firearms, </span></p>
<ul>
<ul style="list-style-type: disc;">
<li style="color: #393d42; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 12.5px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b></b><span style="background-color: white;">There were approximately 857 million civilian-held firearms in the world at the end of 2017.</span></span></li>
<li style="color: #393d42; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 12.5px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b></b><span style="background-color: white;">Roughly 100 million civilian firearms were reported as registered, accounting for some 12 per cent of the global total.</span></span></li>
</ul>
</ul>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #393d42; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 12.5px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">In the US, civilian-held firearms, both legal and illicit, were estimated at 393,300,000 at the end of 2017. With 88% of civilian guns unregistered, that leaves roughly 346,104,000 guns the government couldn’t locate if it attempted confiscation. They likely would issue severe threats for anyone possessing a gun and not reporting it, but gun owners tend not to respond well to threats.</span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #393d42; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 12.5px;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">We’re from the government . . .</span></b></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #393d42; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 12.5px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">If confiscation is done by government agents coming to the homes of registered gun owners, how do citizens know the agents are legit? It would be no trouble to forge official-looking IDs, which would almost never be challenged by the gun owner answering the door. Guns thereby could be peacefully transferred from law-abiding owners to people with criminal intent. </span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #393d42; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 12.5px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">And what would happen to all the guns the government did confiscate? Would it declare a major holiday — “Gun free at last!” — marked by a symbolic few guns being exploded or destroyed? What about the rest? Would they be shuttled to a private firm responsible for disposing them? Would that firm hand them over to terrorists overseas to help create more havoc and “justify” more US military interventions and keep the funding flowing? Do you think that’s far-fetched?</span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #393d42; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 12.5px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/adamandrzejewski/2021/08/23/staggering-costs--us-military-equipment-left-behind-in-afghanistan/?sh=7af409e741db">Leaving expensive and plentiful military gear behind</a></span> to be scooped by the Taliban as US forces abandoned Afghanistan gives us a hint of what government might do. </span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #393d42; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 12.5px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">And let’s not forget the $12 billion in $100 bills the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2007/feb/08/usa.iraq1">government sent to Iraq</a> without proper accountability. </span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #393d42; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 12.5px;"></p><blockquote><p style="background-color: white; color: #393d42; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 12.5px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">In the year after the invasion of Iraq in 2003 nearly 281 million notes, weighing 363 tonnes, were sent from New York to Baghdad for disbursement to Iraqi ministries and US contractors. Using C-130 planes, the deliveries took place once or twice a month with the biggest of $2,401,600,000 on June 22 2004, six days before the handover.</span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #393d42; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 12.5px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Details of the shipments have emerged in a memorandum prepared for the meeting of the House committee on oversight and government reform which is examining Iraqi reconstruction. Its chairman, Henry Waxman, a fierce critic of the war, said the way the cash had been handled was mind-boggling. "The numbers are so large that it doesn't seem possible that they're true. Who in their right mind would send 363 tonnes of cash into a war zone?”</span></p></blockquote><p style="background-color: white; color: #393d42; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 12.5px;"></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #393d42; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 12.5px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">A corrupt government that thrives on perpetual war, Henry. </span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #393d42; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 12.5px;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">Gun ban would be like another program that didn’t work</span></b></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #393d42; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 12.5px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Under Prohibition people who drank didn’t stop drinking. <a href="https://www.history.com/news/10-things-you-should-know-about-prohibition">Existing small-time street gangs</a> saw an opportunity and profited hugely from it. The demand for alcoholic beverages was there to be filled, and Al Capone eventually ran a billion-dollar crime syndicate in today’s dollars satisfying that demand. </span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #393d42; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 12.5px;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">Tyranny thrives on defenseless citizens</span></b></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #393d42; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 12.5px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">It’s obvious that any showdown between private gun owners and a heavily-armed and taxpayer-financed federal government would be a gross mismatch. Thus, the argument of the Second Amendment as a defense against tyrannical government, while valid 240 years ago, would lose all meaning in today’s world of government fighter jets, bombers, drones, tanks, nukes, and other such advanced means of inflicting massive death.</span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #393d42; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 12.5px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Or would it? </span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #393d42; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 12.5px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Let’s not forget recent history. In 1992 Randy Weaver, a former Green Beret, along with family and friends, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruby_Ridge">defended his estate for 11 days</a> against US Marshalls before Weaver finally surrendered. