GOVEROTRAGEOUS: end the IRS and the FCC

Monday, October 27, 2025

https://www.lewrockwell.com/2025/10/ron-paul/it-didnt-start-with-trump/

It Didn’t Start With Trump

By Ron Paul, MD

The Ron Paul Institute

October 21, 2025

*** begin quote ***

The administration of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt used tax investigations against political opponents.

*** and ***

President John F. Kennedy used the IRS and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to drive his conservative critics off the radio.

President Lyndon Johnson also used the IRS and the FCC to silence conservative critics.

*** and ***

President Richard Nixon used the IRS to target political enemies. The Nixon administration also threatened television and radio companies with revocation of their broadcast licenses unless they provided favorable coverage of the administration.

*** and ***

During the Clinton administration, the IRS not only targeted conservative and libertarian organizations it audited Paula Jones after she sued President Clinton for sexual harassment.

*** and ***

During the George W. Bush years, the IRS targeted organizations critical of the Iraq War.

*** and ***

When Barack Obama assumed the presidency, the tax agency turned its attention back to conservative and libertarian groups, with a focus on organizations associated with the Tea Party.

*** end quote ***

So, let’s “nuke” the IRS and the FCC.

Seems like a good start.

Many if the abuses of power all originate from the Federal Gooferment “regulating” “We, The Sheeple”.  Since we are supposed to be a Federal Republic, the Federal Gooferment should only interact with the various State Gooferments that created it.  Leave “We, The People” alone.

Argh!

Let’s start Limited Government!

— 30 —


INTERESTING: Which comes first — seeing or believing?

Friday, February 14, 2025

https://www.lewrockwell.com/2025/02/ira-katz/believing-is-seeing/

Believing Is Seeing – LewRockwell
By Ira Katz

<< EDITOR ADDED DATE 2025-02-06>>

*** begin quote ***

This short explanation cannot do justice to such a broad and important topic. But I hope you will see that while seeing is believing has a certain veracity, it is more important to understand that reality is conceived such that believing is seeing.

*** end quote ***

selective attention test

# – # – # – # – # 

I didn’t see it and now I understand the limitations of “perception”!

What to make of it?

Like the JoHari window, I realized then to always look for what I can’t “see”. 

Maybe if I had learned this much much younger, then my whole life could have been completely different!

“… checked the Eternal Possibilities Machine, which generates all the possibilities for use in creating the alternative worlds. In all those probability lines …” CHURCH 10●19●62 (Vol 1) 978-0-557-08387-9 page 45

Laugh!  I could really use that tool today.

—30—


RANT: Still need to expose the facts around Fauci and the role of NIH in Wuhan

Sunday, February 2, 2025

Why Joe Biden Had To Pardon Anthony Fauci

Why Joe Biden Had To Pardon Anthony Fauci – LewRockwell
By Connor O’Keeffe Mises.org
January 25, 2025

*** begin quote ***

A federal investigation would have all but forced the media to revisit many of Fauci’s unseemly actions, failures, and possible crimes. That would have been uncomfortable for a political establishment that has embraced and celebrated Fauci for decades.

But the real danger of a high-profile Fauci investigation, from the political class’s perspective, would come if the public started to ask themselves why a bureaucrat with such a long track record of failure was embraced and celebrated by those in power. And why he enjoyed so much professional success before retiring with a net worth of more than $11 million.

Such questions could lead people to consider that maybe the decades of mistakes that transferred hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars to public health agencies, pharmaceutical companies, and the crony healthcare system as a whole were not mistakes after all. That, perhaps, the federal public health apparatus is nothing more than a racket and that officials are professionally rewarded, not for keeping us safe, but for protecting and expanding that racket.

*** end quote ***

I am for turning over all the “rocks” and see what scandals “crawl out into the sunshine”.  I’d start by getting low-level aides and secretaries in front of grad juries, immunize them, and just ask questions.  I don’t want “lawfare” on regular people who just were doing their jobs for bad people.  I want “the truth”!

“Son, we live in a world that has walls, and those walls have to be guarded by men with guns. Whose gonna do it? You? You, Lt. Weinburg? I have a greater responsibility than you could possibly fathom. You weep for Santiago, and you curse the Marines. You have that luxury. You have the luxury of not knowing what I know. That Santiago’s death, while tragic, probably saved lives. And my existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, saves lives. You don’t want the truth because deep down in places you don’t talk about at parties, you want me on that wall, you need me on that wall. We use words like honor, code, loyalty. We use these words as the backbone of a life spent defending something. You use them as a punchline. I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very freedom that I provide, and then questions the manner in which I provide it. I would rather you just said thank you, and went on your way, Otherwise, I suggest you pick up a weapon, and stand a post. Either way, I don’t give a damn what you think you are entitled to.” Colonel Jessep in A Few Good Men played by Jack Nicholson

I really do.  

We need to understand what happened so as to prevent it from happening again.

—30—


GOVEROTRAGEOUS: “It’s a big club, and you ain’t in it! You, and I, are not in the big club.” — George Carlin

Wednesday, December 18, 2024

https://www.lewrockwell.com/2024/12/ryan-mcmaken/hunter-bidens-pardon-is-exactly-what-we-should-expect-from-the-us-regime/

lewrockwell.com
Hunter Biden’s Pardon Is Exactly What We Should Expect from the US Regime – LewRockwell
By Ryan McMaken

<< EDITOR ADDED DATE 2024-12-12>>

*** begin quote ***

Nor should we be surprised when we are presented with yet more evidence that there are two legal systems in America: one for the regime and its friends, and another for everyone else. (By “regime,” we mean the permanent administrative government and its attendant ruling class.)

