Decentralization – The Capitalist Answer to Everything

There is a difference between capitalism and corporatism. Capitalism and the free market allow for competition to take place and new ideas to flourish. Corporatism seeks to control everything.

Lately, we have seen liberal dominated tech companies such as Google and Twitter shut down conservatives. What was once open and free is now becoming more and more controlled. Conservatives are being banned and shadow banned when it doesn’t fit the narratives the big companies like.

So do we invite the government in to regulate? Or should we allow other companies to innovate instead?

The creator of the world wide web decided to do the later:

https://www.fastcompany.com/90243936/exclusive-tim-berners-lee-tells-us-his-radical-new-plan-to-upend-the-world-wide-web

The man who gave us one of the greatest technological leaps of the late 20th Century has done it again with ‘Inrupt’ which just may well become the new way we use the internet.

If you want to stop the democrats and big tech from silencing you; vote republican in November and checkout new startup technologies such as Inrupt.

Just as with crypto currencies, the internet is still evolving. We’re only just getting started!

Pursuing the truth is messy

When I started this blog three years ago, I had in mind showing the truth for what it was. I thought it would be fairly clean cut and somewhat straight forward. It is not. There is a lot of misinformation in the world today, many different factions, much mis-education. It’s hard to know who to trust.

On Tuesday I will have been a citizen of the USA for three years. Shortly after becoming a citizen, this blog, which had only been around for a week at that time, began to become political, as I then felt I was able to express my opinions freely.

The 2012 presidential race was in full swing and primaries were beginning to be held. I favored Ron Paul, as many of you will remember. I did not like many of the Republican candidates, and still don’t. But understanding specifically why isn’t exactly black and white.

Back in 2012 I was getting a lot of my information from a website called www.whatreallyhappened.com which seemed to be very informative and on the ball. Now, in hindsight, I realize that half of it is just wild eyed conspiracy theories. Now some of it is actually quite good. There are some legitimate concerns that the site expresses. I believe the owner of the site genuinely cares about his country and about freedom. But there is a phrase that now sticks out to me like a sore thumb whenever I do any research now.

“Check your premise.”

If a website, news organization or person is acting out of the premise that the USA is bad, then everything they say is going to be bias, and nothing good can come out of it. There’s another reason why the phrase “pessimism is a self fulfilling prophesy” is so true.

How can everything the USA ever does be bad? What does that mean for the person criticizing it? Are not many of those critisizing it Americans themselves? Does that mean they are bad also?

What really struck me last year was Dinesh D’souza’s ‘America Imagine a World Without Her’ documentary. He debunked many of the myths even I was partially sucked into.

I think the worst idea I’ve been sucked into is the anti Israeli propaganda. Now I’m sure there’s been some bad things that Israel has done, and continues to do. But for goodness sake; that’s war. That’s what happens when your neighbors all hate you, when other nations seek to wipe you from the face of the planet. I now think its very naive to criticize America, to criticize Israel, without also criticizing their enemies. What is so good about the terrorists? What do they stand for? Peace? Justice? Equality?

I think its very easy to give the benefit of the doubt to a mysterious other nation or group. While it is very easy to be critical of those close to home. When you’re up close and personal, you can point out every defect. When you try to judge from afar, things get warped.

Lets take my foreign policy ideas from a couple years ago. I thought the US should pull back many of its troops from over seas. But what my friend kept telling me at the time, and what I have now seen with my own eyes, is that “nature abhors a vacuum.” Those were his words, and by golly he was right. Just look at Russia! The US and NATO get all wobbly under the lack of leadership from Obama and the like, and KGB Putin pounces! He even annexes the Crimea! He gobbles it all up and merges it into his own country. And what does the media say? Nothing! They down play it. Amazing!

I have learned a lot over the last year. I may have been busy. I may have worked a lot. But I have learned a lot also. I said from the beginning that if I was wrong on anything, I would admit it. I may have been off key on these few issues, but I’m confident I hit close to home on everything else.

The pursuit of truth is a messy endeavor. It’s hard ever to be certain. Lately I find myself listening to the Blaze radio network, and I think Glenn Beck is right on most things. Family, Faith and Freedom. I believe in the preservation of the Constitution. I believe in the American way. I know that this country isn’t perfect, but I know also that it really is the best out there.

I’m sure there will be trying times ahead. There will be rocky days, and much to endure. Keeping a needle pointed toward the truth is important. And values will triumph through.

Life is what you make it. It isn’t perfect. You will make mistakes. Mistakes help guide us, if we choose to learn from them. I have a little journal that I now keep, there is a space for each day. Each day has a new quote. Today’s quote is “Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good.” This blog isn’t perfect. It never has been, it never will be. There will always be holes in it. It’s up to you to do your own research. I’m just trying to do what I can to help. I want to preserve the American dream, not just for myself and for my family, but for generations to come.

I didn’t realize just how bad things were when I first moved here. But then, aren’t things always bad? My grandparents grew up during World War II, with bombs falling over head. Many of you who read this grew up during the cold war. So is it really that much different? Maybe. Maybe there are now more enemies within. But we have so many more tools to preserve freedom at our disposal now. These blogs are one of them.

As Ron Paul once said “an idea whose time has come, cannot be stopped by any army or any government.” The ideas of freedom continue in this great experiment we call America. Yesterday’s quote from my little journal is ‘by doing a little bit each day, you can get a lot accomplished.” What are you doing each day to maintain yourself? What are you doing to maintain freedom?

Pursuing the truth is messy, but the truth will set you free.

Thoughts on self empowerment and blogging

There are times in your life when you become completely swamped. Be it with work, family, projects, or whatever else you fill your life with. Through it all, its important to stay happy.