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waco_siege">The massacre at Waco</a> the following year lasted 51 days before Reno ordered tanks to storm the compound. US forces with all its power didn’t defeat North Vietnam nor did they clean up Afghanistan, a country that had already ousted the Soviets. <a href="https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/soviet-tanks-roll-into-afghanistan">In that war</a> the Soviets had little trouble securing control of Kabul and installing their puppet socialist president. </span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #393d42; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 12.5px;"></p><blockquote><p style="background-color: white; color: #393d42; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 12.5px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The Soviets, however, were met with fierce resistance when they ventured out of their strongholds into the countryside. Resistance fighters, called mujahidin, saw the Christian or atheist Soviets controlling Afghanistan as a defilement of Islam as well as of their traditional culture.</span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #393d42; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 12.5px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The mujahidin employed guerrilla tactics against the Soviets. They would attack or raid quickly, then disappear into the mountains, causing great destruction without pitched battles. The fighters used whatever weapons they could grab from the Soviets or were given by the United States.</span></p></blockquote><p style="background-color: white; color: #393d42; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 12.5px;"></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #393d42; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 12.5px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Many gun owners take heart from these facts and consider confiscation of their firearms a “defilement” of their natural rights.</span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #393d42; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 12.5px;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">Speaking of rights</span></b></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #393d42; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 12.5px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">In 1776 Thomas Jefferson wrote that all men “are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” Philosopher-novelist <a href="http://aynrandlexicon.com/lexicon/individual_rights.html">Ayn Rand amplified Jefferson’s statement</a>:</span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #393d42; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 12.5px;"></p><blockquote><span style="font-size: medium;">A “right” is a moral principle defining and sanctioning a man’s freedom of action in a social context. There is only one fundamental right (all the others are its consequences or corollaries): a man’s right to his own life. Life is a process of self-sustaining and self-generated action; the right to life means the right to engage in self-sustaining and self-generated action—which means: the freedom to take all the actions required by the nature of a rational being for the support, the furtherance, the fulfillment and the enjoyment of his own life. (Such is the meaning of the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.) . . . .</span></blockquote><p></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #393d42; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 12.5px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">And <a href="https://reason.org/commentary/gun-control-laws-fail-to-preve/">here</a>:</span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #393d42; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 12.5px;"><i><span style="font-size: medium;"></span></i></p><blockquote><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>The necessary consequence of man’s right to life is his right to self-defense. In a civilized society, force may be used only in retaliation and only against those who initiate its use. All the reasons which make the initiation of physical force an evil, make the retaliatory use of physical force a moral imperative. </i>[My emphasis]</span></blockquote><p></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #393d42; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 12.5px;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">Conclusion</span></b></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #393d42; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 12.5px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The right to self-defense doesn’t mean you have the requisite means or know-how to defend yourself — or others you love. Learning self-defense is the responsibility of each of us to acquire. </span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #393d42; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 12.5px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Who will protect us? We can only count on ourselves.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></b></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>George Ford Smith</b> is a former mainframe and PC programmer and technology instructor, the author of eight books including a novel about a renegade Fed chairman (<a href="https://smile.amazon.com/Flight-Barbarous-Relic-George-Smith/dp/1438202547/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1654700157&sr=8-1"><i>Flight of the Barbarous Relic</i></a>), a filmmaker (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=df_l24SY-hA"><i>Do Not Consent</i></a>), and an advocate of stateless market government. He welcomes speaking engagements and can be reached at gfs543@icloud.com.</span></p><div><br /></div>Georgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16908823468747218192noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-979101119058063355.post-38595757033303961452022-05-27T13:03:00.000-07:002022-05-27T13:03:43.497-07:00Let’s boycott them! <p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Tom Woods’ bestseller <a href="https://smile.amazon.com/Meltdown-Free-Market-Collapsed-Government-Bailouts/dp/1596985879/ref=sr_1_1?crid=PCRQKDDUDMIZ&keywords=Tom+woods+meltdown&qid=1653680292&s=audible&sprefix=tom+woods+meltdown,audible,80&sr=1-1-catcorr">Meltdown</a> placed the blame for the financial debacle of 2008-2009 on the government’s counterfeiter, the Federal Reserve. It was the Fed’s policies that created the problems, although most economists and economic talking heads didn’t see it that way. The Fed’s loose monetary policies funded the meltdown and became the “elephant in the living room” most pundits couldn’t see. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Woods was right of course; putting a monopoly counterfeiter in charge of money eventually creates financial havoc. History knows no exceptions. Counterfeiters produce a medium of exchange wherein one party in a transaction exchanges nothing for something. It used to be called stealing but in most universities it’s called monetary policy. That’s not a prescription for an enduring society. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">We have no trouble finding loud voices claiming the Fed is privately-owned by the biggest banks, even though it took an act of government to create it in 1913. In their view the culprit Fed is simply another market entity strangling hard-working Americans for the benefit of a parasitical elite. The solution is to turn it over to the government. Government bureaucrats will be answerable to we the people. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The days of government answering to the people they govern are found only in tall tales and government-issued publications. Government has the guns; the people they govern have the goods. Is it any wonder more and more goods are finding their way into government hands through taxation and deficit spending? </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Turning money production over to the government makes it easier for the government to steal. The president and his cronies don’t have to pressure the Fed to create a false sense of prosperity; they can do it themselves. When the economy starts to collapse there are always market scapegoats to shoulder the blame.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Many who call themselves conservatives or libertarians call for a return to constitutional government, meaning limited government. No income tax, no central bank, no government schools, no national security state and its proliferation of agencies and foreign wars — sounds heavenly. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">I find it interesting that these people revere the original Constitution so much when the Constitutional Convention was conducted in secret and in defiance of an agreement to modify the Articles of Confederation. One of the lies put over to hold a convention was the meaning of Shays’s Rebellion, which was widely reported as an anarchist uprising in Western Massachusetts in which poor farmers refused to pay their legitimate debts. A situation such as this called for a stronger government, and thus the Constitutional Convention was held. For a brilliant analysis of this period see Leonard Richards’ <a href="https://smile.amazon.com/Shayss-Rebellion-American-Revolutions-Battle/dp/B01GKAQB1U/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3JDHBH04VTQB2&keywords=shays+rebellion&qid=1653675643&s=books&sprefix=Shays+Reb,stripbooks,90&sr=1-1">Shays's Rebellion: The American Revolution's Final Battle</a>. Quoting from my <a href="http://barbarous-relic.blogspot.com/2019/09/how-we-lost-revolutions-final-battle.html">review of his book</a>,</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">It wasn't debt that triggered Shays's Rebellion, Richards argues, but the new state government and “its attempt to enrich the few at the expense of the many.” The most glaring instance of this abuse was the decision of Massachusetts to consolidate its war notes at face value. </span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Even when issued, the notes traded at about one-fourth par and later declined to about one-fortieth face value. Many soldiers were paid in these notes and out of desperation sold them at about one-tenth their value. Boston speculators swooped up eighty percent of these notes, with forty percent of them owned by just 35 men. Every one of those 35 men had either served in the state house during the 1780s or had a close relative who did. </span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Legislators praised the speculators as “worthy patriots” who had come to the state's aid in its time of need. But these men did not buy the notes directly from the government; they bought them from farmers and soldiers at greatly depreciated prices, who were now being taxed to redeem them at full value. The speculators, most of whom had stayed home during the war, would now benefit at the expense of veterans. . . .</span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Initially, the legislature tried to collect the taxes with impost and excise duties, but then added a poll tax and property tax. The poll tax taxed every family for each male 16 years or older. Poll and property taxes were going to pay 90 percent of all taxes, while impost and excise duties would account for the other 10 percent. Thus, a regressive tax ensured a wealth transfer from farm families with grown sons to the pockets of Boston speculators. As Richards observes, “Taxes levied by the state were now much more oppressive — indeed, many times more oppressive — than those that had been levied by the British on the eve of the American Revolution.”</span></p></blockquote>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">So much for the “anarchy” that justified the Constitution. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The lie of Shays’s Rebellion has persisted to this day as a showcase for life with a weak State. This has led to a grudging admission by some that a monopoly on violence is necessary to ensure peace and prosperity. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Who will keep this monopoly in line? Who has <i>ever</i> kept this monopoly in line? No one, and no one ever will. All that’s ever been done is replace one monopoly with another through rebellions. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The Constitution has checks on State growth? Every would-be tyrant knows about false flag operations and his duty as leader to “Do something!” It’s the classic situation of the fox guarding the henhouse.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Those who support the legitimacy of the State support the legitimacy of a monopoly of violence. Those two words, “monopoly” and “violence,” should get their attention but it hasn’t. As we see the US state has revived the prospect of nuclear Armageddon as the it keeps poking the Russian bear, hoping for a showdown. Short of that, we have the virtually endless evils of State actions, starting with rigged elections and including gun-free indoctrination centers called public schools and the orchestrated hoax of a global pandemic.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">When people are unhappy with a market entity they boycott it. Why not boycott the State by refusing to vote in its elections?