The Gazillion Dollar Joke

I've been reading about this idea to mint a $1 trillion dollar coin as a way to avoid the debt ceiling. I thought it started as a joke. I mean, years ago there was a episode of The Simpsons where Homer Simpson and Montgomery Burns go to Cuba with a trillion dollar bill where Fidal Castro steals it. This idea is so silly it's hardly worth talking about. It's all a big joke. The only thing it's worth is a lot of laughs. The problem is, some people might actually be starting to take this idea seriously. After all, it is the congress, they are constitutionally obligated to mint coins, and if they say a coin is worth a trillion dollars, then by law it's worth a trillion dollars.

Now, to me, this is one of the worst illusions the political elite have ever thought of. It's so easy to see through. Why not just tell the Federal Reserve that we refuse to pay? At least tell them we won't pay the interest on the debt. At least have the interest forgiven. Do you have any idea how many billions that would save? To give you an idea, one percent of 16 trillion is 160 billion. But I digress. This idea is being suggested as an end around to keep from cutting any spending in case the debt ceiling is reached. This has nothing to do with actually trying to find ways to cut spending, with saving money, it has everything to do with cowardly congressmen refusing to face up to their responsibilities to make hard decisions on which government programs to cut back on and/or eliminate.

Yet there's another problem here. It's the joke factor. It's the fact that anyone would take such a prank seriously. But then, I guess we've been collectively taking a prank seriously for, well, about a century. You see, what makes this prank so obvious is everyone knows a coin is not worth a trillion dollars just because someone says it is. Even a platinum coin stamped with a famous person's face on one side and the words $1 trillion on the other side would not fetch $1 trillion dollars on the collector's market. Right now the price for an ounce of platinum is between $1500 and $1600 dollars. A one of a kind stamped coin might fetch quite a price from a wealthy coin collector, maybe as high as 10 or 20 million, but that's a far cry from a trillion. Even if someone was willing to pay a billion dollars for it, that is still worth a thousand times less than the one trillion dollar denomination the congress would declare.

The point is, everyone can see the inherent unfairness in this scheme. Something only has that kind of value if both the seller and purchaser perceive it has that kind of value. Declaring a coin to be worth $1 trillion is tantamount to printing money from nothing. It only has that kind of value because that's what the law says. The Federal Reserve has been printing money from nothing since its inception. It's only acceptable as money because that's what the law says. Certainly the notes used to be pegged to gold in a round about way, but that was long ago. The idea of a trillion dollar platinum coin is just a new twist on an old idea. It's the same old, same old of not facing up to the current economic problems of today. It's building upon old problems and creating new for future generations to have to deal with.

The grandfathers and great grandfathers of my generation did not treat the Federal Reserve System as a joke. They did not see it as a joke because of the propaganda that was presented to them at the time it was being considered. No one laughed at the idea of creating debt based money because there was still a sense that the money had value based on gold and silver. Little did they know that this was all part of the illusion. Little did they know that their grandchildren and great grandchildren would have to deal with the economic woes that come with a fractional reserve fiat currency system. If the wealthy banking elite had, back in the day, suggested a trillion dollar coin, they would have been laughed out of the country. They had to come up with something more sophisticated, and more devious. Have we so lost our sense of economic value and common sense that we would now fall for such an obviously fraudulent solution to a debt crisis?

If they can mint a trillion dollar coin and declare that its value, why not 2 trillion? Why not 16 trillion, and get rid of the whole debt? Why not a gazillion dollars and the Federal Reserve and the whole world will owe us forever and ever? Everything will be free and we'll all live happily ever after. If you believe such methods are good ideas, what kind of delusion are you living under? Don't you think our creditors might have something to say about that? Don't you think they'd see the inherent unfairness in such a ploy? Don't you think that might upset them a bit? Don't think that we as an empire are so high and mighty. Even the mightiest giant can be felled by a well aimed pebble.

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I have recently collected all my Ron Paul opinion editorials and put them in an ebook entitled, "Ron Paul's Wisdom, A Layman's Perspective" available at amazon.com and other fine ebook outlets.

Battling the NWO, One Pizza at a Time

What could be more innocuous than the pizza delivery guy? What could be more welcoming than the man or woman showing up at your door bringing sustenance from one of your favorite restaurants you just called? You didn't even have to go out into the cold night on your own and freeze your little toes off to get your favorite food. They brought it to you. All for a small convenience fee and whatever voluntary tip you might like to give the person who provided this little service. Ah, but don't be fooled. These people who provide this service are very dangerous. They must be stopped. You see, these types of people are a perfect example of how a free market system works. If you begin to learn from their example, why you just might learn too much about how the elite who would like to rule the world work, and we just can't have that now, can we? Besides, you little common folk don't need such convenient services. Such services should be exclusive to the wealthy elite.