I started this blog to express my points of view of the world, this country, freedom, and what it means to be an American. I have gone through spans of time where I have updated this site daily, and periods where I haven’t written for months.

It takes time to write out a blog, it takes longer to re-read it and make sure that not only are there no spelling mistakes, but that the darn thing actually makes sense. It’s hard to make it completely unflawed, especially in dealing with opinions on a wide variety of subjects.

This year peaked for me during spring and into early summer. I was working 50 – 60 hours during the weekdays at my job, and supporting my wife for 12 – 24 hours a weekend with her company. In the middle of all that I was trying to keep up with going to the gym four times a week, and we had multiple out of state family functions interwoven between all that too. During this time I was also questioning libertarianism, and the way the world is changing. I didn’t have time to write, and even if I did, I doubt it would have been anything worth reading.

What is important, most important in your life, is you. You front and center. You must put your happiness above all else. In the event of a plane malfunction, you’re supposed to put your oxygen mask on first before helping others. This is true. If you can’t help yourself, you will be useless to others.

Since I couldn’t find the time for this blog, I felt it was useless to try writing anything, since it would seriously lack substance.

Since the 4th July holidays, things have calmed down considerably for me. Work has stabilized, and my wife is able to more effectively run her business without as much need for my assist.

What this all comes back to is; do I really feel like writing each day? Do I really feel like writing out my thoughts and opinions for the world to see? Is it really worth my time?

Another problem with writing is critics. Everyone’s a critic. I found myself trying to defend my points of view a lot, and this distracted me from other things I needed to get done. But, after thinking about it for some time, why should I care what others think? If I’ve done my research, if I’ve laid out thoughts and ideas for others to think about, should I really care about their opinions? Perhaps. If it’s a nice opinion, or a thoughtful critique, sure. If it’s simply a nasty response, it should be ignored.

The problem with being passionate about what you write, is that you tend to get defensive over your work, because any negative feedback is judged as a personal attack. It’s important to understand that there are probably more people out there who disagree with you, than agree with you.

It’s important to simply lay out your argument, and let the comments be whatever they will be. Critiques are healthy because it helps sharpen your view point, but negativity should be ignored.

When dealing with politics in particular, its important to stay positive. It’s important to look for the good in people, and to point out the innovations in the world, and not the multitudes of faults and despair.

If you’re lucky enough to live in a western nation, particularly the United States of America, be thankful. Enjoy your freedoms, your internet, your creature comforts. Spend time with your husband or wife, watch a TV show, relax, enjoy the fruits of your labor. Sites like this are designed to spark thoughts and revelations, to help maintain and grow the freedoms that we enjoy. Everything should be taken with a grain of salt, and time should be made to laugh and be joyful in the world.

Empower yourself to do better, to defend freedom, but to enjoy life along the way. Liberty starts at the individual level, and humor saves us when the world feels dark all around us. To be able to laugh away danger will make all the evil in the world shake in its boots. Get out there, be strong, and enjoy life!

Why I can’t quit

A couple of days ago I posted a few of my articles on the galts gulch forum, of which I’ve been a member for over a year now. While I have contributed articles in the past to the gulch, this was the first time I saw such a flurry of activity on my blog the next day, as readers were going through my articles and signing up to follow my page. There were many positive comments, and thanks for the content of the articles. This along with other positive comments from my regular readers reminded me of why I write in the first place. I have a unique perspective, coming from another English speaking nation which lost it’s way, I can draw parallels between what is happening here, and what happened in Britain after the second world war.

(Graphic by Ben Garrison: http://grrrgraphics.wordpress.com/2014/01/02/playoffs-2014/)

I recognize that while it may seem futile, and even dangerous for my own well being to write about government corruption, that if nothing is said, evil will certainly prevail.

While history has already been written, the future hasn’t been. No matter how many progressives there are, no matter how many corrupt in power, no matter how many laws, no matter how large the police state already is, no matter what their plans, what their intentions may be, the future has not been written yet. While we surely live in perilous times, we also live in a wonderful age of information and technology.

As Ron Paul said “an idea who’s time has come, cannot be stopped by any army or any government”

While 2013 was a bad year for liberty and capitalism, it also was a major success for the freedom movement in as far as getting our message out there.

As Napoleon once said ”ten people who speak make more noise than ten thousand who are silent.” And that is why despite not always feeling like it, despite not always having enough time, I will continue to write, to add my perspective to the world wide web, for other like minded people to see. For new comers to read, and to perhaps turn on the light in the minds of those who are already close to finding out the truth.

For me, reading Atlas Shrugged made the world make sense, and helped me understand what needs to be done to correct our nations course.

While we’d all rather watch TV, and live our lives in a more comfortable way, we know that we must speak up, simply to preserve our way of live. Despite wanting to spend more time on my business, my career, and my family, I will continue to add my perspective through this blog. I realize that my future depends on my speaking up, not shutting up. Those who have read Atlas Shrugged, who understand where socialism leads, know that we cannot allow the progressives to control the narrative. The future is ours for the taking, if we simply keep up the good fight, speak up, and speak often.

While 2014 poses a great threat to liberty, it could well be our best year yet!

Forbes fighting back

This morning I read an amazing article on www.forbes.com highlighting the sheer and utter failure of Barack Obama’s leadership and the idiotic collectivist mindset that the left has spewed onto our nation.

Obama To Americans: You Don’t Deserve To Be Free

President Obama’s Kansas speech is a remarkable document. In calling for more government controls, more taxation, more collectivism, he has two paragraphs that give the show away. Take a look at them.

there is a certain crowd in Washington who, for the last few decades, have said, let’s respond to this economic challenge with the same old tune. “The market will take care of everything,” they tell us. If we just cut more regulations and cut more taxes–especially for the wealthy–our economy will grow stronger. Sure, they say, there will be winners and losers. But if the winners do really well, then jobs and prosperity will eventually trickle down to everybody else. And, they argue, even if prosperity doesn’t trickle down, well, that’s the price of liberty.