*** and ***

When Barack Obama targeted and murdered American citizens without any due process, his AG, Eric Holder, simply declared that the law allows such things, and the Bill of Rights doesn’t mean what it says.

We could contrast this sort of impunity with what happens to regular people who commit far more benign infractions of federal law. For example, at about the same time James Comey was declaring that it was perfectly fine for Hillary Clinton to mis-use dozens of classified documents, a low-level Navy sailor, Kristian Saucier, was sentenced to six months house arrest for taking a few photos on board a US submarine.

Similarly, it has become routine for federal whistleblowers to serve time in prison while those who actually commit the crimes exposed by the whistleblowers face no punishment at all. Chelsea Manning is one such case, as is John Kiriakou who exposed the CIA’s illegal torture programs. Kiriakou is the only person connected with the CIA’s criminal conspiracy who has ever faced any legal sanction.

And, of course, there are the cases of Edward Snowden and Julian Assange. Snowden was forced to flee to Russia to avoid prosecution for telling the truth of the regime’s widespread violations of our basic property rights. Assange, who exposed various federal lies about war crimes in Iraq, finally escaped a federal prison cell only after the American state took its pound of flesh. The American intelligence “community” conspired for years—with the help of Trump, Biden, and Obama—to rob Assange of years of freedom while he holed up in the Ecuadorian embassy or fought extradition from a British prison.

*** end quote ***

“It’s a big club, and you ain’t in it! You, and I, are not in the big club.” — George Carlin
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5dBZDSSky0

George had it right.  And “We, The Sheeple” are too stupid or too complacent to hold the parasite class (i.e., “celebrities”, politicians and bureaucrats, other “gliterati”) to account,

“It is hard to imagine a more stupid or more dangerous way of making decisions than by putting those decisions in the hands of people who pay no price for being wrong.” — Thomas Sowell

How do we change the “system”?

I can only think of one way — succession.   Personally withdraw from supporting these activities. 

If enough of us join together, then who can stand against us?

—30—

“It’s a big club, and you ain’t in it! You, and I, are not in the big club.” — George Carlin
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5dBZDSSky0

Thomas Sowell Quotes. (n.d.). BrainyQuote.com. Retrieved December 12, 2024, from BrainyQuote.com Web site: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/thomas_sowell_392884

https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2014/mar/19/kesha-rogers/four-us-citizens-killed-obama-drone-strikes-3-were/
Kesha Rogers stated on March 19, 2014 in statements on her campaign website


HELATHCARE: Get the bureaucrats out of “healthcare” and enable consumer choice by the States

Tuesday, December 17, 2024

https://www.lewrockwell.com/2024/12/james-anthony/make-healthcare-efficient-again/

Make Healthcare Efficient Again

  • The single biggest wasteful spending inside and outside governments is on healthcare. To make healthcare efficient and innovative, customers need usable healthcare-product descriptions.

By James Anthony
December 11, 2024

*** begin quote ***

Donald Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency plan is to cancel major regulations, reduce headcounts, and defund inadequately-authorized expenditures and waste, but not to shrink entitlement programs.

This plan would require legislators to stop using the executive power to allocate budgets, presidents and bureaucrats to stop using legislative power to pass rules, and judges to start opining quickly and broadly against presidents and bureaucrats.

Congressmen, presidents and bureaucrats, and judges have other plans.

*** and ***

Also, the rules would need to make healthcare product descriptions sufficiently simple and clear that customers could use these descriptions to make their best choices when they shop:

  • A fee for office work could be like a lawyer’s rate for office work. A fee for surgery could be like a lawyer’s rate for courtroom work.
  • Test instructions could be transmissible to testing producers. Also, testing producers could list their pricing.
  • Therapy recommendations could be readable by customers. The recommendation on a drug, for instance, could provide all the information that would be needed to shop for the drug if it was available over-the-counter.
  • Procedures could have full packages of features built in, like auto models have. Foreseeable complications could be priced separately, and a worst-case total not exceeded.
  • Quality could be quantified. Procedure sellers could use their past rates of complications to calculate their customers’ average cost for complications.
  • Customers could then compare procedure sellers’ total price plus complications, like customers compare product sellers’ total price plus shipping.

*** end quote ***

I especially like my fiancé’s pharmacy experience overseas.  She walks into the Phamacia and says I want X.  The pharmacist says here it is or “I don’t have it but I do have Y”.  And for pocket change, she has all she needs.  Of course, she knew what she needed.  But she could have consulted a hotel doctor, or got a list from the Embassy. 

But on a transaction basis, it was quick, easy, and cheap.  Of course, “illegal drugs” would be clean, exact, and cheaper than the street deals.

All the money in “prohibition” could be put to “rehabilitation” for those that want it.  Like Portugal.

Argh!

—30—


GOVEROTRAGEOUS: Shutdown the Drug Enforcement Administration; end the “(pseudo) War on (some) Drugs”

Monday, December 16, 2024

https://www.lewrockwell.com/2024/12/laurence-m-vance/one-agency-that-trump-shouldnt-nominate-anyone-to-lead/

One Agency That Trump Shouldn’t Nominate Anyone To Lead
By Laurence M. Vance
December 11, 2024

*** begin quote ***

President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to be the administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has withdrawn. This is one agency that Trump shouldn’t nominate anyone to lead.

*** and ***

It is not the business of the government to concern itself with the personal eating, drinking, or smoking habits of Americans; with the nature and quantity of any substance Americans inhale or otherwise take into their body; with restricting or monitoring any harmful or mood-altering substances that any American wants to consume; or with regulating the consumption, medical, or recreational habits of Americans.

