Diogenes Shrugged
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Ilargi, it’s certainly possible that I could have missed something along the way, but I’m curious where you think the second-safest place to put my savings would be. I assume short-dated U.S. Treasuries are still in first place, but if that investment starts to look risky, where to go next? I’m really, really hoping you say O-motta. “What’s O-motta,” you say? Nothing at all, what’s O-motta with you? Believe it or not, I got that from Eddie Haskell in an episode of “Leave it to Beaver” long ago, and I was just aching to finally spring it on someone. Anyway, please answer honestly :), because I’m not at all sure that hundred-dollar homes in Detroit are the right choice. (By the way, I’m serious about my question, and thanks.)
The patient has been responding nicely to all the drugs, but … wait … oh, my God! Look! The tumor! Oh, my God! No blood pressure!
From American Banker: “More than 300,000, or 35%, of the roughly 1 million homes currently in the process of foreclosure are vacant and the servicer has not taken title to the home …”
Why doesn’t Harry Reid get some Chinese fat cats to put solar panels on those houses and buy them up? That would at least avoid the civil war he’s starting in Nevada.
From Ilargi: “Why are people so averse to even considering that perhaps this is not a long series of mistakes, but instead, a deliberate policy?”
Would it be too cynical to suggest that all central banking and government “mistakes” are actually part of deliberate policy? I know most people would much rather be called “stooges” than “conspiracy theorists,” but I’m thinking of drone strikes against wedding parties and things like that. I mean, after all, we know something about the kind of morally challenged people running the show by now, don’t we?
When does government policy become criminal behavior? That’s easy. Government is a criminal enterprise, so all its behaviors are criminal by definition. Maybe a better question would be, “When is government policy not criminal behavior?” I cannot think of a single example.
But for those of you who highly esteem colossal, boondoggle projects that ordinary citizens would never “finance” on their own, as for example global cloud seeding efforts (a.k.a. chemtrails) to block sunlight from solar collectors and green plants, here is the answer to Ilargi’s question, but with the PRESUMPTION that something – – cough – – anything – – cough – – about government might actually be legitimate.
Government policy becomes criminal behavior when any of these things happen:
1. Taxes are extorted
2. Speech or writing are regulated
3. Race plays a role in government policies
4. Laws are written to infringe on the tools used in self-defense
5. Theft of private property is justified with euphemisms like “civil asset forfeiture”
6. Central banks provide the nation’s money – – at interest
7. Borders are patrolled (not possible to have open borders AND a welfare state)
8. Torture is deemed acceptable (when performed by government employees)
9. The ingestion of mind-altering substances is made punishable
10. “Peace officers” are vindicated for extreme brutality and murderThat’s a start, but I’m sure somebody could assemble a Master’s Thesis on the subject, a document with tens of thousands of similar red flags. Awareness of such a document might inspire a reduction in government instead of just complaints about it, but of course, that’s unlikely until Hell freezes over. Or maybe until the Great Lakes fail to thaw some summer and we realize carbon dioxide levels are rising because all the green plants are dead (see cloud seeding example, above).
People might indeed be losing faith in their governments, but government has always been, and will always be, the most powerful religion. If you need a reminder, just look at how religions regard heretics (including sinners).
11. Heretics (including whistleblowers and protesters) are marginalized, fined, imprisoned, brutalized or executed.
Gosh, that reply got a little long-winded. Sorry, what was the question again? C’mon, are you kidding?
Raleigh, with respect to the Ukraine parliament brawl, I’d sure like to see that happening daily in the Senate, House, Supreme Court, Oval Office, DOJ, etc. Unfortunately, everybody in our government seems to be playing for the same team, and that team sure isn’t the productive class.
https://www.washingtonsblog.com/2014/04/fed-sharks-part-2-housing-death-middle-class.html
Since January 2011 when I discovered this website, I’ve archived twenty-seven of Ilargi’s superb articles that i wanted never to lose. Today’s was number 28. I can’t begin to express how lucky I feel to have discovered this website back then.
This is frustrating. I’m putting in the correct URL’s, but the wrong videos appeared. Here are the correct URL’s, but you’ll have to remove the quotation marks at both ends.