Now, it’s a simple theory. And we have to admit, it’s one that speaks to our rugged individualism and our healthy skepticism of too much government. That’s in America’s DNA. And that theory fits well on a bumper sticker. (Laughter.) But here’s the problem: It doesn’t work. It has never worked. (Applause.) It didn’t work when it was tried in the decade before the Great Depression. It’s not what led to the incredible postwar booms of the ’50s and ’60s. And it didn’t work when we tried it during the last decade. (Applause.) I mean, understand, it’s not as if we haven’t tried this theory.

Though not in Washington, I’m in that “certain crowd” that has been saying for decades that the market will take care of everything. It’s not really a crowd, it’s a tiny group of radicals–radicals for capitalism, in Ayn Rand’s well-turned phrase.

The only thing that the market doesn’t take care of is anti-market acts: acts that initiate physical force. That’s why we need government: to wield retaliatory force to defend individual rights.

Radicals for capitalism would, as the Declaration of Independence says, use government only “to secure these rights”–the rights to life, liberty, property, and the pursuit of happiness. (Yes, I added “property” in there–property rights are inseparable from the other three.)

That’s the political philosophy on which Obama is trying to hang the blame for the recent financial crisis and every other social ill. But ask yourself, are we few radical capitalists in charge? Have radical capitalists been in charge at any time in the last, oh, say 100 years?

I pick 100 years deliberately, because it was exactly 100 years ago that a gigantic anti-capitalist measure was put into effect: the Federal Reserve System. For 100 years, government, not the free market, has controlled money and banking. How’s that worked out? How’s the value of the dollar held up since 1913? Is it worth one-fiftieth of its value then or only one-one-hundredth? You be the judge. How did the dollar hold up over the 100 years before this government take-over of money and banking? It actually gained slightly in value.

Laissez-faire hasn’t existed since the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890. That was the first of a plethora of government crimes against the free market.

Radical capitalists are just beginning to have a slight effect on the Right wing. The overwhelming majority on the Right are eclectic. Which is a nice way of saying inconsistent.

The typical Republican would never, ever say “the market will take care of everything.” He’d say, “the market will take care of most things, and for the other things, we need the regulatory-welfare state.”

They are for individualism–except when they are against it. They are against free markets and individualism not only when they agree with the Left that we must have antitrust laws and the Federal Reserve, but also when they demand immigration controls, government schools, regulatory agencies, Medicare, laws prohibiting abortion, Social Security, “public works” projects, the “social safety net,” laws against insider trading, banking regulation, and the whole system of fiat money.

Obama blames economic woes, some real some manufactured (“inequality”) on a philosophy and policy that was abandoned a century ago. What doesn’t exist is what he says didn’t work.

Obama absurdly suggests that timid, half-hearted, compromisers, like George W. Bush, installed laissez-faire capitalism–on the grounds that they tinkered with one or two regulations (Glass-Steagall) and marginal tax rates–while blanking out the fact that under the Bush administration, government spending ballooned, growing much faster than under Clinton, and 50,000 new regulations were added to the Federal Register.

The philosophy of individualism and the politics of laissez-faire would mean government spending of about one-tenth its present level. It would also mean an end to all regulatory agencies: no SEC, FDA, NLRB, FAA, OSHA, EPA, FTC, ATF, CFTC, FHA, FCC–to name just some of the better known of the 430 agencies listed in the federal register.

Even you, dear reader, are probably wondering how on earth anyone could challenge things like Social Security, government schools, and the FDA. But that’s not the point. The point is: these statist, anti-capitalist programs exist and have existed for about a century. The point is: Obama is pretending that the Progressive PGR -2.02% Era, the New Deal, and the Great Society were repealed, so that he can blame the financial crisis on capitalism. He’s pretending that George Bush was George Washington.

We radical capitalists say that it was the regulatory-welfare state that imploded in 2008. You may disagree, but let’s argue that out, rather than engaging in the Big Lie that what failed was laissez-faire and individualism.

The question is: in the messy mixture of government controls and remnants of capitalism, which element caused the Great Depression and the recent financial crisis?

By raising that question, we uncover the fundamental: the meaning of capitalism and the meaning of government controls. Capitalism means freedom. Government means force.

Suddenly, the whole issue comes into focus: Obama is saying that freedom leads to poverty and force leads to wealth. He’s saying: “Look, we tried leaving you free to live your own life, and that didn’t work. You have to be forced, you have to have your earnings seized by the state, you have to work under our directions–under penalty of fines or imprisonment. You don’t deserve to be free.”

As a bit of ugly irony, this is precisely what former white slave-owners said after the Civil War: “The black man can’t handle freedom; we have to force him for his own good.” The innovation of the Left is to extend that viewpoint to all races.

Putting the issue as force vs. freedom shows how the shoe is on the other foot regarding what Obama said. Let me re-write it:

there is a certain crowd in Washington who, for the last few decades, have said, let’s respond to this economic challenge with the same old tune. “The government will take care of everything,” they tell us. If we just pile on even more regulations and raise taxes–especially on the wealthy–our economy will grow stronger. Sure, they say, there will be winners and losers. But if the losers are protected by more social programs and a higher minimum wage, if there is more Quantitative Easing by the Fed, then jobs and prosperity will eventually trickle up to everybody else. And, they argue, even if prosperity doesn’t trickle up, well, that’s the price of the social safety net.