Since the DEA is the main federal agency responsible for the drug war, it needs neither an administrator nor agents. The agency should be shuttered, completely and permanently.

*** end quote ***

Clearly there is no Federal authorization in the Constitution for this continued intrusion into the Rights of ordinary Americans and usurpation of individual States’ Rights.

Argh!

The “(pseudo) War on (some) Drugs” has been a total disaster in so many dimensions.

It’s a good thing to stop.  Period!

(And confirm the point that Libertarians have been making for a long long time.)

—30—


GOVEROTRAGEOUS: FEMA’s Real Purpose

Saturday, October 26, 2024

https://www.lewrockwell.com/2024/10/brandon-smith/femas-real-purpose-suppressing-americans-and-preventing-civilian-organization/

FEMA’s Real Purpose: Suppressing Americans And Preventing Civilian Organization
By Brandon Smith Alt-Market.us
October 24, 2024

*** begin quote ***

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) was founded on April 1st, 1979 under the Jimmy Carter Administration during the height of a nearly decade long stagflationary crisis and the Iranian oil crisis. Under Executive Order 12127, its stated goal was to centralize all disaster related efforts under a single top-down entity. Specifically, FEMA ended the more localized Civil Defense Agency, which was focused on community based emergency response, and it federalized all disaster coordination under a single top-down system controlled by the Oval Office.

*** and ***

We just witnessed a repeat of this behavior from FEMA and the affiliated agencies within their oversight. We saw local EMS being advised to prevent civilians from helping their communities. Supplies were once agaun being blocked, people with drones were being told not to help find survivors, people with helicopters are were threatened for helping save survivors and little aid reached Helene victims for weeks. Elon Musk’s Starlink was even been prevented from providing satellite internet services to affected regions until the story went national and the Department of Transportation was forced to address the problem.

*** and ***

I argue that this is all deliberate. FEMA and the federal government at large are still using Operation Garden Plot-like protocols with two goals in mind…

 

First, they are trying to acclimate the populace to the idea that civilians can’t help themselves and that they should do nothing. They do this by constantly interfering with civilian efforts and disrupting donations. If civilians are working on their own to save US communities from calamity then they might one day realize they don’t need the Federal Government for anything. The establishment NEEDS people to believe that they can’t survive without government aid and protection. Luckily, at least in the aftermath of Helene, it seems that many communities are working on their own to fix the situation.

If civilians start doing things for themselves, the establishment machine becomes obsolete.

Second, I suspect FEMA is testing the waters to see how much they can get away with. Katrina was a clear beta-test for martial law disguised as an emergency response. Katrina was Garden Plot and Rex-84 realized. They want to see what Americans will put up with. Helene is yet another opportunity for these agencies to apply overt control and see if Americans will conform or rebel.

*** end quote ***

Time to end FEMA, DHS, and bunch of other Federal Gooferment agencies.

People need to help each other and send the Federal Gooferment back to their offices.  They just actively interfere with “We, The Sheeple” doing what they have done for eons  —  survive by helping each other.

Argh!

—30—


QUOTE: “They murdered, … … but they kept the Faith.”

Thursday, October 24, 2024

https://www.lewrockwell.com/political-theatre/motto-for-catholic-protestant-and-orthodox-military-chaplains-and-military-chaplaincies-around-the-world/

Motto for Catholic, Protestant, and Orthodox Military Chaplains and Military Chaplaincies Around the World
By Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.
October 15, 2024

“They murdered, they tortured, they maimed, they raped, they hated, they lied, they robbed, they plundered—but they kept the Faith.”  — Fr. Emmanuel Charles McCarthy

https://www.emmanuelcharlesmccarthy.org/

Thank you for visiting this website, which is a compilation of all the work that Fr. Emmanuel Charles McCarthy has done in the last fifty (50) years plus. The purpose of this website is to provide information on the Nonviolent Jesus of the Gospel, which calls for a radical alteration in thought patterns, verbal patterns, behavioural patterns, and emotional patterns.

Rev. Emmanuel Charles McCarthy, born October 9, 1940, is a priest of one of the Eastern Catholic Churches, Byzantine-Melkite, in communion with the Bishop of Rome, the Pope. He has been a Catholic priest for forty years, ordained on August 9, 1981, in Damascus, Syria. He received his Bachelor of Arts Degree with majors in philosophy and English from the University of Notre Dame in 1962.

# – # – # – # – #

I found this quote and it shocked me.  Since VietNam, I’ve always been against war as a strategy or tactic.  I’ve seen the two children of a VietNam vet die prematurely from the effects of Agent Orange on their father.  

The “peace movement” during Nixon’s administration was mostly and astroturfed Communist / Democrat / Leftist attack on the conservative Republicans.  It was inauthentic!  When the D’s came to control the Gooferment, nothing changed.  And, ever since the welfare / warfare state as delivered on what Ike warned about  —  perpetual war for the Military – Industrial – Congressional Complex.  We have the deficits to show for it along with the debt and unfunded liabilities.

Maybe MLK, Gandhi, and Bob Murphy are right.  Non-violence is the path to peace.

—30—


MONEY: Inflation is just plain old theft of your wealth

Thursday, September 26, 2024

https://www.lewrockwell.com/2024/09/no_author/inflation-is-an-intentional-tax/

lewrockwell.com
Inflation Is an Intentional Tax – LewRockwell
Schiff, Andrew J.

*** begin quote ***

“The best way to look at inflation is a tax. Inflation is what we pay for the government that we don’t pay for with the income tax or the Social Security tax or a sales tax. Basically, the deficits, the Federal budget deficits– we end up funding them by inflation. And those deficits are about to skyrocket. They’ve been skyrocketing. And so the inflation tax is going to be much bigger in 2025 than it was this year regardless of what the Fed is trying to tell us.”