Part 1:
”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DhgpoHKtzk&list=UUhZRoC9bMegevAxFmee1oSA”
Part 2:
”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3CmSBY3J8o”CODE PHRASES: Income tax, HFT, Libor rigging, QE, Executive Order, property tax, bail out, bail in, corporate subsidy, corporate tax, terrorist threat, eminent domain, civil asset forfeiture, tax penalty, NSA surveillance, NSA eavesdropping, Homeland Security, economic sanction, campaign finance, military budget, environmental protection, war on drugs, war on poverty, minimum wage, TSA, gun regulation, free speech zone, prison privatization, false flag, TBTF, market manipulation, liar’s loan, mortgage backed security, carbon credit, solar radiation management, rehypothecation, intelligence agency, military industrial complex, capital gains tax, career politician, central banker, collateralized debt obligation, credit default swap, living Constitution, justice system, crony capitalism, shadow banking, shadow government, trade agreement, foreign aid, military alliance, mercenary army, national debt, national health insurance, agent provocateur, estate tax, martial law, special rendition, soft torture. (By no means an exhaustive list.)
CODE PHRASE TRANSLATION: “Criminal theft and fraud spoken here with near-impunity” At its extreme, criminal theft includes murder, slavery, pedophilia and involuntary human experimentation.
NOW THAT YOU KNOW THE CODE: Government is a criminally destructive institution, especially when captured and supported by private banks. We must all cooperate to make government obsolete, as it has proven impossible to change. Get out of debt, off the public dole, build security and practice independence. And don’t engage in theft or fraud.
Most people aren’t versed in horticulture and farming, and they aren’t suddenly going to become educated. Which makes me wonder if some enterprising person might be able to design a course of studies on the Internet that qualify a student to become an urban sharecropper. Trainees would set up and monitor urban farms for people living in apartments and subdivisions, but would hopefully have to charge little due to a multitude of customers. For instance:
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=pvc+hydroponic+systemAs people struggle to solve food supply problems, I would imagine that a major source of disagreement could arise over the subject of land (and crop) ownership versus stewardship. An awareness of the Tragedy of the Commons might help to reveal the nature of mistakes made in the past, and provide some guidance before this becomes an issue.
I’m new to the comment section of TAE, though I’ve been a steady reader for many years now. Something you all know that I’m going to repeat anyway is, to my way of thinking, foundational to everything said on this website. It’s a quote from Stoneleigh many years ago, and it’s re-appeared in many forms in both hers and Ilargi’s writings. The quote has been posted in large font at the center of my bulletin board ever since I first read it. I consider it to be the holy grail of understanding present economic circumstances, and I’m shocked that the rest of the finance and economics world doesn’t seem to have even discovered it, much less hailed it for its brilliance. Like a good song, I never get tired of it. I hope I’m not the only one who feels this way, and I hope you at least enjoy seeing it again …
“Essentially, there are two kinds of inflation. As inflation is defined as an increase in the supply of money and credit relative to available goods and services, one can achieve inflation either by increasing the money component (as in Weimar Germany or modern Zimbabwe) or the credit component. In the former case, one divides the underlying real wealth pie into smaller and smaller pieces. In the latter case, which represents our situation, one does not subdivide the real wealth pie, but instead creates multiple and mutually exclusive claims to the same pieces of pie.
“A credit expansion thus creates excess claims to underlying real wealth, and we have just lived through the largest credit expansion in human history. In other words, we are all playing a giant game of musical chairs, only there is perhaps one chair for every hundred people playing the game. You can imagine what will happen when the music stops. The free-for-all grab for an available chair represents the extinguishing of excess claims to underlying real wealth, and is deflation by definition. This will represent the end of extend-and-pretend, and the recognition that there is only so much to go around.” -Stoneleigh
Pure genius, and I will forever be in her debt for sharing it.
There are very bright and talented people who’ve spent the last seven years complaining about the absence of prosecutions for Wall Street crimes (i.e. clear violations of the law). Bill Black, for instance, comes immediately to mind. I’m still not at all clear, though, why these crimes have gone unpunished. I’m sure Eric Holder is at least part of the problem, but it appears the FBI, Supremes, Congress and Executive branches are additional components of this protection racket. In reference to what appears to be a possible set-up for an orchestrated debt collapse, Ilargi writes, “It’s a good idea to try and stay away from conspiracy theories, but just look at what’s happening here.” Well, in the off-chance that the absence of prosecutions isn’t the result of conspiracies, I’d like to know who the strong man calling the shots is.
Vigilante cops mete out their own brand of steroid-drenched street justice to unarmed, non-violent, pregnant, homeless, elderly and often times, innocent people every day. They bust heads and haul to jail for photographing their crimes, too. That makes cops street criminals, but they’re rarely held to account. Maybe it’s just that cops don’t see rich and powerful criminals as easy targets. Or maybe it’s that criminal cops recognize their own when they look at criminals in D.C. and on Wall Street, and are filled with admiration.
Any way you look at it, criminals have disgraced this country (the U.S.) in very many unforgivable ways. We’ve degenerated from being a nation under law to being a nation under men.