How, exactly, is the little pizza delivery person so dangerous to the powerful elite? How can someone near the bottom of the economic ladder, working hard to provide for those who can afford to pay for delivered food, how can they possibly pose a threat to those elites at the top of the pyramid who dictate how world is to work? It's a matter of perception. It's a matter of the poor, underprivileged underdog working to make an honest living versus the wealthy, privileged control freak shadow elite who wish to control every aspect of everyone's life. How does one demonize the pizza delivery person? How does one collect tribute from them? How does one justify stealing from such polite, hard working people struggling to make ends meet? Doing so would certainly help to solidify the perception that the tyranny is growing out of control beyond all measure. That is the challenge facing the collectivists who wish to create an authoritarian one world government from their new world order agenda.

Pizza delivery people, and others who work for tips like waiters, waitresses, taxi drivers, bell hops, etc., work for cash money. Cash money is very difficult to track. Those at the top find it difficult to keep an accurate accounting as to how much these low earners make and they therefore can't accurately determine how much tribute they should pay. Not only that, but if they start cracking down on these people they suddenly look like the real assholes they are for picking on such little guys. That is just one reason the ruling elite would love to develop some kind of cashless society. They want to get rid of the last vestiges of the ages old barter system. They don't want to do this for the betterment of mankind, for more convenience, or more fairness, or some other ulterior motive, they want to do this for control. They want to do it so they can have access to every business transaction you have with others. They want to put their noses into every aspect of everyone's economic life. They'll be able to do this because it will be their system we'll all be using.

Pizza delivers, and others, are more like sub contractors than employees. The restaurant provides the food, the delivery person provides the vehicle and the service. They are responsible for keeping track of all their earnings. They are responsible for reporting their income and paying any taxes they might owe. They are responsible for putting away money for their retirement should they earn enough to do so. They are responsible for providing their own health insurance if they feel they need to do so. If they don't have health insurance, they are responsible for paying any health care advisor they might wish to employ for their benefit. They are responsible for purchasing any health care products they might feel is necessary for any condition they might have. They are responsible for deciding where their money would be best spent, whether it be on rent, food, clothes, gasoline, some other necessity, or some luxury. In other words, these people make their own decisions on what to do with all the money they earn from that job, and the ruling elite can't stand the thought that someone out there is independent of them.

The rest of the world can maybe learn a little something about economics from pizza delivery people. First, all economics boil down to two individuals wanting to exchange some form of product. Either there's a connection made, or there's not. For those of you familiar with digital electronics, it's binary in nature. When there's only two people involved it's pretty straight forward. It's on or off. It's ones or zeroes. Either the two people have something the other wants for the exchange, or they don't. It's when there's other conditions thrown into the equation, when there's other people that become involved that things get a little more complicated. When this happens economic circuitry comparable to "and" and "or" gates are created.

Second, all economics should be voluntary in nature. You probably wouldn't pay a pizza guy if he showed up at your house with a pizza you didn't order. You also probably wouldn't buy if the pizza guy charged an outrageous amount for his service. You probably wouldn't like it very much if the pizza guy turned up at your house and threatened you if you didn't buy their food. In the free market, there's competitors that can be called and any business trying to resort to such methods would be quickly put out of business. If such a business was to gain enough influence in government, however, things could quickly change. Laws and regulations could be passed designed to exclude all but the largest and wealthiest from engaging in such a delivery service. Such a restriction on competition could easily cause quality to fall and prices to rise. In a worse case scenario, laws could be passed requiring you to purchase such services whether you want to or not. Money could be collected from you by coercive methods or force that would go to these services whether you use them or not.

It's strange how the practices mentioned above are considered abhorrent and criminal in a freer market, but if the government passes laws allowing for their agents and contractors to participate in such practices they become acceptable. Perhaps that has a lot to do with the creeping gradualism the political elite has engaged in, slowly building upon more innocuous laws until the large tomes we've seen passed recently can be pushed onto the common folk without too much outrage. Notice they never repeal laws, unless they were working to stifle the efforts of the wealthy elite. Also, growing up in a world where such practices exist and being taught in school that such practices are acceptable normalizes them and makes it hard to imagine different methods and innovate.

Perhaps with the current state of unemployment being as it is, many other workers will soon start to become sub contractors, so to speak. Perhaps the unemployed will decide to take jobs on a cash basis that don't require their employer to take taxes directly from their paycheck. Perhaps more and more individuals will start to keep more of their earnings and not report it to the taxman. Perhaps they will begin to decide for themselves what products and services they wish to pay for rather than having the government do this for them. Perhaps more and more people will move off the radar just to make ends meet. This is something I'm certain the political and wealthy elite fear. It is also, however, one way to getting back to a more productive and prosperous society for everyone. As the system short circuits and burns itself up, those who wish to survive will have to figure out how to get along without help from the system.