*** end quote ***

What else can one say?

“We, The Sheeple” just keep getting the wool over their eyes treatment.

Deficit, Debt, Unfunded liabilities, Gooferment spending!

Argh!

—30—


POLITICAL: Cutting taxes without addressing spending is just a fraud

Wednesday, September 25, 2024

https://www.lewrockwell.com/2024/09/laurence-m-vance/whats-so-goofy-about-eliminating-taxes/

lewrockwell.com
What’s So Goofy About Eliminating Taxes? – LewRockwell
By Laurence M. Vance

*** begin quote ***

As usual, Ron Paul gets it right:

It is common to describe tax cuts as “costing” the government. Saying tax cuts cost the government assumes that the government has a moral claim over an individual’s earnings, so anytime those running the government allow individuals to keep more of their money the rulers are being generous. The truth is that income belongs to the people who earn it and that saying tax cuts cost the government is like saying burglar alarms cost thieves. Therefore, any legislation that cuts taxes is a victory for liberty.

*** end quote ***

If the politicians and bureaucrats merely cut taxes, but don’t address Gooferment spending, then it just means bigger deficits, means more borrowing, means more money printing by the FED, means more currency debasement, means more inflation.

It’s just fraud being perpetrated on “We, The Sheeple”.

I’d prefer that the amount cut from taxes is immediately cut from the spending.  Accross the board on a percentage basis.

I would further favor, any deficit means that the incumbents in Congress are ineligible for reelection.  Bet that would fix the problem.

Also, taxpayers get a veto on all spending bills!  

We need a third “house” elected by taxpayers, who get one vote for every dollar they pay in taxes.

Argh!

—30—


VOCABULARY: A narradigm is a portmanteau of “narrative” and “paradigm”

Thursday, July 25, 2024

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/marketingassetmanagement_technocreativesynthesist-narradigm-ai-activity-7213438621612199936-1fND

Mark Davey’s Post
Content, Metadata profiles and AI – New Paradigm

*** begin quote ***

Narradigm: A Brief Explanation

#Narradigm is a portmanteau of “narrative” and “paradigm,” representing a new model of storytelling that integrates advanced technologies, such as #AI, with traditional #narrative techniques. This concept goes beyond conventional storytelling by leveraging data-driven insights, interactive elements, and immersive experiences to create dynamic, multi-dimensional narratives.

*** end quote ***

I found it in:

https://www.lewrockwell.com/2024/07/no_author/hard-about-aye/

Hard About Aye! Who pulled the lever?
Radio Far Side
July 18, 2024

*** begin quote ***

But something happened. Biden refused to quit (and they can’t shove him out), and Trump not only refused to get dead, but earned his god-king crown.

The pre-planned narradigm was supposed to rouse fear and anger toward an impotent and ineffective Biden presiding over a rudderless ship of state (see what I did there?), while stirring up sympathy and anger over Trump being horrifically and publicly cut down. Both events were to happen between the end of the primary cycle and before the conventions began, thus causing unbelievable amounts of chaos as both parties and the general public pointed fingers of blame, while trying to figure out who would replace the candidates.

*** and ***

As mentioned in my last screed, Biden was clearly set up to fail, and in the most recent episode, Trump was clearly meant to die. The lack of “security” on rooftops, the Keystone Kops Secret Service DIE hires, the waving flag in the background as a wind sock…it was a setup from the word GO. 

*** end quote ***

So here we have a word for a prepared narrative that is carefully produced to get the desired effect.

—30—

 


VOCABULARY: The precariat is one misfortune away from insolvency

Wednesday, May 22, 2024

https://www.lewrockwell.com/2024/05/charles-hugh-smith/precarious-one-misfortune-away-from-insolvency/

Precarious: One Misfortune Away from Insolvency
By Charles Hugh Smith
OfTwoMinds.com
May 16, 2024

*** begin quote ***

As a result, a significant percentage of households that are considered middle-class are one misfortune away from insolvency.

We can summarize the changes in our economy over the past two generations with one word: precarity, as life for the bottom 90% of American households has become far more precarious over the past 40 years, despite the rising GDP and “wealth” as measured in phantom capital.

This reality is expressed in the portmanteau word precariat, combining proletariat (someone whose livelihood comes from their labor) and precarious: outside of government employment, work has become far more precarious. Where it was still common 40 years ago to work for a company for much or most of one’s career and have a private-sector pension, now private-sector pensions have vanished, replaced by self-managed 401K funds, and private-sector work is characterized by a series of not just job changes but career changes.

*** end quote ***

I blame this phenomena on the Gooferment.  Specifically, the Federal Reserve System.

The Federal Reserve Bank is a misnomer. IT ain’t “federal”. It reserves nothing. And, it ain’t a “bank”. It is a private cartel of the elite banks run for their benefit and that of the entrenched politicians.

The Gooferment’s politicians and bureaucrats spend far more than we can afford and the Fed borrows and “prints”.

“Money is a matter of functions four, a medium, a measure, a standard, a store.” He repeated that four times like poetry. “Six Characters in Money: Portable – Durable – Divisible – Uniformity – Limited Supply – Acceptability.” — CHURCH 10●19●62 (Vol 1) 978-0-557-08387-9 page 110

Unfortunately, it is no longer a store of value and hasn’t been since the 1970’s or maybe 1913.