</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>George Ford Smith</b> is the author of eight books, including<span style="color: #535353;"> <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Flight-Barbarous-Relic-George-Smith/dp/1438202547/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1208388529&sr=8-1"><span style="color: black;"><i>The Flight of the Barbarous Relic</i></span></a>, </span>a novel about a renegade Fed chairman. He is also a filmmaker whose works include<b> </b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=df_l24SY-hA"><i>Do Not Consent- Think OUTSIDE the voting booth</i></a><span style="color: #535353;">, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Last-Day-Libby/dp/B07Z46285M"><span style="color: black;"><i>Last Day</i></span></a>, </span>and<span style="color: #535353;"> <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Risky-Pinch-Hitter-Libby/dp/B07F3S43RS/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=Risky+Pinch+Hitter&qid=1619115393&s=instant-video&sr=1-1"><span style="color: black;"><i>Risky Pinch Hitter</i></span></a>. See his <a href="https://www.bitchute.com/channel/iHzPGdlKhqYe/">BitChute channel</a> for mostly banned videos.</span></span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #535353; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></p>Georgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16908823468747218192noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-979101119058063355.post-59080973527008440962022-01-06T05:25:00.000-08:002022-01-06T05:25:29.607-08:00The health care system has become Murder, Inc.<p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">If a war is being fought away from your doorstep and you wanted to know what was really happening, you would want it straight from the men who were fighting it. Or at least I would. If a general, politician, or member of the corporate media supporting the war were to provide an account I would consider his words filtered, perhaps heavily. But the men in the trenches — the men being shot at and shooting on their own, their words would make me sit up and take note. They have no middleman, no filter, just raw reality.</span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">This why a novel such as <i>All Quiet on the Western Front</i> is so compelling. Erich Maria Remarque, the author, was conscripted into the German army in 1916 at age 18, sent to the Western Front, was wounded and removed from combat for the rest of the war. His novel, published in 1929, details the lives of his fellow soldiers on the Front and quickly became a bestseller and the inspiration for a Hollywood movie and several remakes. Another novel, the lesser-known <i>Company K</i>, written by William Edward Campbell under the pen name William March, describes through a series of short narratives his experiences as an enlisted US Marine in WW I.</span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><i>All Quiet</i> was among the books burned by the Nazis. Why remind a nation being primed for war what combat was really like? <i>Company K</i>, published in 1933, unlike more popular war novels depicts individual soldiers, “one after the other, the living and the dead commingled, [offering] grim first-person testimony; and in narrative after narrative, there is mainly just one fundamental fact of modern warfare: the fact of violent, ugly, obscene death. . . . Killing and dying, dying and killing, they have lost touch with any fact of life save the fact of death’s absolute dominion.”</span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">In similar manner, Remarque writes:</span></p><blockquote>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">To no man does the earth mean so much as to the soldier. When he presses himself down upon her long and powerfully, when he buries his face and his limbs deep in her from the fear of death by shell-fire, then she is his only friend, his brother, his mother; he stifles his terror and his cries in her silence and her security; she shelters him and releases him for ten seconds to live, to run, ten seconds of life; receives him again and often for ever.</span></p></blockquote>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Covid soldiers in the trenches</span></b></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">We have had health care workers on the front for almost two years, fighting an enemy virus with scant PPE that has mutated into a fight against unrelenting administrative tyranny for the nurses’ refusal to take a “vaccine” that should’ve been pulled from the market long ago. </span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">The health care system has become Murder, Inc. Nurses have seen patients denied early effective treatments, then receiving inadequate and sometimes harmful treatments when hospitalized. This is policy, not an accident or widespread incompetence. Hospitals are covering it up, and social media ignores, vilifies, or censors the whistleblowers, while government voices continue to encourage everyone to get jabbed.</span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Should we believe these nurses who have testified publicly? None of us were around during WW I but the stories of soldiers who fought it strike most people as authentic. Whistleblowers are not treated kindly when justice is provided by friends of the incriminated. They are not in the pay of a Bill Gates-like multibillionaire. Big Pharma certainly knows who they are and won’t forget them. </span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">So judge for yourself. Do these nurses have a solid case against the system that’s killing their patients and firing them? </span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://www.bitchute.com/video/mHc40Q3CGtbu/"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Voices from the Trenches: Nurses Speak Out</span></a></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
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<p style="background-color: white; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><b>George Ford Smith</b> is the author of nine books, including<span style="color: #535353;"> <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Flight-Barbarous-Relic-George-Smith/dp/1438202547/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1208388529&sr=8-1"><span style="color: black;"><i>The Flight of the Barbarous Relic</i></span></a>, </span>a novel about a renegade Fed chairman. He is also a filmmaker whose works include<b> </b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=df_l24SY-hA"><i>Do Not Consent- Think OUTSIDE the voting booth</i></a><span style="color: #535353;">, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Last-Day-Libby/dp/B07Z46285M"><span style="color: black;"><i>Last Day</i></span></a>, </span>and<span style="color: #535353;"> <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Risky-Pinch-Hitter-Libby/dp/B07F3S43RS/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=Risky+Pinch+Hitter&qid=1619115393&s=instant-video&sr=1-1"><span style="color: black;"><i>Risky Pinch Hitter</i></span></a>. See his <a href="https://www.bitchute.com/channel/iHzPGdlKhqYe/">BitChute channel</a> for mostly banned videos.</span></span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><br /></p>Georgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16908823468747218192noreply@blogger.com0