So, when the pizza delivery person shows up at your doorstep, don't forget to tip him or her well. Whether they know it or not, they are out there fighting for you against the new world order. They are out there showing the world that business can still be done on an individual to individual basis. They are showing us all that big, centralized government does not have to intercede on every level in order for us all to get along. They are showing us that local economies are most important and we should all worry about supporting local business so that we can all thrive. I just hope that more people come to understand the importance of those concepts before we are forced to do all business the way the one size fits all, centralized federal government, owned by the wealthy elite, wants it done.

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I have recently collected all my Ron Paul opinion editorials and put them in an ebook entitled, "Ron Paul's Wisdom, A Layman's Perspective" available at amazon.com and other fine ebook outlets.

Perception, Act Like a Slave, Be Treated Like a Slave

We, as a species, like to label things. We seem to like to be able to slap a label on something so that when we talk about things we have an idea about what's being talked about. This works well for physical things like plants, animals or minerals, but it can be a bit lacking when talking about not so physical things like political philosophies. People like to label someone like me, someone who doesn't fit into any of their prefabricated political party holes, so to speak, as a libertarian, an minarchist, a constitutionalist, or some other label. I like to think of myself as an individualist as opposed to a collectivist. I also like to think of myself as an abolitionist, though the vast majority of Americans would believe that such a label is unnecessary as slavery was ended by Abraham Lincoln back in 1865 at the end of the War of Northern Aggression. I would say that no one is as enslaved as the person who believes he is free when he is not. Slavery has just become more subtle and the masters have changed.

The perception of what slavery is needs to change. We, as a society, still have a tendency to think of slavery as the chattel slavery of the 1800s. We still think of it as people being sent out to the fields to tend to crops and to do other back breaking work without proper compensation, living in squalor while their masters lived in the lap of luxury, and being cruelly whipped and punished unjustly for crimes like trying to escape. While these vile things happened back then, this type of slavery is not the only kind of slavery that exists. Slavery is, basically, being forced to work for someone else. Some forms of this are far more subtle than what we saw on the cotton producing plantations of the old south.

The main concept to get across here is force. One is forced to do something when one does or doesn't do something out of fear of what will happen should he not do or do it. This is what makes for a subtler form of slavery. People don't want to admit their subservient status, and so they refuse to see their own enslavement. They don't want to admit that they're being forced to work for someone else, and so they make excuses about necessary evils that need to be tolerated in a civilized society. People don't want to stand up for themselves, to admit that they have to do something, to battle tyranny in their own culture, and so they refuse to see their own participation in the tyranny and go along to get along. Slowly things get worse until one day the truth is so plain to see that even those in the deepest denial have to come to the realization that they did nothing to stop the evil. They are nothing but frightened serfs too afraid of their unknown fate should they cast off the shackles that tie them down.

That is what those who wish to rule count on. They don't want you to know you're a slave. They want you to believe you're free, the freest people on the face of the earth, and that you're not shackled to a parasitic debt system that's sucking the economic lifeblood from the common folk. They want you to believe that taxation is not theft, that you are not forced to pay, that you do not work a portion of the year for them. Think about that for a moment. Think about just one tax you pay, the income tax.

Would you really pay your income taxes if they were truly voluntary? Would you really pay them if you weren't worried about going to jail should you not? Would you really pay them if you weren't worried that if you didn't pay them they'd take more? Would you really pay the federal government for the services they provide if you had a real choice, or would you maybe choose an alternative provider who could do a better job for less? Would you pay for the wars they engage in? Would you pay to have them kill innocents in foreign countries with drone strikes? Would you pay them to send you through the porno scanners or have them sexually assault you with an enhanced pat down at an airport? Would you pay for the Department of Education, the FDA, the EPA, the CIA, the DEA, and all the other alphabet agencies that are consistently failing in their duties? Well, if these agencies are so good at their jobs why do they need a monopoly and why do they need to force people to pay them? Certainly they could be funded on a voluntary basis if they do such a great job.

Try to convince people that the income tax is extortion, a type of theft, and see where that gets you. Define extortion as being threatened should you not pay for some service (usually protection) and explain that income taxes meet this definition and many people will look at you like you're crazy. "What about the roads?" they'll ask. It doesn't matter about taxation fitting the definition of extortion. Somehow the fact that government is taking the money makes theft okay. Somehow the fact that more people have voted for this guy than voted for that guy makes extortion legitimate. Somehow so many have let their minds become enslaved by propaganda and the normalization of criminal activity that it became okay that strangers in Washington DC steal your hard earned money before you even see it. In fact, most people will condone the theft and believe that those who try to keep all the money they earn are criminals not paying their fair share. The Stockholm syndrome is thriving in these United States of America.