“The gold standard did not collapse. Governments abolished it in order to pave the way for inflation. The whole grim apparatus of oppression and coercion — policemen, customs guards, penal courts, prisons, in some countries even executioners — had to be put into action in order to destroy the gold standard. Solemn pledges were broken, retroactive laws were promulgated, provisions of constitutions and bills of rights were openly defied. And hosts of servile writers praised what the governments had done and hailed the dawn of the fiat-money millennium.” — Ludwig von Mises

Penny candy, Nickel cigars, Dime store comics, and Quarter a gallon gas.

Are all indicators of how much the value of the U$D has been devalued.

Remember that on payday, Election Day, or any other day.

—30—


GOVEROTRAGEOUS: I’m for abolishing ALL foreign aid by the Gooferment; remember CARE packages, I do

Tuesday, May 14, 2024

https://www.lewrockwell.com/2024/05/jacob-hornberger/why-not-abolish-all-foreign-aid/

lewrockwell.com
Why Not Abolish All Foreign Aid? – LewRockwell
By Jacob G. Hornberger

*** begin quote ***

Here is the alternative: Abolish all foreign aid to every regime, including the Israeli government. Moreover, abolish the taxes that fund foreign aid. Then leave Americans free to donate their money to Israel or anyone else in the world.

Wouldn’t that be a more just system? Wouldn’t that system be more consistent with the principles of individual liberty, personal responsibility, and voluntary charity? Don’t care and compassion come only from the willing heart of the individual and not from than the coercive apparatus of the tax system, the brutal and tyrannical agency that enforces it, and the federal agency that distributes the loot?

Reprinted with permission from The Future of Freedom Foundation.

*** end quote ***

Ron Paul says to cut foreign aid to all countries, even to Israel, because it essentially takes money from the poor in the U.S. and is given to the rich in poor countries.

I remember post WW2 when real people sent CARE packages to war torn Europe.

Let “real people” contribute “foreign aid” when they see fit in ways they see fit.  I like “DONOR SEE” for the way real people can help real people without force or fraud.

OxFam and other such charities are good ways to do it.

Just nothing with the Gooferment, the UN, or other NGO’s .

Argh!

—30—


MONEY: 100% reserve gold backed banking is the only way to get to freedom

Tuesday, April 9, 2024

https://www.lewrockwell.com/2024/04/lew-rockwell/bring-back-gold/

Bring Back Gold! 
By Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.

*** begin quote ***

If we want a true gold standard, can we get back to it? Of course we can. The inflationary monetary policy we have today is the key to the financial elites control over us. Without it brain-dead Biden and his gang of neocon controllers couldn’t function. We must prevail, and we can prevail.

*** end quote ***

Sure we might have to pay for “banking services” like we did for travelers’ checks or like do now for using credit cards, but isn’t that better than the “hidden taxes” of inflation.

I’d sure like to try,

—30—


ECONOMICS: College grads STILL earn less that plumbers

Friday, February 23, 2024

https://www.lewrockwell.com/2019/08/bill-sardi/the-dumb-american-worker/

The Dumb American Worker
By Bill Sardi
August 6, 2019

*** begin quote ***

Here we go, socialist jingo. Note the words “income inequality.” Joining a union is not going to get you anywhere as the union takes a cut of your paycheck. Unions, plus or minus, socialize what a worker is worth.  

Businesses operate in a competitive market. Cost of labor can doom a restaurant owner who is only working on a 10% profit margin to begin with. Of course, we can halt competition. Then the cost of everything rises.

We send American kids to school with no orientation on how to get a job, how to build their worth, how to develop job skills. Students pass a few college classes that hand out true or false tests and that makes them worth more in the labor market? Young Americans would be better off working as an understudy plumber. 

A few years ago The Wall Street Journal published a report showing plumbers make more money (six figures) than college graduates. 

*** end quote ***

And, I just shake my head at the “stupidity” of “immature adults” taking loans for degrees that command no use in the market place.

—30—


VOCABULARY: A sudden unexplainable death — “vaxxident.”

Monday, July 31, 2023

https://www.lewrockwell.com/2023/07/chuck-baldwin/three-important-news-items-most-of-the-media-forgot-to-tell-you-about/

Three Important News Items Most of the Media “Forgot” To Tell You About
By Chuck Baldwin
July 14, 2023

*** begin quote ***

Report Number Two: In less than 2.5 years, there have been 1,884 athletic cardiac arrests or serious issues with 1,310 of them dead.

Josu García de Albeniz (25) from Spain, a Karate Fitness Gasteiz Karate exponent collapsed from a cardiac arrest at the entrance of a music festival. He later died in hospital. Alia Zuidema (21) from Michigan, a former high school basketball player died suddenly after a “medical emergency.”

*** and ***

In Ukraine, a lawyer was killed in a “vaxxident.” In Odessa, the prosecutor suddenly died at the wheel. According to local Telegram communities, an uncontrolled car rammed several parked cars. The deceased is a high-ranking law enforcement officer of the city R. Bershavsky. No age or cause of death reported.

*** end quote ***

Seems like there are an awful lot of “vaxxidents” or maybe vaxxidental deaths!

—30—


POLITICAL: US Government Is Totally Corrupt — so what is the solution?

Thursday, May 18, 2023

https://www.lewrockwell.com/2023/05/paul-craig-roberts/it-appears-that-the-us-government-is-totally-corrupt/

It Appears that the US Government Is Totally Corrupt
By Paul Craig Roberts  — May 11, 2023

*** begin quote ***

“It doesn’t make much sense to investigate the guy who brings you the allegation rather than the allegation.” — Former Federal Prosecutor Bud Cummins

On October 4, 2018, Bud Cummins brought evidence to the attention of US Attorney Geoff Berman of criminal behavior by Vice President Joe Biden. Instead of investigating Biden, Berman investigated Cummins. This is the Department of Justice today. The DOJ is just as corrupt as the FBI, which is part of DOJ, the CIA, NSA, FDA, and all the rest. Try to find an honest federal agency or institution.