Now, it’s a simple theory. And we have to admit, it’s one that speaks to our intellectuals’ collectivism and Paul Krugman’s skepticism about freedom. That’s in Harvard’s DNA. And that theory fits well on a bumper sticker. (Laughter.) But here’s the problem: It doesn’t work. It has never worked. (Applause.) It didn’t work when it was tried in the Soviet Union. It’s not what led to the incredible booms in India and China. And it didn’t work when Europetried it during over the last decades. (Applause.) I mean, understand, it’s not as if we haven’t tried this statist theory.

How does that sound? That’s blaming an actual, existing condition–government controls and wealth-expropriation–not a condition that ended in the late 19th century.

So which is the path to prosperity and happiness–freedom or force? Remember that force is aimed at preventing you from acting on your rational judgment.

Obama’s real antagonist is Ayn Rand, who made the case that reason is man’s basic means of survival and coercion is anti-reason. Force initiated against free, innocent men is directed at stopping them from acting on their own thinking. It makes them, under threat of fines and imprisonment, act as the government demands rather than as they think their self-interest requires. That’s the whole point of threatening force: to make people act against their own judgment.

The radical, uncompromised, laissez-faire capitalism that Obama pretends was in place in 2008 is exactly what morality demands. Because, as Ayn Rand wrote in 1961: “No man has the right to initiate the use of physical force against others. . . . To claim the right to initiate the use of physical force against another man–the right to compel his agreement by the threat of physical destruction–is to evict oneself automatically from the realm of rights, of morality and of the intellect.”

Obama and his fellow statists have indeed evicted themselves from that realm.

As you can see, this article is hard hitting, and smacks the Obama administration and all the foolish progressives square on the nose. It is easily one of the most well written articles against collectivism, and for capitalism, that I have ever read. I applaud Harry Binswanger for his decisive and edgy article.

America’s civil war: Butler county election results

The election results for Butler County were mixed; some good, some bad. The biggest issue for myself was the Lakota Levy; which unfortunately narrowly passed by less than 1% of the vote. It took only 240 people to tip the scales in favor of outright extortion. The good news is that Fairfield defeated the bond, even if it was by a paltry 40 votes. Some other levies were passed in the county, while West Chester finally kicked out its most progressive trustee and replaced her with Tea Party backed Mark Welch.

http://results.butlercountyelections.org/results.shtml

The issues in Butler County are mirrored throughout the US, while there were many small victories across the country, there were losses also. Virginia went completely blue, while New Jersey got to pick between a progressive democrat who looks like Nancy Pelosi, and a progressive republican who looks like Jabba the Hut. Great choices there New Jersey, its no wonder all your businesses are moving out here!.

For those like myself, who are bitterly disappointed in having to fork out an extra $30+ a month for the idiotic new tax levy, I will say this: there is a silver lining. Like I said, West Chester will now be able to rein in its bills, lower its taxes, and put dash-cams in police cruisers in order to hold the cops to a new level of accountability. While Liberty and West Chester Townships narrowly missed defeating a tax levy, Fairfield was able to narrowly defeat one. We truly are in a civil war. The country is deeply divided along both sides. But we are winning. Remember that the American War of Independence was not won through battles, but perseverance. Did we really think we could cure 100 years of progressivism in one election cycle? No, this is going to take quite some time, but we are wearing away at the machine, and groups such as the Tea Party are having a massive effect on local elections. The West Chester Tea Party backed Mark Welch all the way, and today he kicks out a progressive who has been holding the township back for years.

It is disappointing that seniors and those on fixed incomes will have to struggle to find new ways to foot this idiotic tax bill, it is disappointing that teenagers will have less part time work available because local business owners have to lay off workers to pay for this useless tax levy. But all this goes to show that while we are wearing away at the machine, it is time to fight back instead of just defending ourselves all the time. This was the 4th levy attempt, and it only passed by 240 votes! It took only a small band of misguided fools to kick this stupid levy through. So it is time for us to kick the ball back down the field. It’s time to kick the unions where it hurts; we need to push for the bill for a right to work state. we need to push for tax reduction bills at the local level. We must stand up and fight!

The road is long ahead, but we have the founders and their principles to light the way. It’s going to take a lot more effort on the ground level, and many more of us will have to get our hands dirty and get the word out. Our future is out there, we can change the country for the better, no matter how many useless idiots stand in the way, the founding fathers stood up against similar odds, so let no progressive stand in your way. While there will be more battles that we’ll lose, we will win this war!

Freedom dies within a generation

First off I would like to say a big thank you to all the liberty groups out there; from the libertarians to the Tea Party groups. Keep up the great work, you have no idea just how vital you are to the cause of freedom, and just how perilously close we are from a collectivist abyss.

Freedom really does die within a generation. Just a couple of decades ago Margaret Thatcher set Britain straight and pulled the country out from the death spiral of socialism. Her privatization policies revitalized England and put it back on track toward prosperity.

Today England is sliding back toward socialism. Guns are banned, healthcare costs soar while service plummets, and even the most intelligent people among the British population believe that guns should be banned in all countries and healthcare should be free for all.

It’s no secret why I moved to the United States. I did so to have a chance at freedom and to build a life for myself the way that I saw fit. Today Barack Obama and his string of thuggish democrats seek to destroy this great country with their warped view of fairness.

I appeal to all Americans, do not give up this fight. England has been dying a quiet death over the last century. Progressives and their collectivist ideologies have ruined the once mighty Empire and all its gifts to the world.

Today there are three main party’s in Britain: The Liberal Democrats (extremely liberal), The Labour Party (extremely socialist) and the Conservatives (who their leader describes as ‘liberal conservatives’ and ‘compassionate conservatives’) Truly England has slipped and it will not be long before it experiences ruin, especially if the Labour Party wins the next general election under the leadership of ‘Red Ed’ Milliband.