Another tax that shows how much of a slave you are and is closer to home is the property tax. Do you really think you own your property? Especially if you've paid off the bank, do you think you own your property? You don't. The government owns it. Don't believe me? Try not paying your property taxes and see what happens. I bet you end up losing your land. I bet they come knocking on your door with men with guns and force you out or kill you if you try to resist. Then they'll sell it off for nothing more than the taxes they are owed and the promise that the new owners will pay their yearly tribute and you'll be broke and on the street and they won't care. No, you don't own anything, you're just renting it. They have enough guns and power that they can do whatever they want, if they can justify it. It seems to me that there is precious little keeping them from confiscating everything of value that we own.

The way you are treated has much to do with how the people you're interacting with perceive you as well as how they perceive the world. The individuals at the top of the economic and political structure, those who I like to refer to as the establishment elite, perceive you quite a bit differently than you perceive yourself. At best, they perceive you as children in need of their guidance. At worst, they perceive you as property. They perceive you as serfs or slaves. They might go as far as to perceive you as livestock. They certainly don't perceive you as free human beings. They certainly don't perceive you as beings deserving of respect. I don't know that I can really blame them for that. After all, when you act like a slave, you should expect to be treated like a slave. As long as you continue to put up with the political shenanigans in Washington DC, they will continue to take advantage of your willingness to go along to get along. As long as you continue to accept the dictates of the ruling elite, they will continue to make the rules up as they go and ignore the laws that govern their behavior. At least that's the perception I have.

Slaves don't need private property. Anything they possess belong to their masters. Slaves don't need guns. Only the masters should be allowed to have guns in case they need to keep the slaves in line. Slaves don't need to make their own decisions. Their masters will make decisions for them. They will decide whether or not they can travel, whether or not they can drive a vehicle, whether or not they can or can't do business with someone else. They will decide whether or not that slave needs medical attention. They will decide what kind food will be available, regardless of how nutritious it is. They will decide whether to tell you the truth or not. Slaves don't need knowledge. They don't need answers to their questions. They don't even need to ask questions. They just need to do the jobs they're told to do and to pay their taxes.

If you enjoy my writings, please visit szandorblestman.com to make a donation.

I have recently collected all my Ron Paul opinion editorials and put them in an ebook entitled, "Ron Paul's Wisdom, A Layman's Perspective" available at amazon.com and other fine ebook outlets.

Skepticism and the New World Order Conspiracy

I think skepticism is a good thing, a very good thing. There is nothing wrong with being skeptical and it can in many cases prevent one from being suckered into some big con or lie. Skepticism, however, can also be a very effective tool to keep the truth hidden from people. It can be used to prevent people from even wanting to know the truth, especially when presented by some very clever propagandist in a way that ridicules others. No one wants to be ridiculed and so when some "respected" source ridicules those who make some "fantastic" claim others quickly learn to keep their mouths shut and not question authority. Skepticism based on emotion or opinion is not skepticism, it is a simple choice to believe one thing or source over another. Sometimes the mind can't imagine that the incredible could be reality and so one tends to disbelieve based on that fact alone.

When an individual wants to believe something, or doesn't want to believe something else, it becomes much easier to convince that person of the perception he wants to be true. Let's take, for instance, the fantastic. Let's look at the example of UFOs. There was a time in the distant past when if someone saw a UFO most people would just take their word for it and it would remain a mystery. There are very old newspaper accounts which report such sightings in a matter of fact tone and don't question the voracity of the event. Later, there came a time when perhaps most people would laugh at anyone who claimed to see a UFO and call them crazy. How did such a turn around take place? Well, through well placed skepticism of course, and the manipulation of whether most individuals want to believe or not.

A better example is the Kennedy assassination. Here is perhaps the best documented example of skepticism for manipulation purposes. Immediately following this coup that ended up solidifying the rule of the elite hidden powers, the pieces were put in place to ensure a successful cover up and to prevent the American populace from asking too many pertinent questions or receiving too many honest answers. Back then, the "skeptics" claimed a lone nutcase assassinated JFK and anyone who disagreed with them and the official story was shamed, ridiculed, ostracized, labeled crazy, and otherwise minimized so their opinions would not be taken seriously. Some credible witnesses may even have been killed to silence them. Today, after considering all the available information to the contrary, anyone who still believes there was no conspiracy to assassinate JFK planned amongst some very powerful people is in a state of denial.

Conspiracies have happened. In fact, history is replete with them. They do happen. They are happening now. They will continue to happen in the future. It would behoove the conspirators, the elite who wish to implement their agenda of creating a one world authoritarian government, to keep the masses of humanity from believing that such conspiracies can even be conceived. Why? Because if the masses of humanity knew what they were up to, they'd be angry and they'd be able to put a stop to it.

So it is that the New World Order can operate right under our noses. So it is that an authoritarian, collectivist, one world governing body can be formed and no one does anything about it. So it is that a centralized power can be formed that holds influence over all westernized governments and many would welcome and even applaud it despite the fact that such a system is antithetical to the western values of individual freedom and liberty. So it is that a system of control, as it were, can be set up to control all economic activity, and can even be turned on the masses of humanity to invoke a police state or even "population control" in the name of mother earth or some other ethical sounding purpose if the ruling elite deem it necessary to do so.