If you don’t believe the FBI is corrupt, consider the Hunter Biden laptop. The information on the laptop revealing clear criminal behavior has been known for years, and nothing has been done about it. The corrupt FBI even declared the laptop to be a Russian plant in an effort to influence a US election. Really.

*** end quote ***

I don’t have an easy answer, or a hard one for that matter.

We can’t “vote the bums out” since they control the elections.

We can’t “defund” them since the system allows them unlimited (fiat paper) money to spend.

We can’t even criticize them on “social media” since they control that too.

I’m beginning to become a hardened cynic that there is any solution.  

Bullion, bandaids, beans, and ₿bitcoin are the tactical response.

imho

—30—


GOLDBUG: When priced in gold, beer was $3 a litre in 301AD

Friday, February 17, 2023

https://www.lewrockwell.com/2023/02/alasdair-macleod/golds-return-as-money/

Gold’s Return as Money
By Alasdair Macleod
Goldmoney
February 17, 2023

*** begin quote ***

To confirm gold’s price stability, we can go even further back to the time of Diocletian, who produced his edict of maximum prices in 301AD. The circumstances were that the purchasing power of the denarii coin was falling due to its debasement. From the edict, we find that a gramme of gold was fixed at 216 denarii, giving us a conversion value for goods listed in the edict for comparison with today. From this, we know that in today’s currency pork was about $4 a pound, sea fish about $8 a pound and a dozen eggs $3.32. Vin ordinaire was $2.96 for a 75cl bottle, and good quality wine $11.10 a bottle. Beer was $3 a litre. Clearly, prices for staples which we still consume were similar to today, irrefutable evidence that gold valued as money is stable even over thousands of years. 

*** end quote ***

The gold standard did not collapse. Governments abolished it in order to pave the way for inflation. The whole grim apparatus of oppression and coercion — policemen, customs guards, penal courts, prisons, in some countries even executioners — had to be put into action in order to destroy the gold standard. Solemn pledges were broken, retroactive laws were promulgated, provisions of constitutions and bills of rights were openly defied. And hosts of servile writers praised what the governments had done and hailed the dawn of the fiat-money millennium. — Ludwig von Mises

I always use my three silver dimes for a gallon of gas in the Sixties to demonstrate that the “dollar” has lost its purchasing power due to inflation.  That and “penny candy” which has long since disappeared. 

I can’t translate what $3 per liter of beer equates to, money wise BUT, (and there is always a BIG butt), I do know that a liter is about 33 fluid ounces. That’s about two 16 ounce bottles that I pay 6$ each for at the local tavern.

So in 301AD two bottles would be 3$ and today it’s 12$.

So when the politicians and bureaucrats tell you “what inflation?”, you can tell them %$^#&@( themselves.

Argh!

—30—


RANT: Alex Jones is the present day incarnation of a Salem witch

Wednesday, November 23, 2022

https://www.lewrockwell.com/2022/11/walter-e-block/alex-jones-is-innocent/

Alex Jones Is Innocent
By Walter E. Block
The Daily Bell
November 19, 2022

*** begin quote ***

Does this mean we should be free speech absolutists? That anything goes, verbally, or in writing? No. There is a class of statements that should be banned by law and heavily punished: threats.

If I say to you, give me $100 or I’ll shoot you, or kidnap you child, those are only words. However, I would be a criminal if I seriously said or wrote them to you.

But Alex Jones did nothing even widely approaching such a statement. Yes, he lied about a tragic historical event. But he didn’t even close to engage in libel or slander. Ok, he hurt feelings. That should not be considered a criminal act. He is entirely innocent of the charges laid against him.

*** end quote ***

First, I’m not a fan of Alex Jones.  And, he has a First Amendment right to publish his theories.  And, I don’t think Sandy Hook was “crisis actors”.

But, I don’t understand how an FBI agents get 90M$ from Alex by any stretch of law or logic.

Hurt feelings aren’t a windfall opportunity.

I am horrifies by the tragedy.

The Gooferment politicians and bureaucrats failed the public in so many ways in this and other shooting cases.  But they pay no penalty.

I don’t see how Alex Jones broke “the law”; maybe common decency or maybe common sense, but that’s about it.

I wonder if this will go to SCOTUS?

—30—


GOLDBUG: When does the clock strike midnight and Cinderella’s dream world end?

Tuesday, November 22, 2022

https://www.lewrockwell.com/2022/11/alasdair-macleod/the-upside-down-world-of-currency/

The Upside-Down World of Currency
By Alasdair Macleod
Goldmoney
November 19, 2022

*** begin quote ***

The gap between fiat currency values and that of legal money, which is gold, has widened so that dollars retain only 2% of their pre-1970s value, and for sterling it is as little as 1%. Yet it is commonly averred that currency is money, and gold is irrelevant.

*** and ***

At some stage, the inversion of monetary reality, where legal money is priced in fiat, will change. Instead of legal money being priced in fiat, fiat currencies will be priced in legal money. But that will be the death of the fiat swindle.

*** end quote ***

Goldbugs have been predicting disaster since the 60’s when the welfare / warfare state went financially nuts.

It’s hard not to be a permanent-bear when the “facts” seem so obvious.

Nothing seems to wake up “We, The Sheeple” who are sleepwalking towards this economic disaster.

Look at modern day Japan that has a debt to GDP of 230%.  The USA is 124%.  This is pure insanity.

What can we tell future generations other than “sorry suckers; deal with it”?

What should we be telling people to do?  Like Casandra, the Oracle at Delphi, who could see the future but couldn’t change it.