Imaginer, thank you for your exhaustive reply.
Looking over your links, I should be frank in telling you that I’m not an attorney, so legal documents are above my head. I am an atheist, so all references to “higher law” and such are lost on me. Furthermore, I’m an anarchist in the sense that I view humans as sovereigns, so any ambition to collect taxes by force is anathema.
There is also the matter that I view land as private property rather than as a commons. The American Indian viewed land as a commons, and it worked well for him. But we have to work with what we’re faced with now, and that’s land as private property. Of course, nobody really owns his land as long as governments collect property taxes, so perhaps Georgism is just a variant on the present system of *illusory* private property after all.
No need to clarify anything for me. I will continue to look over your links as time permits. But I think your Liberty Alliance will have a steep uphill struggle as long as it lacks a pithy, short, and understandable mission statement (like a Twitter post) that anybody could understand immediately. Most people have neither the time nor the patience for a dozen links to legal documents and videos.
Again, thanks.
Diogenes Shrugged
* HONESTY *Imaginer, what does your National Liberty Alliance claim to provide that the freedom movement hasn’t already offered ad-nauseum for the last fifty-plus years? Milton Friedman’s “Free to Choose” series aired on PBS back in 1976, as I recall, which would have been five years after Libertarianism was invented in Lakewood, Colorado. So many facets of constitutionalism and libertarianism have come and gone since. Harry Browne and Ron Paul come to mind, but so many others have also tried mightily to make an impression politically. The Future of Freedom Foundation, Foundation for Economic Education, Lew Rockwell, Cato Institute and countless others have tried so hard to make a dent philosophically, and to educate Americans. None of it ever won even ten percent of the hearts and minds of Americans. We live in a country where, ironically, freedom isn’t actually all that popular. Everybody wants to chain down somebody else. We live in a world where myriad forms of theft and brutality share equal ground as business models with free markets and honest work. Despite all of man’s technological, scientific and moral achievements, we still operate under jungle law. For instance, what government doesn’t operate under the creed “might makes right?” Constitutional law? Don’t make the three branches laugh!
I worked for nearly a decade with a woman who earned her PhD in China, and became a top scientist under Mao. She emigrated to the US, learned English, earned another PhD, and became a top research scientist for a big company here. One day she confided something to me that she said she’d never told anybody else. She said, “Do you know what the worst part of living in communist China under Mao was?”
Go ahead: think about that for a moment and take a guess.
“It was the fact that you couldn’t speak your mind to anybody, not even your family. You didn’t dare. Nobody could be trusted.”
Well, that is increasingly how it is here in the United States. And as far as I know, and as far as you know, too, the National Liberty Alliance might just be “controlled opposition.” Welcome to American Intelligence, where deception is a much bigger (and better financed) weapon than subs, ships, fighter jets and nukes.
You see, that’s why organized crime is so successful. Most of the people working for the mob don’t know they’re working for the mob. But this post is already too long, so maybe more on that another day. In the mean time, I don’t know if your outfit is legit or not, but I don’t trust anybody in this country any more.
Good article and good ideas, but until criminals are prosecuted, no solution will make any real difference.
Zero Prosecutions of Elites for Most Destructive Frauds in World History-William Black
A huge sorting out of winners and losers is coming. The message so far from the big winners of power and big winners of wealth is, “crime pays.”
In addition to punishing crime, I’ll add one more recommendation, and that is to impose shorter and stricter term limits on all elective offices. Governments are really NEVER democratic except on the days ballots are cast.
Any species that discovers ways to almost completely circumvent the pressures of natural selection will eventually overpopulate its habitat and consume most of its natural resources. Sociopathic members of said species who seek to halt that growth process, or even to reverse it, will very stupidly take it upon themselves to invent selective pressures that are unnatural. Being criminals to begin with, their chief strategies will consist of ways to STEAL the health, wealth, and lives of others. They think that this will make them even happier than they are now, with all their money, power, prostitutes and Ferraris.
Powerful psychopaths, sociopaths and pedophiles meet every year at a Bilderberg conference to discuss how to accomplish this. They so far have agreed that poisoning the planet’s waters, air and food might help. Creating expansive dead zones with endless wars, oil spills and nuclear accidents will also help. Infecting the military and police forces (that we hire to serve and protect THEM) with cowardice and callousness will extinguish any dissent. It is secretly hoped that Bill Gates, George Soros, Janet Napolitano and Hillary Clinton will be the last to survive all of this.