So keep up the good fight, and attack emotional stupidity with calm reasoning. We are right in our fight, and we will prevail. Do not allow this country to die a quiet death the way others have.

An adventure of two individuals

For the second time in a week my wife and I went to watch ‘Man of steel’. This time, instead of traveling with her parents, we traveled as individuals on my V-Star. Like going out to buy the CD for my father in law, this adventure had to be done on a bike. I had to feel the raw elements as the wind rushed around my body, the steel horse belting down the road beneath me.

We arrived at the theater, parked up and bought our tickets. The musical opening to the movie had my senses heightened, and I felt emotional again watching the masterpiece that is ‘Man of Steel’. My wife and I looked at each other as Jor-El and Lara-El gave birth to their son. The individual birth to a supreme being after hundreds of years of planned births.

The references in the movie are comparable to our modern world. Instead of reaching out to the Stars, the NASA program has been all but shut down, while we spend trillions on welfare programs and planned societies which always fail.

Watching superman grow up as an individual and become more than what society had intended for him, Brooke and I held hands and shared a moment that binds us. We each set out to become more, to become better, to become all that we could be, no matter what we were told, no matter what society wanted for us.

As the movie ended and the credits rolled up, we slowly left the theater with the amazing music still playing behind us. As I fired up the bike a huge gust of wind kicked up and we could see storm clouds rolling in, in the distance. “Oh man” Brooke said as she pointed out the thick black clouds that hung just to the west of where we were heading.

Knowing that the storm was most likely heading east, I revved up the bike and headed directly east, just to the south of the storm in a hurry to outpace it before it hit our destination.

Blazing down the road, V-Twin thumping, I kicked the bike up into 5th gear, thumping down the road much faster than I should have been going, in order to outpace the ominous storm clouds.

I began to zig-zag up north east toward our northward destination in an attempt to beat the storm, but traffic light after traffic light held down my progress. The heavens opened up and we began to get pelted with thick drops of rain. I took a sharp right to head further to the east and eased the bike back up into 4th gear. After a couple of tense minutes we were back in front of the storm again, dry road underneath. Apart from slightly stinging faces, we were in the clear for now, but we were running out of time to get home before the storm hit.

By this point Brooke was laughing, the speed of the bike, the raw elements flying at us, the quick burst of rain before coming flying out of the downpour had her excited, feeling the same spirit of individuality that I did, knowing that at least briefly we had defied the God’s and were making up our own rules as we went along.

“Let’s go eat at the Greek place!” Brooke shouted in my ear as I built up the revs in the V-Star’s belly. “Good idea!” I shouted back “that’ll give us a chance to outpace the storm and dry off before it hits again!”

We jumped on the highway and raced toward the next exit where our favorite restaurant ‘Greek Isle’s’ is located. The heavens began to tip open again, huge drops spattering down, with the threat of a full downpour just seconds away.

We turned onto the exit and left onto the restaurants road, staring the thick black clouds in the face. We turned into the parking lot, as the rain began to pick up, seconds away from a full downpour. I kicked the bike into neutral, coasted cleanly into a parking spot, slammed down the kickstand and simultaneously switched off the ignition while closing off the fuel line. We both jumped off the bike and walked calmly toward the doors of the restaurant with the cool swagger of movie stars as the heavens finally broke and dumped tons of heavy water droplets in a flurry behind us.

“Phew we just made it!” Exclaimed Brooke, exhilarated.

Konstantine, the restaurant’s owner looked up, said hello, then looked at us incredulously trying to figure out why we were so wet. “what happened to you guys?” We explained that we narrowly escaped the storm, but that it got a slight lick at us before we were able to outpace it. He offered us a couple of towels which we gladly accepted, and he took our usual order; an order of Greek chips and two gyros.

We sat down, dried off, and watched the rain pour down, knowing that we would have become completely drenched if it hadn’t been for my evasive actions. Sure we could have stayed at the theater, or hidden under a gas station, but that simply wouldn’t have been as much fun.

We dug into our order of Greek chips and our gyros, and explored the virtues of the individual, the movie and our lives together. Days like this make you feel so alive, and so glad that for the most part we still live in a free country, and that heroic actions make all the difference.

Most people wouldn’t risk riding in weather like we did, but we know that if you keep a cool head and keep exploring new and sometimes wild options, you can rise above the mediocre, and have a true adventure to show for it.

After the rain subsided, and we finished our meal, we talked to Konstantine for a few minutes and paid our bill before walking out into brilliant sunshine. We jumped on the bike and rode off North toward our new home. By the time we got there, the roads were completely dry. The storm hadn’t even touched the house. This storm was confined to a relatively small area, but it just goes to show how much fun you can have when you test your abilities and put your own philosophy to the test.

An Orwellian America

The following post is a good example of where this country is heading. I do not bash both the left and the right for no reason. I want freedom for everyone, individual liberty is my ultimate goal. Please take time to read through the following material and study the graphs.

An Orwellian America

Posted on March 20, 2013 by Paraclete

Zero Hedge – by Gordon T. Long

As a young man, I voraciously read George Orwell’s “1984”, Aldous Huxley’s “Brave New World” and Alvin Toffler’s trilogy which included “Future Shock”‘, “The Third Wave” and “Power Shift”. During the era of the Vietnam War, I wondered seriously about the future and how it was destined to unfold. Now being considerably older, I have the vantage point to reflect back on my early ruminations and expectations. Unfortunately, I am too old to alter the lessons that are now so painfully obvious. Instead, I pass the gauntlet to those who can understand and take action on what I have unavoidably come to expect for America.