If I was advising a youngster, then it would be to study and live like the Amish. Buy land, do some farming, bury some bullion, get a cheap education, minimize your wants, and prepare for the hard times to come.

Success for your generation is: (1) ruthless financial discipline — no bad debt; (2) a life long interest in learning — education — a degree — they can’t take it away from you; (3) a NON-OFFSHORABLE white collar job in order to save big bux; (4) a blue collar skill for hard times — never saw a poor plumber; (5) one or more internet based businesses — your store is always open; (6) a free time hobby that generates income; and (7) a large will-maintained network of people who can “help” you.

Like the Amish!

Argh!

—30—


POLITICAL: Neither the D’s nor the R’s want an honest election

Monday, November 21, 2022

https://www.lewrockwell.com/2022/11/no_author/saving-arizona-and-other-states-10-proven-reforms-for-fairer-elections/

Saving Arizona and Other States: 10 Proven Reforms for Fairer Elections
By Mahatma Orwell
November 19, 2022

*** begin quote ***

2. Each state should maintain and annually update accurate lists of eligible voters.

*** and ***

4. Voters should provide secure identification when requesting an absentee ballot, and when registering earlier.

*** end quote ***

Sorry, but when Bill Maher thinks that voter id wouldn’t impact minority voters, then obviously the elections are so corrupt as to be humorous.

Try and do almost anything without an id?  

Sorry, but everything that I’ve seen makes me think that the politicians and bureaucrats like the current chaos just fine.

I don’t but it appears that “We, The Sheeple” just don’t care.

—30—


TINFOILHAT: Covid Vaccines Cover-up? (Governmental / Commercial Conspiracy Theory)

Thursday, September 15, 2022

https://www.lewrockwell.com/2022/09/chuck-baldwin/vladimir-putin-canadian-assault-knives-covid-vaccines-cover-up-and-mass-anti-government-protests-in-europe/

Covid Vaccines Cover-up
By Chuck Baldwin
September 9, 2022

*** begin quote ***

Proof That Serious Safety Problems Existed With The Covid Vaccines And Were Deliberately Covered Up

Steve Kirsch has an explosive investigative report: [N.B. Link below]

Israel didn’t start to gather safety data until a year into the vaccine program. They gathered 6 months worth of data and found that the vaccines weren’t safe so they lied to the world about it.

This is the most important article on my Substack (which has over 700 articles). This one article has enough information regarding both harms and corruption that it should bring down the house of cards if there is just one honest person in a position of authority in the world.

We now have proof of:

1. Serious side-effects of unknown duration, perhaps irreparable

2. Causality: these were not just “coincidences”

3. Government corruption to hide these harms

4. Correlation between vaccine doses and deaths from multiple independent studies on multiple independent datasets

5. No interest in seeing the expert report or the video from any mainstream news media, any member of the mainstream medical community, any lawmaker, any public health official anywhere in the world

The precautionary principle of medicine now demands an immediate halt to the COVID vaccination program.

The key facts in a nutshell:

1. The Israeli health authority knew the vaccines were harming people: the side effects of the vaccine are neither mild nor short term. In fact, in 65% of the neurological cases that mentioned duration, the symptoms are all on-going.

2. They also established causality: the side effects were caused by the vaccine. This is something no one else had been able to establish before.

3. They don’t know how serious the harm is because they only looked at the data for the top five categories. Cardiovascular was #6. So they have only looked at a fraction of the data.

4. The researchers do not know the prevalence of these serious side effects because they were just provided with the numerator, not the denominator (similar to VAERS).

5. The Israeli authorities deliberately covered up the safety issues and hid it from the world, issuing a false report essentially saying “there is nothing new to see here folks, move along.”

6. The only good news in all of this is that Israel protected Palestinians from getting this very unsafe vaccine. That was very humane of the Israelis.

7. The Israeli people aren’t stupid. They have figured out the vaccines are “unsafe and ineffective” (my new tagline for the vaccines… what do you think? catchy isn’t it?) and are no longer complying with government directives to be vaccinated. Just 2.4% of the Israeli population is “in compliance” as of Sept 2, 2022:

Did you know that according to an analysis of data from the MoH, the COVID vaccine kills 40 times more old people than it saves?

Dr. Herve Seligmann works at the Emerging Infectious and Tropical Diseases Research Unit, Faculty of Medicine, Aix-Marseille University, Marseille, France. He is of Israeli-Luxembourg nationality.

Using Israel MoH data, Haim Yative and Dr. Seligmann, Israeli researchers, found that the COVID-19 vaccine killed 40 times (40x) the amount of elderly people than the disease would have and 260 times more younger people than would have died from the virus in a 3 week period shortly after the shots.

This is a blockbuster exposé. If there was ANY honesty and integrity among America’s federal government and the national news media, this report would be the most prominent news story nationwide and a cessation of the Covid vaccines distribution would be issued immediately.

The fact that almost everyone in the U.S. government, national news media and medical industry is totally ignoring and continuing to cover up the truth about the dangers of the Covid vaccines shows just how deep the corruption runs in our country.

What many of us have been saying for over two years is now categorically proven correct: Covid vaccinations are kill shots; and they have been from day number one.

You need to read Kirsch’s report in its entirety and spread it as far and wide as you can.

*** end quote ***

https://stevekirsch.substack.com/p/exclusive-proof-that-the-top-israeli?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

OK!  Here we have an assertion of a massive International cover up. It’s a Governmental / Commercial Conspiracy Theory.  And I’d assign it a “3. More likely than not” veracity level.

That means to me that the alternative media is calling the Gooferment, Big Pharma, and Corporate Media criminal liars.

What will happen next is unclear to me.  But it is obvious that people are noticing.