This is the nature of the conspiracy against the common folk. Most of us don't want to believe it. It is therefore easy to convince people it is not true. It is easy to convince them to disbelieve anyone who would say it was true. It is easy to convince them that anyone who believes in such conspiracy theories must be crazy or paranoid. It is easy to get people to laugh at, or shame, or ridicule, or otherwise minimize anyone who would try to warn them about approaching tyranny that could lead to human calamity. It is difficult to get people engaging in such ostracism to look at the evidence presented by such grim prophets. People seem to want to believe that such things could never happen in their country, to them, or to those they know, that their government could never engage in such heinous activity, and so they remain skeptical in the face of criminality that would make the mob blush and make excuses for government officials as the iron fist of an authoritarian regime tightens its grip on the western world.

People want to believe that government knows best. That it is there to take care of them, to make sure bad people don't do bad things to them. They want to believe that government is like a loving parent protecting its children. But there are bad parents out there. There are parents that don't love or care about their children. And there are governments that don't love or care about their people. And they will set siblings against each other. They will use the promise of endearing one over the other to entice fealty to their cause. Such fealty has oft times proved ill placed.

You can continue to remain skeptical of the one world collectivist government conspiracy if you like. You can continue to ignore history. You can continue to turn a blind eye to the rampant collectivist philosophies and thought processes that pervade our own government right here in the United States. You can continue to listen to and believe government sources and their mainstream media propaganda and march in time with their drumbeat. You can be the best sheeple they want you to be. Just remember that you do so at your own peril. I choose to be skeptical of the official sources. I choose to be skeptical of those who are supposedly in charge. I choose to let them know that I am not fooled by their deceptions. I choose to deny them my consent.

If you enjoy my writings, please visit szandorblestman.com to make a donation.

I have recently collected all my Ron Paul opinion editorials and put them in an ebook entitled, "Ron Paul's Wisdom, A Layman's Perspective" available at amazon.com and other fine ebook outlets.

School Shootings and Self Defense

There was another tragic event that took place on Friday, December 14th, 2012 in Newtown Connecticut. A young man killed his mother and then proceeded to a nearby school where he shot and killed more than two dozen people, most of them very young children. My heart goes out to the parents of those children who fell victim to this senseless violence. As a parent myself, I can't even begin to imagine the pain they must feel. No one should have to go through such an ordeal. Words seem to be woefully lacking when trying to offer comfort in a situation such as this, but one can only try as best one can to sympathize. I, like most sane people, wish to see a world where such violence is but a bad memory of a bygone era.

Unfortunately, politicians and the powers that be don't seem to want this. Instead, they seem to want to continue to divide people into two camps. They want to rally the collectivists who think potential victims should be disarmed to their side, while trying to alienate individualists who think everyone should be allowed to have the means to defend themselves through bullying anti gun propaganda and guilt by association. Every time such a tragic event happens, those who would try to control the masses of humanity use that tragedy to try to convince the common folk that law abiding gun owners should be forced to give up their means of self defense. It's happened time and time again and I personally think this kind of behavior by the political elite pushing their anti gun agenda is offensive and insulting to my intelligence.

I really have a hard time imagining what some of these anti 2nd amendment people think. Do they believe that laws are magic? Do they think that passing laws to outlaw guns is going to make all firearms suddenly disappear? Do they think that criminals are going to suddenly say to themselves "Well, guns are illegal now so I better just get rid of mine and give up my life of crime."? Do they seriously believe that criminals aren't going to take advantage of a disarmed populace? There's a reason that crime rates are higher in cities with more restrictions and lower where guns are more prevalent. We don't need more gun laws, or more laws of any kind. We need to learn why these events happen, what causes people to suddenly loose their minds and engage in such violent behavior, and then take steps to prevent that behavior. Perhaps we'd discover that we need to stop drugging our children with Ritalin and other psychotropic, anti depressant type drugs. Wouldn't the big pharmaceutical companies love that?

I wasn't going to write any commentary on this event. I hate the thought that such tragedy is so politicized. Then I heard the president of the United States come out with a statement that we cannot tolerate this anymore. As if it was ever tolerated. As if we don't already have laws against murder and the killing of innocents. Had the shooter survived he would have been most severely punished. Then the president stated he would do everything in his power to make certain this will never happen again. That is the statement that worries me. He is going to use this event as an excuse to violate the individual right to self defense and try to ram through more draconian gun laws, maybe even before the end of the holidays when no one is paying attention.