A FRAMEWORK OF UNDERSTANDING

THE ‘HUXLEY-ORWELL’ TRANSITION

I recently read a perceptive paper by Chris Hedges that would have made any English Professor envious, powerfully philosophical but not something an Economics department would pay much attention to. I found it both intriguing and enlightening.

I have borrowed so heavily from it, that I am unsure where the lines diverge. Therefore, below I give full credit to Chris Hedges and take full credit for all the bad ideas.

Chris Hedges of TruthDig.com wrote 2011: A Brave New Dystopia, from which the following evolved.

The two greatest visions of a future dystopia were George Orwell’s “1984” and Aldous Huxley’s “Brave New World.” The debate, between those who watched our descent towards corporate totalitarianism, was who was right. Would we be, as Orwell wrote, dominated by a repressive surveillance and security state that used crude and violent forms of control? Or would we be, as Huxley envisioned, entranced by entertainment and spectacle, captivated by technology and seduced by profligate consumption to embrace our own oppression? It turns out Orwell and Huxley were both right. Huxley saw the first stage of our enslavement. Orwell saw the second.

We have been gradually disempowered by a corporate state that, as Huxley foresaw, seduced and manipulated us through:

•    Sensual gratification,
•    Cheap mass-produced goods,
•    Boundless credit,
•    Political theater and
•    Amusement.

While we were entertained,

•    The regulations that once kept predatory corporate power in check were dismantled,
•    The laws that once protected us were rewritten and
•    We were impoverished.

Now that:

•    Credit is drying up,
•    Good jobs for the working class are gone forever and
•    Mass-produced goods are unaffordable,

…. we find ourselves transported from “Brave New World” to “1984.”

The state, crippled by massive deficits, endless war and corporate malfeasance, is clearly sliding toward unavoidable bankruptcy.

It is time for Big Brother to take over from Huxley’s feelies, the orgy-porgy and the centrifugal bumble-puppy.

We are transitioning from a society where we are skillfully manipulated by lies and illusions to one where we are overtly controlled.

Huxley, we are discovering, was merely the prelude to Orwell.

Now that the corporate coup is over, we stand naked and defenseless. We are beginning to understand, as Karl Marx knew:

Unfettered and unregulated capitalism is a brutal and revolutionary force that exploits human beings and the natural world until exhaustion or collapse.

UNSOUND MONEY LEADS TO STATISM

With this as a backdrop let’s explore how Unsound Money in concert with the Huxley-Orwell Transition leads to Statism, the path which I believe we are presently on.

THE CATALYSTS BEHIND THE “TRANSITION”

1- UNSOUND MONEY

•    Removal from Gold Standard and adoption of Fiat Currency regime (in August 1971 during the winding down of the Vietnam War; the first War ever fought without tax increases to pay for it; the beginning of endless ‘conflicts’ and the War on “Terror”).
•    Creation and Fostering of a $67 Trillion Shadow Banking Credit Growth,
•    Massive Securitization & Off Balance Sheet Contingent Liability Debt Growth.

2- POLICY FAILURES

•    Failed Monetary Policy & Monetary Malpractice,
•    Moral Malady,
•    Failed Fiscal Policy,
•    Failed Public Policy,
•    Growth of Political Polarization,
•    Entrenched ‘Left-Right’ Factions,
•    An Un-Governable Democracy.

3- CRISIS OF TRUST

•    Lost Respect & Confidence
•    A Doomed Middle Class
•    A Broken Social Contract

4- AUTHORITARIAN ACCEPTANCE

•    Central Planning
•    Growth in Regulations & Control
•    Crony Capitalism & Corporatocracy
•    Big Government
•    The Huxley – Orwell Transition

CRUMBLING BARRIERS

• The Great Huxley-Orwell Transition
• From Manipulative to Repressive

ROADBLOCKS
•    Financial Security through Sound Money            REMOVED
•    Reduced Personal Freedoms through a Crisis         PENDING
•    Reduced Personal Security through a Constitutional Crisis    FUTURE

DRIVERS
•    Globalization & Complexity
o    Fragile versus Robust Systems
o    Interconnectivity and Counter Party Dependency

• The Productivity Paradox
o Creative Destruction & Job Creation

Let’s shift gears and consider what “greases the skids” in enabling this transition in our society to occur.

COLLECTIVISM

In The Road to Serfdom, F.A. Hayek showed how governments, supported by a collectivist mindset, always tend towards totalitarianism. Even the most libertarian government thus far created, the government of the United States, has slipped incrementally towards totalitarianism over the past two centuries. This is because it is an inherent trait of a government.

The degree of socialism in the United States increased substantially after the establishment of the Federal Reserve System (1913) and the measures taken during the Great Depression (1929-46) which it created. Ever since the early 1900′s the United States has had a two-party system dominated by ‘socialists’. The Republican Party has always advocated conservative socialism. The Democratic Party, which in the 19th century favored libertarianism, advocates social-democratic socialism. So long as people are divided by Left and Right, Democratic and Republican, the US is prone to being influenced by factions who transcend party politics and from behind the scenes could possible exert strong control over the United States. They could do this by maintaining power over public opinion and hence over the course of government. Steadily, the United States has been travelling down the road to totalitarianism, and many people have not noticed, possibly because they are only looking at the position on the Left-Right paradigm.

Upon further analysis, it is clear that Left, Right and Centre, are all forms of socialism. In particular, we may call them “social-democratic socialism” (the Left) and “conservative socialism” (the Right). They are both socialism because they both share the principle that the government should “run” and “mold” society, by using legal force and intervention to transfer property and personal wealth as part of the political scientists’ process of ‘redistribution of wealth’.