—30—

 


RANT: Is the USA in moral decay and decline?

Wednesday, September 14, 2022

Vladimir Putin, Canadian ‘Assault’ Knives, Covid Vaccines Cover-up, and Mass Anti-Government Protests in Europe
https://www.lewrockwell.com/2022/09/chuck-baldwin/vladimir-putin-canadian-assault-knives-covid-vaccines-cover-up-and-mass-anti-government-protests-in-europe/

 — via my feedly newsfeed

Is Vladimir Putin A Christian?
By Chuck Baldwin

*** begin quote ***

Russia’s leader has been demonized more than any national leader since Adolf Hitler. Does he deserve it? Is he the monster the mainstream media paints him to be, or is he actually a devout Christian man trying to save his country from a corrupt, decadent West?

From Russian-Faith.com

Putin continuously makes it clear that he envisions Russia as a Christian country.

In 2014, Putin called for the restoration of Kremlin’s historic Chudov (“of the Miracle”) and Voznesensky (Ascension) monasteries both of which were destroyed by the Bolsheviks. He also wants another church destroyed by the Bolsheviks in the Kremlin to be rebuilt.

The Kremlin is both the political and historic center not just of Moscow but of Russia. By calling for the restoration of these Christian buildings Putin repudiated the Soviet legacy with its atheist ideology and its record of anti-Christianity and reaffirms Orthodoxy as the heart of Russian culture.

A key element of Putin’s worldview is not just his commitment to the Russian Orthodox Church as an institution, but also his admiration for three 19th and 20th century Russian Christian philosophers—Nikolai Berdyaev, Vladimir Solovyov and Ivan Ilyin, all of whom he often quotes in his speeches. Russia’s regional governors were even instructed to read the works of these philosophers during their 2014 winter holidays.

Studying the causes of Russia’s 20th century tragedy, Ilyin wrote:

“The Russian revolution is a reflection of the religious crisis we are living through now, an attempt to establish an anti-Christian public and state system thought up by Friedrich Nietzsche and economically and politically realized by Karl Marx. This anti-Christian virus was exported to Russia from the West…..

Losing our bond with God and the Christian tradition, mankind has become morally blind and gripped by materialism, irrationalism and nihilism.”

In Ilyin’s view, the way to overcome this global moral crisis is for people to return to “eternal moral values”, which he defined as “faith, love, freedom, conscience, family, motherland and nation” but above all “faith and love”.

“To make Russia great again the Russian people should believe in God. This faith will strengthen their minds and willpower. It will make them strong enough to overcome themselves.”

It’s difficult to really know the truth about Putin. I must confess that the more I hear the man speak, the more impressed I am with him. And, no, I haven’t forgotten that words are often cheap.

What I do know is the man who is now identified as America’s president is one of the most corrupt, duplicitous, tyrannical and evil world leaders to ever draw a breath. With a totally warped, wicked, warmongering idiot sitting in the Oval Office, it gives Americans very little room to criticize anyone else’s leader.

*** end quote ***

An interesting perspective.  Perhaps there is a real element of truth in this! That the USA is descending into moral decay just like the Roman Empire and Russia is returning to the path up and out of the moral decay of Communism.

Certainly worth considering when you see the Hollywood, the East and West coast elite, and politicians & bureaucrats, how they live and the morals they espouse.

Sigh!  Sadly.

Let’s proceed to set our own house in order.

—30—


TINFOILHAT: Why didn’t “We, The Sheeple” ask questions before believing the Gooferment “experts”?

Friday, August 5, 2022

https://www.lewrockwell.com/2022/08/brian-j-foley/crazy-questions-everyone-should-have-asked-about-covid-19/

“Crazy” Questions Everyone Should Have Asked About Covid-19
By Brian J. Foley — August 3, 2022

*** begin quote ***

One of the most astonishing things about the past two-plus years and counting has been how asking certain questions gets one branded as “crazy,” “stupid,” “conspiracy theorist,” etc. Questions that, had you asked “Before COVID,” would have been … normal.

So let’s dig into our closets and put on our now-sort-of-out-of-fashion clothes, get into a time machine and travel back to, say, 2014. (I pick 2014 to “control” for the Trump Derangement Syndrome that gripped about half the country and most media the next year.)

Government officials and media breathlessly tell us that a deadly virus is rampant, and that we must take particular measures, including vaccinating everyone. Before rolling up your sleeve for an injection, you would (ask) questions.

*** and ***

First, the COVID-19 debacle — meaning not only the deaths from the illness but the collateral damage from the response — would not have occurred had these questions been asked prominently and often by a critical mass of citizens and in “mainstream” media. We would have stopped after the first set of questions regarding the severity of the illness! There was no need to do anything beyond staying home when sick and washing one’s hands regularly and taking extra care around unhealthy people.

Second, not only did a critical mass of people fail to ask basic questions, but many people, perhaps most prominently the “educated,” denounced, bullied, and harassed anyone who did. These “educated” bullies even proposed and supported grotesque coercions, including shunning, barring the “unvaccinated” from going into stores and restaurants — and earning a living.

*** end quote ***

For the life of me, I don’t know the answer to that question.

I held out for the longest time before getting “the jab”.  While I had comorbidities, my cardiologist and my GP both said “wait” for few months before giving me the green light.

Of course, right after — 24 hours — after getting the second shot, I go Covid.  

Coincidence or causal?  I’ll never know.

But I keep reading about vaccine injuries and early deaths and wonder could this be “yet another conspiracy theory” on its way to becoming true?

Only time will tell.

One thing is for sure Big Pharma and the vaccine cheerleaders made a lot of money off this pandemic!

—30—