One person I talked to, a former teacher in Florida who now works making sure schools are implementing federal guidelines, thinks that teachers should be armed and trained to use guns so they can better protect the children they're entrusted with on a daily basis. If such a policy had been in place at any school where such tragic events have occurred how much less damage would have been done? How many lives would have been saved? Legal guns in the hands of conscientious owners save lives all the time. Such events don't make the national news. The elite political class wouldn't like it if people were constantly made aware of guns being used for self defense and to stop crime. That would put a crimp in their plans to disarm the populace.

There's a reason these attacks happen at places where guns are not allowed. There's a reason these cowardly criminals target people who can't defend themselves. One might wonder if these attacks would have even happened if these nutcases who want to kill innocents had thought for a moment that their targets just might shoot back. Tragedies are going to happen whether gun laws are in place or not. I think that the tragedy that happened in July 2011 in Norway, a country with very restrictive gun laws, proves that. It sickens me to think that people use such a sad occurrence to try to create an environment making it easier for criminals to operate and harder for innocents to defend themselves.

If you enjoy my writings, please visit szandorblestman.com to make a donation.

I have recently collected all my Ron Paul opinion editorials and put them in an ebook entitled, "Ron Paul's Wisdom, A Layman's Perspective" available at amazon.com and other fine ebook outlets.

The Federal Reserve System, a Christmas Gift that Keeps on Taking

Ninety nine years ago this month, the law that brought the Federal Reserve System into existence was passed. It did so at the behest of some very wealthy and very greedy men who wanted nothing less than total control of as much of the world's total wealth that they could possibly get their hands on. These men with names like Aldrich, Rockefeller, Rothschild, Vanderlip, Kuhn, Loeb, Warburg, Morgan, Schiff, et al. wanted nothing less than total control of finances, currencies and economies worldwide. They wanted it so badly that they cared not what the majority might think, and they certainly didn't care what the common folk at the time might think. These were the robber barons of finance in their day, and they knew the general public wouldn't trust them or their banking schemes. It was for this reason they had to remain secretive in their plans and use every deception and political dirty trick in their arsenal to achieve their goals.

It took three years to set things up, but just before Christmas, on the 23rd of December in the year 1913, the Federal Reserve Act was enacted. It was sold to the American people as a sort of present to them, a way to stabilize the economy and prevent boom and bust cycles. What it was in actuality was a present to the wealthiest amongst us, the central bankers, and a way for them to gain control of our economy for their own benefit and to secure their power. It was a way for them to steal the real wealth of the common folk in such a way that most would never know or understand how their prosperity was being stolen.

Think about the date it was passed just for a second. It was just two days before Christmas. It was during the time when fully a third of the legislators had already gone back to their home states to spend time with their families. I'm not completely certain about how things were back then, but in today's world this is a time when most people are not paying attention to politics. I imagine it was the same even back then. Who wants to think about what politicians and lawmakers are doing when there are plans to be made for the big holiday? Any law that is passed at this time of year should be suspect. Any law that is passed after elections have taken place and before the new congress critters have taken their oath of office leaves too many of the political class completely unaccountable.

As many of you may know I am not a big fan of laws and regulations. The more laws we have, the more tyranny we have, the fewer laws we have, the more freedom we have. The law should be simple, if you do harm to an individual or you damage or steal his hard earned property, you should be held accountable. If there is no victim, there is no crime. If there are to be laws and regulations to make sure that no thought crimes are committed, however, than those laws and regulations should be restricting the political class and punishing them for breeching the laws. I think a good law would be that no legislation is to be passed during the period of time between an election and the swearing in of the new congress. That seems to be the time when the most constitution shredding, tyrannical, and controversial legislation seems to be passed.

But of course the political class and the power elite who control them don't want to create anything that limits their power, they want to limit what the common folk can do. They want to make certain their power base is maintained and grown. They want more power, not less, and so they are going to create laws and institutions that help them to gain it. They do this by removing or hiding what little control the common folk may have over the systems and institutions where the government claims to have a monopoly and consolidating that power as much as they possibly can. They consolidate their monopoly power on the use of "legitimate" force by bypassing congressional oversight in war matters and creating laws such as The Patriot Act, The Military Commissions Act, and the most recent NDAA to set up a police state. They consolidate their monopoly on the justice system and put power in the hands of their judges by constantly harping on finding people either "guilty" or "not guilty" of crimes and refusing to inform juries of their right and duty to judge the law. And so it was that they consolidated their monopoly on currency creation and removed power from the hands of the common folks back in 1913 by passing The Federal Reserve Act.

Before the creation of the quasi private, quasi public Federal Reserve the power to coin money was solely vested in the US House of Representatives and money was based on silver and gold. It took the promise of the gift of stable prices and maximum employment through "elastic" currency to "sell" the American people on this central banking scheme. These promises, of course, have been broken time and again, and we are currently experiencing the latest downturn in the economy and the most massive unemployment in decades as a result of this ill conceived creation of the powerful financial interests. As history has shown, this institution does not give anything to the common folk, it takes everything from them.