The differences are only in the particular ways the government should run society – the methods it should use, and who, exactly, should be the recipients of government wealth transfers and who should pay. In particular:
• Social democrats tend to prefer heavy taxation, large wealth transfers to the poor, and nationalized industries, and oppose price controls, regulations and behavioral controls.
• Conservatives tend to prefer lower taxation, a smaller welfare state, regulated (cartelized) industries, price controls, product and behavioral controls.

Nolan Charts: Personal Freedom versus Economic Freedom

The modern Republican Party is Center-Right on the Left-Right paradigm. As with the Democratic Party, this obscures the huge range of views Republicans hold on how powerful and how much control the State should be allowed. Their 2008 presidential nominee John McCain, like Barack Obama, strongly favored socialism, though with a Right-wing flavor. Barack Obama (blue circle) and John McCain (red circle) are positioned in the accompanying graphic. Thus, the two main candidates at the 2008 Presidential election represented a false choice – really no choice at all. One candidate, Ron Paul (yellow circle), stood in stark contrast to the candidates, favored by the mainstream media and political establishment. As would be expected, he was neutralized by the mainstream media outlets as a zealot with an unsound political view of America.

THE POLITICAL CONTINUUM

THE EMERGING ROADMAP TO STATISM

Let me now develop and explore the roadmap that outlines the path leading from Policy Failures and Monetary Malpractice, stemming from Unsound Money, to STATISM.
First we will build the outline for the basis of a roadmap on a number of observable continuums.

The more complex that issues become, the more collectivism will dominate and individual needs will be repressed. In turn governments will be forced to be more repressive to maintain control over increasing polarization and diverse views and opinions.

EVOLVING STAGES
When we arrange our various continuums we arrive at the representative grid model shown below.

We will quickly acknowledge it is not ideal, but it allows many concepts currently at play to be shown in relationship to others.

This grid is best described as the social forces at play within Globalization – Financial, Economic and Political.

DRIVER$ – VISIBLE & INVISIBLE
There are both visible and less visible forces at play that are forcing ‘greasing’ the skids in the movement towards Statism.

The roadmap integrates well into our roadmap from our THESIS 2011: Beggar-Thy-Neighbor / Currency Wars and2012 Thesis: Financial Repression papers. ()

ORWELL’S 1984 IS HAPPENING

We are one crisis away from a police state. All the powers are in place. Someone will flip the switch. Whether a Cyber Attack, escalating Currency War tensions or a ‘terrorist’ attack by indebted college youth, it is only a matter of time and circumstance.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-03-15/orwellian-america

All Americans should read this

I read this earlier from ‘Conservative Patriots of America‘ and thought I should share it:

ALL Americans should read this and hit “Share”: Read this Jewish woman’s eyewitness account of the loss of freedom in her native Austria:

December 22, 2012 – “What I am about to tell you is something you’ve probably never heard or read in history books,” she likes to tell audiences.

“I am a witness to history.

“I cannot tell you that Hitler took Austria by tanks and guns; it would distort history.

If you remember the plot of the Sound of Music, the Von Trapp family escaped over the Alps rather than submit to the Nazis. Kitty wasn’t so lucky. Her family chose to stay in her native Austria. She was 10 years old, but bright and aware. And she was watching.

“We elected him by a landslide – 98 percent of the vote,” she recalls.

She wasn’t old enough to vote in 1938 – approaching her 11th birthday. But she remembers.

“Everyone thinks that Hitler just rolled in with his tanks and took Austria by force.”

No so.

Hitler is welcomed to Austria

“In 1938, Austria was in deep Depression. Nearly one-third of our workforce was unemployed. We had 25 percent inflation and 25 percent bank loan interest rates.

Farmers and business people were declaring bankruptcy daily. Young people were going from house to house begging for food. Not that they didn’t want to work; there simply weren’t any jobs.

“My mother was a Christian woman and believed in helping people in need. Every day we cooked a big kettle of soup and baked bread to feed those poor, hungry people – about 30 daily.’

“We looked to our neighbor on the north, Germany, where Hitler had been in power since 1933.” she recalls. “We had been told that they didn’t have unemployment or crime, and they had a high standard of living.

Austrian girls welcome Hitler

“Nothing was ever said about persecution of any group – Jewish or otherwise. We were led to believe that everyone in Germany was happy. We wanted the same way of life in Austria. We were promised that a vote for Hitler would mean the end of unemployment and help for the family. Hitler also said that businesses would be assisted, and farmers would get their farms back.

“Ninety-eight percent of the population voted to annex Austria to Germany and have Hitler for our ruler.

“We were overjoyed,” remembers Kitty, “and for three days we danced in the streets and had candlelight parades. The new government opened up big field kitchens and
everyone was fed.

Austrians saluting

“After the election, German officials were appointed, and like a miracle, we suddenly had law and order. Three or four weeks later, everyone was employed. The government made sure that a lot of work was created through the Public Work Service.

“Hitler decided we should have equal rights for women. Before this, it was a custom that married Austrian women did not work outside the home. An able-bodied husband would be looked down on if he couldn’t support his family. Many women in the teaching profession were elated that they could retain the jobs they previously had been required to give up for marriage.

“Then we lost religious education for kids

(Envision the famous poster promoting “Hitler Youth”)

“Our education was nationalized. I attended a very good public school. The population was predominantly Catholic, so we had religion in our schools. The day we elected Hitler (March 13, 1938), I walked into my schoolroom to find the crucifix replaced by Hitler’s picture hanging next to a Nazi flag. Our teacher, a very devout woman, stood up and told the class we wouldn’t pray or have religion anymore. Instead, we sang ‘Deutschland, Deutschland, Uber Alles,’ and had physical education.

“Sunday became National Youth Day with compulsory attendance. Parents were not pleased about the sudden change in curriculum. They were told that if they did not send us, they would receive a stiff letter of warning the first time. The second time they would be fined the equivalent of $300, and the third time they would be subject to jail.”
And then things got worse.