When you divide the number of square feet in Texas by the number of people in the world, you get a 30′ x 30″ plot for each of us, as I recall. Enough to grow just enough beans and rice to get by, but not enough to support babies. There’s a solution – – force everybody to move to a small plot in Texas. Of course, I’m kidding. The solution is to impose stiff carbon taxes, shut down the coal and oil industries, and advance Agenda 21. After a particularly dry summer and cold winter, there won’t be many of us left to deplete the remaining resources, and Bill, George, Janet and Hillary can set about to repopulate the Earth.
56, not being terribly familiar with either Keynes nor Krugman, where would the money come from that would be put “in ordinary people’s hands?” I’m thinking about the adage, “Next time you hear something described as ‘government-funded,’ remember that the government is 100% taxpayer-funded.” TIA.
I seem to have been defeated twice. Here is the proper link for cut-and-paste. I hope it works this time. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWYANJzVJvY&index =2&list=UUFGmA4owCCCb-rn0DrkDypA
Very broadly speaking, there are chiefly two ways human beings procure resources, and by extension, power over resources. One is through honest effort: education, production, honest exchange and just reward. The other is through theft: extortion (taxes and fines), bribery, fraud, blackmail and robbery. Both strategies are perfectly viable, and empires are built around both models, but only so long as the former strategy (honesty) dominates. Unfortunately, our debt-laden world is defined by dominance of the latter strategy. What that portends for the future is, also very broadly speaking, not subject to debate, though the timing and details could proceed any which way.
My dad often summed up conversations about current events, politics, history, and just stories about ordinary people with the statement, “People are no damn good.” As I’ve aged, and as I’ve watched the world degenerate on so many levels, I’ve increasingly come to agree with him. We should have elected a Black to the Presidency back in 2008 and again in 2012, but it should have been Bill Black. So long as theft goes unpunished, and thieves of all stripes get away scot-free, there will be no promise, broadly speaking, for the future.
On a separate topic, but not completely unrelated, the following video and article (in that order) potentially shed light on so many topics at once that all I can say is they provided me with the kind of mind-blowing experience that keeps me glued to the Internet. Killer shocking stuff if it’s all true. Enjoy or possibly despair, whichever suits you.
To add to Ilargi’s excellent post, a few more very interesting viewpoints regarding Ukraine:
Dmitry Orlov:
Collapse and Systemic Failure at All Levels Coming to U.S.-Dmitry Orlov
Brother Nathanael:
Paul Craig Roberts:
https://www.presstv.ir/detail/2014/03/27/356216/us-coup-in-ukraine-targets-russia/Nigel Farage:
https://www.presstv.ir/detail/2014/03/27/356213/eu-has-blood-on-hands-in-ukraine/I think they’re all right, but I’m a little wary about saying that in print where the NSA can see it.
56, are you aware that “global warming” has morphed into “climate change” recently? There is a reason for that. Even David Keith admits there is great peril in geo-engineering. The consequences simply aren’t predictable. So, mitigate what? Warming or cooling, it’s a coin toss, and it’s a coin toss what mitigation efforts will do. Your points 3-6 are all silliness. Have you yourself adapted yet to millimeters in sea level change yet? Hopefully the fear of drowning has not yet forced you onto a space station.
I have a better idea. Mitigate Fukushima. Mitigate nuclear waste. Mitigate the perils of fission reactors all over the planet. If you still sit on a fortune in stolen tax monies after doing all that, and assuming we’re not all penniless from deflation by then, then by all means feel free to envelop the planet in a chemically-induced, cooling (or warming?) chemtrail haze. When the Great Lakes fail to thaw some summer, you can reverse course. The good news is that your six points will still apply, so best save those.
Long ago, when the military began SECRETLY spraying chemtrails from horizon to horizon, presumably to reduce sub-stratospheric solar flux, all “CO2-induced climate change” data were instantly invalidated. Pretending to observe CO2 causing climate change is akin to pretending to observe toxic effects from marijuana (there aren’t any) in patients who are SECRETLY kept hammered on bath salts. Chemtrails aren’t being sprayed to attenuate climate change, they’re sprayed to cause it, and the effects are blamed on carbon dioxide. This fraud gives rise to criminal empires all around the globe that are sustained by carbon credits, carbon taxes, and less obvious forms of theft like state-supported climate “science” that selects data to fit politically desired conclusions.
I’m not at all surprised that the military secretly participates in unforgivable frauds against mankind. I am surprised, however, that the populace dutifully, patriotically, and complacently remains in the dark when the very features preventing sunlight on the situation are plainly visible right above their heads.
Our doom could result from many things, but neither carbon dioxide nor climate change make the list. For those not already self-righteously indignant with climate change religiosity, I strongly recommend :