It takes wealth. It does so by creating debt in the form of "easy" credit. This credit comes in the form of fractional reserves which more or less guarantees that there will never be enough currency to pay back everything that is owed. In this way, the banks are set up to own anything real that a borrower possesses for a little bit of paper, or in modern days some ones and zeroes in some digital data bank somewhere. The central banks and their financial sector partners have a tendency to horde commodities of real value such as precious metals, land, etc. while issuing their debt paper to an unsuspecting public.

It takes lives. One of the first things that happened after the creation of the Federal Reserve was World War I. There is a school of thought out there that this would not have happened had the Federal Reserve not been created, or at least America would not have become involved. The "elastic" nature of the new American currency made it possible to pay for the war on the backs of future generations, otherwise the rise in taxes would have created political pressure to avoid war.

World War I was supposed to be the war to end all wars. Instead most of the wars fought in the 20th century stem from World War I. Who is it that constantly benefits from such destruction? Who is it that profits from such suffering? The military industrial complex that we were warned about, and those that finance them even more so.

The Federal Reserve takes away value. It keeps pumping more and more money into the system, creating it like the money itself is the wealth and not just a token of exchange. The more money that is available, the greater the supply, the less it is worth. Those at the top, the power elite, can spend it while its buying power is still high, but those at the bottom, the common folk, receive the money after its value has decreased. That is what inflation is really about. That is why the costs of necessities are rising. And now your federal government needs to tax you even more so that they too can maintain their spending addictions.

The Federal Reserve System takes our freedom. It takes away our independence. It profits off debt. For every dollar it loans out it expects to take back ten. It creates a debtor nation and then makes the citizenry beholden to it for economic survival. It makes the nation dependent on its currency and credit like a junkie is dependent on a drug. It takes away the political will of the people by creating the fear that we will not be able to get our fix should the currency supplier be held accountable.

The cycle can be broken. First, more people need to be educated as to the origin of the Federal Reserve as well as how other central banks operate. A full audit of the Federal Reserve needs to take place and all moneys accounted for. Secrecy must be stopped and transparency demanded. The people of the United States deserve to know where all their money, all their wealth is being spent, and why more of it isn't being saved to ensure prosperity for future generations. Finally, a way needs to be found to make the system accountable. No one should have such awesome power as a monopoly on currency creation enables. Strike at the source of the corruption, and we will begin to create a more honest and principled world for all to live in.

Nearly a hundred years ago, the Wilsonian progressives helped the moneyed elite sell the American public on a gift that to this day continues to keep on taking. Even Wilson himself realized he made a mistake when in later years he wrote: "I am a most unhappy man. I have unwittingly ruined my country. A great industrial nation is controlled by its system of credit. Our system of credit is concentrated. The growth of the nation, therefore, and all our activities are in the hands of a few men. We have come to be one of the worst ruled, one of the most completely controlled and dominated Governments in the civilized world no longer a Government by free opinion, no longer a Government by conviction and the vote of the majority, but a Government by the opinion and duress of a small group of dominant men."

Today the so called progressives want to continue to raise taxes. They want to keep the burden on the common folk. They want to treat symptoms rather than remove the cancer and cure the disease. They talk about those making over $250,000 a year as if they are the wealthy while bailing out those worth $250 billion. They want to steal from those who have become successful through industrious hard work while ignoring those who have made trillions through fraudulent and questionable means. That is not progress, it is tyranny against those who should be lauded for their hard work and successful endeavors. If you want progress, start by tearing down the stale old institutions that have been proven failures. Such an institution is the Federal Reserve. We have already given it too much and still it wants to take more.

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How Fear Prevents Positive Political Change

"Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering."
Yoda

Something happened the other day that caused me to engage in a little self examination. I was talking on the phone to a woman I care about very much. She was telling me about a billionaire she had seen on CNBC who had come from a socialist country. According to her, the gentleman was talking about how he had come from this country to America because he wanted to make his fortune in our "free markets" and he did. Then he went on to say that he was voting for Mr. Romney because Mr. Obama had an agenda to bring socialism to America, or something like that. Then she told me he said something about how voting for anyone other than Mr. Romney was a waste of a vote. That's when the red flags went up. That's where I lost it.

Before I knew it, I was yelling at this woman across the cell phone airwaves. I knew I was wrong, that I shouldn't be yelling, but I couldn't help it. I felt as if my consciousness had left my body and was looking at this bratty kid yelling because he didn't get his way. I tried to stop, but I couldn't until I got out what I needed to say, getting louder and louder as I let out three of four sentences before I finally gained control of my temper and was able to shut up. By that time it was too late. I had upset the woman and she needed to hang up, despite the fact that I was already apologizing profusely.