“The first two hours consisted of political indoctrination. The rest of the day we had sports. As time went along, we loved it. Oh, we had so much fun and got our sports equipment free.

“We would go home and gleefully tell our parents about the wonderful time we had.

“My mother was very unhappy,” remembers Kitty. “When the next term started, she took me out of public school and put me in a convent. I told her she couldn’t do that and she told me that someday when I grew up, I would be grateful. There was a very good curriculum, but hardly any fun – no sports, and no political indoctrination.

“I hated it at first but felt I could tolerate it. Every once in a while, on holidays, I went home. I would go back to my old friends and ask what was going on and what they were doing.

(Envision a pro-Hitler rally)

“Their loose lifestyle was very alarming to me. They lived without religion. By that time, unwed mothers were glorified for having a baby for Hitler.

“It seemed strange to me that our society changed so suddenly. As time went along, I realized what a great deed my mother did so that I wasn’t exposed to that kind of humanistic philosophy.

“In 1939, the war started and a food bank was established. All food was rationed and could only be purchased using food stamps. At the same time, a full-employment law was passed which meant if you didn’t work, you didn’t get a ration card, and if you didn’t have a card, you starved to death.

“Women who stayed home to raise their families didn’t have any marketable skills and often had to take jobs more suited for men.

“Soon after this, the draft was implemented.

Young Austrians:

“It was compulsory for young people, male and female, to give one year to the labor corps,” remembers Kitty. “During the day, the girls worked on the farms, and at night they returned to their barracks for military training just like the boys.

“They were trained to be anti-aircraft gunners and participated in the signal corps. After the labor corps, they were not discharged but were used in the front lines.
“When I go back to Austria to visit my family and friends, most of these women are emotional cripples because they just were not equipped to handle the horrors of combat.
“Three months before I turned 18, I was severely injured in an air raid attack. I nearly had a leg amputated, so I was spared having to go into the labor corps and into military service.

“When the mothers had to go out into the work force, the government immediately established child care centers.
“You could take your children ages four weeks old to school age and leave them there around-the-clock, seven days a week, under the total care of the government.

“The state raised a whole generation of children. There were no motherly women to take care of the children, just people highly trained in child psychology. By this time, no one talked about equal rights. We knew we had been had.

“Before Hitler, we had very good medical care. Many American doctors trained at the University of Vienna..
“After Hitler, health care was socialized, free for everyone. Doctors were salaried by the government. The problem was, since it was free, the people were going to the doctors for everything.

“When the good doctor arrived at his office at 8 a.m., 40 people were already waiting and, at the same time, the hospitals were full.

“If you needed elective surgery, you had to wait a year or two for your turn. There was no money for research as it was poured into socialized medicine. Research at the medical schools literally stopped, so the best doctors left Austria and emigrated to other countries.

“As for healthcare, our tax rates went up to 80 percent of our income. Newlyweds immediately received a $1,000 loan from the government to establish a household. We had big programs for families.

“All day care and education were free. High schools were taken over by the government and college tuition was subsidized. Everyone was entitled to free handouts, such as food stamps, clothing, and housing.

“We had another agency designed to monitor business. My brother-in-law owned a restaurant that had square tables.
“ Government officials told him he had to replace them with round tables because people might bump themselves on the corners. Then they said he had to have additional bathroom facilities. It was just a small dairy business with a snack bar. He couldn’t meet all the demands.

“Soon, he went out of business. If the government owned the large businesses and not many small ones existed, it could be in control.

“We had consumer protection, too…

Austrian kids loyal to Hitler:

“We were told how to shop and what to buy. Free enterprise was essentially abolished. We had a planning agency specially designed for farmers. The agents would go to the farms, count the live-stock, and then tell the farmers what to produce, and how to produce it.

“In 1944, I was a student teacher in a small village in the Alps. The villagers were surrounded by mountain passes which, in the winter, were closed off with snow, causing people to be isolated.

“So people intermarried and offspring were sometimes retarded. When I arrived, I was told there were 15 mentally retarded adults, but they were all useful and did good manual work.

“I knew one, named Vincent, very well. He was a janitor of the school. One day I looked out the window and saw Vincent and others getting into a van.

“I asked my superior where they were going. She said to an institution where the State Health Department would teach them a trade, and to read and write. The families were required to sign papers with a little clause that they could not visit for 6 months.

“They were told visits would interfere with the program and might cause homesickness.

“As time passed, letters started to dribble back saying these people died a natural, merciful death. The villagers were not fooled. We suspected what was happening. Those people left in excellent physical health and all died within 6 months. We called this euthanasia.

“Next came gun registration. People were getting injured by guns. Hitler said that the real way to catch criminals (we still had a few) was by matching serial numbers on guns. Most citizens were law abiding and dutifully marched to the police station to register their firearms. Not long afterwards, the police said that it was best for everyone to turn in their guns. The authorities already knew who had them, so it was futile not to comply voluntarily.

“No more freedom of speech. Anyone who said something against the government was taken away. We knew many people who were arrested, not only Jews, but also priests and ministers who spoke up.

“Totalitarianism didn’t come quickly, it took 5 years from 1938 until 1943, to realize full dictatorship in Austria. Had it happened overnight, my countrymen would have fought to the last breath. Instead, we had creeping gradualism. Now, our only weapons were broom handles. The whole idea sounds almost unbelievable that the state, little by little eroded our freedom.”

“This is my eye-witness account.

“It’s true. Those of us who sailed past the Statue of Liberty came to a country of unbelievable freedom and opportunity.

“America is truly is the greatest country in the world. “Don’t let freedom slip away.

“After America, there is no place to go.”

Kitty Werthmann