When I behave in such a way, I try to look back and examine what factors caused this behavior. It just makes sense to me to do this. I want to understand that I am a flawed human being and then try to figure out what I can do to rid myself of those flaws. Sometimes when I examine myself in such a way I can suddenly recognize that not only are the flaws manifest in myself, but also in society in general. It seems to me that there are certain strings that go through all of society and can sometimes manifest in individuals as we go about our lives.

So, why did I get so angry and lash out when I shouldn't have? I suppose it has to do with the fact that morality is very important to me. I consider it immoral to lie to someone to get them to change their behavior. I consider it a lie to say that if you don't vote for this guy or that guy your vote is wasted. Each person has their own reason for voting and either no vote is wasted or all votes are wasted. Even not voting is not wasted and makes its own statement about the electoral process. Hearing that bit of propaganda made my mind shut off and allowed anger to take over. Analyzing this on a deeper level helped me come to the realization that most people likely have a similar reaction when their deeply held political beliefs are challenged.

The first step to getting past this is to understand that political beliefs are just that, beliefs, they are not fact, nor are they truths, they are beliefs. And, in some cases, they are immoral beliefs disguised as good intentions. Morality does not spring from immoral behavior, and political systems worldwide, including the one we engage in, are based mostly on the immoral behavior of stealing.

To be clear, I define theft as the taking of property from someone in an involuntary manner through force or the threat of force, (this is particularly heinous when those who make the threats have the power and have proven they will follow through on those threats) or through lies or gaining trust through promises which one never intends to keep (more commonly known as fraud or cons). Income taxes fall into the previous definitions, in my humble opinion, and if they are voluntary as claimed than anyone aught to be able to opt out anytime and not have to worry about any reprisals from any agency, whether governmental or private. Try to opt out of paying your income taxes and see what happens to you.

Someone asked me on facebook how such things as roads and schools would be paid for without an income tax. I tried to explain to her how these things would get done and she ended up telling me I was dreaming. Maybe I am dreaming to believe that we can live in a world where all interactions between people are moral and voluntary and necessary services are still provided. To be honest, I don't know how these things would be paid for, but it doesn't matter. What matters is that people should not be forced to pay for services they don't want to pay for and may not want to use. If things can't get done through voluntary interactions, perhaps those things simply aren't worth doing. We shouldn't be afraid to try something different even if the majority believes that doing something different will result in chaos.

It is fear that rules. The person who told me on facebook that I was a dreamer for believing that humankind can live morally without coercive force fears that certain services will not be available or will be too expensive without government intrusion. The politicians take advantage of this and fan the flames of fear. The Democrats stoke your fear of the Republicans by claiming social programs will end if Republicans are in charge. The Republicans stoke your fear of the Democrats by claiming America will become a socialist nation if Democrats are in charge. I have news for you. Social programs will not end whether or not the federal government funds them because there are people who care. We are already a socialist nation with a great many businesses, industries and services socialized. Both sides are creating fear and meanwhile there are alternatives that offer to respect your freedoms and your decisions that are being ignored.

Yet still voters will go to the polls in large numbers and cast their votes for a Republican or a Democrat. They cast their votes out of fear of what the worst of two evils will do rather than looking to cast a vote for someone who will change the paradigm for the better. There will be no positive change because both major parties are controlled by the same elite corporate interests. These are the same interests that profit from keeping you in a state of fear. These include the military/industrial complex, the prison/industrial complex, the medical/industrial and pharmaceutical complex, the energy industry and the large financial institutions that make money by providing credit and insurance to those other industries, among others. These industries know they wouldn't stand a chance in a true free market, nor in a free market of ideas, so they'll do anything to keep their people in power, including creating such an atmosphere of fear that may take us into a very destructive war.

Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering. I understand this is taken from a Hollywood movie, but there is much wisdom in those words, nonetheless. Don't fear Obama. Don't hate him. Don't fear Romney. Don't hate him. Don't become so blinded by anger and hatred for one or the other that you can't see the same flaws you hate in one reflected in the other. Don't become so blinded by hatred and anger that you start yelling and screaming at those you love because they express an opinion. Don't become so blinded by anger and hatred that you can no longer see light, only paler shades of darkness.

Don't fear casting a vote for Gary Johnson. Don't take the path to the dark side. Choose a path to the light. Don't choose more economic doldrums and debt, choose a clearer, more vibrant path to prosperity. Don't choose more war and nation building, choose a path to peace and fair trade with all nations. Don't choose more rights violating, Bill of Rights shredding laws, choose more freedom. Choose more power to determine your own destiny. Don't be afraid of voting for Gary Johnson. Don't be afraid of the light.

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The Colors of Elberia; book 1 of The Black Blade Trilogy

The Legacy of the Tareks; book 2 of The Black Blade Trilogy

The Power of the Tech; book 3 of The Black Blade Trilogy

The Edge of Sanity

The Ouijiers